I was somewhat pleased to wake up in the morning. Given what had happened to me the day before, I felt I was justified to be pleased to still be alive. I hadn't had that feeling in a long time, the feeling of being glad to be alive. I guess it was some small thing to be thankful to Billy about. It wouldn't change the outcome, but I was thankful for that much. I bounced out of bed as soon as I heard Charlie finish in the bathroom. I dashed into the john and pulled up short. Charlie's door, normally completely closed, was now completely open. I watched in amazement as Charlie calmly selected her underwear for the day and laid it on the bed. She had dropped her towel earlier and I was staring at a living, breathing goddess; a naked one, at that!
I caught her watching me in her vanity mirror, a small smile playing across her face. I saw her glance down and her smile grew more pronounced, even as I was. Growing, pronounced. Shit, it was going to take me forever to piss. I debated closing the door, but left it open instead. I peed in the shower, just like any guy would.
Charlie made my lunch that morning, again, something she rarely did anymore. She had stopped being my 'mother' about the time she started dating. I carried our backpacks to the bus stop and we talked about nothing at all while we waited. It felt almost like old times, except for the petrified penis in my pants. That hadn't been a problem when I was younger. But it wasn't really a bad problem, not when Charlie was the cause.
As usual, the only seat available was next to Billy and I sat on the corner of the seat, as usual. When the kick came, I was ready and imagined my butt as a steel plate. Then, anticipating the contact, I moved backwards toward his foot at hypersonic speed just a fraction of an inch at the precise moment his foot made contact. The kids in the seats around us heard the sharp sound of his tibia snapping in two. The whole bus heard his shrill screaming. My attentiveness to his injury allowed me to go through all of his pockets until I found the watch, which I reclaimed.
"Bus Driver!" I shouted over the screams of Billy. "I think Billy needs to go to the hospital."
The driver made an emergency stop in the middle of the road, secured the bus so that no student could steal it and came back to check what was making all the noise. Billy had managed to thrash around, with a little bitty help from me, so that the original simple fracture was now a compound fracture with part of the bone sticking out of his pants leg. There was blood, too, but that bone looked painful. It must have been because each time I whacked it, Billy's eyes would roll up in his head.
Following the Emergency procedures, the bus driver called in the emergency and headed for the emergency room. About halfway there we were met by an ambulance and Billy was transferred to a gurney and then was whisked away. I felt fairly pleased with myself, until I saw Charlie looking at me with a thoughtful look in her eye. She saw me watching her and she just shook her head slightly. She may not know exactly what happened, but she damn well knew that something had happened. Oops.
We were late arriving to school. I was late for English. Mrs. Bascom finished giving her lecture on Shakespeare's sonnets, handed out a quiz and came over to me.
"Are you all right, Mr. Hornsby?" she asked quietly.
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Well, we were all concerned about you. We heard there was a serious injury on your bus and, well, we naturally thought of you. You understand?"
"Yes, Ma'am. Thank you for your concern. It was Billy, Ma'am. His leg broke."
Mrs. Bascom looked at me in deep thought. "That is an interesting phase you used, Mr. Hornsby. Did his leg just break all by itself? He was just sitting and then — as if by magic — his leg broke? Is that what you're trying to imply?"
"No, Ma'am. I wasn't implying that his leg broke itself."
She looked at me, waiting for me to continue. I didn't.
She snorted, trying to hold back a laugh. "Well, I'm glad no one else was injured."
"Yes, Ma'am." I understood I had been warned.
Math class was quiet as Charlie was in a somber mood. She got like that when she was thinking something through. I didn't think she was mad at me, but if she knew the truth, I don't think she would be very proud of me right now. So far I had touched her without her knowledge or permission and looked at her naked, lied to her, assaulted another student, OK, in self-defense, but still, I had made it worse and tormented him after. I was no better than my peers.
I suddenly realized I was acting as if I had no conscience. Not one I could be proud of, anyway. Everything I was doing was cold and calculated. I wasn't sure I liked who I was becoming.
