Flexible Thinking for a Modern Life: Chapter 11

 Summary: 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.

[Story Listing]

[First Chapter]

[Previous Chapter]

CHAPTER 11

At the end of the day, Iris was just happy for school to finally be over. She was itching all day to get back to the warehouse and continue her exercises in a controlled environment. It didn't take her long to get back there, now that she knew the way. She could feel the energy in her legs as she bounced along the sidewalk, running all along the way.

She leaned her head back to look up towards the sky, eyeballing the rooftops as she went. She wanted to reach out and get back to swinging along the sky, just as she did the night prior... but she understood that stretching her limbs to uncanny lengths in the middle of broad daylight would attract unwelcome attention. 

Turning into the alley once more, she staggered to a halt, looking around for a way in. The big door to the front was padlocked...

...But hey, there was a vent up to the side. She grinned, elongating her arms casually to grip the frame. Her fingers propped up the vent's cover, just wide enough for her slender body to slip through. Or, rather, just to allow for herself and her uniform, the latter of which was comparatively inflexible. 

"Heh, easy peasy~'

She snickered to herself as her body lengthened, slipping inside in the blink of an eye. 

...Once the vent cover closed behind her, it occurred to Iris how dark it really was in this sort of place. And cramped. To reposition herself properly, she had to loosen her body's form in favour of more flexibility; her arms had lengthened to noodly lengths, stretching further into the unseeable dark just to try and feel her way through.

"Ugh, yuck..." She squinted, feeling her limbs picking up a ton of dust as she navigated the vent. "Someone oughta clean in here a bit... ah!"

Her hand, stretched a good twenty feet down the twisty, turny vents, felt another grate, much like the one she had entered. Sounds like an opening to her! Slithering like a snake, she slowly made her way over, catching up to her extended palm.

A cursory glance around the room confirmed her suspicions. She made it inside!

"Alright! ...Wait, whoops, slipping, shit-"

Her weight had slung over the lip of the vent and her body tumbled out all at once, her limbs streaming like party banners. She hit the ground with a flop, her body's normal proportions restoring quickly. She groaned, rubbing the back of her head. There was dust everywhere...

"...Ah... isshu!" Iris sneezed, rubbing her nose.

"Tissue." A familiar voice droned from the side.

"Oh, Double Double. Thanks, man." Iris smiled, glancing over. The demon had a small box of premium tissues. She picked out two and blew her nose. "Ohhh, this stuff's got the aloe vera in it..."

"The Mistress demands only the best. None of that single-ply folly." Double Double nodded, lowering the box. "...Speaking of which. She isn't with you?"

"Nah, she had to stay behind at school. Teacherly duties called." Iris looked over herself, a look of disdain on her face. "...Ugh, I got grime and dust everywhere. Anyone got something heavier-duty?" 

"Oi! Iris! Got a towel for ya!" Trouble emerged from one of the wings with a towel.

"Can't forget your towel..." Toil scoffed.

"Heyyy, thanks!" Iris beamed, raising it to her face, shaking it all around her head as if she had just gotten out of a shower. "So, uh, hey demons! Didn't see a lot of you guys last night."

"I was attending to the Mistress, maintaining a careful watch from a distance." Double Double bowed his head, his voice stoic and gravelly. 

"Y-yeah, well, we, uh... took the scenic route." Toil coughed, glancing to the side. 

"...Heh, right, okay." Iris nodded. "Well, I was giving it some thought, and I think I got a few more tricks in mind I was gonna try out. I think I could get around a lot faster if I did a slingshot motion thingy..."

Iris' eyes lifted, drifting about the warehouse. "...But I dunno how far I can actually go. Might need to perform some tests in-house."

"...Are you sure that's wise?" Double Double inquired with a perked eyebrow.

"Eh? What's wrong with a little scientific curiosity??" Iris blinked.

"Your body's limits are one thing, but if you were too gung-ho in pushing those limits, other parts of you are likely to lag behind. Namely, your... outfit."

"...Mmmm. I did feel a bit of a breeze last night..." Iris blushed, her hands clenching the hem of her skirt. "Don't know how I'm gonna get around that. It's not like Mom would let me stretch all around the house..."

"Aw, you can do it here! We'll turn a blind eye!" Toil chimed in enthusiastically. 

"I feel like taking a demon on their word alone isn't the best call to make here." Iris remarked with a roll of her eyes. 

CRASH! Rattle rattle...

Their conversation was interrupted by a raucous cacophony of sound outside the warehouse. It sounded like a trash can had been tossed to the ground. Everyone in the warehouse glanced to the door.

