Fruit Fly, The

With a grunt Alex raised the shutter door, the pale blue of the outside lamps filtering into the storage unit.  It was spacious and kept fastidiously clean, with a cot, mini-fridge, and portable electric stove suggesting that he had spent more than a few nights in here.  As Alex and Reverie stepped inside he let the door close behind them, plunging them into darkness until he turned on the flood lamps, bathing the room and its contents in light.  By the far wall were two metal boxes a bit larger than chemical toilets, with tight bundles of cables at their bases leading to a trio of computer towers on a table.

"So those're it?" Reverie pointed to the boxes. "Two big phone booths are gonna 'change the world as we know it?'"

Alex's brow furrowed as he muttered, "what's a phone b-" to himself before shaking his head. "Never mind."

"So what is it?"

"Telepods." He plucked nervously at one cuff of his dress shirt.

"Seriously?"

"Yes." He strode over to the computer, pressing the power button on one and watching as lines of text scrolled by on a black screen. "If you have something personal or unique to to you, I can show you it works."

Reverie studied the two boxes for a moment before patting down the pockets of her jeans and hoodie, discounting each find in turn: Her phone, her wallet, her dorm keys... unique to her, but also not something she could risk losing. Suddenly a thought came to her and she stripped off her hoodie, Alex awkwardly looking away as she tugged her t-shirt back down over her stomach with one hand, passing the hoodie to him with the other. "How's this?"

"This'll work." Opening the door on one of the pods Alex laid the clothing out, shutting it again before returning to the computer and typing for a few seconds.  He gave both pods a quick look before pressing one final key, and there was a quiet crack and a sudden flash of light from both pods, the scent of ozone wafting through the room.  Reverie recoiled, warily eyeing the devices as Alex went to the other pod, before her attention was drawn to the blinking message on the screen.

-TELEPORTATION SUCCESSFUL-

She turned to Alex, who was holding the pod door open as he gestured to her hoodie. "Is that...?" She asked.

"It's yours," he replied. "Go on, pick it up."

Reverie did as she was asked, turning the hoodie over in her hands.  Ever seam, wrinkle, and bare thread was there, just as she remembered. "Holy- you built a teleporter?!" she exclaimed. "By -yourself?-"

"Sort of," Alex replied. "All the big parts, like the molecular analyzer and the three-dimensional scanner were made by other people, and I just put them all together.  None of them knew what the parts were for."

"But you designed it?"

"Not... really.  I was trying to find something else and it lead me to a torrent site, and what I found turned out to be Cold War-era plans for building one."

"Oh."

"The site was in Russian." He shrugged. "It wasn't too hard to translate, though.  The hardest part was figuring out which parts could be updated or scaled down and getting all of -them- to fit together properly."

"Does anyone else know about this?"

"No!  No, definitely not." Alex paused to calm himself. "You can't tell anyone about it.  Not yet.  Not for a while."

"Do you need an Igor?"

"A what?"

"An assistant." She gestured to the pods. "For your mad science."

"Well," he began, taken aback. "If you're asking..."



*****



Reverie lifted the shutter, entering and lowering it behind her before pocketing the key. "Were you here all night?" she asked.

Without looking away from the computer, Alex gestured to the cot. "I don't like being too far away from a problem I'm trying to solve.  I get... impatient when driving."

She set the plastic bag of food down on the cot. "What's the problem?"

"Along with the plans were reports on its initial tests." He took a step back and let out a quiet sigh before turning to face her. "It worked fine with inanimate objects, but then they tried it with animals."

"Oh no."

"There were photos." He grimaced. "The effect was different on live plants when I tested it, but..." He shook his head. "I'm not about to put -any- living creature through there, not yet." Alex pointed to the bag. "Is that it?"

She nodded. "Some fruits and vegetables, and the cheapest steaks I could find."

"I'll heat up the pan.  Put one of the steaks through, then the produce one at a time."



*****



It looked like a steak.  It smelled like a steak, or that could have been the other steak right next to it.  But as Reverie chewed, something was off. "The texture is the same as the other one," she began, "but the taste is kinda artificial.  Like it has steak flavor added to it instead of being steak."

"Like a chemical taste?" Alex asked.

