I returned to the warehouse early the next day after doing a few things. I tried starting some routines and getting used to living in this new house. I prepared a quick breakfast before working out for an hour in the gym. I finished up with a short shower before leaving. At the warehouse, the things inside were as I had left them, and I was eager to get started on my next project. I had already decided on what I would make for my next project. I just had to figure out how to build it before QuickStep came asking for it.
I chose to try and make his shoes during my time in the warehouse today and tomorrow. Not only was it a product that I could sell soon and would be requested soon enough but it was a different type of product. I would have to work with an entirely different set of tools than when I had made the smoke bombs. I had a large amount of fabric and foam to work with and the machines were all new to me. I had come in contact with sewing machines and 3D printing before, but this had all-new machine work to learn.
I rolled my chair over to the computer and began going through the documentation I had for the shoes. The documents referenced his shoe size and preferred style. As I read through it I brought out one of the items I had stored in the warehouse. Marked with a sharpie and a little scuffed up was a mold cast of QuickStep’s feet that had been used to make the best running shoes possible. I had copies of several other people’s feet but decided to keep them hidden away in storage.
As I ran around the newly sorted storage area I took out some of the materials I would need to make the shoes, namely clothes, fabrics, and specialized foam. Some electronics were required to be inserted into the shoes. Finally, there would be some metal welding required near the end so that its protection and looks could be added. Based on the reading for its construction I found that the electronics were for connecting with the rest of the suit and used for sensors among other functions. It also had lights in it because Nate had requested it after some other speedster put them in their shoes, so they created a blurry light as they ran. I knew this because my old self had documented it thoroughly under the changes section of the instructions.
I copied the files over to the printer when I had finished rereading the instructions twice and gathered the materials. I also took the machine files from the document and copied them over so that the machines that I could automate could do their work. I brought the fabric over to a fancy cutting board machine and strapped the materials down. I made sure that they weren’t loose and then I pressed the button on the machine it loaded up the digital files I sent it and went to work at making the cuts and holes needed for the boots with its laser cutter. The machine worked with precision and shot out a small beam of light to cut the parts.
It finished in only a few minutes before I needed to take it out and load my other materials in. I spent about 30 minutes switching between the different fabrics and foam to get it all cut. All of the edges were perfect and didn’t look as though they were burned in any way. As the machine cut the stuff up I almost broke the machine because one of the foam mesh materials was not supposed to be loaded into the machine. It was a special heat-resistant friction-resistant foam. If I had let the cutter try to cut it the machine may have overheated from trying. Instead of the machine, I had to cut it by hand with some special scissors. I overlayed the design printed on paper and taped it in place before cutting. I knew I wouldn’t cut it perfectly, so I took it slowly and spent most of the time I waited for the machines to cut the foam twice. Once for each of the feet.
For the metal pieces, I set up the CNC machine again. I ran the metal strips through the cutter and set them aside as well in between the other pieces I had to do. I would have to bend some of them into their required shapes eventually, but I decided to put it off because it was one of the last things required and the building of the rest of the shoe would be required a little bit during the shaping. I had not unlike my previous self already made this before so I would need the rest of the physical shoe for reference. The images were nice to have in the design documents, but I needed the 3D part it was lacking.
As each of the materials was finished I set it in a pile depending on what it was, and which shoe it was for. Slowly the materials were all gathered on one of two tables depending on the shoe and sorted. I also gathered the scrap material in a separate pile and moved it back into the storage area with the rest fabrics and foams.
Once I had the materials I took some of them to be chemically treated. Due to the high speeds that QuickStep would run at the materials would need to have varying levels of treatments done. Some of the materials were naturally heat resistant or something similar which sped the process up. Treating the materials was fairly easy. I just pulled the bottles from my cabinet and had to stir in the right amount and let the materials soak for the set amount of time. Some of them required additional steps but they weren’t challenging. The treatment took another thirty minutes or so before they were done, and I had to dry them out. I let the drying chamber run for a few extra minutes because I had loaded all of the materials in at once. When I brought them out they felt soft and warm like they had been in a dryer. I took them back over to the table.
To start assembling the shoes I brought out a stitch gun and heat gun to connect pieces together and mold the foam appropriately. I used the gel molds as a reference as I worked. Like my previous project, I took my time and referenced the pages of documentation as I worked. Things got tricky as I had to insert the electronic parts and the lights while so close to the heat gun. As I started to close it up one of the pieces with a battery in it became unhappy and sparked. The spark turned into a flame as it spread to the other pieces on the table that were flammable.
