"Don't drop it."
Waya reminded the twins as they made their way into Eliza's lab. The twins had a bed sheet between them, filled with something that clanged around quite a bit as they walked.
"So...where did you get this, Petal?"
Jayden asked, easing down the stairs with his brother.
"I felt bad about her machine getting blown up."
Waya explained holding the door for them, "So I've spent the last week going back and forth into the shadow realm to salvage as much of it as I could."
"That was very nice of you, Petal...but...
." Jaden began.
"It's sort of a false sense of security though, isn't it?" Jayden added.
"How do you mean?" Waya asked him. Sure bringing back a bunch of half exploded pieces of machine might not be very benificial, but it might make Liz's job of referse enginering her work a bit easier.
"Giving her these parts like this... why not just let it go?" the boys explained. "It's only going to let her think that this machine of hers is really going to do anything at all.
"You've no idea how brilliant she is." Waya told them sternly. "Both her parents were inventors and Lyra was almost, if not smarter than Hank. If Liz got any iota of her parent's mental capacity, it'll work."
"...Waya, Petal... you, you really can't be serious."
"You can't really still think our parents can come back." the boys looked at her oddly.
"It's not even been two full years yet." Waya told them. "You can't tell me that you think they're lost for forever."
"We don't think they're lost." they admitted, trying not to show their remorse.
"You just don't think Liz can find them." Waya reasoned, she really hoped Liz couldn't hear them right now, she defiantly wouldn't like what she could hear.
Waya just didn't get it, did she? The twins frowned and sighed, "Their dead...."
"You know, from now on, just keep your thought's to yourselves." Waya told them. She felt like she'd know if her parents were dead, the Smith's were a hard couple to kill... Jayn and Kari might be dead, but there was no way she could believe her parent's were.
"What." Eliza said from behind a pile of burnt out bulb looking things, that should have been disposed of ages ago. She surfaced from behind them, like a predator, they were in her lab, her element now. "What is it?" she pretended not to hear the twins, because if she didn't pretend she'd have to murder them with her own hands.
"Easy tiger." Waya told her. "I brought you something... I duno if you're gonna like it or not, but..."
Eliza nodded at Waya, turning to look towards the twins; she'd only cottoned onto the conversation at a later time, she wasn't sure what was in that blanket, but she knew the twins didn't believe she could get them back.
"Put it down so she can see." Waya told the boys. She was a bit on edge, not really sure weather or not Liz would appreciate seeing her machiene all bent and twisted.
This was all pointless. The fact they were so headstrong on getting their dead parents back really mentally fucked the twins. It made them nauseous. They lowered the blanket, letting them see all the strange metal parts.
Eliza glowered at it for a moment, then emerged from behind the table and knelt between the twins, starting to sort through the pieces she had found. She had a look of concentration on her face, as if she didn't want to get her hopes up.
Waya stepped aside so Eliza could get a good look.
Eliza seemed to be the most antsy chimpanzee at a tea party, picking stuff up, studying it, then tossing it to a corner of the blanket with a soft breath. Eventually, after sorting through everything they'd brought she stood up straight, facing Waya. She gazed up adn down the other girl... then leant in and wrapped her in a tight hug. "Thank you" she whispered into Waya's ear, kissing her cheek and holding her in a tight hug.
Waya stiffened. Liz was probably the oddest duck in the pond (to steal a euphemism from her mother) but she was more often than not unpredictable. "Any time..." Waya said patting her back "But uh, you might wanna let me go before the twins get the wrong ideas in their heads." Waya had a feeling it didn't matter if Liz was they're cousin. The prospect of girl on girl would be too tempting.
The boys were watching them and biting their lips, imagining only the two sexiest ladies in the school having cuddle time together.
Eliza sniffed slightly, then nodded and pulled back from the embrace after planting a soft kiss on Waya's cheek. She turned, then hugged both the twins close, one in each other; it wasn't quite as loving as the one she'd just yanked Waya into but it was thankful.
"I love you to Liz..." Waya told her and patted her back. "You'd better let go before we give them a clear mental image to recall later."
