Melody rounded the corner of the gym to the sound of something being tinkered on. She expected a broken gym machine being repaired, but was not prepared for what she was about to find.
“So…this is new.” She said to Silverback.
She doesn’t look like much now, but I have a vision for her.” He said sitting on the ground in a circle of parts.
“Is that a motorcycle?” she asked with a worried smile.
“Well, about half of one. I figure if I can make the first half the second one will be easier so if I screw up I only wasted half my money.”
“Did you use to build motorcycles?” she asked.
“No. Never even rode one. Dee and I rode bicycles a lot, can't be that much harder. I just feel so alive and full of energy, I wanna feel the wind in my hair.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t remind you this but, sweetheart, we’re stuck underground. There’s nowhere to ride it.” she sadly smiled.
“We won’t be here forever.”
“Well, you say that.” she cringed.
Gizzy docbot stared curiously at Nicole.
“So you haven’t been laying off the…uh…Vinn?”
“Obviously not.” She said as a pair of furry ears peaked from her hairline and her nose was a slight bit darker than ever before.
“You do realize this is making it worse, and it’s gonna take longer to wear off.”
“I can’t help it. I love him. Plus, honestly, he thinks it's kinda cute. It is temporary, right?” she asked.
“Yea, but you could drag it on for weeks, I don’t know how Delmarian you’re gonna get you may end up with horns and a tail. Is he really worth it?”
“Absolutely.” She smiled. “Plus I’ve always been a hybrid monster and apparently mutating is just my thing. I’m oddly used to it. You can't tell me I don't look kinda adorable as a woodland creature.” Nicole reasoned.
"Hey, it's your body. Who Am I to judge?" Gizzy said
Gizzy squinted in confusion, looking at the tablet and back at Vicki.
“You sure you didn’t eat or drink anything by accident? Midnight snack, brain-fart, grabbed some leftover steak. One tempting little piece of salami got the better of your willpower. Maybe made out with Jack right after he had a big bite of very rare hamburger?”
“I’ve just stuck to the goop, but it’s making me sick. The more I eat, the more nauseous I get. Is the cancer making me nauseous?” Vicki asked.
“That’s just it…there’s no cancer. The cancer cells have all been replaced with new cells, so it’s working shockingly fast, and I would say you can eat whatever you want now. They appear to be quite solidified in their evolution…however... The cells don’t match your regular DNA. Technically speaking, you developed another cancer that killed the cancer for you and then just chilled out. But right now you have 2 different blood types, and you are severely anemic. Something contaminated your system.”
“Am I going to be okay?”
“Shit if I know. This is what we were trying to avoid. You could get superpowers, or drop dead tomorrow. Your eye color has gotten redder and if I’m not mistaken your upper canines look longer. You didn’t…bang a Delmarian or anything?”
“I have been faithful to Jack since we first dated. Actually I did go to the club the other night and someone might have put something in my drink, I thought it tasted funny, but I already finished it before I noticed.”
“Well. You are anemic as hell, your red blood cell count is horrible, and you're losing weight, but somehow oddly healthy, and you don’t have cancer anymore. So whatever got into your drink kickstarted your body’s response and annihilated it, so let's just hope whatever it does is less bad than cancer. I suggest you start a diet of red meat, as rare as you can tolerate it, glass of red wine twice a day, You’re not squeamish about rare meat are you?” she asked.
“I think I can stomach a little pink in the middle.” she said ironically.
“Good because your body is screaming for it.”
“I’m aware.”
“Look, if you don’t tell me every detail, I can’t help you.”Gizzy sighed.
“Okay… Jack was sleepwalking in the caves and when he got bitten by the bug, I think I got bit or scratched. I didn’t even notice it until later, and I wasn’t really sure then, but it might have got me.” She said, holding up her hand, no mark where the scratch was.
“There it is. Now I can run a scan against the damn bug DNA and see what we’re dealing with. Go ahead and inform me of side effects I haven’t noticed yet, go.”
