June, 2013
After multiple attempts at making different rigs and treadmills, all of which ended up breaking because they couldn't handle Legai's lightning, Ikemi started getting frustrated, "That's it, I'm making a headband. It worked for Aajiah, I'll find a way to make it work for you." She says, throwing her hands up in defeat as Legai stepped off another smoking artificial treadmill. Legai points at her, "Hey! Whoa! You aren't gonna just dampen my powers are you?" He asks suspiciously. Jennifer raises an eyebrow, knowing that Ikemi knows better than to mess with her son. Ikemi replies, "Of course not, but I think it's the only way to be able to track your powers without you burning everything.". "And what do I do once I put it on?" Legai asks. "I don't know, run outside I guess. Somewhere where you aren't limited so we can reach your potential." She says, typing away on a personal tablet. "Alright fine, but I want mine in black." Legai responds. Ikemi rolls her eyes chuckling, "Of course you do.".
2 days later, Legai is bragging to Jackson about his new speed, "Wait, wait, lemme get this straight. You've now been too strong for Ikemi's inventions? This being the same Ikemi that was able to contain Aajiah, who we don't even fully understand yet?" Jackson asks in disbelief. Ikemi sends a small ball of fire at Jackson's feet for teasing her as she walks past him, "Try not to rub it in." She says playfully. "Also, you won't beat me for long, this is the second prototype of the headband and it should work." She said, determined to not let this project be the one to defeat her mind. All of the children, The Doctor and Jennifer go outside along with a couple scientists to monitor Legai's progress. Ikemi fits the headband on Legai's head, which is connected to her tablet, "Alright Legai, all you need to do is focus, and run really fast. As fast as you can, ok?" She says, trying to make sure he understands. "Yeah, right. Think hard, run fast. Got it." He says, nodding his head emphatically. Ikemi shakes her head, "No, I'm sorry, it's not that simple. When you go faster, your cells connect with the static in the air. This isn't just a motion you're making, it's more of a state of being. It'll take a while to get the hang of, but for now I just want you to focus." She says, and Legai stands ready, closing his eyes and slowing his breathing. Ikemi continued, going back and forth between looking at Legai and checking the data from the headband on her tablet, "Just....focus. Listen. Listen to the static. Feel the lightning in you, then around you. Then, when you're ready, breathe, and run." She says as she steps back to join the rest of the kids as they watch on. Legai sits, semi-embarrassed, in front of everyone as they watch in anticipation.
Jackson leans over to whisper to Ikemi, "Nice pep-talk." He said sarcastically. She replies, typing at her tablet, "Thanks, but I'm 90% sure it won't work." She says as they both share a laugh. "It won't work when I can hear you talking about me." Legai comments. He tries to ignore them and focuses, and he begins to feel the static. He sees the waves firing off as little signals, feeling like he could just reach out and touch them, which he does. He jolts forwards, then stops, startling everyone as they let out a shocked gasp. He does it again, and again, and then he went over the horizon of the island, before coming back from the other side, covered in dirt and water. The kids erupt in applause as Legai comes to an abrupt stop, tumbling to the ground, little sparks of lightning fading from his body. Ikemi runs through the information on her tablet, absolutely stunned. Jennifer comes over excited, "What did you get?" She asks, dodging the excited children as they celebrate. Ikemi responds, "In the 11 seconds that he was running, he ran around the entire island. Which is 612 miles in diameter. That means he just ran over 220,000 miles per hour." She says in shock, looking at Legai who was on the ground, gasping for air. Lenani looks at him in shock. She'd always seen him as a mentor, helping her grow through her powers lovingly at the same pace that he has, and it's done wonders for their relationship as friends. But superspeed? That would be just about impossible.
Aajiah goes to help him up, but upon touching his hand, he could feel his lightning being drawn out of his hand and into hers. She screams in pain and everyone steps back lightly panicking. The lightning could be seen coursing up her arm and through her chest, and halfway it turned from a light green to a vibrant pink. It was coursing all the way down her other arm, Aajiah still grunting in pain, before it came out of her hand in a light energy blast that blew up the ground on impact. Everyone stood in shock, waiting for something else to happen, but it never did. Legai and Aajiah just sat there, staring at each other, wondering what they just did to each other. Apollo looks at Ikemi, who frantically searches for an answer in her research, "What just happened?" He said, his heart racing. Ikemi stared at the charred crater Aajiah created with the blast, "I'm gonna need a lot more tests." She says. The next 3 weeks were full of tests, experiments, and trials that were...less than favorable for both Legai and Aajiah. At the end of the third week, she gathered all of the children to her desk in the children's room to show off her findings, "So, as you know Legai has been making progress with his speed, thanks to help from Lenani thank you very much." She says, acknowledging Lenani in the crowd. "Thanks to her help, and my designs for a new treadmill, one that finally works, Legai hit a new top speed!" She said excitedly. Jackson gets hyped up, "Seriously, what was it this time?" He said, playfully pushing Legai's shoulder. Ikemi responds, "Well, we've been able to more than double his speed and he's gotten better control of it. Go on Legai and give us a lap." She said humorously.
