Earlier that day...

A certain Greek had been out and about, poking about in one shop after another, looking for gift ideas for those friends she had only recently reunited with. There were several birthdays she needed to make up for, a hand full of earnest 'I am very, very sorry' gifts, and a few things for herself that she needed quite badly. Like a new toothbrush, socks... and basically everything she had been forced to leave behind after being abducted from the Sanctuary. ...not that she was complaining. In the span of a few blessed days, she had found her love again, and she felt happier than she had in a looong while.

In fact, she was walking on clouds, and it honestly felt like nothing in the world could bother her.

It was probably the fact that she had been waltzing around out in the open, with her hair down and her snakes hanging freely, that had drawn the attention of two quietly chattering slugs her way. They had followed her a short distance, whispering to each other about the various useful things her special breed of mutation seemed to offer... until...

"Oh dear! I am soooo sorr...y" Picking herself up off the ground, she reached for her glasses, already wincing at what she had done. Some poor man had rushed out of a shop at the wrong time, a hot coffee cup in his hands, and bumped right into her. Unfortunately for him, her glasses had been bumped from her face and he had caught full sight of her eyes. As well as spilled his coffee all over the front of his suit. Andrea quickly picked up her bags again, unable to do anything more than tilt his cup back into an upright position, and place the hat that had fallen from his head back on him.

The two slug twins slithered on behind her as she scrambled away from the scene, eyeballing the effect her eyes had had on the man. They shared a swift nod and a glance, took hold of each others slimy hands, and followed.

Currently:

Unfortunately for Andrea, she had been unknowingly drafted into their devious little plan. During the course of the day, she had been jumped and a miniature version of the slug twins had been slapped onto the side of her neck. She had been told to follow them... and for some off reason, had.

Really, she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Still, she ended up with two others, casting confused glances right and left, while the twins that had brought her with them rounded their pawns together outside of some sort of factory.

"You all have been brought here for a very important mission! My kind... our kind," One started, motioning to the other, "is being tortured and eradicated right this very moment, all over the world... and this evil, vile building, is one of the culprits!"

The other stepped forward, switching places with its twin. "Our mission today is to make sure no more vile deeds are done with the product that this factory produces. We will raze this building to the ground, if we have to!"

Andrea listened, and due to the little pulsating slug on her neck, was compelled to agree with most of what had been said. A factory that churned out nothing but destruction? It could not be allowed to continue! She turned curious glanced to either side, wondering how her companions in arms were reacting...

Akshay should have known better than to keep wearing his costumes when he went out. After the last few times, it only got him into more trouble. Unfortunately today was a necessity. He had to be in costume. The One Comic to Rule Them All comic store was having another of their promotional days so he needed to be dressed and ready to play the part of the superhero. It was the owner’s idea to put on skits whenever there were promotional days so Akshay and the rest of the employees had to agree. So, even though he was still feeling a little off about wearing the costume out in public, Akshay knew that he could never say no to a good skit.

So, today he had to dress up as one of his other favorite characters… Captain Bolt!! A superhero inspired by Roman Gods and Goddess, Captain Bolt possessed so many abilities that it seemed nearly impossible to be defeated! Some said he was over-powered, but the truth was that Captain Bolt only possessed his abilities whenever he held his breath! Otherwise, he was just a normal human. Nope! Akshay had definitely respect for Captina Bolt and it would show in his performance today.

Standing outside the comic shop, in his chest costume with the bellowing white cape, he laughed heartily as he waved at passing children and fellow comic shoppers. Soon a crowd had gathered, among them other people dressed in bad costumes, or monsters (including two awesome looking slug costumes), and various other outfits. But Akshay paid them little attention. As he waved and chuckled along in his acting, he suddenly turned his head as he sensed danger.

“Watch out, citizens! It’s the vile M.O.L.O.K.!!” he shouted and pointed valiantly.

From the alley that led to the back of the store, his friend and co-worker, Jean, stumbled out in his overbearingly huge costume. But he didn’t complain; he acted the part to the best of his ability, pretending to “hover” over and cackle manically.

“You’re end is HERE, Captain Bolt! Taste Mental Rays of DOOM!!”

The skit went on from there. Akshay pretended to be hit and fell to his knees. The crowd gasped and cheered as he moved back onto his feet, grinning and dusting himself off as if it meant absolutely nothing. He then took in a deep breath and charged into the fray. Due to hidden LEDs and a soundeffect remote hidden in his belt, Akshay sounded and looked as if he were punching with the power of thunder and lightning, as well as sent M.O.L.O.K. staggering back in his overly large costume. But Jean managed to keep up his role by screeching in pain and attempting to fight back. The skit battle went on for another minute or so before Akshay finally managed to subdue Jean and stood triumphantly before a cheering and ecstatic crowd.

Captain Bolt had won the day!! And the hearts of the those gathered! Especially two slug costumed individuals who chattered back and forth about how they needed someone as powerful as Captain Bolt…not realizing the difference between reality and special effects…

****

Akshay, numbly, found himself standing next to two other people, his mind blankly staring ahead as he watched a pair of large slugs slither up towards them. Oddly enough, Akshay was not disturbed by this image, instead, he seemed to be waiting around, almost willing the pair of them to give him an order or command of some kind. Why would he think something like that? Why would he wait for orders? Maybe the better question was…why WOULDN’T he wait for orders?

