-Nova’s POV-

Amber and I sit together on the patio of a cute, small café, blanketed in the shadow of the surrounding skyscrapers. The day is (relatively) quiet, the breeze is cool and smells of the sea, and the pastries are the best on this side of Main. Fully at ease for the first time in a while, I breathe a long, peaceful sigh.

Amber’s voice snaps me out of my day dreaming “Told you this place is great.”

“Yeah…”

“Hey, so, about last night…” Amber promptly shatters the rest of my composure.

My face immediately heats up “W-what about last night?”

Amber looks confused for a second, then perks up “Oh, no, I meant the glowing thing. Not the… other thing…”

“Right! Yeah. That…”

I down another cake pop.

“I’m still not really sure what to make of it. I mean, shifting pigment is definitely strange, but animals do that all the time. Visible light bioluminescence is a lot rarer, especially in mammals. In humans, unheard of, or at the very least unproven. I would be terrified if I wasn’t so excited.”

“Are they still glowing?”

“Not sure.” I lift up my glasses “Wanna check for me?”

Amber scoots up a bit and makes intent eye contact “A little, not as much as last night though.”

“Hmm… Might have something to do with the ambient light level.”

“Can you make them glow brighter?”

“Probably not. I’m not even sure what part of my brain slash body is controlling it.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. It’d be really cool if you could.”

“Ah well” I get up and stretch “Maybe I can and just don’t know it yet. Anyway, ready to go?”

Amber nods and goes to throw away what’s left of her decaf as I try to sweep some of my crumbs off of the table and into a napkin; less for the staff to deal with. Once we’re done, we get back to what brought us halfway across the city.

I spot another clothing shop that might have just what I’m looking for. I point it as we get closer.

I quickly flip up my shades and scan the items they have on display. While they are certainly cute, they’re also a bit too colorful for my tastes. Amber catches my disapproving expression (or gray eye color) and looks around.

“Welp, that’s all of them on this street.” Amber pauses for a second and looks to me “Where to next?”

“Oh, I know! Xenon Avenue has a shop full of sweaters and monochrome clothing, I go there all the time!”

“Sounds good!”

Smiling, I gently grab Amber’s arm “This way, I know a shortcut…”

I lead her all the way to an alley that connects directly to Xenon. I’m about to turn the corner when I’m solidly knocked back and caught by Amber.

“Oww, owww… what just-?” I look forward towards what I bumped into as Amber props me back up.

The thing I bumped into turns out to be a person. More accurately, a woman who seems to be rushing to grab her baseball cap and shades.

Seeing as I just ran into someone; I rush to quickly apologize “Ah! I’m so sorry about that, are you ok?”

I hold my hand out to her, awkwardly trying to sign the apology with a handshake. After looking down at my hand, up to my face, and back down to my hand, she flashes a disturbingly massive and toothy smile and returns the shake. A little unsettled by her total silence and plastic expression, I look back towards Amber. She stands stock-still, looking completely dumbfounded and alarmingly pale. Disturbed and confused, I break off the handshake (which I’ve just realized has been going on for way too long), and try to scoot around the lady, pulling Amber with me as I leave.

“Well, that was… odd…” I look behind me as Amber starts to match my pace again “What was her deal?”

Amber places a hand on my shoulder, both to catch my attention and brace herself a little “I think that may have been Bonnie Maganum.”

“Who?”

“Figures you don’t know. She and her husband are locally famous for a bunch of stuff.

Attempting to distract myself and Amber from… whatever that was, I point out the nearest store-front window, which is neatly stocked with outfits and soft things. A few large fleece and wool sweaters catch my eye and are perfect to replace the ones lost in the building collapse.

“Ah, that one looks cute!”

Amber looks to where I’m pointing.

“Oh, uh, yeah! It does.”

-Amber’s POV-

I place the shopping bags on the floor and stretch. Nova helped me carry them up the stairs, but as soon as we made it through my door, she gave all her bags to me and ran back out of the apartment building, giddy with excitement.

*I wonder she so excited about.*

Mentally flipping through some possibilities, I sit down at Nova’s tinkering desk. A bunch of papers and diagrams are scattered around.

*She could have went to hang out with one of the others. Though, Nova doesn’t usually get that amped-up about a regular hangout.*

I pick up some of the papers and begin to read. There’s a list of planned upgrades to the desk along with a poorly drawn diagram, some engineering homework from her previous semester at college, and a drawing I can’t quite make sense of with list of parts next to it.

