WALKING DISASTERS | Jack Thompson

40.

"WOW, THAT'S WILD," Howard gasped, as he placed a pen in Peggy's vicinity and watched it float.

"But treatable, I hope," she replied, as Howard picked up a turkey baster and let it float next to the pen.

He then reached for a bottle of wine, and when he let go, it hit the floor and shattered, spilling everywhere. Jarvis let out a quiet, "Oh," as Howard winced. "Damn. Should've used the cheap stuff."

"We get it, stuff floats around her," Daniel said. "Why? And how? Is she okay?"

"Everybody's so impatient, you're missing the obvious," Howard said. "Anybody?"

He addressed them as though he was speaking to a class of schoolchildren, so Sera spoke up. "The temperature around Peggy is approximately seven degrees cooler than the rest of the room."

"Bingo," Howard said.

"Not unlike the lady in the lake," Jarvis said. "And the detective, and the medical examiner."

"That's a constant," Howard said. "A good thing to have in an equation."

"But they all froze to death," Peggy said.

"Relax," Howard said. "You're not freezing. You're not contaminated with Zero Matter. Who can tell me how I know this?"

"Are you teaching a class?" Peggy asked.

Jarvis raised his hand and Howard said, "Jarvis. You have a hypothesis?"

"There's a disruption in the gravitational field around Miss Carter," Jarvis replied.

"Excellent!"

"How do we get it to stop, professor?" Daniel asked.

Howard grinned. "I've got an idea."

Down in Howard's lab, they started working on a concoction. Sera helped out, wearing a lab coat as she and Howard measured out chemicals and attempted to find a way to stop Peggy's unnatural ability to make things float.

"Filmmaking isn't art," Howard said. "It's more than that. It's science, which is why I'm gonna beat these movie yahoos at their own game."

"Because of your boundless modesty?" Jarvis asked.

"Photography is the science of capturing light in its permanent form," Howard explained. "When you capture that light, the image is still invisible, and that's when the developing process comes in."

"You're using silver nitrate," Daniel said. "That's what photographers use to bind images to celluloid," when everyone looked at him, impressed, he shrugged. "Come on. It's the Strategic Scientific Reserve."

"The silver nitrate creates a photosensitive coating which recreates the captured image onto film," Sera explained.

"But Jarvis and I have been working on a new chemical solution," Howard said.

"Mr Stark's process would make all invisible wavelengths - ultraviolet, X-ray, infrared - not just visible but recordable," Jarvis said.

"If I can pull that off, I'll make a fortune," Howard said. "Another fortune."

"You think your formula can make, well, this visible?" Peggy asked, gesturing to the space around her

"It exists," Howard said. "By definition, it must be observable. Ready to give it a go?"

Using a spray bottle not unlike a water gun, Howard sprayed the area around Peggy and a figure began to form. Sera watched as Jason Wilkes began to appear in front of them, fully formed.

"Dr Wilkes?" Peggy gasped, reaching out to touch him but having her hand move straight through him. "Howard, what's happening? Why can't I touch him?"

"He's visible, he's just not tangible," Sera said. "You can't touch him anymore than you can touch a light out of a projector."