Elena and Madaline had to take the bus home. They could have done a ride share but it wasn't worth the cost. Two buses and nearly an hour later they reached the entrance of the apartment building. Elena’s shoulder was still sore and with some bumps and bruises, but nothing that would put her out of commission for too long. Her bike was no doubt in the trash, and she had to wait in anxious breath for the next week or so to see the hospital bill.
As dejected as she was, there was a small fire of hope burning inside. Her abilities, while limited, had potential. She wasn't going to be flying around, shooting lighting from her hands, or fighting villains to crowds of cheering fans, but surely, she could find a valuable use for her abilities.
‘Experimentation was key.’ Elena thought.
After they reached the stairs, Madaline said. “I’ll head back to work, I still have a few more hours in my shift, Mark’s going to pitch a fit, but he won't fire me.”
Elena thought the man was an asshole, but they needed the money and the work was consistent.
“Alright, Mom. I'll tell Ashely everything once she gets home. No point in worrying her, she has exams after all.” Elena said.
“Ok sweetie, you rest up and have some proper food.” Madaline said. She gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek before heading back to work. Elena watched her walk back to the bus stop, only leaving once she saw her board. Then with a sigh she climbed the stairs to their apartment.
The doctor ordered her to rest, but Elena had no such intentions. She was going to spend as much time as possible figuring out her abilities. After she closed the door behind her she went into the dining room and sat at the chair to begin testing. Taking out her phone she placed it on the table.
She activated her ability and willed the phone to levitate a few inches. The colors were the first thing she had to solve. Quickly running to her mom’s room, she grabbed a pen and paper. Noting the different colors. Plastic, copper, steel; her knowledge of electronics did not go past a single high school class, so she only had the barest clue of what she was seeing. Taking out a penny she placed it in the box.
“Hm, it’s coated in copper.” Elena said. With a quick search on the internet, she realized the rest was zinc. Each time she figured out what a color was she wrote it down. Then she checked every other electronic device in the apartment and realized the colors were consistent. The only problem was the plastics and alloys. There were so many distinct kinds. Each composition had its own unique color.
Elena focused on the penny and with a little effort peeled away the copper coating revealing the zinc beneath.
Then she congealed the copper into a single small sphere. 1.2 mm across. Somehow, she just knew how much there was. Then with the same ease she recoated the zinc with the copper and used a picture from the internet as a guide to reform the surface, however instead of the previous rough finish, she removed all the impurities from the copper and polished it to a mirror shine.
She deactivated her ability and picked up the penny. It was polished to a mirror shine. It almost looked fake with how perfect the small reflection was. Then she returned her attention back to her phone. It took some effort, but she figured out how to fix the multiple layers of glass and plastic that made up the screen of her phone.
Feeling inspired by the coin, she went over the device with a fine-toothed comb, fixing and polishing every crack bump or imperfection, until after 10 minutes of work, she held in her hand what looked to be a brand-new smartphone. She had to stretch materials in certain places, but it still looked new.
With curiosity she searched the internet for the chemical composition of a phone.
“Gold and silver?” Elena said. Then a lesson from her single electronics class came into her mind.
“Right, wiring and semiconductors. “Elena said. Then her heartbeat wildly as an idea began to form. She rushed into her mother’s room to find the one thing she knew was made of gold. Opening her jewelry box, she pulled out her father’s wedding band.
She bit back the stab of grief that entered her heart and activated her ability. It wasn’t pure gold, there was some copper and silver mixed in. taking out her phone she searched through the device until she found it. Tiny deposits of gold were inside after comparing with other pieces of jewelry her mom had, she eventually found silver.
With solemnity she placed the ring back into the box and returned to the living room. Then she remembered her broken laptop. Quickly Elena found it stashed in a closet and brought it to the dining table. With her abilities she stripped the computer to the bare PCB and searched for the gold and silver. With a thought she removed every spec she could find and congealed them into small spheres. They were barely the size of a grain of rice but still it was something. She estimated the was about 10$ worth of gold and silver.
‘I need more.’ Elena thought to herself.
She pulled up her phone and began researching precious metals in various electronics. Platinum in catalytic converters, more gold and silver in circuit boards. Then she searched for junk yards in her area and picked the ones closest. It was only a 20 min walk. While her shoulder pained her, she couldn't stop now. Her excitement was growing by the moment.
She grabbed her phone and keys and headed out the door. As soon as she walked out the door, she saw big Tommy. He was a large guy with a bald head. One of the few people that was actually taller than she was. He lived next door and worked construction.
“Hey tommy.” Elena said as she headed to the stairs.
