"Holy fuck... you weren't joking."
All of Valentine's family were at the BSAA base, watching the youngest of them working with fluid efficiency on a 3D holgram of what was very clearly a battleship.
"Looks like it should be up in orbit." Kaneki was standing near the bow of the hologram, staring at the sleek but intimidating design with a careful eye. "How is it propelled?"
"Magnetically powered main core system, which also generates the electricity for the secondary systems. Weapons are still under development, I'm more concerned with getting it airborne." Valentine was a flurry of data checking on a tablet, adjustments directly to the hologram with a stylus-like device, and glancing at his original sketch from his pocketbook on his lap. "The Magno-Core is a larger, self-sustaining version of the first upgrade I did to the T-15 Exosuits."
"What's the projected size of the battleship, as of this hologram?" Tobias was staring at the ship, it was well designed, but he needed size. Weight. Speed. He needed the numbers before he even dared to go speak about it to the politicians in DC.
"As of this moment... It's planned for a minimum of 450 meters. If my reference and test simulations say otherwise, I can see it being up to 650 meters in length." Valentine replied, making a few more adjustments. "It's meant to land on water when it's not airborne."
"I can work with that." Tobias pulled out his phone. "What's the budget?"
"You might want to let me talk to the suits for this one, dad." Valentine halted his work and put everything onto his workbench where his P90 was hanging on the wall.
"What's the budget, Valentine?" Tobias repeated his question.
"Without armaments of any kind... My projected material, labour and testing budget would be $340 million. I already have the Magno-Core in production, since I've done the Boost Pack as a small scale version of the exact same concept."
"What about with armaments? What do you have in mind for offense? Point them out of the hologram." Tobias lowered his phone, thinking hard.
"Hang on..." Valentine scooped up the tablet and tapped out a few commands. The pale blue hologram shut off for a moment, and he held up one finger before it came back online, now adorned with sections of red that gave the battleship a threatening air, added to it's sleek intimidation. The red were cannon turrets, missile launchers and machine guns. "Alright, having these armaments adds an additional 130 million... Not including ammunition costs over time."
"So let's be fair and call it $500 million." Tobias was about to turn and leave, but then caught a subtle detail change after the hologram was updated. "What's this here?" He pointed out a raised ridge on the top of the deck. It was there before, but something about it was changed.
"It's a covered hangar. What goes inside are drones, choppers, maybe even escort VTOL's... Or a ridiculously large cannon." Valentine pointed at his pocketbook. "I figured it should have at least a few optional ideas, so I came up with a few multi-purpose configurations."
"I'm sticking with the half billion offer, we'd still have that 30 million buffer." Tobias stepped out and called a very special number in his contact list.
"One moment, Captain." The secretary receiving the call already knew what to do, and after a brief stint on hold, the line was transferred to his intended contact.
"Toby, how may I be of assistance?"
"Madam President, I have an interesting idea to present to the monkey's. It's something my son has developed for the BSAA, we just don't have the budget available to complete more than one segment of the design."
"Well, I think a family trip is in order. Shall I make the arrangements?"
"Thank you kindly, Ma'am. I await your return call. Do svidaniya."
"Do svidaniya, Toby."
"My man and my boy... Mmmm, definitely know how to wear a suit." Rize was lovingly smiling at Tobias helping Valentine properly do the knot for his tie.
"I'd rather hide my eyes from all these politicians... I'm getting a bad feeling, dunno why." Yuuki hadn't been allowed to wear the fedora that went with her silver suit - Rachael's was the same suit, but she'd also been banned from wearing the hat - so she had her long hair tied back in a tight bun, while Rachael did not since her hair wasn't long enough for a bun.
"I'll tell you back at home." Rize's tone was enough to cut the subject short, so her oldest daughter reopened her upper eyes just as a knock on the office door caught their attention.
A Secret Serviceman stepped through, cradling an M4a2 in his arms. "The meeting is beginning momentarily, please follow me."
They followed in silence for a few moments until Valentine whispered to his father in Russian. "Why is he armed? We're not at fault for anything."
"No, but we are high profile. He's protecting us. There's three more of them behind us, keeping your mother and sisters covered."
"Only four guards?" Valentine didn't quite feel the numbers adding up. Four guards escorting five VIP's.
"I'm armed too. I don't need a guard." Tobias replied. "Alice, Sere, Kaneki and Mishka also have four guards, and they're taking a different route to the same meeting. Once we're in, we'll be protected by mine and Alice's Telekinesis. You just have to do your presentation, answer their questions, and we'll be back on the plane home in an hour or less."