One blink…another blink…and Akshay Malik, still dressed in his Captain Bolt costume from when the two slugs jumped him after he closed up the shop, stood with his fists resting against his waist, and waited. They would give their commands soon enough and he would be only all that much more eager to carry them out.

>> "You all have been brought here for a very important mission! My kind... our kind…is being tortured and eradicated right this very moment, all over the world... and this evil, vile building, is one of the culprits!"

>> "Our mission today is to make sure no more vile deeds are done with the product that this factory produces. We will raze this building to the ground, if we have to!"

Akshay felt his heart swell up with pride! He had been chosen for a special mission! Normally the young wordsmith was terrified of such things, but something pulsating on the back of his neck, beneath the collar of his costume, urged him on to feel pride and bravery! Happy to be chosen amongst all the people in the city, Akshay turned and looked around the interior of the factory they were standing in. It certainly looked evil enough. Maybe it was the lair of some wily supervillain? Well, whatever! Justice needed to be done! And he was the scrawning, Indian teen that could do it!

Or so the pulsating throb on his neck told him! A pulsating throb of awesomesauce!

Akshay, unable to contain his honor, stepped forward and once again reclaimed his heroic pose.

“I shall not let you two down!!” he announced. “You can count on Akshay Malik to always bring white hot cattle brand of justice to the smelly cow behind of evil!”

One slug glanced at the other and whispered.

“I thought he said his name was Captain Bolt?”

The other shrugged. “Secret identity, maybe?”

Akshay didn’t hear them. He was too busy grunting and squeaking as he struggled to grab a hold of a brick in the wall and trying to pull it loose with the intention of bringing the whole building down. Justice will be served!

Allison suspected the job she’d gotten had been less because the factory actually needed a secretary, and more because someone had hoped she still was in contact with her family. Which wasn’t an entirely absurd idea; a secretary wasn’t too undignified a position, and she’d been a secretary at one of her father’s buildings for a summer in high school. It was good to know how every place in a business worked, easiest to avoid inefficiencies that way.

Still, once they’d hired her, they couldn’t very well fire her, not without risking more ire than they seemed to want to. It did, still, mean that she spent a lot of time doing very little every day; only sitting at a desk and waiting for a phone to ring. Every three days or so she spent an hour adding data that someone decided was basic enough for her to do without more time spent on explanations than they wanted, or putting together miscellaneous things. The contents of a new display cabinet, images for conference room signs, instructions for visitors. She spent three weeks shredding half an attic full of papers, data that hadn’t been relevant for ten years but that no one had had time to dispose of yet, and then went back to staring at a mostly silent phone. So, she played with ink.

Allison had changed her routine a bit since getting the job at the salt factory. She no longer applied ink tattoos before she left every day; instead, she brought bottles of ink with her, and added it as she waited through the day. At first she’d been a bit worried about it, and limited the ink to her hands and forearms so no one would actually see her adding it, but after a few pointed comments about how utterly boring her job must be, she bought and brought in a small mirror that sat on her desk, letting her add whatever ink she wanted while she waited. A number of the other women working in the factory had taken to wandering over and borrowing it through the day, which Allison couldn’t quite pick an opinion on. On one hand, it was good to network; she’d always known that. If people liked you, they helped you. On the other hand, most of them annoyed her, especially when they chattered endlessly in an attempt to fill the silence, or pretend that they’d really come to talk to her, the mirror was just a bonus. Of course, it was still nice to be recognized....

Even a new routine was still a routine, though, and Allison quickly fell into it. It didn’t take long for her to stop glancing around when she walked through the less-than-pristine neighborhoods that were between Sanctuary and the factory--and what reason did she have to glance around, anyway? She lived at Sanctuary; she was, technically homeless. Deliberately, willingly, and with other options available, but still homeless. Whatever she’d grown up as, she wasn’t anymore, and she should be looking around like that even less now than she should have before.

So when a giant slug brushed up against her--she might have flinched from the touch against her neck, but she still turned around smiling, determined to prove that she wasn’t like that. The slug smiled back, she thought, and told her that if she could hang out around the factory and out of sight after she finished working for a few days, and join the slug and her brother when they showed up again with more people, it would be really quite helpful.

Allison smiled, and agreed, and--waited, the next day. A little bit of her still cringed at the neighborhood she didn’t know, but the rest of her stomped it down and proceeded to pretend it didn’t exist. She wasn’t prejudiced, and it wasn’t the woman’s fault that she looked... looked unusual. She’d been perfectly nice, and reasonable, and there wasn’t any reason not to try and help her at all. No slugs appeared, though, and Allison went home after dark.

The second day, people did appear. The slug, and her brother, and two others who were following them. Allison wandered out of the crevice between buildings she’d been waiting in, trying to seem casual and not overly self conscious, and followed the four back to the factory.

Something in the back of her mind tickled, at first, something about the factory, and people, and salt, and how phrases like ‘our kind’ can be used to make people stop thinking, but reason overwhelmed it quickly enough. Salt could kill, was used to kill, and really, why else would there be so much that people didn’t want her to look at? No, if they weren’t hiding something, they’d have given her more work, no person wanted to do more work than they had to. And, after all, she was part of an ‘our kind,’ wasn’t she? She’d heard of weapons that would stop a mutant from using their abilities, torture them if they tried; salt must be used to make those. That would explain why no one let her see things, and why no other mutants worked there. They must not have realized she was a mutant when she applied, and didn’t dare fire her later in case she investigated why and found out.

