Spring Break: Electronics Gone Wild

The hot beat down on the city below it. Today was a bright beautiful day, the sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in site. The sky was a beautiful light blue and the whole city seemed to be lit up. The only problem was the heat, Alex wasn't used to it, not at all. Back in Boston, it was only 50 degrees (Fahrenheit) but here it was at least in the 80s, without a breeze in sight.

Today, Alex and his class are going to the new Tech Expo in LA. His school was sponsoring a trip, where only the best of the best in his school's engineering class can get in. There was a group of about 7 kids, counting him, with 2 teachers as a chaperone. The group began to walk up to the convention center for the Expo.

When they opened the door the cool air was refreshing, it was a huge jump, it almost felt too cold in the expo now. As the teachers began to talk with ticket collector the kids sorta went off in their own groups and talked to each other. Alex stood back by himself, and just stared around, he was looking for someone to talk to. He went to talk to another kid, he was not with a friend either, so it wouldn't be that awkward to walk up and try to make conversation, so they don't both look like loners.

"Sooo... you a fan of tech expos?" Alex walked over saying, a little quietly as it was an awkward situation.
"No, not at all," the other kid began in a sort of high pitched, nasally voice, "My parents make me do all this, I for one would like to be at home..."
At this point Alex began to tune out a little, realizing he didn't really know anyone here and that this was gonna be a long trip.

As the class got through security and the ticket collectors the teacher turned around to the kids, he was a man of medium height and large stature, he seemed to be strong but also a bit on the chubby side, he was in a black polo, with sweat stains under the pits, and cargo shorts. His balding head was covered by a visor and he wore a badge around his neck reading "Class Tour: Chaperone".
"We have certain spots I want us all to see, then, when we return to the hotel, we will write about these in your class notebooks, you will be assigned the questions when we return, just make sure to take notes".

Alex took his bag off and brought it on front of him, he opened it and went to grab his notebook and a pencil, he then made sure to keep his "Blink" mask he has in their covered with other junk he has in the bag, just to be safe.

As the class went around Alex noticed one of the main attractions at the expo. It was by Peter Martinez, and surrounded by security guards. He saw a rounded grey puck made out of metal and other electronic parts. He began to go off from his group to get a better look at the whole set up and learn more about this new invention.

Suddenly, the whole expo seemed to go into chaos with people running and screaming, Alex didn't see what happened exactly, but he ran into the nearest bathroom. In there he ran into a stall and changed into his super hero costume, deciding on leaving his grey gym shorts on because it was so hot outside and he wasn't sure if this will go outside.

He left his bag in the stall and blinked out of the bathroom, he saw people running around and screaming. He looked over at the booth for the Peter Martinez invention and saw the security guards, weapons drawn, as an explosion went off right behind them...

667

Compared to what he dealt with in the more southern states, something in the 80’s was nothing that he couldn’t deal with. All it took was changing into a pair of cargo shorts he slipped out from a drawer and his favorite nerdy graphic tee, something portraying gears and he was all set. That however changed into him picking out an unofficial Atlas shirt with what looked to be arms supporting an image of of arms hefting a corona ringed planet earth.

Today was a pretty important day from what he could tell, though not really for him. It was a week ago that he met a strange man he assumed was a meta-human, spoke almost no English and seemed rather accepting of his help. Didn’t hurt that he was pretty good looking despite how old he seemed to come across.  Quickly he showed his technical aptitude and was drawn into one of those local technological expos. Something to get him recognition from what Pat could tell and that meant unveiling some unknown device to wow the masses.

Not like he kept the thing entirely secret. He was watching over his shoulder while he gathered together little bits of things he had dragged from a local junkyard. Turning garbage into something more useful. Standing in the entrance way of the massive convention center picked out for big thing, he buried hands into his pockets and frowned slightly. There were so many people that he felt as if he could get lost in the swell. Strange considering this was more of a nerd type thing compared to the things normal people took interest in.

”Big...crowd.” A voice noted, turning to see the slightly taller male with brown hair peppered with streaks of gray. He looked thoughtful, as if still trying to gather words together or read the ones projected across the lens over his left eye.  Looked like some kind of translator, though he didn’t really ask what it was in truth. Would have destroyed the mystery of the device itself.

”Sounds like that means there are plenty of people to see your new invention, right?” He arced a brow, hands resting on his hips and examining the building with silent curiosity.  There was some time before he planned to reveal his device but that was unimportant when he heard the sound of something ringing out through the building and shaking the building all at once.

An explosion?

Who would blow up a nerd convention like this? Without needing to be told he ducked down, picking out the nearest table as cover while looking to the man who had similar ideas. Despite seemingly being more intelligent it was possible for people to think similar enough. ”So much for a calm day of stupid stuff,” Peering out from under his hiding spot, Charlatan noted people running about and towards the exists. Would they be able to make it to the exits before whoever made the explosion revealed their reason for doing so?

Stoic and Humanity were busy with other things, so he would have to rely on his own things, and those things were hidden in his backpack. ”Keep here and i’ll look into what that was.” With that he slowly rose and slipped through various spaces between exhibits towards the rising smoke.

Junker sat working on his latest invention. It wasn't much, just a small device he could use to shut down any of his designs should they go rogue. He was about finished when his television turned on randomly. The inventor raised his goggles and turned towards the screen. "I'm Scoop Newsworthy, and this is your evening news. Tomorrow at the tech expo, they're showing off the latest tech from Silicon Valley and beyond! Stop in soon, because the show is going to be full soon!"

Junker put down his now finished device. He grinned while staring at it. Sliding on his boots, he slid out the front door. He wanted to make it to the tech convention fast, but he didn't know how to drive... yet.

Arriving at the tech convention, he set up explosives. They'd be a good distraction if nothing else, and he felt that he could use them as a way to get an exit going just in case his door was blocked by the people leaving the place. Junker hefted his junkpack on his shoulders and walked into the convention hall in full costume.

"Time to see what they've got." He said under his breath. He spotted several things he wanted immediately. An artificial warp drive, a teleportation pad, a hologram generator. He had to pick fast, those explosives were set to go off any second. Okay, the teleportation pad it is.' BOOM, the bombs went off without a hitch. He dove towards the teleportation pad and shoved it into the junkpack. He saw a hero diving towards the site of the explosion and tried to hurry. Crap. This could only go so well. He started charging his static collar.

(CURRENT CHARGE: 10%)