Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

It wasn’t until the four of us left Central’s trial grounds that Molly had the opportunity to properly introduce herself. She had explained to me that getting out of her doll form should only be done on a more stable dimension and away from the annoying, ever-present gaze of the Trash Matrix. That was why I had taken us a short distance away from the train station that would take us to the business sector of the Prime Dimension.

Molly had us walk around, past the bustling streets and pedestrian walkways that made up the majority of the bustling district, and since Big Bob’s own headquarters were located on prime real estate, we had to go rather far away to find a suitable spot. In the end, we had to hire a cab just to get us to a more remote location; we had chosen one of the private parks that my friend owned.

“Alright,” Molly said as she made her way into a large clearing away from most of the foliage that surrounded us, “This is a good enough spot. I would tell your friends to stand back.”

Surprisingly, even Xalla and Bob couldn’t understand what Molly was saying when she was in doll form, but then again, I suppose I had Noe to thank for her ability to translate whatever method Molly was using to speak.

“Right,” I said as the doll moved to a relatively open area, “You two best move aside. I’m not really sure what’s going to happen, but she said to make space.”

My friends did so and looked on with curiosity. They were dying to know what or who I had brought along with me to the trip, and since I knew almost as little as they did, I was hoping that the lady in question would help answer their inquiries for me.

Molly stopped once she was satisfied that we were sufficiently far enough away, and then… uh… expanded? It was like something I’d never seen before, and I’ve seen a lot.

Her doll form cracked and underneath that exterior was a horrible red, sinewy substance that wiggled in the light as it pushed her form outwards. Between the cracks in her porcelain shell were black hair-like protrusions that expanded out like creeping vines to grab at anything that was nearby. It pulled stones and soil and any poor unfortunate critter back toward the red mass of meat and muscle that made up the bulk of her growing body, and the three of us had to step a few steps back to avoid the wriggling mass of tendrils.

Her body continued to grow as she sucked in more material, and a massive sphere of empty space started to form around her. Even the air and the spacetime around her were being eaten up, and this morbid process continued for minutes before the pulsating mass exploded outwards in a flash of light and energy. The resulting force was so great that it temporarily blinded even a Xollon’s senses, and Big Bob had to rapidly erect a barrier to ensure that further damage didn’t occur.

Yeah, I can see why Molly said she needed her transformation to be done in very specific locations - just her eating the literal space around us could have set off some unfortunate extinction events had that happened in a lower dimension. I was even more shocked to see what Molly had truly looked like once the last of the radiation and heat dissipated and I could see again, and that went double for the two others by my side.

Standing in the crater that she made was a red, sinewy figure with roughly humanoid proportions - well, that look was the multiversal standard physique for higher lifeforms so no real surprises there. She had six arm-like appendages that bent at awkward angles all along the length of the limb, with a spindly hand at the end. Looking closer, I could see that her fingernails were made up of the same porcelain material from her doll form.

In between each gap and joint leaked out what appeared to be hair, or at least a close approximation of it since the stuff moved on its own and seemed to act more like sentient worms than inorganic keratin. They slithered across and around her body, taking in their new environment. This hair extended to cover the rest of her body, and before long, it seemed to form a kind of dress that flowed and rustled to its own will.

Lastly was Molly’s face. Strangely, her facial features still looked like the expressionless one that she had as a doll, and the white porcelain that still made up her skin there was a stark contrast to the fleshy, wiggling form that was the rest of her body. The only major change was the thin crack that ran along the bottom of her face. The tiny gaps that formed when she breathed showed glimpses of the true horrors that lay right underneath the surface of her otherwise delicate face.

Molly opened her mouth and a terrible sonic wave of sound bombarded us before she nodded, satisfied about something I couldn’t quite understand, before nodding toward our direction. She moved with an elegant grace that was a stark contrast to her monstrous appearance.

“I apologize for that,” she said in the same voice that I knew before, but it was quite clear that she was actually speaking this time from the expressions of my other companions, “Getting myself out of that doll form was never a pleasant experience for anyone involved.”

I nodded, not sure what else to say.

“I think I should properly introduce myself,” she continued, extending a pair of hands toward both Big Bob and Xalla, “But I am Malice, or Molly if you prefer, a pleasure to speak with a colleague of Walter’s. I apologize for making a mess of things, please let me know how much it will cost to fix things.”

“Oh no worries,” Big Bob said quickly as he returned the offered handshake, “It’s a minor inconvenience at most, I’ll have someone come and clean this up at once.”

Xalla greeted her as well, and once the initial shock of Molly’s transformation wore off, my friend’s usual smile and good nature returned.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Xalla said, “You must be the individual taking care of Alice and Toby, I’ve heard a bit about you from Walter, and thank you for taking care of him during his stay in your dimension.”

Molly smiled - her face literally cracking when she did so, quite the concerning sight even if Xalla thought nothing of it - before replying, “He’s done a lot more to help us out than I did for him. He’s a good man.”

Xalla nodded with a slight blush, but Molly ignored her before turning her attention to my chubby friend.

Big Bob cleared his throat and I swore I saw him blush and fidget as he continued to look at Molly’s new form. Now that’s something I never saw the man do in all the years that I’ve known him. Well, if you discount all the times he would get animated with his stupid trains that is. Did he… did he have a thing for Molly?

