JMJ
Chapter Three
Phoenix Pending
I knew I had no reason to trust this guy, but I wanted to be fixed. I couldn't go on like this. No doctor could cure what was wrong with me. Even this guy was not one hundred percent sure about this experimental stuff, and there was no use digging Pr. Ex out of the grave to find out if the stuff was almost done dissolving and I was going to start dissolving myself. I had no adrenalin left. I could even feel the tears in the back of my eyes burning, ready to make me collapse into a blubbering pile of goo at Dr. Form's feet to beg him for the cure, but I held them back.
I hesitated like a guy about to make a deal with the devil. I've made a few of those in the past already, more or less, and I really didn't want to make that mistake again. I stared blankly, emptily, despairingly. I never felt despair before, but I could feel its claws digging into my back like a warning ready to rip me to shreds if I made the wrong move.
The harmlessness of the nerd's appearance made him only creepier. He was not helping some punk kid out of charity. I could only hope it was to make a name for himself saving my butt.
"'Kay, Doc," I said swallowing hard. "Where? At your research pad?"
I knew I could have made a stink about getting the guys involved for protection. Maybe it was pride. Maybe I just didn't want anything bad to happen to them if this risk was too big, but I left without a note. I followed Form to a big truck parked outside the dump and he had me lie in the backseat while he drove off into the night. I knew I'd messed up big like a dog getting caught by the pound, but I could not go back on it now.
I must have fallen asleep on the way there because I had no idea where we were, which was funny in a city I thought I knew like the back of my hand. It felt like the south side, but it looked a little like the east side. There was a funny cheesy sort of smell like the cheese factory on the north side, but there was a sound like the rumbling of the construction on the west. As for the building itself, I hardly had time to look at it, but it was exactly what I expected on the inside.
Although sterile-clean like a hospital, it kind of looked like a school. The combined affect reminded me of an insane asylum but with dimmed lights and digital or mechanical sounds coming from every room. I didn't get far before I stumbled, and it was not from the lemon verbena scent.
With hands against the wall, I could feel my legs turning to jelly from the weakness overcoming me.
As quick as a flash, the little nerd unfolded a cheap wheelchair behind a door and pushed me into it. I was wheeled in like a reluctant grandpa just dropped off at the old-folks' home, but instead I was shown to a lab that would freak out a lab rat. Computers on every wall. Test tubes on every table and the kind of smells that made those with weak constitution faint on dissection day in science class. But I had no will to fight anyone as I was laid down flat like pizza dough prepared for the toppings by some other science geeks who might as well have spawned from the glass tubes further back.
"Just stay still," said Dr. Form calmly.
"Stay calm! You have me strapped to a table!" I wailed.
"You're not strapped down," commented one of the others, a tall thin spidery guy with fingers that could spin your intestines into a crochet doily.
I looked down and resented the fact that they were right. I was free to go in theory, but I could barely move more than writhing. I collapsed on the table and let my tongue hang out like Grubber's. I felt like the sick dog from the saying as sick as dog.
Then they began talking in hushed voices as some high tech stuff hovered over me. The made me spit. They made me sneeze. They made me sit up. They made me breathe in. They made me breathe out. They made me lie back down. They shoved things down my throat and up my nose, and I was too weak and too tense to fight them off. I just took it like a tomato battery more than a pizza now with a few wires attached to me. What else could I do!?
"So can you guys fix this?" I finally dribbled.
"I believe we can at least stop the pain shortly," said Dr. Form. "But we may have to make an incision to get deeper in later on."
A chilled buzz went through my brain as I registered what he meant.
"Ugh…" I coughed, "you mean like a… a…y'know… operation there, Doc? Like cutting into my guts a—a—and…"
"More like a small surgery. It's quite safer than a full operation."
"Yeah, but I thought it was dissolving into me. You gunna slit it out of all my cells or—"
"Do needles make you squeamish?" asked one of the others— some lady nerd so short she had to stand a stool to reach me over the table— as thick as ham and as emotionless as a cold slab of it. "We're going to take a blood sample."
