"Anddddd... TIME!" Will shouted as the Majora took a decisive blow to the chest. "Whew... long speedrun. Let's see... 5:01:11?! Shoot, so close to a sub-5 hour!" Will gently set his headphones down and placed his N64 controller on the table. "Majoras Mask 100% is so hard. I should have done a Super Mario Galaxy 120 Stars today. *yawn*
"Dinner's ready Will!" a female voice called from the kitchen. A strong, meaty scent wafted through the halls into his gaming area. It was Taco Tuesday.
"Aw hell yeah!" Will jumped out of his seat and ran into the dining room. Sitting down, he grabbed his napkin and put it on his lap. "Don't want Bailey eating my taco meat!" he chuckled as his white, fluffy Havanese looked up at him. Her eyes were screaming 'Feed me, Willy.'".
"Here Will, straight from the stove." Will's mom, Skylar, gently set the steaming pot of seasoned, spicy beef. "I'll call your father and then we can eat, okay honey? Come on Blake! ¡Los tacos están sobre la mesa!"
"Está bien, está bien! ¡Ya voy!" Blake's heavy footsteps echoed throughout the house as he approached the dining room. He appeared in the doorway. "I thought I was trying to use English more Sky."
"Blake, I'm just trying to have some fun with you, don't be such a party pooper." Skylar snickered as Blake sat down.
"Haha... Very funny." Blake rolled his eyes and gave a nervous laugh. "So son, how was your speedrun?"
Will was sprinkling the peppers in the shells of his tacos when he snapped back to reality. "Oh... um... I'm sorry. What?"
"Heh, heh! No... uh... worries Will! I... was just asking how your speedrun went."
"Lost the Goron Race, bad Dogs RNG, and HORRIBLE Twinmold. It was a swamp of bad luck. Really annoying."
"Ahhh... yes. Majoras Mask. One of my favorite games." Blake sighed. I used to play it all the time with mi hermano. Fun game; loved the Three Day system."
"Wow, Dad... You're doing really well with your English!" Will clapped, so did Skylar. "I'm really impressed with how quickly you picked it up when your company relocated you."
"I'm so grateful you made such an effort to learn English. This family could have fallen apart if I wouldn't have met you in that meeting after my divorce with... him..." Skylar's eyes deadpanned out into space.
"I just wish that Chester hadn't stolen from the company," Will sighed as he drummed his musclar fingers on the table, a byproduct of his intense gaming. He took another shell from the tray and filled it up with meat and veggies. "Say... You've never really explained this to me. What exactly did he steal from you gu..." Will got cut off by Skylar whom had just finished her first taco and wanted to change the subject.
"Can we please put this behind us? It was a dark time in our company as well as our life. I don't know what I would have do if Blake wouldn't have entered my life, but I trust fate had my back that day. I feel the only way we can repay fate is to not question him... Not ask fate what could've been. We are perfectly happy right now, right? I'm just going to change the subject, if there are no objections." Skylar then cleared her throat with a delicate cough and breathed in. "Will, I would like to congratulate you on your straight As for another quarter! Good job honey!"
"Excellent son! You make us so proud." Blake gave Will a fist pump.
"Aww... Thanks, guys..." Will blushed. "I'm just glad that those tests didn't mess my grades up. There were a ton of them! Almost all of my classes had one on the same day!"
"Yeah... I remember you telling us about that. You stayed up studying every night." Skylar leaned back in her chair. "Well, be happy that it's Spring Break now. You can relax."
"I wonder what I'm going to do with two weeks?" Will scratched his chin. "Oh! Maybe I can finally finish that electricity project!"
"The one with the electric waves and the metal Ws? You're still working on that?" Skylar said as she took a big bite of a taco. A little piece of pico de gallo fell out of her shell and onto the ground. Bailey was on it like a shark on a bleeding seal. "Oh, Bailey! Sometimes I don't know whether to be mad that you are such a nuisance under the table or happy that I have an unpaid vacuuming service!" Skylar chuckled and took another bite. "So yeah... the W project..."
"Yeah, it's still going." Will nodded in response. He then took a bite of his taco. "Mmmm... Soooo good. Very spicy."
"What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Can you remind us?" Blake asked.
