Thunderstruck, Part 3
#16 of Codename: Stinger
And now for a very special episode on How Animals Deal With PTSDs. ;)
(Hint: They beat the crap out of each other)
Part 3.
After leaving everything as neatly organized as they could, metamorph and robot proceeded to leave the containment area, closing it behind them. "Leave everything as if we hadn't been here, F1."
"Acknowledged." While his robo-dog still sounded like a stoic machine, Hooper had to admit receiving feedback for his voice commands made F1D0 more engaging to work with. F1D0's visor flashed as he hacked and rearranged data while Hooper paced around Project Galvanika's laboratory. Hooper would draw too much attention with his new form should anybody catch sight of him, so he needed a way to cover his anguillomorphic features up.
"Good old Marshall. Put on a few pounds, have you? It is fortunate you're as scatterbrained with your diet as you are with your belongings," Hooper swiped a long coat off its perch and covered his bulky form with it. "Hmm, speaking of putting on weight, I've definitely grown a couple of inches taller." His reflection on his way out of the laboratory caught his attention. "But the weight is all muscle. Impressive, truly impressive. Whatever chemical anomaly that did this has made me perfect!" he gasped as he briefly opened his coat in front of the mirror to look at his six-pack and pectoral muscles.
"Warning: Mission parameters establish the need to hasten exfiltration. Recommendation: Reduce levels of narcissism to below dangerous."
"Indeed," Hooper nodded with a grin and covered up again. "There shall be time for self-reflection later. Close up, F1. We're headed home. I have a lot of experiments to do..."
F1D0 dutifully followed his master, the thin USB tipped tail swishing behind him. "Acknowledged."
Presently. (For real this time)
The holographic battleground was on fire. Charlie leapt from obstacle to obstacle, avoiding the giant diving bees, their pointy stingers aimed at her. The scorpion metamorph had ordered each of Queen's Knights to come at her with all they had, to which the subservient insects responded with merciless assault. They had strict overlapping orders from their Queen not to kill, so Charlie knew she was safe even if for some reason she gave the command for lethal attacks. Nevertheless, the tireless attacks were great to keep the heroine on edge. "Missed me!" she mocked one of the muscular drones as she dodged a pounding fist that instead hit the ground, cracking it. She had already been at it for at least a couple hours straight, parrying attacks and countering some of the heavier ones.
Charlie adhered to a wall with her back to it after back-flipping away from another incoming stinger. "Hey, the stabbing thing with a tail jig is reserved. If I had a lawyer I'd threaten to sic him on you guys! Gak!" the scorpion kicked herself higher as two Knights assaulted from both sides, resulting in the bees crashing into one another. "Hah! Cartoon shenanigans, never fail me. Oof!" the taunting scorpion was immediately served some humble pie as a third Knight came down on her and tackled Charlie, smashing her against the wall. Buzzing to each other, the trio of successful Knights retreated to join their lone brother. Charlie rubbed her throbbing head as the dust cleared, "Ugh, okay, I give that one to you guys." She pointed at the insectoid quartet, but they did little more than cock their heads or maybe twitch a feeler or two. They were in fact simply waiting to see if the scorpion would come out of the hole in the wall, like four eager puppies waiting to chase after her again. "I'd say you guys are adorable if you didn't look like body-builders crossed with strippers. That alone keeps the fact you're giant bumblebees off my mind!" Charlie allowed herself a giggle, finding humor in how there was no way to converse with the Knights other than issuing commands in loud voice or by outright acting. The sassy scorpion bounced herself back on her feet and began to run down the wall. Instantly all four Knights gave chase. Her plan to jump off the wall was however interrupted by her feet suddenly tangling up, tripping her violently over the ground.
The Knights stopped, hovering above the grounded, slumped-over scorpion as she looked to be out of the game. "What the hell did I trip over?" Charlie groaned and got up on her hands, looking back at the wall with a surprised expression of disbelief. "Was there a vine or something there?" she scratched her head, calmly walking to the wall to inspect it. Charlie frowned, glaring at the wall before she smashed her fist into it.
"Whoa!" a blur in motion suddenly jumped off the wall before Charlie punched a hole in it. The creature flipped in mid-air and landed on all four of her claws, long brunette hair briefly waving in front of two reptilian eyes as green hide began to materialize in front of the glaring scorpion. "Watch the attitude, can't you take a joke?"
