One Day Off

"When I heard you were leaving the house on your day off, I was practically over the moon! All you ever do is spend time hanging out in your room, working on your next project. Would it kill you to meet people your own age or go do normal things for a guy your age?"

The disembodied voice over the radio said to an unknown figure kneeling down in what looked like an abandoned theme park of some kind, the figure said nothing as he looked around for something, or another. He got up, dusting off his pants, and pulling down the hood of his jacket to let his hair blow in the cold breeze.

"Why? People tend to have agendas and those agendas tend to be either dull or irritating."

He said calmly as he began to walk toward what looked like a dilapidated tilt-a-whirl, all the while calmly surveying his surroundings like a deer out in the woods looking for predators. This area, after all, wasn't the safest area to be making an excursion to, but it did have a decent amount of materials to do some more extreme experiments with. No one would, after all, miss an old tilt-a-whirl, or a broken down merry go round more than they would miss a huge chunk of a metal bridge. He had learned that the hard way.

"Besides, with the way streaming services are now...I don't really have to leave the room to watch the things I want to watch. And to be real with you, dad? I really am not a normal guy for my age."

His dad let out a rather long sigh, realizing he was not going to get through to his son, at least not at long distance like he was now. The man reached out to touch the metal, as if inspecting it with his hands before reaching with his other hand to pull down his goggles on top of his head to further examine the rusted mess of a machine.

"Will you at least be home for dinner? Your mom is making chili."

The man clicked his tongue and began to whistle a tune as he examined the metal for impurities, hoping that the rust was only surface level, and could be repurposed in some capacity if he chose to use this particular thing as material.

"Steiner, are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here...and most likely. You know I can't skip out on mom's chili...make sure she puts extra garlic in it."

A low chuckle emenated from the radio as Steiner, the man in the red hoodie standing in the middle of an old run down theme park, pulled his goggles back, and nodded his head.

"Alright, dad, I'm going dark for a while. I will fly back when I'm done here."

"Alright, Steiner. We will...wait...fly!?"

Steiner clicked off his radio and titled his head to the side slightly as he stuck his thumb up like an artist with an easel in his hands looking at a blank canvas imagining what he would paint. In truth he had never done anything large scale like what he was about to try, but his recent readings, and studies had helped him at least get an understanding of what he wanted. A helicopter. Yeah, that would be fun, right?

"Would have been awkward to just...make a helicopter back home. Would have drawn some unwanted attention and besides, mom would flip out at me if I screwed it up, and leveled the attic...again."

Steiner said as he held his hand, closing his eyes, and focusing on what he wanted the metal to do.

"Lets start with the frame..."

Standing in front of his newest creation, Steiner took a minute to take it all in, and take a breather at the same time. He had been working for some time on this particular project, he supposed a few hours at this point, and so far it looked almost exactly like what he had intended it to look like which was a helicopter straight out of the book he had been reading almost exclusively for the last month. Still, there was more work to be done, a frame was a good start, but the hardest part was yet to come.

Reaching into his backpack, which he had tossed casually to the side when he had started, he would pull out a rather large book on helicopter maintenance. Thumbing through the contents of the book, occasionally looking around to make sure there was nothing salivating at the chance of eating him like a snack, Steiner would eventually find the chapter dedicated to the repair and maintenance of helicopter engines. He just needed a diagram really, something to look at, and compare notes with as he worked his magic. Slamming the book down on the floor, Steiner would put something heavy on the page as to make sure the wind wouldn't turn it for him, and once again look over at the frame of the machine he was working on.

"Starting to feel pretty tired."

Steiner said to no one in particular as the howl of the wind was the only reply to his statement. He had been working hard on expanding the well of energy reserves he had as to make sure he could keep working non-stop and without fail, but he knew that the well only went so deep. He knew the more exhausted he became, the more prone to error things would get, but he also knew that the only way to improve was to keep pressing forward. Breaking through his own limitations was the only way to improve after all. He remembered vaguely how hard it had been at first to make a simple screw, but now that energy reserve had grown astronomically over the years of his powers manifesting.

Maybe it was because he was obsessed with improving and growing not only for the job he was working, but for the ideas that he had in his head. Every task he performed was simply a warm up for the grand invention he intended to create. Well, a grand invention that he still really didn't know the identity of. In truth, most of the stuff he made were warm-ups for the nonexistent device he wanted to make, and that device was still nothing more than a fuzzy concept in his head. Still, when that concept came into focus more, he was sure that with all the practice and training he was doing with his power that it would be way easy to construct.

