Slime 10: Slime Of Your Life

* January 13 2011 *

* Brockton Bay, NH *

* Building A113, Docks *

"I knew teenage boys could put it away, but your girl," muttered Zephron.

Danny snorted slightly.

Taylor just reformed into her humanoid gel girl form.

"Tastes great, less filling?" asked Alice, the heavily-scarred mechanic gesturing towards the piles of metal and scrap that were no longer there.

"And... zoop!" said Bounceback, spitting out a second Power Loader. "Zoop, zoop, zoop, zoop!"

"Including the prototype - that's six of them," said Danny. "What's the battery life like?"

"One hour at full charge on the battery, most often you'll be hooked into a generator," said Taylor.

"That's a limitation on the technology?" asked Ellen, the lawyer adjusting her glasses as she inspected the machines.

"Safety actually," said Danny. "We didn't want people coming in and running off with them. So they're not as fast as they could be and don't run very long off the batteries."

"Uh huh," said Ellen. "Where's the others?"

"What others?" asked Danny, looking about as innocent as he could.

Alice was already settling into the harness of one Power Loader and activating the parts that then fit into place around her. Hydraulics began whining as she put one through its paces.

"The others, or are you planning on plausible deniability," said Ellen.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Danny.

Alice's expression was flatly disbelieving.

"Merchants incoming!" called out someone.

"Damn, Da... Danny," said Bounceback. "We ready?"

"Yeah, we're ready," answered Danny Hebert. Yeah, his daughter was now as close to immortal as possible. Yeah, he hadn't even noticed she was being bullied for a year. He couldn't do anything about the past. She'd already dealt with one of the most dangerous capes in Brockton Bay and now his Dockworkers Union was a lot more prepared than previously. "Everyone. Arm up."

* Derek T. Manning III *

There were, at his last counting, two major gangs in Brockton Bay - the Azn Bad Boys (which he couldn't help but think every time he heard it was a terrible name) and the Empire 88 (which sometimes acted more like a parody of Nazis than anything else) but both were extremely dangerous to someone of his own skin color. Both of those had some pretty strong capes. There were two medium-sized gangs - Archer Street Merchants (hard drugs) and the Green Underground (mainly weed and shrooms) with the first having two effective capes and the second having no capes that anyone knew of. Then, as far as he knew, there were six gangs that were considered minor as they had less than ten members and maybe controlled one block each. Not counting that Coil guy who seemed to be less a gang than either a paravillain or a wannabe.

He himself was old, stubborn, and a Vietnam War veteran who was not inclined to move. He owed Danny that he still could find work, Panacea that he was still moving around as easy as he did, and damn few others anything at all.

"You know how to use that thing?" asked Zephron.

Derek just checked the gun over, that the safety was on, the round was chambered, and that everything looked ready. He grunted because the large man was still standing there.

"You gonna be okay, old man?" prompted Zephron.

"You worry about your end of things," responded Derek, wishing he had a cigar. Not that he'd light it after those deathsticks had screwed up his lungs pre-Panacea, but it was something familiar when he was in this sort of position. "I been doing things like this since way before you was a gleam."

"If I can't worry about my grandpappy, who can't I worry about," grumbled Zephron. "You be careful now. I have to check up on other folks who aren't quite as ornery as you."

Derek snorted at that, sighting along the rifle. "One thing. Can you tell Little Girl Blue she does good work? Bessie here hasn't looked this new since I got her."

"I'll mention it," said Zephron, who was then gone as quiet as someone of that size could manage. Which was pretty good, all things considered.

Derek allowed himself a moment of pride in the youngster, then settled down under the camou net and just waited for...

There it was. Ugly sucker too. Stealth field on the thing got stripped off when it tried to force its way through those web-barricades that Little Girl Blue had set up for them Nazi twits. Bulldozer parts at the front, which were breaking through the webs but getting pretty sliced up doing it, some kind of forklift cage with plates of armor on top, and some Hummer parts also armor-plated haphazardly. He supposed it was kind of hard to build something that didn't look like trash when you were higher than mountain goat crap.

Safety off. Double check the round chambered. Clip loaded. Wind and distance allowed for. Also the other little factors like the heat shimmer around the vehicle itself.

Fifty caliber sniper rounds were hard to shrug off. Since Bounceback could duplicate stuff, she'd made him a full clip from one bullet.

First bullet was a bit high. Second went through the air filter because engines still needed air intakes. A hatch opened up in the top, so a couple of adjustments and...

