EVERMORE ─ marvel

II. The Scientist

Chapter Two
Analiese

"I'm sure it's not that bad." I muse, staring at the computer screen.

Jo sighs from where she sits on a stool next to my desk. "Math is stupid, I don't get why I have to keep learning it if I know I'm never going to use it in my life."

"You could change your mind some day, you never know."

She scoffs. "I know if I ever do change my mind I won't want to do a job that has to do with math," Jo crosses her arms, a grin spreading on her lips. "I'm pretty confident in my choice of profession. I love reading more than I've ever loved anything, I think it only makes sense to write books for a living. And of course one day I'll become lady of the Jabari when Baba steps down."

"Is that what you want?"

"I guess. I didn't really like it when I had the job a few months ago, but I like the idea of helping my people and making a difference. I can always do both."

I jot down something on the stack of papers in front of me as I nod her way. "I think you'll be great in whatever you decide to do."

I glance over to her and find her waving me off. "You're just saying that."

"I'm really not. I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not exactly a people person, especially with children. You and your cousins are the only kids I like, if I thought you had no potential, I'd tell you."

Jo nods slowly, thinking about that statement for a second before saying: "Thanks?"

I push myself away from my desk and turn my chair to face her, placing the stack of papers in my lap. Jo came to me today, claiming to be on a lunch break, and asked me to run some tests on her to learn more about her powers. I asked her if she ever had Shuri do it, and as I suspected the answer was yes. But the answers Shuri gave her didn't give her the answers she sought. She's less interested in how her powers work, more in how her mother's powers play into her preexisting knowledge. Her mother could create electricity, it's how she died, and it's made Jo confused as to how she got the powers she did given that her mother didn't. If she had, she might still be alive.

"I don't have your mother's file or yours, nor any formula that was used on you, so I can't give you as many answers as you'd want. But here's what I've gathered; you can create and control electromagnetic waves, that's basically all your forcefields are. You can fly in them because you can reverse the magnetic pull around you to bounce off the earth, like trying to force the same side of two magnets together. That's also why you can turn invisible. Light is a form of electromagnetism, so you have the power to reflect and bend it. From what I've seen in the videos your mother made during the experiments, the serum she injected herself with was meant to allow a person to create electric and magnetic fields. The reason why you both had a reaction to it is probably genetics. But why she created an electrical blast and died while you have the powers you do...she might have tampered with the serum in your blood."

Jo doesn't look satisfied with this answer, so I try to continue on, though I don't think it will help any more. "Serums are basically just chemicals, they're foreign objects we are putting in our bodies, and a lot of human bodies can't handle them. It's possible your mother saw that she was having a bad reaction to the serum, or no reaction at all, and worried for your safety, and that's why she tampered with it."