"Alright Mark, you've got the vial? Bring it over here."
The demand came to you from Dr. Jillian Harding, a brilliant young scientist who, a little over a year ago, had left her position as top scientist in the military to take up a position with a powerful bioengineering and pharmaceutical firm headquartered in the Saratoga Falls area called Protean Industries. While a major partner for the military, Protean was also it's own company and the atmosphere was a bit more free wheeling and relaxed, caring more about results over procedure. It was an environment which suited the much more free spirited Jillian. Though respected as a brilliant mind and one of the leaders in bioengineering, she had a reputation for being a bit eccentric and difficult to work with. They were problems you had never really had to deal with much before but you had constantly heard stories while listening to Lt. Claire Briggs, one of Jillian's few friends while she was in the military and the only person from her former life that she kept in regular contact with.
Perhaps it was due to her age. Jillian, at 25 (a good three years younger than yourself), was was quite young for someone so respected and revered in her field. She was a regular child prodigy however, having graduated from John Hopkins University when she was 20 and immediately moving into a career in the military. For all her supposed difficulties, however, the two of you had hit it off immediately. You appreciated her wit and easy going nature, as well as her slightly curvy appearance. She definitely looked the part of the cute, Hollywood scientist at the very least. Jillian for her part appreciated your general kindness and attentiveness.
"Earth to Mark, hello Mr. Taylor! Do you copy?"
Well... mostly attentive anyway. You hadn't realized you had gotten lost in thought there. Jillian's voice snapped you out of your reverie though. "What?" you ask coming back to reality, "Oh, um... yeah Jillian sorry, I--" and that's when it happened. The jolt of being taken out of your thoughts had distracted you enough that you lost a bit of your bearings and clumsily wound up tripping over your own feet. To your horror, as you fell to the ground so to did the vial you were holding. And to your even bigger horror, the vial hit the ground, smashing open and splashing you over the arms and face with the chemical that had been inside.
"The SX-3!" Jillian exclaimed, dropping what she was doing, hitting a small red button on the wall and rushing over to your side. "Mark, Mark!" she exclaimed being careful not to touch you and get any of the chemical on you, "Are you alright?! What... what happened?!"
You shake your head and begin sitting up, "No I'm fine. It... it doesn't burn or anything." you say surprised, "In fact it doesn't feel like anything at all... like do you remember that old toy from the '90s called Gak? It feels kind of like th--" you stop yourself again as you notice the blue SX-3 compound on your arm... for a brief moment. You suddenly get a weird, discomforting feeling as it looks like the SX-3 becomes absorbed into your skin.
"What's going on?" Jilian asks, "The SX-3 it... absorbed into your skin."
"Probably through the pores, yeah." you state, "So what do we do?" you ask.
Jillian helps you to your feet, "I already hit the silent alarm so they're gonna send a crew in here to clean up and ask questions." she said.
You eye her queerly, "Clean up what? All of the SX-3 was absorbed into my skin. The only evidence something even happened is a broken vial with nothing around it." Suddenly a look of concern spreads over your face. "We can't tell them it was the SX-3."
"Are you kidding?!" Jillian asked.
You shake your head, "I'm serious. We can't. I... I don't want to be some potential test subject. I don't want to be hunted down." you look down and sigh, "I don't want what happened to David last year to happen to me."
Jillian puts an arm around you, "But Johnson never became a test subject. He just kind of disappeared. We don't even know if he actually really went anywhere and if he's just been hiding out in various bodies around the city." she says trying to reassure you.
"That's just it." you sigh, "I don't want to lose... well, this. My job, my life... you."
"But Mark..." she begins.
"Please." you say, a bit of a pleading tone in your voice. "Just... we'll tell them it was some harmless chemical. I'll get checked out, get a wash... maybe they won't find anything. But please, don't tell them it was the SX-3."
Jillian thinks about it for a second and as she sees the the crew coming in the direction of the lab she relents. "Mark, I promise you," she states looking you directly in the eye, "I won't say anything." she finishes with a kiss.
