Justine still found navigating the new station a bit tricky, despite being the one who had laid it out. "Darn it!" she exclaimed, having to double back again.
Zack chuckled, following behind her.
"Ahh! Found it!" she declared in triumph.
Zack looked around the MedBay, looking for the best place to conduct the examination. They'd come up to Tannhäuser Gate Station so Zack could take a look at Justine's mysterious tattoos. They'd appeared at some point about 9 months earlier, during some "lost time" Justine couldn't remember.
Aside from a few moments, they appeared inactive, but the fact that they seemed to react at all was a concern.
"This one should do," Zack said, choosing an exam table. "Take your place when you are ready. Sit down and remove any clothes covering your tattoos."
Justine stripped to her bra and panties, climbing onto the cold table with a little shiver.
"Where are the tattoos, exactly?" asked Zack, turning to her on the table.
She pointed them out, drawing a hand along the tattoo on her abdomen, and right thigh. "Then, if you can see, the gold one on my back?"
Zack looked at the tattoos on her body, gently tracing them with his fingertips. "See, this one on your back..." He traced his finger on her back slowly all along the tattoo. "It is...something familiar..." Zack looked at the one on her belly and the one on her leg, tracing again with his fingers, studying them thoroughly. "Since when did you say you had these again?"
Justine tries to think. "They appeared shortly after I moved to Gearhaven. About the same time the rifts started appearing."
Zack nods, asking, "Did you feel any unusual sensation, like some kind of pull to an energy...or have any new abilities appeared?"
"Oh gosh, Zack," she answered, "strange sensations are kinda part of every day at Gearhaven! I don't know how I'd tell the difference. As for abilities..." Justine looked up, a huge smile breaking out over her face as Deebs entered the room. "Hi, Deebs!"
Zack waved at Deebs as she arrived. "Go ahead," he said, inviting her to join him at the exam table. "I am listening to Justine."
Deebs noded, looking intently over the tattoos.
"So, the tattoo that gets the most...itchy/burny...when weird stuff happens?" Justine said, twisting around and pointing, "is the one on my back."
Zack nodded, listening. "I see...what about the others? Do they react as well?"
Justine nodded in reply. "Not as strongly."
Deebs asked, "What triggers the sensations?"
Justine thought for a moment. "When we linked up Hiro-in-a-Box to the Quantum entanglement device they flared up. That was the worst. And sometimes when I've gotten too close to the interdimensional rifts that like opening around Gearhaven."
"Okay," Zack said, "So...I am going to try something Justine...you might or might not feel the tattoo burn and react but this will give us a good idea of what we have here. When I tell you, I want you to tell me if you feel anything, all right"
Deebs set her feet, arms folded across her. "Awrighty. Zack, see what you can evoke. I have a notion or two, but let's run your test first."
"This is what I will try to do...If her tattoo reacts to my magic it means that it is sensitive to arcanic energy..."
Deebs nodded, attentive.
(Continued in part CX.)
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