Perfect. Derek grinned as the bullet hit at just the right angle to go IN. That'd bounce around a few times.

Oh hell. That was some kind of cannon and it was now pointed in his general direction. Time to book.

Blackness.

Then he was being spit out of a blue blob.

"I thought I told you to be careful," chided Zephron.

* PRT ENE HQ *

"At this point we're not sure if she's a clone or not," said Doctor Putnaji. "Other than those patches of newer tissue which could be resulting from Othala's regeneration power, her body tests out as being of an appropriate age and the usual wear and tear. Which is all evidence for the 'not a clone' conclusion. Her psych tests are all getting progressively less in keeping with her behavior prior to her injuries being healed."

"How so? Is she more of a danger?" asked Deputy Director Renick.

"The opposite. She's less on edge and more calm than you'd expect considering all the medical tests," said Putnaji. "Which kind of fits the 'clone' verdict."

"So... in trope terms. She could be the good clone of the evil original?" asked Renick.

"Crude and not entirely accurate, but yes," said Putnaji.

Renick sighed. "Well, she's a normal human now so I suppose as soon as she's cleared we can turn her over to the regular justice system. As far as I know the whole question of whether she's a clone or not is the only sticking point so far."

Putnaji shrugged. "Considering this town, it is not entirely surprising we ended up with a situation involving an evil twin."

One of the lead techs knocked on the door and then leaned in. "Word from the Dockworkers. They have Skidmark and Squealer in custody and ready for pickup."

"The Dockworkers. Meaning Bounceback. Let me see who is available," said Renick as he checked the whiteboard with the duty roster.

* Otherwhere *

On a parallel Earth there was a version of a continent covered in crystals and tubes and organic-looking structures.

More structures were under construction, growing and branching as they developed or were extruded from other structures.

Air slowly built up in chambers was suddenly released, and chunks of crystal were thrown violently skyward.

The chunk of crystal blew off sections as it went until all that remained was a crystalline flower that floated in orbit above the planet. Direct sunlight was drunk into its depths where it became power to feed back to the mass below.

Air spicules below began the process of pulling in and pressurizing air again now that the initial process was proven successful.

* Kurt *

He'd worked with Danny for quite some time and there were things he knew that allowed him to fill in the blanks quite readily.

Bounceback was little Taylor Hebert, Danny's daughter. She'd had a Trigger Event and ended up a parahuman who could turn into a blue blob. And shapechange. And stretch like she was made of Silly Putty. And eat things and use the materials to spit out other things. And spin at least two kinds of web. Three if you counted the synthetic spider silk that he had taken the sample down to that Parian gal to see if she could use the stuff.

They were expecting a call back on that today, as a matter of fact. Stuff was tough and Bounceback had produced a square about five feet across. If it WAS sellable, then a trade off with Parian giving them back some stuff in return for more of the product was something for the wheeler-dealer types to hash out.

He was "up top" in the scaffolding. He was an ex-Marine (though there was the old truism about nobody really being an EX-Marine) so it wasn't as if it bothered him being up in an old metal framework with binoculars and a radio.

"Got eyes on Armsmaster on his Armscycle. He'll be here in an Arms-minute."

"Roger there, Kurt. Any sign of other Merchants?"

"Negatory," answered Kurt. "Looks like one police cruiser and a van following him."

"All packages are prepped for delivery."

"Roger roger," said Kurt by reply and went back to scanning things. Maybe they could afford a decent camera after all this and nobody would have to go up into rusty scaffolding in a cold wind in freaking January in Brockton Bay.

* Armsmaster *

He followed the guide, his motorcycle able to maintain the walking pace due to gyroscopic balancers he'd switched on for exactly this purpose. This also gave him time to inspect his surroundings.

The wires providing perimeter barriers were of two varieties. One was a carbon monofilament, extremely sharp but brittle. The synthetic spider thread covered by a resin was stretchy and covered in a form of adhesive that he was hoping to get samples of.

The posts the wires/webs were anchored to were repurposed steel. Some were crudely shaped, getting more streamlined in designs rapidly until a uniform sort was dominant.

Which was when one of Power Loaders walked past, another Dockworker waiting near a building who plugged a large cable into the exosuit as soon as it came to a halt.

A glance revealed it was not designed for combat as it was mostly unarmored. Bright yellow - so not stealth operations. The odd claw designs were more like the sort of thing found on pallet jacks and forklifts? "Dragon, are you seeing this?"

