“More aluminum! All the rolls you have,” Rockwell said, unspooling a thin roll.

  “This is all the rolls I have!” Serena snapped, slapping the last box of aluminum on the garage workshop counter. “How much do you think I need in a kitchen!?”

  “Fine. It’ll do.”

  Pinn stood in the corner, absorbing the scene with an uneasy feeling snaking through his stomach. His parents had never been so nervous before and they were both stacking sheet upon sheet of aluminum like they were making an adult pillow fort to fulfill a mid-life crisis.

  Racing, Serena filled all the small gaps she could find with small tears of aluminum, while Rockwell was pinning every end of the metal yurt with the quickly dwindling supplies of tape from his workshop. Duct tape mixed with packing tape on top of masking and electrical tape to Frankenstein the abomination together. Pinn’s mother ran outside while his father took a few steps back from the thin structure.

  “That’ll have to do. Put it all in there.”

  Rushing forward, Pinn dumped aluminum-wrapped pieces of broken robot into the opening of the small structure, followed by his mother rushing in and dumping non-electronic components like screws and metal rods, piling them all to balance within the yurt.

  Pinn frowned at the mess in the garage. “What is this, again?”

  “Shield room. Well, more like a shield box. It’s a big Faraday cage to keep those electronics choked off from the outside world. Shouldn’t be able to send signals in or out, but we can take time to study them now.” Rockwell pulled off his glasses to clean.

  “This looks kinda cheap, Pa. You sure it’ll work?”

  “No, obviously not, but it’s an idea I cooked up in 20 minutes. Give me something that isn’t idiotic to do instead and I’ll consider it.”

  Pinn backed away slightly, stunned to hear the offense his father took. Usually he was so cool under scrutiny, but the pressure of the situation must have been mounting. They had already presumed the signal had gone out with the video information, but on the off-chance it hadn’t, they destroyed all the components they could in the workshop and then tossed it all into the Faraday cage.

  “Pa, I’ll be fine if they try to share my identity or something like that. I can take on any loser that tries to come this way.”

  “Yeah? What about…”

  Pinn blinked when his father stopped abruptly, waiting for Serena to rush in and dump another handful of nuts and bolts behind the metal curtain. The words sounded like they were going to come out scathing and challenging, but he was saved by the bell. Until Serena rushed back outside.

  Rockwell flicked his glasses onto his face. “What about when they come after your mother when they realize they can’t hurt you?”

  “I can protect her!”

  “When you sleep? Eat? Need to go to the bathroom? Or heck, when you just want to take a break and lay down on the couch for a minute? How many times do we have to plug it into that stubborn head of yours that you’re still human? Powers or not, you can be outmaneuvered if someone is insistent enough. Imagine that crazy gunman that shot at us, but in the form of a hundred of these robots. Still think you can protect her?”

  Taking a step back, Pinn felt a mortified pang in his heart. His father was… scared. Terrified for his mother’s safety, and he had absolutely no faith in Pinn’s abilities to keep them safe. It was a ridiculous notion. Pinn could literally control the weather, there was nothing to be worried about.

  Pinn’s mom raced back inside, hands empty and eyes full of panic. Rockwell approached her, placing his arms on her shoulders protectively as she looked up at him.

  “There’s already another bot,” she whispered. “I saw it fly in.”

  A slam at the door turned all their attention to the front of the home.

  Pinn cracked his knuckles. “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Son, we need to think before we act here.”

  “Let me go show him that he can’t mess with us, even a little! Show up, get decked. It’s that easy.”

  “Pinny, what if he records it again?”

  “I don’t think he recorded it the first time, otherwise why would he send another robot?”

  “And what if he’s recording this time?” Rockwell folded his arms, scrutinizing his son.

  Pinn pursed his lips. “I’ll sneak around the back, turn on the flame to block my face, then get him.”

  Another smash at the door.

  “Rocky, I don’t like this one bit.” Serena clung to her husband.

  Rockwell held her gently, stoic face morphing into rage. Unfamiliar red color met his cheeks and his eyebrows came together like two swords in conflict.

  “Go get him.” Rockwell nodded his assent.

  “I’ll take care of it, Ma, nothing to worry about.”

  Pinn raced out the back door, igniting his face in flames as soon as he reached the outside world. He could hear another set of bashes at the front door as he hopped over the side yard with ease, his body as light as a feather when he willed it under the flames. Dashing across the driveway, Pinn saw the robot slightly turn in his direction just as he smashed his fist into its face, crumbling it into dozens of pieces.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Promptly, he tossed everything from the floor into his forehead, disintegrating everything in calculated movements, hoping to prevent any more messages or recordings. Breathing as he looked around, he felt satisfied by how quickly he disposed of the machine. It had to be less than a minute. If there was a world record, he just set it.

  Freezing in place, his eyes came into contact with another robot that was standing across the street. A camcorder in its metallic hands. Looking as though it got startled, the bot closed the camcorder with a loud clack and began hobbling down the road, whistling a grating tune. Pinn went from proud to humiliated to angry in the span of a blink. With a burst of Enhanced speed, he launched himself across the road in three powerful strides.

  “Hey, stop!” Pinn called to the bot.

  “Oh, hello. Wonderful weather we’re having.” The bot continued to limp away, a failed servo clicking loudly in its bad leg. The voice sounded significantly better than the last recording asking about “the Cause.”