*She might also be testing some new invention of hers in the valley outside of the city. That would definitely get her excited.*

An image of Nova taking some new and probably dangerous creation for a test run and immediately getting herself hurt flashes through my mind. Scared by the thought, I stand up and rush to grab my phone. To my relief, Nova doesn’t take long to answer.

“Heya, what’s up?”

“Nothing, I just wanted to see what you left so fast to do.”

“Oh, that’s fair. I forgot to pick up some components for a little experiment I’m planning.”

I think back to some of Nova’s more risky creations. That jetpack she used to escape her apartment quickly comes to mind. “Is this experiment… dangerous?”

Nova is silent for a few seconds, making me worry even more “Nova?”

“Sorry, just thinking. This particular (how should I put it) ‘test’ shouldn’t be all that harmful, unless I woefully miscalculated…”

“What will happen if you did miscalculate?”

“Even if I did, a little shock probably won’t kill anyone.”

“Shock!? What are you-“

“Oop, sorry Ambs, I gotta check out! Call you back!”

“A-alright, bye.”

As Nova hangs up, one thought fills my mind.

*Did she just call me Ambs…?*

A small pang of happiness worms its way through my anxiety.

-Nova’s POV-

I struggle to carry the stack of old and broken electronic equipment out of the store, pushing my entire body’s motor functions to their limit, I slowly move to the nearest bench and place both the stack and myself onto it. Breathing a short sigh of relief, I pull out my phone and text the group chat.

Nova: [Bee, Myla, you two free rn?]

While I’m waiting for a response, I look through the items I purchased, running off an imaginary checklist in my head. As I do though, I can’t help but feel that something is wrong. Usually my survival instincts never kick in (yes even when I jumped out of that building), so I know for a fact that something must really be off. I subtly look around when I spot it, a pair of glints in a nearby bush. I hold my loot stack closer, ready to use an angle grinder with deadly intent if necessary. 

While it could just be a bout of paranoia and a trick of the light, a recent and disturbing uptick in disappearances supports a far more terrifying possibility.

A text alert from my phone startles me and I quickly yank it from my pocket.

Myla: [Yep]

Bee: [I am.]

Nova: [Do you guys think you can meet me in front of the electronics store down Hydrogen Lane? I need some assistance.]

Bee: [On my way.]

Myla: [Omw]

Amber: [Are you ok]

Nova: [Yep, I just bought a bit too much and need help carrying it.]

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding *Alright, they’re on their way*

While I wait to see if any more texts to come through, I glance back towards the bush. I get a simultaneous wave of relief and chill of dread as I notice that the lights are gone.

It doesn’t take long for me to direct Bee and Myla to where I am, and soon we are on our way back to Amber’s place.

“Hey Nova?” Myla is carrying a majority of the stuff I bought, but doesn’t seem slowed down in the slightest. “While I am happy to help, what is all this for?”

“Oh, you know” I adjust my grip, significantly more winded than Myla, despite my lighter load. “I want to test something, and this junk has the necessary parts.”

“What are you testing?”

I glance at Bee, her hands being full makes her essentially unable to communicate. I worry that she might not want to participate, and would rather have her consent, preferably written.

“I’ll tell you when everything is set up.”

Pretty soon, we arrive at Amber’s building and climb up the stairs (it suddenly feels like there are a lot more of those). I try to open the door, but can’t seem to free up a hand. I look to Myla and Bee and find that they are in a similar situation. As strong as Myla is, some of the items she’s carrying are awkwardly shaped and unwieldy.

*Alright, what’s my plan B?*

I suddenly have an idea. Instead of doing the obvious, putting down what I am carrying and simply opening the door, I elect to bonk my head against the door, sacrificing a number of my precious few remaining brain cells. A second or two later I work out what I probably should have done in the first place. I sigh to myself as Myla and Bee just roll their eyes, already used to my rather unorthodox solutions to obvious problems.

*Genius work as always, me.*

I think Mother put it best when she said “You always manage to find the second solution before the first one…”

Though it was pretty backwards, my head banging apparently worked, as Amber answers the door quickly.

“Welcome ba- WOW that is a ton of crap!” Amber seems almost alarmed when face to face with the new additions to my gremlin stash.

“Coming through!” Myla shouts from behind me.

