Ashley Bauer stood naked and shaking in the harshly lit Synthex testing chamber. The bright fluorescent lights oppressively lit the room, destroying any shadows and making the white tiles covering the floor, ceiling, and walls all the more disorienting. The only things that broke the sea of white were a large, one-way mirror spread across one of the walls, a white door whose seams were hard to spot within the bright light, and a tiny gray metal door opposite of the entrance. Ashley’s mind was still reeling from the previous night. She had been celebrating her twenty-first birthday the best way she knew how: booze and boys. Her drunken debauchery was cut short, however, when she foolishly attempted to stumble home alone at night. Cutting through a dark alley was another stupid decision. As soon as she wandered in, she was taken by some shadowy figures who whisked her away into the night. And now here she was, some unknown time later in some unknown place. She felt so foolish, so ashamed of her stupidity the night before. But more pressing, she was terrified of what was transpiring outside the white room. She couldn’t recall anything outside the room, and it was impossible to see outside it now. With nothing to do inside the room, Ashley was left to awkwardly wait in the nude within the brightly lit room like a rat in a cage. But that wait was suddenly cut short when the metal door across from her rumbled awake. The scratching of the metal door against its frame immediately caught Ashley’s undivided attention. She watched with held breath as the small metal sheet slowly lifted. At first, all she could see was darkness beyond, but slowly, out of that darkness, came a creature. The thing shuffled slowly into the light, the slime on its body glistening in the bright light. Its surface was mostly blue with streaks of yellow along its sides. At the front end, two eyestalks jutted out of its forehead, occasionally glancing this way and that. A trail of slime was left in the wake of the forearm-length thing as it drew closer to Ashley. When the door had opened, Ashley was terrified, but now? She had to stifle a laugh! What were these idiots trying to do? Scare her with the slowest moving animal alive? “Oh, how frightening!” she joked as she walked confidently over to the large slug. Sure, it was a bit big, but Ashley wasn’t scared of slimy bugs. If anything, she thought they were kind of cute. And this little guy was beautiful with its shiny skin and blue coat. She watched as the friendly creature crawled over to her bare legs. It rubbed up against her, its sticky slime getting all over her feet. She couldn’t help but bend down to give it a little pet. It was just too precious! The creature allowed Ashley to gently stroke its torso, getting her hands all wet with its mucus. Without warning, a sudden static shock zapped Ashley. She let out a little yelp, drawing her hand back from the still passive creature. While she got over the initial jolt of pain quickly, a disconcerting numbing sensation grew across her slime-covered fingers. Ashley tried to wipe the slime off her fingers on her chest, but for some reason, the slime seemed to keep coming back. But even as she wiped her fingers, she noticed that they seemed less responsive than normal. She shook her hands, trying to clear off the slime but only managing to send drops of it everywhere. She started freaking out. Something was wrong. Her slimy hands had distracted her from another growing problem. She only discovered it too late when her weakening legs could no longer hold up her shifting weight. Losing her balance, she toppled backward only to find her butt hit the ground sooner than she anticipated. Looking back, she saw why. Looking at her backside, she saw that her back appeared to be extending out. Like a flat tail, it was continuing to push further out, already growing past her posterior and now resting on the tiled floor. Ashley watched in fearful amazement as the growth didn’t stop there, pushing even further as it started to lay on the floor. As it grew, its color also began to shift, turning from a healthy pink into a familiar blue. But before Ashley could determine why the color looked so familiar, she felt the same feeling in her arms afflicting her legs. Looking at them, she saw they, too, were turning blue in color. Worse, her feet had lost their toes, and now looked like flat flippers. Holding her arms out in front of her, she saw they were also turning blue, her hands losing their fingers. She needed to get out of here! Desperation driving her, she got up onto her knees, the process greatly impeded due to her extending torso latching onto the ground. Try as she might, she couldn’t seem to get off her knees and on her feet. As she struggled with her legs, the underside of her burgeoning torso produced more sticky slime, further preventing her from getting up. Ashley struggled against her strengthening tail, but the effort was fruitless. She brought her arms around to help lift the heavy growth up. But as soon as she did, she saw how far the bizarre changes had affected them. Her right forearm was only holding on by a thread, the former