Chapter 9

I woke when my alarm rang shrilly in my ears. I washed, dressed, breakfasted, and was soon in the car and off to school. I was still annoyed by my failure with my suit, and was keen to get back to it and fix the problems, so I was a little distracted. I wandered in to the classroom which was empty and sat staring out of the window lost in thought. I was so distracted I didn't even notice Vicky sit down next to me, until she patted on my shoulder, causing me to let out a squeak and jump three feet in the air.

"Easy, Lexi! It's just me," my friend said grinning.

I felt embarrassed for jumping like a mouse at nothing more than my friend tapping me on the shoulder. 'Definitely not really super-villainess behaviour.' I had been thinking about modifying my suit's leg design to allow me to jump long distances, and had been so I involved I was completely unaware of my surroundings.

"Kinda highly strung today," said Vicky as I composed myself.

"I was just thinking, that's all," I said.

"What about?"

'Damn, now I've shot myself in the foot, I need to make something up.' "Oh a few projects I'm working on."

"Cool, like what."

"Oh ... Er ... Well some improvements to Kittybot," I said, racking my brain for what I could say. "I've been thinking about giving her a voice."

"Sounds cool ... one could even say it's the cat's meow!" Vicky said with a wicked glint in her eyes, trying desperately to suppress the giggles her comment tickled.

I tried to keep a straight face, but it was very hard with my friend on the brink of cracking up about her silly joke. Eventually all it took was one of us to smile slightly for the two of us to break into uproarious laughter, which made the few classmates that had arrived stare at us with bemused expressions. Vicky was laughing so hard she seemed unable to control her boneless limbs and began to slip off her seat. I had to catch her arm, which she wrapped around mine to keep herself from tumbling onto the floor.

Her little comment hadn't been that funny, but now we had set each other off it didn't take much to start us both laughing again. We would calm down and then one of us would glance at the other and try to suppress a smirk, and that would be all it would take to set us off in gales of laughter. I was laughing so hard it hurt and I was beginning to see stars.

We were still struggling to suppress the giggles when our teacher came in. All through the register we were both practically in tears from the effort of suppressing our uncontrollable laughter. It got to the point where the original instigating incident was all but forgotten and now it was just the sheer hilarity of our inability to stop laughing was itself causing us to laugh. It was also the fact that we shouldn't laugh, which made it that much harder to suppress it. I nearly lost it when I had to answer my name. We managed to make it to the bell without getting in trouble but when we got out into the corridor we couldn't help laughing like crazy.

Vicky had to cling to my arm to keep from falling down she was laughing so hard. By the time we got to first lesson the giggles had pretty much died down, but for the rest of the day we had a few random resurgences when one or other of us would smirk a certain way at the other and cause us both to have fits of giggles.

Colin joined us for lunch again, and after he had sat down we had one of our relapses which caused us to giggle like crazy people, much to his amusement. It was the first time I had seen him smile. During the middle of this I saw Tara glaring at the two of us, then get a nasty look on her face, an evil grin. I wondered briefly if I could pull the same thing off. It was pretty good villain material.

Colin suddenly stiffened swung back to look at Tara and then forward to look at me and Vicky. "Watch out!" Cried Colin as a girl walking along behind us with a tray piled high with food mysteriously, (probably with a little help from Tara), tripped and spilled it all over me and Vicky.

We stopped laughing abruptly, then Vicky took her gloved finger and wiped some of the spilled food off her shirt and tasted it. "Mmmm my compliments to the chef, and thanks for the speedy delivery. You need to work on your dismount, though," she said to the girl standing behind us with a horror struck face and empty tray.

For some reason I found that very funny, and soon myself, then Vicky, then Colin, and eventually even the girl behind us were all laughing manically. The girl was trying to apologise, during bursts of big whooping laughter which only made the rest of us laugh harder. Vicky lost control of her limbs again and slid off onto the floor before I could catch her. She lay there, tears rolling down her cheeks as we laughed like crazy. I saw Tara storm out of the dinning hall, face as dark as a thunder cloud and I felt like I was going to pass out I was laughing so hard.

Eventually we were cleaned up, the girl got some new food and waved us goodbye, still laughing as she went to join her friends. Our giggles had slowed a little but still bubbled just under the surface.

"What has gotten into you two today," said Colin smiling.

"I don't know," I giggled, pausing to grab Vicky who nearly fell off her stool again.

We finished up our lunch and decided to head over to the library but while there, another of our giggling fits hit and Miss Gordon said we should go, since we were making too much noise. We went for a walk around school grounds instead. After lunch we managed to calm ourselves enough that we only had the occasional giggle, and actually managed to get some of our school work done.

