Unexpected Vacations

Wednesday, 11/14/2035.

Everything started when a new portal opened near the school grounds.

Because of this new dimensional portal, everything in a 1 km radius had to be evacuated, and, of course, my school was not an exception for that.

Many students celebrated the unexpected break, the news reporters flooded the place trying to get a picture or two, the school principal started to despair once he notice his insurance didn't cover damage made by monsters coming from another world, and me? Well, I thanked heavens for the extra time I got to work on my personal project.

--//--

Arriving home I was greeted by my grandfather's warm smile.

"Yo son, why are you back so early? Did the professor kick you out of the class again?"

"Ha ha, very funny grandpa! As if such a thing would ever happen to me! Actually a new portal opened near the school and we were forced to evacuate. This should be all over the news, how come you haven't heard it yet??"

"Oh, so that's why! That explains why the hunters suddenly knocked our door this morning! They always leave maintenance for the last moments before a raid. Well, I got plenty of work to do so I will be getting back to the garage. Are you staying or do you want to help me out?"

While I was eager to work on my own project, there was no way I could miss a chance to work on professional Titans, so I quickly agreed to help grandpa out.

At the huge garage on the side of our house two white Titans were safely locked in the maintenance platforms.

"So, what do you need me to do?"

"Oh, first check the legs, they should need some oil. After that I need you to open that right arm and check for damaged cogs and once you are done, check the system logs for any error on the software."

"All right!"

It wasn't surprising that grandpa's shop has a high reputation among the hunters. While the shop could only attend 4 Titans at once, grandpa's knowledge over Titans didn't lose to any expect. Actually I always wondered why grandpa works in such a small shop instead of working in some bigger company, but every time I questioned him about this he just smiled and dodged the question, not wishing to say anything.

Both of us worked non stop as the hours passed by and by the time we were done it was already 22:00.

"Thanks son! I wouldn't have finished it today without you help!"

"No problem grandpa. You know I'm always happy to help!"

Taking out a couple notes from his wallet, grandpa delivered the money on my hands as usual.

"Here, take this money as a reward for your hard work today."

"Thanks!"

After taking the money I helped closing the door and we both headed back home.

--//--

Next day I was awaken by the ringing alarm clock beside my bed.

Looking at the clock I noticed it was already 9:00 and hurried myself to prepare to school, only to remember moments later that school was closed and we were having an unexpected vacation.

Having nothing urgent to do I slowly made my way to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.

"Big bro, what are you doing here!? Aren't you late for school!?"

The one screaming on my ears was my not cute little cousin.

The brat was still in middle-school and only had classes in the afternoon so she could spend all his morning lazying around at home.

Because our schedules were quite different, we usually only met at night, so it was quite expected that she would be surprised with my presence home.

"Didn't you hear? A new portal opened near my school. So I will be getting some unexpected vacations until they are able to close it down."

"Wow! How nice! I wished a portal opened near my school as well... I have an English test tomorrow and didn't study at all."

"Hehehe. Then instead of playing games you should start studying while you still have time!"

"No way! How could I break the tradition of start studying in the last minute before the test!? So, what do you plan to do? Wanna play some video-games?"

"No, no. I plan on working on my Titan since I have the time."

"Ch! Boring! You always pay more attention to your Titan than me!"

"Of course! Who would like to pay attention to a brat like you?"

Stunned by my reply, my cousin started to attack me with harmless punches which I easily evaded.

"Just you wait! One day you will regret this!"

"Hahahaha! Try your best!"

After messing around with my cousin and having some bread and cheese, I headed to my grandpa's garage.

--//--

Entering the garage I found grandpa polishing the armors of the two Titans we gave maintenance yesterday.

"Good morning grandpa! Need any more help?"

"Oh, good morning son! I'm just adding some shine into these babies before their parents arrive. Don't worry about me and go do your thing. Later I will check you up to see how far you have gone."

"All right! Thanks grandpa!"

Grandpa's garage was bigger than our house. It had 5 maintenance platforms for Titans and two storage rooms to keep all the extra parts.

When I graduated from middle school I joked with grandpa to give me the fifth platform as a present. To my surprise he actually agreed to my request and let me use the platform for my own projects. Since then I started to gather scrap pieces from Titans all around the town to make a Titan from zero with my own hands.

A whole year passed by and my project slowly grew bigger and bigger and finally I was getting close to reach the finishing line.

My objective was simple, to participate in the yearly Titan fair and to look for some sponsorship to build my own custom Titan factory.

To achieve this I had to finish my Titan in two weeks, before the fair began.

Two weeks was plenty of time... that is, if I didn't have to spend all my day from Monday to Friday having classes at school. Good thing my Titan was almost finished, so unless something really wrong happened, there was no way I would miss this year's fair, even more now that I got so many extra days because of the portal that opened close to school.

But of course, no matter how much time I had, the Titan wouldn't build itself, so now was the time to dirt my hands and finish what I started one year ago.

Arriving at the fifth platform a Frankenstein Titan made of scrap metal appeared before me. It's parts's colors were a complete mess and there was no sense of aesthetic at all, honestly it was quite ugly but this was the best I could do with the parts I had.

"Good morning ugly guy! It's good to see you too!"

I grabbed the notepad on the table and checked the items that were left.

-Install and test the balance system.

-Install the targeting system.

-Calibrate the aim.

-Install the backup engine.

For the first item, I had already installed the system last weekend so all I had to do was take this Titan for a walk and ensure everything was working perfectly.

The targeting system was just a matter of downloading the software from the internet and installing on the O.S.. This system was the same my grandpa uses and I had already experience in updating it on other Titans, so it should be easy as updating and installing require almost the same things.

The third item could only be done after the second as there was no way to calibrate the aim without a targeting system.

Maybe the only real problem was the fourth item. While this item was not mandatory, it's one of the most common options for any Titan available in the market so it would make sense for me to include it on my Titan but because of my lack of money I have no way to buy a new engine unless I won the lottery or found a bag full of money on the floor.

After thinking for a bit I added painting and polishing to the list, then I double checked all screws, cogs and energy wires to make sure it was ready for the test.

"Great! Everything is ready! Let's take this guy for a walk."