"When did you get back?" Charlie demanded, tail whipping at the air. The spy-turned-thief chameleon known as Shade pushed herself up to her feet, her large scaly breasts bouncing with perfect firmness on her chest. Charlie blushed and averted her gaze, "And what's with spying on people while naked?!"
"Just got back," Shade shrugged and then brushed a lock of hair away from her face with a smirk, "And Beth told me you'd taken the Knights for training. So I thought I'd pay you a visit after taking a shower!" Stretching her body, the green scaled beauty flashed a grin as she displayed herself. Shade's tail uncoiled and stretched back while she ran her claws down her curvy sides and stopped at her hips.
"And clearly, you forgot to put your pants on."
"You know it, Charlie. Clothes don't mimethize, and it isn't as effective to hide as a floating outfit," Shade grinned wider, knowing she was embarrassing the scorpion. "Now what's nagging you?"
Charlie was caught off guard by the question, "What're you talking about?" The color-shifter folded her arms under her prominent bust at the response. "I'm perfectly fine."
"And you're also a terrible liar. How long have you been at this? Two hours? Your performance only declines at three," Shade explained with a knowing smirk, "You got smashed into the wall by a single Knight. That's just not right."
"Pfft, everyone's got their off days; don't need to get so serious about it," Charlie shrugged, "Now, about putting those pants on."
"Look, Beth said she noticed something off about you, and I know you don't get sloppy even on an off day," Shade rebutted, "So spill it. I don't like doing the shrink stuff anymore than the next girl, but I watch out for the team."
"Gee, thanks coach." Charlie sighed in defeat. It was going to be a long story. "You know that dream I've been having for the past couple of weeks? I had it again tonight."
"Uh huh. Sleep deprivation's not good. Guess I owe Beth a soda."
"Why's that?"
"I said you were on your period, heh," Shade snickered teasingly, making Charlie puff her cheeks out in annoyance.
"Alright Kim, if you wanted a beating you only had to ask for it," the scorpion snapped her mandibles together, hands balling into fists.
"You do that all the time." The chameleon smirked, feeling her competitive side take over as she began bouncing in place, keeping her limbs nimble. Raising an eyebrow, Charlie found herself watching Shade warm up.
"What are you doing?" the arachnid could hardly hold her laughter back, unable to look away from the reptilian's large bosom bouncing and jiggling thanks to being free of restraints. "It's like you're at a bar trying to spin those silly nipple thingies!"
Shade smirked and paused, "You could say we're about to dance." Charlie's eyes widened as Shade suddenly lunged at her, the chameleon throwing her fist. Charlie reacted by parrying the incoming blow with her right arm, but Shade recoiled and spun-kick the scorpion on her sides.
"Oof! That was a good one!" Charlie winced slightly as Shade hit her exposed flanks, knocking the wind out of her briefly. Shade jumped back, cracking her neck while bouncing with her fists up. "Alright you overfed iguana. You want a dance? Let's dance!" Once Charlie gained her second wind, she rushed Shade, but the chameleon didn't pull back. Instead, Shade ducked Charlie's one-two and jumped over a tail ground-swipe follow up. Charlie gasped, hating how Shade had the advantage with her greater speed; and it was even more aggravating with Shade staring mockingly at her all that time. "That's nothing!" a second wave of attacks forced Shade to use her natural flexibility to avoid the scorpion's crushing blows, every punch and kick followed by an even faster, harder one. Yet Shade was calmly evading it all, and what she couldn't, she was parrying without a problem! "What's up with me? I should've at least connected one of those blows...!" aggravated in her mind, Charlie was starting to become sluggish again; a chance which Shade did not squander.
"You're wide open!" the chameleon thrust her palm forwards, knocking Charlie back with great force. "Now tell me what's wrong! Are you gonna quit S.W.O.R.D?!"
"Nngh, I'm not!" the scorpion rubbed her chin after the hit. Her faceguard had absorbed most of the damage, leaving only humiliation behind. Charlie's eyes widened as she had to jump back to avoid another one of Shade's attacks. Now Charlie was in the defensive again.
"Why are you so afraid then?!" Shade demanded in the midst of a flurry of attacks. In her emotionally altered state, Charlie was easy prey for Shade's attacks, her face and belly on the receiving end of Shade's punches.
"It's not fear!" Charlie snapped, throwing her fist which was stopped by Shade side-stepping her back onto her opponent, locking Charlie's arm with hers before she threw Charlie over her shoulder. "Ah crap!"