“How's it hanging Elena, you alright?” he said as he looked at the sling.
“Yeah, I'm good, my shoulders just a little fucked up.” Elena noted that he was still in his uniform and asked. “They let you off early?”
“Yeah, we hit a pipe, and the sites flooded. So, they had to bring people in to deal with that. Shouldn't take more than a day.” Tommy said. “I’m a head in and catch some sleep. You holler if you need help alright.” Tommy said.
“It's not that bad but I will.”
Tommy was a damn scary looking guy but had a heart like a teddy bear. One look at him around his wife and daughters was enough to shatter the tough biker look he had.
Elena headed down the stairs and continued on towards the junkyard. According to the website she could salvage if she wanted. She had to just pay a fee of 10 dollars. As she walked, she kept an eye out for random electronics, and she occasionally found some fridges lying in the street waiting for bulk pickup, A few TVs and one microwave. It was too much work to disassemble them, so she just ripped the precious metals out. This damaged the electronics but it was going to be scrapped anyway. Each time she added it to the small ball in her pocket. Finally, she reached the junkyard. There were at least two thousand cars and piles of random parts laying around.
She reached the front gate where an elderly man was sitting smoking a pipe. He gave her a raised eyebrow as he approached.
“What can I do for yuh, young lady?” he asked in a country drawl.
“I’m looking for a part, a….” she pretended to look at her phone for a part name. “Front head light for a falcon S240 sedan.”
“Welp, I'm not sure we have it but you're free to look. It's ten to go in if you find what you are looking for. It's another 10 to leave with it.” He said.
All this was on the website, so she brought out a ten-dollar bill. As soon as he saw the cash he said. “Alright not so little lady, come with me.”
He led Elena over to a booth with a register and opened the front gate. “Place closes in two hours so look fast. Ain't no refund if you don't find yo item.”
After getting through the gate Elena jogged to the far end of the lot so the lone camera couldn't see her and started with a red broken-down pickup truck. One thing she learned about her ability is that she can always see the box. Even If it’s in another room. It was a strange form of x-ray vision.
In a grid pattern she searched through the car for the catalytic converter. It was removed but there were still circuit boards inside the vehicle and other electronics that netted her more slivers of gold and silver. It took her under a minute to simply tear the medals from the boards and add it to her growing hoard in her pocket.
Two hours later she had only gone through a fifth of the large yard, approximately 300 cars. A few people stared at her strangely, but they couldn’t see the box. All they could see was a girl staring at a car for a few moments and moving on to the next one. Finally, she hit the motherload. A literal pile of catalytic converters that net her a solid 120 grams of platinum. She searched for spark plugs, ECU’s, airbags, and anything the internet said had precious metals. Each car would net her about a gram of gold and two to five grams of platinum.
There were things like rhodium and palladium but those seemed a bit odd to hoard, besides the ingot in her pockets were becoming larger. There was actually quite a bit of silver, but it just wasn't as worth it to carry around. Besides, she had over 300 grams of gold in one pocket and over 1000 grams of platinum in another. She shaped them into ingots and decided to head home.
As she passed through the gate the old man said. “No luck?” He looked her up and down. She wasn't carrying anything.
“Nope I’ll have to check another one.” Elena smiled even though it felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest.
“Alright you have a good day now,” he said as Elena left.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
As she walked, she pulled out her phone and checked the current price for gold and platinum. Then did some math with her calculator.
“Holy fucking shit.” Elena said as she saw the number. It took all her willpower not to immediately sprint home. Her head constantly twitched around paranoid that she was being watched. Elena did wonder if what she did was considered stealing. She spent some time thinking about her actions and realized it definitely was, but at the moment she didn't care.
Elena entered and heard the microwave going and the shoes at the door made realize Ashley was home.
At the sound of the front door opening, Ashley went to investigate. Neither her mother nor sister should be home for hours. But there stood Elena, awkwardly taking off her shoes.
“What the hell happened?” Ashley asked as she saw Elena’s sling. Then she examined her closer and asked, “And why are you so sweaty?”
Elena took a deep breath and said. “A lot happened while you were at school. You might want to sit down for this.”
“Ok?” Ashley said with a question in her voice.
Ashley sat open mouthed in awe as Elena described her day, her mind, having difficulty wrapping around each new revelation. Then she finished with her leaving the junkyard.
“Wait, how much gold and platinum do you have?” Ashey asked with trepidation in her voice.
“Almost 300 grams of gold and a little over a kilogram of platinum.” As Elena said this, she placed the small ingot of gold next to the much larger ingot of platinum on the small dining table. It was actually 308.538 grams of gold and 1012.362 grams of platinum. For some reason she just intrinsically knew these things.