* * * * * *
It was the next morning and you were busy rooting through the pantry. You were up probably earlier than you should be as you were having trouble sleeping. All night you tossed and turned unable to get comfortable, you felt generally restless and hot no matter how cold you turned the air down (cold enough to wake up Jillian who told you, rather sleepily, to knock it off) and at one point you nearly freaked out as it looked like your hand was melting a bit though you quickly brushed it off as your mind playing tricks on you. You WERE more than a little freaked out after all; your accident could've potentially been a sequel to what happened to David Johnson.
David Johnson had been your next door neighbor along with his parents and his sisters. He had been a senior at Eastman High School until an accident involving a chemical Jillian had been working on called SX-2 changed him. He had disappeared, or so it seemed, until it was found that he existed as a gooey blue worm who could enter and control a living being. The military at Fort Suffolk had dedicated all efforts to finding him however after a month, while they still had resources dedicated to finding him, they removed finding him from their top priority list as he had seemingly dropped off the grid. Given that SX-3 was essentially a continuation of Jillian's work with the military and thus you feared ended up being hunted in the same way Johnson was. Thankfully, however, you had shown no signs of any sort of mutation.
Much like yesterday, you were caught up in thought as a knock on the door snapped you back to reality. Opening the door you were surprised to see Darcy Whitehead, a freshman at Keyserling College, intern at Protean and assistant to Jillian, standing there. "Oh, uh, morning Darcy." you greet her with a friendly smile. Darcy was a nice girl, sharp as a tack, but could be very right-to-business and goal-oriented at time, an attitude that could be off putting for most.
"Hey Mark, is Jillian around?" she asks. Right to the point as always with her.
"It's only like quarter to seven, she's still sleeping." you answer, "Any reason you're here this early?"
"Ugh, I've got this test in European History at 8 so I've been up all night studying. My time's just been thrown all out of whack." she replies. She begins digging through her messenger bag and pulls out a couple of pages of paper. "Here, she wanted me to look through some of her old notes on SX-2 and print them out for her. Not gonna be able to come in today because, you know, the test and all. I just want to take it, go home and get some sleep."
"Well thanks. I'll make sure Jillian gets them." you say.
As you go to take the papers however, you begin feeling weird. You notice Darcy drop the papers as your hand approaches her's and notice that your hand is taking on the same melting look it appeared to take last night. And before either of you can react your hand engulfs her's, your whole body begins feeling unstable as you notice that more and more your body seems to engulf Darcy's and pull her into you before, in a matter of seconds, she's gone. You clutch your side and groan as you feel your body shifting and changing. You can feel your height shrinking, your hips flaring out, your facial features and jaw, protrusions on your chest. And just as quickly as you absorbed her, the changes are complete. You head to the mirror that hangs on the hallway wall to see what greets you.
You're Darcy Whitehead, you're 19 and attend Keyserling College. You had come over to give some papers to Jillian but then... no, you shake your head. You're Mark Taylor but for some reason you... absorbed Darcy into yourself and now you're her. You have her roughly pretty face with its steely blue eyes and slightly hooked nose. You have her long, curly brown hair. Her small chest but slightly large ass... even her clothing. More than that you have her memories, her personality, her very being. The SX-3, it must've done this. Mutated you, changed you. Just like David...
"Oh, um good morning Darcy. What are you doing here? And where's Mark?"
Shit! You turn towards your bedroom to see Jillian, having just woken up and wearing a bathrobe, standing outside it. Here you are wearing the appearance of Darcy Whitehead having just been put on the spot by your girlfriend and Darcy's mentor. What are you to do? Telling her would be the obvious thing but is it? You don't know how she'll react or what she'll do. Maybe you should make up an excuse, pretend to be Darcy and go to the lab; do a little research into what happened. But... no you can't do that, Darcy has a test, she has classes. You've got her mind, you could take them for her. Besides, it might be a good way to clear your head and collect your thoughts anyway.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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