Villains Club Training Camp (5)

Magic

Penelope

Crikey!

So, I was officially on a count-down clock. Now till when Dad gets back, all villainy either had to be on a hold, or no holds barred cause depending on what "I'll cover for your mum" meant, it probably would not involve allowing me to continue my supervillain rampage.

The question is, do I want this?

Seeing mum and dad out the door I found myself wandering around the house. There was a shortlist now, when I'd first started I would have willingly jumped ship and become a Hero. Heck, I would have been happy about being a sidekick.

After getting something to drink, and a some snacks I retired up to my room, entering a standard sized 'smallest bedroom in the house' with my bed, desk, computer chair, the few pieces of villain memorabilia I owned and what at first glance was a well used computer that was at least ten years old.

"Bootstrap!" I said, at a whisper. Then moved to put my food and drink on a shelf as the room reconfigured into villain mode.

This was not my lab, it didn't need to be. It did need to be separate from anything my dad would see or interact with when I wasn't home. At least, up until now. Using a stolen shrink ray that I'd mounted into the ceiling, my bed and 'civilian' computer area were shrunk down, where little insecticide robots then collected them, cleaned up the mess and organized it neatly in a little toy chest near the corner of the room. Then from the large clothed chest that would have been at the foot of my bed, my villain mode computer arose in splendor.

This, like the devices at my Lab and the accessibility orb Vera that now belonged to Apparition, was conqueror tech. A small orb, no bigger than a tennis-ball, close to Vera's size, was set inside a series of panels and had what looked to be sensors for a heart monitor attached to it at regular spacing. A holographic screen not dissimilar to a smart phone appeared, only the icons had no names on them. Finally a machine buzzed, like an old rotary phone then clicked.

"Area secure, all monitoring jammed." I confirmed? The machine pinged a soft b note in confirmation. It couldn't talk, but it could follow instructions.

"Please send Raven this message:" I hesitated, long enough to get a worried E note followed by a D, "Plans have changed. Parents out of town, willing and able to science. You know where I live!"

As I organized notes, pulling multiple holographic screens out of the device using an old pen from a drawing tablet, then spent time in my father's workroom until, late arvo I heard the knock from the door. Raven, this time minus her brother.

"Hiya Miss Villain. So, you know how I said there were options for those legs of Alinta. I was talking with my sibs and I have a list of things I'll need. Can you get them?"

Leeding Raven into my room, and hopefully looking very sciency even if some of the screens I'd pulled out were just encyclopedia pages for effect, I looked over the list.

"A full set of pots and pans,
A Dozen Eggs
Baking Soda
Chalk
High Grade Engine Oil
Doritos..." I looked up, "This is a straight up shopping list.

"This is straight up shopping!" Raven informed me, "A lot of magic is about the look or intent of the work-space. Objects have meaning. Like, Buttercups are yellow, yellow is bright, therefore high energy. Therefore Buttercups are useful for recovering stamina!"

I thought this over, filed it under "aaah, so magic has a sense of humour?"

"More than I do!" Raven's Deadpan reaction was complimented by a poke to the paper. Buttercups were on the list. "Alinta has an idea about giving herself super powers. She has been doing a LOT of math. And I mean a LOT." She held out a thumb-drive and, having a flare for the dramatic I tossed it at the orb of my 'computer'.

It stopped, floating in the air as another window opened, this time showing a folder with severak images inside. The first one 000Final.Png opened with a wave of the stylus and appeared on the ground. To reveal what, a magic circle? This thing was complex, with lines and circles and notes and text all over the place.

"Huh." I responded, not understanding a lick of it.

"Huh." Raven responded, poking the hologram. "If you can do this in  the lab, it might save trans-scribing it. Looks like it's active, but all those circles need objects from the shopping list in them. Then we give Alinta her new legs, she says her mathamatical formula and with any luck, boom. Not only will she have the best prosthetics on the planet, but also the skill to use them!"

"So, by math you mean, this is the stuff she was studying Scarlette for? Learning how to replicate speed powers?" Raven and I nodded.

Then I had a wonderful and interesting thought enter my head. One I did not share with Raven. Had anyone ever attempted to mass-produce powers before? Could I do it?

Roar, Roar!!

Pulling out my phone, in the middle of conversation I flicked the answer button without looking, mouthing the word "Claire!" to Raven. "You've called the mad scientist! For an army of indestructible puppets, press one, for weapons of mass humiliation, press 2"

"Penny! It's me!" a voice I had not been expecting called out, and I dropped the phone.