[Alex's POV]
Alex and Jasper passed by a little candy store on their way to the park, bought themselves a big waffle and a large milkshake and made themselves cozy at one of the pick-nick banks in the park. Then Alex cast the same spell he'd seen Ma'at use in Ancient-Egypt, the one that diverted intruders into going somewhere else.
Alex glanced up at Jasper. He'd been uncharacteristically quiet.
"To answer your question from earlier," Alex finally broke the ice. "I don't know what I am either. I don't think that I'm a vampire. I don't drink blood anyway and I'm pretty sure that I'm alive. But I have this power within me that allows me to control the flow of energy around me."
"Oh! My! God!" Jasper gasped as he grabbed the edge of the picnic table. "Are you a Jedi?!"
"That's actually not a bad comparison," Alex mused. "I can feel energy all around us, in all the living things. But that's where the comparison stops."
"For example, I can use it to create objects," Alex explained as he visualized his magic into a small spark of bright blue light, much like how he'd done with Otto's phone earlier. The spark multiplied itself, but instead of levitating an existing phone, it sparked brightly towards its center and when the light dimmed, a brand new phone fell straight into Alex's hand.
Jasper's eyes went wide as saucers. His eyes followed the gleaming sleek black device as Alex put it on the table and slid it towards Jasper. "This one's yours."
Jasper eyed the device suspiciously, glanced up at Alex and back at the device.
"It's not going to suck all the energy out of me, is it? I've watched enough movies to know that's a possibility too."
"Again, I'm NOT A VAMPIRE!" Alex emphasized annoyed. "I already told you. Don't make me repeat myself! You will have to charge your device. It will be rare, because of how efficient it is, but you will have to charge it."
Jasper looked doubtfully one last time between Alex and the device, then grabbed it excitedly and began to check it out.
"Huh?! This is my phone?" he said bewildered. "All my apps and games are here, just like how I remember them!"
"I just recreated what I remember of your phone into a new device that won't blow up just because I touched it. Some details may differ, and you'll have to reenter your password a few times, but you can just put it back to the way it was."
This time Jasper frowned.
"Wait… My phone blew up earlier because it touched you?" he asked sounding rather worried. "So that's why you insisted on buying me a new phone!"
"Yeah, … I caused it. I feel like a walking unfiltered power plant. It's really annoying, but I'm working on that."
"That is SO cool!" Jasper marveled. "So, if I understood everything correctly, you are an overpowered Jedi who can create objects with the force. That's freaking cool, I'm not going to lie."
Alex grinned. That was only the iceberg of it all, but Jasper didn't need to know that, now did he?
"I don't need to tell you that this is a secret, right? You're not allowed to tell Jessy or the others of the class, no dubious post on any social media, nothing! I don't want some research squad abducting me," Alex said. "In fact, it might be better that you completely forget that anything happened today."
"Dude, you can't give me a phone like this and expect me to forget all about?!" Jasper asked incredulously.
"Yes you can," Alex said as he was considering to influence Jasper's mind into doing just that. "Please, Jasper. Promise me you won't tell anyone."
Jasper doubted another second.
"I don't think you understand," he finally said. "It's not me you should be worried about, but this device. It's so magnificent that people will notice that it's different. And I'm simply not confident in my ability to lie."
"Oh! So that's what you're worried about," Alex laughed. "It won't be a problem for long. Like I told you, I'm working on it. If anyone asks, you can just say that you are a beta-tester of a new Bright inc. product. Turn the device around. See? That's my dad's company."
He watched as Jasper turned the device around and looked at the logo engraved in the back. A four pointed star with a little dot at its right top.
"Oh? So I guess he's in on the secret too?" Jasper asked.
"Yeah, … my dad knew I was special since I was born and has raised me like a normal human. Well, as normal as was possible."
"OK, so that means three people know about you, right? Me, Otto and your dad?"
