Melty Mercury from Outer Space: Chapter 3
Added 2019-10-18 16:40:08 +0000 UTCSummary: 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.
Chapter 3
The Energetix Gym wasn't a long walk away from Nikki's apartment complex. She was something of a regular at the place, just for ease of convenience. One could hardly call it a state of the art facility; it seemed like every piece of equipment was a hand-me-down from some place or another, and the general repair of the machines available left something to be desired. Still, Nikki was not even a year into her journey as a fitness junkie, and she had yet to try out everything.
Nikki swung the front door decisively, strutting in like she owned the place. She waved to Rousseau, the receptionist whom she was on a first name basis with.
"Hey Rousseau!" Nikki hollered. "Yoga moms giving you any trouble this week?"
"...Eh, Nikki! Long time no see, girl!" He waved back with his best take on a receptionist smile. "Hope you weren't skipping leg day all this time!"
"What? Psh, you've seen me at the benches." Nikki scoffed, leaning over the desk. "Hey, buddy, how long're they planning on keeping you cooped up at this desk?"
"Aaaah, 'til they get a real hire, I'm just coverin'." Rousseau laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Manager'll hire you in a heartbeat if you ask!"
"Seriously? I don't go to the gym to vegetate in front of a computer." Nikki teased Rousseau with a wink. "Get some neck stretches in, can't go cramping your neck."
"Heh, yeah, yeah..." Rousseau chuckled, swiveling his chair towards the computer. Nikki headed through the doors to the back, out to the primary gym floor.
The gym was a modest size, only about two thousand square feet. Clunky looking machines dotted the grounds. Nikki took in the sights with a hint of bemusement, her eyes landing on an exercise machine.
She examined it a little more closely. The gym bragged as part of its sales pitch that they use the same equipment Olympic athletes use for conditioning. It's not a lie, technically speaking; there were Olympic athletes competing back in 1976, of course.
The musk of sweat and tears hung heavily in the open chamber. To Nikki, it was rather invigorating!
She eagerly sought out the nearest treadmill, looking to get her sets in while the day was young. It was one of those fancier machines that told you everything you needed. It could tell you the distance you travelled, your current heart rate, the calories you were burning... you could even customize the incline for a more difficult hike! It was Nikki's favourite; after all the shit she had to deal with outside of the gym, it was right and proper to treat herself.
The treadmill hummed and, with careful inputs on Nikki's part, whirred to life. Nikki reached for the handrails, and got to work. This routine had her alternating between walking and running speeds, with varying inclines to mix things up. As she understood, mixing it up was a more efficient way to work your metabolism...
Fifteen minutes passed, and Nikki was feeling pretty good. She felt like she was hardly breaking a sweat, even though her peachy skin gave off a dazzling shine from the lights above. Between jogging reps, she glanced over to the monitors to see where her heartbeat was at. She need to be nestled in a good range and not overwork herself...
"...Huh?" Nikki blinked, tilting her head. "Zero? My heartbeat isn't zero... ugh, c'mon." She poked the monitor forcefully, hoping to sort it out with a slight show of force... only to find that the workout machine was speeding up for a jogging session that she wasn't prepared for.
"Wh-whoa, shit-"
Nikki's hands scrambled for the bars as her legs got tied up, slipping out from underneath her. Her center of gravity shifted further and further behind her, and her face was rapidly lowering to the grungy treadmill until...
Thunk! Nikki ended up faceplanting just underneath the handlebars, sprawling and flailing into a mass of limbs as the treadmill spat her back out. This attracted the attention of more than a few nearby bodybuilders, eyeballing the sight of the woman getting tossed around. A few scoffed and rolled their eyes, before returning to their own sets.
Nikki groaned, covering her eyes. The way the light was shining, it was so bright. Even closing her eyes didn't seem to help; instead of a comforting blackness, it was bright blue. And now she was sore all over...
"Oi! Nikki! What're you doing down there!?"
Nikki opened her right eye, peeking out to see a well-built man towering over him. An empathetic look of concern creased his chiseled cheeks; he was built like a goddamn Adonis, and looked like he could bench press a school bus. His shirt, picked up from a concert hall of some metal band, barely fit him.
Usually, the sight of such a hulking figure, particularly from Nikki's current angle, would be cause for concern... but Nikki simply rolled her eyes.
"S'not like I wanna be down here, Brad... gimme a hand, wouldja?" Nikki's head turned to the side, weakly extending a hand upwards.
