Lisa went into the living room where Johnny was watching a game on ESPN. Since he had come to the Baxter he took advantage of the 900 channels on the plasma TV; especially the sports channels. Johnny looked up as she sat down; trying to show some interest in the motocross event he was watching.
"You like sports, Shorty?" Johnny asked, apparently not one to get annoyed with her earlier display of temper and forgetting that she had said that she hated the new nickname he had given her.
"Not really. I wanted to say I'm sorry for what I said to you earlier. My uncle says that you and Sue are our guests and I should treat you as one," Lisa said, looking at her hands folded at the knee.
"It's okay. I know you didn't mean it," Johnny said.
"Oh, I meant it. I just shouldn't have said it. Johnny, why do you want to stay like this? Don't you want to be cured?" Lisa asked.
"Not really. I know it's dangerous, but it's kind of fun too, Shorty," Johnny said his eyes on the screen.
"Like motocross?" Lisa asked, looking at the event. The rider was doing a flying leap in the air that looked extremely dangerous.
"Sort of, but more fun. You said you like X-Men, but some of their powers were kind of cool too. Especially Storm's or Wolverine's," Johnny said.
"I never really thought of it that way before. But Johnny, I'm not Storm or Wolverine. I don't want to be like this for the rest of my life. All I came to do was apologize," Lisa said, standing.
"It's okay. Apology accepted," Johnny said as Lisa left the room. Lisa hoped Uncle Reed found a cure soon or she'd start thinking about her new-found abilities like Johnny did his.
&
The next day they all sat at the breakfast table. Uncle Ben was squeezing oranges in a bowl since he couldn't drink from a regular juice glass. "While I'm in here let's make this quick. I have a lot of places to go today," Johnny said, walking into the room and grabbing Uncle Ben's bowl of orange juice.
'Such as?" Lisa asked, eating a piece of bacon.
"I just wanted to go out for awhile. Aren't you tired, Shorty, of staying inside?" Johnny asked.
"A little, but we can't," Lisa said, taking a drink of her soy milk. Uncle Reed had found out she was allergic to milk when she first came to live with him. So she had to satisfy herself with chocolate or vanilla soy or rice milk. If the cloud had healed her allergy that was yet to be seen.
"Yeah, we don't go anywhere," Johnny said sarcastically, bringing Lisa's mind back to the conversation.
"Johnny, it's imperative that we stay inside for the foreseeable future," Uncle Reed said, his voice one of barely controlled patience. Lisa looked over at Uncle Ben, trying to pick up a fork. It was difficult, but he managed.
"I know, I know, Reed. But when you said that last time my brain heard a week," Johnny said, sounding like an impatient five-year-old.
"Johnny, it's too dangerous for you to be in public," Sue said, saving Uncle Reed from having to answer that.
"You've been saying that for years," Johnny said. Lisa nearly choked on her scrambled eggs at that statement. She could just imagine Sue saying that when Johnny was a teenager.
"What worries me is that our powers are evolving," Uncle Reed said. That was the truth. It was getting easier for Lisa to walk through the walls and the furniture. Last night she was working on a project and had gone through the living room table when she leaned over to rest her elbows on the table.
"I know, I know. I am so close to flying I can taste it," Johnny said, setting the stove on fire.
"You can't fly," Sue said amused.
"Yet," Johnny said, not realizing what he had done.
"Johnny, can you put that out now?" Sue asked, all humor gone.
"So, what's going on, Reed? How are you going to cure us?" Uncle Ben asked.
Uncle Reed took out a diagram of some kind of machine and held it out to them. "I'm going to build a machine to recreate the storm," Uncle Reed said.
"But it won't hurt us, will it, Uncle Reed?" Lisa asked nervously as she looked at the drawing.
"I wouldn't think so. It didn't kill any of us the first time. I don't think it will the second time around if I plan it right. The cosmic rays will travel from this generator to this chamber," Uncle Reed said, his fingers outlining the diagram.
