Thunderstruck (Electric eel t/f, both genders)

[DragonMasterX]

Do you enjoy Codename: Stinger, my series about a pretty ninja-like scorpion-girl that fights metamorphs with her allies? No? Well how about giving the universe a chance by reading this one?

This'll be a shockingly long one. (Also I suck at humor)

Will be posting a part a day. :3

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Warning: This story contains transformation, macro, growth, muscle expansion, hourglass expansion and so much silliness.

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Thunderstruck, by DragonMasterX.


Eight months ago.

It wasn’t rare to hear about great scientific breakthroughs in the city of Boulder, Colorado, with its national laboratories working towards research, development and measurement of techniques and technology focused on the betterment of American life-style. Science buffs and big-time investors were gathered at the expo where the new technologies and prospective ideas would be unveiled this year.

Francine and her team of electromagnetism experts had already swept the crowd. Based on the fundaments of bioelectrogenesis, project Galvanika promised a source of clean, renewable energy. The projected image of an electric eel assisted the explanation with greater detail. Francine laid out every point without skimming over any specifics as the clients and her peers listened on. They were never distracted by her rich French accent as her eloquent voice ensnared their collective attention.

“Can you believe she’s only 17?”

“You’re shitting me. Two teenage prodigies in the same expo?”

“From the same labs, too. What do they feed kids these days anyway, brain salad?”

“Seems like LeFleur got extra helpings of it, too. Girl’s been keeping everyone quiet since she opened her mouth. It’s like they forgot all about Hooper’s Robotics Work-Force!”

“More like Who-Per if you ask me. Boy had been the talk of every lab in this city for the last year, and then LeFleur’s uncle flies her in from France. Hear they’ve been competing for funding since then, but now it looks like…”

Dexter Hooper was tense, he couldn’t stop his ears from listening to the insignificant rabble of poor-man investigators spitting absolute nonsense around him; and standing beside them while listening to her rival Francine did little to stop the idiots from running their mouths afoul. But Hooper had no wishes to involve himself with old people beneath him and his brain; he was fixed on the defeat he was clearly suffering. What he could not believe was how it had come to be! He had outdone himself with his presentation on robotics; he had tacked on both domestic and basic work-force, and even militaristic applications! “LeFleur’s project is nothing more than a wishy-washy theory based on limited existing research. Why can’t they see it?” he thought, “She’ll crash and burn all their money at once!”

But a round of applause drowned those thoughts out, again bringing Hooper’s hopes down to a crushing flatness. And this wasn’t all he felt. “This means the lab will cancel my research in favor of LeFleur’s! I’ll have to work under her, impossible!” he groaned while holding his right hand by his forehead. Hooper couldn’t take it anymore and left the expo.

Galvanika’s team would be formed on the next day.

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Six months ago.

After two months of intensive research, project Galvanika had hit wall. “Subject B12’s biology won’t make it. The electrocyte count rapidly drops once the extractor begins collection.”

Francine could see B12’s long body produce sparks within the nutrient batch, electricity flowing from the electrodes on its body through the cables. No matter how much they treated them, every knife fish shriveled up and died; she was sure of her calculations, but for some reason, each and every treatment since the start of the project had ended in failure. “Dr. LeFleur,” one of her assistants raised his voice, “Maybe we should call this one off and revise the formulas again.”

But Francine couldn’t call it back. Her goggles refracted the light as she pressed the palm of her hand against her specimen’s container. Calling it back would mean she had failed yet again. But she hated what would happen if she didn’t, “Shut it down.” She finally said.

The machinery hummed down to a complete stop. B12 wriggled slightly, its bioelectricity wasn’t being harvested and recycled anymore. Unfortunately, its nerves had suffered short-circuit due to the irregularity in its electric organs. “Well hey, if the investors ask, we at least got a great machine to kills eels.” Hooper passed by Francine with his F1D0 prototype transporting boxes of spare parts to put away, “Never know when they’ll rise against mankind, huh?” he teased.

Francine had been competing with Hooper for nearly a year, she already was well aware about his baiting methods. She ignored him. “Kessler, please help me move B12 to the storage room, we’ll tend to its deficiencies. It might be helpful to gain insight as to what’s going wrong with our manipulations.”

Kessler quietly nodded and headed out into the holding area with Francine after their test subject had been safely deposited into a transportable container. As the rest of the team scattered for recalibrations, Hooper stayed behind to help F1D0 with the workload. “I’ve to tweak your tail with a good sorting algorithm, boy.” He patted the dog-like construct on its head, waiting for the rest of the team to disappear from sight before chuckling, “Not that you’re not the best at scrambling data already, F1.”

F1D0’s USB tipped tail wagged.

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“This is the third failure this month.” Kessler sighed as he wheeled B12 in, looking at the electric eel in disdain.

Francine quietly mused to herself, half disappointed and half suspicious. “B12 was in perfect condition.”

“So were the last six eels. Peak condition too.”

“You don’t understand, the extractor isn’t meant to accelerate ATP consumption for the ion-gating process, which is clearly what is happening here.”

Kessler perked up from his slumped down position, “You mean the eels’ are being forced to cannibalize their own cells to generate energy, instead of using the feedback loop?”

“No. They’re specifically consuming the electrocytes, only damaging their electric organs. It’s not a random occurrence, it’s a targeted anomaly.”

“Sabotage?” Kessler was outraged, “You don’t think Hooper- I mean, it’s no secret he hates you, but…”

“Most likely,” Francine tilted her glasses over her nose, “But if he’s perpetrating the system, he’s erasing the tracks as he operates.”

“I don’t get it, why did they get him working with us? His project might have been turned down, but there are still other teams that could use him, and there he wouldn’t get nearly as dickish.”

“He asked to be put in the team.”

“Well now we know why, ugh.” Kessler grumbled as he used the carrier to hoist B12’s container up and store it.

“I don’t really have the time to ponder about whether or not that odieux brat is behind the recent sabotages. The projections might be wrong,” Francine thought out loud as she stood began typing on her tablet, “We’re taking into account that the eels’ electric organs can sustain themselves during the process. But the process’ dynamics prevents the target organ from overloading or shorting out, it should.”

Kessler silently watched Francine work with unabated passion, but his expression softened at the realization that she still was a kid. He decided to pick up the slack as well. “It’s true, the process has failed before, even without Hooper messing things up. Those cases were all due to an irregularity in the subject’s electric organs.”

“As we already know,” Francine continued, “Electric eels have three electric organs where bioelectrogenesis works. If they all are put to work together during treatment, we can sustain them in the nutrient vat.”

“But at one point, one of the organs fails to keep up with the other two, the feedback loop is interrupted, and we get eel barbecue.”

Francine bit her lip and murmured, “This is the reason no one’s tackled this kind of experiment before. Even if I can work to repurpose the organs’ response to outside stimuli, the voltage becomes too great for the insufficient amount of electrocytes at work...”

“If only they had a fourth electric organ…” Kessler’s words trailed off before Francine turned to stare at him, making Kessler sharpen up, “Uh, I mean, I know it’s silly but…”

“No, actually,” Francine interjected, “If we had a way to multiply them, the eels would have the redundant organs to work the feedback loop without there being any shorts. The question is, how do we improve on mother nature’s very own work?”

Kessler looked at Francine as she spoke, then something clicked in his mind. “That’s right! Hey, I think I know what we can do about this. Have you heard of the Masters Xteria?”

“Hmm, that’s a controversial subject, even in France. The introduction of that recombination agent in the Black Market has been no end of problems for R&D around the world. The last I heard of it, some wealthy oil tycoon had won the only sample at an auction in Mid-Asia.”

Kessler nodded, “Yeah, that’s what the news said. But a friend of a friend that works in another lab here in Boulder says they’d been improving on the salamander genome by using the Xteria. I thought it was odd, but apparently there was more than one sample.”

“Salamanders?” Francine blinked in disbelief, then shook her head, “If they’re using the Xteria…”

“Yeah!” Kessler perked up with a smile, “It’s what we’ve been waiting for, Dr. LeFleur. And it so happens that friend of a friend owes my friend a favor- and me, by extension,” he grinned.

But Francine couldn’t be too careful, “Hold on, that agent isn’t sanctioned. If anything, we should report your friend’s friend for using an improperly distributed compound.”

“But doctor! Imagine what we could do with a recombinant that powerful. We could make stronger, better test subjects!” The prospect sounded sweet as a melody, and Francine was really considering it, but she couldn’t allow temptation to force her hand into a potential mistake.

“Kessler…” Francine paused. She wanted results. Stronger test subjects would enable that instead of having to constantly doubt her theory. It only had been two months, and Project Galvanika had at least another four more to present their prototype, let alone enter Beta stages. They could attempt to use the Xteria in one test subject and if it wasn’t satisfactory, they could try something else. “Arrange for it.”

Kessler smiled and fished his pockets for his non-corporative cell-phone, “I know we’re right in doing this, Dr. LeFleur. You’ll see! After all, what’s the worst that could happen?”

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Presently.

“STINGER! Come out come out WHEREVER you are!” a cackling voice startled Charlie as she tried to avoid being spotted.

“That maniac shouldn’t be here, why is he here?!” the scorpion metamorph grunted as she squeezed through S.W.O.R.D.’s ventilation system to head in the direction of captain Roger’s emergency room. “Ugh, cheap Samson and his small shaft.” Using the grates to peer below, Charlie made sure the murderous raptor wasn’t in sight before she quietly removed and slid one of the panels off. “Betas occupied every sector, Fire Cracker’s sealing exits with raging fires… Slaughter’s being, well, Slaughter…!” she quietly spoke as she crawled out onto the emergency room’s ceiling. “Jim!”

Rogers was sat down in front of his laptop on the desk, “Jim, where are the reinforcements? Where Queen and Shade?! This isn’t the time to hang on to a computer, it’s Omega, Slaughter, everyone! Jim I’m talking to you Goddamnit!” impatient, the scorpion girl reached for Rogers’s shoulder rest and spun him around but then she instantly startled and fell on her butt.

Charlie felt paralyzed from the neck down. She couldn’t stop shaking, her black eyes bulging out to the verge of popping. Rogers was sat down, bloodied from the neck to his lap, a slash to the jugular having taken his life. “No. No!” forcing herself back up to her feet, the metamorph heroine almost tackled Rogers’s corpse, shaking the lifeless body as if to convince herself. “Jim, this isn’t funny. This isn’t funny!” Her squeezing arms held the dead captain dearly as Charlie became unable to hold her tears down. Charlie’s eyes once again opened and what she saw next made her blood boil.

“happy thoughts stinger” read the open document on the computer’s monitor. She let go of the corpse, summoning her pincers and snapping her mandibles together as her mask guard covered her face. “I have a no-kill rule.” Charlie reminded herself before every notion of self-preservation left her, then she kicked the door to the room down. “SLAUGHTER!” she snapped her pincers together, rushing out while one of her arms tore a crack on the wall to make more noise. “Come out you sick bastard!” she yelled, stopping at a corner when suddenly a rising wall of fire forced the female scorpion to back-flip to safety. “I don’t have time for has-beens, FireCracker, get outta my sight!”

“Outta your sight? But I just got you in mine!” The fire iguana hurled fireballs over the flaming wall, but avoiding the volley was a cinch thanks to her scorpion agility. “I got plenty to pay you back for, Stinger! And I plan to cancel my debt with interest!” he laughed.

Charlie was beyond angered at the recent development. She could take care of FireCracker at any time, but knowing Slaughter was still running around the base after what he had done did horrible things to her patience. “Shut up!” she screamed, jumping at a wall before kicking herself above the firewall and against the reptile. Caught off guard, FireCracker got slugged in the face by Charlie’s pincer, delivered like a metric-ton-heavy punch. The super-powered metamorph was sent reeling and only stopped when he crashed against a wall, rendered unconscious by the shock to his system.

Panting heavily, Charlie’s mandibles snapped together loudly as she angrily stared at the defeated FireCracker. “I’ll deal with you later.” The scorpion softly said. Suddenly, the flames died out and Charlie turned around with a glare. Several bat metamorphs, the Betas, poured into the hallway turning a corner, making Charlie jump up before she began to bound on each of the swooping bats’ head like stepping stones.

As if they were a rushing stream of water, the Betas flowed past Charlie, who used her tail and pincers to deflect their incoming blows. Fighting against the barrage of attacks got her step by step closer to her goal. If all these frenzied Betas were on this side, it could only mean one thing to her. “If I can’t find Slaughter, then you’re the next best metamorph to punch, Lexine!” But Charlie never expected to find what she did shortly after turning the last corner.

Two unseen blurs of speed charged Charlie, who found herself on her knees after two beings with strength on par with her arachnid power forced her down. Feeling her arms seized, Charlie yelped and bent down in pain as her arms were twisted behind her.

