The Strongest Curse Master

"Kidd, wake up, it's time for school," a beautiful middle-aged blonde with ample curves tucked in classic mid-western beige dress under a clean white apron called out, opening the curtains of the window, letting in the nourishing rays of the sun to kiss her 6-year-old son, marking the start of the good day that awaited him.

"Mmm, five more minutes, Ma," the child muttered sheepishly.

Listening to her son, the woman walked to his bedside and gently ran her hand through his hair, whispering, "I'm making chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast today. If you don't get up and get ready fast, your father will eat them all, leaving you toast and milk."

"No, I want pancakes!" the child exclaimed, opening his eyes wide. The woman gently cleaned her son's eye gunk and encouraged him, "Then go get ready before your father."

"Yes, you're the best, ma!" the kid exclaimed before getting off his bed and rushing toward the bathroom to complete his daily toiletry obligations.

"Don't forget to brush the back of your teeth, honey!" the woman reminded the kid before heading back to the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the family.

…

In a modern open-concept kitchen with white acrylic cabinets and compartmentalized kitchen appliances, a family of three were enjoying their breakfast at the kitchen bar. The mother made pancakes while the father and son duo devoured them with a good helping of honey butter.

"Buddy, did you pack all your homework?" the dad asked, gobbling down a huge bite of pancake, savoring its rich flavor of a chocolate chip with honey butter. It was just divine.

"Yep," the kid nodded cutely, dangling his legs back and forth down the tall chair. They had a kid's chair, but sitting on the big one made him feel like one of the adults.

"You sure, buddy? Your excuses that our dog ate your homework won't work anymore, as your teacher now knows we don't have a dog," the dad said, bringing up the interesting conversation he had with his son's homeroom teacher yesterday when he went to pick him up after school.

"Don't worry, honey. I made sure he did all his homework and packed it in his backpack—" the mother assured her husband, but then a spark flew out of her head, causing her hair to catch on fire while she repeated the same thing over and over again.

"...Don't worry, honey. I made sure he did all his homework and packed it in his backpack…Don't worry, honey. I made sure he did all his homework and packed it in his backpack…Don't worry, honey. I made sure he did all his homework and packed it in his backpack…"

"Fuck, another breakfast ruined," the kid cussed in annoyance. Pushing his plate aside, he effortlessly jumped down the chair taller than him. Ignoring that his mom's hair was on fire and her strange behavior, he began to walk out of the kitchen, ordering his father, "Dad droid, go put out the fire and repair Mom droid. Do a good job this time or I am going to overhaul both of you."

"Yes, son."

"Still in character. A for effort, but if this repeats again, it's 'the end' for the both of you."

As the boy walked away from the kitchen, the entire house around him began to shift and transform. With each step he took, the walls and floor rippled and the ceiling expanded, morphing into a high-ceilinged, column-less, and absolutely immense laboratory. The entire space—ceiling, floor, and walls—became clad in pristine white granite, as if the house itself had suddenly come to life.

"Your Highness, you say that, but you are too sentimental to follow through on that." A voice echoed in the lab, pointing out that the boy was too sentimentally connected with two old droids to recycle them.

If he weren't sentimental about the two old droids playing the part of his late parents, then he would have recycled them the first time this happened. Instead of waiting for the old droids to ruin his pretend family mealtime for the 19th time now.

"Trixie, shut up and update me on today's schedule. Or you will be next in line to be recycled," the boy warned his talkative personal AI. He couldn't complain as he was the one who wrote the code for her personality.

"It's the same old, working on new droid prototypes. However, your guardian/handler is waiting in the lobby for you to wake up. Apparently, the C.I.B. has a job for Agent King Kidd," Trixie the AI reported to her young master.

"Make that old fool wait for another hour before letting him in," Kidd said, heading to his workstation.

"Are you sure, Your Highness? He did emphasize that it is urgent," Trixie added, asking for her master's confirmation.

"Urgent? Then make him wait another two hours. Also, take away his washroom and refreshment privileges," Kidd instructed Trixie as he made it to his workstation and ordered, "Pull up the blueprint of the Mjolnir Droid prototype's test 32 to test 36. I believe the solution to adding two cores without triggering either of them into explosion is within those blueprints. These tests were where either of the cores functioned for a few seconds longer without triggering the other to explode or causing both of them to explode when used together."

"Retrieving blueprints of the Mjolnir Droid prototype's test 32 to test 36..." Trixie announced as she pulled up five of the same blueprints, but each with a slight variation or modification.

"Trixie, do you see it! The problem lies with the two-heart ribcage design for the droid's skeleton frame. It's too cramped. Both cores are too close. The energy being radiated by each of them when activated is exciting the other, causing it to explode unable to release its energy.

Meanwhile, when activated together, they are exciting each other simultaneously, causing them to exert more power than instructed by the energy control unit. Then the clash between the cores and energy control unit ends up with both cores exploding or the energy control unit short-circuiting.

We can solve this issue by using a stronger insulator," the kid exclaimed, thinking of the way to continue with his existing design for the Mjolnir Droid. He initially thought that increasing the size of the rib cage and making more room for both cores would solve the problem, but then he would have to modify the entire design to add or move things around to find that extra space. Ultimately, it not only meant more work but it would most likely ruin the aesthetics of the design.

Therefore, he ended up deciding to use higher-quality insulating material as cover for the cores, even though it would increase the cost of manufacturing by a small margin. Not to mention, it made the entire design safer by eliminating the risk of either or both cores exploding because of the energy radiating from the other by accident.

"Congratulations, Your Highness, you solved bug no.61. 121 more to go," Trixie congratulated her master, reminding him that the blueprint was far from being complete.

"All in time, Trixie. All in time—" Kidd said with a laugh, feeling his mood get better, mid sentance his brows frowned as he heard fimilar footsteps from behind him.

"I see you are awake, Your Highness Kidd." A mature and deep male voice sounded, knowing he was discovered.