[Plot] Kids with Guns

[Toshiro Narumi]

After briefly existing as a bottle of water, Tosh entered the lab where the remnants of the mutation gun were waiting to be examined. He put on his lab coat and gloves and approached the table where the parts were laid out. Then he cracked his knuckles, pulled on his protective eyewear, and started examining the wreckage.

"Now let's see what we've got."

[Narrator]

The most damage was done to the main compartment of the gun, which Tosh suspects was at least in large parts energy supply and trigger. The barrel itself is bent to hell but relatively intact, revealing throngs of cables on the inside and numerous small electromagnets set into the outside, many of which are scorched or got knocked loose. And then there's the debris of the stuff that had been rotating around the barrel. From roughly puzzling the broken pieces together Tosh can fairly confidently surmise that they are a number of inhibition collars, pulled apart and put back together, then fitted with the magnetic counterpart to the barrel, allowing the rings to sit around it without direct contact and create an electromagnetic field along the space between rings and barrel.

[Toshiro Narumi]

As insane as Conduit might be, she was clearly a genius. It was a shame that she couldn't apply that to something constructive. He was quite tired of mad scientists experimenting on people without any kind of consent.

He singled out one of the more intact collars and tried to figure out just how it had been repurposed.

[Narrator]

It's hard to tell, power inhibitor collars are notoriously hard to get good information on how they work in the first place. Aside from the locking and fitting mechanisms, all of which were removed, Tosh finds what looks like a simple cable throng at first, seeming to run through the entire collar and, when closed, completes a circuit all by itself. Except this one has a series of adhesive stickers depicting flowers, rainbows, unicorns and other similar things, holding it close where the cable has been cut open lengthwise. Inside Tosh finds none of the usual copper or fiber-optics strands but rather a fine powder suspended in some kind of clear, slightly viscous liquid. Presumably Conduit having added either one or the other.

The 'powder' gives off a slight shimmer, catching the workshop lights and reflecting them while the liquid smells faintly of ammonium and metal. Upon touching the surface of the table Tosh can notice small sparks of electricity forming and discharging. Static electricity and charged electrons from the air condensing and being grounded into the table upon reaching a certain threshold. Liquid, room-temperature super-conductor!

[Toshiro Narumi]

Tosh grinned like an idiot, exclaiming, "Holy shit! Is this a room-temperature liquid superconductor?!"

"How unethical would it be for me to patent this?" he mused as he carefully collected a sample of the liquid. Deciding to hold off that analysis for the moment, he poked around for a hard drive or other computer component where the device's undoubtedly eccentric code could be found.

[Narrator]

Most he finds is a lot of fried circuitry. What little bits and pieces he can gather and pull some code out of tells him that the main purpose of the controller was to regulate power-flow to the barrel based on some feedback it gets from a sensor. Presumably this is mostly just to keep things powered and arranged correctly and build up a charge for a shot. Whatever the mechanism of the gun, most of it seems to work off of the barrel and collars being charged up, which in turn comes down to the super-conductor and strange powder suspended in it.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"So much for that idea."

He took the sample and went through the process of separating a portion of it into its component parts. With that done, he used the lab's analysis equipment to identify them. While the machines worked, he carefully measured the conductivity of the viscous suspension.

[Narrator]

One quick centrifuging later and Tosh has one small pile of glittering particles and a small amount of super-conductor fluid. As the analysis equipment is doing it's thing he notes that the conductivity is actively plummeting until it reaches 'normal' levels for what the analysis shows it's composed of. Mostly water, some ammonia and a result that would indicate iron but shows a much too broad peak on the mass-spectrometer. Some quick math shows that while the majority of detected iron is exactly that, the residue of slightly lower mass iron molecules would imply the iron atoms were initially completely stripped of electrons and since the liquid was removed from it's container has been accumulating electrons again to form stable iron.

