Snuggles The Symbiote
There were a lot of people at the mall. Taylor said that it wasn't really that many people, but I'd never really been around this many people before, so I stayed extra close to her. Part of our special deal with becoming Wards involved them giving us some money to make sure I was taken care of. Mister Hebert said that he'd be talking to some people he knew about putting a bedroom in the basement. Taylor said she'd have to move her black widows, which had given mister Hebert just the funniest look on his face.
While he was at work and/or talking, Taylor had taken me out to get some 'essentials' which apparently meant clothes and underwear. I don't know why they didn't just say that. Still, it'd be nice to have clothes that weren't just Mister Snuggles shape-shifted. He said it was no big deal, but it seemed kind of hard on him and he'd mentioned that he was only as good as it as he was because of 'psionic-metamorphic cells containing what this one's host calls an x-gene' that he'd been fed and that he was cheating based on those to do something that normally only a stronger and more experienced klyntar could do. I wonder if that meant he was part Mystique?
"So," I said as I gently swung my bag of 'essentials,' "what's next?"
"Well, we've still got a little time before the appointment," she said. Later today we were meeting up with image people to talk about names and costumes, then we had power testing got to officially meet our team. "Are you hungry? There's a food court here."
"A little bit," I said. I think it was getting close to lunchtime.
"One designated Ashley could do with replenishing her body's reserves of amino acids, though doing so is not yet critical," Mister Snuggles whispered in my ear.
It took me a second before I remembered what my science book said. I looked around to make sure nobody was too close. "Uh, Mister Snuggles said I should eat something with protein," I said quietly.
"We'll see what they have then," Taylor said and then we started walking.
It was maybe a minute later, I could smell lots of greasy fried stuff and a bunch of different spices when I had to stop and hold my head. "Are you alright?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah," I said. "I just felt weird for a second. Kinda like a headache in the back of my head, but instead of pain it just felt buzzy."
"That-" Taylor got cut off by someone from behind us.
"What do we have here?" came a voice like some of the mean girls on TV.
Taylor froze for a second, but then she turned around and kind of pushed me behind her.
There were three girls about Taylor's age. Two them were white with red and brown hair, one was black. The redhead was pretty and smelled like perfume, the brown haired girl was cute, with hair clips, but she needed more clothes than just the shoulderless shirt and jean-shorts, and the black girl was kind of pretty but was mostly built like the girl runners that one time I tried to watch the Olympics but got bored and put on cartoons instead. She smelled like salt and metal.
Taylor had a bag too, and the redhead looked at it. She looked mean all of a sudden. "Buying new clothes? Look, Taylor, I don't think it's gonna help."
I poked around Taylor. "Actually, it's mine. Hi, I'm Ashley," I said with a friendly wave.
Taylor tensed up at the same time that the brown haired girl went "aww."
The other two girls looked back and forth between me and Taylor.
"What are you doing with a brat hanging around?" The black girl asked. She had a big smile that showed a lot of teeth.
"That one has the gaze of a predatory organism and is faintly coated in the odor of saline and ferrous vital fluids, suggesting recent hematophagous or carnivorous feeding" Mister Snuggles said, "possibly a feral snark, brood, or other violent or predatory species disguised as an earthling."
I rolled my eyes and thought "Oh you!" back at him like on the TV.
Taylor hadn't answered the question, so I said, "I already said I'm Ashley. Taylor's gonna be my foster sister. Now, it's rude to ask things like that after someone introduces themselves until you introduce yourself."
The girl made a kind of mean looking frown, but the red-head moved up front and center. "I'm sorry about that, Sophia can get a little caught up in things," she said. "I'm Emma, this is Madison," she pointed to the girl with the brown hair. "My Dad mentioned he was helping Mister Hebert take care of a kid."
"Oh," I said, "so you're Mister Barnes' daughter?" I stuck out my hand and smiled nice and big, "it's nice to meet you."
"Same" she said and took my hand, "you know, Taylor and I go way, way back," she said while we shook, "sometime you'll have to come over and I can tell you all about the kind of things she used to get up to..." she smiled nice and big, but there was something fake about it.
"Okay," I said, but I didn't really mean it. I was a little bit uncomfortable all of a sudden and I got that weird buzzy feeling again.
"One designated Emma dangerous, but this one is not sure how," Mister Snuggles said not-that-helpfully. "Proceed with caution."
"Well, anyway we need to get going," Emma said, and walked off with her friends in the direction that Taylor and I had been going, where the fried spicy food smell was coming from.
Taylor was still quiet so I gave her a hug. "What's wrong with them?" I asked.