I walked into the science building and Mr. Griggs wasn't there today, either. A substitute teacher was there and he informed us that Mr. Griggs had had emergency surgery yesterday morning for a perforated ulcer. The substitute was going to be with us for a while. I groaned. Charlie must have known about Mr. Griggs being in the hospital, but she hadn't push it. And worse, this bozo was going to make me act like a real student. I could only hope he would let me work in the lab in the afternoons.
The class was boring and I was trying to work on the problem of getting into my lab, but my attention kept being drawn back to the droning coming from the front of the room. Something was bothering me about the substitute. And when something bothers me, I generally gnaw at it until I figure it out. He seemed competent enough. In fact, he seemed to know as much as Mr. Griggs did about science or more. He never read from the textbook as he lectured; in fact, he was using terms and theorems that weren't in our textbook, more on a university level course, not high school.
He also talked into the chalkboard when he wrote on it, something that takes teachers years to learn, so he wasn't a rookie. His shoes were OK. That's the first thing they tell you to look at as people will change a lot, but not their shoes. He was wearing loafers, what you would expect any professor to wear.
Wait! Professor? Nice suit. Really nice suit. Good haircut, $75 shirt. This guy's no substitute. He's not quite a professor; more like a Government-issue professor would be. That would explain the extra scratches on his belt, a place to clip a badge and gun holster.
'Shit, Doug, ' I told myself, 'you're seeing boogie men, now. One simple attempt on your life and suddenly the whole world is a conspiracy.'
I laughed to myself and tried to let it go, but I couldn't shake the nagging feeling. I decided I didn't want to be alone in the lab with him in the building, so I left with the other students after class and headed for the library. I chose a place where I could see the science building and, as luck would have it, where I could also see into Mr. Griggs' office and private lab. I spent the afternoon watching the substitute searching through files and drawers, becoming more and more frustrated as the day wore on.
I left before the last bell. I dashed off a note to Charlie letting her know I was going downtown and hurried to the bus stop to catch the city bus. I would have teleported, but I didn't know where I could appear without someone seeing me. Still, it was just two transfers and a short walk and I was at the hospital Mr. Griggs had been brought to for his ulcer. No one told me, it's just that this was the only hospital with a GastroIntestinal (GI) surgeon, someone you would need for surgery on a perforated ulcer.
I slipped into the GI ward and walked up and down the hallways looking for Mr. Griggs. It wasn't until my third hallway that I caught a break. I spied the substitute teacher coming out of the elevator just as I was turning the corner. Fortunately he turned the other way, letting me see the outline of a Glock pistol in the small of his back. Teaching must be very dangerous where he is from, no?
I followed the sub towards a section of the hospital that had been closed due to lack of patients. The hall was still bright with lights but there were no patients in the rooms and no nurses at the station. The sub pushed open a door, slipped inside and closed it behind him. I hurried up to the door and tried to hear.
'Dummy, ' I thought to myself, 'you can turn invisible.'
I went into the room across the hall and went invisible. All my clothes fell in a heap at my feet. I folded them neatly and hid them in the closet. Then, I pushed my hand through the closed door, walked across the hall and then through the door where the sub had gone.
Four men were in the room, five counting Mr. Griggs. Mr. Griggs didn't look like he had had surgery for an ulcer. He looked like he had had the shit beat out of him. I was about ready to assume these guys had done it, but before I did anything I thought I should listen. Besides, these guys had guns. What was I going to do, pee on their shoes?
"You didn't find anything?" one of the men asked the professor.
"Nothing that would cause them to do this," said the sub, indicating the injuries to Mr. Griggs.
"Could it be someone after something old he's done? One of his old projects? One of his previous ops?"
"Like what? The old stuff everyone knows about. And the ops are top secret."
"No, I meant some of the science fiction-type stuff he's already done that no one is supposed to know about, like, you know, that energy whatsamajigger."
"Enough! This is not a secure room!" I took it this guy was in charge.
"Maybe we're on the wrong track," he continued. "Griggs mentioned a kid — Hornsby — in one of his reports. Did you see him today?"
"Yeah. Wimpy little runt. Smart, bright even, but nothing special. Spent the class daydreaming and in another world. Of course, there's nothing unusual about a bright kid being bored in class, though. There was nothing in the locked lab but the stuff Griggs was working on with the regular students. Nothing of the kid's."
