Flexible Thinking for a Modern Life: Chapter 24
Added 2021-01-16 20:28:13 +0000 UTCSummary: A commission series for Alfalfa. Iris Fleurs, the stretchy daughter of a slime mother and a human father, tries to live her best life and feel comfortable in her own skin. Teenage rebellion ensues.
CHAPTER 24
Sarah and Miguel were doing all they could not to lose track of Iris. It was the first time they had spotted her in quite a while, and neither of them were willing to let the chance pass them by.
Iris hurried her pace in turn, keeping a leg up on her pursuers. She dipped into a nearby alleyway, breaking into a run.
"To the left!" Sarah called out, veering sharply to the left.
"W-Whoa!" Miguel was slower on the uptake, staggering a little past the alleyway, before hurrying to make up lost ground. As Sarah effortlessly vaulted over toppled trash cans and waved between rolling and spinning empty bottles that littered the ground, Miguel was doing everything in his power not to get left behind by the two high-flying girls.
"Jeez, who left this junk here!?" Miguel gasped, the side of his foot colliding with a brown bottle, sending it hurtling to a far brick wall.
"She's trying to slow us down!" Sarah looked forward with a look of raw determination. "Who the hell does she think she is? When I catch her, I'm gonna grab her neck and wring it out a bit!"
Sarah's annoyed mutterings were not lost on Iris; her head seemed to perk up slightly in response.
"Hey, Sarah, we're 'bouta pass through a construction zone, right?" Miguel shouted forward. He had no hope of catching Iris; the least he could do was help Sarah get a leg up on the competiton.
"Hah, good thinking! HELP! THIEF!" Sarah cupped her hands, hollering out. Sarah didn't want to pull a nark on her bestie, but it looked like there wasn't gonna be another way to slow her down. Maybe the construction workers on hand would strongarm her a bit.
"Crap..." Iris muttered to herself. She was putting the pieces together on what Sarah was up to. Iris had gotten intimately familiar with the cityscape of Agnes over the last few days. She knew was up ahead. She rather Sarah didn't draw so much attention to herself...
...But it was what it was. Iris had a plan. Her eyes lowered to her hand, clutching a brown bottle. Her arm lengthened by itself, rearing back before SMASHING the bottle against the nearest brick wall.
"Whoa!" Miguel yelped, nearly tripping over herself. "She can't be thinkin' of turning right around and shanking us, right??"
Sarah didn't respond; she only grimaced and redoubled her pace. She watched Iris turn sharply to the right; Iris stretched her arm out to catch a nearby streetlight and bolted out onto the streets again.
"Showoff..." Sarah muttered with a shake of her head, trying to maintain her speed as she turned the corner. There was no way Miguel was keeping up.
As Sarah anticipated, they were coming up on a construction site, with a crew working on a new sidewalk as part of a city project to expand the number of bus stops throughout the city. Approximately half a dozen construction workers were huddled at the end of an industrial cement mixer, rotating idly on the side of the road.
"Uhhhh... so how does this cement stuff work?" One of them muttered, scratching at his rough chin.
"You serious? It's water and cement mix, this ain't rocket science." An older man muttered, shaking his head.
"Uhhh, okay, how much mix do we need?" The dull newbie cocked his head.
"Check the bag! It's got a recipe and everything! Can you read??" The supervisor blurted out.
"I didn't know we'd be baking on this job..." The newbie adjusted his hardhat, and sauntered off to examine the bags of cement mix, all piled up. The supervisor massaged his cheeks.
"Baking, I... god. Five more years of this crap, and then I can think'a retirement..." He groaned. "...Hey, wuzzat? Is that the..."
"THIIIIIIIIEF!" Sarah hollered out once more from behind.
Now Iris had their attention. Her eyes focused on the confused looking chap hauling the bag of cement in two arms.
"Perfect. Sorry bud." Iris muttered under her breath, brandishing the pointy end of the shattered brown bottle.
"What's she holding?" The supervisor squinted. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "OI JESSIE, SHE'S GOT A WEAPON!"
"What!?" Jessie paused, still clutching the cement bag, his face going pale. A stationary target was even better. Iris smirked to herself, her arm holding the makeshift weapon snapping forward!
