Super Science

Ch 6: Sufficient Funds

Izuku and Egon sat at his kitchen table with the room constructed into a mock meeting room. There was a large whiteboard hanging on the wall with Egon at the front and Izuku sitting at one of the four chairs around the dinner table. Egon with a pointer stick in hand and many colored dry-erase markers in hand points to the board with a crudely drawn American dollar.

"Well, Izuku. We have a problem.", He told him while pointing at the drawing.

"Money?", He questioned while looking at the drawing.

Egon nods affirmatively and erases it while drawing more crude pictures and explaining, "As you well know, we are nearly out of the 50 million earned from the hospitals. Between buying, fixing, and expanding our new laboratory. Plus the costs of all the machinery we got, we're at almost nothing, and we still have more expensive things to buy and do. More high-tech equipment and items used for experimentation, the monthly bill to run it, taxes, and of course employees."

Izuku thought for a moment then offered, "We could go to the other provinces in Japan and sell some of the Splinters to those hospitals?"

Egon thinks on this, draws a pic of a splinter and a chart, then says, "That would pay for most, if not all, of what we need right now. But it's not sustainable in the long run. And trust me, it'll go fast!", He told him while making the chart grow and then plummet before sighing in exasperation and complaining, "Sometimes I wish Japan wasn't so small. We have to think up a way to make a large and consistent cash flow without direct funding from the government."

Izuku nods and says seriously, "Last thing we need is for them to get their hands on what we have."

Egon nods back and states, "I agree. The less the better. Until we are more assured in our funds, what ideas do you have or what discoveries have you made?"

Izuku takes out his notebook and flips through it while telling him, "Do you remember how one of the Splinters absorbed blood and was able to reproduce it?"

Egon sighs as he knows where this is going and waves him off saying, "If we sell blood Splinters of every type to every hospital, we'll be right back to where we are."

"Not that!", Izuku exclaimed firmly, making Egon jump from the suddenness. Izuku sat back down, calming himself and saying, "I mean, do you know of that one person who's been making rounds in the medical world, the one with the unique blood quirk?"

Egon raises an eyebrow, thinks, and then realizes what he means. Then answered an explanation, "The man with a blood quirk that instantly changes to any blood type it comes in contact with, even rare ones. The blood can even replace diseased or cancer-ridden cells. The blood that's more packed with cells per square millimeter than any high-altitude animal on the planet? I know about him."

"If we could get a sample and put it in a crystal. We could sell it off in individual blood packs along with every other blood type.", Izuku offers with excitement.

Egon smiled at seeing the kids far thinking and smiled sadly before informing him, "Normally I'd agree with you, however, there's just one glaring problem. Getting that blood is near to impossible! He's constantly hounded by every hospital just for even a syringe full of his blood. People pay him oodles of money just to get some of it. We'd have to pay him a good chunk of our 50 million just to get a small sample. And because of all the money he's gotten he has become an absolute self-entitled douchebag! I mean, samples of his blood on the black market go for hundreds of thousands! Sometimes even millions!"

"I don't think we have to worry about that.", Izuku tells him while reaching into his coat and pulling out a vial filled with red liquid.

"Is that?", Egon asks while coming to him and taking the vial, looking it over he says while ruffling his hair, "Shut up! But wait, how did you-?"

"I had to get my hands dirty…and face.", Izuku told him while looking away while rubbing a black and blue spot on his cheek.

Egon's eyes widen at this, and he looks over at Izuku, seeing the many injuries that he covered up with closed or makeup. He asks in a terrified voice, "Izuku. What did you do?"

"You know how he's prejudiced?", Izuku tells him.

"I'm aware. He's one of those quirkest bastards. Seriously, what did you do?", Egon asked in a concerned and fast tone.

"I bumped into him by complete accident after he got kicked out of a bar. I tried to sweet talk him, but he wouldn't have it.", Izuku began to explain.

Egon bit his fists and said, "I don't like where this is going."

"Then I told him I was quirkless and he started to beat me.", The teen finished off while looking away.

"What!?", Egon shouted in shock.

"But I defended myself! And in doing so I got a sample!", He tried to reassure the man while holding the vial like it was gold. "It took hours to get rid of all the alcohol inside of it. But it's a pure strain!", He said in an excited tone.

Egon grabbed his shoulder and asked him in worry, "Izuku. Why did you do that!? He could've killed you!"

"I was prepared. We needed the money!", Izuku argued back.