“Voz’mi. And to think I once held you in high regard, my little scorpion,” Charlie instantly became irritated at the thick Russian voice taunting her. The scorpion’s rage being the only thing fueling her, Charlie tried to stand up, but her super-strong captors held her in place.

“Lexine!!” Charlie grunted out, “What do you think you’re doing?! What happened to your beliefs?! You sent Slaughter to kill Jim!”

“A pity,” Omega sighed, resting her cheek on her knuckles. “But he could not see the bigger picture, and I couldn’t risk him making a recall.”

“You don’t get it, Lexine! You’re a murderer, nothing more, nothing less, and I will hunt you for this!” Charlie snarled, trying her best to fight against her binding captors, but only managed to drain her strength instead.

“So full of energy, my precious davushka. But I’m afraid your threats are hollow. I only eliminate threats to my new world, and those unfit to join it. Unfortunately, you fall in the second category now.”

“Thank you for the compliment, now come here, I want to THANK YOU for it!” Charlie snapped her pincers together hard. Lexine softly smiled and closed her eyes as mad laughter began to fill the room.

“AHAHAHAHA!” Charlie couldn’t look back, but she heard Slaughter making his entrance. He was dripping blood, covered head to toe in fresh red coat. “That FRIEND of yours was so CUTE, Stinger! Who KNEW chameleons screamed so BEAUTIFULLY while being forced to SHED?! KYAHAHAHA!”

Charlie winced, shutting her eyes as the bloodied killer stood by Lexine. “Kimberly…” she hiccupped silently. “Where’s Beth?!” she demanded. “Let her go, she isn’t a fighter! She’s…”

“BEE BEE Q!” Slaughter madly, holding by his head at his own joke while Charlie’s eyes bulged out in shock, “I didn’t know that KID had it in him to mix HUMOR with DEATH! GAH-HAHAHA!”

“Y-you monster, you’re all fucking monsters!” Charlie cried out, tears coming out of her eyes, “You had no right to take their lives, you’re all sick…!”

“Oh miliy, is that any way to speak?” Lexine reopened her eyes and leaned forwards slightly, “Especially in front of one’s parents?” Charlie could suddenly feel her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach. Her eyes became paralyzed with fear and so too did the rest of her body as searing pain spread from her neck. Two stingers had suddenly embedded themselves on her skin, pumping her full of venom. All Charlie could do was slightly crane her head to the side as she finally noticed her captors: Two scorpion metamorphs like herself; one female and one male.

“Mama, papa…” thought a distressed Charlie. Their features like hers, only vacant stares remained in their eyes. Unfeeling grips told Charlie they had at least been brainwashed. “Mom, dad, stop this! Don’t listen to her, it’s me, Charlotte!” All those words that Charlie was trying to convey just did not come out of her mouth, as it too was paralyzed by her parents’ unique neurotoxin. Rage once again took hold and she glared in Lexine’s general direction, “What have you done?!” she wanted to scream.

“Your stare full of hatred is easy to read, miliy,” Omega giggled, “Dah, these are none other than Montgomery and Consuelo Richards. But don’t be sad- I’ve improved them! Youthful, strong, and willing to obey. They are the reason you’ve lost all your worth to me, Charlie. Now that I have the two biologic links to your genetic code, I can make you again, and remake you as many times as I need to until you finally submit to me.”

Charlie was left speechless, not that she could talk anymore. “You’re crazy, you’re sick, you’re a goddamn freak!” she thought, tears streaming down her cheek pouches.

“Slaughter, please execute Stinger.” Omega ordered, the raptor hybrid happily closing in on Charlie. Brandishing talons clanked like razor-sharp metal as Slaughter got within point-blank range. The murderous reptile seized Charlie by the neck as his other arm retracted.

“Oh WOE is me. I PERSONALLY wanted to take my TIME doing this!”

Charlie couldn’t stop crying. She could only emit muffled moans. “Mom, let me go! Dad! Let me help you! I’m sorry I risked your lives. This is all my fault!” she sobbed, “I’m sorry… I’m…”

“Dasvidania, my love…” Omega waved and stepped to the side, revealing a second Charlie with wings under her arms. The creature had a striking resemblance to the one who had taken off with Slaughter back at Minerva Labs. Omega left, being followed obediently by the winged scorpion.

To Be Continued…

[DragonMasterX]

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.

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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!”

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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.

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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.

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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…

[Daichi Azure]

Interesting, can't wait to see what comes next...

[DragonMasterX]

Thank you for the comment, Daichi. Glad to hear you're hooked!

Now, as promised...

-----------

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…

[DragonMasterX]

Part 4.

Presently.

“Oh, please tell me you two didn’t go at it again,” Queen’s feelers drooped as she saw Shade and Charlie walk in, both bruised and dirty. Thanks to Charlie’s insistence, Shade had passed by her room and was now at least dressed in casual blue jeans and a tank top that strained to contain her perfectly round chest. Charlie on the other hand had her chitin armor on, allowing her some modicum of decency.

“It was just friendly sparring, relax,” Shade brought her hands up defensively while Charlie meekly shrugged. Queen sighed, knowing of the constant rivalry between the two metamorph girls. Since the night Queen was transformed, Shade and Stinger had become unlikely allies, and it was thanks to that event that S.W.O.R.D. had taken them in. Shade’s powers and speed as well as her job as a thief made her perfect for infiltration and espionage, so Shade was usually dispatched for solo missions. Maybe the solitary missions were making Shade cranky. Whenever Stinger and Shade met together lately, they always seemed to end up fighting! After seeing her four Knights fly in with soft buzzing, Queen finally relaxed.

“Beth, Charlie says you’ve been reading for 9 hours straight,” Shade said, “Shouldn’t you take a rest?”

“It’s been two hours since you left for training already?” Queen raised an eyebrow at Charlie.

“I’m more concerned your head hasn’t exploded yet honestly,” Charlie mentioned as she rummaged through boxes of snacks and pastries on the counter, “Aw man, aren’t there anymore donuts?” a loud snap made Charlie jump as Shade’s elastic tongue suddenly shot in front of her eyes and pulled a creamy bagel to her hands. “That’s just gross. Are you sure you aren’t half frog?” Shade shrugged as she chomped down on the treat and got a soda from the mini-fridge.

“Donuts?” Queen paused, feelers twitching, “Right. Agent Turner took half of the last box with him.”

“Seriously?” Charlie groaned, “That Gary! Hmm, I wonder if I can charm him into giving me his donuts…”

“Don’t,” Queen interjected, “Everyone’s already mad you keep fooling him to get critical information.” Charlie seemed to pout in defeat, but then she folded her arms and proudly swung her hips to the side.

“Well, I don’t blame him! It’s pretty hard to resist me and… Ahh!” Charlie gasped again as Shade’s tongue once more shot down at one of the boxes the chameleon had been eyeing to extract another treat. “Damnit Kim! Hey, wait a second! That one was a donut, gimme!”

Queen did a face-smack when Charlie leaped at Shade and the two began to struggle over the last donut. “Can’t we have a quiet breakfast for a change?!” the red-head bee finally snapped.

“Stop it, my tongue found this, not yours!” Shade bit tightly onto the donut while Charlie did the same from the opposite end.

“But I want it more!” the scorpion argued, gripping Shade’s claws while they rolled around the room, only managing to aggravate Queen further.

“Now you’re just being little girls!” With a vein almost popping behind her head, Queen stood up to her impressive 11 ft. stature of Amazonian proportions and yelled while pointing at the two women, “Force them apart now!” The command was obviously unheard by the hybrid females, but very soon two of Queen’s Knights were on both Stinger and Shade. The muscle bound drones kept a firm grip between the two struggling girls, but no matter how hard they pulled, they couldn’t undo THEIR grip on each other.

It was then that the door to the metamorph division’s break room opened to allow entrance to two sets of footsteps. “Agents? Sorry to interrupt…” Captain James Rogers was holding the door open to a scene composed of a busty chameleon and a curvy scorpion fighting for a donut between them, chests smashed together while two muscular male bee drones attempted to tug the ladies apart from each other. All that time, the gigantic queen bee directing the drones was shouting at the smaller females. The action stopped and everyone, Knights included, paused to look at the intruding pair of gentlemen. To captain Rogers, this was just another day.

“She started it!” Both Shade and Charlie pointed at each other, but then Shade used the distraction to rend the donut to pieces before swallowing it. “Damnit!” Charlie whimpered.

“We have a guest,” Rogers announced.

Then a familiar voice ensnared Charlie’s attention, “Mon Dieu, so many beautiful young ladies oui oui! And ah, are these the so called Knights, mon amí?” a white bearded, slender and tall man walked from behind a nodding Rogers, finally making Charlie recall her memories.

“Dr. Pierre!” exclaimed a euphoric Charlie as she suddenly bowled over Shade and both Knights and nearly tackled the old man out of happiness. Throwing her arms around him, she pulled Pierre in for a hug.

“Ahh, cherí, it is good to see you! Or your lovely chest rather! Need I remind you I never earned my doctorate?” Pierre laughed, muffled words coming out from Charlie’s chest as she hugged the white-coated old man.

“Who’s the old coot?” Shade promptly got up and whispered up to Queen, bee and chameleon both confused. When Charlie finally released Pierre from her tight hug, she set him back down on the floor and gave him a grin.

“And how come Charlie’s so happy to see him? I’ve never seen her beam like that before!” Queen responded in a whisper.

“Mademoiselle Richards, I see life as a S.W.O.R.D. operative has kept you tres busy! It is good to see you brimming with energy,” Pierre smiled, his thick white moustache seeming to pass as a mouth each time he spoke, “Mmm, and these friend of yours! So big and healthy looking! Impressive metamorphs, oui!” Both Queen and Shade shyly waved. Pierre approached them and took Queen’s hand before kissing it. “You must be Queen, how adequate a codename for such a beautiful woman!”

“This guy’s gotta be Canadian,” Shade pursed her lips to hold back a giggle when she saw her much taller friend blush at Pierre’s words.

“Ah, mademoiselle Shade!” Pierre was suddenly in front of Shade. “All the colors in the spectrum at the command of your fine body, simply magnifique!” Immediately losing her nerve at how creepy it was for a presumably sexagenarian to be talking in such a manner to her, Shade’s scales turned a deep red all of a sudden. Charlie couldn’t hold back her laughter.

“Ahem,” interrupted Rogers as he served Pierre and himself a cup of fresh coffee, “As you might have guessed, Pierre is interested in advanced metamorphosis. It took us a while to recall him from his splinter cell in Asia, but he’s here to help us now.”

“Wait, a splinter cell to who?” interjected a surprised Charlie.

“Why, Secret Worldwide Operations, Rescue and Discovery, cherí!” Pierre quickly answered without titubation. Charlie’s jaw dropped.

“You mean you’ve been S.W.O.R.D. all this time?!” the scorpion recalled the fateful day when one of her missions as an Interpol agent led her to the doorstep of a mid-Asian black market where a leaked Xteria sample was being auctioned. Having seduced the winner of the auction to later steal the sample, plain old Charlotte Richards found herself the target of a vengeful tycoon’s wrath. Barely surviving the chase his agents gave, Charlie nearly died when she was stung by scorpions inside a collapsed desert tunnel. Fortunately, the scientist currently smiling at her, back then was the one to find Charlie while investigating said tunnels. If it hadn’t been for Pierre, Charlie would have eventually lost the battle against the scorpion’s venom. “That explains why you were there.”

“Oui, that’s what the worldwide part stands for, mon cherí.” Pierre smiled, but Charlie cocked an eyebrow up in curiosity.

“But if that’s the case, how come you never told me about this?” Pierre shook his head at Charlie’s question but heartily laughed.

“Ah but that’s what the Secret part is for, oui? Indeed, you are a metamorph, but you used to be Interpol back then.”

“And S.W.O.R.D. identification is on need to know basis,” Rogers finished.

“Plus, you never did ask what I was doing at my outpost, mademoiselle Richards!” Charlie returned a flat stare, as if irony was punishing her for the silly question. “Mmhm, I do prefer my solace back at my outpost, where I can comfortably research ecosystems and treatments for the population living in those unforgiving areas. Alors, I am required in America for more than just work.” He finally took the cup of coffee Rogers was offering and took a sip before adding: “It has certainly been a while. Almost two years ago in fact.”

“So what brings you here, doc?” an impatient Charlie asked.

“Ah, oui oui. I got side-tracked. You see, back when I believed it had been Schmidt’s work that had changed you, I had no idea my ex-colleague, the late Dr. Masters, had been the actual discoverer of the Xteria. Ever since you left my labs, cherí, I have been busy researching advanced metamorphosis. My findings have been outstanding, yet inconclusive.”