I fell back and backed away when the heat hit my face. A few seconds after the fire started it calmed down and died out. I stood back up and looked through what was left of the stuff on the table. The heat-resistant foam I had cut was mostly intact but damaged along its edges. A few pieces were untouched but overall, the entire thing was a wash and would need to be completely redone. Among the undamaged items were the tools I had brought over.
‘At least the tools aren’t damaged. If I had to replace them now I am not sure what I would have done. Why weren’t the pieces insulated against this happening? Surely this has happened before.’
I went to the other table and leafed through the instructions until I found the page about my current steps. I read through it again.
‘Step 17 – Sealing the Shoe and Encasing the Electronics: For this step use the heat gloves in conjunction with gloves to seal the glue in points 17A, 17B, and 15F. Fold the fabric over as shown in picture 1D. Be careful of heating the electronics too much and take breaks to make sure they can cool down. It is recommended that the padding be placed in the structural formation 2E as shown on the diagram so that the heat is dispersed effectively. Low heat is possible but may take longer. Assemble with caution due to fire risk. Be wary of surrounding items. Do not charge the batteries before installation.’
I read on flipping through the pages.
‘I did that. And that. And that.’
I continued going through the page until I hit the end of the page. I scanned through the handwritten edits and changes that had been made to the digital document.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
‘Step 17 recommendation: Set the heat gun settings down from 4 to 3 and have ARGO monitor heat so that parts aren’t damaged.’
“I thought I did this step already. The heat gun was set to 3, but what is this ARGO tool. I remember seeing extra parts for it, but I didn’t see something labeled ARGO. Maybe it is just a nickname for one of the other monitoring tools? It sounds like it is custom-made because it takes from my namesake.”
I set down the papers and searched through the handheld devices in storage. I took out the bucket I had set aside for monitoring equipment. I dragged the heavy bucket out of the way of everything else and began sorting through it. I took out a health monitoring device, machine diagnostic tools, and a few others, but didn’t see it. It probably didn’t help that I barely knew what these devices were anyways. Some were analogous to my original world’s style by others were very different or just someone I had never seen before.
“Maybe I left it at home,” I pondered. “There are some items and equipment at the house in the basement office. Maybe it is there?”
I sat back in my computer chair after I put away the bucket of items. I first tried searching my file system for blueprints for ARGO. Nothing came up. Next, I tried looking through my system for other diagnostic tools that could be what I was looking for. I came across two possibilities that looked like they could fit. I cross-checked the inventory system I had made, and the computer reported the results to me. In a few seconds, it spat out that I had one of the two currently logged and where I had put it in the warehouse.
I walked back over to the storage area and brought out the device. It was a pair of goggles with heat sensors in them. They also had an overlay system I could connect my computer to for other uses. I tried them on, and they fit comfortably. I tested them for a few minutes before moving to the left shoe assembly I had not started on.
I brought the assembly instructions back over to the table and set my tools down on it as well. The assembly of the second shoe did not take quite as long because I had worked on finishing the other shoe. Some parts were harder to put together because the shoe mirrored the other. After about an hour of work, I had reached the same point on the left shoe as I had the right shoe.
I applied the glue with a brush and then turned on the heat gun. I slid the goggles over my eyes and activated the heads-up display. The warehouse became shades of red and blue, mostly blue, indicating temperature. The heat gun became a dark red and I adjusted the temperature down and saw it reflected through the goggles. I got to work observing the electronics. I hadn’t been paying enough attention initially when the shoe blew up, so I took it slow. I paused occasionally as my body absorbed some of the heat and the overall temperature of the shoe went up.
As I finished the last part around the back of the shoe where the electronics were stored my vision in the goggles flashed white. The heat hit me and a quickly picked up the shoe. I threw it off the table and it rolled around on the concrete floor.
“Piece of crap. It should have worked.”
I took off my goggles and set them on the table before running over to the smoldering shoe. In theory, I had gotten further than my last attempt but not by any amount that mattered. I still had not completed step 17. I kicked at the last of the fire before picking up the shoe with my gloved hands. It was warm to the touch and the top half around the heel and laces was burnt completely.
