Jupiter [Marvel Phase I]

twenty-one.

"Increase output by a factor of ten."

Electricity crackled across her skin, though every muscle, deep within her bones. Her body thrummed and pulsed with a deafening roar only she could hear. Two voices rose above it all.

"But 141 has never been able to handle anything greater than one gigawatt-"

It hurt. Every part of her was filled with a searing pain, white-hot burning. But she couldn't give in. Not now, when she was so close. She grit her teeth and held onto consciousness.

"The subject is holding steady at nine-hundred megawatts. Her capacities have shown improvement recently. Increase the voltage."

From where she was standing, she couldn't see who the voices belonged to. They were being broadcast into the room through a speaker system. It leant their voices a tinny quality. As for the speakers, they stood out prominently; the only black spots in an otherwise blindingly white room. The wall directly across from her was mostly taken up by a mirror - no, one-way glass. The people, the scientists, were on the other side, observing her safely from behind a wall of insulating ceramic tiles.

The only person she could see was herself, reflected in the mirrored glass. Saw the wires attached to every part of her body. She looked so young. When she spoke, her voice was higher than she ever remembered hearing.

"I can handle it!"

Her declaration was loud, meant to drown out the screaming insecurities of her own mind. There was a lot riding on this test. She had to prove herself. The shame of failure was the least of her concerns if she couldn't do something as simple as this.

The following silence only served to amplify her fears. They were going to pull the plug on the test, she thought, and she would follow.

Then the P.A. system clicked back on. "Increasing the power to one-point-five gigawatts," the second voice said with mild trepidation. She had the fight the urge to smile. They wouldn't have liked any smiling.

In her moment of celebration, she nearly forgot what this victory meant. Panic returned, lighting her up like the electricity surging through her body. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the power increase.

It wasn't a sudden, steep climb. She knew the men who had spoken earlier. They were cautious, raising the power kilowatt by agonizing kilowatt, ready to cut the test the moment something went awry. But she refused to give them the chance.

Before she knew it, a voice was announcing, "Nine hundred fifty megawatts."

See, she tried to tell herself. This wasn't so bad. She could do this. And then they would see her value to the program. Only a little more.

"Holding steady at one gigawatt."

She nearly cried in victory. There! She did it! She-

"Increase the voltage by the same degree."

"...Sir?"

"You heard me. Earlier, you mentioned that her maximum capacity had increased. It would be prudent to record by how much."

"Yes, but if we do that..."

Wait, she couldn't be hearing this right. She'd never gone above one gigawatt in tests before. What if-

There was no time to think about that now! She would show them her progress.

"Do it!" She shouted, before doubt could creep back in.