"Well, actually," Alex said feeling sheepish. "Thomas knows as well."
"THOMAS KNEW BEFORE ME?!" Jasper asked incredulously.
"Don't feel offended just yet," Alex hurried to defend himself. "He knew even before I did. His mom is my dad's lead researcher and they've asked Thomas to infiltrate my circle of friends. Which was nearly impossible because of the history he'd had with Otto."
"Damn," Jasper cursed as the weight of it all started to sink in. "That too explains some strange occurrences."
"It does, doesn't it?" Alex chuckled. "So do you have any more questions?"
"Yes, just one," Jasper said. "Aren't we going to get in trouble for skipping school?"
"No, my dad said he'd provide an alibi for us," Alex said and checked his phone to find a text from his father. It said: "I contacted the school and Jasper's parents. They think I asked Jasper to accompany you to the hospital for a routine check in my stead."
Alex showed Jasper the message. He made large eyes once he'd read it.
"Good to know! I'm guessing it's fine if I tell them that everything was fine and that you won't be needing to go for a while now?"
"Sounds about right," Alex chuckled. "So, do you want to come to my house? Since we aren't expected at school anymore?"
"Hell yeah!" Jasper cheered and they left.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[Mar's POV]
That evening, Mar got home at ten o'clock. Which was relatively early by his standards, even though he knew it was not -in any way- an early hour to come home, since Alex would sometimes be asleep already. So when Mar put his key into the front door of his home, he had not expected Alex to be waiting for him right at the other side of it.
"Hiya! Dad! Welcome home," Alex said with what looked like an overly cheerful expression to Mar. He halted for a second, the door-handle still in his hand, and studied the boy's body language.
"What's up with you?" he asked after concluding that Alex looked nervous. His overly-happy smile faltered and now he only looked nervous.
"Honestly, dad? There's something I'd like to talk to you about?"
"Ah," Mar breathed as he finally closed the door behind him and hung his coat on the hanger by the door. "Is this about the letter that arrived at Bright inc., saying that our request to expand has been accepted?"
Alex ducked his head momentarily in shame. What was that about?
"Yeah, it does," he said, but fell silent again, clearly still thinking a few things through as his eyes looked over the ground from left to right and back a few times.
"Spill it boy!" Mar said, actually making Alex jolt, and started walking to the kitchen.
"Ah, uhm… It's about the influence my powers have on electrical devices," Alex said as he skittered after Mar towards the kitchen.
"You mean the power surges, blowing fuses and exploding computers?" Mar asked in a mocking way as he checked the fridge for food and found a plate that Alex had set aside for him.
"Yeah those," he said with a frown, clearly annoyed by the fact. "I keep forgetting that they might blow up, mainly because I used to be able to use them just fine. I'd like to do something about it, but the problem is that I can't without people noticing."
"Why would anyone notice?" Mar asked as he put his plate of food in the microwave and started heating it up.
"Because-" Alex said with an air to the word, as if it was obvious, before continuing with his explanation. "If I want to prevent electronic devices from blowing up, I'd have to enhance them SO much that they'd be nearly perfect. Difficult calculations would happen instantly and they would use nearly to no electricity anymore."
"Ah, … that is a problem," Mar thought to himself, but since he didn't know how to fix it, he didn't say anything out loud.
"If I want to prevent electronic devices from blowing up when I'm near, I'll have to use my magic, because the knowledge to make devices like that does not exist yet. Which means in turn that if I use my magic, some smarty-pants will notice that something is off," Alex continued his train of thought. "But then I thought; What if some company were to start producing nearly perfect devices? It would make the transition much smoother."
"Aha," Mar laughed. "Preferably a big company which is known to develop ground-breaking, eco-friendly technology."
"Right?" Alex sighed a breath of relief, clearly glad that his dad understood where he was going with this.
"So, I'm guessing our -request to expand- is for a factory which will be making these devices?" Mar asked.