“You’ve been finding more questions than answers, then?” Queen asked from her chair.

“Quite perceptive of you, mademoiselle Queen. But you see the uh- how do you say it? Ah oui, the cross-references I could make were vague at best.”

“You still haven’t answered Charlie’s question though,” Shade added. Pierre nodded.

“I am here on personal matters, but James and I are good friends. When I am done with my business, I shall relocate to these headquarters in order to support the metamorph division!” Pierre smiled, “I might not be able to reverse your condition, cherís, but that does not mean I won’t give it my all to aid you.”

“Well, here’s me welcoming you to the team, Pierre. You’ll be back from your trip to Colorado in a couple of days, right?” Rogers asked, getting a nod from the scientist.

“Colorado huh? Never been there before,” Shade shrugged, “Wonder if they got nice loo-ahh… I’m just curious if they got art museums…” the ex-thief shook her hands defensively after getting glares from both Queen and Stinger.

“Ah, where I’m headed, the sciences take shape into what I could easily compare to art!” Pierre proudly spoke, holding a hand to his chest, “And my dear niece is about to give out a demonstration in a couple days. I haven’t seen her since I flew her from France… almost two years ago actually!”

Queen seemed to be the most interested one, “That niece of yours… she wouldn’t happen to be Dr. Francine LeFleur, would she?” Pierre nodded, making Queen approach him, “Oh curse my luck! I’ve been following the news on her Project Galvanika. I could maybe hitch a ride and watch the demonstration if I wasn’t so tall...”

“Is it that important?” Charlie raised an eyebrow in confusion to Queen’s sudden burst of exuberance. Queen seemed appalled.

“It’s only one of the most important experiments of the century! What Dr. Pierre’s niece is trying to accomplish is a completely renewable source of electric power. Think about it, no more fighting about oil if she succeeds!”

“S’il vous plait, mon cherí! I haven’t received my doctorate,” Pierre laughed.

“Really? That does sounds interesting,” Charlie admitted after Queen’s explanation. “How do you even pull that off? Can’t imagine a computer suddenly telling you how to make infinite batteries.”

“Oh I know! Why don’t you tag along then?” Queen suggested, “You’ve been needing a little break, haven’t you, Charlie?”

Pierre seemed to perk up, “Ah, what a splendid idea! I couldn’t think of a better travel partner. Oui, and we can catch up on your recent exploits, mademoiselle Richards!”

“Me and science? I don’t know,” Charlie scratched her head, “Shade, why don’t you go instead?”

“You can both go! It’s even cold out there, so your civilian identity should work fine, Kimmy. Then when you come back you’ll tell me all about it!”

“Oh! Mademoiselle Shade as well? Tres bien! I have been wondering how you put your powers of mimethization to work. This will be both entertaining AND a learning experience!”

“Wait, huh? Don’t I get any say in this?” Shade objected, but Charlie seemed remiss in saying no to the jubilant Queen. “Ugh, fine. I always wanted to visit Colorado anyway.”

“And no stealing!” Queen instantly frowned down at Shade.

“Yes mom.” The chameleon sank her shoulders a bit, cheerfulness instantly returning to the massive bee girl.

“It’s good to get involved in this, Stinger, Shade. Just like Queen said, this is one of the most, if not the most important undertaking in energy studies.” Rogers folded his arm while leaning against the counter, “If Pierre’s niece is as close as we seem to think she is at developing this new energy source, you can bet there will be shady elements involved in that demonstration.”

“I knew it. It’s never a field trip,” Charlie frowned a little. “Should this be the metamorph division’s job though?”

“We can’t be certain of anything yet,” Rogers scratched his chin in deep thought, “But you’ve seen it before. The Xteria sample auction. If there’s a sign of an incipient market, there will be opportunists trying to cash in in the most despicable ways possible. Since you two are going to be there, I want you to be alert for anything.”

Shade and Stinger exchanged looks before nodding to each other, “When are we leaving?” Shade asked Pierre.

“Ah, today actually! I have my plane parked outside,” the two blinked their eyes in disbelief, “S’il vous plait, gather your things and meet me up outside in an hour! I will be saying hi to the rest of the team in the meantime!”

With that, the energetic scientist left with Rogers. Queen seemed giddy and happy about this, “Ah, I would have loved to go. If only I were a little smaller…”

“Yeah, we can’t even get you a shirt that fits around your chest, balloon tits,” Charlie snickered, getting a huff from Queen.

“From one job to the next, I guess.” Shade cracked her neck slightly, “I’m going to go get changed. See you outside, Charlie.”

“Yeah.” As Shade and Queen walked out, Queen couldn’t seem to stop filling the brunette haired reptile’s head with her admiration for Francine LeFleur and her regret for being unable to go with them. Charlie sighed.

“Well, I do need a little break from all the crazy.”

-------------

Boulder, Colorado.

“Mom?” Charlie winced a bit, cursing herself for not having called hours ago when she told herself she would.

“Hija! So good to hear from you again.” Consuelo Richards’s voice always sounded chirpy, “How are you?”

“Fine, how’s dad?”

“He’s actually improved over the last few weeks. Monty was disappointed Interpol had to recall you during your week off!” Charlie winced again; she hated lying to her own mother, but telling Consuelo there had been no recall was a bad idea, especially when the explanation behind it was Charlie didn’t want to show her parents they had a half-arachnid in the family now. “The tontito was saying he would storm the place if they kept holding you back from enjoying life, can you believe it?” Charlie’s mother giggled, making Charlie wryly smile while staring off into the distance from the top of Pierre’s plane in which they had arrived.

“Y-yeah, uh… Listen, I’m actually on the job right now.”

“Oh really? Where are you, querida?”

“I’m with my partner in Boulder.”

“All the way over in Colorado? Espera, Dios... Did you say with a partner? Is it a dangerous job?”

“No.”

“Don’t lie to me, Charlotte.”

“It really isn’t… I mean it this time.” Charlie adjusted her sunglasses nervously as if Consuelo was standing in front of her. “We’re here to escort a VIP to a science demonstration. There, I just endangered world-wide peace to keep you happy. Happy?”

“Very much. Now you listen to me, Charlotte. If your job’s ever too much, don’t forget you also have a home here in Phoenix, and a family that wants to see you.” Charlie shifted on her perch with unease; Consuelo always knew how to guilt trip her.

“I know mom, and thanks.”

“Then if you know, call more often, dear. Take care, te quiero.”

“Yo también…” Click, the call ended. Charlie sighed, her segmented tail slumping to the side as she brushed her mane of black hair out of the way. “Urk… hate lying to mom, but what am I supposed to do? Drop in the hospital and start small-talk about my new form?” she thought, cringing a little as she played out things in her head: “Hi mom, I noticed you still haven’t gotten over your phobia of scorpions. Wanna see how far I can jump now?”

“Oi, bug-butt! Done with the call yet? Bad weather doesn’t mean no civs are around. Get down already!” Shade’s voice came from down below. Charlie inhaled deeply and jumped down. “Damn, it’s freezing here.” Shade was hugging herself, her skin color changed to a pale shade of pink allowing her to pass her scales as human skin if one didn’t look too hard. She wore gloves and boots for her claws and tied her long but thin tail around her waist pretty much like Charlie did. Except Shade’s tail didn’t make her look like she had a belly under her clothes. In comparison to Charlie’s civilian clothes, Shade’s only accentuated her lady-like proportions. To cover her obvious reptilian snout, a scarf was tied around her neck and lower face. It also helped with the cold weather they were having.

Similarly, Charlie had to hide her large segmented tail around her waist, but unlike Shade, the resulting bulge around her mid-section had to be hidden under thicker clothes. This gave Charlie the appearance of having a belly, which actually worked well with her wide hips and ample bust. With her pale yellowish skin, she could pass as human. Specially tailored shoes and the implementation of sunglasses assisted in maintaining Charlie’s secret identity. After putting her tail back around her waist and properly adjusting her sweater, Charlie sighed and looked at Shade, “Where’s Pierre?”

“The old man’s still talking to his niece over the phone. Seems like the demonstration got moved to tomorrow night. Think we’ll go straight to the hotel!”

“So much for sightseeing.”

“Works for me.” Shade shrugged, “Being in S.W.O.R.D. means I can’t steal as much…”

“As much?” Charlie blinked. Shade brushed some of her pretty brown hair to the side and sauntered over to the airplane for her baggage.

To Be Continued…

[DragonMasterX]

How about some action to perk y'all up?

-------

Part 5.

The next night.

Francine had opened the stage with an introduction of the main mechanics of Project Galvanika which she had done all those months ago. The public consisted of all the investors and colleagues Kessler had talked to Francine about, and even those that had opted out of investing in Galvanika. “I must remember I’m not merely realizing my dream, but also convince all these people their money was well spent.” The petite teenager had them eating out of her hand so far. Her team which had remained loyal through and through weren’t coming off short either. Assisting with the slideshow of pictures and graphics, Kessler was manipulating the projector with a dynamic imaging program.

“Wow, she really is young!” Charlie murmured to Shade while they stood there in the backstage. Both metamorphs were impressed.

“Seventeen, in fact! Oui, she’s always been a brilliant little rascal.” Pierre grinned, “My sister would hear nothing about little Frannie’s decision to join this institute. Well look at what she’s accomplished in a mere two years!”

“And I still can’t even begin to understand what the heck she’s talking about. Does your head hurt too? Hey, Kim.” Charlie insisted, but then found herself deflating as she realized the chameleon was listening to music with her headphones on. With a flat stare, the scorpion continued to listen on. “Dummy, Beth’s gonna be mad at you, not me.” But unbeknownst to Charlie, Shade had actually become transfixed with the sight above them. Since the tall ceiling was dark, it was hard to tell for sure, but Shade was convinced there was something, or some things moving between the demonstrations stage’s supports.

“Wonder if those ARE part of the show,” Shade thought, her gloved claws fiddling with thr music player in her pockets as she continued to look up. Having stereoscopic monocular vision allowed Shade to pay omnidirectional attention to her surroundings, and using her chameleon sight was the only thing keeping her from dying of boredom. “Now I have to know. Sure they won’t miss me.” Shade stepped back and proceeded to discard her articles of clothing one by one while her scales began to mimethize to their surroundings. Charlie turned in time to see clothes falling off Shade’s invisible form before she leaped at the wall and used her claws to climb up.

“Kim? Kim, what are you…?” Charlie tried to stop the chameleon but was too late in catching up before Kim vanished completely from sight. Only the clothes were left behind, Kim’s discarded music player identifying the next track as: “Welcome to the Jungle”. “Damnit! What the hell are you doing?!” Charlie couldn’t shout, so she was left clenching her teeth together while stifling a groan. Unable to fight her curiosity back, Charlie simply kicked her footwear off and began to wall-crawl upwards. “Why does everything with this woman have to lead with her being naked?” she complained in her mind.

“Ahh, I still remember when I used to change her diapers as a petit infant. I am so proud of her. So are you enjoying yourselves, cherís?” Pierre asked as he turned around, his eyes blinking as the couple of metamorphs had vanished from sight. “Oh my. They must’ve left for the restroom. Excitement does that!” The scientist shrugged, ignoring the discarded clothes on the floor as he turned back to Francine.

Amongst the crowd was a heavily garbed fellow of average height. Concealed from his former colleagues, Dexter Hooper watched his nemesis speak. “Enjoy your fifteen minutes of fame, LeFleur. Because as soon as you activate your extractor, Alpha Wolf and I will make you wish you never tried to play with electricity.” Hooper was going to enjoy the show from his seat.

“Warning: Intruders detected in ambush location. Not within parameters of plan.”

Hooper’s eyes widened. Fortunately the sound of ongoing conversations masked his voice commands. “What intruders? Helping hands? Put them to sleep quietly.”

“Negative. Intruder not human,” the Howler’s response made Hooper look up above the stage. There was no way to see anything, but he was starting to grow nervous. “Queryfffzzzt!!”

“Howler number three down. Master, I have detected irregular biological signatures. They do not correspond to normal human beings.”

“Not normal? Wolf, change of plans. Go inside and disable those intruders, NOW.”

“Query: Lethal force authorized?”

“Get rid of them.”

“Acknowledged.”

When Charlie finally made it to the support beams she was startled by the sight of a floating quadruped device as if it was hung by a noose. “The hell is that thing?”

“Seems to be a robo-dog of sorts.” Kim spoke as she became visible to Charlie, “Some places I’ve broken into rely on these but are so heavy and big they’re stationary radars at best. This one’s a much smaller version… Nimble too; bastard could see me coming. Must have infrared as well.”

As she watched Shade hold the disabled robot by its neck, Charlie became confused, “What do you think this thing’s doing here?”

“I don’t know, but his friends don’t look very happy about me shredding this one’s circuits!”

