Steven tried to focus on the assignment. It didn't have to get done right now, but she didn't have much else going on at the moment. But she kept finding her thoughts returning back to this whole plant-girl business...how did she work, anyway? Once again she didn't really want to be contemplating it, but now that she'd realized that pollen could get on her hand, and her hand could get in...um...well, it didn't take a genius to see the potential problem there.
But her mother was pretty certain she wouldn't be self-pollinating, wasn't she? It wouldn't make much sense for her to be designed to produce undifferentiated clones of herself...but then, her mother's observsations were good, but not flawless, as evidenced by the fact that she'd produced seeds from flowers her mother had thought were entirely male. And she recalled from reading that one pamphlet that one-parent reproduction was known to occur among certain kinds of transformees...
But...if that were the case, what could she even do about it? Not much, she thought...and anyway, if that was what her body was doing, surely it would have already done it? There would be signs of that kind of thing by now, right? She realized that she didn't really know...
Gah! Focus, focus! Chili. She tried to think about that. How did they make hot peppers? She wasn't sure...she remembered accidentally biting into some seeds in a pepper once and finding them to be much hotter than the rest, but she wasn't sure if that had anything to do with how they made them hot...
Huh. She'd have to look this one up.
Lilly opened the front door to see Ms. Muriel and Jenn-no! No, that wasn't Jenny, it was the other girl! She stammered a weak "hi" and scurried back to the couch. Muriel sighed; that was to be expected, she supposed. "It's okay, Lilly," she said. "She won't hurt you."
The squirrel-girl scowled. "But...but she made me go to sleep, or somethin'! She's mean! An' creepy!"
Muriel shook her head. "She doesn't know how to treat people, that's all," she said. "I don't think she meant to hurt you."
Lilly remained stubbornly on the couch, which the policewoman figured was hardly surprising. Even a child wouldn't just forget about unpleasant experiences a mere couple hours later. Besides, she wasn't 100% sure of her claim herself; she still didn't really know for certain what went on in Minus-four's head. But she wasn't aggressive now, and even before she hadn't seemed to take any kind of violent action unless someone got in the way of her performing her function; Muriel's back was still sore from being thrown twice - but the girl had never actually attacked her.
Minus-four stared at the squirrel-creature. The face was difficult to read, as it was structured slightly differently than the common humanoid face and obscured in fur, but it seemed hostile. The body language didn't indicate active aggression, though; but it seemed that her presence here was resented. The tone of voice sounded...angry. Why? Had she harmed the girl? Not that she could remember. She had merely induced unconsciousness to prevent her from getting in the way...considering that the squirrel-creature didn't seem built for combat, that could even be construed as a favor...
Muriel kept a gentle hand on the girl's shoulder as Mr. Gordon entered the room, looking a bit frazzled and trying to put on a pleasant face for whoever had shown up. "Uh, oh, hello, Muriel," he said, smiling as best as he could. "How's J-uh, oh. Who's this?"
"We don't know yet," Muriel said. "We found her by herself this morning; she's with me because we can't really leave her unattended. I was just dropping by because I heard you had some kind of an accident at the lab, and I was wondering if you needed new samples from myself or Jenny?"
Mr. Gordon sighed. "Yeah, we did. But, uh, if nothing else, the damage was confined to the equipment in our light-chamber, plus undue strain on the generators. I haven't been there, but nobody's told me anything about the sample vault being damaged, so both of them should be fine."
It took a moment for him to realize what he'd admitted. "I...I, uh..." He sighed, hanging his head. "You knew?"
Muriel shrugged. "I guessed, based on a certain slightly extraordinary thing that came my way this morning." She picked up the girl and held her against her shoulder.
Mr. Gordon blinked, stared curiously at her, and gaped. "W-wait, she looks like...that doesn't make sense! That wasn't at all for..." He frowned. "Um...maybe you'd better come in and sit down."
Muriel nodded. "Maybe I'd better."
Terri sat down next to his daughter on the couch. "So," he said, looking over at Riley, "how are you feeling?"
She thought for a moment. "A...a little scared."
"About this government-investigators thing?"
She nodded. The anime-man sighed and put an arm around her shoulder. "That's understandable," he said. "We didn't exactly get a whole lot of information about them. But your father's pretty sure this is safe, and Adam seemed to think they were okay people."
She frowned. "Well, yeah, but...I dunno, I'm not sure Adam's judgement is all that great..."