As the scorpion crashed against the ground, Shade approached and stomped her chest, keeping her still. "Your dream says different. You're afraid of being unable to protect everyone at any given time, aren't you? Well snap out of it! That's as impossible as you beating me in a bikini contest." Charlie's eyes turned into a glare as she seized Shade's ankle and twisted, hurling the chameleon in the air.
"You don't know anything!" Charlie snapped back to her feet and leaped at Shade before she had time to recover, tackling her through the air. "This isn't about me quaking in my boots, it's about responsibility!"
"What responsibility?" Shade managed to get out before Charlie punched her.
"It's my fault Omega is like she is! It's my fault Rex turned into FireCracker! It's my fault my parents nearly died! I'm responsible for all of it!" Every phrase was being ended with a punch, making Shade groan from the weight of Charlie's fists.
"No you're not!" the spy argued as they landed back on the floor with Charlie straddling her. Charlie was about to punch her again before Shade shouted at her again. "Omega's crazy because she's a bitch. And I looked at that boy's profile; he was going to get himself killed at the rate he was getting himself involved with gangs!" Charlie's mind raced with retrospective as she was perpetually stuck with her arm held back; ready to deliver a punch that grew heavier with every passing second. "You had no idea that creature that bit Rex was an Xteria experiment either! You had no idea he was going to go nuts and burn the hospital your parents were in! Snap the FUCK out of it!"
Charlie felt her blood boiling. Everything Shade was saying rang true, but there was also the fact that Lexine had harvested Xteria from Charlie's blood to run inhuman experiments and to turn herself into a metamorph. There was also the fact Charlie had dawdled in her duty to apprehend child-criminal Redd "Rex" Phillips, which allowed him to get bit by an experimental creature that turned the teenager into a pyromaniac salamander. And there also was the fact she had mismanaged her priorities on that fateful day, having endangered her bed-ridden dad and caring mother at St. Michael's hospital in Arizona.
"You've been carrying and adding to that guilt for nearly a year, Charlie! Let go!"
"Nngaaaaaaah!" Charlie couldn't take it anymore and drove her fist down with a scream, dust kicking up from the sheer force of the impact. When the cloud cleared off, Charlie was left panting, exhausted; as if a weight had been pulled off her shoulders.
"Fucking drama queen," Shade coughed from the scattered dust. Fortunately for her face, Shade's scales were pretty resistant, but she was nonetheless relieved Charlie had smashed her fist next to her head and not on it.
"That's my line," Charlie half-heartedly said, her faceguard sliding off to reveal a softened smile. She had been holding her strength back, knowing even an armored metamorph like Shade would not survive a haymaker with all of her arachnid strength fueling the blow.
"Feel better now?" Shade spat a bit of blood from her mouth to the side. Charlie nodded.
"I needed those punches," the scorpion sighed a bit, helping her friend up after stepping off the chameleon.
"Good. 'Cause I'm not taking back what I said about the bikini contest." Charlie rolled her eyes silently. Shade rubbed the back of her hand over the bruises in her cheek. "Ow, sonuva... I'm glad I took those blows. Wouldn't have liked to see what you'd do to Chief Samson if he chewed you out one more time."
"That's two of us." Charlie cleared her thoughts by shaking her head, "Thanks for the help, Kim."
"Anytime. Now let's go, I'm starving for some real breakfast. Been running on McNuggets for the last few days," the chameleon stretched her curvy body back, followed by Charlie who spun her arm while holding by the shoulder.
"It's early too! Bet we'll find the stuffed donuts with those delicious red things in them."
"You like donuts too much. Careful you don't start to actually put weight on outside your civilian ID!" Charlie huffed at the mention of her weight and glared.
"I was holding back before."
"I know, I know. Just saying is all, y'know just... watching out for the team!" Shade giggled. "Now let's go, I bet Beth's already started with her next history book by now!"
"Just one thing Kim."
"What is it?"
"Put some goddamn pants on."
Two months ago.
"It's almost ready. Mon Dieu it really is," Francine thought to herself as she blankly stared at her creation. The Galvanika extractor was in its final version, implementing months of experimentation with subject X05 to adjust power level and efficiency. "X05 can consistently fill up 9 super batteries. That's enough to power an entire block worth of electricity. It's still a long-shot to think I can solve the world's energy crisis but..." she was musing about her project constantly, wanting nothing short of perfection. Without Dexter Hooper's counter-productivity, they had made leaps through the progress of perfecting their technique.