At the end of the day we walked home together. Dad had to stay for a meeting, so was unable to give us a lift.

"So what are your plans for the weekend?" asked Vicky.

"Oh not sure yet. Might play some games, maybe watch some TV, or go to the shops see what games and things are out," I replied.

"I'm off to see my Grandma this weekend. Otherwise we could have done something. There's always next weekend."

"Yeah, that would be nice."

"It's a bit of a shame. I've been so busy recently we haven't had much time to do stuff."

"Well we've not know each other long."

"That's true. It'd be nice to go shopping together or see a film or something."

"Yeah it would be cool to do that."

"I can't believe we spent the whole day just laughing."

"I don't think I've laughed that much before."

"Yah, me either. I can't even really remember what we were laughing about."

"That silly joke about the cat's meow."

"Oh yeah," Vicky said with a smile.

I gave a little chuckle and her grin deepened.

"He he, oh no you'll set me off again," she cried, which only made me giggle more. Soon my friend was fighting back giggles of her own. We walked along in near silence, trying to fight back the impending laughter, but as we turned into a small park on our route home we lost it. Bursting out into laughter again. Vicky nearly fell down she was laughing so hard. She had to grab on to me, which only made me shriek with laughter. Somehow we managed to make it to the entrance to my street and we waved good bye to each other, still chortling away. I was still giggling by the time I got back to the house.

"Well, someone's in a good mood," said mum as I walked into the kitchen.

I tried to tell her about what had happened, but it just made me crack up again, so I couldn't really speak. My mum looked at me with an amused expression and held up her hand as I was gasping for breath from laughing too hard.

"So long as you are enjoying yourself and not getting in any trouble, that's all that matters," she said and gave me a quick hug.

All throughout making dinner and then the meal itself I would at intervals find myself thinking about the day and have another attack of the giggles. I amused my parents no end.

Once dinner was out of the way I put my giggles aside and headed over to work on my armour. I had a lot to do on it, so I wanted to make a good start. With any luck I could finish this weekend, maybe even have it ready for my first crime.

I went to work tearing apart the old suit and began rebuilding it to my new design. With my faithful companion Kittybot keeping guard, (or at least watching me work), I threw myself at the project. I made pretty good progress. My use of my tools had improved greatly, and I soon had the majority of the work on the new legs done. I had even tested a few parts to ensure they would work properly this time.

I headed home before my parents got curious and came to see what my project was, or came to tell me it was bedtime. I watched a little TV with Kittybot curled up on my shoulder, then headed to bed. I wanted to be ready to start early on Saturday. The sooner I finished my armour, the sooner my life of crime could begin.

I woke bright and early Saturday morning, had a spot of toast, suited up and then went to work. I worked like a mad thing, drilling, cutting, hammering, welding till by lunchtime my machine was complete! I had a quick lunch, deposited a restless Kittybot in the safety of my room, and then got ready to test my latest and greatest creation.

I put on full safety gear. I was taking no chances. Elbow and knee pads I had from when I used to go roller-skating, eye protector goggles, some of my mum's old steel toe capped work boots, which with a little modification I had got to fit, and my bicycle safety helmet. I clambered into my suit and strapped in. Unlike my previous attempt where I just sat on top, this one contained me in the chest cavity. It meant I had less room, but probably better protection. I prepared to power the thing up slowly, using my powers to animate the suit's various motions. This was where I found the first design flaw. My suit stood an impressive nine feet tall, but the garage was a little over six. So I couldn't actually stand the thing up in the garage. In the end I had kneel it on a small wheeled cart then moved it out by walking with the arms, which did give me the opportunity to practice my control of the other limbs.

When I finally got it out of the garage without destroying its roof, I surveyed my work. My armoured suit stood nine feet tall, with my small stature contained in the main body of it in a metal armoured shell attached by makeshift shock absorbers to make the ride a little smoother.

It hinged open at the front and the door acted as a set of steps to let me clamber in. Then locked from the inside with a simple bolt. The rusty steel casing made from salvaged parts was mottled dull grey, with small patches of corrosion. The head area had a heavy mesh grill set in a vaguely head shaped box-like structure. The mesh allowed me to see out while protecting my identity. I had a mask as well, to further obscure my face. It had a built-in voice changer which would turn my high pitched voice to a robotic low one. A series of carefully placed mirrors gave me rear and side views. The main limbs of my suit were thick steel sections with various metal pathways for me to thread my magnetics through to allow me to control the limbs and the other toys I had installed.