"We've run into a little trouble."
Lynn put on a perfectly timed look of "distress."
"The energy loss during transmission is astonishingly high. We can't transfer it steadily from the core to the terminal."
He pointed to the energy circuit diagram in the proposal, which he had deliberately drawn to be impossibly complex and riddled with errors.
"This is where we're stuck."
Howard Stark looked at Lynn as if he were an idiot, then snatched the proposal and the pen on the table.
"Trouble? No, this is stupidity!"
He took the pen and scribbled furiously over the beautiful proposal.
"Who came up with this topology? Tell him to go back to elementary school and retake physics! And this choice of medium-are you trying to toast bread with it?"
"Idiots! A bunch of morons who haven't even figured out Ohm's law!"
Howard's pen flew across the page, leaving wild scrawls in its wake.
He didn't just tear down Lynn's "design."
He even drew a brand-new energy circuit beside it, using a simpler, more ingenious concept.
A perfect energy circuit with a loss rate approaching zero.
"Look closely!"
Howard tossed the proposal, now covered in his messy scribbles, back in front of Lynn.
"Energy isn't flowing water, it's a dancer! You need to build it a perfect stage, not a damned drainage ditch! Buffer, amplify, refocus! That's art!"
Lynn looked at the formula on the diagram, which perfectly solved all of Horton's problems and even offered an optimization plan. Deep in his eyes, amusement flashed.
He put the proposal away.
"Howard, you're a genius."
"Of course I am!"
"So..."
Lynn made his offer.
"Foresight Company would like to hire you as our chief technical adviser."
Howard Stark scoffed and picked up his champagne again.
"Adviser? Don't be ridiculous, Lynn. I'm not interested in babysitting a bunch of idiots."
"Well, that's a real shame."
Lynn turned and left without the slightest hesitation.
Howard, on the other hand, was taken aback.
He had thought Lynn would at least press him a little longer, make him an astronomical offer or something.
Poor Howard would never know that the diagram he regarded as a handout to, and an insult aimed at, "idiots" would ignite the first flame in this world that did not belong to humanity.
Half a month later.
Lynn entered Dr. Horton's underground temple.
The lights throughout the laboratory had been set to a soft glow, and a scent like that of a newborn filled the air.
Dr. Horton stood in the center of the laboratory.
His expression was solemn and devout, like a priest awaiting inspection by his king.
The cultivation tank behind him had been drained.
A perfect male body stood there quietly.
He had the same perfect muscular contours as Number Three.
But his skin was a healthy ivory rather than a deathly pallor.
His eyes were closed, his breathing steady, his chest rising and falling rhythmically.
"Mr. Morris..."
Horton's voice trembled.
"We succeeded!"
Horton pointed at the body, unrestrained fervor in his eyes.
"His body is completely immune to high temperatures. Flames can't harm him at all!"
"I burned him continuously for ten minutes with a flamethrower at maximum power, and there wasn't even the slightest change to his skin!"
"He can absorb external heat to replenish himself, and even... radiation is a more efficient energy source!"
Horton's voice grew more and more excited.
"That energy circuit Stark provided was a stroke of divine inspiration! It allows the energy of the Blood of God to circulate perfectly within this body, endlessly renewing itself!"
"He can manipulate flames at will, whether unleashing pillars of fire or constructing walls of flame. All it takes is a thought!"
A super soldier immune to fire, capable of controlling it, and fed by heat and radiation.
"What is his name?"
"I wouldn't dare name your creation."
Horton lowered his head humbly.
Lynn looked at the handsome, unfamiliar face and spoke slowly.
"Jim Hammond."
"His codename... let's call him Human Torch."
Dr. Horton rolled the name over a few times, then looked at Lynn with even greater fervor.
"A perfect name! Mr. Morris, we have one last step."
"Activation?"
"No."
Horton shook his head and pointed to his temple.
"Imprinting."
He led Lynn over to a device displaying a complex brainwave chart.
"Number Three failed because he had a perfect body and free will, but couldn't find a meaning for his existence, so he chose self-destruction."
"But Human Torch is different."
Horton lowered his voice.
"I emptied him of everything. He is the purest blank slate. What he needs to awaken isn't a startup program, but an anchor and a meaning for his existence!"
"According to my theory, at the moment his brain is activated, the first person he sees when he opens his eyes and the first voice he hears will be engraved in the depths of his soul like a divine decree, becoming his eternal imprint and the foundation of his existence."
"And his only god!"
"Mr. Morris, only you are worthy of being his god!"
Lynn understood everything.
What this mad scientist had prepared for him was an utterly loyal believer.
A sun that would burn for him alone.
"Begin."
Lynn walked over to the sleeping Human Torch.
Horton entered the final command on the console.
"Let the miracle... descend!"
The laboratory lights went out, leaving only a ring of blue light glowing at the bottom of the cultivation tank.
The eyelids of Jim Hammond, the perfect creation codenamed "Human Torch," began to twitch slightly.
He was about to open his eyes and see the world.
Lynn stood motionless before him.
Those eyes suddenly opened.
Within them were two orange-red glows like embers.
They reflected Lynn's figure, as though he were the only person left in the world.
Dr. Horton watched this sacred moment with reverence.
Lynn met those eyes without speaking.
He waited.
Waited for a result.
At last, the body climbed out of the cultivation tank.
He knelt on one knee and lowered his head.
"I await your orders."
"Stand up."
Human Torch rose at once and stood straight, like a soldier awaiting inspection.
"Horton says you're immune to fire."
Lynn walked a circle around him.
"Is he right?"
"Absolutely!"
Horton hurried to answer.
He rushed to the console and pressed a button.
A mechanical arm extended from the laboratory, with a flamethrower nozzle at its end.
"Maximum power!"
A crimson dragon of fire roared forth, engulfing Human Torch.
The temperature in the laboratory soared, and the air began to warp.
A sickly flush spread across Horton's face.
Lynn watched in silence.
The flames continued for a full minute.
When the fire dragon vanished, Human Torch was still standing where he had been, completely unharmed.