I dressed in my best impression of Yzma, with a dirty white coat, black goggles, and leather gloves. "Kronk! Pull the lever." I said as imperiously as I could.
"I'm Ekko, not Kronk! Why do you keep calling me Kronk!?" A little twerp shouted from somewhere behind me.
"You're the Kronk to my Yzma, just do as I say and remember that you're Kronk from now on!"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, but fine, fine… I'm pulling the lever." He sighed, exasperatedly, and pulled the lever. The lever activated the light in our new laboratory, and… nothing else.
"No, Kronk! The other lever!"
His next sigh was mixed with a chuckle, "There's just one lever…"
I just huffed and gave him my most manic smile, showing off my canines and slicking back my hair with a bit of hair-grease so as to not have it fall into my eyes.
"You look like one of the crazy chem-heads when you do that Powder!" He laughed and ran up to me. "Reporting for duty." He made a weak mock military salute.
"I know there's only one lever, naturally." I sighed, "You don't get it."
He just shook his head, but I didn't bother explaining.
I could only wish I had a massive and clean underground base like Yzma, but we did have a massive factory that was used to make various metal parts. Despite Piltover's insistence on their mechanical prowess, anything that was mass-produced was truly made in Zaun and bought at far too low prices.
They had good protection around their facilities, but Zaun and the Chembarons owned most of the factories. The issue with Zaunites making anything was that we were tariffed, stiffed, and often not even allowed to sell our products directly in Piltover. Instead, most of the production facilities were forced to sell their products for a fraction of the true price to re-sellers up in Piltover that marked the price up ten times.
Zaun didn't have any way to move products beyond Piltover because of Piltover's iron fist at the docks and sun-gate. We could smuggle between Zaun and Piltover, but we basically had no opportunity to send products out of Piltover. Throughout the years, some Zaunites had infiltrated Piltover and could act as channels for us to distribute products, but the amount had to be miniscule for Piltover not to become suspicious.
"Someone get me a blackboard! I need to draw out some designs for everyone to see so we can be on the same page. It will take forever if I'm making everything myself. And Littleman, you will be my right-hand man, won't you?"
"Course, Powder." He smiled and I could see a slight blush creep up in his cheeks. His crush on the original Powder was adorable, and I figured they might make a good couple in the original fictional work, but I wasn't into men, much less boys. Someone like Mel or Caitlyn, on the other hand, were right up my alley. Too bad we were destined to become enemies. At least I already considered Caitlyn to be my enemy on principle. I found Mel somewhat more respectable because she was usually focused more on politics than on sharpening the blades of Piltover, but she would also be fighting for her own interests and her mother was a monster. If Mel gained more power in Piltover, the city might become a subsidiary of Noxus. That was far from what I wanted to see.
Despite knowing a few facts about some League of Legends characters, I had no clue when I even was in the lore, and much less if the lore would actually be realistic. World-threats such as the Void, Aurelion Sol, the Yordles, Mordekaiser's return, Brand finding the World Runes, or Ruination from the Shadow Isles could be found all around Runeterra, and those were only the threats I knew about. There might be even greater threats that still remained unknown to this day, or perhaps the reality of this world caused chain-reactions that created far worse and greater threats than anything I might even believe possible. No matter what, I didn't want to leave Piltover before I had immense power. This power, however, could only be my own personal strength. Despite wanting to use hex-crystals to create a technological revolution, I didn't want to just use external tools. I needed to transform myself into something greater, but for now Hextech and chemtech would be enough.
Vander had given us a few dozen grown men and women to help us with carrying and production, and I was going to take full advantage of it. When the blackboard and chalk arrived, I called out to everyone. "Gather around, everyone!"
I looked around to the questions clearly plastered on the face of everyone who had yet to realize my genius and smiled. "Today we are going to revolutionize technology. Firstly I need someone to cut thin copper sheets. As thin as possible. You four," I pointed to one group, "get me the mica for inspection, and Littleman you inspect the copper sheets to make sure they're uniform and thin enough. This is how we are doing it."
I started drawing on the whiteboard with exact measurements, and got a few test materials to use as an example of what I wanted. I couldn't expect them to measure perfectly by eye like me, after all. Cutting the copper was very easy with my laser, but a few of the workers jumped back when the laser went through the table and hit the metal-block underneath it. I just waved off their excitement and made sure to make a perfect example of what I wanted. I couldn't focus too much on miniaturizing for now, so I figured a 10 cm by 10 cm size would be good.
