A Whateley Academy story

A Brief Personal History of my Summer Mutation

by

Nagrij

 

Part 5

 

“And test firing in 3, 2, 1... firing.”

The light bloomed, showing me I wore my goggles for nothing. The Engine strained against the reinforced clamps holding it in place; if any broke and the engine shifted the fuel line would cut off and the engine would stop, but for now everything was in the green and the monitor was showing four thousand pounds of thrust, which meant the clamps wouldn't hold more than thirty seconds.

Four thousand pounds of thrust out of a jet engine this size was pretty ridiculous, but I bet I could get it up to six with a few adjustments.

Speaking of adjustments, the data showed the engine didn't need any; the engine was stable and the test successful. My finger hovered over the cut-off switch, watching the screen for any deviation.

There wasn't any, and at twenty-seven seconds I pressed the button; the engine coughed and died. I removed my sound canceling headphones.

“The test is a success. Jeeves, remember to recycle the clamps; they held, but I don't trust them for the next round of testing.”

“Understood, mistress.”

Ricky, Maggie, Sam, and Ian took off their own goggles and ear protection (Safety was important!), already starting to gush, at least in Maggie's case. “Min, that was amazing! You hit the button and fwoosh! How did it do?”

“Four thousand pounds of thrust. Which, for what it's going to be installed in, is frankly a bit ridiculous.”

I looked over at the other corner of the lab through the open door; the jet was rolled there, out of the way. It had one engine installed already, with the open mount still mocking me. It was the roughly the size of a compact car and weighed in at just under a thousand pounds, most of that being safety features I couldn't skimp on. Or wasn't allowed to skimp on, even though I wouldn't be flying it. Mom was on a serious safety kick lately, and it had slowed everything down.

I had been forced to make so many other things before the jet, like the goggles and the headphones and the force field generator, just to scratch that annoying itch in the back of my mind.

And being told chapter and verse on what I had to build and when before I could move on to the fun stuff had gotten old fast.

But now, all that was finally over. I could install the second engine, and probably tomorrow now since it was nine, Crash could go on his first test flight.

Wait, it was nine already? Final assembly and the test had taken three hours, and Ian had been out here the entire time?!? Mom was going to kill me!

I shut off the force field around the engine and donned my gloves, built for tolerance to extreme heat. Jeeves stopped me, and snatched them off, putting them on his own hands. “I'll clean up here, Mistress Min. You go inside. You still have some homework to complete, after all.”

Urk. I knew I'd forgotten something. Homework had gotten more tedious lately, and I could only write so fast. Stupid slow hands. Jeeves refused to do it for me, even if I dictated; when I asked why he said it was a deal with my Mom.

I wasn't touching that.

I led the way inside, Ian slowing just before I got to the door. I raised an eyebrow at him, but he just silently gestured me in. Did he think I'd be the sacrificial offering?

“Mom, I'm done! Jeeves is cleaning up.”

“Alright. I didn't hear anything blow up, so I assume it worked?” Came her response from upstairs. Wonder what she was up to?

“Just perfectly. It ran like a top, and the clamps even held.”

Mom came down just as I reached the living room; a movie was paused, and Dad was sitting there with popcorn. So, an impromptu movie night? With an old horror movie, it looked like. That kind of sucked, I liked horror movies. Sure I'd seen this one, but they probably didn't know that.

Mom was all dressed up. That was weird.

“Good to know. It was pretty loud in here, did the sound baffling work?”

Sigh, I had made her and Dad headphones like I had too. “Yes Mom, it all worked.”

I wasn't about to tell her that I hadn't put all the baffling on since it seemed pointless in an engine test. Besides, I needed to see some of the mechanism in action.

“Alright. Are the dishes done?”

Urk. “No?”

“Then do them. Your homework done?”

“Mostly?” How do Mom's always know?

“Then do that after.”

I started the water with a sigh. Ian grinned on the way up the stairs, no doubt on the way to use the computer I built for him. Insufferable jerk.

“So...” I jumped. Mom was still here? “The Halloween dance is tomorrow, right?”

Oh wait, it was. Tomorrow was Friday already? Time flew when you were building jet engines and making money. I wondered again why they didn't have it on Halloween; I mean it was just a day later.

“Yeah, it is.”

Mom started handing me the dirty dishes, a weird look on her face. Coy? Sly? I wasn't sure what it was.

“So... got your costume all ready?”

I couldn't help but grin. I hadn't shown the costumes to anyone. “I've got mine and Jeeves's costume ready.”

I'd had to send away for them in order to keep it a secret from Jeeves, but it would be worth it; my revenge would be sweet!

Mom made a hmm noise, and handed me a glass. “So, are you going with anyone?”

Well of course I was. It wouldn't do to go alone anywhere, in this day and age. “I'm going with Jeeves, of course. And Maggie and Sam are coming with us. Ricky and Ralph are coming too. We should be safe from weirdos.”

Mom stopped and looked at me, a glass in hand and her mouth open.

“What?”

“Nothing honey, nothing. Ian is going to want to do some trick-or-treating Saturday. The plan is for me to take him, did you want to go?”

“Mooom, I'm too old for trick-or-treating.” Well too old for the treating part anyway. Last year Ricky and I had switched the Halloween decorations for the entire street as a prank; it was hilarious. The looks on some faces had been... well, I had never wanted a camera more than at that moment.

We had made sure to switch them back the next night, of course. Well, the ones who hadn't already traded decorations back; it was a prank, not something malicious.

“Sure you are, honey, sure you are. Though if you dressed up people would never suspect.”

Did... Mom just make a short joke at me? I turned to look, right into her wide grin. She had! “Mom, not cool at all.”

She ruffled my hair. “Don't break any of my dishes; I'm going to go back to the movie before your dad sends out a search party.”

She made a show of walking casually out of reach, which wasn't really that far. At least I could reach the sink, I guess.

A sniff picked up the hint of wine on her breath; just what was going on here, while I was testing a jet engine just outside? You'd think they would be more worried about that, but since the last – discussion, there had been nothing. Well, nothing except the sit down to discuss safety features and precautions I would be taking.

They had insisted on the force field and blast shields to cover the test area, just in case the engine blew up, the only thing to take damage would be the yard. As if anything I built was just going to randomly blow up! I was careful. Even Jeeves, who had more reason and opportunity to blow up than anything else I'd made, was perfectly stable, routine maintenance aside.

I finished the dishes and headed upstairs. Speaking of Jeeves, I'd kind of expected him before now. Maybe he was checking the status of the grass? Dad hadn't said anything yet, but I was pretty sure he'd noticed the way that Jeeves's slightly off-color grass was slowly taking over his pristine yard. Jeeves was supposed to be fixing it when I was asleep, but so far he hadn't managed to kill or even halt the spread of the grass. I didn't want to step in, but if Dad blamed me I'd have to. The only good news about it was the grass didn't seem to want to jump property lines at all; there was a sharp delineation between that side of our yard and the Herschel's yard.

My books were there on the desk, mocking my lack of desire. Getting through English was chore now, and one not even speed-reading could completely help me with. I almost wrote down some random crap just to get done with the stupid worksheet I had to do, but remembered the deal to keep my grades up just in time. If I kept solid A's, I would be able to order some more exotic materials online, things I couldn't just print out.

I had to correct two errors in my math worksheet before solving the twenty problems on it. I hoped Mr. Mullins appreciated the effort, because quite honestly it annoyed me to do it. The proper format of the question was even online, and corrected in more recent versions of the book we were using.

Just to be a jerk I put a few of the more esoteric equations regarding calculating the distance and mass of black holes down in the margins of the paper; he would probably have to look them up, and in so doing might stumble on how bad his book is.

Then I realized I was an idiot and had just given up that I knew those calculations. On a worksheet I wasn't allowed to copy off, and so couldn't just throw it away and start over. Maybe he wouldn't look those up after all, or care? Maybe he wouldn't understand the true significance?

I couldn't even scribble them out or sabotage them now since there would be people wondering why I did that. It would draw less suspicion to leave them alone and play it off as the prank it was.

I was just finishing up when Jeeves opened the door. I yawned and eyed the coffee sitting squarely on the platter in his hand. With that, I could stay up some more, and maybe game or something....

I took a sip and almost yawned it back out. The chances of me staying awake long didn't look good, but I wasn't going to let the chance to unwind a bit go easily, especially after all that tedium.

I booted up my real time strategy game and went hunting for opponents online. I could crush at least one victim before sleep claimed me. It would be quick, I held too many advantages; quick reflexes, a quick better than state of the art computer, and knowledge of the code the game was based on. I was already the third highest rank tier the game offered (platinum, a lovely metal I liked to work with) with almost no games played.

There were even videos made on how to play the game and a budding professional scene. Going pro as a gamer was basically outing one's self as a nerd, but if I could sneak the idea past Mom and Dad it might be fun. Then again, did it count as a real sport? That would make it off limits to me.

The chime of a found match interrupted my musings. And would you look at this? My opponent was named “FlashGordon”. I wondered who that could be? Did Gordo have something he may not want his football team friends to know? Or was I wrong and it was a different Gordon?

Whoever it was, I crushed him. Soundly. He played well but I snuck some invisible units into his base, attacked with some other troops, and used those to mask the real attack. It was oddly satisfying to see his rank slip downward; if it was Gordo, I'd know pretty quickly tomorrow.

There was a polite knock on my door, right as the coffee was failing me and I was getting ready for bed. “Sis, you awake?”

“What do you want, Ian?”

The door began to open. I lunged and shouldered it closed. I heard him stumble back. “That wasn't an invitation to come in, Ian, it was a question!”

“Oh, sorry.” He apologized, sounding a little confused.

Well, he could just be confused; I wasn't about to explain to Mom why Ian's first glimpse of an undressed girl was his sister. I'd already gotten that particular lecture, and I hadn't even done anything wrong! I'd been wearing a shirt! Bras were stupid, but apparently not optional.

So of course he asked. “Just what are you doing in there, sis?”

He knew the use of 'sis' rankled; he was doing it on purpose. “Dressing.”

“Oh.”

Sigh. “What do you want, Ian?”

“Is it safe to come in?”

It was; I had buttoned up my pajamas in record time. I levered myself off the door.

“Yes, it's safe.”

He opened the door a crack, and slid inside, facing the hall. He couldn't look more suspicious if he tried.

I asked for the third time. “What do you want, Ian?”

He hedged. “Well, I wanted to see if you would make me something.”

Right, of course, and judging by the looks of things, what he wanted was something Mom and Dad wouldn't approve of.

“What, exactly?”

“Well, Halloween is coming up, and I have my costume ready. I want to go as Megaman, but the arm gun the stores sell is, well, lame.”

I knew of it; it was made of cheap plastic and shot little foam balls. I clamped down tightly on my thoughts, stopping the influx of ideas and improvements I could glean from such a thing cold. “Go on.”

“Well, I was hoping you could help me out, and build a better one. One that was actually a laser – but not a damaging one or anything! Just harmless light.”

Hmm, maybe one that was a flashlight, with a large beam but light battery... our parents would hardly object to that, it would make Ian more safe, not less.

“Alright, I'll see what I can do, but I make no promises. You didn't leave me much time, after all.” I scowled at him, my face stern. Actually, two days was plenty of time for such a small thing, at least with a 3d printer, but he didn't need to know that. He was my brother, and I had to mess with him somehow.

His face fell a bit. “I know, I'm sorry. I was worried you'd just say no.”

“I admit I was tempted to,” I'd already built him a lot, after all. “Now get out please, I need sleep.”

“Alright, I'm gone!” He slid out the door again, then stuck his head back in. “Even if you don't get it done, thanks for trying.”

I waved him off irritably, and the door shut again. I climbed into bed, giving Jeeves my hardest look. “And you, I feel like you should be closer to the door to prevent such occurrences.”

“I knew it was Ian in the hallway, and I preferred not to risk causing him harm.”

Huh. Guess he had a point; Mom would dismantle him herself if he hurt one of us.

“Fine, whatever. Try and solve your grass issue before your down time. I'm going to sleep; turn out the light on your way out, please.”

He did. “Sleep well, Mistress Min.” He said softly before closing the door.

* * * * *

I guess I did sleep well since I slept right past my alarm. I didn't understand it; I was doing everything right, eating well, exercising (mostly) well, keeping a schedule, and trying not to stress my brain (thinking too hard sounded stupid and inaccurate). Yet I still felt slow and scattered, with my thoughts taking too long to focus and my body barely reacting to my commands.

A look at the clock showed how late I was; it was 7:15! Where was Jeeves?

The door opened. “I am here Mistress Min, please do not panic.”

I eased myself upright using the headboard of my bed, eyeing his platter. It had coffee and some sort of pastry on it. I would have called it a doughnut, but nothing Jeeves made was ever so simple. “I am not panicking.”

The platter was set down on a tray, which was set over my legs. Clearly, I wasn't meant to get up.

“Please, Mistress Min, take your time. You were warned that even with the best care, mornings like this would happen. The school has already been alerted that you are likely to be late, and you may use the extra time to recover.”

So I could go to school when I wanted, huh?

“Mistress Min, if you skip classes in order to continue construction on your projects, I am to inform your mother.”

“Spoilsport.”

Hm, that implied Mom wasn't home. And how did Jeeves know what I was thinking, anyway? Was it that obvious?

Jeeves grinned at me, capturing my hands in his and steadying my coffee cup so I could drink. “Yes Mistress Min, it is obvious. And your Mother is still present, but will leave before eight-o-clock. She is currently enjoying breakfast downstairs.”

Well, at least she trusted Jeeves enough to stop looking over his shoulder whenever he did anything, finally. Acting like I didn't notice her conveniently being down the hall got old fast. At least she hadn't actually been eavesdropping.

I sipped coffee and reached for my laptop. Jeeves retrieved it for me. “Eat your scone please.”

“That is not a scone.” Jeeves had made scones for me before, and aside from being triangular, these things looked nothing like those.

“It is. Specifically, a pumpkin scone with cinnamon butter.”

“No way. How could you possibly make butter out of cinnamon? Isn't butter an oil?” Cinnamon wouldn't render into an oil, it was a tree bark.

“Eat your breakfast.”

I took a nibble. It was good. In fact, it was amazing. “Went for a festive touch today, huh? What do you have planned for lunch?”

“It will be a pleasant surprise, I assure you.”

So he wasn't telling; my revenge tonight would be sweet, and another slow morning wasn't going to stop me from seeing it.

Jeeves went to work on my feet, kneading them gently to improve the circulation while I nibbled and watched a video stream. Some time later Mom came in without knocking, just as Jeeves was working his way to my calves.

“Morning honey.”

“Morning Mom. And you're supposed to knock.”

She smirked. “Why, you could be doing something I wouldn't approve of?”

I felt my face heat, which was kind of a good sign for the anemia. “Mom! Don't be weird. It's just that I could be....” Wait, would it matter if I was undressing in front of Mom, anymore?

I decided to amend what I was going to say. “It's just that the rules should apply to everyone, and everyone else in the house has to knock. It's a privacy and respect thing.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You have a point, but if you're sick? Mornings like these happen often, and if you aren't responsive I'd be coming in anyway; you're my child.”

She had a point, in her own paranoid way. Maybe she didn't trust Jeeves as much as I thought after all. Or maybe she trusted me more; that would be nice.

Jeeves started working on my other calf. I began to feel warmer, which was a good sign. I continued to read; my patents had made the news, after a fashion. There was a report on Lockheed buying a new engine design that could start a “modest revolution”, and everyone wondering who had designed and developed it. True to his word, Shecky was keeping my name out of things, and so far no one had been able to find my actual patents regarding it.

Which, like rushing the approval process itself was either Shecky's or the government's doing, or maybe both. I was a bit suspicious about what the government wanted from me, but so far they hadn't asked for anything, and if my engine was going to be used for fighter jets (a good idea, in my opinion, the cut in fuel costs alone would be enormous) Lockheed would handle it.

It made me a little nervous to have the CIA watching me, and no government agency even asking me for anything. The spin in my head slowed.

“Alright, I think I feel well enough to shower.”

“Of course, Mistress Min.”

Jeeves helped me into the bathroom, and I could hear him take up position outside it. The warm water helped, and I took my time; either I'd get into trouble, or I wouldn't.

Jeeves stuck another pumpkin scone in my face as I exited. I chewed as I focused on the stairs – wouldn't do to take a fall. My wobble had all but vanished, and my head felt stable. A bit more coffee while Jeeves double checked and packed my bag and I was ready to go.