The strange dust meanwhile comes back as mainly silica crystals, but where the structural analysis should show some kind of symmetric lattice system instead it spits out conflicting data. That is, until adding a higher dimensional value, at which point the data resolves into some kind of self-intersecting regular polytope. They're crushed pieces of the hyper-dimensional crystals that make up the Crystal Computer.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"How in the hell did she get a hold of a computer crystal? Is our security that bad?" he asked. Then he remembered how easily he had sneaked in there.

He hadn't made any progress towards reversing the effect but he at least had a good idea how to reverse engineer a working prototype to experiment with. That is, assuming the school could acquire some inhibitor collars to replace the destroyed ones. He couldn't build that at his current level of expertise. To these ends, he began meticulously cataloging every piece and documenting how they fit together. That would tell how much he would have to either replace or rebuild from scratch. Then he could get to actually building something.

[Narrator]

In cataloguing what he could Tosh is reminded of the fact that Conduit messed with the inner workings of the inhibitor collars. It's, of course, possible that she removed something, but if she added anything it was either the super-conductor or the crystal powder. Surely she didn't mix a liquid super-conductor in a kitchen sink somewhere, but he can't think of a circumstance that Conduit could have gotten her hands on a crystal either. The obvious test is to repair the internal sleeve of one of the collars and fill it with either crystal powder or super-conductor.

[Toshiro Narumi]

And so Tosh did. He drained two completely and separated more components. Then he filled each with one component, resealed them along with a third unaltered sleeve, and experimented by running current through each. He hypothesized that the gel was the conductor and the crystal was added to strengthen or, perhaps, reverse the effect on mutations. He wasn't sure which was more concerning: that Conduit managed to sneak into the cave, that she somehow got a student to steal it for her, that the Braddock's sold some after destroying the first crystal computer, or that the manufacturer of the collars had an alternate source of it.

[Narrator]

The conduit (hah) containing only the gel passes along the current with nearly no resistance at first but swiftly loses it's super-conductivity. Other than that it does nothing at all.

Placing a current on the one only containing the powder causes the particles to congregate in the middle of the tube, forming a hovering circle that is conducting a current. The resistance, voltage and amperes wildly fluctuate. The normal crystals function at least somewhat similar to electronics in how they conduct electricity. The computational architecture might be strange and extra-dimensional but it's stable. This is a mess. White noise, really. Microscopic pieces of crystal come into and lose contact with neighboring particles, passing electricity erratically, charging the whole ring with a constantly fluctuating current that really shouldn't even exist. Dust is a terrible conductor, not enough physical contact between particles, but these are particles with quantum properties. If parts of them are still connected by quantum-linkage the current might pass from one to the other regardless of proximity. And if those linked parts are in constant motion from being suspended in a narrow ring the resulting current being distributed across the whole array would cause a wholly chaotic signal. Quantum white-noise that could feasibly disrupt dimensional transmissions. Like the transference of energy through, say, molecules of MGH, thus shutting down the flow of energy required to support the expression of powers.

And if the crystal powder serves as a signal scrambler by itself then adding a liquid with the potential to form a super-conductor would not only de-scramble the signal but create a localized field of super-charged dimensional energy. One that, with enough of them placed in sequence and directed through an electromagnetic field, could be projected outwards in a beam that would function as a direct breach into extra-dimensional space.

[Toshiro Narumi]

If the resulting beam scrambles MGH, would reversing the polarity restabilize it? Or would temporarily suppressing a mutation reset it?

He thought about possible solutions while he tested the combined sleeve, taking measurements of the localized dimensional disturbances it should cause. Though he couldn't test its effects on mutation without a volunteer. Will would be the obvious choice given his resilience. The regular Will anyway.

[Narrator]

From what Tosh can figure the beam is not what scrambles MGH. The crystal powder on it's own does, or at least the dimensional connection he observed when analyzing the Mutant Growth Hormone in Muir. The beam is a result of smoothing out the dimensional white noise of the random current with conductive material and then building up a massive discharge of dimensional energy that, as far as Tosh can tell, would result in a modulation of the MGH signal.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Maybe I need to stabilize the dimensional connection, not reverse what the gun itself did. Perhaps some variation on what we used to stop the dimensional collapse?" he thought aloud.