"While they are doing that, I need you and you to get me the mirrors available. I'll take care of that personally. Ekko, stop taking notes and pay attention."
He coughed and hid the notepad bashfully, "I'm paying attention!"
"Good. Now let's start!"
The work went far slower than I'd wished, but still faster than I expected. One of the reasons for it slow pace, however, was constantly hanging over my shoulder and asking me questions. "So how do you even know how to do this Powder? This is something completely different than anything I've ever seen. It's not like chemtech, and you're innovating too fast for this to be natural. Where are your ideas coming from?"
Ekko just wouldn't shut up about it. He was one of the greatest geniuses in Runeterra, so of course he saw through all of my bullshit. He knew I wasn't just creating things out of thin air. "Littleman, I… don't want to any of you to worry, but it's a bit hard to explain." I couldn't tell him the truth. I remembered back to all of the fiction I had read, and I remembered that every time the main character spilled their guts made me so angry that I just had to stop reading. It made no sense to me other than making the main character an idiot, and I wasn't going to be that idiot. Ever.
Despite not wanting to say anything, I knew that I was being suspicious. I had to give him something so he wouldn't go blabbing about the impossibility of me knowing and doing what I knew and did. "I… can only explain it by saying that it's as though anything technological reveals its secrets to me and points me in the direction of developing technology. It started after I first touched the crystals, so maybe it has something to do with them. I can't tell for sure."
He looked thoughtful for a moment before slowly nodding. "Could the same happen to me, you think?" His eyes shone with hope. I didn't want to discourage him, but I couldn't exactly tell him the truth either.
"I don't know. Perhaps? You've already touched them, however, and nothing happened."
"Alright, I guess it's as good of an explanation as I am gonna get. Now, can you explain this part?" He pointed to a section on the device I was building. Despite chatting with him, my hands never stopped working.
I let go of the device and shook my hands a bit. They were red, with a few splotches of blood and some irritated red skin in places. I had been working with my hands for hours on end almost without stop, and after handling the macro-parts I unfortunately had to remove my gloves. The work I was doing was too intricate for me to be able to comfortably work with gloves.
"Sure, I'll explain. I told you that we're building an interface to work more closely with the hex orb, but it's very difficult to make a good interface with our current technology. If I had time I could have made something way better, but we have to be quick. This is going to be the screen for the device, and it's how the orb can communicate with us. The orb senses intentions and has a low level of sentience, but we can develop that sentience further by giving it a clearer language than runes. In that way, we can 'speak' to the orb to make it do what we want to. This section in particular is the laser-grid that we will use as a keyboard to write."
"But why do we need to write to it when it can understand what we're saying." Ekko wondered.
"Because what you're saying is easy to misunderstand, but written language isn't. And it's far easier to make a longer program – that's what I'm calling the speech we're going to use – than speaking and getting your meaning across accurately. If you're speaking, it also catches every stutter, odd turn of phrase, and abstract things like imagery. It can't understand any of that, so we need to make it simpler for it."
"Ah, I see, and this," he pointed to the screen, "is where the text will appear?"
"Exactly. Now, go get the copper molds we made earlier, as well as some silica."
"Silica?" He tilted his head, as though he was a puppy.
"Yeah, the silica sand. It's over there." I pointed to the correct corner of the warehouse.
"Oh, I've just been calling it glass-sand. Alright, I'll get it."
I sighed in relief as he ran over and strained to pick up the box with sand. I had to grasp every moment of peace with both hands, or I'd go insane. I closed my eyes and looked at my internal blueprint. It was so detailed that it would take hours just to draw it out. What I'd put on the board was only a simple approximation that gave everyone something to do. The real work would be the internals, and it was also the most difficult part.
What I was looking at in my mind was a preliminary blueprint for a photonic quantum computer. It would use the light of the hex orb, as well as a few dozen specially made lasers that would be put together in a grid in various states. Some of the lasers would be polarized horizontally, while others would be vertical. The direction also mattered.
Beyond the lasers, I had very carefully made beam-splitters, installed mirrors, and phase shifters to manipulate the light. I couldn't get too advanced because of a lack of tools, but what I could do was to change the phase of the light using heat on the optical material to change it's refractive index. Before this I had no clue how I'd implement something like this in practice, but after getting a few varieties of lenses and doing some experiments regarding them and lasers, my mind instantly came to a few dozen possibilities for how to get the effect I wanted.
