Ok everyone, here is the last bit of this story arc.
There may be more from Gamma in the future, but for now I'm going to be shifting gears to focus on Smoldering Decay (and I dread trying to write the
interaction between the two).
Anyway, onto the story!
----------
Gamma Emission:
Pair Production (pt 5)
Dragging myself away from the warm bed to make a little more than a delivery run down to the hospital wasn't easy to do. Only the thought that I would soon
be able to actually sleep in my bed kept me from curling up for a few more hours.
I pulled some clean clothes out of the lead chest and got dressed by the glow of the bed. There are some benefits to having a glowing bed, I might be tempted
to just let it be if I could sleep in it. After a quick stop in the bathroom, I hit the kitchen to start a pot of coffee while I checked on laundry room. The
washing machine hadn't lost it's battle against the shivan slime. As I transfered Terrence's and Rhea's clothes to the dryer I made a mental
note to check on how much they cost. If I ever moved out of here it is definitely something to think about getting. The cube of formed metal wasn't pretty
or quiet, but it hasn't failed once to get various stains and substances out of whatever gets tossed in. A thin trail of slime led from Terrence's
armor in the corner to the drain in the center of the tile floor, but I decided to leave the final cleanup of that to him. I still wasn't sure how all the
pieces fit together.
I swung by the front door to pickup the Shivan skulls and the bag of salvage Terrence had dropped off earlier. A final check of materials was done in the
kitchen while I waited for the coffee to finish brewing. The skulls were the first things into the duffel bag. I don't like looking at them. Even after
they have dried off, their hate at the world seems to echo from the empty sockets. By the time I had made sure that everything on the list was accounted for
the coffee was ready.
So for the second time in an many days I was just another pedestrian, walking to the hospital with a duffle bag of salvage over my shoulder. I noticed a few
local street toughs loitering near one of the parking lots. I'd have to check on my way back and see if the loitering had escalated to attempted grand
theft auto. Other than that, the walk to the hospital was pleasantly quiet. The hospital on the other hand was not, apparently the hellions had attempted to
set fire to one of the local buildings. The third floor lobby had quite a few soot covered heroes suffering from minor cases of smoke inhalation. The general
attitude was upbeat, if a little wheezy, so I assumed that the fire had been put out without loss of life.
My skill at navigating around the magical departments must be getting better, because it only took me fifteen minutes to track down Marcus. He was in one of
the labs again, scribbling into his notepad while a cauldron simmered on the table beside him. I set the duffel bag down next to the table with a muffled
thump.
Marcus glanced at me, then at the bag. "The rest of the supplies I assume?"
"Yup, and your day tomorrow is free." I said as I dug an envelope out of my inside jacket pocket. "Here's your fee." Laying it down on
the table. The envelope was quick to disappear into the folds of his lab coat.
"Good. It should be done around this time tomorrow, you'll find me here or across the hall." He said while turning back to look at the cauldron.
I nodded at him and made my out of the hospital. I planned on stopping by the hospital much earlier than five o'clock tomorrow, mainly for two reasons.
First, I still hadn't talked to Dr. Shaw about what had happened on monday. And Second, I needed to Julie to explain what happened in Terra Volta in nice
understandable terms. The inevitable sidetracks into my love life that conversation would take had become a little more of a mine field recently, but I still
didn't know know how to safely broach the topic. I know she thought that my romance with Terrence had progressed a little fast, adding Rhea into the mix
would definitely swing her from 'amused' to 'concerned'. I just needed to make her understand that getting bombarded by rads was more akin to
alcohol than ecstasy, even if it wasn't true. Alcohol impairs coordination and fine motor control, reduces inhibitions, and makes you forget why something
is a bad idea. Getting bombarded by rads ups my metabolic processes, is mildly dissociative, and acts like an aphrodisiac. But somehow getting smashed is more
socially acceptable than getting horny.
My internal rant against social norms was put on hold as I passed the parking lot I saw earlier. The outcasts from earlier were no where to be found, and a
lack of broken glass on the concrete gave me good odds that nothing had happened. If they were learning to behave in this area or just to clean up after
themselves I couldn't say, but without evidence of wrongdoing I wasn't going to go looking for problems.
When I got back to the apartment I decided to crawl back into bed. Even if I couldn't get any sleep I wanted to be there if one of them woke up. Right now
being together was worth a sleepless night.
-----
I'm not sure how long I spend curled up next to Rhea before she woke up. But it was long enough to for my lazy planning to sketch out ideas on my next
Terra Volta excursion, possible clubbing locations, and tentative birthday gifts for Terrence or Rhea. I was contemplating some of the more obscure places for
a picnic when Rhea slowly regained consciousness. She made a confused mumble as I nibbled on her neck.
The first intelligible word out of her mouth was a sleepy "bathroom."