"Yes, Colin. With a few changes it appears to be the Power Loader exosuit from the movie 'Aliens' with differences mainly regarding control surfaces and the legs having rollers that can be extended down for either storage or towing."

"Hmmm," hmmmed Colin in reply. New machines, some in different colors were readily visible nearby. Most of which were what one would expect from a busy warehouse district other than they were in better repair.

"Interesting selection of vehicles there, all of which look recently repaired and refurbished," noted Dragon as he glanced into an open warehouse and she watched over the feed he was providing.

"Those are likely some of the prizes in the planned auction," said Colin. "Or the lottery as they are apparently running both. Probably to gauge which is more successful."

"Colin. Pause. Turn your camera feeds to the left. Magnify. What does THAT look like to you?"

Armsmaster studied the object in question. "It's a modified cherry picker such as is used by the people who change billboards and traffic signs. This one has an articulated claw at the end. 2005 Genie Z45J according to my identification program. Yes, it's odd. I wonder what they plan on using it for?"

"I'm pretty sure we could ask Bounceback."

"You're certain she's a Tinker. That's certainly an odd grouping of powers to have," said Armsmaster. "Very atypical."

"That pretty much sums up Bounceback," pointed out Dragon. "I wonder what's in that warehouse."

"The one with the guards that are trying to look like they're not guarding it?" asked Armsmaster. "We could ask, I suppose... Is that Leet?"

"Who is meeting with Bounceback," said Dragon.

"This sounds like something I should inquire about," said Armsmaster, changing course towards the two.

"...so you can do it?" asked Leet, sounding excited.

"Yup," said Bounceback, her shape changing to more of a wall-shape and then spitting out three oddly-shaped chairs.

"It's working and you made more?!" asked Leet.

"What is it? I detect heating modules, pressure sensors, micro-motors and actuators," said Armsmaster as his sensor suite went to work.

"It's a Tinkertech massage chair," said Leet. "It's great for when you've got sprained muscles and such."

"It WAS Tinkertech," said Bounceback, back in her goo girl form. "Now it's all replicable technology."

Armsmaster focused on Bounceback. "Did you... just say that you can understand Tinkertech and replicate it?"

"If I can analyze it and work around the black boxes. Why, is that a big deal?" asked Bounceback.

"YES!" answered Armsmaster, Dragon, several of the Dockworkers nearby, and Leet.

* Great Sage *

[Analysis Complete: Tinkertank obtained from subject: Squealer has allowed for further understanding of Tinkertech "Black Box" regarding stealth, mass reduction/increase, power source amplification, and acceleration technologies.]

[Analysis Complete: Obtained duplicates of Tinker:Vehicles and Kinetic Vector Control Shards. Able to duplicate effects. Infection/control of shards in progress.]

[Deconstruction/Reconstruction ability assimilated/integrated.]

[Additional energy available.]

[Full analysis of available genome structures and coding complete.]

[Storage Blisters upgraded from 2 to 10]

[Energy Collection Segments upgraded from 4 to 8 on continent, +1 orbital.]

[Energy Storage Segments upgraded from 2 to 8.]

[Processor Segments upgraded from 5 to 12.]

[Efficiency for all systems upgrading - 172%.]

[Continuing network infiltration.]

"Well, that all sounds good. What I can understand of it at least," said Taylor as she spat out another modified Mjolnir armor. "That's three of the massage chairs for the PRT, four Mjolnirs for the Docks, and three fully repaired boats. You think we can do something about that big one?"

[It is currently within physical capabilities.]

"They're still working on how to do it legally, so we'll see I guess," said Taylor.

[Inefficient]

"Hey, it's government."

[Alert: Observation of actions noted. Will of the World connection forwarded to Seven Angels of Origin for supervisor decision.]

[Seven Angels Of Origin deferred decision. Secondary Authority currently not available.]

"Sounds a bit like government."

[Authority found to consult: Veldora the Storm Dragon.]

"Oh. That sounds really impressive, like an End Boss or something."

{BWAHAHAHA! You Are Perceptive!}

"Uhm, Great Sage. Did you just connect me directly to..."

[...maybe.]

"(sigh) Okay. So, uhm, Veldora. Glad to meet you, my name is Taylor Hebert though I go by the name Bounceback. It's kind of a professional name. I'm a human turned into a 'queen slime' and I'm trying to save my city. Maybe my world. Cause it's REALLY screwed up at the moment."

{So I hear. Can you send me memories so that I can better perceive these problems? It is at least a welcome distraction from my tedium.}