Well, too bad for them; someone else found out, and was kind enough to tell her. Allison wasn’t powerful, not at all; ink couldn’t do much except hurt her and make her look pretty. But she had the magnetic key card that would let them all through the front door and into the building, and then into the factory itself, and she knew the passwords to get them into the computer system and find out what was most critical, and most easily destroyed. And as soon as their leaders told her, she’d happily let them all in, and then... perhaps search the computers? Or wait at the door, to intercept anyone who might come back to check on their factory of destruction? Whatever the leaders thought best. Allison really was glad she’d been chosen for this.

...Then one of the other followers tried to pull out the wall. She blinked at him for a moment then looked over to the leaders. He looked ridiculous; the leaders seemed to be planning. She wandered over and tapped his shoulder. “I can let us in, I have a key.”

"yessss" Started one Slug twin, while the other rubbed her hands together happily. Their miniature slugs were working perfectly. "We have a job for each of you, a special, unique job..."

Andrea turned, from watching the boy in the costume as he assaulted a wall... wondering if she too, should join in, and blinked as she was approached by one of the twins. It paused before her, brown and green splotched face slimy and concentrated. Without warning, it grabbed her cheeks in its oozy mitts, and warbled off some strange tune that she couldn't understand the words of. "This woman is now a child of the slime! You have been reborn, sister! Rejoice!"

The hands were retracted, trailing sticky slime with them, and she reached up to touch the goop on her face. Normally, she knew such a thing would have been rather upsetting, but she could not help but feel a swell of pride in her chest. "Woohoo!" Throwing her arms in the air, she grinned widely. The little slug on the side of he neck wiggled behind a curtain of dark hair, sharing in the joy it was feeding it's host.

"Now, Sister, you shall bestow the gift of our people upon anyone you come across. Share our love with them, to bring them back to the side of good!" The Slug sister before her stepped away, still within arms reach, and grunted. "Hhhhnnnggg!" From a special pouch on it's belly, it pulled a arm full of newly born parasite slugs, then offloaded them into Andrea's arms. The Greek looked down at her squirming, gooey bundle, and frowned momentarily... before her neck slug sent a current of motherly affection through her system.

"D'awww! They are all so very cute! look'atcu!" She leaned down and rubbed her nose against one, cooing in a motherly manner. "Who's the cutest slug ever?! Who's the cutest slug ever?! you are! yes, yooou are!"" Then, she looked back up, smiling brightly through the slug slime dripping from her face and nodded at the two. "I will share our love, yes! I WILL SHARE THE LOVE!" Pride swelled in her chest, and she saluted the slug twins with renewed vigor. She had a misson now, and she would. not. fail them!

The Slug Twins exchanged glances. Maaaaybe their children were working just a little too well. With a shrug, they turned to the next...

He squeaked and he was sure that his fingers would get cut from trying to pull the brick out of the wall, but he didn’t care. His glorious leaders had tasked them with bring down this factory of evil and he was going to do it brick by brick if he had to! Captain Bolt never shied away from a challenge, so, therefore, Akshay Malik wouldn’t either! So he gripped, pulled, and nearly decided to use his teeth to pull that first of many bricks out…when a finger suddenly jabbed him on the shoulder.

He spun, back into his heroic pose and eyed the young redhead and that eyeballed him.

>> “I can let us in, I have a key.”

“Ah! Good thinking! We can let ourselves in and destroy it from the inside out! Hmm…that is the perfect plan that I just thought of! Good thing I did!” he beamed proudly.

He then paused as he watched the exchange between his slug masters and the other woman who was here, green skinned and with snakes slithering through her hair. She looked like she was some creature that had stepped out of a Greek myth. But, thanks to the pulsating on the back of his neck, he did not fear her. Instead, he saw her more like a sister! He would protect her with his life…

>> "This woman is now a child of the slime! You have been reborn, sister! Rejoice!"

>> "Woohoo!"

“Yaaaaaaay!!!” Akshay cheered as he saw her slathered with gunk and proclaimed as a sister in their order. She really WAS family now! Now he just had to worry about hoping that those glorious slugs would also slather and bless him.

>> "Now, Sister, you shall bestow the gift of our people upon anyone you come across. Share our love with them, to bring them back to the side of good! Hhhhnnnggg!"

Akshay…was disgusted by the sight of that.

Pulsate!

Akshay…was jealous of the sight of that! Why wasn’t he given the honor of caring for those goopy little snot wads of joy?!

>> "D'awww! They are all so very cute! look'atcu! Who's the cutest slug ever?! Who's the cutest slug ever?! you are! yes, yooou are! I will share our love, yes! I WILL SHARE THE LOVE!"

The slug twins had slithered away towards Akshay. The young wordsmith immediately straightened up and saluted, hoping and praying that he too would be blessed and offered a job to protect the future generations of his new family. Thankfully, he watched as another slimy hand was produced from the underbelly of one of the slugs. He grinned wide as suddenly that hand was placed upon his forehead, full palmed, and slathered down, across his nose and lips. Instantly his chest swelled with pride! There was no greater honor than the one he was experiencing right now!

“You, Akshay, Captain, whatever, we have another glorious task for you!” one announced. “You have been chosen to be our greatest warrior! Your job will be to protect those younglings, as well as personally oversee the demolition of this den of evil! Then, once our new world is established, you shall be the Captain of the Sluguard!”

