Chapter 17: Changes and Meatball Sandwiches

Amy stared at the cup in front of her. Move, she thought to herself. Nothing happened. Move!

"Um, Amy?" Reuben asked, sitting down across from her as the girl continued staring at the plastic cup filled halfway with water. Amy? It's water. Your home planet is covered in it."

"She's trying to make it move," Sonja said, watching Amy furrow her brow. "Ever since she started taking that new medicine three weeks ago, she's been trying to figure out what powers she has. She's already got the hang of super-speed." Amy said nothing, but leaned closer to the cup, stare intensifying. For a moment, it looked like nothing could break her concentration on the small glass. Reuben almost sighed in relief when she was pulled out of it by a familiar growl – her stomach. Amy glared at the cup one more time before taking a bite out of the meatball sub sandwich she had on her plate.

"I'm sure I can do it," Amy said as she glanced at the cup again. "Jumba said most of my powers were related to my brain, and I've finally gotten that weird spectral-projection that made everybody back home hate me to stop…" She shook her head. "Maybe I'm still taking too much medicine for it to work?" She looked up from her sandwich, and spotted Agent Venom walking by. She's still on the ship? Amy thought to herself, but quickly returned her attention to the glass, and its lack of movement.

"Either way, you're doing great so far," Reuben remarked, hoping to cheer her up a bit. She wasn't sad, but she did look troubled. "And it's nice to see you're actually finishing your food now."

"Yeah," Sonja added, "Three weeks ago you barely ate at all, and now…"

"Now I'm eating twice as much as I used to. It was a side effect of the pill – appetite suppression. And now I'm hungry all the time, because 17 years of not eating enough has caught up to me." Amy finished before biting into her sandwich again.

"You look a lot healthier," Sonja said, and Reuben nodded. It was true. Over the past three weeks, Amy's stick-like figure had filled out considerably. She was no supermodel – actually, she'd been closer to that sort of figure when she was still underweight, sans the large chest – but she had gained some much-needed meat on her bones, her legs were no longer skinny and scrawny, instead shapely and strong, and her clothes now framed and complimented the curves of her body instead of hanging awkwardly.

Whoever said stick-skinny was attractive is an idiot, Reuben thought to himself. She looks fantastic. Amy didn't notice that he was looking at her, but Sonja did, and chuckled. Reuben looked at her in confusion. "What's so funny?"

Sonja shook her head. "Oh, nothing… I remembered a joke somebody told me, that's all." She kept giggling to herself, and eventually had to cover her mouth when Amy turned to look at her as well. Sonja calmed down, and looked at the two of them again before breaking down into another fit of faint giggles. Amy raised an eyebrow at her. Reuben went back to eating his own sandwich, rolling his eyes as Sonja chuckled. Whatever she was thinking about, he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"If you say so," Amy murmured, before returning to her now half-gone lunch. Her eyes shifted back to the cup. Move. Again, nothing happened. Move!

Splash!

"Ah!" Sonja jumped out of her chair before water could splash on her lap. "What in the world?"

Amy put her fist in the air, a triumphant grin on her face. "I did it!" Reuben smiled, and grabbed a paper towel to wipe up the cup's spilled contents.

None of them noticed that Venom was watching them a few tables down, a small frown on her face.