Shifting Responsibilities For VeronicaFoxx By Draconicon
Working in the bar was getting easier and easier for it. The fact that it could be whatever it wanted, the fact that it could take whatever shape it needed - or even whatever shape it liked - was such a difference to the restrictions and desires of everyone around that it was used to…
Gemini was currently in the shape of a smooth ball, rolling around the counter of the bar and splitting into twos, threes, fours, even as much as a dozen different balls. It let itself be batted around by some of the friendly regulars, even letting itself be picked up, rolled down arms, and then launched in the air. When it left their bodies, it would extend wings, flitting up to check the situation around the rest of the club - always keeping an eye out on the other supers - before coming down again, playing the game once more.
Wheeeee! was as close to giggling and laughing and making good sounds as Gemini was able to come while in ball form, but it burbled happily regardless as it moved about. The regulars laughed a bit, occasionally setting it down on the bar again as they had to get up and go somewhere else. Never without a bit of a pat on the top of whatever shape it picked, though. They were nice about that.
Nice people. Good people.
Gemini pulled itself back together when the last one went, deciding that it felt a bit like a dog for the moment. Just for the moment, though. It turned into a giant pink Doberman, lifting itself up to grab a couple of mugs in its jaws and carrying them to the dishwasher.
Another possibility grabbed the little goo-creature at that point, but it waited to make sure that the dishes were properly put away before making the next shift. Its head pulled back in, and then the limbs, replaced by long tendrils with suckers that smacked against the wall behind the bar.
Up, up, up Gemini went, burbling to itself as it thought about what it wanted to try this time.
Lots of people shapes down there, lots of different people. Maybe look at them all from up top?
It left a bubble of pink at the bar, just enough to keep an eye out for any customers. Latexia had told Gemini to be ready for anybody that came in, to keep an eye on things, to serve the drinks (even though it was technically underage in some places), and - if things got out of hand - to do something to handle it.
Gemini assumed that meant getting the latex hippo out of her office, but so far, everything had been just fine.
The bundle of pink goo spread across the top of the ceiling, moving further and further forward until it was right in the middle of the black top. Gemini extended its tentacles out in all directions, experimenting.
Hmmm, spread out here, connect there, make sure that all those suckers are in the right spot, yes, yes…
It giggled when some of the suckers came free. It was a mistake, yeah, but it was a silly mistake that made silly sounds. All it had to do was adjust the sucker ability on the underside of its body, and the weight was no longer a problem. More suckers, more pull, even a couple of little nibbling mouths to get a tighter grip on the latex behind it.
Gemini kept its little trick as hidden as possible, keeping its body tight to the black roof until it was completely in place. It made sure that its suckers were going to be strong enough to manage this, and then...expanded.
POOOOMF!
The whole club bounced as Gemini turned itself into a giant, living chandelier, swinging back and forth gaudily, gallantly, and giddily over the dancing crowd below. Pink bioluminescence lit up the whole place in a way that Latexia’s lights tended not to do, turning the place from looking like an oil-slick rainbow of colors to something closer to what one would see through rose-tinted glasses. Warm, happy, kind…
Gemini loved it, and laughed for what it had done. Of course, since all the pink lights were coming from the myriad mouths on its lower body, that left the lights popping in and out of existence as its mouths opened and closed.
Most of the people down below were having fun, too, some of them jumping up and seeing if they could touch the pink blob. Gemini, always eager to have a bit of fun, even reached down with some tendrils, and soon they were spinning around, taking a bit of a drunken ride on the big goo-creature.
The doors to the club opened. From the bubble that Gemini had left at the bar, it saw two cops and one super coming in. All three were on Latexia’s ‘Not Allowed’ list. Not the little black one that the hippo carried around and popped out of her belly when she needed it, but on the big red one that was under the counter.
Oh...I should…
Its first thought was to go and get Latexia. After all, the hippo was its boss-friend, and would know what to do.
But when the cops and the hero started making their way into the crowd, Gemini knew that wasn’t an option. Not with the way that they looked.
Not with the person they were looking at.
Gemini had come to know almost everyone in the club by now, and it knew the little boy that the cops were staring at, who the hero was leading them to. A little runaway, someone that had decided he wasn’t going to take being bullied at school and ignored at home, he’d gone off to be mentored somewhere. Latexia had managed to get him connected to one of the gadgeteer villains, one of those that was on the edge of retirement and was mostly looking for a person to pass knowledge onto.
The hippo had told it that someone would probably come looking, if only to put the boy back in the system.
The goo-bundle had seen the kid. Had seen the little ferret learning how to make his new machines work. Had seen the looks of happiness when the ferret had figured out how to make his first floaty-wand. Had seen how the old bat had become the kid’s second dad, real dad.
Real family.
Gemini rumbled at the thought, bubbles popping along its body as it thought of someone else being ripped from a family it picked. A real family. Real happiness.
Uh-uh. No. No. You don’t get to do the bad.
Dropping the tentacles back to the ground and releasing its riders, Gemini pulled itself into a tight, heavy ball and dropped. Right on the hero’s head. Hero, because he wouldn’t get hurt, really.
BOING!
The bald eagle superhero bent beneath it, bouncing Gemini back against the ceiling and then back down to the floor. The pink goo ball expanded, forming a pink wall with a big pair of glaring goo eyes.
“You’re on the list,” it said, imitating Latexia’s voice.
The cops stared, taking a step back. They stared at its spread-out body, even as Gemini formed a comfy bouncy-castle interior for the ferret and a solid outer wall.
It dropped its oversized eyes down to the eagle, who was just starting to stand up. Gemini repeated itself.
“You’re on the list,” it said. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Neither is he!” the eagle said, pointing at the ferret. “He’s a missing child. He should be back with his family.”
“He’s with his family. We’re all watching over him.”
“Hmmph. You’re not his legal guardian.”
“Bub, nobody really cares about legal here,” one of the villains, a possum, said with a chuckle. “All we care about is everyone having a good time, okay? The kid’s fine. Not like anything could get him with his guardian angels around.”
“I’m here to take him back to his parents,” the eagle repeated. “I have two officers of the law to enforce that.”
Gemini knew about the law. It knew that the law changed from place to place, and that it always seemed to take the idea that there were some people that got to set the rules for everyone else. Sometimes those rules helped people. A lot of times, those rules hurt people, too. Sometimes, it hurt the wrong people.
It formed another pair of eyes, looking back at the ferret boy. He was completely comfortable inside of Gemini’s body, completely safe. He looked up, even, and smiled.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Gonna be. Wanna help me make them go away?” Gemini asked.
“Sure, I can play that game.”
“You have your floaty wand?”
The ferret picked it up.
“Get em!”
Struck dumb by the absurdity of the situation, the hero and the cops were easy prey to the anti-gravitational wand that the kid’s guardian had helped him build. They floated off the floor, and Gemini took action.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
It burble-screamed as wheels and treads and miniature horses and every type of locomotion it had ever seen pulled out of its sides and front, turning it from a wall to a mobile battering ram of great purpose. The cops and hero were floating right in its way, and were helpless to dodge.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
Gemini barreled them right out the open door, sending them flying down the steps and out of the club. Through the whole time, the ferret was grinning like the kid he was inside of it, and even bounced up and down in celebration when the jerks went flying.
When the club cheered behind it, Gemini knew...it’d done good.
Another Gemini/Latexia story, and the last one for the moment. With Latexia busy in her office, Gemini is out on the floor of the bar, keeping an eye on things and making sure that nothing goes wrong. However, when some cops and a super decide to hop in and cause trouble, Gemini has to make a decision of how to handle this...
Commissioned by VeronicaFoxx
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