Eliza grunted as she shuffled into the dress. It was pretty clean at least it should be, it had just been left in her wardrobe for a little while. But it should be fine. She was trying to look good for the party, because honestly, she wanted to look good for waya's party. She sighed slightly and ran a hand over her own figure. She rued that she didn't have an attractive figure to hold this dress up.
Maribel knocked at Eliza's door, hoping the girl was ready to go.
"Come in!"
Eliza called out as she carefully tried to apply some makeup in a polished reflection of a machine "I'm almost ready."
Maribel walked in and was surprised to see Eliza all dressed up. It was a nice change and it made her smile brightly. She looked so adorable.
"Hi Maribel."
Eliza said, smiling at the girl and not realizing she had a rather large grease stain going down the back of one of her shaven legs "Almost party time?"
Maribel signed, 'Now.' Her eye caught her leg and she pointed to it.
"Hmmm? Ohh..."
Eliza grimaced down at her leg before looking around. There was a clean cloth close to Maribel, she indicated it "Throw me that will you?"
Maribel didn't throw it, but rather grabbed it and walked it over.
"Thanks."
Eliza said after she took it, leaning over and starting to polish the grease off as best as she could "How's it look up there? Sorry I couldn't come around, but I've been busy getting Waya's Birthday present ready."
'It looks great. What did you get her?' Mari asked.
"Oh, that's a surprise in itself."
Eliza said with a grin, tossing the cloth aside and giving a little bounce as she smiled at Maribel. It was the happiest and most active Maribel had ever seen her outside of an actual mission.
Maribel smiled but didn't want to give it too much attention. She cocked her head to the elevator. They should hurry up.
"Sure sure."
Eliza said, straightening herself out as she headed for the elevator. She let out a small sigh and smiled at Maribel as she waited for her in the lift.
Maribel followed and noticed there was no gift in her hands. She didn't sign anything and stepped inside.
Eliza let out a small hum, singing a little song to herself as she pressed the button and took the elevator up.
A little while later,
Eliza emerged, moving over quickly to the bank of machines and starting to clack away at the buttons. She wanted this to work, to be perfect for Waya when she came down.
Waya and
Junior followed Eliza downstairs. "What is this about Liz?" Waya asked.
Maribel stayed near to Junior as they headed down together. The
twins and
Penelope were also in the group when the elevator doors opened.
Jeremy emerged from the elevator as well, looking around and wondering what was going on.
"Oh, you'll see, you'll see."
Eliza said with a wave of her hand and a little smile "There's some earplugs at the back by the way. You might want them."
Rhydian couldn't believe that they'd all managed to squeeze into that elevator. "Don't you think we should wait for Veronica? I think she was going to bring that Merril kid down."
"Oh, we will, it'll just... take a second."
Eliza said with a little smile. Waya really should have earplugs in, considering her sensitive hearing.
Jaden went to retrieve a packet of ear plugs. He brought it to the group and let everyone take a pair to use. "You couldn't just buy Waya a gift? You had to to do all this sciencey stuff..."
Merril stepped out of the elevator, blinking as he curiously looked around the room.
"You ever watch Star Trek?"
Veronica asked him curiously as they entered the lab. It seemed a rather random question, but she had her reasons.
"Patrick Stewart is a balding God." was
Eliza's only reply as she carefully took a pair of earplugs from the desk and put them into her own ears "Now, everyone put some plugs in." She was staring at a platform at the side of the room, which had a sprawl of devices around it. They were a mess of wires and curiously shaded warning symbols. The platform was a round sheet of corrugated metal, raised and dipped in certain areas, with the outer rim faintly spinning.
Waya slipped in the plugs, but she could still hear moderately well.
Junior was the only one who didn't bother with the ear plugs. He'd had an issue with power overload when he was a boy and the twins, Waya and Rhydian would recognize the "dump box" (as they'd called it) he picked up. "You ready?" He asked, looking at Liz.
"Uh, yes..."
Merril answered Veronica after Eliza's instructions. He looked around to spy the earplugs and noticed the box being passed around. He waited his turn.
"We have a holodeck."
Veronica told him with a grin. When the box was passed to her, she slipped a pair in and handed the box to Merril.
Maribel put in the earplugs and waited patiently, hoping radiation wouldn't be an issue with whatever Eliza was up to.
"Ready!"
Eliza called out as she pressed a button. The machine over in the corner began to hum loudly, a hum that filled the body with the vibration, as if everyone in the room had a bass line running through their bodies.
Junior drew everything from the little box in his hands and set it aside. His hair began to glow as white as Penelope's and he stepped onto a small secondary platform off to the side. He knelt and placed his hands on the floor and energy swept into the room as he converted what he had stored in the dump box, into what the machine needed for it to work. More than his hair began to glow as things began to rev up.
