Thunderstruck, Part 2
#15 of Codename: Stinger
Got'cha. <:3
Part 2.
"AHHHHH!" Charlie screamed and sat up. She panted, feeling sweat dripping down on her pale yellow skin. The scorpion's eyes frantically looked around, trying to familiarize her eyes with her surroundings. "This nightmare, again..." Charlie frowned, holding by her forehead, "It feels so real every time. If I don't knock FireCracker out, he torches Kim instead. If I fight Slaughter, Lexine breaks Jim's neck..." she put her hands to her face, unable to fight back her tears. "Mom, dad..." She reached for her phone. The watch said 5:13 AM. "I'll call mom in two hours, make sure they're alright..." Even if S.W.O.R.D. had both of her parents under protection and surveillance, the recent dreams had only fueled Charlie's paranoia.
Ever since that grizzly mission at Minerva Labs, Charlie had been haunted by vivid nightmares, waking her up in the middle of the night. "I can't protect them in my dreams, how can I protect them in real life?" Rubbing her tears off her eyes, Charlie bounded herself against the wall and crawled up to the ceiling. "I need to go for a walk, clear my head..." Focusing for a brief moment allowed Charlie to summon her chitin exoskeleton that covered her privates and kept her mostly decent.
She thanked the soundproof walls of her quarters; Shade would never lay off her if she knew Charlie was letting a silly nightmare get to her. "Har har, I've seen My Little Pony episodes scarier than that guy!" Charlie mocked in her brain, picturing her chameleon ally taunting her. The late-shift agents stared up at the wall-crawler as she fluently moved like an actual scorpion, people already used to their long-tailed partner. "Wonder if Jim would listen to me? Then again, is there anybody that wants to hear that you dreamed about them getting gutted? Ugh, I need coffee..."
"Ah, Charlie! Can't sleep well?" Queen bee metamorph, aptly codenamed Queen, sat her impressive, towering bulk on one of the cafeteria's chairs. She was reading a book, her four muscular drones, dubbed Knights, standing perfectly still behind her. Charlie landed next to Queen after flipping in mid-air.
"Hey Beth. I think you're the only person I know that wakes up at five in the morning to read World War II history," Charlie chuckled, passing a blinking Queen as she poured herself a cup of coffee.
"Oh, is it five in the morning already? Time flies when you're having fun!" Charlie made a face when she heard that.
"You mean you've been up since yesterday?" Charlie sipped her coffee but immediately winced as the hot drink burned her lips, "Ah, sonofa...!"
"Mmmhm, a great book can really steal your mind for a good while. You should try it." Queen giggled. Charlie put a bit of cream in her coffee and shrugged.
"More of a comic book girl, if you catch my drift," Charlie looked at the swirling mixture in her cup, absentmindedly stirring with a spoon. "Say, are you still awake for training? I really need to take my mind off things, and the comics store doesn't open until later."
"Hmm, I really want to finish this chapter," Queen noted, but then her eyes lifted up, "Is there something wrong?"
"Nothing I can't take care of by punching things hard enough. Fine, can I take your big guys then? Maybe training my reflexes in defensive training is what I need."
Queen nodded, "Don't let them rough you up badly."
"Mmhm." Charlie downed the lukewarm drink in one swig and stretched, crushing the paper cup in her hand before throwing it in the trash can. Queen titled one of her feelers in the direction of her Knights, the four of which perked up at once. After telling them to listen to Charlie's commands, the five left Queen to her literature.
The simulated training room was empty as usual. "Wonder if I'm the only one that uses this place?" Charlie ruminated as she typed the commands for a simple scenario. "Don't wanna play with any bots, so zero." She cranked the dial and the robot counter disappeared. Charlie's training room started using holograms to shift the landscape into a city block.
"Alright, boys." Charlie jumped into the middle of the city, followed by Queen's four Knights in tow. She turned around and snapped her pincers together, putting her guard up. "Don't hold back on me!"
Six months ago.
It took a few extra weeks of failures, and money, to go through the proper channels in order to gain the coveted biological agent known as the Xteria. Francine was immediately underwhelmed by its practicality, how this recombinator was in many ways no different than geneticists working at the molecular level to rearrange, bridge and dispose of DNA. In all her years of study, she had never seen such a thing in the natural world.