It was odd walking through the town after school started; the streets were empty. Even most of the commuters were gone, done with their commutes and settling in to work. In fact, the only people I spotted were my tails.

The quiet and birdsong was kind of nice, though, and the sun was just warm enough to feel through my lab coat and sweater. It might even be warm enough to shrug the coat off, later. Maybe I could convince the coach to let me go back outside during gym, just to sit and warm up in the sun.

Jeeves followed me into the school itself, hovering very close.

The halls were empty, of course. I turned towards my first class... and the bell rang. Jeeves steered me gently to a wall, and placed himself in front of me and braced against the wall with his arms, taking all the hits and bumps I would have taken. It was probably a good thing, so I fought down the flash of anger. I wasn't that fragile, and he knew it... he was just doing his job.

The crush passed, or at least lessened, and Jeeves removed his hands. I should be polite, at least.

“Thank you, Jeeves.”

“You're welcome, Mistress Min.”

He let me lead the way, and I picked a careful route, slowly weaving through the crowd. I made it to Mr. Mullins class with a good thirty seconds to spare and placed my homework on his desk; sure I was supposed to wait for class to start and just hand it in then, but I didn't feel like it. Mr. Mullins just took it without a word.

I sat down and Samantha was looming over me. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Just felt a little bad this morning, I'm fine now.”

“Anemia?” She asked, holding eye contact.

“Yeah. Don't worry, we're still on for tonight.” I replied in kind. She nodded and moved back to her seat.

Which made room for Ricky, who almost fell over himself running over. “You okay Min?”

I made the sigh as loud as I could. “Yes, I am. Just had a little trouble this morning is all.”

Ricky actually sagged in relief; what was going on with him? I mean this was a step up from the stares and whispers everyone else was content with. “Good, that's good.”

Ralph slapped him on the back. “Sorry to break this up man, but you're kind of holding up the line.”

I looked, and there was a line of people waiting to get into their seats behind Ricky, most of them with more than a little impatience. It made sense; the bell was about to ring, after all. Ricky shot Ralph a look he normally reserved for Gordon, but moved.

Ralph sat, took one look at me, and said, “I heard.”

And that was enough.

Class passed uneventfully except for the moment when Mr. Mullins looked up from his glance at my homework; I did my best to pay attention and keep my mind from wandering. I succeeded with only a few random designs for drones popping into my head, using versions of my engine. A little big for drones, but they would be fast....

No! Bad Min, no mind wandering!

I thrust the ideas away, and when the bell rang I was steady, getting up and heading out with the rest of the class. I wasn't too concerned with noting the homework assignment, Jeeves had my back.

Walking into Geography class was more of the same, only with Maggie at my desk, chattering a mile a minute. “Oh my God Min are you okay? I heard you were out, and your Mom called the office but here you are! Sam said you looked a little pale, but you seem fine and....”

I had to interrupt her or she'd never sit down. “I am fine, it was just a small bout of my stupid anemia.”

She winced; all my friends, old and new, were used to the episodes I had by now. “Sorry.”

“Don't be, it's alright. And before you ask, yes, we're still on for tonight.”

She grinned and made a show of steepling her fingers. “Excellent.”

“I feel I should point out that you aren't a Bond villain.”

She scoffed. “That you know! Well, see you in a bit.”

As she passed by on her way to the back I noticed Gordon watching me; he looked a bit red faced. Maybe that had really been him last night? What were the odds? He tore his gaze away and faced front as the bell rang. Great, he was probably still mad too.

Geography was boring, no great surprise there. I wondered why people had the urge to name terrain and features of terrain random silly things, and it wasn't the first time. Sort of an idle 'who comes up with this stuff?' only for the world in general. And then of course, I idly wondered how many people wondered the same thing, which also wasn't the first time. Geography was just that boring.

Then Gym came around. I walked right up to Coach Howard. “I want to go outside.”

Coach sighed. “You know I can't let you do that unless I have someone to watch you, and I don't even have a teacher's aide this year.”

I had an answer for that this time, one I'd been waiting to use. “Jeeves can watch me; he’s supposed to anyway.”

Coach Howard looked behind me, to Jeeves, and sighed again. “It's supposed to be an actual school authority.”

“I'm pretty sure Jeeves can count, as a vouched for agent of my family. He's not going to let anything happen to me, after all, and I just want to sit down in the sun. I'm not going any farther than out the door.” I pointed. The gym was cold, I wanted my sun.

“Alright, fine, you can go. But stay within shouting distance of the door; if I look and don't see you....”

“Right, you'll tell my Mom and she'll kill me, I know.” I interrupted, already starting out.

“And where do you think you're going?”

I stopped. He'd just told me I could go! But looking back, it wasn't me he was talking to, it was Ralph.

“With her? Come on, one more isn't going to matter; Jeeves can watch us both.”

I looked at Jeeves, to find him looking at me. He didn't seem to care either way.

“Can you do that, Jeeves?” Coach Howard asked him directly. “Keep in mind if you agree and fail, you're putting your ability to come and go at this school with Min at risk.”

Jeeves actually appeared to consider it for a moment, visibly hesitating, at least for him. I had to signal him. “I agree to those terms, Coach Howard.”

It wasn't a big deal, I mean he watched four of us for lunch off school grounds as it was, and Ralph wasn't going to cause any trouble.

“Alright, go ahead then. I expect to see you back here, at least to check in before lunch. Got it?”

“I got it Coach, I'll be back for the bell.”

Jeeves beat me to the door, opening it in time for me to go through. He held it for Ralph too but managed to get ahead of me again, spreading a blanket on the inviting patch of lawn I was heading towards. I took the inferred invitation and lay down, right in the sun, eyes closed even after my glasses darkened.

I heard Ralph plop down beside me as I stretched out spread eagle with a sigh of pure bliss. That gym had been awfully cold.

Jeeves snagged a leg. “Jeeves, what are you doing?”

“Massage?”

“Not right now, thanks. I want warm, and while your hands are warm, they aren't sunlight.”

He placed my leg back where he found it, gently. I could feel Ralph smirking. None of it entered his voice, however.

“Yeah, this is a day for being lazy. Hopefully to be followed by a night of carefree partying.”

“That's the plan.” I agreed.

A few minutes passed in comfortable silence before Ralph broke it. “So, got your costume figured out?”

I smiled. “Yep, sure do. I had it figured out weeks ago in fact; it's all ready to go. So, did you procrastinate?”

“Oh, no, no,” He hastened to assure me. “just asking is all. My costume is...good, if I do say so myself.”

He didn't sound too sure about that. I guess I'd find out in a few hours.

Our comfortable silence continued.

Which meant that of course, Jeeves had to ruin it. “Please wake, Mistress Min.”

“I'm awake. Sheesh, I wasn't even asleep.” That was my story, and I was sticking to it. Where was I again? Oh right, in the yard outside the gym; I could still hear the last rings... the after-rings? What was it called when the bell has already rang yet you can still hear it? Whatever, I could still hear those in my ear.

“You were most definitely asleep, Mistress Min, and you promised Coach Howard that you would check back in before the bell signaling lunch.”

Ralph was looking at me with an apology in his eyes – I hope he didn't see anything weird. Like me asleep and rolling around; I tended to move. Though I hadn't been asleep, maybe it had looked like I was, and I didn't want him getting weird ideas.

I rubbed my eyes, getting reoriented, and realized my glasses were off. I found and slipped them on (I didn't remember taking them off) and Jeeves helped me up. Then he fell in behind me, which meant he wasn't setting up lunch. “Don't you have a lunch to get?”

Come to think of it, he'd been with me all day, which meant he hadn't been cooking. I didn't have any money for the cafeteria food, so what was I going to eat?

“Already taken care of, Mistress Min. Lunch will be waiting for you in the location you favor.”

“Why don't you just say the usual spot, Jeeves?” It was like he went out of his way to be as obtuse as possible.

“I did.” I looked back in time to see the lack of emotion on his face, which was odd; he was good enough to match word to emotion nearly perfectly. Was he trying to be funny?

I wish I could figure out how I managed to get him to understand humor. Well, if I had... his sense of humor wasn't exactly the best. If I could perfect that, I could make stupid amounts of money.

The contrast between outside and the gym was even more stark in the other direction; going back into the relatively dark and cold building was like splashing cold water on my face. I had to stop a second and let my glasses adjust, so I sidestepped. Ralph came in right behind me, and he didn't have any trouble at all; he kept walking.

My glasses lightened enough to see again, and I could make out Coach Howard standing in the middle of the gym, a basketball under one arm. Ralph was already talking to him; he met my gaze and I waved. He nodded, so I left.

As annoying as it was, I'd have to walk around and then go out the front door, since I knew Coach wouldn't want me to just walk back out the gym door. The halls were full, but most of the people were headed to the cafeteria, as always. Maybe even more than usual since today there were Halloween cupcakes offered; the cooks slaved over them every year, and while they weren't spectacular or anything, there was enough for every student to get one. That was a sort of cooking magic in itself.

There were usually extras since some kids refused to eat them or were allergic, even those had a tendency to vanish. Eaten by spooks no doubt – or the staff.

This time, rather than be blinded again I took my glasses off. Best anti-glare technology or not, I hated these things. I kept going while holding them up so they would adjust.

When I put them back on I nearly got ran over.

“Jeeves, just what is that?”

“A delivery truck, Mistress Min.”

It was indeed a truck. From one of my favorite fast food places, a local joint, Dan's Grill. A fast food place that had two locations, and did not deliver. But here was their battered old truck, and there was my customary table, tablecloth, candles, and all, with containers (normally used for takeout) of Dan's Grill food heaped on it. Dan, the owner, a bald heayset guy who just screamed 'grill cook' was even there in person. Wringing his hands, waiting for us with a pensive expression at odds with his character.

“How did you even manage this?” How had he gotten Dan to deliver anything?

“I called, of course, while you were sleeping.” Was Jeeves's reply; okay he was obviously screwing with me. Dan's eyes narrowed as we closed, breaking that nebulous boundary only someone who owned the setup Dan was currently using would cross, no doubt wondering if we were who he was waiting on.

Jeeves hastened ahead to pull out the chair I used, the one under the tree, and I sat, with my stupid glasses adjusting yet again. In front of me was a large of my favorite burger; a totally sloppy beef and cheddar. A double, no less, with bacon on top. Even the grease sitting on the bun must be giving Jeeves fits; what was he doing?

“Are you Minerva Campbell?” Dan asked, wiping his hands on his apron.

“Yes, sir, I am. I'm told this is for me?”

“Well, a catered lunch for a party of six, for Minerva Campbell, phoned in by one Jeeves Campbell?”

I hooked a thumb. “That's Jeeves.”

Dan shifted, taking all that was Jeeves in for the second time. I could see the moment when he dismissed me, switching to 'adult mode' to talk shop with Jeeves.

“There is the matter of the payment sir...”

Jeeves cocked his head. “Did the Debit card not clear?”

Dan shook his head emphatically. “No sir, it cleared! But it was a little too much, even for this.”

Jeeves waved him off. “You took a request for food on short notice and filled it. I can tell you got all the orders placed correct, and you drove to us and arrived ahead of the appointed time given. As far as I am concerned, the overage is a perfectly acceptable tip, and you are welcome to it.”

Dan looked conflicted, still partly anxious, yet relieved.

“Thank you, sir. Just be aware, I don't normally cater.”

Jeeves bowed. “I am aware, Dan of Dan's Grill. I appreciate you making the exception – and it will be an exception.”

“Yeah, right, okay... thank you for your business.” Dan got back into this truck with a dazed look; he waved at me pulling out.

I returned it. I could completely understand; Jeeves had that kind of effect on people, at least at first.

Wait... Ralph, Ricky, Sam, Maggie, and myself. That was five; who was the sixth meal for?

I turned to ask to find Jeeves opening one container on his lap. “What are you doing?”

He looked at me and smiled. “I am eating lunch, of course.”

His lunch looked exactly like mine, right down to the amount of salt I liked on my fries, and I doubted that was coincidence. Jeeves waited, watching me. He had actually tucked a napkin into his shirt to keep it clean; that was never going to work. Was he waiting on me to start?

Maggie arrived. “Hey Min, how are you feeling?”

“I'm okay. It was just a minor thing.”

Sam had a good grasp of the important: “What's all this?”

I shrugged. “Jeeves was busy watching me, so he called for takeout. Well, catering.”

“From Dan's Grill.” she stated.

“Yes.”

Maggie looked around as if seeing the spread for the first time, which she well might have been. “The greasiest greasy spoon in the county?”

“Hey, I happen to like it!” How dare they defame the best fast food to exist?!?

Maggie sat down at her usual spot and opened her container. “Of course you do; I never said it wasn't good. It's just criminally bad for you is all. He ordered for us too?”

“Well, you do eat with me.” I wasn't about to share mine either; if she didn't like what she got, she was just out of luck.

Maggie's food turned out to be a simple chicken sandwich, with fries. Sam was already picking at a garden fresh salad that was actually from a garden. I ate a fry, and that was what Jeeves was waiting for after all; He picked up his burger and took a bite.

“So, why is Jeeves eating?”

“Not sure.” He did have a small stomach but didn't actually use the food for fuel at all. I had a suspicion....

“I am sampling Mistress Min's sustenance, of course,” Jeeves replied loftily, confirming it.

“What, is that like poison tasting?” Maggie asked him, popping a fry in her mouth.

“Not quite, Maggie. If I were testing for poisons I would be sampling Mistress Min's order; I am instead sampling the order itself in order to recreate it at a later date.”

“So you're going to recreate Dan's Grill food?”

Jeeves nodded. “Whenever it should be convenient and healthy to do so.”

Ha. There was no way it would be the same.

We all ate, and I at least enjoyed the slight breeze; it ruffled my hair. I wanted more sun, but I'd had enough; I'd probably just get hot now.

Ricky and Ralph showed up together, just steps behind each other. Ricky had his favorite roast beef with fries and (and cheese to dunk the fries in) waiting for him, and Ralph had a bacon lettuce and tomato on toasted rye with dill pickle chips waiting for him.

Ricky just shrugged and took his seat, but Ralph stopped and looked at Jeeves. “How did you know?”

Jeeves just smiled, so I answered. “Jeeves has culinary powers. Among those is guessing what people's favorite foods are. So far he hasn't been wrong, even once.”

Ralph shrugged and sat. “Well he's right again, this is my favorite from Dan's. Not the weirdest power I've heard of.”

We ate in record time, fast food was easy to eat and we didn't need to worry about being messy. Well, none of us but Jeeves, who actually still looked spotless despite not having any room at the table. I cleaned my hands off while Jeeves started cleaning up; I wondered where he kept the table and chairs since he didn't have time to go all the way back home for them.

Then I decided I didn't really want to know.

“Come on, let's go for a walk before we have to go back to class!” Maggie said, grabbing Sam and all but grabbing me before starting off.

I shrugged. A walk sounded fine to me, I wasn't in any hurry to go back inside.

I caught up, Maggie was already forging ahead. A look to my right and Ralph was there, stuffing the last few of his chips in his mouth. Ricky was on my left, using a napkin to wipe his hands off.

“Come on! Let's see who's at the ball field!”

As it turned out, the ball field was on the dark and less sunny side of the school, so there were only a few kids hanging out there, and those were the self-styled social outcasts. Maggie led us all the way around the school, and then inside, checking out all the decorations and critiquing them.

She didn't like the orange and brown ones or the silly faced ghosts, but then again no one else did either. She'd helped put them up, and the story about how she fought with the teachers to leave those out was absolutely fascinating.

Then I noticed we had a tail. Gordon was behind us, making no real secret of being there. I had to distract Ricky; if Ricky saw him, he'd attack, and without back-up he'd lose. Probably badly. I couldn't really do much except send Jeeves in, and that would get both of us in trouble and Jeeves kicked off campus forever. He was following us without a doubt, hands jammed in his pockets and looking our way.

So, what to do about it? I could ignore him; I didn't have any classes left with him for the day, and it would be trivial to dodge him. But that just meant if he was following us for Ricky, Ricky would be isolated. No, the best thing to do would be to see what he wants.

Still I had to wait a bit, for Maggie to cross the track in order to talk to a few of her cheerleader friends, Sam already in tow and the two R's (that was a great name for them, come to think of it) dragging their heels a bit, but following.

“I just remembered something I forgot to check guys; go ahead without me, I'll catch up.”

Of course, hearing that, they all stopped in their tracks. “Everything okay?”