"Liz..."
Waya said, taking a step back. The light Junior was emitting didn't feel harmful at the moment, but that could change and she didn't like the idea of growing her skin back today.
She really should have warned
Penelope. When the vibrations penetrated her body, she cried out and collapsed onto the floor and began to writhe. She couldn't pay the machine attention and instead moaned in ecstasy on the lab floor. Due to her mutation, Penelope loved loud noises and vibrations...a
nd enough of it sent her into what appeared to be an orgasmic frenzy.
"Trust me!" Eliza said as she placed a hand on a machine and gave a quick snap of her wrist. She looked over towards Penelope as she fell over and gave a soft swear. "Someone get her outside." she called out as the air over the machine began to spark the same color as Junior's hair, a crackle of power rippling through reality itself. A second person having a rather... intense reaction to her machine. Great.
Veronica covered her ears, despite the plugs and squinted her eyes, turning away from the glowing visage of Junior. He looked magnificent, but the light burned her eyes.
Rhydian winced and took a step closer to Waya. Whatever this machine was going to do, it was going to be big...
Jeremy was staring at the rip, but as Eliza called out a request to help someone out of the room, he looked around. Penelope was writhing on the floor, and for a moment he worried she was having some kind of seizure. Jeremy went over, placing a careful hand on her shoulder, trying to drag her to her feet. Or at the very least, to the door.
"Liz?" Waya asked again, growing more and more concerned.
"Give it a minute!" Junior groaned, pouring everything he had into the outlet he stood on.
Penelope grabbed hold of Jeremy's arm and held it tightly in her grasp as if she couldn't control the reflex but made no movement to stand. She bit her lip and gasped lightly in her own little pleasure bubble as the machine worked.
Maribel was worried, but Junior seemed calm enough so she tried not to freak out. For comfort, she stood behind a lab table just in case.
"Come on up..." Jeremy groaned as he tried to haul Penelope to her feet, groaning as his weak muscles tried to haul her up.
The small spark in the middle of the device squirmed, the smell of burning filled the air, as if someone had left a heater on for too long and it had cooked the very air itself. And then with a spreading hiss of annoyed reality, Eliza split reality itself in the corner of the room. The burn, and it certainly was a burn, was purple around the edges, and twitched as if irritated. "Alright, that's enough Junior!" she called out as she began to shut down some of the machines. The humming noise had stopped at least, meaning Penelope could move.
Junior backed away, stumbling a little. He twitched a bit but gave his hands a sharp clap and blew air out through puffed cheeks. Penelope got the best end of it, but Junior was left a little jerky. He was ok though.
Waya stood there transfixed. She thought she understood but her mouth sort of hung open, not believing her eyes. Eliza's machine worked. They could find their parents. She suddenly became very serious and pointed to the portal. "Is this it? Is this where they are?" She asked Liz almost demanding, as if she intended to jump through the thing this very second.
The twins' heartbeats picked up speed when Waya spoke. They stared at the portal and wondered... if this was truly a way to their parents? They were the only two who truly believed their parents were dead.
"As close as I can get at the moment." Eliza said with a rub of her chin "I haven't quite pinpointed it down to the exact one that is our parents... but... at this point trial and error will help us track down our parents."
"Holy bloody christ on a stick... does anyone have a cigarette?" asked Penelope, feeling rather noodle-y after that.
"It works..." Junior told Waya. "It's got a bug or two but... we're closer than ever before."
"When will it be ready to go through?" Waya asked, sounding very determined.
"You okay?" Jeremy said softly to her as he held Penelope close, looking a little concerned as he held her.
"Well... we can go through now, it's just not entirely certain it would get us where we want to go." Eliza said with a scratch of her head. "That... rip there..." she motioned to the tear in space a little way away "Leads to another Universe. Might be the one our parents landed in, probably isn't. But it's close."
"Aren't there millions upon millions of universes out there? And how would you know what one is the right one?" asked Jaden. This didn't seem 'close' to him at all.
"Not to mention even if you find the right one... probably not a good idea to just go leaping through portals." added Jayden snarkily.
"I spent months analyzing the energy emissions at the spot where our parents vanished. Of course, not everything was recorded because half the instruments can't pick up those kinds of wavelengths, but I've managed to fill in the blanks as much as possible." Eliza said with a nod to Jaden "There are thousands, but each portal is distinct. I've got it as close as I can without it being reduced down to trial and error. And as for leaping right through... well, we take the basics, breathing masks, a couple of environmental analyzers, and so long as it's habitable, we should be alright."