“They are essentially 100%pure.” Elena explained.
“And they are worth how much?” Ashley asked.
“Over 50,000.” Elena said as if she herself couldn't believe it.
“Holy shit.” Ashley said. Usually, Elena would have corrected her language but in this situation it can pass.
“Yeah. And I only did a couple hundred cars. There were like 2000 there. Now the next question is, how do we sell it?” Elena said.
They looked at each other, neither had any good answers. “Let's wait until mom gets home. We shouldn’t do anything yet.” Ashley said. She was always the less impulsive one. Elena was ready to rob another junkyard blind.
“Can I see your powers?” Ashley asked.
“Oh right, sure.” They were so caught up with the fortune sitting on the table that it was overlooked.
“One sec.” Elena said and opened her phone. She made a quick search on gold coins and found one that was non-descript. An uncomplicated design that showed the 20 g mass as well as purity.
Then she activated her ability and turned the gold ingot into 15 coins. Next, she repeated the process, turning the platinum into 50 coins of the same design except replacing the Au with a Pt. There was a little scrap left over so she turned them into small cubes.
“Wow. That is not a rank an E ability.” Ashley said, clearly amazed.
“Yeah, you're telling me, but I didn't realize I could do this at the time, and I suspect that guy was looking for the next hot young powered for the market and didn't do his due diligence.” Elena said.
“Mom is gonna freak out when she sees this.” Ashley said as she picked up and examined a gold coin.
“Oh yeah definitely.” Elena agreed. Her mom was as straight laced as they came.
“Can you do the thing with my phone?” Ashey asked as she took her phone out of her pocket.
“Sure.” It was easy enough to fix all the bumps and scratches on the touchscreen as well as removing all the dirt and debris in the sockets. In a few minutes, the phone looked brand new.
“That's insane.” Ashey said as she watched the process happening. Then she took up the phone and examined it. “You're like a one-woman recycling plant and repair shop.”
‘Now that was an idea.’ Elena thought.
After having a dinner of frozen food their mom finally walked through the door. Both girls sat at the dining table with the fortune of coins sitting between them. At the sight Madaline stopped, utterly flabbergasted by what she was seeing. Then she turned her suspicious gaze over to Elena.
“I swear it's not as bad as you think.” Elena said with a confident smile, but by the worried look Ashley had. It was as bad as she thought.
Madaline took a deep breath, dropped her handbag on the counter and joined her girls at the table and asked. “What am I looking at?”
She had her stern gaze on Elena. “Over $50,000 worth of pure gold and platinum coins.”
Madaline maintained her poise and asked. “And how did you come upon this fortune?”
Elena’s confident demeanor was starting to show cracks. “I sorta figured out I can just extract any elements from circuit boards and things. Cars apparently have a lot of precious metals, so I just found a junkyard and extracted them from around 300 cars.”
Madaline didn't even so much as twitch in an eyebrow. “So, you stole $50,000 worth of precious metals from a junkyard.”
Elena was getting more nervous by the moment, if there was one thing she knew was that when her mom didn’t show emotion, she was really cross.
At this point she was starting to panic and was grasping at straws. “Steal is a strong word, I mean I did have to pay to go in, I could leave with whatever I wanted.”
Ashey was trying to make herself as inconspicuous as possible.
Before Madaline could respond Elena continued. “Even if we get half the value for the coins. That's the rest of the medical debt paid off. The credit cards are gone and rent for the rest of the year. And still 5000 left for the rainy-day fund. And if I figure out how to do this legally. Ashley can go to college, you quit that stupid job, and we move out of this shitty neighborhood.”
Madaline sighed as Elena rambled. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to get angry. Her daughter was always impulsive, but only ever thought about her family.
“It's alright.” Madaline said.
“Huh?” Both Elena and Ashley said at the same time. That was not the response they expected.
“The coins could be an inheritance from Nathan. I’m not 100% sure on the law but I'm sure that precious metals can be inherited. We would have to speak to a lawyer, which costs money, but we have enough savings for a consultation at least. At that point it can be sold and properly taxed.”
Both girls smiled as their mom thought of a better plan than either of them did for the last hour. Then in a more serious tone said. “But let me make this clear. This is not to be repeated. If you want to use your abilities for profit, it's fine, but do it legally. That means buying your own lot, purchasing scrap and junk cars, and doing the extractions on your own property. That also means registering with the heroes association as quickly as possible.”
Both girls turned their nose up at this suggestion, but Madaline continued, undeterred. “As much as I despise those plutocrats. You won't be able to hide the extent of your abilities for long and everyone who uses their abilities for profit must be in the public domain. Fortunately, they gave you a month.”
