Medical Matters (IC)

[Supercape]

"Shocking" quipped Slick.

"I'm sure you can start my heart as easily as break it!" he continued.

He chuckled to himself. He really had no intention of get too cosy with Miss Americana at this point, but he always enjoyed the banter. In fact, he preferred the banter.

In fact, actually, was that all he wanted? Barriers up, Pants down?

Enough of the self analysis. His body was feeling a little... weird.... tingling all over.

[Electra]

Miss Americana's voice came over the microphone again. "Nobody's going to be starting or breaking anything," she told him sternly. "But if you don't stop using your powers, I'm not going to be able to get a clear set of readings from you. You're all over the energy spectrum now, and it's going to ruin all my data in about thirty seconds if you don't knock it off, for real this time. I thought you wanted these tests done."

[Supercape]

Slick felt his body vibrate and hum. It was as if he was a tuning fork and somebody had hit him.

"Goddamn it!" he shouted out "something's happening!"

Something he couldn't control. Having spent the best part of seventy years in near total control of his body, this was quite new, and quite dreadful. His whole body was oscillating at increasing violence and frequency.

"I'm loosing control!" he half shouted, half screamed. "Do somethinggggglggglglg"

His voice tailed off as all cellular coherence was lost. His body turned jet black, nearly entirely oil, and his liquid gel-like body dripped off the couch to the floor.

[Electra]

A wordless cry of surprise came over the microphone, and suddenly every scan, every machine shut down, even the music on the loudspeaker. There was deafening silence for a moment, then Miss A came running from behind the screen, activating an emergency beacon on the wall. "Medical Emergency in Lab 4A! I need metamedics stat!" It occurred to her even as she called that this could be another prank, but if it was, she could always kill him later. "Slick! Can you hear me?" she asked the blob, not even daring to use her hand scanner on the blob.

[Supercape]

Slick could hear the Beautiful Blonde, for sure. He could smell her too.

Damn he missed his eyes, however.

With immense concentration, out of the sludge, he could just about manage to form a rudimentary throat and vocal chords. A balloon of air filled up in the central part of the sludge, then slowly deflated with a wheezing sound, accompanied by a throaty drowning voice.

"Yessssssssh. I clangh hargh joooo"

The balloon like sac inflated again, then started wheezing downwards.

"getttttsgh megh outgh of thigsh"

[Electra]

Miss A shoved the inert machines out of the way and tipped the exam table up, sending the last of the oily goo to puddle onto the floor with the main mass. "Can you concentrate on your humanoid form?" she asked. "It might help you to come back. There's a team of medics on the way to help you, and all the scanners are turned off. Has this ever happened to you before?" It certainly didn't seem that way, unless he'd lied in his interview, but nothing she'd done should've provoked any kind of response like this!

[Supercape]

"I cangh barghly conghenghtgh---th----th----th"

Again, the sac slowly inflated and after a pause, the words came out again

"enough to speagh..." replied Slick, in a curious trance like state of calm. It was if, loosing all control over his body and focussing on just one thing, he had achieved some moment of Zen enlightenment. He had been so awash with panic, that it had completely washed over him and away.

[Electra]

"All right," Miss A told him, struggling for focus herself as a million explanations and possibilities ran through her head. "I'm going to call Doctor Archeville," she told him. "He has a great deal of experience with all types of metahumans. If anyone knows what might have triggered this or how to reverse it, it will be him. Just remain calm, and concentrate on your humanoid form," she said again. For all her intelligence, it was the only suggestion she had. Moving back to the wall, she called up to the top office. "Doctor, this is Miss Americana. We have something of a problem."

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville was up in his office, engaged in a video conference call with city officials in Dalian, China, to discuss the construction and operation of a new ArcheTech branch in that port city. The city had much to offer: a technology base, university background, and proximity to both Japan and Korea. And, to be honest, they could use ArcheTech's help, since four months ago two oil pipelines exploded, releasing tens if not hundreds of thousands barrels of oil into the Yellow Sea.

We can all benefit from having an ArcheTech branch there! Though... all this set-up does get a bit tedious at times...

But bureaucracy tended to slow things down, and the men he was talking to seemed to love their bureaucracy. Which is why, as important as getting this set up was, Archeville was relieved for the interruption.

Saved by the bell!

"" he said in perfect Mandarin, and bowed slightly to the video screens, ""

Before any could protest, he appeared to collapse in upon himself into a pinprick of glue-gray light which then winked out of existence. Simultaneously, a blue-gray pinpoint of light appeared in Miss Ameircana's laboratory, and the Doktor appeared there.

