Melty Mercury from Outer Space: Chapter 8

 Summary: Nikki is taken over by an extraterrestrial symbiote that changes her into a metal slime girl. While this comes with great power, she's unsure if she can control herself, or handle the extra baggage that comes with it.

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Melty Mercury from Outer Space

Chapter 8

Nikki finished off the soup, relaxing in her chair. She rubbed her tummy, feeling her meal slosh around in her stomach with a grimace. She hoped her body would still take to normal people food.

Of course, there was another nagging concern in the back of her mind. She still needed to lose all the weight she gained; it was horrendously skewing her petite proportions. She would have to learn to pass for normal in public...

But the most immediately pressing priority was that lesson plan outline the principal asked for. She was relieved she didn't have to submit that in person, but she was still anxious about meeting anyone from school in person. Not while she was an eye-catching busty amazon; teenagers were too horny to handle that kind of look with any degree of self-control. 

"..."

Nikki eyeballed the laptop from across the room with a pained grimace. She had a hunch that using that thing for any prolonged period of time would give her terrible hunger pangs. And then she'd probably absorb it, and add to her ongoing weight problem. 

She sighed, crossing her arms. "Is there anything else I can use? Sometimes I use my phone while I'm away, but... I can't type a whole document on my phone."

...Her head raised, an idea coming to her. 

"...Can I?"

With a slight nod, her glasses rematerialized from behind her ears, resting on the bridge of her nose. The lenses lit up with the familiar UI of her smartphone.

"Ohhh, is this like Google Glass or something??" Nikki muttered, astonished. She felt like she understood how this thing worked implicitly, like the instructions were in her head. Her eyes focused on the screens, feeling a sense of control as she navigated the menus through thoughts alone.

"Completely handsfree too... oh, here's my word processor." 

She opened up an empty document, staring at it for a spell. She scowled, stuck on that familiar helpless feeling of having a whole lot of work ahead of her.

"Where was I at before? I guess I should get the outline figured out- whoa!"

Just as soon as she had the idea in her mind, words began to fill the screen. She remembered her general lesson plan she had started earlier, and recreated it with remarkable precision. She didn't know how she was typing all this; it was like the program understood her thoughts, and recognized everything as inputs. 

"J-Jeez, how fast is my WPM now?" Nikki smirked. "This is gonna be easy!"

Even on a phone's microcosm of a word processor, information carried itself cleanly from her mind to the screen; she felt effortlessly connected and efficient, and it was strangely empowering. Whatever she thought of, she could do! 

What would've taken her hours to slave over through navigating a cramped phone keyboard had been accomplished in a fraction of the time! And other functions of the old processor seemed to carry over too...

"I think I'm done. Maybe I can just email this to his assistant? She's always a good sport about this..."

With a flutter of her eyelashes, Nikki shifted to the mail app, prepared the documentation as an attachment, and sent a memo, all in a matter of seconds. This all felt so familiar to her, like the automated process just came naturally. She couldn't help but enjoy the newfound efficiency she had.

...She thought about this whole strange situation some more. Maybe she didn't just eat her phone. Maybe she integrated with it. Like she had with all of her silverware. 

"B-But a smartphone is... it's really complicated, right? How could I even come close to emulating how it works?" Nikki frowned, somewhat troubled. She remembered all its contents so clearly now; those artificial memories might as well be real memories to her now.

Or maybe she was becoming increasingly artificial, or synthetic... the more she thought about it, the more troubling it sounded. 

"Maybe it's better I don't think about this too much. Being part smartphone is... good. Convenient. Better." She nodded, content to drop the issue for now.

The important thing was that she got her homework done nice and early, and now she had her whole night ahead of her. She could think of resting up, but she didn't feel any sort of fatigue. She wished she could talk to Brad about this. But it was getting late, and Brad probably figured she was still sick. 

So, Nikki was left to her own devices. Her twintails writhed anxiously as she silently mulled her options. The ambient pittering of water in her shower filled the quiet of the apartment...