"Izzat a raccoon?" Trouble wondered aloud.

"Shh!" Iris shushed him, before focusing her attention a little more. She could make out a few voices...

"Ey, girly, you lost or something? Could point ya where you need to be~"

"N, no, I-I..."

Iris' eyes widened. One of the voices belonged to a gruff, older man, but the other was... terribly familiar. She had a bad feeling in her gut.

"It's Debbie! What's she's doing out here!?" Iris gasped, heading for the door. "Come on guys, let's go help her!"

"...Uhhh, why?" Toil muttered. "Helping folk ain't really part of our image."

"Yeah, if we up and bailed someone out of trouble, that's a real problem for our bad boy image. You understand, right?" Trouble added.

"...I, uh, really don't... seriously? You guys really are useless..." Iris' eyebrows furrowed. She turned to Double Double. "Come on, back me up here!"

"I cannot," Double Double stood up straight. "Mistress Kamika assigned me to guard duty, and I cannot abandon my post to galavant with rapscallions."

"...Ugh, seriously?" Iris whined, her shoulders slumping. "Whatever, I'll do this myself."

Iris ran to the door, looking to swing it open with a solid shoulder barge. It resisted her impact, hardly budging. She grimaced, rubbing her arm as she looked it over one more time.

Locked.

"Can you at least unlock this door for me...?" Iris groaned.

"And let the barbarians in through the gate? I think not." Double Double scoffed.

"...So none of you are going to be of any help." Iris clicked her tongue, looking up towards the vent. Looks like she was going back through the way she came in...

---

"I... I don't want any trouble, s-sir..." Debbie had her back pressed to a wall. It looked as though the leery man looking her over was quite drunk.

"If you didn't want trouble, hic, maybe ya shou'n't've stuck your node in where it don't belong, eh?" He leered a little closer. "Some reeeal bad folk in the back-alleys, and I hate to see a kid like you get hurt..."

Debbie gulped, glancing towards the warehouse. This must've been the place. She was so close, and yet so far. She winced.

"Help! HELP! Someone, anyone!!" Debbie called out, turning her head in all directions.

"Aw, shush you! You're gonna go and get their attention now, idiot! Ugh, someone out to put a muzzle on you to quit your yapping..." The shifty looking man scoffed, inching closer and closer.

"Hey! Leave her alone, you jackass!"

The vent cover swung open as Iris poked her head out, looking down at the dreary scene from a birds-eye view. She scowled at the leery drunk.

"Iris!" Debbie called out, her eyes brightening up through her disheveled glasses. 

"...What are you tryin' to be, an oversized rat? Psh, leave us alone, we're having a conversation!" The man spat out, waving an empty beer bottle in Iris' direction. 

"She doesn't wanna talk to you! So get lost!" Iris yelled back. Her hands gripped the sides of the vent and tried to pull herself forward...

...The keyword being 'tried'. Some part of her didn't seem to cooperate. She paused, glancing back. Some part of her uniform's skirt was caught on something. Waaay deeper in the vent. She could barely see a thing. If only she had a moment to reach her arm back there and wrest it free...

To Debbie and the drunk, it appeared that Iris was stuck. She grunted, trying to get free.

"...Man, some folk got no respect for adult talk, y'know?" The drunk reached for Debbie's wrist. "Let's take this talk somewhere a bit more, hic, intimate~"

"L, let go of me! I'm not going with you, so leave me alone!" Debbie shouted, trying her best to resist. Unfortunately, the older man could easily overpower her. 

"LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Suddenly, Iris' neck elongated at a breakneck pace, closing the gap on the drunk in record time. With a thud, she managed to headbutt the man, colliding with him with incredible force.

"Ah!" The man yelped, letting Debbie go as he staggered back, pressing his back against a nearby dumpster. 

Debbie's eyes followed the twenty-five-foot length of Iris' neck, draping from the side of the warehouse and down into the alley, her head resting facedown on the pavement. The quiet, bespectacled girl gasped, kneeling down to grab Iris' head.

"Iris! A-are you okay??" Debbie cradled the oddly-placed head in her arms.

"Oi... did I get him?" Iris asked blankly, looking up to Debbie. This elicited a smirk from Debbie, nodding in response, as Iris' torso began to catch up along the length of her neck.

The two of them were momentarily distracted by the clinking of an empty beer bottle, rolling out of the drunkard's hand and down the alley. His eyes blinked slowly open, realizing the strange sight that was playing out in front of him.

