Ravela enjoyed her food as best she could but decidedly didn’t share Laena’s enthusiasm for Xialong’s Burgers. The fries were too salty for her taste, the sauce too sweet, and they didn’t have her favorite carbonated drink.
She didn’t have the heart to even start on the burgers they served. Laena seemed to enjoy the criminally flavored food, and after she had finished her first order, she looked at the menu like she had forgotten to order half her meal.
“If you want something to go, you just have to ask, Laena,” Ravela offered with a sigh.
Laena looked at her with big eyes. “Really? I feel so hungry recently. Then maybe another Snakeinator with bacon, another big serving of fries, and one Jester Soda, just a small one.”
Ravela was impressed by the ravenous hunger on display. As far as she was concerned, the fries had killed her appetite thoroughly. “Then let's order that and get going.”
Leaving Xialong’s for what she hoped to be the last time, Ravela and Laena got back into the car. No sooner had Ravela sat down in the driver’s seat than she saw Laena reach into the to go back on the passenger seat.
“Hey, hey, no crumbling in my car!” Ravela called out.
The teenager pulled a face but snuck out a single fry before closing the bag again. Chewing on it slowly as Ravela drove, the girl’s thoughts seemed to turn inward.
Ravela used that time to ponder her own promise which she made without a second thought. A device that would allow Laena to signal her in case of an emergency. Only after her promise had it occurred to Ravela that such a device, if made through this world's technology, might be as big as the car they currently drove.
Making a device that is much smaller, let alone to be carried concealed on Laena’s person at all times, might lead to an avalanche of questions.
She thought about that problem for some time as she drove to her place. It had to be something the teenager wouldn’t lose easily. Her mind went to a ring almost instantly but threw away the idea just as sternly. Why should she tip off the girl to the fact that a ring could be a technological device? That would be unwise.
Something that was bigger than a ring yet small enough to carry inconspicuously on one’s person. Anything not attached to the girl gave it a chance to be lost. Not that she couldn’t retrieve the device by locating it, but she wished to avoid the hassle.
A wristband seemed like a good idea. Big enough to avoid suspicions directed at her, small enough to be convenient.
Ravela glanced at Laena, weighing the odds of the girl giving her grief over the wristband. Odds were, the girl would want a hand in the looks of the thing she’d have to wear.
“So, Laena, I got a device in mind that would enable me to receive a signal from you in case of this Michael Menace coming after you.” Ravela carefully opened up the can of worms that were a teenager's unpredictable whims.
Laena's head spun from the window to her in an almost owl-like fashion. “Oh really?”
“I considered putting it in a wristband so it won’t be stolen easily.” Ravela continued.
Laena looked at the car ceiling thoughtfully. “A wristband, you say. Sure, that could be nice.”
The teenager imagined some elegant golden band, so Ravela decided to be more forward on the device's size. “It won’t be some rose gold thin band, you realize that, right?”
The teenager became more skeptical. “Like, how big are we talking? And what would it look like? I am not carrying something on my wrist all the time that is so ugly I might die from the ridicule of the other girls, you hear me.”
Ravela got offended. Even if she is a teenager, there is a limit to calling things Ravela made for the teenager’s survival ugly before ever laying eyes on them. “Well, I guess that settles that. So, if that Michael Menace comes after you, just run to the next police station and hope for the best, I guess.”
Laena shifted in her seat. “Hey, now listen…you…I didn’t say I didn’t want it. I have to wear that every day to school, you know? I mean, can we maybe talk about the design options a bit.”
Ravela coughed. “Design options,” she repeated the last phrase. “You do realize that constructing something that fits on your wrist in itself is already a feat, right? But sure, we can talk about the options.”
The teenager squirmed a bit in her seat, and for a while, there was silence.
Then she asked Ravela something unexpected.
“So, can I see how you make it? I mean, could you teach me to build something like that?”
Ravela was surprised. Was it genuine curiosity or just an attempt to flatter her to get more influence on the looks of the wristband? Ravela was intrigued. Either way, there was potential in the situation. There may be a chance she could teach Laena some mechanical knowledge. If it stuck, she would have someone in the future to construct stuff with. The risk of her passing her knowledge on to others, however, was not insignificant.