"...shit, I left the shower running." Nikki cursed under her breath and hurried along to the bathroom. Reaching for the door handle, it rattled in her hand. In her rush, she forgot she had left it locked as part of the whole Brad scheme. Clicking her tongue, she raised her hand, now assuming a familiar, silvery tendril, and slid through the frame, unlocking it quickly from inside. With a shlorp, she retracted it, and swung the door open.

She was immediately hit with a blast of hot, muggy steam. The bathroom had fogged up. The showerhead was running the same brownish water that came from her faucet; Nikki observed this water with a pang of surprise.

"Crap, is that gonna rust up the bathroom?" Forgetting herself, Nikki lurched forward for the handle, feeling a rush as her silvery arm had a brush with the stream of iron-infused water. She bit her lip as the familiar pleasant feeling washing over her, her thirsty body yearning for the contaminated water. 

The momentary distraction caused her to slip slightly, collapsing into the bathtub. While her hand managed to brush the faucet's handle just enough to turn off the water, Nikki fell head first. Instead of being met with a forceful clang, however, her body deformed, wetly slapping against the porcelain. Her clothes and skin melted away, defaulting to a blob of mercurial mass that wobbled in the bathtub. 

It writhed as Nikki tried to collect her bearings, before silently reforming into a recognizable human form. Nikki rubbed her head, feeling her backside absorbing puddles of metallic water. She looked over herself once more, her eyes following the curves of her body that reflected the illumination of the light fixtures above. Her now naked form hugged the sides of the bathtub, squishing her hips and thighs just right. Her blue eyes fluttered as she lowered a hand to run along her silvery limbs.

They were so smooth... soft, even. Maybe the heat of the shower steam was getting to her. She tilted her head, eyeballing the filtered water seeping from her that trickled towards the shower drain. She scrunched her toes anxiously, scooching back to avoid the pull of the drainage piping. 

"Maybe I should get some shuteye... I got morning classes at McDaniels." She cocked her head to the side. At this time she usually tried to get a night-time jog, but... this night had been terribly stressful for so many reasons. She absentmindedly rubbed her buxom, her liquidy body sloshing in the bathtub. 

Lost in her introspective thoughts, she didn't notice one of her hair tendrils snaking upwards towards the faucet handle. 

"Mm? ...W-Wait, don't-"

But when she noticed something was off, out of the corner of her eye, it was already too late.

Fshhhh! With a turn of the handle, the gentle stream of brownish water sprayed from the showerhead once more, hitting Nikki's shimmering skin once more. The euphoric sensation of absorption hit her once more as the water showered her perky chest, pooling in her cleavage as she leaned back. 

"Hnnn... n-no, this is..."

She could hardly stifle her moans as she felt her body absorbing the concentrated amounts of metal from the untreated well-water hitting her body and entering it. Ripples cascaded along her smooth body as her body absorbed the iron; her legs squished together as she felt filtered, clean water dribble out in a gentle stream from between her vaginal lips. 

Her breath was hot, and the steam that weighed in the air hovered all around her as she writhed in pleasure. 

"I-I'm gonna keep growing if I... I..." Nikki stirred, hugging her breasts. "...wait."

She took a steady breath, and looked over her figure. Aside from her peculiar method of consumption, it didn't seem like there was nearly enough metal contamination in the water to present an appreciable difference in her size. At least, she didn't feel any different.

She shifted in the tub, her thighs producing a shrill squeaking sound as they rubbed against the porcelain. She grimaced. 

"...I don't think I showered after the gym, but..."

She wondered if this was necessary, but decided it would be better to err on the side of caution. Nikki cautiously drew the curtains and wobbled to her feet. She reached for her shampoo—coconut oil with hints of kiwi—spurted a handful into her palm, and tried for a quick lather...

She scrubbed... and scrubbed... and scrubbed some more...

"...Hrm..."

