Tungsten Carbide

Three

"Tadashi!" Honey pushed her carbide onto the stand and brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. She saw someone standing next to Tadashi- shorter, smaller, but somehow similar in appearance...

"Oh my gosh! You must be Hiro! I've heard so much about you!" she exclaimed. Hiro turned a small robot over in his hands. He peered at the sphere of carbide.

"Wow. That's a whole lot of tungsten carbide."

"Five hundred pounds of it," Honey said, grabbing his arm eagerly. She had just re-worked some of her experiment, and could hardly wait to try it out. "C'mere, c'mere. You're gonna love this." Hiro reluctantly followed her to her workstation, where she worked through her procedure. "A dash of perchloric acid, a smidgen of cobalt, a hint of hydrogen peroxide... super-heated to five-hundred kelvin and-" she sprayed the carbide with the mixture and pulled the lever. The volt of electricity stabilized the particles. "TA-DAAH!"

"Wow," Hiro commented. "So... pink."

"Here's the best part," she giggled, reaching over to the pink orb. She barely touched the surface, and it exploded into the air. When the dust settled, Hiro was smiling.

"Whoa!"

"I know, right? Chemical metal embrittlement," she said. She smiled at Tadashi. 

"Nice work, Honey Lemon," he said, smiling back.

"Honey Lemon, Gogo, Wasabi... where did these names come from?" Hiro asked.

"This guy, right here!" Fred announced, jumping over to join the group. Hiro stepped back. Fred tipped his skateboard up and balanced it vertically. "I am Fred."

"Are you a robotics student?"

"Ha!" Fred spun his skateboard around on its end. "No, but I am a major science enthusiast. I've been trying to get Honey to develop a formula that can turn me into a fire-breathing lizard at will, but she says that's 'not science'."

"It's really not," Honey admitted.

"Well, what about this? Invisible sandwich," Fred suggested, pretending to hold a sandwich. "Imagine eating a sandwich but everyone just thinks you're crazy."

Wasabi walked up to the group, folding his arms. "That's definitely not science."

"Come on, Hiro," Tadashi said, whacking his brother on the back of his head. "I wanna show you something."

They exited out the side doors toward Tadashi's personal workspace. He was one of the master students, which meant he got his own office, while everyone else had to work in the main area. They had their own spaces, but the master students definitely had better quarters.

Honey sighed and returned to her workspace. She started sweeping up the remains of her experiment. The pink dust sparkled on the floor, and she almost wanted to leave it because it was so pretty, but keeping your workspace clean was one of the rules. Besides, she couldn't leave chemicals lying around on the floor. If something happened to spill onto them and cause a chemical reaction, she'd get in trouble for it.

"Honey."

She turned and Fred was standing on his skateboard, rocking back and forth.

"Yeah?"

He jumped and flipped his skateboard over, landing wobbly on the surface. "I had an idea."

"What?"

He straightened his shirt and folded his hands together like a mad scientist, laughing evilly. "Invisible fire-breathing lizard. It would be- awwwesssome."