Chapter 3: The Invention

There’s got to be something. Tracey’s brows furrow in concentration. “I know I’ve seen something around here that does that …”

“Actually, you haven’t. I haven’t released the Brain Copier to you yet. It’s in the chip aisle. Look for a giant telephone handset.”

Tracey pumps a fist in the air. “Yes!” Then she leaves the former dairy freezer converted to a workshop.

Randi lingers trying to understand. “So, you are letting her do it?”

The inventor looks back up to the remaining distraction with a smirk. “Of course. The sooner I agree, the sooner you leave, and the sooner I can complete this.” Randi looks into his eyes to gauge the truth behind this statement. He seems to be telling the truth, but is there something else there? She can’t tell.

Tracey pokes her head through the heavy door. “C’mon Randi! What are you waiting for? Let’s make your dream come true.” Tracey’s excitement is contagious and Randi finds that her spirits are soaring. She takes one last look at the aging man, but he is already working on his whatever again.

Outside the door, Randi looks for Tracey, but her only clue is the slapping of shoes around the corner. “Come on, Slow Poke.” Randi looks in the direction of her friend’s voice but all she finds is the fwapping of the heavy vertical blinds. Then the chase is on!

The overweight teacher has no chance of catching her athletic friend, but huffing and puffing, she trails behind. Before she knows it, she is on the other side of the store at the check stands accidentally following Tracey through the teleporter.

There, like a red topped tornado, Tracey clears off a couple of workstations. On their surfaces, she places an assortment of devices. The only one Randi recognizes is the laptop. That is connected via thick green cord to a long flat box contraption connected with many colored hoses. In the front are three rollers.

But before Randi can look more, the whirlwind that is Tracey pulls her over to a platform that she belatedly realizes is connected via blue cable to the laptop. “What’s? This?”

Her eyes are glued to her feet standing on the glowing circle and the hula hoop like thing surrounding her. Around that, at exactly 120 degrees each, she notes, are three equilateral triangles all pointing at her.

Tracey stops at the computer. “It’s a 3D scanner. It’s going to going to digitally measure your body and put a model in here.” Tracey pats the computer lightly. “It’s way more accurate than any tape measurements I could get.”

Randi straightens her top and then fingers her hem. “I’m not going to have to get naked, am I?”

“Oh no. This is way more advanced,” Tracey assures her friend. Randi relaxes. “Yeah, it uses x-rays to get your curves through your clothes.”

“What?” In a flash, Randi’s arm whips up to cover her breasts with one arm and with her other hand races down to block the rest of her privates.

“Relax. This is just for the general shape of the body. We need a 3d map so the printer knows where to make more and less material.” And then Tracey adds, “Unless you want to be a mostly flat rectangle shape. I’m really good with the square tool.”

Randi’s arms slide a little. “I’d like to look like myself. Well, sorta.”

“That’s how we want it. I don’t want anyone to discover my friend’s secret identity.” Whew! I didn’t have to promise her I’d delete the file.

Gravity pulls at the hands a little more. “O-Okay. Who’s going to see this?”

“Only me. Well, maaaybe Doc if he reeeeally wants to know. This is just to make your new body. That’s it. Now, relax, so you can be the hero you’ve dreamed of.”

Randi closes her eyes convincing herself. “How do you want me to pose?”

“Just stand with your feet about shoulder length apart and let your arms hang at your sides.” Randi does as she’s told.

Click. A key on the laptop is pressed. Randi expects a whirling or some sound getting louder and more obnoxious, but all she hears is, “Open your eyes, please.”

There, at the bottom of her peripheral vision, the hula-hoop with the triangles waits. With her eyes now open, the ring begins to spin faster and faster and finishes rising without a sound. Once complete, the ring slows and lowers back to the base.

Off to the side on the laptop screen is a nude picture of herself. Randi looks at the picture horrified. “I look terrible. I should do something about that.” She drifts off into a daydream. There she stands on the sidewalk in her sweats and red, white, and blue headband and gallons of sweat pour off her like a waterfall. She takes a step and her legs cramp up and she falls onto the pavement in a fetal position. “Maybe later.”

“You can do something now. We can change how you will in your new body. I’m guessing you want to lose that belly.” Tracey looks over to her friend for confirmation and gets a nod. The round bump that was her distended stomach shrinks until she is reminded of how she looked in high school.

“Thunder thighs?” Another nod begins the next slimming change.

Liking what she sees more and more, Randi begins to speak up, “Could you make me taller?”

“Sure. How tall?”

“Ummmm, I don’t know. Taller?” The image adjusts. “Taller.” A dialog box appears on the screen. Tracey dismisses it before Randi can read it. The image shifts again. “Taller.” The box appears again.

