The Expatriate-the story of a Prodigy

23. The Unmuter

By the time they arrived at their home at the edges of the city, it was raining cats and dogs and Thomas had rendered his wipers as the only weapon against the downpour, but still had managed to make it to the house. As they all ran to the cover of the house, Alex Mars couldn't help noticing the helpless glares that Melanie shot at the wet space where her Louts Evija had been parked neatly 5 hours ago. All he could do was hope that he could get the car that she wanted in Canada, though, and decided to just ignore her since then, since worrying unnecessarily when the matter was dealt with was a waste of time. 

Thomas was the first one to rush into the shower once they were inside, and thus, the rest of them had to wait. Alex hadn't expected a warm, cozy and victorious mood, but nor had he expected a gloomy mood, which somehow appeared to be going on between the three. Awkwardly, Miles had gone to sit at the long sofa in the living room after managing to chase Thomas to the bathroom to wash first but feebly failing at getting in first, and Melanie and Lyra was already there, staring (in Melanie's case, glaring, once more) out at the raining scene outside, sitting on the floor, speaking in low voices to each other. Feeling hungry after the affair at the Food Store, Alex Mars went over to the small fridge and found bottles of water and drank it down his sooty and rough throat. He couldn't find anywhere to go after that since he felt too filthy to get to his bed and sleep for a while until Thomas came out. Also, it would reduce my chance of winning the speed race with the other 3 to the bathroom, he added, before plopping down on the middle of the sofa, then felt a strange prod on his butt. 

Hell, yeah-the the strange device and diary. Though knowing that it was a bit dirty to reach for his pants and belt for the things he had retrieved from the house, he was still reaching out for it when he hesitated. What if Melanie, Lyra, and Miles were like Thomas? Ok, probably not Lyra and Thomas. But what about Melanie? 

He looked up to check what the rest of them were doing, trying to judge them like Lyra always said she did whether they would like his idea of hiding great devices or be abhorred by the fact. Lyra was staring holes into the window, which was streaked with rain, while Miles was mumbling stuff that Alex recognized as random words and swears, probably intended at Thomas, who was taking a long time getting himself tidied up, and Melanie was staring at Alex himself's feet with great intensity. Ok, though what Melanie is doing was a bit offensive, they're not being too curious or seem that they'll overreact like Tjomas., Alex thought. So he reached back for his stuff and subtly pulled them out. His breath got caught as Lyra's eyes, in mere seconds after he pulled the damned stuff out, swiveled to the devices from the window, Miles stiffened up and turned to stare at them, while Melanie, who had had the view nearest to Alex's hands(yes, his feet), looked merely up in a flash in interest. f**k, Alex Mars thought. But he could do nothing now-it would be even more suspicious for him to just put them back up to his belt and pockets at his butt. So he just frowned, then started to examine the stuff, trying to ignore the stares of the other Raiders. He felt Melanie's stare be at his face, while Miles' stare was at his hands holding the device, and Lyra was doing the same with her calculative eyes, Alex Mars could simply feel and know. 

The silence was finally broken when there was a sound of Mile's eyebrows lifting.

"What is that, Alex?" Melanie looked to Miles for the first time after entering the house, for in her case, seeing Miles be available for Alex was unbelievable. Ignoring her still, Alex held up the strange device that had gotten his attention in the first place for Miles to see. "I just thought it would be useful, and didn't want to tell Thomas at the house," Miles whistled low so that Thomas wouldn't hear from within the shower. "Right. I think it may be used to develop some new device of our own. Try out what it can really do. Lyra, how much is it?" Lyra bit her lips carefully, looking at the thing from this angle to that. "Erm, it's not very exact since I also have to see what it can do for sure. But looked like it's quite valuable, so definitely over 15," Miles grinned. "Be sure to show her what it does or do it with her. I'd really like to see," Just then, the bathroom door opened and Thomas walked out, hot steam pushing out of the room and descending around as if he was a god. Lyra watched in entertainment as Alex quickly flashed the diary and device to his back and stuffed it there, so that Thomas' eyes landed on him as he pretended to have been doing nothing. "Finally got every soot on my body washed away to the drain," He said, waving Miles, who had stood up, into the shower. But instead of marching viciously into the room, Miles stopped and frowned at Alex with a hint of humor. "You smell like dirt, soot, sweat, rain, and the leather seat of the Lotus, Alex. Maybe I'll let you go first," Alex nodded gratefully as he st0ood up, for Miles had not only given him the chance to hide the things he had gotten from the house properly, but also had made Thomas' jaw fall to the floor in shock as the friendly exchange between the two were made, just as Melanie had reacted prior. 

