25: Cosmic Energy 1.1
"Its molecules are unstable, it is entering a state of phase and phase shift."
His head was spinning, his stomach didn't feel good and his eyes were cloudy.
The voice speaking sounded somewhat distant.
"somehow every atom in your body is releasing an incredible amount of energy every time your body enters this strange state."
"We can fix it? Can we Make it go back to Normal?" That was his father's voice.
Susan opened her eyes slowly and a yellow light caught her attention immediately.
Not far from her, her father and that young man she had met were moving quickly around a stretcher that had a huge flame on top of it.
The young man named Daniel shook his head.
"the energy expelled by the dimensional rift changed her molecular structure completely, there is no way we can get rid of this, not without a technology capable of modifying every atom in her body."
His father sighed, he looked tired.
Susan stood up from the stretcher she was on, she felt dizzy.
"What's going on?" her throat was dry.
Both men turned to look at her but the expression on their faces was not good.
"Uh... Susan daughter, you need to stay calm it's ok" her father softened his voice, it was strange, why should she calm down? What happened.
She looked down at her body and couldn't help but scream.
"AHHH!?"
Where was her body? Panicked she tried to touch herself, she could feel her hands but couldn't see them, then something flickered and her body was there, as if it had appeared out of nowhere, another flicker and her body seemed to begin to vanish into thin air.
Even his clothes became invisible.
Each time this happened a layer of translucent blue light ran over his body.
Daniel quickly approached Susan and tried to calm her down.
"Calm down! There was an accident, remember? The man named Spencer hit Johnny and activated Reed's machine by mistake, there was a rupture in space time that released a mysterious and unknown type of energy that impacted your bodies, the molecules in your body are unstable making the way the light waves interact with your body abnormal, a light phase state."
Susan listened and quickly began to digest the information, she was a scientist after all, she had graduated with the highest honors and had several degrees to her name at her young age.
Despite her panic when she heard the explanation she quickly began to analyze and understand what was happening to her.
She looked at the bed several meters away from her that gave off a flame and it wasn't until she noticed the body in it, remembering the vague words she had heard when she woke up as well as the accident that she quickly made an assumption.
"that's johny?!" her voice came out not so calm.
Daniel grimaced and nodded.
"He was the one who took the most direct hit from the accident, I still don't understand why he keeps releasing energy like that, my theory is that his atoms have formed a connection with a dimension full of thermal energy which causes his body to constantly release this endless energy."
Susan looked at her brother in disbelief and wanted to approach but her father quickly stopped her.
"it's not safe to be around him Susan" the look in her father's eyes was also one of concern Susan understood but still couldn't help but look worriedly at her brother.
Although she too was undergoing strange changes it didn't seem as dangerous as what was happening to Johnny.
"how are you feeling, how is your body" Daniel quickly began to attend to Susan, apart from his father he was the first person to wake up after the accident.
Susan felt her body, the initial discomfort and discomfort had quickly disappeared and now she felt fine, very fine even.
"Great, I... I feel great" she looked at her body that was constantly appearing and disappearing flickering through the spectrum of visible light, she concentrated, she felt a strange energy flowing through her body uncontrollably.
Susan used all her concentration and slowly that uncontrolled energy began to be guided through her, it was slow and difficult, like moving thick mud with her hands.
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Dr. Storm and Daniel watched as Susan closed her eyes and a field of blue energy began to surround her body, slowly the instability became smaller and smaller and her body stopped flickering, she was no longer invisible.
"Amazing" Dr. Storm said with indescribable excitement in his eyes.
For a moment he seemed to have forgotten his worries and let his scientific side come out, but it was only for a moment, when the heat that was being given off by johny's body hit the doctor he was pulled out of his excitement.
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Susan opened her eyes, she looked at her hands that were covered by a faint layer of blue light with amazement, her eyes glowed with that same light, she felt something strange, now that she could handle the energy in her body even superficially she could feel a connection with a similar but different source of energy than her own.
She looked at Daniel with curiosity, she could feel waves of chaotic energy in his body.
The amount of energy in him was even more unstable than that of his own body.
How was it right? With such instability his body should have been ripped to shreds but somehow every time that was about to happen the energy suddenly calmed down, in a cycle of chaos and order without control.