skin, muscle, and bone completely cut off and new skin congealing over the wound. She watched in terror as the final bits of connecting flesh broke away, her forearm hitting the ground with a sickening plop. She screamed. The blue skin, the slimy texture, how her limbs were leaving her and her body was extending. It was all adding up. Somehow, she was turning into that blue slug. An alien pulling sensation at the bottoms of her thighs caught her attention. Looking down, she saw that her legs were about to go through the same horrific process. As if possessed, her lower legs pushed themselves away from their bases, stretching and tearing the weakened flesh attaching them. At the same time, her thighs were sinking into her body, the muscle and bone dissolving away into the growing mass of sluggy flesh. It was all too insane. She shut her eyes and tried to wake up from the horrible dream. But, for some reason, her left eye wasn't properly responding. As soon as she closed her right eye, she realized why. Her perception was shifting further and further from her face, her eyeball shrinking down as new flesh pushed the sensitive organ out of its socket. Ashley immediately snapped her still human eye back open, trying to not hyperventilate or vomit after experiencing such a disorienting display. She looked down at her body to see that most of its human color had drained away. Her chest had flattened out, her belly button and nipples disappearing along with it. In their place was the underside of a slug, oozing with viscous, pale slime. She turned around, seeing that her back was now seamless with her extending tail, forming a single, long slug foot. Gone was her pale skin, replaced with blue, slimy slug skin with a few yellow streaks. Plop! Ashley felt the last of her limbs leave her. Looking at the pulsing bits of flesh, she was horrified to discover that her limbs weren’t dead. Wriggling with new, horrible life, her former arms and legs grew to match the slug that cursed her. Eyestalks extended out from their foreheads. They flipped over onto their undersides, exposing their glossy blue coats to the bright lights of the chamber. Ashley was surrounded by four new little slugs, all of them staring emotionlessly at her as her transformation reached its final stages. The bones in her torso had put up a good fight, but relentless changes steadily destroyed them. Her growing and elongating organs couldn’t be contained by her ribcage, and her spinal cord expanded and outgrew her small vertebrae. Left with no recourse, her bones assimilated into her new muscles and skin, strengthening them as her human shape disappeared into her slug mass. Which only left her face. As her face’s skin shifted in color, her right eye disgustingly ascended to match her left. But it wasn’t alone, as two other growths began to push out beside her former human eyes, joining them to give Ashley four eyestalks. Feeler tentacles also pushed out at the bottom of her former face, tasting and smelling the air around them. As the feeler tentacles grew, her nose and ears dissolved, further warping her face into a slug’s. Ashley's body smoothed over and grew, erasing the final traces of her former human body. Her blonde hair uprooted from her scalp, slime matting it to the top of her head for only a short time before it fell in saturated clumps to the floor. Her esophagus simplified while her teeth and tongue dissolved, a final harrowing cry escaping her human mouth before her lips were sealed shut and erased, eliminating the final aspect of her humanity. Her four-eyes scanned over her new self. Not a single detail alluded to her former body. She looked around her to see the five blue slugs gathered around her, their beady eyes dumbly looking around the room as they meandered around her. Ashley was too stunned to move, even as the large white door opened on the other end of the room and faceless men dragged her and the little ones away into the darkness. “Take them to the generator room.” “Is the system ready?” “This had better work, Dr. Thatcher.” “Oh trust me, it will.” Ashley heard the words, but they fell on deaf ears. It was all too much for her. Her consciousness began to fade as debilitating stress choked her distraught mind. ------------------------ Ashley flexed and mentally groaned, exerting herself as hard as she could. She kept pushing herself, feeling her body’s natural electric current pulse and arc against the metal sheet above her. She watched with growing dismay at the meter outside her translucent plastic cage. It’s needle remained stagnant, refusing to tick up no matter how hard she clenched her muscles. She couldn’t keep it up. She relented, her oblong body splaying out across the floor as she took a brief moment to rest before continuing her thankless task. She had been working nonstop ever since she transformed into an electric slug. Her captors locked her into a plastic cube barely big enough for her to fit inside along with the rest of the electric slugs. The entire cell wasn’t plastic, however, as a large metal sheet served as its roof. Haphazard wires connected the simple metal to a large cylindrical container nearby. On its