"Hello, Miss Americana!," he greeted her warmly. "What seems to be the- oh!" he exclaimed as he saw Slick's amorphous form.

Ah, now this is something I can get excited about!

[Electra]

"I was running a standard set of medical scans on him," Miss A said, her voice carrying the strain of tension. "Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, and I know there was no malfunction, because I was personally managing the machines." She knew he would understand what she meant by that. Suddenly, his energy readings began to spike. I thought he was playing a prank, as he hadn't been taking the process too seriously, but then he called out to stop the tests. By the time everything shut down, he was like this..." She gestured to the mess on the floor. "He's still conscious."

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville nodded, then knelt down and addressed the goo, with concern and compaasion in his voice. "Sir? Sir, can you hear me? I am Doktor Viktor Archeville, and I am here to help."

Perhaps a containment suit? Ooh, like a candy mold!

He turned slightly towards Miss Americana, "I would like to see your scans, please. I may be able to piece together what went awry." Then back to the goo, "Sir? Has anything like this happened to you before?"

Maybe the energy from the scanners heated him up too much, and he lost control of his viscosity. Freezing could help!

[Electra]

"Of course, Doctor." Quickly, Miss A picked up her pad and called up the results from the interrupted scans. She'd been running several at once, which wasn't unheard of, if the technician was skilled enough, and everything seemed normal. For awhile, anyway. "You can see how his readings are indicating some degree of stress all through the scan," she pointed out, gesturing to the appropriate points on the readout.

"At fifteen-twenty-two-seventeen, the first highlighted point, I asked him to try and relax. We had a short conversation that lasted till fifteen-twenty-three-oh-one, when his readings began to become erratic. The initial readings were consistent with the intentional expenditure of metahuman energy. I thought he was doing it on purpose, so I asked him to stop. He called for help here, at fifteen-twenty-three-thirty-three, and I shut the scans down two seconds later, but by then, he had already begun to transform."

[Supercape]

Slicks central sac rose again.

"Yegggh, ighm fully congshough... forgh now...."

"Sorggghy to be sugch a drip..." he quipped.

He was very reassured by Doktor A's presence. Smartest man in Freedom City, maybe the planet. If he couldn't help him, nobody could...

...then again, that did rather out the pressure on, so to speak.

"Cangh you helghp?" he wheezed, as the sac rose and fell. It was getting progressively harder to maintain even the simple vocal structure he had formed.

[Dr Archeville]

"I shall endeavor to do my very best, sir," he replied to the goo, "though I believe we will need a better means of communication if talking is too strenuous. Fortunately...."

The Doktor fished around in his lab coat pockets, looking over Miss Americana's notes and senor logs as he did. "Hrm, the composition is very close to petroleum; perhaps something in the scanning beams did excite him to this less viscous state." At last retrieved a small plastic box. Inside was what appeared to be a standard earpice communicator, though it had an extra wire coming off it, connected to a small thin plastic disk.

"One of ArcheTech's latest inventions," he said with all the beaming pride of a new poppa, "just entering the Beta testing stage. Converts neural impulses into radio waves and broadcasts them out omnidirectionally; it was developed to allow patients who are unable to talk to communicate."

And maybe babies and dogs and cats and other pets, too!

He held it above the goo pile, hesitating. "Of course, this is designed for a standard human neural anatomy; this part goes in the ear and this sticks onto a temple..." he confessed/explained to them both, "but there are still mental processes going on here, so it... might function."

The Doktor gently placed the device onto the surface of the goo, and watched as it sank in.

[Supercape]

"What does this do? some kind of... oh! thats much better!" said Slick, as his rudimentary speaking apparatus melted.

"What a relief, I didn't know how much longer I could keep it up. Everything seems to be become more and more... well... liquid. I just felt a tingling, then a vibration, like I was a tuning fork. Then... this!"

He gave an experimental wobble. It looked like a pebble had landed in a still lake. "I can just about control some of the movement, but that's about it. "

"Fantastic gadget, doc!"

[Electra]

Miss A breathed a silent sigh of relief when at least Slick's voice solidified, if not the rest of Slick. "I should've gone more slowly with the tests," she berated herself, "but there'd been no indication that anything like this would happen, or that Slick was indeed even capable of assuming a fluid state. And I admit that I was too hasty, wanting the tests to be completed as quickly as possible." She gave the blob a hard look at that, silently accusing Slick of at least that much complicity in his own predicament. "If you give me the specs for that communicator, Doctor, I'm sure I can cross-apply the neural interface into a full-body prosthetic suit, if necessary."