It was disconcerting, she couldn't see it not with her eyes, but it was clear in her mind, the feeling seemed to travel through this new sense she had developed and formed an image in her brain.
Seeing it was like observing the chaos of the distant universe.
It was beautiful.
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Daniel quickly approached her to test her vital signs, that she was able to control the energy in her body and control her unstable state was a good sign for Johnny, when she woke up if they could get her to do the same, she could perhaps extinguish the flames in her body.
Even that guy covered in rocks, maybe he could get back to normal.
When Daniel grabbed Susan's arm to measure her pulse he felt the atoms in her body go chaotic.
He gritted his teeth and endured the pain.
On the other hand, when Daniel's hand touched her arm, Susan almost fainted from sensory overload, her vision darkened and she seemed to travel to another place.
It was a void full of different colored lights, it was like looking at the milky way, no... it was like looking at the universe.
The image was gone as quickly as it came and she closed her eyes, the energy had become chaotic again and she had to control it.
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Daniel did a quick check on Susan.
Her vital signs were stable, she had no injuries and did not appear to have any adverse side effects.
He left her to continue meditating and turned to look at the other stretchers in the room.
They were in the Baxter building, in one of their more private labs, when the doctor woke up. He quickly explained the situation and asked permission to bring them all here.
In this place there was enough equipment to make a review of each one of them.
At least as much as human technology could review.
Dr. Storm stayed with his children, his body had not shown any abnormal changes yet.
But Daniel wasn't sure the doctor hadn't undergone changes as well.
He looked at the big guy, his body apart from Johnny's was the one that showed the most anomalous changes, the material he was covered with came from another dimension and was extremely durable, even he had to strain a bit to take samples.
The other two... were not in a good state.
Of all the people affected, they were the ones with obvious injuries.
The guy named Spencer had suffered third and fourth degree burns over half of his body.
The fact that he was still alive was actually an impossibility.
But he was alive and his vital signs were not weak.
On the other hand the young man named Victor, his condition was bad.
His entire face had been burned and covered with molten metal.
Of all of them, he was in the worst state of health.
This was a disaster, but Daniel was willing to help them, what Susan had done was a confirmation of the suspicions he had had since he saw Johnny and the rock guy.
Their bodies had been altered, giving them super human abilities.
If they could all gain a degree of control as Susan had done then he had six super humans with an unknown degree of strength in their hands.
He looked at the man named Spencer and a cold look couldn't help but appear in his eyes, this guy, he didn't think anything he did was a good thing.
The way he talked about other people, his attitude and personality were not a positive thing at all.
The fact that he attacked johny could be overlooked if johny had really intended to attack him, but how could Daniel not see reality? Although for other people it all happened so fast, for him it was still easily visible.
The scene in his eyes passed differently, as Spencer insulted johny and johny began to approach he saw a small mischievous smile appear on the man's face.
For a human not looking closely it would be hard to notice, but he could see it immediately.
He had deliberately provoked Johnny into approaching him.
Even as johny approached Daniel noticed that the young man had not raised his arms to attack, he had only approached quickly, his shoulders were not tense and his stance was not firm, he did not intend to strike, only to appear intimidating.
If Spencer had not struck, none of this would have happened, most likely Johnny would have just looked him straight in the face with anger and his father or Susan would have quickly pushed him away.
In the end though there was no absolute culprit if blame had to be apportioned then the man named Spencer would bear the majority.
If someone like that got powers wouldn't he really try to abuse them or commit evil acts?
Daniel didn't think so.
For that reason he kept an eye on Spencer.
For that reason he didn't help Spencer as much as he did the other people.
Sure, he gave him medical attention and checked his condition normally, but he didn't do it as thoroughly as he could have.
Was he mean? Was he selfish? Was it hypocritical?
Daniel didn't know but right now he didn't care.
His body was in constant pain, his temper could not be good in this situation.
The energy was wreaking havoc inside him and he could do nothing to resolve it, his nucleus was useless because whatever was going on inside him was not something that was harming his body.
Yet he could feel the pain.
He needed to know what was going on with him.
But now was not the time, I had to control the situation here first.
"What the hell?" a disturbed voice brought Daniel out of his thoughts, he quickly turned to look and saw that Johnny had woken up, the flames in his body began to get out of control and increase in size and heat.
