Of course, he’d been unable to find any clues that the roadrunner was seeking him out, either. Rev lounged around the base with the same casual flair he always had, bantering with the others and giving no indication that he even remembered what he and Tech had done… well, okay, there were some. More than once, Tech had caught Rev’s eye across a room and had gotten what he thought was a smile. But if it was a smile, then why wasn’t Rev pushing to get him alone more often?
More and more he was wondering if giving in had been a mistake. It had at least changed his behavior around Rev, and the fact that the roadrunner’s behavior hadn’t changed much was making him even more self-conscious.
And now, today, the first time they’d been scheduled to be alone at the base, Duck had done something to his flyer and insisted that it needed to be fixed that afternoon.
“I’ll do it tonight,” Tech said, trying to get Rev’s attention. The roadrunner was fiddling with a little handheld game, his fingers a blur as he worked the buttons. It was a game Tech had designed for him, one that could withstand and even make use of the roadrunner’s enhanced speed. Now he wished that he’d made it a little less absorbing, or at least had included an override that he could program with a message, like “Look up!” “And how exthactly will that get me to the show this afternoon, pray tell? Are you going to build a time machine into it? Why can’t you fix it now? You have nothing better to do.”
So not true, Tech thought, looking desperately again at Rev. “You don’t set my schedule. Ace does.”
“Ace says you should fix my flyer. You want me to call him?”
If Duck was willing to call Ace and admit to his authority, then he must be really sure he’d be backed up. “Fine,” Tech said. “Give it here.”
“I don’t know what the big deal is Tech you fix everything else in five minutes and I’m sure you want to get Duck out of here as much as I do,” Rev said without looking up from the game.
“Thhhanks,” Duck said sarcastically over his shoulder.
“I can’t just fix this in five minutes,” Tech said. “His powers have upset the balance between the gyrostabilizers and the impulse mechanism. I could fix it temporarily, sure, but I don’t know when it might go out again. In order to really fix it, I need him around to do some power demonstration so I can take some readings.”
“Better make sure your instruments are set to go as high as I can,” Duck said. “I don’t want to have to pull any punches.”
“I hope you’re not planning to lob any of your gooballs around here that could really foul things up no pun intended of course why don’t you go down to the danger room or something?”
“Hey!” Tech’s ears perked up. “Yeah! I mean, it’d be safer down there and I can set the instruments to record the data I need. They’re already set to record certain events, it would just take a little modification.” He was already visualizing the modifications in his head. “Yeah, I can do that. Come on, Duck. Rev, I’ll be right back.”
“Whatever,” the roadrunner said, absorbed in his game.
It took him only five minutes to make that modification. He knew he should test it out, but he was so anxious to get upstairs again that he told Duck, “Now, just Quack around inside the danger room for about ten minutes. Then throw your eggs around for ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?”
“Yeah, I uh, need data on them going in different directions and at different targets. Then, uh, finish up by combining in rapid succession, like teleport and throw an egg and teleport and so on, like that. Got it?”
“Yeah, sure.” Duck shrugged. “Can I run a program while I’m doing this so I have something to throw at?”
“You shouldn’t. I need baseline data for each of the powers and information on their interaction, and if you’re running a program, you’d be tempted to use something else.”
“This is going to be so boring!” Duck folded his arms. “Why don’t you just write me a new program?”
Because I’m so goddamn horny that I want to punch you just so I can end this conversation and go back upstairs. “Because I… it… oh, fine.”
That took another ten minutes. Tech coded the program to start five minutes hence, then changed it to ten, eager to get a few extra minutes with the roadrunner. “I’m going back upstairs to monitor the readings,” he said. “The program’ll start in a few minutes. Just wait ’til then, and remember what I told you.”
“I got it,” Duck said, as though Tech had tried to remind him how to put his pants on. “Eggs, then quack, then everything.”
He’d gotten the order wrong, but it didn’t matter as long as he only did one thing at a time. “Yeah, great,” Tech said, and ran for the elevator.
But when he got back upstairs, Rev was gone. “Rev?” he said, looking around the control room and poking his head into the adjoining spaces. His voice echoed back from the metallic walls and died into the constant background buzz of machinery.