Tracey faces her friend, “Randi, I’ve got you at six feet even. This is way beyond average for a woman. Are you sure you want to go taller?”

Randi thinks about it.

Tracey continues, “I mean, any taller and you’ll be hitting your head on door frames.” Then her trump card comes to her, “Besides, you will be a stretchy girl, you’ll be able to be able to make yourself taller if you want.”

“Good point. Six feet it is.”

Tracey runs a mental check list. “I think that’s about – Your hair. What about your hair?”

“Oh. Uhhhhh …” Randi start imagining different colors. I don’t want brown because that’s my normal color. Red?  Black? Blond? No. What about those foreign colors? Yeeeeah. A smile begins to form. “Purple. That’s my favorite color.” Tracey looks at her startled. “But not a dark purple but more of a lavender.”

The hair on the screen changes. “That’s great, but I was thinking more about the hair style. Do you want it long or short?”

“It’s going to be the same material as the rest of my body?” Tracey nods. “Then short. I don’t want it getting caught in doors or things behind me as I chase villains.” An image enters her mind of automatic doors closing on the end of a twenty foot bound pony tail yanking her off her feet. After some back and forth, the hair curls under the chin with the bangs pulls back.

“Oh! Can I have purple eyes to match?”

Tracey nods. “But your eyes will be separate, so I adjust them later. Since we are on the face, you want permanent make up?”

“Sure. But not a lot and subtle. Some eye shadow and lipstick.”

“Purple?”

“Yes. No. Sorta. Yes, purple eye shadow. No, purple lipstick would look weird. What are you doing?” Randi sees dark purple crescents over her image’s eyes. “No, lighter. Lighter. Haven’t you ever applied makeup before?”

Tracey smiles embarrassed and shakes her head, “Nope. Tomboy, remember?”

Randi guides her through the finer points of eye shadow and adds some eyeliner. “Oh yeah. Villains will see my fearsome expressions and tremble. Oh yeah, lipstick. How about a light red?”

“Pink?”

“No. A red but not as bright.” Randi takes the mouse and selects a color before another makeup discussion starts up again.

They look at all their work so far and all they have is a complete head on an unclothed body. “I guess that brings us to your costume which, of course, will be your body not on it. Purp – Lavendar?”

Tracey draws a couple of lines and then paint bucket dumps the color. The result is a lilac leotard with plenty of cleavage showing. “No!” Randi’s hands shoot back up cover her privates even though it is only on the image. Tracey deletes the lines and color floods the whole body, including the face.

Randi looks to Tracey who is apologetic. “This is my first time using the program.” Tracey cleans up the mess and the face returns to how it was.

However, before Tracey can reverse more of the color, Randi stops her. From the neck down, the image is covered with her favorite shade. “I like this. Could you cover my boobs so it look like I’m wearing clothes?”

“Sure. Matching color?” Randi nods. Tracey smoothes out the nether region as well. Randi nods again.

“It’s getting there, but it’s not quite there. I look like I’m in one of those full body suits. How about a different color?”

Tracey suggests, “A darker purple?”

“Yeah!” Tracey draws lines that Randi doesn’t quite follow until the paint bucket pours its color. The purple covers the sides and fists while the lavender makes a stripe up the middle and races down her arm to a point at her knuckles. It also does the same to her legs and feet.

Randi looks at the costume design. “I like it, but not on the legs. Can we return them to the solid color?”

“Sure, but where would the lines end? Waist? Hips?” With each suggestion, Tracey draws a line. None of them look right. They all emphasize her crotch.

Gesturing to her hips, she asks, “Is there something we can do about this?”

“Well, I suppose we could give you a skirt.” The light goes on in Tracey’s eyes, and after adding said item, she continues the lines there. “How’s this?”

Randi looks at the mini-skirt that barely covers her butt. The lines and colors are mostly right, but it needs to be longer. She wouldn’t be caught dead in something that tiny. “How about making it to mid-thigh to where my fingertips would touch at my sides?”

The skirt becomes a dress as it reaches the feet. “You have elastic arms. Should I lengthen it to your ankles, Miss Prude?”

Randi gives her a mini-glare, “No, Silly, my regular arm length. I’m going to need mobility if I’m chasing the bad guys.” She shows Tracey and the skirt returns to a respectable size. “And the line on the skirt  is good, buuuuuut there’s too much darker purple there now.” With a few adjustments, the lavender line spreads as it hits the skirt making an almost arrow shape. Her legs remain a solid lilac color. “Yeah. That’s good.”

“Logo? Emblem?”

Randi’s eyes go wide. “What?”

“This is all good, but you need some sort of identifying mark that says you are you and not someone who looks like you.”

“Uhhhhhhhhhh …”

Exasperated, Tracey grabs a clipart heart and slaps it on the superhero’s chest. “There. Now you are all heart.”

