I12DT: A Friend In Need

[Will Stanton]

Nina's doorbell would ring, and she'd be faced with ... a carbon copy of herself, waiting outside, carrying a small brown paper bag.

[Nina Madaraki]

Nina opens the door. She just stares for a moment, then starts to unbutton her blouse.

[Will Stanton]

"Intriguing response, but no, Nina, it's me, Will.

I didn't think SHIELD would look too kindly on you getting visited by strange men, so I came incognito."

[Nina Madaraki]

"Oh, thank goodness, I thought I was dreaming again," Nina says, gesturing for Will to come in as she buttons her shirt back up.

[Will Stanton]

"I brought a little white wine. I wanted to apologize for the whole, y'know, SHIELD thing.

I'm working on trust with the counselor," she admitted, shifting back into Will-form.

[Nina Madaraki]

"It's alright," Nina says, "Your obvious lack of trust in your friends is perfectly understandable."

"Besides, I spy on people a lot. It's my job," Nina says, "Although they prefer I don't tell people about it."

[Will Stanton]

"I can imagine," Will nodded.

"And it's not my friends. It's big, faceless government organizations. Which I think is also perfectly understandable.

Bastards loss my visa paperwork, or something. I set the headmistress on their ass."

[Nina Madaraki]

"Scary," Nina says, "Sounds kind of petty though. Do you really think they'd go that low?"

[Will Stanton]

"No, I think it's just government incompetence.

No offense intended," she laughed, sticking her tongue out.

[Nina Madaraki]

"None taken," Nina says, "I work for the secret government. That's where they keep the competent people."

[Will Stanton]

"And people like you, right?"

[Nina Madaraki]

"Except when they catch us reading their text messages."

[Will Stanton]

"Anyway.

Nice place you have here."

[Nina Madaraki]

"Thanks," Nina says, "It's a bit small, but still kind of cozy."

"Plus, no shortage of pigeons."

[Will Stanton]

"Then I probably shouldn't shift into cornmeal, is what you're getting at."

[Nina Madaraki]

"Do you want me to feed you to the pigeons?" Nina says, sounding excited, "Because that would be amazing."

[Will Stanton]

Will seemed intrigued by the possibility.

"I'd be worried about spreading myself too thin -- literally. Though...I WAS able to be in two places at once earlier, though my attempts to replicate the feat have so far failed."

[Nina Madaraki]

"Maybe another time then," Nina says, "Now, what did you want me to look at?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, I don't know, precisely -- you're the expert.

There's been something of a change in my shifting since I was...since...since my vacation at the hands of Black Air.

It's...more stimulating, somehow. More...just more everything. Like I've been...intensified in some way. They had me...from what I've pieced together in reports and fractured memories ... doing things which I had just assumed were impossible.

And I keep dreaming about it..."

[Nina Madaraki]

"If they had that level of control over you, they had to be doing something on a cellular level," Nina says, "I would need to flood you with probes and maybe take a few samples for long-term study. Would you be comfortable with that?"

[Will Stanton]

"I suppose so. Just make sure that when I leave here, I'm all in one piece, and you can do whatever you want to do to me."

[Nina Madaraki]

"Well, that sounds like informed consent to me," Nina says, "Lie down on the couch and get comfortable."

[Will Stanton]

Will kicked off her shoes and lied down.

"Is this where I tell you about my issues with my mother?"

[Nina Madaraki]

Nina sits down on the floor next to him, "No, this is where things get a little awkward."

Nina puts one hand on Will's chest, starting to send probes into him.

[Will Stanton]

"You've literally worn me before. We're beyond awkward."

The probes entered Will's body, and almost immediately, all the little nanoprobes left in Will's body started firing, identifying the intruders.

Other than that, things seemed more or less normal...for now.

[Nina Madaraki]

"Innnteerressstinnnggg," Nina says, "Competition."

She attempts to try to get whatever information she can on the nanoprobes.

[Will Stanton]

The nanoprobes were magnetic in nature, and were serving as radio receivers -- they accepted signals and appeared to fire electrical pulses into the cells themselves.

They had worked their way into Will on a cellular level, apparently replacing what would be the nucleus in a normal cell -- not that Will's cells were normal to begin with.

They were blocking Nina's probes from entering too deeply into any of the individual cells, annoyingly, but they weren't taking any other action yet.

[Nina Madaraki]

"They got you good," Nina says, giving a low whistle.

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah. Yeah, they did.

I do wonder if they did something to my brain, too. Or my mind, or whatever.

You can see why I'm not a big fan of shadowy organizations at the moment."

[Nina Madaraki]

"We are an untrustworthy lot," Nina says, trying to get an idea what frequency the probes are on.

[Will Stanton]

As Nina actually started probing them, they started to shoot electricity out into Will, causing her body to vibrate and rapidly fluctuate in mass and density.

"Wh?!" Will said, as her mouth vanished.

[Nina Madaraki]

"Neat!" Nina says. She tried to see if maybe she could manipulate the electrical charges somehow...

[Will Stanton]

Not directly like this -- any attempt to interface with the nodes directly just resulted in a high shock, even into Nina's probes.

However, it wasn't too hard to figure out a way to broadcast signals INTO the nodes, and have them shoot out electricity in that manner. The question would be figuring out what to transmit, but how hard could that be?

Will definitely had lost all definition at this point, and was just a long, soft, gooey grey blob on Nina's couch. I hope he didn't stain.

[Nina Madaraki]

NIna's first idea? See what happened if she broadcast NPR into Will.

She was not a very responsible scientist.

[Will Stanton]

"...come back to All Things Considered, where we're discussing the new album by Elf Power, with Aaron Wegelin. Thanks for joining us, Aaron..."

As the radio played, Will reformed -- the blob forming into a very, very large, muscular man. With pointed elf ears, and long, silky, overly-conditioned blonde hair stretching down past his midsection.

[Nina Madaraki]

"Interesting," Nina says, taking notes.

Where did she even get a clipboard?

[Will Stanton]

"Hrm. I thought McManus went in and fixed that..."

He sounded strangely like Fabio. Must be the hair.

[Nina Madaraki]

"Fixed what?" Nina asks.

[Will Stanton]

"The radio...that I shift with the radio. It wasn't even being broadcast INTO me then, I would just overhear songs and...poof."

Was that a hint of a french accent?

[Nina Madaraki]

"Well, it looks like it's still active," Nina says, "Just...more direct."