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Chapter 40 - Chapter 40

Hoenn. 2015.

In the hidden research facility belonging to Devon Corporation that most of the world did not know about, a group of scientists ran back and forth, working on the colossal device that stood behind the shielded glass overlooking the hangar on the other side.

Joseph Stone, the 111-year-old man who did not look a day over 70 years, watched seriously as his company's men and women worked on building the machine on the other side under the request of the council.

"Sam? How are things going?"

The 61-year-old woman with long grey hair with a few strands of golden color left and weary yet happy green eyes gave a thumbs up with a grin towards the man who was both her boss and her father-in-law.

"Doing pretty good! Pops! We are ready for the initial activation test."

Stone gave an exasperated sigh at the familiar bickering that was about to start with his daughter-in-law.

"Sam, how many times have I told you to maintain protocol when working?"

Dr. Samantha Stone (nee Vance), daughter of the late ace pilot Arthur Vance, wife of the late Steven Stone, and mother of Zinnia Stone, grinned at the man's words.

"Meh. You should know by now that I don't give a damn about protocol."

Joseph felt an equal amount of fond exasperation and heartbreak as he beheld that childish grin on the old woman.

Fond exasperation at the fact that she had not changed a bit from that 10-year-old girl who was brought back to Hoenn with her father after Arthur was manipulated by Magmas and the two superpowers of 1964 and became a part of his family. Even marrying his son, Steven, later on when they grew up.

Yet, he also felt heartbreak, knowing that she would pass on before him due to her limited lifespan as she was a regular human.

Even with the advanced biotechnology and medicine available to Hoenn, the maximum lifespan that an ordinary human who was not blessed by the three gods could reach was only ninety years at the moment.

On the other hand, Joseph would probably reach 160 rather easily and probably live to be 180. Just like with the rest of the Hoenn natives who shared a similar lifespan, these days, thanks to a combination of their advancements in medicine as well as the return of their gods, which brought along their unique, life-promoting radiation.

Unfortunately, this radiation did not have much effect on ordinary humans who were already present on the land by the time of the gods' arrival, like with Arthur and Samantha.

Thankfully, the children born of these ordinary humans, whether both their parents were ordinary humans or not, seem to have inherited the Hoennese biology thanks to being affected by the three beings' radiation while they were in their mothers' wombs. This meant that his granddaughter would inherit the lifespan of a native Hoennese.

With a shake of his head, Mr. Stone glanced at his daughter-in-law.

"Let's get to the testing, Sam."

"Sure thing! You heard the man! Let's get this baby fired up!!"

The other scientists and technicians either grinned at her words or laughed and got to work.

Sam stared at the newly developed holographic displays, made in a joint venture with the PPDC, and called out all the checklists.

"Alright, people! Look alive and give me a go or no-go."

"Cooling System?"

"Go."

"Hollow Energy generators?"

"Go."

"Gravitational containment fields?"

"Go."

"Failsafe Ejection System?"

"Go."

"Shielding?"

"Go."

"Sensory systems?"

"Go across the board."

"CORE Anti-Gravity systems?"

"Go."

"Test Unit connection and Harness?"

"Go and Go."

Sam grinned at the confirmation.

"Alright, people. Let's make history. Begin Ignition sequence."

At her words, the atmosphere was filled with a tense yet anticipatory atmosphere as the technicians and scientists concentrated fully on their jobs.

"Stage One activated. Cryogenic Flush active."

The primitive AI that the people of Hoenn got from PPDC and then reprogrammed for this facility spoke through the announcement systems, making all the people tense up, including Sam, who lost her smile and stared intently at the holographic display, making sure nothing went wrong.

Hollow-Helium. A cryogenic fluid recently developed and patented by Devon Corporation and created by enriching Helium with Hollow Energy, flooded the systems of the colossal Particle Accelerator built underground in a classified location.

The colossal pipes of the collider, made from C-Titanium, an alloy developed by Hoenn to help the PPDC with their Jaeger project, instantly developed frost across its surface, ready for what was to come later.

The metal's 'Hyper-Lattice Structure' created by pulsing Hollow Energy into the molten metal during the production process acted as a conduit for the Hollow Energy and mimicked the gravitational fields of the natural crystals while boosting the tensile strength of Titanium, allowing it to withstand the forces of a Jaeger's movements and attacks.

In essence, C-Titanium, or Caelium-Titanium as it is formally patented by the Hoenn Council, has the gravitational properties of the crystal, which allows it to negate a large chunk of its weight while still remaining stronger than diamonds and far more tensile than regular titanium. A true miracle metal.

"HE Crystals are tuned and ready. Magnetic fields at 40% power and holding at 35 Tesla."

The technician turned to Sam with an anticipatory grin.

"Everything looks good so far, Dr. Stone."

Samantha shared the same delight as her subordinates.

"Beginning Particle Injection."

"Stage Two activated. Injecting Hydrogen Feedstock."