I untangled myself from her and sat up as she made her way out of bed and towards the bathroom. The door was shut before the light came on, but I still heard
her muffled curse at the bright light. It wasn't very long before the light was shut off and she was standing in the bathroom door blinking at her loss of
night vision. I propped myself up on my elbows and admired the view while her eyes adjusted to glow the bed gave off. Rhea smiled at me as she made her way
back to bed. "You should be sleeping." She scolded lightly as she crawled in between Terrence and myself.
"I wanted to be here when you woke up. Besides, I can afford to sleep in a bit. I don't have anything planned tomorrow before noon." I said as
she settled herself in. After she had laid down I pillowed my head on her shoulder and continued "I'll move to the couch around three."
Rhea responded with an exaggerated sigh "I guess that will have to do." I didn't need to see her face to hear the smile in her voice.
I smiled and gave her stomach a one armed hug "I'll make this work out somehow. The three of us. I love you guys too much not to."
Rhea was silent for a moment, and I wondered if I had made a mistake mentioning my feelings again. I wasn't given much of a chance to worry though. Rhea
gave me a quick squeeze with the arm wrapped around my waist and kissed the top of my head before correcting me. "We'll make it work out."
I hummed happily in response and let my mind wander back to it's lazy planning. Soon enough Rhea fell back to sleep, and I was once again alone with my
thoughts and a silent Mr. Whiskers.
-----
It was a little past eleven by the time I managed to extricate myself from the tangled mess of sheets on the couch. I detoured through the kitchen to start a
cup of coffee brewing before heading to the bathroom to take care of business. By eleven thirty I was clean, dressed, and sipping on a fresh cup of coffee in
the kitchen. Terrence and Rhea were out 'taking care of a few things' according to a post-it I found on the coffee machine. I grabbed a frozen burrito
and some fruit for lunch. Tossing that and the dvd Dr. Shaw had given me on monday in a backpack I made my way back to the hospital.
I tracked down Julie in her office/lab in the radiology department. Technically the small room was supposed to be used for the repair of various heavy
machinery the radiology department had. The unofficial office was tolerated since Julie and Christopher (the other tech hotshot) could pretty much take apart,
diagnose, and put back together any of the equipment on the 5th floor quicker than someone could track down the dollies and move said equipment to the repair
room. The room itself was only 8' x 6', but somehow the two of them managed to cram two desks, shelving units, chairs and even some overhead bins into
the small room.
The door was open, if only a crack, and the light was on. So I knocked on the door and stuck my head inside. Christopher was somewhere else currently, Julie
had taken advantage of the extra space to scoot her chair back and put her feet up. I didn't know how she found room on her desk to put her feet. The
computer screen fought for space with piles of papers, books, and half assembled electronic components.
"Hey Lisa" Julie said with a smile, "have you come to save me from one more hackneyed attempt at a paper explaining how to get quantum physics
to play nice with magic?"
"If by save you mean distract, then yes." I said as I dug the dvd out of my backpack. "I've got the data from Terra Volta."
"That'll do." Julie responded. In surprisingly short order the paper she was reading joined the others on her desk, the dvd was snatched out of
my hands and slotted into the computer, and Julie was perusing results. Not more than two pages in her happy smile turned into a frown. "Well those
didn't last long."
I looked the graph the screen was displaying, a third of the lines ended before they got halfway across. "Dr. Shaw said that some of your sensors burnt
out." I said, drawing some conclusions from her expression and the lines on the graph.
"Well yeah, I expected to loose some. Especially after you decided to get up close and personal with the reactor." Julie teased.
"Hey, that was my first time dealing with that many rads. The whole point of the experiment was to figure out how I would react." I said. I knew she
was teasing, but it was a bit of a sore point for me. "Besides, Dr. Shaw wants to run a few more tests in the coming months. You'll get plenty of time
to test new versions then."
"Fine, Fine. But in the mean time we can work on your control." Julie said as she started to rummage through some of the overhead bins.
"My control is fine." I protested. "I haven't tripped the sensors in months. And I always make sure I'm someplace safe if I'm going
to let my guard down."
"Just because you haven't made a mistake doesn't mean you can't get better." Julie said as she tossed some sensors at me and checked her
computer. "Besides you need to be doing something while I translate these numbers into something you can understand."
I managed to catch all of the sensors without dropping them and deposited them in my backpack for the time being. "I thought we just agreed that we
aren't going to test your sensors."
"We're not, we're going to test your control. Those sensors are the same type that you wore into the reactor, so I would appreciate it if you keep
the power levels down a bit." She finished a quick bit of typing and handed me a large bundle of wires. "Lab 17 is free for the next two hours, lets
see if you can last that long."