Randi raises a finger of protest, but it returns as she takes a second look at the image. “That works. And it matches my lips.”

“Okay. I think that’s it.” Tracey pushes the Print button on the screen and it flashes red a few times. “Ooops. We need to pick a material.”

“Ummmm, the stretchy girls on my favorite art site are called Rubber Girls, so rubber?”

“Okay, I’ll print out a sample.” The printer comes to life and spits out a bit of the material in question. On the plus side, they discover that it has a good grip, but it is heavy and not as flexible or stretchy as they like. “What about latex?” Another sample is printed. This one is flexible and stretches well, but can be torn.

After many tests and printouts, they settle on a rubber/latex/elastic mixture. Randi pulls on it, “Perfect, I think.”

Tracey hits the print button again and this time it continues without complaint. As the machine slowly manufactures the design, she turns to her friend, “So, have you decided on a name yet?”

Randi’s eyes go wide, “No. I only heard today it was possible. I haven’t had time to think.”

“Okay. What about Elastica?”

“She belongs to FTO-Sete.”

“On the art site?” Randi nods. “Ookay, How about Elasta?

"Dragovian15 and Dremare."

"Elastine?"

"Rodriguis."

"Just Elastic?"

"Like Elastic Ella? Maybe you'd like to go for plastic next?"

Tracey raises a confused eyebrow, "Sure? Materials could make a good name."

"Princess or Penny?"

"What?"

"Plastic Penny or Princess Plastic?"

"Taken?" Randi nods. "Maybe rubber then."

"Frogwalker has most of those except Red Rubber and Rubber Lea."

Tracey blinks a couple of times, "What? I wouldn't -- Red Rubber wouldn't even make sense to name you. You are all purple." She gets a thought. "But you will clean up the city ... What about Rubber Maid?”

“Havent-Slept.”

“You haven’t? Oh. Username?” Another nod. "Okay, rubber is out. Spandex? We have some of that in there."

"Artie-stico17."

Tracey's eyes light up, "Stretchy ..."

Randi shakes head, "Maybbeeee but some of my favorite DeviantArt artists have Stretch in their name. I'd rather not emulating their names."

Tracey starts to get frustrated. “Uh. Squish? Rubber Band? Gummi? Bubblegum? BungeeCord?”

“Ironhead78. Too close to a taken one. User. Taken. Close.”

“Well. Fine! Then maybe you should be called a regular name like Rubberta.”

“That. Could. Work.” Randi poses with her fists on her hips. “And once again the city is saved byyyyyy Rubberta!” She smiles. “I like it. It’s got a nice, simple ring to it.”

They look at the printer and the head is out of the machine. “What now?”

“Now, we wait. But while we do so, we can go get the rest of your body.” Tracey heads off into the former store. Randi follows with one last look at her new body.

They weave their way through the shelves to one that looks like all the others to Randi. There are a bunch of metal and dim lights in all sorts of shapes. The only difference that she can see is above them, there is a sign with the aisle number and the lower sign that says “Chips” hangs by one hook.

Tracey reaches into the pile and pulls out a device that looks kinda like two metal sieves connected by a metal tube. Hoisting it over her shoulder, Tracey heads to another section. “Let’s see. Doc keeps his brain in the deli.” She makes a U-turn around the end of the aisle passing the back of the place again and then along the side wall and the former refrigerated meat section. At the break where the bakery starts, they slip behind the counter until they arrive at the deli.

Tracey reaches into the glass display and pulls out her target. She hands it to her friend. “Randi meet your other brain. Brain meet your new occupant.” After that playful moment that leaves Randi befuddled, Tracey becomes thoughtful, “Where does he keep the wifi parts that go with this?”

Randi takes her eyes off the metal brain-shaped device with tiny, intricate parts to the same display that it came from. Before she can get her eyes up to Tracey’s face, she locks onto white spheres with little antennas on what seems to be the back of them. “Is that them?”

Tracey squeals a bit which startles Randi who hasn’t heard her friend do that before. She sets down the giant phone handset and scoops up two of the eyes, two things that look like a small pill on a larger pill, and a cube all with those micro antennas on them. She carefully places them in a pocket of her cargo pants and picks up the huge device again. “I should have realized they’d be next to each other since they talk to each other.”

Tracey turns. “Ready?” Randi nods contemplating all that she has seen. “Great. You head back to the printer and I’ll pick up some glue and meet you there.”

Randi shuffles toward the front of the store looking at the object in her hand. “My brain is going to be in here? Will it fit?” With such thoughts she arrives at the modified checkout stand. Everything except the feet is out now. Randi sets down her prize and pulls at the pile of purple pooled on the ground below it.

A flattened Rubberta costume straightens out. It looks strange but similar to the image on the screen. This is my body? This is soooo cool.

