The Superheroes' Soulmate

Chapter 54 - Power Hypothesis

I was shelving books the following Thursday near the end of the day when I felt Bruce approaching and I greeted him without turning around, "Hey, Bruce."

"How did—right never mind. Hey Lexi."

I turned to accept the kiss he placed on my cheek before he shuffled away, "Whatcha doing here Dr. Banner?"

"Had a guest lecture. Figured I'd see if you wanted to head back together." He answered, hands shoved into his pocket.

"Dude, of course. Hold on, I'm almost done. Why don't you go hang out in my office, I'll finish this and we can head out."

An hour and a half later we were standing in the elevator and heading up to the residential floors. The only one there at the moment was Peter, who was currently bent over his laptop and a textbook with earphones in. We settled at the table with drinks and the Bruce said,

"So, I think I made an interesting breakthrough on that pet project of mine."

I tilted my head, asking, "What pet project?"

He looked confused for a moment before he gestured at me, "The uh, looking into your powers thing?"

I kept my face serious as I said, "Aww, Bruce you consider me your pet?"

He immediately turned tomato red and started stuttering, I let it go on for a moment before I finally broke down laughing and laid a hand on his arm, "Bruce, chill, I'm just yanking your chain."

He grabbed his water and took a giant sip, his eyes darting all over the place. I rolled my eyes amused and said, "What was the breakthrough Bruce?"

"Uh, well technically I guess it's two."

Peter looked up at us then, yanking one of his earphones out, "Oh, hey guys whats up?"

"Hey Pete, Bruce was just going to tell me about how he might have some breakthroughs in regards to me."

"Oh, cool." He pushed his laptop and his book aside.

Bruce had managed to get himself completely under control again, though his face was still a little red, "Anyway. First, I think that your powers' origins tie into your DNA. I've noticed some, what I think are anomalies when I was looking at that. But I'm not a geneticist so I am going to get in touch with Helen Cho and see if she would be willing to take a look and either confirm or deny what I think I am seeing."

I recognized the name, and knew that she was someone that the team used regularly. So I just nodded and asked what the other breakthrough was about.

Bruce pulled his notebook and a pen out then asked me, "How much do you know about brainwaves?"

I lifted a hand and tilted it side to side, "Eh. Some."

Bruce nodded and then drew five different set of waves on a clean piece of notebook paper, "Okay, so people have five basic brainwave types that each function on a different frequency."

He pointed to the first wave, "Delta waves. These are generated in deepest meditation and dreamless sleep. Healing and regeneration are stimulated in this state. This is also where external awareness is suspended and considered the source of empathy."

He pointed to the next wave, "Theta waves are next. These also occur most often in sleep but are also dominant in deep meditation. Theta waves are the waves that lead to learning, memory, and intuition. They are responsible for dreams, vivid imagery, intuition and information beyond our normal conscious awareness."

He pointed to the third wave pattern he had drawn, "Alpha waves. These are dominant during times when the mind is quietly flowing with thoughts. It is the resting state of the brain. Alpha waves aid in overall mental coordination, calmness, alertness and the mind and body integration and learning."