"OK. Well, thanks for filling in, professor. I guess you can get on back to DC."
"No problem." With that, the sub got up and left the room.
The guy in charge came over and looked down at Griggs. I could tell he was concerned about him. I was glad I hadn't had to piss on his shoes.
I knew I could pass through things when I was invisible. I also knew that Charlie had somehow gotten a sense of me when I touched her. I was standing there next to an unconscious man, my friend and my teacher. If I couldn't help him, who could I help? I closed my eyes and touched my fingers to Mr. Griggs' head. I knew sensations could pass from me, now I wanted to find out if I could sense anything from him.
The heart monitor on the wall behind Mr. Griggs went crazy, then settled down. I felt really strange for a minute, then I 'saw' what had happened to Mr. Griggs. I also realized I was in his body, using his mind and his memories. Damn, that catheter jammed up my prick hurt! Fucking nurse must have used an extra large.
I opened Mr. Griggs eyes and looked out at three very surprised agents. I, or Mr. Griggs, knew who they were and he only trusted one of them, the leader.
"You, stay. You two, out," I said with Mr. Griggs' voice.
The leader nodded.
"Listen, not much time. The people that did this to me, it was a family in town, last name of Jones. Could be a fake name. Strange bunch, maybe hired by Chinese or Russians. Whoever. Too much money, too nosey. Father and two oldest kids caught me coming out of Chinese Food place. Check out Ms. Brisard, French teacher. She placed the order, had me pick it up."
"Brisard? Why? Isn't she the one you were dating?"
"Only to get close. Guess it worked, huh? It felt like a setup. We didn't run into each other; they were waiting for me at the restaurant."
"Any ideas why?"
I had to really dig deep into Mr. Griggs' memories here and it made me feel dirty. He had a hunch, but I could also tell he didn't like to reveal his hunches until he had proof. But he was going to be laid up for a long while, too, and couldn't investigate on his own.
"From before. The explosion. Don't know for sure, just a feeling. Family connections, maybe? I don't like to guess."
"Anything else?"
"Tired. Got to go now."
I slipped out of his mind and Mr. Griggs body settled back into the pillow, still unconscious.
The older agent stood looking at his unconscious friend for a long while, deep in thought. Then, shaking his head in disbelief, he turned and left the room. Shortly after, a tough looking nurse stepped through the door and settled into a chair to watch over Mr. Griggs.
I went back to the room across the hall, turned visible, got dressed and made my way out of the hospital. I teleported back to the school and caught the last activity bus back home. Charlie was on the bus and we sat together, riding in silence.
"So, did you go see Mr. Griggs?" she asked as soon as we were alone.
"Yes. When did you know?"
"I was in the office yesterday morning when the hospital called."
"Oh."
"Yeah. 'Oh' is right, you little twerp. You lied to me. I know you must have a good reason, but something is going on."
"Uh-huh." I let it hang.
"And? Are you going to tell me or are you going to make me find out?"
Charlie would find out, too. I knew that.
"I, uh, I can't tell you right now."
"Why not?" Charlie was very much a bottom line kind of girl.
"Because I don't know what's going on," I said. I was almost crying, I was so frustrated.
"Does it have anything to do with what happened to me last evening?"
"Sort of," I said blushing.
"Well, at least you have the grace to be embarrassed about it. And what about what happened to Billy this morning? That, too?"
"Kind of."
"I take it that whatever this is, it's not something to do with your normal teenage hormones running amok?"
"Uh, no, not really."
We had finally entered the house. Charlie sat me down on the sofa and she pinned me there with her glare.
"So, what is it you can't tell me?"
I didn't know what to do, so I disappeared. My clothes fell into a heap where I was sitting.
Charlie fainted.
I sat and waited. Charlie had never fainted on me before but I figured she was OK. She was not in physical distress and it was just the emotional shock that caused her to faint. After a minute or two she opened one eye.
"Dougie? Are you there?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm right here," I answered.
"Dougie? Dougie? Where are you?" She was getting scared. She hadn't heard me.
I had never tried to talk when invisible. I was beginning to understand a little bit about what was going on with this invisibility stuff, but I hadn't thought about sound waves being affected. It made sense that if light waves were affected it would do the same to sound waves. I turned visible for her.
