Super Science
Ch 13: A New Discovery
Professor Egon sat at his desk with Doctor Orpington sitting across from him as she showed off her newest invention. A proud look on her beak. A rocket launcher of sorts that looked like it came straight out of a cartoon with bright colors and funny chicken stickers. He looks between the hyper-intelligent bird and the weapon before taking off his thick glasses to rub his eyes.
"Okay, so run this by me again? You made what?", Egon asks after putting his glasses back in his face.
"An Egg Cannon.", the doctor told him, using her new, smaller translator, which was wrapped around her massive brain.
"Why?", Egon prompted her.
"For shooting eggs, of course.", the doctor explained.
"What purpose does this serve?", Egon asks back.
"No purpose. It's just fun. Work can't be work all the time.", Doctor Orpington told him with a chipper cluck.
"Okay, but like…making this doesn't bother you?", Egon asked with a cautious and worried tone.
"Not really.", She admitted.
"You-a chicken-making a cannon…that shoots eggs?", Egon asked while motioning to the device with all his fingers.
"Yes.", She replied happily.
Egon shook his head, seeing that she wasn't getting what he was implying. So he told her more forwardly, "Okay, so this is the equivalent of me making a Baby Cannon."
"Well, that wouldn't be efficient at all.", the doctor said back, making Egon raise an eyebrow until she followed up, saying nonchalantly, "Besides, you'd have to wait nine months to reload."
"Doctor!", Egon half yelled at her in disgust and shock.
"What!?", She exclaimed back.
"It's wrong! You're using your unfertilized children as ammunition and blasting them at terminal velocity! Doesn't that bother you?", He told her bluntly.
She shook her head and replied, "No more than you eating my uncooked children does."
Egon stopped as he was halfway to his mouth with a breakfast egg sandwich. Placing it down, he said aloud, "Sometimes I forget that chickens are psychopathic, homicidal, cannibalistic omnivores.", the doctor said nothing to him in reply and simply stared, making the professor relent and say, "Fine, fine, I'll allow it, but no fertilized one! Got it?"
"Understood.", she agreed while hopping on a strange machine.
It looked like a waiter cart but was heavily modified and metal. It had a steering mechanism for the doctor to drive around using her feet and two robotic arms that she could control with a touchpad using her beak. The two robotic arms grabbed the Egg Cannon and placed it on the cart before she maneuvered the machine out of the room.
Just before leaving, she nearly bumped into Izuku as he walked in and warmly greeted, "Doctor Izuku."
"Doctor Orpington.", Izuku greeted her back before the two went on their ways. Standing in the doorway and knocking on the frame, Izuku asked, "Professor, are you busy?"
"No, no, come in, Izuku.", Egon waved the boy in, motioning to a seat. Once he sat down, Egon laced his fingers and asked, "So what horrors have you birthed today?"
Izuku was shocked by the allegation and tried to argue, "I didn't-."
Only for Egon to chuckle and tell him, "I'm just messing with you! But, before you tell me what it is, I have some questions.", Izuku sat quietly as Egon took a breath and listed off, "Is it dangerous, alive, sentient, or potentially world-ending?"
"No.", Izuku answered back.
"Did you do anything dirty, underhanded, illegal, or behind my back?", Egon gave him a look.
"No!", Izuku exclaimed back, a bit irritated and hurt.
Egon sat back, smiled, and told him, "Then all of my concerns have been satisfied. What did you make or do, and don't leave out any—" He stopped himself after remembering what he had been told the last time he asked that, so he backtracked and told him, "On second thought, just give me the main points."
Izuku nods before taking out his notebook and exclaiming excitedly, "Okay, so I was doing some tests on the empty Splinters, and I made a huge discovery!"
Hearing his excitement and seeing his smile, Egon wanted to jump up but opted to simply ask back in equal excitement, "What is it, baby? What!?"
"So you know how you have all those cell samples from every part of your body?", Izuku started.
Only for Professor Cephlode, who was walking by with his new translator on his head and a cup of coffee, to overhear their conversation, stop in his tracks, peek his head in, and ask in confusion and concern, "Samples of what now from every part of your what?"
Egon shrugged at him and replied, "Why bother spending money on muscle, skin, and brain stem cells when you get them directly from a self-made source."
"I wondered why you were covered in so many injuries and scars.", the professor commented suspiciously, narrowing his eyes and taking a sip.
Izuku then interjected in their conversion and continued, "Anyhow, I put them all into a vial with a Splinter, and you'll never believe what happened!"
Egon waited for an answer and finally exclaimed, "Well, don't leave me in suspense! Tell me!"
"It made a copy of your quirk!", Izuku finally admitted, only for Eggon to fall right out of his chair. "Oh, my God! Professor Egon went into cardiac arrest again!", Izuku yelled in fear.
"Again?!", Yelled Doctor Orpington from down the hall.
"I'll get the defibrillator.", Professor Chephlode offered while rolling his eyes.