"...It's not important," she answered, "we can talk about it later…. You know," she said, "maybe the food court isn't such a good idea right now after all. There's a place in town called Fugly Bob's. Everybody who lives in Brockton Bay should eat there at least once… then, if they like it, wait at least a year for their arteries to heal before going back for more."
It took me a second to get it. "Greasy food?"
"Oh Yeah," Taylor confirmed. "How about it?"
"Okay!"
Snuggles the Symbiote
Fugly Bob's was mostly burgers, but they also had a sandwich called The Count of Monte Fatso. French bread soaked in french toast batter and deep fried, then filled with chunky peanut butter, strawberry jam, chopped crispy bacon, and cream cheese and dusted with powdered sugar. It came with lots french fries.
It was delicious but I was regretting eating it with a large soda when we were running on a treadmill so the PRT people could figure out how fast we were.
"You can stop now," the guy with the clipboard said. We pushed a button he'd shown us earlier that said "cooldown" and the treadmill started slowing while he scribbled some things on the clipboard.
A little bit away from me but still where I could see was another clipboard guy who was taking notes while Taylor-sorry, Weaver-made every flying bug in the building, which was a lot, dance and form a bunch of different shapes while running on a treadmill of her own and answer questions.
"...And the capital of Wyoming is Cheyenne," she finished as the bugs shifted from a triangle to a star.
"Impressive multitasking and coordination," her clipboard guy said. "And you said you have a range of two blocks?"
"More or less," Weaver said. Then she started slowing down. She kind of looked funny
"Okay well, I think that's everything we can test for right now," he said.
Weaver nodded and the man left, leaving just us and my power testing clipboard guy.
"Okay," the guy said, "next we'll be taking information to determine your changer rating. If you could follow me?"
And we did, Taylor and us walked into a big room with lots of different stuff. It was kind of like a gym, but the exercise equipment was in the other room, except the weights but the weights here looked big and there were also sheets of metal and blocks of gel and what looked like a gun and for some reason a six-wheeled army truck.
"This," the man said, "is the Brute and Changer Training Area, or BaCTA. That's not the official name, but that's what the room is for and the real name doesn't have a fun acronym."
"Uh, Brute means really strong, right?" We asked.
"Super strength or being able to fake it, natural weapons, super toughness or regeneration," the man explained, "most changers have those powers in their alternate form, so it just made sense to have them share a dedicated training space."
Weaver was looking at the gun. "I hope you're not planning to shoot her."
"Only if she turns out to be a mid to high-level Brute," the man said. "That's something Armsmaster cooked up based on the works of a ballistics tinker from Kentucky. I have no idea how it works, but the idea is that it's good for testing if someone's bulletproof but won't hurt them too bad if they're not," he explained, "but we prefer not to use it on people who aren't tough enough because, well, it still leaves a heck of a bruise."
"So," I asked, "what do we do first?"
"I've-" he was interrupted by more people coming in.
I turned around and saw Mister Armsmaster leading in an older boy dressed in head to toe in red with a shield on his chest, another boy in solid white and covered in clocks, a boy who looked like he was trying to copy Iron Man but was dancing around Tony Stark's copyrights and trademarks, a guy that looks like some kind of future knight and a girl who was a little older than I was in something green and squigly with a skirt, visor, and armor that tried to make her look older but wasn't doing a very good job. I waved.
"I hope you don't mind the interruption," Mister Armsmaster said, looking at the man, "Smith, but I have the Wards here to meet the new recruits and we really can't time it better." He muttered something about a stupid PR stunt taking up a lot of scheduling time. I don't think he expected us to hear that. Or that anyone else did.
"It's fine," the man, Smith, said. "We're just testing out Cuddlebug's changer rating."
The girl laughed. "Cuddlebug?"
"Yeah, we're Cuddlebug," I said. The Image people had said that nobody would take 'Snuggles' seriously and my explanation that every symbiote host went by the symbiote's name didn't help. I think mentioning Venom, Carnage, Toxin, and Mania made it backfire. The only other name I could think of was the handle I'd used when I put The Champions meet The Crystal Gems up on Freakin Awesome. "It's a marketing thing," I gave the reason why they'd accepted it. "Weaver has bug powers and the name 'Cuddlebug' makes it easier for them to brand up together. We talked about matching logos." I had Mister Snuggles retract the shifty blue lines that made us kind of look like a piece of marble and give out a spider-logo. Kind of like Venom's, but less scary since instead of real-looking spider-body it was mostly just an oval with eight bendy legs, four up, four down. "Kinda like this one."