“Do you want to learn how to build devices, or are you just buttering me up to get a more favorable-looking accessory?” Ravela said, studying Laena’s reaction from the corner of her eyes.
To her genuine fascination, Laena appeared entirely forthright in her desire to know how she would build the device. That brought a new set of questions to Ravela’s mind.
Should she teach the girl advanced tech? And if so, how advanced could the tech be before Laena wouldn’t be able to apply or learn? She thought about Safora and her ability to fly away from all her worldly troubles, and a wave of sympathy for Laena’s future struggles came over her.
“Right, you won’t be able to fly off if things get difficult,” Ravela said while her focus returned to the road. “Fine, I will teach you some of my tech, but don’t kid yourself. Tinkering with me will test your abilities. So, have you ever built anything yourself, Laena?”
Laena made a face. “Well, we built a radio receiver in science class before. That has to count for something, right?”
Ravela sighed, “Sure, it’s not a bad start. Let me think of a good starting point. Tell me more. Did you build the parts yourself?”
“Um, no, that was a building set provided by the teacher,” Laena answered. “...and there was a step-by-step instruction to it.”
She smiled behind the steering wheel. “Well, that is something. Did you understand how all the things fit together?”
The teenager nodded. “Actually, I did most of the work in my group, so yes.”
Ravela nodded along and kept listening.
“I soldered the connections of some of the parts. I repaired Ma Stone’s radio on my own with what I learned. It worked….for a few more months until it didn’t…” Laena kept explaining, stumbling a bit at the end.
“Oh, what happened?” Ravela asked, knowing there was a story there.
Laena shrugged. “Well, some of the copper had a bit of contact with the wooden back panel, and after a few months, it went up in smoke, but that’s not the point, is it?”
Ravela laughed, “I was wondering why I never heard any radio if Ma Stone had one.”
“Hey, don’t laugh. I was 12 at the time and was trying my best, okay?” Laena was a bit touchy on the subject.
Ravela still grinned from ear to ear as she said, “Okay, I will teach you how to repair stuff without setting Ma Stone’s house on fire. But I will be teaching you from the ground up, so don’t get any big ideas of me showing you how I make everything work in a few weeks. This will be a long road.”
Pulling off the highway, she focused on the day's task. “Anyway, what do you know about those teenagers on your campus that got powers?” Ravela rolled that word over her tongue, feeling weird about it still.
Laena tilted her head in confusion. “We talked about this before the hospital, don’t you remember?”
Ravela furrowed her brows. “I wasn’t talking about their powers; I remember those. Tell me what you know about them.”
Laena pursed her lips. “I don’t like to gossip, you know?”
Ravela’s eyes almost rolled into the back of her head at the obvious fake apprehensiveness of the girl before she no doubt unloaded all the stuff she knew about her fellow students. “Will you please just get on with it?”
The teenager puffed her cheeks. “It’s not like I’ve been dying to do this, but I heard that…”
The amount of information Laena relayed to her was impressive, mainly concerning the Smoking boy and the Water girl. The invisible kid had nothing much about him. He was not on her radar beyond, and upon further inquiry, she just said, “Yeah, people say he’s been kind of a loner and creepy. They caught him in the changing room of the cheerleaders, which honestly even makes me want to beat him up.”
Ravela said nothing but silently agreed with Laena. “Be that as it may. As far as I can tell, he could be dangerous to you and Safora, keeping your secret if he gets to return to school.”
The shiver that went through Laena was visible. “Ew, surely they won’t let him back into school. That kid will end up in some boarding or military academy far from my school, ideally on a different continent. Don’t even joke like that, Ramiel. Ew!”
“Okay, okay, calm down. So we were talking about that girl with the water manipulation,” Ravela said, the name, not for the first time, slipping her mind.
“Phi Nann.” Laena supplied helpfully.