"I'm okay! I just fell off my seat.", Egeon shot up an arm from behind his desk to calm their worries. Once he stood back up and breathed, he said he was in disbelief. "I don't even know what to say! Are you sure?"
Izuku produced a Splinter from his coat pocket and held it up from the sea. Looking at the Splinter it didn't have the same glowing white effect that a normal one does. More of a prism-bending light shines on it.
A fact Egon observed aloud, "A different glow."
Then, without warning, Izuku gripped the crystal, and from his opposite hand, Izuku produced the same kind of crystal that Egon used to create the Splinters. In shock, Egon said nothing except stare until he finally babbled out, "Wait a second! That's my quirk?", he looked at the Splinter and asked Izuku, "Is this from-?"
Izuku nodded before he could finish, and Egon sat back in his chair. After polishing the rest of his coffee off, he pushed back his hair and asked, after absorbing that all in, "What was different from the blood and medicine Splinters? I even used some of my blood for the AB Splinter, and it didn't show any signs of my quirk."
"DNA. Pure DNA! Right here.", Izuku told him with an excited smile as he pulled out a vial that had a mixed red and blue color in it with bits of white.
It took Egon a few minutes to digest what he had just told him. He took the vial and looked it over like a child looking through a kaleidoscope. After a bit, the thought finally dawned on him, and he observed aloud once more, "This is a vial filled with my genetic code."
Egon then jumped from his feet, grabbed Izuku in a hug, and spun him around while stating, "Izuku, this is incredible! You just made and discovered the two greatest things in probable history!", Izuku couldn't help but feel happy for this and had to resist the urge to cry out in joy with him. But suddenly, Egon stopped his revelry and asked him, while still holding him, "But if you used the DNA samples I collected from my whole body to make the one you have, why do you have this?", he asked while motioning to the vail.
Izuku then explained to him, "Well, after I made the Splinter with your Quirk, I thought, 'Huh, I wonder what happens if I make one with pure DNA that doesn't take the form of anything else in the body?' After I figured out how to extract all the DNA, I put it in another Splinter's, and...how about I just show you.", he offered while bringing the Professor to a small room in the facility.
The room wasn't anything special; there was almost nothing in it apart from a small table with a large and ever-growing crystal on top. Every so often, when it got too big, a set of robotic arms came down from the ceiling and broke off huge pieces of it that fell into a suction vent that sucked it into a single corner of the room. In this corner was a machine that would take every individual shard, then cut, shape, and polish it in a uniform before sending it down a short conveyor belt and into a box with many others.
After looking over the machines and the box full of crystals ready to be made into empty Splinters, he made his way to the ever-growing crystal. Inside the center was a Splinter that looked exactly like what Izuku used to demonstrate!
Looking at the boy, the man could only say in a low, flabbergasted voice, "Woah."
"It's even more potent than this one since the strain was pure.", Izuku explained to him with a big smile.
"But why make this one?", Egon prompted him,
Izuku looked down while shuffling his feet. He explained, "You already do so much for the facility, making every Splinter we have. I just thought it would be good to give you a break in at least one regard. And besides, what if you get sick or hurt? And when you die, this place will probably shut down."
Egon smiles softly at him, ruffling his hair. He tells him, "Thanks for that, Izuku. You are a good kid with a good heart. Just have to make that head a little less fuzzy.", he says this while playfully pinching his nose.
Before they could continue this comfortable moment, a shrill voice squealed out of the room, "Doctor Izuku!"
Both men rushed outside into the main foyer, where they saw three things. Professor Cephalopod leaned on a wall and watched something in amusement as he drank his coffee. Doctor Orpington's cart was knocked over, and the Doctor was being chased around the room by the baby Mammoth, now called Gammoth, in a one-sided game of chase!
"Call off your beast at once!", the doctor squealed in urgency as she tried and failed to flap away.
"He's just playing with you.", Professor Cephalopod called back teasingly.
"I'm an adult weighing 13 pounds with hollow bones and a nearly exposed brain! He's a few moments old and already weighs 200 pounds! He'll kill me!" he crowed at him as Izuku ran up and grabbed Gammoth before he could catch her like a child attempting to catch pigeons at the park. Once safely secure, the doctor ruffled her feathers and demanded, "Keep that thing on a leash!"
Otto just bubbled up a laugh and walked off to his office. Egon helped flip her moving device back up and get out of the foyer while Izuku still had the baby. Once gone, Izuku let go of Gammoth, where he stood by his side.
"Izuku.", Egon said the boy's name as he walked up to him and said before stopping again, "With this discovery you've made….are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I'll create fliers and social media posts. I'll also separate a small portion of the facility money as an incentive for all volunteers.", Professor Cephalopod said from a bit down the hallway, waving a tentacle inside the foyer.
"Thank you, professor!", Egon called back before tiling Izuku excitedly, "Now we have a whole new avenue to discover!"