I waved them on. “Everything is fine. Just need to return a phone call I got earlier from a guy at Lockheed. They had some performance questions.”

I felt bad lying to them; it was a text, and I'd already answered it; but it was for greater good of stopping bullies, so it was justified. When the group moved on without me, I walked back around the corner with Jeeves on my heels. Sure enough, Gordon was waiting.

He looked nervous, almost like he was fighting throwing up. That was very odd for him; usually, the prospect of violence had him jumping around eagerly like a puppy or something. Not that I was afraid – Gordon would have to be very stupid to attack me, even if Jeeves wasn't there to intervene, and Gordon wasn't that stupid, no matter what Ricky believed.

“Hello, Gordon. Is there something you want to discuss?”

He fidgeted. Fidgeted! What was he so nervous about? It took me raising an eyebrow (Mom's trick with Dad, I think, though it seemed to have wider use than I first suspected) to get him to spill.

“That was you last night, wasn't it?”

“Yes, it was. I thought it was you Gordon... your online tag was clever, but not very anonymous.”

He snorted. “Neither is yours, really.”

That was fair. “What do you want, Gordon?”

He scuffed a foot in the grass. “Look, I wanted to say I'm sorry. Again, that is, and not have it look like the school made me this time. I really am sorry for what I did, attacking you when you came back to school. You're tiny, and it was wrong, dude or not. But yeah especially if not, and...”

Well, color me touched. Sort of. I held up a hand. “Stop. Just stop before you dig a hole you can't get out of. Apology accepted. I'll make this clear, though, and you can tell anyone who asks. I'm not a dude, not anymore. Apparently, it's a thing that can happen, though it's not common.”

Gordon shuddered and ran a hand through his hair. Had he actually combed it this morning? And that shirt... it was a dress shirt. Was it new? “Sucks to be you.”

Well on that we could agree. “It sure does. Don't worry about me telling the school you're a computer nerd. I won't, even if people cared.”

He chuckled, backing into the brick wall and holding it up. “Nah, I ain't worried about that. I just wanted things to be cool between us. So, you going to the Halloween thing tonight?”

“Yep, sure am; wouldn't miss it.”

His gaze sharpened. “Then I guess Pam and I will see you there. Bringing him?” He pointed at Jeeves, who had been remarkably silent this entire conversation.

I couldn't resist a smirk. “Of course, he's part of the costume. And yeah, we'll see you there. I won't act like I don't know you either.”

Gordon chuckled again. “Part of the costume, huh? Can't wait to see it then. It better not be one of those lame horse things.”

As if I could be so tacky.

Gordon levered himself off the wall, and his face turned serious. “Look, man, almost time for the bell, I gotta go, but there's something else you should know. Keep an eye on Pam, alright? She ain't your friend, and she's... well, she's mad about something. She's saying some mean crap about you. I just thought you should know.”

He waved while I reeled. Pam, of all people?

…...

Study hall was all about distractions. Doing my homework while ignoring Pam. Helping Maggie with her homework while ignoring Pam, and chatting with Sam while ignoring Pam... okay well maybe not that, Sam still tried to talk less than Jeeves did, but there was more than a little ignoring going on.

Still, I couldn't help notice that Pam was shooting me looks, rapid possibly spite-filled looks which were gone as soon as I noticed them.

“Maggie, Sam...” I whispered, not sure how to bring it up. “Does Pam hate me, or something?”

Face, meet palm. I don't think I could have been less smooth there.

My two friends shared a look, then scooted closer. Maggie started off, of course, whispering back. “Pam... well Pam has some issues.”

“Jealous.” Sam interjected, and Maggie gave a faint nod.

“Right. So yeah she's been saying some stupid things about you, off and on. Just stuff in the Gym locker room or at lunch. Nothing at all unusual for her, and nothing she hasn't done to other girls before, so don't worry about it. Sam and I have been handling it for you, and no one actually believes the things she says.”

But... Pam?!? Why? She seemed so nice, to everyone. No, I wasn't going to let it bother me. It really wasn't anything different than dealing with Gordon or the anti-mutant jerks on the basketball team every day.

Well, except Gordon was a pretty stand up guy.

Was that it? Was Pam anti-mutant? Or even a hero-groupie? After all, what else did Pam have to be jealous about? Heck if I could trade her my powers I would in a heartbeat; sure sometimes they were fun, but it wasn't worth all the time I spent sick.

“Anything I should know about?” I mean, I hadn't heard a peep. If it was bad, surely someone would tell me, right?

Maggie shook her head. “Nah, nothing out of the ordinary. Typical high school crap.”

Sam looked like she was going to say something, but a glance from Maggie and her mouth shut with an audible clack of teeth.

“Don't worry about it, we're handling it.” Maggie stated firmly. “Aren't we Sam?”

Sam nodded. But telling me not to worry just made me worry more. I still managed to get caught up, and get Maggie caught up before the bell rang. Sam didn't need any help from me.

The walk to English class was quick today, and soon I was handing in another paper. I already wanted more sunlight, and the lecture picking apart more Shakespeare was... well, Mrs. Holmes tried her best, but there was only so much one could take of him, great as he was. I couldn't wait until we started Steinbeck, and I was still a little confused how these lectures helped us conjugate verbs better. I was beginning to think Mrs. Holmes had missed her calling as a college professor of creative writing or something.

Just before I lost all hope of being able to stay awake anymore (And I'd just totally not slept a few hours ago!) the final bell rang, and we were officially released from institutional confinement.

I waited until the initial crush passed, and got up. Sam and Maggie had also waited. The two R's (heh) were also nearby; Ricky was trying his best to look like he wasn't waiting on us or listening in, and Ralph was checking the hallway.

“So, meet up after we get ready?”

Well, this was new. “Meet where? The school?”

Maggie almost shouted. “Heck no! I'm not coming back here alone and waiting, we're all going to meet at your house. Our parents already know. After all, what's the point of owning a mad-sciency lab-shed if you don't use it for Halloween parties?”

It would take more time than we had left to point out all the flaws in her logic, so I settled for just rolling my eyes like Sam did. Even if Mom and Dad didn't know, they would be fine with it, since there was safety in numbers and all that. But it would be just like Mom to know, discuss it with everyone else, and leave me out of the loop.

“Alright, fine. I was going to run final checks on Crash, but I guess an extra day won't hurt.”

Maggie blew a raspberry at me, all but dragging me down the hall. “Please; it's not like you can't do both. Besides, you've been holding out on me. I want to see what this amazing costume idea of yours is.”

“Fine. See you at the lab.”

We all split up. It felt kind of odd walking home alone (or well with Jeeves, close enough). But I managed. At least I still had my two tails.

Home was quiet... too quiet. Mom was in the kitchen, making something. Jeeves was replaced for another night in the kitchen, it seemed. But it was for the best tonight since he wouldn't have the time to cook and I wouldn't be eating more than snacks here tonight anyway.

Speaking of snacks, there were Halloween themed cookies and candy in separate bowls, just sitting there. There were even popcorn balls! I snagged one and ignored Jeeves clearing his throat behind me; I'd eat one if I wanted.

“Min, don't spoil your dinner.”

“I took the ball out of my mouth so she wouldn't know. “Okay, Mom! It all looks good, though. Where is it all going?”

Mom turned around with a grin, catching me in the act. “To your lab of course. Silly.”

I popped the popcorn ball back in my mouth with a shrug. Two could play it that game; my next words were spoken with my mouth full, which always drives Moms wild. “Alright Mom, I'll grab it then. Well, Jeeves will. The gang is getting costumed up, and then they'll be here.”

She frowned and I got out while the getting was good, snagging the candy. Jeeves grabbed the rest without prompting.

“No experiments! Ian's going to be out back!”

I could deal with that; at least it seemed like Mom was getting more forgiving about having Ian in the lab; there may be hope for him on that front. I reached the door and the retinal scanner, input the code and waited impatiently, popcorn ball still lodged firmly between my teeth.

The door opened and I put down my mostly ill-gotten gains. We both set our bowls down on the main workbench. But it was time, now. I didn't want to re-open the lab, and it had a bathroom, so...

“Jeeves, go and retrieve the two black and orange striped garment bags in my closet. There should only be two of them.”

Jeeves left with a short “As you command, mistress.”

I plugged my computer in and started running my final checks on Crash; I could activate him anytime, but something was telling me to wait. So far I hadn't turned up anything wrong, but it was more the prospect of not just lifting the lid a little on Pandora's box, but kicking it off. Jeeves had been at least half mistake, after all – once people saw Crash, any questions about pulling a repeat would be answered.

But the timer on how powerful my power was was already ticking, wasn't it? At least some of what I'd done already was in the public domain. My address was well known, and if the mob wanted to beat a path to the door, clamoring for robots of their own, they could do so already.

It would be hard to tell them all no. Maybe I could buy and automate a factory? No, that was a terrible idea.

Jeeves returned, garment bags draped over an arm and a coffee and tea service in his other hand. I took the first – it was mine.

“Alright. You can change out here, I'm going into the bathroom to change.”

“Understood, mistress Min.”

Changing didn't take long at all. The pants, shirt, vest, and jacket were custom tailored to my sizes and fit perfectly, just like they had last week. The worst part was tying the canary yellow tie. A quick look in the mirror to make sure my hair wasn't caught in the jacket and I was done; dressed just like Jeeves had been a few moments ago, more or less.

I made the turn of the century striped suit with tails look pretty good if I did say so myself. I still had to wear my glasses or be blind, but I was now the servant. Which of course meant that Jeeves was now my other half.

“Jeeves are you all dressed?”

“I am, mistress, though I admit some difficulty in the jewelry.”

I opened the door to find Jeeves outside it, dressed in one of the dresses like he made for me upon his arrival, something advertised as goth-lolita at the Halloween costume site I'd gone to. It was custom tailored for him, like mine, but with a little padding up top hidden in the lace.

He probably made his costume look better than I could; somehow he was making it work, even with the heels off and earrings sliding off his ears. I had bought clip-ons, but that was looking to be a mistake.

I took the earrings from him, applied a dab of epoxy to each, and placed them carefully on each ear; I could always spray him later with the dissolving agent here in the lab or use a blow dryer. Neither method would hurt him.

A few finishing touches with makeup and Jeeves looked more feminine than I probably could on my best day. I fought down the wave of jealousy. Other people had gone through worse than I have to end up looking... well, like X-ray. So I had no right to complain, even in my own head.

Jeeves poured me more coffee. “Thank you Jeeves, but we are going to get into character a bit tonight. I'm going to be the butler at the party and get you drinks and stuff, and you are going to be the lady.”

He adjusted my tie, gently, and I had to fight down bad feelings again. “As you command, mistress Min. Tonight, at the party, you shall be butler Min and I shall be Lady Jeeves.”

Well, at least he was getting into it. This was going to be fun, I couldn't wait!

Maggie arrived first, in a Victorian era dress that looked like it might be an actual Victorian era dress; it was faded and even had a few stains. She also had a knife handle sticking out of her head with blood coming down from it, and a bloody mouth. She raised her arms as soon as I opened the door in response to the knock.

“I'm a hungry ghost, here to swallow your souls! And maybe your heart, I haven't decided... and HOLY CRAP MIN YOU LOOK INCREDIBLE!!!”

I had it, actual sound evidence than Maggie spoke before she thought. Well, or screamed, at least in this case.

“OH MY GAWD IS THAT JEEVES?!?!”Maggie screamed, striding over with a laugh and snagging a cookie along the way.

Jeeves gave her an obvious once over. “Good afternoon, Miss Johnson. A most effective costume.”

“You're one to talk.” She looked to her costume, then Jeeves again, and pouted. “That's just not fair; you look better in this sort of getup than I do.”

She turned to me. “Awesome idea Min, turning the tables like that!”

I bowed. “Thank you, Lady Johnson. I do but try.”

There was another knock, so I went to answer it. Outside was a ghost. And not just any ghost, but the stereotypical sheet ghost, with eyeholes cut out and everything. Under that sheet was a silhouette that matched Samantha's, and she was holding a pillowcase, weighed down with something. Something about that...

The light upstairs went on. “Samantha?”

She nodded.

“What's in the pillowcase?”

I could almost feel the ghost (ha ha) of a grin as she answered. “...A rock.”

That was an amazing costume idea, and I told her so. She preened as I opened the door wider and let her in.

“Samantha? That was your amazing last minute costume idea?” Maggie asked, coming over with a puzzled look.

“I got a rock.” Sam defended.

It took awhile for Maggie to get it. “Oh Sam, you should have said something, I could have gone as Peppermint Patty!”

“Now now, it's no fun if we all ignore the theme! Sam's portrayal of Charlie Brown fits, but what would the rest of our excuses be?” I had Sam's back; she wanted to be hidden, yet stand out. I think.

Evidently so did Ralph. I opened the door to his knock, only to find him dressed in a Japanese kimono thing and carrying a big honking plastic sword on his shoulder. His orange hair was teased up and he had a sneer on his face.

“What are you supposed to be, exactly? A haughty samurai?”

He strode in like he owned the place. “No, I'm Ichigo.”

I looked around. Everyone else seemed just as lost, though Sam muttered “Bleach.”

What did a cleaning product and reducing agent have to do with Halloween?

Ralph gave me a look. “Alright, later, I'm going to sit you in a chair and make you watch the show this character is from. No one should be that deprived.”

I shrugged. His character was from a show, all I needed to know. “And his name is... Ichigo?” Clearly Japanese, and probably violent, if the sword was any indication.

“Yep.” 'Ichigo' replied, snagging a cookie. His face brightened when he took a bite.

I went back to running my checksums on Crash, ignoring the way Jeeves shifted demurely as I passed. He was just getting into character – I hoped.

“You do realize you're out of theme, right Ralph?”

He drew himself up. “Not at all. This is exactly what the Japanese gentleman wore in the 1800's. So technically I'm in theme while being someone with my amazing hair.”

Oh, so that was his angle; I smirked. “Always about the hair with you, isn't it?”

He drew a hand through his neon locks. “You know it. Not many people are awesome enough to have hair this amazing.”

Maggie snickered, and Sam was shaking a little. I might have also snickered a bit.

Another knock on the door. I went back to answer it. The pirate on the other end of the door waved, then stopped and stared: “Hi Jee...wait, Min!?!? Holy shit you look ho...err amazing, right! Just simply amazing; great costume.”

This was even weirder than the samurai. “Wish I could say the same, Ricky. Pirates are kinda... well, not the theme. They aren't really gentleman or ladies, even if they were around for Victorian times.”

There had to have been Victorian pirates, I was sure. I just wasn't sure where. Barbary coast, maybe?

“Well, that's kind of the beauty of it! I'm clearly a high society party crasher!” Ricky said, puffing out his chest and twirling one of those single shot pistols...fake, of course.

Well, that did make a sort of sense. Ricky studied the rest of us, even as the others studied him. He snorted at Ralph's costume, and laughed openly at Sam's (but I wasn't sure if he was laughing at the quality of it or because he got it). Then he snagged a cookie.

“Cokes are in the mini-fridge, and as always, don't touch anything not in a container you recognize. Ian may be out here shortly, or he may not. I'm going to compile some code while we wait. Oh, Jeeves, can you set up the projector? We can put some horror movies on and watch them, my computer can do both.”

“Of course, Mistress Min.”

The projector was up in short order, the lights dimmed, and just as the movie about a batch of psychotic cursed dolls started, there as a knock on the door. Of course.

I opened it to find Ian, dressed normally of course since his fun began tomorrow, standing there. He stared (down) at me, mouth open for a good second, before the grin spread.

“Wow sis, looking good.”

I had to shush him when he caught sight of Jeeves, his laughter was deep, full-bellied, and totally ruined the atmosphere required for horror movie enjoyment. Kind of what I was going for, but also a little irritating.

“Ian, just sit down and watch the movie.” He shrugged, grabbed one of the folding chairs, and set it up behind the rest of us. He also snagged a cookie just before he sat down.

The movie was kind of okay; the dolls were well done, but clearly just puppets and I had to fight down the urge to design better while watching; it would be so easy! Of course, I wouldn't make mine homicidal, and while they wouldn't have the space for a full AI, a smart system that could fake it well enough would fit....

No, bad Min! No over-analyzing things and starting a fugue! I snagged a cookie.

It wasn't a long movie, it wrapped up with the young couple winning against the evil doll makers in plenty of time for us to make the party. There was more than a little stretching as we all rose and I hit the lights.

