A Complicated Web

Chapter Thirteen:No Worries

Hiro wandered around the various exhibits, quickly growing bored. Most of the experiments were variations on things he'd seen before. Didn't these guys have any originality? Okay, maybe it wasn't a fair question. His group was essentially recycling projects they'd used before. But still! There had to be other ways these other students could use the technology given them. He was far from impressed.

Several adults brushed into him as he rounded a corner. He couldn't help but stare after them, the desire to demand an apology strong, but he ignored it. He didn't need to get kicked out on the first day. His temper still needed a little work. The past few months had shown him that.

Part of him wished he'd brought Megabot with him. He could have sent the little fighter bot all around the auditorium with no one the wiser. He'd built in some micro-cameras to help with spy missions after the last fiasco. While the group as a whole wasn't good at stealth, he was more than confident in his abilities to send the little creature wherever he wanted without detection. Of course, if JARVIS were connected to the school's system, that might be another matter entirely. All the same, he felt fairly confident he'd have sent the robot around without mishap. And it sure would have been a lot more fun than dodging adults and staring at stuff that had already been done before.

Taking a few more turns around the area, Hiro found himself in the same area as Kally's booth. There were a few people hanging around her area, he noticed, which wasn't really unusual. They seemed intent on checking out her offering, either reading the posters or interacting with the fairly realistic holographic projection hovering over the base on the table. From what he could see at a distance, she'd done some really great coding. Something told him, however, that this was the barest manifestation of her abilities.

"Like what you see?" a man said behind Hiro, causing him to jump. The man who'd caught him off guard looked old, old enough to be his grandfather at least. He had a healthy beard of white and grey, and had a patch over one eye. But behind all that was a wry sense of humor that twinkled in his visible eye, along with smile lines hidden behind the facial hair.

Hiro had to take a moment to recover. He definitely had not expected someone to come up behind him like that and it showed. Color tinged his neck and ears as he exhibited the classic expression of someone caught snitching a doughnut late at night from the café. Why did this guy remind him of Aunt Cass?

"I'm sorry," the man apologized. "I didn't mean to startle you." He offered his hand, enveloping Hiro's when he reached back in response. "My name is Othin. I'm one of Ms. Carmichael's professors."

Understanding filled Hiro's mind with a flash, though the red coloring didn't immediately leave his skin. "I wasn't ogling or anything," he hedged, much to the professor's amusement. "We met earlier and I just wanted to see what her project was. All the others are just so-so."

Othin couldn't help but look pleased with this turn of events. "I quite agree with you. Most of the students here don't seem to have grasped the concept of trying to impress anyone, let alone future recruiters. And you are?"

"H-Hiro Hamada," Hiro managed, his slight lisp coming to the front as he tongued the gap between his teeth. Man did this guy make him feel nervous! "Kally's a nice girl," he added lamely. Now why did this guy make him feel nervous? And it wasn't necessarily in a bad way, no skin crawling or anything, just wary.

The professor nodded thoughtfully as he stroked his beard. "Yes she is," he agreed. "I expect great things from her."

His comment seemed to confuse Hiro as he looked up into the man's face with one of his most unsure expressions. "Um..."

"She has a lot of potential in her field," the professor clarified. "Not unlike yourself, from what I understand, Mr. Hamada. I've heard several people mention your name already. It would seem they expect great things from you in the future as well."