the ripple effect - tmnt (1) [edited ✔]

iii. mutagenesis

three. mutagenesis

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THERE WAS AN INTENSE SILENCE in the laboratory. The smell of cleaning supplies riddled her nose; a rather annoying side-effect to having a lab in an average apartment. It always had to be clean so naturally, there was a constant smell of bleach.

Everything in the room was white but the liquids in front of Florence. She had three beakers in front of her with three different colored liquids: pink, blue, and clear.

Florence took precautions before getting her father's materials and conducting her own experiment. There were some chemicals that she couldn't touch for safety reasons, but her father let her have free-roam of his laboratory.

She sat at the island in the center of the plain white room and spun in the swivel chair, staring intently at the three beakers and the canister of ooze right beside them. An untouched cup of coffee sat on a small plate beside her, steaming with heat.

Time was ticking. Her dad came home at exactly four and since she had taken an hour through the 'shortcut' on the way home, she only had a few minutes to find out exactly what the substance was.

Of course, she could have just waited for the next day, but her curiosity couldn't be ignored until she was satiated.

With a nervous swallow, Florence tied her hair up and adjusted the black leather lab apron covering her chest. She placed her safety goggles over her eyes and carefully picked up the canister of turquoise gelatin.

After unscrewing the top, she poured a few droplets into the blue liquid, her hands shaking terribly.

If the ooze was combustible like gasoline, it would have turned the blue liquid red. When there was no change, she checked off 'negative' on the notepad by her arm before moving onto the next liquid.

When there was no reaction with the clear liquid, she marked negative once more.

The pink liquid was supposed to turn white if there was any modifying abilities such as acid or certain chemicals that could change an object's property from solid to liquid or metal. If there was mutagenesis, then the ooze would bubble.

Wiping at her sweaty forehead with the back of her palm, Florence shakily tipped the canister over the beaker. The goo fell into the pink liquid and as soon as it did, the entire thing began to fizz as if she had put a Lactaid tablet into a cup of water. The droplets of ooze bubbled as the liquid slowly turned white, causing Florence's eyes to widen.

"It's a mutagen," she whispered in awe.

"Florence-"

With a yelp, the girl jumped in front of the table to face the opening white door. Davis Carter a younger man with blue eyes and white-grey hair, peeked his head through the door, a faint but tired smile covering his thin chapped lips.