Gloop Ch 4

Shelly ran outside the lab door to find Michelle on all fours in the parking area, her body stretching and expanding as she transformed into Summer.
"Michelle, wait!  Let me come with you... let's talk about this!" Shelly cried.
Michelle's lower body had already transformed, and her head was changing as she spoke - even though her lips were transforming and could not move normally.  "What's to discuss?"
"Running away... it's not going to solve anything!" Shelly cried.  She had wanted to say driving away, but she didn't because she knew the words were roughly the same.
Summer finished transforming and started her engine.  "My friends should not fight with each other... I just can't handle it!"
Shelly dove for Summer's trunk as she drove forwards.  Summer took the corner slowly as Shelly held on.
"Get off me!  Shelly, you're going to get hurt!"
"I'll come with you, let's talk about this!  Please!" Shelly cried.  She was shaking feverently.
Summer gently applied her brakes and came to a stop.  She even opened her driver's side door.
Shelly, relieved, slid off and climbed inside.  Summer then closed her door, buckled Shelly in, and drove away.
"Okay... but I'm not going back.  Not until you admit that this is all crazy," Summer said.
"It is crazy!  I've already agreed with you!  Just give me a chance to explain why."
Summer continued through the lab parking lot, making her way towards the main security gate.  "I'm listening."

The doc had finished briefly explaining the situation.  I had taken the opportunity to remove a few super soakers from the packaging.
"When I saw her body... dissolve... yesterday, I had wondered the same thing," Collette said.
"I have one more sample of gloop, one that I had planned on destroying today.  If it would convince you both... and Michelle and Shelly when they come back, that we could cause pain but not kill Deanna... then would you help me?" Dr. Chase asked.
"There isn't time.  All she has to do is absorb the security grid, or a patch of wires... and anyone could come into this place.  You all remember that she left with Dr. Leo, right?  For all we know he may be attempting to hack into this place," Collette said.
I gasped, having forgotten myself.  "She's right... doc, if she is attempting to get Leo back in here..."
"I told you both when we left the Bahamas... Leo is no longer my enemy."  Dr. Chase gave us both a look that convinced us of his determination.   "If he was working with Deanna from the start, she wouldn't have had to have captured him herself.  To suggest they're working together at this point is simply absurd."
"Either way, there is still no time.  If she is attempting something, we have to find out.  Gregory, come on," Collette said.  She picked up a super soaker.  "Where do you have alkaline water?"
Dr. Chase sighed.  "In Delta Storage, just down the hall.  I'll show you to the secondary elevator as well.  This way."  He picked up two more super soakers and started for the main wing of the lab.
I collected my own super soaker and followed behind.

Summer slowly drove around the parking lot, similar to pacing back and forth.
"You see?  I'm exactly like you, I couldn't kill anyone or anything... but I don't want to leave the doc helpless, either," Shelly explained.
"I've seen you kill mosquitos," Summer quipped.
"Well of course - those bloodsuckers are worse than leeches, that's out of self defense," Shelly replied.
Summer pulled into the nearest parking spot.  "I guess I also fit into that category... those little insects are sure annoying, and the itching is really a pain."
"I'm just curious, Summer."  Shelly patted her hands onto Summer's steering wheel.  "Have you ever seen a mosquito turn into a car after biting you?"
Summer laughed.  "Don't be rediculous!  My car form is inside of all my cells, and not just my blood!  Same as right now, where my human cells are inside me.  It's nothing like the Incredible Hulk... there's no gamma radiation running through my blood cells."
"Then tell me this.  Does the Incredible Hulk, or the guy that becomes him, give up?  Does he walk away?" Shelly asked.
"Of course he doesn't.  He wouldn't be much of a super hero if he did... although he does move around a lot after each incident... Specter does that too, now that I think of it," Summer said.
"And what would happen if the Incredible Hulk got angry and went after the people he worked with?  Those he cared about most?  Those same people who activated his transformation... would there be anything left of that laboratory?  How many tanks would be destroyed, how many missiles..."
Summer revved her engine.  "Okay!  I get it."
"Then you understand what Deanna must be going through," Shelly said.
"Yeah..." Summer turned off her engine.  "But I don't think I'd ever attack the doc.  I'd have more sense than that."
"Well, Deanna has made her choice.  And we need to make a choice now, before she absorbs every piece of matter in the lab," Shelly said.
"Didn't you and Gregory watch the new version of the Incredible Hulk last week?" Summer asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"Shelly, I love you girl, but you watch too many movies," Summer stated.
Shelly giggled.
"All right, go find some water and I'll come along.  But I don't want to kill Deanna."  She opened her door.
"Nor do I.  I just want to help the doc, that's all," Shelly said as she stood up and headed for the main enterance.

