Phase 10; Testing

"Reed, I don't think this is getting us anywhere." I pointed out, sick of running on the treadmill. Although with all the chocolate I'd eaten lately this was probably for the best. We'd been at this for nearly two hours…

"I don't understand." Reed confessed, looking up from his notes to stare at me as I ran. "Judging by what happened on the bridge your level of speed should be nearly 100 times what it is right now." I shrugged, dethatching myself from mentally from my running. I was suddenly very hungry. I had a feeling I was burning way more calories than I should be. The pizza was that last thing I'd eaten and that was a distant memory.

"Maybe I should speed it up a bit myself." Reed said. "You might speed up if your body feels that it has a need too. For example, not falling off the treadmill." I shrugged once more, not caring. When we had started Reed had told me to run as fast as I could. Which as it turned out was slower than your average high school track athlete. The treadmill we were using was specially designed to push an athlete's limits. You started the treadmill, then ran as fast as you could for the first 10 minutes. The treadmill memorized that speed and then forced the athlete to move a little faster, building the athlete's skill in a healthy way. This was the prototype of one Reed had been commissioned to build for the American Olympic team. For our purposes, Reed was sure it would do. Ben had carried it up to the lab from the fitness area, in which he was currently residing.

Reed moved to the panel, manually pressing the button meant to speed up the treadmill once. I was able to keep up.

Twice. It was becoming uncomfortable but I ignored it. I was too numb to care.

Thrice. Okay, this was getting difficult. But I still couldn't focus properly on pumping my legs faster and I was finding it difficult to keep up. I struggled to bring my mind to the task at hand.

I don't know what possessed him to do it but Reed pressed the button three more times without quickly. I screamed, actually terrified, as I was flung from the treadmill and landed unceremoniously on one of Reed's chalkboards, breaking it in half. For some reason I had imagined a burning sensation on my skin and within my legs. Maybe that was similar to what had happened to me at the space station?

"Oh, I swear to god Reed! If you break my legs again I'll-" I was no longer as impassive as I had been on the treadmill. I was pissed.

"Is everything alright? We heard a scream!" Sue unintentionally cut me off, running emerging from the stairs with Ben behind her.

"Yes-"

"No!" Reed and I spoke at the same time. "This lunatic is trying to put me back in a wheelchair!" It was an irrational thought but I was sick of being tested now. I was tired, hungry, my legs were numb and to make matters worse the broken chalk board had managed to successfully cut a huge gash on my right forearm. I was bleeding all over the place.

Sue noticed.

"Oh, Nikki! Your arm!" She said, kneeling next to me to examine the gash.

I took a deep breath, to calm myself down. I eyed Ben, Reed needed to run tests on me and everyone else so that Ben could get back to normal. What I just said wasn't helping anyone and making it difficult for Reed to test me certainly wasn't helping our progress towards curing Ben. I immediately realized I needed to apologize.

"I'm sorry, Reed." I said sincerely, as Sue gently helped me up. "That was rude. I didn't mean that. But…why don't you run some tests on someone else now. I'm tired." I tried to explain my state to the man and apologize at the same time.

"No, that's alright. I agree." Reed said, realizing there really wasn't much else for him to say.

XxX

Ben and Reed were the only ones left in the lab. Nikki had retreated to the kitchen on the main floor where she was most likely getting something to eat and treating the wound on her arm. She had refused any help, so Sue had gone to get Johnny, everyone agreeing with Nikki's suggestion that it would be better to run tests on someone else for the time being.

"I hadn't realized we'd been at it so long." He muttered. Partly to Ben and partly to himself. He felt slightly guilty as he gazed at the long ignored clock to his right that he had, admittedly, barely glanced at since his tests on the brunette had begun.

"Hey, don't worry about it. You're trying. Nikki gets that. She was scared so she got a little hot-headed." Reed looked at Ben curiously. With everything that had been going on, he hadn't had the chance to notice that the two acquaintances had become friends.

"Is that the box you'll need for blondie?" Ben asked, gesturing to the heat sensitive test chamber that sat on the other end of the room. Reed nodded and without even needing to exchange words Ben went over to move it to the center of the room. Reed moved to turn off the treadmill, only to stop and gaze at screen that measured heart rate. He jumped and grabbed his notebook back up from where he'd placed it on the desk. He brought up the heart rate over a course of time, jaw dropping. If the machine was correct, Nikki's heart rate had been below average almost the entire time. Until the very end; there was a small spike just before. Having a thought, he jotted it down. He'd been going about Nikki's tests all the wrong way…

XxX

I was mad at myself. I hadn't meant to yell at Reed like that. And to accuse him of trying to put me back in a wheelchair…where did that even come from? That was awful; I thought back to the hospital and how stricken Reed had been. How guilty he had looked and probably felt. What a rotten thing to say. I remembered when I had fallen off the treadmill, the fear I felt when I landed on the ground and that burning sensation in my legs. God…was I afraid of becoming handicapped again? Honestly? Was I so afraid that I could easily lash out at someone? I guess I hadn't realized how much those few days had affected me. I guess just because I could walk now, didn't mean that I could forget it ever happened.

