“Oh, wow,” Caleb said with his dark eyes wide. “That’s unexpected.”
Mike held back a snort. Unexpected hardly covered it.
He and Caleb stayed in the truck while Strong went in to the store. While they waited, Mike explained in brief detail about the night he’d received his powers, how they worked, and what they did, Caleb typing notes on his laptop while he listened. After a few minutes, Strong returned with two twelve-packs of bottled water and set them in the back with Mike. They left the corner mart, heading to the open field Caleb directed Strong to, which turned out to be an abandoned construction site.
Caleb looked over the area as they exited the SUV. “This should be perfect.”
Mike agreed. It was an open space with nothing around for miles in three directions. His beams dissipated before they reached that distance, so he could demonstrate his power to Caleb without worrying about hitting an innocent bystander or causing property damage.
They set up the bottles of water on tree stumps, sawhorses, and mounds of dirt left behind by the unknown construction company. The arrangement gave him targets at various heights and distance.
“Ready when you are.”
Mike faced the first bottle. Activating his beams was like walking. His legs moved because he needed to move. It wasn’t necessary to think left, right, left, right to get him going. It was the same with his blasts. The green beams shot across the expanse of grass. He didn’t hit the bottle, but the radius of the force’s energy knocked it over anyway, sending it hurtling across the field. He achieved the same result with the second. The third he actually hit. The bottle exploded from the impact, sending water spraying into the air.
By the time he made it through all of the first pack and most of the second, his eyes were dry and hot, as if he’d just woken up after sleeping in front of a space heater pointed directly at his face. And a headache was already building steam in his temples. He blinked a few times to work up some moisture in his eyes and turned to the two men behind him.
“See what I mean? Very little precision.”
Caleb sat cross-legged on the ground, his computer open on his lap. “You’re right. Your rate of precision is only about sixty-five percent. I can design you a pair of glasses,” he continued as he started to type. “Using prisms, the lenses will narrow the radius of the blast, allowing you to focus and hit only what you’re directly looking at.”
“That would be very helpful. I’d feel much better about using my powers in public spaces if I had tighter control over them.”
Caleb nodded. “I’ll get you fixed up right. You two pick up the trash for recycling so we can get back to HQ and I can start working on these.”
By the time they returned to the firehouse, Caleb had already come up with a preliminary design. He put a 3-D image of them on one of the monitors for everyone to see.
Ignite walked over to get a closer look at the screen. “Make him look cool, Caleb. Don’t give him a pair of superhero Blue Blockers.”
“The important thing is that they’re functional,” Lieutenant Strong said. “Doesn’t matter what they look like.”
Mike was inclined to agree with the lieutenant. But that didn’t mean he was completely on board with wearing an ugly piece of equipment on his face.
“Guys, have some faith in your local tech genius. I can make them stylishandfunctional. But don’t ask me to make them affordable. The materials needed for these are going to cost a pretty penny. No worries about that either. We’ve got plenty of funding to cover it.”
“Good,” Strong said with a determined nod. “Get them worked up as soon as possible so we can get him in the field.” He turned to Mike. “Once you have the glasses you can test them out on a mission and use that time to see if joining the ACG is truly right for you. You can work with Stardust again once the tech is ready.”
At the mention of Stardust, a vivid memory flashed in Mike’s mind—silky black hair flowing over pale skin, golden eyes lit with a teasing smile, and warm thighs straddling his own.
Caleb suddenly started coughing loudly, as if he’d choked on something.
Mike shook off the memory and looked down at the techie in concern. “Are you alright?”
“Sorry. Just errr... swallowed wrong,” he said after his coughing fit was under control.
Caleb appeared to be okay so Mike answered Strong’s question. “Working with Stardust would be fine,” he said politely. “But I think it would be a valuable exercise for me to work with various members of your team, sir.” Between his attraction to Stardust and Stardust’s apparent annoyance in dealing with him at the scene of the mugging, he thought it best that they didn’t work together.
“Hmmm. Of course. Well, we’ll worry about partners later. For now, let me fill you in on how we operate. Have a seat.”
Mike pulled one of the club chairs closer and gave his attention to Caleb and the lieutenant. As he listened, he breathed a silent sigh of relief that he’d dodged the bullet of being paired up with that golden tiger.
