A Sisterly Reunion - Part 1

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PART 1

ForceTech Industries HQ - DOWNTOWN, MILLENNIUM CITY


Standing on the edge of the ForceTech Industries building; Su looked down at the traffic below. She focused momentarily, generating a transparent; disk shaped force field which hovered just a few inches from the roof. Su jumped towards the disk, landing on it as she looked out towards the sunrise, smiling to herself. A shuffling of feet some way behind her alerted her to the presence of several other people on the roof. She turned her head slightly to see a young man standing awkwardly on the roof accompanied by two lab assistants. He removed his safety glasses, pressing his fingers and thumb into the bridge of his nose; his expression was that of surprise and curiosity. Su directed the disk to move back over to the roof and she stepped off it, dismissing it as she walked towards them. The young man’s eyes were fixed on a data pad he held in his hands, re-reading the information it presented. He looked up, slightly shocked when he saw her considerably closer than she was a few moments ago.

“Marcus, how are you enjoying your work experience? I take it you’ve been working through your assignment?” asked Su.

“Dr. Summerstone…I-er…” he started

“Su is fine, really.” she smiled.

“O-oh right, Su, I-I am really enjoying myself so far, thank you so much for the opportunity. Your labs are amazing and I love…er, sorry. Ahem, I’ve run into a bit of a situation. I have a, well…unexpected result.” Marcus continued somewhat sheepishly.

One of the lab assistants stepped forwards with another data pad in hand; he tapped the screen a few times and handed it over to her. Su frowned as she studied the data, soon nodding as she realised what had happened. She ran the scenario in her head for a moment and gestured towards the assistants. They nodded and left the roof, leaving her and Marcus to talk.

“I see, so what were your observations?” she asked.

“Well…when exposed to the concentrated rays from Sample 2, the concrete form of VAR.1.9 seemed to absorb the energy leaving no detectable residual radiation. There was a significant change in the colouring of VAR.1.9, but the molecular structure remains the same albeit seemingly imbued with…energy. But, I didn’t expect VAR.1.9 to absorb the energy so completely…and as a result we have a large quantity of VAR.1.9 that is well…irradiated. My task this week is to study VAR.1.9 and Sample 2. But I’m…not sure what to do next.” Marcus replied.

“You’ve made some good observations, especially with two substances you aren’t familiar with, so you should be proud of yourself there. Based on your preliminary data on the properties of VAR.1.9, what could you utilize to isolate the affected matter so you can carry out further analysis?”

Marcus frowned, reciting a list of properties in an undertone, his eyes shifting back and forth as he searched for the answer. He suddenly looked up as he found the answer.

“VAR.1.9 can be subjected to rapid oxidization!” he grinned.

“Exactly, so you’ll need to oxidise the upper geo-stratum of sediment to isolate the irradiated particles. Question for you though, what sort of spectral analysis will be in order so you can really determine if the energy was absorbed or not?” Su replied.

“Absorption spectroscopy?” he asked.

“Absolutely right, Pam and Richard will be on hand if you have any more questions.”

Su interacted with the data pad screen and handed it over to Marcus.

“Here, go to the Defence Tech labs on Floor 7 and ask for Dr. Christo. Once you’ve passed security give her your name and details, you’ll be reporting to her for the rest of your work placement with us. Normally I would be around but I can’t this week. I may be able to check in with you early next week provided things go according to plan.” Su explained.

Marcus nodded and accepted the data pad, briefly looking at it and then turned back to Su, he frowned as he seemed to contemplate something, opening his mouth but hesitating to speak. Su tilted her head slightly, giving a small but reassuring smile.

“Did you have another question?” she asked.

“I-yeah, just…if this in anyway offends you or sounds weird just…let me know and this conversation will have never happened, okay?” he murmured.

She nodded and raised an eyebrow slightly as he fidgeted, shuffling slightly as he looked down.