Akshay, his heart pounding and his lip quivering, nodded firmly as he saluted once again, still having not removed the more glorious sludge that hung onto the tip of his nose and was partially smeared across his teeth.

“I…will…NOT let you down, my lieges!”

“Leeches?!” once screamed in a panic. “Where?! WHERE?!”

The other was so terrified that it’s slime trail bubbled and began to spread out across the ground. It was literally scared out of him. “Oh no! Destroy the leeches, Captain! Destroy them!!!”

Akshay bowed his head. “Lieges, my lords. I said, LIEGES.”

The two calmed, slowly, before their slithered away, leaving Akshay to admonish himself for not speaking clearly.

Allison wasn’t entirely sure of her brother’s completely original plan that he came up with himself, but... well, that happened. She’d have liked to have her own plans, but she could give them up if she had to. As long as the leaders were happy and their goals were accomplished, it didn’t matter. And she was sure the plan would work, so it could be anyone’s plan. She nodded patiently. “Yes, it’s a wonderful plan.” Any further discussion, though, was delayed by their co-follower’s entrance into the slug family. Allison didn’t quite feel like cheering (had she ever? She couldn’t remember. But she was sure she would again soon), but she smiled happily. So they wouldn’t always be followers, they’d be family too. That was nice.

And the little slugs were quite cute. Allison was slightly envious of... her sister? She wasn’t sure she’d used that word before, it was a nice one. Did that make her the little slugs’ aunt? Perhaps their family needed a new term for a parent’s sibling, one that didn’t sound like lesser insects. Anyway, she was a little jealous of her sister’s getting to hold the little slugs and see how cute they were up close, but not too jealous. She wouldn’t necessarily trust herself to treat them properly and keep them safe, and obviously her sister would be able to; the leaders wouldn’t have chosen her for the honor otherwise.

Allison nearly stopped breathing as the slug twins approached her, hoping she’d be welcomed next, but they went to her brother instead. She backed away, and halfway through the speech wandered over to the little slugs’ babysitter, kneeling down to peer at them. “Aww, aren’t they adorable?” She reached forward, hoping one would crawl... slide... move onto her hand so she could see it closer. “So cute.”

She probably should have paid more attention, as she was surprised when a slimy hand landed on her forehead. She squeaked, tilting her head back to see, and accidentally (but yay!) smearing more slime down to her nose. She grinned as the second slug twin began to speak. Or... something. There was the same odd half-tune that her sister (officially!) had received, followed by the pronouncement. (Was that a word? Allison didn’t care. She normally would have cared. What a silly thing to care about, she was behaving much more intelligently now.) “Rejoice, for you have been reborn as a sister of the great family of slime!”

Allison laughed, and threw her hands--carefully, in case of any little sluglets--into the air. She wanted to say something epic and inspirational and wise. “At last, the best family!”

...Well. Not exactly what she’d intended, but it could do for now. She’d welcome future family members with something a little more thought out, if she had time to think.

Training was the name of the game and it was a game that Skydancer was very good at. Her recent ambitions involved becoming a circus acrobat as a way to make a new life after her mutation came and took her old life away. She was learning that she could accept the changes that were forced upon her, but only if she could give her life a brand new direction. Her life had always been focused and dedicated to the single cause of becoming an Olympic athlete but that all changed when she became a mutant. Only now was she realizing that the Olympics weren't everything and that there were other things in the world worth pursuing and a spontaneous trip to the circus served to prove her right.

Every day Skydancer went back to the training facility of the circus to work with the other, more experienced acrobats and improve her skills sufficiently that she could be proud of performing in front of a live audience because only with daily training could she truly learn to excel at her new craft. It became apparent in the first days of her training that, while there were a number of similarities between gymnastics and acrobatics, there were also a number of differences and it was those differences that she continued to struggle with.

As part of her homework, Skydancer was given the task of exercising her mutant powers and learning to incorporate them into what she was learning because that was the thing that allowed her to stand out from every other acrobat in the world. That was what brought her into the city that afternoon, jumping and swinging from rooftop to rooftop and incorporating in elaborate flips and spins as she went. That was what allowed her to see the bizarre scene going on several stories below her.

It was, quite possibly, the strangest thing Skydancer had ever had the (mis)fortune of seeing. A mutant with green skin and snakes for hair, a man dressed as a super hero and a young woman with tattoos all over her face all mingled down below. If that wasn't bizarre enough, there were two giant slugs that appeared to be talking to them. The giant slugs then walked up to each of the three weird people and slimed them (gross) and one of them were given a bunch of, from the distance she was at, it seemed tiny slugs. A shiver of disugst mingled with unease went through her body.

Unable to quite make out what the slugs were saying Skydancer, quiet as she was able, latched onto a bar from a slightly closer building with a lower roof, in hopes of being able to catch what was going on. She knew it was stupid, knew she should just turn around and forget she had seen anything, but she just couldn't help her own cursed curiosity. She settled into her new position just in time to see the super hero bow at the two slugs (what?) and the women start cooing at the baby slugs. Then came the pronouncement of being a 'sister of the slime' and that decided things for her.