“Trespassers, beware.” Both Charlie and Shade perked up, Charlie’s faceguard sliding on immediately. A larger version of the robo-dog in Shade’s grip descended from one of the roof’s skylights, its visor’s LED lighting up in synch with its computerized voice. “Your presence here is not welcome. Proceed to vacate this height or face extermination.”

“Whoa, a talking mutt. Sweet!” Charlie’s tail uncoiled from her waist as she crawled forwards with it behind her, ogling the machine as if it was a toy. “Yo Fido, shake!” she extended her open hand.

“Error: This unit does not respond to that name. I am Alpha Wolf,” the heavily modified quadruped leaned down on its support beam, its claws keeping it steady. “Warning: I am about to attack. Remove yourselves from the premises.”

“You’d so win first place in a talent show.” Charlie ascertained before suddenly having to force herself to shift her weight and bend back all the way to avoid Alpha Wolf’s lunging tail as if she was playing limbo. The spiked tip on Alpha Wolf’s tail barely grazed Charlie’s chin but managed to pierce her sunglasses. “Aw man! I liked those sunnies.” The scorpion quickly grabbed the metal tail and held it firmly with greater strength than Alpha Wolf’s pull.

“I’m pretty sure it was trying to kill you, stop fooling around, bug butt,” Shade dropped the disabled unit in her grip down on the catwalk behind them while glancing around for more of the Howlers that were backing Alpha Wolf up.

“Everyone’s a critic now. Hmph!” Charlie’s sleeves burst as two protrusions in the form of pincers came out of her forearms, clamping down on the robo-dog’s tail to keep him in her grip as she stood back up.

“Warning: Target “Bug Butt” exhibits unprecedented levels of strength…”

Charlie glared down Shade’s way, “Aw, see what you did, Shade!”

“…adjusting parameters. Howlers, Gamma Formation.” Several visor LEDs began to light up around the two metamorphs at once, forcing Charlie to let go of the tail once Alpha Wolf gave the order, “Attack!”

Shade and Stinger found themselves jumping from beam to beam in an attempt to avoid incoming whips and thrusts from the machines’ accurate tails. The people below were blissfully unaware as machine fought metamorph above them. Francine was well into the end of her presentation before she cued the curtains to be raised, X05 coming into view within its tank; electrodes connecting the specimen and extractor with cables distracted the crowd from the action above.

Hooper contacted his creations’ leader again. “Wolf, are the intruders eliminated?”

“Negative, Master. Inhuman targets are highly evasive. Inconspicuous counter-measures unproductive. Suggest strategic withdrawal.”

“No!” an anxious Hooper almost shouted at his concealed transceiver, “I have waited months for this moment, it’s the perfect chance to drink in that fool LeFleur’s defeat!” his mind was racing with thoughts of humiliation after what Francine had done to him. Seeing as she tested her creation successfully, wowing the crowd constantly and on top of it all, knowing that this was supposed to be HIS moment was all Hooper needed to want this all to end. “This farce must end. By my claws if necessary,” he looked down at his gloved hands hiding his electrified fingers. Hooper stood up while issuing one final command: “Distract those meddling idiots, Wolf. I’m going for the prize.”

Too distracted with her demonstration of how the super-batteries worked, most of the people and even Francine herself couldn’t notice the garbed person making his way through by leaps and bounds. It was a domino effect once he reached the middle of the seats however. “If you want something done well…!” Hooper’s shout was barely heard, but he didn’t hold back about making a scene. He wanted to ruin LeFleur’s project, he wanted to ruin her life. A scene was inevitable.

Security took notice of the unseated agitator and attempted to subdue Hooper once he reached the stage. Four armed guards aimed at the mysterious acrobat, “Please keep your distance from the equipment, only professionals in bioelectricity are allowed near the…”

“Funny you should mention that…” an outraged Hooper immediately lifted his right hand, energy shredding his gloves as electricity suddenly shot out from his finger-tips, focused at the speaking guard. “BECAUSE I AM THE ONLY PROFESSIONAL HERE!” The demonstration suddenly came to a stop when four armed guards were instantly flung in the air by violent discharges of electricity emanating from a person. Screams of terrors followed.

Up above, Shade was making use of her super-human agility and sight to keep up with the Howlers. Wise to the sharpness of her claws, the Howlers were mainly keeping their distance with hit-and-run tactics. In the meantime, Charlie was tanking Alpha Wolf’s assault, the leader assisted by two more Howlers to tag in after each combo. “You stand no chance,” the robo-dog spoke, “We are superior in number. We are better coordinated. We shall prevail, Bug Butt!”

Bracing the claws and tail strikes was managing to push Charlie down. Even her chitin armor was unable to completely absorb the relentless attacks directed at her. “We have little room to maneuver in here, and these guys don’t get tired…” Charlie groaned in her mind, trying to wait for an opening was useless against machines! “You’re wrong if you think this is lopsided in your favor. And my name isn’t bug butt, scorpions aren’t bugs for starters.” Charlie groaned as she took a swipe across the cheek, scratch marks left on her mask. The blow she received had been intentional from her part however, as she immediately demonstrated by countering with a pincer-uppercut to grab the incoming Howler. Alpha Wolf was taken by surprise when Charlie rushed him and smashed him with his own follower. “I am Stinger!”

Scrambling to the catwalk on the side, Alpha Wolf made an aerial recovery by flipping and falling on all fours, “Stinger. Name change complete. Data has been saved.”

“I’m starting to hate robots,” Charlie groaned as the damaged but still functional Howler she had used as a blunt weapon was already up and next to Alpha Wolf. It wasn’t long before the screams under them reached the voluptuous fighters’ ears. “Something’s going on down there! Jim might’ve been right about foul-play!”

“We have to hurry up then!” Shade was faring a little better, the combination of her claws, tail and prehensile tongue allowing the chameleon to swing herself to alternate positions. Due to the restricted space, the reptile didn’t need her mimethization powers to funnel her enemies where she wanted them. “Got’cha!” she thrust her arm outwards at the right moment to perfectly parry an incoming attacker. Her sharp claws tore through the Howler’s neck and the robot shorted out once Shade ruined the circuitry. Her fingers were burnt badly in the process, which made her cringe slightly in pain, but her hand was still good. “Sting, if you time your strike you can exploit their necks, much softer than their joints!”

“Easy for you to say!” Charlie groaned as she nearly lost her balance when Alpha Wolf and his two Howlers began to charge and spin-tackle the heroine, pushing her back on the platform. “But worth a try!” she mumbled as she tightened the grip of her feet on the beam and prepared to intercept a blow. Alpha Wolf immediately stopped, unlike his Howlers that continued their charging. Charlie pulled her arm back and clenched her fist, summoning her chitin pincers again only to thrust them out right before the attack connected. Just when Charlie thought she was about to catch a break, Alpha Wolf leaped above the deflected attacker and pounced. “Oh sonuva!”

“Your movements are a simple matter to read. You are finished, Stinger!”

“Sting!” Shade gasped as she ducked to avoid a tail slash with only moments to see her partner get straddled to the platform with Alpha Wolf aiming his tail spike at her head. Stinger struggled under the pain of Alpha Wolf’s clawed paws sinking against her flesh, tearing through the dense chitin easily. “Crap, I can’t get to her in time. She’s gonna get a lobotomy at this rate!” Shade’s mind raced as she continued to parry attacks, diverting all of her brain’s processing power to finding a solution in the few seconds she had to save her friend. Without a moment to spare, Shade suddenly came up with an idea after looking at the catwalk’s chain supports. “This had better work!”

As Charlie shrieked from pain, she managed to throw her head to the opposite side before the spike impaled, but she didn’t know how long she had to keep this up. And then all of a sudden the platform underneath them began to violently rattle. “What the…?” her eyes widened at the sight of Shade practically flying between support beams to strike at the catwalk’s chains until they finally succumbed to the chameleon’s claws.

“BRACE!” yelled the reptile. Alpha Wolf became momentarily distracted as the platform began to tilt downwards. He tried to kick himself away, but found that to be impossible.

“Error…”

“That’s right!” Charlie interrupted as they began to slide off the tilting platform. “You’re coming down with me!” The disconcerted robot had no way to act now that Charlie had bear-hugged his chassis and immobilized his tail with her steel-hard grip. In the throes of pain coming from the bleeding cuts on her body, Charlie used the few seconds they had before impacting the ground to take advantage of her adversary’s predicament and shifted their weight around. Managing to spin herself on top of the robo-dog, she let out a shout, “Mutt meet floor!”

The panic in the demonstration only grew upon Stinger and Alpha Wolf’s landing. Even Hooper was forced to stop his advance towards the terrified Galvanika team. “What is the meaning of this?!” the eel-turned-scientist demanded. From the clearing cloud of dust emerged a creature not unlike himself.

“Mon Dieu, Agent Stinger…?” gasped Pierre, who had forgone regulations once Hooper began electrocuting people that approached him, and rushed to Francine to shield her from harm.

“Sacre bleu! Uncle, do you know these… people?!” a horrified Francine asked in disbelief when she saw the barely clothed female scorpion walk out with the torn head of a blinking robot. Francine’s green eyes widened to the size of saucers when she took in the appearance of the robotic dog-like face. “F1D0?!”

“Th-this u-u-unit does not… r-respond… t-to…” the stuttering transformed into static.

“They don’t make ‘em like they used to, huh?” a sheepish Charlie shrugged while being stared at by what remained of the public, though she was glad she had managed to use the force of the slam to rip the robo-dog’s head off. Hooper on the other hand was less than pleased with this.

“Wolf!” the teenager metamorph screamed. “My master-piece, m-my friend! Ruined…!” Hooper held by the side of his head, clenching his free hand. Fortunately, critical data was stored in a near-indestructible black box, which meant Alpha Wolf’s AI was safe for now, but the chassis, all the hard work! The scorpion had no right to do this. “Destroyed!”

“Hooper?” Francine called out despite her uncle’s insistence to not interfere. The garbed man suddenly let out a roar of both pain and humiliation. Charlie gasped as she noticed sparks of electricity cackle in his grip.

“How dare you speak my name? You, who are not worthy of it!” the aggravated Hooper raised his arm in the direction of Francine. Charlie kicked into a dash, realizing no good was going to come out of allowing the one responsible for Alpha Wolf’s creation to freely carry on. Everything seemed to slow down as Charlie tried to intercept Hooper, but electricity has a way to outrun most things in this universe.

The lightning bolt hurled by Hooper was meant for Francine, but Pierre pushed her away in the nick of the time only to receive the brunt of the attack which caused a small blast that sent Pierre flying into a wall.

“DOC!” Charlie screamed, stopping mere inches away from Hooper. Her eyes froze as she heard the scientist’s body fizzle and watched the once pristine lab coat now stained black.

“Tch, I missed,” the garbed Hooper groaned in annoyance before he was tapped on the shoulder. When he turned around he was greeted by a solid fist.

“YOU MISERABLE PIECE OF…!” accompanied the blow of titanic proportions that would have easily killed a human. Charlie couldn’t stop herself from growling as she put everything she had in that punch, thoughts of holding back lost to the sheer amount of hatred driving her to insanity. The person she owed her life to, fried by this mad man, and she had failed to protect him when he needed her the most! The force of the impact was so great that Hooper’s grunt of pain was lost to the wind as his body was sent flying into a wall. Knocked down from the wall, he slid down into the nutrient vat for X05.

“Uncle! Nooooo!” Francine rushed over to her unconscious uncle, but stopped herself before touching him. She knelt by his side, knowing not to touch his body due to the static electricity.

“Stinger, are you alright?!” Shade finally made her appearance after rushing her descent towards the ground. “Whatever you did to that Alpha Wolf thing, it stopped all the other robo-dogs! I just… Sting…?”

Charlie was on her knees, eyes frozen against the ground. Shade blinked, unaware of what had happened until she noticed Pierre’s state on the corner, “Oh no…”

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Within the liquid nutrient vat, a terrified X05 attempted to swim away from its fellow knife fish. The amplified electromagnetic fields surrounding X05 only managed to stimulate Hooper’s body to absorb the nutrients around him, enabling him to recover from the devastating blow he had received. Waking up faster than he should have, unbridled rage that filled his mind was instantly focused on the creature which was responsible for his transformation. It was scared of him, Hooper could not blame it. He was stronger. He could feel it, every fiber of his being was super-charged, making him superior to any human being. “But the scorpion…! The scorpion that destroyed my dear Wolf…! She’s stronger, she punched me… she dared punch me!” he was on the verge of exploding before his claws reached out for X05 and gripped tightly. “It’s not enough power… Not enough!!” Maw open widely, Hooper violently sank his fangs and began to force the 10ft. electric eel’s electrocytes into himself, basically force-feeding electric power into his body. Hooper’s bulky garbs began to stretch as muscles groaned and popped larger, his entire body overflowing with an unstoppable surge of power… and the hunger for more.