We exited the Delta Storage room with fully loaded alkaline super soakers.  It felt a bit childish at first, but knowing how dangerous Deanna had become, our thoughts were focused on the task at hand.
"Attention;  Dr. Chase, you're needed at the front desk," a voice said over the lab's public address system.
"Hmm... all right.  Gregory, you and Collette head downstairs.  The elevator is just to your right, you'll need to use your ID badge to activate it," he said.
I removed mine from my pocket and put it around my neck.  "Glad I thought to bring it."
"Yes... don't go too far down there, for now start with the hallway connecting Aquatics and the elevator to the Special Invention Lab.  You know which one I'm talking about?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Good.  I won't be long."  He left.
Collette found the elevator and hit the call button.  "You nervous?"
I shook my head.  "Deanna's not a bad person... she's just had a few bad chances of fate, perhaps too many at once."
"Think so?" she asked.
With a shrug, I shook my head.  "I guess I shouldn't judge too much.  I mean, even you and Michelle have had more to deal with than I have."
"You're not preaching to anything."  She leaned against the wall.  "I've accepted who I am.  You call it fate, I call it destiny."
"Meanwhile, Deanna calls it hell.  I can only wonder what she thinks of this new form she's dealing with."
The elevator doors opened.  We both stepped inside.  Beneath the regular floor buttons there was a card slot next to the button for the second and first basement.
I inserted my card.  The ring around both basment level buttons lit up with a green light.
"There we are."  I pushed the button for the second level, which lit up with the usual white light.  "How far do you think she can move in that form?"
Collette shrugged.  "No idea.  What I wonder is if she can even maintain a human form... I have a hard enough time going around as a car.  To experience life as a formless blob, I couldn't handle that."
Me neither, Collette, me neither.
The doors opened to the blue-lit hallway, the cool air of the air conditioning unit bringing an almost refreshing feeling.  The floor was untouched, and the immediate area near the elevator was as normal as could be.
If Deanna had been by here, there was no residue of gloop or parts of the floor missing.
"Shall we split up?" Collette asked.
"The doc said to head towards the north, near the lab with the ray in it," I said.
"Very well."  She turned to the right.  "We go together this way, then."

At the front desk, Michelle and Shelly were waiting for Dr. Chase.
"Michelle?  You decided to join us after all?" he asked.
She shrugged.  "Shelly brought me around.  And I forgot my ID badge today, so I couldn't get in."
Dr. Chase turned to the receptionist.  "Did you bar my star researcher access?"
The woman gasped.  "Of course not!  No, Dr. Chase - I..."
He smiled.  "Just kidding.  You'd be only doing your job if you had besides.  Come on, the others are waiting for us."
Michelle and Shelly left with the doc, leaving the receptionist frazzled.  

