Chapter 7: La La Land

A week after my meeting In the Iowa City Walmart’s parking lot, I had two more paying customer’s deposits in the Gadgeteer account. Valkyrie’s suit had been the least expensive, not needing the artificial muscles. Spitfire’s wasn’t that much more initially, but once the suit itself was designed, we began talking helmets and communication systems. The system the Dover Angels used was pretty basic, designed in a hurry by Inspire, their previous tinkerer, as they called us mad geniuses over there. Sadly they had lost Inspire in the Lancaster bombings and had yet to find a replacement.

So I designed and built 5 helmets, each different in appearance, but with a common set of tech for communications and heads up data display. I also became the Dover Angel’s official gadgeteer, at least for super suits, after they saw Spitfire’s suit and the helmets. The helmets alone brought in a pretty penny!

That took me up to the Fourth of July weekend, and from there through the rest of the month until vacation time I had no customers, so I could relax and enjoy the summer on the river.

Well, I could have, and did to a degree, but...

After a handful of customers, I was already dissatisfied with the Mobile Lab. It worked flawlessly as a lab, but it was a pain to get around in. There were no accommodations for interviewing customers, and it just looked very utilitarian and had no mad genius flair. I know, first world problems, right?

So I was thinking and doodling a lot while laying out in the sun enjoying my lemonade or whatever. I was influenced in my efforts by Mike’s telling me that he was leaning more and more towards giving up the Dragonfly persona in favor of something more serious, once he had settled down somewhere. The suit would be easy enough to modify, but that meant Gossamer Wings was going to become a relic of a bygone era.

Another concern I had was the current system was designed to create one- offs, and one at a time. The device printer was a one-size-fits-all tool that sure, could print you up a Gossamer Wings, but was major overkill for most of my needs. I doodled endlessly until it was time to start packing. The night before our flight I started the device printer to printing out a series of tools, parts and fittings. I would have some assembly time waiting for me when I got back from California.

I had decided after my trip to Iowa City to put 10% of Gadgeteer’s earnings into Mike’s account, 10% into our family account and keep the rest in the Gadgeteer’s operating account. Every July 1st I would roll half of whatever was in the account into an investment account – In consultation with my mom of course. I was even thinking of asking Stellar for his advice.

The flight to LAX was pain-free, for the most part. Federal telepaths and precogs had pretty much sewn up American ports of entry from fear of terrorist travelers, but of course they were still a threat since they had super types too. Still, the frustrations of the TSA had been considerably lessened. First Class also eased the burden, as did the Limousine to the Disney Hotel.

If I had a little sister or brother I would have tried for one of the fantasy suites and all the other bells and whistles available, but Since it was just Mom and me, I settled for a nice two bedroom suite and all the ride tickets we could use. We had breakfast at the Cedar Rapids airport where we caught our flight, which had one stop in Denver. It was a six hour flight, counting the Denver stop, but our morning gained a couple hours as we flew west, so once we were checked in and squared away in our room, I lobbied for second breakfast as the Hobbits would say.

I had invited Nat to come with us, but her family had their own vacation happening at the same time on the other side of the country. She sounded disappointed that she couldn’t join us, but I knew teenage girls are trained by their mothers to be able to do the disappointed act. I could only hope hers was genuine. We texted each other fairly often and had spoken on the phone once. She had asked a lot of questions about Spitfire, which I found oddly comforting. Still I messaged her.

++ In Disneyland. Having second breakfast.

I took a selfie that featured me grinning and some of the very Disney decor and included that. I got a smiley and a thumbs up in response

We did all the premier attractions and rides, watched the fireworks and parades and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I particularly enjoyed the water features, as it was midsummer and the park was full of teenage girls dressed for it.

And on the third day, we rested. Okay, Mom rested. I had booked her a ‘spa day’ of pampering while I went to my meeting with Stellar.

Really I was taken to my meeting with Stellar. A slender fellow with a pencil mustache and a suit in black with hints of scarlet here and there stepped through a shimmering circle that appeared in the hotel room and gave me a smile.

“Your transportation has arrived, sir,” he said with a click of his heels and a grin, waving his arm at the shimmer. “Just walk through normally.”

“Thank you Jeeves,” I joked back. The man was actually Portal, one of the Los Angeles Guardians.

One step and I went from Disney posh to Guardian posh. A very large room with a huge series of twenty foot high windows looked out over the city from one of the hills. There were couches and chairs coffee tables, and side table with coffee, tea and finger foods. Next to it was what looked like a wet bar. Of course those details escaped me at first because standing in front of one of the couches was Stellar.

Everyone has seen pictures of him, tall, fit, masculine features with a sparkling smile and piercing blue eyes that up close looked like they had stars in them. He really drew the eye, no matter your gender or persuasion. He was just that magnetic a presence. He didn’t draw my eye enough to keep me from noticing another Guardian standing there. He wore a lab coat, a visor that resembled Geordi La Forge’s from the old Star Trek show, except instead of vertical slits, his had a sort of diamond accordion pattern. Brainstorm, my counterpart in the Guardians.

“Welcome to Guardians HQ,” Stellar greeted me in his hero voice.

A pleasure to be here,” I answered with a grin. “Thanks for inviting me.”

“Come sit down,” he wave towards a chair. “Brainstorm and I wanted to be here to greet you, but the rest of the Guardians should be by shortly. Can I get you anything?”

“No thanks,” I demurred. “Disneyland keeps you pretty much overfull of everything.”

“Indeed they do,” he laughed. “Is your mother enjoying it?”