  Pinn opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and followed silently, his white fire heating the components of the droid. When they reached the end of the block, the bot stopped and turned its disk-like face toward him.

  “Are you following my machine to find my hideout?” a distinctly human voice asked.

  “Why would you say that?”

  “It feels like you are.”

  “Can you give me the camera?”

  The bot’s head rotated as the voice on the other end considered the question.

  “If I do, will you stop following my bot?”

  Pinn thought about it, looking up at the sky through the veil of white flames covering his face. Frowning, he nodded his head. The flame didn’t do a good job of displaying a nod, nor was he certain that the robot could see everything in front of it.

  “Yeah, I’ll stop following.”

  “You’re a man of your word?”

  “Absolutely.”

  The robot produced the camcorder, handing it to Pinn. Flipping it open, Pinn saw a message in all caps: RECORDING TRANSMITTED TO CLOUD.

  Sighing, Pinn figured as much as he clasped the camera shut. “What are you gonna do with the recording?”

  “Oh, this can be a riddle! You wanna guess what I’ll do with it?”

  Pinn frowned at the bot. There was music playing on the other end of the microphone, something that sounded like a modern pop song. “Who are you?”

  “Still working on a name. But that can be another riddle!”

  “I think we’re done here.” Pinn raised a fist.

  “Wait, wait!”

  With a burst of electricity, Pinn blasted away the bot, the pavement cracking under him as the droid fell apart. Pinn started moving forward to burn away the remains, then heard a speaker crack back to life in one of the metal arms.

  “Ah, that was clever! You promised not to follow the bot home because you were gonna break it, anyway! So you are a man of your word.”

  Pinn said nothing, but felt somewhat impressed that the bot’s creator had understood him so well. He continued to gather pieces to burn.

  “Okay, I see you’re busy. But you should check the news soon. And I’ll be at the corner of Westin and Main tomorrow at noon, if you wanna meet!”

  “Like you’d tell me where you’re gonna be,” Pinn said dismissively.

  The speaker clicked off, and the light buzz of working electronics all turned off on the machine. Shaking his head to himself, Pinn dumped the rest of the remains into his head to break it all down. His phone was buzzing in his pocket and he quickly went to answer once the last of the pieces burned away.

  “Hey, Ma.”

  “You okay, Pinny?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. On my way back right now.”

  “Don’t come back home. The neighbors are watching. They called us to see if we were safe. I think you should go on a walk until you know you can turn off the lightcrown out of sight of people,” Serena said, sounding worried.

  “Got it. I’ll be fine, Ma. But I had a chance to talk to the guy making the bots. He told me he’d be at a specific street corner at 12, tomorrow. Really weird guy, he sounded so casual.”

  “Good, you can go get him arrested tomorrow.”

  “You believe him?”

  “What’s the harm in going out and seeing for yourself?”

  “I don’t wanna leave you alone for too long, Ma.”

  “Then we can go together.”

  “That sounds dangerous too.”

  “Hey, it’s my job to worry!” Serena said playfully. “We can talk about this when you get home, but you’re going out there tomorrow.”

  “All right, Ma. He also said to keep an eye on the news soon. I’m gonna go try and stop him if he sends his bots elsewhere.” Pinn raised his eyes to the sky, wondering if he could see any of the droids flying in.

  “All right. Be safe, Pinny.”

  He hung up the phone and returned it to his pocket. Walking from the neighborhood to the market sector, he could feel the heads that turned to watch the flame on his head. A small crowd of people from restaurants and shops was following at a very far distance. When Pinn felt like he wasn’t getting anywhere by watching the skies, he pulled out his phone to check the news.

  Mysterious Shining Stranger Destroys Invasive Robot

  Eyes widening, Pinn quickly clicked on the article and anxiously waited for it to load. A slew of advertisements covered the screen before a video loaded on top, followed by the article below. Jaw tight, Pinn recognized the thumbnail of the video to be his own neighborhood. Tapping quickly, Pinn looked around suddenly, feeling the dozens of eyes on him from passing cars and civilians. He began running at incredible speed, desperately in need of privacy. His phone’s speaker came to life, and he held it close to his face while watching the path ahead of him.

  “Good afternoon everyone, I’m Joanna Slattery with Channel 34 Hammerton News. An incredible display as what appears to be a flaming man dashes across this lawn and destroys the robot in a single blow! This looks to be the same model of robots that was receiving hundreds of complaints when soliciting donations to a mysterious ‘cause.’ This incredible stranger seems to have let out the frustrations of the public on the machine, further collecting and burning its remains.”

  Pinn stared at the screen, shocked. His address had been blurred out in the video. In fact, everything that could be considered a private detail was blurred out. The cars in driveways, Pinn’s front door, even some of the kids’ sports equipment on the nearby lawn. Pinn never would have suspected the news to give him any sense of privacy, but why would the bot creator give him any blurring? Scratching his head, Pinn suddenly pulled himself to a stop before he ran into a river full of runoff from a nearby lumber mill.

  Catching his breath, Pinn sent the article to his parents and watched the video again. The angle was definitely from the camcorder taken by the other robot Pinn destroyed. And the caption said Video Provided by Noble Initiative Studio. Something strange was happening, and Pinn made the reluctant conclusion of the only place to find answers.

  He would have to meet with the mysterious bot creator the next day at noon.