Kessler and Francine took the matter into their own hands to procure their own, superior test subject. The idea was elegant yet simple: Thanks to the Xteria's applications, they could gene-slam beneficial properties from one knife fish into another, without needing to carry their negative traits on. As usual with ideas like this, the premise was simpler in theory than it was in practice. It took them an extra month of after-session experimenting to get things right.
"I think we finally have it," Kessler beamed at the on-screen results.
"I can't believe it, we actually have the genome we want, and the eel is still alive." Francine wasn't one to believe in coincidences, and she was more than convinced that her reservations a couple of months ago had been an exaggeration from her part. "Just look at this, Kessler. It's... beautiful."
Kessler nearly jumped off his seat and with the tailwind that was excitement he rushed to Francine's side. "I wouldn't say she's pretty, but ah, yeah, we did a good job!" the man chuckled. Before them was the largest electric eel in the world, a grayish knife fish with black stripes circling its serpentine body. X05, Francine had dubbed it. The huge animal bordered on the ten feet of length and was thicker than a telephone pole, making its appearance even more impressive. "X05 has twice the amount of electric organs, which means at least twice the electrocyte amount. We've managed to repurpose them for easier energy conversion and ATP efficiency."
"According to the tests," Francine picked up, "Its electrocyte count actually increases in the redundant organs when exposed to the feedback loop. Mass increases at a steady rate as a result- this is probably a side-effect from the Xteria's interference."
"Should we be concerned?" Kessler asked at Francine's change in tone, but the young girl gave him a reassuring smile.
"As long as X05 is connected to the feedback loop and the extractor, the energy flows in and out in the isolated circuit, Kessler. X05 doesn't receive electricity in any other way when it's disconnected, therefore its redundant electrocytes don't multiply."
"So it's like the extra organs are storage units for the feedback." Kessler got a nod, "They're ready to pick up the slack if one of the organs fails."
Looking at her tablet, Francine ran a few more tests, watching gauging instruments rise and fall. "Meanwhile, the Galvanika process remains uninterrupted, providing with energy for ion-gating and keeps our little friend here happy and most importantly, alive."
"Let's see Hooper try to fuck this one up, eh?" Kessler chuckled. Francine couldn't hold back a giggle.
The next day, no shortage of wows and gasps greeted X05 as it was rolled into the testing grounds by Kessler, closely followed by Francine. "Where did you get this monster?" one of their team immediately asked. Francine was remiss to speak about the Xteria, as was Kessler, so they agreed to make something up.
"Took some time, but we got one of my contacts to deliver this baby to us. See its size? Twice the capacity, many times the output!" Kessler proudly explained; in a way, he was actually telling the truth. Francine remained quiet as they transferred X05 into the nutrient vat and connected him to the Galvanika extractor.
A suspicious pair of eyes followed Francine. Hooper and F1D0 sat together looking at the giant knife fish irreverently. "Just gotta crank it up another notch, no problem for you, F1." The robo-canine's visor lit up briefly in silent communication.
A new experiment soon was underway. F1D0 had already scrambled the data in the server, but Hooper was in for disappointment when his measures failed to weaken the brightly sparking eel. "What is this, some sort of joke? No creature can withstand being forced to recycle energy at the pace this process requires!" But he wasn't the only one thinking that. Nearly all of his teammates were in the same position, even Francine and Kessler. Yet X05 did little more than regularly spasm.
They could see jolts of electricity flowing through the electrode-tipped cables, empowering the scientists with visuals of how the process worked. "Extractor at 50% capacity and rising... Oh my god, we've done it!" exclaimed a euphoric Kessler, making the crew erupt in cheers while Hooper's disappointment turned to pure rage. Reaching for his pocket, the furious Hooper alternated between his index and middle fingers to quickly input commands for the idle F1D0, staying relatively inconspicuous. The robo-dog slipped by unnoticed, heading for the server which its USB tail instantly accessed. F1D0 hacked as its master commanded, but in his rage Hooper didn't stop entering the command, making the extractor work harder and harder. "60...70, 75, 80?! It's rising faster now! Nearing capacity, what the hell...?"