The twins were frozen up. They didn't really know how to react to willing affection like this. With their arms pinned to their sides, they just let themselves by hugged.
Eliza took a deep shuddering breath, then pulled back with a small shudder to looked around at the parts "There... aren't many useful pieces. But it'll work." She sighed and knelt down again, starting to gather up certain objects.
"I didn't know if you could reverse engineer it or not." Waya told her. "I know you've probably got notes and stuff, but... I just figured this might help."
Not that it makes a difference... the boys thought to themselves, shoving their hands in their pockets.
"I'll give this a shot" Eliza sighed, looking down at all the pieces, as if they were from a long forgotten jig-saw puzzle that had been thrown away in the bin "But when we get the sentinel here that'll help."
As much as Waya liked the sound of Liz going all out on one of those massive robots, it might not be the best thing for school/shield relations. "Ya'know Liz... demolishing a working one might not be the best idea... If you want I can ask they bring a scrapped one for you to harvest from..."
"It's the only reason I accepted them here. I'm not going to wreck it... just maybe... a few things here and there..." Eliza grinned slightly to herself "I can't use a lot from it, but there are some things that could come in handy. And SHIELD won't let me use their scrap anymore..."
"Eliza, babe... that is a terrible idea." Jayden said outright. "For the benefit of the team, you shouldn't go steal parts from a machine on OUR side."
"Selfish things like that could wind you up in the same position of Rhydian."
"after it's broken, after it's broken. I wouldn't take something on our team apart. Of course if it ISN'T broken then it's a missed opportunity.... but with this stuff I might be able to work it" Eliza sighed, looking down at the parts and being slightly annoyed at the boys. She wouldn't have been that bad.
Waya felt a little uneasy at Eliza's apparent glee. She didn't say anything more though.
"Let's hope whatever is coming doesn't break those things." the twins said.
"So you're suggesting that once in a while things might go our way? Once in a while someone might be wrong and we're not under attack from someone who can shatter things with their mind?" Eliza sighed softly, it was too often that bad guys crawled out of the woodwork just for them.
There came a knock from the doorway and Phinagin stuck his head in. "Hey, I hate to ruin whatever you were all talking about. But we have something important that we need to discuss with you all."
Maribel frowned beside Phinagin, not excited about this at all. Unknown to the others, her mutation had progressed since the asteroid and she was starting to show physical signs. Her fingers and toes were elongated and pointed, fading to black at the tips. Her pupils were very large, almost taking up her entire eye space and very dark. Maribel's freckles had also darkened into splotches on her face. The most significant addition was two arm-like appendages on both sides of her neck. They were jointed and probably a total length of 8" on each side. They were black like her fingers and moved small arms.
"Yes yes, come in" Eliza waved at them to approach, frowning and gazing down at the pieces in front of her. She was probably going to get a surprise when she looked up, but right now she was a little caught up in what she could make with these pieces.
Phinagin stepped into the room with Maribel in tow. "Maribel's mutation has had some developments."
"Cool." Waya said before she had a chance to catch herself. Maribelle hardly looked like herself any more, though Waya could still see her there, under all the changes. Even though it looked like she was still mutating, she looked pretty badass.
Phinagin gave Waya a look that clearly read "inappropriate comment". He then just shook his head and hoped no one else would say anything like that.
"WOAH!" the twins shouted, hurrying beside Maribel, nearly knocking Phin over with their asses. "What ARE those things?" they asked, hesitating to poke the little arms on her neck.
Maribel blinked wide as the twins rushed over. She hadn't even a chance to react to Waya's comment. The little mandible arms bent inward, away from the boys' fingers. Maribel lifted her own hands and backed up a bit. 'I've been turning into something since the asteroid incident. I've...' she paused with her hands before going on, 'been hiding.'
"Come on guys, give her some space." Waya told them, grabbing Jayden by the shoulder and pulling him back.