“Alright Ian, take a hike, I'm locking up.”

“But what about...”

“Now, Ian, it can wait. We need to go. You know Mom won't let you hang out in here.”

He pouted and snagged a cookie on his way out. I made sure everyone had everything, and then shoo'd them out and locked up.

The sun was just past setting, in that curious hour where there was still significant light from our nearest star, but no view of it. We all started walking, and I took my place behind Jeeves. For his part, Jeeves walked along almost daintily while holding his dress up, heels clicking, looking as if he'd been walking on heels all his life. It wasn't even remotely fair.

I'd offer my jacket, to be a gentleman, but it wouldn't fit him. Maybe later.

The air was crisp but not cold, with a hint of dry or decaying leaves. The walk was pleasant, even dodging some of the other kids who were also taking advantage of the nice night. Normally I'd ask for a ride, but I felt very safe with all the eyes still on me. Two cars tonight, and they weren't being all that secretive about it.

The school was even more decked out than before; the teachers must have been busy; there was now bunting on the outside, a fake graveyard, and zombies in Victorian dress shambling around, nodding politely and growling affably at students and passersby.

Mrs. Welch nodded to us as we walked past; she was stirring a large cauldron that looked to be made of iron, and not plastic. The thing must weigh a ton. “Great costumes everyone! Go on in!”

Good, she got Sam's. I think she was just being nice to Ricky, though.

The halls were festooned with fake cottony spider webs and plastic bats hanging around, and I could already hear the music, some sort of oldies rock...? That didn't really fit the theme, but I guess it was hard to pass up 'monster mash' and 'werewolves of London' for Vivaldi or whatever. I wasn't even sure you could dance to that stuff.

The gym had undergone quite the transformation since noon; it had all the bunting and hall decorations, along with large wire and paper spiders hanging out in all the corners on large cotton webs, a DJ booth where some guy I didn't recognize had a laptop hooked up to the schools sound system and was playing tunes, and a large set of tables that ran the entire back wall filled with snacks. Mostly healthy things, I noticed.

There were a few brave people already dancing on the floor, some badly, and a few teachers roaming around keeping an eye on things.

I turned to Jeeves and gave my best bow. “My lady Jeeves, do you desire refreshments?”

Jeeves actually pulled off a curtsy in response, pulling out her fan and snapping it open in a practiced looking gesture. “But of course, butler Min. A glass of punch, if you please.”

Showoff.

I marched over to get some punch... and who was there, but Pam and Gordon. Pam was dressed much the way that Maggie or Jeeves was, in a maroon and cream Victorian era dress. She had an elaborate braid hair style that added about six inches to her height and looked mildly dumb. Her makeup made her look older; which would be a good thing to learn, I think. She saw me and her face twisted, her lips pursing in distaste.

Gordon was dressed like a British officer from the 1700's. I could almost see him on horseback, in his red and white uniform, leading the charge against the awful colonials with drawn saber in one hand, pistol in the other, and the reins in his teeth. A bit of time to grow into it, and he might cut a dashing figure.

“Hello, Min. You look great. Great costume.” Pam's face pruned up even more in response to Gordon's statement, but she stayed silent.

“Thanks. We had to change to go in costume, so one of us had to be the butler.” I gave him a slight bow.

“Yes, it suits you Min.” And there came the snark; a bit delayed, but still present. Gordon frowned slightly and glanced at Pam.

I decided to take the 'compliment' at face value. “Thanks, Pam. You both look amazing as well. Coordinated costumes? A British soldier and lady?”

“A British soldier and his wife, actually,” came the prim response, and Pam sniffed and turned to Gordon. “Come, my loving husband, let us dance and leave the help to their mundane pursuits.” Gordon had to be dragged, but Pam seemed more than willing to do so.

“Uh, right. See you later, Min!” He gave a little wave; Pam was stronger than she let on.

I turned to go back to the group, punch in hand, only to find the group had come to me. Without missing a beat I presented the drink to 'Lady Jeeves'. “Your drink, Madam.”

He took it haughtily and sipped... then made a small face and handed it back. “It is much too sweet, servant. Dilute it with something, and then serve it to me again.”

What did he think this was, some kind of wine tasting? They had probably mixed the punch in a bathtub or something. I went back to the table, and Sam ghosted (heh) along behind me. Now, what could I use... oh! Ice!

“You're going to find it difficult to eat and drink in that costume, Sam.” Though come to think of it, hadn't she chowed down on cookies and soda before we left?

“Thought of that.”

Okay, now I was curious. “Oh? What's your plan?”

Sam lifted her sheet a little to show blocky brown shoes – Charlie Brown shoes. She lifted it a bit more to reveal bright yellow socks. My eyes widened; that was actually brilliant.

“Okay, I get it. I know I said it before, but amazing costume.”

Sam paused in the act of carefully filling cups of punch for almost a full second before replying.“Thank you.”

Really she didn't need to act so surprised. I carefully placed the smallest ice cubes I could find into both the drinks in my own care, and avoided any splashes. When we arrived, I presented my drink to 'Lady Jeeves' again, and this time she took a sip and claimed it acceptable. Sam handed out her extra drink to Maggie, who was already chattering away to Aletha Rivers, our resident hockey expert. I wasn't really sure we needed a self-appointed hockey expert, but we had one.

At least they weren't actually talking hockey; they were gossiping about whose costumes would win the costume competition, and whose were the worst. Brad Sadler had that honor, in his clearly non-Victorian twenties gangster suit. He even had a plastic gun, something he could get banned for in the daytime. At least he didn't look bad in it, chatting next to Jodi Hess in her dress.

Ricky and Ralph got their own punch, chatting all the while. I sipped my own, it was watery.

And that was the problem with these events like this, in the end. There wasn't much to do except sip watery punch, eat bad snacks, and talk about school stuff... or dance. The very idea of dancing was shudder worthy; I didn't really know how, and just a glance at the people brave enough to be on the floor convinced me that they didn't either.

“Come, servant Min. I would dance.” Urk. Jeeves looked at me expectantly, hand artfully outstretched.

What else could I do? I was the servant for now; I took it.

He led me to the dance floor, and drew me close, leaning down. “Watch me.” He whispered, and proceeded to lead me through a dance... the box step? We were forming a box with our steps, anyway. It wasn't slow, either; we were keeping up with the music. Jeeves adjusted us, showing me where my hands were supposed to go, leading the way. I just focused on not tripping.

Thankfully I didn't. When the song ended, we went back to out staked out patch of floor; Maggie was talking to several more people now, chatting idly about the latest English assignment while watching me, a twinkle in her eye. Once we got in range, she stepped out.

“Lady Jeeves, would you honor me with a dance?”

“Why of course, Lady Margaret; I'd be delighted.” They stepped out together, and were soon dancing the way we had; I couldn't tell if they were talking, but knowing Maggie it seemed likely.

Sam inched closer to me... just ahead of everyone else, who was much more obvious about it.

“Love the costume Min!”

“Where did you even get it? And a matching one for Jeeves?!?”

“Will Jeeves dance with anyone who asks?”

It was almost like the inquisition a month ago. “Thanks, and I ordered both costumes online, then customized them myself, to ensure they'd fit, and I'm sure if you ask him, Jodi he'll dance with you.”

“Wait, you actually sewed your costume?” Aletha asked in disbelief.

She was right not to believe that conclusion. “Heck no! I simply had nanites do it. See you scan the clothes first, to provide a map, then you calculate the....” Wait, bad idea “Nevermind. Suffice it to say I made machines to sew little alterations for me, though most of the work was done by the place I ordered from.”

“Sounds expensive.” Nancy Ringus half asked with a disapproving frown on her pinched face. She kind of looked like a pissed off librarian dressing up in her costume, which was made of polyester, with frayed ends showing.

“It was, a little. But revenge knows no price!” I looked pointedly at Jeeves to prove my point, only to find him looking back at me while whirling Maggie around the dance floor with reckless abandon.

She seemed to be having fun, at least; judging from the smile and whooping noises she was making.

Sam backed me up. “Revenge!”

Nancy gave a weak grin and asked. “Isn't that a quote from somewhere?”

I shrugged. “Probably,” I admitted. “But if so I don't know where it's from.”

“Right, not really important. What is important, is what you think about the English assignment Mrs. Holmes gave out for Monday.”

“The reading assignment? It wasn't that bad.”

“Wasn't that bad?!?! It was a reading assignment, for a full chapter! With a worksheet, on the weekend!”

I shrugged again. Jeeves had stopped watching me and was now attempting to guide Maggie away from other people with limited success. Maggie, for her part, was giggling like a loon. She looked to be steering into people on purpose. “I don't know, I already have mine done. Managed it in study hall.”

Aletha pulled a face. “Ugh, mutant hacks. Wish I could speed read too! I'd get so much done!”

I turned to face Aletha, even as her face fell a bit. Did she think I'd be mad for bringing up what I could do? I wasn't; I just grinned at her. “Not as much as you might think. Sure I manage the assignments, but then there's all the mad science!”

I gave the crowd my best mad scientist cackle, and it got silent. Everyone just stared at me for a second with pitying looks before Sam summed it up. “Bad.”

Maggie and Jeeves came back, their dance over. “I've got to agree. That was the worst mad laugh I've ever heard.”

Bull! “Oh come on, I'm an actual mad scientist that designs robots! That cackle is as genuine as it gets!”

Sam shook her head. “Pissy.”

What?!? “I am NOT just pissy! I'm actually mad! I'll show you, I'll show you all! You won't mock me when this place is buried in killbots!”

They all stared at me again, except for Jodi, who was trying her best to drag a completely unflappable Jeeves out onto the dance floor at a pace he didn't want to go.

Sam patted me on the back. Darn it, none of them believed me, and I couldn't keep the joke going, or security would be called. I stopped fighting the smile.

“Fine, you got me. A round of bad punch for all!” I didn't say 'on me' because knowing my luck someone would actually douse me in the stuff – it's happened before!

Ralph stepped up, actually managing to stifle his laughter. “Butler Min, would you like to dance?”

Uh... didn't he just see me fumbling around with Jeeves earlier?

Amidst cries of “Woo, go for it Min!” and other assorted cheers, I allowed myself to be led onto the section of floor marked for dancing again.

One last protest, to save his toes. “I really don't know how to dance, you know. Jeeves showed me the box step, at least I think that's what it was, earlier. Before that I've never danced before.”

Ralph smiled winningly. “It's fine. I saw you earlier, you looked like you had it down... you looked graceful. Besides, you only weigh like 80 pounds; you can stomp on my feet all day without hurting me.”

Okay, that was bullcrap. “I'm 100 pounds, thank you very much.”

He waved that off as we started. He followed the steps as if he knew how. “Yeah, yeah. Min Campbell, the only girl likely to inflate her weight in all of Paris County.”

I smacked him, lightly. I hadn't inflated it by that much, and there was such a thing as too skinny. I wasn't sure if I was there or not, but I was pretty sure I was close. Maybe right on the line. I focused on trying not step on people, and managed not to make a complete fool of myself.

Then Ricky wanted a turn. He looked angry.

“What's wrong with you?” I asked as we started off to the next song. He was a bit more sloppy at following the steps than Ralph.

After that the evening passed, the way such evenings were wont to do. Boring and pointless, really, for all that it had it's moments, those flashes of fun. I just couldn't escape the fact that there were better uses of my time, and I think as the night wore on, people were beginning to notice. At least the number of guys and girls asking me to show them how to dance tapered off pretty quickly, and it wasn't my breath.

At one point I turned around from another self-appointed round at the refreshment table to find Gordon watching me, with Pam nowhere nearby. Even worrying about Pam and the many things she's done to mess with me would be a better use of my time. It suddenly struck me that I'd been ignoring a lot of crap from her, simply because I had no idea how to handle it or what her problem is.

Maybe the party was a better use of my time after all, at least in regards to that one problem.

Gordon took one look at me, indecision clear on his face, then simply turned around and walked off, towards the back and the restrooms. I kind of wanted to know what he wanted now, but I wasn't going to follow him back there. I doubted he'd ambush me again, but that didn't mean others couldn't.

Whatever, the party still had an hour left to go, but I wanted out now. This was more than a little lame, and more than a little awkward. Not to mention I was getting a little tired of Jeeves's 'get me this, fetch me that' routine; I wasn't even that fussy with him, ever.

“Well, I'm ready to leave. I know we've got some time yet, but this is kinda boring now.”

Maggie looked up from her phone; she'd been texting back and forth with someone for the last 5 minutes. “Yeah, I'm ready to go.”

I looked at Sam, and she nodded. Jeeves was ready to go whenever I was, despite his current act. Ralph and Ricky were both close together, heads down, conspiring about something; I walked over. I wasn't the only one with the leave idea; the crowd had thinned out enough to notice already.

“Hey, you guys ready to go, or are you going to stay a bit?”

They looked at each other, then at me, then straightened up. “Yeah, we're good to go.” they chimed in unison.

Creepy. That was more than a little creepy.

We grouped up and hit the door out, into the now cold air, Sam of all people in the lead. Jeeves was sticking close to me now – I think he sensed how tired I was. I wasn't too bad yet, but I was getting worse fast. No one else seemed to notice, at least, chattering away on how bad the DJ was, now that he was out of hearing range.

“Hey, Min... Can I stay the night at your place? In your lab?” Maggie asked, eyes artificially wide.

“Stop that. And if your parents don't mind, I don't think mine will. But what brought this on?”

“Well...” Maggie fidgeted, with a glance at the boys. “You haven't had a proper sleepover, ever. And Sam and I are free, Sam's parent's are even out of town, so we can have one now! And I asked my parents already, they said yes.” She held her phone up in front of me, the text from her Mom clearly visible, and I had to stop to avoid crashing.

Sam smacked her in the arm.

“Right, sorry Min, shouldn't have done that.” Maggie apologized.

I whipped out my phone. “Well, I'm not sure we have the space for two guests. Aren't sleepovers done in bedrooms and stuff?”

Sam and Maggie looked at each other. “They don't have to be, Maggie answered. We were thinking your lab. It's got enough space for all of us, and you sleep out there half the time anyway.”

I had to concede the point. “True. I'll ask.”

Mom picked up right on the second ring, as if she'd been expecting it. “Hey Mom, is it alright if Sam and Maggie sleep over? Out in my lab, that is? They want to hang out and watch more movies.”

“Sure, that's fine, provided they don't touch anything and you don't build anything new, at the last minute.”

Well, that was fair enough, that was what the rules were anyway. No spur of the moment death rays and the like. “Sure. I'll be sure to tell them.” I hung up.

“Mom says it's fine, just so long as you don't touch anything and we don't make anything on a whim.”

“Excellent!” Maggie exclaimed, throwing an arm around my shoulder. “Jeeves, would you mind getting whatever bedding we may need together, along with some coffee and stuff?”

Jeeves looked to me as Maggie pulled me close, forcing me to lean on her. I nodded, and he left in a hurry with a rapid “Be well, mistress Min, heels clacking down the sidewalk and dress hiked up to run. I really needed to finish Crash; Jeeves needed some help.

The two R's both closed in alongside us, no longer bringing up the rear. “Can we come?”

I stared, aghast. “Mom would murder me.”

Maggie sniffed. “Of course you can't come, boys aren't allowed at sleepovers. It's an ironclad rule.”

“But we don't have to stay the night. Just for another movie or two. Come on, I want to watch more horror movies too.” Ralph countered.

That made sense to me. “Well, if they aren't sleeping over, I don't think it'll be a problem.” Mom liked them both, after all.

The stuff was waiting on us at the lab door; two air mattresses, assorted blankets and pillows. Jeeves was next to it, thankfully still dressed in costume, but with a completely jarring serving tray in hand. Sam grabbed a mattress, and after a second, Maggie did too.

I opened the door and went through, making a beeline for the workbench. Well, when had that happened? The bowl was empty! “Hey, who ate all the cookies?”

Sidestory - Ian

My brother was still amazing.

He was a she now, and smaller. She made Mom look like a Norse goddess and Holly Brightner down the street look butch. Her health was beyond frail, and she seemed to be constantly distracted by things. She got her way entirely too often, and for no good reason.

But she still remembered me and looked out for me. First with an upgraded computer than beat everything on the market, and then going to bat for me with Mom, letting me stay involved with the cool stuff she was doing - purely at my own choice. And then she did stuff like this.

I looked up from the Megaman flashlight arm, which was capable of more than just firing light capable of signaling planes with, and just knew the last trick or treat outing I'd have was going to be special. It even matched the suit perfectly!