“Sorry I- I’m getting nervous; I don’t know why this is happening it’s not that…well I wouldn’t imagine it’s too personal...o-or…well, I’d like to test if there’s any physical differences between artificial force fields and naturally generated force fields.” Marcus explained sheepishly.

“In other words you’d like me to generate a force field so that you can touch it?” she smiled.

“Yes! Er…for science! O-of course…” Marcus replied.

He watched as she stretched out her arm towards him, opening her hand as a spherical, transparent force field appeared floating above her hand. Marcus blinked and looked at the force field, he looked to Su and she nodded.

“Go ahead; you won’t get thrown back or anything.”

Marcus tentatively reached out and placed both his hands on the sphere, his eyes widened slightly as he pushed against it. The force field was cool to the touch, slight ripples spread out from where his hand connected with the sphere. As he pressed against it, the feel of the force field changed, becoming much more solid with the increased pressure.

“It’s a lot cooler that I had anticipated. It feels…strange. Almost as if it is in a constant state of flux.” he mused.

Marcus continued muttering to himself as he prodded the force field, continuing to apply varying amounts of pressure to it. Su turned away as her communicator went off and answered it.

“Hello?”

“Where are you, you’re going to be late!”

“Calm down J’asira, it’s not like you’re at the mansion already.” Su replied.

“…Fair point. But I’m at least leaving out now, instead of having conversations with a fan boy!”

“Hey! He’s a student on a work placement!”

“Right. One who happens to be obsessed with force fields and maybe even you?” J’asira ribbed.

Su rolled her eyes and turned back to Marcus who seemed to try and push the spherical force field, even momentarily scanning it.

“Now I know you’re crazy, why would anyone be obsessed with me?”

“Well…” started J’asira in a sing-song voice.

“El’sai, don’t answer that. I’ll meet you there.” huffed Su.

She clicked off the com-link and turned back to Marcus, who promptly stood up straight.

“All done?” Su asked.

“Yes, thank you! I suppose you need to get going, thanks again.” he grinned.

“No problem, remember to speak to Doctor Christo if there are any issues, okay?” Su smiled

Marcus nodded as the sphere vanished. He watched as Su paused at the edge of the building, she narrowed her eyes slightly and jumped off the edge. Marcus gasped and ran to the side, soon stepping back as Su was lifted back up on a disk shaped force field, her hair fluttering in the low wind. Marcus gave a small wave as she flew away from the building.

---

SUMMERSTONE MANSION - UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

Su sighed happily as she finally saw the Summerstone Mansion in the distance; she directed the path of the force disk towards the mansion looking ahead as she sensed the thrum of the mansion’s electrified barrier. She looked down focusing on the ground below; the familiar, low humming of her force field sounding as she descended. Without warning a pair of boots dropped next to her on the force disk, Su looked up and saw her younger sister grinning at her. The grin didn’t reach her eyes, Su noted the lack of joy in them, but decided to avoid mentioning it immediately. J’asira latched onto her sisters’ arm as the disk continued to descend, silently thankful her sister didn’t perceive the sadness she was trying to hide.

“I thought you’d teleport in from the Moon Base?” asked Su.

“I was running around with UNTIL today, just collecting some raw materials and working alongside their scientists. The recent return of Mechanon really freaked them all out, so their trying to come up with something new so that if and when he returns to wipe out all organics we’ll have something to fight back with.” J’asira explained.

“Oh I see. Oh, how’s Jane doing? Is the procedure underway yet?” asked Su.

“Not yet, UNTIL are trying to force me to hurry it up, but I’m worried they don’t have the right view of her. She’s a person, a friend, not some weapon they can just upgrade when they want. She may be saying she’s fine with it, but something just doesn’t feel right about the whole situation.” J’asira mused.