"I'm right here, Charlie," I said again.
"Shit, Dougie! Don't do that! You scared the crap out of me." Then it hit her. "You little horny toad! That was you last night. You - You — You..." she sputtered.
"— was the best ever?" I added helpfully.
She got this strange look on her face, then burst out laughing.
"That's not exactly what I was going to say, but, well, yeah. You were." She looked over, leering at me. "You're naked, Dougie. Cute tushie, bro."
"Yeah. That's one of the things I'm working on. Only clothes that have gone through the process turn invisible when I do." I picked up the pile of clothes on the sofa and got dressed.
"The process?" she asked.
"I'll get to that. First, you cannot tell anyone — anyone! — about this, not even Mom."
"Especially Mom," she muttered. She looked up at me with a guilty look on her face. "I haven't told Mom anything since Daddy left and she started drinking."
"Me, neither," I agreed.
"So, you can turn invisible and you can give great head. What else does this 'process' do? Anything to do with the ride you got from Mr. Griggs last night while he was in the hospital? Anything to do with Billy's broken leg?" she interrogated me.
I took a deep breath and thought for a minute. Charlie smiled. She knew I was organizing my thoughts and that she would get a complete, if precise, report. I started out with how we were winding the wire around the large iron rings, how Mr. Griggs and I had decided to try something different. I told how Billy had come into the lab and tried to kill me when I was inside the sphere. I mean, he didn't hit me or anything, but I had somehow sensed his intent. I told her how he stole Father's watch and how I got it back. I told her about getting home from the lab that night. And I told her about what had happened in Mr. Griggs' hospital room. I told her, too, about being able to walk through walls.
Charlie was quiet for a long time. Finally she said, "It sounds like you're phase shifting. Either that or you're slipping in and out of a parallel universe. Or, those could both be the same thing, if some of the science fiction writers are correct."
I smiled at her. "I was thinking along those same lines, but some of the things don't fit. Like the teleporting and mind reading stuff, like when I was in Mr. Griggs body."
"You didn't read my mind the other night?"
I shook my head. "No. To be honest, I was paralyzed with your beauty. I wasn't even thinking."
Charlie blushed. "Thank you, Dougie. That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me. And it's nice to know you're normal, at least in some respects."
It was my turn to blush.
"I want in," she said suddenly.
"Charlie, it's too dangerous. I still need to do a lot of experimentation to make sure it's safe."
"Bullshit!" she said. "I'm not going to let you go through this by yourself."
"But I don't even know what 'this' is, yet," I protested.
"Well, then we'd better get busy finding out, right?" she grinned at me.
"OK, but not until we're sure, right?"
"Screw you. As soon as possible."
"But..."
"But nothing. It's settled," Charlie stated. She was putting her foot down. She was also putting her life on the line and putting herself in tremendous danger. I hadn't had a choice and had gotten incredibly lucky. She was being reckless.
She stood up and wrapped her arms around me. "Can you transport me, too?"
"I don't know. I was able to bring my books with me and they hadn't been processed," I replied.
She nodded. "Experiment number one. Transporting heavenly bodies," she said airily.
I groaned. I hugged her to me and imagined the hallway outside my lab on the second floor of the science building. And we were there.
"Whoa!" whispered Charlie. "That was cool."
"Stay here," I told her and went invisible. I had wanted to check out if the lab was bugged or under surveillance. Billy had been far too knowledgeable about what he was doing with some pretty high tech stuff. As far as I knew he had never been in the building before.
I walked through the locked door and into the lab. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I tried to reach out and see if anything was broadcasting or signaling on any frequencies. I didn't know how I could do it, but when I was invisible, I could 'see' electromagnetic radiation (EMR) if I looked for it. Like radio and television signals, cell phones and the waves that leaked from microwave ovens. I tried to focus on anything that was unusual and found nothing.
Then I got a bright idea. I turned on the lights. The lights came on and so did a couple of other machines. One was a wireless video camera. I tracked the signal to a hidden closet in one of the empty rooms. There I found a laptop that was recording everything that happened in the lab. The camera was positioned to record the settings of every instrument in the lab. They could see the readings on the HV generator, the laser output settings, everything. They could even read the screen on my computer at the lab desk.