Collette and I walked down the hall side by side, checking the corners of the floor and ceiling as we proceeded in search of Deanna.
"So why do you believe she can assume human form?" I asked.
"I don't know."  She pumped the super soaker.  "I'm just basing what I know about the Molecular Transfer Ray in regards to what I know about the gloop.  Every time a living person has been combined with something else, they've been able to assume a human fom, so long as certain conditions are met."
I took a long look at a pile of dust in the corner of the otherwise clean room.  "Condtions, such as being cold."
She nodded.  "Kick that for me."
Assuming she was referring to the pile of dust, I kicked it lightly with my shoe.  Yes, nothing but dust.
"Just like with your friend Shelly, even she can be human.  So it seems natural to assume that Deanna should be able to become human again."  We passed by the Aquatics lab on our right.
"For Deanna's sake, I hope your right.  What worries me is if she can really be dangerous as a human.  I mean, what kind of abilities would that represent?  Or would she even be able to transform into a car still... we don't need a pile of pudding who can fire missiles at us." The thought made me queasy.
Collette fired the super soaker towards an odd circle on the ground.  The water splat into a pile.  "Just concrete.  Nothing but a divot in the floor."
We reached the elevator to the Special Invention Lab.  "I suspect that if we see Deanna, she'll be larger than just a spot on the ground.  Shall we head back?"
She motioned towards the elevator.  "Upstairs, or back the way we came?"
"I think the doc is meeting us back at the other end of the hall," I said, turning.
"Gregory, wait!"  She stopped me, pointing towards a corner near the ceiling.  A small amount of gloop, perhaps no larger than a two inches in diameter, was clinging to the ceiling.  It was moving slightly.
"Too small to be Deanna... maybe a decoy?"
"Who cares, let's just dissolve it," Collette said.  She primed her super soaker and fired, obliterating the gloop and leaving a trail of water down the side of the wall.
The water worked quickly, leaving nary a trace of the blue-green goo.
"That happened faster than expected," I muttered.
Collette lowered the super soaker.  "Yeah... I guess it did."
"Come on, let's head back."
She nodded, and we made our way back down the hallway.

In a small janitor's closet in a distant part of the second basement, the blob of gloop rested inside of a small wooden bucket.  She had already absorbed part of it.
"This is comfortable... but the metal is just too tasty."  A piece of the metal bucket vanished into her mass.  "Screw meals, I gotta figure out what I look like... I can see a mirror there, but damn that makes me mad not being able to see myself."
The gloop began to stretch and expand.  It slowly rose into the air from the bucket, forming upwards towards the mirror on the wall.  
"Must find a way to see better... let's focus on my eyes... that will help, that must be the secret," Deanna thought to herself.
Inside of the rising hulk of pudding, two balls formed and changed white with pupils.  For someone to see a pair of eyeballs in the pudding would be simply terrifying.
"Aaaugh!" Deanna's voice sounded in the air.  Her voice had been muted, muffled.  At once the eyes melted inside of the pudding-like mass and slumped back inside of the remnants of the bucket.
Terrified at herself, she caught her composure and focused on her natural appearance.  "There must be a way... try again, Deanna.  Try again."  She was determined this time... if she can see her own eyes, her head and face shouldn't be a problem.
The gloop stretched and formed into the air again, forming into a more humanoid shape.  Her head and hair began to appear, although her face remained blank and without features.  Then, eyes appeared as the gloop slowly faded from a teal color to fleshtones and blond hair.  
From her neck down, she was green gloop towards the bucket, but otherwise the face of Deanna Wolfe was now hovering in front of the mirror.
She smiled at herself, holding in place a moment before she relaxed her focus.  Her head and face slowly reverted to a pudding-like mass again, soon retracting into the green pudding-like blobular shape once more.  
"I have some practicing to do... and exercise takes energy.  Maybe those tools along the wall will taste okay," Deanna thought to herself.

