Transference

Road back home was rather uneventfull. Something Frank was more than thankfull about. He had little desire, or need for that matter, to experience the possible excitement such a ride could possibly offer. Getting stuck in the middle of gang shootout, or being stopped because the corpo mercs or special forces decided to do something for once? Jea, no thank you. No sane person would willingly subscribe to such events, at the very least not one so human. That could very much change, if he could improve himself with even half of the improvements that were hidden in his mind.

'One day. One day I will be able to not only help prevent such problems, but ensure that they do not occur in the first place.' Thought Frank as his mind wandered, dreaming of the infinite possibilities the future now held. Nevertheless, he still had his priorities straight. First, to secure a better life for his mom, then figure out the culprits of his old mans death. He himself did not care much for the man, but justice for Gloria would be a godsent. He had heard her talk about it often enough that it was on his bucket list now. Then came the improvement of his own block and eventually city.

He could only thank, or blame his mom for that too. She had taught him to be a good man, not skipping out on the lessons that the world is filled with bad and poisonous people either, though many are so, because they have no better alternatives, and that it was a duty of his as a fellow human being, to help out where possible, so long it does not endanger his family. She was rather adamant that Frank finds himself a girlfriend. She had, in no conclealed words, explained that she expects grandkids by the time Frank turns thirtyfive, or he better have some foolproof explanations, with set up plans to fix the absence of said grandkids, or hell would break loose. She did remind him from time to time about the timer ticking down. Every single birthday of his, in fact. Something Frank had learned to both apreciate and dread at the same time, and that was saying something, his rather calculative mind rarely did non logical reactions, this being one of those exceptions that only proved the rule.

Still, he had to figure out, how to expose old Bob for what he was, and to sever the connection his mom still maintained. If the old engineer did as Frank asumed he might, it should be rather simple. Luckally. the probability that Bob does as he expects of the man was quite high, and that would indeed be the first thing he checks once he is home and has had a quick conversation with mom. Still, how best to present the situation, and get his mom to play along, that was yet to be determined and figured out, and so, his mind focussed on the task at hand.

Frank entered their appartment a bit past six in the evening. Removing his shoes and placing them by the door, he slipped in his slippers, and moved further into the appartment. Moments later he heard action in the kitchen, so he moved there, greeting his mom, who was bussy with making them supper.

"Hey sweetie, how was your day out? Managed to achieve something you hoped for?" A sweet smile adorned her face, the motherly love for her child all over her face.

Frank lifted the box with the parts he had aquired, as he smiled back.

"Better than I could have hoped for."

"Hmm? And whatever do you have there?" she asked, her eyes leaming with slight hint of interest, no doubt she was seeing his father in his action right now. More than once had she mentioned such sitiations when he was absorbed in his own work and Gloria would see him.

"Nothing much, to be honest. A few parts I aquired from 'The Junkyard'. I thing I might be able to put them to good use. If my calculations are right, it should help us out in the long term."

"Hope it wasnt too expensive?" she asked, well aware that everything cost money.

"Its okey mom. I was extremely carefull, and only used some of my meager savings for the purchase."

"Frank, my dear boy." him mom spoke, a light chiding tone appearing in her voice "You should not spend any of that money. It is set aside for the most important tasks after all."

"I would not call wife hunting the most important task, but mhmhm." Frank murmured a rebuttal, but was smart enough he keep it quite low in volume as he mumbled.

"You said something sweetie?" her smile now was that of a serial killer, deciding on its next target, and Frank, being the smart man he was, did the only logical action he could take.

"I said, I am sorry mom. I will be more carefull next time, but I trully think this was neccessary."

"I will take your word for it, young man, but make sure it indeed does not become a habbit of yours."

"Yes mam."

"And how was the workshop of Bob's? Does it serve the purpose you wanted to visit it for?"

"I suppose?" he answered questioningly, not quite sure how to proceed, then he continiued, having come up with a somewhat viable plan.

"Say mom, has Bob always been so suspicious?"

"Hmm? What brings that up? Was he half drunk when you got there? We did talk and he agreed to help out."

"No mom, thats not the case. It just felt wrong. I cant trully explain it." then he paused, as if remembering something he had yet to do.

"Crap, forgot to patent the device." he exclaimed, hitting his palm with the side of his other fist. "Got a few minutes mom? Wanna show you something." he spoke and beckoned for her to follow.