"Alright, enough dawdling...lets get started on that engine."

Even in the cold and comfortable temperatures that he was working in, Steiner found himself sweating profusely, and falling back on his rear he would let out some ragged breaths. Hours had been invested into this project and with good reason as this project was the most complex he had ever undertaken. While he was skilled at simple machines and working on mundane items, creating something like a helicopter? That was difficult for him, well not in the sense that the frame was hard, but the actual engine? That had exhausted him to no end. After all, it was to be the thing that powered the machine, and as such the level of complexity, especially with the modifications necessary to allow himself to power it as a fuel source, was rather high.

Still there was a sense of accomplishment that could be had for managing to complete this task, wiping his sweaty forehead on his already damp hoodie, and looking over at his most recent final product, he felt a feeling of pride wash over him. A few years ago, none of this would have been possible, but to see how far he had gone in a few years time with just his dedication to his craft pushing him, it was hard not to be proud.

"Still, the final test will be if it can fly."

He said as he reached into his backpack, pulling out a rather large energy drink, and chugging its' contents with reckless abandon. He tossed it with the rest upon finishing its' contents, listening to the satisfying clank of it hitting six other cans of the same size that he had been piling up since his arrival here. Standing up and dusting himself off, Steiner would make his way over toward his helicopter, and take one last good look at his handiwork to look for any sort of abnormalities in the engine or in the hull of the aircraft. It gave him time to gather his energy and to also make sure everything was sound. After all, if it did fly, and then the thing decided to fall apart, he would probably just fall to his death. Which would be a drag.

"Well...everything seems fine and I feel good enough, so lets get on in."

He said to no one again, before opening the cockpit up, and sitting down on the not so comfy metal seat that had been constructed early in the design of the ship.

"Should have brought a cushion."

Steiner said as he pulled out three long wires with needles on the end of them and looked at them with a grimace. Over the course of his training he had learned about some additional powers that he had been given, one of which was the ability to power machinery with his own energy supply. While it worked rather well and had been extremely useful in making sure he never really had to bother anyone about getting components to make power sources, he had learned that different types of energy production required different methods of connectivity. In the case of combustion, a more direct method was needed to power it. Taking a deep breath, Steiner would pierce his own skin, and connect himself to the ship via these needle tipped wires. He groaned a bit after finishing the task and then leaned back in the chair, giving himself a moment to adjust to the weird feeling.

"Direct connection established...time to see if the engine will turn over."

Placing his right hand's thumb on the ignition button and then pulling down his goggles with the left, Steiner would turn on the engine to his helicopter. There was a momentary feeling of draining as the engine connected to him in a more physical manner and then there was feeling of wholeness, of a connection that not many people would feel. It was as if on some spiritual level, the helicopter and himself had become one single entity. Hearing the engine turn on and the sound of the blades starting to spin, a smile spread across his face, and an excitement filled his mind. He had done it! He had made a complex machine for the first time and with that in mind he knew he was one step closer to creating something revolutionary.

That is when he felt it, the engine was working amazingly well, and he could feel the energy transferring around the machine in an almost perfect manner, but that is when a feeling of dread came over him. The frame began to shudder and his spiritual connection with the helicopter seemed to abruptly cease, his eyes began to dart from left to right, looking for the problem. With a sickening crack, the frame began to fall apart, metal on metal scraping could be heard from all around him, and in a panic Steiner disconnected himself from the machine. The feeling of becoming one thing after being two things for a bit was quickly cast aside as Steiner, jumped out of the helicopter after disconnecting the three needles from himself.

He looked at it as the frame began to fall apart and let out a sigh, luckily this was far away from civilization as the danger of having someone get hurt by a failure were very low. Still it was incredibly disappointing.

"Project Log 57: Helicopter frame and engine were successfully crafted using the materials on location. Metal seemed sturdy enough for using as material, but unfortunately could not handle the strain of direct linking with my own energy source. Will need to find a more viable source of materials. Need to expand the field of searching for raw materials and even include processed materials in potential parameters for further project construction and research. End log."

Standing on a pile of metal that had once been his helicopter, Steiner quietly turned off his recording device, and placed it in his jacket pocket. It was getting pretty late and if he was to get home on time to consume a hot meal, he would need to leave shortly. Most of what had occurred today would be considered a failure, still it was nice to know that the materials he had found here were not suited for the purpose of what he intended to accomplish. He would continue his work on a later date.

