Chapter Three- A few Inches? Euphuism!
Eve blinked rapidly. The sunlight that streamed through the closed curtains hit her face with no mercy and she sat up in bed at once, her posture faltering slightly into a crumbled heap beneath the sheets. She felt heavier, somehow, a bit bigger suddenly. She pushed the thought away and sat up in bed. Hadn't the windows been taller when she fell asleep? She stood and experimentally looked around. Was the bed always so low? Did the carpet always seem so flat? What had happened to her borrowed room overnight? Or worse yet, what had happened to her?
Panic stricken, she ran out the room and dashed down the hall to the bathroom, which she reached in several strides less than she remembered. She appeared before the mirror and saw… herself.
Yet this wasn't her. It was her face, yes, but Tearju and Eve shared the same countenance, and she would have assumed that this was her "mother" rather than her if it hadn't been for the irregular pigment of her eyes. Eve looked like an adult version of herself.
Train was lying on his back idly on the roof, looking at the reflection of his cattish eyes in the ebony exterior of Hades. He jumped out of his skin when he heard a frantic scream and instantly recognized it as… who was it? Tearju? He found himself inside in a flash.
He passed the still drowsy Sven in two strides, and glanced into the bathroom where he had talked to Eve last night. He blinked. He recognized her instantly as Eve, which surprised him. Every inch of this woman was mature and petite, yet held a stance that was very unlike Tearju's erect but mildly insecure pose. The second most immediate thing he noticed was that the black dress was way too small for her cleavage and hips. He frowned, looking past that. "Uh, Eve?"
She looked at him. "Am I in some sort of dimension created by Doctor again? Or am I hallucinating? I don't enjoy this dream!"
Her voice was definitely Eve's—despite her confliction, some note of nonchalance was in there somewhere, and so far that he knew, her mental maturity hadn't changed. Sven stepped in line next to Train a heartbeat later.
"Eve?" he thought it over, "Tearju?"
Eve shook her head. "It's Eve." She stood more strongly know as though she accepted the fact that she had grown up overnight.
"What's the matter?" a new voice asked stifling a yawn and Tearju stepped up in her pajamas, glasses crooked on her face. "Did something happen to Eve?"
"Take a look for yourself," Sven said, stepping back.
It was better than looking into the mirror. They were carbon copies—that was literal—of each other, and the men present were confused for a split second.
"How is this..." Eve stopped abruptly when a button on her dress above her chest popped and she frantically held the pieces of fabric together. Train and Sven instantly turned their backs, obviously flustered.
Tearju sighed. "I'm sure it's nothing serious," she said. "Come on, Eve, I'll lend you some of my clothes and then we can investigate your condition."
Eve wasted no time following Tearju out of the bathroom, and quietly stepped past her blindsided guardians. Train frowned slightly; there was an unfamiliar scent about, but once Tearju and Eve left, it was gone.
"Did you…" he trailed off.
"Huh?" Sven looked to him, "what's the problem, Train?"
Train thought better of it. "Nothing, I hope," he muttered.
In a borrowed black shirt and jeans, Eve was soon hooked up to several wires leading from her to Tearju's computer. The light from the screen reflected on her spectacles, and Train idly thought for a moment that she appeared sinister before she looked up at her three visitors and her blue eyes appeared kind and at ease. "It's nothing serious," she said in a sigh.
Sven, leaning against the wall closest to Eve spoke up first, "Then what happened to her?"
Tearju stood up. "Call it… a puberty for nanomachines. Remember what I mentioned to you yesterday, Sven?"
Sven nodded briefly and Eve and Train looked at him quizzically.
"Eve, you've read about puberty, right?"
"Yes," Eve nodded, "it is a stage during adolescence for the body to prepare for adulthood and though for everyone it is basically the same, there tend to be subtle differences."
"Right," Tearju nodded. "Naturally, since you have nanomachines, your puberty is bound to be the first of its kind. What's happened to you now is that there are catalyzing inside of your body due to an increase in hormones. There might have been something to stimulate the transformation to what it is now, say some sort of drug or maybe even something as simple as soda, but regardless the nanomachines have reacted like this."
"Hey, Princess," Train called, "didn't you take some pain killers yesterday?"
She nodded.
"That must have done it," Tearju said. "Anyway, I suggest that you don't try any transformations in this form, Eve. It's risky, with your nanomachines in its current frenzy state. I also suggest that you keep away from texting until this wears off. We would want to minimize risks of irritation: we don't know how the body will react."
"But I promised that I'd text Kevin today," Eve protested.
"Princess has a boyfriend," Train teased.
"Over my dead body," Sven muttered gruffly.
"Kevin, as a sweeper, tends to be a reliable source of information," Eve snapped at them both. "True he tends to be a better listener than most,"—at this she glared between the two of them,-"but at least his information comes from solid origins that can be traced to a good source."
There was silence for a moment.
"That retort was too swift for me," Train said.
Sven snorted, "You've underestimated Eve again."
"I have a question though," Eve said disconnecting the wires from her body and standing beside Tearju. "How old do you think I'm estimated as?"
"Definitely over nineteen," Sven responded.
Train raised his hand enthusiastically. "I know, I know! Twenty three!"
"I think she's about my age," Tearju said, "it would make sense if her nanomachines formed into something through recognition."
Eve smiled, "That makes me twenty seven… that means…" she turned to the wielder of Hades. "I'm Train's superior."
Train jumped, ready to protest. "That doesn't count! I was an adult before you were even born!"
"Although regardless," Sven said as he stepped away from the wall, "Eve always was more mature than Train."
"If that's the case, then Eve was always Train's superior, isn't that so?" Lunatique responded.
"Hey, don't agree with her!" Train wailed.
Eve smiled to herself. She always wanted a little brother.