I got the impression that the one with the clocks was staring at me… "You're a changer, right? Are you… You're… Uh… I really don't want to say the wrong thing, but..."
"Technically it's my costume that's the shapeshifter," I said and he kind of relaxed. "Except he's not a costume. He's symbiote. His name is Mister Snuggles."
"This one would prefer it if you clarified that this one is technically without what you know to be sex or gender and is thus most accurately referred to by 'it' pronouns," Mister Snuggles whispered into my ear
"And he wants me to tell you that he's technically an 'it' but I don't call him it because calling him it would be rude."
"This one still doesn't understand the one called Ashley's obsession," Mister Snuggles said in the kind of way that people shrugging on TV do.
"Okay then," Clockface said like he didn't know how to respond to that.
"Anyway," Armsmaster said, "These two," he said with a gesture to me and Weaver, "are the two partners who helped me bring in Lung the other day and are joining the team. Introduce yourselves."
"Clockblocker," the boy with the clocks said.
"I'm Gallant," the robo-knight said, "it's nice to meet you."
"Vista," the girl said, "do either of you like basketball?"
"Now's probably not the time, Vista," mister red and shield said, "I'm Aegis, I'll be your team leader."
"And I'm Kid Win," the knock-off Ironman finished.
"There are two other members of the team," Aegis explained, "But Browbeat couldn't be here and Shadow Stalker is AWOL right now."
"Well, it's very nice to meet you," I said. "So uh, what next?"
"I think the idea is that we just spend some time together, ask each other questions, and just get to know each other," Weaver explained. "How much are we allowed to divulge about Cuddlebug's specific situation? I know she doesn't want to keep it a secret from anyone she's going to be working with, but..."
"We've discussed it with legal," Mister Armsmaster said, "as it details her personal history, it's covered by the standard NDA that protects the Wards identities. Cuddlebug," he smiled kind of funny when he said my hero name, "can tell as little or as much as she wants."
"Okay!" I shouted, "so the night Weaver and I helped beat up that dragon guy who was gonna kill a bunch of kids and his pet fuzzy naked blue spider-lady, I punched him in the groin, was also the night I found out that that I got hurled from the universe I was born into this one. Mine's had superheroes since the forties and there's a bazillion kinds, which are mostly because of genetic mutations except when they're magic or aliens."
They were all looking at me like I was crazy.
"...Okay then," Clockblocker said, "So you're some kind of mutant from another dimension who can make living costumes?"
"Well, no, I didn't make-"
"I don't think you should just call her a mutant," Gallant interrupted, "even if she does have a mutation-"
"No," I interrupted, "mutant is the preferred term. Well, for the kind that, um, I am," I hadn't wanted to say that I was a mutant specifically, but… "Or Homo Superior, but that one's bad science and really doesn't make sense since most mutants aren't much better than normal humans or other superhumans so I prefer mutant." I noticed that I wasn't looking at any of them and looked up. "But I didn't make Mister Snuggles. He's a symbiotic alien that partnered up with me because my mutation makes me a good match for him."
"As well as due to the physiological and psychological compatibility between this one and one designated Ashley. As well as the similar histories and experiences. As well due to this one having fondness for one designated Ashley."
"Thank you Mister Snuggles. Uh, could you wave hello?" He popped out one of those Doc Ock looking tentacles from behind my right shoulder and gave a friendly wave. "The proper name for his species is Klyntar, after the planet they come from."
"..You know that sounds crazy, right?" Vista sked.
"Yeah," I answered, "and everyone being the exact same kind of superhuman with no magic or aliens sounds crazy to me." I pointed at her. "You're the universe where Michael Jackson is still alive and never got that disease that made him turn white. I'm not the weird one here."
About half of them started laughing.
"As far as we can tell," Mister Armsmaster said, "Cuddlebug is telling the truth. In fact, we have reason to believe that other people from her universe of origin have also arrived on Earth Bet. Just… For the time being, we'd prefer to keep this a secret from the general public."
"The Image people said that officially I'm a 'Combat-Focal Hybrid Tinker specializing in biomechanical nano-tech and organic metals and Mister Snuggles is a multipurpose combat nano-suit with an onboard AI that's bonded directly to my physiology.' " I shared. "I understand about half of those words."
"Speaking of which," Mister Smith said, "we really do need to test… His abilities. It's my understanding that you can make claws?"
I had Mister Snuggles shift them out. They didn't go "snikt" like mutant claws are supposed to, so I made the sound with my mouth.
"Thank you," he said, "now I need to take some measurements," he said, grabbing a couple of tools and coming over. "This shouldn't take long, you can keep talking." Then he started measuring how long my claws were and tapping them and examining the points.