"Fine, fine, but only a few minutes. Cant have the supper to overboil." She responded an follwedFrank int o his room, where he turned on his PC, and typed in a rather well know adress from anyone who was trying to create something new. Government run site that was set up with explicit purpose to ease the steps required to register and claim ownership over the patent of whatever you had managed to create. The system ran a rather complex and precise pattern recognition, scanning whatever was used as the blueprint against their database. Should no matches appear, once could then claim ownership of it.

Frank scanned the schematic of the same nature he had given to Bob, a creation of his that had came into existance during his trip back home. "Its more or less just a proof of concept for now, with a few inconsistencies, but Bob said he would make a prototype so we could test and figure out the flaws in real time. Gotta just patent it real quick." He then proceeded with the steps, untill, the system came back with an error. Apparently the design was already registered. Under the name of Bob Rodgers.

"NO WAY!?" Frank exclaimed, double checking both his schematic as well as the notification.

Gloria was no fool either, quickly understanding what was likely going on, and so she dissapeared from his room, only to return a few moments later, a phone in her hands as she was dialling someone.

"Hello, Gloria. Hows it been going?" a cheerfull voice came from the other side, the recipient of the call clearly in a vey good mood.

"Bob, you did not just do what I thin you did?" she spoke, her voice grimm and accusatory.

"Hmm, whatever could you be talking about?" his tone light, almost playfull.

"Dont play dumb with me old man. The schematic Frank brought over. Did you register it as your own?" she was slowly raising her voice, anger clearly seeping through.

"Owwww, that. Someone had to teach the kid an important lesson. Always prepeare for the worst. he with you right now I assume?" he asked, and seeing that there was no response for a moment, he deduced it was exactly so, so he continued.

"A lifes lesson kid, just as I stated. Never leave your back to someone you have not stared death in the eyes with, lest its your back that gets stabbed. I will make good use of the thing you gifted me. Who knows, i might just send some pennies your way once I strike it big with this. Should not take too long to figure out the kinks."

"YOU BASTARD!" Gloria yelled, clearly pissed off at the man. This was as much a betrayal to her as it was supposed to be for Frank, and she was about to blow her lid. Frank, quickly got up and pulled his mom itno a tight hug, clearly trying to soothe her anger and pain of betrayal. Being embraced in her sons loving hug, her anger quickly dissipated, replaced by sadness for Frank. It was supposed to be his success, his pain of betrayal that she was partaking in, so she did her best to return the gesture.

"Dont ever contact us again." she growled and ended the call, then hugged Frank back. light tears streaming donw her cheeks. Bob was supposedly a long time friend, and such a backstab hurt her deeply.

"Its okay mom." Frank whispered as he gently caressed her hair, clear worry and care echoing in his voice. That too was a rather hard pill to swallow for the older woman. It was she who was supposed to soothe her child after such a betrayal, and yet it was the other way around.

"Sniff. I am such a bad mother." she chided herself in a low voice, beating herself over the sittuation. "I should be soothing you, not the other way around."

"Nonesense. Am I not supposed to be the man of the house now? It is my job to be the steady wall and roof that protects the family from the storms and rain, no? How else will I be able to find a good woman that would give you your deserved grandkids?" His words caused her to chuckle, though it did sound slightly weird through her crying.

"Dont worry, I can figure out something better. So much better in fact, Bob will not know where to crawl into after this betrayal of your friendship. He will not only regret his actions, but he will also pay dearly for it. That, I can promise you mom, so dont you worry one bit about me, you hear." he spoke, continiueng his light caressing of her hair.

"You are a wonderfull mother. Always working hard, always with a smile on your face when facing me, urging me to try to be better. I refuse to let you down. I will rise above it all and give you the comfortable and luxurious life that you deserve, so dont feel sad, just smile as you always have. Smile and watch your son take the world by storm and stand at the top of it all."

They spent a few more minutes sitting there, Gloria slowly calming down. Franks words having done wonders. untill finally, Frank spoke in a half joking manner.

"Ummm. mom? You did say not for long, right? Less the supper gets overboiled?"

"Ahh, shit!" she exlaimed and quickly left his soothing embrace and rushed to the kitchen.

"Damn bastard! I hope all your hair falls out! FUCKING HELL, THAT WAS A FINE SOUP!" Frank heard his mother curse quite loudly from the kitchen, a light smile adorning his face. His mom did hate when something in the kitchen went wrong, so much so that it was one of the rare occasions she could be heard cursing. Sometimes to the point that it could even put a sailor to shame. hearing her act as she nornally would, Frank could breathe easier. The betrayal did cut deep, he had no doubts about it, but it was the best way to solve the issue. A quick cut to remove the infected part, so it could start to heal, was the best solution. had he approached it any other way it would have become an extended issue, his mom doing her best to find ways to justify Bobs actions. She was just the kind of person. Extremely protective of her own.