The girl he was threatening a second ago was embracing another girl, her torso stretching the length of the alley. He blinked, and then turned back to the bottle, his jaw agape. He turned back to the schoolgirls again.

This time, Iris glared at him, clenching a fist threateningly. The fist seemed to grow in size, doubling the size of his own portly head in seconds.

"...Alrighty then. That's enough of the drink fer me." He got up to his feet and scampered out of the alley, as fast as his legs could take him.

"Yeah! And stay out!" Iris exclaimed triumphantly. Her exaggerated arm swiveled over to Debbie, holding her cartoonishly large palm out for a high five.

Debbie only stared in astonishment for a moment, before hopping up daintily to reciprocate. The two of them laughed, the tension in the air evaporating quickly. 

"Th-that was amazing!!" Debbie stammered, holding her hands together. "Just like the track meet! H-how do you even do that??"

"I dunno, something about family genetics. But, uh..." Iris' arms returned to normal proportions, steadying herself on Debbie's shoulders. "What are you doing out here? This isn't really the sort of place I'd expect to see you..."

"Well, that's-" Debbie suddenly clammed up. Her eyes darted back and forth. "...I-I got lost. A-and I didn't expect to find you here either..."

"...Right, uh... touché." Iris laughed nervously. Her head turned back to look at the sheer length of herself. "...But I guess, since you're here and all, could you help me with something?" 

"Eh? Of, of course! You probably just saved my life just now!" Debbie nodded enthusiastically. "What do you need??"

"...A hand getting out." Iris grimaced, trying to pull herself free. "I'm a little stuck. Think my clothes are caught onto something..."

"...Oh? Ohhh, that's..." Debbie blushed slightly. "W-well, we can just, maybe... gimme your hands, and I'll pull, okay?"

Debbie squeezed Iris' hands and pulled back. Iris winced, feeling herself ease forward. She was still caught.

"I-I don't think this is working..." Iris muttered.

"Maybe I can jostle you free?" Debbie wondered, swinging their arms up and down. This had the effect of creating waves along Iris' elastic torso, stretching all along the alley.

"W-whoa, whoa, easy! That's... I'm gonna be sick!" Iris warbled. It didn't seem to be helping.

"Aaaah, um... oh!"

Debbie thought of a new strategy. She turned her back to Iris, still grasping Iris' arms as she slumped them over her own shoulders like a backpack. Debbie slowly marched away from the warehouse, feeling the tension in Iris grow.

After six steps, the two of them could feel something was about to give..

Riiiiiip!

Iris gasped, feeling the rest of her body sliding along the vent and flying out to meet the rest of her body with incredible speed, as if an elastic band had been stretched and released all at once. Iris, her normal proportions rapidly returning collided with Debbie's back, and the two of them toppled to the ground.

"Aaaah...Did it work?" Debbie wondered aloud, her voice muffled as she lay in a heap. 

"Think so, but... ah, shoot..." 

Iris pushed herself off from Debbie, taking a look at the damage. A huge rip had formed down the side of her skirt, and a chunk of fabric had been . While her modesty was preserved - it only exposed an extra sliver of her outer thighs - she still felt a profound sense of loss.

"Mom's gonna be pissed..." Iris shook her head. "...Well, can't be helped. Thanks for the assist, Debbie." 

Iris lowered her hand to help Debbie to her feet; for a moment, Debbie hesitated, but she accepted without any fuss. Debbie made sure to brush herself off.

"A, are you okay, Iris? That was a rough landing..." Debbie swayed from side to side, looking at Iris all over. 

"Yeah, I'm fine. How about you? Dude was getting way too close for comfort..." Iris muttered, shaking her head. 

"I... I guess I'm okay. All things considered, I... I'm glad you were here at least." Debbie smiled at Iris. She took a heavy breath, her eyes lowering to Iris' exposed legs. How did she manage such smooth skin...?

"...Oh, um..." Debbie caught herself, before she could get too lost in her own thoughts. "A-are you up to doing anything? I-I was thinking we could... m-maybe get some bubble tea?" She tilted her head, trying to put on a brave face. "A new place opened a little down the road, Napana's, I think..."

"Oh! That sounds really nice, actually." Iris' eyes lit up. "...A-ah, but, maybe some other time? I was gonna meet someone out here..."

"...You're meeting someone?" Debbie wondered aloud. Her earlier optimism was fading quickly.

"Yeah, it's..." Iris had to stop herself from blurting the truth. It was one thing for Debbie to know about her abilities; it was quite another for Debbie to know about literal hellspawn in the city. Iris came up with a half-truth to tell her instead.