I brought it back to the table along with a saw and began disassembling it. I sorted through the pieces and gathered the working electronics and the larger shoe pieces. I tossed the parts not worth salvaging and the rest of the scraps joined the rest from the other shoe. I had not even got to what I thought would be the hardest part of the assembly. When I had first looked through the instructions I thought using the heat gun would be easy and that self-teaching myself welding would be the hardest. The metal pieces that I had set aside sat unused. I still needed to teach myself basic welding at some point, but I guessed that today would not turn out to be the day. I checked the time, and it was already past one o clock.
“I don’t have time for this. Maybe I should look for something easier. And preferably something that isn’t worth quite as much money if it was destroyed. But first clean up, lunch, and to the library. I can’t be cooped up in here for most of the day. Especially when I can’t make this work.”
I gathered the remains of the shoes that could be refitted into working pairs and set them aside in a bucket I simply labeled ‘Work in Progress’. I put the tools away next and then shut down the machines I had turned on. I turned to the metal tables and did what I could to clean. Some burn marks would stay on them forever, but the melted gunk was removed easily enough. I closed up the shop when I was done and went to get lunch.
I made lunch a quick affair and assembled it from the food I grabbed from a grocery store run on the way home. I got back in my car after lunch and left for the college campus. I still had my school id despite not going there this semester anymore and it was technically a public library, so I wasn’t worried about spending an extended amount of time there.
On my way there I took out my phone and called up Rachel’s number. I was reminded of her Aunt’s suggestion and decided not to put off calling her any longer. She picked up after three rings went by.
“Hey, Rachel. I wanted to call you to see how you were doing after the fight. I’m sorry that you lost. How are your injuries from the fight?”
“Thanks for calling. The injuries now feel like sore spots. I won’t be able to do much hero work or exercise for the next week or so because of it. Tabitha as well. She has been limping around at her place while her knee heals.”
“Are you good though? What are you going to do regarding hero work?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she said emotionally. “I knew I would lose the title of Legacy eventually. I just… I didn’t think it would come so soon. I’m still figuring this stuff while I heal,” she said sighing afterward.
“How is your family taking this? Your father is particular didn’t seem very excited,” I asked wondering how it would affect others including me.
“My aunt and uncle are ecstatic of course. After one child failed they got one with the title and power. Things may be hectic internally for a while as the power balance changes. My father will probably be the one to deal with it along with my grandparents if anything goes exceptionally wrong. It shouldn’t affect you at all though.”
“Then are you staying with me as your armorer?” I asked sensing her untold words.
“I would like to, and I don’t think my father will refuse. I will have him sort through the details with you later.”
“Then our meeting is on then? Should I begin prepping a new prototype suit?”
“Yes he is still interested in meeting, but this time it will be about my future.”
“Do you have any suggestions for updates to your old suit? Color changes?”
Rachel laughed.
“Yeah, the colors will definitely have to be changed. I would still like it to have the black and grey undertones, but I don’t know about the other colors and changes. I will let you know when I have it figured out.”
“Just text it to me or send it along with your dad. I will see what I have in my archives for now while I wait.”
“Ok. There is no need to get started right away. I have a few things to figure out besides my new superhero name and costume before I start going out actively again. As I said things with my family aren’t amazing right now and I have some time I would like to take to get things in order.”
“I can do that and put the suit on the backend for now though I will probably work on it as long as I don’t have anything else in the works or on order. And thanks for inviting me to the party and everything else. Having this break has been nice though it has been its own kind of busy as I catch up on stuff.”
“That’s good. I’m glad it wasn’t a total waste. I know you would rather be doing other things.”
“No, it was fine. Just different than my normal.”
“What have you been working on during your break? I know you already went back to your warehouse at least once. So, what did you do?”
“Well, you caught me because I was there this morning. As for what I was doing. I tried to get some items assembled that I thought would work, but it didn’t turn out so well. I burnt it all,” I said honestly of the day’s events.
“Did you at least avoid burning yourself?”
“Yeah, I got away with no burns. Just annoyed at the burnt material and slightly more damaged tables.”
“Well good luck on that project. Hopefully, you don’t burn down too much stuff before it is finished.”
“I will try.”
“I have to go but I will message you the information for the meeting later today.”
“Don’t worry about it. I will talk with you later.”
“Bye.”
“Goodbye.”