Muir would certainly have contacted them if inhibiting powers temporarily had any notable effect, so he retrieved some parts from the dimensional stabilizer and got to work. It took him almost the rest of the day to make something sensitive enough to potentially have an effect or even detect what he was looking for.

The first thing he did was to take a blood sample and try to detect the undoubtedly faint dimensional energy signal in his own cells. He idly wondered if his grandfather had figured that out somehow..

[Narrator]

The signal is faint. If he didn't know what to look for he'd assume it was background, especially since it differs from "regular" dimensional readings. Other dimensions like Conduit's or Will's have a specific quantum signature, a sub-atomic frequency if you will but otherwise operates on the same basic principles. The signal from his blood doesn't have that. Sure, the blood itself and all it's components has, as does all matter in this particular universe, but the tiny spark of energy within the MGH does not. If this dimension is the equivalent of blue light, Conduit's red and Will's green then what he's picking up from the MGH is pure white, the full spectrum of all wavelength. Extra-dimensional, something that exists in parallel with this dimensions and all others. A quantum-state capable of collapsing into anything at all. Matter, energy or even rewriting physics. To, for instance, re-arrange a young man into an electric shark.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Gotcha!" he cheered as he recorded the data he was getting. He briefly fantasized about getting a Nobel prize for unlocking how the X-Gene really worked as he turned the quantum-dimensional molecule whatever machine on himself to see what it picks up on a person directly.

[Narrator]

The results are much the same. It does take a bit of scanning to get reliable results, but when he does the signal is identical. Unique to MGH or possibly unique to him even. If the later is true then he might have the beginnings of a scanner on hand that could determine somebody's powers. If there's a pattern to it he can decipher at least.

[Toshiro Narumi]

For the next set of tests, he changed into his X-Men uniform and set the scanner to record what happened when he accessed his powers so he can see if there were variations in the readings.

Test 1: Bruce charged up his electricity and let the charge dissipate.
Test 2: Ennio made a flowing infinity symbol in the air.
Test 3: Kabuto turned into crystal and back again.

[Narrator]

Oddly enough, the signal stays perfectly steady throughout all his various transformations and antics. The intensity varies, drawing different amounts of energy, but the signature remains.

[Toshiro Narumi]

The fact that using his powers had a measurable effect told him all he wanted to know; he had verification that the signal was from his MGH molecules. Yawning, he reluctantly decided that further testing would have to wait until the next day. Besides, it'd be inconsiderate to call on volunteers that late in the day.

The next day...

He sent out emails to the affected students and worked on fine-tuning the large scanner while he waited for takers. As anxious as they were to get back to normal, he didn't expect to wait long. Drake showed up first, so he recorded what was different from his own readings.

"Move the bird around or maybe even change its shape, whatever you're comfortable with. Using powers strengthens the readings."

So Drake made the phoenix bigger and made it fly around.

[Danielle DiScivolare]

Tosh gets a reading. Distinct from his own and the peaks in the waveform are more... pronounced, jabbing out where Tosh's own are smoother, more slopes than cliffs.

As he's checking his readings he notices Danny in the doorway, mouth hanging open at Drake's display and just generally looking pale in the face. "Fuck me, this is insane..."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"He usually turns into a dragon. So this is nothing on the crazy-ometer," Tosh said.

"Says the human Pokémon collection," Drake responded.

"Well, you're not wrong," Tosh chuckled. "And I got some good readings. I'll let you know as soon as I learn something."

"Thanks. I'll hold you to that," Drake said curtly, heading out.

Tosh reset the scanner and waved Dani over. "Danielle, right? I'm Tosh."

[Danielle DiScivolare]

"Danny." she corrects him as she turns her head to watch Drake leave, moving to keep her distance and wobbling, forcing her to grab the doorframe to steady herself.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"It's okay. He may be grumpy right now, but the only threat he poses to you is unwanted come-ons," Tosh said once Drake was out of earshot.