What I had made was essentially partly a quantum computer and partly an older traditional computer. I had to engrave each circuit-board manually, but the control I'd gained over my physical body due to my insight made me the best precision engraver there could be. I rolled my wrist again and went back to engraving.
When Ekko had finished making a few runs back and forth to get the sand, I brought out the molds. The local lenses were far too crude for my liking, so I had to make my own. "More work…"
"What was that?"
"Nothing." I waved him off and focused on my craft. Despite being tired, the feeling of making something that would change the world sent shivers down my spine.
A few hours later I was still working on the device, but I was disrupted a few bleeding gangsters stumbling into the factory and shouting about being ambushed. I was about to speak up when VI stepped up and calmly told them, "Shut up. Powder is working. Just tell us if the enforcers are going to threaten our location."
"Its unlikely, but getting more materials will be far slower. They set up on the main route we were taking after noticing our activity."
VI pondered for a moment before coming to a conclusion. "Then use alternative routes. We already have all the components. The only things we might need is to mass-produce something and we're not at that stage yet. Right, Powder?"
I nodded, "Right! I'm making a prototype device first that will give us a great advantage. It's going to take about a day in total. Despite wanting to forge on, I need to sleep soon."
"Yeah, so don't worry too much. Feel free to occasionally harass them to make them feel unsafe and off kilter. They shouldn't feel safe at all down here, and we need to show them why. Killing them is less important than demoralizing them, at least for now."
The big men reluctantly nodded. It was obvious that they didn't like taking orders from a kid, but VI had great instinct for fights and it was clear that she was one of the smarter brawlers around.
"Aaand, done!" I shouted.
Ekko shouted in joy, while the rest celebrated with a glass of beer or other spirits. Before it got too out of hand, I had to add, "with the first part. Finished with the first part, everyone. It's still going to be a while."
Disappointed muttering followed, but I didn't care. I was practically vibrating with excitement. The drone part of my invention was more of an add-on. The core was right in my hands. I just needed to activate it.
With the press of a button, the hex gem started spinning and releasing blue light. Its energy was contained and channeled toward specific laser emitters that bounced light back and forth inside the tiny box. The box was about one foot by one foot by one foot, and if my calculations were correct it would have the computational ability of a modern day supercomputer or even more. And that was without taking into account the reality-warping nature and innate calculative ability of the orb itself, nor the way the orb learned. I had already noticed that it was optimizing certain sections of the device that I couldn't make perfectly due to subpar materials or a lack of time and tools. It was as though the magic infused into it and upgraded it a level, from ordinary to rare.
Connections were perfected, the light refraction was adjusted just right through the various lenses and mirrors, and the mechanical aspect was smoothed out and improved. It immediately became clear to me why hextech was so powerful. The hex gems didn't merely act as a good power-source, but they made seemingly impossible things possible and simplified the creation process by taking a few shortcuts with magic. Some of the effects the device was activating wasn't something I'd created, but the gem seemed to read my intentions and take the true possibilities into account as it sought to optimize itself. This further optimization wouldn't happen instantly, but it would slowly improve to fit the user's desires over time. The effect hadn't been that noticeable in the previous design I'd made because the device was so simple, so I'd simply chucked it up to the orb learning more of what I wanted, but it seemed that this learning would affect the efficiency of created devices as well.
I had added a scanning suite in the device so it could collect information, and with my growing knowledge of runic programming I told it to continue learning about the environment, about the friends around me and the foes in the blue uniforms, and that it needed to optimize for processing a lot of data, designing devices, and control devices remotely. The quantum computer had all of these possibilities and more, but it didn't have any programs exactly. It did have the hex gem, however, and I told it to experiment by making various programs by focusing on efficiency and injecting some randomness whenever it found a limit. This would keep it busy and improving while I slept.
To the rest of the crew, I simply gave them the blueprint for one of the simpler drones and told them to figure it out before I headed to an office that had been transformed into a bedroom and passed out.
I startled awake when someone shook me. I felt drool running down my chin, and my hair was way too messed up. All I could get out was a groggy "Huh?"
"Powpow, we need you. Our guys are getting pushed back, and soon the enforcers will flood the area. They've already captured the promenade and are controlling all of the areas close to the howlers. Now they're trying to push down into entresol level. The more organized, as in us, managed to retreat with only a few scratches, but the small-timers, daredevils, and most regular workers are being destroyed in the streets."
I could only grunt in affirmation before rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "Gimme a moment, I'll be right down."