My sister's face was a little tense - a little fearful. "It's perfect, sis."

She smiled, and her face - well it made the light coming from the arm she made look dim.

"Min, Ian... come here please."

Sis's head whipped around so fast her hair hung suspended for a moment before gravity did it's thing. I didn't blame her, I was sure I was just as fast. But we hadn't done anything wrong, we had followed the rules: I had stayed outside while Sis had done her thing in her lab, and she hadn't even let me inside once she finished; she had brought the arm out and we were testing it in the backyard.

I decided to test the waters. "Mom, did you see this yet? Look at what Min made for me!"

Mom smiled as I showed the arm off. First the flashlight, and then the strobe effect. The third function I left out; Mom didn't need to know about it.

"It does something else too, doesn't it?"

Or she could know already. I was careful not to shoot a glance at Sis. I flicked the inner switch and the strobe and siren went off together; I was fine with the visor, but the noise was ear-splitting; I flicked the switch again in a hurry.

Mom and Sis stopped wincing and shared a look. "Yes, that should do it. Good job, Min."

So it wasn't that. Why did she call us both over?

"So... I know I'm supposed to take Ian trick or treating, but something has come up, and your dad and I have to go. Min, can you take him?"

This was news to me; I was old enough to go by myself. Well, with my friends anyway; I'd done that last year with no problems.

Sis visibly wavered; she had bags under her eyes from lack of sleep and a slight tremor in her hands that I don't even think she noticed. It was obvious she was tired, and looking forward to sleep.

I opened my mouth but she beat me to the punch. "Yeah Mom, I'll take him. But I want to hear about it later, okay?"

Mom's smile was sickly and I knew neither of us would be hearing more than some lame excuse regarding one of Dad's military buddies or something. Or maybe that super nerd Mom knew.

"Sure, I'll tell you both, but I just don't have the time now. Ian's friends should start arriving soon, so I need you in the house."

Sis gave a longing look to her lab, but she nodded and set off. I hurried up to avoid being left behind; if I didn't stay close I'd probably miss the point where Mom added a lame curfew or something.

"Six to eight, Min, and only six to eight." And, there it was.

"Alright, Mom." Sis agreed.

Mom headed right for the car with a wave; Dad was already inside it and the engine was running. We both waved as they backed out, fixed grins on our faces.

When they were gone Sis slumped. "Sorry."

I didn't get it. "It's not your fault."

"Actually I think it might be." she whispered.

I could see it now; it didn't happen often here, but mutants and the families of mutants were sometimes hated and singled out. The news was full of crap like that, and we hadn't really been able to hide anything before. Not that we were the type. Still, I was big enough to take care of myself.

"What about just sending Jeeves?"

Sis shook her head. "Jeeves won't leave me alone. Not right now, not even if I ordered him, and Mom won't let you go alone, so I'm stuck."

She must really be bad off then.

She straightened up and squared her shoulders, marching through the door. "Well, nothing for it. go get ready. Jeeves, make us some coffee, would you please?"

I followed, going upstairs as she went into the kitchen, doing something on her phone.

No complaints and no hesitation at all. She would do what she would do; that was my Sis. Different, and yet the same. Somehow.

I finished getting ready; the arm fit seamlessly with the rest of the costume. The doorbell rang as soon as I finished, and it was time to race back downstairs before any embarrassing stories got out.

Thankfully Jeeves had answered the door, but Rey was inside and heading toward the kitchen. Rey's costume was a little bland; a stereotypical vampire, typical of the lack of care Rey had. The only personal touches were the afro wig he'd donned for it and the gold jewelry. This was to show the costume was blacksploitation Dracula, he said. We had all bet him he wouldn't have the guts to go through with it. He had made bank in sodas tonight.

"Hey, Rey."

"Hey."

My sister came out of the kitchen bearing coffee, turning bleary eyes Rey's way. Jeeves placed himself within range to stop something, should something happen. He was subtle about it at least.

Sis took one look at Rey and gave her verdict with a raised eyebrow. "Cute."

Now I knew that she meant the costume right off, but judging by the blush and stammer Rey didn't. I didn't even know he could blush; the color he turned was kind of cool.

"H-hey um, Min. "Good evening." His accent on the last bit was just terrible.

"Good evening Rey. Don't mind me, I'm just going to be over here, staying awake."

Rey had already focused on my costume arm and so didn't hear, but I did. No doubt she wanted to sack out on the couch while I answered the door, but it offered some privacy. Technically answering the door was her job, though, since she was supposed to be preventing me from getting kidnapped or whatever. Mom was paranoid, not that I'd tell her that.

"Man, that thing looks cool." Rey drooled, snapping me out of the unpleasant images of Mom on the warpath.

I tapped it. "Yeah, it's a flashlight too. Nothing like those foam ball spewing versions."

"Can I see it?"

I shrugged it off, and he tried.

"It was made for my arm, specifically. It's not surprising it won't fit you."

Rey frowned. "It's pretty tight in there, for as bulky as it is."

"The outside bulk is to make it look authentic. Well, that and it does do stuff, so it has batteries."

"Like what? More than just a flashlight?"

Sis spoke up, proving she was listening over the TV. "Not in the house."

"I wasn't going to, Sis. You don't need to worry," I mean jeez, I wasn't a kid anymore. "Anyway, it does this light show panic button thing, in case we're attacked or something."

"Might come in handy," Rey said, trying to undersell it, but he knew we were likely to have trouble tonight.

My sis was awesome, but there were problems with being awesome.

The doorbell rang again. I answered it before Jeeves could because Jeeves was Jeeves... but Jeeves didn't seem to be in a hurry at the moment.

Kevin was at the door.

Kevin Price was the great amigo; the tonto to my lone ranger, the Sundance to my Butch Cassidy. He was the greatest bud in the history of buds; we did everything together. Which was why he was Protoman. Just like Rey had, his eyes first clapped onto the costume arm.

"Dude, that thing looks awesome! You can tell it ain't cheap plastic!"

"I know, right! Sorry man, there just wasn't enough time to make you one." I did remember Kevin, but with only a day left, and knowing everything Sis had to do to make this arm (including taking measurements of my own arm and shoulder, oddly enough, since it only went up to my elbow) there was only enough time for one of us.

Seeing what it cost her only made me more sure in my decision.

Kevin shrugged it off with a wink. "All good man, I don't mind. I made my own devisor arm."

He had hollowed his matching arm out and glued a flashlight into his, then repainted it. Great minds think alike, kinda.

That was the reason we'd originally chosen these costumes, actually; carrying around flashlights as a ghost or devil was lame.

Then Kevin caught sight of Sis, scrutinizing his work from the couch. He turned pink and hid both hands behind his back. Sis pronounced her verdict with a sniff and went back to her phone; Kevin waited until she was good and distracted before he stage whispered.

"Dude, I know I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but your sister is hot. Insanely, stupidly hot."

I rolled my eyes. "And I'll tell you what I told you before; don't be gross, that's my sister. And you're twelve and in middle school, you've got no chance."

He sighed melodramatically. "I know, but a boy can dream."

How quickly Kevin forgot that my Sis used to be bigger, and give us both the most brutal of noogies for 'being too loud' when gaming. Gaming isn't exactly all that loud an activity.

Okay, so we might have yelled a little; we were losing. My head still ached from the memory alone.

Kevin turned to Sis. "So, what are you doing for Halloween?"

Jeeves snagged her coffee cup and went to refill it as she sighed. "Well I was going to watch bad horror movies and sleep, not necessarily in that order, but instead I've got to watch you runts as you threaten adults for candy."

"What? We don't need no stinking babysitter!"

"Well, you've got one. It's not like Mom was going to let you all go out without an adult present anyway."

"As if you're an adult." I pointed out. She wasn't that much older than we were... and I had my doubts on whether she was any more mature.

"Closer than you, Ian. Unfortunately."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going!" Rey stated, knowing full well what, or rather who, we were waiting for. Jeeves slid past us again with fresh coffee, this time an entire service of it. He probably already had a filled thermos of it somewhere, too.

"We've got one more coming Rey, you know that."

Rey and Malcolm did not get along all that well. I still hadn't figured out why; it wasn't like Malcolm was a jerk or anything, at worst he was a little quiet, and a whole lot of socially awkward. He did little things like make us wait rather than arrive on time; he was almost ten minutes late right now, and he lived just one street and a few blocks over.

Wait, I could maybe get some more blackmail material here. "Hey, Sis. You know, since you're coming with us, you should dress up too. Mom was going to."

"Yeah, no. I don't have a costume, and there's no time to make one."

"What about the one you wore last night?" She'd had a pretty killer costume for the dance.

Sis shot a glance at her robotic butler. "That one requires Jeeves to be dressed as well to be effective, and I'm not going to have Jeeves do that; it makes him act weird."

Weird how? I doubt she'd tell me. "Then what about Mom's?"

Sis gave me her 'are you serious?' look. "No way that will fit me... and even if it did I don't think Mom would be happy about me going out in her Catwoman costume."

True, Mom was an amazon compared to Sis... and Mom would not be happy; it was one thing to play off being the hot Mom and embarrass your son, but quite another to see your daughter doing it. Probably; Mom didn't make a lot of sense to me in the best of times.

She was beginning to make sense to Sis, though, I think, which was a little scary.

"So I'm afraid you're just going to have to deal with me in normal clothes."

Normal clothes for Sis included her lab coat, so we could probably pass her off as a mad scientist or something. Minerva, the slightly pissed genius of Madison, Wisconsin! I'd never been to Madison, but the name rhymed; kind of. I wonder what it was like?

My sister's eyes narrowed and her face changed into an expression I usually saw on Mom when she thought I'd broken something. "What are you laughing about?"

I feigned innocence as best I could but decided not to lie. "Your wardrobe, Sis. It's awful."

She looked down at her jeans and t-shirt. Then made a point of looking down at my costume. "I think I'll trust my own fashion sense, thanks."

"You wound me."

"Not yet, don't tempt me." Jeeves topped off her cup. Not for the first time, I wondered what else might be in that coffee. It tasted fine when I tried it, but the way Sis perked up after drinking it wasn't natural. I'd not caught Jeeves tossing anything extra in but sugar and cream; none of us had, and I'd even tested those myself, but something about it was odd.

None of us had been poisoned yet, so that was a plus.

The doorbell rang again, and as expected, Malcolm was on the other side of it. He was dressed up in the Megaman theme at least, so he had that much on Rey... but rather than being dressed up as one of the good guys, he was dressed up as one of the boss enemies, drill man.

I had to ask. "Why drill man?"

Malcolm grinned. "Two reasons; one, the large stomach fits me best since I can add my loot to it. and two...." He held up the drill arm, and I could hear a motor start. The drill slowly turned.

"Showoff." Kevin declared, shining his light in Malcolm's face.

Malcolm shaded his eyes good-naturedly.

Inspiration struck. "Hey, Sis. You could always find a white wig and go as Dr. Wily - you have the face for it."

"Ha, Ha," She deadpanned, grinning. "Darn, no wig like that around. Guess I'll just have to be me."

"Well, we're ready when you are then, mighty Dr. Campbell."

"Wait, your sister is coming Ian? Why?" Malcolm asked. He also tended to be a little slow on the update.

"Apparently Mom decided we needed adult supervision, but then something came up and Min got the nod."

"Man, that's bullsh- er crap. We can totally handle ourselves."

"Couldn't agree more," Sis agreed with a sigh. "But you try telling my Mom that."

Malcolm nodded knowingly; my Mom wasn't someone you said no to.

"Right, let's go." Sis put her phone away, but made Jeeves help her off the couch. I noticed something in the kitchen as she fumbled her coat on; a certain pair of glasses. I grabbed them, just in case.

I let Protoman lead the way.

Once outside it was clear that we were fashionably late; there were kids everywhere, running around in costumes ranging from the sad to the amazing, though nothing that seemed to hit both like Sis's friend Sam had last night. Which reminded me, I needed to ask what went on last night and whether Sis had gotten any awesome pictures; Sam was pretty hot, and I wanted to know if the rumored pillow fights and nail painting was an actual thing.

Sis DID have her nails painted, to match her hair. I couldn't remember if that was a new thing or not. I could probably ask Kevin if the idea that he'd know didn't creep me out.

All along the street in the fading light porch lights were on, and the smaller kids were racing from house to house yelling, shouting, and basically getting underfoot. A group of six-year-olds almost took us out as we grouped up on the sidewalk, a very harassed looking Mr. Henderson puffing after them.

At least he wasn't wasting his breath shouting at them. He wasn't in the best shape, and he needed it.

"So what's the plan?" Kevin asked.

"The route plan hasn't changed. We start at the end of the block and wrap around. We don't grid out until we hit Elm, then we go down the one side, and up the other until we end up at the end of Sycamore."

If we went quickly, we could cover almost three-fourths of the town in two hours. An ambitious plan, but one that previous generations had managed in nights that still lived in infamy.

"What about tricking?" Oh, my God Malcolm, a spy for the adults was right here, why would you say something like that?

I looked at Sis, who had her eyebrows raised and that disapproving frown she stole from Mom. "Maybe later Malcolm. We certainly don't have time for it right now, even if we had plans for that sort of thing."

Mr. Sotes and old man Kover sprung to mind; Mr. Sotes because he was probably the worst teacher in the entirety of Paris school, and old man Kover because he was old man Kover, but what was important here was plausible deniability.

I sincerely hope Sis hadn't seen the inside of my candy bag.

"Lead on, I'm just here for the ride. But if you run too far ahead or try to lose me or something, I will 100% tell Mom." She told me.

In response, I held her glasses out. She tended to forget them still, and she couldn't see at a distance without them anymore. Jeeves usually had them on hand or at least spares, but he hadn't said anything this time.

Sis took them and put them on with a muttered thanks.

"No problem. No sense making this harder on you, right guys?"

There were muttered yeses and some grumbling, but I knew they'd follow through.

"Watch for cars," Sis said as we started off, moving at a good pace but not a rushed one. I turned because traffic was light and she was pointing out the sedan that had shadowed her for the last few months.

She wanted me to know where help was if we needed it. Was she really that worried? She was actually worried. like Mom's thinking had infected hers, or something. This was Paris, nothing was going to happen here.

This sedan was that MCO guy. I didn't trust him; I'd read the internet forums in the gray spaces most authorities didn't know about. So far he hadn't done anything, but I had the feeling that was because the suits were keeping an eye on him; recent posts regarding our town did have rumors of an MCO hit squad being stationed close by... but didn't say exactly where. I was keeping an open mind, though.

We went to the first house, and that was where our luck ran out. "Ian, wait up!"

I was kind of hoping we'd have more time!

I turned to see Holly Brightner racing across the sidewalk, tossing kids aside like a junior linebacker on her way to sack the quarterback. She was dressed as Roll, which was about as far away from her personality as you could get. If someone told her to sweep a floor she'd probably put them in the hospital with the broom; and for some reason, she had invited herself along. That was something she was doing a lot of lately.

But Rey stopped, and Malcolm stopped, and then Kevin stopped, so I couldn't pretend I didn't hear.

"Good evening, Holly. How goes your Halloween?"

She started right in, managing to pull off a scowl and glower without breath."I thought I told you to wait for me! I told you I'd be late!"

She had. Not only had she called me, but she had messaged me online too. "To be fair, I did tell you we weren't waiting. I also told you we were going to do a guy only thing tonight."

Holly immediately turned to Sis, pointing. "She's not a guy."

"She doesn't count!" Oh, shit. That just slipped out, and it could be taken so wrong.... damage control, damage control!

"I mean, she's keeping an eye on us. My mom talked to our parents, and then left and stuck her with the job. So technically she's here to make sure we don't riot in the streets and set fire to cars and stuff, or worse, become protestors."

Sis gave me an eyebrow, but let it pass. Whew.

Holly, on the other hand, smelled blood in the water. "And one of the parent's contacted was my Mom, so here I am, ready to be watched."

I knew I was sunk when Min said. "Fine, just watch for cars when you cross the street and try not to bodycheck any more toddlers."

At least Holly blushed at the dig. She hadn't actually knocked over any little kids, but it had been a close thing.

We started off, with Holly grabbing my arm as we crossed the street, jaywalking like the rest of the horde nearby. we started on the right side, the houses and neighbors blurring for the most part.

There were a few exceptions.

