Chapter 3: Discoveries
General Cripe and the directors of Maria's corporation, walks through the metal hallway, lead by Professor Jason. They enter a fairly large room, where another scientist, in a lightweight metal suit, is testing a long glider in the shape of a thin jet. "As you can see, we have fixed the stability of the hover board. Now, it runs as smooth as glass."
"I've already seen the hoverjet, Jason." said the old general. "What I want to hear is the progress of that superweapon."
"Which you will hear." Maria Quimby walks in. "The Letto-127 has been checked many times, and is ready to be tested on humans. Is that what you asked for?"
"Side effects. What are the side effects on the test subjects?"
Professor Jason says, "Well, the side effects are all the same. Anger. Ferocious. Insanity."
"Those effects can quickly be diminished. Nothing big." Maria added. The balding man taps her shoulder and whispers, "Uh, Maria, these are a little too much. I think we'll have to turn it back to formula."
"Back to formula?"
The tallest director says, "Maria, if this formula isn't done by the time you planned, then I will have no choice but to forget the contract."
"Don't worry, Mr. Jacon. We'll have it ready soon." she said hastily.
"It better or its good bye." Anthony Cripes walks out of the room, the directors following. The professor sighs in frustration and walks out, Jason following. "Ma'am, are you okay?"
"They think they can shut this down? Oh, I don't think so. I'll show them. I'll show them all." she said to herself.
"Maria, are you feeling alright?"
"Never better."
Isabella slowly opens her eyes, her vision fuzzy. She groggily gets up, rubbing her head, trying to remember what happened yesterday. The teen reaches for her glasses and places them on, only to find something wrong. Instead of sharpening, her room looks even fuzzier, and she takes them off. Suddenly, everything clears and Isabella could see every detail of her room. The teen keeps testing, and finds out her glasses don't work anymore. "Weird." was all she said.
Isabella gets up and was about to walk out when something catches her eyes in the mirror. She walks back, and her eyes widen at the sight of herself.
Instead of the skinny girl wearing glasses, a different person looks back, arms a little thick. Are those…muscles?
The teen walks to the mirror, in a trance, and gets a closer look at her arms, as well as her whole body. The baby fat she had has all disappeared, leaving muscle behind. The used-to-be-spectacled girl flexes her arms, a smile creeping up her face.
"Isa, are you alright?" her mother called.
"Yeah, mom."
"Any changes?"
"Yeah." she called. Isabella hears her mother walk away, and she says, "Big changes."
After getting through the shock of her changes, she quickly puts on her usual white and purple shirt, jeans, and white sneakers. The teen runs out and jumps over the rail of the stairs, then walking to the kitchen. "Hey mom."
"Good morning Isa. You look cheery."
"I've never felt more alive." Isabella quickly grabs a nutrition bar and was about to head outside when Vivian asks, "Where are your glasses?"
"Don't need them anymore. Bye!" The teen closes the door and walks down the road. She smiles at the sunny day, feeling something new coming.
Isabella spots her school, and quickens her pace. Suddenly, a new sense picks up, and she stops, then walks over the foot a teen put in front of her. They watch her go, bewilderment on their faces.
This day just keeps getting better, and weirder. she thought to herself.
In the building of chattering people, food, and posters, Isabella picks her lunch and walks to an empty table. Ahead, some kids snicker and move a 'Caution, wet floor' sign away, exposing the watery ground. They watch the black-haired teen walk over the wet floor, and she slips, sending the tray in the air. Her hands shoot behind her, grip the floor, and pushes the teen back in the air, landing on her feet. Isabella's hand captures the tray as it falls, and collects all the food, not spilling a drop. The nearby kids' jaws drop, and the fireside smirks. "Nice try, Tyler."
The boy watches her go, then turns back to his friends. Izzy sits down at a table and was about to eat when she spots Phineas. His friends surround him, as usual, and the fireside watches him go to the popular table. She finds herself being mesmerized, and snaps back before eating. Before Isabella consumes her meal, she finds the fork sticking to her hand, and tries to shake it off. It doesn't move, so the teen grabs the utensil and peels it off, and her eyes widen when she finds thin, white, sticky stuff connecting the fork and hand. What the…?