"Dr. LeFleur, can I have your opinion on these charts?" Kessler was holding a clipboard on hand. "By the way, the board wants to see you later today. We're going to impress them, aren't we, Francine?"
Francine returned a sweet smile to Kessler. She was glad about him having taken charge when he did, stopping her from badly bruising Hooper. The citation had been well worth it to the young woman however. "Of course and yes. You just leave it to me, cherí. I'll have them eating out of my hand."
"By the way, have you seen Hooper around lately?"
"I only saw that nincompoop for a couple of days in the cafeteria before he stopped coming. Didn't he go back to his parents' house?" Francine half-hoped that was the case and the other half begged he had run crying to his mother's lap. "I'm just glad we got rid of him."
"Honestly, I'm surprised that prick didn't press charges. Hear his family's influential, and a big donor to these labs. Hell, I'm surprised we didn't get shut down immediately after your citation!" Francine shrugged, though she had to admit she hadn't thought of it that way before.
"We're more important than you give us credit for, Kessler. Now let's get finished with these charts. We can't fall behind, only two months until the demonstration."
Hooper's laboratory was less complex than it used to be. Thanks to his mastery over his new electro kinetic powers, the number of generators he had to use had reduced drastically. Hooper needed only to eat food to replenish energy if his reserves were depleted; he was a living battery now that he was half electric eel!
The cheerful scientist exclaimed a "Finally, you're complete!" while pumping his arms in the air. F1D0 stirred on the metal table, his LEDs emitting bright whites and reds. F1D0's chassis had been reinforced with extra plating with light-weight, resistant alloy. His inner circuitry had been improved upon by implementing Hooper's evolved designs, enabling greater response times and overall processing speed. "What I couldn't do however was duplicate your core program," the eel man mused to himself as he tapped the display on his tablet, "Ever since that day, your source code has been building and rebuilding unto itself. You're an intelligence of your own now. It's far beyond even my ability to reprogram you, but that doesn't mean I can't add more to your firmware... and hardware!" Hooper laughed, marveling at his own handiwork.
Hooper had spent the last month adding and replacing parts, giving F1D0 a much more stylized look. The stubby paws on each artificial limb had been modified into sharp metal claws to allow grip as well as individual control over each toe. The robo-dog's plating became bulkier at the joints in order to protect them, but was strategically positioned to avoid compromising movement or agility. The USB tail had been better shielded, its tip outright modified into a sharp spike made for thrusting as well as slashing, which equipped F1D0 for melee combat. In the heavier weaponry department, Hooper had dropped many ideas involving conspicuous armaments, instead focusing on feeding F1D0's memory with close-quarters-combat data assimilated from videos. F1D0 instead counted with a limited amount of stun grenades meant for disarming foes hidden under the panels of his hips' plating. The visor on the robo-dog's head worked as a tactical head-mounted display now. It was equipped with proximity radar as well as improved audiovisual feed based on state-of-the-art motion and sonar detection.
The machinery composing Hooper's robo-dog had been both updated and upgraded. "You're my master-piece, F1. Or should I call you..." the metamorph clicked on his instrument console with his flexible tail's tip, watching happily as his canine robot got up to his four paws, stretching before letting out a howl, "Alpha Wolf!"
While largely unchanged, Alpha Wolf's voice now generated from an actual integrated sound card Hooper had installed. "Name change has been saved."
"Good, now let's test you on targets, Wolf! We'll use the resulting footage to train your pack." Hooper flipped a switch on the wall, lighting up the area of the lab housing several more robo-dogs. Although slightly more compact in size, the Howlers had been designed as backup units for Alpha Wolf, uplinked to a private wireless network Hooper and Alpha Wolf could remotely control.
"Affirmative." Alpha Wolf jumped off his table, gracefully landing next to Hooper, who patted his robotic ally. "Query: This unit wishes to assist master. Does master require additional copies of Alpha Wolf?"
"No. These Howlers all follow the same directive, to listen to our commands. They are nothing like you, Wolf, much less a copy."
"Acknowledged. Query: Begin training program?" Hooper entered a number of commands in his device, activating the Howlers' cameras. Additionally, target dummies began to appear from the sliding tiled floors. Most of them had pictures of Project Galvanika's team. Several of them were Francine LeFleur's pictures. At the sight of the nearest of Francine's stuffed dummies, Hooper could feel his free arm spark with power. He brought his claw back before he thrust it out, hurling a lightning bolt that incinerated the doll.
"Practice makes perfect. Begin."
To Be Continued...