"Sure!" Will swallowed his bite and set the taco down on the plate. He took a sip of milk and thought on how to approach this. "Well... it's like... I'm measuring electrical waves. It's interesting how they travel in perfect waves across the gaps of the W. I'm trying to see if I can make it transfer onto something else, then it might just be a renewable source of energy!"
"I wonder what gives Ws these weird properties. Even other wavy objects like metal fences wouldn't do that." Skylar shook her head. "How did you even figure that out?"
"We had a bent steel beam in our backyard get struck by lightning remember? It was coursing through the crests and dips in unsteady pulses before it finally lost control and the energy went into the ground. I became fascinated with the movement of electricity through warped metal objects. Fast forward and now I've figured that the closer the object is to the shape of the letter W, the longer it can course electricity through itself. I'm trying to find the perfect W, one that has no flaws, no kinks; one that has an infinite charge. That... would blow the world of science out of the water."
"That would make my job a whole lot easier," Blake said with a smirk. "Being an electrical engineer isn't the easiest thing in the world with the current state of the energy company this city has..." He looked a Skylar, who rolled her eyes.
"Cleveland's Wavelength isn't that bad. It's just we've noticed that recently a lot of our electricity that is being generated is being lost to unknown factors. It's a huge problem, and one we are working daily to fix, but it shouldn't be hurting your business that much..."
"As long as I don't lose my job Skylar, keep doing yours. I didn't come all the way from Mexico to start a new branch of Borrar just to get fired. You know how much of a burro my boss is." Blake winked at her. She giggled.
"Well, I don't want all those electricity supplication negotiations the meeting room to go to waste, especially after how much we bonded." Skylar walked over to peck Blake on the cheek."
"Thanks again for letting me use some of the equipment from your company to generate electric currents mom! It's really sped up my progress."
"No problem Will. I showed Dad the research you were doing and they were int. They said they supported you all the way. After all, you're the son of the daughter of the founder of Wavelength..." Skylar looked deeply into Will's eyes. "I see amazing potential in you. You're going to revolutionize the way we produce and use electric energy. I just know it."
"I'm with Sky on that one son." Blake gave a toothy grin.
All Will could do was smile softly. Then a knocking sound started echoing. "Well, looks like sis is home from her get together with her friends. I'll get it!" Will jumped up and jogged to the door. He grasped the handle and twisted clockwise. He then pushed and the door swing open. There stood his ten-year-old sister Nicolle Wave.
"Bye, Nicolle!" her friend Maya called as their car commenced moving down the driveway.
"Bye, Maya!" She then turned and looked up at Will. There was a height difference of at leat two feet. Nicolle then jumped into Will's arms. "Willy!" she squealed.
"Nikki! You missed Taco Tuesday you goofball!" Will reproached sarcastically.
"Wow, she really loves you, huh?" Blake chuckled.
"Awww..." Skylar took out her iPhone and took a picture of her children hugging each other. "I found the perfect Christmas card!"
"Skylar, it's April."
***
"Will, are you going to work on the W thingy?" Nicolle asked. "Because I wanted to play a board game with you..."
"I'm just doing one test tonight, don't worry. Then I can smoke you a Parcheesi."
"Is that a challenge?" Nicolle pounded her right fist into her left hand. "Don't make me tackle you onto the couch again." Nicolle was crazy aggressive for her age. It was pretty evenly matched between her and Will even though the height and weight factors were unbalanced.
"Anytime. Put it up, sis!"
"Now, now. Don't go killing each other, that couch is expensive! We don't to have to toss it because someone bled out on it!" Skylar sarcastically demanded while walking in the living room. She had a smug smile on her face.
"A'ight, mom. Fine." Will scratched the back of his neck.
"Wait! Will! There's something cool I found hiking with Maya I REALLY want to show you." Nicolle suddenly beamed.
"Oh really now? What is it?" Will asked.
"It's a surprise... follow me," Nicolle said. She took him up to her room. It was painted green and blue, her favorite colors. Books about nature and wildlife were strewn around. She also had tons of chess strategy guides. She was amazing at chess and could beat anyone she played, including Will and their parents, who were also pretty good. Her bed had a couple stuffed animals, such as a sloth, a few horses, a flamingo and most notably her giant dog she won at the fair once. She had the second biggest bedroom in the house, besides their parents, mostly because of the sheer amount of closet space she had. Nicolle had gone into to one of these closets, coming out with her hiking backpack she had put away when she got home. Setting it down on the bed, she told Will to close to his eyes until she put something in his hand.
