Mixing Dust

Weiss sat alone in the corner in Dust Lab, hours after everyone else had left. The light above her table being the only thing illuminating the otherwise darkened room.

The project Weiss was currently working on was not school related, rather it was a personal one. She wanted to create a new kind of dust, completely separate from what SDC produced. Weiss wanted to prove to her father that she knew more about dust than he believed she did, and that she could effectively run the company one day. So, here she was.

The professor had given her special permission to do this after hours. Given her reputation as a diligent student, as well as her background with dust, she had assumed Weiss would be able to handle things on her own.

Unfortunately, Weiss had been working on this project for weeks now. She had tried every safe combination of dust she could think of, and even a few that toed the line of lab safety, and she hadn't produced anything substantial. She was hoping for something not quite combat focused, and instead something that could help the average citizen. However, nothing she tried seemed to be working.

"Maybe I just need a break," Weiss sighed, standing and stretching for a moment. "I'll just get some fresh air, and then I'll try again."

She turned and walked out of the room, closing it behind her.

However, the act of closing the door caused one of the bottles sitting on the shelf to knock over, spilling some of its contents directly into the vial Weiss had been working on. As soon as the powder came into contact with the vial, the contents began to give off a soft glow, turning into a liquid. After a few minutes, the reaction stopped, solidifying into one solid crystal, and then fracturing into smaller crystals.

When Weiss came back about ten minutes later, she immediately noticed the change in her work area.

"What the...?" she asked, rushing over to the table and examining the vial from a few inches away. Unfortunately, in the low light of the room, Weiss didn't notice the bottle sitting high above her station, leading her to one conclusion.

"My mixture...worked?" she asked out loud, sitting down in her chair for a few moments before smiling. "It worked!" she said, louder and throwing her hands in the air triumphantly.

Immediately, Weiss sealed her vial and set it off to the side, intending to run some tests on it later to see what, exactly, the nature of this new type of dust. In her haste, though, Weiss didn't notice that she dropped one of the crystals. She simply gathered her materials and left the room.

Over the next couple of days, even weeks, the single crystal was kicked around the room by unsuspecting students, even being kicked out into the hall of the main lecture building, and then outside into the quad.