Still not having any idea what was really going on, Skydancer had a bad feeling about it all. The only logical thing to do was to remain right where she was, just in case anything actually bad happened, and call up a more experienced mutant to come deal with the problem. That thought in mind, she pulled out her phone and started dialing, careful not to let the slugs or their sisters or brothers out of her sight.

Across town, hours before, and far away from the salt factory and the antics of the Slug twins, a lone figure stood shadowed at the edge of a building. It was a hero... sometimes hero, at least, ... but mostly a not-quite-heroic-hero, the rest of the time. He fancied himself a do-good-er, but had a particular set of problems that prevented him from living up to the bar of the other super heroes that cavorted around the city. He was a leech. And not just the emotional, can I borrow your lawnmower kind either. Every fiber of his being lived off of the various lifeblood's of other living beings. Blue, green, yellow... red. It it coursed through the veins of something wandering around close by, he couldn't help but salivate.

It was a crippling weakness, he knew, and unfortunately it was the only thing her could eat. All other food simply passed right through him. He couldn't digest a hot-dog and be full. No, he had spent the majority of his life feeding off of homeless people... those that clung to alleys and side streets like moss on bark. His stomach growled, an ever constant reminder... and he looked guiltily back to his current target.

It was his own fault, for having staved off eating for so long. He had thought that by simply avoiding the urge to feed, he could right the wrongs he had done. How mistaken her had been. Beady black eyes landed on his pray... a lone boy, too young to put up much of a fight, and he readied himself. He had a rag and a small canteen of chloroform, and if he acted fast enough he was sure he could grab the boy and run before anyone saw him

It was just another of those things that he would have to make up for later, when gallivanting about at night under the code name; The Parasite. He thought it sounded ominous and threatening, and it made him feel cool when he was all dressed up in the expensive costume he had purchased. He had seen it advertised on TV, in some kids show, and had decided to use a good portion of the money he had saved up to pay someone to make it. He could swing between buildings with a little hook shot, shoot leech shaped blades at people from a modified gun attached to his forearm, and had two batons at his hips that had electric tips. Lengthy tasers. They were mighty helpful! Darting out from cover, the leech man licked at his mouth, lips that were circular when opened and lined with many tiny teeth with which to draw blood.

He didn't need to kill the boy, god he didn't know how he would have lived with himself if feeding ended lives!... He just needed a good amount of blood, and then he'd drop the kid off outside of a hospital. With his plan in mind, he raced toward his prey, chloroform soaked rag out and ready....

~~~~

Andrea could not help but grin at her new sister and brother. They were rejoicing just as she had! She felt elated, and the throbbing slug on her neck was pleased. The wriggling bundle in her arms was hard to hold onto... especially when it seemed like all of the little slugs just wanted to wiggle free. The few that had crawled onto her new sister, after she had stepped close and held out a hand, lessened her load a little.. But the others were harder to wrangle. It was getting to be a little much....

Wiggle, throb.

...but she would just have to wrangle harder! Setting her lips in a determined line, she corralled the lot of them back into her arms, or rather, on her arms, upper body, shoulders... and back. Another latched onto her for some reason, and she felt a rush of giddy excitement rush through her. Boy! The world was tilting a little! She attempted to tilt it back, in the opposite direction, and giggled to herself.

The Slug twins slithered away, toward the main doors. "Sister..." He motioned one slimy hand at Alli, "With your key, the cleansing will begin! Once inside your job will be the most important of all... You will go with one of us, and help to find evidence of other vile factories!... Then, once we are done here, we will sweep our righteous sluggy fury across the nation, and purge this evil from the land!" The emotion and dramatics portrayed by the slug rivaled that of a well paid actor, and his sluggish sister had the presence of mind to sniffle a little, and blow her non-existent nose into her smiley hands. Andrea shuffled on over, wobbling despite herself, and took hold on one squirming slug baby in each hand. She was prepared to deliver the love to anyone she came into contact with!... Now, if only she could focus on what was being said...

"Come my children! Awaaaaay!" They pushed in through the doors, leaving slippery trails behind. Andrea took one step and promptly fell on her rump, immediately giggling like mad.

~~~~

The parasite, or Leech man, rather, stared at the trails on the ground. He had just been about to dig in an eat, when he had heard people shouting, and moved in to investigate. Black eyes narrowed behind his mask. he would recognize that slime anywhere! It was... The Twins Those two vile beings that enslaved people and forced them to do their bidding. and like it! And what was worse than that?! It was impossible to feed off of them, because of all of that damn slime! He growled, feeling a swell of excitement at being the one who would get to take them down!... but first.... dinner.

The mutant turned back to the boy he had pilfered, clad in all black leather, and stalked closer. He had the boy harnessed to a tree with a little monkey leash that had been on hand, intent on stealing a quick drink before rushing off to fight the gross abominations who were surly up to no good inside the building....

Akshay smiled proudly at his two, new sisters. He always wanted to have sisters! Being abandoned and then adopted, it was always a dream of his to find a real home, with a real family that he instantly felt safe and at home with! And he felt that with these two young women and the two slimy slugs that would be his lords and masters. That was how a real family felt, right? At least that was what he assumed because he was happy and therefore this had to be a real family!

But before he could think too deeply on any of this, suddenly the action shifted. Glancing up, he spied the slug twins getting ready to lead the charge! They had the key, they had their plan, and they had their warrior(s). It was time for them all to fight in the name of justice!

>> "Come my children! Awaaaaay!"

“Yeeeeesh!!” he grinned.

