Precision: Part 4

When I opened up the pictures on my laptop, it was the speedster I’d seen first—the one that wasn’t glowing—the guy. He’d run back to his origin point, but there was no sign of the woman.

I stayed up for another ten minutes, waiting to see if she’d show up too, but she didn’t. When I woke up the next morning, there hadn’t been any further alerts. Maybe the north end of the route was where she lived.

Maybe she’d taken a cab back? I had no idea.

I remotely assigned my bot assembler to make more spybots. Ordinarily, I would have been able to send out the spybots after all my classes ended, but thanks to the Stapledon program, I had one more class. All the Stapledon students in the area showed up in costume to League HQ to be teleported to the Chicago Defenders’ training facility.

When training was over, I went to the lab to pick up the bots, clearing them off the counter so I could load them into one of the floating pods for delivery.

Haley walked in as I loaded the pod, standing across the pod from me. “You’re sending out the spybots tonight?”

“I don’t feel like I’ve got much of a choice. It looks like something’s happening there. I just hope I haven’t missed it already.” I slid the magazine full of spybots into the pod, listened as the pod unloaded the magazine, and pulled the magazine out of the pod’s dull, black, cigar-shaped body.

She took a breath. “I hope they’re not planning to do it this weekend.”

I looked up from the pod to look at her. “That’s the way it works in stories, but it’d be a ridiculous coincidence in real life.”

Haley peered down at the pod. “We’ve had those coincidences.”

I nodded. “Can’t deny that. Oh, that reminds me. Jeremy wanted us to go out and do something with him and his friends.”

Haley tilted her head. “That might be fun, but you know the coincidence thing? If we do, we’re going to be interrupted at the absolute worst possible time we could be when we do whatever it is.”

I shrugged. “Jeremy says he’ll make our excuses.”

Haley laughed. “I think the last time we went out with one of your friends who didn’t have powers, it was Courtney and Keith.”

“There was that waitress who didn’t like you,” I said, “and then Logan turned into a monster with a taste for humanity, but technically we weren’t interrupted by anyone that wasn’t already part of the date. We never ran off then.”

Haley gave a half-smile. “I think you’re pushing it a little. We weren’t planning for Logan to do that.”

“Not really,” I said. “But we had planned for someone to show up using power juice.”

Haley rolled her eyes. “You are pushing it, but if you want to, let’s do something with Jeremy. What’s he planning to do?”

I thought about it, and finally, spit out, “No clue. He didn’t say. He was offering based on the idea that all I seemed to be doing was Stapledon and bots.”

She glanced around the workroom. Most tables held bots in various stages of assembly. “He’s got a point. Did he give a time?”

I shook my head. “We didn’t get to that. If you want, I’ll text him.”

By the time we were done, I’d used the pod to release spybots, texted Jeremy, and made sure that everyone in the current League knew what I was doing and how to take control of the bots if they had to.

Chris sent me a message back. “Glad you’re back. That means I’m not the only one fixing shit. We should get together.”

Marcus texted me back to find out if I was truly okay with anyone controlling the bots.

By the time I’d hashed things out with them, Jeremy had texted me back. We were going to see a movie at the downtown theater on Friday with some of his friends. We could bring anyone we wanted too.

I didn’t plan to take him up on it. Most of the people I hung out with were in the League, and bringing normal people would only make ditching the group harder.

Friday came without much fanfare. The speedsters hadn’t appeared during the week, so we weren’t on any kind of alert. Kid Biohack hadn’t been in touch with the League at all during the week. Haley and I had gone to the cafeteria after teleporting out for practice (and it was funny how normal that was beginning to feel).

Jeremy had left me a text message saying that he was gathering people up and that we should wait.

Haley and I were sitting on my bunk, leaning against the wall and holding hands. I didn’t know what she was thinking, but I was becoming very conscious of her body.

She looked at me and grinned. “Sorry,” she said, and before I had time to ask her why someone knocked on the door.

The lock was designed not to let you leave without a key, so I had to get up and open the door. Courtney stood there. “Jeremy invited me,” she said, stepping inside. She wore a hoodie with the Avengers’ “A” covering the front. After all the minor modifications she’d made to herself last year with shapeshifting, she’d settled on keeping them, but added back the weight she’d had before gaining powers.

It worked for her. She looked more like herself.

Before the door shut, a hand grabbed it. It was Jillian, the friend of Jeremy’s who liked Kid Biohack. “Where’s Jeremy,” she asked as she pushed it open.

As Courtney said, “Not here,” Haley touched my shoulder, mouthing the words, “Power juice.”

15 thoughts on “Precision: Part 4”

    1. Sometimes it takes longer to write an entry. I tend to think in abstracts and have difficulty committing to which specific details I’m going to go with.

      This entry included a few that I’m going to have to live with for a while.

      Also, I fell asleep while writing part of this entry. That doesn’t help.

  1. I know long ago you said that nick would not be able to get any powers from power juice I still want him to accidentally drink a batch and having him out about it lol actually I think you said he had a little potential for mind I think something related to his mind it’s been a while since I read the chapter

    1. I kinda understood it as he can’t get any power’s from power juice because he already has super brainiacy mind powers which basically only make him an engineering genius.

  2. So, “group date” equals “superpowered interruption”…

    Seeing as Haley didn’t comment previously, I’m going to assume Jillian using Power Juice (in her presence) is a new thing. If my memory’s correct, it’s an illegal drug, now – what responsibilities does Haley detecting it put on her?

    Fun stuff…

  3. You know, normally when a juiced coed comes knocking on a guy’s dorm room, that’s a recipe for all kinds of regrets in the morning.

    So this looks like it’s meeting expectations.

  4. RE: Nick and PJuice. He manifested very faint dots for all three colors which meant he’d get very minor mental, physical, and energy powers. But who knows, creative use of minor powers combined with misdirection can obtain interesting results. Look at Imp in the Whately Academy universe.

  5. I love this. “Chris sent me a message back. “Glad you’re back. That means I’m not the only one fixing shit. We should get together.” ”

    Poor Chris has been Mr. Fixit for all the stuff Nick built, plus other things that Nick’s Grandfather built. I’m sure he and Nick will seriously nerd out discussing potential improvements.

    **

    This part didn’t make any sense though.

    “The lock was designed not to let you leave without a key, so I had to get up and open the door.”

    Jim, think about it for a second. Would any University create a situation where students could die in their rooms in a fire because they had to have their keys to exit? If you want a reason for Nick to get the door, it can just be because it’s his room.

    1. That’s more me phrasing it badly than anything else. What I should have written is that the door defaulted to being locked. In my experience of dorm rooms, you couldn’t leave without a key because the door automatically locked, and there was no way to leave it unlocked.

      Thus if you did leave without a key, you’d find yourself unable to get back into your room.

      This was particularly awkward if you’d left the room because you’d taken a shower.

      1. Heh. I never had a auto-locking dorm door, but I can see it. You are basically describing a hotel room door. That works, but doesn’t explain why Nick had to get the door. That’s why I offered the suggestion that Haley would probably defer to Nick opening the door, since it’s his room.

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