RIIIIIIIP!
With a whip of her arm and a twist of her wrist, Iris carved a long, horizontal cut in the bag of cement mix. A slow stream of grey, floury powder trickled forth. Its purpose fulfilled, Iris tossed the shattered bottle aside; it broke into pieces next to a traffic cone.
"Whoa there, ma'am!" Jessie shouted, staggering back. "Watch where you're swinging that! A-and throwin' it too, for that matter-"
"I'll take that." Iris stowed the bag of chips she was making off with under her arm and, with both hands, jostled the torn bag of cement mix free from the worker.
Her fingernails dug into the tear, ripping it further open. She twisted her torso as she spun and whipped in all directions!
FWOOSH! A heavy, thick cloud of dust and powder was flung in all directions, caking everything in a thin layer of grey powder. A cloud of dust floated in the air, obscuring everything in sight within ten to fifteen feet. Iris really did flail around to make there was as much air saturation as possible!
"Crap!" Sarah shielded her eyes, trying her best to keep the irritating powder out of her eyes. She managed to protect her face, but the rest of her, including her stark red hair, were thoroughly caked with cement mix! And so too were the construction workers on hand...
"...Welp, this is why we wear safety goggles." The supervisor casually wiped the dust from his lenses. "What's that insane girl on about?"
"...Where'd she go?" The one named Jessie wondered allowed, looking around back and forth.
"...Double crap!" Sarah blurted out!
It was then that Miguel finally caught up to Sarah. "Sarah! Sarah, did you... did you catch her??" Miguel was incredibly short of breath, hunched over on his knees and gasping for air.
"Iris threw up a smoke screen! She's still out there, she couldn't have gone far... you take the left alley, I'll take the right!" Sarah turned to Miguel to settle on a plan, and quick.
"...What happened to you?" Miguel wondered, his eyebrows perked up. "Did it snow on you all of a sudden?"
"Th-this isn't what snow looks like, Miguel!" Sarah blurted. "Nevermind, it'd take too long to explain! Let's move!"
Sarah bellowed with all the oomph of a drill instructor, firmly grasping Miguel's hand as she pulled him along to renew the chase. The construction workers' eyes followed the quirky pair down until they split up and disappeared into different alleys.
"...Sooo... who's writing up the report?" Jessie tilted his head.
"We're gonna have to get a whole 'nother bag of cement to get this thing done." The supervisor sighed. "How'm I gonna explain to the boss? Some psycho nutjob stabbed it like she was in a barfight?"
"We can't get any work done like this, right?." One of the other regulars muttered.
"Alright, time for a lunch break." The supervisor clapped his hands. "Heard there was a real good meatball sub down the road."
The lot of them broke up without much fanfare, eager to partake in the fruits of their union labour and foot the bill to the owners. They were still on the clock, after all. More than a few of them walked off with clever grins on their faces.
"Make sure the mixer's shut off, Jessie!" The supervisor bellowed.
"Yeah yeah, I'm not that dumb!" Jessie hollered back, hurrying to the panel and turning a dial. The giant mixer slowly rolled to a stop; Jessie gave it a cursory glance before he hurried off to catch up with the other workers.
And for a time, the construction site lay, largely abandoned. Sarah and Miguel, overzealous in their hunting, didn't stick around to investigate around the cement mixer.
The presumably empty cement mixer.
Rumble rumble...
"Ohhhh gaaaaaaahdess..." A weary voice from within echoed out pathetically. Iris poked her head out of the hole in the back, her neck elongating more and more as her head slid down the narrow discharge chute and onto the ground.
"It was still spinning... I forgot it was still spinning... ogh, I'm gonna be sick..." Iris groaned, her head rolling along the ground at the end of a ropey length of her neck. She held her breath, trying to keep herself from throwing up from nausea.
"Gotta pull myself together." Iris shook her head. From the cement mixer, her arms emerged, grasping the sides of the hole in the back. She gently eased her body out of the altogether too narrow hole; she winced, feeling her hips and thighs brushing against the tight opening.