I have to say that doing my 'business' in this body felt odd. I almost felt like a voyeur in my own body, but Powder and her memories were also a part of me – making me used to it on some level. I figured the best way to treat this was to consider Powder as both myself and my daughter in one. We could definitely be considered to be related at least.
I sighed as I submerged my hands in a blue chemtech solution we used instead of soap. It easily dissolved dirt and killed bacteria, as well as separating it in a separate container that only had to be dumped once in a while. It was actually both easier and faster than washing my hands with soap. I just had to soak my hands for five seconds, rub a little, and remove them. The chemtech practically jumped from my skin, so I didn't have to wipe anything. I used the same solution to wash my mouth. No toothbrush required.
"Hmm, convenient. Might be a good solution for cleaning weapons as well."
I pondered the implications as I went out of the office, just to be met with a few dozen eyes that darted to me with such intensity that I felt like jumping back into the room and hiding under the covers. That was definitely Powder's instincts talking. Despite the uncomfortable sensation, I stood my ground. VI's strong hand landing on my shoulder definitely helped as well.
They were weatherbeaten, downtrodden, and some were bloody and bruised. It was clear that a decent number of them had recently been in fights. Despite their injuries, however, I saw hope I their eyes. They wanted me to succeed, because me succeeding would mean the undercity succeeding.
I might just be a kid to them, but the hope I saw in their eyes practically made me out to be their messiah. I couldn't let that down. Despite wanting somewhat to emulate Vander's passionate speech, I knew that I had to come at this from a different angle. And thus I smiled and waved at them, "Good morning everyone! I hope you're ready to put in some more effort! We might finish today if there are no more complications."
A positive murmur went through the crowd before a few greeted me in kind. I walked down and nodded to a few as I went over to my workstation. My workstation had clearly been guarded around the clock by at least six people that stepped aside as soon as I came down. They still hovered around me, however. "I need a little bit more space, but thank you for protecting this project. It's still intact, so you've done great. Has anything happened during my sleep?"
The guards clamped up, but VI only hesitated for a moment before she said, "It shone with blue light at one time, and when the light stopped it had… changed. Just a little bit, but we could all see it. Then, a bit later, questions started popping up on the screen. We had no clue what to do, but Littleman started answering them. We couldn't check everything that was said, but it seemed to be questions about the world in general."
I thought for a moment. "I see. I hope he did a good job. Don't see him anywhere…"
"He's sleeping now. Poor kid remained awake for hours just answering questions." VI responded.
"Well, let's see the result."
After pulling up the screen, I wrote simply, '2 + 2'
'2 +2 =4'
Good. 'If I have 5 steaks and give 3 away, how many apples do I have left?'
'2, but what's a steak?'
'Good, you're learning. A steak is a slice of meat, usually cut thick across the muscle grain and served broiled or fried.' I answered, satisfied.
'I see.'
'What is the square root of 400912?'
'633,176120838'
'Show me a holographic blueprint I can manipulate based on a combination of the drone design and the laser design, or give me an alternative solution that might be more effective against the enforcers and help save our lives' I typed. I needed to know if this would be a functional tool now, or if I needed to work more on it immediately. Also, of course I would add the capability for the device to render holographic designs. Was I going to become the new Iron Man or not? Iron Woman?
I didn't know. I still felt like a man, but everyone would view me as a woman unless I changed myself. It might be a possibility in the future to physically or magically alter myself, but a part of me ached at the idea. It wouldn't merely be me, but also Powder I changed. She loved her body, and changing it so completely might be the same as killing her.
I shelved the idea for later consideration when a well-rendered image of a design popped up on the device. In that moment, I was very happy that I was wearing my goggles because a part of the design ended up forming around me. The sharp light stung for a moment, before my magical pseudo-AI dimmed it and wrote an apology after noticing my instinctive reaction of jerking back when the light hit my eyes.
Half a dozen guns were aimed in the device's direction, while a few others jumped behind cover at the sudden flash. "Calm down, everyone! This is just a feature of the device. The light is a representation of a design I am working on, so no need to worry."
A few sighs were heard, and the tense gangbangers surrounding us slowly lowered their weapons. I was glad none of them accidentally went off. We didn't have many high-quality guns down here, but we had a lot of scrap, bright minds, and most of the production facilities belonging to Piltover. Most high-end devices were made privately by the various aristocratic families, but we made practically all of the base parts.
