Come Out On Top

Scars

Back in his lab, Circuit was tinkering away, finally finishing the latest project Fintan ordered him to work on. Honestly, he could've defied him, but the Pyrokinetic knew his weakness: He loved making gadgets that did all kinds of impossible things, and, like Gethen, never turned down a challenge. The word impossible was definitely not in his dictionary.

After he was done with the gadget, Circ stood up and crossed the room to where he kept his more high-tech stuff. 

He assumed that creating something to Aura's emotions in check would be something like creating a digital assistant with a built-in tool that could knock her out if things got out of control.

He also decided to put in something that would measure her pulse and temperature, to judge how angry she was.

After building it, he found that it became a small rectangle that suctioned onto a metal chain, held together with super strong magnets. It was small enough that she could wear it whenever, and the rectangle could be removed if she ran a finger pad over the surface, back and forth once.

Then, then rectangle could attach itself to any type of clothing material, either on the inside or the outside. He even put in a little retractable pin so it could be pinned onto the seam in case something went wrong.

As he stood up to call the stargale, his eyes fell on a framed picture of his cousin, the only family he had left.

With a start, he pushed a button, and a cloth descended over the portrait. If anybody asked, he'd always tell them that it was one of his top-secret plans, and put a cage of lasers around it with the flick of a lever.

Sighing, he went back to the keypad at the front of his room, grabbed the ultra-secure door lock, then typed in Sophie's name, waiting.

While he waited, he began to wonder what it would be like to have some real family again.

Sophie was back in her room when she heard a strange squeal emitting from her wall. She opened her door to find a small message orb on the floor.

Scooping it up, she found that it read, I'm ready and waiting.

A smile lit up her face as she entered Circ's room with a touch of her fingers, then went along the regular route to where she knew he would be waiting.

"You still take forever to get here." Was the first thing she heard.

"Can you blame me for marveling over your secret bunker?" She countered.

"No." A wry smile made an appearance.

"You lost track of time so much while you're building that when you're not time seems to crawl by, does it not?"

"I suppose that a viable explanation." He agreed.

"So, can I have the stuff I requested now?"

"Are you in a hurry?" The Technopath asked.

"Kind of. Aura could wake at any minute, and I don't want her awake when I put on the gadget." She explained, holding out her hand.

Yet he didn't give it to her.

"Circ?" She waited.

"I'm going to make a few adjustments to it." He decided.

"How long is it going to take?" She demanded. "I'm on a schedule here."

"No more than four minutes." He answered, going back to tinkering.

She glanced around the room, and her eyes landed on the cloth hanging on the wall.