We have <i>~HOW~</i> many crates to look through??
UA Highschool
David Shield liked to think that he was one of the greatest minds the world has ever seen. Not in any way to be narcissistic (maybe a bit), but being a quirkless individual in today's society isn’t easy. You need to take your assets, cultivate and build them, then shove them down the throat of anyone around you regardless of if they want to listen. That's how he and Yagi became friends at a conference in NYC while in high school. All Might had yet to debut, and there had yet to be whispers of a world-changing genius support student. Just 2 kids starting in their fields.
Now, while he's made it part of his life mission to find the best young minds our world has to offer, he has never come across the type of beast that put together this “Master Inventory Chart for all Hatsume Industries Babies”-as it was titled on the front. When he arrived this morning, he hadn't expected the first thing Nezu to do was hand him a -- frankly gigantic-- bound book. All he said was that it belonged to the missing student, and to sit and read it so he has an understanding of what they’re truly working with. He hasn't been able to tear his eyes off since. The journal was truly beautiful.
UA has enough money that if a support student does the work and fills out all the required forms, the school will supply monetary costs for patent applications. Every, single, design in this book is covered by some type of patent she's been issued over the last year and a half. He had a feeling there was a second book Nezu was keeping under lock and key that hasn't gone through the patenting process and been secured.
He was about ¾ of the way done with the book when he stumbled upon a page for a “Potentiality Screen”. The page notes have a section dedicated only to the designs that have a physical prototype and clearly labeled which storage locker boxes are associated.
Calling out to his team members that were almost done unpacking their equipment he said, “Gordon! You’ve familiarized yourself with the org system already, right?” At his nod he continues, “wonderful, I need you to find the boxes 233 A-C. got it? It’ll be titled ‘Realm Projector Babie’, you’ll also need to find the corresponding Sub journal and blueprints.”
Task received, Gordon was off to track down the items and David was back to flipping through pages till he came to a design that resembles what Power Lowder mentioned the device had looked like. The ray gun was much larger than he was anticipating and he wasn't sure why it needed that much space for internal components. At the bottom of the page, there was a small note he might have missed if he hadn't been scrounging for anything important. It was just a comment about how she needed to ‘adjust the size to accommodate the new power source’s footprint’.
Writing the Box number on a note and handing it off to Gordon, and is once again flipping through pages hoping to find more mentions of this ‘Power Source’, and sure enough. On the very last page. And it wasn't even close to complete, all the equations were half finished, the sketches are undone, and dimensions were left blank. He assumes it was both a work in progress and not entirely through the patent process yet. Made another note to find the sub-journal and one for himself to ask Nezu about it. He’s sure there is another book out there that the stoats kept hidden.
~~~
The team gathered around the boxes Gordon tracked down. They all had a decent idea of what it was supposed to do and how to operate it thanks to her detailed sub-journal. Now they just had to unbox and set it up. All of them had worked on an alt-reality project at some point but never anything like this. It's a rather niche field and their work was contracted through a lab partnered with the quirk research group.
The first box was 4ft x 4ft and only 10in deep. Inside they pulled out a circular 3.5ft diameter x 6in deep screen and the base mount, the rest of the case was filled with highly shock absorbent foam. The projector had 2 viewing options, one of them made it like a 3D hologram if it was laying flat on its back, and the other was like a normal TV view when mounted upright. The TV-style mount connects to the center of the back allowing the focus of the screen to rotate around the figure they're watching by spinning the projector.
As 3 members of the team set it up, another opens box 2 only to be caught off guard when the thing is FULL of pink hair. Well, they can cross off the task of raiding her bedroom for loose hair strands. Despite knowing that the machine required DNA to function, she was curious about the girl's reasonings behind the box. More often than not there's something out of the box. Grabbing the sub-journal for the project to see if she listed the reasons behind this specific box.
Ah.. there, under contingencies. The main 3 reasons listed are, in case she ever developed alopecia ‘what are even those odds’, if she’s ever stuck in a different reality and the people back home needed to track her ‘this page was written months before the ray gun idea was conceived, so was she planning a different cross reality project?’ and the last is just a comment about the common sense of preparing in advance when working with an ingredient that is limited and grows slowly.