------------

“It happened, Shade, it really did…! I can’t do it, I can’t protect anyone…!” Charlie sobbed while shaking and hugging herself. Shade grimaced, unable to find the words to cheer her partner up.

“Who did this?!” the chameleon growled out.

“I punched the living daylights out of the bastard, but what does it matter now…?!” Charlie sobbed again, cracking the wooden floor with her fist. Shade seemed to step back as all of a sudden the darkened pool by the wall started to light up. The liquid inside began to splash as the blur within stirred. Charlie widened her eyes when she realized something was coming out of it. “No… he’s growing out of it!”

“What the heck is he?!” Shade exclaimed once they heard a deafening roar coming from within the straining nutrient vat. Shredded clothes started to spill out alongside liquid as Hooper’s form swelled with power. The electric eel’s musculature had improved from its lithe body-builder form to a serious weight-lifter build in mere moments. Electricity coursing through his veins, the metamorph’s eyes started glowing an eerie white as energy cackled all around him. Well over 10ft. already, Hooper had become a living, growing battery. A hungry living and growing battery.

“The power… it’s… intoxicating…!” the muscle bound predator roared again, finishing to scare off every single member of the public left in the demonstration. Hooper tightened his grip on the electrodes meant to sap power from X05’s and now his body. It was only a matter of concentration for Hooper to redirect the flow and begin sucking the electricity right out of the super-battery Francine had half-filled for the demonstration. With nowhere else to go, just like with X05’s body before, the electricity was making Hooper’s body become larger and larger to house even more power!

Still stunned, Stinger had to be tugged away from the incoming wave of electrified liquid by Shade’s elastic tongue. After Hooper’s expansion caused his tree-trunk legs and thick sides crush the crystal pool, their surroundings had become extra dangerous. “Fuck, is he eating electricity?!”

“YES! And it’s making me stronger and stronger!” the delirious Hooper claimed as his smooth body bulked out further, watching on as his adversaries became increasingly smaller in his field of view. “You’re looking pathetic now, lizard and scorpion! Nnnngaaahhh!” he moaned out loud, the pleasure center of Hooper’s brain stimulated by the process. Hooper gripped harder, tugging on the cables to the super-battery until he lost his patience and yanked the battery into his hands. “Power… more power!” he laughed, suddenly biting down on the object of his desire. His fangs easily tore through the metal, capacitors shocking his mouth as saliva came into contact with the electricity. The immense eel only hastened his growth, making himself grow taller and taller with every passing moment.

“We have to stop this guy! But how do we get close without getting electrocuted?!” Shade helplessly thought as she skipped away from the stray bolts. “This place isn’t safe anymore… Francine, you have to leave!” But the young girl didn’t seem to hear.

“It’s hopeless…” Charlie groaned.

“Stinger, snap out of it! We have to help these people or they’re gonna be squashed under this guy’s nuts!”

“What’s the difference?! I’ll fail…! I can’t do anything right…”

“It’s not the time to doubt yourself, do you want Francine to end up dead too?!”

“But…” Charlie was about to object when the piercing scream of Francine’s shout for help was heard.

“HE’S BREATHING!” Stinger’s and Shade’s eyes widely opened at the same time, “My uncle’s still breathing! PLEASE HELP ME!” Charlie suddenly felt a rush of energy make her perk up, she had a second chance. Bouncing off Shade’s arms, the two metamorphs nodded to each other and rushed over to the corner Francine and Pierre were at.

“H-he… he’s alive… please don’t let him die, this is my fault, it’s all my fault…!” tears streamed down Francine’s fair white skin as she looked up at Stinger and Shade, despair making her look beyond appearances. Her endangered uncle needed help!

“Francine, don’t worry! I’m Stinger, and she’s Shade. Despite the corny names, we’ll help your uncle!” Charlie gave her hand out to help Francine up whilst Shade took it upon herself to protect Pierre. “What do you mean this is all your fault though? Do you know this steroid junkie?!”

“He was part of my project, but he tried to sabotage me so many times I had him expelled from this place. I don’t know how he turned himself into that monster eel but…!” Francine stopped talking. Something had clicked in her mind. “The Xteria…” Shade and Stinger quickly exchanged looks before staring back at Francine, “X05, my genetically engineered subject, was born through Xteria assisted genetic manipulation. Hooper must’ve some somehow spliced himself with its genetic data…!” she gasped.

“And now he’s got the munchies for electric power. Is there any way to shut this equipment down?!” Charlie was quick to ask.

“Mon Dieu, non! Not without frying yourself in the process!” Francine disgruntledly explained as she looked up at the flickering lights, “He’s feeding on the whole building’s electricity. And this place consumes enough power for three blocks worth of it! While he’s tapped into the institute’s power grid, he’s going to make every breaker a hazardous thing to approach!”

The stage was starting to groan under the weight of the increasingly bigger Hooper. His eel body had become a chiseled mountain of manly muscle that would have put any body-builder to shame. His height was already approaching 20ft. tall and there was no sign of the growth stopping anytime soon! Hooper was rapidly approaching the tall ceiling as he hungrily munched on the super-battery until it was fresh out of power. When that happened, his lust for more electrical power made him swing his arm against the wall, tearing the connections straight out for his fangs to gnaw on and his hands to absorb the electricity from. While his tail swished around, more stray bolts of lightning shot out, fortunately missing the girls and Pierre. But Hooper wasn’t done growing and he was definitely not done eating. “I’m… so hungry…! This feels so good…! Voltaic… feels good…!” he moaned louder.

“Did he just call himself Voltaic? Ack!” Charlie ducked to narrowly avoid another stray bolt. “There’s no stopping him!”

“Then we have to leave before we get crushed under this dude’s bulk! Let’s go!” Shade called out, but Francine shook her head.

“No, there might be a way to stop him! I just need to get to my laboratory…”

“There’s no time for that! Can’t you request the stuff outside?!” the chameleon argued, Charlie suddenly standing up to punch a falling piece of debris into smaller pieces before it hit them.

“He’s crushing the supports with his shoulders, they can’t hold his weight! Holy hell and I thought Queen’s Knights were thick!” she quickly thought.

“Francine, come back!”

“Huh?” Charlie blinked and turned around as Shade jumped away from more falling debris. Due to her carrying Pierre on her back, Shade had been unable to stop the young girl from running away. “No, Francine!” Charlie called out just as Francine briefly turned around to shout.

“I beg you, look out for my uncle! I have to get to my laboratory before it’s too late!”

“Damnit!” Shade cursed, turning to look at Stinger, “Go get her back. I’ve to get Pierre to an ambulance!”

“Was planning on it!” Charlie leaped towards the wall and began to run alongside it with the same ease as moving on the floor.

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When Francine reached the hallways to her lab, the place was aflame. Excess voltage had caused several malfunctions throughout the institute, “Just a lone spark could have caused all of this… Merde, I have to make it to my laboratory at all costs. Just hope it isn’t gone…!” Braving the tall flames cost Francine her coat, but the alternative seemed less than attractive at the moment. She was fortunate enough to be able to open the door to her laboratory, blessing her luck when the card reader among the malfunctioning gadgets finally allowed her in. The scientist made sure to lock it behind her as she rushed inside.

“Francine!” she could hear Stinger’s voice in the immediate vicinity. The scorpion had most likely seen Francine go inside. But she couldn’t allow Stinger to interfere.

“Nobody can interfere, this is my fault. There’s no way to approach him, there’s no way to stop him… unless you’re like him!” The scientist started mixing compounds in a hurry, gladdened by the remaining samples of X05 she had made sure to maintain. The result was a light-pink compound of active Xteria culture mixed with X05 tissue. “There’s no time to test this… I must trust that this will work…!” She began extracting the liquid into a syringe for faster administration.

The door to Francine’s laboratory blew apart at that moment, Stinger’s super-human strength allowing her to breach security after a good combo of punches. Their eyes met, intentions unspoken but well understood.

“Francine! NO!”

To Be Continued…

[DragonMasterX]

Previously in Codename Stinger...

Charlie: Francine, NO!

And now, for what I'm sure is what you've all been waiting for.

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Part 6.

Francine announced nothing as she unceremoniously injected herself; Charlie had been too slow to stop her. The sight of the doctor forcing the syringe down on her arm made Charlie’s mind flash back to Lexine Masters’, Omega’s last moments as a human. “I’m going through with this, either with or without you.” The phrase rung inside of Charlie’s head.

“You don’t know what you’ve just done to yourself…!” the heroine reprimanded.

“I don’t care about the repercussions!” Francine shouted back as she grunted, feeling light-headed all of a sudden, “If I don’t stop Voltaic, then I don’t want to imagine how many more people will end up like uncle Pierre! Th-the suffering…” she stuttered, shaking her head as she gasped, holding by her abdominal section, “I don’t want that guilt…! Ahhh!”

“Francine!” Charlie insisted, smashing her tail against the ground in frustration, but it was done.

Francine lost her balance to the rapid changes manifesting inside of her. “It feels warm, h-hot, I’m on fire…!” she cried out as she doubled back in pleasure. Charlie could only watch on as Francine’s arms stretched out and began to tremble, the physical changes following suit. The woman’s fair white skin started to darken and shed off as scales grew underneath, spreading from her finger tips all the way up to her shoulders. Nails sank into flesh to assist in the formation of claws while a thin film bridged each finger to form webbed paws. And Francine could feel the same process was taking over her feet as well, her toes ripping clean through her designer shoes. “Nnngh… I feel it on my chest… what is this sensation of… ohh!” a moan escaped the scaled woman as she instinctively brought her hands to her swelling breasts. Clawed fingers tore through the fabric of Francine’s ruined blouse and bra, her hands desperately cupping around the expanding flesh, black scaled flesh. Like balloons the chest pillows inflated, their mass pushing Francine’s hands away as they went from modest B-cups to impressive DDs and continued to enlarge. “M-mon Dieu, my breasts are enormous…!” she thought to herself as her eyes focused on her darkening, swelling mounds, as if responding to puberty several times over in the span of a few seconds. The sight of her nipples was not there either, the pink nubs having been concealed behind scales. Nipples or not, the expanse of her round orbs only stopped when they were near the size of Francine’s head each, and at that point the metamorphosing woman was being driven crazy by the mounds’ sensitivity.

But the changes to her figure were not done with that. Francine felt a tingle run down her spine while the same segmented membranes on Voltaic’s back made their job to cover hers. The only difference was that the membrane on Francine was a lighter blue color while Voltaic had a black one. Once the segments reached her tailbone a different process started; Francine was brought to her knees when a slick black tail suddenly pushed out above her rump. Charlie winced a bit, reminded of her own transformation when her tail had come out. Knowing the process to be unstoppable until it finished, the scorpion metamorph kept her distance and tried not to stare, although it was difficult not to.

Francine’s tail grew out, the scaly extremity making her shriek out in pleasure. The transformation continued to add the membrane all the way down to the tip of her long tail, Francine’s new claws clenching as her torn skirt began to stretch over widening hips and enlarging buttocks. The pleasure of feeling her ass cheeks devour her underwear into her deepening crack was only comparable with the fabric being forced to stretch over her groin. Thighs becoming muscular to support her wider hips made Francine finally bring her claws to her skirt, tearing it right off as her tongue lolled out and drool dropped to the floor. Charlie blushed; averting her gaze as Francine’s fingers clumsily grazed the stretched string of her underwear. It wasn’t that Francine wasn’t enjoying the fabric grinding against her more sensitive areas. Francine was almost lost in a sea of bliss. But the growing woman knew there was no time to enjoy this. Fighting the pleasure she regained control of her claws, finally managing to snap the string of her underwear, relieving her womanhood of the confining thong-turned-panties.

In an attempt to force herself back up to her feet, Francine clumsily slipped and broke her fall with an arm. She gasped, “I feel so much heavier with these…” the young scientist thought with a pant of pleasure as she felt the stimulus of barely rubbing her voluminous chest against the floor, giving her the hint her invisible nipples weren’t spared of touch. Francine growled and Charlie saw her push her black scaled face down against her larger bosom, as if cushioning her face with pillows. There was a short pause before Charlie heard a muffled moan. The torn blouse finally split open down the middle as the spinal membrane finished slicing the fabric open on its way up as it started covering Francine’s neck and the back of her head. Her ears melted into her skull, replaced by small, webbed fins like Voltaic’s but light-blue in color. Francine felt her face was beginning to push out, finally taking on its animalistic shape as her jaw line stretched out to accommodate rows of sharp fangs instead of teeth. Her snout made her nose change into barely noticeable nostrils to complete the facial transformation.

