It's got legs!

An Odd Prompts snippet

This is in the Lab Gremlins world, some time after the events of that story.

Steven stared over Fitz’s shoulder at the little contraption. 

“I’m not sure I understand how this is supposed to work.” 

The gremlin wearing a lab coat and safety goggles twitched her shoulder in irritation. “It’s not going to work if you keep breathing down my neck instead of going to get another conductive gel to try.” 

Steven took a step backwards and collided with something large, solid, and yet the outer layer of it squelched alarmingly on impact. A thick purple tentacle coiled around his shoulder. 

“Steady, there, young man.” Bob the cephalapoid cautioned. With another tentacle, he put a beaker full of clear... something, on the lab bench. 

“Bob, what have I told you about lab procedure?” Fitz poked at the stuff with a clean glass stirring rod she’d picked up from the prep area. 

“There’s a label.” He sounded defensive, because it appeared suddenly, fluttering from yet another tentacle. “It just came off while I was carrying it here.” 

“What is that?” Steven asked, squirming out of Bob’s friendly grasp. He couldn’t read the label, which Bob was attempting to stick to the beaker instead of himself. 

“Jelly.” Bob sounded distracted. The label had adhered firmly to the upper side of his tentacle, and he was trying to gently peel it off with a suction cup, but the fine motor skills of the cups was lacking. 

“What kind of jelly, Bob?” Fitz sounded patient, a very bad sign. 

Steven started to put some real distance between his boss and the big janitor. 

“The kind that comes from jellyfish. If it comes from jellyfish, it’s got to be good.” Bob finally got the label off, and it landed on the lab bench. Adhesive side down, of course. 

Fitz let out a very long sigh as Bob attempted to pick it up and failed. “Why not. I mean, I’ve tried almost everything else.” Her voice sharpened. “Steven! Get the electrodes ready again.” 

Steven didn’t tell her they already were. He busied himself with getting them, while listening to her firmly tell Bob he could watch, from the door, and leave that damn label she could manage it herself. She was scraping it up with a weighing spatula when Steven approached, his hands full of the delicate apparatus. 

“Would you like to set it up this time?” She pulled the label up with a small ripping noise, then stuck it on the beaker, setting it’s contents to jiggling. 

“Er. Yes?” Steven eyed it with apprehension. 

“I’ll get a sample.” She pushed herself back from the bench. “I think if we immerse it we’re less likely to have an immediate escape.” 

With the weird slime mold Steven had encountered in the tunnel what seemed like such a long time ago, escape was inevitable. Which is why the room was equipped with flamethrowers. 

Steven carefully set the beaker on the carrier, clamping it down, then arranged the electrodes between the actuators and their positions in the jelly. He remained dubious this was going to work any better than their earlier attempts. Placing the electrodes directly into a sample - a small piece of the original specimen, which grew anytime they allowed it nutrients, and which seemed to hold a grudge still - had resulted in the little actuators shorting out. Fitz decided there needed to be a small amount of distance between the biochemical signals the slime used to communicate with all the components of itself, and they had gone through most of the conductive liquids and gels with little success. Twitching, at most. 

“Ready?” She had a set of long tweezers in both hands, clamped tightly on a tiny shred of the slime. 

“Ready.” Steven confirmed. 

She pushed the sample into the jelly, which resisted slightly, then released it and stepped back. They both stepped back, actually, staring at the beaker with a red speck in it, riding on tiny articulated legs. One of the legs lifted, then lowered again with a click. The beaker wobbled. Now, the legs all, rapidly, raised and lowered in succession. Then, two at a time moved in harmony and the beaker with it’s miniscule inhabitant rose, spun around, and made a mad dash for the far end of the bench. 

At his elbow, Fitz whooped with joy. “We did it! Steven, use the flamethrower!” 

***

My prompt for this week came from Fiona Grey with “It must be good. It’s found in jellyfish.”

I prompted her in response (luck of the draw!) with “This is the time of year where we have to hyperfocus.”

You can find all of the Odd Prompts at More Odds Than Ends, and join in on the fun yourself if you are looking for a creative challenge.

Sidebar note for my paid subscribers: I finished a chapter of Tanager’s Flight, and will resume posting them for you at the rate of two a week from here until the end… soon now. Soon!