With key in hand they managed to shove the doors opens and Akshay, being the future Captain of the Sluguards, jumped forward! Hands on his hips, white cape bellowing about him, he stared at this vile den of evil! This…nearly empty factory. He tilted his head, his lips twisted into a sort of unimpressed look. He expected there to be more security in a den of evil: couple of robotic sentries, nameless thugs, or even a Chihuahua! But there was nothing!

He turned and glanced at the slugs.

“Um…my lords, are you SURE you got the right plac—“

Slurrrp. Pulsate![/b]

“How dare they not be here for us to defeat them!”

“Hey! Who is that?!” a voice shouted.

Akshay looked up as a pair of men in security guard outfits and brandishing a pair of batons began to advance on them. They definitely could fill in the roles of the nameless thugs. Taking the lead, Akshay boldly stepped forward and threw back his cape so that it bellowed behind him heroically. The pair of security guards glanced between each other before they turned their gazes back towards Akshay.

“Who are you?”

“You talkin’ to me?” Akshay asked in his best, Robert de Niro impression. “Are you…TALKIN’ to me?! I’ll tell you who I am! I’m—“

One of the slugs, impatiently, shoved Akshay from behind.

“Oh get on with it! Punch them into space! Melt them with your thunder eyes! Just do something! Do it now!!”

“Alright, alright!” Akshay grinned and turned to the two rent-a-cops. “Let’s dance, boys!”

He ran! He didn’t mean to but he couldn’t help it. He always wanted to charge into the face of battle and this seemed like the absolute, best chance he was going to get at that. What was surprising was that Akshay, free of all his usual frees and concerns about have his face pummeled in, was relaxed and carefree enough to actually do well in a fight!

The two guards came at him, clubs raised, but Akshay was so fast, thin, and wiry that he, impressively, slipped, spun, and ducked around their strikes as he slowly worked his way around them, making them spin in circles. While doing so, he spouted out random words and soon the two guards were buffeted with “Kite!”, “Piranha!”, “Tent!”, “Chinchilla!”, and “Blender!”. The words, as quickly as they formed, were smashed against the guard’s bodies, limbs, and heads, causing them to shriek and curse with more annoyance than complete pain (but that didn’t mean they didn’t hurt). One hopped around, holding his bruised shin, while the other groaned and tried to rub his head.

While they momentarily nursed their wounds, Akshay grinned as he stood before the two guards. He cracked his neck to the side as he suddenly charged at them, hand out to the side, and screamed as he leapt towards them…

“Antidisestablishmentarianism!!!!!”

The word, the size and length of a baseball ball suddenly formed in the air in front of him. Grabbing it up, Akshay swung the word, hard directly at the two guards. Both of them took a word directly across their faces and caused them to scream out and go stumbling backwards before they fell to the ground in a daze. Around them, the shards of the large word that they had just been struck with dissolved while the rest of it evaporated from Akshay’s hand.

He grinned as he nodded to the green-skinned sister with the bundles of wiggly, gooey, joy.

“Share the free love, sister! It’s time they were enlightened!”

It was quite easy for Allison to slip around and ahead of the... leaders? Parents? Parents sounded good. It was easy to slip ahead of the parents, so it looked like they’d intended her to be there. It took a moment, though, so it was good that the first set of doors needed no key; only after the small entrance room (black leather couch, desk with welcome information and guest supplies, display of jars of salt that Allison had set up--she’d tear that down herself, in a bit) was the locking door. She’d slid the key out of her pocked as she made her way over, and it didn’t even take a thought to hold it against the plate, and pull the doors open as the unlocking beep blasted through the air.

Letting the parents and her brother through meant she waited long enough to see her sister slip, giggling. Allison... wasn’t sure why she was giggling, when she’d just sort of fallen, but she was at least glad her sister was happy. She grinned, and tried leaning over while keeping a foot in place to hold the door open; that didn’t work, so she let the door go and walked over to help her sister up.

...She probably ought to learn her sister’s name, sometime. If they had names still? She ought to learn slime family etiquette, first. Only once she had time, though; before that, they had to destroy the salt.

She helped her sister back up, cooing over the baby sluglets again as she did so, and re-opened the door to see their brother fighting the two security guards. That was odd; they must have been changing shifts, normally there was only one. Their brother seemed to be doing quite well... if a bit... unconventional... though, so Allison wasn’t worried, and instead began clapping for him. Slime-covered hands made an unusual clapping noise, it turned out. Not too unusual, but unusual enough to notice. And enough to like, too.

Their brother won, and their sister was ready to spread the love-honor of the slime family. Just a tiny bit longer, and it would be Allison's turn, to help find where all other factories of evil were.

That wouldn't take long. She'd made the map that listed them, a few months ago. So she should have plenty of time afterwards to watch her brother and sister defeat the evil.

The mansion was fine when he stayed in one place...but when he wandered, things became a bit too real for him to handle. Today was a day where Michael was rather forced to go outside, because someone locked the door of his room. It was in attempts to get him to go places, and not be able to return for at least an hour. He wore a name tag on his shirt, which showed his name, neatly printed, and the “return to” was also on there. It was only meant for the mansion, so it really only had a room number written neatly. So, it read. “Michael Risuque Falling. If found lost, please return to room 123.”