"Yes."
"Where would you place this factory?"
"Next to the headquarters," Alex said as he pulled up his nose, clearly dissatisfied with that part of the plan.
"NEXT TO THE HEADQUARTERS?! But that is forest area! How did you convince- …" Mar asked exasperated, but cut himself off as he noticed that Alex was avoiding his eyes. "You used you magic to get that permit, didn't you?"
Alex ducked his head and flinched for the second time that evening.
"Was it that obvious?" he asked.
"Obvious and unnecessary," Mar said. "Bright inc. has a few dormant factories we can use."
"Oh! That's convenient. I guess we don't need the permit anymore then!" Alex said as his face lit up contently.
As he said it, Mar felt the urge to ask; "What permit?" and felt a violent shiver run up and down his spine as he now felt that there was a conflict between the facts and the conversation they'd had earlier. Should he be afraid of how powerful the boy had become? It made him wonder how many things Alex had changed without telling him. But then again, was it change if there was no one to remember how it was before the change?
"What do you need?" Mar asked in an attempt to shake the dirty feeling.
"Oh!" Alex yelped in surprise. It looked like he really had intended to only use Bright inc. in name and fix all the rest with his magic. "Not much, really. I'll be the one creating the machines inside the factory. You don't even need to bother with plagiarizing the technology, because nobody will be able to recreate it anyway. Now that I think about it, we'll need a steady income of raw materials like metal, copper, glass, plastic and other rubber-like polymers. I was thinking that it would be good if we could recuperate them by recycling old devices?"
"Noted," Mar said as he took out his smartphone from his pocket and wrote down that he needed to talk to the purchase department later.
"Anything else?" he asked as he looked up towards Alex and noticed that the boy was eyeing the device in his hand strangely. "What's wrong?"
"Uhm, nothing really. But… Could I check your phone real quick? It'll only take a second."
"Sure," Mar said as he handed Alex his phone. Alex studied the black screen without turning the device on.
"It's strange," Alex mumbled to himself with a frown.
"What is?" Mar asked. Alex looked up from the device in wonder as if he'd forgotten that his father was still there, but his frown didn't light up.
"Well, … You know that devices tend to blow up when I'm near, right?" he asked. Mar nodded. "The devices in our house never had that problem. So I thought that, perhaps, I'd been influencing them unconsciously all these years. You know, just by being around them. But your phone didn't blow up either, even though it seems unlikely that I influenced it, because I never came into contact with it."
For the second time that evening, Mar felt a violent shiver run up and down his spine. Something was off, although he couldn't put his finger on it.
"Could it be that it is simply just a peculiarly sturdy device? You mentioned that your devices would use nearly to no electricity, but I have to charge my phone every three days."
"Really?" Alex asked as he eyed the device suspiciously again. "I thought I'd recognized my energy signature in it, but I must be mistaken. I wouldn't do half work like that. Here, I altered it so that it'll last a little over a month. While using it heavily, that it. In standby mode it will last longer."
"Thank you," Mar said as he accepted the device that Alex gave back to him.
"So, where do you want these factories?" Alex asked so suddenly that Mar needed a second to realize what he was asking.
"You want to use your magic right now to make those factories?!" he asked incredulously. "No, Alex! Just no. No factories were build overnight. I thought you wanted a believable charade to fool the none believers?"
"But dad!" Alex started to complain, but Mar wouldn't hear it.
"No buts! First I'll eat my dinner and after that, I'll whip your ass at that new shooter game I've been wanting to play with you for months."
Alex laughed.
"I'll fire up the console then."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not two weeks later, the new factories were up and running.
To promote the new technology, Bright inc. had gifted Alex's school a complete overhaul, and the school had been so kind to inform the press.
Ever since, Bright inc. devices had been rolling over the counter like sweet pies. Bright inc.'s reputation as THE green entrepreneur had been reconfirmed once again and profits were sky-high.