"Yeah yeah, here." Brad took Nikki's hand in turn, hoisting her to her feet. The height difference between the two was almost comedic; Nikki stood at only 5'1, whereas Brad towered her at a solid 6'5. He smirked, rubbing his gleamingly bald head.
"Hey, nice job with the hair. Barely recognized you from behind." Brad complemented her with a nod.
"Heh, thanks. I dunno why, I just felt like trying something new..." Nikki blushed slightly, glowing in the praise. "It's really not that big a change."
"Actually, now that I'm getting a better look at you... are those colour contacts?" Brad squinted, leaning a little closer.
"...Um?" Nikki blinked. "What do you mean? I'm not wearing any kind of contacts..."
"Huh. Coulda fooled me. Your eyes are way bluer than I remembered." Brad examined her closely. "...Maybe it's a trick of the light, I dunno."
"...Huh." Nikki didn't have any comment. She read somewhere that, rarely, eyes change colour all on their own. Actually, now that she thought about it, she ended up forgetting her glasses entirely. And they were prescription too, for correcting her near-sightedness. She never heard of sight getting better, on all its own over time...
"I didn't change that much, believe me." Nikki murmured, turning to avoid eye-contact. "You don't have to get so gawky."
"Well, don't forget, it's been a while! You forget how to use a treadmill or something?" "His pierced eyebrow perked up, looking down at Nikki.
"I-it's not my fault! The dumb thing's broken or something. Can't even read a heart rate right." Nikki pouted, folding her arms. "It's like everything here's about to break down..."
"Really? Coulda sworn Gus got it shipped in earlier this year..." Brad casually looked over the machine with a quizzical expression.
"...Eh. Some of the guys get rough with the equipment." He shrugged, turning to Nikkia. "Anyway, good to see ya, girl! Keeping up with things on your end?" He grinned jovially.
"Yeah, I went on a run through the hills last night. I'm telling ya, it feels great! Leaves you more than a little sore though, going up and down all the slopes..." She rubbed her neck.
"Ah, you can take it. Shorty like you ain't got a lot to carry around, right?" Brad smirk, inviting a sharp look from Nikki.
"Hey, we can't all be built-up meatheads! If you wanna try it yourself, be my guest!" Nikki scoffed. "You'd tucker yourself out in five minutes, I bet."
"Oh, is that the sound of you extendin' an invite?" Brad rubbed his chin. "Can always use a running buddy..."
"Eh? Um..." Nikki fidgeted slightly. "I-I didn't mean for it when it was coming out, but... if you really wanted, it's not bad at all, really!"
"I'd take you up on it, if I wasn't opening up the gym early. A body like mine needs a biiiit more time t' get the kinks out, y'know?" Brad rotated his arm in a flex.
"Pfft. You know there's not gonna be anyone around to show off to at that hour, right?" Nikki rolled her eyes with a smirk.
"Aw, don't give me that. You got me worried about you, y'know?" Brad's expression went neutral, turning his back as if to examine the machine more closely. "Just wanna make sure you don't go running off again."
"Seriously? What, you planning on stalking me or something?" Now Nikki's tone was growing a little suspicious, leering in Brad's general direction. "I'm surprised, Brad. You don't have to be so sneaky about it."
"What!? No, don't get it twisted!" Brad's face flushed. "S'just kinda, weird! You were gone for so long, I figured another gym went and picked you up..."
"Oh, you worry too much... I'm nothing if not loyal~" Nikki laughed. "Okay, enough about me, how's life on your end?"
"Ahh, not much," Brad shrugged. "I took last night to build a new treehouse for Snickers."
"Oh! Your cat!!" Nikki's eyes lit up immediately, cozying up to Brad. "You better have taken pics! They sustaaain me!"
"H-hey, not so close! Alright, alright, fine... you know I upload these pics on my Twitter, right?"
"Mm, yeah... I dunno, I don't really wanna go out of my way to make one. You know what they do with your data?" Nikki's eyes widened in fear. "O-oh, what if they came and repossessed your cats or something?"
"...What?" Brad's eyebrow perked up.
"It could happen! Did you even read the terms and conditions!?" Nikki blurted, holding her hands to her chest.
"...No..." Brad droned, taking out his phone and performing a handful of swiping gestures across the screen. "I mean, Snickers is a great model, but I don't think Twitter could handle being her manager."