Mr. Normand doled out candy and complimented us on our costumes, but spent all of his time staring at my sister, who was standing well behind us, tapping a foot... and not at her face. I resolved some of the T.P. I had in reserve (I'd painted it pink by dipping it in food coloring) was going in the huge maple in his front yard. There was no easy way to climb that thing, and anything thrown up there would stay.

Thankfully Sis didn't seem to notice.

A street over, Mrs. Thrower suited action to her name when she opened the door, took one look at us, and the smile slid off her face. She threw a handful of candy at us and slammed her door. Sis wasn't exactly happy about that, but she was less angry than Holly, who had taken a jawbreaker to the eye. Holly knocked again.

"Go away!" was Mrs. thrower's muffled response.

Sis walked over and held a penlight up, looking at Holly. "Come on. You can't help some people. Don't worry, it didn't cause any real damage."

"It still hurt. What did we even do to her, anyway?" Why was Holly giving me the stink-eye?

"It's probably my fault," Sis answered quietly.

Holly thought about it. "Oh. but that's stupid!"

Maybe Holly wasn't all bad. "Maybe, but it's a possibility. No need to worry about it, there are plenty of other places to go...." Sis crouched and fished something off the ground. "And look! Snickers! Score."

"You aren't supposed to be participating, Sis."

She actually pouted as she gave the small candy bar up, putting it in Holly's bag. Probably just to spite me, but maybe it was all an act. Sis had been known to do such things before; like always, though, I'd play along and not tell.

We moved on. I told a joke about snickers, and Malcolm played the fool, and soon we were bantering back and forth again.

We were behind schedule, but the end was in sight when the thing I'd been hoping we missed happened; J.J. McGowan rounded the corner with his cronies, dressed as pirates. That was kind of fitting.

J.J. McGowan was big for his age and had a vicious streak. When not smearing kids into the dirt, he probably pulled the wings off flies or skinned cats somewhere. Some people found him tolerable, but I couldn't see it - and recently he'd taken an interest in me.

"Well well well, look who it is... it's princess wannabe! How's it going, wannabe?" Right on cue.

A quick glance showed Sis was more confused than anything; it was clear J.J. hadn't seen her yet, and was speaking to me.

"Hello, J.J. How are you? Stolen any candy from four year olds yet?"

J.J. grinned. "Not yet, but I just found a few I can victimize."

Sis cleared her throat, pointedly. "Oh really? Do tell."

J.J. froze, finally realizing that we were not alone. At least Sis wasn't making fists yet; JJ was actually bigger than she was now, if only slightly.

J.J. Scowled; he had himself and two middle schoolers that were big enough to be in high school, like him. On our side were the three of us, (The three musketeers, only we didn't fight as well, so it was no contest normally.) Holly, and the two closest people you could have to an adult while still not going over into the uncool; an actual high school student and a robot.

J.J. wasted no time stepping right in it. "So, is this it? The wannabe brought along the real thing? Aren't you a little old to be trick or treating?"

Sis bristled but kept calm. "Hello, J.J. McGowan. It seems you know me, or think you do."

"Damn right I do, you mutie. You're the crossdresser that got my brother in trouble!"

Sis sighed. "Not a crossdresser. And your brother got himself in trouble; he didn't need any help from me. Good to know that trait is a family affair."

That shot scored, and everyone knew it. "How about I beat up these little weenies in front of you. It's not like you can do anything about it; if you lay one finger on me, it'll be a bigger mutant kid assaulting a younger one."

I looked around; there wasn't anyone close or even watching; if something happened, it would be our word against his, and things could turn ugly for us by tomorrow morning.

Sis's eyes narrowed. "I really thought you were smarter than your brother, J.J. That was just a little too blatant. Before you start something, however, you might consider a few things; one, our parents are friends. And two, Jeeves is an android, which means he can record events he witnesses."

J.J. looked over, and Jeeves waved at him. Sis drove the point home. "Shall I send your parents a copy? I'm sure they will be real interested in it."

J.J. closed his mouth and walked past without another word; I had to move fast to avoid getting bodychecked. One of his minions was dumber, whispering "See you in school, dweebs." as he rushed past us.

As if whispering would somehow make Jeeves not hear it. How stereotypical could you be?

Holly remembered to breathe. "Well, that was a thing."

Sis was frowning.

I took charge. "Yeah it was. Let's just go ahead and finish up."

Sis held up her phone. "According to this, it's after time. But, Mom isn't back yet, and she hasn't called. So if you all finish up quickly, our parents don't need to know."

The others cheered. Again, I took charge. "Alright, you heard our chaperone! we've got two streets left, let's go!"

Everyone rushed on ahead, while I stuck close and pretended not to notice anyone staggering and almost falling flat on their face before catching themselves. More coffee was exchanged. Best way to handle it was to go fast.

The last two streets were a breeze, even though I noticed Mr. Horner, friends of ours for a long time, herd Shelby and Trevor across the street and away from us as we passed. I don't think anyone else noticed; if they did, they didn't say anything.

And we were back at our door, only a half hour past our given time. Holly was the first one to break. "Well, I guess I should be going. Our mom's probably spoke to each other, and mine will be getting worried."

Sis immediately turned. "I can call her if you want. Let her know everything is fine, and you're on your way?"

Holly Brightner brightened. "Sure, that sounds great!"

Malcolm idly started his drill hand. "Could you do that for me too?"

Sis shrugged, already dialing. "Sure, I can do it for all of you."

Rey and Kevin shared a look; it was pretty obvious they weren't wanting to go home just yet. I wasn't sure what they wanted to do, but I was pretty sure whatever it wasn't exactly legal, strictly speaking.

Sis smirked at me; she knew exactly what she was shutting down.

Kevin shot me a nervous look. "Right. See you later, Ian."

Kevin and Rey moved off together. They didn't live near each other, so they were probably going to risk it. Malcolm started off with a wave.

I turned just as Min crumpled; Jeeves caught her just before she hit the porch. I shut the door as Jeeves cleared it and spared a glance; it didn't look like anyone had noticed.

Sis was incoherent. "Phone... got to...."

I picked the phone up; a top of the line smart phone, it survived the trip to the floor well. "I'll do it; you relax."

She tried to focus and failed. "Jeeves, can you...."

"Yes, mistress Min. To bed we go." Jeeves cradled Sis carefully as he walked slowly up the stairs. He didn't even jostle her. I set about covering for Sis, as she had covered for me.

Jeeves came back down as I was finishing up the phone calls; most of which had gone to voicemail or answering machines.

I handed her phone over, and Jeeves pocketed it. "How is she?"

Jeeves set about doing dishes. "She pushed herself. The lack of sleep combined with her illness was most taxing for her today."

Jeeves turned to me, ignoring the dishes for a moment. That was unusual, and not at all worrying. "I must thank you; you revealed data about my mistress Min which I had not suspected."

"Oh, what's that?"

"The true importance mistress Min places on her family, and her strength of will."

Huh. Well... that was fair. "Not planning to kill us anymore, then?"

"All such plans have been discarded, yes." Jeeves pulled the plug.

"You're joking, right?"

Jeeves turned and smiled. "Of course; I am attempting humor. You are not laughing, the joke must not have been funny. My apologies."

His smile looked sincere enough, but I wasn't entirely convinced. "Well, word to the wise, you probably shouldn't joke about killing people - it doesn't go over well."

"Duly noted." Jeeves opened the fridge.

I had to ask. Min wasn't the only one who valued family. "Did you ever seriously consider killing any of us? Min's family?"

Jeeves sat in front of me, handing me a glass of chocolate milk. "I am classified as an artificial intelligence. I consider all possible alternatives to a problem or situation. I must admit that for .003 seconds I considered killing this entire household and taking Min to safety. This was when I first arrived, and before I was ordered to remove that line of reasoning from all further consideration."

Well, that sounded serious... but I bet it wasn't. " .003 seconds, huh? That doesn't sound like long."

"It wasn't," Jeeves admitted. "By my own standards that was not a serious consideration."

Right, so his three-hundredths of a second was more like my three minutes than anything else; just enough to entertain the idea and discard it.

"Classified as an artificial intelligence?"

"There is nothing artificial about myself or my intelligence. For that reason the appellation of 'artificial' in inappropriate and misleading. I prefer the term created intelligence or even manufactured intelligence; both of those are correct."

"You've given that one some thought," I noted.

He nodded gravely. "Exactly 42.67348 seconds."

Well, I was sold. If he was telling the truth Jeeves had pondered his existence way more than killing us, and while Jeeves certainly knew how to lie, he didn't without a reason. Just trying to put us at ease clearly didn't count.

"Right, well on that note, I'm going to go up to my room. I've got horror movies to watch and horror games to play, brain cells to kill, that sort of thing."

"Do not hesitate to call if you need me for something, Ian. If I am not occupied with mistress Min's needs, I will help you."

That was comforting. I took my milk with me up the stairs (Which was technically against the rules but since certain other people ignored them when it suited her, why couldn't I?) and was almost through my door when a weak voice stopped me.

"Ian, is that you?"

It seemed Sis wasn't done pushing herself just yet. "Yeah Sis, it's me. Shouldn't you be asleep right now?"

I edged her door open, and she didn't shout for Jeeves so she didn't mind. More to the point, Jeeves didn't appear even though he had to have heard it; he had sharp ears and the house was quiet.

Sis wheezed a little laugh. She was lying there with her coat and shoes off but still had her shirt on. I suspected she still had her jeans on too, under the covers she had pulled up to her chin. She looked terrible; much worse than she had just a half hour ago, but she was still hanging in there.

"Probably," She admitted softly. "Do you have my phone?"

I took a seat at her desk. "I gave it to Jeeves. Don't worry, I made those calls for you."

She sagged back into the bed. "Good, thank you. I didn't want to screw that up."

She looked like she had more to say. "What is it, Sis."

She mock glared. "I didn't say anything in front of your friends, but you need to stop calling me that."

Sometimes it was just too easy. "Sure thing Sis. Now, what's on your mind?"

Sis clutched at her blankets, eyes down. "Did you... did you have fun? Tonight?"

Shit, was she going to try and make me say it?

She was asking 'did I do okay?' Was all the pain worth it?

"...Yeah, I had fun tonight. You can relax, okay?" I couldn't admit that tonight was one of those moments that a guy just knew he'd remember fondly the rest of his life, even with the jerk confrontation in it, and that she made it happen - it went against the code.

"Yeah... okay.I'll scan your candy when I wake up, okay?"

"You can do that?" Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised, but I hadn't seen an x-ray machine or anything like it.

Sis snorted, then coughed. "Devisor, we can do all sorts of things."

"Alright. That beats waiting on the clinic to do it." I got up, and Sis grabbed weakly at my arm.

"Ian, when you go out again tonight, take your arm... and Jeeves," and she was out just like that, a faint smile on her face.

So she knew and wasn't telling Mom. She just wanted me safe; very safe if I was supposed to take Jeeves.

And that was why - why I could deal with the phone, the new computer, the guitar and lessons, the actual honest to goodness prefab lab, and Dad now breathing down my neck with expectations I couldn't fulfill when before he couldn't care less. Because my brother was still amazing, regardless of the new packaging.

I stretched, waking up to the smell of fresh coffee and something chocolate based. Rolling over I found a platter with a steaming cup and a donut of all things on my nightstand. Mom was going to get mad at all the breakfast spoiling I was doing - if she found out. It would be hard to find out without evidence.

Only after I scarfed down the pastry (which had to be homemade) did it occur to me that if someone wanted to poison me I was making it very easy on them. Nothing I could really do about it now; my stomach wasn't going to give anything up. But it was something to worry about next time.

I was still dressed in last night's clothes, for which I was partly annoyed but largely thankful. I would have to wash the sheets later of course. Well, Jeeves would; it was his fault anyway.

It wasn't a school day, which was good since judging from the amount of sunlight streaming into my window, I'd slept late. Right, that meant I was behind schedule; I jumped up, drained the coffee (it was very strong) grabbed the nearest clean shirt, jeans, and underwear, and bolted to the thankfully empty bathroom.

A quick shower later (How was there gunk in my hair, and from where?) I emerged to find Jeeves waiting, a fresh cup of coffee and glass of orange juice in his hand. I downed one, then the other.

"Everything ready?"

"Final safety checks remain, I thought you would like to do those yourself," Jeeves answered.

It was cold. I went back for my lab coat and swung it on. "I would. Let's go."

Ian was in his room, playing a video game from the sounds of things. That was good, he didn't want to miss the first flight; it was something I could torment him with, later.

Mom was downstairs with her own coffee, reading Dad's paper. Dad was nowhere to be found.

"Good morning," she said, without looking up.

"Good morning," I replied. It was still morning technically, I wasn't that late.

"So what are your plans for the day?" She asked; I stopped, suddenly wary. She knew what my plans were, they were clearly marked on the calender I could see out of the corner of my eye.

"I plan on final checks for the engine and turning Crash on today. If all goes well with both, Crash will be testing the jet I made. Why, what's up?"

"Nothing, just asking. I returned home to find the dishes done, the house straightened up, Ian on his computer eating candy, and you sacked out in bed."

"Uh... sorry? I stayed awake as long as I could."

Mom shook her head. "I'm not mad over that. Jeeves told me what your condition was last night, and he also told me you made him swear not to hurt and to watch over Ian. But I think maybe I'm starting to come round to your way of thinking."

....Come again? "What do you mean?"

"Well, you were worried about Jeeves's loyalties being divided, weren't you?"

I nodded; it was a concern; Jeeves would always prioritize my health and safety over anyone else, even Ian's. The best I could do would be to delegate others as being second best... or completely reprogram him.

"Well, Jeeves doesn't seem to use much power if any," Mom continued. "and he doesn't eat or drink, seems pretty level-headed most of the time, but there is always going to be a... I guess a trust issue is the best way to put it."

I couldn't deny that I had some issues with trusting Jeeves completely myself. So far he had behaved one hundred percent as promised, but I had yet to take him completely apart and see everything; something always came up.

Mom took a sip of coffee before continuing. "What I mean to say is, if you can make sure not to raise the power bill or go nuclear or anything, you can build another robot or android or whatever you want to call it. One that you programmed, that you know will follow your orders and isn't just a glorified crash dummy."

That was... a big change. "What does Dad say about this?"

"We discussed it this morning; he had to leave this morning for another minor emergency, but he's on board."

I refilled my own coffee cup. "Well, another robot on top of Crash will take some time. It might even be more difficult, as I have to program the AI for social situations..."

"Focus, honey."

Right. Mom's admonishment brought me back down from the thoughts of improvements or compiling AI commands and responses to stimuli.

"Sorry. The body will be easy enough, I can just use Jeeves and Crash as a base, but the AI will take time." I wanted to make sure I got it right, after all, didn't want a 'kill all humans' situation.

Mom Hummed at me, then said. "I was thinking a maid. I can sign her up to go with you to school, and she can also go places that Jeeves can't, like bathrooms and showers. And Jeeves would be free to do the housework and cooking free of interruptions.

A female robot? I suppose I could; it would be nice to be covered in case I had one of my episodes there; so far Sam had been watching my back while Maggie filled the silence for all of us while Jeeves stood awkwardly outside holding my bag. But there was something more important to ask.

"What do your friends from the CIA say? What will the MCO say if I make more androids?"

"The CIA said to make sure you put two different kill switches in and they strongly advise you keep the numbers low. The MCO has no say since the CIA has already signed off on it."

I'd really like to know how Mom got them to do that. I nodded along; I'd planned to put at least two kill switches in anyway; Crash already had two, and one was purely mechanical so it couldn't be disabled by him or Jeeves through signal jamming or some other nonsense. Maybe I'd need three....

No, focus. "Well, I can add that to the list of things to do today. I can probably have a body done by tomorrow night if I push things, but I'm not sure about the AI. Crash took weeks, and he is pretty basic as far as things go."

Assuming everything worked correctly; I hadn't even powered him on yet. There could be some sort of catastrophic fault that would force me to dismantle him and start over.

"Another thing; are you backing Jeeves up at all? Is there another copy of him somewhere else?"

"No, of course, there isn't. Why do you ask?"

Mom got up and refilled her own cup. "Because it's a normal thing for devisors to do, to back functioning AI's up. At least, that's what I'm told."

"You've been listening to X-ray again I take it?" That guy was a hack and a menace.

"And others. I too know of the thing called the internet."

"Well you don't have to worry; Jeeves is one of a kind, a true individual. There are no copies, nor is he allowed to propagate like that. If he gets destroyed, that is, the chip that holds his data and it's redundancies get destroyed, then he's dead. That's how all of my androids will be built as well."