[Danielle DiScivolare]

"Tell that to his pet bonfire..." she says, warily eyeing Tosh. "Your mail said you're working on fixing... this?" she gestures at the huge snake tail that is her lower body.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I am. While Muir is working on a medical approach, I'm working from a physics angle. I'll spare you the boring details, but I'm trying to reverse the distortion in how your mutation expresses itself. This machine is designed to see that distortion but I need more data to interpret what it's picking up, which is why you're here."

[Danielle DiScivolare]

"Whoa whoa whoa, back off, my dude. There's no 'my mutation' here. Just something that weird-ass gun did to me! For all I know it blasted the scales right off of your friend Drake there and onto me. The only distorted thing here is that something is wrong with me at all." she snaps at Tosh a little. It'd seem more intimidating if she wasn't still swaying slightly and staying upright only thanks to holding on to the doorframe.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"I hate to tell you, but as far as I can tell the gun affects the way MGH functions. There is still a chance there's more to it than that, but I can't say you'll go back to having no mutation," he said with all the bedside manner he could muster.

"Had you been tested?"

[Danielle DiScivolare]

"Yes, not a bit of X-Factor in me, so whatever you think you figured out, you're wrong." she frowns. Not that she's any kind of expert on this, but apparently facts don't matter as much as strong feelings, right now.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Putting his palms out in a gesture of surrender, he responded, "Okay, okay, I give. Clearly, my conclusions were premature."

"But that's all the more reason for me to see what my machine finds. The more data I have, the better I can narrow down the truth."

[Danielle DiScivolare]

"I don't care about the truth, just get rid of this thing..." she gestures at the tail that's just kind of stretched out behind her. Tosh has seen plenty of animal mutations, including in the mirror, and if there's one thing that stands out in contrast it's that they always have a kind natural way of moving. Tails sway, naturally providing balance. Fur ruffles when startled. Wings fold neatly. Danny's tail does nothing like that, it clearly takes her conscious effort to even stay upright and there's no natural movement to the long scaly appendage. It doesn't coil up, doesn't move the tip, it's not even laid out in the slight S shape of having moved like a snake. All it does is occasionally twitch like it's cramping.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Hmm... none of the instinctual movements associated with animalistic mutations. Perhaps she really isn't a mutant. Gotta rethink what the gun actually does. Perhaps it works if any multiverse version of someone is a mutant?

"Fair enough. But figuring out what the weapon did will help me do that if it can be done."

[Will Stanton]

"Gotta know what's wrong to know how to fix it," the brown-haired Will said, coming up behind Tosh and Danny and keeping as much of a distance as he could between them. "Trust Tosh; he knows his way around a lab or two. If there's any science here that can fix you, he'll figure it out."

Will was wearing a loose fitting T-Shirt and sweatpants combo, a large black number 1 on the shirt. Now that Tosh thought about it, this was probably the shabbiest he'd ever seen Will. Will certainly wasn't a fashion magnate or a style icon, but his clothes were always immaculately tailored, the benefit of being a shifter, one supposes. Shifting awkwardly from foot to foot, a little bit uncomfortable, things not just fitting right? Well, it just didn't look right on him.

Behind him, two green-haired Wills nodded, waving at Tosh. They, too, were wearing T-Shirts, although these fit better, with a large number "2" and "4" on them.

[Danielle DiScivolare]

Danny doesn't seem happy with those answers, but then again she doesn't seem in a great mood in general.

"Oh hey... Will? And... siblings?"

[Will Stanton]

"Close enough," Will nodded. "Just here to get my roots touched up from my hairdresser here," he said, pointing at Tosh. "Green and vibrant, right?"

He smiled a smile he didn't really feel as he tried to take Danny's mind off of her situation.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Thanks for coming. Where's number three?"

[Will Stanton]

"Number three what?" the other two Wills asked in stereo.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Your shirts. I only see one, two, and four."

[Will Stanton]

"No idea what you're talking about," Will #2 said, deadpan.

"All aboard that's coming aboard," Will #4 confirmed.