"No, it's more..." She gestured with the fork. "...someone took it part and put it back together again.  Sort of like how the orange tasted like an orange drink." Reverie watched as Alex nodded to himself before slowly pacing the unit. "Did you think of something?"

"Maybe.  It's not giving us the object, it's giving us its interpretation of it.  Instead of reproducing it perfectly, the computer is rethinking it, or translating it differently."

"So you need to make it not think?"

"Something like that." He hurried over to the computer and began typing. "All it needs to do it repeat what it reads.  As long as it doesn't touch anything beyond that, we'll be set."  A few seconds later he paused, glancing back at Reverie. "You can leave if you have anywhere else to be."

"I, um, think I'll stay here.  To keep your cot warm."

Alex sputtered.



*****



There was a staccato tapping of keys, and a tension in the air before the final press.  An electric crack, a flash of light, and the scent of ozone followed, and Alex hesitantly opened the second pod to reveal a single rat, sniffing the air.  Reverie sprang to her feet, nearly dropping the handful of leftover fruits she was nervously eating as she dashed to the first pod and flung open the door, leaning in to look around.  She dropped them as Alex picked up the rat, hugging him just as he lifted the creature up and out of danger.

"I need to make sure this guy is alright," Alex said. "Don't wait up on me if you're going to celebrate."



*****



Reverie was into her third No. 10 Lemonade when Cobalt arrived, and she called for her - perhaps too loudly - as she waved her over.  When asked what prompted her behavior, Reverie began explaining where she had been the past three weeks in a rambling, slightly disjointed manner, adding that Alex had "changed everything forever."  She didn't notice Cobalt's growing disbelief at what she was talking about until she simply shook her head.

"I don't know what you were expecting, but whatever he did, you fell for it."

Reverie blinked. "Wha?"

"It's a trick," Cobalt said. "He's tricking you.  They used to pull stuff like this in old-timey stage shows, only now he's got an engineering degree and a fancy set-up to make it look more elaborate than it is."

"No, no, I was -there-," she slurred. "I saw stuff move.  I helped 'im."

"Did you get to pick what he 'teleported,' or was it only specific objects?"

"Well.  The one time... yeah, but..."

"But he made very sure that you only put in things that he told you to."

"It's a..." She gestured. "It's a science thing, with parts and scanners and-"

She waved Reverie off, rolling her eyes. "I thought you were smarter than this.  Or maybe it's because it's Alex."

"Whuzzat supposed to mean?!"

"What do you think it means?" she retorted, making a circle with the index finger and thumb of one hand and moving her other finger in and out of it. "I don't know if you were looking for an excuse to fall all over him, or if you were impressed by a bunch of trap doors and conveyor belts, but I guess you got what you wanted."

Reverie glared at Cobalt before downing the rest of her drink in a single swig, slamming the glass back onto the table. "I don' hafta lissen t'this," she hissed, pushing her chair back.  Standing, she fished a bill out of her pocket and left it on the corner of the bar before storming outside and hailing a cab.  By the time Cobalt wondered if she shouldn't have been a bit more gentle in her approach, Reverie was already gone.



*****



As the cab headed through town Reverie quietly fumed to herself, watching headlights and neon signs move past.  It slowed to a stop at a light, the buildings looking oddly familiar before she realized where she was. "Turn here," she said, feeling the spare key Alex gave her in her pocket. "Turn right here."

"You're the boss," the driver said.

He did as he was asked, heading down the street, and shortly thereafter the sign of the storage unit company came into view.  The cab stopped just outside and Reverie paid the driver before climbing out of the back of the cab, nearly tripping in the process.  Slipping through the gate she headed for the unit Alex was working in, opening the door to find him gone.  A flick of the switch near the entrance activated the flood lights, and several more further in provided power to the computer and teleporters.

She waited until they booted, thinking to herself that Cobalt would say that Alex teaching her how to use them was part of the trick; Reverie was just drunk enough to get angry all over again, though she still wanted to prove her wrong.  So, after setting a short delay, she climbed into one of the pods, not aware of the minute object she crushed underfoot as the timer ticked down to activation.  The door locked shut, and then there was a quiet crack and a blinding flash of light.