I got out of her way as she left her office and followed her towards lab 17. "You still haven't said what I'm doing for two hours." I
reminded her, sometimes I really disliked this habit of hers.
"Think of as superpowered tai chi."
"what does that even mean?" I asked. Somehow I was missing the connection between the eastern martial art and my radioactive tendencies.
"One of the physical therapists in Brickstown thought it up. And I think it's worth a shot with you." Julie said as she opened the door to door
to the lab. The lab was similar in layout to any of the other shielded rooms on the floor. One small control room that held a variety of computer gear to
record and analyze the data gathered from the actual test area. Julie started to turn on the equipment as she explained exactly what she wanted me to do.
"The goal isn't to put out as much power as you can as fast as you can. It's to move slowly and be in control. Lets see if you can keep your
emissions within 5% of the target as we move it up and down your recorded range."
"Oh yeah, this sounds like tons of fun." I said as it sunk in what she wanted me to do. I was tempted to bitch about the run in I had yesterday with
the shivans, but something my dad had once said stopped me; 'Life isn't fair, only children and fools expect it to be. Which one are you?'. With a
sigh I placed the coil of wires on top of a computer tower and dug around in my backpack until all of the sensors joined it in a precarious pile. My clothes
formed a small pile on top of my backpack in the corner of the room. I shivered at the chill air and shot a mild glare at Julie. "You know, if I
didn't know about your repeated failures to seduce Christopher I might suspect you had voyeuristic tendencies."
"Har de har har." Julie responded in a deadpan voice as she started to affix sensors to me. "I never said you had to strip, the sensors will
work fine on top of clothing. Maybe you're just an exhibitionist."
"Ha. Don't you wish." I said as I turned around so Julie could fix some sensors to my back. "You'll be one of the first ones to know
when I can convince Hero Corps to expense my clothing bills."
"Yeah, let me know how that turns out." Julie said as she attached wires to the sensors that now adorned my body. We both knew what the end result of
such an attempt would be.
I snagged a lab coat as I followed Julie into the testing area. I'm not sure why I bothered, there were no windows and only one door. Julie hadn't even
bothered to turn on the cameras. She would have plenty to look at from the sensor data. The test area was a white room with thick wall and single bed in the
center. A small collection of sensor gear was pilled on a cart in one corner, but I suspected that Julie's sensors were better at detecting the energies I
put out. Above the bed hung an oversized robo-surgeon, though instead of the traditional injectors, scalpels, and dermal sealers this one was festooned with
sensors and even had a monitor affixed to one of the larger arms. I settled myself into a crosslegged seat on the bed in the middle of the small room; while
Julie plugged the wires I was trailing into the robo-surgeon.
"Now remember, this is about control and precision, not melting the bad guys." Julie said as she pulled the monitor into a comfortable viewing angle
and turned it on. The monitor displayed a simple graph with three lines on it. "The red line on top is the maximum output for now, go above that and the
sensors might burn out. The line on the left is our lower bounds for now, the right is the upper bounds. I know you've gone higher and lower before, but
pushing your limits can come later."
"I get the idea." I reassured her. Power-wise this wouldn't be a sweat, it was barely a quarter of what I could do. Range wise didn't worry
me too much either, the lower bounds was in the visible spectrum, and the upper bounds was well within the xray range.
"Uh-huh, just let me know when you want to call it quits." Julie said as she went back to the control room. Shortly after a skinny bell curve
appeared in the middle of the screen and Julie's voice crackled over the intercom "Try to keep it inside the curve."
I ignored Julie for the moment and relaxed my control a bit. A much fatter and shallower curve appeared on screen. After a few seconds of concentration I got
my curve to match what was on screen. The target curve flashed green and then started a slow progression up the spectrum. This wasn't so bad. All it took
was a little focus.
A little over an hour later I was sweating and cursing at the screen. I had just finished my second lap up and down the spectrum. The bell curve flashed red
again as my emissions fell outside it's bounds. "I give up!" I shouted as I flopped back against the bed. I ignored the way one of the sensors
dug into by back as I relaxed and let myself emit across the spectrum.
"How do you feel?" Julie's voice crackled across the intercom.
"Like I want to find whomever came up with this idea and use them as a personal shield when fighting the Vahz." I answered without opening my eyes.
"Well you lasted more than an hour, which is better than I thought you'd do."
I could hear the smile in her voice, and for a brief moment I contemplated somehow getting her powers, just so she could feel this firsthand. "So why did
you book the room for two hours?" I asked as I sat up and brought my emissions back down to a 'people safe' level.
"Cause you wouldn't have pushed yourself this hard if I hadn't." Julie said, content at achieving her goal.