Tracey slips in behind her. “I changed my mind. We need to take your body over to the Angstroms. We’ll just do it all at once.”

A few minutes later, the last of her rubbery body drops off. Tracey takes the brain and leaves the suit with Randi. She grabs a handful and lifts. The section in her hands reaches her waist before it becomes too heavy to lift further. Randi calls out to her departing friend, “Tracey!”

“That’s your new body, girlfriend. It looks like you are going to need to get some muscles to move that thing around.”

Desperation at being left behind brings her adrenaline full tilt. She gathers as much as she can and drags the rest to catch up. Instead of going left to the deli and bakery, they head right to the far side and other wide open area. There, Randi collapses and looks at the large rectangular solid computer like thing with a hose coming out of it.

Tracey goes to it and hits a few keys. “This is the machine that will make the Angstroms.” Seeing the confused look on her friend’s face, she continues, “Angstroms are like nanobots – Okay. I can see I’m losing you here. Nanobots are tiny robots. Ours look like spiders. Nanobots can be programmed to do simple tasks. Angstroms are smaller and can only do one job. They are either on or off. The ‘glue’ I’ll be using to attach your brain and senses will be this, Holder Angstroms.” Tracey places a dark gray drop from the nozzle on the double pill device. While adhering it to the ear, she explains, “Holders do just that, hold.”

Randi hears, but her mind is stuck on Tracey sticking her arm in the mouth of the costume. Tracey sees her gaze. “What? Oh. This suit only has five holes and two of them are in the nose and two are for the eyes. This is the only way to get anything into the body.”

In short order, the ears and brain are affixed inside followed by the voice box which is placed in the throat instead of the mouth. “The next kind is the Mover Angstroms. We need to coat the whole inside with these.” She unhooks the nozzle and stuffs the hose into the mouth. “They will be responsible for all body movement and stretching, including eye movement. Oh! That reminds me. We need to change your eye color on these.” She hustles off and returns moments later with darling lavender eyes.

Tracey stops the machine that has partially inflated Randi’s new body and removes the hose. Placing the eyes in the convex openings, the installation seems complete. “Now all that’s left is to copy your brain over. To do that, we are going to need to put you to sleep, so when you return you don’t have double memories fighting for the same spot in your brain.”

“Okay,” Tracey says hoisting her device onto her shoulder and heads toward the back of the store, “let’s go.”

Randi looks down at the heavy suit that she almost didn’t get here plus the inch or so of microscopic robots. “Uh Tracey, I don’t think I’m going to be able to move this – this body.”

Tracey turns back. “Really? Really,” then she smirks and switches tasks. With a quick jerk and no grunt, she flips the body up, “If you can’t lift this , how do you expect to move your own body when you’re in it?”

Randi struggles to answer, dumbstruck at the strength of her tomboy friend, “Uh. Uh. Wasn’t that what you just filled the suit with?”

Tracey laughs, “Yes. She can be taught. Now pick up that Brain Copier and get over here.”

Randi does and heads to her friend who is standing by two tables, one which has Tracey’s load. “Okay Randi, hop up so we can switch your body so you can start fighting crime.”

Randi sits on the edge on the empty table with her legs dangling between and looks down at the prone form. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“Yeah, it worked fine when we tested it. Once you get in, you just turn everything on, and you are good to go.”

Then Randi lays down with a big smile on her face and shivers with excitement, “Okay Tracey, let’s do this!”

“I’m injecting you with a sleeping solution. So, when you feel tired, just give in to it.”

Randi does feel sleepy and lets herself drift off. Her dreams are a little strange.

It starts with her being helpless and being looked down from above by her parents. Followed by tiny hands holding painted white wood bars. The images pick up speed. Giant play structures. Her kindergarten teacher smiling at her. Monique introducing her to the older junior higher, Tracey. Faster and faster they rush by. Graduation. Another graduation. Working for Natalie with Monique and Tracey. A flurry of houses and a plethora of jobs blur together. The final images are of her classroom and the little terrors that occupy them. Then all the colors drain.

And the black surrounds her.

The final strains of noise fade until silence encompasses her.

A sliver of loneliness creeps toward the sole occupant. “No.” Her word echoes back to her. “What did Tracey tell me to do? Right. Turn things on. Eyes, turn on.” Nothing. The blackness remains. Maybe they are telling me what to do. “Ears, go!” The silence continues to engulf her. Nervousness slips in to join her. Uhhhh, no taste. No smell. Feel? Touch? Go back to eyes. “Eyes! Activate!” Still nothing.

Randi tries as many variations as she has words in her vocabulary with desperation growing stronger with each one. Finally she collapses on her knees, or she would if there were anything solid under her feet to fall on. “I need help! Someone, Anyone help me!”