surface, it had a lightning bolt, several worn warning signs, and two meters measuring unknown quantities and qualities. As soon as Ashley was locked in the cell with the others, guards started torturing her. Ear-piercing screeches, painful stabs with hot metal objects, and all manner of stressful and agonizing methods of torment were inflicted on the beleaguered girl. The stressful incantations only ceased when Ashley inexplicably produced a surge of electricity. While the circumstances could have been far better, Ashley’s first jolt of lightning was exhilarating. It had a flowing elegance to it, yet it was zippy and exciting! There was something alluring about it, something fierce and powerful. She wanted more of it. What a fool she had been. That was precisely the reaction her jailers wanted from her. The electricity emanating off her slimy skin arced onto the metal plate above her. The bolts splashed against the gray metal, raining down sparks. All the collected energy then traveled through the attached wires into the cylindrical container. Steadily, one of the meters on the side of the device rose until it reached its peak. The cylindrical container spat out a fully charged battery about the size of a small generator, reloaded another battery from beneath it, and the meter went back to zero. For hours and hours, she produced batteries. The process changed from exhilarating to agonizing, and soon she couldn’t go on. Of course, her ruthless captors didn’t care. If she ever ceased producing electricity for more than a minute, the guards outside would barge in and torment her until she was shocking the metal plate again. Somehow, Ashley kept up her endless work, but the hours turned to days, and now, at the third consecutive day, she was teetering on the edge of life. Her tired eyes wandered over to the other slugs trapped in the cell with her. How she loathed them. Not only had one of those bastards turned her into a vile slug, they also weren’t pulling their weight! She rightfully assumed the wretched things were electrified like her. They could have been helping her. But no, they seemed quite content to lay around and watch her, their beady black eyes stupidly looking at her every once and awhile before returning to their pointless patrols. Her condition was dire. After nearly seventy hours of constant work, Ashley’s body was on the brink of collapse. Her heart ached, her breathing was rapid and ragged, and her muscles were so tense and so sore she… she couldn’t go on. With a final, pathetic fizzle, her body shuddered and slumped down. Her breathing pore took in shallow breaths, and she couldn’t even keep her eyes up as they lay scattered against the floor in front of her. She was done for. In a few moments, the guards would come in and torture her. But she was so crestfallen, so defeated, that not even such extreme means of negative reinforcement could motivate her to continue. All she could do was lay there, and accept her fatal fate. But as chance would have it, the guards outside were too busy with their changeover to immediately “motivate” her. The moment was just what Ashley needed. One of the smaller electric slugs wandered into her vision. A strange sense began to enter into Ashley’s tired mind. Finally allowed a moment to focus on something other than electrical generation, a growing mental connection between herself and the smaller slugs stirred. “Why won’t you help me?” she angrily thought as she watched the lazy slug inch along in front of her. The sentiment consumed her mind, pushing through the fog of her exhaustion. The pleading, frustrated, and dejected thought extended beyond her mind. Her passive aggressive command was sent out to her subject, and the simple creature received the message like an edict from God. For seemingly no reason, at least from Ashley’s perspective, the slug stopped dead in its tracks. Its eyestalks stood erect in the air as its body froze, Ashley’s command filtering into its primitive brain. The creature then hunched down, anchoring itself to the floor. Abruptly, electricity shot out from it, the lightning shooting up and dancing against the metallic ceiling. “What?” Ashley was stunned. Out of seemingly nowhere, the little slug in front of her actually started doing something useful! Was it because she stopped electrocuting the metal? Was it just a fluke? Did God just answer her prayers? She wracked her brain and remembered how she had been focusing on the little guy when it suddenly listened to her mental command. Could that mean that these things obeyed her? There was only one way to find out. A second-wind granted Ashley just enough strength to lift her eyes up and locate another slug. “Electrocute,” Ashley mentally commanded the blue and yellow slug. This time, the result was instant. It snapped to attention, hunched down, and similarly started electrifying the metal plate, and with more gusto than its friend. For the first time since she was kidnapped, hope blossomed in Ashley’s heart. That hope fueled her as she quickly located the other three. She focused in on her little minions. The situation made her feel like she was five-years old again, attempting