Chapter 5: Arc Matrix
Amidst dozens, if not hundreds, of books, Rex lay on his bed, engrossed in his reading, oblivious to the world around him. He was currently immersed in an engineering book, his fascination evident as he swiftly turned the pages.
"Ding!" A notification sounded from his phone, prompting a sigh as he closed the book and reached for his device.
"Looks like someone else is interested," he thought, glancing at his rating on his freelancing profile as a web designer and developer. His near-perfect five-star rating reflected the quality of his work, which he primarily did for practice and to earn some extra money.
Seeing the new request, he couldn't help but recall an incident from two days ago when a random person gave him a one-star rating, likely out of spite or jealousy over lost clients.
Rex, not one to tolerate such behavior, had hacked the person, gathering evidence to threaten him into retracting the review. Although he could have deleted the review, Rex preferred to make a point.
He chuckled at the memory, his amusement tinged with resignation. He realized he couldn't entirely suppress his inner fourteen-year-old self. More troubling, he had recently noticed gaps in his memory—specifically, his past life memories, especially those from his later years.
This loss puzzled him, leading him to wonder if his brain was failing or if it was a side effect of some kind. However, he soon dismissed this theory upon realizing that he wasn't losing his current life's memories. This led him to hypothesize that the memories of his past life were embedded in his soul rather than his brain.
But did that mean something was wrong with his soul? Was he truly the previous Rex reborn into this body, or had there been a fusion of souls, with his being the dominant one? Unable to find an answer or a solution, Rex could only resign himself to this mystery.
His thoughts drifted back to his current project: an AI he was close to completing but not quite there yet. At the moment, he was resting, giving his sore fingers a break from writing the algorithm for the AI's neural network.
He aimed to grant it human-like thinking or at least some capacity for recognizing emotions. However, he was too lazy to finish the client's application today, postponing it to the next day.
Instead, he focused on the news that had popped up recently about the Guardians of the Globe fighting snake-like monsters. This made him wonder where those creatures had originated.
Were they from the depths of the ocean, products of evolution, or failed experiments? The mystery intrigued him, earning his attention for future study. On further notice, he also wanted to understand how many superheroes and villains had gained their abilities in the first place.
And with that plan on the list, he continued drawing schematics, blueprints planning on making insect-like robots, which he would use to obtain blood samples of various individuals, whether it be monster, alien, or superhumans, none would escape his expanse.
>One month later<
Allen was situated in the lab, now embedded with his own touches, he was currently working on a miniature particle accelerator.
He had begun this project about half a month ago when a new problem arose. It was just when he had finished the AI; he had immediately uploaded it into the black box. However, he soon noticed that the full potential of his creation could not be realized, and in the end, he discovered it was due to the amount of energy it would need to fully operate despite it having complex energy management systems.
After some thinking, he got some ideas, and after some time eliminating some, he eventually singled one out, and that was the arc reactor, a source of energy created by Tony Stark from the Marvel universe.
After he began making plans, he soon realized how little information about the arc reactor was revealed in the show. Of course, some processes were shown, but that wasn't enough, and now he had to start from almost scratch.
So here he was, working on making the arc reactor, or at least his own version he preferred to call the arc matrix. After doing his own extensive research, he finally came up with a way to make his own.
And that is why he was making the miniature particle accelerator. "I hope this works," he muttered hopefully as he grabbed the arc matrix core, it being a spherical metallic object made of different metal compositions, the composition being platinum, ruthenium, and iridium.
He walked a few meters away from the accelerator and placed the ball on a three-pointed metallic object that held the sphere in place.
After that, he walked over to the particle accelerator, planning on blasting the metallic composition with high amounts and concentrations of protons which would alter their atomic structure, thereby creating a new, unique, and energetic element.
"Here goes nothing," he said as he toggled the switch to the particle accelerator, releasing hydrogen gas into the ionization chamber, hydrogen atoms being stripped of the electrons leaving protons.
Then the acceleration mechanism began, the synchrotron at work as the protons were kept in a circular pattern with magnetic fields while they were accelerated by radio frequency fields.
Soon the protons reached an unprecedented velocity, the humming sound now stable and ready for release, but he couldn't do it if he was still in the test room. After all, the room needed to be a vacuum to avoid the proton beam colliding with air molecules.
Swiftly leaving the room and glancing through the glass perimeters, he switched on a lever and the air within the room was sucked out, leaving a perfect vacuum.
"Initiating proton bombardment," the semi-AI he was planning to override with his own announced, as just then, a blinding bluish light was released from the accelerator that immediately collided with the metallic composition.
Not a second later, the transformation began as the composition began to take on a bluish energy hue, its very structure changing at an alarming rate. Eventually, the particle accelerator began to power down and the proton bombardment was finally over, leaving behind a glowing orb that constantly produced energy. Near infinite energy.
With excitement, he returned the oxygen back to the room, his joy evident as he ran towards the newly formed element.
"The arc matrix core is ready," he muttered as he picked it up with flexible metallic hand gloves, cautious enough not to use his bare hands to move the matrix core.
Walking out of the makeshift experiment room, he walked over to the small white box he had made to harness energy from the matrix core.
With care, he carefully inserted it into the vacant core of the box, and as the core found its place, the arc matrix was finally complete—small, portable, and more than enough to power the lab, AI, and anything he planned to make in the future.
Showing a smile at his achievement, he walked over to the short pillar situated in the lab. Before his hands were scanned, and two square gaps were revealed. With readiness, he swiftly disconnected the lab's power source, which was from the city's power grid, everything in the lab shutting down except the dim light of the arc matrix he held in his hands.
With his enhanced senses, his vision remained undeterred by the darkness as he simply proceeded to insert the white cube into one of the slots.
After a few seconds of anticipation, the lights in the lab were suddenly restored, the machines working at an optimum rate as they felt the new, pure energy source they were now connected to.
After ensuring everything was in order, he inserted the black box containing the constantly evolving AI that he had made with plenty of fail-safes in case its objectives were ever corroded.
"Now I just have to wait," he said as he sat down in anticipation, waiting for his AI to fully override his dad's.
"Upload complete..."
(A/N): What should I name the element? Accepting ideas. Any ideas in general, whether it be tech, biotech, serums, and so on.
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