Francine's eyes widened at the sudden change of pace. X05 was fine, but the extractor's rapid absorption was concerning. Turning around she startled the apprehensive Hooper, "What do you want?" said his eyes as he stood in front of her. Francine's green eyes were staring daggers at the robotics expert, the teenagers locking sights for a brief moment before one of their co-workers suddenly interrupted.
"Hey, the server's acting up. Data's being scrambled! I'll try to do a... huh? I'm locked out!"
"What's your F1D0 doing to the server, Hooper?" another called out. Hooper suddenly froze as he realized his hand was still gripping his PDA inside his pocket; he had never stopped sending commands, blinded by his wounded ego. Suddenly he could feel the weight of everyone's stare, especially Francine's.
"You one-track-minded buffoon! Stop that contraption du merde!" Francine found herself yelling the loudest, finally snapping both due to the callous humiliation she was suffering and the anger she could not hold back any longer. Hooper, further enraged by Francine's insults, could only yell back.
"You're the buffoon, LeFleur, thinking you can solve the world's problems with oversized sea snakes! You're a scientist for crying out loud! You should've known MY robotics initiative deserved the funding!" Hooper was beyond redemption, but he had also kept a lot of pent up rage inside that he couldn't hold back either. Aggravating insults began to fly in the room.
Betwixt the slew of angry statements the two young prodigies continued to spout, Francine had finally had enough. Uncaring of the consequences, she jumped at her fellow prodigy and, unable to hold back, threw her fist at his face. Caught off guard, Hooper groaned in pain and scrambled to the floor after losing his balance. Kessler shouted to disrupt their argument. "Stop it you two!" Francine was being held by the arms by one of their partners, Hooper's bleeding nose only adding to his nerves. Kessler cared little for their personal involvement however, "Hooper, you have to stop F1D0, or else the capacitors in the extractor will blow up with us in here!!"
But Hooper was stunned, seeing only red, holding by his hurt nose. Thoughts of revenge began flooding his brain, "I've never been hit in my life before, and this bitch thinks she can do as she pleases?! I'll kill her!" but before he could even stand up, Hooper was held down by another colleague.
"Keep the two restrained! Cut that fucking dog's tail right NOW!" Kessler shouted out loud, prompting one of the assistants to destroy F1D0's interface with the extracting machine's server by severing the cable with an industrial cutter. The crisis had been averted.
A couple days later, Project Galvanika was back on its feet. Fortunately the extractor had been stopped before it reached critical mass. Subject X05 had miraculously survived the tremendous strain on its genetically engineered body. Francine was been cited for physical assault, though in relative terms nowhere as severe as Hooper's alleged sabotage; the entire team had been there after all. F1D0 was all the proof the committee needed to respond to Francine's request for Dexter Hooper's separation from the project's team. He didn't take it well. Things however, were now proceeding smoothly for Francine.
Which was why Hooper decided to crack security that night. He had never been humiliated so much in his life. "First she contests my ability and expertise; then she takes away my fame! I have lost the respect of my colleagues thanks to you, Francine LeFleur! And mark my words, you will pay for this!" The heavy words in his mind were soon to take shape. A repaired F1D0 made short work of alarms and thievery counter-measures, leading the way for Hooper into the container area for the test subjects. The still darkness of the room was quite a contrast to its usually well-lit dwellings. Samples of solitary knife fish filled the displays they floated around in. But Hooper wasn't interested in them; he knew why he had suffered his most aggravating defeat yet.
"X05, is it? Hello there, I'm Dexter Hooper." F1D0 dutifully sat at the side of its master as Hooper conversed with the giant water dweller. "You might not know this, but you ruined my day. Logic dictates I am to ruin yours to return the equation to balance." A smirk forgoing any mercy spread on his face as he approached the water tank, "And if I force you to die in the same way as all your predecessors, by shriveling up, nobody will suspect a thing, and LeFleur's work will be set back again!" he grinned. "F1, drain this thing."
