super speed and other exceptional abilities

[self_composed]

Wisconsin fast plants (so called because they are from Wisconsin, fast-growing, and plants) are the subject of Bella and Bridget's chosen bio experiment. It involves taking at least some measurements after sunset - Bella managed to find an exact specific experiment design that hasn't been done before, when she heard they were allowed to choose their own, and even though all it will determine is whether indoor plants without windows can "tell if it's night" even if you leave the light on all the time, she is slightly excited about this.

She meets Bridget there. They measure their plants in the lit room and the dark room, take pictures, and write down subjective evaluations of leaf droopiness. They leave.

They're about a third of the way to Bella's building when a man's voice behind them says, "Hello, girls."

Comments

[self_composed]

"They're going to know the gun was fired," Bella says under her breath. "O Dr. Physicist, put it somewhere so it could've flattened against a wall or the sidewalk and bounced there, please."

"You freaks," starts their attacker. Bella puts her knee on his neck in a cheap version of a sleeper hold and his eyes roll back in his head and he falls unconscious.

[regularsized]

Bridget shrugs, walks down the street a little ways, polishes the ex-bullet with the sleeve of her jacket, and tosses it at a sewer grate. It falls in.

[self_composed]

"That works too."

Bella gets up off the guy - she'll be able to catch him if he wakes up sooner than she expects. She waits for the cops.

[regularsized]

When the cops do show up, Bridget is unusually soft-spoken and laconic. She does a credible imitation of someone who was just shot at and is finding it a traumatic experience.

[self_composed]

Bella's impression is of someone who has actually practiced aikido at some point. (She's going to have to think of a place she could reasonably picked that up; Youtube demonstrations wouldn't give her muscle memory.) Also someone whose response to trauma is mania rather than withdrawal. She jabbers quickly in grammatically incorrect sentences and has to expend a square to actually produce the name of the throw she used. She waves her arm wildly when asked where the gun was fired. "It didn't hit me but oh god it was so loud and I thought he got Bridget and I just it was like oh my god!" she exclaims, trembling for effect.

[regularsized]

Bridget's main contribution to this line of inquiry is looking subdued and nodding along with Bella.

[self_composed]

The police collect phone numbers and escort them to within eyeshot of Bella's building.

"Okay," Bella says. "Spill."

[regularsized]

"By 'spill' do you mean tell you why I am impervious to bullets?" asks Bridget. "Because it's kind of a long story and not one I am particularly keen on dragging out in the middle of the street."

[self_composed]

"Janine is home. Do you have a better idea for a location?"

[regularsized]

"I'm not sure if my place is really a better idea, considering it's a fifteen-minute walk away, but it's an idea."

[self_composed]

"Are you also invulnerable to motorcycle accidents?" Bella asks, gesturing at Tegu in the parking lot.

[regularsized]

"Completely."

[self_composed]

"I bet it's a shorter ride than a walk," says Bella, stalking towards her bike. "Shall we?"

[regularsized]

"Okay," says Bridget, following.

[self_composed]

Bella keeps the riding gear in the saddlebags, which have combination locks on them now; she doesn't bother with the full kit, but does put on the jacket and the helmet. "On you go," she says. "Point, within my field of vision, for turns; I might not be able to hear you," she adds before dropping the helmet in place and putting one leg over her bike.

When Bridget is securely in place, Bella starts up and heads out.

[regularsized]

It is in fact a pretty short ride on the bike, to a small, unremarkable apartment building where Bridget leads Bella up to a small, unremarkable apartment.

"Do you mind if I change my shirt first?" she asks as she closes the door behind them.

[self_composed]

"Go ahead," says Bella, sitting in the first chair she sees.

[regularsized]

Bridget darts into her bedroom and emerges about ten seconds later wearing the first shirt she grabbed.

"There, that's better," she says, and leans on the arm of her couch.

"So, I'm impervious to physical injury. I haven't always been. It started when I was a kid. You remember I told you my parents weren't funny? Well, my dad was the kind of not funny that lends itself to noticing when one day you can't get hurt anymore. I hope I don't have to draw you a picture."

She shrugs.

"Questions?"

[self_composed]

"Do you happen to know how you developed this power?"

[regularsized]

"I don't have any unshakeable theories, no. There were no fairy godmothers involved."

[self_composed]

Bella thinks.

"Did anyone besides you and your dad know exactly how not-funny he was?"

[regularsized]

"...Why is that relevant?"

[self_composed]

"You said no fairy godmother, but if it wasn't your own doing, and it wasn't your dad's, and people spontaneously becoming physically invulnerable isn't something on the books as a normal childhood event, maybe somebody else did it, because of that, and then if I want to find out what's going on I know where to look next. So. Non-fairy godmother? Your mom? Siblings cousins friends aunts uncles next-door neighbors?"

[regularsized]

"Why is someone else doing it any more likely than it happening spontaneously, if you've never heard of either?"

[self_composed]

"I didn't say I ruled out it happening spontaneously, but I can't get as far on that possibility through mere conversation," Bella says. "Or other routes either, really - I'm not qualified to look at your genes or whatnot even if you were inclined to let me, which, why would you, if you wanted that done you could do it yourself."