[Supercape]

"No thank you" replied Slick, as graciously as he could muster. "I was rather fond of my old body. Well. Bodies. I would rather have that back if you don't mind. "

"Prostethics have never really been my thing. I prefer natural. Maybe a bit of silicon at the most. Although, credit where credits due, this translotor gizmo-gadet is rather handy. "

[Dr Archeville]

"Transducer," Archeville cheerily corrected, "as it changes one for of energy int another. It is not a translator, since it broadcasts in whatever language you are thinking in."

Though a translator function could be patched into it!

"And there is no need to berate yourself so harshly, Miss Americana," he said, giving her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Experimentation is a key component of science, after all. And you know what they say about good judgment: it comes from experience, which itself often comes from bad judgment," he chuckled.

Yoda was wrong, there is 'try'!

"Your idea for a containment suit, though," he continued, looking up and around the room to see what was available to work with, "is an excellent one. If we can confine Mr. -- ah, sorry, I did not catch your name -- confine him to a humanoid suit, and cool it down, that may allow him to resume his standard human shape."

[Supercape]

"Mr. Slick" replied Slick. "Or, Slick. Forget the mister. Not really appropriate, seeing as I don't have a gender, so to speak".

"Hmmm, cool down in a suit you say. Well, as long as its temporary. I am in your hands, doctor. Of course, it will be hard to cool down in the hands of such a charming handsome doctor as yourself, but I shall do my best!"

Damn, I can't wink! he cursed to himself.

[Electra]

"I have several mechanized mannequins that I use to test prosthetics," Miss A offered. "They're already wired to respond to electrical impulses similar to neural firing, and should hopefully be compatible with Slick's brainwave patterns. I'd be more comfortable if you have some kind of forcefield generator we could use to reinforce the housing, though, as they aren't designed to hold liquid. Once he's in the device, we can begin to cool it down and hope that no further degradation occurs.

[Supercape]

"Just make sure its handsome, or curvy, or whatever, will you?" chipped in Slick, trying his hardest to keep his pecker up.

"If its a woman, nice hourglass shape, big bazookas. If its a man, nice broad shoulders, and a big..."

"*Ahem* anyway, don't want to loose my looks and all that. Who knows, with the right shape, even the beautiful Miss Americana might fall for my charms. Or the handsome virile Doctor here of course. I always like a man in uniform. Sexy!"

If he had eyes, he would have winked. It was probably fortunate, therefore, that he didn't.

[Electra]

"Unfortunately," Miss A said, voice dry as dust, "the mannequins are completely sexless." It was an effort not to cackle, but she would save that for later. "I'm sure you'll become accustomed to it, and perhaps it will be an incentive to learn to control your new body chemistry as quickly as possible. I assure you that I will be doing everything possible to return you to your normal life and get you out of my lab as soon as can be humanly managed. Possibly faster, given the intellects working on the problem."

[Supercape]

"Shoot" moaned Slick "although I am sure I can improvise given sufficient... stimulation" unlike his more restrained physician, he had no inclination to stop cackling. Besides, he was quite aware he was using this as a mechanism to defuse his anxiety.

"And believe me, you are all the incentive I need to control my body chemistry, doll. Or rather, too loose control of it! hubba hubba!"

He purred seductively.

[Electra]

"Let me make this perfectly clear, Mister Slick," Miss A said, blowing out an annoyed breath. "I'm very sorry that your metahuman powers have malfunctioned in such an unprecedented way. I'm going to do everything in my power to see that you're repaired as quickly as possible. At the same time, your sexual harassment is totally unacceptable and I am not going to subject myself to it," she told him, her voice cold and clipped. "This is my workplace, not some dive bar, and I'm neither a prostitute nor your girlfriend. Whatever you wanted to do with me, you should feel free to do to yourself. I'll be in the side lab preparing the mannequin, Doctor," she told Archeville, then strode out.

[Supercape]

"Hey that's an idea!" replied Slick good naturedly. "I just might do that, once I get some damn equipment to do it with!"

"Pfft" he commented when Miss Americana left the room "That's one tough dame to crack, eh? Doc? she should loosen up a bit, you know" he rippled somewhat, as if to emphasise her point. "I don't mean anything by it you know, just trying to get her to unwind a little. She's not my type anyhow. I prefer brunettes. On a woman, at least..."