The last box opened by another member was full of attachments, cords for the projector, and driver disks for downloading into a separate computer to connect the embedded computer to the projector screen. This feature is for connecting to the web, recording what plays, and a program for viewing controls.
In less than 30 minutes everything was set up and triple-checked and the team sat waiting with notebooks. The Principle had joined them at some point and was perched up on David Shields' shoulder. When he smiled their way, most of them would swear he was looking just above their heads. The support teacher joined closer to the viewing time.
While the device was still a prototype and had some issues, it was very far along. She mentioned it had problems with sounds and color occasionally and the controls were all rudimentary. David stood beside the scene with a chunk of pink hair in his hand. A gentle tap to a divot in the rim activates a compartment that slides out smoothly. He and Nezu chuckle at the bright red ‘DNA HERE’ sign embossed at the bottom of the compartment. The notes had been very adamant about keeping your fingers clear away. This is also indicated in small red lettering around the lip of the tray.
The team watches him drop the hair in and then see his eyes widen, “It just evaporated! The moment it touched the bottom of the tray it shimmered and disappeared.” Everyone was glad they were recording it on David's glasses camera.
“Huh, I wonder if it was similar to the shimmer that appeared when the event happened.” Power loader supplied. A moment later the screen flickered on showing an option display.
Gordon selected the “Track Home World Individuals Journey” option and the “Record” feature, and they all sat back to watch. The screen darkened again before swirling light in a tunnel that opened up to zoomed-out earth. “That looks like Pre-Quirk Wars earth,” Aoi said. They'd been one of the members to set up the projector. The focus continues to zoom in and they realize she was in the British isles, then closer and they see the city of London.
They're all pretty relieved there doesn't look to be any quirk wars activity, and aren't so far back she'd be without most ‘modern technology'. However, as much as Maijima knew how she wouldn't be able to handle not having tech, he also knew she'd find a way to create it anyways.
Zooming further till it's over an empty street, or what they assumed was an empty street. As the focus approached, it was like it had gone through a bubble filter and suddenly the street exploded into color and was bustling with people. While the environment was bright and a lot of the people were in weird long clothing, they all looked pre-quirk.
“Were there ever fashion trends like this in our past?” Youta asked. He was one of the newer members of the group, only a couple of years out of college.
The Principle spoke up, “Not that I’m aware of, this must be one of the first big changes between our realities.” The others were rapid fire jotting down notes on everything they saw. While they would note anything that stood out to them, they had been assigned certain categories to make sure they pay attention to such as people, fashion, languages, building architecture, technology, and other possible innovations. “The bubble shield the focus passed through leads me to believe that maybe this is a secret society.”
Gordon pressed the button that says ‘Extra Details’ in the control panel creating a read-out on the screen to show the location and time of day. It was someplace called Diagon Alley, in the early morning. Power Loader pointed real quick, “There she is!” a pink blur races through the crowd and up a flight of marble stairs. He chuckles when he sees her start to shoot rapid-fire questions at the employee of the building who looked to be carrying a sword. “At least I can sleep tonight knowing regardless of where she's at in the multiverse, she’s going to be a menace.”
“Who are they?” Someone spoke up as others wrote their descriptions. “Hmm, teachers of a sort? Very interesting clothing. Wait, was someone wearing a witch hat in the background? You don't think..” they trailed off, everyone there knowing the possibilities with the multiverse but it was very different witnessing it.
They continued to watch for hours. Mei’s experience in, what they now know is a Bank, run by a magical race called the Goblin Nation. The subtle magic of the clothing maker and the floating measuring tapes. The explanation of a hundred different ingredients and their properties. When the trio got to the wand maker, not a whisper could be heard from the team.
Maybe it was due to having the focus on the auto feature, the way it was angled, the lighting, and the noise; Everyone in the room felt their breath catch, it was as if the very fibers of their existence knew that this was a fate defining moment of importance. Maijima couldn't shake the feeling in his heart that once she had a Wand that matched her in her hand, he’d never see his favorite problem child in person ever again.