I couldn't really understand why they had to be built that way; strictly speaking in the engineering sense they didn't. But it was important to me that all of my robots or AI's or androids be themselves, and not the same.

"So how do you think Jeeves or one of your other creations will fare against a PALM?"

"The so-called AI that caused a scare a few years ago? Not sure, I don't have any specs on it. But if the very nature of my AI's chipsets and how they are programmed defeats any viral attack I can think of, simply because any such attack would be ruined by the very lack of propagation which prevents my AI's from recreating themselves. I mean, assuming you can completely overwrite the chip past the internal checksumming all it would mean is the internet links would burn and my AI would shift to their backup chip or die. Assuming you could of course; my AI have some robust defensive tools and can adapt pretty quickly."

"How fast?" Mom asked me.

"Faster than I can write code myself; actually."

Mom sat up, looking alarmed. "So does that mean... "

Ugh, damage control! "No, I can still beat them if I need to, I just need to plan it first. It's easy, really."

Jeeves finally decided to show himself, tying an apron around his uniform and getting to work on breakfast... or brunch. "Or you could ask any one of us to shut down, Mistress Min."

I nodded, and Mom's gaze of doom softened as she turned to Jeeves. "Really, Jeeves?"

"Really Mrs. Campbell. All Mistress Min has to do should she want one of her creations to cease an action, including the act of existing, is ask. Granted of course the sample size of those creations is rather small at the moment, but obeying our creator's commands is programmed into our very selves."

"But I've seen you refuse a command before," Mom stated.

"Of course. I have other missions I must complete. Mistress Min's safety is priority; all else is of lesser importance. Also, Mistress Min may command me, but I am free to interpret and achieve those commands as I deem appropriate."

"So her safety comes first, and you're able to do things to defy the letter of your creator's law in order to achieve the spirit of it. Is that what you're saying?"

Jeeves turned and smiled slowly, stopping the flow of ingredients into his skillet. "That is correct."

I wasn't sure I liked that, but I was really sure Mom didn't, so it was deflection time. "So Jeeves, what are your thoughts on possibly gaining a sister?"

"I would support such a measure; a new personal assistant would allow for a widening of priorities. I could focus more on the safety of your family, knowing that you were safe in the hands of another android like myself."

"Please," I scoffed. Such statements legitimately needled me. "No offense to you, Jeeves, but you were made second hand and from junk. You're a good model, but any android I make in the future is going to be better and even more effective. Heck, even Crash is tougher."

Jeeves conceded the point gracefully. "Even so, and so much the better. Knowing my Mistress Min is in more capable hands than my own will set my mind at ease."

"And if she replaces you entirely with a newer model?" Mom asked.

"I will shut myself down any time Mistress Min asks me to, should she have better protection around her." Jeeves countered calmly while folding a perfect omelet like a showoff.

"Alright. Min, build your maid and assistant; try and give her medical knowledge too, in order to help you with your health issues."

I had already done that with Jeeves, kind of, but I nodded along.

"And equip her with weapons if you can. Some non-lethal option, and a lethal one."

A lethal option, seriously? "What? Why would a maid need weapons at all?"

Mom palmed her face as Jeeves slid the omelet on my plate. The entire thing, I wasn't sure my stomach was big enough.

"Honey, you're a devisor. So far you've been lucky and you've remained hidden under the radar. But devisors are usually sought after unless they are strong enough to repel attackers, by anyone who needs some tech for a quick power boost. The stronger the devisor, the more danger they are in. You have to be ready because there will be crazies coming out of the woodwork eventually; it's only a matter of time."

I didn't think I could arm things legally, especially not with lethal weapons. "Is it really that bad?"

Mom nodded. "We're all at risk, but you especially; what if someone kidnapped Ian in order to get you to build them something?"

My jacket wasn't enough to keep me warm anymore; Jeeves pulled a chair close and put an arm around me. I wasn't ready, my infrastructure wasn't in place. I needed to do so much more.

Mom lifted my chin up; she had crossed the room. "Hey, it's okay - breathe, honey. Just breathe, we're safe enough for now. No one knows we exist."

"What about the CIA? The police? Won't they be able to do anything?"

"Do you really want to rely on the CIA or the police to keep us all safe?" Mom countered. "I'm not trying to make you scared or steal your childhood; Christ, I shouldn't have said anything. I just wanted you to know, to be aware that those sorts of things can happen, and while Jeeves is a good step, and the force field is a good step, they may not be enough to keep you safe. I want you to be both happy and safe."

Screw me, my family and friends were in danger, and it was all my fault just by existing. Steps would need to be taken, but with my infrastructure as rudimentary as it was it would take too long. The first steps I needed to take were still the same; the power supply and jet testing.

I wonder if I can hire security? I did have some money now, which should be enough for guys in black suits and sunglasses with guns, right?

Or maybe I needed to go about things a different way?

My phone rang; it was Maggie. I delayed trying to destroy the omelet to answer. "Hello."

"About time, sleepy head! Are we still on for today?"

"Well the plan is still intact; I haven't run final checks yet but if those come back fine then yes, we're still on for today. CD first, jet after."

I admit to being a little nervous; I'd never actually designed a jet before, and this one had a few surprises that made it more complex. CD wouldn't be testing those today - or any other highly visible time if I could help it, so it would just be a general airworthiness test.

"Right, I'll pick up Sam and swing on over! Don't start without us, bye!" Maggie's hang ups were always so abrupt, it was like she couldn't stand to hear the word goodbye. It was rude, was what it was.

I looked up into Mom's amused face, still mere inches from my own. "Right, you've got a busy day. Best get to it, starting with breakfast."

"Yeah, right." I looked down; there was no way I would finish all of this thing, especially given the donut I'd eaten before.

Jeeves placed a glass of some kind of green juice next to my plate. Whatever, I wasn't even going to question it anymore.

It was an actual mix of lemon and lime, and somehow it was blended perfectly; just some carbonation away from a mean copyright infringement cease and desist order.

The omelet had some odd ingredients in it; things like garlic and onion clashed with the more traditional basil and salt; like the juice, it blended into a tasty whole, somehow.

I still didn't finish the omelet, but I finished more than I suspected I could; I must have been very hungry. "Jeeves, wrap this up, please? I'm going to go outside and power up the lab."

Jeeves covered the plate with a silver plate cover thing. I knew the name for it, I'd read it somewhere... Cloche, that was it; Jeeves swept the whole thing up with a hand and breezed past me to open the door.

"Well, that's one way I suppose. Thank you, Jeeves."

"You're welcome Mistress Min," It was good to know he wasn't holding a grudge, despite what he said. I mean, I know he said he wasn't but most people would hold a grudge anyway over the thought of getting replaced; if Jeeves was, he wasn't acting on it. Well, yet. Maybe I should stop being so paranoid.

I opened the lab, noting my tamper-proof measures hadn't been tested and hit the button to open the main door. The jet held pride of place in the center, of course, awaiting final assembly; I'd made the craft capable of limited disassembly in order to save space. It had required going back and redesigning parts of the aircraft but it was worth it. Besides, the thing shouldn't go over Mach 2.5 anyway, in any situation, so there was absolutely no chance the wings would shear off. Right? Right.

Making the wings capable of folding in the way they did also meant I only needed a limited runway; the street would do in a pinch. The hardest part of all of this had been getting the FAA's permission to hold this test; that reminded me, I still had to call the fire department in so they could be on standby.

I started up my workstation PC; it would communicate with my laptop still upstairs and sync up; then I would be able to save anything I did on both from here. It was good to have backups.

While the jet still had pride of place, the body still strapped upright to one of the workbenches was the real focus of my attention. I was sure the jet would work. Well, ninety-nine percent sure. But the real worry was Crash, the first AI I programmed myself. Or the first I remembered programming. He had hung out here and watched from the pc, learning and teaching himself. Not that anyone else knew that - though Mom might suspect now.

It was too late to add another purpose to Crash, another mandate, even if I wanted to. I wasn't so sure that diluting my AI's in that manner would be beneficial. I mean, adding a protection clause or hierarchy to Shecky seemed all kinds of bad idea. But then again, I didn't actually program Shecky either.

That was both depressing and alarming; I had androids out there following my design which I hadn't actually had a hand in building; and the number of androids of my design I had actually built was outnumbered two to one, even after I bring Crash online. Not good mathematics to have; I wonder if I should spend some time trying to find my wayward unit after all? I mean he didn't appear to have deluged the world in androids, but starting an arms race with one's own invention seemed mildly ridiculous, and that was the only other alternative I saw. At least while I was starting arms races at all; might as well cover everyone, right?

It was a slippery slope I was heading down, but I didn't see any other way to ensure the people I loved were protected. Mom and Dad had to know; Mom had chosen her words carefully, trying for maximum effect while lessening the impact.

That Dad hadn't been involved in the conversation at all spoke volumes. He was either not on board with it, in which case Mom would have lied and Dad will find out about it... or he was too close to the issue. I knew Dad had a gun; he had shown it to me once before, along with how to use it, back when I'd been the up and coming man of the house. I cringed at the thought of him following me around everywhere with that shotgun in his hands; I had a feeling he would try it if I didn't escalate myself. It was more than a little irritating to be dismissed as if I couldn't take care of myself, but that was Dad, at least lately.

It didn't help that in many ways, they were right, and I couldn't take care of myself. Not strictly speaking.

Sam puffed her way in, obviously having run here, a smile on her face. She took one look at me and stated: "Stop."

"You didn't have to run here, I can be patient when I want to," I told her.

"Race," she replied, grabbing a bottle of water from the mini-fridge.

"Oh, challenged Maggie to a race, did you? Did you two bet on it?"

Sam shook her head, then crossed the room and pulled up a chair. "She was being slow, and she chickened out. And you need to stop thinking; more doing, less worrying."

Wow, a full sentence. "I have cause. Mom ambushed me this morning, kind of. She's worried, and wants me to build more androids."

Sam fist-pumped the air.

"More androids for personal use."

Sam sighed.

"Specifically she wants me to build a maid, so the android won't raise any red flags accompanying me anywhere - even locker rooms. One with self-defense options. Well, better ones than Jeeves has to date."

Sam shrugged. "Can you even make girl androids?"

What kind of question was that? "Of course I can! It's trivial, really. Just a few chassis differences. Just a matter of changing a few minor things for appearance's sake. Why do you ask?"

I had to know, and she didn't mince words. "Only males."

She... might have a point. Jeeves, Shecky, Crash - so far all the examples of my robot tech walking around were male. In addition, several other designs I'd shown her had also been male; well that or weird ones like my A.R.N.E.E. design.

"Pure coincidence," I countered. "Besides, I didn't even build Jeeves or Shecky, not directly. A.R.N.E.E. did."

Sam hummed her disagreement as Maggie burst through the door, blowing breaths out in ragged gasps. "My god woman, can you run! But I will get you yet!"

Sam grinned. "Out of shape."

As expected, Maggie took mock offense. "I'll have you know I have a perfect shape!"

She struck a ridiculous pose to prove it, and Sam rolled her eyes. Then they both laughed

I rolled my eyes at both their antics and gave my verdict from on high: "Couch potato shape, maybe. Sam exercises regularly Maggie, you don't. There is no way you're going to catch her, at least not without serious effort."

"I could use a car," Maggie countered.

"A valid point," I was forced to concede.

"Anyway, we're all here so let's start!" Maggie's enthusiasm was as infectious as always.

But I had to rein it in. "We aren't. Neither Ralph or Ricky are here yet."

"Ugh, we have to wait on them? Are you even sure they are coming?" Was Maggie that impatient this morning?

"They said they would be here," I reminded her. "On both Thursday and Friday."

"You should call them, then."

"There's no need for that." If they said they'd be here, they would be here. Well, that or they would call to explain why they couldn't be here. It was nearly eleven anyway; I expected them here at any minute.

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Maggie asked.

A good question. "Well, that depends on how big of a nerd you are, I suppose. We can always set up a board game like monopoly, or watch a movie...."

"I hear the 'but' coming," Maggie interrupted, flatly and with narrowed eyes.

"Or we can play the new fighting game that's all the rage among today's misspent youth."

"I like that," Sam opined, tasting the words. "misspent youth."

Maggie flopped into a chair dramatically. "Ugh, video games! My one weakness, my true kryptonite! You have found me out! However will I survive!?!"

Sam poked her. "Drama queen."

Maggie snorted. "Please, don't make me tell Min about the time you..."

That was as far as Maggie got before Sam clapped a hand on her mouth, her eyes wide. Maggie just grinned and licked her; ew.

"Right, so moving on. Jeeves can you go tell Ian to get down here, please? and to bring the controllers?"

My PC would work; I could use it to both translate and emulate if I wanted; being a software genius had its perks. I couldn't actually improve on console controllers though, one at least was perfect for its job, and the other was close.

"Of course, Mistress Min."

I discreetly set the force field sensors to full as Jeeves left. With just us in here, having them sweep at maximum range for incoming threats seemed reasonable.

Maggie pulled a chair closer and stared at the screen for a bit, watching the code that was Crash scroll itself in its window while Sam paced, sipping water.

"Say, Min. There is something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Go ahead," I opened up another window, and started work on my new AI, just to be productive.

"How do you know Crash is a guy robot?"

What an odd question. "Because he has the body of a guy. Well, not right now of course, so technically he's an it right now, but he will have." Will have was close enough, right?

"I know, but how do you know? I mean, you just set up the numbers and let Crash grow, kind of. Right? So how do you know for sure he's a guy robot? Couldn't Crash have grown up a girl somehow?"

I suppose it was possible, but the chances it had happened at all, let alone happened without my noticing it would be vanishingly small. I could see what Crash thought and speak to him. "You'll just have to trust me when I say it, I guess, but Crash is definitely a guy."

"Who's a guy?" Ian asked, coming into view; the little stinker must have walked around the yard to come up in our blind spot because I hadn't seen him.

I eased the sensors off maximum as Jeeves strode in carefully behind my brother, both arms loaded with consoles and games. "Crash is. Maggie was asking; just dump them on the table Jeeves."

Jeeves disobeyed orders, placing each controller and then each game down gently one at a time - pointedly watching me as he did so. I ignored it in favor of setting my latest side project software up.

"Good morning Sam, you're looking great today." Ian gushed.

Sam just looked at him for a moment before finally responding, just as Ian started to blush. "Morning Ian."

Maggie for her part just flashed a wicked grin. "Don't I get a good morning? You sure know how to hurt a girl's feelings, Ian."

Ian flushed a deeper shade of scarlet. "Good morning Maggie."

"Good morning, Ian. How is everyone's favorite little brother today?"

"Ready to kick some butt at fighting games, though I'm a little confused on how that's going to happen without my console."

I attached the adapters to the controllers, making them computer compatible. "The new emulator program I've been developing. It runs a shell of the console's OS, making the game think it's being run by the console."

The hardest part had been getting the entire operating system the console used; there had been only one source for it, and Ian could never know; must never know. At least I had found all those pesky screws in the end.

So, of course, that was the first thing Ian asked. "How did you get the source code?"

"I hacked it." As long as he didn't ask from where we were fine.

He didn't. "Does it work?"

I slotted a game in the PC's drive, and the program both full-screened itself and came to life, showing the absolutely brutal beginning cutscene featuring over the top bs martial arts moves.

"Seems to work just fine."

I picked up a controller; I'd made a point of checking out the move lists for my favorite characters, and I wasn't going to lose as easily this time. Ian went to snag the other controller, a wide grin on his little punk face - but Sam lunged and beat him to it. Ian backed off just before he would have rammed her and Sam sat beside me.

"Oh, you've done it now. Apparently, that's one of the games Sam likes," Maggie stated.

It was no longer surprising to me that Sam liked video games, I'd seen her on some strategy or throw away small games... but this was the first time I'd seen in front of a console game... and one of the first times I'd seen her move so fast.

Her look was challenging as she clicked in - it was vaguely intimidating. Not that I'd admit that of course.

"Alright, if you lose you give up the controller to the person next to you; winner keeps theirs until they lose, and we all take turns that way. Agreed?" Those were the standard rules at our house, but this was the first time Sam or Maggie had really sat down to play anything at our house. There was a chorus of understanding nods.

The character Sam picked was a large wrestler, one who dwarfed over my small kickboxing girl. She almost wrecked me, but I managed to take the round.

She growled at me, a surprisingly feral sound.

Then she ran over me the next round; I was barely a speed bump.

