Good story here.

Thanks. A lot of superhero worlds do have to deal with 'why doesn't this tech change the world?' at some point. I mentioned Dave van Domelen's 'Academy of SuperHeroes' stories which actually formalized this for within that universe. One of the Champions RPG magazines called it the 'Papa Schmimmelhorn Effect' after the somewhat odd inventor from a series of SF short stories.

Nods to that.

Ah, the thin line between magic and science,

Especially when you're dealing with superheroic types, who often barely acknowledge that the line exists.

A cute little tale. Which disguises the utter horror of thinking about actually working on equipment that works like that... <shudder>

Well, as noted in the story, trying to reverse engineer supertech is as much psychology as tech.

Did you ever read Dave van Domelen's 'Academy of SuperHeroes' stories? He actually spent a fair bit of time thinking about that and had a whole set of categories, from tech that would work even if supertech/magic was being actively suppressed but still required supertech to build, to stuff that would only ever work for the inventor, with categories in the middle of stuff that required someone with superpowers to use it, but not much. So you'd get companies hiring people who's only supernatural ability was to be able to make their nose actually glow, because that was enough to let them use the gun that the local mad scientist had built forty years ago.

Can't say I've run across it, but that sounds like a cool setting for low-power hero types. Something useful to do!

Ahh, some very nice world-building involved here.