All of us shimmy out of Myla’s way as she strides in with her cargo, both her and it wobbling for a terrifying second, causing everyone to hold their breath. Once she balances out, she drops everything in a messy pile on the floor. Annoyed by the overuse of her floor space, Amber shoots me a disgruntled expression as I go to place down my cargo next to Myla’s pile. I give her an apologetic grin in response.

Once I have the pile scattered into a ring of crap, I quickly get to work, dragging a portable tool kit out from under my bed, I plop myself down in the middle of the ring and start disassembling the “well used” electronics. Like some sort of mad surgeon I make short work of the exterior shell and dig through the internals, gently removing and setting aside the main part I need, dropping the miscellaneous bits (wires, circuit boards, the like) down in a pile next to me, and unceremoniously tossing the hollowed-out corpse behind me.

Myla gives me a weird look “Nova, your making that expression again…”

“Huh? What expression?”

“How would I describe it?” Amber wonders to herself.

Bee makes drilling motions into the sides of her neck, then the sign for assistant.

“That’s it, Frankenstein’s assistant! From that hundred and thirty-year-old movie!” Myla clarifies.

*Is that what that motion means? How do either of you know that?!*

“No worries, it looks cute on you!” Amber assures me.

I give them a blank stare and continue digging through electronic guts.

*Let’s see…*

Eventually, everything is nice and separated out in front of me and the specifics of how it will all come together begin to form in my head. The motor from the angle grinder slowly spins, rubbing two surfaces together, generating an extremely low, but tangible negative charge in an electrode, while a copper plate on the floor remains positively charged. When someone steps on the plate (barefoot, of course) and touches the electrode, the negatively charged electrons move through them and into the plate, causing a slight shock. Using how the control test (in this case, Myla) reacts to the shock compared to the subject test (Bee), I can determine whether or not Bee living the Vern’s assault was a lucky fluke or an anomalous biological phenomena, like my eyes. As a bonus, by measuring the difference between how much energy the electrode puts out versus how much the plate receives, we can see how much charge Bee is absorbing compared to the control subject, possibly giving insight into how her adaptation works, if it exists.

Now, it’s onto the more detailed planning, and from that plan, the further separation of what I need from what I don’t. I calculate out the general amount of wire I’ll need to connect the motor to the plate. I also make sure to include some of the other important parts. There is the cutoff switch between the motor and plate to separate the charges and arm the system, an emergency kill switch that dumps both charges into a ground wire, and the structural parts needed to keep everything in place.

*And finally, assembly!*

To get a better idea of how it’s all going to come together, I start by constructing a skeletal framework, using it as a template to install the primary parts on, while occasionally adding support wherever needed. Being the largest and most essential parts, the motor, plate, and dynamo sub-assembly needed to generate the charge are the first to be installed. Afterwards secondary parts are bolted and wired onto the lattice of steel supports and smaller poles. Lastly, a screen is connected to the central circuit board.

“Alright, all done here!”

*I think I’ll call this engineering abom… marvel a “Discharger”*

Looking around though, I think I may have taken longer than I initially expected to.

By the time I’ve managed to get everything bolted on and powered up, Myla and Bee had long since made themselves at home. Bee, having run herself down from an intense gaming session is happily passed out on Myla’s lap in the middle of a construction project. Myla, not wanting to wake her, picked up Bee’s controller and continued building, following Bee’s previous pattern. As for Amber, I’m pretty sure I heard her leave some time ago.

“About time.” Myla points outside.

The sky has made a small, but noticeable change in color.

“Right, sorry. I didn’t think it would take this long to build.”

“As usual…”

I shoot her a quick scowl “Well, we can get started as soon as Amber’s back.”

“I wouldn’t wait on it, she said something about going out for ramen; may be a while.”

“Hmm, I guess we’ll just fill her in later.”

Myla shrugs and shakes Bee lightly. Eventually, after some groans and a few eye rubs, both of them are up and ready.

Serving as a control subject, Myla steps onto the machine first.

“Alright, make sure you don’t have anything electronic on you, then just touch the electrode.”

“Mmm…” Tossing her phone onto the couch, Myla hesitates a bit before poking the electrode. A tiny bolt arcs from the metal to her hand, causing her to quickly retract it and hiss.

Author's Note: Due to letter caps, this chapter will be a (hopefully) two part upload.