"johny calm down!" his father shouted tried to get closer but could not.
Susan came out of her meditation and saw the situation quickly stood up and tried to approach as well.
"Johny listen you have to calm down!" the flames burned almost impacting her.
She felt the fire coming and could only stretch her hands forward out of instinct.
Then a translucent layer of blue spread from her hands blocking the fire.
She looked at this in amazement.
Daniel looked but had no time to wonder, he had to contain the torch in the room.
He quickly arrived in front of Johnny.
"Daniel watch out!" Susan exclaimed wanting to cover Daniel but stopped when she saw Daniel's body enter the flames without burning at all.
Dr. Storm was not surprised by this, when Daniel spoke with him and brought them in he had seen several of Daniel's abilities in action.
He had already guessed his identity.
Daniel arrived next to Johnny and put his hands on his shoulders.
"concentrate johny, try to control it, the fire you have to contain it."
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Johny looked at his body, he was burning, he was burning! His breathing became more agitated and with each exhalation the flames grew, he tried to extinguish the fire but it was no use, every time he moved his hands the fire rose in the air.
He was dying?
Then he heard a voice and felt a pair of hands grab his shoulders.
Johny looked at the guy who had been talking to his sister, he almost screamed, he wanted to push him away, he didn't want to burn him.
But it was at that moment when he felt the touch on his shoulders that johny noticed that his body did not hurt.
"the fire you have to contain it" the words reached his ears.
The guy wasn't burning, although some of his clothes were ashes that didn't affect him and he seemed to be able to be near him without problems.
Johny calmed down, he had been in many stressful situations, he had been in many illegal races and had almost died several times.
His ability to calm down quickly was strong, although this situation was completely different from anything he had ever experienced before, it did not interfere with his ability to calm himself in a high stress situation.
Slowly the flames began to subside and johny's body became clearer.
He still retained his features and did not appear to have any wounds or burns.
That made Susan and her father let out a sigh of relief.
Johny focused deep inside himself, in his mind it was like seeing a bright star flooding everything with raging tides of fire.
There was no control, so he gave her control.
He grabbed the steering wheel as when he raced at top speed and began to guide the energy through his body, it was like making a difficult and complicated turn he felt that if he failed all hell would break loose.
So he didn't fail.
He made a perfect lap.
The flames went out, johny opened his eyes and saw his completely healthy and naked body.
He quickly tried to cover himself.
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Daniel stepped back as the flames died down and threw his trench coat at Johnny.
Although his shirt had burned his pants were still there because he had had them specially made.
If he had known such an accident would happen he would have worn a special shirt as well.
"How do you feel?" he asked watching johny cover himself.
"Like I'm boiling inside" johny replied, his words sounded alarming but the smile on his face didn't match what he said he felt.
"Is that good or is that bad?" Susan walked over and asked, she looked at daniel who was now shirtless and his face flushed, She quickly looked away and looked at her brother.
"I think it's good! I feel great" johny exclaimed, he stood up and stretched out his hand.
"look at this!" he snapped his fingers and a bright flame shot out from the tip of his thumb like a lighter.
Johny looked at the flame in childlike amazement .
Daniel looked at the fire and moved closer.
"there's no fuel yet it's still burning my theory about what happened to you seems more likely now."
Johnny looked at it and asked.
"What theory?" Daniel quickly explained the same thing he did to Susan, the boy nodded, he wasn't as well versed in science as his sister but that didn't mean he was dumb.
In fact he was quite smart and understood everything quickly.
"In short I have super powers?!" of course although he wasn't dumb his focus was on simpler things.
"maybe?" Daniel didn't know whether to affirm something like that, although all the facts showed it to be so that didn't mean there wouldn't be future problems or side effects.
"That's amazing!" Johny decided to ignore any future dangers and started playing with the flame in his hands.
His father came over and began to talk to him with relief.
Daniel shook his head and walked over to Susan, she had extended some sort of force field and he was interested in that.
"How are you doing, any discomfort?"
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Susan didn't know whether to look or not to look, she decided that since he didn't care to cover up she shouldn't care to look.
"I think I can control it better" of course even if he looked she could respond.
Being close to him she could feel that connection more strongly.
The sensation worried her.
"How do you feel, the energy inside you is complete chaos?" she asked with concern.