I kept my grumbling to a minimum as I took off the lab coat and used it like a towel to wipe the sweat off my face and neck. The sensors came off next and I
gathered them together in a rough bundle as I made my way into the control room. The colder air of the control room evaporated any perspiration left on my
skin; I repressed a shiver as I climbed back into my clothes. "Are you going to be nice and make the numbers make sense now?" I asked Julie once I
was dressed.
"Sure. And since you lasted longer than an hour, I'll even treat you to coffee." Julie said as she shut down the equipment.
"That's a plan I can get behind." I said, feeling better already.
We made a pit stop at her office to drop off the sensors and Julie put up her 'At Lunch, call me if something blows up' sign on the door. At the
reminder of lunch my stomach decided to protest it's empty state. Julie raised an eyebrow at the noise but chose not to say anything. I decided to use a
little of the control I had just spent an hour refining and put one hand inside my backpack as we walked along. The burrito was done when it was almost too hot
to hold. As I pulled it out and started to unwrap it Julie looked at the burrito, then at my backpack, then back at the burrito.
"You didn't." Was the only thing she said.
I swallowed the hot mix of refried beans, cheese, and (supposed) beef before responding. "Yup."
"I don't see how you can eat those. You know what's in them." Julie said, her disgust of all massively preserved things was nothing new.
"Cause they taste good. Besides, look on the bright side, normally they are glowing by now." I said indicating the steaming burrito with my free
hand. It looked like it had come out of any other microwave. That wasn't quite true, but I couldn't resist the chance to poke fun at her. I was proud
of the fact that I had cut down significantly on the amount of visible light I gave off when doing that trick though.
Julie did nothing more than sigh in defeat. The nearest coffee shop that deserved the name was a five minute walk from the hospital. I had finished the burrito
by the time we arrived, and the addition of good coffee improved my mood by leaps and bounds. Julie spend the better part of an hour sipping coffee, nibbling
pastries, and injecting some sense into the collection of numbers and long technical sentences that made up the report.
Julie left at two o'clock to go back to the hospital, but I spent the next hour and a half savoring another coffee and going back over the explanations she
had given. I figured I'd be able to get a little bit farther on my own the next time one of these was put in front of me. One of these days I might even be
able to understand them without any help at all.
It was a quarter to four when I found Marcus again. He was in the same room as yesterday, leaning over a neatly folded pile of cloth inside a magic circle. The
cloth was gently steaming, but Marcus didn't seem to be actually incanting anything so I felt safe interrupting him.
"Those the sheets?" I asked as approached the table he was working on.
Marcus was started for a second before answering. "Yes. I didn't expect you this early."
"I'm an impatient girl." I noticed a smaller pile of cloth folded off to one side, this one wasn't inside a magic circle and wasn't
steaming. "Those already done?" I asked pointing at the second pile.
"Yes, and if you had been able to wait a half hour longer this batch would be as well." He responded.
I ignored his annoyance at my early arrival and grabbed the top item off the pile. A pillow case; that would work. I put the pillow case over my hand and
walked back to the door. Putting my hand right up next to the control panel for the door, and one of the rooms radioactive sensors, I gathered enough power to
cover my hand in a nimbus of glowing energy. The only thing that happened was the pillow case started to change colors like some sort of tie dye effect on fast
forward. No alarms, no blinking red lights. "Works for me." I said with a smile. The amount of energy I had gathered should have at least tripped one
of the warning lights from half way across the room.
Marcus gave a snort of disproval at my actions. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't implicitly trust his ability or because of the attention I
would have attracted had the alarm gone off. I responded with a cheery "Back in half an hour then." and stuck the pillow case in my backpack. One
quick stop by Dr. Shaw's office and I learned that he was out of the office until monday; that suited me just fine. I left him a message asking to schedule
an actual appointment. I didn't expect the talk to take very long, but being able to nail down a time slot in advance did have it's benefits. I spent
the rest of the half hour playing with the pillow case, but I was unable to get back to a solid color. Oh well, tie dye sheets were a small price to pay for
not having to replace the bed on a weekly basis.
When I went back to see Marcus he had all the sheets in one of the duffle bags I had used to deliver the salvage.
"Anything limitations or special care I need to know about?" I asked as I picked up the duffel.
"No, the spell should last as long as the sheets do. Should they rip or develop a hole I would be glad to patch them. For a fee of course." He said
with smile.
"Of course. Pleasure doing business with you." I said as I made my way out of the hospital.
I fully intended to break in the new sheets as soon as possible, but in order to do that properly I needed company. Terrence didn't show up on the
Legendary roster. Which meant he either had his comm turned off, or he was harassing the Banished Pantheon again. I left him a message and made my way to
Independence Port. Rhea was there for one reason or another, and I fully intended to convince her to change priorities. I would even be willing to get out my
box of toys from under the bathroom sink if Terrence hadn't responded by the time I tracked her down.
----------
Thoughts? Ideas? Criticisms?