Calmly, Alex walked off to the bathroom, stuffing the things further into his clothes as he got out of them once he was inside, and finally felt the cool water shower him down from top to bottom.

He found clean clothes in the cabinet along with the towels and as soon as he stepped out, leaned down to transfer the diary and device of boxes from the dirty clothes to his new shirt and pants and went for his room, sighing at it contently as he entered-only a day had passed since he had first gotten the room, but already, it felt like home. He jumped onto the bed, then pulled the box and diary entry back out of his clothes for the last time. Jesus-I need a screwdriver, he thought as soon as his eyes aw the complicated front of the first device which had hooked him up to retrieve the box from the house. He felt like a laggard right then, but knew that all he could do right then was find the right tools for the anatomy of the devices, so he just jumped right back up and stumbled lazily o the hall, ears adjusting, trying to figure out whether the other Raiders were sleeping. God, let Thomas be sleeping and the rest of the Raiders be awake, Alex prayed as he bumbled on bare feet to Mile's room.

Thankfully, his ears proved his prayer to be correct.

Thomas seemed to be snoring off wildly(Alex was inn luck), while Miles was trying to hum and whistle at the same time, Melanie was simply doing nothing, and Lyra seemed to be holding her breathe at something that Alex column;t figure out. Simply relieved that at least Thomas was unconscious and not able to intervene, and Miles was awake, he crept from his room to Miles'-for the first time in his life.

The door was open, and inside, Mars found Miles sprawled on the bed which was covered completely with plump, white cushions, doing his hum-while thing, drawing on a stray magazine with a pen. Seeing the magazine reminded Alex of someone in his past in America, and you should also be able to guess who that was, but he managed to keep it down his throat. 

Realizing that Miles was the type of people who would only concentrate greatly in one thing and never notice his own surroundings, Alex Mars cleared his throat and watched in amusement as the other boy jumped clearly from the bed by 3 centimeters completely, and by the time he landed, he had put away his magazine and pen to his back and looked up sheepishly, then relaxing when he realized that the person at his door was Alex. 

"Woah, sorry," He mumbled, pulling his pen and paperback out from behind, rubbing his aching knees from the shortfall. What Alex could do in the situation was to smirk hesitantly, and he quickly moved on with the conversation, for Miles seemed to be anxious right now about Alex finding out what he had been doing and Thomas might wake up any second. "I was just doing my hobby," However, unexpectedly, Miles said slowly, tapping at the paper. "No offense, Miles. I only came to you because I obviously need a few tools for the analysis of the devices. Any screws?" Miles, despite his burliness, managed to lightly hop to the floor from his bed to reach out to a plastic cabinet in the far corner of the room, and after seconds of quick rummaging, sent a small screw flying in Alex's direction. "Is Thomas asleep to NREM phase of sleep?" Catching the thing, Alex Mars paused for a second, ears catching in the tiny ruffles of each fiber on Thomas' sheet as the boy snored. heartbeat slow, breathe slow. "Yep-the fast guy's finally is experiencing life at a slower rate. He's definitely in Wonderland, mining up devices, wires and cables like gold from mines there," Miles gave a belly-laugh while trying to calm it down since Thomas, even when he might be in Wonderland, had the chance to hear them and wake up. "Well, I want to show you something, actually," The other boy added, eyes giving off an odd glow of anticipation, something that to Alex, was an unprecedented occurrence in Miles. "Is it related to your hobby?" "Sure is. I wasn't just used to showing people what I really like to do, since it is quite different from my ability to be strong. But you don't seem like the kind to have the grudge against people because of prejudices," It also occurred to Alex that Miles had never spoken so seriously and logically-at least in front of his eyes. Meanwhile, the boy reached back into the cabinet and pulled out a single, thin plank of steel, then with both hands, pulled out a huge metal frame od something that Alex watched in amazement when he realized it was a miniature plane, and it would have been those normal ones that kids would love to model from kits-but it simply wasn't normal, since it was metal, extra-intricate, and obviously, wasn't from a kit. It was a small Boeing, detailed to every window and door, and even the outer design, though it wasn't colored. 

