The group was hanging in Gemini's room. She was on her desktop running through the files again. Castor and Pollux were very excited to have company.
"It's like you were a whole different person, Lex. I knew something about you smelled special."
"I don't know though… It all just happened so quickly. All I remember was a flash of light, and then... Boom!"
Leo was sitting down, petting Pollux as the kitty brushed up against his waist.
"I really don't understand it at all... And, I'm sorry about dropping you."
He looks up at Owen.
Owen was leaning in the back of the room, thinking quietly to himself, aiming to deduct and plan out how to overcome this issue. He felt weird. He's in the same room as the targets, but as it stands, they're both on the same side. A common enemy. Brett Syphon. He glanced over at the cats.
"Aww... They're so adorable…"
He made a small smile at the sight of them.
His thoughts were interrupted when Lexo began speaking to him.
"I tried killing you, so... You can consider it as getting back at me."
He joked, but his tone could... Definitely use some work.
"But still. How were my frequencies able to affect you to the point that your body was... How do I put this? Rippling? Lexo, what are you?"
"That's the thing."
Lexo lifts his hand up, looking at the shattering scars painted along his left arm.
"... I don't know."
His words were spoken through a true cloud of confusion.
"... Hm…"
Owen begins thinking. Lexo's speed in that form. The light cast from his movements. The effects frequencies and vibrations had on him when his frequencies should've only ruptured his eardrums.
"Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt, but somehow, someway... Your physiology might be related to light. It's the only way I can explain how susceptible you were to my frequencies."
"I wonder if there's any historical record of something similar."
Gemini switched one of her monitors to a search engine and tried to find any info on Lexo's abilities.
Nothing shows up, but when she searches up similar reactions and sources of power… It brings up a study on the sun. A forum blogged recently by an independent source.
"Light? What kind of light? Isn't there like... A whole bunch of different types of it?"
Lex scratches the back of his head awkwardly.
Gemini skimmed through the paper, a little bewildered as to why a seemingly unrelated study was the top search result.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out."
Owen thinks for a small while.
"Implications of this could be infinite. The closest thing I have to compare to you is Syphon himself."
Owen pauses to gather his thoughts, and then continues.
"From what I've heard, his physiology can't be understood by regular technology. Not even his own top scientists know who he is outside of him being a sort of anomaly."
"Not only that, but he can steal and control most known natural forms of energy."
"Yeah, he's turned himself into some sort of... Techno-freak. I don't understand why the government allows him to keep doing that..."
Lexo glances over at Gemini's screen.
"First it was H9H, and now this..."
His eyes catch an interesting paragraph as she scrolls. He suddenly stands up, and moves closer. Laying a hand on her chair as he points at the monitor.
"Wait, go back a little bit."
"Hm?"
Owen walks over, gazing at the monitor to see what caught Lexo's eye
She scrolls back up to let him read.
Dyson Dome. A planned power plant surrounding the footprint of Petrichor City, will provide enough power from the sun to fuel the nation's electricity needs for years to come. Funded by researchers and government development teams, production for this project will skyrocket within the next few months.
Trademark, Syphon Industries.
"Trapping the city in a dome of solar panels? That can't be good."
He thinks to himself.
"What is Brett planning...?"
As Owen read the paragraph, his heart started to sink.
"What the...?"
He looks at Lexo, wondering if it relates to him. However, with Lex only recently awakening to his solar powers this can't be the case. Owen realizes this had to be in the work for months. Perhaps even years.
"He must be trying to harness the power of the sun to further fuel his company..."
Owen adds.
"Sounds more like a sunlight monopoly if you ask me."
"Whatever this is, there's no way it'll be helpful for the city... I mean look at the design."
Lex looks closer,
"From this design graph alone... There's virtually no exits or entrances to this thing that aren't heavily monitored."
"That is… very dictatorial of him."
Gem downloaded the full plans to her desktop and kept scrolling through the article.
"I can't believe the city... No, the government is just letting this happen."
"He probably paid them off. This Dyson Dome project of his would benefit them."
Owen adds.
Lexo looks back at Owen, showing visible worry.
"Wait, are you the only one he sent?"
He gazes at Lexo, his expression gradually darkening in realization.
". . . Shit... No, I wasn't the only one. He sent two others. Neither of them are... To put it lightly, as nice as I am. I doubt either of them know what's going on, and if they do, they couldn't give less of a damn as long as they get their pay."
"Also now the whole police force too. We all know how kind and rational they're known to be."
She fanned herself with her hands even though it wasn't really all that warm.
"Getting toasty in here…"
Both of her cats started paying Gemini more attention, seemingly out of concern.
Owen exits the room. Coming back shortly with a glass of water. He sets it down next to her.
"Oh! Thanks Owen."
She holds eye contact with him as he sets down the glass.
"To think you were trying to kill me a few hours ago…"
"It's not poisoned, don't worry."
He tried to joke, but once again... His toning could use some work.
"Why'd you have to go and say that…"
She sniffed at the water in the cup, and after deciding it was unadulterated she took a sip.
He awkwardly scratched his hair, realizing his joke only made her worried he actually DID poison the water
"Damn it..."
Lexo whispers to himself... Surely if there were other hitmen, they wouldn't be safe for long. They'll have to lay low for quite a while. Even publicizing the records they have would be risky... And thought of as a lie.
"Hold on"
He glances over his shoulder.
"Where's Hannah?"
