Welcome to Gaia! ::

[Prior to the Halloween Ball]

"What am I looking at?" Scorpio asked the doctor sitting before her. Her eyes were on the chemical analysis he'd placed on top of the full run-down of his business. The compounds were broken down into their simplest forms, chemical names, and listed in their proportions and quantities. The girl turned her eyes back to the man as she slipped the packet of papers into the black manilla envelope. "Can you give me the short and long of it? I need to be getting home."

Dr. Tanaka, a Japanese immigrant and possessor of the X-gene himself, removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Your venom," he intoned slowly so she could understand his thick accent, "is consistent with the sample of emperor scorpion venom you brought in with you, with one addition." He stood up and turned to the window. "I isolated an enzyme which seems to suppress the mutation gene. It also reacts with the brain, rendering a human unconscious." He turned back curiously. "How big are you when you change?"

Cal shrugged. "4, 5 inches?" she guessed. By then she was packing the envelope into her backpack for the run home. "So probably an emperor." She swung her bag onto her shoulders. "Thanks, Dr. Tanaka."

"You should have those burns on your hands checked," he reminded her as he took his seat again. She nodded once and left.

[You can, but I'm not here anymore. This was before I got to the Halloween party, so no one's at the hospital.]