Through Her Eyes

Chapter 8

I didn't even look up from my computer as an Audi R8 came screaming down into the garage. I was all to use to that entrance.

"Ready to start?" Dad said instantly as he got out of his car. As I glanced up at him, I could tell he was desperate to get started. He wanted to be in this suit as soon as possible.

"Sure am," I stood up from my work station and walked over to one of the larger work stations where Dad was standing.

"Okay. Before we start building and designing the exoskeleton, there's something I want to do,"

Fly.

We began looking at the Jericho missile, for its repulsor technology. The cluster missiles in the Jericho used the repulsors to keep them steady and guide them towards the targets. Using these repulsors in the suit would allow it to have a steady take-off, and hopefully, a smooth landing.

We began building the basic structures of the boots. It was easy enough the build the boots (we had to get out a medical book and study the structure of the foot before we made the boots wearable) but getting the repulsors in was the hard part. We had laid the gears over the foot, around the heels and up the shin for stability, leaving hardly any room to attach the repulsors. Finally after spending most of the day in the garage, we had built the basic foot structures. They looked exactly like a metal boot but it still had the mobility of an actual foot.

We had also built two hand controls that had wires threaded from the repulsors up to the Arc Reactor in his chest and down his arms to the controls. As I watched Dad place the boots on, I tried not to laugh. It would take some time for him to get use to walking in them. The boots made him around a good 10cm taller.

He made his way to the middle of the grid he had set up in the garage floor. He was a bit hesitant trying them out for the first time near his cars (I told him if he even scratched my Audi TT he would be in trouble) but it was the only clear space in the whole garage.

I stood at a safe distance as Dad prepared himself for, hopefully, his first time flying in the new boots. Dummy hand a fire extinguisher ready in his 'hand' (I prayed we wouldn't need it), and Butterfingers was recording it. My heart was thumping loudly as Dad looked over at me and gave me a nod.

"Okay, let's do this right. Start mark half a meter back at centre."

This was it.

"Okay," He said, looking over at the video recorder. "First test. Monitors are recording, for lack of a better option, I have Dummy on standby with the fire extinguisher."

If Dummy had a face, it would be ecstatic right now. He loved getting in on the action and helping whenever he could (even if he wasn't really helping at all).

"Activate hand controls. Start it nice and easy, gonna see if ten percent thrust capacity achieve lift an' three...two...one—"

I didn't see what happened next, my eyes couldn't keep up with the flying blur that was my father. The only thing I heard was a huge SMACK!

In the second it took me to take in what had just happened, Dummy had doused what I assumed was the slumped form of the father in foam.

"DAD!" I screamed and ran over to where he lay. My mind was reliving what I'd just witnessed. The force of the repulsors had sent Dad flying backwards and he had crashed into the slope of the ceiling, crashing to the floor. Ouch!

I let out a sigh of relief as I saw Dad move and cough "Stop!" to Dummy, who ceased its spraying onto Dad.

"Oh my God Dad, are you alright?" I crouched down beside him as he struggled to sit up.