Will could hear the noises the object she was pulling out was making. It made a noise like a sword did with you pulled it out of a holster. Then, he could hear her excited, yet careful footsteps. Finally, he felt a cold, smooth, metal object grace his fingertips and rest in his palm. He took the cue and opened his eyes. The second he did his pupils shrunk two sizes and his mouth dropped like a brick.
"Oh my god?!" Will was flabbergasted by what he was looking at. It was a smooth, golden W with no visible chips, kinks or deformities. The luster was unfathomable and nearly blinding. "This is the most pristine, perfect metal W I've ever seen! Where. In the world. Did you find this?!"
"Deep in the forest around the Metroparks. We knew you would like it, and it was a pretty crazy find."
"But... where specifically?"
"It was in this hidden grotto we found when Maya accidently fell into a hole that turned out to be a passage cave. The W was sitting in perfect condition on a stone altar surrounded by a crumbling building. There were faded weird markings in a language I'd never seen before. I definitely wasn't hieroglyphics, but it wasn't anything modern. I was definitely a more symbol-based language but I've never seen such a combination of words and symbols like that. Like I said, it's also really faded. I have no idea how long it could have possibly been there.
"Wow... An artifact and mysterious symbols. Are you sure it was legal to take that kind of stuff out of the Metroparks? I know they have these weird preservative laws." Will shook his head and sighed. "The hell do I know, though?"
"I think it's fine as long as we don't defile the writing. After all, it hadn't been discovered yet. It might not have the restrictions affecting them yet," Nicolle crossed her arms and rapped her foot against the carpet.
"Well, whatever the rules are, this was an awesome find. As long as we report you and Maya found the ruins to the Metroparks, I'm sure they will be fine."
"Yeah," Nicolle agreed. "Should we tell mom and dad?"
"They deserve to know. We shouldn't keep this a secret."
"Alright... fine. Are you sure? Do you think they are going to make us put the W back?" Nicolle sounded worried all of a sudden.
"Hopefully not. I can't have the final word in it, but if they resist I'll try to convince them. After all, we can fetch a pretty penny off this thing." Will raised and lowered his eyebrows.
"Hmmm... Alright. I trust you, Willy... The reason I'm giving it to you is because I know how much you like your electricity experiment. I thought this was a perfect gift."
"I love it. It's a perfect gift. It's so good too... But... at the same time, don't you think this is strange? A W... Out of all the things it could be. An apple, a bull, a crown, a sword, heck, even a triangle! But... It's a W..." Will squinted his eyes. "This can't be a coincidence."
"And it's pure gold... Isn't that ridiculously rare? Like rarer than diamonds rare?" Nicolle questioned.
"Diamonds aren't rare. If all the diamond companies in the world released their diamonds onto the market right now, a McChicken would be more expensive. Pure Gold is pretty rare, though, that's why it has so much value. It's usually found bonded to other elements. So why is a random gold object sitting in a place that's supposed to be a wildlife preservation park? And a W of all things!?"
"Yeah... It's really weird..." Nicolle suddenly stopped and thought about the situation. "Will, do you think it's such a good idea to shock it?"
"At this point, I'm not 100% sure about it... I feel like this is too good to be true. Maybe I shouldn't mess with this thing..."
"Maybe it's just gold, though... I mean what could go wrong..." Nicolle gave an uneasy flick of the foot. "Besides legal trouble with the Metroparks of course..."
"Yeah. Maybe this is my chance! I can't just let this opportunity go to waste!" Will suddenly had a spark in his eye. "Nicolle, I've got it! Perhaps the answer is something else!"
"I don't follow," Nicolle scratched her head.
"Sis, think about it. I've always done my tests with Steel or some sort of Iron compound. What if... What if the answer was I was using the wrong element!"
Nicolle pounded her fist into her hand. "Hey! That's you could be right!"
"Well, there's only one way to find out!"
***
"Okay, the generator is on, tesla is pointed at the W, no metal objects on the table... I think it's ready to go!" Will screamed over the increasing hum of the battery. A small tesla Skylar's company had used to test lighting rods was sparking beautiful blue and yellow waves of voltage. The golden W was on the table, ready to be zapped. After adjusting his safety goggles and tightening his rubber cloak cover more of the exposed part on his neck, Will told everyone to step back.