"So, Weaver, right?" I could see that Aegis had gone over to talk to T-Weaver up close. "I can't help but notice that your costume seems kind of… Ruined."
"Yeah, it turns out that black widow silk is not fire or acid proof," she said, "after we're done here, we'll be stopping by costuming to see about getting me something to use until I can make a replacement." Aegis nodded but then Taylor went on, "Oh, by the way, once we're settled in if anybody wants a costume or under-armor made of Spider-Silk, just talk to costuming and they'll give me the details." A couple of the Wards looked thoughtful.
"Cuddlebug?" Kid Win said as he came up to me, "first, let me say that I like your… Color scheme. Dark blue on gold, it's got a lot of significance here because of Hero but not a lot of people tap that."
"Was yellow," Mister Snuggles whispered in my ear. "Was exposed to energy, changed color to gold, altered organic metal particles." I thought back at him that I'd bring it up if I could work it into the conversation.
"Yeah, Image said that too," I replied to Kid Win, "I still think it's weird that you guys had a hero named Hero," I said. "And that he died and stayed dead. That doesn't usually happen where I'm from."
He was quiet for a second. "...Heroes don't stay dead where you're from?"
"Not usually," I answered. "Villains either. At least the major ones. Some of them, like Jean Grey, are kind of famous for it." I thought about it for a second. "The only major hero I know of who died and stayed dead is the original Captain Marvel and he had cancer so I don't think that counts."
"Ahhh… eh… Un Ahh-anyway," Kid Win said awkwardly, "I just wanted to ask, earlier you specified that mutant is the term for what 'you' are. Are there other names for different kind of mutations."
"Okay," I said as Mister Smith continued poking and prodding my claws, "I kind of already explained a bunch of this the other night,but the gist of it is that mutant refers specifically to people with what's called an X-Gene, which is an extra gene that some people in my universe have. If your mutation is caused by something else, you're called a mutate… Unless you're a latent or artificial mutant, then you're both."
"...How can one gene cause Superhuman powers?"
"Uhh..." I wracked my brain. My science books hadn't gone in depth but I googled it once. "Uh, I think the idea is that, if you have an active X-gene, it like… Like, your genes code for proteins that your cell makes, right? Apparently, the X-gene codes for a protein that works like a mutagen. It gets into your system and changes around your other genes and that's what gives you powers. It also means that if you've got an active X-Gene, you're not technically human." Why did I say that? Why, why did I say that? "I mean, scientifically. It's kind of like uh, uh… Like a dog. A dog isn't considered the same species as a wolf even though they can make babies together and the first dogs were born from wolves… Except not every mutant is as changed as another and every mutant is difference unless you've got some other special gene or you're one of those ones that runs in families and a lot of the epsilon level mutants are like, really ugly or disabled and have sucky powers so they're not likely to have kids at all and-"
"Epsilon?" Kid asked. "The Greek Letter?"
"Yeah," I said, "somebody used a Greek letter system to come up ways to describe different mutants….But uh, I'm not 100% sure that all of them are official. Off the top of my head, omega level is the scary one you hear about all the time, with the super duper powerful mutants who can like, lift the Brooklyn Bridge with their minds or something, alphas are the lucky ones who get a power that's really useful but isn't scary overpowered and they've got perfect control of it so they can pass for human if they want to, and epsilons-"
"Cuddlebug," Mister Smith said, "you're shaking a little. I need you to hold still while I finish examining your claws."
"Sorry. Epsilons mutated bad so they get sucky powers or even no powers while being hideously deformed or severely disabled. Those are the only ones I know off the top of my head." And I only knew epsilon because, well, one time when I was getting a check-up the Doctor'd said epsilon while checking my file and I googled it when I got home.
"So you're an Alpha mutant?"
"No… I'm…"
"Kid," Gallant said all of a sudden, "you're making her uncomfortable."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Kid said. He sounded like he meant it. I could see that Weaver was staring at him, too.
"S'okay."
"You'll have to forgive Kid Win here," Gallant said as he came up to me. "He's a Tinker. Get him interested in something science related and he'll focus on it until something else catches his eye."
"Yeah, Sorry again," Kid Win said with a cheesy smile. "Bio's not even my thing I don't think. There's really no excuse for..."
'It's okay. I like your armor," I said. I needed to talk about something else, and besides, it was true.
"Thank you," Kid Win said, "I built it myself."
"Cool!" I said. It was nice to be talking about something fun. "It kind of reminds me of a hero from back home called Iron Man. Have you ever thought about putting laser beams in the gloves?"