They needed convincing. It almost seemed like they didn't want to find their parents. The twins were both convinced they were dead and they were sick of these shenanigans of trying to save them. "This still sounds like the worst idea ever. Our parents never made it and I doubt we would."
"Our parents probably don't have access to the materials and information we have." Waya said. "Shut it down Liz. We won't go today... but soon."
"Ah... give me a little bit? I want some more experimentation, and it's a bit of a pain to start up again." Eliza said with a little nod towards the portal. "Despite the twins sucking all of the fun out of the fact I just destroyed a small part of our reality in the basement, and we might see our parents again, I'm optimistic that this portal might lead somewhere interesting."
Waya was optimistic the portal would take them to their parents. She wrapped her arms around Liz and pulled her into a hug.
"I..I gotta be honest, Liz...I didn't think you'd actually get this thing working.." Rhydian said with a grimace. He couldn't take his eyes off the portal. He was actually looking into another world.
Maribel went to Junior and signed asking if he was okay. He still looked winded and she was concerned.
"Never underestimate me." Eliza said with a grin, hugging Waya back and taking a deep breath as she tried to settle herself down a little "I'm beautiful, charming, strong and smart. And I really... really need to sleep."
'I'm ok.'Junior told Mari with sign language. 'Just a little frazzled. Is Penelope ok?'
"You're going to sleep upstairs like a normal person." Waya told Liz. "This... I can't believe you did... THIS!"
Penelope nodded to Jeremy and decided to reply to both him and Junior at once. "You damn better tell me next time you run that thing..." she said, legs still wiggling like jello. "That was amazing...oh god..." she moaned lightly again and leaned on her friend. "Damn..." she seemed breathless and dreamy as if she had just experienced the most intense orgasm imaginable. She chuckled, "I can't even...think straight.."
"Happy Birthday!" Eliza said with a clap of her hands at Waya "Like... half the patent pending is in your name. Make sure that you get to keep this stuff if anything happens." She laughed weakly and looked around at the rip. "As for sleeping upstairs... Maybe. This thing needs watching."
"I can watch it." Veronica told her with a smile. "I take it all the instruments do it automatically, right? I can totally work in shifts with myself while you get some sleep."
Eliza was a little suspicious of this really. After all, it seemed like a rather sudden offer to come from Veronica. "You had quite the adverse reaction to it starting up. You really shouldn't watch it.@
"I'll volunteer!" Penelope chimed with a hand raised. She finally looked like she could stand on her own two feet now.
"You had an even worse reaction." Eliza pointed out "Really, this takes precision and concentration. Not everything is regulated. I mean, while it's running it needs watching but I CAN turn it off."
"Please do." said Jayden. "We don't want anything coming out of that thing while we aren't around it."
Junior felt a little weird for being responsible for Penelope's reaction.
"I think shutting it down might be a good idea..." Waya said.
"I had the same reaction as everyone else, cept for maybe Pen..." Veronica pointed out with a smirk towards the pink girl.
"Okay... okay." Eliza said with a sigh "I'll shut it down, work on it another time. And I'm okay watching it anyway, I just... don't want others to be around if something goes wrong."
"If it's shut down then no one needs to watch it and you can get some decent sleep." Waya said. "I'll be down here first thing in the morning to help you with what I can. I have some information that might help you pinpoint their location a little."
"We're going to go cut the cake." Jayden said suddenly with a somewhat dreary tone.
"Everyone want a piece?" asked his brother.
"I could actually use some sugar right about now." Junior said. "And a twelve volt battery to suck on if anyone has one." He was a little pinker than red, lighter than Penelope actually, but he was ok. His hair was still white though, making him resemble his sister a little more.
"Cake sounds nice." Eliza said, noticing the dreary tone and not exactly feeling overly sympathetic "and you get a good night sleep tonight Waya. We'll look into adventures tomorrow"
"I like your hair Junior.." Jeremy said with a little grin towards the man "Don't think I've seen it glow that bright before."
Junior glanced up though he couldn't see his hair. "Oh, that's the nepton radiation..." He said. "It'll go away in a little while and it's safe in small doses. So everyone is ok."
"I think some cake would be pretty good, guys." Rhydian said with a nod. He knew he was going to be on their bad side for a while now, but the least he could do was try. "Need a hand?"
"We've got it." they both said in sync, already leaving to the elevator and pressed the button.
"You'd think they'd be happier..." Jeremy said with a little concerned frown to the others.
"No..." Eliza said with a sigh "I didn't. Alright. Thanks for your help with this Junior." She went over to some monitors, starting the shut down sequence.
Stumble!