The three of them made their way down through a series of halls until they stepped into a pristine lab covered in smooth, white panelling. It wasn't quite HYDRA-level high-tech, but the place buzzed with activity.
Klaue vanished shortly after they arrived.
Loudsen led Nolan into one of the side labs, where three balding, middle-aged men were in the middle of a heated debate. A few assistants hovered nearby, listening in.
Loudsen raised his voice.
The trio paused and looked over.
The middle one let out a laugh. "You ran off in such a rush, what was the emergency? I told you this problem isn't something we can fix overnight. Even the top universities would need time. Us? Forget it."
He squinted at Nolan. "Is that someone new behind you? Spare me. We've already got enough useless help around here. Why bring in another science school dropout?"
A thin-faced man with a scruffy beard Modnar sneered.
Loudsen shrugged. "This new Bastard says he can solve our problem. Boss wants him to try."
The room went quiet and then exploded with laughter.
"You're joking, right? He hasn't even seen the project!"
"You think this is a game, Loudsen? You bringing in some outsider like we're on reality TV?"
"Get outta here, boy. Don't waste our time."
The engineers cackled, shaking their heads. Loudsen added dryly, "Boss said if he fails, he's dead."
That gave them a pause.
"Oh, now it's life or death?"
"Fine, fine here. See if you can even read this."
Modnar slapped a thick stack of papers onto the table in front of Nolan.
"Need ten years to catch up?"
Nolan didn't say a word.
He just started flipping through the documents fast. Page after page blurred under his fingertips as he read at lightning speed.
In under thirty seconds, he looked up.
"You're trying to create a vibranium-based material that can absorb external sound waves and convert them into a destructive sonic pulse?"
The room went dead silent.
Nolan continued, cool and steady.
"The problem is, vibranium absorbs too efficiently. You're struggling to find a transmission medium that allows selective resonance without nullifying the waveform. Basically, you're stuck between too much absorption and not enough usable energy for discharge."
Everyone just... stared.
He'd nailed it. In less than a minute.
Even the assistants stopped pretending to take notes.
Nolan shook his head, walked past them, and began typing into the control terminal. One hand worked the interface, the other flipped through their lab records. He filled page after page with dense calculations.
Compared to super-soldier serum? This was easy.
These guys had piles of data, and all Nolan needed was the right algorithm to find the ideal ratio between metals.
The truth was simple.
Too much vibration and neutralized the sonic energy completely. Too little, and it lost its core properties. Finding the right mix of conductivity, resonance, and dampening required precise calculations... and a brain capable of predictive modelling.
That brain was Nolan's.
He tapped a formula into the system and handed a stack of notes to one of the techs.
"You serious? You think you can just slap together some quick math and call it genius?"
Even Modnar, now realizing Nolan was no fool, sneered.
"Boy, just die already. You've got no idea what you're messing with."
Then came a voice calm, commanding over the lab intercom.
From a secure monitoring room, he'd been watching everything. He'd just gotten word that one of his other safehouses had been raided.
HYDRA had hit it. Hard.
Elite soldiers. Parachuting straight out of a Quinjet. No survivors.
And now... they'd levelled the place.
Someone who made HYDRA move like that wasn't just talented. He was dangerous.
If Nolan really was a genius, someone on Stark's level, then Klaue wasn't about to pass that up.
The tech took the formula reluctantly and began the process.
In the crucible, molten vibranium and three other alloys were mixed under precise temperatures.
The result: a strange, gleaming liquid.
Nolan stepped forward and slammed the cooling lever.
"Are you insane?! That'll cause cracks under this temperature!"
Loudsen shouted in panic.
The chamber filled with vapour as coolant poured in. When it cleared...
A smooth metallic sphere sat on the plate, flawless and glimmering.
"Test it," Nolan said casually.
The tech ran diagnostics. His eyes widened. His face lit up.
"It works! It absorbs kinetic energy and then channels it into a discharge pulse. It can shift frequency via modulated current inputs..."
Everyone in the lab stared at Nolan.
Nolan turned to Loudsen, who was still trying to process what just happened.
"Now tell me who's the scientific deadweight?"
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter