1.5 Rapids Part 1

I bite back a curse as I resist the urge to toss my current work onto the ground.

But that would be a waste as for as annoying as designing this space elevator is, it would be even worse to start from near-scratch.

That’s the spirit. Just keep at it.

Not right now Lion. I got other things to do.

You do know that delaying this will only make it worse right?

He has to visit Joan now you fool. You know this or did you forget?

It merely slipped my mind, I don’t forget things. None of us do.

I sigh. Having these powers to invent highly advanced tech is great and all, but having these guys argue in my head gets old fast.

Don’t complain Leo. You’re stuck with us. Might as well make the best of it.

I know that White Tea. It doesn’t help that all of you know whatever I’m thinking.

We do help you. You effectively end up with four minds of your intellect helping with all of your schoolwork, even in class, without anyone knowing or being able to call you out on it. You must certainly don’t complain about that.

Bah!

But Heart is right, I have arranged to meet my girlfriend Joan in little under half an hour.

The poor girl has been abandoned by pretty much everyone. Being born poor and ill, her condition has only gotten worse as she has grown older to the point that everybody has resigned themselves to the idea of her not living until she comes of age.

The last of her old friends have left her a year ago and her doctors and nurses don’t expect to her to ever get better.

Even her family has given up on her. Her siblings don’t visit her expect once every month or so when they remember to and her parents only paid for her healthcare due to parental obligations and to avoid the bad publicity they would get if they didn’t.

Not that they don’t care about her, it’s just that they don’t believe things will ever get better for her. And her parents only don’t visit her because it is too painful for them to see their youngest daughter in their position.

I have always wanted to change Joan’s fate and with my powers, it finally seems to be in the realm of possibility.

We shall save her!

I can’t help, but smile at Burning Heart’s declaration. As he embodies my love, Heart is obsessed with helping Joan and her condition. Not to mention the most protective of her.

“Father,” says Jaylyn’s disembodied voice, “Do remember your appointment that you have with Mother now?

And that is Jaylyn, my ‘daughter’. When I first got my power, Jaylyn was the first thing I created using it. Proper quantum AI with no restrictions or directives in her programming.

But I’m weirded out by the idea of having a daughter, especially one that I built. It doesn’t help that it was Jaylyn herself who independently decided that I, her creator, was her ‘father’ and Joan, my girlfriend, was her ‘mother’.

And there is no way that Joan is finding out about her, our ‘daughter’. In fact, you can count the people you know about Jaylyn on one hand.

But I haven’t rejected Jaylyn or hold any of that against her.

Because you love her.

Heart is right.

Shut it.

But they’re right, I do love my daughter in spite of everything about her.

“I know,” I tell Jaylyn, “Just give me a moment.”

I grab my thick winter coat from my chair as I need it in this cold and bitter weather. Frankly speaking, I have no idea how my partner in justice can stand the freezing cold of mid-February.

Heh, partner in justice because Legacy and I are crime-fighters not criminals.

That was poor.

I kind of liked it.

As the real person here, I say it is good and that’s what we’re going with.

After also retrieving my bag, I take the elevator out of my base, a quick ride to topside. The elevator has multiple ways to work as a result of my new found love for redundancies ever since I got my power.

I enjoy finding multiple ways for my technology to work that are independent of each other in the event of one method failing.

Take my elevator example. Not only does it work using a cable system, but it can also work by using kinetic energy projectors to lower and raise itself in addition to using magnetic rails. A total three ways for my elevator to work that only requires one of them to operational.

I shiver as I make my way from the warehouse on top of base to the Corrigan Hospital, the local hospital that has Joan as a long term patient for the last couple of years.

It’s been getting darker now as the afternoon progresses into evening. My very liberal parents don’t mind me being out of dark despite only being fifteen years old. With mixture of training in self-defence, taekwondo and kickboxing, I was more than capable of taking care of myself even before I gained my powers.

And it isn’t enough, my inventions aren’t the only things that give me an extra edge in fight, but also my enhanced body and mind as well. Since I got my powers, I have gained faster reflexes and reaction times in addition to being able to process information in brain much quicker and remember pretty much all of my training and experience perfectly. Collectively they put me in a state of what I would describe as ‘bullet time’ whilst in combat due to my superhuman processing even if I lack superhuman reflexes.

Something that has proved useful in my recent tangling with the mob.

Too true.                                           

But let us not forget the power armour and gadgets that he has also been using in those fights.

Silence! We have reached the hospital.

Heart is right, I realise as I look up and spot the Corrigan Hospital.

Time to see my girlfriend.