An electromagnetic field started to outline Francine’s eel body as her newly formed electric organs tested their capabilities out. Charlie stepped back as Francine’s electric powers caused random bolts of energy to shoot out almost erratically. The silken mane of blonde hair that had once adorned Francine’s head began to fall off as the finned crest advanced over her scalp and, like a cherry on top, finalized her advanced metamorphosis.

When Francine’s change was done, the eel girl’s EM-field finally died down. After the sizzling from the static electricity stopped, Charlie saw the opportunity to approach her. The S.W.O.R.D. agent reached down to help the recently changed metamorph, “Francine, how do you feel?”

“Powerful,” gasped the young woman, “But not nearly enough to stop Voltaic.” She looked over to the power breaker on the wall.

“Get that idea out of your head, Francine, you don’t know the risks!” Charlie seized Francine by the arm before she could step away. The building shook as if a quake had hit. Charlie assumed Voltaic had already broken through the ceiling.

“Let me go, Stinger!” Francine tugged away from the scorpion, wanting nothing less than to catch up to her rival, “Let me go or we’re all doomed!”

“I can’t let you do this! What if something bad happens and you short yourself out?!”

“Worse things will happen if I don’t! Voltaic has become an addict to electric power. Anyone approaching his magnetic field will become shocked or worse. I now have the ability to cancel his electromagnetic-field out, so I am the only one that can face him!”

“But at that size he’ll squash you like an insect!”

“That’s why I need to make myself more powerful! I have a plan, and you have to let me go through with this!” Francine shouted, making Stinger pause.

“What if you become an addict to electricity too? Then we’ll have twice the problems we have now!”

“Oui! It will happen!” Francine explained, “But that’s exactly why I’m doing this. We need to fight for the power to give you time!”

“Time for what?” the scorpion blinked.

“To fabricate an EMP bomb!” Charlie’s eyes widened at the suggestion, “Our electric organs are constantly storing and using the electric power we generate and absorb through electromagnetic fields. Our rising power levels depend on the generation of these fields. Detonating a series of pulse charges set to the opposite frequency of our fields will cancel our growth- maybe even reverse the effect!”

“Alright, but what will you do?”

“There’s a power plant due north, the city is powered in great part from there. With the rate at which Voltaic grows, he’ll soon realize he can only receive so much stimulation as his size increases. He’ll go for it, I just know he will, I can feel my every nerve screaming for me to absorb power right now. If I can keep control over my mind for long enough, you’ll have more time to figure out what to do!”

“How do we even get that frequency?”

“It’ll involve lots of careful calculations. You don’t want to detonate haphazardly, or you could end up making our EM fields even stronger!”

“Why don’t YOU calculate it then?” Charlie tried, the building shaking violently again. For a few moments Stinger and Francine had trouble to even stand still. Voltaic had most likely risen through the ceiling and was ready stepping out.

“There is no time!” the aggravated eel woman was starting to lose her patience, “If he reaches that power plant undisturbed, he will become unstoppable! You have to let me grow so I can hold him off until you can plant those bombs at the power plant!”

“This is too dangerous! What if we get the frequency wrong?”

“It’ll be a lot harder to actually get it wrong like I described earlier. That’s the worst case scenario. You’ll have more than enough time to find the frequency to stop both of us. If not, then use the default frequency to completely disable us…” Charlie stared directly at Francine’s eyes, “Permanently.”

“No! There has to be another way!”

“Ça suffit!” Francine focused her mind into releasing energy and pushed her electromagnetic field out in every direction at once. The resulting shockwave electrocuted Charlie with enough voltage to send her flying into a wall. “Mercí for your help, Stinger. But this is something I must do!” With that, Francine rushed over to the power breaker. Jolts of electricity suddenly began to jump at her, taken in by her electromagnetic field. “I can do this… no, I need to do this!”

Charlie got up from the floor, still feeling tingly all over, “Urk, sonuva… I feel like a bird stupid enough to fly around during a storm.” Once her head cleared, Charlie saw the cracking of electricity on the wall as Francine grabbed the electrified power breaker. “She’s doing it…” she silently contemplated. Francine started to moan as she felt raw power course through her veins, becoming trapped by her new body, transformed into energy, stored in her electric organs and then released only to be reabsorbed by her hungry electrocytes. The expansion began to happen without a hitch, for which Charlie was thankful, but soon enough she was treated to another reason to get away from the laboratory.

Just as with Voltaic, Francine’s body began to bulk up, although less noticeably than with the male eel. While muscles became increasingly defined on her once petite frame, Francine’s curvy form stayed predominant for her build. Power was making her swell in every direction at once, leading Francine to increase her height as the process went on. “This feels… it feels wonderful…! This feeling, like having every cell in my body filled to the brim with energy!”

Astonished, Charlie could only watch as the already Amazonian Francine gripped the breaker tighter until eventually it broke apart. Determined to feast her body with more power, she smashed her fists into the wall, tearing the cabling out. “It’s not enough! More!” she growled, desperately cramming the cables into her mouth, chewing and sucking them like straws while her claws scrambled the connections for more. The electric eel’s growth only accelerated, making her womanly hips swell thicker, lady-like legs becoming longer while her breasts seemed to blow larger still. The euphoric female was hooked.

“She’s rapidly filling the laboratory. If she wasn’t listening to me before, she won’t start now. I have to get outta here!” Stinger flipped herself around and rushed to the exit, stopping only to look back at the 15ft. tall and growing Francine. There was nothing to say, only hope Francine’s plan worked. The ceiling shaking as the growing metamorph reached it with her head; Charlie had her cue to leave the growing to Francine.

“Finally…” Francine felt relief as Stinger left. “I can go all out.” The mini-giantess let go of the cables before she turned around, heading over to the testing grounds. Francine had to bow her head to go through the doorway, forcing the frame to widen thanks to her new geometry. Once Francine was inside the laboratory, her green eyes instantly set on four super-batteries in storage. One of them was barely filled, but the other three were full. “I can go all the way out.”

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Charlie used her communicator on the way out. “Jim, listen! There’s some weird stuff going on here!”

“Stinger, we know about the situation. Shade contacted us, we’re on our way.”

“Glad to hear! How’s the doc?!”

“Stable. The ambulance was in time since they already had victims of electrocution they had been called in for.”

“Thank god…” Charlie felt as if metric tons of guilt had suddenly become less crushing. But it wasn’t the time for respite, “Jim, you won’t believe this, but the doc’s niece has become a metamorph herself!”

“My God…” there was a brief pause before Rogers said: “I think I see her.”

Charlie dashed even faster.

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Francine roared out in relief when the upper half of her body finally emerged from the basement facilities, concrete and glass harmlessly bouncing off her chest and shoulders as she stretched her arms behind her head, the empty super batteries disappearing in the vastness of the eel woman’s deep cleavage. At 40ft. tall, the muscular yet feminine metamorph had become a gigantic walking hourglass.

Voltaic had been steadily growing, but without the amount of power from the multiple super-batteries Francine had consumed, his expansion had fallen behind. Since outgrowing the demonstration stage, Voltaic had found very little amount of electricity to satiate his endless appetite; the power lines were transferring only small amounts of power at a time to him; he needed more, way more.

But it didn’t take long for Voltaic to see the Boulder institute get further demolished by another eel outgrowing it. “What is this?!” the muscle bound giant fumed as he saw the clearly female metamorph climb out of it and at nearly his height to boot. “Impossible…!”

“More possible than you think, Voltaic!” Francine growled as she stomped out, the giantess looming over the bystanders as well now. “I’m here to stop you!”

“Holy shit, look at those knockers.” Shade was standing atop the ruined institute when she was joined by Stinger, “Don’t tell me. Ms. Spontaneous Boob-Job up there is Francine.”

“She’s on our side though,” Charlie said from the wall she was stuck to, “How long until backup arrives? I need to explain the plan to Jim.”

“What plan?”

“We’re going to build an EMP bomb that’ll save everyone from these two, including themselves.”

“Uh, Sting, bomb and saving usually don’t go hand in hand in the same sentence.”

Charlie took a deep breath, “I just hope we can get our guys to prove you wrong.”

“Are you mad at Beth for suggesting we come here? ‘Cause I am.”

“Thought you liked danger?”

“I like bad odds, like all those combat robo-dogs earlier. These are house sized tits we’re talking about. We can’t do anything without either getting electrocuted or being smooshed down into a pancake.”

“We’re going to need Beth and his Knights, and our speed, though. Someone has to distribute the bombs, and we’re the faster and stronger choice for manual distribution.”

“Right, with the electromagnetic interference, there’s no way aerial navigation’s gonna be easy.” Shade looked down as a familiar-looking van arrived, “There’s Rogers!”

“Let’s go!”

------------

Captain James Rogers sat at the van’s control room with a serious expression. “Her plan is to cancel or reverse the effects of their power conversion treatment by using a series of EMP bombs attuned to a specific frequency.” Charlie nodded, “With Pierre out of commission, we don’t have many specialists in electromagnetic frequencies, so this will take time. We’re working with the military here, so procurement of the explosives will not.”

“Hold on, the military’s backing US up?”

“S.W.O.R.D. is backing the military up as a specialist team, Stinger,” Rogers responded, “Claiming accidental work hazard gives us time to try to find a non-ballistic counter-measure.”

Shade blinked, “You don’t mean…”

“Means if this contingency plan fails, then they’re authorized to use deadly force against both Voltaic AND Francine.” Charlie finished.

------------

Francine and Voltaic roared at each other, their bodies at similar heights edging around 50ft. tall. Probably the biggest creatures Boulder had ever seen, panic did not wait to break out. The streets were flooded with people and vehicles attempting to escape the insanity of two monster-sized bipedal eels fighting it out in the middle of town. Francine didn’t hold back against her more muscular adversary, but with his greater mastery over his electro-kinesis, Voltaic was more than putting pressure on the curvy female. “You stand no chance! I’m the one who’s superior!”

“You’re superior to nobody; you’re just a spoiled brat! Odieux bastard!” Francine shouted out loud, taking her frustrations out on the muscular male with her own series of punches. What she lacked in strength she seemed to make up in agility, so Voltaic soon was backed onto a row of abandoned houses. Tripping over one of the ill-fated buildings, the giant toppled over and fell with a quaking thud. Francine wasted no time in pinning him down, straddling Voltaic under her own weight. With her enormous chest looming over his face, Voltaic felt both humiliated and turned on at once, no end of confusion griping at his mind. “How dare you harm my dear uncle?!” a sudden blow to the face snapped Voltaic back to reality, the dose of pain helping in kind.

“The fool stood in the way, I wasn’t aiming at him!” Voltaic justified himself, managing to expand his EM field in time to repel another incoming blow. “It is you I wanted to smoke, LeFleur! You and your pathetic little science fair project!” Francine grit her fangs as her blows were repelled by Voltaic’s field each time, but she was managing to use her own EM field to at least keep him down while she beat his protection down. “The only good thing Project Galvanika spawned is me; the most powerful being on this world!”

“Ça suffit, you egomaniacal fool, ça suffit!!” In her bout of rage, Francine managed to focus enough emotion to channel her incipient power and tear through the repellent EM field Voltaic was using. “You can’t destroy Project Galvanika!” After landing a successful blow, Francine delivered a second one, “I AM GALVANIKA!” she roared. The surprised Voltaic, although hurt, became increasingly aggravated, which he eventually piled on top of his impressive physique and used his claws to stop Galvanika’s arms. The male titan smirked once he had his break, pushing her back while he rose to his feet. His big muscles tensed up and swelled larger than ever, his bulk suddenly increasing beyond Galvanika’s. He let her go and used the moment to rear his fist back before he punched. Voltaic’s fist made contact with Galvanika’s face with a thunderous clap, sending the giantess skidding back into the ruined institute.

Voltaic’s tail finally let go of the city’s power lines, cracking his knuckles as he loomed over the comparatively smaller eel. “You’re all I need to destroy then. And I know just the easiest way for me to do that!” he grinned, looking in the distance at the northwestern power plant.


To Be Continued…

[DragonMasterX]

Ah, it's been a long adventure, my dear readers. My biggest story as of today (51 pages in MS Word), both as the largest entry in my Codename: Stinger universe as well as my galleries!

Here we will see clashings both brutal and emotional as things come full circle with Galvanika's plan just as her mind wavers with Voltaic's thanks to their addiction to their nigh-unstoppable power. What will the end result be? Will the specialists deliver the correct frequency in time, or will the last resort be used? Will Boulder survive the rampage of these science-born monstrous aquatic titans?

Join me as I answer all these questions in the Finale to this saga!

(Drop a comment after reading, will ya? )

--------------

Part 7.