She hadn't actually meant it but Legai did take a lap around the island, in under 3 seconds. Just to show off. "Right well, as you can see his top speed currently sits at 734,400 miles per hour!!" She said happily, and everyone gave him a round of applause. Jackson nudges him on the shoulder, "Way to go McQueen!" He said jokingly. Legai chuckles, "I still am not agreeing to that nickname." He said. Jackson shrugged his shoulders, "You don't have a choice." He said smuggly. Ikemi then continued with her presentation, "And on top of that I've also been testing what happened with Aajiah, thank you for your cooperation." She says with a smile, but Aajiah just sat there with the most silent and irritated look on her face, which everyone shrugged off because that's what she looked like normally. Ikemi gave a nervous laugh, somewhat intimidated by Aajiah's stare and continued, "Um...Anyways, thanks to that, I finally figured out how it works. Aajiah's powers that is," She says, pulling up a recording of the events of the "accident" on multiple scanners, "See those green dots? That's Legai's specific energy signature from his lightning. See how it goes up into her arm, then dissipates around her chest? Now it just kinda disappears from there, and I didn't know where it went. So I widened the range of the scanner and I found out.." She says, as a new shape formed in pink dots around Aajiah's body, "That's Aajiah's energy. It surrounds Legai's energy and converts it into her energy before shooting it back out. And I know it's Legai's energy she's using cause look at that," She says, pointing at the scanning of the energy Aajiah shot out, "It has traces of the green dots in it, residue from Legai's lightning. So Aajiah's body took the energy and converted it into something she could use before shooting it back out. And then that reminded me of the headband. Her body reacted to his lightning because it's much stronger than what it was used to, that's why it overloaded the way it did." She says, shocking the whole group. Levia looks at Aajiah, "So the whole time that's how your powers worked?" She asked, confused. Aajiah shrugs her shoulders, "I don't know, this is the first time this happened." She says. "So does she like...absorb our lightning?" Lenani asks. Ikemi points at her before turning back to her computer, "I thought so. But then I investigated, and I figured out it's actually all types of energy, but mostly kinetic energy." She says.
Jackson looks at Ikemi suspiciously, "And how did you find that out?" He asked. Ikemi responded, rushing, "I uh....did some experiments.." She replied dismissively. "What type of experiments Keke?" Jackson asks, pressing the answer out of her. "SHE SHOT FIRE AT ME!" Blurts out Aajiah, pointing at Ikemi. "In my defense, it was my fire so it was completely controlled!" Ikemi says, putting her hands up. The group is in disbelief, "You shot fire at her!?" Levia yells at Ikemi. "Look, it was a controlled blast and she absorbed it just like I thought she would." Ikemi rebuttals. "And you didn't think this was important information to share?" Legai steps in. "YOU SHOT ME WITH FIRE!!" Aajiah repeats, aggressively. "And you're fine, which only proves my theory. You know I wouldn't hurt you seriously." She says, going back to her computer, "The experiments over and there's nothing left but the data. She's ok, and that's all that matters." She says, going back to sorting out the data on her computer.
Jackson's examination came up and everything was going smoothly. Until she noticed a smell. A smell coming from him. It was typical for males in puberty to exhibit strong odors but this was different. He smelt so...pure. Ikemi was almost intoxicated by it. "What is that?" She asks him. "What's what?" He asked, confused. "That smell. You don't smell it?" She replies, sniffing the air again before walking over to a computer to type some stuff in. "Uhhh no but, does it smell good?" Jackson asks, sniffing himself but to no avail. "Yes." She replied to herself before correcting herself, "I mean- yeah it smells good. But what is it?" She is absolutely confused as to what it is. Jackson's examination ends, and as he walks away, the smell goes with him. After a few days of testing, she discovers what it was. Jackson's body, in a form of puberty, was producing chemicals that purified the air around him.
It was a suprising development. Unexpected, though, with time, the human body develops, unlocking possibilities that were unavailable before. And with bodies as unique as them, being the only ones in existence, they have no idea what to expect. Much like the way the ends of Ikemi's hair had begun turning orange. Though it certainly was a random form of his powers, and there was no way to know if it would stay forever. She thought it was funny though. He purifies air and heals himself, theoretically he could be a smoker and still keep his perfect lungs. And his perfect eyes. And his perfect teeth. But the one thing in all of this that caught Ikemi by suprise wasn't this discovery, but how long the smell lingered. The aroma of his purified air was trapped in her nose like her brain didn't want to let it go, and she didn't. The smell brought her a strong sense of calmness, and helped her focus. She could smell it whenever she wanted just by calling it back to mind. Which she did. Often. She grew to love that smell. His smell. But she didn't know what to do about it. It was like she was addicted, and it scared her. Jackson's one of her oldest friends, and if he knew about these... feelings... it would complicate alot of things. With everything going on, them still being in The Facility they just didn't have time. And, to be honest, these feelings scared her. She didn't like how much they scared her. She wasn't even sure if it was fear she felt, but she's never felt something like this. But if she held this any longer she was gonna explode. She decided to talk to Jennifer about it, 'She's and adult, she's been married,' She thought to herself, 'She'll know what to do.'.
Elsewhere, The Doctor is in his office, taking a phone call, "Ikemi has achieved the impossible here sir. We finally understand how her powers work..." "So you shouldn't have any difficulty anymore." A deep voice interrupts him. The Doctor looks to his computer, "There is a complication." He pauses, "The newest boy's mother, why did you have me bring her here?" His brow furrowed. "If you needed to know that, you would. But it doesn't concern you. You know what your job is. I suggest you stick to that." The deep voice replies. The Doctors eyes peered over his glasses, "Yes sir." He responds. The real job was about to begin.