3G: the Glowing Green Goo

Zax belatedly realised how the situation appeared from outside.

A talent for analysing and orienting mutations was one thing. Making the 3G do what the subject wanted and bypass the price was another entirely.

Zweikora-zon and Pimp wouldn't care both Migo and he nearly died in the process.

He should consider they could tell when he lied too. He had to thread carefully.

"Sort of, but not really? It probably used all the 3G we had in us. And I had a lot of it, accumulated from a lifetime without activating." Not sure it had helped, but it was worth mentioning. From the lack of reaction, Pimp had already briefed Zweikora-zon about his special situation. "Probably destroyed every nanites too, and those are hard to make."

Wait, what? It's true, but the messages? Did my nanites survive? But then-

Zax shook the thought for later. He had more urgent to focus on.

"I think it only worked so well because we're so close and he was already dying. I nearly died too. I remember… my body melting." Distress shook his voice despite his efforts. It was genuine. "I- We- It was… terrifying." His haunted gaze needed no effort.

Migo tried to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he was still unused to his new appendages. It resulted in an awkward grabbing shove, with claws lightly piercing skin. It helped.

Zax shook his head and went back to his defence:

"So, not free, and a lot of preparation. Plus, I never wanted to be green, and I'm pretty sure the pod didn't care about blood. Mutations perhaps pushed by immediate need? The pod was damaged; it got better at self-repair. Migo and I were irradiated; we're healthy now. Then a mix and match between us? I got the pod's colour and part of Migo's legs. Migo got my human posture. Meaning at least bone and muscle structure. Those mutations seem mostly random. That he got something he already wanted is more incidental than anything. I've wanted anything most of my life, and the pod… Did it mutate something else?"

He focused his eyes back on the audience. They ignored the question.

"You were irradiated?" Pimp caught.

"I was." Zax nodded. "I sneaked without the suit."

"Why?" Zweikora-zon frowned. Her first display of emotion.

"Because there was no turning back." Zax's voice echoed with resolution. "Either I succeeded, or we died together. There was no other option. That's also why I didn't tell anyone. It was a risk, but I had to try, and I didn't want to risk you telling me no or trying to stop me."

Also, to make their physical conditions as similar as possible, but such detail was best kept to himself.

Zweikora-zon took one step forward. That one step carried the weight a mountain.

"What did you do?" She asked. Her tone was normal, but her eyes made it clear no nonsense, diversion or deception would go past her or be tolerated.

"I-" Zax's voice derailed. The swallowed nothing and tried again. "I used nano-technology and our natural connection to force an activation, then tried and failed to push it to heal him. I thought it was working at first, but it nearly killed us both."

It was true.

"I have no idea how we ended up… that." He gestured at their brand-new bodies.

Also true. He could not access the logs for some reason, and his memory was fuzzy at best.

"The one thing I know for certain is that I don't regret it. My friend was in danger, and I had to try everything I could even if there was a risk."

Still true. The steel in his voice and his eyes attested to it. He didn't see behind him, Migo's ears, shoulders and tail dropped under guilt.

Zweikora-zon and Pimp stared at him for a few second, as if pressing for the next part, but he had said his piece. They turned their eyes at each other.

"Deal on." The reptilian Explorer stated placidly before leaving the room.

"What deal?" Zax queried. Migo's gaze followed his to his boss.

"It means we believe you, and we believe whatever you did, it wasn't on purpose. It'll have consequences regardless." The hooved man sighed. "Come now. Both of you. Since you can walk, let's leave those beds. You can use real ones now."

The pair of survivors unconsciously perked up at the reminder. Even a beanbag felt more attractive than another night in the environmental box. For all its qualities, it was certainly an effective non-lethal way to motivate its user to mutate into not needing it anymore. Zax and Migo had to support each other in their trudge, under the amused but sympathetic smiles of whoever they crossed path with. Migo leaned harder; his gait had changed the most and he was still too weak to hold steady on his own.

"Just eat and rest for now." Pimp ordered, nodding to a large mattress in a corner of the backroom. "You can start working again tomorrow. It'll help you adjust to your new physique. What you can and can't handle anymore. Not the best way to do it, but we're still on schedule. You," He pointedly started at the wolf-man. "will rest a few more days. Get used to standing up. Then try to be useful."

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Where he was casually dismissive of Migo before, ignoring his mere existence, he was now strangely passive-aggressive.

Did something happen between them?

Zax set the weakened wolf-man on the empty mattress and went to his belongings. He started with clothes, because pockets. As he did so, he tried to examine his nanites' log again, but nothing came. His HUD was working fine albeit stuck in simplified mode, so the machines were there and working, but they did not react any of his commands.

Worrying, but he would have been more wary if the experiment had not had any consequence.

Still inconvenient though.

He would have to examine them from outside, in his lab.

Before that, he brought Migo his voice collar. It would help with communication. He didn't expect the wolf to reject it. He was too exhausted from the short strut to actually resist, but he made his displeasure clear anyway. Zax had an inkling about his reason though, and hastened it on his wrist instead; an improved bracelet.