ETA: fixed grammer
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
There may be more from Gamma in the future, but for now I'm going to be shifting gears to focus on Smoldering Decay (and I dread trying to write the
interaction between the two).
Anyway, onto the story!
----------
Gamma Emission:
Pair Production (pt 5)
Dragging myself away from the warm bed to make a little more than a delivery run down to the hospital wasn't easy to do. Only the thought that I would soon
be able to actually sleep in my bed kept me from curling up for a few more hours.
I pulled some clean clothes out of the lead chest and got dressed by the glow of the bed. There are some benefits to having a glowing bed, I might be tempted
to just let it be if I could sleep in it. After a quick stop in the bathroom, I hit the kitchen to start a pot of coffee while I checked on laundry room. The
washing machine hadn't lost it's battle against the shivan slime. As I transfered Terrence's and Rhea's clothes to the dryer I made a mental
note to check on how much they cost. If I ever moved out of here it is definitely something to think about getting. The cube of formed metal wasn't pretty
or quiet, but it hasn't failed once to get various stains and substances out of whatever gets tossed in. A thin trail of slime led from Terrence's
armor in the corner to the drain in the center of the tile floor, but I decided to leave the final cleanup of that to him. I still wasn't sure how all the
pieces fit together.
I swung by the front door to pickup the Shivan skulls and the bag of salvage Terrence had dropped off earlier. A final check of materials was done in the
kitchen while I waited for the coffee to finish brewing. The skulls were the first things into the duffel bag. I don't like looking at them. Even after
they have dried off, their hate at the world seems to echo from the empty sockets. By the time I had made sure that everything on the list was accounted for
the coffee was ready.
So for the second time in an many days I was just another pedestrian, walking to the hospital with a duffle bag of salvage over my shoulder. I noticed a few
local street toughs loitering near one of the parking lots. I'd have to check on my way back and see if the loitering had escalated to attempted grand
theft auto. Other than that, the walk to the hospital was pleasantly quiet. The hospital on the other hand was not, apparently the hellions had attempted to
set fire to one of the local buildings. The third floor lobby had quite a few soot covered heroes suffering from minor cases of smoke inhalation. The general
attitude was upbeat, if a little wheezy, so I assumed that the fire had been put out without loss of life.
My skill at navigating around the magical departments must be getting better, because it only took me fifteen minutes to track down Marcus. He was in one of
the labs again, scribbling into his notepad while a cauldron simmered on the table beside him. I set the duffel bag down next to the table with a muffled
thump.
Marcus glanced at me, then at the bag. "The rest of the supplies I assume?"
"Yup, and your day tomorrow is free." I said as I dug an envelope out of my inside jacket pocket. "Here's your fee." Laying it down on
the table. The envelope was quick to disappear into the folds of his lab coat.
"Good. It should be done around this time tomorrow, you'll find me here or across the hall." He said while turning back to look at the cauldron.
I nodded at him and made my out of the hospital. I planned on stopping by the hospital much earlier than five o'clock tomorrow, mainly for two reasons.
First, I still hadn't talked to Dr. Shaw about what had happened on monday. And Second, I needed to Julie to explain what happened in Terra Volta in nice
understandable terms. The inevitable sidetracks into my love life that conversation would take had become a little more of a mine field recently, but I still
didn't know know how to safely broach the topic. I know she thought that my romance with Terrence had progressed a little fast, adding Rhea into the mix
would definitely swing her from 'amused' to 'concerned'. I just needed to make her understand that getting bombarded by rads was more akin to
alcohol than ecstasy, even if it wasn't true. Alcohol impairs coordination and fine motor control, reduces inhibitions, and makes you forget why something
is a bad idea. Getting bombarded by rads ups my metabolic processes, is mildly dissociative, and acts like an aphrodisiac. But somehow getting smashed is more
socially acceptable than getting horny.
My internal rant against social norms was put on hold as I passed the parking lot I saw earlier. The outcasts from earlier were no where to be found, and a
lack of broken glass on the concrete gave me good odds that nothing had happened. If they were learning to behave in this area or just to clean up after
themselves I couldn't say, but without evidence of wrongdoing I wasn't going to go looking for problems.
When I got back to the apartment I decided to crawl back into bed. Even if I couldn't get any sleep I wanted to be there if one of them woke up. Right now
being together was worth a sleepless night.
-----
I'm not sure how long I spend curled up next to Rhea before she woke up. But it was long enough to for my lazy planning to sketch out ideas on my next
Terra Volta excursion, possible clubbing locations, and tentative birthday gifts for Terrence or Rhea. I was contemplating some of the more obscure places for
a picnic when Rhea slowly regained consciousness. She made a confused mumble as I nibbled on her neck.
The first intelligible word out of her mouth was a sleepy "bathroom."