Nicolle had told Skylar and Blake about the W and where they had found it. Skylar said she would allow Will one test before they would have to drive out and return the W to the altar. Nicolle was excited to have possibly found signs of ancient civilization.
After the initial prep, Will adjusted the position of the W to where the tesla had a consistent strike zone. The wires on a metal conductor rod were then connected to the base of the W. Finally, Will removed the rubber casing from the conductor and backed up. After a few small sparks, the tesla picked up the metal knob and a white flash struck the rod. After a second, there was a blue wave that appeared on one side of the letter. "And now the moment of truth." Will started the timer.
It started normally, the wave of electricity kept bouncing up and down along the rises and dips of the shiny artifact. It was mesmerizing to watch. Suddenly, a voice echoed from behind Will. "Hey son, is this what it's supposed to be doing?"
"Yes! It's working it's just a matter of how long it works for. Normally, my test specimens have little chips, bumps or dents that gradually throws off the wave until it slips over the face and falls down into the metal frame of the table, flows down into the ground and dies. The longest I've had a wave going was the W one week ago which held it for five minutes. It's been a minute and a half now, so we've go some time still.
"Sweetie, I'm so glad Nicolle was able to find you a W to work with, but don't you think it's a little odd?" Skylar shook her head. "I mean, what are the chances of randomly finding a solid, pure gold W? Much less a gold anything. I don't know why, but I'm getting a bad feeling about this. Maybe this the work of some creep... Oh god, I hope it's not him! I hope he didn't... Will! Stop the test! This could be a revenge plo...!" Skylar was cut off by a glare and Will grunting.
"Uh... What is causing that?" Blake moaned.
"It's!... It's coming from the W!"
"Will! Stop the experiment! Now!" Skylar screamed.
"I can't! Once it's in the W it has to die by itself!"
"What's wrong! What's going on! Why is the W shinning so brightly?!" Nicolle was scared. Scared for her brother.
"If you can't stop it, then get away from...!" Suddenly, Skylar, as well as everyone but Will grunted as the oxygen levels dropped significantly. The resulting headaches were due to a loss of pressure. "Will..." But the pulsing W was drowning out, or more likely flat out absorbing sound waves. It suddenly started floating slowly off the table."
"What the hell is it doing?!" Will screamed. He told his family to run, but they couldn't hear him. The W was now completely obscured; surrounded by a giant spark ball. "Something is reacting to the electricity inside that gold! What could this possibly mean, though?" Will was perplexed. All noise suddenly stopped. He looked up at the W as the room was growing ever darker and smokier. Skylar was wailing at the top of her lungs for Will to get away from that thing, but no frequency was able to break the sound barrier the W had formed around Will. "It's... Wow... It's not really doing anything. It's not discharging, and it's not setting anything on fire. It's just sucking up oxygen and... getting bigger and brighter. This is so cool!..." Will suddenly remember to look down at his stopwatch, and it read 5:30 in blocky, digital numbers. "Yes! That's the new record!" He breathed hard. "I can't be scared of this spark! It's not doing anything other than growing brighter now, not even getting bigger." The room was almost completely white. It would have been blinding, but Will was feeling something deep within him. It wasn't letting him be affected by anything the W was doing.
Suddenly, something dawned on him. "Wait, is this what an infinite energy wave looks like?! Does it just keep piling on itself?! This... this could be an infinite source of power! I thought it would just create pulses, but this! It's acting like the core of a star! It's performing electrical nuclear fusion! I can't believe it!" Will could only stare at it. The sheer brightness of the core would have melted someone's eyeballs, but somehow, Will just kept staring at it. It was almost if he had protection from his eyes...
Suddenly, the core shifted a little. Then, it started swaying left and right very, very swiftly. "What? It's still going?" It was like it was fighting itself. It started spinning, and then it threw itself very close to Will. "Woah! Jeez!" he said as he jumped out of the way. Suddenly, the pulsing, throbbing noises and flashes stopped. The ball of electricity collapsed inward back into a W shape, however, it was glowing very brightly. Will commenced walking backward slowly, but the W started following him. It was if it had a magnetic attraction to him. The faster he backed up, the faster the W gave chase. Eventually, Will stopped, but the W kept going until it was right in front of him. He closed his eyes tightly, expecting a seventh-degree burn in a couple seconds, but no pain was felt. He slowly opened his eyes to find the magnificent letter was floating directly in front of him. It had stopped as well.