"Pfft, right. I forgot, you had, like, three cats all on your own." Nikki leaned closer. "How do you handle it?"
"They kinda take care of themselves. Honestly, it's the dogs that are high maintenance. Or just birds, hoo. They scream and shit everywhere..." Brad sighed.
A few moments later, Brad brought up the page in question, and turned his smartphone over to Nikki so she could look it over.
"Kyaaa! She's precious! I love her little brown splotches over her face, and her paws!" Nikki was crying out with joy, she could hardly contain herself. "Such a sassy wassy look on her face, she's so frickin cuuuute!~"
Nikki cooed over the phone, hunched over to get a closer look. Brad was used to this sort of reaction, but he had to bring it back a notch.
"Hehe, hey, girl, we can watch more vids later, but I think we both got stuff to finish first?" Brad laughed.
"...Oh, right. Gotta put my membership to use..." Nikki admittedly, a little disappointed she wouldn't get to see more of Snickers.
"Hey, we still on for dinner at 8?" Brad asked, fingergunning in Nikki's general direction; this invited a conflicted look from Nikki, breathing inwardly.
"Aaaah, something came up. I-it's a school thing. The principal's got me in a vice over some paperwork, so I gotta set some time to get it done..." Nikki explained. "I'm really sorry, I promise I'm not leading you on, but-"
"Eh, say no more, say no more." Brad shook his head. "Shit comes up. We'll raincheck it; just don't get into trouble with your boss on my account, okay?"
"...Hehe." Nikki chuckled, and nodded in turn. "I won't. Promise~"
"Meanwhile, you're not gonna think mean thoughts if I go do some personal training with a lady client, right...?" Brad gestured behind him.
"Aaaaah, we're barely dating." Nikki shrugged. "If you hit it off, we can go on a double date. I'll bring Rousseau along, he loves Italian."
"Ha! You let him know about your big plans?" Brad's eyebrow perked up.
"I'm working out the deets, just keep it between you and me for now..." Nikki played along with a wink.
...As least as long as the two of them could manage, before bursting into laughter. This invited some strange looks, and more than a few eyerolls, from the other people working out.
With a mutual agreement between them, Nikki and Brad went their separate ways. Nikki had her own exercise regimen to get through...
---
Nikki had energy to spare today, and what she planned to be a 45 minute session at the gym stretched to a full hour! Today was shoulder day, so she made sure to get the right stretches in; she made good use of the dumb bells off to the side, and she could really feel the muscles developing in her arms.
All things considered, it was a pretty good day. And she didn't even break a sweat! The adrenaline was definitely doing its part to distract her from all the crummy news she had to deal with prior. She wondered if she could jog right home as well.
Heading to the changing rooms, she hurried to her locker and shuffled through her bag, a cursory glance at her phone to check the time. It was only 2:30pm, which meant she had enough time to head back and bang off all the paperwork.
With a contented smile, she pocketed her phone. If she hurried, she could figure some kind of fallback dinner arrangement with Brad. Thai sounded like a good idea...
Gurgle.
A sharp pain shot through her gut as she mused about her options, and she clutched her belly with a pained expression; she instinctively crossed her legs. This couldn't be her time of the month, could it? She wasn't due for another two weeks!
She felt a horrible, noxious feeling something awful welling up within her. She eyeballed a nearby bathroom stall and hobbled over. A sharp CLANG! echoed through the bathroom as her right sneaker collided with an errant plumbing wrench left in the stall. She hissed in pain, before hunching over the toilet bowl.
"HAAAH..."
She dry-heaved into the toilet bowl, over and over. It felt like something inside her wanted out, but it wasn't coming out. A feverish condition came over her whole body once more, and the wells of strength that bubbled within her a few seconds ago dissipated in a smog of feverish illness. She was panting, trying to stay cool. She momentarily thought about dipping her head in the toilet bowl, if that's what it took to cool down!
Her body was trembling, overworking, and quickly fatiguing itself, her body aflush with a familiar, awful feeling... Her kneeling legs drifted apart as she weakly slumped to the floor. Her body tilted to the side and, with a dull thud, her head collided with the side of the stall.
She passed out once again, caught in a kneeling position, sandwiched in a stall that was a bit too narrow. While the door was closed behind her, and offered her privacy... it would not prepare her for what had yet to come.
---
Nikki woke up in a dark, lonely place. It was chillingly familiar. She remembered the emptiness, the isolation... the stark absence of light, of warmth.
