Drex Valen appeared personally at the tritium reactor demonstration as the project's primary investor.
Since he already knew something was likely to go wrong, he deliberately avoided inviting reporters, investors, or outside observers.
Not that he'd found any obvious flaws during inspection.
But this was still the Marvel Universe.
By now, Drex had seen more than enough impossible nonsense to stop trusting logic completely.
Doctor Otto Octavius, meanwhile, looked extremely confident.
He interpreted Drex's decision not to invite media or scientific peers as simple caution.
Which, to Otto, was a good thing.
A cautious scientist was a competent scientist.
So he didn't hesitate to install the mechanical arms ahead of schedule in order to personally demonstrate the experiment for his employer.
Nearby, his wife watched him proudly.
"Boss," Otto said, visibly excited, "even with the palladium reactor and the Valen Element reactor already existing, I still believe humanity enters a new era today."
His voice trembled slightly.
After all, he was presenting the culmination of his life's work to a genius centuries ahead of the modern scientific world.
Perhaps someday, his name would stand beside legends like Planck and Einstein in humanity's history books.
Then the experiment began.
Using the reactor system, Otto initiated thermal excitation on the tritium fuel.
And somehow...
Fusion actually occurred.
Drex stared at the reaction in disbelief.
At this point, he was almost getting used to this universe ignoring physics entirely.
According to everything he knew about nuclear physics, helium-3 should've been the ideal fuel for practical fusion systems.
He'd always suspected the original writers had simply confused tritium and helium isotopes.
Two protons and one neutron.
Two neutrons and one proton.
Not exactly a minor difference.
At least helium-3 fusion had theoretical papers supporting it.
Tritium-only fusion like this?
That belonged entirely to Marvel logic.
Drex suppressed a violent urge to start criticizing the science out loud.
This was basically just a miniature sun shoved into a laboratory.
What part of this counted as "controlled"?
That much tritium undergoing fusion directly should've vaporized the building instantly.
And the radiation output alone should've killed everyone nearby.
Not to mention the ridiculous solar flare effects erupting from something this small.
The temperature should've been catastrophic.
At that scale, standing this close should've roasted every person present alive through thermal radiation alone.
Even Otto's equations had made Drex want to tear his hair out when he first read them.
Yet none of that mattered.
Because somehow...
It worked.
Otto and the other researchers stared at the reaction with absolute excitement.
"Mr. Valen," Otto said proudly, "the experiment was a complete success."
"...Yes," Drex replied slowly.
"It succeeded."
Emotionally, he felt like reality itself had punched him in the face.
Then his expression changed.
The gravitational and magnetic interactions inside the miniature solar reaction suddenly shifted.
Objects around the laboratory began trembling subtly.
Drex's eyes narrowed.
"Doctor Octavius," he said immediately, "you need to leave. Now."
Otto hadn't even processed the warning before two War Machines grabbed him and forcibly dragged him away.
The mechanical arms attached to his spine attempted to resist automatically.
Drex casually disrupted their magnetic systems mid-motion.
"What's happening?"
Otto's wife looked terrified.
"The experiment's destabilizing," Drex answered while staring at the miniature sun.
By now, loose paper and lightweight objects throughout the laboratory were already drifting toward the reaction sphere.
Then heavier equipment followed.
Everyone realized something was very wrong.
"It can still be saved!" Otto shouted desperately.
"No," Drex said calmly.
"The entire approach was flawed from the beginning."
After Otto and his wife were evacuated, Drex walked directly toward the unstable tritium reaction.
Toward the miniature sun itself.
"Solar energy..." he murmured.
Then he extended one hand into the reaction core.
The scene looked insane.
But between his bioelectric aura, magnetic field manipulation, and gravitational control, Drex's defensive capabilities had become monstrously powerful.
Comic versions of Magneto could already survive inside nuclear blast zones using magnetic barriers.
Drex's control was even more terrifying.
Unfortunately...
The result disappointed him.
The fusion core lacked the specific stellar components Kryptonian biology truly needed.
The composition was close.
Very close.
But "almost" meant worthless.
One missing element ruined everything.
Otto took the failure badly.
Completely badly.
By the time Drex visited him in the hospital, the brilliant scientist looked spiritually crushed.
"Pull yourself together, Doctor," Drex said.
"At the very least, you proved one path doesn't work."
"That's how science advances. Failure after failure."
"Blade Technology Industries won't cut your funding. I want you to continue exploring other directions."
Otto lay silently on the hospital bed.
His eyes were dull.
But when he heard the funding would continue, a faint spark returned.
"I've already wasted so much of my life on this," Otto said quietly.
"Starting over now... I may not have the strength left."
"Your investment could easily become worthless."
He genuinely felt moved by Drex's continued support.
At the same time, he didn't want Drex carrying unnecessary risk.
Drex smiled slightly.
"Doctor, money became meaningless to me a long time ago."
"If humanity advances because of it, then it's worth spending."
Then he looked directly at Otto.
"And more importantly, I trust your ability."
"What? You don't trust yourself?"
Otto stared at him for several seconds.
Then his old pride finally reignited.
"In nuclear physics," Otto declared firmly, "I won't lose to anyone."
Drex nodded.
"I look forward to your next breakthrough."
The world itself was beginning to change because of Drex Valen's existence.
Especially in China.
Probably nobody else on Earth fully understood what was happening there.
Countless ultra-precision components that were either impossible or prohibitively expensive to manufacture mechanically were now being completed entirely by hand.
Master craftsmen equipped with new tools forged from secondary Kryptonian alloy had started breaking through their own physical limits.
One legendary technician nicknamed "Two Threads" had reportedly begun approaching near-zero manufacturing tolerance.
Elsewhere, replacement cutting components forged from secondary Kryptonian alloy reduced precision deviation across critical systems by multiple levels.
And every microscopic reduction in deviation translated into kilometers of improved accuracy after launch.
Reducing error margins meant reducing wasted correction time.
Strategically, the value was enormous.
As research into secondary Kryptonian alloy deepened, more and more advanced industries began integrating it into production systems.
The results were explosive.
Over a dozen major aerospace projects accelerated dramatically, some saving at least six months of development time.
Numerous research institutes previously stalled by material limitations resumed experiments that had been frozen for years.
And deep inside a classified research facility...
Engineers finally succeeded in constructing a prototype engine that had sat abandoned in storage for decades because its design had simply been too advanced for existing manufacturing capabilities.
Until now.