Eliza gave a little jump, but at the twins suddenly change of tone and exclamations. "Don't be so loud dammit" she grumbled before turning to fully gaze at Maribel. She placed her hands on her hips, breathing in and frowning at the girl as she tried to analyse this all scientifically "Interesting development. I'm guessing it's more than just looks?"
Maribel lifted her shoulders, not having tried her....apparently web since the asteroid. It wasn't really a helpful tool. Besides, Maribel was too worried about the arms growing in her neck to try.
"Hmmm..." Eliza edged closer to maribel, frowning at the girl and keeping his gaze roaming over her body "Why didn't you come to me sooner Maribel?"
'I thought it was just a cold or something. I thought it was going to go away... but it just kept getting worse. Before long, I was too embarassed to do anything at all.' she confessed.
"Well at least it wasn't too painful" Eliza mumbled, reaching out a hand but pausing before taking hold of Maribel's little neck arms "Am I allowed to touch them Maribel?"
"That was crazy fast how those things sprouted up. Does it hurt?" a twin asked.
Maribel didn't move, letting Eliza do what she wanted. Glancing at the twin, she shook her head.
Eliza reached out to Maribel, gently feeling the strange limbs coming out of her neck. She gently squeezed the outside, feeling it moving around beneath her touch. "Tell me if it hurts" she said softly.
It didn't hurt at all. They were hard- almost like a crustacean. The joints worked fine and there were little...grabbing pincers at the tips.
"Don't hold out on us again please." Waya told her softly. "Sometimes mutations don't go to suit us, you could have needed serious medical attention and we wouldn't have been prepared."
'Sorry.' Maribel signed sincerely as Eliza prodded her new appendages.
"She did have to go down and visit the EMH." Phinagin added, watching everyone examine Maribel's new extremities. "He had to use a scalpel to make little cuts to allow them out."
"Ah... Yes, EMH has been a little... off lately" Eliza thought back to how she'd socked the machine in a fit of rage. She got to fix stuff now, she might start again and build her machine... just have a starting place.
"What's wrong with it?" Waya asked. having their only real medical technition on the fritz wasn;t the best of ideas.
"Nothing major, just a few little problems in speech and appearence. Nothing that would impare its funtioning. I'll get it fixed soon I swear" Eliza was avoiding the punching fact. Actually she was in dire need for a danger room session where she got to kill stuff.
"You'd better." Waya told her. She might heal and might be relitively impervious to natural infections, but no one else was.
"So... what exactly is all of this?" a twin asked.
'The doctor said something about....spiders.' Maribel explained, 'And no, I wasn't bitten by a radioactive spider.'
"It looks like a secondary mutation" Eliza said without pause as her eyes roamed over Maribel "It is developing of the body past how it originally looked. It also is the time when powers develop stronger, so I would not be surprised if Maribel is now capable of doing things she couldn't before."
"Cool..." Waya whispered. She'd had latent mutations arise all her life. first had come levitation followed by teleportation and a host of other things. But aside from her natural growth, she;d always looked how she looked.
The twins took both of Maribel's hands and held them up to their faces, ignoring the color and elongated fingers, "Don't fear, we think you are the most beautiful rose in the garden." and planted kisses on the tops of her hands.
"We might have to run some tests Maribel, but you look like you've got this all covered" Eliza said, gazing at the small limbs with interest "If you don't mind it that is."
Maribel shook her head, preferring to know more about this mutation than not. She tried to pull her hands away from the twins as they attempted to woo her, looking at the others awkwardly.
Phinagin was happy that the rest of the students werent reacting the way she had expected them too, he hadnt guessed they would react negatively, but its good either way. "What kind of tests are we talking about?"
"Just a few little tests" Eliza mumbled "Durability, x-rays, maybe the tensile strength of her string..." She looked around at a machine over in the distance "Won't take more than an hour."
Maribel finally pulled her hands away from the twins, 'Thanks for understanding guys... and I'm sorry for taking so long like this. It's kind of embarrassing that I waited so long.
For some strange reason, when the Twins complimented Maribelle, Waya felt a painful stab of jealousy. Sure she hated them hitting on her all the time, something about what they said made her... made her... it made her want to bash their heads in. Before she did that she announced, "You don't need me for this and I have work to do." Without waiting for anyone to respond, she teleported, finding somewhere else to feel confused and jealous.
