Excalibur doesn't bother to answer that question, but continues to think of how she got so strong, so quick...And then he figures it out. "Ah....Now I know what is going on...What you are wearing there are garments imbued with a strength-enhancing aura. Wearing them increases the strength of the user. I have been trying to research how this has been done, but as of right now, I am coming up empty-handed." "Oh...Hmph, I never noticed that," Illumina says nonchalantly. "I thought my weight-lifting was finally starting to pay off...I guess I'm wrong. Oh well..."
"At least that issue has been taken care of," Excalibur says to her. "I will get that piece of crystalline Adamantium off of you later on." Then, remembering that he was going to work on another device, he asks her, "Hey, how would you like to see another one of my prototype devices? This one is the Dimensional Transportation System, also known as the DTS. I am hoping this can be used to speed up access to and from distant rooms in the lab...As well as other places outside of the lab. I am currently trying to lower the radiation emitted by Beta Version 2.31 of the DTS low enough to allow for safe transportation." "Wait..." she says, That piece of junk? I fiddled around with the knobs and nothing happened. It's like a lot of your earlier devices, they never–"
"Now, sis, keep in mind why it's called a Beta version; That's because--" Excalibur stops for a moment, now knowing she not only messed around with the DTS, but she also left it without supervision. He then shouts at her, "You WHAT? How long ago was that?" "About seven minutes ago," she replies. She wonders what's wrong; Rarely does her brother raise his voice like that. "...We must hurry, that device needs reset, and fast!" Excalibur continues to tell her. "If it is not fixed in time, the lab will be rendered uninhabitable by the radiation...And if that radiation leaks out into the atmosphere of this planet...I dare not think about that..."
They hurry over to the device with about thirty seconds left. On the way over, Excalibur remembers something he did, thinking to himself, ~It is a good thing I implanted an anti-radiation microchip in my lab coat...It will protect me from the radiation of the portal created by the device, so that will not be a problem if the emissions are only slight...~
...In his haste, however, he forgets to notice that Illumina had no such protection. "Oh, this is not good...Sis, I don't want you to get hurt, but...We are all in danger if the device is not shut off now..." He ponders over this decision for a moment, then Illumina slaps him upside the head and says, "Fix the device already! Forget about me, just shut this thing off before it's too late!"
Excalibur goes over to the DTS and starts to reset the settings on the device that Illumina fiddled around with, but it is too late...The DTS activates, a portal is created, and like a vacuum, it pulls in Excalibur and Illumina. Shortly after that, electromagnetic radiation from the DTS causes the PCLC to malfunction, misfire, and then overheat and shut down...Like a black hole, the portal created by the DTS pulls in the rays emitted by the PCLC.
Something strange on inside the portal...Radiation generated from the portal bombards the two. The strength-imbued garment and crystalline Adamantium armor fuse with Illumina's body...And while that is happening, the rays from the PCLC that were absorbed by the portal strike Excalibur's hair, causing it to become polychromatic in color and change completely in style. The rest of his body is not affected by the radiation or the PCLC.
Moments later, outside the DTS, one of Excalibur's larger robot assistants comes in, and notices that the DTS was activated...And Excalibur is not around to supervise. It walks over to the machine, which tries to pull him in as well, but cannot, as he is too large for it to pull in. He fiddles around with the dials until the machine goes in reverse, slamming the robot into the wall, and later, shooting out Excalibur and Illumina. Eventually, the machine itself shuts down from overheating. Before Illumina and Excalibur were shot out from it, though, the worker robot had put up a vertically set airbag-like device, to keep them from being severely hurt after being expelled from the DTS.
Illumina regains consciousness first. She feels something different about herself...But she seems more concerned that something's missing...And she's cold. Looking at herself, she sees that she is completely naked. ~Oh, THAT's just great...~ she thinks. ~First I get that metal fused to my waist, and now that stupid device stripped me of my clothes! Looks like I'll have to find somthing else...~ She goes back to her room, noticing that she does not look any different than how she looked before, and puts on some different clothes, a light blue babydoll shirt and jeans.
She notices that her waist feels heavier for some reason...Wondering why, she then gets on the scale, and is shocked by what she sees. "T-t-two-hundred-ten? How'd I gain THAT much weight so quickly? I was only half that about twenty minutes ago...This scale's gotta be lying...I look exactly the same as I did before!" Angered, she then steps hard on the scale, putting her foot right through it...As well as making a small impression in the floor below. "Whoa," she says to herself, "That was unexpected...And that scale's designed to hold a ton with no problem..." She then picks up the broken scale as if it weighed nothing. "It's light as a feather..." she continues. "Maybe my bro was wrong, and my exercising HAS been paying off..." She then tries to bend it, easily splitting it in two, and then takes part of the split remains of the scale and effortlessly crushes it in her hand. "...Holy crap...I know I'm not THAT strong...Or double my original weight...I'd better ask Cal what's going on..." She then heads back to the room where Excalibur was.