"I am now," he answered while looking at his armored hand. "Could you tell me more about this Iron Man guy?"
"He's a billionaire playboy and CEO of a company that invents all kinds of technology, a lot of which he did himself." I started. There weren't many people who didn't know the story of Tony Stark. "Originally he pretended to be his own bodyguard who got paid in gadgets to fight monsters and supervillains with, but eventually, he went public. He's got dozens of suits of powered armor that he switches out between as needed, the first of which he built in a cave from parts of a missile, and a lot of the newer ones can swap parts around or reshape themselves." Kid Win hummed. "Also, according to , he paid a lot of people a lot of money to licenses out that one Black Sabbath song indefinitely even though the song's Iron Man is nothing like the real one."
That made Kid Win laugh.
"Okay Cuddlebug, now you see those cubes of ballistics gel?" Mister Smith said, pointing to the gel cubes. I nodded. "I'm gonna set one of those up and then I want you to slash it a couple of times, okay?" I nodded again.
While he was bringing it out, I heard Weaver talking to Vista.
"...And if we can get just one more girl we'll have even numbers and the Director will look over my powered basketball proposal." Vista said.
"Interesting," Weaver said evenly.
"Anyway," Vista continued, "what exactly is the deal with you and Cuddlebug?"
"Officially," Weaver said, "Cuddlebug's my little sister. That's really all I'm willing to disclose before I get to know you guys better." I smiled. Taylor would be an awesome big sister.
The gel cube was set up on a table with a camera nearby and Mister Smith waved me over. "Okay, I want you to start with one good swipe."
I took my right hand and back and scratched at the cube as hard and as fast as I could and cut what looked like a couple of inches deep and a couple inches wide. Mister Smith looked at it and took a ruler to the scratch-the opening and how deep it was.
"Huh," he said as he scribbled it down on his clipboard. "Your claws left a mark just a little bigger than they should have based on these measurements. By the way," he said looking at me, "you probably shouldn't use your claws against an unarmored human who doesn't have a high defensive brute rating. This stuff," he smacked the cube, "is about as dense as human flesh and reacts the same way. You'll kill someone if you're not careful."
"Oh, uh, Okay," I said, "we won't." I felt this weird sour-sick feeling in my tummy.
"One designated Taylor is glaring at one designated Smith," Mister Snuggles added helpfully.
'Now," Mister Smith said, not noticing that Weaver was glaring at him apparently, "I've got a stopwatch here," he pulled it from his pocket, "and when I say go, I want you to shred as much of this gel cube as you can in thirty seconds. Okay?" I nodded, and after a moment he said: "go!"
And then I turned my brain off and furiously swiped at the cube of gel until I heard him say stop.
There was no gel left, but there was one hell of a mess with a really thin sticky layer on the table and what looked like chewed jello all over the floor around the table.
"Remind me never to piss you off," I heard Vista say.
I turned out just in time to see Mister Armsmaster look to her and say "Watch your language."
Mister Smith was scribbling on his clipboard. "Okay, I want to test your claws against a steel plate and then we should be done with them." This one was actually pretty easy. What he did was bring over a metal sheet about as thick as a stack of four dimes and as tall and wide as a floor tile and asked me to try scratch clean through it in one go. I cut it into five strips pretty easy.
"Now," Mister Smith said, "the other major thing you can do is the tentacles and the tail, right?"
"Yeah"
"About how strong do you think they are?"
"This one can generate appendages roughly equal in physical capacity to one designated Ashley's natural manipulator limbs when augmented by this one," Mister Snuggles said.
"Mister Snuggles says they're about as strong as my arms," I translated.
"Okay Cuddlebug," he said, "what's the biggest you think you can lift?" He pointed to the big weights and the truck. I thought about it for a second, then walked over and lifted the truck up above my head.
It actually felt heavy, just a little bit, and after a few seconds, I had to set it back down. "I think that's about as much as we can lift right now."
"Okay," Mister Smith said while writing that down on his clipboard, "and that truck weighs just over five imperial tons."
Five tons? That was like, half as much as Spider-Man. Which means that… I should be as strong as Spider-Man when I grow up! Yay!
"Now, the only thing left to test is how well you can bring it all together-"
"Someone's coming," I interrupted. I could hear footsteps in the hallway and could smell people, and one of them smelled like salt and metal.
A second later an agent in armor came in with a girl dressed head to do in dark clothing-a solid black lady-face mask, black armor, and a black and grey spotted cloak. And she smelled exactly like that Sophia girl from the mall earlier.