“I’ve been anxious, craving red meat, more active at night, and I’m sensitive to smells.”
"Okay. I’ll note that with the new scans. Let's just hope you don’t wake up as a cockroach. We got Nicole turning into a delmarina, Vinn acting like a coffee crackhead, Hyde being a literal crackhead, and Mel's center of gravity is raising every day. The thing is, everyone else’s side effects are going to fade and lessen with each dose and time. Yours is likely permanent and may keep getting weirder. Keep an eye on it.” she noted.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Silverback and Hyde sat in the weight room, flexing and being like they are, oldschool rap playing and shirtless testosterone in the air.
“Can I borrow some money?” Hyde asked.
“No, but you can help me work on shit, and I’ll pay you standard wages. You realize you’re the only person here aside from Mel with no job, and you sure as hell are not getting her level of freebies for what she does for them.”
“I’m just getting low on medication.”
“Medication is free on this moon, and you have human healthcare. That’s just cocaine in an Altoids can.” Silverback noted.
“It keeps me from falling asleep, I’ll taper off when the side effects do. The meds I got don't work, and this shit isn’t cheap"
“Well, neither is manual labor so…you want your junk, you gotta get a job like everyone else. You can work a drill and a sander, so how about tonight, you and Vinn can help me with the poolroom?”
“Wish I had your energy, old timer. I can't promise Vinn will show up, but I’ll be there.” Hyde sighed, looking worn out already. Nicole walked in and looked rather confused, as if she expected a different crowd.
“Uh, is Vinn not with you guys?” she asked.
“Nope. We haven’t seen him all day. How are you feeling?” Silverback asked.
“Great, aside from not being able to find my husband. I kinda wanted to go out. I might have to just take Jack. He has this rule now where nobody goes into the tunnels alone. Safety issue.”
“That’s probably why he was looking for Vicki the other day.” Hyde yawned. “Vinn needed a little pick me up, and I saw him waiting for her by the gate.”
“Huh…” she pondered, turning and heading out.
Hyde re-racked the bar and stared at her as she left, the slightest wiggle to her skirt.
“Is it just me or is she getting hotter?” he asked Silverback.
“It’s just you.”
“You sure?”
“You just stole my girlfriend and drove off a Nicole. I swear to god, Hyde, if you break Dee’s heart and go after Vinn’s Nicole, people are gonna team up and Fupar your ass…again.”
“Hey, chill out. I was just admiring the scenery. You’ve been awfully Alpha lately. You on the shit too?” Hyde asked, guarding his cocaine.
“No, I just feel hyped, these side effects are amazing. I feel like a college kid again, I just wanna party and, hey you don’t know how to build a motorcycle do ya?”
“No.”
“Damn. Usually I’d ask Vinn or Jack, but with Vicki’s thing, Jack has been so stressed out and Vinn is never here anymore. He’s either with Nicole or just gone.”
“Probably out getting his fix.”
“What the hell are you going on about…getting a fix? He’s just hooked on coffee.”
“Yea sure, Coffee. He goes out to party and get coffee and goes to a shady club instead of using the espresso machine we have at both houses. Sure, it’s just coffee. Man, Delmarians aren’t like you guys. Performance enhancers are part of our lifestyle. Don’t get all blueblood on us, grampa. Man needed a fix, let him fix it.”
“Why is he taking Vicki instead of you, or Jack, or literally anyone else?”
“I dunno. I’m just here to work out and kill time. I can’t get laid now to save my life, Dee gets pissed when I even suggest going to the clubs without her, so here I am. I’m tired, I’m wired, I’m pissed off. It’s like I’m either dragging my feet or running on adrenaline, and she drives me nuts sometimes.”
“Right, I wouldn’t know how that feels. I’ve never dated her as an old man just reaching my wind-down years and knocking back redbull and vodka to keep up, and then she ditches me for some couple she found a 4th my age.
“Why did you put up with her so long?”