“We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you the latest news.” Every television or public streaming service over the internet was interrupted with a message of alert. “This just in: After a disastrous development in the National Institute of Science and Technology’s demonstration for teenage prodigy Dr. Francine LeFleur’s purported world-changing energy source project, the city of Boulder, Colorado has become the setting for science fiction come true.” Francine’s profile was added to the news anchor’s screen as he talked, “Following the appearance of alleged monsters during Dr. LeFleur’s demonstration, two creatures of gigantic size have burst forth from the destroyed institute. Sources indicate all of the assisting scientists, businessmen and members of the press have successfully vacated the premises, but the police’s efforts to cordon off the area have failed as the immense eel-like creatures continue their violent quarrel!”

Shoots of the battle of titanic proportions were provided on screen, but each of them had horrendous quality and even the best of them quickly had their images and sound devolve into pure static when the equipment used to film became compromised by the growing electromagnetic interference. “Live coverage of the bout appears to be impossible due to interference, but we have just received word that the military is evacuating all non-personnel dealing with this catastrophic event. Residents of Boulder have almost entirely been evacuated. We urge every civilian to stay away from the city, and if you’re somehow watching this at home or anywhere in Boulder, proceed to the nearest military squad as they will protect and escort civilians to safety!”

-------------

“We got the bombs already?” Shade asked as Charlie threw her a satchel of EMP charges. They got in the transport van. “These guys work fast. Can’t believe how quickly they got everyone organized. So why are we going to the power plant ourselves?”

“It’s the obvious place for THEM to go.” Charlie explained, referring to the giant eels, “According to Francine, they’re slowly growing addicted to electricity, so all they’ll want to do is get stimulated from now on. You saw how Voltaic went nuts over all that electricity he soaked up earlier? It doesn’t do much for him right now.”

“I get it, they need a bigger outlet. But if we don’t wanna risk the possibility of them chowing down the whole city’s power grid, why don’t we shut the power plant down for insurance?”

Charlie shook her head, “If we do that, they’ll know what’s up. I noticed how Francine was acting after her transformation; their abilities let them detect other sources of power nearby. If we can’t get them to head for this power plant then…”

“They’ll just head for the next power plant.” Rogers interjected while coordinating his division to assist the military with S.W.O.R.D.’s forces. “And if we deactivate that one, they’ll continue romping through, destroying everything in their path.” There was a moment of silence.

“This day just keeps getting better and better.” Shade groaned. Rogers adjusted the dial on his instruments to allow communications in the form of Queen’s voice to filter through.

“They’re on the move! Francine’s calling herself Galvanika now and they’re competing for who reaches the plant first,” the queen bee explained as she relayed information from the skies. Without choppers being able to fly near the gigantic and growing metamorphs, Queen and her Knights could easily sweep the area for stragglers and help the military while at the same time provide a live feed for her own team. “They only stop to fight until one of them feeds from power lines and outgrows the other. They’re steadily making progress!”

“We see them. It won’t be long now…” Rogers observed after their driver had pulled over at the power plant, “Queen, bring your Knights and assist Stinger and Shade with the charge deployment.”

Once Queen had arrived and equipped herself with a satchel of charges, the seven metamorphs stood side by side in front of their captain.

“We’re waiting for our number-crunchers to figure out the right frequency, it shouldn’t be long.” Rogers allowed himself a small sigh before he looked at his agents with a serious frown, “I would be lying if I said this is going to be an easy mission. It’s the first time the metamorph division actually comes out in public. You realize it now, don’t you? It’s our only chance to shine.” The three female metamorphs stared back at Rogers, “The rumors from months ago are now confirmed on the public’s eye. Every working TV set’s tuned to this disaster. Every internet channel is streaming this however they can. The world’s scared, unable to decide what to do or think. If we can’t get this plan to work, we’ll lose our one and only chance to convince people not every metamorph is destructive or malign.”

“No pressure, Jim.” Charlie thought.

“You’re an odd bunch,” Rogers continued, “But you work well together. You were meant to work together. Now it’s time to demonstrate it to every man, woman and child you’ve sworn to protect, agents!”

The three nodded simultaneously, “Yes, captain!” they shouted in unison. Queen and two Knights left for the base of the plant to begin the placement of the charges. Shade was brought up by a Knight but the fourth Knight meant to take Charlie stopped when Rogers threw a small device to the scorpion. “Stinger, this is the remote detonator for the EMP charges. Use the dial to set the frequency when I radio it to you, and detonate the bombs once Voltaic and Galvanika are in range of the blast; the closer they are to the plant, the better. I have to drive away to avoid the incoming interference and still be able to maintain radio contact. If we’re unable to provide the numbers, the default frequency should completely stop them on their tracks. Any questions?”

Stinger’s face-guard slid on, “Get those digits, Jim.” Rogers didn’t respond as their eyes locked on each other. The scorpion jumped at the remaining Knight before they flew off together to allocate the other EMP charges.

“Godspeed, ladies.”

--------------

“Stop! Stop! Mine!” A recently grown 100ft. tall Voltaic roared, every one of his footfalls leaving enormous prints on the asphalt. The massive eel man had become sluggish after his monstrous expansion, but he managed to catch up to a similarly slowed down Galvanika moments later, seizing her by the tail to pull her back.

“No! Galvanika better…!” the light-blue finned female glared back, twisting her hips in an attempt to free herself. “Galvanika take!” But Voltaic would not let go.

“Never!” Voltaic shouted, “Power… power is Voltaic’s! Rival no good!”

The struggle continued while the S.W.O.R.D. agents armed the entire power plant. Queen was flabbergasted, “My god. They’re gigantic, and they grow bigger each time they feed on electricity? This is going to get ugly fast!”

“Not if we hurry up!” Stinger and her partner Knight were criss-crossing the building, deploying charges as fast as the scorpion could set them.

“I don’t think that’s what she means, Sting! Look up!” At Shade’s insistence, Charlie looked up only to see Boulder’s night sky had been covered in thick, stormy clouds.

“Alright, now tell me FireCracker’s holding a bank up, oh and why don’t we throw in Omega taking the president hostage while we’re at it?!” Charlie sarcastically groaned, then suddenly everyone heard a thunderous boom following the sky lighting up. “Crap!” the ground seemed to explode, a hole appearing in front of the plant as a bolt struck down, “What’re the odds?!”

“I’d say they’re pretty high,” Queen observed, “Their electromagnetic fields grow with them, and the closer they get here, the more they’ll affect the electrical currents above us!”

“Non-nerd explanation?” Shade back-flipped from one of the plant’s antennas, being moved further away by the Knight assisting her.

“It’s going to be raining electricity around here soon!”

“Damn, Jim!” Charlie barked at her communicator, “How’re the numbers coming?!”

“There’s… time…” static disrupted the message, “…finish the…” it was nearly impossible to hear the scrambled words.

“Well no pressure…” Charlie mentioned after hastened the pace of her charge deployment, “But tell them to hurry the hell up, we almost have them on top of us!”

“No good, Voltaic stop you!” Galvanika stomped towards the power plant but was stopped when a roaring Voltaic pounced on her from behind. The three agents saw the 100ft. tall giantess fall like a tree with her male counterpart on top; the ground shook as her immense breasts squashed against the floor a mere distance from the building.

“Let go! Galvanika must feed!” the addicted female stretched her open hand out, as if begging the power plant to get nearer. Her brain couldn’t pay attention, let alone recognize the other metamorphs on top of the power plant. All she could see were the bolts of lightning striking the ground around and on them, falling from the skies. She had never felt so hungry before in her life.

“No, not enough for both! Voltaic feeds alone!” the muscular growing giant claimed, pressing his weight against Galvanika, but it was futile. Both of them were growing larger and larger, the electricity from the storm attracted by their respective fields only to be absorbed and converted into energy to fuel their growth. 110ft. tall became 120, then 130. Their eyes became glowing white spheres of light, representing their rising levels of strength.

“They’re attracting the lightning bolts! This is nuts!” Shade landed on top of the maintenance shack, followed by Stinger.

“Queen! How’s the base of the plant?”

“All done!” the towering female bee reported after joining back with her team, “My god, are you listening to them talk? They’re losing their mind to their power!”

Stinger looked down at the transmitter in her hand, “We’re out of time, and Jim hasn’t called yet. I wonder if the static really is too much?” she winced, looking at the default switch on the remote detonator, “If I default on the frequency, they’ll both die. I can’t even begin to guess what the right frequency is!”

“Can’t you try a random one?” Shade proposed, but quickly got a shake of the head from her arachnid ally. Charlie remembered Francine’s words before she began her growth.

“If I get it wrong, they’ll simply absorb the blast and worsen the problem. Default or random are both bad!”

“Damnit. On the ground! Incoming!” Shade jumped behind the maintenance shack, quickly followed by Queen and Stinger as a looming shadow flew over them. Galvanika had finally managed to get Voltaic off, and had hurled him across the power plant.

“YES! Galvanika wins! Yes!” the curvaceous titan announced as she held her claws up in victory. Her 150ft. tall black scaled form was absolutely gargantuan. Before Galvanika could bend over to grasp her claws on the station however, two scaly arms thrust down her way. “Not enough for both!” the eel woman roared as she caught Voltaic’s claws with hers. The two locked into a struggle with the power plant in the middle below them as the prize. The storm above them raged, making the three heroines accelerate their escape from the plant.

“No winning for Galvanika!” Voltaic pushed back, his muscles bulging as he pressed back against his rival. “Voltaic supreme!!”

“Look at them. They’re clashing like titans in the ring!” Charlie observed in her mind, dumbfounded by the spectacle her black eyes were beholding. “They never realized all the destruction they caused, or are capable of causing!” She had seen the destructive potential of metamorphs: FireCracker nearly burning down a hospital full of innocents, and Slaughter butchering dozens of people with his bare claws; but she had never before dreamed of anything like this happening because of the Xteria. “I hope I never go out of control like that.”

The ensuing war for power enveloped the gigantic beings in a cackling dome of electricity that was only amplifying the storm above them. The harder they struggled, the more stray bolts jumped from their clashing electromagnetic fields, prompting Queen and her Knights to stay grounded for the time being. “They’re growing from the storm alone… oh no!” a horrified expression was shared by the trio of metamorphs as Galvanika and Voltaic both thrust their tails down, impaling the power plant to begin the extraction of electrical power.

“Sting, this is it! We gotta detonate it!” Shade shouted.

“I still don’t have the frequency!” Stinger shouted back. “Jim hasn’t contacted me yet…!”

“Fuck the digits!” Shade growled, “We give them anymore time, we’ll be turned into an exotic animal fried dish!”

“Jim!” Stinger was gripping her communicator around her head, “Jim respond!” she begged. But the interference had become greater than what they had foreseen thanks to the storm. “Damn, it must’ve gotten damaged!”

“Sting, I don’t like this anymore than you do, but you have to do it! There’s no other way to stop this!” Shade insisted, “If you can’t do it, then I will!”

“No!” Charlie leaped back when Shade attempted to swipe the remote from her hands. “We can’t kill them! It’s the Xteria driving them mad; you can’t blame them for this!”

“Like hell I can’t!” Shade leaped forwards to try to catch Charlie, but the scorpion back flipped away.

“Kimberly!” Queen shouted. Shade looked back with a glare.

“Voltaic’s the asshole that started this, and Galvanika was ready for this outcome when she told Sting about her plan! We can’t endanger everyone because of a tiny chance at saving two people! Make me the one responsible for their deaths if you want, but if we don’t stop them, there’s a chance no one else will!”

“Let me try contacting Jim one more time!” Charlie yelled, snapping her mandibles together in frustration at Shade. Chameleon and scorpion locked eyes for a brief moment, Queen staring at the two in worry that they might start a fight in the middle of the disaster. Shade’s fangs grit together, fists shaking.

“Why do you have to be such a hard head?!” the chameleon stomped the ground in annoyance. Charlie’s body didn’t flinch, her tail at the ready to sting if necessary. Queen’s throat was tightened into a knot, unable to think up what to say to break the tension.

And then all of a sudden, Charlie felt a vibration in her chest. The three females perked up to the sound of a loud ring emanating from Stinger. The raven-haired scorpion looked down at her chest, blushing slightly as she kept her distance from Shade while swiftly fishing her cellphone out of her cleavage. Charlie’s eyes widened and her facemask slid off, jaw almost falling off. She opened a new text message only to find a picture with a string of numbers on it attached. “It’s… numbers!”

“The correct frequency?!” Queen asked hopefully.

“Enter it then!” Shade exclaimed. Charlie wasted no time. It was their only chance! Using the dial to adjust the frequency of their EMP bomb to match the numbers on the picture, Stinger readied the detonator. She could only hope the insulated charges had survived the increasingly stronger electromagnetic field.