She frowned, redoubling her efforts. But there wasn't anything to be done; in her current form, her hair was merely an extension of her globbinous body, a solid mass instead of a bed of hair strands. And she only really knew how to change her appearance on a surface level. So the soapy bubbles failed to properly adhere to her hair, and simply drifted downwards along her swaying curves, flowering smoothly down to the floor of the tub. 

She rubbed her head as the last of the shampoo lazily drifted down her body without the aid of rinsing. She reached for a bar of soap, and tried to scrub herself down, but... her body was too smooth, and it was hard to maintain leverage. Not to mention, her boneless body yielded to the slightest pressure, throwing off her balance. Any soapy suds she produced lazily drifted down her body.

"Haaa... this is pointless." Nikki sighed, reaching for the faucet to turn off the waterflow. No point applying skincare product to something that couldn't charitably be called skin. She looked around her body, watching beads of water lazily stream down her shoulders and across her tummy.

She reached for a towel and dabbed herself off. Her water retention was minor at best, and drying off was a trivial affair. 

"...Mm..."

She looked over herself with some degree of trepidation. All the inconveniences of human life appeared to be a thing of the past to her. In her silvery, mercurial form, she looked sleek, shiny, eye-catching. An ideal version of herself, what with her perfect, shapely curves. 

No dandruff to worry about, no peeling skin, no acne, no grease, no sweaty armpits. It all sounded great, but in the end, it felt like she lost something in the process. A pang of nostalgia hit her. She wondered if she would ever again feel the sensation of hitting a runner's high after a good jog around the block. 

The thought weighed heavily on her, and she frowned to herself, lowering her towel. She groaned, fidgeting with the towel. The beads of water that settled on her form were mopped up without issue, and she looked herself over in the mirror one more time. 

"...I'm not gonna let this... this thing get the better of me." Nikki muttered, hanging the towel against the door. "And I'm not gonna let it get in the way of the things I wanna do."

She glanced to the door, and then back to the mirror. With a mental nod, her appearance shifted, her silvery exterior giving way to flesh and a familiar track suit. Her favourite.

The weather outside was perfect for a run. And she felt like she was getting a handle on this thing to try heading outside. 

---

Spiralling down the stairwell and out the backdoor, Nikki began her reps along the streets. She hurried along at a brisk pace down the empty streets, keeping to the sidewalks. For the odd person she passed by, she gave them a wide berth; she didn't want to get found out for any irregularities. 

She thought she was passing for normal just fine. Her mind was working to avoid anyone she might recognize. But she was out later than she would've liked, and many people were tucked away inside, or getting ready for bed. She didn't expect to encounter anyone she knew.

Just as well, she could feel her body shifting with every step she took. Her shapely curves was doing a number on her, and her breasts and ass kept bouncing all over the place. She worried she would start chafing at any moment, but this concern seemed to be unfounded. Actually, she was so focused on that sensation that she forgot one important detail...

"...Ah! Shoot-"

She stumbled to a stop, placing a hand on her chest. Of course, she didn't feel a pulse; she realized she wasn't even breathing, and anaerobic management was kind of important when long-distance running was concerned. She grimaced, her eyes glancing back and forth to see if anyone caught her. 

She tried to breathe in, then out. It didn't seem to have any real effect on her, but keeping up appearances was going to be important. That included remembering going through some of the basic motions of living. 

"Can't believe I'm doing this..." Nikki muttered to herself. Having to relearn what it was to be human wasn't something she thought would be a concern when she woke up this morning.

Nonetheless, she was nearly through the outskirts of town, and her favourite stomping grounds amidst the hilltops just outside Bismarck awaited her.  She paused, the image of the meteorite flashing through her memory that crashed near her the night prior. The thing that changed her on a molecular level...

...She scowled, reaffirming her commitment to not change her routine. She redoubled her pace—rather effortlessly, it felt like—and made for the hills. The pavement beneath her feet gave way to dirt and gravel, and then cut grass thereafter. The scent of the twilit dew hung gently in the air. It was an invigorating feeling.