Egon rapidly shook his head and told him, "That's no excuse to purposefully put yourself in danger! There were other ways we could get money without you getting hurt.", Izuku looks down, realizing his mistake as Egon leans against the board and says in a trembling voice, "If your mother finds out she's going not just gonna have a cow with me, but a whole dang Elephant!", After he gets done venting about this, he sighs and holds Izuku in a hug. He asks, "Just promise me you won't take any risks like that again. You're far too young to be acting like this."

"I promise.", Izuku hugs him back.

Egon pulls away and says to him, "Good. Anyhow, this will help us subvert much of our costs, but we need more. We can only sell these at maybe a couple hundred a pack. Then of course that super helium we've managed to make with one of the Gas Splinters."

"I have one other idea that I have sort of put into practice.", Izuku admitted as Egon walked away to think.

"What else have you been doing behind my back?", Egon said in a joking tone.

Izuku pouted and argued, "I haven't been doing anything behind your back! You're just never there to watch me."

Egon sighs and tells him, "Well I am the one who's in charge of making sure we don't go into the red. We'll discuss this later, but for now, tell me what it is you've done."

"You know how the crystal radiates a kind of radioactive energy?", Izuku asks him as he nods in return. "Well, I decided to see what would happen if something was exposed to it for a long period of time."

"Oh God I don't like where this is going.", Egon says under his breath.

Iu waves his hands and tells him, "No no no, it's okay, I promise! I just used a pigeon for an experiment."

Egon blinks and states seriously, "Izuku the last thing I need around here is some giant laser-shooting murder bird."

"Do you see one?", He sassed back.

Egon looked around, sat in a chair, and said, "Okay."

"Well, I'm not sure what happened entirely. Whether it evolved or devolved or even genetically morphed?", Izuku ranted off.

Getting concerned, Egon asked him, "Izuku, can you please just get to the point? You're starting to freak me out."

Izuku then went to another room, came out with something behind his back, and brought it out while admitting, "I made…this."

Placed on the table was a creature that was a bird, about the size of a turkey, but not one.

Egon blinks, adjusting his glasses he leaned in. After making sure he wasn't just seeing things he sat back, not taking his eyes off the bird, and stated, "Okay first off, that's the least bad thing I could've expected. Second, is that what I think it is!?", He exclaimed while pointing at the bird, spooking it and making it run. Before it could Juno off the table, Egon grabbed the bird and examined it all around while saying, "I mean it makes some sense. Dodo birds and pigeons are biological cousins with the Dodo being large and flightless. Also, how did you hide this from me?"

"You don't use the space you have properly.", Izuku told him with a shrug.

Egon opened his mouth to argue but stopped and admitted, "Fair. So what's your plan with essentially recreating an extinct species?"

Izuku u then went into the microwave and pulled out a meat dish while offering, "Taste this."

Egon shrugs and pops a piece of the meat in his mouth. After chewing it A bit he swallows and observes, "A tad gamey but it's pretty good.", He then makes the connection and asks, "Wait, is this-?", Izuku nods and the cigs turn in the man's head. Once he makes the realization he guesses aloud, "You plan to capitalize on the invasive and wild pigeons in the city, turn them into Dodo, and sell the meat for a profit?"

Izuku nodded then assured him, "And don't worry, I tested the meat in excruciating detail. It's completely safe for consumption. It's pretty much no different from FDA-certified poultry meat. And I got a butcher on our side with a little bit of…..incentive.", he told him while making a money sign with his hand.

"I was wondering why there was a large deposit to a butcher shop.", Egon stated to himself before asking suspiciously, "Anything else?"

"I was hoping to test the crystals' radioactive effects on different plants to see if we could potentially make a superfood.", Izuku tells him in a pleading tone.

Egon sucks air through his teeth and tells him, "Let's put a pin on that. We don't need to be doing a recreation of Little Shop of Horrors.", Izuku looks disappointed by this, so Egon comes up with an alternative and asserts, "But you can do one plant at a time, and nothing else! Just make sure they're either small flowers or vegetables."

Izuku nods then blabbers out aloud, "If only we could use one of the Splinters to make gold.", Then a thought strikes him and he asks Egon, "Wait. Can't gold be made into a liquid?"

"And my crystals are heat resistant to a few thousand degrees.", Egon tells him as the wheels also start to turn. Then the two of them look directly at each other and Egon states seriously in a hissed tone, "I'll get some gold and smelt it. You run some tests. We take this to our graves!", Izuku nods and runs off to his office space as Egon does.


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