Quenin Tran

Three days after I popped my idea to some of the city's leaders, I am almost done altering the Shield. My eyes ache from staring at computer screens and piles of handwritten and typed notes and my posture is stooped and my head pounds from hardly eating anything and barely sleeping.

I haven't spoken to Kaedin since our fight, and I don't have any desire to speak to him, or even acknowledge his presence any time soon. I want to, but I'm too stubborn to apologize. This will probably go on until some sort of life-saving thing happens, or we just automatically start hanging out again. That's how we work.

I hear the faint hiss of my lab doors opening and swivel my chair around to see who it is. My doors are designed to only let in certain people: my mom, my dad, Opez, Ahji, and Kaedin. Anyone else has to be let in by me.

Ahji stands in the doorway, holding food.

"Hello. I bring tidings of wonderful tastiness for one person!" he says.

"FOOD!" I jump out of my chair, weariness forgotten, and dash to him, grab the food, and return to my chair, throwing a "Thanks!" over my shoulder.

I dig into the food as Ahji pulls up one of my chairs and sits by me.

"You look terrible. You should sleep," he says.

"Gee, thanks a lot. I've only been trying to find a way to save the city by reconfiguring the entire Shield. Which, if you've forgotten, I created."

He raises his hands in defeat. "Fine. I'll leave you to it, then."

"Thank you. Now shoo." I point to the door.

He obeys, and I return to my computers.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

I sit up and rub my hands through my hair. I finished late last night and fell asleep soon after. Now, I need to test.

In my house is an old fashioned slingshot. I get it and head outside the Shield, picking up small rocks as I go. There is one end of the Shield that doesn't have any buildings by it, just some trees and open space. I go over there, outside of the Shield, and take out the slingshot.

I put a rock in it and shoot it towards the Shield. Once it is on its way, I toss the slingshot away from me. The rock bounces off the Shield and redirects so it's heading at the slingshot I tossed. It intercepts the slingshot and both of the items fall to the ground. I grin broadly to myself. It works. I keep doing the same thing for about ten minutes until I feel eyes on me and I turn around.

Behind me, his arm bandaged, is Kaedin. I feel a twinge of regret when my eyes rest on the bandage. Hopefully, it isn't bothering him too much.

"Hi…" he says hesitantly. Before I can respond or do anything, he continues. "Look, Quenin, I'm sorry about the other day. I got the news about my dad, and Opez, and I… I was angry. I was spoiling for a fight, and I took it out on you, without even acknowledging that you were probably going through the same thing, and… I'm sorry for it." he finishes, looking at the ground.

"Ok. Cool." I am shocked, but don't show it. I wasn't expecting an apology.

"So… we're good?" he seems unsure.

"Yes."

"No more beef?"

"Nope." I didn't realize before, but now it's a big weight off my chest, being back on speaking terms with Kaedin. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed it. "That was literally the longest week of my life. While Ahji's a good friend, he doesn't crack jokes or smile much."

Kaedin grins and walks over to join me. "How's your arm?"

"It's healing pretty well," he responds.

I wince. "Yeah… sorry 'bout that."

Kaedin shrugs. "I suppose I deserved it."

"You did," I say with a small grin.

He only rolls his eyes and gestures at the old slingshot and my pocket bulging with rocks. "What's that for?"

"Watch." I load the slingshot, fire a rock, and throw the slingshot high into the air. The rock bounces off and intercepts the slingshot. "I've only used this, but hopefully it will work on something bigger, like the Earth humans' rockets, or whatever they use."

"I'm actually impressed. That's cool."

It's my turn to roll my eyes. "Oh please. My inventions have impressed you countless times, you just never say anything." he looks at the ground and I smirk. "Keep shooting." I shove the slingshot into his hands and dump the rocks from my pocket right beside it. "I'm going to go get something." I turn around and run off, leaving him to keep shooting rocks.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kaedin is still shooting rocks at the Shield to keep himself occupied when I return, my arms full of guns. They are mostly bullet-shooting ones that barely work, but there are some newer ones mixed in as well. I drop them in a pile. Kaedin stares.

"Stop gawking and grab a gun," I tell him, snatching one. I raise the gun, fire, and fling it away from me. The bullet bounces back and rips through the center.

Kaedin does the same, throwing the gun up in the air. The bullet intercepts in, and Kaedin bends to pick up another gun, forgetting that what goes up must come down. So says the law of gravity. The gun falls on top of him just as he is straightening up.

"Ow!" he straightens up completely, rubbing his back.

I can't contain my snort of laughter, even when I use every ounce of my self-control (which isn't much) to keep a straight face.

I stop laughing, but I can't keep the grin off my face. "Whelp," I say. "I think it works."

He nods, attempting to melt the gun with his eyes. "Yeah. it does."

"You know," I begin, not being able to help but tease him more. "Last I checked, you didn't possess any powers that let you melt things with your eyes, so staring at it like that is a bit pointless. The only thing you're gonna gain is a lot of strange looks from people and a headache."

Kaedin turns his glare on me. "Oh, very scary," I tell him. "I'm practically paralyzed with fear."

"Shut up," he says.

"You are such an idiot. Score one for Quenin," I say, and go back to shooting the guns.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

That night, I eat with my mom, dad, and Kaedin in my lab, making a few final adjustments to the new Shield program, fixing some gaps that Kaedin and I found during our experiments. We had eventually moved on to bigger guns, but the Shield held each time.

"I hope it holds," my mom says.

"It will," I say confidently. "It has to, and I've checked everything over several times. It will hold." I don't let an inch of doubt enter my voice. I can't be distracted when they attack. It would be my doom.

The intercom on the wall crackles. "Gather your weapons and prepare for battle." Tahun's voice crackles over the speaker. "They're here."