He composed himself, adjusted his loose shirt, and gave her his bright, “Good to meet you as well, ma’am! I am Babylon or just Bob, and I’ve known Walter for eons now! As Xalla said, thank you again for helping my friend back here. We’re about to enter my facilities, I’ll get us all some refreshments and drinks! You must be in need of something cool after that impressive feat of Alchemy. Marvelous form… beautiful…” He coughed again, “I mean, um, that transformation was marvelous. Right, let’s not keep my staff waiting!”

Seeing him so smitten was kind of refreshing, I had always thought that Bob was a little too into the mechanical to bother with romance in the conventional sense - heck, I’d even thought he’d make a robotic companion once upon a time, but maybe there was still some hope for the chubby god. Although, looking at Molly again with her half-doll, half-sinew appearance, his tastes in women might be a tad strange. Then again, I’m dating a tentacle monster, so who was I to judge?

Molly had better perception skills than I did, and I was sure she noticed Big Bob’s expressions better than I did, but she chose to ignore them for now. Hell, I’m pretty sure I even saw the start of a smile on her cracked face. Maybe there was hope for my friend after all.

Big Bob put his professional smile back on and led us into his compound after getting someone to clean up after Molly’s mess. His entire demeanor changed the second he entered the building; I saw him when he was acting officially as the CEO of Glory Enterprises, but the shift was always disconcerting. I guess he couldn’t be the owner of one of the major financial powers in the multiverse if he was “Big Bob” all the time instead of the respected Master Babylon.

Better yet, it was evident that his staff, from the lowest-paid intern to his branch managers and other executive officers, seemed to respect the man, if not outright like him. He greeted everyone he passed with a smile and a word of encouragement and read through at least a dozen different reports on his way to the labs out in the heart of the Science and Development wing. The three of us following closely behind only got a few curious glances our way, but we were mostly ignored.

I’d been gone for a long time, so I couldn’t help but gawk and marvel at the new toys Big Bob had managed to acquire and create in the time that I was gone. It was true, Babylon’s cooperation really did have the best and greatest tech in the multiverse, but going past various labs and workers and seeing some of the new stuff firsthand was amazing.

“Damn, Bob,” I muttered, marveling at a particularly intricate piece of tech that was suspended on huge electromagnets, “It’s all custom tech, right?”

He chuckled, “I’d be a disgrace to all my forebearers if I used cheap off-the-shelf stuff, and just wait till you see the real good stuff.”

Molly stopped for a spell and gazed at some of the shiny machines inquisitively. She nodded appreciatively when she saw some of the medical equipment that Bob used for the few biological projects that his staff headed.

“You are a master of your craft, Bob,” Molly said, “Abby’s hospital could use some of this, it’d make it a lot easier to handle the new influx of patients.”

Big Bob’s professional veneer cracked for just a second as I saw a huge smile blossom on his face, but he quickly regained his composure and simply nodded, “Thank you, Lady Malice, and know that my business is always looking for new clients.”

Molly sighed, “But Hope’s Memorial and its surroundings have been away from the larger planes for too long, I doubt we have much to offer in exchange.”

“Actually, there might be something that can be worked out,” Bob answered, “Your hospital’s Director is the one who made those cookies for Walter, correct?”

Molly nodded, “She is, although they're difficult to make at the best of times. The ingredients are hard to come by."

“Well, I can safely say that they're worth whatever difficulties the baking process may have encountered because are fantastic! I'm sure that a lot of people would agree, and they’ll sell to a very wide audience if it just gets a little exposure,” Bob continued, “If she’s willing to partner up with my company, we can distribute them, and provide the necessary infrastructure to mass produce those cookies. We can negotiate terms if you would like.”

Molly thought for a moment before replying, “I’ll let the Director know, it’s her recipe after all, but I think she’ll trust in a friend of Walter’s. Hope’s Memorial’s in desperate need of more funding in any case, so I doubt she’ll have many reservations about selling her cookies. It's a family recipe, but it's hardly a secret.”

“Excellent!” Big Bob smiled, “And it’s always good to have my equipment used in a place that really needs it; your hospital seems like just that kind of place. Feel free to check out the facilities and test out the machines later on, I’ll let the staff know to give you access.”

Molly nodded, “Thank you, Babylon, that is very nice of you.”

He blushed before quickly walking back toward my position, “Anyway, let’s get to Q’s office. He’s been informed of our arrival, and he technically has the rest of the week off, but something tells me that he’s still locked up in that dusty lab of his.”

“Let me worry about that, Bob,” I answered, “I’ll get him to move out of that lab, even if I have to drag him out. I think I might be able to reinstate him in his old job in any case, since his replacement’s going to need to go on a long, long leave of absence after my little gift to her.”

“What did you do to her, Walter?” Xalla asked dubiously, “I’ve never seen someone so… afraid? I don’t even know how to describe it, and Jordan’s not from one of the lesser races either.”

I shrugged, “Just a little something I left in the Origin Matrix when I wounded it; I knew someone would be stupid enough to poke their minds in Central’s system, although I had hoped it would have been the Overseer. Let’s just say that she saw things she wasn’t supposed to, and leave it at that.”

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