#also imagine kara and ax together around sticky/cinnamon buns

[wizardofahz]

Conservation of Mass

A/N: Basically a self-insert fic because I have Questions about Alex’s Martian weapon.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alex paces around the training room, running her left hand over the Hand of the Soldier on her right wrist.

Finally – technically right on time, but Alex has been waiting a while – J’onn arrives.

“Ready to get started?” he asks.

“Yeah, but,” Alex says, bounding over, “remember how I had a bunch of questions about your shapeshifting abilities, and you always said, ‘now’s not the time’ or whatever. Is now finally the time?”

J’onn gives her a wary look. Alex knows his wariness isn’t about the questions themselves. He’s been subjected to copious questions on that front from both her and her mother. He’s more worried Alex’s scientific curiosity will distract her from her training. He says, “We can talk about it if you think it’ll help your training.”

“Well, I mean, both forms of shapeshifting completely mess with the law of conservation of mass.” She smiles at him innocently, bobbing her right wrist in front of her. “And if I’m going to get the best out of this, then I should understand it, right?”

J’onn nods, conceding her point. “Okay. What would you like to ask?”

“Your shapeshifting, is it like...” Alex trails off as an epiphany hits. “Have you ever read Animorphs?”

“No.”

From J’onn’s expression, she can tell he’s never even heard of the series.

“Okay, well, there’s this alien race called the Andalites, who have have the power to morph into other species, and one of them gives this power to a group of human kids so that they can protect Earth. Anyway, the point is that when they morph into smaller animals, there’s still a conservation of mass because the rest of their bodies go into Z-space, whatever that is. Is there, like, a real life Z-space?”

J’onn opens his mouth to answer, but Alex is on a roll.

“No, wait, actually, one more question because I can’t remember them addressing this in the series: what happens when they turn into larger animals? Where does that extra mass come from? I think Z-space was specifically Zero-space, so is there a corresponding infinity space? I mean, this thing is pretty small. I’m probably going to spend more time turning it into bigger things.”

“I cannot speak to what happens in that book–”

“Series,” Alex corrects.

“��series,” J’onn amends, “but the intuition is not a million miles off.”

Alex goes slack-jawed. “Really?”

“In an analogous sense,” J’onn hedges.

That’s more what Alex expected. “What does that mean?”

In annoyingly consistent fashion, J’onn deflects, “It’s probably sufficient for you to maintain that analogy when you think about the Hand of the Soldier.”

Unsatisfied with the answer, Alex presses, “With this, I can make anything I can imagine, right? But what if I can’t imagine something because it’s something I don’t think is possible given my understanding of physical principles?”

J’onn thinks for a moment. Then he says, “Alex, if Brainy sent you back to 16th century Europe, the Renaissance, a period of immense cultural development, to explain genetic engineering, how would you do it?”

Alex thinks about it. It would take a few centuries for Mendelian genetics to come along, but cross-breeding for traits existed in agriculture long before. She could work with that to jump start the field. But that’s just step one. So many traits and disease etiologies are not Mendelian but rather polygenic. Then there’s the additional layer of epigenetics with histone modification and nucleotide methylation.

And that’s just the genetics. For genetic engineering, where would she even start? The understanding of enzymes and promoter regions? Confirmation of successful edits with green fluorescent protein, which by the way we get from jellyfish and other sea creatures and stick into other species? Never mind CRISPR and optogenetics.

Alex grimaces. “Fine, I guess I see your point. But really? Five centuries back? Is that how you see us?”

J’onn places a conciliatory hand on her shoulder. “The... animal...”

“Animorphs,” Alex provides.

“–Animorphs example really isn’t bad.”

Alex looks down at the Hand of the Soldier. She didn’t get the answer she was hoping for but oh well. In her time at the DEO, she had seen many different weapons and types of technology. That in itself left her plenty to imagine.

“Okay, I’m ready to hit things.”