Bonds

Knight's Night

 With the flip of a switch, the small DC motor on his and Flippy's workbench hummed to life. The shaft started to slowly spin the Imperial Gold armature in the latest project Brontes and Steropes had given him, only to gradually speed up until it was a golden blur. As the golden armature spun he could feel the magnetic field that was being generated by it rotating between the plates of magnetized Stygian Iron; the field was growing stronger with every rotation and it made the telekhine pup began to paw at his sensitive nose. The other end of the armature was encircled by two rings, or brushes, of Celestial Bronze which were then connected to an array of lightbulbs by wires of Imperial Gold. The bulbs glowed brighter to match Knight's smile-

Only for every bulb to burn out with a 'pop'.

Steropes flipped the switch, and the power to the motor was cut. "That was-"

"Impressive," Brontes finished, his Celestial Bronze hand spinning one of the burnt-out lightbulbs from its socket. "You have successfully created a partial replica of the inner workings of Zeus' Master Bolt."

The one-armed cyclops tossed the bulb to the other one-eyed giant, who hummed with amusement as he rotated the delicate glass in his large hands. "You even made some improvements to the original design by incorporating Imperial Gold and Stygian Iron, but can you tell us what separates yours from the original? Why can't yours generate a lightning bolt?"

Knight closed his eyes and furrowed his brow as his ten-year-old mind raced to find the answer to his mentor's questions. The basics principles of the Master Bolt are that of a generator's. An Armature spins between two magnetized plates, the magnetic fields inducing current into the armature. Celestial Bronze has little resistance, meaning little energy is lost as heat. But even so the output of mine is only a few hundred volts max, compared to the hundreds of thousands the Master Bolt is capable of. Which means... "Op amps," he stated softly. "There is a stage after the power generation that steps up the output by magnitudes."

The smile Brontes and Steropes shared told him his answer was correct; and they would know, they had built the original. "That is correct," Steropes nodded, gently patting his short blond hair. "But can you tell us the primary problem with that, and how it was rectified?"

Flippy scratched at his nose, thankful that the harsh magnetic field was gone, before barking, "problem solved with magic!"

The son of Kronos smiled at his best friend's answer, which wasn't that far off. "An Op amp can only amplify the power to slightly below what is being fed on its supply pins. With that, it wouldn't make sense for those pins to be connected to the generator portion, but to a different source, namely, Zeus himself." Knight paused as he reflected on what he knew of the nature of gods. From many perspectives they were as close to infinite as something could get, yet the stories of them growing tired or even fading away proved that they were not all-powerful. And if that was the case it would make little sense for Zeus to draw upon himself every single time to unleash an attack; no matter how devastating it may be. "Then there is an energy storage system as well to ease the burden on my older brother. He can charge it as he pleases so it will be ready at any time."

Brontes whistled and slowly clapped his hands. "That's three for three. And now you know the fundamental theory behind our Master Bolt and why your older brother rarely let's go of that accursed thing."

"Some magic?" Flippy asked hopefully.

Knight smiled and reached up to scratch behind of the telekhine's ears. "Yes, some magic." Flippy, who was several feet taller than him now, curled into his touch and purred in delight. "The drawings you showed me of the Master Bolt had a built-in grip, I take it that is where the contacts are to siphon off the divine energy? And what is the design for the storage unit? Capacitance? Liquid alkaline? Ionized Celestial Bronze?"