Gadgeteer Rising Chapter 3

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So folks, somebody kidnapped my muse and I have had a hard time writing. This piece is part of my attempt to find her. I hope you can forgive my shortness, I promise as soon as my mind is back on tack to expand upon this story and the other two I am currently working on.

Chapter 3
I was woken up by someone gently shaking me. “Alex, it’s time to get up and get started on your tests.” I opened my eyes a crack and wouldn’t ya know it there was Doc P. Uggh I thought to early for this crap “I know your awake, come get up and we’ll get some you some breakfast before I hand you over to the vampires” Doc P grinned as he said that. I guess he was trying to make a joke.
“Alright already, jeez it’s too early for lamoid bad jokes Doc.” I gripped as I rolled out of bed and padded to the bathroom. I looked in the mirror and wasn’t to shocked by what I saw. My hair was already down to the back of my neck. I was shaggy before, kind of looked like a puffed out Q-Tip. Now it was longer and straighter, that I could live with. My lips looked more like a cupids bow now instead of the thin line I had before. I couldn’t tell but I thought my nose looked smaller. “What the hell!” I nearly screamed when I looked at my eyes. The pupil looked like a perfect five point star. The iris was this color of blue I had never seen, it was like blue ice.
I went to the bathroom and showered, when I went to grab the gown it had been replaced by a new pink gown. Ugh I said softer not girly. “Hey Doc P, what’s on the menu?” I asked as I exited the bathroom.

“Well, I had a friend of mine take a look at what I had assumed was a robot and it appears you were building a power suit.” Doc P said with a hint of admiration in his voice.

“huh, really?” I said kind of stunned and embarrassed that I did that to my foster parents appliances.
“I am going to apologize in advance, the testing facility we have is not exactly top notch but it will give us a base reading.”
Once I saw the testing facility, it left me with the feeling that mutant testing was not high on the administrators’ list priorities.
“Okay Alex, just get dressed in the suit over there.” Doc P said. “It is loaded with sensors that will help us determine your abilities”
“OMG…this was something I wouldn’t mind seeing on some of the girls I had seen in the skin mags.” I thought to myself as I shimmied it on.
“What’s through the door?” I asked trying to sound casual. I turned my back to him as I took off the gown and tried to figure out how to put on this skin suit for lack of a better term.

“Couldn’t tell you that Alex it would ruin the test.” Doc P stated the smile he was wearing earlier had evaporated. “I’m not trying to upset you, just trying to get an accurate as possible score” I nodded as I finished getting dressed.
“All right Doc, let get this party started.” I quipped as I went through the door. I looked around and noticed a lot of bowl shaped depressions in the wall, with what looked like holes in them. The thought of Oh crap, I am in for a world of hurt hadn’t time to complete when the first ball came out of the wall. Suddenly I felt like I was back in middle school dodge ball game. I knew in an instant where the ball was going and how fast, unfortunately my body wasn’t so quick. By the time that test was over I felt like every inch of my skin was covered in bruises.
“Okay Alex lets get a move onto the next test.” Doc P’s voice echoed in the room. “Please use the door on the left.” I didn’t say anything just moved as slowly to the door as I could, to buy some time.
“Alex this time I want you to lift as much weight as you can on this machine.” Doc P was pointing to a machine that looked like a cross between a weight machine you see in a gym and some kind of computer.
“I’m going to tell you right now” I stated as a matter of fact. “I probably can’t lift more then thirty pounds most likely.” I never was one for being strong, thinking was my specialty.
“Why don’t you try anyway Alex?” Doc P threw back at me, “Just for laughs.” I shook my head and got into the machine. Things went just like I expected, couldn’t lift more then thirty pounds.

“Let’s go to the next test area” Doc P said as he cocked his head to one side. “I think you like this one if I go by what your foster mother said.” I have got to say that he couldn’t have been more right. I mean wow so many different electronic devices and gadgets I could have died and gone to heaven if I wasn’t already there. “Okay Alex, lets see what you can do with what’s in here.” Doc P handed me a clipboard and a pen. “I want you to try and figure out if anything is wrong with these items and if there is fix them.”
It didn’t take me even fifteen minutes to do as he asked, plus I told him a few of them had things they needed to have replaced in order to work. I am not sure how I knew; it felt like I could feel what was wrong or what each device did. After that it was a series of tests on math, science, history, and English.
“Well that concludes things for today Alex.” Doc P said as I got out of the skin suit. He handed me some clothes that look suspiciously girly. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go over to the dark side yet.
“Uh doc, these look almost like girls clothes.” I complained, but not to much. I figured I needed to put on a bit of a show otherwise my secret would be out. All the good doctor did was look at me and walk out of the room. Wow! What was his problem?
After I got dressed I looked in the locker room’s somewhat dirty mirror, I had to admit for having to be a chick I look pretty damn good. I think that scared me more then I wanted to admit to myself or anyone else.

