Enhancing the Matter

Part I

A bright glow from the outside morning sun shined in on the two lovebirds sitting at breakfast, Tom an above average sized European man, with black hair and blue eyes and tan skin, sat across the table from his wife, Annabelle. Tom lifted his coffee mug, clearing his throat, "To you my dear Annabelle." - "Aww, Tom stop you're making me blush." - "I love you." He smiled as they both blushed and raised their mugs up to each other. They toasted and looked around at their new house, they just bought only a few days ago after their honeymoon. Tom, an aristocratic man, dressed in casual business attire drenched his donut in his coffee cup and sighed, "Thanks so much for grabbing all of this, I was knocked out from the late night shipment." as he popped the donut in his mouth and smiled back at her, she smiled back. "Oh, it's nothing, I love you honey." Annabelle responded casually, smiling and tearing off chunks of donut and nibbling on them, while casting her gaze outside among the deciduous forest surrounding them. The tall trees scaled from varying sizes of eight feet all the way to fifty feet tall, covering the landscape with shadows and carpets of moss and wild flora. "This place is beautiful..." she was captivated by the chirping of birds, and calm forest atmosphere, as she looked over at a small opening in the landscape. She looked as birds flew over by a large pond, only a couple square acres in size, shimmering under the shadowy light. She smiled, her radiant brown hair was cut into a delicate bob, her makeup wasn't too distracting as the light cascaded over her lightly tanned skin. He wiped his hands clean and dropped the cloth next to his chair, moving behind Ann placing his larger hands over her shoulders. "Not as beautiful as you." Ann smiled and looked back, her short, 4'8 frame barely filled out her chair, she was pretty small in comparison to Tom, standing at a decent height of 5'9, the top of her head met with his chest. Ann craned her head up, as he leaned in for a kiss, Tom returned with passion, she stopped as her lips snapped off of his, "What was that shipment anyways?" she spoke softly, but confidently. "Oh...Well it's the project the team and I have been working on for the past year." - "Oh...that's amazing honey. Can I see?" - "Of course, just promise you'll be careful with the technology." - "I'll do anything you say." - "Anything?" - "Haha...I love you." she returned with another kiss, as they cleaned and finished up breakfast.

It wasn't long as the two began to walk down the steps to the basement level of the three story wooden home. They moved downstairs with anticipation, hearing the creaks of the wooden panels beneath them begin to come to an end revealing long stone tiles, it was cold, and the chill seemed to linger in the air, making it feel heavier. "Sheesh...we need a heater down here or something Tom." she shivered, as Tom quickly reached for a lab coat, wrapping it around her small shoulders, the coat dragged on the floor a bit as her hands barely made it out of the sleeves. "Oh..I'm sorry Ann, I don't have any other sizes right now..." - "It's ok! Let me see this thing!" - "Right. Be careful, stand back please." - "Yes sir!" she giggled, blushing a bit, as Tom rolled his eyes, moving her aside a bit. She giggled again feeling him push her back towards the wall, as she shivered again, "Ok ok! I'll stand back here." - "Please, It's for your own safety, honey." - "Ok." she frowned for a second and kissed him on the cheek as he saw her purse her lips and leaned down to her height again. Their lips met feeling warm, he spoke softly while staring at her gleaming eyes, "It will start to get warm, as soon as I turn on the machine." - "I'm so excited for you honey." - "I'm ready to see the results." Tom moved towards the machine, taking the large leathery plastic drapes covering it, whipping them off with a quick jerk, revealing a massive metal machine, it had a large metal bulb, with circular plates lined all the way around it towards it's base. The bulb, or laser head was about the size of a volleyball, the rest of the machine itself seemed to take up most of the basement wall. Attached to the machine was a small computer and screen, with some parameters, along with a keyboard and large cylindrical containers, made of reflective steel.

Tom grabbed one of the cylinders barely able to move it himself and lugged it towards the machine, trying to load it into one of the compartments. The compartments for the said containers had room for three individual batteries, that were the size of four car batteries stacked on top of each other. Tom grunted as Ann leered from the right side of the room, away from the laser. "Need help honey?" she giggled as Tom continued to struggle to load the container into the machine. His muscles tightened as he grunted, lifting the battery and dropping it into the slot, finally hearing a metallic clang as the container locked into place and the machine whirred to life, lighting up the entire room with a red hum. "Phew...those things are heavy, where's Brandon when you need him..." The machine glowed a faint white color, as the bulb began to glow red slightly, humming as power began to run through the machine. "There we go." Tom nodded and moved towards the console and began typing. "So pretty!" - "Yeah, it's an amazing machine, tonight is the first test. I'm so glad you're here." - "First test? What do you mean?" - "This machine, we call it, The Matter Enhancer." - "Matter Enhancer?" - Yeah, it doesn't roll off the tongue too well." he shrugged. "I think it's a great name." - "Well it's supposed to enhance matter, well in layman's terms, it's supposed to make whatever the laser is exposed to stronger and well...enhanced...by increasing its density." - "Wow...so you think it will work?" - "Well...my colleagues don't think the name is the best suited...erm...only one way to find out, let's try it." he shrugged again, and started to focus, he instructed Ann, "Go to that fridge in the corner, and bring me an apple." - "Ok sir." - "Ann..." - "Ok ok...you're so cute when you get into this science stuff." Ann smiled and made her way to the fridge, opening it she found a couple beers and a single apple sitting in the middle of the container.