The phone was ringing. I opened my eyes groggily and very stiffly sat up. Please tell me I did not fall asleep at a 90 degree angle.
"Bad decision." I groaned and looked around for my phone. Unthinkingly, I just grabbed at it and it became intangible even before I reached it. Frowning annoyingly, I grabbed at it again, this time more focused and I was able to snatch it. Smiling tiredly, I flipped it open.
"Hello?"
"Jennifer?" I sat straight up.
"Mom?"
"We got your messages, honey, what's wrong?" I hesitated.
"I know you guys are busy with that earthquake…"
"Jennifer Richards-Storm, if something is wrong, tell me right now." I took a deep breath.
"I have an ability."
I half heartedly tried to talk my mom out of coming home, but inside, I was relieved. I needed answers to what was happening to me and how far it could go. In the end, Mom would be the only one returning – the other three would stay and continue with the relief. I was glad that I wouldn't be taking the majority of the worlds saviors just because I was having a little trouble.
A few hours later, I was pacing in my parents laboratory, holding the infamous water bottle – sans water. I was practicing, hoping that by the time my mother arrived, I'd have something to show her. It was getting easier, phasing the bottle and not phasing it. But while I practiced, other thoughts were going through my head. Now that I had a chance to think about it, I realized that I had my impromptu electrocution earlier in the week to thank for my state right now. That's when it started, so it makes sense.
I heard the elevator and raced to it. As the doors opened, I ran into the arms of my mother.
"Mommy!" I cried, making Sue Storm laugh and hug me tight. She leaned back and looked me in the eyes.
"Now, tell me exactly what happened." I sighed and place my hand on the wall next to us. When my hand went through it, Mom's eyes widened. I nodded and led her out of the elevator.
"Yeah."
After I told my mother everything, I agreed with her to run some tests. It took a couple of hours of me in the fun chair with some wires hooked up to me and then some more random tests of my abilities.
"You were right about the electrocution having something to do with all of this. Now, I might not be a super genius like your father, but I still know enough science to keep up with him. Apparently you are giving off a kind of pulse that affects that which you touch with your hands, or that which you are close two. Look," She brought up a video of me with my hand on the wall, then my hand going through it. Then she typed in a few keys and the video became black and white, with my figure just an outline on the screen. But around my hands was what looked like a fine mist. When my hand touched the wall, the wall, which was now represented as a molecular structure, started to move – to ripple- under my touch. The mist looked like it was spreading through the wall. The molecules moved, allowing my hand to go through the wall.
"So it isn't me who is molecularizing – its what I touch." I murmured. I gingerly sat down in a chair.
"What concerns me is what could happen if your entire body starts radiating this pulse – you could involuntarily activate the molecules in the floor and fall right though it. Gravity will then take you down, down…..as far as you could go." My eyes widened and I looked in panic at my mother. "To what, burn at the earths core?" This was bad – I hadn't even thought of that.
"Lets not get excited. But I think I should call your father. He would have an idea of what to do if that happened. For now, if you feel like that is happening, just tell me and I'll put a shield around you."
I looked to the side. What if I phased the shield? Could I even do that? I tried to focus on my mother, who had continued talking.
"Different states of matter are affected differently by you, so good job on noticing that one. You've seen what you can do with solids - as for liquids, those will be harder to affect because liquid molecules are already more active. Gas molecules will be the hardest because they are the most active of all three states. As for different elements, same thing – the more active the molecules already, the harder it will be for you to affect them." I slowly massaged my forehead. I was getting a headache.
My mother's comlink beeped and I looked up. She answered it and I saw her frown.
"Are you sure?" I saw her glance up at me and then look away. "I'm on my way." Mom pressed a button and closed her eyes for a moment then took off her lab coat.
"What's up?" I asked, jumping out of my seat and following her as she walked past.
"Aftershock." I got up as she walked past. "We'll have to continue this later-"
"I can help." Mom shook her head.
"Absolutely not. We have no idea what extended use of your powers could do to you and you do not have enough control to help us." I tilted my head and narrowed my eyes, watching as she grabbed her bag and entered the elevator. The doors clicked shut and I ran forward. My mother looked up in surprise as I stepped through the elevator doors and crossed my arms in front of me.
"No control?" I asked her. We argued all the way down to the first floor of the Baxter Building. She threatened to keep me here with a force field. Like she could keep me there indefinitely. Finally I said that if she didn't take me with her on the jet, that I would find the first flight there with volunteers.
The flight was silent on my end with my mother telling me all sorts of things not to do and that I would only be with the clean up crew and not with rescue. I think she knew I wasn't listening.