“Alex, I think its time you talk to our mental health specialist.” Said Doc P, he has a look that told me I was supposed to agree with him.
"Come on Doc P, I don't need a head shrink" I said putting on the most annoyed face. "Dude I'll come to it when I get to it."

"Alex, with all things that you've been through don't you think you might need talk to somebody." Dr. P said looking slightly exasperated.

"Okay only if they'll get you off my back." I said shaking my head. "But if I do this, you guy get that power suit I was building for my foster parents house and bring it here." I don't know why but I just couldn't go back and face my foster parents again. I know they love me I mean why else would they keep me when everyone else threw me away, I am not sure when I get so attached to Ben and Annie. I just know I don't want them to see me like this right now, I don't think I could take it. I'm really not sure if I can deal with this change. I mean seriously, I was a runty little 11-year-old but still I will guy. I just have a knack for electronics and not playing sports. I knew I wasn't going to be a football player but geez turning me into a girl, hmmmph . I mean what is this some sort of cosmic joke. I sighed, I didn't know what to do. I mean here I am writing their elevator with Dr. P and I got girls jeans, girls top and a pair of sandals on. I was beginning to think maybe I should talk to shrink he was talking about me seeing.

"Doc P, I've been thinking maybe I should talk to this shrink of yours." I said as I shrugged my shoulders looking down.

"Alex, think that's a wise thing for you to do." Dr. P responded. "I know I have seen her a few times myself."
I looked at Dr. P little cockeyed and wondered why he would see her. He seemed to have it altogether me. I decide to ask, what could it hurt.
"Dr. P ummm...., Why would you need to see a shrink?" I asked as quietly as I could.

"First off she is a psychiatrist, secondly I went through some issues when my son was killed by mutant." Said Dr. P. with a grim look on his face. I wanted to ask more, I didn't know his son was killed by mutant. As far as I knew he treated me well and didn't seem to harbor anything ill against me.

"All right Doc P, she's a psychiatrist and I will talk to her for bit, but like I said you don't have to bring in what I built." I said leaving no room for discussion. "I don't know exactly what I built so far, but I know I am not finished with it."

As we wandered through the halls heading towards a psychiatrist and his I can help but wonder what it's going to happen to me. I wonder if Annie and Ben will accept me being a mutant, and would they accept me as a girl to? So far Dr. P and the staff had no problem with me being a girl. In fact it seemed like everyone is going out a way to be nicer to me.

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Comments

nice chapter

but can you look at this paragraph:

"All right Doc P, she's a psychiatrist and I will talk to her for you but like I said you don't have to bring in not doing I built." I said leaving no room for discussion. "I don't know exactly what I built, but I am not finished with it."

the thought gets a little confused. the rest looks good, looking forward to more.
thanks

yes, I am sorry I didn't

Leigh Veritas's picture

yes, I am sorry I didn't catch that bit of confusion. Ugh I am terrible.

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
Mark Twain.

Leigh Veritas

not so

i'm enjoying the story so far, just edit that paragraph to clear up what you were thinking.
I want to see where you go with this

Comments

Leigh Veritas's picture

Fixed it. =)

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.
Mark Twain.

Leigh Veritas

Am curious about

"writing the elevator"

Sound like you need to put the story away for a few days after you finish writing it, then come back and reread it for corrections.

Fun though.

MORE!

I'm looking forward to more of this, soon I hope! A few observations on the mechanicals. The first thing is the length of the chapters. This chapter is about the right length, by contrast Ch. 1 and 2 are much too short. Not saying you have to change anything, just that as you write keep an eye on your word count and try to get it to at least 1200 words. This is a rule of thumb, not a hard rule of writing.

Secondly, your spacing between paragraphs is hit and miss. It's a function of how BC works vs. some popular word processors. I'm no expert, but here's what I do. I write using MS Word. I then copy and paste it into Notepad, which strips all the encoding from the document. Go through and add a carriage return where needed to obtain the right line/paragraph spacing. At that point I add all the HTML manually. No doubt there is a better way to do it, I'm comfortable doing it this way.

Anyway, copy/paste the text to the box here on BC and hit Preview. Examine the chapter with a critical eye for proper presentation and correct as needed. Then go back and check your spelling and grammar. And remember, once you go live on the site you can still go back and make corrections by clicking on the Edit button. Correct as needed, Preview, and Save.

I hope this helped, and again I'm enjoying this story and looking forward to reading more!


"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin

Very nice

tmf's picture

Hope your muse was rescued from her kidnapers safe and sound, and has you writing the rest of the story.

Hug tmf
Peace and Love