to command her dog to sit with her mind. But this time, the subjects of her telepathy responded! The other slugs acted precisely like the first two, immediately ceasing their meandering and blasting the ceiling with their brethren. She even refocused on the first, convincing it to power harder. All around her, the electric slugs sparked and surged. She looked out of the plastic prison to see that the energy meter on the cylindrical container was once again steadily increasing. In fact, it was going up a little faster than when she was powering it alone. It was such a magnificent sight to behold that, if Ashley had the capacity for it, she would be in tears. With her little minions producing power now, Ashley finally had a moment to rest. Fatigue quickly overcame her elation, and she passed out for a couple hours. When she awoke, she was greeted to a chorus of cries. Her mind still trying to process whether the last two days were a dream or not, her eyestalks eventually focused in on the little slugs still hard at work. Consciousness finally slapped her in the face when she realized that they were all crying out to her in agony. After relentlessly powering the sinister device for almost ten hours, they were just as tired as she had been. Ashley sprang to life. Electricity leaped from her blue skin and danced wildly against the metal plate. The pleasant feeling of generating such power had returned, somewhat enhanced by the added benefit of helping out her little co-captives. But even after Ashley started charging again, the little slugs continued their struggle. It took her a moment, but she finally realized that they were still following her instructions. One by one, she focused in on the smaller slugs and instructed them to rest. Like magic, they all obeyed and instantly fell asleep. “I’m not alone in here anymore.” The thought was comforting. Sure, they were a bunch of slugs, but then again, so was she. Together, she was sure they could survive. In fact, with their combined strength, maybe they could escape their awful prison. Electricity continued to leap off of Ashley as she lay inside the plastic cube. It had taken almost three days, but her mind was finally clear. And it had found a new obsession: escape. ------------------------ Several days had passed since Ashley learned the full extent of her powers. Now properly commanding her little troopers and figuring out better ways to exert her electricity, she was coming close to finalizing her daring escape plan. Now that she was powering up batteries like clockwork, her guards became complacent. She started eavesdropping on their conversations whenever they entered the room to pick up a charged battery or drop off food for her and her cellmates. While it was difficult to hear them through the plastic and sparks, one phrase had started coming up more and more: Double Helix. Ashley had only heard of the organization from the occasional news story she would spot on social media. She remembered that they were the world's response to the international terrorist organization Synthex. Ashley also took notice of the familiar and sinister logo plastered on all the batteries the cylindrical container spat out, and finally realized that she was a prisoner of Synthex. But were the guards just talking in general terms, or was there a chance Double Helix was going to rescue her? As the days ticked on, Ashley learned more. Piecing together words and phrases she overheard from the increasingly bored guards, she learned that the Synthex cell she was held in was under siege. Double Helix was tipped off on recent Synthex activities in the area, and so the cell had gone into hiding, limiting their activities inside the facility and canceling operations outside. If that was the case, then maybe all Ashley needed to do was cause a distraction large enough to get Double Helix’s attention. But what? The answer came from her forced work. Synthex underestimated Ashley’s cognition, believing the process made her just as mindless as the rest of her sluggy companions. Because of their assumptions, Synthex placed a critical flaw in their power generation system. Inspecting the cylindrical container she and her minions were powering, she noticed that Synthex foolishly directed power not only to the charger but also outside the room, presumably to the facility itself. If she stopped supplying power, then at least some parts of the facility would be powerless, potentially putting her captors at a disadvantage. But she couldn’t just stop. Experience had taught her that Synthex’s goons would happily beat her until she started powering the charger and facility again, and she suspected they would have no qualms about killing her if she tried to resist indefinitely. So if she couldn’t stop the power, then maybe she would give them more than they asked for. Further inspection of the battery charger revealed what the second meter on it displayed: voltage input. She discovered the meter's purpose by noticing how it fluctuated as she increased and decreased her electrical generation. She noticed the meter also charted dangerous energy outputs. Trying as hard as she could, she could get