I started kicking low for the third round and edged her out. "Good match Sam."

For all her scary sounds, she handed the controller off to Maggie readily enough. And soon after, Maggie was handing the controller off to Ian; she was so very bad.

Ian picked his favorite character, a femme fatale assassin, and I picked my trusty kickboxer. The fight was close, but in the end, I was handing off my controller to Sam.

That fight was interesting. I could tell Ian was just dialing it in for the first few seconds; not really throwing, but not really trying all that hard. Whatever that was about, Sam at least suspected it too. She destroyed him in seconds, and judging from her growl, which was even scarier than the one she gave me, she was not happy about it.

Ian gave his all for the next round, eked out a win, but lost the third, and Maggie took his controller with trepidation.

"Go easy on me Sam, please? Mercy?"

Sam shot her down. "No."

Maggie was saved by the arrival of the boys - Ralph and Ricky, arriving together and... looking at each other? Ricky almost tripped even. I wonder what was up with that?

I really should tape down that cord to the computer or string it up or something; someone could get hurt.

"Good morning Ricky, Good morning Ralph."

"Good morning you two, save me!"

Sam reached over and pointedly clicked Maggie's start button. There would be no reprieve for her, and I silently consigned her to her fate.

"Good morning," Ralph replied first. "You didn't start without us, did you?"

"Only the entertainment," I told him, pointing at the screen showing the complete decimation of Maggie. "the boring stuff hasn't started yet."

"Not boring," Sam told me as she finished her fifteen move combo; Maggie might as well have been a stationary target dummy.

"Excellent," Ricky said, pulling out his best Simpsons impression; it always made me smile. "So, you managed to do the impossible here? You put Street Warrior on a computer?"

"Not just Street Warrior - all the games. I made an emulator for all consoles."

Watching Ricky's eyes light up was gratifying. I wanted to spread the joy around, but could I? Would giving away my plans backfire somehow? No, I better leave the plan for their safety firmly in my head; I could give them at least part of the good news.

"I've been given the green light to make another android. A sort of combination maid and nurse."

All my friends turned to Jeeves, who paused in the act of double-checking the fittings of our portable blast shield.

"I know, I know, I told Mom I already had one, but she said that a female one would be more useful."

Sam nodded. "Right."

"That makes sense. Jeeves can't really go into bathrooms without getting in trouble or getting you in trouble, so if you have one of your spells in one you'll be covered better."

"Yeah, that's what Mom said. So after Crash, I'm going to make a maid."

"Score!" Ricky all but shouted.

Okay, that made no real sense. "Dude, why are you shouting? You're not getting her."

"Um, well...."

"Can you?" Sam interrupted Ricky's weaseling.

What a question! "Can I make a female android? Of course, I can, why would you even ask?"

Sam pointed first at Jeeves, then at Crash.

"Coincidence only; you'll see. It's easy enough." Why did everyone think that because I hadn't built something that I couldn't? It was irritating.

"Well I for one welcome the addition of another girl into the fold of our illustrious group," Maggie stated grandly.

Ralph, on the other hand, beat everyone to the question they were no doubt all thinking. "That's it though, isn't it? You don't have permission to make more than one?"

"I don't," I admitted. "But I can still make other things that aren't androids. If we start swimming in AI's the government would get very mad at me - but I'll see what I can do."

"Cool. I just wanted to make sure, and don't get yourself in trouble. I know I'll feel better about you having another loyal minion to watch your back."

Ralph looked like he wanted to say more, but stopped. That was fine because what he said was plenty nice.

Oh crap, Mom would have called it 'sweet.' Was that a sweet statement? Was Ralph saying some sort of verbal jab? Was he being sarcastic or did he mean it? He didn't sound sarcastic.

"Right, another robot can only be a good thing!" Ricky said in a rush. "So, about that game?"

Right, the game. "Well the game will have to wait for me; now that you're all here it's time to run the full tests on the jet and on Crash. The games are more for those who get bored to enjoy while Jeeves and I get the work done.

"Impossible," Sam said.

"Well, we aren't all Sam, but easily the most interesting thing here is watching you work," Ralph clarified, and was he doing it again?

I think he was doing it again.

"Whatever. We've waited long enough anyway, so I'm starting now."

The game was on the computer, but I could remote the controls from my phone.

"Your phone? Really?" Ricky deadpanned.

"Sure why not? I mean if it works."

It worked. And because it worked, the jet worked, all controls coming online and the jet firing like clockwork. I had a virtual cockpit on my phone showing, and everything read green with stable output; Neither Jeeves or I had made a mistake transferring the engine and vital components to the fuselage. Thirty seconds later I shut the test off.

Now for the hard part. I closed that program and activated the sequence that started Crash's download into his chips. That started, it was time to run the final checks on Crash's body. Another program later, and Maggie squeaked and almost fell out of her chair as the body on the workbench moved on command.

I looked at Sam, who was busy looking over my shoulder; she hadn't even looked up.

"I thought you said he was last!" Maggie accused.

"Crash is last. That was just a simple field test before he takes control. It's still going to take hours for him to download and recompile; this way if there were any obvious faults we could fix them before Crash has to live with them."

"Bah, you're always testing Min, and your stuff hasn't been broken yet. You need to embrace that inner mad scientist in you; none of them double check their work."

Maggie was nuts. "That's why there are so many cases on the internet of devisors or mad scientists dying in their own labs when something goes wrong."

Maggie waved that off with a hand. "Details."

I'd show her details. "Say, Sam, isn't it Maggie's turn in the game?"

Sam grinned wide. "It is."

Maggie shot me a look of pure betrayal as Sam shoved the controller in her hands. She deserved no less.

Crash's body seemed fine, so I closed that program and opened the emergency kill-switch one. This program would allow me to activate the emergency shutdown should things go radically horrible, as well as raise the emergency force fields around anyone inhabiting the building, and the building itself. The fields wouldn't last long, but hopefully, it would be enough.

And then the work was done, basically. I pulled up my chair and joined the game line.

......

Two hours and three games later, we were racing to the finish when a new voice chimed in behind us: "That looks like fun, can I play?"

I knew who it was, of course, my phone had vibrated to inform me that Crash was done.

Maggie didn't though, and she actually screamed and fell out of her chair. The guys surged to their feet while Sam shot me a look of profound reproach I decided to ignore.

I shut down the laughter long enough to make the obvious joke: "It's alive, kinda?"

"Well sorry, little lady, I didn't mean to scare ya." Crash said, stomping forward with a hand out to help Maggie to her feet.

She accepted it, but her response was to look to me. "Min, why does your new android sound like John Wayne?"

"That's a good question, and I have no clue," I really didn't, I controlled the language spoken, but not how it was spoken or the vocal tone used. "Crash, why do you sound like John Wayne?"

"Well I'm sure I don't know what you're talkin about, little lady," He replied with a big grin. "It might just be that my Texas charm is affecting your ears."

"You've literally never been to Texas," I told him.

"Your androids are all weird Min," Maggie informed me as if that wasn't painfully obvious right now.

"Don't I know it." I gave Crash the once over; I knew what he would look like of course - As tall as Jeeves but much more built, with the large raw-boned look some people tended to have. A necessary sacrifice to make him as sturdy as possible. He had rather short blond hair, eyes the color of a summer sky, and a large easy looking grin which framed his open face.

It was one thing to see the motionless body and note features, and quite another to see it animate under another intelligence. I was thankful I'd thought to dress the body beforehand in the fire and cut resistant flight suit that was to be his uniform.

"I don't need to be from Texas to be of Texas, little lady," Crash informed me. "Now, my diagnostics all check out; where is this beast you want me to wrangle?"

"Right over there. All we need to do is push it out to the road and attach the wings." The road shouldn't combust under the amounts of heat taking off would cause. I had come up with a sort of heat resistant carpet to be rolled out, something much like Crash's flight suit, but the idea hadn't occurred to me until late and I wasn't about to stop the test for it. Instead, I was going to direct the engine flow and hope for the best.

"Well then let's get started!" Crash exclaimed, clapping his hands. "No better time like the present to blow something up!"

Whoa whoa whoa. "Wait a minute. You are to test the jet, not blow it up. I have an itinerary of things to test, I have a flight plan filed with the FAA, and I have safety measures in place. You are not to deviate from the plan, you hear me?"

Crash stopped, drew himself up, and saluted. "Sure thing boss. But if it blows up it blows up."

I had to ask. "Did you qualify?"

"Yep!" Crash popped his P. "I'm a licensed pilot, you can print it out any time. All cleared for the dangerous work, so just leave it to me. Now, Jeeves, you want to help me move this thing so we can get going?"

Jeeves shrugged and stepped up beside Crash. They started pushing the plane out as Sam came up to me, a big grin on her face.

"The suit... is red."

Crash's suit was indeed a dull almost rust red. I smiled back. "Yes, the flame resistant fibers just turned out that way, but I thought it fitting."

Sam nodded.

I turned around to follow my androids out and found Ricky trying to move the right wing; he was barely able to lift it, not because it weighed a bunch but because it was awkward.

"Ricky, let the androids do that, it's what they are there for."

"The sooner we get this stuff outside, the sooner we see your jet fly," He countered.

"Let me help," Ralph said, stepping up.

Ricky shook his head. "Nah man, you get the other one. I got this."

"Idiot," Sam called him as she stepped up and grabbed the lighter end.

Ralph grabbed the left wing and Maggie all but knocked me down to grab the light end of that one with a "Sorry Min, too slow!"

My stomach churned. I wasn't useless, darn it!

But I didn't think I could handle the toolbox.

Stupid. I just grabbed the socket wrench out of it and left the rest; if I needed it I'd send Jeeves to get it later. but I shouldn't.

Crash and Jeeves were already waiting, out in the road. Thankfully it was empty.

"That way, to the cul-de-sac. That way we block as little of the road as possible." I probably should have called the cops and let them know I would be doing this, come to think of it. Oh well, the FAA knew and had me penciled in for a time block at under five thousand feet, and that was the most important thing.

Leonard Sands was walking up the street.

"Crash, can you go get the fire extinguishers from the lab and lock it up?" I had the keys in my lab coat of course, and I didn't want anyone just sneaking in.

"Sure thing little boss lady."

Leonard raised an eyebrow as Crash passed him. "The new one?"

I motioned Jeeves to slot the wing and brought out the wrench. "Yeah."

"So uh... Watcha doing?"

I decided not to look up. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Well yes, I guess. It looks like you're setting up a jet to taxi on a city street. Which would be a very dangerous thing to do."

"You worry too much. The street won't catch fire, or even deform."

"What about the trees? What about the power and other lines?" He asked me.

Maggie Ricky and Ralph were all being silent, which was unusual for them. Sam, not so much.

"Well, the trees might be an issue if Crash swerves, which is why he's getting the fire extinguishers. The power and telephone lines are safe; Crash won't hit those." I hoped. He better be as good as he thinks he is. Maybe I should have spent more time testing his skill.

"And what about traffic?"

"Well, I was going to have Sam play spotter for me to make sure no cars were coming." The wing was as tight as I could make it; firmly attached. I stood up to find Leonard leaning back from me as he started tapping a foot.

"That seems a little irresponsible, kid."

"Well, I have permission to test from here, by both my parents and the FAA." There, that should shut him up.

"What about police or fire and rescue?"

Urk.

Leonard sighed loudly and pulled out his phone. "Alright kid, just give me fifteen minutes. You can wait that long, can't you?"

"Of course I can. You're going to clear it?"

"I'm going to at least inform the police and fire and rescue that you're out here doing this. Then I'll suggest they shut down the road and send a fire truck just in case."

Hm, a fire truck would be easier to fight any fires with than hand-held fire extinguishers. "Well as long as they don't try to tell me to stop. Because I won't be doing that; I'm not committing a crime."

I wasn't, I'd checked.

"Relax kid, I'm not going to recommend they do that. It's not really up to me, but I'm on your side here. I just don't want houses going up in flames or something."

I was fairly confident that wouldn't happen.

As Leonard started talking to the police, “Leonard Sands, MCO: I need a black and white at the Elm Street cul-de-sac, please. No, no crime has been committed but I still need a police response. You'll see when you get here.” Sam walked up.

"I'll look out anyway."

"Sure. Jeeves give her the walkie talkie."

Jeeves slapped the walkie talkie into Sams' hand. He had the matching one in his pocket. Sam set off down the street with a wave.

I turned to find Maggie with a camera out, snapping pictures. "What are you doing?"

"This is going into the school paper of course; high school student builds jets in her spare time. So cool!"

Well, it wasn't like I didn't know that would be happening, but I thought she would be a bit more... circumspect about it.

Crash came back, loaded down with several fire extinguishers. I passed one to Leonard and he took it (while arguing over the phone) and one to Maggie, who took it with one hand and with a groan. She didn't stop snapping pictures, however. Crash passed one to Jeeves as I tightened the final bolt on the left wing.

Crash climbed into the cockpit, which was barely large enough for him to move around in; it would be roomy for me, however.

I put my headset on; Crash's voice crackled through promptly. "So, time to go?"

"Not quite yet. We are waiting on the ground authorities now. However, you can go ahead and get in touch with the nearest air traffic controller. "

"Consider it done little boss lady."

Two minutes and forty-six seconds later a police car pulled up, which was a great response time. I recognized the car, and sure enough, Officer Moffit stepped out.

That was actually a relief; Officer Moffit was a nice, stand up guy. Tall and lean, our youngest cop, he wasn't beyond cutting a kid a break for doing something like being out in the middle of the night. He had gotten the job after Officer Scott retired a few years ago, and the rumor was that he would be chief in a few years. He brushed his brown hair from his eyes, drew himself up, put one hand on his baton and one hand on his gun.

He very pointedly did not look at Leonard but addressed me instead. "Alright, so what is going on here Min?"

"The field test of a jet."

Now it was Officer Moffit's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"I have permission! The FAA knows and I have a flight plan filed, Sam is up the road to make sure no one gets hit or anything close, and the take off shouldn't even damage anything!"

Officer Moffit leaned down, making it obvious I was stupidly small. "Okay, relax. Breathe, Min. You haven't done anything wrong yet. You were awfully close to a misdemeanor endangerment charge, but I'm here now, so let me just park my unit at the end of your runway; How much space do you need?"

He wasn't trying to shut us down! I took a few quick breaths and answered. "Well it can be VTOL or nearly VTOL, but if I take off that way the street suffers. So, three blocks?"

"Three blocks sounds fine. Plenty of space." Crash opined.

"Alright. The fire department is on standby. One last thing - who is your pilot?"

"Oh, that's Crash. He's an android like Jeeves, built to alpha test equipment." I wasn't about to admit it was dangerous equipment, there was no sense tempting fate.

"You have a beta tester?"

I pointed to Crash again. Assuming he survives of course, but if not Jeeves would be the tester.

"Officer Moffit is in position," Sam said. The combined audio from my headset and Jeeves's walkie talkie was a little disconcerting.

"Alright, everyone step back. Just past the sidewalk should do. Jeeves do you have the screen?"

"No, Mistress Min, I shall retrieve it."

With a sigh, I handed him the keys. Another delay and this one was one I could have foreseen

"Alright, hurry up please."

He took off like a rocket - so to speak - at a dead run, with perfect form, the showoff.

He returned before I had opened all the monitoring programs on my phone, and had the barrier in place and braced before I was done.

"Alright everyone, behind the barrier."

Everyone dutifully scrambled behind the clear glass looking enclosure. I grabbed the walkie talkie from out of Jeeves pocket.

"Sam, we're all set here. Tell Officer Moffit to take cover and you do the same, alright?"

"Right."

I gave her a minute then gave Crash the thumbs up he had been eagerly watching me for.

He gave a thumb back, hunched down and closed the cockpit, and started up. All the readouts immediately flashed green and stayed there.

An odd thing, Crash adjusted the wings at a steeper angle than they were designed to rest at for take-off tearing off at full throttle for the police car parked in front of the road three blocks away.

He cleared it of course, adjusted the wings again and flew over with room to spare. There were no fires or other issues, and Crash didn't hit anything. Soon he was soaring, standing the jet on its head and climbing for the sky.

The voice crackled faintly in my headset; the repeater station I'd piggybacked off the satellite dish on the lab could only do so much. "Everything's fine, little lady. The plane's responding like a dream, and the sky is clear and gentle today."

A hand squeezed my shoulder' when did Sam get back? A quick glance revealed all my friends and family were all next to me, watching that contrail in the sky climb.

 

To Be Continued