Nikki was sobbing. She didn't understand why. She felt naked, exposed, vulnerable. A terror gripped her that she could not put into words. Or perhaps the words were on the tip of her tongue, but she could not recall them. She was wrapped up in her own intense emotions, she couldn't see anything else.
Curled into a fetal position, she pulled at her hair, burying her head into her lap. No matter what positive she took, a pervasive iciness chilled her to the bone. She was shivering, aching, for anyone to find her. But in this lonely dimension, there was no one like her.
So she sobbed, alone, surrounded by a veil of darkness. She could hardly move.
"...ah..."
Suddenly, Nikki felt something. A presence. A warmth. It wasn't something she recognized, but yet it felt strangely familiar. And it was close by.
Nikki lowered her hands to look ahead. Her breath caught in her throat at the strange sight.
It was a humanoid entity. Comparable in size to Nikki herself. Something about it felt familiar, deep within Nikki... but its appearance wasn't like anything Nikki had seen. It was oblique and featureless, lacking a face to imprint on. And, most peculiarly, it was comprised, head to foot, of a silvery substance that seemed to swirl and move all on its own.
It should've come off as creepy to Nikki. It was odd, then, that to Nikki, the entity was a source of comfort. Something to stave off the crippling loneliness of the voice. Perhaps the dreamscape all around her was influencing her better judgment as well.
Nikki and the humanoid moved closer to each other, almost magnetically drawn to one another. Nikki, exposed as she was, willingly welcomed the intimacy of the creature. She leaned forward to embrace it, her pained sobs subsiding into tears of relief. She wanted something to hold out here.
Why was this feeling of isolation so pervasive to Nikki? It's not like she didn't have friends, and it's not like she didn't stay in touch with the folks. She didn't know; all she knew at this moment was that she felt like there was a hole in her heart.
As their bodies pressed together, Nikko noted the texture of the humanoid's skin. It was soft and smooth, yet it possessed a rigidity that could support her. It was deeply comforting. As they pressed their bodies closer together, the creature had brushed against Nikki's chest, her stomach... and her labia.
Her eyes widened and a blush overcame her expression. Another urge welled up from within her, one of a sort of carnal hunger...
She spread her legs apart, inviting the humanoid a better look. She wordlessly communicated her intent—as if a mental link had been formed between the two. Something about it felt right.
"C'mon..." Nikki whispered under her breath. The creature pressed closer against Nikki; its humanoid form losing definition as it pulsed with life. Nikki could feel an intrusion against her labia, a tendril forming to snake along her inner walls, reaching deeper and deeper.
Nikki craned her head back, her hands gripping the floor around her. She let out a moan of intimate pleasure, biting her lip. This felt right, but moreover, it felt good. The protrusion inside her ebbed and flowed with power, gyrating her hips. With each thrust, she could feel herself being filled up more and more by a weighty, powerful force.
"Ughn..." She uttered. "Brad..."
...She paused, the sexual haze subsiding momentarily. Why did she mention his name? She remembered what he looked like, and this wasn't him. And they were just... well, slightly more than friends, but not to this point. Not yet.
...Maybe it'd be nice if she simply pretended. The thought crossed her mind, but she subconsciously squashed it. No matter what kind of mental gymnastics she tried, this wasn't a fantasy involving Brad. This was someone... something different.
A warm feeling coursed through her entire being. One of ecstatic fullness and fulfilment. It felt amazing.
In this moment, Nikki felt inseparable from something she didn't fully comprehend. She offered her body so voluntarily to it. She wanted to be together with it, become as one. That's a nice way to think of marriage, isn't it?
A spiritual bond begets a physical bond...
Nikki... Nikki...
Nikki winced, hearing a voice in her head, calling her name over and over. And it was getting more insistent, and harder to ignore.
"NIKKI!"
And then the dream passed as quickly as it came.
---
"Nikki, are you awake? Can you hear me? Say something!"
Brad's anxious voice rang clearly in Nikki's ears as she was jostled awake. She groggily opened her eyes; her latest fever had subsided, now ebbed by a prevailing sense of exhaustion. She felt heavy and fatigued.
"...Nn... Brad?" Nikki muttered.
"Oh thank god..." Brad sighed, lowering his head in worried exhaustion.
"...That was a really nice dream too..." Nikki muttered, visibly upset at this turn of events.