F1D0 responded by standing on its hinges in front of the water container, its tail extending to invade X05's container. The USB tip suddenly split into several smaller cables as thin as needles wriggling about before they stabbed the tranquil eel. It became startled and began to wriggle about with F1D0's cables stuck to it, the discharged electricity from its organs instantly sapped by the dog bot's tail.
But what Hooper still did not understand was that X05 wasn't just another electric eel. F1D0 had been upgraded with an energy sapping and dispersal unit meant to interfere with the process these creatures had been treated to go through. Hooper had devised a way to fit his robo-dog with a micro version of the same machinery LeFleur's theory utilized. However, in its compact state, the device was unfit to process the amount of electricity X05 in self-defense was generating from all of its six electric organs. At one point, F1D0 began to cackle and beep, its circuits overwhelmed. "F1, what's wrong?" were his last words before his robot stopped working properly.
The robo-dog's LEDs went completely haywire, blinking erratically as F1D0 seemed to whimper for a moment. Hooper's eyes went wide as he stared at what seemed to be an off-putting lights show on his creation. Energy spiked and surged in the completely opposite direction it was meant to move. Then Hooper realized what was happening, "It's... it's sucking the energy back?! Stop it! F1, abort task! Abort!"
But F1D0 was beyond receiving voice commands. X05's biology was specifically created for feedback loops, drawing energy inside to generate electricity before being harvested by Dr. LeFleur's machine. Except now, X05 wasn't hooked anywhere else; the energy was instead kept inside, forcing the knife fish's electrocytes to multiply in order to keep itself from shorting out. The flow and absorption of electricity was forcing this process to repeat, generating more and more energy than X05's body could contain. As a result, the electric eel's glowing body began to grow larger, filling out the tank with its expanding form. Hooper's main mistake was to not listen to his legs that were screaming for him to run. Stunned and beyond confused, the teenager's only attempt at facing this ordeal was to try to disconnect F1D0. In the heat of the moment, he forgot he was not insulated.
Thousands of volts ran through Hooper's body at once, making him unable to let go of his robot's cable. The massive eel's growth wasn't stopping either, becoming too great for its watery prison to hold. Eventually it began to crack. Hooper felt himself almost lose consciousness to the electrical current before X05 finally managed to knock the spiked cables off with its squirming and growth. Hooper would not die from a shock to his system but the startled boy had only moments to recover before the glass container burst to pieces and X05 roared outside to take a chomp. The eel's fangs sank down on Hooper's neck, its gigantic body's incredible strength bearing down on him. Hooper couldn't even scream as he was forced under several hundred pounds of knife fish. His limbs flailed about, thoughts of regret filling his head as he could feel the punctures in his neck growing in depth the further those fangs went. He was going to die.
"M-master d-dies, purpose un-un-unfulfilled..." a sudden stuttering voice forced Hooper's attention away from his would-be murderer before a flash of white charged in and knocked the giant animal off him. "Muh-must protect m-master!"
"Eff One... Dee Zero...?" gasped the bleeding young man as he instinctively brought a palm to his neck attempting to stop the bleeding. Hooper somehow managed to lie on his side, eyes widening like plates as he watched F1D0 standing his ground in front of the squirming, splashing, now harmless X05. "How... Aghh!!" a sudden pain shot up his spine.
There was something at work within Hooper. The boy twisted and shook as if he was being electrocuted again, muscles aching in his irresponsive body; the only thing he could muster was moving his open, dripping hands in front of his face. Unable to speak or even scream, Hooper could only watch on as his once wet hands instantly dried off, startling the boy as skin began to peel off. Where there once was pink human dermis began to spread a sleek coating of gray, the peeling off hastened with flakes of skin falling off his darkening hands. Hooper's paralyzed eyes were screaming unheard questions of "Why?!" and "How?!" but there was nothing he could do to gain these answers. Instead, he was left feeling the alien effect spread down to his forearms and then his arms. He was shedding his human skin.