I squirmed and grimaced hard for a second, but I quickly smoothed my brow as best I could (I think my brow just got more cluttered than less) and grinned, waving my hand carelessly to one side.
"Are you kidding?" I panted, even to me I sounded nervous. "I ain't no sissy."
Someone took my arm, pulled up my sleeve. I gulped as Form rubbed the spot clean for extraction. I saw the needle glinting in the bright overhead light.
"Sure, if that's all you mean by 'incision,'" I tried to insist more for my own sake than theirs at this point. "Yeah! If you need a blood samph—" I squeaked as the needle pierced my skin.
Well. Okay, I fainted. So what? I was so woozy anyway. I doubt I would have if I'd been in top form, but hey, if you don't believe me that's fine.
#
Suddenly I woke up. I didn't feel dizzy or sluggish. Though, what was most important is that, even if I didn't feel perfect, I did not feel like an oozy gob of snot. I sat up to beeping and electric chirping all around me. I felt a little dizzy then, but it passed as I rubbed my head and found myself face to face with Dr. Form.
I gasped.
"Careful, careful," he warned; he smiled gently and that made it worse like he thought he was some kind of wet-nurse and I was five. "You're not quite ready for any strong exertion."
I was in some sort of gurney bed with a thin blanket in a cool, dry room with no window and lots of screens. A vent circulated air flow. I pulled my feet under me as I continued sitting in a slouch, but I was in no way relaxed as I realized that my feet were bare. I pulled on the material at my chest and looked down at an outfit that was not my clothes. My shades weren't anywhere, but then at least that piece of my usual ensemble was accounted for, because I was sure I must have left them back at the shack. But I was in a hospital nighty for crying out loud, and I jumped like a cat waking to the same predicament.
"Doc!" I cried. "What happened? What did you do!?"
I lifted up my collar and looked down at my body. It looked okay. I didn't see any scars or Frankenstein sew-marks and yet…
I glared back at the doctor and grabbed him by the collar so suddenly he almost choked on his own tongue.
"Well?!"
"Ace! You must calm down!" Form insisted nervously through his teeth.
Yeah, he better be scared, I thought dangerously.
"No one messes with Ace, geekoid!?" I snarled pressing his face into mine. "Spill, tiny!"
"Calm down!" Form gulped. "Then we'll talk."
With a growl, I released him, shoving the little creep away from me as hard as I could.
The scientist straightened himself and breathed for a minute. I huffed and rolled my eyes.
"You feel better, don't you?" asked Form like he really cared about me. Sure doctors can really care about their patients, but he talked like he was my long lost uncle.
I paused to think about my internals, anyway, and I had to nod. "Yeah. I do. You got rid of it?"
"No."
I was still that funny yellowish color. I could tell that even in the weird lights blinking in blues and green and reds around the dim regular lights.
"Then what—?!"
"We stabilized you and the ooze just like I told you we would. Just like you agreed to. When you fainted, we simply went on with our work. After a study of your blood sample, we concluded that we could indeed slow down the process of the disintegration. Then we had to put you out just in case you'd wake up to the pain that you would have felt during the procedure. We didn't want to risk any sudden movements from you."
"What procedure!? You didn't slice me up?!" I snapped grabbing anything at my disposal to use as a battering hammer but could only find my pillow at the moment and gave up.
"No, but we did have a lot of things wired to you and a few injections were made. We aren't going to do any sort of procedure like a surgery without your full consent."
"But you said somethin' about a surgery not being as bad as an operation or whatever."
"That is what we will discuss shortly. You must be famished. Have something to eat. Then we'll talk."
"I won't eat hospital food!" I snapped just because I felt like making things difficult for the jerk.
