The Inventor (Regenerate #5.5)

Part IV

Five days later with hardly any sleep I've almost finished the portal. Turns out interdimensional travel is a tad tricky.

I'm rechecking my calculations when Thalia waltzes into the workshop.

"Can I have my phone back?" she asks.

"I haven't seen or heard from you in five days and now you just walk in demanding your phone back?"

She cocks her head to the side. "You sound mad."

"I am mad," I say. "You disappeared for five days without a way to get ahold of you to go after the most dangerous man on the planet."

"I checked in with Lorna," she says.

"I asked you not to go." How does she not understand how stupid it was to go after Intrigue?

"And I'm my own person."

"But you knew why I didn't want you to go," I say.

She considers. "I'm sorry I worried you. It wasn't my intention."

"Well you did."

She shrugs. "But I figure you'll still give my phone back even if you're mad at me. You like being able to get ahold of me."

Well she's not wrong. I scowl before digging her phone out of my pocket and tossing it to her. She catches it and scrolls through a couple of her missed messages.

When she looks up, she asks, "What are you working on?"

I'm half tempted not to tell her, because I'm still annoyed at her running off. But of course I tell her anyway.

"I'm trying to build a portal that can get us to different dimensions," I say.

"For fun?"

"No," I say. "I'd just as soon not have to worry about other dimensions. Ruby is from a different dimension, and we need to get her back. Also a Grey from another world popped into ours and you can see why I might be concerned about that."

If any of this phases Thalia at all, she doesn't show it. She's staring at the calculations I've done on the whiteboard. I wonder if she thinks it's geeky in a cool way or a not cool way.

"Does it work?" she asks.

"I haven't tried it yet," I say. "But I think so."

She wanders around the workshop as I try to refocus my attention on the portal.

A few minutes later I hear Thalia say, "You actually made it."

I turn to see her holding the mace I made after she joked about it. "Yeah. I made it."

"Why is it still sitting in here?" she asks. "Why aren't you bringing it to training?"

I shrug. "I didn't plan to actually use it."

"Seems like a waste."

I turn to her. "Did you want something or were you just here trying to distract me?"

She gives me a half smile. "If I were trying to distract you, you'd know."

"Adorable."

We both turn to find Intrigue standing in the doorway. I glance toward Thalia, but thankfully she isn't diving toward him. In fact, she looks eerily calm.

"I assume you're coming to give an update on Ruby." I suspect that's not why he's here. "You could have just called. I know you have my number."

"Ruby's made good progress," Intrigue says. "I think she'll be better soon. So you'll understand if I take a little trip to her world to find her family."

"That is not a good idea," I say.

He shrugs. "It's not as if I care what you think." He lunges toward me, and I dodge out of the way before realizing that's exactly what he wanted me to do.

He wasn't really going for me. He was going for the poral.

He's already fired it up as he was charging me, and in the blink of an eye, he's jumped through and disappeared.

The portal zips shut behind him, and I scramble with the controls, trying to get it back open. A second later, I throw the controls against the wall. They're useless.

Thalia's on her feet now, staring at the space where Intrigue was. "I take it he made it so we couldn't follow him."

"Uploaded a virus into my machine. He can still control it just fine. But I can't. I'll have to build another one."

I grab a wrench.

"Okay, but you're not building another one right now," Thalia says. "You obviously need sleep."

"I need to catch Intrigue."

"You need to not burn yourself out before you have a chance to get to him," she says.

"Sorry," I say. "I thought we were currently ignoring each other's advice."

Thalia marches over to the whiteboard and picks up an eraser. "So help me, if you don't go get some rest right now, I will erase this entire thing. I know you're smart and all, but that probably took awhile."

I stare at her. I don't really care if she erases the board. My memory is superhuman. It wouldn't be that hard to recreate.

But I can't very well get on her case for recklessly tracking down Intrigue then turning around and doing the same thing.

"Fine." I begin walking toward the door.

Thalia follows me out. "And if you dare try to go to another dimension without inviting me, I'll never forgive you. And for the record, I still fully intend to punch Intrigue in his stupid face."

"I don't think his face is the problem," I mutter.

 "Also, I think you should start using the mace," Thalia says.

"Why?"

"Because bad guys don't like it when you hit them with spiky things."

Hard to argue with that logic.

A ridiculous weapon that I designed to impress a girl.

Sure. Why not.