It wasn't long before the scared teenager found himself a much darker version of himself, yet pale as far as shades of grey went. With the change sensed by his entire body, Hooper then began to experience a tingle running down his spine, spiking at the tip of his tailbone. He sensed a bump press against the back of his shorts, tearing a hole through fabric with ease as the protrusion grew with Hooper's panic. That protrusion only enlarged and lengthened, forming a thick appendage in the form of a tail. Hooper shifted on his belly, fists balling up as his muscles contracted. He could feel his clothes tighten around his changing body, his shoulders broadening to accommodate ripe musculature forming in his arms. Biceps and triceps swelled like balloons with a constant flow of air, giving the young scientist's mind pleasure center what-for when he felt the expansion focus on the rest of his lanky body.
Soft membranes began to bridge his fingers and toes, forming webbed coatings like those on a frog. Hooper attempted to grip, but no dice. He wanted to feel his muscles, which weren't enormous but definitely elicited curiosity in the boy. Hooper was sure his legs had thickened with powerful muscle cord, his once flat belly now decorated by six neatly packed abdominals adorned by his muscular pectorals cut at the middle to chiseled perfection. Everything about his physique had been improved all of a sudden, forgoing years of athletic neglects in favor of these wondrous changes. His clothes were on the verge of bursting. But there was nothing wondrous about what came next.
Hooper began to hyperventilate, panting like an animal as his senses were flooded with the intense external and internal shifts. Bones snapped loudly not only when his tail first appeared, but as Hooper's body began expanding in every direction, his new and muscular build making his clothes bust at the seams. Muscles groaned and popped larger with every spasm of his body. The transforming male was more welcoming of the changes when his fear had died down due to the hormones forcefully released between changes, exciting him. The tip of his tail suddenly developed a small, thin film of black that shot up a couple of inches tall and immediately began to run up on the tail. The thin film of protruding skin stopped briefly every few inches to raise into spikes, forming crested segments on the entirety of Hooper's new tail; and not stopping at the start of that extremity, the crests began to run up along his spine, shredding his clothes and only stopping at the top of his balding head.
But Hooper was beyond caring about the hair dropping off his scalp. Instead he experienced terror when he felt his face contort, his jawline stretching to accommodate his lengthening skull which was steadily growing outwards. Hooper was surprised it didn't hurt as much as he was imagining, but he was scared shitless anyway. Human teeth transformed into the same fangs that had threatened to snuff his life's spark out only moments ago. Meanwhile his newly formed snout fused with his nose, leaving a nostril on either side on the tip of his snout. Hooper felt his ears twitch, except they didn't look like human ears as much as they did spiked crests much like what he had finished growing on his back and tail. For some reason he could still hear, though he didn't have time to put much thought into it as he felt his shriveling manhood retreating inside of him. With no control over himself, Hooper had no way to look down. He felt his crotch had not just lost its pubic hair, but his penis and testicle sack seemed to have retreated into a virtually invisible pouch developed at his groin. "It's still there, please tell me it's still there...!" he groaned helplessly in his mind, so focused in finding his member that his body jerked and accidentally hit his balls against his muscular thigh, causing him to shoot up in pain. "IT'S THERE!"
When the shock made Hooper finally realize he had somehow restored control over his limbs, his first act was to bring his webbed fingers to his aching crotch, curling his new body into the fetal position. With claws on his feet and an enlarged form, his clothes had not survived the expansion, and he was left naked in the puddle of water.
"Q-query: Is m-master still a-a-alive?" the stuttering voice from earlier snapped Hooper back from his testicular pain. There in front of him was F1D0, sitting down, tail swishing left to right and back, like a good dog awaiting command. Except unlike before when Hooper's dog-bot was a static, unfeeling statue unless forced to act, this version seemed to be very much, dare he think, alive? The robo-dog's body was still twitchy, but its idle stance wasn't anything like it used to be. F1D0 was constantly in motion, bodily nuances surprising the transformed inventor. "Query: D-does this u-u-unit n-need to repeat e-e-earlier query?"
"F1D0, is that you?"
"Master voice pattern a-a-acknowledged. Query..."
"F1, shut up." Following the silence, Hooper got up on his knees and crawled towards his robot. "Actually, how the hell are you even talking? I never installed a voice modulator in you..."
"E-e-error. This u-u-unit does not p-possess answer."
Hooper put his webbed hand under his chin, ignoring the weirdness of his chin being further away from his neck only to pay attention to this even more perplexing phenomenon. His brain couldn't answer either of the two phenomenons; but he was more versed in technology than he was in sci-fi monster-movie biology. "You're able to converse. Your voice is strained and I can roughly understand the words, you're fashioning language through your basic sound interface."