Daniel opened his eyes.
"Can you feel the energy inside me?" that was unexpected.
"Yes, it's like there's a connection between the two of us, I can see the energy in your body wreaking havoc, how come you're still alive?" Susan couldn't help but ask her scientific curiosity beginning to awaken.
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Daniel looked deeply at Susan, that she could feel the energy inside him was unexpected, a connection between the two of them? He closed his eyes.
So far he had not tried what the two brothers had done.
Now he had a little time, so he decided to give it a try.
He took a deep breath and his conscience went inside himself.
This was something he had done before when he searched his memories.
It was easy for him to enter this state.
He felt the energy inside him, saw it move through his body but he also saw something else.
All his attention was focused on every inch of her body.
Sinking deep into her cells and reaching down to her atoms.
This was an ability that came with the regeneration nucleus.
It allowed him to "see" every inch of his body to choose which parts to heal at will.
It was like an extra sense that gave him the ability to visualize every part of himself in extreme detail.
He rarely used it because it was disorienting.
It wasn't like using his eyes, he didn't "see" in the literal sense of the word.
The best way to describe it was as if he could get a three hundred and eighty degree view of every part of himself.
It might even be more than that, he could feel from the inside out and from all directions every part of himself.
It was completely disorienting.
It was like seeing things from another dimension beyond the three-dimensional.
In short, it made him dizzy and nauseous.
But in this situation he forced himself to go inside himself and use this "vision" to see things from another dimension.
It was madness.
I had only seen it once before, but it was enough for me to see the difference.
I could see his atoms, his Smart atoms, unlike any atoms in the universe, unique atoms in their own way.
Now they were at war.
The energy released by the dimensional rift ran rampant through his body like raging currents, wherever they passed his atoms became unstable.
Similar to what happened to Susan's or Johnny's molecules but in a deeper and more chaotic way.
Her unstable atoms in any other situation would have undergone unpredictable changes but these were no ordinary atoms.
As quickly as they became unstable their atoms returned to their original state automatically changing and stabilizing themselves.
This process was repeated over and over again, each time his atoms went into destabilization they generated energy that merged with the energy that had entered his body.
Under normal circumstances this would cause his body to overload and sooner or later he would explode from the excess energy.
But the Smart atoms wouldn't let something like that happen.
Pulling themselves together.
Changing.
Adapting.
At the rate this Process was going he calculated that it would take at least three days for his atoms to adapt and subsume the energy into his body.
Three days of constant pain...
Daniel decided it was time to help his body.
He got concrete and soon found his core.
It was the size of an atom and if you looked at it from the outside it would look no different than one.
But this tiny thing was the most important part of his body.
It was also the toughest part.
His nucleus was formed by an unknown material, he did not know what it was exactly, but according to the information he obtained its resistance was linked to the resistance of his body, the nucleus would always be three times more resistant than his body for that reason the nucleus became more difficult to break as he became stronger.
That was not the only interesting thing about the nucleus.
The nucleus not only allowed for high-speed regeneration.
That had been clear to him when he used its help to retrieve all the memories of his previous life down to the smallest detail.
How did he do that?
He rebuilt his brain from scratch, he didn't regenerate it, he didn't heal it, he rebuilt it.
This word might seem similar but it was very different in execution.
When the nucleus cured it was not using the normal biological processes.
The nucleus had its own unknown energy source that it used to create biological matter.
In a sense the nucleus was reshaping reality so that matter that should not exist did exist, and at the same time it gave Daniel some degree of control over that matter.
He could not grow an extra arm or change the color of his hair.
But he could control the natural biological processes of his body to some degree.
He could make believe hair, he could make believe his fingernails, he could control the rate at which his cells regenerated with precision.
He could see every atom in his body.
He could not change his body but he could control to some extent what was already there.
So he used that, took as much control as he could and began to use the power of the nucleus to help his atoms speed up the adaptation process.
His nucleus seemed to glow and an unprecedented amount of energy was released from it, flooding every part of his body like a warm blanket.
The energy became more unbridled.
More violent.
Daniel felt the pain increase and gritted his teeth the sweat began to fall from his body.
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Susan saw the changes in Daniel's body and felt the energy increasing in strength, as a scientist she could predict the kind of consequences something like this could have and it was not good.