I untangled myself from her and sat up as she made her way out of bed and towards the bathroom. The door was shut before the light came on, but I still heard
her muffled curse at the bright light. It wasn't very long before the light was shut off and she was standing in the bathroom door blinking at her loss of
night vision. I propped myself up on my elbows and admired the view while her eyes adjusted to glow the bed gave off. Rhea smiled at me as she made her way
back to bed. "You should be sleeping." She scolded lightly as she crawled in between Terrence and myself.
"I wanted to be here when you woke up. Besides, I can afford to sleep in a bit. I don't have anything planned tomorrow before noon." I said as
she settled herself in. After she had laid down I pillowed my head on her shoulder and continued "I'll move to the couch around three."
Rhea responded with an exaggerated sigh "I guess that will have to do." I didn't need to see her face to hear the smile in her voice.
I smiled and gave her stomach a one armed hug "I'll make this work out somehow. The three of us. I love you guys too much not to."
Rhea was silent for a moment, and I wondered if I had made a mistake mentioning my feelings again. I wasn't given much of a chance to worry though. Rhea
gave me a quick squeeze with the arm wrapped around my waist and kissed the top of my head before correcting me. "We'll make it work out."
I hummed happily in response and let my mind wander back to it's lazy planning. Soon enough Rhea fell back to sleep, and I was once again alone with my
thoughts and a silent Mr. Whiskers.
-----
It was a little past eleven by the time I managed to extricate myself from the tangled mess of sheets on the couch. I detoured through the kitchen to start a
cup of coffee brewing before heading to the bathroom to take care of business. By eleven thirty I was clean, dressed, and sipping on a fresh cup of coffee in
the kitchen. Terrence and Rhea were out 'taking care of a few things' according to a post-it I found on the coffee machine. I grabbed a frozen burrito
and some fruit for lunch. Tossing that and the dvd Dr. Shaw had given me on monday in a backpack I made my way back to the hospital.
I tracked down Julie in her office/lab in the radiology department. Technically the small room was supposed to be used for the repair of various heavy
machinery the radiology department had. The unofficial office was tolerated since Julie and Christopher (the other tech hotshot) could pretty much take apart,
diagnose, and put back together any of the equipment on the 5th floor quicker than someone could track down the dollies and move said equipment to the repair
room. The room itself was only 8' x 6', but somehow the two of them managed to cram two desks, shelving units, chairs and even some overhead bins into
the small room.
The door was open, if only a crack, and the light was on. So I knocked on the door and stuck my head inside. Christopher was somewhere else currently, Julie
had taken advantage of the extra space to scoot her chair back and put her feet up. I didn't know how she found room on her desk to put her feet. The
computer screen fought for space with piles of papers, books, and half assembled electronic components.
"Hey Lisa" Julie said with a smile, "have you come to save me from one more hackneyed attempt at a paper explaining how to get quantum physics
to play nice with magic?"
"If by save you mean distract, then yes." I said as I dug the dvd out of my backpack. "I've got the data from Terra Volta."
"That'll do." Julie responded. In surprisingly short order the paper she was reading joined the others on her desk, the dvd was snatched out of
my hands and slotted into the computer, and Julie was perusing results. Not more than two pages in her happy smile turned into a frown. "Well those
didn't last long."
I looked the graph the screen was displaying, a third of the lines ended before they got halfway across. "Dr. Shaw said that some of your sensors burnt
out." I said, drawing some conclusions from her expression and the lines on the graph.
"Well yeah, I expected to loose some. Especially after you decided to get up close and personal with the reactor." Julie teased.
"Hey, that was my first time dealing with that many rads. The whole point of the experiment was to figure out how I would react." I said. I knew she
was teasing, but it was a bit of a sore point for me. "Besides, Dr. Shaw wants to run a few more tests in the coming months. You'll get plenty of time
to test new versions then."
"Fine, Fine. But in the mean time we can work on your control." Julie said as she started to rummage through some of the overhead bins.
"My control is fine." I protested. "I haven't tripped the sensors in months. And I always make sure I'm someplace safe if I'm going
to let my guard down."
"Just because you haven't made a mistake doesn't mean you can't get better." Julie said as she tossed some sensors at me and checked her
computer. "Besides you need to be doing something while I translate these numbers into something you can understand."
I managed to catch all of the sensors without dropping them and deposited them in my backpack for the time being. "I thought we just agreed that we
aren't going to test your sensors."
"We're not, we're going to test your control. Those sensors are the same type that you wore into the reactor, so I would appreciate it if you keep
the power levels down a bit." She finished a quick bit of typing and handed me a large bundle of wires. "Lab 17 is free for the next two hours, lets
see if you can last that long."
I got out of her way as she left her office and followed her towards lab 17. "You still haven't said what I'm doing for two hours." I
reminded her, sometimes I really disliked this habit of hers.
