Chapter 233 - 233: 229:
If there's one place besides Babylon where work continues to hum despite the holiday weekend, it's the Forge of the Gods... Of course, I'm not talking about that dwarven forge in deep space, but about the engineering workshop in Gotham City—Nidavellir.
And here, the employees aren't nearly as obsessed with work as their colleagues in the lab. What's more, two of them are still children. Or rather, teenagers, and, as befits people their age, work isn't the only thing on their minds.
So how come the lights were on in the engineering workshop all weekend, and the machines weren't turning off? It's because our valiant scientists were scrambling to complete the first development assembled within the walls of Nidavellir as quickly as possible.
I call this device a high-tech forge furnace, whose function is to control vibranium at the molecular level. It will allow us to modify, process, and alter the properties of the hardest and most capricious metal on Earth.
This morning, Lana Lang called me and told me the device was fully operational. It was completed much faster than I expected. As it later turned out, the reason for such a quick completion was the rivalry between Hiro and Riri, who were eager to prove who was smarter. Who would have thought, ha-ha-ha...
The technology really did look like a forge furnace and even worked in a similar way. Vibranium was placed inside the device and, by exposing it to sound waves that synchronized with the ore molecules, which in turn were in constant motion, causing vibrations within the alien metal, we obtained microscopic dust consisting of billions of particles of the original iron.
It was these particles that were used in further work. Thanks to the resulting grains of iron dust, it became possible to assemble almost any structure of the required shape and, using those same sound waves, fuse the particles back into a single material.
"Not bad, huh?" boasted Toyman, slipping a ring forged from Vibranium iron onto his finger. "It was my idea: to use sound waves to disrupt the molecular integrity of vibranium..."
"Unfounded boasting," Riri said mockingly. "Besides, I was the one who analyzed its internal structure and realized that sound vibrations are the only thing capable of bypassing vibranium's kinetic field."
"But I suggested it first, didn't I?"
"A random guess!"
"An irrefutable fact!"
"Enough!" Lana Lang finally decided to intervene. "Hiro, we developed the VIB-EX together. You should be more modest in your words…"
"Hey, modest people don't exist in nature! Some people just have nothing to brag about," the Toymaker said arrogantly.
"Little brat, how you irritate me," Riri said furiously, throwing a glass of coffee at Okamura, fortunately, already drunk. Unfortunately for the girl, Hiro managed to react quickly and step aside, avoiding a collision with an empty cup.
"Enough," I said in a gloomy tone, cooling the young man's ardent temper. "Listen to me, Hiro, don't make the classic mistake of smartasses, don't think that there are no people smarter than you."
"And there are?'
"You can be sure of that."
"I personally doubt it," the boy persisted. "What are you going to do?" The Toymaker truly is a true genius, with an IQ exceeding 210, and yet he's only thirteen years old.
Apparently, his youth and unformed mentality influence his perception of the world. Here I remembered a poem that illustrates in simple language the naivety of youth: In infancy, you seem yourself to be the centre of the universe,
The crown and mirror, the pinnacle of human generations,
The only "I" for whom the world was created:
Should you disappear, it will disappear immediately.
It couldn't have been said better. Yes, Hiro now thinks exactly the same way, believing the world revolves around him. But unlike other centers of the universe, it must be admitted, Okamuro has every reason to believe this. But soon he will mature, begin to perceive the world around him completely differently, and realize that those were self-deception and childishness.
Riri William is only two years older than him, but she is already far superior to Toyman mentally. Perhaps this is also because girls mature earlier than boys. But be that as it may, Hiro too will inevitably go through a journey of self-awareness and understanding the world, learn to understand the boundaries of what is permissible and the limits of reason, and develop the ability to see the essence of things and their meanings.
Yes, they are always there on the surface, but they try to hide, slip away, and escape from the eyes of youth... But once you grasp them, your entire life as you knew it suddenly changes... and so does your attitude toward it.
"Alex, you promised to fund our own developments as soon as we finish work on VIB-EX," the Toymaker reminded me of my words from long ago. Riri didn't comment on her young colleague, but it was clear from her eyes that she was thinking about it too. I was not at all against allocating funds for their own developments.
There was no point in refusing them, after all, no matter what they ultimately invent, I, as the main investor, will have a share of the rights to it. If I'm not mistaken, Riri wants to build her own version of Iron Man's armor, and Hiro wants to develop a giant robot based on the models of Superman and Batman combined. The only thing I didn't know was Ms. Lang's plans and thoughts.
She didn't ask for any funding and didn't even touch on the subject. But I'm inclined to assume that she has her own thoughts on the matter.
"If I promised, then I will do it," I didn't try to deny it. "I will allocate $100 million to each of you for research. If you require additional funding, you will need to provide me with complete project documentation outlining the nature of the project and its cost. You will also need to provide a report on the development stage, the funds spent, and the amount required for its successful completion. Please note that if I am not satisfied with your presentation or deem your idea unprofitable, I will not hesitate to refuse additional funding.
"Everything is perfectly clear," the Toymaker nodded, completely confident in his project.
"However, don't forget that you can pursue your own developments without sacrificing your main work. The high-tech 'VIB-EX' furnace, as you called it, is just the beginning... I will now give you a new assignment," I pulled three blue folders from my inventory. "Here are sketches of objects that must be recreated from vibranium." The engineers began carefully studying the illustrations, of which there were many.
There were swords - my personal passion for this type of weapon is indescribable, and shields, reminiscent of Captain America's weapon in shape, and short sticks - a gift to Nightwing,and also bracers with blades - a small future gift to Batman, to show that I have the technology to work with vibranium. Let him be jealous...
"All these things are not that difficult to recreate," said Lana, looking through the document. "VIB-EX will handle this very quickly, but…"
"The suit," Riri continued for her, turning another page. It depicted my "Intellectual" battle uniform in great detail. "Did I read everything correctly?"
"Nanotechnology," Hiro said out loud. "An entire suit made of nanobots, created mainly from vibranium... And also energy absorption, as well as the release of an energy pulse... This is so cool!"
Yeah, I wanted to create myself a battle armor like the Black Panther suit that Shuri invented.
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Thanks for reading guys, means alot.