Phinagin was quite shocked and curious over Waya's sudden teleport out he would have to inquire on it later. For now he put his mind on this "Its up to you Maribel, it could help you understand your powers better."
She nodded, 'Thanks a lot for helping me out Phinagin.' Maribel signed with a smile before looking over to Eliza. 'By the way, what is going on around here? Who was that man in the kitchen?'
"Someone might be looking for us, someone not nice. They offered us a bit of protection, which we decided to take" Eliza sighed softly at this idea, it seemed a bit reckless now that she knew she had these parts. "Hopefully it'll go without a hitch though."
"Probably won't though."
"We never can catch a break." the twins said after they took their attention off of Waya's ass as she left the room.
"Don't worry though."
"I'm sure we can handle it."
"Yeah... yeah..." Eliza mumbled softly before stepping back and examining Maribel "Alright, I need a few tests with Maribel. Can the rest of you all leave please? It would be better if it was just us two."
"Your welcome." Phinagin said. "I am going to leave so Eliza can do those tests. Come find me afterwards if you need to talk some more."
Maribel nodded and offered a smile. She lifted a hand and waved at both him and the boys as they headed out.
"There we go" Eliza said as they all left, leaving just her and Maribel. "Right, so I know about the fingers and the little... arms here" Eliza indicated the limbs around Maribel's neck "Any more abnormalities you would like to report before I do a few tests?"
Maribel looked down and showed Eliza her feet with elongated toes much like on her hands.
"Ah ha, anything else?" Eliza asked, frowning up and down Maribel. She looked around, then pulled out a pencil from a desk and a clipboard and paper from another pile of things. She marked down a few observations "Hmmmm... I will admit I'm not the best at this, I'm as new at this as you are, but I've seen it done a few times. We'll need to take some x-rays... so it would be advisible if you removed your clothes and put on some of the medical robes..."
Maribel frowned back. Was she serious? 'They took some x-rays in the medical ward.' she explained, slipping off her blanket she had round her body. Underneath were pajamas.
"Ah, I wasn't sure what they did around there" Eliza admitted, frowning and looking at Maribel as she slipped off the blankets "Alright then, have they done a reflex test? Have they taken a sample of the string you can create?"
Maribel shook her head and held out her hand. A clear spindle eased out of her index finger. She broke it off and handed it to Eliza. She was able to handle the twine with ease, but it stuck like bad onto Eliza's hands.
"Hmmm... perhaps you should place it in the tube" Eliza said, frowning at the string that she'd been handed without realising. She reached over with her unstuck hand and picked up a little test tube for her to put her string in "In here please... and could you take the string off my other hand?"
Maribel held in a giggle and took the string off of Eliza's hand. She placed it into the tube and even added another strand. When she was finished, Maribel backed away and leaned against a table.
Eliza put the small vial in a machine and pressed a few important looking buttons. "There" she said softly, turning away and leaning on the table "Sorry that... no one checked on you Maribel. Things have been a little... down for me lately."
'It's fine. I understand... and it's not like I'm supposed to be checked on, you know? No one had any idea.' she signed, trying not to feel embarassed by it.
"Still, you're a friend. I shouldn't be mopey all the time when people need me" Eliza rubbed her arm, blushing slightly and looking up at Maribel "No hard feelings?"
Maribel smiled and shook her head. She had no reason to be upset with Eliza, or any of the others for that matter. It was her own fault to begin with.
"Good... thanks" Eliza said with a half smile, carefully picking out the sample from the machine after it let out a small beep. She put it aside, then took a sheet of paper the machine print off "Hmmm... seems that it has gained the structure of... spider's silk. Very sticky, elastic, but also resiliant and strong. It's like you've got kevlar strands at the tips of your fingers."
'Not very useful though.' she explained, still leaning against a table.