Stepping down from his position on top of the heap of useless metal, Steiner made his way over to his bag, and picked it up placing it on his back before he pulled his hood back up. That is when he heard it as he began to march over to the piece of crap jeep his family owned and he used almost exclusively to get around for projects like this. It was the sound of feet stepping on grass, but not just any feet, large, and foreboding feet. The ground shook a bit as something large made its way toward the area he was located at, turning around Steiner's eyes squinted at the incoming creature, a Hollow of decent size that seemed to have reacted to his presence, and sensing his presence probably.

The dangers of doing his work out in the middle of nowhere were evident to him and usually he was good at avoiding such conflict, but today he had made quite the ruckus. Groaning, but accepting that today he would have to get his hands dirty a bit, he turned to stare at the creature.

"Arriving for a mid-afternoon snack I reckon? Sadly...I'm not on the menu."

He said confidently, taking his hands out of his pocket, and raising them up to summon nearby metals to suit his purposes. He had dealt with hungry, brain dead Hollows before, and while the thought of a fight bored him, the idea of testing his powers in a combat capacity made this trip, at least to him, at least feasibly acceptable. After all, one failure can lead to success.

The few times that Steiner had gone out into the field, he usually had stayed clear of potential Hollow hunting grounds, but to make the trip out to this particular area to garner the proper materials, he had to take a risk. It wasn't like he was defenseless, he had a bit of practical self-defense training to lean on, and his own abilities were also quite formidable when given time to channel them. This particular slobbering and beast like Hollow, however, was not going to grant him much time to channel his energy, and create a tool to injure or destroy it. Its' saliva plopped on the ground, practically steaming from the warmth of its jaws, which at this point were snapping closed, and open making a sickening noise as it approached slowly.

It was being cautious, more than likely sensing some spiritual energy floating around, but Steiner knew that this momentary display of gathering spiritual energy would not keep the beast at bay. Hunger was something that was hard to ignore and judging by the bones showing under its' skin, he doubted that this Hollow had eaten in a while. Finally done with being patient, the Hollow would let out a bellow, and begin to charge his position. To the young man's credit, he didn't budge in the face of something like this making a desperate charge to his location, and instead held up one hand. Metal converged and the sound of metal on metal scraping could be heard audibly as a large wall seemingly manifested in front of Steiner. Steiner placed his other hand to the side, gathering metal, and creating something to dispose of the creature while constantly reinforcing the wall with metal from nearby derelict amusement park rides.

The creature, hungry, and wishing to consume Steiner, continued to bash itself into the wall which shuddered, and began to bow inward. Steiner's eyes continuously darted from the wall, to the construct he was making, and then back again. He made sure to split his focus evenly because any critical error could mean a death sentence for him. After a tense minute or so of the beast slamming into his wall, Steiner nodded, and dispersed the wall into hundreds of small metal shards. These shards embedded themselves into the Hollow which rolled on to its' back in pain, and panic. Desperation filled its' eyes, its' mask was slightly cracked from the impacts it had earlier, and now it was impaled all over by metal. It was anything, but alright, and the idea of feasting on the young man was the only thing keeping it passing out from the pain.

"Ahem..."

Steiner cleared his throat, causing the Hollow to look over at Steiner, and to behold the craftsmanship of the weapon Steiner had created. It was a bit old world, but Steiner stepped to the side, placing his hand on the weapon that he had made to end this Hollow: a canon.

"Forgive the wait, I've got something you can snack on right here."

The Hollow's eyes bugged out of its' head, realizing with shocking clarity that this was not the man to fuck with. A blue glow filled the surrounding area as the Hollow desperately tried to clamor to its' feet, the canon made a whirring sound as it charged up with spiritual energy, becoming a sort of laser canon of sorts. As the creature finally got to its' feet, it quickly realized that its' legs had been impaled all over, and as its' black blood poured all over the ground, its' final thoughts were of hunger, and rage. It bellowed as the sound of humming intensified and a bright blue light, almost like a flashlight cutting through darkness, engulfed it. For a second, the only sound was of a persistent buzzing and then an earth shattering kaboom that would be considered deafening to all those in attendance.

After the light had faded, a small crater that led itself all the way to the tree line, and a little beyond was all that was left to show that anything had been there before. Steiner had vaporized a Hollow, a look of disgust momentarily passed over Steiner's face as he simply sent the canon's metal back to where it belonged.

"I warned you. I abhor violence, but you chose to attack."

Steiner picked his backpack back up and slung it over his shoulder as he finished disassembling his canon and made his way back to his family's jeep. He just hoped he had enough juice in the tank to drive home now.