"H-Hoo..." The night air was somewhat chilly to Nikki. She had forgotten that her skin and her clothes were one and the same; she was essentially running naked through the night, though no bystander would ever catch onto that. 

She staggered to a halt, still full of pent-up energy, as she finished scaling the hill above. She glanced up towards the night sky, and then all around her. This was the same hill that she scaled the night before. It was actually a tricky climb back then, but tonight she didn't feel a hint of soreness. 

Nikki looked down to her shoes, and reckoned she could keep going. She wondered if she could keep going all night; she was full of energy she wanted to channel into activity. 

"...?"

But she paused. Out of the corner of her eye, there was a faint yellow light—seemingly reflecting the light of the moon from above. She focused her attention in that direction.

...Even from her distance from a while other hill, she recognized it as yellow police tape. Actually, she remembered that hill; that was where the meteorite made impact the previous night. 

Her eyes widened, and her curiosity was piqued. She hurried over to see what all the hubbub was about. 

There weren't many people on the scene. At the foot of the hill, she passed a black sedan, and slowed her pace to a careful walk, eyeballing it uncertainly. She began to hike up the hill, towards the faintly illuminated yellow police tape. 

There wasn't a lot that was different from before. Actually, there weren't many people left behind. Aside from the police tape, there were only two people, both wearing slick black suits. It was hard to get a read on them through their shades. Nikki's mouth flattened slightly, wondering how easy it was to wander at night wearing sunglasses.

They seemed to be in the middle of a conversation, and Nikki was around to catch a bit of it. 

"Dunno what we're doing out here..." One of them muttered in a gruff voice, adjusting his shades. His blonde hair was cleanly shaven, resembling a military haircut. He looked like a bodyguard in that getup; Nikki figured if he took a bullet for the president, it'd bounce right off his chest.

"Command said it landed out here." A woman across from him, her black hair done up in a tight ponytail. "You got any better ideas?"

Nikki's eyes widened. What did they mean "it landed out here"? They couldn't mean the meteorite... but what else could it be?

"Whatever it is, it ain't here, B. We scoped this place out." The man groaned, casting a flashlight across the grounds. 

"Looks like it. Think we got enough to go on, just work on the report." The woman referred to as B nodded, before turning around. It was then that she noticed Nikki, not far behind them.

"...Mm? Who exactly are you?" B adjusted her glasses. 

"Ah! I-I didn't go beyond the tape, see!?" Nikki pointed it out as she sputtered out her response. "I-I didn't mean to interfere or nothin', I... I'm Nikki Armitage!"

"...Going out on a run?" B inquired, her voice a low growl. "Alone? At this hour?"

"I-I... I could never get a running partner..." Nikki admitted sheepishly. This wasn't necessarily a lie, but... she didn't exactly want to be transparent about her alien condition.

B regarded Nikki quizzically, staring her down with unseen eyes, before raising her head. "Ain't safe to be running out at this hour alone. Go home." B ordered, motioning for Nikki to run off. 

"...A-ah, right, I was just... thinking of heading right back!" Nikki nodded. She was getting a bad feeling from the people in the black suits, and she had a hunch she shouldn't be sticking around any longer.

"If you check out your YWCA, you'll probably be able to find a running partner there. Stay safe." B nodded, before turning her back to Nikki. 

"R-Right, I'll just... leave you to your police work!!" Nikki stammered, turning to head off. She glanced over her shoulder once, twice, and then three times, before hurrying off. 

"Who was that?" The man regarded B with a tinge of concern.

"No one important. We should get packed up and go, T. There isn't anything left to look at. And the reception is terrible." She folded her arms.

"But... meteorites don't just grow legs and walk away." T scratched his head. 

"...Hrm." B made a disconcerting sound, raising her head to the stars above. The night sky reflected elegantly in her reflective shades. 

"...Looks like we still got work to do."

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