“We can talk to John over the weekend, for now Elena, rest and heal. Ashley, we keep this in the family.” Ashley looked offended that she had to even say that.
“Agreed?” Madaline asked both girls.
“Yes mom.” they repeated.
“Good now, come here,” Madaline said. She pulled both girls into a hug. While she was not pleased with how impulsive Elena was with her abilities. There was a real chance for this to turn their lives around. She knew how her oldest daughter was. Her abilities had lit a fire inside her and she was going to follow it relentlessly. The best Madaline could do was keep her on the right path.
Two days later.
Elena laid down on her bed staring up at the floating box, which she now called a morphic cube. She had taken her mother’s advice to heart and spent most of the last two days in the apartment. Most of the time was spent experimenting with the morphic cube. During this time, she learned a few things.
First, was how much she could lift. There was no real limit. As long as it was within the cube, she could move it with little effort. However, if an object couldn't fit inside the cube she couldn't lift it. She would have to separate the object from surrounding material to move it.
Second was how precise her knowledge of each element or compound inside the cube was. She knew everything essentially. Its mass, spatial volume and density were as clear as day and she could manipulate these things with atomic precision.
Next was other forms of manipulation other than morphing. First, she attempted to compress coal into diamond. That didn't work and nearly all her strength was sapped from her body. Elena knew abilities were draining but nothing she did before ever really affected her. It wasn't until she researched how diamonds were formed that she understood why it drained her. Next was breaking chemical bonds. This was slightly draining but it depended on the type of bond.
Elena eventually realized that the blue box was actually just air in the morphic cube. She could easily create a perfect vacuum making the cube invisible. This did slightly drain her. Perhaps there would be a use for that in the future. The cube was actually 1.08 meters across, which was strange, but powers usually didn't make much sense.
While she waited for the meeting with the lawyer, Elena plotted. First was buying a scrapyard for herself. With her abilities she would process a crushed car in a few minutes and there were plenty of other precious metals like palladium and silver that she didn't extract. That plan was immediately shelved. The cheapest one was over 1.5 million dollars.
Next was a repair business. How much would someone pay to have their scratched or cracked devices repaired in a few minutes? $50, $80, $100? She guessed it would depend on the device and how significant the repair is. A short in a circuit board was easy to repair. Just figure out where the short is and fix the circuit. Fixing multi layered PCBs would be a challenge but Elena thought she could do it. This is what led her to her attempt to repair the TV.
She went down a rabbit hole of TV repair manuals. Videos on the internet and searching through forums for potential causes. She spent hours learning just what she was actually looking at as well as how they connect and operate with each other. She had some basic knowledge but not nearly enough.
She was finally able to determine that the backlight was defective. The power connection for the LED strips was damaged. But it was a simple connector, just copper insulated with plastic. So, she just repaired the copper and stretched the plastic a bit to cover it. She didn't even have to disassemble the TV, since she could literally see through it. After turning on the tv she was satisfied to see the black line gone.
“Ok. This can work.” Elena said to herself. Maybe she could start a repair business. She could even do on the spot refurbishing. Even have a sign that said, ‘Refurbish anything in under 3 minutes or less.’
Game consoles, phones, laptops, whole computers. As long as the damage was superficial refurbishing and cleaning it was easy. After researching the price, she scoffed. All she had to do was undercut their prices and offer the same services. Then there was the fact that she was powered. That would be a terrific way to drum up business.
The last thing Elena had to deal with were the physical changes that occur when a person awakens. While it wasn't a night and day difference, she had to eat more food, and she felt lighter than normal. Then there was her shoulder. The doctor said it would take months to heal but it already felt better. After a bit of research, she found that faster healing was one of the benefits of being powered. She decided to give it a week and have another checkup.
Somehow, she had to raise 1.5 million dollars to buy a salvage yard. Then she began to go through all the recyclable materials that could be extracted from a standard car. Steel and iron mostly, aluminum, copper, brass, platinum, gold, palladium, rubbers, plastics, and glass. She searched for several guides on the internet and started to calculate how much all those raw materials would be worth using the average weight of a car. She found that it would be roughly 1500 - 2000 dollars just based on the current market value price of the raw materials. What's even better was that she could refine it to a higher quality. Then there would be things like transportation costs. Elena rubbed her head as she tried to wrap her mind around how much work it would take.
Then Elena researched the legality in taking items from dumpsters. Apparently as long as it was from public property it was a free game.
“So many options. But first things first we need to sell all this loot. “Elena mused.