Chapter 6: Summer Style

Over the summer I began fielding responses from heroes all over the place. Most were just the “Glad to hear there’s still a Gadgeteer out there, Good luck!” Sort, but some were calls asking for appointments, which is how the previous Gadgeteer handled things. A few were sort of amusing, as the calls usually went “Hi! This is the Black Flag. I’ve gained a few pound recently and my suit doesn’t fit as comfortable as it used to. Could I make an appointment for some alterations?” Of course that was just an example, as there’s no hero named Black Flag as far as I know, its just a kind of bug spray.

Those were always easy and quick. The better, meaning more lucrative, ones were the guys (and a gal) who wanted a whole new suit because they were going on a new diet and would fit back into the old one soon, but in the meantime...

So, with my now completed steampunk Gadgeteer suit for disguise, I had filled three orders in three weeks. At this rate I’ll have pulled in my first million before summer was over.

I was looking forward to the end of July when Mom and I would head west to enjoy Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm and the other Los Angeles based attractions. While that would be fun, it was more that I was looking forward to it because I would be meeting with Stellar, the leader of the LA Guardians. Stellar was a world class telepath and telekinetic, so he referred to me by name when he called. Of course I happened to be sitting at the console when he called. No coincidence, he assured me.

The other non-casual call was from a British hero named Spitfire, who was going to be in the states for a week and wondered if I could fit her in. She was ‘unhappy with her current costumer’ as she put it. I said sure and arranged to meet her on the coming Sunday at the Iowa City Walmart closest to the municipal airport. “Please come in civilian dress and look for the ‘Regency Van Lines’ cargo van in the parking lot.”

The next day I received a surprise while checking the Gadgeteer’s voice mail.

“Hi Gadgeteer, this is Valerie Winger, remember me? I need to make an appointment to see you. Message me at this number, would you?”

Val? Nat’s Val? I hadn’t heard from either of them since they left with Nat’s suit.

++ Hi Val. Free the next few days if you can get here.

++ Sorry, busy until the weekend. Would Sunday do?

++ Sure, if you can meet me in the Iowa City Walmart parking lot.

There was a brief pause at that point, where I’m sure she was Googling Iowa City Walmart.

++Works for me. The one by the airport or the one further out of town.

++By the airport. FYI, you may be sharing time with another customer, which is why I will be in Iowa City.

I gave her the same details as I had to Spitfire and sat back and wondered.

I spent the rest of that week catching up on some ideas, jotting down a few new ones, contemplating my customer base. Saturday I spent restocking and freshening up the mobile lab and switching it over to the Regency Van Lines artwork.

I slept at the warehouse Saturday night because I wanted to get an early start. I had a cold Mountain Dew in the cup holder and a bag of bagels from Bag-o-Bagels. I headed west until I hit highway 92 just east of Grandview and took that route west, across the Iowa River and passing through Columbus Junction by 8 am. Other than the pains of making sure I would fit through an unmarked underpass that I came upon outside of Grandview, it was smooth sailing. 92 took me to 218 were I turned north and more or less followed the Iowa River all the way to Iowa City. It was a no sweat trip, other than that underpass and I arrived just short of 9:30. I was used to highway driving, but the van felt unwieldy, so I stayed in the slow lane the entire way. Fortunately, Sunday highway traffic in the area was pretty light.

I found a parking space at one edge of the Walmart lot and got things squared away and a pot of coffee brewing, checked to make sure the rest of the sodas were cold in the mini fridge in the back, before opening the door and pulling up the collapsible canopy and a lawn chair.

I was looking comfy, trying to figure out how to sip cold soda and gnaw on a mini bagel while wearing my Gadgeteer helmet when I spotted two figures heading my way from two different angles. One was too tall to be anyone but Val Winger. The other one appeared to be half her size but had the brightest red hair I’d ever seen outside of the comics. Once they were close enough for conversation I greeted them both with “Good morning, ladies! I wasn’t expecting to see both of you bright and early, so I apologize. Spitfire, I’d have to guess who you would be by the color of your hair, but I already know the other young lady, so sorting you two was easy. I’ll keep calling the young lady that,” I said, turning to Val. “since I assume you don’t want me to use your real name?”

“Why don’t you call me Valkyrie like your buddy did last time. I’m kinda thinking I’m gonna stick with that name. I like it.”

“It fits,” Spitfire said, looking up at Val. Now that they were closer I could see that she was not half Val’s size, but still looked to be 5 foot tall at most. Compared to Val’s 6’ 4”, wide shouldered frame she did look tiny. Tiny and odd. She was wearing a zip-up hoodie several sizes to large for her, and beneath the hoodie you could see some sort of pea green leggings and bright blue boots. She saw me looking and I raised an eyebrow at her.

With a disgusted Hmph! She unzipped the hoodie and let it drop to the ground. The pea soup leggings became bright yellow above the waist with a red triangle that looked like french-cut panties, but I supposed were intendeded to simulate trunks. The bright yellow sleeves ended in bright blue armlets to match the boots with a cowl, currently collapsed around her neck, also bright blue. On her chest, across too-large breasts was a flame that would have done any fifties dragster proud.