"Very well then. In light of the circumstances... but you must come in here. As has been clearly demonstrated, the hall is insuitable for the task at hand." Said X, opening the door wide.
"Be careful of the equipment. My creator has been busy creating additional laborers for this facility, and they are quite sensitive during construction. Mind the tank."
With effort, hugo and weird squeezed into the tiny office/machine shop used by X, gizogin, and the G-bodies for R&D, general maintenance, and hospital clerical duties. With all the extra equipment, and the tank, it was no small accomplishment. Gliding over to the door, X locked it tightly, and depressed a switch on the wall, evacuating the inside of the metal door and frame, effectively sound proofing it.
"Now.. about the information we have exchanged...."
***
It had taken X a fair amount of time to break down the basics of his research and experiments in mechanized magic, and hugo had shown almost palpable terror at wierd's explanation of his own, recent contribution to "science" in that department, given that X was quite eager to collect feedback data from the device's operations, and weird had indulged him.
A smoldering block of steel stock material, a terrified dragon, and an excited robot later, weird and his draconic conspirator were ready to depart, despite hugo's almost frantic insistence that he NOT leave that glove there.
Weird tried to explain that X was really his best hope at solving the regulation problem, an assertion X was rapt to assert the affirmative to, but Hugo flat out told him that he should promptly destroy both artifacts, and any notes on how he made them. The last thing this fortress needed was yet *another* smoking gun.
Hugo made a convincing argument... but no ammount of stuffing would put these genies back in their bottles. He hoped hugo was wrong.