The Initials | Nanowrimo 2023

28| Chaos Walking

The morning afterwards Topher discards his most used screwdriver, letting the worn out rubber handle roll off the desk, only vaguely acknowledging the quiet thud it makes on his carpeted floor as he leans back in his cushioned seat. "What am I missing?"

He feverishly rubs his face with his palms, combing his hair back as he drags his palms over his head, letting his curtain bangs droop in his face once he stretches his arms above his head.

After some time Topher returns to his work, taking up a pair of tweezers to carefully place the silver crystal inside his contraption, finishing the final component by placing the green, turtle-shaped lid over the Mana Core, only screwing it in place once he is satisfied.

"I'm activating the mana core now." Topher declares, glancing over at his phone to check that it is still recording before pressing the tile on top of the shell.

The intricate gears grind together inside the machine, making a low humming noise before a green shield of solid light emits from the machine. "The force field has taken on the structure of a turtle shell, which was the intended outcome."

Topher places several of his books on top of the force field, immediately witnessing the integrity of his shield worsen with each book added. "The results of the shield's strength are, to say the least, disappointing." he groans, turning off the recording when the force field fades away and his books crash onto the floor.

He slams his fist onto the desk, wincing when the impact triggers a sharp pain to jolt through his arm from the wound he sustained from the night before. He flexes the bones in his hand until the pain dulls, closing his eyes as he rests his head on the desk.

A sliver of sunlight reaches through the closed curtains and tickles the right side of his face, realising now that he'd worked through the night only to create a half-baked prototype.

He almost gets his brain to stop screaming equations, letting the headache he was fighting off the entire night finally numb his mind, attempting to drift off into his own dreamscape where no doubt he'd continue to work on his invention some more.

But before that can happen, Casey bursts into the room and aims to leap onto Topher's bed but severely overestimates his trajectory and tumbles over the bed, hitting the floor hard enough to jolt Topher awake.

Seconds later a head of golden curls springs up from the far side, staring intently at the door. "Did it follow me?"

Topher looks out into the empty corridor but doesn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Did what follow you?"

"Spider! Giant, massive, spider!" Casey screams. "In my room on the lamp!"

Topher sighs, groggily pushing off his desk before leaving the room, walking past his father's new shipment of Darmantium plates and his mother's new chemical beakers, before plodding into Casey's room.

"How does he live like this?"

Topher carefully manoeuvres his way through puzzles, games and toys, almost making it without injury when he steps on a stray Lego piece. After writhing in acute agony, Topher finds the tiny spider dangling helplessly off the lampshade and carefully takes it to the nearby window.

When returning to his room, his heart drops when he sees Casey tinkering with the turtle shell.

"What you building over here?" Casey asks just as something inside the machine sparks. "Whoops...I mean, I definitely meant to do that."

"Step away from the T.U.R.T.L.E shell!"

Casey puts his hands in the air which somehow causes another spark. "Turtle shell? That wouldn't happen to be short for a Turtalium Langdon force Emission generator, would it?"