"With Brett. She and Clayton were distracting him so we could split. In case she's in any trouble, she knows where we are."
"Oh man... Don't you think that's a little dangerous?"
"I mean, Brett walked in on her chatting with me! What if he tries using her, or... Worse... Her son to get to us?"
Lex was starting to shake a little, and began to break out into a cold sweat. He was getting more and more nervous as time passed.
"It's going to happen again... What if he does it again...?"
"She didn't seem worried. I don't think he'd hurt the boy, at least not on purpose, and she's only loosely implicated as long as Owen here never reported finding us hiding at her place."
Gem too was getting increasingly restless, though in her case it seemed to be caused by her still steadily increasing body temperature. Her face was starting to flush now and she seemed suspiciously interested in the floor tiles.
Lex starts rambling to himself, holding a hand on the side of his head as he steps away from the desk. He begins pacing back and forth...
"I can't let this happen again… I can't let this happen again…"
He clenches a fist, and for a moment – his entire body flashes brightly right next to the window.
A split second, borderline transformation. Something like that would probably be a beacon for the wrong type of crowd.
"Wait. Walk past the window again, Lex."
She got up to try to comfort him, but she seemed unusually tentative about touching him.
"Huh?"
He snaps up, wondering what Gemini just asked because he didn't quite hear her the first time.
"... Sorry."
His fingers uncurl, and he relaxes.
She takes his arm and holds it up into the stream of sunshine coming through her bedroom window.
Notably, his arm hairs uncurl and rise towards the sunlight. His skin seemed brighter than normal as well.
"Woah..."
Owen takes notice of this, walking forward to see the hair react to the sun closeup.
"I think that answers our question... Your body reacts to sunlight."
She seemed to zone out for a moment and gazed at his arm in the sun as she held it. Her free hand traced the broken glass scars on his glowing arm.
"Agh!"
She came to and dropped his arm then quickly pulled the curtains shut.
"I can only imagine you'd be a beacon for those other hitmen."
He jolted back away from the window as she said that. Pulling his arm further away from her in the process.
"Yea-Y... You're right."
He looks back down at his arm.
"That was weird... It felt weird too!"
He looks at Gemini.
"Like when you touched it, my whole body got all tingly and stuff!"
A long pause grasps the room.
"... That's a part of it, right?"
He glances back at Owen.
"I wouldn't know. But it's certainly a start to figuring out what your power is."
Gem's chest was heaving from holding onto Lexo so closely. She was still trying to act unbothered.
"Probably just enhanced sensation in the areas that the light hits. I can imagine those markings would be sensitive too. They look like some kind of scarification. Maybe from an excess of solar energy needing to find a way to escape your body, but I can't be sure of that of course."
"Wait, that would make sense then!"
He looks as though he just had a breakthrough.
"When I used it against Brett... I saw a number in the corner of my eye. It was super strange, but I remember it said something like twenty percent..."
"Twenty percent?"
Owen seems confused as well.
"That's probably your capacity. Anything above twenty percent of the maximum couldn't be contained so it broke through your arm."
"Well then what use is having super powers if they constantly try to rip me apart??"
He gets visibly frustrated.
"And I still can barely even compare to Brett..."
"Do you think there is some way I could improve my tolerance or something?"
Gemini glances up at him. Slightly flustered, for a few reasons.
"I can only assume it … would have to be through training… of some kind. I can't even… start to imagine what kind though."
Gem had to take small pauses to gasp for air. Her heartbeat was so strong it was faintly visible in her neck.
She sat on the bed and hugged a pillow. This seemed to help ever so slightly.
"... Gem?"
He approaches her out of concern. His tall frame looms over her on her bed.
"You alright...?"
He glances back at Owen, wondering if he actually did poison her for a second.
"Yep! I… uhm… just have some biological quirks. Nothing dangerous or anything!"
She laughed awkwardly.
"I appreciate the concern, Lexy."
She looked up at him and held eye contact for just a little bit too long before her eyes darted away again.
"Heh…"
"I did not poison her."
Owen claims, raising his hands in the air. He then walks over.
"Biological quirks? What do you mean?"
"Oh... I guess that comes with being part cat."
Lexo chuckles awkwardly.
"Some… uh… endocrine disruptions from being a genetic disaster? I've never actually seen a doctor or maybe I could be more specific."
Lex furrows his brows.
"I have... No idea what you just said if I'm being honest."
"That's probably a good thing."
She scratched her head behind one of her fluffy ears. Her whole face was beet red.
"Do you need anything? Like, a cold bath or ice packs?"
He gives off a frustrated sigh, feeling useless in the current situation. He sweeps his golden bangs out from the side of his face.
"Do cat girls drink steamed milk?"
"I'm lactose intolerant. Most cats are actually. Give me a second, I'm just going to go freshen up a little bit."
Gem stood up again. Her legs trembled slightly under her weight before she quickly shuffled out of the room.
"Oh- Okay..."
He holds his hand up towards her, lowering it slowly as she leaves. Wondering whether or not he did something that upset her.
"Aw man..."
He sits down on the bed where she was.
The men could hear what sounded like frustrated yelling from the bathroom next door, but they couldn't quite make out what was being said.
"..."
Owen watched as Gemini left the room. He exits the room, walking toward the bathroom, now increasingly more concerned.
"Hey man, I don't think that's-"
Lex motions for him to stop, but he could tell Owen wasn't planning on listening. Instead, with a growing curiosity, he follows.