the meter almost into the yellow, warning zone. With the help of the other slugs, they could get the meter nestled squarely in the center of the same zone. So, in theory, if Ashley and her slugs got stronger, than they could unleash a barrage of electricity great enough to short circuit Synthex's systems, giving them a chance to breakout. The sudden surge could also alert Double Helix of their location. They would need to train, build up their strength, but they could do it. They could escape. ------------------------ Four weeks had passed since Ashley and her fellow electric slugs began their training. Every day Ashley grew a little stronger, her electrically charged organs producing more and more potent electricity. Now, when she really exerted herself, she could bring the meter right up to the danger zone. At the same time, the little slugs in her cell were also getting bigger. They were getting strong enough to charge the batteries in only groups of three rather than of all together. For those four weeks, they bided their time, concealing their growing power and waiting for their chance to take down Synthex’s terrible operation. Until the day finally came. The day started off normally. One of the Synthex guards dropped off some slop, and Ashley ate while some of the other slugs powered the charger. Soon Ashley took over charging duty. As the morning switched over to midday, she started lowering her output until she was just barely charging the battery. Steeling herself, she instructed the little slugs around her to prepare themselves. Soon they would be free from their prison. Ashley took in a deep breath, feeling her oblong body swell up in anticipation. With a mental scream, she gave the order. The other slugs shocked the metal with everything they had as she unleashed an unfettered blast of her own. The entire room went white, the sudden and violent burst of electricity exploding in a brilliant white flash. The plate lit up, burning white-hot as the unbridled energy assaulted it. The industrial-grade wires attached to the plate shot the molten energy into the unprepared cylindrical container. The malicious attack immediately wreaked havoc on the simple charging device. Unable to process the explosion of power, the circuitry inside the device was short-circuited in an instant. At the same time, the Synthex facility power was also flooded with raw energy. The sudden surge of power caused the facility’s power to lockdown, the back-up generators kicking on to keep mission critical devices on while the rest of the facility was plunged into darkness. With the facility fried, Ashley ceased the attack. She looked out to see the damage her team’s attack caused. Their plastic cube was able to withstand some of the power, but its thick walls had been severely weakened by the thousands of volts blasted against them. The metal sheet above them was burned black, the unrestrained blast warping the metal and making its surface sizzle. Unfortunately, most of this was difficult to see since the lights in the room were black, the surge overloading them. Ashley could hear muffled, panicked cries coming from outside the room. They may have cut off their power, but Synthex’s ruthless thugs were still surrounding them. They needed to find a way out, fast! Ashley pushed herself against the plastic wall in front of her. The extreme heat generated from the electricity had severely weakened the wall. Maybe she could bash her way through. Rearing her body back, she slammed herself into the plastic wall as hard as she could. The wall held on, but she could feel the damaged plastic buckle against the force. Ashley hit it again, and again, and finally, the plastic snapped into bits, releasing the electric slugs from their prison. Ashley instructed the slugs to follow her. They quickly obeyed, inching along with their leader toward the door. But before the group of six reached the door, it burst open. Two Synthex guards with menacing black facemasks and submachine guns charged into the room. Ashley recognized the threat, but fear froze her. The gunmen, silhouetted in the dim emergency lights outside the room, located the culprits of the attack and raised their weapons. Just as they were about to ventilate Ashley, two of the forward slugs lunged out, their bodies surging with electricity. Lightning zapped the guards, briefly lighting the room. The malicious guards cried out in agony before limply falling to the ground, their weapons clattering against the floor. Ashley released the breath she didn’t know she was holding. Gratitude, relief, and even a bit of pride swelled in her heart for the little slugs. Had they not been there, then… They might have made her a slug, but there was no denying they were her best friends this past month. But now was not the time for all of that. Squirming out of the room as fast as her bulky body could, Ashley and her followers found themselves in a long, unassuming hallway. The floors and walls were concrete, with only some faded-white paint covering them. Pipes lined the tops and bottoms of the walls, and the hallway possessed few doors. Ashley had no idea which way to go. She had been blindfolded