"Aha!"

"What?"

"My own brilliance astounds me sometimes," Amy smirked, reaching for another onion.

"Does your own modesty astound you too?" Taylor asked with a grin of her own, leaning against the wall watching her friend work. She was in her base form at the moment since the door was locked and the only other person than herself who currently had keys to the premises was her father, who would knock before unlocking the door.

They had the workshop door open as well, because she'd been sitting at the table playing games on Amy's phone for the last few minutes, which made her think maybe she should get one like it as well. She could certainly afford it these days.

"It does, yes. My modesty is only eclipsed by my brilliance, obviously. And possibly by my overall likability, which as you well know is immense."

"I'm beginning to think the thing that's immense is your ego," Taylor chuckled.

"Jealousy. Simple Jealousy." Amy sniffed, shaking her head sadly. "Poor little lizard girl doesn't know what an honor it is to have I, the Great Panacea, working with her. And allowing her to work with me."

"I thought you were The Amy?" Taylor asked, looking shocked and annoyed. "If you're going with The Great Panacea I'm going to have to change the order for the t-shirts and baseball caps, which is very short notice. They were due to turn up on Tuesday, you know."

"Pah. Tuesday?" Amy scoffed, waving her free hand as she concentrated on the mass of goo the onion had turned into in the other one. "Just another day. The only important day is the one I'm currently in."

"Today, you mean."

"Obviously."

"But it's always today."

"Exactly. Thereby showing how great I am to grace it with my presence."

They exchanged a glance, then nearly fell over laughing. "Sorry, I can't keep that up any more," Amy giggled. "I'm starting to sound like Mouse Protector."

"Ooh. I love her. Do you think we could get her to join us?" Taylor said excitedly, then grinned at the look of horror on her friend's face. "Joking. Honest." She paused, thinking. "More or less."

"My god, the world would collapse into a ball of terror and bad puns with both of you even in the same city, never mind the same room," Amy moaned. "Never say that again."

Shaking her head at the silliness, Taylor came closer. "So what brilliant idea have you had, oh Sage One?"

"Sage One." Amy looked thoughtful, then slowly shook her head. "Not quite, but it's not bad." Smirking again, she held up her hand, which was now holding a rather larger variant of her healing symbiote. "Behold. The Mark Sixteen."

"What's the difference between this and the Mark Fifteen?" Taylor asked as the girl slipped it into the holding tank with the previous versions. "Aside from being bigger."

"This one will seek out an injured person and heal them, without having to attach it first," her friend explained proudly. "It could be used for search and rescue, for example. It'll adapt to deal with the most serious injuries I could think of. Very aggressive healing, even if they're half crushed and have practically no life signs left it will fix them. It's brilliant."

She turned to look at Taylor, who had an eyebrow raised. "My best work yet."

"I see." Taylor nodded slowly. "And the eyes are to help it find people? Like all the little legs?"

Amy frowned. "What eyes?"

"And those teeth? Are they really needed?"

They looked at each other, then the healer turned her head, just as the thing in the tank whizzed into motion. "Holy Shit!" she screamed, diving out of the way as the tank virtually exploded with suspension liquid spraying everywhere, the thing she'd made which did indeed now have eyes and far too many legs spinning like a vacuum cleaner impeller. It bounced around the unbreakable tank for a few seconds, while Amy hid behind Taylor, who was frowning at the thing and wiping goo from her face.

"It's growling. Why is it growling?"

"I DON'T FUCKING KNOW!" Amy screamed in shock as the thing, which was definitely considerably larger now, leaped out of the tank and began skittering around the room. "Hit it! Kill it!"

"It ate all the other ones," Taylor noted, picking up the empty tank and shaking it a little. "Why did you make it eat things?"

"I FUCKING DIDN'T MAKE IT EAT THINGS, YOU IDIOT!" her friend shrieked, climbing up her to get away from her creation which pinged around the work room like a squash ball fired from a cannon, still making a shrill growling sound that was rather unnerving. It ultimately dived into the last twenty-pound cloth bag of onions they had left.

"Weird," Taylor commented, watching the bag jerk and twitch. "It's sort of hyperactive. I think you might have done something a little wrong."

"Really?" her friend said with heavy sarcasm from her position on Taylor's shoulders. "I'd never have fucking worked that out. That thing's insane."

"What did you do to it that's different?" Taylor asked curiously, listening to the growl get deeper in tone. "Aside from summoning Satan into it."

"I may have added a little of your DNA equivalent to it," Amy admitted.

"But I thought your power couldn't work out my biology at all?"

"I guessed," Amy said in a small voice.

"Um..." The bag exploded, not one but half a dozen of the things coming out in all directions, each of them about the size of a rat. There were more legs and the teeth were much bigger. "I think you guessed wrong."

"Thanks for that," Amy yelled as she tried to crawl onto Taylor's head with her newly enhanced strength. She let out a high pitched scream as one of the things propelled itself off the floor right at her. Taylor reached out and grabbed it as it went past, holding on firmly as the thing went completely apeshit, sawing at her wrist with a mouth filled with dozens of razor-sharp teeth.

"Ow. I can actually feel that," she said with surprise. "Don't let one bite you."

"WILL YOU STOP STATING THE FUCKING OBVIOUS AND KILL THEM, YOU SCALY IDIOT?" Amy's voice had nearly gone ultrasonic. Experimentally, Taylor squeezed, then looked at the results in mild astonishment. The synthetic creature had broken in two in her grip, both halves reconstituting into a pair of smaller but identical creatures. They looked at each other in her hand, then pounced. Within seconds there was only one, back to more or less the original size. It licked its lips with a forked tongue and belched, then went for Amy again, who screamed and dived off Taylor out of the workroom. All six of the things followed her.

Taylor listened to the screaming and crashing sounds, sighed gently, and went to save her friend.

"How did you make them taste like Chicken Vindaloo?" Taylor said, licking her lips thoughtfully. "I love Chicken Vindaloo. Can we have those next Thanksgiving?"

Amy, who was very tattered and exhausted looking, with a number of rips in her clothes, gave her an evil look. Taylor grinned.

"We never talk about the Mark Sixteen again. Ever. I mean it." Her friend's voice was dark and dangerous. "Or I'll end you. Somehow."

Taylor reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "Hey, it could have been worse. Just think what would have happened if we'd had a ton of onions in stock."

Amy just glared, her eyes radiating death.

Snickering, Taylor went to find something to drink.

Chicken Vindaloo always made her thirsty.