The room was completely dark, save for the W and Will. At first, he stared at it, as if they were having a staring contest. Every time he took a side step to the left or right, it would follow suit and line itself perfectly in front of him again. After some time in complete, motionless astonishment, Will finally said something. "Am I... supposed to... touch it?" he asked himself. His voice was but an echo.
After removing all of his anti-electric rubber clothing, he carefully raised his right index finger. Slowly, he propelled his hand forward to poke the mysterious letter. His first contact was the fingernail, and when he didn't immediately die, he pressed the rest of his finger on it. It didn't hurt... it felt... soothing.
"That's... impossible. It's completely electrocuted, yet I can still make contact with it? Weird..." He put his hand on it, then he lightly tapped it with his head, and finally he grasped the bottom. Holding it, he brought it close to himself. "What is going on with this thing? Is this even scientifically possible anymore?" Then, Will had one more idea. He brought the glowing letter to his chest. Suddenly, he felt like he had just smoked a pound of marijuana. He felt so relaxed, so comfortable, that his consciousness slowly slipped away. His eyes slowly closed as the W's static electricity stuck it to the cotton shirt he was wearing. To make sure he didn't hurt himself, he lay down on the cold cement of the Wave's garage jus as he felt his legs go numb and give out.
As more and more parts of his body became unresponsive, he breathed slowly. "I don't... even know... what's causing this... or what's going... to happen to me... All I know... is if this is it... I've felt enough in one minute... to be satisfied... for the rest... of eternity." Will then passed out in a bliss of electrical neuron pleasure.
Finally, once Will was in a deep sleep, the W disintegrated into pure electricity. It started sparkling and dancing on Will's chest before burrowing into his body. He wasn't burned, he wasn't electrocuted. It just entered him like water enters a pore.
The garage was still.
***
The door to the garage slowly opened as Skylar, Blake, Nicolle, and Bailey poked their heads through their respective doors. Beams of light shone around until they found what they were looking for. What they saw made Skylar screech and run over to the unconscious body of her son The W was completely gone. "Oh my god... Blake is he...?"
"No, he still has a pulse. He's still alive, just in a very deep sleep. Maybe even a coma. My question is... Where did that W go?"
Nicolle was crying. "No! Will! Please be alright! This is all my fault..."
"No Nicolle, it's mine. I can't believe..." Skylar started. "I can't believe we just left him in here! Blake, I'm such a bad parent! This is the second time listening to somebody when I know they were wrong has affected our family! I should have stayed! I should have..."
"Skylar... One, Will wasn't stealing from your company. Two, remember how every time we tried to reach him, we got pushed back by an unseen force?" Blake had his arms crossed. His eyes were melancholy and nervous. "Will was very brave. He tried to stop it, I'm sure of it. He told us to get out.
"Blake..." Skylar sighed. "Well, we can worry about that later! If he's still alive then I'm calling 9-1-1!" Skylar bashed the digital keys with her fingers so hard she almost broke her iPhone. "Hello! This is an Emergency! I'm calling about my unconscious son in our garage!
"Ma'am, what to do you believe was the cause of the bodily shutdown?"
"Electrocution!"
"That's sounds serious. What's your address?"
"46532 Sonar Avenue, Pepper Pike! Please hurry!
"Alright. We're on our way. Thank you for calling us."
Skylar took a deep breath. "Alright, I called the EM. How are we going to explain this to them?"
"Yo no sé miel. Yo no sé," Blake sighed in Spanish.
"Hey! Mom! Dad! Look at Will's stopwatch!" Nicolle shouted through sniffles. The couple ran over to the side of Will's body. The stopwatch Will was using to time the waves' lifespans was laying on the ground beside him where he had dropped it. Due to the volume of electricity in the room, all lights had been burnt out and all technology fried or disabled. They had to use a flashlight to go into the garage in the first place. What they saw on the watch made their jaws hit the floor faster than when Will first saw the W. It seemed that the only working thing in the entire room was the timer, and even it had a peculiarity.
After all, on the display, there was one lone symbol, a giant ∞ sign.
"By god, he's done it," Nicolle said. "He's created an infinite wave."