Migo's nanites didn't react to Zax's many attempt to connect, but fortunately the collar was already fitted with a pack of pre-programmed nanites. They infused and set normally, which confirmed the wolf's previous infusion had been destroyed.

They exchanged a few banalities, mostly to confirm the collar was functioning as it should. It immediately did, which revealed his neural mapping had not changed. Despite the deep changes in his body, Migo's brain – and self – had not been affected.

Probably significant.

The drained wolf soon fell asleep. His resting position was the same as in his quadrupedal form. Zax also noted their frame and bulk were close. Uncannily close.

One more point toward the blueprint exchange theory.

The idea of sharing and transferring kept poking at his mind. It simply wouldn't leave him. It was not about their mass, however. Not only. As he dwelled on it, a headache was forming and quickly growing. He shook the thought off. He couldn't afford to be incapacitated now; he had matters to take care of.

First order of business: his nanites. He was eager to make his own template, and he needed them to work.

He felt fine and the doctor hadn't spotted anything weird, but something was definitely off with his helpers. The mere fact they had survived the experiment for a start, even if not entirely intact. Adding the messy messages when he woke up, his inability to access the back-office, the failure to connect to Migo's new nanites…

A basic scan confirmed nanites were still present in his body.

Electric current showed they were active.

Blood drop analysis showed no free nanites.

First clear anomaly. Most of the in-cells needed in-bloods to communicate. Their range was too limited otherwise.

Precision scan showed nanites in his cells. They had the right shape and orientation. No obvious damage to their structure.

Conclusion so far: the nanites in his cells had survived, somehow, but not the ones outside, in his blood, his lymphatic system, his inter-cellular matrix, or any stored in natural cavities.

What a waste.

It made the in-cells unusable, but it shouldn't impair his access. That part relied on the in-brains, where the cells were close enough nanites could communicate on their own.

Therefore, the next tests focused on his brain. He was as thorough as he could with the equipment at his disposal. The results were as perplexing as they were reassuring. It was the same in his brain as in the rest of his body; active and intact nanites in the cells, but not out. You didn't want out-cell nanites in that part of your body.

He poked around with his HUD, but his nanites behaved exactly as they should. Better, actually. Their currents harmonised with his brain activity even better than before, and he was already breaking records with his years of experience. The lack of interference should make them more effective than ever.

In the end, he found no material reason for their partial disfunction. If the hardware was fine, it had to be a software issue.

Those were the trickiest, and he didn't have what he needed most to detect or repair this kind of issue; an objective, external view. A separate computer.

The fastest option would be to infuse himself with a new set of nanites, its own computer with all the right functions, but he wanted to ascertain his nanites' status before. What if the green in his skin was some sort of acid that would destroy them? What if the old set had been infected with a contagious glitch? Or a virus?

It was unlikely, but there was no reason to risk it if he could help it. He regretted not having any C-nanites left, their build-in safeties were no joke and would have taken care of such issues.

When making new nanites, he usually copied programs and tools saved in his own. More convenient. As such, he had only asked Pimp for a low performance computer when they had made his workspace, and even then it had only been intended as a fallback option in case the Black Market couldn't provide.

He had simply copied everything he had in bulk and left it at that. Proper installation and organisation took longer than he liked, but he eventually had it plugged to an appropriate scanner and ready to go.

I already miss the neural interface.

He scanned his left arm first. His first impression had been wrong; his nanites were technically connected. They could exchange signals. Not between each other, their range was still the same, but communication with other devices was still possible. Should be, at least.

What is that?

They did send something; it was simply… wrong. The frequency was offset, the intensity was off, the sequences were jumbled. The patterns didn't appear random, but they made no sense. None he could discern anyway.

Examining the rest of his body showed identical results, at every scale. Only when he examined inside his skull, where they could react to each other and not only his devices, did it dawn on him. As senseless as the exchanges seemed, they fit together. Sections reacted to each other, like computer parts. A different computer than the one he had spent years with.

A new computer speaking in a new code.

My nanites are talking in a foreign language.

It didn't make sense, but the expert could not see it differently. He didn't know what to make of it.

You'd think I was used to it by now.

He was not.

How was it possible? Were they… processing? Calculating something? Doing something?

They were everywhere in his body. For the first time in years, the thought worried him.

At least new nanites should not be affected. The two sets wouldn't understand each other. The only interactions would be purely physical, like two computers in the same case. It would make extraction a pain, but still possible.

With this conclusion, he didn't waste any time infusing himself with a new batch. only ordinary nanites were left. It was a step down, but they were more familiar to him. Comforting, in a way. Silver lining.

Zax proceeded piece by piece, injecting one organ and limb after the other, watching carefully for any unbecoming behaviour. He found none. They set in perfectly, as if they had a place waiting for them. The former set didn't affect them in any way. He was not sure it was normal.

He let go of a deep breath he hadn't noticed he was holding. His body had changed, his nanites had changed, but he was back in familiar territory. He stopped fighting the smile growing on his face.

For the first time since he woke up, he allowed his excitement to rise on the surface.

Let's see what's going on in there.