Please Don't Tell My Parents I'm a Supervillain by Richard Roberts Read Free Book Online Page B

muttered as she joined us.
    “Forget her. We’re supposed to be celebrating.” Ray still sounded sour, but he was right. We wouldn’t stop being sour by stewing.
    Claire knew the right thing to say. “Is that the new Dynamic catalog?” she squealed, crowding up closer to peek into it. While Ray blushed and looked stunned, she crowed, “They came out with the classic Minx figurine. I’ve got to get one for Mom. And that’s Marvelous in her old costume! I’d forgotten how blatant it was. That’s less than Mom’s costume. Do you two want to go down to Rocket To Earth and see if the new stuff has come in yet?”
    “Normally, sure, but I wanted to try and find out what The Machine does,” Ray demurred.
    “We might as well go. I can wind it up and make it move around, but, other than that, I don’t even have a clue where to start,” I assured them.
    Ray’s grin came back. “I have an idea or two. Come on,” he promised me.
    He led us right back inside. I wondered where we were going, but it turned out we were going right here, back to the computer labs. We’d just caught Miss Petard closing the door behind her.
    “Miss Petard?” Ray greeted her, with a hopeful tone and a big smile.
    “It’s Friday, Ray. Shouldn’t you be going home?” she replied, with a smile almost as big.
    “Actually, Claire and Penny and I were interested in forming an official club, maybe lure out any other children of super-powered parents. You know who Penny’s Dad is, and I thought she might have some insights on our broken supplies.” I was a little surprised he’d lie to her, but… was it a lie? A club for kids of superheroes. I’d have my powers soon, and so would Claire.
    Letting us fool around in her repair lab was a ridiculous request, so she must have really liked Ray. “All right, I suppose. Lock the door when you leave, Ray?”
    “Of course, Miss Petard,” he promised. He stood and watched her, smiling and grateful, as she started walking away. She didn’t look too certain about this, but she’d agreed. When she stopped looking back, we let ourselves into the repair lab.
    “Why are we even in here?” I asked Ray when the door shut behind us.
    “I don’t know how much you remember, but you got your inspiration when you were trying to build that antenna and didn’t have the parts. I figure The Machine has something to do with electronic parts. If you try to build the antenna again, maybe you’ll figure out what you needed The Machine for,” he suggested.
    It wasn’t a bad idea. I grabbed an old hard drive and a sound and video card and dumped them on a table. Then I stared at them. What was supposed to be happening?
    “Okay, I… was building the antenna,” I needed a wire. Anything would do, really. Claire handed me the toolbox. It had a wire stripper, so I cut a wire out of a spare internal power cord. It didn’t matter, right? And I’d have to send an electrical current through it.
    This was going nowhere. Without that obsession, I knew I had no clue what I was doing. I didn’t even have the tools or the supplies. I hadn’t when I built The Machine, either. I’d been so annoyed by it…
    “…I built a machine to recycle parts,” I finished out loud.
    Ray and Claire stared. They were trying not to jinx it. I grabbed The Machine and twisted until it began to roll around on my wrist by itself. It uncurled, but this time I didn’t let it crawl up my arm. Instead, I dropped it on the table and pointed at the video card.
    “Eat that,” I ordered.
    By all the stars and little fishes, The Machine did. It pounced on the card like a cat on a mouse, and a grin split my face so wide my cheeks hurt.
    Behind me, Ray laughed. “He’s getting fat. That’s so funny!” He was right. Flakes of metal laid themselves over the gaps in The Machine’s armor, and through the holes that were left I could see green plastic circuit board lining the interior. The little robot centipede looked plump.
    Well, that