It was like a hiccup - a sudden stutter in Reverie's own existence; not unpleasant, but an interruption nonetheless.  As she climbed out of the second pod she was aware of how distinctly -fine- she felt, despite her drunkenness.  It wasn't a glorified carnival attraction or a failed experiment, it was something which would, in no uncertain terms, change the world.

Served Cobalt right for doubting Alex.

As Reverie's anger abated she found it replaced with tiredness, and she made her way over to the cot before curling up and drifting off to sleep.



*****



Reverie woke to the rumble of metal and a wedge of sunlight pouring into the unit, sitting up on the cot to see a bewildered Alex staring back at her. "Were you here the entire night?" His gaze turned to the computer, still powered. "Did you -use- the teleporter?!"

She sat up, stretching and finding herself oddly well-rested and alert.  Doubly so, considering that cots weren't known for comfort. "I think so.  I remember going into it when-"

"You teleported -yourself?!-" In the blink of an eye he was by her side, holding both her arms as he looked her over, unsure of where to begin both in studying her and speaking. "Are you hurt?  Did you make any changes to the settings?  What- what was- what were you -thinking-, doing something so risky?!"

"Cobalt was talking about this being a pick-up artist thing," she explained, "and I knew it wasn't.  I wouldn't have done it if I..." Her eyes lingered on his. "...if I wasn't sure of what you made."

Alex was the first to break his gaze away, giving a nervous cough. "I still need to get you checked out, though.  Just in case."



*****



Whatever Alex's plans were, they didn't involve Reverie practically ambushing him the second the apartment door was closed with an unrestrained hunger.  Her lips were tart and sweet, covering every inch of his body that he could reach and returning only to his mouth again when it took too long to strip off an article of clothing.  At first Alex tried to get her to at least wait until she was examined, then tried to get her to wait until they were in the bedroom.  Both failed, and to even get to the bedroom he ended up satisfying her in the kitchen, bent over the counter when they were both still half-dressed.  Even then, they spent the better part of two hours in his bed, with Reverie only stopping once he either dozed off or passed out.

When Alex woke he found Reverie wearing his robe and eating a bowl of cereal. "How... how are you still moving?" he groaned.

"I feel really good," Reverie replied, shoveling a spoonful of candy-branded breakfast food into her mouth. "I definitely couldn't do this normally." She gestured to him and the bed with the spoon, then after a second of thought asked, "d'you think the teleporter had something to do with this?"

"Doubtless."

She nodded. "You said that it was 'rethinking' living things that went through, but you changed it.  What if it's still doing that, but it's fixing all of the..." She gesticulated. "...stuff to make things work better?"

"What, you mean..." He wasn't sure of the biological term, instead going with what he knew. "...optimizing people?"

"Yeah!  Stuff can go wrong in people, right?" She ate another bite. "So maybe teleporting fixes that.  You should do it too."

"Maybe not yet.  Uh, you have a little..." He tapped his lips.

Reverie wiped her lips with the back of her hand, doing nothing to affect the faint purplish tinge. "Did I get it?"

"Um.  Yeah, yeah.  You did."



*****



Three days later Alex found himself awake at strange hours with restless thoughts.  He lay there for a time, his mind too full of worry to fall back asleep yet hoping that he might, but when the sun finally rose he gave up.  As he left his flat, heading out to breakfast, he was suddenly struck dumb by a sight which was both unprecedented and unexpected.

It was Reverie.  Outside.  In the morning.

-Jogging-.

She was dressed in a tracksuit, and judging from the jiggling in her chest and belly as she moved, she had gained an unusual amount of weight in a short time.  Even so, she didn't seem to be slowed down by it in the least.  The faint bluish hue to her face was a concern, but her breathing was steady, and as she stopped next to him she continued to run in place with no visible discomfort. "Hey," she said.

"Why are you up at this hour?" Alex asked.

"I've had a lot of energy.  Sleeping less, too." Reverie looked him over. "How about you?"

He scratched his head. "Rough night."

"Have you given any thought to going through the teleporter?"

"No.  I'm still worried about-"

"-yourself?"

"You."

"Me?" She laughed, coming to rest. "Alex, it's like... a drug, but harmless and perfect in every way.  I'm becoming more than I was."