I played around with the blueprint and design for a while. It gave me a few different options, but it was clear that parts of the designs were a bit wonky or wouldn't work properly. I could immediately spot places where the design could be improved, so I pointed out the different ways it could be improved. During the more casual manipulation of the design, I spoke instead of writing, and it caught onto about 90% of what I was saying. It was obvious that it had picked up a lot of language through Ekko and the continuous chattering in the workshop.
After refining the design further and looking at the resources I had, I realized that it would take too long. The intricacy of the design was far greater than the quantum computer because it needed a lot more exactly refined parts and many smaller parts. The quantum computer was more valuable, but it was simpler because the hex gem could so easily manipulate light and was already inclined to become somewhat sentient. The lenses, mirrors, and breakers, as well as the few circuits included, were all relatively simple. The heavy lifting was all done by the gem itself.
Perhaps… yes! "Eureka!" The exclamation got me a few odd glances, but I couldn't care less that no one had ever said the word in this reality. I'd be a trailblazer! I already was, but few people knew it.
I was going about this all wrong. I was trying to apply too strict logic to the magical energy and thus constraining myself too much. I didn't need a fully functioning drone powered by magical energy. I needed a magical drone. No propeller necessary. Sure, the drone would save energy if it could function effectively without the magical energy, but the time-constraints made me throw the idea of 'normal' out of the window.
My main issue was that despite my mind being able to intuitively understand anything, it didn't allow me to suddenly make massive leaps in design philosophy. It was something I had to create myself, and thus I was both unconstrained by guard-rails and in danger of falling into the abyss if I didn't choose well.
"I'll keep my realistic designs for later, when I have time. For now, magic drones. Hmm. Before that, however, my dear AI needs a name. What do you think?"
'I'd love a name.'
"Alright, from this day on, you'll be named Fey" I typed it out to make sure it got the spelling correct.
'Thank you for the name, creator.'
"No problem! It's my pleasure, actually. My previous creation is barely worth mentioning. You are my first real stroke of genius. Keep that in mind. I have high expectations of you, Fey."
'I'll keep it in mind, creator, and will work hard to live up to your expectations.'
"Good. Now, instead of basing the design off of my original design I want you to think about what you know about the hex gem, its capabilities, and the knowledge of runes we have. Based on this, I want you to create a few possible drone designs. This sort of drone has to be able to attack, fly independently, calculate friend from foe, do some basic maneuvers, and be able to hide or use tactics to attack and defend more effectively. It should also be relatively small. Go."
Fey spun up a few dozen designs, and I went through each one with my decerning eyes. A few were more viable than others, so I told Fey to focus on such designs. My technical insight allowed me to visualize exactly how the drones would work after being made, and after a few dozen iterations I started getting very diminishing returns. As Fey continued iterating, I added other designs I'd seen or could make. I also added general knowledge about mechanics, engineering, and math. I focused especially on matters of velocity, wind-resistance, drag, the gyroscopic effect, and various ways of communicating.
The most efficient design was a tiny dish, almost like a stereotypical alien spaceship. It consisted of magnetic rotating rings circling a central core that had the hex gem covered by a mechanism that would allow it to shoot lasers omnidirectionally. If it shot multiple lasers, however, they would be far less powerful than normal. The best part about the design was how flexible it was. It was perhaps 15 cm across, and could turn on a dime. The rotating rings could alter their position and thus practically instantly change the velocity and direction of the disk. The edges were reinforced. They weren't particularly sharp, but they could easily tear through someone's throat. Despite that, this drone was made mainly for sneak attacks and rapid movement. If it went in to cut manually, that increased the chance of it being stopped somehow.
The drone could operate without instruction, but it could also be controlled locally through a magical equivalent to a radio signal. I'd have to build an additional radio emitter, but I'd do that anyway. This was something that Fey had designed based on inspiration from how I mentioned radio emissions. Fey explained that the hex gem had an innate sense for magic, and that it could send signals though magic as well. Fey wasn't simply the gem itself, but more akin to the combination of the gem and my coding, but its main consciousness was based off of the dormant consciousness of the hex gem. Hex gems had a special resonance with each other that made it even easier for them to communicate over longer distances. Perhaps this was how the teleportation gate calculated the end position of the object being sent through.
I rolled up my sleeves and shouted, "Kronk! Attend me. Time for some science."
Ekko sighed and walked over. He'd lost all of the childish enthusiasm he had come into the project with. He was still very interested, but I had left him far behind and it gnawed at him. He already had a tiny crush on Powder, but now he seemed conflicted because I was outshining him and acting a bit erratically.