"This isn't a hospital. We have oatmeal, French toast, Florida orange juice, orchard apples, granola, coffee…"
"Okay, okay, I'll have some of that granola. And the coffee. Strong. With cream." I paused. "And the French toast. And well, sure, why not an apple too!" I was starving, okay? "Do you got anything like a donut or a muffin?"
"I'll have it all sent in. Do you like your donuts with custard filling?"
"Don't think that spoiling me's gunna let you off the hook with any funny business," I snorted.
"We're only trying to make this as painless as possible for you."
"Yeah, so I won't bust your gut! Now where'd you put my duds so I can get out of this stupid Tinker Bell dress?!"
#
So after breakfast and a second strong cup of coffee, I was feeling better than ever and more suspicious than ever. Seated on the edge of the doc's chair instead of on the gurney I had a leg thrown over the top of the nearby medical stand. I turned my eyes to Form with a warning pout. He was standing there watching me like he was waiting to see whether something would explode out of my gut or my head first as he wrung his hands together, and it made me cringe to think of those sweaty digits messing with something as personal as my personal body with me unconscious.
I had my clothes back minus the shades, of course, and I felt almost back to Gangreen with that sniveling, pasty mass before me.
"What's the news, Doc? Spell it out, simple and sweet-like!" I took a sip of coffee smoother than a hardboiled police detective.
Form coughed and then sat down on the edge of the gurney with nowhere else to sit in the room.
"To start with you are stabilized, but it is not a permanent fix. The pressure we used to stall the process will eventually back up and you could simply melt at that point into putty."
"Thanks for the imagery," I growled looking with distaste suddenly at the liquid in my Styrofoam cup looking more like swamp ooze than top grade coffee after that comment. I set it down, and put both feet on the ground and leaned forward. "Then what are you going to do about it?"
"That's up to you, Ace. We could try to find a more permanent fix, but that is going to take time. Time we probably won't have," said Form throwing his arms wide for emphasis.
"And the other option?" I pushed.
Form smiled. It was a sickly squiggly thing, but not the sort of guilty little shriveling line across his face I was expecting. It was eager— sinister even, but it was all sincere somehow. I couldn't quite place it, except that it fit him pretty well and made me want to punch it back into his face. I lifted my fist, and even without the green it would be worth it no matter how my knuckles felt it.
"You're Ace!" he said suddenly.
It was such a weird thing to say that I stopped. I put my hand down. I reached for the cup and sipped, but I didn't take my eyes off the guy.
"Yeah, so?"
"You and I both know that you were in that storage room to find Chemical X."
I squinted.
"Don't you think that everyone else was already looking for it?"
I shivered, though I resented it. "And?"
"There is no more Chemical X, but it was what made the Gangreen Gang what it was. It was what made its leader the most fearsome gang leader in the whole city. Along with your strength of character, of course, and unlike most of the members of your gang, you held your X, so to speak, very well."
"What's that supposed to mean? Grubber and Snake and Billy had whole gimmicks. I'm the brains of the outfit, but those brains weren't from no X."
"It only strengthened what you already were physically, though. You're naturally resilient to chemicals. Your body resisted a 'gimmick'. Chemical X has a tendency to be very gentle on the subject into which it has been injected, but other chemicals are not so kind. Even with the chemicals running through your body now, you are resilient more than theory suggests."
"Where you going with this aside from empty flattery?"
"It's not flattery, it's science!" insisted Form getting excited now, and I was not impressed. "You, Ace, could, under the correctly scientifically-induced circumstances, use the chemicals in you now to return to your former glory."
I stared.
"Here, allow me to demonstrate," said Form sliding off the gurney and almost skipping with nerdy glee up to the first screen at his disposal.
Despite my attitude, I was interested. Anything was better than turning into goo, but becoming strong again? Become a threat again? The chance of getting my Ace back was something worth risks. Inwardly, I was already drooling for it more than Big Billy starving in front of a burger commercial.
Form probably saw right through my stubborn façade. Why couldn't I have my shades when I needed them? My eyes revealed too much. I blamed my old man's side of the family for that.
