3G: the Glowing Green Goo

It took minutes before Zax's new template was complete enough to be analysed, and it was still incomplete. Only enough data to model at organ level.

He compared it to his older body templates, since the recent ones were stuck in his old nanites. The first major change was his size.

He hadn't been mistaken; he was indeed smaller. His fit and healthy 181 cm for 86 kg had melted into a scrawny 160 cm for 50 kg and some. The numbers indicated a healthy body, albeit on the slimmer side. Still, he couldn't help but feel… frail. Most of what he had lost was muscle, and it showed. He was not more nimble or faster either.

All my stats definitely lowered.

A bitter smile pushed his lips at the Aran-coloured thought.

I'll have to start physical build-up from scratch? Again.

Not only for maintenance anymore, but to get back to a level worthy of someone helping people improve their bodies as a hobby.

Besides the direct consequences on himself, the change was interesting on its own.

Growing taller or heavier, from muscles, bones or otherwise, was a common and expected phenomenon during activation. 3G makes you more, not less. The excess matter was accepted as coming from the goo itself, already present but undetectable until then. No scientific proof to support the idea, but what else was new?

Atrophy or reduction had precedents, albeit always with a related increase. Loosing fat for increased cardio or stamina. Loosing muscle volume for endurance. Losing size from increased density. Losing some of everything physical was unheard of. The scan confirmed his mental attributes hadn't been affected.

In other words, Migo's growth followed the established trends, but not Zax's shrinking. It could make sense if it was an exchange of matter and not two independent developments. It was his main theory for now, but he would need to check with Migo's new template.

The lump at the base of his spine was only cartilage, but its shape was coherent with a scaffold for a bone and muscle structure to come. A future tail. The nature of activations made it unclear if it was normal or not. Maybe the normal process had been interrupted?

Unlikely, since no one had ever been registered with something similar. New limbs or organs appeared as done, even if they had room to grow. A partial tail was common; a full tail in a single activation was the rarity, a tail not even in a vestigial stage was unheard of. So was the tail's advancement being so out of sync with the paws' or whatever feature required improved balance.

The Black Market's cosmetic grafts didn't count, for obvious reasons.

His paws were complete. The bone structure, muscle structure, nervous system, lymphatic systems, even callus-pads, everything was as it should be. A perfect example of a human paw, with no fur, scale or claw. It made them perceive as not done, but they were. It was the kind of example one only met in textbooks and never in real life.

What could that mean?

It was unheard of, but was it an improvement on the typical process, or the opposite? Did he take only the traits he needed where normal activations took more and wasted 3G, or did he fail to take as much as they naturally did? They could come from Migo, or a generic template, or something else entirely. The expert had no idea how to narrow the options down.

A change he hadn't noticed was his senses of hearing and smell. The number of sensory cells in his ears and nose had significantly increased. Not the appendages' shape however, so the difference in perception wasn't as marked as it could be, but it was there.

Maybe more was in store for them, like his tail? It was pure speculation, but something to keep in mind.

His exotic tan was due to chlorophyl, now naturally produced by mutated melanocytes in his skin. Surprising but not unexpected from the colour; nature didn't have a lot of naturally green organic substances. It was definitely abnormal, vegetal traits only appeared in the most advanced mutants. Before meeting Explorers, he had only read ancient articles on the topic.

It was not normal chlorophyl either, but a variant adapted to the ambient gamma rays. The same variant was produced by the peapod. His main goal had been accomplished with flying colours; the radiation that nearly killed his friend now partially fed him through photosynthesis. He was effectively resistant against gamma rays.

Will I get greener in higher ambient radiation level? Is there a non-lethal sunburn equivalent?

Not all his melanocytes had mutated, so he would still darken normally if exposed to normal sunlight. Dark green skin? Not important. His body blocked ultra-violet rays but absorbed gamma rays. The contradiction was obvious. Was it a hint of further changes to come? With so many signs pushing in both directions, he couldn't tell.

Finally, his scan reached the part he had the most questions about: The swarm. His old nanites.

One per cell. Intact structure, no alteration or damage of any kind. At first, they appeared simply… there. Active but unresponsive. The new, lesser nanites failed to detect anything more; they gave up with an error message. Zax took over.

He picked a few cells of different types and manually commanded the new batch to physically push the old one out. It didn't work. The cell moved with the machines, and blocking it to force them apart destroyed the cell altogether. The nanite didn't wake up, it naturally flowed to a natural excretion point. He stopped trying after only a few attempts with identical results.

It did not make sense, but the cell behaved as if its nanite was an organelle. A normal part of the cell, like a second mitochondria. For all intent and purposes, the nanites were now part of his cells. Integrated with his body at a level never seen or even theorised before.

They were not a removeable tool anymore; they were part of his body. Part of him.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Am I a cyborg?

Silly thought aside, the trick had to lay in their connection with their cells. Finally knowing where to look, Zax did more precise scans and measures.

Same result, a fat load of nothing. Whatever was happening, it was undetectable, just like…

Just like the Glowing Green Goo.

The idea was a lightning bolt. It could explain why scans didn't pick up anything. The implications… flew over his head, honestly. Too staggering.

The nanites, old and new, were fine, so this 3G should be inactive.

Or, it could be active, but the amount was not enough to disturb them.

Or it was interfering in ways never observed before.

There could be a huge amount affecting the nanites, or an infinitesimal one affecting every cell as one. Like, less than a single unit of 3G spread over his whole body. Maybe both. Somehow.

A lot for one could be negligible for the other.