"What? No pop-ups?" Johnny asked. Sue and Lisa both looked at him briefly before turning back to Uncle Reed.
"If I can reverse the wave signal-"Uncle Reed started to say, handing the picture to Sue.
"It'll return us back to normal," Uncle Ben finished for him. Uncle Reed nodded his head. Uncle Ben grunted, taking a bite of fruit. A sharp metallic crack was heard.
"Right, but what are the risks?" Sue asked, looking at the machine.
"Even a small miscalculation could increase our symptoms exponentially. Or perhaps even kill us," Uncle Reed said quickly.
"That's a cheerful thought. If it could kill us, why build it, Uncle Reed?" Lisa fretted.
"I just have to try, Lisa. I'm just saying that it might make us worse or kill us," Uncle Reed said.
"Now dying, that's bad, right? Shorty has every right to be scared, doesn't she?" Johnny asked, coming to Lisa's side.
"Yes, she does. But science is mostly trial and error. Lisa, I won't let you in the machine until I know for sure it's going to work," Uncle Reed said firmly, squeezing her hand gently.
"Thanks, Uncle Reed," Lisa said, a feeling of relief washing over her.
"So how long until this contraption's up and running?" Uncle Ben wanted to know.
"I don't know. It's hard to say," Uncle Reed said, looking down at his papers.
"How long, Reed?" Uncle Ben snapped.
"I don't know!" Uncle Reed said a slight edge to his words.
"You don't know!" Uncle Ben yelled standing and looking like a menacing rock wall.
"You don't want this to get worse!" Uncle Reed snapped back.
"Worse than that?" Johnny laughed, looking at Uncle Ben.
"Johnny, shut up!" Lisa hissed, looking at the devastated look on Uncle Ben's face.
"Guys, look, we're going to be stuck here for awhile. So let's try to get along," Sue said before Uncle Ben freaked and hurt Johnny or Uncle Reed by hitting them. Unfortunately getting along was easier said than done.
&
The next two weeks were anything but dull as Uncle Reed fixed the machine. Johnny relieved some of the boredom by playing pranks on Uncle Ben. Lisa never joined him on the pranks, but a huge rock wall threatening to kill Johnny was becoming common.
Of course Uncle Reed's prediction about how their powers were evolving was true also. They were becoming more pronounced as time went. Johnny had thrown a soccer ball at her and it had gone through her instead of hitting her or her catching it. Lisa tried not to think of how far her uncle had to go and concentrated on her newest hobby; stained glass windows.
&
Lisa sat in the living room as Uncle Reed worked and Sue poured over fan mail and magazines. Some of the magazines had Lisa on the cover, but Lisa wouldn't look at them or read the letters addressed to her. Sue did though and she would talk about it.
"Reed, Lisa, have you read any of these?" Sue asked, coming from the patio with a handful of letters.
"No. Should we, Sue?" Lisa asked while she used a glass cutter Uncle Reed had given her to make a difficult pattern for her next window. She had made a total of ten stained glass windows in two weeks and this was number eleven. She was trying to copy the patterns she saw in her book and this was her next one. Of course it was like a mosaic. That was what made it difficult.
"They're from all over, Lisa. People wanting us to fight crimes; save their kids; solve their problems. Reed? Reed? We can't even solve our own," Sue said softly. Apparently Uncle Reed had not heard a word she had just said.
"NO! NO, FREAKING, WAY!!" Uncle Ben's voice came into the room angrily. Uncle Reed finally looked up, a look of surprise on his face.
"Ben?" Uncle Reed asked and they ran from the room into the living room.
"What's wrong?" Sue asked. Uncle Ben was pacing like an angry cat and pointed at the TV.
Lisa felt all the color drain out of her face. Johnny was on the screen, looking smug. "Uncle Reed, how did he get out?" Lisa asked, looking up at her uncle.
"I don't know, Lisa. Let's see what happens," Uncle Reed whispered, wrapping his arms around Lisa's shoulders.