The rest of her stretched out body tumbled down the discharge chute in turn; Iris had to take a second to restore her normal proportions, and she didn't particularly care who was watching at this point. At least she lost the people chasing her down.
"Jeez... the crap I go through for Kamika." Iris rolled her eyes, stretching an arm to reach into the cement mixer. She fished around a bit, before yanking the (now thoroughly battered and abused) bag of potato chips out unceremoniously, shaking it to get some of the dust off.
"...Now it's in my hair, damn it." Iris hissed, rustling her hair. "I need to go before someone spots me..."
---
"Damn it! We lost her..."
---
"Tch, Iris, the hell is this? They're all smushed now, it's a bag of crumbs!"
Iris wasn't faring much better with her return to the home base. Kamika clearly wasn't happy with her return today; Iris simply stood at attention, enduring Kamika's annoyed tone.
"I got involved in a chase." Iris stated, her eyes drifting to the side. "Kinda hard to pull a robbery in broad daylight."
"Oh, you just aren't using your imagination enough." Kamika muttered, tossing the bag aside. "I suppose I can leave this one to the rats..."
"Oh boy! Garbage!" Toil lit up in an instant, scurrying over to grasp at the bag.
"Oi, hands off, she was talkin' about me! Her favourite rat!" Trouble hollered back, trying to snatch the bag away.
Iris watched the two fight over the scraps, and decided to turn away from the sight with a beleaguered sigh.
"Ah, whatever. Perhaps your performance was suboptimal today, but that's fine." Kamika grinned. "I'm in a forgiving kind of headspace. Everything's coming together perfectly; I don't think anything could ruin my mood today~"
"...Well, you sound chipper." Iris tilted her head. "Is it about that secret project you never filled me in about?"
"Oh, I didn't tell you? Ah, there's no secrets between us, darling." Kamika beamed toothily. "Actually, I've been dying to come out and share all the details with someone who'd appreciate my calculated genius."
Kamika chuckled to herself, raising the back of her hand to her mouth. She sneered in Iris' direction in that devilish way she was known for. Whenever she had a most contemptible idea...
"It's time that I showed you the fruits of my labour, Iris." Kamika smiled. She rose to her feet from her makeshift throne, sauntering over to one of the shelves. The clinking of vials mutedly called out as she fished around.
"...Aha! Behold!" Kamika flourished a vial containing a bright, almost sickly looking pink liquid. It seemed to glow with an otherworldly, enchanted quality.
Iris' eyes widened, leaning closer to get a better look. "What... is that stuff, exactly?"
"A hyperconcentrated pheremone based serum, engineered to the appeal of the universal common denominator. With some magical enhancements to add some extra potency~" Kamika grinned toothily.
"Pheromone?" Iris blinked.
"Home-grown pheromones, to be precise." Kamika clarified, wiggling the vial around.
"...Eugh." Iris' nose crinkled. She could only imagine how much Kamika had to work to sweat that gunk out.
"The Mistress needs to juice up her pheromones a bit, cuz they're kinda weaksauce." Toil shrugged.
"Yeah, without them enhancements, nobody would bat an eyelash!" Trouble chimed in with a laugh.
"...ugh..." Kamika rolled her eyes, clicking her heels as she sauntered over...
...Before reaching into the bag of potato chips and shoving a huge handful in each of their mouths. And then another. Until their cheeks were stuffed. The look on Kamika's face was pretty clear; she hoped they choked on their food.
"Right then, where did I leave off..." Kamika tilted her head, trying to recollect herself. "...Aaaaah, yes, the serum. It's potency is off the charts; even in trace amounts, it'll make anyone in the world fall head over heels for me!"
"...You tested that stuff already, right?" Iris grimaced, looking it over one more time. "That sounds kinda scary."
"Oh, it's perfectly safe! When handled properly, that is." Kamika played with it, twirling it around in her fingers. "We made a whole barrel of the stuff, and I say it's high time we really put ourselves out there this time."
"...Mm?" Iris blinked. "What... what're you planning to do?"
"Imagine it, Iris. Not just the lonely men, not just the single lady. Families, priests, roving mobs of burly football players! Every single person in Agnes will be eating from the palm of my hand! They'll worship me as a goddess!"
