A Slight Malfunction

JumpStart:

"So wait," SpeedBlade starts, looking at the cards in his hand. "How do I do this again?"

"I'm not sure," I reply, looking at the cards in my own hands. There is a picture of a black seven with a leaf, a red heart with a four, and a king. "Wait, when do I pull a card from the deck?"

"Draw," Ms. Justice says, "You draw a card when I say go fish."

"Wait, so do I draw a card now?"

"No. Not yet. First thing first, you need to ask one of us if we have a card."

Still confused, I look over at QuickShot.

"Do you, uh, have this card?"

I take the card with the black seven and leaf and show it to QuickShot.

"No," QuickShot answers. "Go fish. Also, that's called the seven of clubs, and you don't have to show it to me."

"Okay," I say, putting the card back in my hand and pulling a card from the deck. "Now what?"

"Now it's SpeedBlade's turn," Justice says. "SpeedBlade, ask away."

"May I go back to sleep," SpeedBlade asks.

"No," Justice cries. "Come on, you already slept five hours today. How can you still be tired?"

"I do a lot of running," SpeedBlade replies. "It makes me tired. Very tired."

Ms. Justice let out a sigh that raises her hair.

"Come on," QuickShot says, hitting SpeedBlade on his arm. "Let's just finish this game, okay? Afterward, we can all go back to doing our own things."

"Fine," SpeedBlade says, looking at the cards in his hand. "Do you have this card? It's three red diamonds."

"Who are you asking," I ask.

"Anyone," SpeedBlade replies. "I want to go back to sleep. So do any of you have this card or not."

"Here you are," Justice says, handing SpeedBlade the same card. "And it's fine. I wanted to teach you guys how to play Go Fish, and I did. You can all go now."

"Thank you," SpeedBlade says, putting his cards down and getting up. He disappears into his room a few minutes later, and we can all hear the sound of him falling onto his bed.

"Uhh," I start, rubbing the back of my head. "Can I go too?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks," I say, putting down my cards and getting up. Stretching out my arms as I get up, I turn around and head to my room.

QuickShot:

"You can go too," Ms. Justice says, reaching over for JumpStart's and SpeedBlade's cards. "I'm guessing since you're not from another world, you actually know the rules of Go Fish."

"I do," I reply, stopping Ms. Justice from gathering the cards. "And because I do, it means you won't have to explain anything to me."

I look at the card in my hand.

"Do you have an ace?"

"Go fish," Justice says, smiling as she picks up her cards.

JumpStart:

As I walk back to my room, I look at my crafting table. Scattered all over my table are parts, all different shapes and sizes pulled from trashcans all over the city. Pulling out my chair, I drop down and start building.

Grabbing a gear, I place it against a second gear and start spinning them. The two gears are now linked, I place them on a piece of machinery.

"Hopefully this work," I say, placing the machinery on my table. Looking to my left, I grab my lighting maker. I think QuickShot told me it's called a generator, but I prefer to think of it as a lighting maker. After all, back home, the only thing that can make power like this is a bolt of lighting.

I push a switch and watch as my lighting maker comes on. A humming sound starts, I grab two wires, one red and one blue. Tapping them together, they make a spark that blinds me.

Blinking a few times, my eyesight eventually returning, I look at the machinery.

"Be careful," I say, carefully aligning everything. "Be careful. Be careful."

The machinery and my wires touching, the machinery roars to life. It's shooting out smokes and the gears on the side are spinning at incredible speed.

"Yes, yes, yes," I say, looking at the gears as they soon start to move faster. "Wait. No. No! Too fast! Too fast!"

Removing the wires, the gears are still turning too fast, and to make matters worst, they seem to be shaking. Also, it looks like they are getting loose. I try to stop the gears but they're moving too fast. Without a second thought, I drop to the floor just as the gears come off and fly around my room.

Laying flat on the floor, my hands over my head, I listen as the gears fly all over, hitting and bouncing off the walls.

"What's going on," QuickShot says as she and Justice run into my room. I don't even have time to warn them but the gears are heading for them.

"Watch out," I yell, getting up. However, before I or QuickShot can do anything, Justice grabs and pulls QuickShot behind her. Bringing up her shield in time, the gears bounce off of it and stick to my table.

"Again," QuickShot says, "I ask. What is going on here?"

"Just a slight malfunction," I reply, dusting myself off.

"A slight malfunction," Justice repeats. "What exactly were you trying to do? Besides, turn gears into ninja stars."

"That is a surprise," I reply, looking at my crafting table. Laughing as I look at the two, I wrap my hand around one of the gears and pull.

"Come on," I say, still pulling. "Come on. Come on."

The gear finally pop out.

"Yes," I smile, laying the gear on the table. "Like I said, just a slight malfunction."

QuickShot and Justice look at each other before looking back at me. As they look at me, they frown.

"Uhh, I'm missing some parts," I chuckle, pointing at my table. "Can I, uhh, please go to your room to see if you have what I need?"

"Sure," QuickShot answers, "But just don't touch anything okay. Since Lighting Storm, I've been working on a new slime formula. It supposes to be stronger than before."

"Got it," I say, running through the two and over to QuickShot's room. As I step into QuickShot's room, I see a bunch of posters all over her room. There are pictures of flying machines and women with similar clothing to QuickShot on the posters.

As I enter QuickShot's room, I see her crafting table. A rusted steel table, the parts are all organized and placed inside drawers.

"Where do you keep your spare gears?"

I open one drawer but find nothing but a bunch of arrowheads. I open another drawer but find a sharpening stone instead. After going through a few more, I finally find the gears.

"Yes," I say, grabbing a few and closing the drawers. While closing the drawer, I notice some small glass cups filled with green water.

"What is this? Oh, is this the new slime QuickShot mentioned? Hmm, doesn't look even strong."

I'm about to poke it but I remember what QuickShot said. She told me not to touch anything.

I shrug my shoulder and turn to walk around. However, as I am turning, I accidentally kick one of the table's legs. I turn back to see the cups shake before tipping over.

QuickShot:

"What is JumpStart trying to build," I say, examining the parts all over the table. They seem to be a collection of mismatched parts, and yet somehow, JumpStart had built something from them. On the table, standing out like a sore thumb is some sort of complex piece of machinery.

"I have no idea," Justice replies, "But I really don't think you should be in his room. After all, you asked not to touch anything in your room. You should do the same."

I examine the machinery a bit more before pulling back.

"I understand. We have to respect each other-"

Before I can finish, a loud crash cuts me off. The crash seems to be coming from my room. It's shortly followed by JumpStart screaming.

"Nevermind," I say, stomping my head toward my most-likely destroyed room.

JumpStart:

The cup hits the floor and breaks, unleashing a flood of something green and white. It forces me out of the room.

"No, no, no," I scream as I am carrying out. "Oh no. QuickShot is not going to be happy about this."

"I'm not," QuickShot says, her and Justice appearing before me.

"I can explain," I say.

About to explain what happened, the lights in the OutPost change colors, and the alarm goes off.

"I will explain later," I say, climbing up. "For now-"

"For now," QuickShot says, "You will go into my room and grab my gears."