"...A secret admirer." Iris' eyes drifted aside. 

"...Oh." Debbie deflated slightly, even as she struggled to keep on smiling. "That... I-I guess you would have plenty of those, the-the way you stand up to Sherry and all..." Debbie's hand lowered to a pocket at her side. 

"Yeaaah... I don't know how she gets away with half the shit she does." Iris sighed, rubbing her shoulder. "...Oh, right, because she's rich and thinks she's better than everyone else. Obviously."

"Y-yeah, that's... that's Sherry, alright..." Debbie laughed awkwardly. It was difficult to maintain eye contact for her at this point. 

Debbie was struggling to find the right words to depart on. She was looking back towards the entryway to the alley, before turning back to Iris. She was trembling.

"...W-well, I'm... I'm sorry I... I got lost in here, and... and thanks for rescuing me and... g, goodbye!"

Debbie's eyes clenched before she darted off, leaving Iris in the dust. She was quick on her feet. Iris held out her arm in front of her.

"Hey, wait a sec!" Iris tried to call out to Debbie, but it appeared she hadn't heard her. Before long, the bookish-looking girl had already disappeared around the corner, leaving Iris in a state of confusion.

Iris blinked, trying to process what happened. A draft along her legs drew her attention back to the rip along her skirt. She sighed to herself as she weighed her options. This was a big gash in her uniform that wouldn't mend easily. And it was so obvious, she doubted she could hide it from her mother...

"Well well well. What the devil was all that about?"

Iris' thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice from above, accompanied by the fluttering of leathery wings. Iris glanced up to see Kamika, lowering herself to the ground.

The motion itself was remarkably elegant... except for the fact that Iris got a full-on look at Kamika's exposed panties from underneath.

"Ugh, Kamika!" Iris shielded her eyes. "Can you cross your legs while flying? No one wants to see that!"

"Tch, what? Maybe you shouldn't be looking there in the first place!" Kamika clicked her tongue, landing sharply as her heels clicked against the ground. 

"Whatever, sorry, just..." Iris lowered her hand. "...Hey, how long were you up there for?"

"Mmmm, long enough to see you go to town on some drunken miscreant..." Kamika's tail whipped back and forth. "I have to say, I didn't take you for a Good Samaritan, Iris." 

"...Well, I mean..." Iris glanced down the alley. "I figure if I got these powers, I should try and help people with them. Honestly it... it felt pretty good, putting a bad guy in their place." 

Iris smiled to herself. She had to admit, it felt good to do good. Her good attitude dissipated a bit under Kamika's judging look.

"...Hmmmm..." Kamika studied her. "...I suppose it made for a good test of your abilities." Kamika grinned in turn, tilting her head. "So you're fancying yourself a superhero, now?"

"W-well, I dunno about that..." Iris rubbed the back of her neck. "Stuff like that always escalates way out of control, you know? I wanna help, just need... baby steps, I guess. Not to mention, Mom would kill me..."

Kamika nodded. "Of course, of course. A young creature like you needs training, guidance, a mentor. I'm sure I can help you along the way, down this road you decide for yourself, yes?"

Iris' eyes lit up at the notion of getting to decide for herself. She could feel the limits of what she could do eroding before her. She replayed the events of what happened in her head. She must've looked like a total badass...

"...Oh, hey, Kamika, about Debbie..." Iris wondered. "You guys talked after class, right? She was acting a little weird just now..."

"Hm... I got nothing." Kamika shrugged. "Something about being lovesick. I gave her my usual spiel, but she's such an NPC, I don't have time for those people."

"...I mean, you are her teacher, right?" Iris tilted her head.

"I never said I was a good teacher!" Kamika cackled, folding her arms. "...But I'm a great mentor!"

Iris frowned slightly. She was a little apprehensive about how flippantly Kamika seemed to disregard Debbie. Kamika seemed to pick up on this, and beamed in response.

"Kidding! We did talk, but she wanted to keep it a secret. And I'm all about that student-teacher confidentiality~"

"...Oh. Well... okay then." Iris' mouth flattened. She wasn't sure why Kamika didn't just say that in the first place...

"So! You want to try your hand at the superhero life? I think we can arrange that~"

Kamika patted Iris on the shoulder, ushering her over to the warehouse. Iris had to try and find her legs. Kamika's tail rose, inserting into the padlock at the front. With a twist and a click, it unlatched itself and fell to the ground.

"But first! We need to find you the right look..."

[Next Chapter]