"Are you all aware of who Decron Shoults is?" the president asked as she took the group down a large hallway.
"He’s the man who invented the awakening tracing device, right? The one that tests out power," one of the heroes said.
"That’s correct. He was one of the most talented individuals in our history. He worked together with great scientists and worked on the very first suppression field generators. It was his knowledge there that allowed him to work on the Extra-Ability Analyzer, making it finally possible to figure out soone’s awakened powers without the dangers of them accidentally hurting soone they love."
A few people nodded in appreciation for the man and what he had done for the world.
Ning raised his hand.
"Yes?" the president asked.
"It still happens though," he said.
"Sorry?"
"The random awakening that hurts others. It still happens," Ning said.
"Yes, it does," the president said. "Sad as it is, such accidents do still happen. But the amount has drastically reduced thanks to the Extra-Ability Analyzer. With it, anyone 16 or above is forced to go through a mandatory check-up, which catches their awakened powers before they actually use them."
"That only works when they’ve awakened though, and if they haven’t used it yet," Ning said. "There are people who use it before they reach 16 or awaken afterward. Yes, things have beco safer, but more can still be done."
The president smiled. "More is still being done. If you don’t mind, I would like to keep this moving. We don’t have much ti."
Ning smiled, saying nothing.
A centaur in a scientist’s lab coat stood outside a room. When the group approached, he opened the door, allowing everyone to enter.
The group walked in, staring around the room, which was surprisingly empty but for a single tallic sphere at the center of the room.
The president walked up to the sphere and picked it up. She pressed sothing on the side of the sphere, causing a soft blue light to emit from within it, and rolled it toward the group.
"Careful!" she said with a smile. "It’s going to explode."
Panic filled everyone in the room imdiately as they tried to run away, but the door behind them was locked. Bloodborn tightened his fist, ready to punch through the door, only to realize his blood wasn’t flowing into his hands as it should have.
Frostveil had been pointing at the grenade, but nothing happened to it either.
The grenade never exploded.
Everyone stared around in confusion as they tried to understand what was happening.
Ning stared at the notification his system had given him the mont the woman rolled the sphere toward him.
The other heroes began noticing it as well.
"My powers are gone," Lightspeed said.
Frostveil had been attempting to create ice for the better part of the last few seconds, but nothing had happened.
"What is happening?" another hero asked.
The president walked up to the small tallic sphere and picked it up. A small smile appeared on her face.
"My apologies for causing such a panic, but I felt the theatrics were needed to make you understand the gravity of the situation," she said. "Do you understand what this is now?"
The heroes stared at the sphere with slack jaws as they finally understood what was happening. "That’s a suppression field generator?" Godhood asked in his ethereal voice.
The president nodded, turning the sphere off and placing it back on the table. "This is a portable suppression field generator. It activates automatically when you press the button on the side. Its radius is about 30 feet for now; we’re looking to expand it further."
Ning stared at the sphere, realizing what it ant for such an item to exist. A suppression field generator was usually a massive object that was kept in a certain room in any building. Power-dampening cuffs needed to be placed on the person’s body.
This, however, could work on anyone and anywhere. And it wasn’t even as large as a bowling ball.
"A suppression field generator? That small?" Frostveil asked.
"Yes," the president said. "Our scientists have worked very hard to create this."
"How much does it cost to make?" Bloodborn asked.
"We don’t know just yet," the president said. "The research and developnt budget that went into this is upward of 50 million jorans easily. Now that it has been created, we assu it will take no more than a thousand jorans to create. That is just based on the materials, however. The actual manpower needed to create this makes it much harder to judge its price."
The heroes looked uncomfortable when hearing about the price. "Have you considered the dangers of this existing?" Lightspeed asked.
"Dangers? Are you worried this might fall into the wrong hands?" the president asked.
"Of course," Lightspeed said. "I don’t want to head into a job only to have my power suppressed out of nowhere. That would make every job a nightmare for , and for many of my colleagues, no doubt."
The other heroes nodded, voicing their own thoughts. Everyone had the sa worries. What would happen if the criminals were to get their hands on this?
"We’re working on counterasures to stop that from happening," the president said. "We’re developing so sort of biotrics lock which makes it only usable by certain people."
"That doesn’t an that the criminals can’t just take the design and reverse engineer it," Frostveil said.
The president chuckled. "Who would have the fortune required to reverse engineer what took us millions to make?"
"Soone who has billions," Frostveil answered imdiately. "Forgath was evil. If he had gotten his hands on it, he would have. This is a ticking ti bomb for every single one of us. This cannot see the light of day."
The president nodded. "I can see why you are all worried, but I cannot help dissuade your fears. The cat is out of the box already. The only thing you can do is mind its claws."
She walked away from the sphere. "Co on. This isn’t the only thing we have developed."
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