The Fourtitude: A Narrative of Naivety

Fantastic Powers and How to Use Them

"This, Bobl, is our most important project." April pulled out blueprints for her most important project. "It was four years in the making, and I swear to GOD if you lose it, I might lose it myself." April slammed the prints down in front of Dr. Bobl, as he was terrified as always. The clang left a permanent dent on the metal desk.

"This, Bobl, is our most important project." April pulled out blueprints for her most important project. "It was four years in the making, and I swear to GOD if you lose it, I might lose it myself." April slammed the prints down in front of Dr. Bobl, as he was terrified as always. The clang left a permanent dent on the metal desk.

"I-I won't, Miss." Dr. Bobl went to grab the blueprints, but April smacked his hand out of the way. He felt a slight shock. The screen behind him flickered a bit before shutting down completely, dimming the room much more than he was comfortable with. All that was left was a gross yellow emergency light hanging from the high ceiling.

  "I've finally tracked down another Ryee Key!" April explained, "This clone can combat him. We just need to find who Everhet got those gadgets from. And those... friends of his... Anyway, if you lose these, YOU'RE FIRED. FOREVER. Got it?" April charismatically loomed over Dr. Bobl, scaring him to death. 

"Y-yes, Miss. You've got it." April outstretched her hand to give the instructions to Dr. Bobl. "Uh, Miss April? This process will take years to complete. Is there something else we can do that won't take quite as long? I've got some ideas on my computer I can execute--"

  "Whatever. Just go ahead. But because I'm not checking it over, it's my fault if it fails. Which means you're off the hook." April began to walk away, not facing Bobl to talk. She snapped instructions to an employee trying to figure out the vending machine.

"Finally!" Dr. Bobl went through his assortment of plans. "Aha!" he celebrated, "The HookCooker!" The computer shown a large robot, with two hooks for its hands. "Yes! This will take care of those kids! Well, not literally, but ironically, it will! Hey! You! Take these, and get to work!" Bobl handed over the plans and slapped the worker on the back. 

"Happy birthday August!" Jackson, Everhet and Kylah collectively screeched. It was August first, August's birthday, the day he was named after. August's mom made him invite Kylah, because in all the years past Jackson and Everhet were the only people August invited to his birthdays. And the only friends he really had. He had his birthday at Tramp-led With Fun Trampoline Park, so at least he wasn't inviting Kylah to his house. But since that day, August and Kylah had gotten to know each other, so this experience wasn't too awkward.

"Thanks, guys. And Kylah." he said, mainly looking at Kylah. "But you all know what's coming next! You have to sing the birthday song!" August liked to let the other two have fun with this one. The years past were filled with purposeful voice-cracks and Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonations.

  "Oh! I love the birthday song! Thank God it's not copyrighted anymore!" Kylah jumped up, excited somehow. This was a very unusual thing to August.

"Uh, yeah. I guess I agree." August nervously nodded. The group sang the birthday song, August in a trance listening to Kylah's singing voice, hitting every note perfectly. There aren't even really any notes to hit in the birthday song, but she still hit them! "...Yay! T-time for presents!" August awkwardly announced and nervously laughed.

  The three gave August their presents, smiling with excitement as each was opened. Kylah gave him a package of gummy worms, with the Valentine's Day package, which meant something, but what August was wondering was how she got those. Were they old? When did she buy them? The day they met? A few days after? Why would she give him those for his birthday and not for Valentine's Day?

Everhet gave him a red sweatshirt, his favorite color. August always felt like he wasn't warm enough or cool enough (which are opposites) with just a simple, solid black tee shirt. Everhet told him to bring the sweatshirt to the employee closet, which he had access to through one of his sketchy friends. He told Jackson to do the same, but without the sweatshirt.

Jackson got him one of those ball-bearing puzzles where you tilt the sphere to maneuver the ball-bearing through the three dimensional maze. I've spent hours trying to complete one. God, I hate those.

Once they were done with cake, Kylah went to bounce some more alone, since the boys decided to 'all go to the bathroom at once.' Everhet looked at the employee who stopped him from entering the closet, and showed him a mysterious card that August and Jackson couldn't properly analyze. He opened the door, and August and Jackson were very underwhelmed. The room was just filled with boxes of socks and spare uniforms. It smelled vaguely of a ham sandwich, and there was a moldy piece of cheese behind one of the boxes. They all had... odd stains on them. One of the tiles on the floor had been chipped, and the entire top left corner was gone and waxed over. "Okay, August. Put the sweatshirt on."

"Uh, okay? Why do we have to be in a closet to do this?" August quickly put his arms through the sleeves.

"Jackson, happy belated birthday. Here you go." Everhet tossed him a silver watch that looked too expensive to toss, let alone without warning. Jackson still caught it, thankfully, and clipped it around his wrist.

"Yeah, except that my birthday was last month." He felt a sharp pinch under the clock part. "Ow! Hey, what was that?" Jackson completely ignored that Everhet got him a present on his birthday, so it was more of a spontaneous gift than a belated birthday present to focus on the fact that a metal object had been planted under his skin.

"That's the motion sensor. Aim your hand at those boxes, and with two fingers, swipe above the clock." Everhet stepped out of the way. Jackson did as he was told, and suddenly a mechanical beam shot out of the watch, knocking the boxes all over.

"Wohohohohoo!" Jackson reacted, "That was so cool! Is that all?" Jackson swiped up, punching a hole in the ceiling with the metal two-by-four.

"Try aiming it down." Everhet calmly lifted the scraps back to the ceiling, and snapped his fingers, locking them in place, and fixing the ceiling. Jackson aimed his arm at the floor, and swiped, expecting the worst. The metal bits splashed across the floor, then regrouped and engulfed him in a metal suit.

 "Holy crap!" Jackson moved around easily inside the suit. "That has to be all, right? That's all it needs!"

  "Well, first of all, swipe up your arm to retract it. Then, swipe down with one finger."

Jackson retracted the suit, then swiped with one finger, as Everhet had told him to. It shot out some sort of hoverboard. "What, uh, what is that?"

  "I'll show you later. It's essentially a hoverboard that has some accessories."

"So, does my sweatshirt do something, or... y'know, I just sat in silence for like, 15 minutes. Does my new sweatshirt do something cool, or what?" August stood up from the box he'd used as a seat.

"It will, if you implant the motion sensor." Everhet shifted his attention and his head towards August. "It'll ask again. Just wait."

"I have to?" August hesitated.

"It won't hurt too much." Everhet reassured as if there was any assurance to begin with. The implant went in, and after August was done crying, he asked what it did. "Thrust your hands downward in the shape of an X."

"Okay..?" August did so, and blades came out of his hands. "Whoa! What is that?" He examined this foreign material. It was light blue, and was gridded with white lines.

  "That's Aether, don't touch it. You can tell it to be hot or cold, but the default is hot." Everhet started to walk to the door. "Anyway, just thrust your hands up to get the energy back. You have a limited amount of it, so use it wisely."