when she first arrived at the Synthex facility, and too traumatized by her transformation to pay attention when she was taken to the generator room. She looked around, trying to see if there were any markers or signs indicating where the exit was, but none were immediately visible. Forced to make a decision, she instructed her soldiers to follow her as she scooched left. The six of them continued down the snaking hallways, Ashley desperately searching for some kind of exit. The group ran across a few more groups of Synthex employees, but they were dispatched just like the others. It seemed that their little attack had caught them completely off-guard. “Serves them right,” Ashley vindictively thought. After turning her into a slug and forcing her to power their base for almost a month, she was getting quite a kick out of watching her former tormentors run around in the dim light like headless chickens. Finally, after several minutes of slinking around and shocking Synthex employees, Ashley spotted an exit sign. The red text shined in the distance like the gates of heaven. Ashley and her slugs pushed forward. Their freedom was so tantalizingly close. Ashley stretched herself up against the door and pushed on it. Feeling the door refuse to give way, she started bashing her weight against it. This time, her weight wasn’t enough. The reinforced steel and electronic lock held strong, not even budging against Ashley’s strikes. She wasn’t about to be bested by a stupid door. Ashley blasted the door with a violent burst of electricity, lighting up the exit for a moment as the metal door bore the brunt of the attack. With the electronic lock now fried, it only took a few good slams against the door for the exit to finally open. “Go!” she ordered her little minions as she rushed out the exit. Looking ahead of her, she saw a damp, mist-covered forest before her. Rain gently poured from the heavens, puddles of water already forming in the small concrete stoop of the Synthex facility. Tall, evergreen trees surrounded the facility, with some small shrubs and saplings filling in the spaces between the pillars of wood. It was a nice view, but Ashley was far too panicked to admire it. “Keep going, go!” she mentally ordered her tired slug friends. The slugs hadn’t moved around like this in their entire lives, and Ashley muscles were also burning. But she remained motivated, refusing to allow herself or her little friends to be caught by Synthex again. Seeing the slugs simply couldn’t keep going, she tried a different approach. “Get on me! Come on!” her command echoed out from her mind. The slugs all gathered around and crawled onto her. Without stopping, Ashley continued crawling into the forest, now aided by the more slick ground. She could feel the cool rain dripping on her slimy skin, helping her aching muscles continue to pull her along. She dashed through the forest for some time, only stopping when she spotted a large fallen tree. Using the last of her strength, she squirmed underneath the rotting wood and took a moment to catch her breath. Along her body, her little slug friends emitted slight, constant electrical shocks. The energy was rather soothing, helping to untie the knots in her muscles and relieve her aches and pains. She looked out from the fallen tree, trying to spot any Synthex guards pursuing them. The rain continued to fall, splashing in the puddles forming on the forest floor. A slight breeze occasionally blew through, rustling the bushes and saplings dotting the forest floor. Ashley couldn’t spot a single Synthex guard. They had done it. They escaped! A feeling of relief washed over Ashley, setting her at ease for the first time in almost a month. It felt amazing to finally be free from the confining plastic box and the oppressive atmosphere of the Synthex facility. Enjoying the electro-massage the little slugs were giving her, she was also thankful they had all made it out together. Synthex may have forced them on her, but she was glad they were with her now. “Thank you.” Ashley didn’t think the slugs on her back understood the words, but as they lovingly pressed their bodies against her, she second-guessed that assumption. Settling in, the six slugs gathered up some needles and brush to camouflage themselves before taking a nice, long rest outside for the first time ever… together. ------------------------ The Double Helix center was the polar opposite of the dilapidated and sequestered Synthex facility. Brightly sunlit hallways with glass ceilings, well-kept rooms and walkways free from refuse and debris, and plenty friendly faces working hard to better the lives of mutants made the place seem like heaven compared to the hellish experience Ashley had at Synthex. The place made her feel safe, like she was walking along the halls of the Justice League. It had been awhile since her last time here. After hiding in the woods for two days, Double Helix found her and her slugs after a successful raid against her former prison. Immediately shipping her back to one of Double Helix’s centers, Ashley spent several days in the adept hands of their highly-trained doctors and nurses. Learning her