“No idea.” He admitted. “Why do you think I’m even talking to you? You fucked my girlfriend behind my back, I should put a hit on you for it, but you did me a favor. Forced me to grow a set and move on, find an Eridani my age range, and she’s getting hotter every day too. Apparently, Eridani get a boost from the vaccine.”
“Lucky bastard. Seems to work on whatever Nicole’s are too. I swear I saw a tail swish under that skirt. Everyone else is miserable"
Vinn rolled his eyes back in sheer ecstasy, looking longingly into his toasted 4-cheese steak sandwich like it was a lover.
“Garlic parm, you slut you. Where have you been my whole life? The ding of a timer went off, as Vicki rushed in from the back room. She opened the taster oven and made her own sandwich, free of garlic, light on the cheese but heavy on the barely warm raw beef in the form of a French dip and Swiss. She grabbed the cup of warm blood and began doing as the name intended, dipping and devouring. She sighed and chewed slowly, closing her eyes.
“Why does this feel like we’re cheating? We’re eating sandwiches together.” Vinn asked.
“I don’t know, Vinn. But I agree. Something is off here." She smelled the meat and tasted it by itself. “Is the beef spoiled?” she asked. He held out his hand, accepting a strip and eating it happily.
“Tastes like beef. Pretty good to me. Under-seasoned, but not bad.”
“It just tastes weird. She said, sipping the A-positive au jus and realizing beef just wasn’t the same. She went to the fridge and began digging out samples. Beef, Pork, Chicken and goat blood. She gave each a sip, looking disappointed, downright repulsed when she got to chicken, spitting it back in the container.
“WHY!?” she asked. “Why is human blood the only good one?”
“I dunno. I’m just sampling the universe in dairy, and it’s pretty much all fantastic. Like there’s highlights and combinations that just work better, and this gray moldy shit is just bad, but I dunno I guess human blood is just your jam.”
“And it doesn’t taste right cold. Half these bags are over a month old and I can tell. Even reheating it, it’s just not the same.” She sighed. Sipping it with a straw.
“They got Delmarian blood in there? I bet that’s horrible. Just saying, even fresh, I bet we taste horrendous.” He hinted.
“I’m not gonna bite you, Vinn.” She said, looking annoyed.”
“Well, you can’t be too safe.”
“I'm never gonna jump you and suck your blood. It’s only human blood I crave. That’s what scares me. Even the raw meat doesn’t quite do it. It’s just this.” She said, holding up the donation packet and placing it in the warmer. “And body temperature seems to be about right. What does that say about me?”
“That you’re a very picky eater.” He yawned. She giggled a little bit, amused by his weirdly unfazed humor.
“Vinn you’re an oddly comforting friend. You really do just make a situation feel slightly lighter and less doomed.”
“Well, you’re over here acting like the world is ending, and you just got a little drinking problem and can’t cook worth a damn.” He smirked. She laughed and chewed on a piece of steak, gnawing more than eating. She kept trying to eat something, even raw meat, just to feel more human, like if she pretended hard enough she would believe it. She took small bites, chewing it to death and then washing it down with the blood as if it was just lubrication for the meal. Just a normal sip of water for a dry piece of toast, and not some person's life essence in a liquid form, probably reserved to save a life or about 5 lives if she counted the entire cooler’s worth. How much could she go through? How much could she get by on?
“You look a little lost.”
“I’m trying to be.” She sighed. At least you know what you are.”
“I know what you are, too. You’re my friend. You’re Vicki, you’re a shy but fun person who was very sick and getting better, and feeling guilty about the process of it all. You’re the same person, just a little weirder. I’ve seen it happen to Nicole…twice. You adjust and adapt, and it becomes part of life. Give it a week, you’ll just be making your daily smoothies in the kitchen like she does, and we all know how gross those are.”
“She’s stronger than me.”
“Well, maybe you should try her smoothies. All that protein might get you really bulked up, and I am just kidding, you do realize I’m kidding, right?”
“Well, would it be any more disgusting than drinking a warm cup of human blood?” she asked, raising an eyebrow and her mug.
“Yea, that’s a fair point.”