[DragonMasterX]

Part 3.

Elsewhere, a squad of security guards were being briefed by their superior officer.

"Biohazard present in the main containment room. We lost contact with security team A; the last distress call came fifteen minutes ago. We have no information on what we're dealing with, but we know it's related to the illegal experiment conducted by the late Dr. Jacobs. This much we know thanks to the cooperation of Dr. Tyler, who is presently under constant surveillance and psychological analysis."

The commander in charge laid out the plans for the building. "We all have been protecting this building for months. Against spies, against thieves, against moles. We know every exit and entrance, every dirty secret there is to know about this company. But we don't know a single thing about this threat."

"So, can't we just light this place up? Hear Team A was rubbed off." One of the privates questioned.

Another raised his hand, "I don't want part in any suicide mission, Commander. Let's take the safe road out of this mess."

"I understand your concerns, but the higher ups consider this building too damn precious with too many investments and assets to give up. The building must be secured."

"I'm not paid to fight monsters, I only shoot humans, Commander," one of guards said out of annoyment.

"And that's why we're having this briefing. They've talked and have authorized a big, fat bonus for the man who can capture the biohazard and contain it. They have taken interest in a creature that can wipe out a team of ten armed men with such ease."

"Big fat bonus eh?" many stares seemed to perk up, "Now that's talking in MY language."

Satisfied, the commander pushed away from the table and continued the briefing, "Based on the video we recovered from the surveillance room, our target is a blue slime that can pull you in like an oversized frog tongue, and if that happens, you're a goner. We have no combat data, but we figure that if it's alive, we can kill it. If you encounter it, engage with caution. Your methods are up to you, but remember... the bonus is for the son-of-a-gun that can trap it and deliver it in a nicely wrapped package to the bigwigs. Alive if possible."

"What if it can't be contained?" one of them asked.

"If the threat is unable to be contained, then you're cleared hot. Now, anymore questions?"

There was none.

"Good, let's move out."

---------------

Julie woke back up, the place was a mess. She was lying across several of the late security team A's uniforms and weapons. "Ohhh... that felt so good..." she moaned, rising up with support from her arms. Julie was still naked, but it didn't feel unnatural now. She quickly got back up to her slimy feet, which again merged into a puddle to allow her easy sliding. "Mmm... I think I was super huge just now, but now I'm back to my usual height..." she observed, looking up at the ceiling, which was a little cracked, evidencing she had been moments away from breaking through. A light giggle escaped her mouth, somehow finding the thought of outgrowing confinement amusing. "That would have saved me time..." she sighed a bit as reality dawned on her.

"I have to get out of here," she resolved, then looked at her hands again as she went back to looking human. "It's getting easier to handle this, when I'm not panicked anyway," she thought, pushing a bit more effort to return all of her own body to its usual human vestige. She inspected herself, and somehow became bashful as she realized her own nudity again. "D-damn, it's different to look like a monster and then like this without clothes..."

She wanted to cover up, but then a thought came over her. "I wonder..." she began to focus, picturing her old clothes from the night before in her mind. Suddenly she was neck down covered in yellow. "That's... not what I had in mind," she told herself, a bit disappointed.

But she continued to focus, harder and harder, concentrating until the yellow began to warp and change to answer to her mental command. Just as she could produce a 'skin tight' layer of hardened slime, the same could be altered to reproduce clothing colorization. After a few patterns became clearer in her mind, Julie found herself wearing a yellow and black-striped tank top, followed by black leggings and white sneakers. The free-flowing material felt much better now that she looked human. "Mmm, I'm not going to the gym, but this'll be comfortably to run in," she smiled, noticing how well the 'clothes' hugged her new bubblebutt and her large chest.

Julie took a small breath to clear her mind and then began to reconsider everything that had happened until now. "Last thing I remember was that asshole, he stabbed me, I think..." she told herself, a small amount of hurt manifesting in her head as she tried to recall, "Oww. After that... I woke up here, I smashed a wall, and then I began to... to feed," she said hesitantly.

"They were trying to gun me down, I had no choice..." she reassured to her own conscience, "I've no idea what happened to me, but because of that I'm now some sort of slimy mutant with an appetite. And apparently I'm a shapeshifter too..." she observed, looking again at her new body. "Those guys don't like me. Don't need to be a genius to figure I've gotta make it out of here asap."

Julie looked down the corridors. She paused, realizing she was alone. But Julie had always been alone, the orphanage she had lived in during her childhood was very poor and barely had enough for the children. It eventually dissolved and as a little girl she had to work all of her life. Julie had decided that if she had to be alone, she would make the most of it by raising enough money to be well off, but people would always take advantage of her. Upon retrospect however, the worst she had had to live through was the drunkard rapist of her boss, Luther. She didn't know if to take that as luck yet.

No matter, she kept trying, harder and harder, to find her place in a world that had forsaken her. In doing that, she came to understand she had to rely on herself if she was to survive, and that if people tried to use her, she would work it out so they would be the ones used instead. The dog eat dog world proverb had taken a new, literal meaning to her. Especially now.

"But I'll decide what I'll do about that after I get out," Julie said to herself. "First things first, I have to know where I am, so I can get out..."

She carefully began to step down the corridors, trying to keep silent in case there were more guards hunting her down. Julie pressed her back against the corner wall, peeking out only to see a longer corridor running down the hall that followed. "Am I really in the clear...?" she thought to herself as she made her way to where she hoped was an exit.

