The group wandered through the lab, nervously eyeing the cellar that Uncle Taner had disappeared into. "What do we do now?" Kronalia sighed.
"We can't talk in here," Oak grumbled. "So nothing, I guess."
Ivy, who was still wandering the lab, began reading labels on the rows upon rows of boxes she passed. She slowed as a crate in the corner of the lab caught her eye. On it was a label:
HIGHLY VOLATILE. HANDLE WITH CARE.
This looks just like the crate in that room at his other lab! Ivy thought, startled.
"What is it?" Oak said, turning back and noticing Ivy staring at the crate.
"Do you know what that crate has?"
Oak walked to the crate, then crouched next to it. He frowned as he read the label, his eyes squinting. "Dunno," he finally said, straightening to a stand. "Why?"
"He has a few crates that look just like that in his other lab."
"Let me see!" Carbon said, walking over to join them. "Maybe I'll recognize this from my tutor sessions with Uncle Taner."
He frowned as he approached the box.
"Hm...no, I have no idea what that could be, regrettably."
"Uncle Taner always has fragile stuff like that around his labs anyways," Oak said with a confused face. "There's nothing weird about that."
"Hm," was all Ivy said before pacing away from the crates, and finding a seat along the side of the wall. Oak joined her, stretching comfortably. Syndria and Kronalia followed suit, and finally, Carbon and Augaley joined.
"So," Ivy said, listening to hear Uncle Taner's power tools as they started up once again, "should I continue telling you about that element?"
"No...I don't think so," Oak said with a wary glance at the cellar.
"We could always whisper—"
"No, it's too close to him. We need to wait until we get somewhere more private," Kronalia said, her voice low.
Oak nodded. "Right. We should probably keep a lookout in the meanwhile."
"What, do you think someone's going to find us out here like how that agent did last week?" Syndria said, leaning over to get a better look at Oak.
"Uncle Taner uses un-mandated magnetic paths to drive to this location, so no... I don't exactly think someone will just waltz in, but—"
"Huh," Ivy said. "So, basically this is an illegal location."
Oak winced. "I wouldn't call what Uncle Taner does...illegal?" he said.
"But it's unmandated, so it wouldn't exactly be in the law books, would it?"
He didn't answer.
Ivy turned to look at the corner of the room where the crate was. "Makes me wonder..." she said.
"I just meant that Uncle Taner was looking unusually nervous on our walk there...did you notice that?" Oak said.
"I did," Augaley said with a nod. "I was getting nervous with how much he kept looking over our shoulders!"
I wonder what he was looking at? Ivy thought. Her budding thoughts were soon interrupted, however, by a low, deep creak from outside the lab. She looked at Oak and the others. Oak returned her gaze with an inquisitive raise of an eyebrow. "Was that the door?" she whispered.
He listened intently for the sound of steps on the staircase. There were none. "...I dunno," he said.
"Maybe it was the wind?" Carbon offered.
"That was a pretty rusty-sounding breeze..." Syndria skeptically said.
"Okay!" Uncle Taner's voice drifted up from the cellar, and Ivy could hear his heavy steps as he entered the lab. He grinned as he ascended the stairs, holding the bulb in his hands. Ivy noticed as he crossed the room to them that the fluorescent lightbulb was encased in a mesh of wires and metal blocks. "I think I got it!" he said, coming to a stop in front of the group.
"Uncle Taner, what is that?" Oak said, his eyebrows furrowed.
"A power source and a lightbulb," he replied.
"You built a miniature power source, just like that?" Carbon asked, standing to get a closer look at the device.
"Not so fast," Uncle Taner said, holding it out of Carbon's reach. He walked to Ivy's side. "Now, Ivy," he said, dropping to a squat next to her, "we're going to try to turn this on and see what happens." He held his hand over a knob and began to turn.
"Actually," Ivy said, reaching for the bulb. "I should probably turn it on. It's gonna ruin your health bar like it fried mine if you're the one who turns it on."
Uncle Taner frowned a little but then handed it to her. "Alright. Step away, everyone," he said, standing straight and beckoning to the others.
Oak, Kronalia, Syndria, Carbon, and Augaley jumped to their feet and joined Uncle Taner, watching Ivy with great interest.
"Ivy," Uncle Taner continued, "turn that black dial at the top."
"This one?" Ivy said, closing her hand over the small nob.
"Yup," he replied, backing further and further away until he was leaning against a far wall from her. "Go when you're ready!"
"Alright...here I go..." Ivy said, nervously tapping the dial. What if this thing explodes on me? I don't even know how well he can build!
"What's the holdup?" Uncle Taner said. "Just turn the dial!"
"Are you sure this thing won't blow up on me or something?"
"Pretty sure."
Ivy looked uncertainly at the bulb. Do I trust him enough to take what he says, just like that? Her eyes met Uncle Taner's, then she quickly looked back to the knob. Closing her eyes and leaning her head as far away from the fluorescent lightbulb as possible, she turned the dial with a loud click.
She waited to feel the energy pulse in the clothes from the lightbulb's energy. As she waited, however, she felt no difference. Ivy opened her eyes. In her hands was the still-off lightbulb, and across the room was a very disappointed Uncle Taner. He stared at the lightbulb with despairing eyes, his mouth agape. "It...didn't work?" he muttered, his eyes squinting.
Uncle Taner crossed the room and took the bulb, turning it around in his hands. "I don't understand...I'm sure I wired everything correctly..." he said.
He spun the bulb and metal casing a few more times in his hands before slowing down and looking up with a frown.
"Wait," he said. "Did any of you hear anything just now?"
Ivy looked past Uncle Taner to the others, who were still standing on the other side of the room. One by one, they shook their head, each kid trying their best to listen to any surrounding sounds. "I didn't hear anything," Ivy said, looking up at Uncle Taner.
He didn't seem to hear Ivy and instead was looking at a back wall with the same worried expression they had when they were earlier walking in the forest. "Ivy," he quietly said, distractedly passing the lightbulb back to her, "take this from me, will ya?"
"Oh!" Ivy said in surprise as she juggled the bulb in her hands, willing herself not to drop the entire thing. She sighed in relief as she balanced herself.
Uncle Taner, in the meantime, strode to the corner of the room where the crate was and swiped a metal crowbar from a nearby shelf, deftly prying open the crate and throwing out what looked to be shredded paper. He straightened from the box, holding a strange metal object in his hands. His eyes coldly scanned the back wall. "Ivy," he said. "Step over there with the others."