story, they set to work providing her relief, comfort, and a chance to return to her normal way of life. And about two weeks ago, they succeeded. Returned to her normal human body, Ashley became a miracle, one of the few people kidnapped and mutated by Synthex to escape and return to her normal life. The media couldn’t get enough of her, praising the “Slug that Shocked Synthex” to no end and providing Double Helix with plenty of public relations gold. But after her fifteen minutes of fame, she was able to go back to her overjoyed family and friends for some much-needed rest and relaxation. What the press didn’t cover, however, was her accomplices. The other electric slugs were put under the care of Double Helix, providing them further insight into Synthex's disturbing new mutagens. In an ironic twist, they also attempted to use them to power their equipment. However, with their leader gone, Ashley’s little slugs just didn’t have the same vigor they once did. What little power Double Helix could coax out of them was paltry at best and unusable at worst. Mopey and directionless, the little guys needed their leader back. “Ashley, I just want to thank you once again for agreeing to this.” the Double Helix director said with a sincere smile. “Yeah, yeah, just don't forget you agreed to pay me for this,” Ashley brushed off. The money was good, but she had other, better reasons for agreeing to return to her life as a slug. She was ready to jump at any chance to further stick it to those Synthex bastards. The thought of them continuing their insane mission boiled her blood, and she couldn’t sit idly by as they lurked in the shadows. More importantly, she just couldn’t stand to see the slugs so depressed. One look at them and she knew they were miserable, to no fault of Double Helix. They were just scared and lonely and needed their… for some reason she still couldn’t admit that bizarre fact to herself, what she was to those slugs, but maybe someday she would. “Alright, you can go ahead and step into the chamber, Ms. Bauer, the medication should be wearing off momentarily.” The door to the electric slugs slid open and Ashley walked inside. Her bare feet faintly clapped against the soft, electrically-resistant green tiles of the room. Even though her body hadn’t started changing yet, it seemed the five blue slugs already recognized her. Like happy puppies, the elated slugs scooched over as fast as they could to her. In a strange mirroring of their first meeting, Ashley knelt down and let the arm-sized slugs start crawling all over her. She barely had enough time to get her hospital gown off before the little guys covered her in their slime. She could feel them giving her little love zaps, and soon, she could start to feel the basic, happy emotions of the simple creatures pinging her mind. Unlike the first time, her transition into her slug form was pleasant. She watched as her skin’s color began to resemble the slugs around her, blue and yellow hues growing more pronounced across it as slime issued out from her pores. Soon it became hard to distinguish which slime was hers and which was from the other slugs. She could feel her arms and legs weakening. While her first transformation turned them into the slugs around her, her body was already technically altered and couldn’t produce more slugs in the same manner. Instead, her limbs retracted, slowly withering into her growing torso. Ashley happily laid down on the green-tiled floor, feeling her body naturally settle into its new standing position as her arms and legs sunk into her body. With her body now properly formatted, her head was all that remained. She felt her new eyes push out as her human eyes transitioned into slug eyes. The four fleshy stalks grew out at the same time as her feelers, the sensations of taste and smell repositioning as her mouth and nose disappeared. Her hair fell away and ears smoothed over, completing her rapid transformation back into a big electric slug. Now back in her proper body, Ashley could hear the happy calls of the slugs more clearly. Her heart swelled with joy, ecstatic to be reunited with them. Seeing the door on the opposite end of the room open up, Ashley immediately reverted back to her mo- leader role. “Alright, this way, come on,” Ashley calmly instructed the excited little slugs still crawling all over her. Heeding her call, the six slugs slithered back into the sunlit and spacious workcenter created for them. The room was a mix of Double Helix elegance and a slug’s dream biome. The floor was covered in moist dirt, and the walls were lined with bark, vines, and mushrooms. Plenty of tasty-looking plants and mushrooms dotted the landscape, along with two large columns of wood serving as trees as well as another horizontal column positioned like a fallen tree. A group of charging stations was the centerpiece of the room. Each one looked like a tunnel, the clear plastic suspending electros for gathering electricity from a slug nestled inside. The place was magnificent, far better than a plastic cube in a dingy backroom. “Let’s get to work.” She never would have believed it when it happened, but she was happy to be a slug now.