“Well, with Mentella coming back, hopefully she can lend a hand. I’ve been worried sick ever since they left. I knew you’ve been feeling the effects. Ever since she left you’ve attempted to upgrade every little thing around the mansion, just to keep busy. I don’t think Vi enjoyed the toaster turning into a mini battle droid and attempting to vaporise her toast when it burned her.” Su remarked.

J’asira looked down, blushing slightly; she cleaned the screen on her gauntlet.

“Yeah…I’ve really missed Mentella. I, er, I think Violet’s still mad at me for that. She’s not a morning person.”

“How’s Sai’edra? I haven’t seen her but I heard she’s back.” asked Su.

“Sai’edra’s…she was really, really beat up. A lot more than what she wanted me to believe, even tried to hide it by sapping the power. I suspect there’s much more psychological damage than anything else. As I’m unable to look into her head, all I can to offer her is physical treatment; dermal regeneration rays, high powered energy cells and all that. She’s the worst patient…I’m just so glad she’s okay, well as okay as she can be. But, she’s thrown herself back into active duty with Delta.” sighed J’asira.

“You didn’t stop her?” Su frowned.

“When Sai’edra’s determined to do something…it’s best to allow her to do it. If she needs ‘patching up’, she knows I’ll always be there to help. She stopped round recently, she’d just come back from a mission with Delta. Sai just needed a safe environment to recover.”

“What happened?”

“Remember that incredibly intense blizzard that raged over most of Canada briefly?”

“Yes, I heard about it. Communications were jeopardized and Steelhead needed some assistance.” Su nodded.

“The situation developed after Delta stepped in, Sai’edra said they ran into a few problems. An off-world ship crashed nearby. It was Roin’esh. And then Cyberlord came along but they managed to control the situation soon enough.”

The force disk continued to lower slowly as the mansion grounds came into view.

“So…what happened to Sai’edra?” asked Su

“She took a high amount of damage in her physical form during the fights but kept going instead of transforming into her energy form in order to recover. She transformed eventually but something was preventing her from recovering fully. When she told me, I ran a few tests and discovered that she had residual dimensional energy stored for some reason. Sai told me that a few days earlier she’d gone to another dimension to save a team mate and absorbed some dimensional energy. She wasn’t entirely confident in the structural integrity of the room she was allowed to expel in, so she didn’t expel it all. Long story short is…it attempted to mix with her natural energy and slowed down her healing.” explained J’asira.

“I’m guessing she purged at the labs, meditated for a couple hours and didn’t take the advice to rest up for a few days?” Su smirked.

J’asira nodded and smiled as she entered a code into her gauntlet as they hovered above the barely visible energy shield; a small hole appeared in the shield and they passed through it. J’asira sighed as it resealed behind them. She turned to her sister again.

“How did your search for Mr. Personal Force Field Project go?”

“I’ve not been able to find him; every lead I follow up on seems to lead to dead ends or burnt out safe houses. I’m getting the impression he’s quite experienced in running from people and severing connections. I’ve got a good idea of why that is though…” mused Su.

A hint of her normal joy returned as a grin appeared on J’asira’s face, her voice taking on a more sympathetic tone.

“Don’t worry, Su! You’ll find him! Love never fails!”

Su’s face dropped as J’asira burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Despite the small feeling of relief that came with seeing her younger sister happy again, even for a moment, Su couldn’t help but feel a tiny spike of annoyance at her sister’s comment. Su’s eyes narrowed playfully; the force disk’s diameter suddenly shrank and J’asira let out an uncharacteristic yelp and clung to Su. J’asira pouted as she saw a small smile on her older sister’s face. They reached the ground and J’asira stepped off the platform. Su looked over to her sister, her expression that was just moments ago joyful had shifted to anxiousness with more than a hint of sadness. Su placed an arm around her sister, drawing her closer as they walked up the steps.

“She’ll be okay.” Su whispered.

“She didn’t return when she said she would! She was meant to return a few weeks ago! What if something terrible happened? What if Elyisaus returned and really hurt her? What if Psion wasn’t able to stop something from happening? What if…?” cried J’asira

Su drew her closer and replied as she opened the doors.