Collette and I gave our report to Dr. Chase once we met by the elevator.  Both Shelly and Michelle, as well as the doc himself, had a loaded super soaker at the ready.
"Okay.  She could be anywhere... all right.  Everyone follow me to the security bay."
We proceeded down the hall behind the doc.  I walked alongside Michelle.  "You're done freaking out now?"
She gave me a look that could cut cold steel.  "I'm not going to let Deanna give people in my predicament a bad name."
"People who turn into cars," I said.
"Yes."
"Not into sentient blobs that absorb matter?"
"Gregory, cool out."  Michelle pointed her water gun in my direction.  "My decisions have always been to do what's right.  And that is also your stance, right?"
I shrugged.
"Then don't make this more difficult than it is!  We'll talk about it later.  Just don't make this an issue of our friendship," she replied.
I kept my mouth shut.  Michelle and I have been friends for too long to let Deanna and her recent history of bad ideas tear us apart.
We arrived at a security portal, which resembled an elevator door.  Dr. Chase inserted his ID badge and the doorway slid open.  
Inside, he waved at the security officer at the desk.  "Morning, Merl."
"Evening, Dr. Chase.  I have four other men at the ready, shall I call in the rest of the squad from their day off?" Merl asked.
"Not yet."  Dr. Chase went to a cabinet of keys and cards, reaching for five blue keychains that had both cards and keys on them.  "I'll let my assistants take a turn, but keep those men who are here on alert.  I may need backup."
"Well, my shift is up at eight, but if you're willing for overtime-" Merl began.
"Your job is to enforce security, Merl.  Don't lecture me on overtime right now.  It's part of your job, you know that."
"Yes sir," Merl replied.  He reached for a coffee cup on his left.
"I'll keep you posted. Be ready to deploy the magnet lasers, all right?"
Merl shuffled in his seat.  "From Dr. Vasquez's lab?  I thought they were only prototypes?"
"They are, Merl.  Just be ready," Dr. Chase replied.
"Yes sir."
Dr. Chase motioned to the four of us, handing us each one of the blue keychains.  "These will get you into any part of the complex.  Remember, I need them back at the end of the day, and anything you see is top secret.  And if you must go into a restricted place, try and use discretion around the experiments."
Shelly, Michelle, Collette and I each nodded as we accepted the keychains.  Dr. Chase kept the fifth one for himself.
Next he collected five wristbands that had a small speaker on each one.  In fact, each resembled a wristwatch except did nothing to tell the time.  Again, he collected one apiece.
"These work like CCC radio, except only in the lab.  The security folks use these- two channels, one for the five of us, and one for the main squad.  Top button for us, bottom button for the security crew.  Press to speak."
I strapped mine onto my right wrist.  The rest of us did the same.
"Questions?"
"Magnet lasers, Dr. Chase?" Michelle asked.
"They project a field of circular magnetic energy."  Dr. Chase said as he exited back into the hall.  Everyone followed.  "Used two or more at a time, they should be able to contain and stun Deanna for a short time.  But they are tough to move, and I don't want to call in the security team until we're ready to trap her."  He used the blue keycard on his set in the slot across the hall from the security bay.  "This room leads to a series of halls beneath each main lab, except for the special invention lab which is to our north."  He paused and pointed south.  "Two other labs are in that direction, I will head that way first.  The four of you head through this direction.  Keep in touch, and if you find Deanna don't hesitate to contact the security crew.  They'll be there in no time."
The four of us exchanged glances, both nervous and determined.  Nobody really wanted to do what we were about to do, but it had to be done.
"Right.  If you cannot find anything, then we return to the Special Invention Lab.  If there is an emergency at your location, press the top right button on your communicator.  That will start a 'delta' alert and everyone will head towards your position.  If I need everyone to head to the lab, I'll press the middle button and that will begin a 'gamma' alert."  He pushed the button, and a series of beeps sounded from all five watches.  The word 'gamma' was spoken in computer talk between the various beeps.  "Lastly, there is a bottom button, but do not push that one.  That is a code signal to summon the city police to the borders, and although it can be overridden by Merl there it's not worth using now."
"Gamma, return to the lab.  Delta, someone needs help," Shelly said.
"Right," Dr. Chase replied.
"Then let's split up.  Good luck, everyone," I said.
"And be ready for anything.  Let's go."