Kamika had to do everything she could to stop herself from cackling aloud right then and then. She leaned forward, placing her hands on her hips and looked directly into Iris' eyes.
"...And then we'll all be on Easy Street! We'll live as royalty, our every whim attended to by an adoring public!"
Iris stood pat, still as a statue. Her eyes were wide, her jaw agape. Is this really what Kamika's endgame was?
"...That... that's crazy..." Iris muttered. "I-I can get behind petty robbery, that's not a big deal, but this... it's-"
"It's what you wanted, right?" Kamika interrupted Iris, with a curious tilt of her head.
"...What?" Iris stepped back, trying to put some distance between her and Kamika. But Kamika was a step too quick; she placed a manicured hand atop Iris' shoulder, firmly holding her in place. Iris could feel Kamika's grip creating a palm-shaped indent in her shoulder.
"You want the world to accept you. For your abilities, for your... unique personality." Kamika smiled. "But even now, the people you yearned for approval from the most... they reject who you are, everything you want to be. But we can change that."
Iris exhaled sharply, looking directly into Kamika's eyes. Kamika's snakelike grin was bewitching; her honeyed words were keeping Iris exactly where she wanted her.
"You tried everything to get people to love you. But this stuff, this right here, is going to change everyone's minds. When we get it out there, the world will be just as... flexibly thinking as you are, dear Iris~"
Kamika's finger tapped against Iris's shoulder.
"I know perfectly well what you're thinking. It's etched on your sullen expression. We're family now, Iris. And family has to support each other. Your biological family didn't appreciate you. They resented you, and everything you were capable of. I can support you in ways your old family couldn't... but I'm going to need you to trust me one last time."
"...One last time..." Iris parroted the words. Her eyes lowered to the floor. She seriously had her doubts about this whole operation, but Iris knew if she said no, she'd have no home to return to. Kamika would probably eject her from the family, and Iris would be stuck on the streets, a fugitive from the law for the rest of her life. Estranged from her friends and family.
The idea of it terrified her. She didn't want to be alone at the end of all of this. The idea of what they were about to do, it genuinely scared her, but... she feared being alone more.
"But... but this is some kinda brainwashing, isn't it...?" Iris asked. "It can't be that easy to-"
"Ohhh, don't worry your pretty little head about the nuance. They'll still be themselves. They'll just be more... suggestible, that's all." Kamika grinned. "They're finally give us the attention and the praise that we worked all our lives to achieve. But I can't build this better world without you, Iris."
Iris went silent again. Kamika had supported her in her time of need. She gave her a new home, when she couldn't even think of showing her face again. She owed her. And she owed her big.
"...How can I help?" Iris squeaked out, after a long, anxious pause. She knew there was no going back. She understood this fact for a long time now. Kamika simply smiled gleefully.
"Oh, foreplay bores me like nothing else. Let's do it tonight. I have the perfect plan. I already sent Double Double ahead to scout the venue we'll be playing at."
"...Venue...?" Iris questioned, her voice distant and hollow.
"The water treatment facility, dear. And I'm sure that we can make use of your... unique abilities to get inside. And once we're inside... the entire city of Agnes will be eating out of the palm of our hands. Nyehehehe..."
Kamika laughed with a practiced chortle, applauding herself on her aptitude for masterminding. This fell on deaf ears; Iris was in no mood to indulge her. It seems she was distracted, her mind focused elsewhere.
Kamika paused, looking back to Iris with a transparently annoyed expression. It flashed briefly, and then it was gone; Kamika understood that she had to keep up pretenses, and appeal to the poor girl's emotions.
Kamika patted Iris' shoulder. Iris stared ahead, looking off to some invisible object in the distance. She was like a zombie.
"I told you Iris. You and me. We're gonna do amazing things together." Kamika grinned.
"...yeah..." Iris muttered. Her conscience weighed heavily on her. But the suffocating feeling of entrapment compelled her to agree. She needed some kind of family, some place to belong. And Kamika offered it when no one else did.
Iris knew now, more than ever, that there'd be no going back now.