I checked the files on the computer. Apparently whoever was spying on me wasn't too diligent. The last download was two nights before Billy had tried to kill me with the laser. I had no doubt now that that was what he was trying to do. The spies had to have seen the destructive power of the laser beam Mr. Griggs and I had built. To turn it on me was attempted murder.
Being the genius I am does have certain advantages. Altering computer files was part of my early education. I went back to where I had left Charlie and turned visible. I grabbed a thumb drive from my backpack, which I still had with me. I took her and showed her the computer and told her about the camera. I copied the file of Billy's attempted murder onto the thumb drive and then deleted the file from the computer. I copied the file of the night prior, with only the custodial staff cleaning, in place of the deleted file. I changed the date stamp and even altered the time stamp on the bottom of the picture. If you watched the two videos side by side, you would see they were mirror images of each other, except for the time stamps. I hoped that those changes would be enough to throw the casual viewer off.
I went invisible again and went back into the lab. I turned off the lights and went to the camera. I pulled out the batteries and shorted them out, discharging them completely. I put the now dead batteries back into the camera and replaced it as I had found it.
I still had to find out what the second signal was. When I had turned on the lights I had noticed two signals. The second signal was harder to locate, but when I found it, I was puzzled. It looked like it was the smoke alarm, but that made no sense to only be active when the lights were on. I traced the wires back and found that some idiot actually had wired them in that way. I fixed it and went back to Charlie.
The lab was kept unlocked so we went in the door. The first thing I had to do was see if Billy had managed to damage the laser when he was pounding on it. The advantage of using military surplus equipment is that the stuff is built tough. It was still somewhat delicate, but it was meant to withstand repeated landings on a pitching carrier deck. I looked it over carefully.
Billy had only managed to dent the outer housing. If he had hammered on the lens housing or the lenses, it would have been all over for them, but he either didn't know about the lenses or he was just stupid. My bet was on stupid.
I reset the laser and turned on the aiming beam. It was still aimed at the sphere. Next I examined my backpack and my clothes for small pieces of metal. I figured non-ferrous (no iron in them) metals would be OK as they shouldn't be affected by the magnetic fields, but I wasn't going to chance that up front.
I had been wearing sweatpants and a heavy shirt. Even my shoes were metal free and the grommets around the holes were plastic. I piled them in a neat pile inside the sphere along with my backpack. I had to tear off a couple of the zipper tabs, but the rest was plastic.
Charlie was watching every move I made. I think she understood what I was doing, if not why, but I knew she would be able to report on anything that happened.
I fired up the HV Generator. I did make one change from what Billy had done in that I let it fully stabilize before I hit the three switches to charge the electromagnetic rings. When they were charged — you could hear them hum when they were in tune — I went over to the laser. With a nod from Charlie I hit the button. The HeNe aiming beam disappeared and the powerful military laser beam blasted into the magnetic fields surrounding the sphere.
It was the longest 10 minutes I had ever experienced. Billy's 'method' had used the full 5 minutes of the laser, then 5 minutes of 'baking' with the magnetic sphere. That's when I had regained consciousness and had been invisible when Billy had looked for me. I was willing to bet the second 5 minutes weren't necessary, but I would change the recipe later when I had time to experiment. I had shut down the laser after the 5 minutes to let it cool down. It was a solid state model and I wasn't worried about it breaking down. Since I had added the cooling fan, the laser was running very reliably. I also had enough extra parts to build at least a couple of additional units if I had to, but I really didn't want to have to start playing around with the unit yet, just in case this whole thing was a fluke.
I put on my now processed clothes and went invisible. I looked down at the floor and was pleased to see that my clothes had remained on my body this time. They were not in a pile on the floor.
I went visible again and this time I put a handy textbook in my backpack. Charlie was watching carefully and I could tell when she got what I was doing. I turned invisible and she gasped.
"It worked, Dougie! The book is totally gone!" she exclaimed.
That was going to make things a lot easier, especially if we had to carry electronics or metal objects that might not go through the process. We could just carry them in processed bags.