On the way, she saw a sign with directions. "Containment... They were trying to contain me? Well, we know how that turned out. Still... am I part of an experiment or something? I'm not a dangerous animal am I? Guess many would disagree..." she mused to herself, pausing. "God, I've got to stop talking to myself like this," she chuckled a bit, patting the side of her head as she continued on her road to desired freedom.

---------------

"Based on what we know," the commander spoke while leading his squad, "The creature that devoured Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Miller, and the suspect Team A found with Dr. Tyler are one and the same."

"So you saying we're hunting down a monster that looks like a girl?"

"Exactly, so don't you dare lower your guard, private. Phillips, how's the tracker?"

Phillips brought up his PDA which was working a special GPS that was loaded with the building's floor plans. "We can only speculate her escape routes, sir. There isn't any biometric data stored in our tracker, she was brought in illegally without proper procedure."

"Then where should we be at?"

"There's only two possible routes from Containment. One goes through to Disposal, that's a dead end, and the other comes out to the main labs... Supposing that she knows nothing about the floor plans, sir, it's a 50-50 outcome."

"The primary entrance to Disposal is a short walk from here. Chances are a team can intercept her there if she took the secondary entrance from Containment. Hold her off, and then a second team can attack from behind for a pincer tactic. Phillips, take five men and get down there. We'll build a perimeter around the main labs and will coordinate an alternate pincer attack in case she comes out here."

"Roger, commander," Phillips said, and after picking his team moved out.

"Get ready, gentlemen. We're bagging the prize money and splitting it," the commander grunted with a smirk. They walked down to the main labs and began to set their ambush plan in motion.

---------------

Julie came in to a large space that resembled a really expensive, really huge laboratory chock full of expensive equipment. The place was immaculately white save for a few select objects one could easily pick out with their eyes, such as chemical vats or distinct patterns for the computers or peripherals. It was too quiet and deserted.

"I usually hate crashing parties that are over, but in this case I could make an exception..." Julie silently walked in. The place looked like a labrynth with all the computers and desks, and there were multiple sets of stairs as well as doors that led to who-knows-where. She had to find a way out. Looking over to the nearest counter she noticed a laptop that was still on. "Wow, a stroke of luck, finally..." she murmured to herself.

Julie moved in to access the computer, "Work Station No. 112: Dr. James Miller? Seems like he doesn't care about saving batteries..." she told herself with a smile. "Hmm, never been good with computers..."

She began to move the wireless optical mouse, clicking on folders, but most of them required passwords. The only accessible file was one that had been left open. "Extra-developed Organism...? Weird name, what is this?" somehow, curiosity was gripping at her mind.

After bringing the window up, she began to read to herself: "Jacobs is crazy, Exo can't assimilate inorganic matter. We've tried it on dozens of different things, and all it cares about is eating organic matter. We can only stop it when we deprive it of food, and then it's docile because it keeps weakening. This application would need Exo to think of something other than to eat, and that's impossible, its cell's prime directive is to feed and grow to eat more. Makes sense since it's just a piece of slime. No matter how powerful its cell is, just like a computer, if there's no different input, it'll continue to do what it tells itself to do to survive..."

Julie stopped, "Exo?" she repeated, shaking her head as she read the rest: "I'm tired of Jacobs's project. Tyler gets a nerd boner each time he explains how Exo can revolutionize warfare, but I say it's a long shot. Can't wait until we're done proving his failure so I can move out. This place gives me the creeps, even if I already have seen all they've done. Just got a text from Tyler that Jacobs found a potential test subject for us to examinate Exo's capabilities on a human being, guess I'll be leaving late tonight."

Julie widened her eyes as she processed the information. "Miller... Jacobs... Tyler..." she repeated in her head, then looked at her hands. "Extra-developed Organism?" she began to connect the dots. "They're the ones responsible for this?" she asked no one in particular, starting to gasp, unaware that only one of the three she had mentioned still walked the earth.

She quickly began to click around, but kept hitting roadblocks as every other application save for the diary were demanding pass codes. Anger began to well within the blonde mutant as she lost her patience, "Fuck, where do I find them...?" she groaned, wanting to know more about her new self.

Julie was at the point where she wanted to smash the laptop to pieces, and she probably could, when the display suddenly shattered in front of her, startling the young predator. "What the hell...?!"

"Hell's where you're going, little bitch," came a voice from above. Julie looked up and noticed several guards at the first and second floors, all of them holding laser-pointed rifles simultaneously aiming at her.

Julie had no time to react that many clicking noises sounded behind her.

"We've got her, commander!" Phillips announced.

The slime girl panicked, cursing herself for having allowed this to happen.

The commander held his gun back and smirked, confident that their plan had worked. He looked over Julie with an appraising smile, "You're a cute girl, monster. Show me your true form though."

Julie felt like she had no choice, but this also provided with an opportunity. Her clothes vanishing, her skin began to take on the bluish transparent hue from earlier. As her hair became a set of gooey tentacles once more, her feet fused into one puddle, startling everyone in the main labs, who fixed their aim with greater strength.

"Heh, you're not as hideous as I'd been led to believe, but that's hardly the point now is it?" the commander laughed, easily the only one in the room that was amused apparently. Everyone else was either cursing at the sight or whispering amongst themselves. "Alright now. I know you understand me," he looked down at Julie, "This can be really easy, sweet cheeks. You give up and no one gets hurt, you included... Or you end up worse than a gooey piece of swiss cheese. Make your choice."

There was hardly any choice in the matter.

To Be Continued...