Weightless ║ X-Men Continuity: Book 1

Chapter 7

In which Marilyn finally gets to go see the garden.

Marilyn did not expect Hank's tests to include so much exercise! When she had arrived to the lab, Hank had given her some sweatpants and a shirt with the institute's logo embroidered on it for her to change into. First, he had her run laps, timing her and taking notes on who-knows-what. After that, he gave her a variety of exercises to perform: sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, and others she couldn't remember the names of. He was timing her to see how many she could do in a minute. Marilyn was certain she was disappointing him—physical strength was not her forte, and no doubt she looked ridiculous when she fell on her face doing a pushup.

"Alright, that's enough." Marilyn flopped on her back after Hank uttered those magic words, panting from the workout. Hank was standing above her, scrawling something on his clipboard. "I needed to get a baseline of your physical abilities. Mutations can sometimes change this by giving one a strength or adrenaline boost. I want to be able to keep track of any changes when you use your mutation..." he babbled on about things Marilyn didn't fully understand. She was finding it hard to focus on his voice. Her vision had blurred and she felt shaky, an uncomfortable, but familiar, sensation in her stomach.

"Are you okay?" Hank's question brought back Marilyn's focus. His face had a concerned expression. "You look pale."

"Low blood sugar," Marilyn grumbled, scrambling to her feet, "Give me a sec." She grabbed her bag (which she had been towing around the giant mansion, in case this very situation happened). A quick glucose check revealed her levels to be in the mid-sixties. She dug a juice box out of her bag and leaned against the wall, chugging the whole thing in eight seconds. Once she was finished, she got back to her feet, threw away her trash, and walked over to Hank's desk where he had been watching her.

"Now what?" She asked him.

"Well, I've got a list of questions to go over with you. Are you sure you're alright, Marilyn?"

"I will be," she assured him with a wave of her hand, "We can get started if you're ready."

Hank nodded. Marilyn pulled up a seat across from him as he got out a notebook from a drawer. "Okay. So, your mutation developed eleven days ago?"

"Correct," she responded. 

Hank hummed as he wrote in his notebook. "That's interesting. Most mutations develop in the early teens. Did you not see any signs of it when you were younger?"

"Not at all," Marilyn said with a shrug, "I would've noticed if I was making things float or crushing them."

Hank chuckled. "I'm sure you would have. Now, what was the situation that triggered you initially?"

"I was fighting with my brother and he threw a knife at me," Marilyn said. Hank looked up at her in alarm. She laughed awkwardly. "It was stupid. He didn't believe me when I said that you bake cheesecake. He yelled at me, told me I was lying, then shoved me. I ran, he threw a knife. Boom. Everything was floating. He left me alone afterwards so that was a win!"

Hank's eyebrows had shot up. "All that over cheesecake?"

Marilyn forced another laugh. "Yeah. Ridiculous, huh?"

Hank shook his head. "No, that's messed up. What did your parents do?"

"Yelled at me for wrecking the kitchen and 'trying to start a fight.' Nothing new."

Hank looked like he wanted to say more on the matter, but he didn't. He scrawled for a minute on the paper, and Marilyn found herself wondering what he was even writing about. After finishing, he looked back up at her. "So, after that, what sorts of situations would trigger your mutation again?"