"Alright... I understand now." Valentine figured it out.
"Right through here." Their escort guard stopped at a set of double doors and they went right through, leaving the four guards standing outside in the hall.
"Now, as usual, Captain Tobias Darkwood of the BSAA has an unorthodox approach to his methodology. Here, with his family, they have a presentation to introduce before Congress. Now, I present his son, Valentine." The President was personally standing at the podium, her gaze reassuring as Valentine approached the podium and - as he'd been taught by Tobias - shook her hand respectfully, already sensing that she was at least partially prosthetic in both arms.
Now with the podium to himself, Valentine began his speech.
"I'll get straight to the point, using straightforward terms. Need I remind you I'm 15 years old." Valentine gave his warning to the numerous older men and women in sharp suits. "So, here I have a hologram projector, which will show the latest visual design of my project..." Valentine placed it on the podium and pressed the button.
This projector was designed to project larger than the one in his workshop, but, it showed the exact same 3D model of his battleship... nearly twenty feet in length.
"Now, I've been told you were given photocopies of my prepared document. So I'll keep it simple: This... is the Nightfall. A magnetic energy core powers this ship, providing it with lift and propulsion in both the air and in the sea. This core is self-sustaining and also provides power to secondary, electrical, and all weapons systems. It is planned to be 600 meters in length, has a crew numbering of 25 individuals, and in addition to the crew, has the capacity to hold up to 2500 soldiers in transport conditions."
Murmurs began to rise in the politicians, but Valentine continued with his presentation.
"This, however, is not the primary design concept for the Nightfall." He stared at them for a moment. "It's for combat. The ship's main methods of offense are naval style main cannons, a total of eighteen guns on seven turrets. In addition, the Nightfall is equipped with numerous missile and machine gun close combat systems, torpedo launchers, depth charges and, as shown on your document, it has the capability of carrying and launching the standard BSAA VTOL fighter jets, all manner of drone systems, and rotorcraft in the forward hangar."
The murmurs continued, and some were staring with keen interest, pointing to the hologram with their neighbours. Now, Valentine had to play his trump card.
"One last thing about the ship; It's already in development. This ship can and will keep the world over safe from the threat of bioterrorism, so let's reveal the price; Five hundred million. My design is finalized, the construction already started, and you are all we need; the BSAA's current budget for R&D isn't enough to finish the Nightfall. Now that the price tag's revealed, I'll surprise you and tell you this, as my final point; I can have this ship fully armed and airborne within six months. I've done my research, just a standard naval battleship takes nearly three times that time to get it up and ready. Half a billion, half a year, and you can rest assured that the threat of bioterror remains in check... or is even flat out eliminated."
Silence. Congress was completely silent... Then someone stood up and cleared his throat, his blonde hair ridiculously in contrast to his old, highly lined face.
"I, Congressman Donald J. Trump, cast a negative vote to approve the budget request for this child's toy."
"You're just one vote, let's hear why you think my offer isn't worth your vote. Go on." Valentine put both hands onto the edge of the podium, staring at this Trump person with keen interest.
"I believe that the funding you're requesting can be put to better use with national security for the United States, better jobs for our citizens, improving infrastructure..." Trump began, but Valentine already heard what Trump wasn't saying, so he extracted the microphone from it's cradle, grabbed and turned off the hologram, and walked right up to the aristocratic politician, staring straight up at him with a very sharp gaze and coy smirk.
"This is a proposal for an offical BSAA project, I already know what you're trying to imply, Donald. You want this battleship under the auspices of the US Air Force, or... you want it privately owned and operated along the lines of a fear weapon, to dissuade other nations from daring to start yet another World War. I may be fifteen, but I know about your first attempt at politics back in 2016. You flaunt your wealth and power, yet sacrificed on international and even intra-national relations just so you could be the biggest bully in the playground with the big, shiny red bicycle. This is not your ship, Congressman, it's mine. I designed it, I will pilot it. Without me, and I mean this literally, the Nightfall isn't able to fly because of the fail-safe I incorporated into the main power core. So, if you're scared that your wallet's going to be empty, or that my ship is emasculating, just remember this; I'm the one that designed the ship, built it, and I'm the one that's going to be it's captain. I said it at the beginning of my speech, Congressman, so I'll say it again... I'm only fifteen."
Applause broke out from all sides, so Valentine's smirk widened and he held up the microphone and dropped it at Trump's feet before walking back to his family, both of his sisters and Serenity were laughing so hard that he could hear it from there.
A/N: I had to get my jabs in at some point. Couldn't resist poking fun at him.