Terri chuckled. "Because she exposed herself to the sun? We're not exactly the people to be making any judgements there, kiddo. I'm sure she had her reasons for it, just like I did, just like Charlie and Anna did."
Riley nodded. "Yeah...I guess."
"Besides," her mother said, "you're not just any old twelve-year-old girl, you know. I'm sure you can handle anything that comes up."
She smiled; it wasn't that she liked the idea of being forced into a fight with people, but as much work as it had been bringing unity back to the Hedgeton area...she liked it. It was fun getting to stretch her magical muscles, and it'd be kind of enjoyable...not, of course, that she was going to seek anything like that out.
"Okay," Abigail said, surveying the scene. Her husband, looking even more overwhelmed than before, Muriel seeming a bit colder than usual, and this strange girl who looked kind of like Jenny and kind of like...huh. She set down a couple cups of coffee, and tea for herself. "Would someone care to explain what's going on?"
"I...I'm not sure myself," her husband said. "I...uh, before we do anything else, Ms. Walsh...I'd like to apologize. I...I shouldn't have taken a sample from Jenny without your permission...it's been eating at me since Sunday. I...let my enthusiasm override my ethics, and I'm sorry."
Muriel nodded stiffly. Abigail frowned as she glanced at her husband. "You...honey, you didn't..."
He hurriedly shook his head. "No, of course not. Nothing invasive. I just...I found a hair of hers after she'd stayed over. I thought, nobody will miss it...still, I shouldn't have."
There was a long silence. "But...I don't understand," he said. "What does this girl have to do with anything?"
Muriel took a pull of her coffee. "Jenny and one of her classmates found her this morning," she said. "When they found her, she was very nearly a complete clone of Jenny. And I've been informed that witnesses saw a girl like her in the vicinity of your lab around the time of the accident."
Mr. Gordon frowned. "That doesn't make any sense...we have equipment we could use to clone an embryo in the strictest sense, but seeing it through natal development is something else entirely. And in any case, the time frame for fetal development...I mean, that's impossible. And the accident was with the light chamber, which has nothing to do with any of that..." Unless...a thought sparked in his mind. Was it possible that the sun could actually create a fully-developed living being out of nothing more than a basic genetic pattern? But why wouldn't it have happened multiple times already? It wasn't as if there was a shortage of spare material in an outdoor environment...how much dead skin did a person slough off in a month? Or hair...or even if it was restricted to living cells, people had to have cut themselves and bled...
"Les, honey?" his wife said. "Focus, please."
He snapped back to reality. "Um, sorry. But...this still doesn't make any sense. I don't see how our equipment could have done anything like this. And if she was a clone, she would be like a newborn...but she walks, she follows you, she's not a baby in the body of a grade-schooler."
Muriel sighed. Was there a way to really make this case without...without revealing Jenny's true nature? But...well, Lilly already knew, and while she thought she might try and keep it a secret now that Tetra had explained things to her...how many kids that age could keep a secret from their parents? On the other hand, given how Lilly had reacted to learning about magic before learning that magic couldn't just give her what she wanted...how would her father react? She could see how even a simple question about how their "light-chamber" could have brought Minus-four into being set wheels turning in his head...
She was interrupted in her thoughts by a small furry hand grabbing her arm. "Oh, uh, hi, Lilly," she said. "Your mom and dad and I are talking right now..."
Lilly nodded, edging slightly back from Minus-four while keeping a hand on Muriel's arm. "Sorry, I just wanna ask...um, could you...c'ldya tell Jenny I'm sorry for yellin' at her? I..." She gulped. "I...still wanna be friends, if she'll..." She blinked, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
Muriel smiled. "I'll tell her that, Lilly. I'm sure she still wants to be your friend. Would you like her to come over this evening?"
The squirrel-girl nodded, wordlessly. Muriel patted her on the head, scratching behind her ears before she realized that was a little odd. "Okay," she said, "I'll tell her. Can you let us talk now, please?"
Lilly half-smiled, nodded, and ran back out to the living room. Abigail raised an eyebrow. "Did something happen between them?"
Muriel sighed. "Mm...I'm not entirely certain. They had a bit of an argument because Lilly thought Jenny could help her with something that she couldn't, but it seemed as much like...like she was upset because she couldn't figure out where she fit in now that Harriet's a part of their group."
"Ah," Mr. Gordon said. "I remember that feeling. There's probably not much harder than being upset with someone you like."
