Deceit - The Phantom Thief

Chapter 16: Attention

"You sound like you're going to interrogate him, M." joked the chemist in an attempt to lighten the mood, "But no. We've run tests on it and all of them have come back negative."

"We've had errors with it before but none of them have ever been this bad." added Gadget. "We can't continue the production of the project while he's in this state. It isn't fair."

Minerva furrowed her brows as she took a closer inspection of the device around Smile's neck. "We can't afford to delay the project any further, Gadget. We might have to leave him in this condition until we've achieved paradise."

The door clanged open and the four busy occupants looked over to see Ego on his tablet donning a substantial smile. "It appears you guys are in a spot of trouble. It smells rather disastrous."

"Ego, this is uh, kinda serious..." winced the bald man, darting his eyes another direction to avoid eye contact with the male he confronted.

"You think I'm unaware?" Ego scoffed whilst feigning offence. "What else would I be here for other than to share my wisdom with you."

Smile signed something out to Gadget who burst into loud laughter. "Too true, man. I'm glad you're still able to communicate like this."

"What did he say?" the uninvited guest queried, unaware that both Smile and Gadget understood how to sign.

"Should I tell 'em?" the inventor chuckled to the mute who shrugged with a small smile. "Aye. To summarise, he said that the only reason you ever show up is to brag about yourself whilst having no worthy qualities."

The victim of the verbal assault gasped in betrayal scented realisation. "And you agreed with him? I'm worth every word I bless your ears with! All the ladies at the cafe seem to think so too."

"No one cares about your arguing. If you want to quarrel so badly then please take it away from here. I don't like arguments or fighting and I highly doubt anyone cares about what you have to say." Minerva groaned, splitting up the situation. "So, what's the real reason you're here?"

"Why don't I just show you? Move aside, lady and gents." Ego crowed as he shoved the couple out of his way. With their glares burning into the back of his head, he lifted up his tablet like a camera. "Now, watch and learn, for the great, the amazing, the outstanding Ego shall present his formidable abilities!" with a flourish, he began to scan Smile's body.

"What are you doing?" Gadget uncertainly cried - he hadn't seen that function before and he wasn't sure what it was supposed to do. Was it even safe?

After a second Ego stepped back and brought the tablet back to an appropriate reading distance. His eyes scrutinised the screen as he used his finger and thumb to zoom further into Smile's necklace. "I may have found the issue here. Come and take a look."

The three who could hear crowded around the tablet to take a look. "What are we supposed to be looking at again?" Boomer anxiously swallowed knowing the others definitely had identified the problem.

"It's the silver inside it." Gadget informed the other in a state of shock. "Smile's running and heart rate must've caused parts of the components to come loose out of place and break... They must've been weak because they're so old. That's an issue."

"Can't you fix it?" Boomer catechized his coworker as he walked back over to the table to study the device.

"No, back when I first made it I didn't have the skill I did today so I pretty much completely messed it up since I left too much space in it for things to move around. That's why it's so big and bulky. I also made it so the device couldn't be opened again; I wanted to try and make it waterproof and stop water from getting inside it." the inventor frowned as he wiped his brow, "Guess that was a failure. Babe, do we have any more of that silver leftover?"