"This isn't -you-, Rev.  You're sick."

"Sick?  Look at me!" She dropped to the ground almost effortlessly, performing a series of quick push-ups before rising to her feet again, her body wobbling briefly before coming to rest.  A sharply sweet scent hung in the air, and the spots of sweat looked almost purplish in the morning sun. "Does that look like something a sick woman could do?"

Alex could only stare, open-mouthed, before sadly shaking his head and mumbling an apology before heading in the direction from whence Reverie came.

"You built it," Reverie called out to him, "but you're afraid to use it!  You're afraid of changing into something better!"



*****



Reverie wasn't completely wrong: Alex -was- afraid.  When he went to the storage unit the next day he spotted Reverie's car parked outside and, thinking of their last encounter, kept on driving before taking the next turn and heading straight home.  He found himself increasingly on edge, avoiding places where she knew she would be.  In the end he was discovered, not by her but by a concerned-looking Cobalt.

"What's the problem?" After a moment of thought she said, "It's Rev, isn't it."

"How did you know?" Alex asked.

"She's been acting weird.  Very weird.  About a week ago she got drunk and told me that you made... a teleporter." They way she said "a teleporter" made it sound like a confession. "I thought it was bullshit, but now..." She shook her head. "I don't know what it is, but it's not you bullshitting her."

He adjusted his glasses. "She went through herself."

"So it's -real?-"

"But it wasn't my idea!  Her going through, I mean.  I would never-"

"I know." Cobalt gave him a small reassuring smile, waiting for him to calm down. "But -is- this normal?  Did you test it on anything?"

"A rat, but it's acting normally.  No physical or mental changes that I can see."

"Because she's turning purple, and she looks fatter, but all in here." She gestured with one hand over her torso. "There's also this sweet smell around her constantly."

"That shouldn't be possible." He racked his brain, trying to come up with anything to link it to. "There was other organic material, but the chambers were always kept empty between uses."

"'Organic material?'"

"A steak, fruits..." He looked queasy, shaking his head. "No.  No, it can't be that.  The teleporter plans had reports from the original designers.  One of them had photos of when they sent two- two objects together, but..." Alex stared off into space, his expression horrified, and he broke into a sprint, Cobalt quickly catching up to him. "We need to get to the teleporter!  There has to be something in the logs!"

"Can you fix it?" Cobalt asked.

"I don't know, but I'm going to try to keep it from getting worse."



*****



The sun had nearly set when they arrived at the unit.  Only one flood light was lit inside and the door was left partially ajar, just low enough that they had to bend over to enter.  As they did they were hit with the sharp, tart odor of berries, thick enough to drown out everything else.  As they peered into the darkness there was the thunk of wood and the shutter slammed shut behind them with a heavy click, and as Cobalt turned and struggled to lift it Reverie stepped out of the darkness, a rope trailing from her hand. "Hi guys."

Every bit of Reverie's body was swollen - there was no other word to describe it.  Her hoodie strained to contain breasts that rivaled her head in size, having given up on covering a gut that dominated her midsection, rolling out in every direction and preventing her from letting her arms rest straight at her sides.  Her were pants unbuttoned and unzippered, her legs stuffing them to the point where stitches were beginning to give.  She looked utterly swollen, her skin painted in a deep bluish-purple, the same color which stained the crotch of her pants and the front of her hoodie.

"Friggin' thing's locked," Cobalt growled.  She turned, going wide-eyed. "Holy shit."

"Was waiting for you to show up, Alex." There was a distant look in her violet eyes as she visibly struggled to focus on them, her words coming slowly. "Figured out what happened.  Something outside the pod that got in by accident." She lazily waved with one hand to the computer. "'Cyanococcus.'  Blueberry.  Analyzer told me."

"Spliced on a genetic level," Alex said in disbelief.

"She was mutated?" Cobalt asked.

"No.  Transforming." She plodded towards one pod, her entire body wobbling; Alex could have sworn he heard a barely audible slosh with each step. "Most people would give anything to be turned into something else..." She trailed off, eyes glazing over briefly as she shuddered. "Hard to think.  Juice moving around, pressing into me.  Feels good." She smiled at them. "Would feel good for you, too." She opened the door, revealing a small pile of blueberries.  "Can take turns juicing each other." Turning to Cobalt she added, "want to join?  We can share."