This was why he was really let outside to have free reign. However, not many people really knew just how good he was at wandering. Michael wandered far through the grounds of the mansion, and of course got hopelessly lost. He found many things that made him grimace. For instance, the open fields that people often played on made him try and run away. This earned him a faceplant in the ground, so he got up and walked away from it as quickly as he could with careful concentration on where his feet went.

His fanny pack strapped around his waist tightly contained everything the little boy would need. There was a snack in there, which was a thing in case the little boy got hungry. His nintendo DS was in there, and his games as well. THis took up the bulk of it, but the little boy also had bandages with him, for the occaisional hurts he got.

In making his way over to the gap he saw in a fence surrounding the border of the mansion, Michael had already used a few of his bandages. His coordination was absolutely horrid, after all. Fixing his gloves on his hand, the boy stared at the gap. It seemed to be...a little larger than Mikey-sized. He moved to the fence and tested it. Judging by the size and the bends, it seemed like other people could crawl through this as well.

He was curious...truth be told. He wanted to go and explore what could be beyond this fence. No...it wasn’t that. It was less curiosity, and more of a necessity to know. He had to know what was beyond the fence because it might affect him in some way. He leaned down and then moved to sit on his rear. He stared at the fence for a moment, and then he slowly started to lie down. After a little bit of wriggling before he was near the fence, the boy tentatively was able to make his way out through a series of awkward fish-like flopping beneath the fence. He had plenty of room...but the practical application of what he thought to be the easiest route turned out to be rather challenging.

Making it out of the fence, the young Mikey stared around at the wondrous sight near him. Or rather, the scary sight. Everything was big and looming. He moved to the side, actually pressing against a large building. It was his preference to be considered small and insignificant, because generally he was less targeted by people. However, on occasion, people would pick him out for what he truly was. A huge, major target.

t was all too easy to notice how weak his was, and the steps that he made were rather bumbling and clumsy. He looked afraid of practically everything, and if the brown-haired boy wasn’t nine years old, and perhaps even a few years younger, he may have already wet his pants at this level of exposure. He had a rather large case of agoraphobia at the moment, and so he stayed near this large, looming building.

That was when it seemed someone took an interest in him. Though this wasn’t a very busy part of town, truth-be-told, and no one was really around, the myriad noises from peoples houses were still very distracting and unfamiliar. He actually made a small, scared noise for a moment, and then things kind of changed for him. The person that took and interest in him was behind him...and Michael was only able to tell for a second or two as a hand reached out and pressed a horrible smelling cloth to his face. He breathed in with alarm, clearly not expecting the effect that happened in an instant, which was the boy’s vision becoming blurry, and then he was unconcious.

It had been a long time since Sara had been anywhere near the mansion. Months. And considering Sara had friends that she considered family there, it was sort of sad. I mean she was living in New York city and her apartment was walking distance from the mansion.... give or take an hour. She had no idea why she didn't find herself wondering towards the mansion more often.

Sara was enjoying the long walk. The air was fresh and the weather was usually warm for the season. Breezes swept through Sara's fur. Her hair shifted about her shoulders and her tail swayed with every step. It was refreshing. Much better than harsh wind or the sticky feeling that rain and high humidity brought. She weaved her way in and out of busy side walks and alley ways until should could recognized the roof tops of the mansion in the distance, between building sides. When Sara wasn't in deserted alley ways she was strolling down the sidewalk in full view of the public who gave her a wide past to walk. Sara didn't have to deal with awkwardly bumping shoulders with anyone on the sidewalk like she usually did when she tried to not be noticed and the fact that she didn't have to bump into people to get anywhere was putting Sara in a good enough mood to offset the feeling that she got when people gave her weird or angry looks because she was a cat mutant.

Sara took a short cut through an alley way, to avoid a few extra crowded patches of street. The other side of the alley was was nearly deserted. She'd only seen two individuals and what one did to the other immediately disolved any and all friendly thoughts and good parts of her mood. peering around the corner, Sara could see that one had held a cloth to a boy's mouth, and now the boy was unconscious. Her ire was raised and she'd stopped herself from charging in and ripping the kidnapper to ribbons. She'd taken some steps forward when she suddenly stopped and pressed herself against the inner frame of a door instead. Hidden in shadows.

She'd recently dealt with people traffickers. She could take this one out now, but he looked like he was headed somewhere. If he could lead Sara to a second location where there was either more victims or more criminals, that would be better than taking him out here. So Sara followed the leech and Mikey.

Skydancer didn't have many contacts in the city and even fewer contacts that she could think to call to help with a situation like this. First one call was made with no answer and then a second and with no answer on the end of the second call, she began to panic just a little bit. She had no idea what was going on or how to stop it, though she had a sinking feeling in her chest that stopping it was exactly what she would have to do. Giant slugs and little sluglings could not possibly be good things and as much as actually intervening freaked the hell out of her, she didn't think she'd be able to live with herself if she did nothing at all.

Still too far to clearly hear what was being said, Skydancer crept closer still, all the while alternating between berating herself for her own stupidity and praying to any gods that might be listening that none of them heard her. Slug person number one (or number two, she really couldn't tell the difference) spoke to tattooed girl and seemed to beckon her to enter the building. Mutant person appeared to attempt to follow before promptly falling on her ass and giggling insanely. Maybe the slug people were making their victims insane or maybe the woman was insane before even encountering the slug people.