Protons screamed into the particle accelerator at ridiculous speeds. The unreal power of the magnetic fields accelerating them beyond anything humanity has achieved until now.

On the holographic display, the team saw a solid red band of energy form within the pipeline.

"We are at 0.99c and holding. Crystals are tuned and ready for the last part."

Sam took a deep breath while Joseph stood silently by her side in support.

"Begin the final stage."

"Stage Three activated. Collision imminent."

Without warning, the moment the AI announced the stage, the protons collided with the Hollow Earth Crystal placed at the heart of the Collider, producing a flood of high-energy particles such as gamma rays and pions, along with what the team was actually looking for. The sheer quantity of the particles was nearly ten times that of what CERN was able to achieve at this moment due to the use of the Hollow Earth Crystal as the target for the particle beam, which amplified the production process.

All the while, Sam's hand was mere centimeters away from the big, red button that would trigger the Failsafe Ejection System. A colossal Magnetically Accelerated Launcher built into the base that would launch the entire particle accelerator into space should they lose control of the situation.

Thankfully, they never came close to even thinking about using it as the accelerator remained stable and performed even beyond their most optimistic predictions.

Then came the sifting process, where the systems singled out what they wanted and directed it away into specialized, gravitational containers.

"Antiprotons are being guided to the mixing chamber. By the Three, look at that quantity!"

Sam's hands trembled in excitement as she saw the clear data being shown on the display, which read '10 grams'.

10 grams of Antiprotons.

To put it into perspective, one needs to know that the most Antiprotons that CERN, the most accomplished authority on this subject, has ever produced were 1 gram. And that was after Hoenn shared its anti-gravity technology with them nearly five years ago for the sake of the technological and scientific development of the world. Before that? The most that CERN ever managed was a few nanograms at best.

"How are things looking at the mixing chamber?"

The scientist by her side stared with awe and excitement at Sam's whispered question.

"Beyond optimal, ma'am. After the Antiprotons join with Positrons, the crystal catalysts are somehow 'breeding' more Antihydrogen atoms into existence. We...we don't know how the crystals are doing this, but it seems that for every gram of Antiprotons and Positrons, we are getting two grams of Antihydrogen."

Sam's eyes widened as she looked at the data, and sure enough, the details were right there, just like the man said.

This time, her mind buzzed with the physics-breaking situation happening in front of her. Yet, her logical side still remained intact and continued with the experiment.

"Alright. Time for the test firing of the HAM reactor."

At her words, the dazed scientists and technicians snapped back to attention and began working again.

This time, the Antihydrogen atoms were directed into a separate chamber that lay at the heart of Hoenn's most revolutionary system ever conceived, built on decades of scientific study and a little bit of desperation to bring about a new way for humanity to thrive in this rapidly changing world.

"Fuel Injection System working at optimal capacity. We are ready for the Annihlation reaction."

"Good. Begin test firing."

At her word, the beam of antimatter was directed into the heart of the reactor and aimed at a cloud of Hydrogen. Initiating the Matter-Antimatter Annihilation reaction.

"Annihilation event confirmed. Magnetic Capture systems are showing a steady output."

The magnetic harnessing system of the Hoenn Anti-Matter Reactor, or HAM reactor for short, worked on the principles of Magnetohydrodynamics, allowing it to convert the kinetic energy of the particles produced during the annihilation event and convert it into electricity.

"Computer, calculate total expenditure versus power output."

As Sam's voice rang out in the room, the people waited with bated breath to know if all of their efforts had borne fruit.

"Calculation complete. Power Output has been calculated to be a net positive when tallied against the total usage of power and materials beginning from Stage One."

"Energy Output per gram of Anhydrogen and one gram of Hydrogen has been calculated to be 1.8 * 10^14 Joules."

"Calculating in Electrical perspective of standard use: 50,000,000 kWh."

"...We did it. We really did it!"

Sam jumped into her father-in-law's hands and happily laughed while the team below celebrated in a similar way, relishing in the historical milestone that they achieved that day.

Joseph started to laugh at his daughter-in-law's actions as well, reminiscing about the way the old woman used to jump on him just like this, even when she was a kid back then, before he started thinking about what the future had in store for him, his family, company, and nation as a whole in light of this success.

'It is time that we showed our gods that we, too, can help ease their burden. That we can help them guard this world and allow them to take a break once in a while.'

'It is time for humanity to move past its internal conflicts and look beyond as a species.'

'And all of this shall begin with what we achieved today. The power to destroy entire worlds contained in a bottle. To act as a guiding light for all mankind.'

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Author Notes:

Rayquaza: Chilling out and playing some online games while sipping on some wine in the rare downtime he gets nowadays.

People of Hoenn: We messed around with antimatter and managed to create a functional reactor that we are going to share with the world. We are sure nothing bad will happen when we hand over such a dangerous technology to people who are already on edge thanks to the existence of aliens and native titans. No sireee.

Rayquaza:.....FUCK ME!!! (starts tweaking out and swearing worse than a seasoned sailor because his workload has now increased tenfold).

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