"Think of as superpowered tai chi."
"what does that even mean?" I asked. Somehow I was missing the connection between the eastern martial art and my radioactive tendencies.
"One of the physical therapists in Brickstown thought it up. And I think it's worth a shot with you." Julie said as she opened the door to door
to the lab. The lab was similar in layout to any of the other shielded rooms on the floor. One small control room that held a variety of computer gear to
record and analyze the data gathered from the actual test area. Julie started to turn on the equipment as she explained exactly what she wanted me to do.
"The goal isn't to put out as much power as you can as fast as you can. It's to move slowly and be in control. Lets see if you can keep your
emissions within 5% of the target as we move it up and down your recorded range."
"Oh yeah, this sounds like tons of fun." I said as it sunk in what she wanted me to do. I was tempted to bitch about the run in I had yesterday with
the shivans, but something my dad had once said stopped me; 'Life isn't fair, only children and fools expect it to be. Which one are you?'. With a
sigh I placed the coil of wires on top of a computer tower and dug around in my backpack until all of the sensors joined it in a precarious pile. My clothes
formed a small pile on top of my backpack in the corner of the room. I shivered at the chill air and shot a mild glare at Julie. "You know, if I
didn't know about your repeated failures to seduce Christopher I might suspect you had voyeuristic tendencies."
"Har de har har." Julie responded in a deadpan voice as she started to affix sensors to me. "I never said you had to strip, the sensors will
work fine on top of clothing. Maybe you're just an exhibitionist."
"Ha. Don't you wish." I said as I turned around so Julie could fix some sensors to my back. "You'll be one of the first ones to know
when I can convince Hero Corps to expense my clothing bills."
"Yeah, let me know how that turns out." Julie said as she attached wires to the sensors that now adorned my body. We both knew what the end result of
such an attempt would be.
I snagged a lab coat as I followed Julie into the testing area. I'm not sure why I bothered, there were no windows and only one door. Julie hadn't even
bothered to turn on the cameras. She would have plenty to look at from the sensor data. The test area was a white room with thick wall and single bed in the
center. A small collection of sensor gear was pilled on a cart in one corner, but I suspected that Julie's sensors were better at detecting the energies I
put out. Above the bed hung an oversized robo-surgeon, though instead of the traditional injectors, scalpels, and dermal sealers this one was festooned with
sensors and even had a monitor affixed to one of the larger arms. I settled myself into a crosslegged seat on the bed in the middle of the small room; while
Julie plugged the wires I was trailing into the robo-surgeon.
"Now remember, this is about control and precision, not melting the bad guys." Julie said as she pulled the monitor into a comfortable viewing angle
and turned it on. The monitor displayed a simple graph with three lines on it. "The red line on top is the maximum output for now, go above that and the
sensors might burn out. The line on the left is our lower bounds for now, the right is the upper bounds. I know you've gone higher and lower before, but
pushing your limits can come later."
"I get the idea." I reassured her. Power-wise this wouldn't be a sweat, it was barely a quarter of what I could do. Range wise didn't worry
me too much either, the lower bounds was in the visible spectrum, and the upper bounds was well within the xray range.
"Uh-huh, just let me know when you want to call it quits." Julie said as she went back to the control room. Shortly after a skinny bell curve
appeared in the middle of the screen and Julie's voice crackled over the intercom "Try to keep it inside the curve."
I ignored Julie for the moment and relaxed my control a bit. A much fatter and shallower curve appeared on screen. After a few seconds of concentration I got
my curve to match what was on screen. The target curve flashed green and then started a slow progression up the spectrum. This wasn't so bad. All it took
was a little focus.
A little over an hour later I was sweating and cursing at the screen. I had just finished my second lap up and down the spectrum. The bell curve flashed red
again as my emissions fell outside it's bounds. "I give up!" I shouted as I flopped back against the bed. I ignored the way one of the sensors
dug into by back as I relaxed and let myself emit across the spectrum.
"How do you feel?" Julie's voice crackled across the intercom.
"Like I want to find whomever came up with this idea and use them as a personal shield when fighting the Vahz." I answered without opening my eyes.
"Well you lasted more than an hour, which is better than I thought you'd do."
I could hear the smile in her voice, and for a brief moment I contemplated somehow getting her powers, just so she could feel this firsthand. "So why did
you book the room for two hours?" I asked as I sat up and brought my emissions back down to a 'people safe' level.
"Cause you wouldn't have pushed yourself this hard if I hadn't." Julie said, content at achieving her goal.
I kept my grumbling to a minimum as I took off the lab coat and used it like a towel to wipe the sweat off my face and neck. The sensors came off next and I
gathered them together in a rough bundle as I made my way into the control room. The colder air of the control room evaporated any perspiration left on my
skin; I repressed a shiver as I climbed back into my clothes. "Are you going to be nice and make the numbers make sense now?" I asked Julie once I
was dressed.
