Chapter 48: New Device
Orin Vale had agreed to the Queen's request, but whether he could actually fulfill it would come down to fate.
After all, according to Queen Hippolyta, a hundred years had passed since Wonder Woman went to the human world. Her most active period was during the First World War, after which she had lived in anonymity, with no news of her whereabouts.
A hundred years later, today's Diana could have any profession, any identity, and be living in any country. Trying to find her in the vast sea of people was no different from finding a needle in a haystack.
Hippolyta naturally knew this as well. She simply had no one else to whom she could entrust this task. Orin Vale could only promise that if he happened to run into Diana and the situation allowed, he would lend her a hand, but it would mainly depend on fate. Hippolyta accepted this.
Diana's situation was quite innocent. For the first half of her life, she thought she was a little person kneaded from clay, without a father. When she finally learned she had a father, it turned out he was a stud of the century who had spread the seeds of his love across the world.
The result was that a huge portion of Olympus consisted of his children. Compared to that old fellow Odin from the neighboring pantheon, who was a father in name only, he was the *true* "Father of the Gods." He had even left behind a large number of demigods in the mortal world with unknown origins.
Because of this, throughout her adventures, Wonder Woman would often discover that the various members of the Divine Race and companions she befriended were, in the end, either her brothers or her sisters. She was practically an Amazonian folk hero, fated to meet long-lost relatives at every turn.
With Zola settled on Paradise Island, his business there was done. Not only did Orin Vale successfully obtain his target, the Nth Metal, but he also received an additional batch of Amazonian alloy.
This meant his second-generation armor could be built entirely from the eighth and ninth metals of the DC Universe. If completed successfully, its strength would be on a completely different level from the first generation.
Thus, this immediately became his main development focus for the coming days.
The Mobile Ultraman Armor posed no real technical challenges for him. With the experience from the first-generation armor, the technology for the second would be even more mature. The primary goal for this generation of armor was to improve energy utilization. Higher energy efficiency would naturally lead to greater strength, faster speed, and more powerful beam weapons.
Orin Vale quickly tested and found that the Amazonian metal had a remarkably good effect on achieving this functionality. He discovered that the main reason this alloy was chosen by the Old Gods as their primary material was likely due to its supernatural energy transmission efficiency. It could transfer energy with almost zero loss and, if designed properly, could even have an amplification effect.
If he designed the Specium energy conduits entirely with this metal, then theoretically, the maximum output of the second-generation armor's Specium Ray would be at least double that of the first.
Besides the performance of the armor itself, Orin Vale's other current priority was a project related to the Kryptonians.
After analyzing the data from the spaceship Kara had brought, Orin Vale successfully extracted some literature about Krypton's geography. One chapter contained detailed records of the red star in Krypton's star system, including various data records from Kryptonian observations of the star.
This section immediately caught Orin Vale's full attention, and he created a new research project specifically for it, which he named "Red Sun Simulation."
Anyone with a slight understanding of American comics would know that Kryptonians, who can achieve god-tier power just by basking in the sun, also come with three classic, fatal weaknesses.
Kryptonite, a red sun, and magic.
There are thousands of parallel universes, and settings have been rebooted and retconned time and again, but these three weaknesses have been retained in ninety-nine percent of the versions.
Among them, magic is still somewhat controversial. Although official lore has always stated that Kryptonians have negative magic resistance, sometimes Superman can withstand magic attacks of a clearly high level without a scratch, while at other times, the most common little fireball can knock him out cold, as if his invulnerability was just an act.
Therefore, it is generally accepted that Superman's magic resistance is a "Schrödinger's Magic Resistance"—he can have it or not, depending on the needs of the plot. But the other two weaknesses rarely have inconsistencies, even in DC Comics, which is notorious for retconning its own lore on a whim.
Kryptonite is naturally the most effective, but obtaining it basically requires mining. Artificial synthesis is not impossible, but it is extremely difficult and prone to problems. The simplest, most convenient, and least difficult to synthesize artificially is a Red Sun generator.
In the DC Universe setting, the solar system's sun is a yellow star. When Kryptonians are exposed to this solar radiation, they are rapidly enhanced. Conversely, Krypton's star is a red star, and once exposed to its radiation, their superpowers will rapidly weaken until they disappear.