I removed the cloth from my arm, glaring at the way the blood hadn't stopped flowing from my arm. I sighed, sitting down at the kitchen table with the first aid kit Reed kept next to the fridge. I shuttered to think about why he had one next to the fridge. I cleaned and wrapped my arm, a difficult task considering I had to do it left handed. I had been too ashamed by my outburst to stick around the lab much longer, so I had fled to the abandoned kitchen. I laid my head down on the table and must have fallen asleep.

When I blinked awake again I was graced with the sight of Johnny sitting across from me, eating Corn Flakes. I glanced at the clock. 4 pm.

"Why are you eating Corn Flakes for dinner?" I asked, stretching and sitting up. I ran a hand through my hair. I had straightened it that morning to make it easier to pull back and out of the way while I was doing my tests. I found a knot and tugged.

"Mr. Mad Scientist apparently doesn't know how to go grocery shopping. All that's here is a box of Corn Flakes, a bag of oranges and a few cans of tuna. I don't even think he has bread." The blond man complained. Upon looking I realized there wasn't even milk on his cornflakes. I frowned.

"Who doesn't have milk?" I asked, finding it very strange.

"Oh, trust me. He had milk. It just pre-dated the Stone Age. I threw it out." He said.

"I emptied my cupboards before I left for the space station." Reed now joined the conversation, entering the room. He came and stood behind me, forcing me to turn to look up at him. This was the floor he lived on, so it was to be expected that we'd see him I guess. "I called Jimmy and asked him if he would get some for us tomorrow. For now you'll have to make due." He explained.

"You have a really helpful doorman." I stated, remembering the friendly older man who had brought the pizza up for Johnny and I last night.

Johnny nodded but continued to munch on what I assumed to be stale Corn Flakes.

"Anyway, Nikki. I wondered if you were feeling up to another test. It doesn't involve the treadmill, I just need to ask you a few questions."

I nodded and waved absently at Johnny as Reed and I got in the elevator, destined for the 30th.

When we got there Reed asked me to stand next to his desk, where he hooked me up with a little gizmo that I stared at curiously.

"It's a heart rate monitor." He answered my unspoken question. "And this," he held up a little suction cup-like thing that he placed on my temple, "will measure the levels of all the chemicals in your brain and when they are triggered. Not to mention what triggers them." I tried to look at the little device, fascinated something so small was so smart. How was Reed getting all these nifty things?

"Ah…so…?" Reed picked up is notebook and stared at her curiously.

"Nikki, what were you thinking today when you were running?" He asked. I stopped. What had I been thinking about? I'd always preferred weight lifting to running, mainly because I had found running extremely boring. So like what always happened when I ran, my mind had drifted off.

"I don't really know. Random stuff. Like how I was hungry and stuff."

"Was your mind like that the entire time you were running?" Reed asked, beginning to smile like something was starting to make sense.

"Well yeah…except for-"

"Except for the moment you realized you were about to fall off the treadmill, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"I think that maybe you have to focus on where you want to go. Just running isn't enough, you need a determined destination before your brain will produce the chemicals needed to allow your legs to function at such a capacity. I think your body has developed this as a way of avoiding over-stressing itself which, inevitably, would cause your muscles to degrade." I could tell he was dumbing it down for my sake.

"Okay so, what do you want me to do?" I finally asked.

"Just focus on something on the other end of the lab and see if you can replicate what you did in the hospital and on the bridge." He sat back with his notebook, patiently waiting.

"Okay." I took a deep breath and focused on the wall at the other end of the room and then I took a step forward. Instantly pain exploded in my face and I let out a tiny screech stumbling backwards.

"Nicole! You alright?" I heard Reed's distant voice and, rubbing my sore nose, turned to look. He was running towards me from all the way across the lab. It seems that focusing on the wall had been a bad idea, because I had slammed into it, face first.

"It worked!" I stated the obvious, my nose no longer in as much pain as it had been before. Though it might bruise.

"Yes," Reed said stunned before smiling in return, "yes it did! I was right about the connection between your brain and legs it seems, as well. Another thing I noticed as that your heart rate never raises above 50 beats per minute…55 just now when you were using your power."

I looked at him curiously.

"Which means?" I asked as we both began walking back to his desk.

"Well, based on the medical records I was able to get from the Von Doom clinic we had been placed in, your average heart rate was 83 beats per minute, 56 while asleep. My theory is that, like the focus needed to use your ability, the lower heart rate was also developed to ensure you didn't overstress your body. It seems to have adapted to using a lower heart rate to pump more blood. It's amazing, I believe a single one of your heart beats could pump as much blood as 3 or 4 of everyone else's. Of course, I'll still need to run a few more tests…"

I nodded taking the new information in. "Kay well, if that's everything. I think I'm going to go order dinner. Corn Flakes aren't going to do it for me Reed."

He nodded but then stopped. "One more thing. It's possible that not just your organs, but your physique may have adapted to the change as well. I'd like to take some tissue and muscle samples, if you'll let me."

"Uh, yeah, sure." It was painful, but Reed assured me it would really help him understand my condition and he told me he'd get back to me as soon as possible.

"Oh and Nicole," he stopped me as I neared the elevator, "do you still have your suit?"