Jupiter [Marvel Phase I]

seven.

It would be a lie to say Jenn stopped thinking about the night before. In reality, it was the exact opposite. Something had happened, something incredible, and she would be damned if it was a one-time thing.

After a night of fitful, dreamless sleep, Jenn awoke feeling...energized. She hadn't been this excited by a project in some time.

"Alright, Jenn," she told herself, rubbing her hands together. "Time to get to work."

Again, Jenn's first thought was to recreate the situation from the night before. Isolate each variable and see which one, or which combination, held the key.

Fear was definitely part of it - or maybe just a strong emotional response. It had been building within her long before then, but when she'd first seen the knife, that was when she noticed the charge. Harry's little speech about the amygdala came to mind. She didn't have a great background in biology, but she knew strong emotions could provoke a chemical change in the body. And what was a major product of most biochemical reactions?

Electricity.

It was worth a shot...but would it be enough?

Jenn closed her eyes and tried to bring herself back to that moment. Maybe this tactic hadn't worked at Dev's house because it had been too soon afterwards. She was too drained. Now, she tried picturing it again; the flickering light, the flash of the blade...

Nope, she couldn't do it now either. Knowing how young their mugger was made the situation less threatening in hindsight.

Something else, then. Jenn paced her room, trying to think of the scariest situation she could. One thing came to mind.

"Okay," Jenn told her empty room. "You can do this. It's for science."

Bringing herself back to the crash wasn't difficult. The images were all so vivid in her mind, it was more like watching a movie than thinking back on a memory.

...And therein lay the problem. A decade had passed since the incident. Her emotional attachment was almost non-existent, unlike it had been all the times she relived the crash in Dr. Ingram's office. It was the same problem she had looking at her parent's picture; she was reaching for a connection that just wasn't there.

"Dammit," Jenn cried, kicking at her bed.

No way was she getting discouraged so easily. After a few calming breaths, Jenn sat down on her bed. She placed her head in her hands and tried to think. What was special about last night?

The knife had made her panic, but then something took her from flight to fight. Jenn placed herself back in the moment where muscle memory took over. One second she was sputtering excuses, then she turned and saw the kid begin to walk forward. She was still in flight mode. For all her love of fitness, it wasn't like she knew how to throw a punch. But then she'd turned around and saw something that made everything click into place.

Dev.

A protective urge overwhelmed her. And, suddenly, she knew how to do it.

Adrenaline flooded Jenn's bloodstream and she opened her eyes with a gasp. Overhead, her bedroom light flickered. Not quickly, and not at even intervals, but it was there. Huh, Jenn thought. The streetlight in the alley was flickering too. At the time, she figured it was just old. But now...

Something was humming. It was the same hum that ignited her skin the night before. Only this time, it wasn't coming from her. She could almost hear it emanating from somewhere else nearby.

"Huh," Jenn repeated, aloud this time. She stood, glancing around her room for the hum's source. Everything hummed at once, all at different volumes and tones. It was beautiful and overwhelming all at once.