My next experiment was to put the backpack on the floor next to me and then for me to go visible. I looked down at where I had placed the backpack and it was still invisible. I swiped my hand through the space it was suppose to occupy. My hand went right through the space without even a tingle. That was good. That meant we could stash things in plain sight, so to speak.
Next, I went back invisible. I looked down at where the backpack was supposed to be. It was there. I breathed a sigh of relief. It would not have been good to 'hide' something and then not be able to find it again. Apparently, where ever it was I was going, it was always the same place — uh, if it was even a 'place, ' as we think of it.
I know all of these steps sound simplistic and boring. I had no idea, however, what we were going to be dealing with and what the properties and principles of the process were. I was trying to establish our boundaries, so to speak.
I picked up the backpack and returned to visible. I took the textbook out of the pack and held it in my hands. I looked and Charlie.
"Tell me if you can still see the book after I disappear," I told her.
I turned invisible but kept just the part of my hand on the book semi-transparent. Charlie giggled.
"I can see the book and it's just floating there; like a very bad special effects in the movies. And there is something else. Is that part of your hand?" she asked.
I turned visible again. Charlie was stripping out of her clothes. She had on a sports bra with no metal and the sexiest pair of non-sexy panties I had ever seen. She climbed into the sphere. Even though she was bigger than I was, her gymnastic skills allowed her to crawl into the confining space with grace.
When she was squatting on the bottom beams she looked over at me.
"Beam me up, Scotty..." she quipped.
"Charlie ... I..." I choked up.
"I love you, too, Dougie. More than I could have ever imagined. But let's do this before I chicken out," she said.
I knew she wouldn't chicken out. I also knew this was potentially the single stupidest thing I had ever done in my life. Our lives. Charlie could die.
I said a silent prayed to a God I hoped existed, now more than ever, as I turned on the HV generator and engaged the magnetic rings.
Charlie's body lifted off the bottom of the rings and floated in the middle of the sphere. I could see her muscles tensed up. Her eyes were wide, but not fearful.
I checked the HeNe beam to determine the focus, then, with another prayer, I hit the laser button.
Charlie's eyes rolled up in her head. I remembered I had fainted, too, and that there was a lot of pain. If the wait last time had taken a long time, this time I thought it would never end. I noticed that Charlie's body began to fade out of sight. I went invisible and watched her body appear in the new dimension, for lack of a better term.
The laser turned off at 5 minutes and I let her stay inside the magnetic fields for another 5 minutes. I still wasn't sure it was necessary but I wasn't going to change it this time, just in case.
When the time was up, Charlie was still out. I turned off the magnets and shut down the HV generator. I stayed invisible and helped Charlie out of the sphere. I lay her on the floor, using her skirt and my backpack as a pillow for her head.
A couple of minutes she opened her eyes and looked around. She looked up at me and looked a little disappointed.
"I guess it didn't work, huh?"
I grinned down at her and helped her to stand up. I walked her over to the safety area and had her look in the mirror over the sink. I blinked visible and then invisible and she could see my body appear and then disappear in the mirror.
"OH! Cool!" she said, giggling. "How do I make myself visible?"
"Well, I kind of just 'think' about appearing or disappearing. That's what I do."
I could see her face screw up in concentration. Slowly she appeared in the mirror.
Her face beamed in a huge smile. "This is so cool. Just awesome!"
She disappeared and I felt a cool sensation on my cock. I had a strong sensation of Charlie in my mind and then I exploded in my shorts.
"Jesus, Charlie!"
She appeared next to me, licking off her hand. "Now we're even." She grinned over at me. "Was that the best ever?"
"That was my only ever, and you damn well know it, Miss Smarty Pants." I glared at her, then grinned. "But, yeah, it was the best. You're the best, Charlie."
I started to shut down the lab while she dressed in her unprocessed clothes.
"See you at home," she said and stood there. When nothing happened, she looked over at me, puzzled.
"Just thing of a specific place, like your bedroom. Focus on it," I told her
She got a dreamy look on her face and then disappeared. I hoped she wasn't thinking of anyplace with people in it. I focused on my bedroom and blinked out of lab.