"Sure. And since you lasted longer than an hour, I'll even treat you to coffee." Julie said as she shut down the equipment.
"That's a plan I can get behind." I said, feeling better already.
We made a pit stop at her office to drop off the sensors and Julie put up her 'At Lunch, call me if something blows up' sign on the door. At the
reminder of lunch my stomach decided to protest it's empty state. Julie raised an eyebrow at the noise but chose not to say anything. I decided to use a
little of the control I had just spent an hour refining and put one hand inside my backpack as we walked along. The burrito was done when it was almost too hot
to hold. As I pulled it out and started to unwrap it Julie looked at the burrito, then at my backpack, then back at the burrito.
"You didn't." Was the only thing she said.
I swallowed the hot mix of refried beans, cheese, and (supposed) beef before responding. "Yup."
"I don't see how you can eat those. You know what's in them." Julie said, her disgust of all massively preserved things was nothing new.
"Cause they taste good. Besides, look on the bright side, normally they are glowing by now." I said indicating the steaming burrito with my free
hand. It looked like it had come out of any other microwave. That wasn't quite true, but I couldn't resist the chance to poke fun at her. I was proud
of the fact that I had cut down significantly on the amount of visible light I gave off when doing that trick though.
Julie did nothing more than sigh in defeat. The nearest coffee shop that deserved the name was a five minute walk from the hospital. I had finished the burrito
by the time we arrived, and the addition of good coffee improved my mood by leaps and bounds. Julie spend the better part of an hour sipping coffee, nibbling
pastries, and injecting some sense into the collection of numbers and long technical sentences that made up the report.
Julie left at two o'clock to go back to the hospital, but I spent the next hour and a half savoring another coffee and going back over the explanations she
had given. I figured I'd be able to get a little bit farther on my own the next time one of these was put in front of me. One of these days I might even be
able to understand them without any help at all.
It was a quarter to four when I found Marcus again. He was in the same room as yesterday, leaning over a neatly folded pile of cloth inside a magic circle. The
cloth was gently steaming, but Marcus didn't seem to be actually incanting anything so I felt safe interrupting him.
"Those the sheets?" I asked as approached the table he was working on.
Marcus was started for a second before answering. "Yes. I didn't expect you this early."
"I'm an impatient girl." I noticed a smaller pile of cloth folded off to one side, this one wasn't inside a magic circle and wasn't
steaming. "Those already done?" I asked pointing at the second pile.
"Yes, and if you had been able to wait a half hour longer this batch would be as well." He responded.
I ignored his annoyance at my early arrival and grabbed the top item off the pile. A pillow case; that would work. I put the pillow case over my hand and
walked back to the door. Putting my hand right up next to the control panel for the door, and one of the rooms radioactive sensors, I gathered enough power to
cover my hand in a nimbus of glowing energy. The only thing that happened was the pillow case started to change colors like some sort of tie dye effect on fast
forward. No alarms, no blinking red lights. "Works for me." I said with a smile. The amount of energy I had gathered should have at least tripped one
of the warning lights from half way across the room.
Marcus gave a snort of disproval at my actions. I'm not sure if it was because I didn't implicitly trust his ability or because of the attention I
would have attracted had the alarm gone off. I responded with a cheery "Back in half an hour then." and stuck the pillow case in my backpack. One
quick stop by Dr. Shaw's office and I learned that he was out of the office until monday; that suited me just fine. I left him a message asking to schedule
an actual appointment. I didn't expect the talk to take very long, but being able to nail down a time slot in advance did have it's benefits. I spent
the rest of the half hour playing with the pillow case, but I was unable to get back to a solid color. Oh well, tie dye sheets were a small price to pay for
not having to replace the bed on a weekly basis.
When I went back to see Marcus he had all the sheets in one of the duffle bags I had used to deliver the salvage.
"Anything limitations or special care I need to know about?" I asked as I picked up the duffel.
"No, the spell should last as long as the sheets do. Should they rip or develop a hole I would be glad to patch them. For a fee of course." He said
with smile.
"Of course. Pleasure doing business with you." I said as I made my way out of the hospital.
I fully intended to break in the new sheets as soon as possible, but in order to do that properly I needed company. Terrence didn't show up on the
Legendary roster. Which meant he either had his comm turned off, or he was harassing the Banished Pantheon again. I left him a message and made my way to
Independence Port. Rhea was there for one reason or another, and I fully intended to convince her to change priorities. I would even be willing to get out my
box of toys from under the bathroom sink if Terrence hadn't responded by the time I tracked her down.
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Thoughts? Ideas? Criticisms?
ETA: fixed grammer
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy