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“That’s a terrible idea!”
Offended, Hermann drew himself up and stamped his cane down for emphasis. “It most certainly is not. It is an excellent idea.”
“It’s really not,” Newton said, his expression terribly pained. “Look, I’m the practical guy, you’re the numbers guy. Okay?”
“I do admit that you have significantly more experience digging around within Kaiju guts than I do.”
“Well, I mean, I kinda do more than that.”
“And I also admit to being the ‘numbers guy’.” Triumphant, Hermann swept a hand towards his blackboard. “And you will see, if you look at my beautiful numbers, that they predict complete success with my plan.”
“Look, Hermann...” Expression still pained, Newton pushed up his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Then he took a deep breath, holding out his hands. “Let me get this straight. You made a Kaiju smoothie.”
Hermann glanced at the volumetric flask, with its cloudy blue liquid. “I certainly don’t have any intention of drinking it, but yes. I have combined several key components of Kaiju remains into a cocktail of sorts.”
“And you think you can use it as fuel to power this fancy generator you built.”
“Well, I did not personally build it. That’s also your area of expertise. But that’s also the area of expertise of Jaeger research and development.” He had only needed to provide the schematics, and they had built the boxy prototype. “Since you were occupied with dissecting the most recent corpses, I took the liberty of asking them for assistance. Take a look.”
Newton walked twice around the generator, eyeing it. He looked most curious now, which was an excellent sign that the plan was working. “And now, you think you can just pour your Kaiju smoothie into the fuel tank, and wham?”
“Wham!” Hermann agreed enthusiastically. It really was so exciting to do something so hands-on. “In theory, it shall be an excellent source of clean energy. Imagine what it could do for our world, Newton.”
“Oh, I’m imagining. I’m very good at imagining. Right now, I’m imaging all the crazy ways this could go wrong.” A slow grin spread across Newton’s face, and he clapped Hermann on the back. “Let’s do this.”
They dove into the project together, Newton hopping up and down off the floor as he checked the mechanical side of things. Deeply pleased, Hermann leaned on his cane, alternately watching and instructing Newt as to the intricacies of the design.
It was utterly delightful. Hermann did love working with numbers, but to design and test something tangible excited him. And more than that, working in such close proximity with Newton gave him a thrill of a different kind. Being shoulder to shoulder, readying a prototype, made him feel as if they were utterly unstoppable.
“Are we prepared for the fuel?” Hermann asked, checking the amount of liquified Kaiju yet again. It was precisely the correct amount for his first test. “Tank secure?”
“Tank’s definitely secure, but we’re not ready yet.” Hopping up, Newton patted the generator. “Let’s move this bad boy to your side of the lab.”
“My side?” Hermann frowned, confused. “Why?”
“Because it’s your prototype. If something goes wrong, you should blow up your side of the lab, not mine.”
“Oh.” Briefly, Hermann contemplated it, then gave a sharp nod. “Jolly good, that’s only fair. Shall we?”
Once they relocated the prototype, Hermann drew a deep, steadying breath and fetched the flask of liquified Kaiju. He flashed a quick, nervous smile. “Well. Here we go.”
Carefully, he tilted the flask and poured in the fuel. Newton fidgeted with his glasses, watching. “Hey, one question.”
“Hmm?”
“If this works, where are you planning to get more Kaiju parts? We kinda severed our universe from theirs, y’know.”
“Well, they are clones to start with.” Swallowing hard, Hermann poured the last of the blue liquid in, then picked up his cane again and stepped back. “I thought that if this was successful, perhaps you could assist me in developing a way to replicate the constituent parts that we require.”
“Hell yeah. I can do that.” Newton smiled at him, and Hermann found himself grinning. This truly was exciting. “Ready?”
“Ready!” Trembling with eagerness, Hermann slammed the button to power on his generator.
Quite immediately, something went very wrong.
Hermann was not entirely certain what that something was. But there was a horrifyingly loud noise, and hands grabbing him, and then he was crashing into the floor with a sharp cry of pain.
And then, as brilliant blue light blasted through the lab, there was a warm body huddled across him, breath ticking his neck, fluffy hair in his mouth.
Hermann sputtered and twisted his head, freeing himself from the hair, then tried to shake off the daze and orient himself. He was behind a stack of crates now, his bad leg quite thoroughly wrenched underneath him. And on top of him…
“I told you that was a terrible idea!” Newton straightened up, his glasses askew and eyes wide. “Hermann, are you okay?”
“My…”
“Hermann?”
“My prototype...” Wincing against the pain, Hermann struggled to extricate himself from under Newt and what he now realized was also a table. There was a significant amount of glowing blue debris stuck in the table, the floors, and much of the lab. “My prototype… exploded?”
“You’re just noticing that now? Yes, it exploded, because this was a terrible idea!” Newton’s voice squeaked with alarm, and his hands shook as he helped Hermann sit up. He brushed debris off Herman’s jacket with startlingly gentle touches. “Hey, are you okay? Hey. Talk to me, Hermann!”
“Yes, yes. I’m perfectly fine.” Breathless, Hermann stared at his fellow scientist, with whom he had spent so much time as they fought to save the world. Newton’s eyes were wide and alarmed, the flush in his cheeks visible even in emergency lighting. “You rescued me. Had you not hurled me to the ground, I might have exploded along with my prototype.”
“Hey! I think ‘hurled’ is a little harsh.”
“I am trying to thank you, you insufferable man,” Hermann said, his own cheeks going unexpectedly hot. “Your actions were very… very…”
Words failed him. He leaned in and kissed Newton, a quick, clumsy press of lips that was perhaps more awkward than romantic.
But when they drew apart, Newton wore a dazed smile. “Wow. That was some thanks. You should totally blow up the lab more often.”
“I did not blow up the lab,” Hermann snapped, cheeks still hot. “We blew up the lab.”
Newton just laughed, shaking his head, and Hermann couldn’t help smiling. His clean energy experiment had been something of a failure. But in the final calculation, with the addition of rescues and kisses, he was quite sure this had proved to be an excellent idea.