"Acknowledged." F1D0 was still far away from passing as a talking dog, but this was the next best thing. Somehow, his robo-dog's program had evolved into something entirely new.
"That thing!" Hooper stood up, muscles bulging as every part of his new body was filled with the joy of proper use for what had felt like ages during his brief but complete transformation. His brow furrowed as he noticed the still squirming knife fish. Hooper then brought a hand to his neck, rubbed it, and blinked to notice all the blood was gone. "You did this to me, didn't you...?" he asked no one in particular, flabbergasted by everything that was happening at once.
"Unable to terminate X05 life form." F1D0's voice was sounding clearer now. He was adapting by listening to Hooper. "Error: This unit's equipment is insufficient to terminate target."
"I know, F1. I saw you miserably fail at it!" Hooper groaned, finding himself in quite the pickle. Not only had he changed into some sort of eel-human hybrid, but he was standing right smack in the middle of a disaster. It was a miracle the guard he had distracted with F1D0's help earlier had not noticed anything yet. "Here, I'll move it to a different container. Can you clean this mess?"
"Affirmative." The back on F1D0's chassis slid off to produce sturdy extensions in the shape of compact dusters. "Query: Recycle or dispose glass?"
"Just shocking do it!" already losing his patience, Hooper was ready to lose his mind to the rage again when he was stopped by yet another new development. X05's splashing form seemed smaller all of a sudden. The young metamorph approached the large creature only to confirm its size was steadily decreasing from the massive 20ft. of length it had attained earlier. "Interesting... And convenient!" he grinned, realizing this worked to his favor. "Whatever excess of energy you gained is slowly disappearing. You're weak, so very weak outside of water, and with no electricity you're shrinking back to normal!"
Observation confirmed the robotics expert's theory as X05 eventually halved its monstrous size to a more manageable 10ft. long. Hooper approached the fellow eel with care lest he got bitten again. "Am I even strong enough to lift this thing?" As F1D0 crawled about cleaning, Hooper flexed and, after briefly admiring his new physique, reached down with his webbed hands. Hooper noted the exhaustion on X05 and thanked the heavens his own lungs were still keeping him alive out of the water. Large but weakened, the gene-slammed eel's unnatural weight was no match for Hooper's newly developed muscles. He surprised himself when he was able to drag the creature under his arm as if he was dragging the covers of his bed. Fortunately he was able to find an empty container soon, which he proceeded to dump X05 with. The creature instantly perked up as its underwater breathing regulated circulation once more. "There you go. Hmm, now what the hell are you, really? Kessler's friend shipped you in huh?" he thought back to the day of X05's test run. Anger filled his being when he recalled the punch LeFleur had hit him with. "That bitch deserves me gutting you to pieces!"
Hooper stomped the ground with his declaration, inadvertently triggering a mechanism in his new body that made him suddenly discharge electricity around him. The projected bolt arched the glass container and hit X05, making it reel backwards and wriggle about in a vain attempt to escape its aggressor. Speechless, the eel man looked down at his hands, jaw dropped as he realized what he had just done. "No... I definitely don't want to gut you now. I would kiss you if you weren't so damn ugly." He laughed, then covered his face with a hand as his laughter raised in volume, "Yes, I just did that. I zapped you! I've gained the ability to project my electro-magnetic field on command...!"
"Cleaning process complete. Query: Is master well?" F1D0 asked from behind Hooper, who reached down to hug his creation.
"F1, whatever process that gave you intelligence and transformed me also gave me electro kinetic powers. Do you know what this means? Of course you don't!" Hooper boomed with laughter again, "Imagine what this will do to my experiments on robotics, imagine what this will do to revolutionize every single experiment I'll conduct from now on...! Just imagine what... what I'll be able to do..." a glint of evil appeared on his eyes.
"Master?"
"At Francine LeFleur's presentation..." his head turned to stare at the scared apex predator in its cage. Hooper laughed again. "Ironic how it's you who'll be her downfall. Hehehe!"
To Be Continued...