Chapter 7: Welcome to (Sur)Reality

Amy followed behind Reuben as he stepped off the ship, and stopped. The entrance to… this place, was huge. The door towered over Gantu, who was walking in front of them, and Amy wondered as she looked up at it if this was what it felt like to be the size of a chameleon or other small animal. A moment passed before she shook it off, and started walking again in order to catch up with Reuben, who had gotten a good distance ahead of her.

Amy noticed as she walked that something seemed… off. Ever since one of the agents had called it to her attention that she had made it to the office in an unusually short amount of time, Amy had been checking to see how long it took her to walk from one place to another. Sure enough, she covered the distance between herself and Reuben in less than ten seconds, when it should have taken her at least twenty. She had never noticed how quickly she walked before – to her, it was just normal walking speed, the same speed she'd been going all her life. It didn't make sense…but then, the second half of this entire day didn't make much sense.

The hallways were very long, and, as Amy noticed when a misstep almost sent her over the edge, very narrow. The area around them had no floor she could discern, and seemed to go down forever. Amy found herself slowing down, out constantly glancing down to make sure she didn't step too close to the edge. She hated to imagine what would happen if she did…

"We're here," Reuben said and Amy looked up. They were standing in front of another pair of doors, these much less ominous from the earlier ones. Even so, Amy felt herself make an involuntary swallow as they opened, and the three walked in with the doors shutting behind them.

The only thing in the large room was a desk, a chair, and an alien sitting in it. She had an air of dignity to her that was almost regal, and Amy suddenly felt very drab and underdressed in her slightly worn skirt and spitball-stained, horribly creased blouse.

"Captain Gantu," she began, and Gantu stood to attention. "I take it the mission was a success?"

"Yes, your Honor. We have managed to find the genetic experiment and safely bring her to planet Turo." Genetic experiment… they were talking about her. Amy had to hold out a sigh. Genetic experiment… that sounded so alien, so inhuman.

"This is her, then?" The Grand Councilwoman asked, turning to look at Amy, who almost instinctively stood up straighter, clasping her hands behind her back.

"Y-yes, your Honor," Amy started, uncertain of what to say, "I'm her. I mean, I'm Amy. It's… it's an honor to meet you - "

"Calm yourself, child," the Grand Councilwoman cut her off, "There is no reason to panic. You have been through a great deal of change in a short amount of time. I understand you are very confused." Amy sighed, shoulders sagging in embarrassment.

"Yes, your Honor."

"Now then," the Grand Councilwoman continued, "Doctor Jumba Jookiba has already determined that it is in fact safe for you to be amongst others without bringing them harm. However, that still does not tell us what you are capable of," She looked at Amy, "Perhaps you can shed some light on the subject? What talents do you possess?"

Amy shifted uncomfortably. "Honestly, your Honor… I don't know. I didn't even know I even had – or might have – powers until earlier today. … I can move unusually fast for a human, but that's about it…"

"Is that so?" the Councilwoman responded, and was about to say something else when there was a knock on the doors. Everyone turned to look at the doors. The Grand Councilwoman frowned. "Enter."

The doors opened, and Jumba walked into the room, carrying a mass of rolled-up papers under one hand, and even more in the other. The Grand Councilwoman frowned as they all watched him struggle to keep them all in his grip, leaving a trail as he made his way over to the desk.

"Grand Councilwoman, I, evil genius Jumba Jookiba, have made startling find on our genetically engineered white-haired girl. You see," he said as he held up the edge of one scroll that unrolled downward, showing statistics and charts, "white-haired girl has great genetic variety. My findings say she should be capable of many different talents, from super speed to jumping over 20 feet in air to mind-reading. But something is stopping DNA from working properly."

Amy blinked in confusion. "What are… what are you talking about?"

"Yes," the Grand Councilwoman added, "What are you talking about?"

"You see," he continued, dropping a great deal of scrolls as he pulled out a second one and unrolled it, depicting a magnified image of an enlarged blood cell, "white-haired girl's DNA is stable, and information to create amino acids is successfully retrieved by RNA. However," he pointed at a small blob inside the cell, "I have discovered strange virus-like nano-objects invading blood cells and tampering with RNA and causing amino acids to mutate into normal, human amino acids and therefore stopping processing of genetic instruction before it can exit nuclei of cells, and is occurring in ALL cells in bloodstream. Jumba has never seen anything like it." He rolled up the scroll.

"… What?" Gantu said after a moment.

"He said there's something inside of Amy's blood that's getting into her cells…" Reuben began.

"…And messing with the instructions in my DNA that should give me alien powers," Amy finished. All four looked at her.

"You actually understood that?" Gantu asked in disbelief. Amy nodded, then suddenly realized that everyone was looking at her.

"Y-yeah… we learned about RNA and cell structure in 10th grade Biology. No big deal…"

Gantu looked at Reuben. "And how did YOU understand that?"

"I'm a genius, remember? Designed to think faster than a supercomputer? Or has five years of calling me Reuben made you forget that I'm still Experiment 625?"

"But that is not all Jumba found," the scientist interjected, "I have made other discovery about white-haired girl."

"Well," the Grand Councilwoman said, "What is it?"

"Is very interesting, you see…"