A simplified outline of my body was shown on screen at the flight of Form's sweaty fingers across the touch-sensitive points. There was simplified brains and guts and all. He enlarged the image a little and then cleared his throat.
I huffed.
"We have, in essence, built a wall between you and the ooze."
I guess I was the red part and the ooze was the yellow part and there were tiny slits of blue barriers blocking the little disks of yellow and red all over my body.
"These walls have only so much resistance before these two strong forces break them down and collapse each other into the goop I mentioned."
The little slits of blue broke like shattered glass. The yellow and red disks quickly rammed into each other and swirled into a goop of orange that melted from my body's outline like a Popsicle in fast motion.
I could not help but feel my insides lurch, and I closed my eyes. Gripping my fingers into fists I could at least console myself with their solid state right now, but I felt myself shiver again. It was an uncontrollable thing that was almost painful.
I slugged the rest of my coffee down like whisky.
"But!" Form went on suddenly very brightly like he turned a musical-mood switch on his vocal chords.
He touched the screen and my screen body went back to the present phase going on with me.
"Though we could try to build walls that will be more permanent or bring you here for constant updates of the wall-maintenance for the rest of your life…"
"Yeah, yeah!?" I demanded angrily not wanting to think about a life like that.
"If we purposely mix you and the ooze together under scientific control, I have confidence that it will work like Chemical X," said Form, "and make you more resilient than ever. Should you choose this option, we would call the reformed ooze Chemical S."
"You mean like a Sonic S rank?" I laughed, but I was grinning despite myself as I watched the screen show me a body strengthening.
It was getting pretty interesting going close up to different parts of me. Impenetrable lungs, a heart that never wearied. I could eat anything, hear better, smell better, move like a cat, leap like a lemur, have the strength of at least peak Mojo Jojo, and without any Powerpuff Girls that would make me the strongest personal alive. To top it off I would be able to think like… well, some scientist that I couldn't think of at the moment that invented light bulbs and slinkies.
The scientist geek on hand, stared at me quizzically. There was no other word than "quizzical" for that thick academic wrinkle in his bulbous brow above those wide blinkers not used to not understanding something. Then he smiled pretentiously, "'S' as in 'superhuman'."
"Ah, like Sonic S rank," I sneered at the dead-obvious geek.
He tried to protest. "We were thinking more like Superman."
Mmm, not much better in the defense against geek-dom.
Crossing my arms over my chest I shook my head sagely.
"Well…?" asked the guy like a mechanic who couldn't wait to get his hands on a first gen Pontiac Firebird.
I, like a phoenix ready to happen, teased with a sneer, "Well…"
I tapped my chin pretending to think, but I had forgotten all about the risks by this point. My Ace was already pending 100% positive in my mind.
Form clasped his hands together. He even clenched his teeth with the anticipation.
"When do we start, Doc!?" I demanded pounded the little stand in front of me for all I was worth.
My grin fell instantly as the pain went through my fist hitting more the corner of the stand than straight on. I was not Ace yet, I had to remind myself.
Form did not seem to notice as he clasped his hands together again in childish excitement.
"Wonderful!" He should have done a little Leprechaun jig. "We'll get a move on right away then!"
Rubbing my hand a little and leaning back sobered somewhat, I muttered like the grownup to the toddler antsing out of his pants for McDonald's Land, "So this operation, then…?"
"Well, not for some hours for the surgery. You just ate, and we need to wait until you're empty again, but you needed your strength. It will be a far more complicated process than just popping Chemical X into your mouth like a gummy bear, but we will succeed."
"And when this works we'll get the rest of the gang to follow after me?"
"Of course! If they're willing!" cried the giggly Form. "But I warn you. It's not for the faint of heart!"
"The only fainting around here is yours, doc, from exploding like a girl at a slumber party!" I told him. "Ace is back in town, baby face, and I can handle anything!"