“It’s in! Here goes nothing!” There was a single click before a flash of lightning covered the skies of Boulder. Everyone saw white for only a couple of seconds, but it seemed like an eternity to the S.W.O.R.D. agents. A loud blast signaled the start of an expansive electromagnetic pulse generated at the center of the near 200ft. tall monsters. The pulse wave amplified itself several times over before it finally started canceling the creatures’ electrical fields, dissipating their energy as they became engulfed in the ensuing explosion. Everyone became blinded again as thunder struck like the roar of a mighty beast.

“They’ve stopped…! Watch out, they’re falling!” Queen announced before using her feelers to command her Knights to swipe both Shade and Stinger off the floor. They risked the storm above to get away from Galvanika’s massive rump from bearing down on them as she fell and lost her consciousness on her side. Voltaic followed the same path on the opposite side of the power plant. Both giants had been defeated by the blast!

“Did it work? Please tell me that was the correct frequency…!” Stinger’s eyes couldn’t stop staring down at the sleeping giants.

“They’re… shrinking!” Shade concluded after watching Galvanika’s body start to reduce in height. No doubt the same was happening to Voltaic.

“The monsters have been stopped!” cried out a voice below them. Stinger, Shade and Queen all looked down to see the armed forces of the U.S. military gathered with many familiar faces, all of them S.W.O.R.D. operatives. “The plan worked!!” there was a round of cheers and hugs as the soldiers dropped their weapons. Men and women of Boulder were there; glad their city hadn’t to suffer anymore, happy that their town did not have to be bombarded or worse. They were simply glad to have avoided the final option to stop the creatures. The situation had finally been contained!

The skies seemed to clear with the heroines finally landing back at the ground level. The loudness of celebration was suddenly interrupted with an uncomfortable silence as the normal humans that weren’t from S.W.O.R.D. spotted the seven metamorphs. Rifles went back up, prompting the girls to freeze on the spot. “Oh great, just what we needed…” Stinger was about to put her arms up before a sudden shout ordered the soldiers to stand down.

“Hold your fire, men!” the commander of the operation walked forth with Captain James Rogers side by side. “These are the specialists that covered your asses while we dealt with the civilians!” Commander Roy Ferguson approached a disbelieving Charlie and rigidly stuck his arm out, “It’s handshakes you should be offering them!”

“O-oh… D’aww, it wasn’t that big of a deal, really!” Stinger’s face seemed to gain color as she swiftly took the war veteran’s hand in a friendly shake. Shade and Queen exchanged glances before smiling at each other.

“It was, young lady. While it was in our power to stop those creatures, the recoil of bombardment and other large scale attacks can potentially endanger more than the target area,” Ferguson explained.

“Roy’s right, Stinger.” Rogers continued, “Who knows what the full damage of that would have been? Or even if conventional explosives and ballistics would have worked?”

“I’d say you metamorphs just saved the day.” Ferguson nodded. Stinger seemed confused at how alike the two leaders seemed in mannerisms.

“You know each other?” The two men wanted to speak at the same time, but after a brief exchange of glances, Ferguson continued after Rogers nodded.

“Jimmy and I go way back. Let’s just say his trust in you girls earned you the chance to deliver. And deliver you did! Those monsters are history.” Ferguson brought his hand up to salute. Rogers smiled proudly and saluted as well. The entirety of the small army behind them imitated their respective leaders. “Your country salutes you, agents Queen, Shade and Stinger!”

Queen found herself speechless, overwhelmed by self-fulfillment of the kind she had never felt before.

Shade smiled and put her claws on her hips as she finally relaxed, letting out a sigh of relief after the potential fight that did not happen. “This super-hero business’s actually starting to grow on me.”

Stinger lost count after fifty salutes. “All this just for potentially saving the world? Gee, it’s alright, really! Just doing my…” she briefly paused, about to soak in the glory of the moment before her mind went back to Ferguson’s last words. “History…?” Queen and Shade tensed up as they looked at Charlie and then at the confused captain Rogers. “Hold on, Jim. Why are you guys talking about Galvanika and Voltaic as if they…?” they turned around to find no giantess. Charlie immediately ran off.

“Stinger, wait! Shade, what’s going on?” a baffled Rogers asked. Shade was at a loss for words as well.

“Sir,” Queen interjected, “The default arming frequency wasn’t used.”

“What? But I told Stinger to use it! We ran into a dead end since the electromagnetic fields continued shifting…”

“The interference must’ve scrambled the message,” Shade mused, “But that raises the question: If you didn’t send the frequency to Stinger’s phone, then who did…?”

“Pierre?” Queen suggested, but Rogers explained the old scientist was still on strict bed-rest for recovery.

-----------

Charlie ran through the ruined area surrounding the destroyed power plant. During the little amount of time Galvanika and Voltaic had used to drain power, they had unwittingly smashed the structure down with their tails. It was fortunate the bombs were well secured against interferences as well as shock, or else the plan wouldn’t have worked. “But why did it work?” the heroine asked herself as she perched herself atop one of the many knocked over trees to better survey the area. There was a gigantic imprint in the shape of a body that unmistakably belonged to Francine LeFleur’s new form. “Francine!” Charlie called out to no avail. “Shit…! Shitshitshit… They were shrinking! Did they shrink to nothingness…? Who the hell sent me that frequency…?” Stinger reached for her cellphone again, bringing up the picture with the frequency on it. It was then that she noticed the scrolling bar on the touch screen. A simple slide with her index was all it took for Charlie’s eyes to nearly pop out of their sockets. The paper on display had red rouge on it, indicating it had been kissed by a pair of lips.

A hand-written message to the right of the kiss clearly read…

“A spot of help,
For my special davushka.”

With the last word obviously written in Russian, the identity of the mysterious sender was immediately revealed to Charlie. “Omega…? Lexine?!” she suddenly shouted, looking about for the bat metamorph. Had she been around the whole time? With their bat ears, there was no doubt Omega and her Betas could have heard everything, from the commotion at the demonstration to their plan of action. “Show yourself!” demanded Stinger.

“Urk…” a weak moan suddenly brought Charlie’s attention down to the rustling bushes by the destroyed woods. Charlie leaped down and rummaged through the leaves only to find the curvy eel woman now known as Galvanika curled in the fetal position, shaking from the cold.

“F-Francine! Oh thank god, you’re alive!”

Omega could wait.

But the night had a way to conceal even the most obvious of items and people from sight. Hanging from a sturdy tree branch, the genius metamorph known as Omega was perched, watching her beloved scorpion carry the eel woman to safety. “Beautifully executed, miliy.” Omega smiled from afar before she spread her wings and took to the air, soon joined by a Beta.

“Mother, we could not find the one called Galvanika before Alpha did,” the man-bat explained, “But we have captured the one known as Voltaic.”

“Horosho,” Omega smiled, her golden hair fluttering against the wind. “Be a dear and head back to the institute for our new friend’s black box, will you? I find the idea of an artificial intelligence fascinating… I’d do it myself, but Chimera has so little patience for guarding our home.”

“Immediately,” the Beta separated from the group.

After executing their orders, the Betas and Omega flew away from Boulder’s peaceful night, concealed by the jet black curtain covering the sky.

Voltaic was only half-conscious, he could vaguely hear conversation, still recovering from the lustful high of his earlier expansion; he was now back to his build and height from before the growth started. He was being carried, arms glued to his sides as what felt like paws surrounded his mid-section. There was a brief moment when Voltaic opened his eyes only to look at the hundreds of feet of distance separating him from a fatal drop.

He passed out.

-------------

I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t us that saved the day. Omega sent me the frequency, I just know she did! How many obsessed Russian scientists do I know? The real question is how the hell does she have my number?! Those ears of hers must be picking up a lot more information than we’re aware of. That’s what terrifies me the most. I already have a guess of where Voltaic disappeared to.

It wasn’t long before the entire nation, closely followed by the rest of the world, began to discuss what had happened in Colorado last night. There was no end to the public outcries demanding the government to take the stand for its mess about covering up the existence of metamorphs for this long. As usual, politicians denied everything, but this actually worked in our favor. Secret Worldwide Operations, Rescue and Discovery’s metamorph division was praised for its decisiveness and recommended by the high ranking commander Ferguson, who we worked together with in saving the city from Voltaic’s madness. It looks like we’re all getting a raise soon, though I’d settle for some Chinese take-out after tonight.

Despite all that, we’re still seen as a threat to national security. Turns out that fish that grow 200ft. tall when they eat electricity are frowned upon in society. They probably were more concerned about all the indecent exposure though. Fortunately for Francine, Ferguson and Jim explained what her plan of action had been, and her actual role in distracting Voltaic, the actual villain, to buy us time to execute the plan. She’s under surveillance and Project Galvanika’s officially finished, but at least Galvanika herself is well and alive.

So far, the jury’s out on whether we’ll really be recognized as heroes or monsters, or heck, fellow human beings to start with. But there’s one thing for sure…

Metamorphs can’t be unseen now.

-----------

A few weeks later…

The metamorph division’s cubicles were twice as large now. After public request for security against the metamorph threat, S.W.O.R.D. had been commissioned by the government of several of the United States of America, as well as some other nations, in order to not only prevent and contain wild metamorphs, but also protect and treat victimized ones.

“Damn, where the hell’s the training room now? I hate moving,” Charlie groaned as she walked down the halls of the metamorph division.

“West wing, Madam Richards. You’re in the R&D department.” Charlie’s eyes snapped wide open at the French accent in that female voice’s phrase.

“Oh oui! You’re being very scatterbrained right now, non?” the thicker voice of a male made Charlie snicker a bit as she turned around to greet Pierre and his niece.

“You guys!” the scorpion greeted metamorph and uncle, “Francine, I hear you’re finally free to go. Taking a tour of the facilities?”

“Oui oui. I need to get accustomed to the surroundings after all.” The electric eel gave Charlie a joyful smile, reminding the heroine of the prodigy’s age.

“This girl’s something! Brave and smart… sure didn’t dawdle when things turned bad. Could use a lesson or two from her myself…” the scorpion thought to herself as she smiled and stretched back, “Ah well, I can skip training this morning. Want me to show you around, Frannie? We can go for donuts!”

Francine smirked at the sudden familiarity the S.W.O.R.D. agent took on with her, “I’ll pass, merci. I really need to get the layout of the place down, or else I’ll have to keep bothering uncle every morning.” Charlie blinked in surprise.

“You mean…?”

“Oui!” Pierre grinned and stood prouder than ever, “Say hello to your newest teammate!”

“Frannie?” Charlie insisted. The electrical metamorph’s eyes narrowed with a confident smile.

“From now on… Galvanika.”

The End.

[jolem]

That was a great story, it feels kind of corny, which must be a sign of me becoming older, but I like how all the characters interact with each other and like how you made them use their nonhuman characteristics in efficient ways. Most people tend to forget about things like tails all together, but here you use them as part of the characters' arsenal and quirks. What I like most of all is the transformations of the characters, despite it being more pleasurable than I expected, which made it enjoyable and I really like the tail growths for each character.

Although I was surprised that Hooper was turned into an eel even though it is logical, it's just that I thought he was going to turn into a robot dog or merge with it instead. But his transformation did make the final parts more exciting and I was surprised that this is the official "reveal episode" of this series. Also, when Hooper was going to show off his robot dogs I seriously thought that he might get into a small argument from a couple of spectators because his F1D0 extremely resembles Blade Wolf of Metal Gear Rising. I mean seriously, almost everything you written about F1D0, is reminiscent of that character even his moves are like this guy:


So I seriously doubt you made the robot dog without it being based off of Rising's version and if you did that is seriously some strange coincidence. Anyway great job on the story.

[DragonMasterX]

Yes, it was in the warning, this story has a lot of silliness. XP But that's not a sign of being old, you would be old if you didn't find silliness entertaining, and you seem to have found it entertaining! Don't do that to me, because even I find silly things entertaining, and I'm not that old! XD

Yes! Alpha Wolf is based off Blade Wolf. The lil' guy made a strong impression on me after I played Rising. Glad to see another fan of the game! *hug*

I'm gonna make my Wolf return, obviously, since he is Voltaic's companion, heh.

Actually, trivia: To be honest, at one point I was gonna have Hooper call himself Raiden, but then I thought that would be way too obvious and deep-end corny. Voltaic simply sounded more natural to me in the end!

[hexen]

Originally Posted by DragonMasterX

Actually, trivia: To be honest, at one point I was gonna have Hooper call himself Raiden, but then I thought that would be way too obvious and deep-end corny. Voltaic simply sounded more natural to me in the end!

Really though, Metal Gear Rising didn't have the most serious and deep naming convention so I'd say your naming method for each of the character's personas are right on par with how Rising did theirs.

[DragonMasterX]

In my case, Alpha Wolf is called that because he leads the Howler units Voltaic built. :3