She could not let something like this happen.
She quickly approached him and put her hands on his shoulders.
Her eyes opened wide and her vision changed.
It was like watching a battlefield, one side was fighting, adapting and slowly advancing.
The other side had no order or direction, it simply devastated everything in its path without concern for what was around it.
Susan apretó los dientes, sintió esa conexión y uso toda su concentración para ayudar a Daniel, la energía en su cuerpo se extendió hacia la energía caótica.
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Daniel felt Susan approaching, he didn't know what she wanted to do but he couldn't pay attention to her now.
All his concentration was on her body.
Then he felt her hands touch his shoulders and a new energy enter his body, much like the one inside his body yet different, Susan's power began to press on the chaotic energy.
It was like a warm current that lessened the pain he felt and forced the raging currents of energy inside him to calm down for a moment.
That moment was enough.
His atoms empowered by the power of the nucleus did not stay still.
The process of change and adaptation accelerated and soon his atoms began to dominate the energy in his body.
They found a way to contain and control it.
They adapted to it as if it had always been a part of them and began to imbue it with its unique properties.
The atoms prevailed and began to guide the energy, forming a connection that allowed Daniel to control the flow.
His body no longer hurt, the energy calmed down and stopped being chaotic.
But he still had a problem.
Although his atoms adapted, he could not guide that adaptation, only enhance it.
For that reason his atoms had obtained a new state.
They could enter a state of unstable atoms and become stable again instantly.
This time without pain or discomfort.
Daniel did not know what effects this would have on his body.
Although it may seem that this process took a long time, in reality Daniel had only closed his eyes for three seconds.
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Susan felt the change, her sight came back to reality and she looked with amazement at Daniel's body, it was different.
She had seen the changes inside him and didn't know how to describe them accurately.
She saw his eyes open and a deep blue glow escaped from them.
But it was gone as quickly as it came and his eyes returned to that dark blue color.
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Daniel looked at Susan and spoke.
"Thank you, if you hadn't helped I would have suffered quite a bit" and this was true, although his body would have adapted the process would have been extremely painful, it was Susan's help that allowed the process to go smoother and faster.
Susan smiled.
"You are helping us, returning the favor is the least I could do" Susan reached out her hand and touched his cheek, a small blue beam of energy was released intertwining the place where she had touched with her hand, like when one person touches another with static, but there was no pain and it lasted longer.
"What is your theory? Why do you think I have a connection with the energy in your body?" Susan asked curious about this, the connection had increased when she helped him, now she could feel it more clearly.
Daniel frowned, pulled back a little and began to think.
Susan furrowed her eyebrows when she saw him take a step back.
At that moment when the energy wave hit Susan he was behind her grabbing her shoulders to push her out of the way without hurting her.
In reality the energy had hit them both at almost the same time.
"I was about to pull you away to go help Johnny when the energy hit us, my hands were on your shoulders, the energy must have traveled from your body to mine at that moment, I have no better explanation" Daniel could only think about this, he had to see if someone else had some kind of connection with another person to prove it.
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Susan nodded, everything was already fantastic, such an explanation could actually be valid, she wanted to touch him again to feel that energy in him but Daniel had already left to check the unconscious people.
She pouted, well she would try to touch him later.
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Daniel sighed, he didn't know what had happened to his body but he didn't want to experiment here, he turned away from Susan and started to check on the others.
Now that his body didn't hurt the irritation in him went away and he could think more clearly.
He looked at the rock man starting to wake up and knew it was time to help someone else.
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Note.
Chapter full of content, I hope the explanation is logical enough and that it doesn't seem like a tongue twister, I had trouble explaining what I wanted and I think putting too much information in a chapter can be boring so there will be more small explanations in a few more chapters to try to make it clearer.
I got comments on different sites about Daniel his past and his behavior, it seems it was my inexperience in writing that made it a bit strange when part of his past was revealed, I didn't focus as much on him as I should have in previous chapters and dropped the bomb in one chapter which was a mistake and I apologize for that, I will try not to make that mistake with other characters and I will try to give more depth to Daniel and explain his past in a better way in the future, I said it somewhere else but I will repeat it in this one, this story is about someone who tries to be better, someone who wants to be better, he is not perfect but he still wants to change.