Unexpected

Answers

Licking her lips the glasses wearing woman nodded her head, "What do you know and understand already?"

I gave it a moment of thought before answering, "I know that the scepter didn't work on me, didn't control my mind like it does everyone else. I know that this is caused by some sort of anomaly in my cell structure, something about how my cells absorb and use energy in a strange way. I know that after I broke the lightbulb in the fridge I got a shock and was able to toss Ed across the fridge and I know that when I was told to hold onto those rods and was given a shock while running on that treadmill that I was running way faster than I could've before. I know that none of this is normal or just caused by adrenaline, but I don't know what all of this means..." my emotions started swirling around inside of me as my fears about what this could be overtook me, making me speak faster and louder as I continued, "What is it? Is it some sort of ability? Is it some mutation? Is it a sickness? Am I a freak?"

"No, Miss Copper, you are not a freak." She responded quietly, her voice a mix of the mind control emptiness and the sympathy of a woman.

"Well, I feel like one. Do you know what it's like to be experimented on? You used me as a lab rat!"

"We were only thinking about the scientific aspect of your... condition. We did not mean to upset you and we have now paid the price for it." She said, waving her hand at the distance between us.

I nodded my head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take that out on you. Please, just tell me what's wrong with me. I want to understand."

"I wouldn't say anything was wrong with you, Miss Copper. I'd just say that your cellular structures were phenomenal. You see, cells absorb energy from the body, the blood, and that energy is used by the body to move muscles and grow. Your cells, however, can absorb more energy than just that made from your digestive system like most people. There seems to be a mutation of some sort within the very structures of your cells, one that the scientific community has never seen before. Because of this, your cells absorb not only the energy created by your body, but several types of external energy as well."

"Like...the electricity from the lightbulb... and the shock from those treadmill polls." I said, understanding.

"Exactly." She said in her hollow voice, adjusting her cat-eye glasses on her nose, "That's why the scepter didn't work on you. The gem in the scepter is part of the Tesseract we believe, and the Tesseract, among other things, is a huge energy source. When Loki tried to expand your mind you simply absorbed the energy it gave off and, hence, your mind wasn't opened."

I started pacing back and forth between the walls of the hallway, taking this all in, "Okay, that makes sense."

"There's more." She interrupted me just as I opened my mouth to thank her.

My mouth hung open, still not shut from the words I had been about to say, after a few seconds of my mouth moving without producing sound, I finally got out a single whispered word, "More?"

She nodded before continuing, "You see, your body doesn't just absorb the energy, or else it would be transferred and transformed into fat and you would be rather heavy. Your body-"she paused and looked down at the ground looking mildly frustrated, "It's so hard to describe it in a none scientific, way the average mind can understand."

I tried not to take this the wrong way, pushing back the feeling like she'd just implied that I was stupid.

"Instead of being excess energy that is stored as fat for potential later use, your body will convert it and use it right then and there." She floundered a bit again in her explanation, "It could be described as being similar to one of those life and death adrenaline rushes that allow an average woman to lift a car off her child. Like when you tossed Ed off of you in the refrigerator with exceptional strength for a woman of your build. Now, that adrenaline thing can seriously hurt people, crack their bones, stretch their muscles past the breaking point, but your energy absorption is different. It doesn't hurt you; it... enhances you I suppose one could say. It makes your muscles stronger, your immune system work faster, possibly your brain more susceptible to taking in knowledge. Basically we think from our findings that since this energy surges through you like this throughout all of your cells that you're whole self can be made 'better'."