After Isabella pulls the fork off the stuff, her hand shoots a web out, which attaches to another tray full of food. She looks around and is surprised that nobody notices the weird incident. She slowly looks back at the tray, wondering how to disconnect the sticky web. Isabella pulls her hand away, hoping the web will fall off, but it instead takes the tray toward her, and Izzy dodges the flying plate. It crashes on the guy behind Isabella, and she turns only to lose the color in her face. Food splattered all over the shirt, Tryton "Killer" Raclife, a tall man with bright brown hair, dark eyes, and captain of the wrestling team, growls and yells, "Who's the Smart Alec?"
The once-fireside doesn't answer, but gets up and walks to the door. People whisper at each other about the tray, which is still attached to Isabella by a web. Tryton turns around and spots Izzy just as she exits the building. "Four-eyes?"
The tray hits the doors, bouncing on it twice. Everyone laughs at the sight as the bully gets up and chases after the teen. Phineas follows suit, predicting something bad.
Now disconnected from the web, Izzy examines her wrist where the stuff shot out, finding a tiny gap. What is happening to me? she asks herself.
She reaches her locker and fiddles with the lock, trying to get it open fast. Suddenly, the same sense she felt outside returns, and the teen feels a fly buzz by the school bell, someone throwing a paper ball at someone, and paper rustling in a person's hand. She also senses a fist coming at her, and the fireside quickly dodges, making Tryton smash her locker. "You're going to pay for that, Four-Eyes."
He stops, looking at Isabella's clear face. "Uh, I guess that nickname's dead now."
"Now Tryton, let's not do anything rash now." The teen tries to reason as a crowd gathers.
"I'll show you rash, Freak." He swings another punch, but Izzy ducks and moves away. She continues dodging the bully's attacks, everyone exclaiming at her impossible feats. Tryton strikes from above, but the fireside bends back to a back-breaking move. She spots Phineas behind her, wide eyes with shock. After moving back up, she walks back to the middle, not seeing a fellow bully walk behind her. But she senses him. When the bully charges, Isabella flips in the air and the jerk crashes onto Tryton. The lead bully pushes him away and cries out, dashing toward the girl. He continues punching, but Isabella dodges and blocks the attacks. Instinctively, she throws her own punch, sending Tryton across the hall to a teacher, who drops her food on him, accidently. Everyone laughs, Isabella staring at her action. Tryton's friend says, "You really are a freak." before walking to help him. The redhead looks back at Izzy, a look of worry on his face. She backs up, actually feeling like a freak, then runs out of the school. Ginger walks over to Phineas and asks, "Did Izzy really just…"
"Ginger, did anything happen to her?"
Outside in Danville, Isabella continues to run across the sidewalk, getting some odd glances from citizens. She stops and bends down, breathing hard. Okay, so far, I've gain muscles, my eyesight returned, better than ever, I can sense things without seeing them, and webs shoot out of my wrist. There's some connection to all of this, but what?
Her sense tingles again, and the teen moves onto the wall just as a man on a bike rolls past. "Watch it, girly."
"How 'bout you watch where you're going!" she shouts back. Isabella moves off the wall, but is held back by something. She turns and sees her hand stuck on a paper poster. The fireside pulls, and the paper rips off, still connected to her hand. She rips the paper off, requiring more force than the teen thought, and looks around to find people staring at her.
Nervousness builds inside her, so Isabella continues running away. When she starts losing breath again, the teen stops inside an alley, and leans against the brick wall. "What is happening to me?"
After catching her air again, the teen wonders if she should return to the school, when a prickling feeling starts on her hands. She lifts one of them and looks closely, seeing small, sharp spines shooting out of her hand. The teen moves her hand away, not believing what she's seeing. She looks at the wall, then her hand, and back again, getting an idea. Isabella places her hand on the wall, then the other one higher up. She pulls herself up, placing her foot on the stone, and climbs higher with ease. A grin crawls on her face at the feeling, and launches herself onto the roof, laughing. She runs across the building and jumps to another one, breaking the record of long jump. The teen jumps again, enjoying the feeling of air blowing in her hair. Isabella stops at the edge, looking down at the road. A small building is across the main street, a large commercial sign with a crane above it. The teen starts to feel unsure about this, but looks at her wrist, thinking. Looking back at the crane, Isabella extends her arm and tries a move. Nothing flies out. She tries another move, but with same results. "C'mon, work. Work!" she says, frustrated that the web is not working. "Why aren't you working, you stupid thing."
