A True Marvel

"Just some finishing touches…" Jake mumbled to himself, excitement filled the air of his dorm room.
~~~~
Three months, and 10 days was how long it took Jake to complete his project, using every spare moment of the day to work on it. At first, the idea wasn’t foolproof but he couldn’t help wonder what if it actually worked? So, for the next week or so Jake worked on the logistics of building a robot, drawing the design, and so on. He had emptied about 2 full trashcans of crumpled up papers when it finally hit him. A robot that had artificial intelligence, could walk upright, speak, and learn. He sketched up a quick design and knew it was the one. Now, time to get to work. Jake pinned the designs to his bulletin board.

Honestly, Jake had no idea where to start for he had never actually built this complex of a robot before. Yeah his parents had gotten him one or two of the “Build your own machine kits” when he was little, unfortunately it was nothing like what he was about to do. He assumed a junk yard would have the supplies he needed but would the school let him bring it all in? Guess I’ll have to do shifts. Jake looked up where the closest junkyard was and the next day, he was on his way. Luckily, the owner of the place was a jolly fat guy and didn’t care what Jake took. For the longest time the student ambled around the piles of abandoned pieces and parts, looking at the list he brought for reference. Slowly but surely, the things he needed were soon found and put in a makeshift cart Jake made. Let's see… Wires of all colors, check. Scraps of metal, but not rusty metal, check. Small car generator, check. Batteries and/or charging port, check. He took a minute to stop and check the never ending list. Oh ya! Radio and speakers.

He said his farewells to the junkyard owner, piled everything in his car and made his way to a thrift store to pick up some items he wasn’t able to find. Of course he would probably have to make some more trips but at least for now he had the essentials. Jake made his way back to Beata parked the closest he could to the dorms. He made at least 4 trips back and forth carrying equipment and getting some awkward stares from students. They’ll be surprised when they see what I’m about to make. He thought confidently to himself with a grin. The rooms at Beata weren't very big and with the amount of stuff Jake brought up anyone with claustrophobia would’ve gone crazy. Before he started, Jake organized everything so it would be easy to work with and cleared up some space to work with in the middle of the room.

He’d lost track of how many days in which he was locked away in his room working on the project. Jake only really went out when he needed to get to class but other than that, he was rarely seen. The student always scurried through the hallways, not wanting precious time to be wasted on conversations. On the occasion that his friends did manage to catch him, they always wanted to know what he was up to but Jake replied with the same answer "It’s a surprise." He hoped that no one who complain about all the racket he was making with the hammers and such, though he tried to cut and weld the metal outside of school for the sole purpose of bothering others.

Robot Designs:

It’d taken him awhile, but Jake had finally finished the skeleton of the body. He had to admit, it looked pretty sweet, standing almost exactly at 5’ 10”. It was fun to create, but there was no light footed running, for many times it would topple over and Jake would have to rebuild it, yet again. He figured out a way to prop the body up while working on it making it much easier to build onto. Taking baby steps to insure nothing would go wrong, the next day he started building the outer layer or “armor” of the robot. At first, he built from the blueprints he’d put together but realized it was easier to build off of imagination, to some extent. It required a few more trips to the junkyard, plus appliance stores and soon, he was done. With all his might, he moved the lifeless robot to the edge of his room to make space for cleaning up all the extra pieces and parts.

Plopping down into his desk chair, Jake turned on his laptop and opened his script application. A few hours flew by as he worked on the “brain” of the robot. He uploaded names and pictures of students, basic knowledge such as reading, math, and so on. He took out the SD card of info and inserted it into the machine. Everything was finally ready! With the utmost excitement, Jake turned everything on and waited for his creation to come alive. With an odd sound of a junkyard robot trying to work, the robot turned on. Unfortunately, he’d missed something when building, for soon a loud screeching sound of a cog coming loose and flying across the room, slamming into a cup of pencils filled the air and surprised Jake. Taking a deep breath, he turned everything off and went back to the blue prints. Dammit, totally forgot to tighten this. He grabbed a wrench and opened the back plate of the robot, reapplying the piece. Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something else? He looked around, spotting a pair of small speakers and a tiny microphone practically hidden under a piece of extra metal. Can’t believe I didn’t remember the speakers! Being as careful as one could be, he took apart some parts of the head, a bit angry that he’d have to backtrack to install the speakers.

Spray paint, what to do with spray paint… Jake had found two, almost empty cans of spray paint at the junkyard and grabbed them just in case. And now that he wanted to use them, he had no idea what to use them for. Examining the robot, an idea light bulb flickered on. There was a perfect flat area on the chest plate for an emblem of sorts. Finding some old sketching tools he used to use, Jake looked through the box until he found a bag of stencil outlines. This ought to do it. He smiled and grabbed the can of red spray paint, spraying the outline of a gun scope onto the robot. Pretty beast if I do say so myself. "Just some finishing touches…" Jake mumbled to himself, excitement filled the air of his dorm room.

This was it, the moment of truth. Jake pressed a small button on the back of robot’s next and walked to his computer, running a script from the program he was using. He crossed his fingers, waiting for any signs of "life." Sure enough, after the robot connected, it fully turned on, a pair of eyes glowed from the led lights Jake had installed and if one listened close enough, you could hear the machine inside working.

"Hello." The robot said with a slight, innocent tilt of his head.

Jake was dumbfounded. It was a success! For a moment, he stood in complete shock. He walked around the robot, examining it in every which way, even though he was the one who built it.

"Loose circuit." The robot attempted to speak for the first time, the speakers still bit rusty. "Leg circuit, section 14, loose." Its electronic eyes gave a blink as its head turned towards a leg which was unmovable.

Damn, the speakers work pretty well. I should put more speech abilities in the SD card later. He couldn’t help but give a chuckle. "A short circuit?" He raised a brow and crouched down to examine the leg. Sure enough, the robot was right. He walked over to his cluttered desk and grabbed a wire clipper and pliers. With a few quick snips here and there, Jake assumed it should work now. "There we go, all better." He stood back up and gave a smile. Though he would’ve liked the robot be able to do activities and such on its own, it would have taken Jake ten times longer. Although it he would need to control it from a small computer/controller on his mechanical arm, it was still a learning machine that would report info and data back to him.

It examined the boy, collecting data as it watched. When Jake finished fixing the short circuit, the robot bent his leg a few times.

"Wow, this is amazing. But now you need a name." He sat back down in his chair, brainstorming ideas. "How about Frisco!" He exclaimed.

"Frisco is not in my database. Shall I add this person?" It asked.

Jake started laughing. "No no, it would be your name." Thinking a bit more, he got it. "Bender. That’ll be your name, at least for now." He grabbed his laptop and typed away, adding his voice to voice recognition and Bender as the name. Setting the laptop back on the desk, it was time to try it out. He powered off the robot and waited a few moments before turning it back on. "Bender, I brought you into to this world to live, to learn. People may see you as just a robot, but I know your can become much more than that. Now, what is my name?" He asked, praying that the voice system would work properly.

"You are Jake Baxter."

"Good job." It was worked, a beautiful creation. "You’re a true marvel." The student said with pride, looking at his creation.

//The end! Takes a bow.