"Not so" Eliza said slowly, thinking quickly "Basically... you can weave built proof sheilds from your fingers... and can stop anyone from running away... and lay traps that people will find almost impossible to break out of. I mean if you decided to tie, say, Phinagin up, he would not be able to escape until you let him."
'Are you insinuating something?' Maribel signed, a bit suspicious.
"No, i just know Waya can be difficult to pin down even with Kevlar, I could break it with a little leeway, Jeremy doesn't NEED his body and... well, why tie down the twins?" Eliza shrugged slightly and looked around "Phinagin was the only one I could think of that could never escape."
Maribel lifted her head a bit, understanding now. 'I thought you were insinuating that I liked him, liked him or something.' she smiled and waved away the thought.
"I would never be so presumptuous" Eliza said, waving a hand as if dismissing it "I think we need to book you in for a danger room session, test out your powers. I'm sure you'll be surprised by what they can do."
Maribel gave her an uneasy expression. Unlike everyone else at this school, she wasn't really a fighter. That is, she WANTED to fight, but lacked the mutation and courage. She valued her life too much to jump into battle with huge baddies. Maybe someday... but she doubted that would be today.
Waya's voice came through the comms. "Guys, we have sentinels."
Maribel looked at Eliza and frowned. She wasn't going to like what was going to happen, was she?
"Ok, look, we have to go up and check out the sentinels, but before we do I want to do one quick test with you, is that ok?" Eliza tried to give a welcoming smile... Seriously, she wanted more time to test all this out, but one test could do it.
Maribel nodded, willing to let Eliza try what she wanted.
"Put your hands together and make a strong web there. Lots of strands running between your palms. Nice and tight too, so the strands won't bend" Eliza was looking around for something to use. She knew there was something she could test this on around here...
Maribel was sure she could manage that. Placing the tips of her fingers together, she slowly pulled them apart. Several taught twines branched from her fingertips. She looked at Eliza, wondering what to do next.
"Aha!" Eliza had found what she had been looking for. She pulled out a small metal tub from beneath a pile of other similar looking, empty tubs. She shook it, then turned it upside down on a clear patch of table; what remained was a yellowish blob of square jelly sitting on the lid, just squatting on the table. "Alright, that should be big enough" eliza was squinting at her hands "Yup... ok, place your hands above this, so the strings are tight just above the jelly. Then bring both your hands down quickly." Hopefully it would show just how strong those wires were between her hands. This stuff acted like flesh... so how easily it cut showed how much Maribel could slice a person up.
Maribel frowned at the weird way the yellow blob wiggled around. It was...well frankly it was downright disgusting. Lifting her fingers above it, she glanced at Eliza for a moment before she forced her hands down flat against the counter top. The twine cut through with ease and it appeared Maribel had an easy time doing it. Initially, the blob didn't even seem cut. It stood there for a moment, seemingly unscathed. Then, all at once, it fell into strips onto her hands. Maribel winced at how gross it felt and yanked away.
"Well that's..." she would flip if Eliza told her exactly what she'd just done "good. Thank you Maribel, I shall need to do more tests later, but until then we should go out to the grounds and check out our new... protection."
She nodded and looked at the pile of mush, wondering if she should stay and help clean the mess up. Glancing to Eliza, she waited for her answer.
"Hmmm? Oh" Eliza shook her head at Maribel "I'll clean up. You go outside, I'll join you in a little bit alright? Don't worry." She had to get this pattern on record, and how strong Maribel was now...
Maribel smiled and thanked Eliza before heading upstairs to see what all the fuss was about.
"Oh boy... oh boy" Eliza raised her eyebrows at the sliced mould... She carefully gathered the pieces of goo and constructed them up together again. She slid it back into the tub, then went over to a machine. She slid the container inside, then watched as it was removed and the goo was scanned again and again. She shook her head slowly, just watching it scan... then turned around after a little while. Oh well... up to the grounds she supposed. Taking a few deep breaths and glancing back at the machine, she headed back upstairs.
Guys... Waya reached out telepathically to alert the others. There was a very small chance of everyone being asleep. She was quite sure Eliza would be awake at least. It's show time.
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