After doing more positions, she groans, rubbing her head. "Okay, how did I do it at school?" The teen tries to remember how her hand was, but doesn't recall it, so she just stretches her arm again, her two middle fingers press against her palm, and a string of web flies out. Isabella watches it, then looks at her hand. She tries again, and another web shoots. The teen smiles, and aims for the crane higher up. She fires, and a web extends across the air, and attaches to the metal. Isabella grips the web, walking to the very edge of the building. She takes a deep breath, then talks to herself, "Okay, Isabella. You can do this. Just relax."
After looking back at the sign, Izzy takes a step, and falls down. She swings across the road, yelling from adrenaline and fear. Isabella flies across the roof of the small building, and tries to stop, but crashes onto the sign. The web cuts off and she falls the last three feet. The teen gets up from the stone, head a little dizzy. "Whoa. That was a rush. Wait 'till I tell Phineas." She climbs down and runs off to her friend's house, but stops when she's two blocks away from him. A thought popped in her head, and not a good kind. Is that such a good idea? If I tell him, he'll probably be in danger. But I don't want to keep this to myself. Maybe I can tell Ginger, or my mom.
Isabella looks up and sees the sky darkening, so she checks her watch and sees that it's almost ten. "Uh oh." The teen sprints the last blocks and reaches her house to find it dark. She uses her key, unlocks the door, and enters the dark room. "Mom, are you home?"
No one answers. Isabella closes the door and walks into the kitchen to find a note.
Isa,
Enchiladas in the fridge. Help yourself.
Mom.
She throws the note away and takes out her dinner, guilt nudging in her core.
In the lab, Jason and Maria work on the computers, and Jason asks, "Are you sure about this, Maria?"
"Yes, I'm sure." she says, finishing up with her command on the computer. "Do you have a problem with that?"
"Actually, yes. The project is still in progress. If we use it now on humans, the effects would be dare I say it, catastrophic. We should just take it back to formula and find the problems."
"I've said it before and I'll say it again. The project is ready. Unless you want us to lose our jobs, then go ahead. Take it back to formula. Go on."
But Jason doesn't move. Mrs. Quimby grins. "So you do think it's ready."
"Not as much as you."
"Let's just get this over with, Jason." She walks to a shelf and grabs a cylinder with the name 'Letto-127' on the side. The professor hands it to her assistant, who connects the liquid to a transfer machine. "Letto-127 is in place."
"Good. Let's get started." Maria said, taking off her lab coat and shirt. Jason turns around and jumps. "Are you sure-"
"Don't worry. I'm wearing a sports bra. It's not like you haven't seen a woman without a top on, anyway, considering you have kids."
Jason rolls his eyes as the professor retracts a metal table with straps on. She unlocks the straps and lies down on the table as the assistant starts the experiment. When he's done, Jason walks to Maria and reattaches the straps as Maria shivers. "Something wrong?"
"The table's just cold." she said.
The assistant presses a command, and the table goes back inside the glass container and rises up so Maria can see the room.
Jason calls, "You ready?"
She gives him a thumbs up, and the assistant lets the project flow to the case. On the screen, a digital picture of the container and woman shows, as well as a light green bar. Inside, green smoke floats up, and starts covering the vision of Maria. When the green bar reaches the height of the woman, Jason switches to another screen and watches digital muscles grow. I can't believe it. It's actually working.
He looks back to the containment unit as the smoke moves, and sees Maria convulsing. A computer beeps loudly as the heartbeat reaches higher, and Jason hastily turns off the smoke. It soon dissipates, and the professor lies limply on the table. The computer stops beeping. "Oh no."
He opens the door and enters the unit, saying while detaching the straps, "Maria? Maria! C'mon, say this is a joke."
When she doesn't wake up, Jason starts giving her CPR, hoping she's alive. Soon, the monitor beeps again, and Maria's eyes open. She grabs the assistant's throat and starts choking him. "Back to formula, huh?" the professor asked. She throws Jason through the glass wall and he crashes onto the table. Maria jumps down, smirking insanely. "I don't think so!"
Mrs. Quimby cackles and exits the lab, grabbing a suit and glider.