As the whole troupe began to file into the building, Skydancer came to the conclusion that they were all probably insane long before ever encountering the slug people, if only based on the wannabe super hero's outfit and manner of action. Surely the slug people couldn't have forced him into such a ridiculous outfit, could they have? Not that she knew anything at all about them, but that just didn't seem like their style.

Skydancer waited several long minutes on top of her rooftop perch before deciding that she actually had to go down there and into the building. There wasn't much good she could do from up there, either in discovering what the hell was actually going on or in stopping whatever nefarious plot the slug people had. Three tubes shot down to the ground and splayed out in a V shape in order to support her as she lowered herself onto the ground from the roof. A quick look around to make sure there was no one waiting in the shadows to surprise her and she followed the trail of slime inside the building. She grimaced as she opened the door, slime sticking to her fingers. This was gross.

With a grin that stretched from ear to ear, she was helped back to her feet by her darling sister in slime. "Thank you Sister! That last step... it tripped me up... heh."

Inadvertently, the contact between the two allowed a lone slug baby to wiggle up Andrea's arm and over onto Allison. It found a nice unoccupied place, and sank its little teeth in, thus doubling the amount of influence running through her system.

The Greek stumbled a little on her way toward their brother, who had busied himself with taking care of some poor, misinformed security guards. She was giddy with anticipation! "Yes, brother... I shall!" Stepping forward once their super man brother had thwarted them, she knelt by the first, and held out her hand. Complete with a squirming, pulsating slung in her palm. "Join the good fight, brothers..."

~

The leech man returned to his prey, stomach growling and lips dripping saliva. As luck would have it, the boy hadn't woken up yet. Unfortunately though, before he could hunker down and feed, headlights sprang to life in the distance, and he was forced to grab the boy and dart off into the bushes.

From up the rode came a lengthy white van. Inside, five people were piled. A CEO, who had come to gather some paperwork, his assistant, who had come to make sure his boss was comfortable and looked after, and two of the factories employees, and their boss. "As I was saying, sir, everything has been running smoothly. After than instance last week with those two mutant protesters, we've upped security to a night patrol as well. We shouldn't have to worry about any more vandalism, or activist annoyances." The CEO nodded his head, lifting his arm to look at his wrist watch, and hmphed. "Well, Henry, for your sake I hope you're right. We can't afford to have any more attention on us than there already is. What kind of #%&@ do you think we'd be in if anyone found out about all of the missing money, hmm? We'd be up to our knees, son. Waist deep in it."

He was talking about, of course, the money that had been systematically pulled from every transaction made within recent months. The slug twins didn't know that their war being waged against the Salt factory was, in fact, a justified one. The bosses of bosses had gotten greedy, and were lining their pockets whenever they could, and now that there was the possibility of being caught red handed, they were going to evaluate the damage... and fix it somehow.

They'd burn the building down, if need be...

Leech man made his way around the side of the building, lurking in the shadows along one wall as he watched a lone factory worker wandering about in a small side parking lot. The man was on a smoke break... but more importantly, he was by himself. Saliva drooled out from the Leech's curved lips, and he set the boy down, tying the harness around a pipe that sprouted from the side of the building. Then, with a speed that the man didn't look like he should possess, he flung himself from the shadows, and tackled the smoker to the ground. The sounds of a brief struggle, and the of Leech feeding, carried off softly into the night.

~

Back inside, Andrea had just gotten done slapping a little slug onto each of the security guards. They blinked, before the overwhelming sensation of the Will of the Slime overtook them. The slug twins continued on, ushering Allison ahead of them- since she knew the way, and Andrea turned back to follow. The two men stood and hurried to join, staggering along behind the Greek, with her Brother in Slime before her. She hummed a cute little tune to herself, changing the words in her head to match the greatness of their AMAZING leaders.

The boy wasn’t heavy, so it was rather easy to carry him to the destination that became the little boy’s sitting area. As the leech man started to leave, the little boy started to wake up. MIkey tried to sort out in his head what could have happened. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind. He didn’t really like that. The little boy managed to regain the movement in his arms and in his legs and he started to shift them. Reaching his hands down, he felt that there was some kind of pavement. Was he still on the road?

Right. Still on the road, that was something to go by. He had left the mansion...and then he was walking on the road. The buildings were all jumping out at him, he was pretty sure, and so he was trying to hide in their shadow. Then...something happened. There was...a blackness? No it was a hand. Why would he feel a hand before he passed out? Michael frowned to himself. He must have had too little food again.

The little boy looked around, his vision was pretty clear now. He looked over at the image around him...it was like the back of a warehouse. Had he really been able to wander this far before he passed out? That was weird. As the little boy started to crawl forward, he felt something pull him back. There was pressure around his underarms and his chest. He looked down to see a rather fancy looking halter. It was...it was like a leash.

Now THIS he most certainly didn’t have on before. The little boy took time trying to figure out how to get it out, but he couldn’t. It had a rather difficult thing to get off that held it on him. The end of the leash was tied behind him on some kind of curved pump attatched to the building. He stared at the knot. No...he really couldn’t do anything about that either.

The little bit pulled his knees up to his chest, looking around at him. There were noises around him that he didn’t understand. There were also things that he hadn’t seen before...like everything. It was all different to him. The little boy sniffled a little bit and a few tears fell from his face. he moved his feet in a little bit, scared. Had he really been stolen off the street like all those stories in the books. But...generally the people taken were girls.