“Yes, Phi. That girl seems to be quite the character, and that’s not in a good way; her being a cheerleader seemed to have gone very much to her head. If I were in your shoes, I’d keep my distance from her as much as possible. Odds are she will abuse her new power sooner rather than later.” Ravela concluded dryly as she pulled into her driveway, opening the gate with her powers without breaking off the conversation. “Let’s hope she just attracts water as the file says and has no control over how it moves. Otherwise, we might have a horrible bully in your school in the near future.”
“You talk like they are certain to come back. You don’t know that.” Laena said, somewhat concerned.
“Except for the invisible kid, I see no reason why they shouldn’t come back to school. They are citizens as much as you are. Would Ma Stone not demand you back if you were in their position?”
The pause as Laena considered this was long enough to park the car.
“Now, let me show you the other files. Some are less straightforward than water flowing her way or smoking from the head. Come on, there's no time to rest and ponder hypothetical uncomfortable conversations you might have with Ma Stone.” Ravela said as she got out of the car.
As she turned to look at the teenager, Ravela was not one bit shocked that she had her mouth already stuffed with a handful of fries moments after exiting her car.
Laena looked at her chewing on her fries. “Whawd?”
Chuckling, Ravela just walked over to the barn to retrieve the files. “Okay, wait here while I get those files.” The teenager shrugged and put another fry in her mouth.
Moments after entering the barn, she passed the door; Laena discovered the gigantic hole that appeared behind her house, signified by the loud shout, “What the hell happened out there?!”
Ravela chuckled as her big suitcase floated down to her, and she pulled the files out.
She could hear Laena run to the barn, eager to ask questions. Fishing out the files from her suitcase quickly, she turned around just in time to see Laena standing at the door, pointing outside.
Ravela shrugged, “I’ve been busy. Did some landscaping. Don’t mind it, that’s not important. Right now,” She held up the files in her hand. “This should be your biggest worry.”
Waving them about for a moment, Ravela grinned. “Care to find out what other people can do? I am sure that hole in the ground is really fascinating, but did you know that somebody with a silver allergy changed, and now his skin is entirely silver?”
Laena’s gaze wandered from the crater in her backyard to the papers in Ravela’s hand, weighing what was more pressing.
‘What will it be, Laena? Big hole in the ground or cool powers?’ Ravela thought while waving the stack of papers.
The decision didn’t take long, as Laena rushed up to her, the excitement evident in her big green eyes. “Are you for real!?”
“I am. It is weird to think that such a directly translating alteration is possible. I didn’t know that was even a thing.” Ravela said, holding the papers out of the teenager's reach. “Now, now, no need to be this excited.”
“Let’s see. Did you know that a woman well into her seventies has returned to what she looked like in her early twenties?” Ravela declared, holding up two pictures side by side. “Impressive transformation, right?”
The teenager was thoroughly hooked and forgot all about the massive crater behind her house. “What else does it say? Come on, Ramiel, don’t torture me like this. Spill!”
Ravela grinned. “Did you know that there is a construction worker who got flattened by a crashing truck and regenerated entirely within minutes? Incredible, isn’t it? How would you defeat such a man?”
Laena looked puzzled. “How would I defeat him? I don’t know, maybe lock him into a room he can’t escape from?”
Ravela looked at her, a bit disappointed. “See, that is why this is more important than other stuff. While your idea isn’t bad, imagine a man who can heal quickly and roughly as strong as you. Do you believe a simple room could hold you? Then how could it hold him?”
She turned around, walking further into the barn to stand beside her suitcase. “No, simply locking him in a room is not the answer. But there are other ways to immobilize a person.”
Thus, Ravela rattled off a list from strong glue, the right kind of electric current to freezing that could be used to immobilize this man. “Lastly, while he does heal quickly, that doesn’t mean his mental state remains fresh, or his constitution is unending. Simply outlasting him till he grows tired may be another option. And nobody should be better at dodging a weakening foe than you, Safora, or I. Simply not injuring the man and tiring him out may work.”
“Okay,” She flipped to a new page in the files. “Next up, did you know …”
