No melting it down with Heat Vision and reshaping it

As November arrived, something seemed to have gone wrong with the underground laboratory's air circulation system. The air it blew out always carried a faint trace of machine oil.

Lynn had not brought a storybook today. Instead, he pulled a multicolored cube from the pocket of his white coat.

A Rubik's Cube.

These things were wildly popular outside in the eighties.

Lynn had only managed to sneak one in with the help of the Logistics Department's new purchasing agent.

John sat on a cushion, holding the scrambled Rubik's Cube in both hands, his eyebrows knotted into a little lump.

"The rule is to make every face the same color."

Holding a stainless steel insulated mug filled with goji berries and black tea, Lynn leaned comfortably against the bulletproof glass. "No melting it down with Heat Vision and reshaping it, and no breaking it apart by brute force and putting it back together. You can only turn it."

"Solve it, and I'll give you a little present."

John said nothing. His soft, pale fingers began moving the plastic blocks.

At first, he patiently turned it slowly, but a few minutes later, when he discovered that a nearly completed face had been scrambled again by turning the other faces, the little boy's breathing grew noticeably heavier.

Outside the glass wall, Old Mike, who handled security, was strolling over with a baton in his hand.

Old Mike was a gray-haired military veteran who had worked at Vought International for nearly twenty years. He had seen every kind of dirty business.

His greatest wish was to make it safely through to next month, collect his pension, and go back to his hometown to fish.

"Lynn, are you messing with that little lord again?"

Old Mike tapped on the glass, his voice coming through the intercom. "I just went to the Hospital Wing for stomach medicine. Dr. Sarah said you're getting bolder by the day, bringing all sorts of junk into the sterile room."

"Uncle Mike, this is called intellectual development."

Lynn took a sip of his goji berry tea. "We can't let him spend every day doing nothing but sleeping and staring into space. If he goes out into the world and can't even solve a Rubik's Cube, people will laugh at Vought International for having no culture."

Old Mike shook his head, his gaze settling on the little boy who was glaring at the Rubik's Cube and gritting his teeth.

As a security guard, Old Mike understood the kid's destructive power better than those researchers did.

Last week, the company's higher-ups had sent someone to conduct a strength test. Little John had only given a gentle push, and the hydraulic testing machine, which cost over a million, had fallen apart.

"Seriously, Lynn."

Old Mike lowered his voice, looking inside through the glass. "The higher-ups have been making a lot of moves lately. I heard Black Noir came back to headquarters a few days ago with blood all over his uniform. Scared the cleaning staff half to death. Things outside are getting more and more chaotic. Those Outsiders and Wizards are causing too much trouble. The way the company's higher-ups look at this little guy, it's like he's their last lifeline."

"I know."

Lynn turned to glance at Old Mike, his tone relaxed. "That's why we need to teach him properly. By the way, Uncle Mike, you're retiring next month, right? Have you bought a fishing rod for when you go home?"

At the mention of fishing, Old Mike's wrinkled face immediately blossomed into a smile. "I picked out a carbon fiber one ages ago. Cost me more than half a month's pay. Once I'm gone, I'll never bother with the Basement's crap again."

As the two chatted, a sharp creak suddenly came from inside the sterile room.

Lynn turned his head and found that the Rubik's Cube in John's hands had become deformed.

It had not been twisted out of shape. It had been forcibly squeezed inward.

A dangerous red glimmer rose in Little John's eyes, a precursor to firing his Heat Vision.

He felt that this plastic cube was deliberately provoking him. Its unreasonably complicated rules irritated him.

"Stop."

Lynn set down his insulated mug, strode over to John, and clamped a hand over the squashed Rubik's Cube.

The red glow in his eyes gradually faded. John looked up, his blue eyes full of grievance and frustration.

"It won't behave."

John spoke sulkily. "I already turned the red into place, but then the blue ran away again. It's a bad thing."

"A lot of things in this world are like that, John."

Lynn did not get angry. He simply took the mangled Rubik's Cube from him. "Not every problem can be solved with fists and the red light in your eyes. Breaking the rules is easy, but working within them to sort things out takes the patience a hero should have."

John watched as Lynn deftly began twisting the slightly deformed Rubik's Cube.

With the click-clack of plastic rubbing together, the once-chaotic colors began to fall into order.

But Lynn's technique was rusty too. After twisting it for ages, he had only completed a face and a half.

"See? I can't solve it either."

Lynn frankly handed the cube back. "But that doesn't stop us from trying again and again. You can think of it as a little trial. The cunning bad guys in the outside world are much harder to deal with than this little cube. If you don't even have the patience to solve it, how will you punish those troublemakers hiding in the shadows?"

John took back the Rubik's Cube with only a partial understanding, his fingers gently stroking its different colors.

"Patience..." the little boy murmured to himself.

Watching from outside, Old Mike could not help smacking his lips.

In the entire laboratory, Lynn was probably the only one who could speak to this ultimate weapon as though he were lecturing a little brat at home.

"All right, you two take your time practicing patience. I'm off on patrol. These old arms and legs of mine-I hope I don't run into another burst pipe today."

Old Mike waved the baton in his hand and strolled away.

Lynn sat back down on the cushion, picked up his insulated mug, and blew across the steam rising from it.

John quieted down and continued fiddling with the Rubik's Cube. Though his movements were still somewhat clumsy, the agitation from earlier was clearly gone.

This child was actually very easy to understand. As long as Lynn guided him along his own logic and dressed every little everyday matter in the guise of a hero's code of conduct, he would obediently listen.

Time ticked by, and the laboratory's lights remained steady and deathly pale.

When lunchtime was almost upon them, John suddenly held up the Rubik's Cube, a brilliant smile spreading across his face.

"Lynn, look."

Though it was still not completely solved, one entire face of the Rubik's Cube had turned solid red, and the edges of the plastic blocks had not been crushed again.