Compartmentalisation.

I'm going nowhere.

As exiting as this breakthrough was, he lacked data to reach a conclusion. He could only bounce ideas in his head, and he would definitely be unable to reproduce the experiment.

Time for the next phase. Since the backup computer could connect the old batch together – the nanorganelles? The swarmnelles? The cellborgs? – his new batch should also be able to.

He put most of it to sleep and connected everything in his smallest left toe's bones.

No issue. Connection established, data exchanged, code still unreadable.

Progressively adding to it gave the same results, but the cell's activity seemed to react, somehow. Faintly at first, but more significantly as the network grew.

Once they were all connected in a single network, it was unmistakable: his cells acted like an idle batch of nanites. Each cell as a single complete nanite, with a more specific function than the he usually made, but all working together.

Active, automatically maintaining themselves, but waiting for a command.

Command he couldn't give, since his nanites and he didn't speak their language.

It was chilling, but his biological functions were not hindered. If anything, they were more efficient; since they short-circuited the usual biological processes who signalled what and how much balancing was required.

He set the nanites to decrypt the cellborgs' code, but he would not access their logs anytime soon.

If they had anything left, but he didn't think the 3G would go as far as integrating his nanites to his body – or was it the opposite? - if they couldn't do anything but take space.

The commands they were waiting for had to do something. Right?

Another shiver crawled along his spine.

Well, I can't think of anything else to examine on my body.

This dead-end came with relief. He didn't want to dwell on those thoughts any longer.

There was only one aspect left to probe. The elusive one he had come to consider an inherent part of activations. The meridians.

In his restless state, Meditation was difficult. Too difficult. He would get in the right mindset eventually, but it would take too long, and frankly he was emotionally washed out.

He infused a new batch in the sleeping Migo, set it to make a new template, and collapsed on the bed next to him. He was asleep in no time.

The next day was… surprisingly normal. The work routine was back as if the environmental suit and the experiment had never happened. The Explorers nicknamed him "Goblin", because of his appearance, but it was the only notable change.

"I didn't notice until you said it, but now I can't see anything else."

"A friendly nickname." He was assured by a customer during her pre-session check-up. "A tradition among Explorers, for when one mutates enough resistance to environmental factors."

"You're one of us now." Another customer added.

Zax wouldn't reject comradery, but Pimp's lack of reaction to such friendliness worried him. He had shown himself to be quite possessive towards his employees. Even if he had to be more careful with Explorers, he should have at least reminded Zax leaving him wasn't an option. He had done so every time a customer had slightly hinted at appreciating the human in a less professional way.

Silence was uncharacteristic of the horned giant; it worried Zax. Hip shrugged when asked about it. Not uncharacteristic, but it confirmed whatever it was, Zax was not at fault. Else the assistant would have made a pleasure of walking him through everything he had done wrong, in excruciating detail.

Unless the weirdness affected the herm too.

This way led to paranoia, so Zax stopped and enjoyed the peace while it lasted. He had a feeling it wouldn't be long.

When it was time to eat, Zax took his pill meal in the usual place, but soon after he was called to the cafeteria and told to take a plate with the others.

"Right, I have to use those now. I haven't chewed in a long time."

His comment drew a mix of amused and awkward chuckles. This common notion was foreign to Explorers. Probably to the Black Market too, Zax belatedly realised.

He worried the pill plus the meal would be too much. If anything, he was hungrier than ever. Literally, he didn't remember ever being so ravenous. His appetite drew a few comments, but he was too hungry to care.

When he brought Migo his meal, the wolf was the same. His scan confirmed an onset of malnutrition that was definitely not there earlier. Zax complemented his meal with a pill too, which helped a lot.

It couldn't be a coincidence, but he didn't have time to dwell on it before it was time to work again.

This time, he kept a closer eye on his own metabolism. The diagnostic program worked fine. The issue was quickly spotted; the hints were there all along. He would have never guessed his mutations were continuing on their own, without 3G or activation. It was like his legs had temporarily done, so long ago, but a lot more pronounced.

Before, his body took what excess material he consumed to push a change in a specific part of his body. A passive gathering of sorts. Now it was stronger, his body actively diverting resources to everywhere in his body, as if trying to heal a full-body wound or ailment.

Does it see my current state as an abnormal status? My new healthy is mutated?

Which meant… the experiment had set him on a specific path, towards a specific destination, pushed him as far as it could, and his body naturally continued?

Strange, but there was a precedent at least. His own feet, slowly moving into his current paws but stopping before it became too noticeable.

Long before dinnertime, Migo and Zax were famished. The wolfman's hunger was even worse despite resting all day. Their templates and logs confirmed they were in the same situation.

Comparing their templates, Zax had to reconsider his theory of exchanging part of each other's blueprints. Migo had similar bone structure, but his muscle build-up was significantly larger than his. It was merely hidden by his fur. A growth spurt was expected too.

He would keep doubling their meals with pills for the foreseeable future.

It was only true for their current templates, however. Both were diverging at an abnormal rate, but extrapolating their templates at the reported end of the experiment showed the unnatural similarity he expected.

His theory was proven right, but incomplete. He lacked data to improve it yet.

Before going to bed, he meditated. Habits were not lost so easily, and the girls had to be worried sick. He had missed two nights in a row.

Something was different there too. He felt his meridians very easily. Too easily, actually. He was not even in a meditative state yet, simply focused inward. And why were they so active? He looked deeper.

Stream. River. Mountain? Big. Many. Too much. Too-

He fainted.