Alex shook his head, muttering "no" over and over.  Cobalt said nothing, shifting her stance as her body tensed up.

Reverie gave a lazy shrug. "More for me."  She mashed one hand against the computer's keyboard, starting a countdown, then quickly lumbered towards them.

Cobalt stepped forward to intercept her; Reverie wasn't fast, but she was far heavier than Cobalt expected, and she stumbled to the side as the swollen young woman bowled her over, sending her to the floor.  Grabbing Alex's wrist in a vice-like grip she began dragging him towards the open pod, speaking in a slow and reassuring tone that paid little heed to Alex's struggling or refusals.  Just as they neared the door and Reverie prepared to push him in Cobalt charged forward, shoulder-checking her with enough force to send her teetering, then falling into the pod.  As she pulled Alex to his feet and away from Reverie the door swung shut, and there were a series of bangs from the inside.  The countdown ended, and the banging fell silent as there was a loud crack and a flash of light.

Alex and Cobalt stared as one at the second teleporter pod, illuminated by the floodlight.  There was the creak of metal, quiet and brief, but followed by another creak, continuing and growing in volume and intensity.  The pod began to bulge, deep purple appearing within the broken seams, before the metal simply burst apart and Reverie emerged.

The swelling had been magnified to an impossible degree, leaving her as a throbbing ball of juice far wider than a man was tall, with tattered and overstretched clothes spread across her.  Hands clenched and unclenched in deep divots on her sides as, up above, her head rolled, open mouth letting out moans and delirious sentence fragments.  Every orifice was leaking juice, running down her front and dripping to the floor, filling the room with an overpowering smell of berries.  Leaking, but not fast enough as, to Cobalt and Alex's horror, she continued to grow.  As her head closed in towards the ceiling her wide, stretched breasts rose up, Reverie frantically grunting as they filled out into twin domes atop her upper hemisphere.  Then, just as quickly, they shrank back down, twin streams which soaked through what was left of her hoodie spilling out.  All the while wall of bloated flesh shoved boxes and other objects aside, closing in on them.

Cobalt made for the shutter, struggling with it again as the room grew cramped. "She's gonna crush us if we don't do something!" she shouted.

Alex's head snapped to and fro, searching for something - anything - which could be used to escape their fate, every second seeing more and more possibilities disappear beneath the Reverie-berry.  As hope waned, he brought one hand down upon the table at the head of the cot, fingers touching an empty dinner plate with the fork and knife still resting atop it. Snatching it up he held it in both hands and aimed the point at her gut, just beneath the navel.

"Reverie," he whispered. "I'm sorry."

He thrust the knife forward.  Reverie's skin buckled at the tip for split second before it gave way, and she trembled one last time before erupting into a tidal wave of blueberry juice.



*****



[Excerpt from film podcast "Yesterday's Movies Tonight," Episode 83.]

CAMERON: So the biggest problem of "The Fruit Fly" is that it's -too- out there.  It's -too- radical.
REESE: Mmm.
CAMERON: It's indie film sensibilities, but with a mainstream film budget.  It tries something different, but it takes too many risks, and not all of them pay off.  You really see that in a lot of the reviews, how people were almost turned off by the concept.
REESE: I think it would have done better if it had more famous actors.
CAMERON: Yeah, the cast was all unknowns.  But they were good!
REESE: (laughing)
CAMERON: This was Alex's first acting role.  I was surprised.
REESE: Right.  But it's a film that's really struggling to find out who it's for.
CAMERON: Hopefully none of the actors get held back by this.  If you gave them a better script to work with I think they'd really take off.
REESE: Mmm.
CAMERON: In other film news, Phase 4 of the Wonkaverse was just announced.
REESE: Ooh.
CAMERON: ...and they're going to be returning to anime.  Trailers just dropped for "Rebuild of Evan-berry-on" and "Darling in the Juicing Room."
REESE: Now I'm -very- interested to see how Rebuild Asuka and Zero-Two handle the three-course gum scenario.
CAMERON: Oh, I agree.  People are really looking forward to this.