Brady Carmichael and the Poodle of Mass Destruction - The Kachina Shaman by David Carnes Page A

most of his time there
by choice. He was always tinkering with the equipment and coming up
with new gadgets. Brady definitely got his engineering genius from
Grampa’s side of the family. It didn’t hurt that Brady’s DNA was
also modified during the same strange event that changed Fifi – but
that’s another story.
    “Headin’ out Gramps. Got a call from Barack.
It’s a recovery gig,” Brady said as they saw Gramps leaning over a
workbench, up to his elbows in a tangled nest of wires and circuit
boards.
    “Sounds good Brady. Wait - before you go,”
Gramps waggled his bushy caterpillar eyebrows at Brady. “I’ve got
something for you.”
    “New toys, Gramps?” Fifi asked in an excited
tone.
    “Yep, something special for each of you.
Follow me.” Gramps walked over to the wall, punched a combination
into a keypad, and held up his palm for a hand scanner.
    A polite sounding woman’s voice issued from
the speaker, “User identified, access granted.” Drawer handles
popped up along the surface of the wall, making a satisfying
“chi-kung” noise. The old man pulled the drawer open and reached
into the dark compartment.
    “Here, try this on...” Gramps held out a
shiny silver chain with a black and silver medallion swinging from
the end of the loop.
     

     
    Brady took it from him with a smile, “Oh
Gramps, you’ve fixed the PODS! Awesome, thanks. I’ve been meaning
to get to this. Last week was so busy with school and work. I had
that term paper to write for humanities and then there was the
tsunami in Indonesia we had to stop…”
    “Yes I did, and you’re welcome,” interrupted
Gramps. “And this time they’re waterproof.”
    Brady slipped the chain around his head,
“I’ve always liked these little guys,” he said and he pressed a
button on the silvery back side of the pendant. Eight tiny white
lights began glowing on the black front of the medallion. The light
ebbed and flowed as if keeping time with an invisible drum beat.
“Looks like they’re syncing up.”
    PODS stands for Personal Orbital Defense
System. It was a project Brady and Gramps had been working on for
quite some time. Though Brady and Fifi were both amazingly fast and
strong, they could still get hurt like anyone else. They had tried
heavy armor suits - Ironman was one of Brady’s favorite superheroes
- but Fifi didn’t like them because she said full armor messed up
her hair and was “stupid looking” on a dog.
    The light’s pulsing rhythm slowed and a red
dot appeared in the middle of the pendant. It began to glow faintly
in time with the others.
    “Looks like it’s warmed up,” Brady said,
“Does it still respond to the same voice and hand commands?”
    Gramps nodded.
    “Try it out Brady.” Gramps told him, “I’d
still suit up as usual, but these will be a nice addition to your
toolbox.”
    In a clear voice Brady said the command word,
“Shazam!” while at the same time opening his hands so all ten
fingers were splayed out.
    There was a series of tiny clicks and as if
by magic, the lights floated out of the pendant and began circling
Brady. They orbited around him like tiny stars. Spinning and
buzzing, they went faster and faster until it seemed like there
were eight beams of pulsing light circling Brady’s body.
    “OK, here’s the fun part,” said Brady
smiling, “Throw something at me, Feef.”
    Fifi looked around, found what she was
looking for, and launched an old, marble patterned black and yellow
bowling ball that had been sitting next to one of the workbenches.
With her strength and agility, this was actually a pretty serious
attack. It flew directly at Brady’s chest.
    Brady punched at the oncoming ball and the
PODS responded. Following his hand gesture, the pulsing beams of
light flew from their orbits to intercept the heavy ball.
    As the PODS met the bowling ball they took up
orbit around it. Their gentle humming paths seemed to suspend the
law of gravity as they first slowed then stopped