"Woah," He said, and Miles smirked, then suddenly flashed into a pose that TED speakers would proudly take before telling the audience their field of research. "I make the planes from these steel planks I recovered from some factory here in Canada-" he pointed at the single sheet of steel. "-after drawing the outline on the magazine. These planes, I only made this one till now, are going to be installed with some small devices or engines inside to make them do what I command them to do, as soon as I find those devices. Thus, I'm going t make them fly up to the sky and retrieve me something, just like those medieval pigeons," "Well, but that's the exact definition for a drone, Miles," Alex commented. "Drones, my man, they are much different. They're bulky, thrifty, and plummetting all the time, prone to be faulty soon. Plus, they aren't fun to make and no places to purchase or retrieve them-pigeons and planes are the way. Oh, by the way, these kids are already capable of a lot of stuff, so have more potential. Watch," 'But that one can't fly, huh?' Alex thought a second before Miles whipped the thing up into the air with calculated speed and direction and expertness, and threw it, sending it flying right over Alex, touching his hair a tiny bit, before landing on the tiles behind Alex's feet. "Jesus, wow, Miles," He whooped, and Miles smirked as if he had just gobbled up fire at his feat. "See? My planes have enough possibilities. Now what I should do is to just develop a program for instruction-" As the other boy elaborated on his plan to colonize and perturb the whole Canadian land the Rebels already had and would obtain further with his pigeon-steel-planes, something occurred to Alex Mars in his head, causing him to feel as if he was out of the range of Earth and on a planet billions of lightyears away once more just as before, and watching himself from the planet through a telescope. He had been talking to a boy his age, who was also a Prod and understood the difficulties and advantages of being a Prod, he had been goofing about with words with another Prod, so... casually. This was unprecedented, Alex knew. He had always been silent and never understood and neglected by the other normal teens for his life until now. Even Andrew hadn't been able to provide the feeling of closeness and natural empathy. 

From that second, Alex realized and decided that, though Andrew was still going to remind him of the past and horrors of his country, his fellow Raiders were going to influence him more in his life than him, for at least now. 

He was in the right place for him finally, and for certain.

He ejected himself off his planet and zoomed back onto Earth, then back into Mile's room, and his brain's landing on the room managed to time with Miles' yawn, which signified that Alex could now leave. Gripping the screw tightly in his fist, Alex Mars came back to his room and sat back on his bed, then silently, assaulted the device and broke it down carefully, brows furrowed. He found the most rare chips he had skimmed over on the internet, then excited broke the device down further and further, memorizing each outlay, until he pulled out something familiar finally from the depth of cords, lines, and cables.

Well, to be specific, too familiar. 

It was a single Muter.

He could only stare dumbly at the thing as the words of Doctor Haver, the guy who had put the Muter inside his head in the first place, flew back to him from his distant past(to be specific, 13 years ago) 'There are a few illegal Canadian companies that secretly disagree with the discriminate policies'.

"Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, Al," He murmured, finally making the connection. 

Yes, he was right-the the device had included a pure, Canadian Muter. 

Thoughts zoomed and bumped about in his head like frantic fish in a tank, trying to collaborate together into some conclusion, but it wasn't quick. Finally, the fish aligned themselves into a single line, prompting Alex to quickly say it out in real words, which he did. 

"This guy was a Prodigy himself," He whispered. 

He was correct this time, too.

He didn't stay shocked for too long, and suddenly, the fish became very cooperative inside his brain tank, wheezing here and there, doing each of their work, very slowly, but steadily, building up a plan that was unprecedented in the past. Alex Mars' hands obeyed his brain well this time, and the brain and hands worked promptly, to the range of perfection for the thing he was making. 

When it was done, it was 4 in the morning, but Alex couldn't sleep, for he was too excited. But knowing that he would suffer from sleep loss, he forced him to lie down, but even behind his closed eyelids, made just one more decision proudly before drifting off. The invention, though he had willed so much to call it the 'Dismuter' since it just seemed right, but Meriam Webster had no origin of such a word in its word bacnk, was going to be called the Unmuter. 

Just after swearing to test it out later that day after getting up, Alex Mars drifted away promptly, only because his anticipation would be solved soon, in a matter of mere hours of sleep.