This is one of the most potent weapons against Kryptonians. More importantly, for Orin Vale, the technical difficulty was extremely low.
Synthesizing sunlight was the most elementary part of the Ultraman Race's Technology of Light; the technical threshold was practically non-existent. The only difficulty was that he needed to know the specific parameters of the DC Universe's red sun, and the database from Kara's spaceship had already solved that for him.
Orin Vale planned to officially install a Red Sun device on the second-generation Mobile Ultraman Armor. Of course, before that, he had to test its effects.
And so, the importance of having his very own resident Kryptonian was once again demonstrated.
Kara was actually still a little dazed when she followed him to the laboratory. She only knew that Orin Vale seemed to have whipped up some new technology and needed to borrow her body to test it.
Although the young girl was briefly suspicious, wondering why new tech would need to borrow her body, the trusting gene inherited from the House of El made her feel that Orin Vale was a good person. So, she obediently followed him down.
Orin Vale activated the device, first enabling the yellow sun radiation simulation function.
Completely simulated solar energy, a direct, point-blank blast. A huge surge of warm energy rushed into her, and Kara, completely unprepared, suddenly felt as if she was being filled to the brim.
"Nn, ahh..."
She swayed, letting out a moan, and steadied herself against a nearby lab bench, panting.
Even her eyes suddenly flashed red, startling her so much that she quickly covered them and looked away.
"What... what is this... It's too intense, I... I can't take it..." she said with difficulty, covering her eyes.
The yellow sun radiation simulation was a success. Orin Vale was very satisfied with this; the device could not only be used for Kara, but he could also use it himself. After all, in a way, he was solar-powered, just like a Kryptonian.
And this was just the prototype design. According to his future plans, Orin Vale even had the wild idea of building a more potent solar-powered satellite, similar to the one from his predecessor Max's finale. A super-amplified charge directly from Earth's orbit—perhaps then he too could replicate old Max's fastest and strongest power-up...
"It's all right, it'll be over in a moment."
Orin Vale adjusted the switch.
The device's frequency was adjusted, and the solar radiation immediately switched from yellow to red.
"Ah~"
Kara was once again completely unprepared. One second she was in a state of near-uncontrollable full charge, the next it was as if her body had been hollowed out. The solar energy in every one of her cells felt as if it had been wrung dry, causing her to cry out involuntarily. Her body was drenched in sweat, and in a moment of carelessness, she fell to one knee.
"Wh-what is this?" Her blonde hair was a mess as she panted lightly. "It feels... a little uncomfortable..."
Red Sun generator, test successful.
Orin Vale immediately turned off the device, slightly surprised by her intense reaction.
Logically speaking, a red sun wasn't Kryptonite; it should only take away superpowers without harming a Kryptonian. After all, Kryptonians were born and lived in a red sun environment without any apparent adverse effects.
But he soon realized it was likely an adaptation issue. A Kryptonian who had already adapted to a yellow sun environment and gained god-like power would naturally experience a rejection reaction when suddenly exposed to a powerful red sun environment again, leading to a series of symptoms like weakness and nausea.
Though not fatal, the initial reaction was similar to Kryptonite exposure.
The test results left Orin Vale very satisfied, but Kara was not feeling so great. This was her first time re-encountering her home star system's red sun radiation since arriving on Earth. With no experience or preparation, she was left completely drained by the exposure.
Afterward, even as she was leaving Orin Vale's laboratory, the little girl was still pouting, with a bullied look on her face. Her calves were trembling, and she felt sore all over.
The Old Wizard saw this and frowned for a good while. After some thought, he sought out Orin Vale.
"Young man, I believe your spirit is pure, but perhaps you outsiders have different moral codes from us in certain aspects."
The Old Wizard said earnestly.
"I've also recently looked into the matter. In this day and age, eighteen is the age of majority. Anything with a minor is unethical and, more importantly, illegal. A minimum of three years, up to the death penalty..."
"Uh... I know that, but why are you bringing this up?"
The Old Wizard narrowed his eyes. "I saw you take that little Kryptonian girl down there, and when she came out, she was flushed and panting..."
"Uh, that was because I asked her to help me test a new device."
"A new device?"
The Old Wizard looked somewhat bewildered.
"What kind of device can exhaust a young lady like that?"
Orin Vale: "..."
(end of chapter)