“El’sio, morde rtra’n J’asira! Don’t worry about possibilities; we must deal with the facts. Sai’edra was contacted by Psion who told her Mentella was fine and a few days later we were all contacted by Mentella, telling us that she was okay. Even though she didn’t return when she said she would…Mentella’s a lot tougher than most people realise, plus she had Psion with her. He’s completely obsessed with her, so I have no doubt he took care of her…and anything that tried to harm her.” assured Su.

J’asira sighed and looked up and looked around; most of the Summerstone Sisterhood was present, with the exception of Jane and CharmCaster. J’asira walked over to where Cou’ra stood. Cou’ra perked up slightly as she turned around to see J’asira walking towards her.

“Hey! I haven’t seen you in forever! How’ve you been holding up?” Cou’ra exclaimed.

J’asira gave a half-hearted shrug, her expression seemed to be closed off but raw and open at the same time, Cou’ra sighed and offered J’asira nearby seat. Cou’ra looked up at her older sister as she came down the stairs and shook her head at her. Sarah nodded and looked towards Su; she shifted out of her diamond form as she approached her. Su watched as Sarah shifted back to her normal appearance as she fixed the purple sash around her waist. Su stuck out her hand to greet Sarah but was soon pulled into a strong but brief embrace.

“Good to see you again Sus’anna, I could have used a force field or two a couple of weeks ago. Cryogen showed up and attacked Cou’ra, civilians got in the way and…well it was a little messy. Cou’ra’s fine though.”

“It’s good to be back. I’m sure you brought everything under control, with your diamond form I can’t see why you’d need a force field.” Su grinned.

Sarah looked at Su’s smile, noting the lack of emotion in her eyes and frowned slightly.

“Hey, I can see you are both feeling the strain. Just try to relax. You can drop the whole ‘I’m fine’ act; I know it’s tough; I’ve been where you are. We have a few minutes before they are meant to arrive.” Sarah said quietly.

“Yeah…I’ve been trying to stay strong for J’asira…but I’ve been rushing around the country these past few months and I’ve only been able to check in with J’asira every once in a while. I just feel a little…vulnerable without Mentella around. Anyway, I have a feeling J’asira will burst into tears and every single piece of tech in this place will blow up or go crazy, in other words...I’m dreading the reunion. Do you have any idea when Sai’edra will be here?” Su sighed.

“I’ve just been sparring with Sai’edra. She’s in good physical shape; she seems a bit…distracted though. Oddly enough her proficiency with serivn weaponry has increased dramatically. But I think this whole situation has gotten to her emotional core. Sai’edra’s abilities are way off, unfocused. I don’t even know how she’s managing to not be a serious liability to Delta. She’s strong but, she needs to stop trying so hard, I don’t know what happened back home but…she really needs help. Violet tried to help her earlier in the week but got completely overwhelmed, almost collapsed. She said Sai’edra’s mind was a minefield at the moment.”

Su frowned and shook her head.

“If Mentella’s okay when she gets back, I hope she convinces Sai’edra to take some time off or does something to help her. El’sai…aside from Cryogen attacking…anything else happen at the Academy or to anyone in the sisterhood?” asked Su.

“No, Academy went as smoothly as possible. We had to call in a few teachers to cover Jane’s lessons, from what I’ve been hearing this might be a permanent fixture but I’d have to talk to Jane about that. I haven’t heard from CharmCaster in a while, so her classes had to be covered too. Attendance was slightly lowered in the past few months though. Understandable with Gravitar tearing up access routes and the last vestiges of Mechanon’s mechanical army floating around causing trouble and playing with the transport systems. Super Villain activity has been on the increase lately but there are plenty of heroes out there to deal with it so it hasn’t been that much of a problem.” Sarah replied.

Click here for PART 2