The only reason it could be solved as fast as it was, was because the betrayal had happened to Frank, the most precious of her people, thus she could not try and reason it away. Someone had hurt her sweet and precious boy, hurrt and betrayed, and that was not excusable in any waym shape or form. The person at fault was no better than dead in Glorias eyes now, and Frank would not have to worry about another possible danger to the people he cared about. Sure the list only consisted of his mom at the moment, but that was all the more reason for him to ensure there were no such threats around.

A while later he joined his mother in the kitchen. She had stopped her curse tirade, returning to her ussual self. There was no proof either in her movement, or facial expressions, that spoke of a very recent betrayal. Once you managed to earn yourself a spot in her shit list, she could easily brush off any news of misfortunes befalling you. The supper was rather quiet, neither of the family speaking much, they simply enjoyed the calm atmosphere of the room, happy with the presence of their only family member in this cold and harsh world.

After cleaning up after themselves, Frank offered to watch a movie, just like they used to do when he was much younger, and something they still did every now and then, Gloria loved these moments, them reminding her of a much happier times when his fatehr was till around. happier for her at the very least. Frank di not remember all to much from way back then. It was before his old man began to sink most of his time into his inventions, spending time every now and then with his mom or him, but bever stopping talking about the things he was working on, or fooling around with. It was those memories of his old man that stuck with Frank. Was it any wonder that he did not care all that much about the man?

The movie was a rather old adventure about a mercenary down on his luck, leaving on a journey to lands unknown to forge his own path. Due to some convoluted plot and consequences, he happened to interrrupt a kidnapping of some princess from a neighbouring country, Then somehow return her back to her home. being rewarded handsomely by the kind, as well as the princess in question, who falls for the main character during their trip together back home. A good old happily ever after storry with plenty of explosions and deathtraps.

Gloria was leaning against Franks shoulder, having drifted asleep somewhere in the middle of the movie, though he himself was still as fresh and focused as if he had just woken up. The movie had worked wonders for him too, more than a single set of knowledge surfacing in his mind due to random things in said movie having vague references to said knowledge.

'Now that was an unexpected gain.' Frank thought as he slowly extricated himself from his mother clutches and laid her on the sofa. he then retrieved a blanket from one of the closets and covered her with it. With his mom now sleeping soundly, he poured himself a glass of water and returned to his own room and sat at the table that had his latest purchase placed on it. He then stretched a bit and emptied the glass of water.

The next ten minutes were spent cleaning up the table, leaving only the four parts on it, then he brought over the couple of boxes with his tools in them. A few moments later his workplace was ready, all he had to do was sit down and get to work. The two motherboards and noice cancelation modules stood on the table, clearly waiting for him to start working of them and giving new purpose for the long discarded parts, and new purpose would Frank provide.

He started with the motherboards, using the tools at his command to precisely create a few new pathways on their diagrams, each move extremely carefull and precise. This step alone took him a few hours, prepearing both motherboards. It was slow and meticuluous work, but with his mental capabilities enhanced so much, as well as a newfound ability to controll his body, once again atributed to the mental developement, it was just so easy to do such precise and monotonous task.

Noice suppression modules were not much easier, though there was less work to be done with the modifications he had to do. Once again, what he did was based on laws of physics that were not yet discovered in his time, thus making anything he did inconcievable as actions with purpose should anyone of the top scientists within the scene were to se him doing his thing. Once done with the noice supression modules, then united them all together, creating a rather odd looking box like object, with wires connecting seemingly randomly. Then he placed the constructed tech into a wooden box he used for storing his stuff, now cleared out of anything else. Quite a few added cords and wires made the construction look even more like some sort of technomancy monster, but it did serve its purpose.

Frank spent most of the night writing a program for his newly created thing, attached to his PC through a USB connection. He used a small flash drive he had lying around as the hard drive for it, the program used to run his creating not needing much space at all. The wonders one could do to strenghten human body through calculated and precisely controlled sound waves, if one knew the right theory was staggering after all. That was precisely what this little thing would do- create a localized, extremely small scale vibration chamber of sorts, slowly enhancing his physical capabilities. He needed his body to have a certain baseline level at which all the cyberware could be safely implanted.