Mom, I'm Bulletproof

Chapter 3.1: Science Experiment

As the massive green blob tied Marci's hands behind her back, that's when she knew her science experiment had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

"Eat," the blob said out of a makeshift mouth that formed near the top of its amorphous mass. Smaller blobs spurted out of its body and moved around on their own, each only a few inches high.

Marci, her teacher, and her fellow students were lined up against one wall of the classroom, their arms bound behind their backs with strong green vines the creature had pulled out of its body.

The morning had started out nicely enough. Marci intended to run tests on an invasive plant species in preparation for her end-of-semester presentation, a staple of life at high-tech Mirai Academy. Except the plant grew in size, sprouted a mouth and arm, and proclaimed, "I live!" It started moving around the room, tying up Marci and her class. Now the smaller blobs slowly made their way toward them.

The first of the blobs reached a girl Marci hardly knew. Wearing shorts and flip-flops, the girl's feet were mostly bare. The tiny blob reached out and touched her big toe. Her foot became the same sewage-green color.

The girl screamed. "It's eating me! Oh, God, I can feel it eating me!"

Another small blob touched Marci's shoe. She tried kicking it away, but it stuck to her. Marci's shoe felt lighter, as it turned green and spongy. The girl next to Marci kept screaming, and Marci knew she was seconds away from joining her.

Marci heard a blast of wind outside. She had heard this sound enough times to know what was about to happen. She leaned against the wall and braced herself.

The opposite wall of the classroom burst apart, flooding the room with sunlight from outside. Chunks of debris scattered across the room, so Marci turned her head and covered her eyes. When she looked again, she saw Future Girl in her signature pink and yellow skirt and cape, perfectly framed against the hole in the wall.

"Leave my friend alone!" Future Girl said, pointing at the blob.

Marci took a quick glance around the room. Who here was friend to the one and only Future Girl? Her classmates looked at her in the same way.

Future Girl flew over to Marci in less than a second, swatting the green goop away from Marci's shoe, leaving Marci's foot still undevoured. Future Girl did the same with the flip-flop girl, but the girl's legs continued turning green.

Marci wanted to say thank you, but the large blob made its move. Dark brown vines shot out of its globular body and wrapped themselves around Future Girl.

"I eat you," it said.

"Gross." Future Girl flew upward a few feet, and then pulled away from the blob. It let out a scream of pain as the vines snapped and fell off of her.

Future Girl glared at the creature. "What are you? Do you have a name?"

"I... Milfoil," it said.

Future Girl rolled her eyes and then flew at the blob. She passed right through it, sending clumps of green slop across the room. Marci and the other students cowered against the wall, doing their best to avoid contact.

The flip-flop girl's leg was now almost entirely green and plantlike, and the other leg was transforming into the same. "I can't feel my legs," she said, sobbing.

The scattered remains of Milfoil quickly reformed themselves back into the giant blob they once were.

"Eat! Eat!" A single arm jutted out of Milfoil's body, ending at a hand with three sticky fingers. It bent at what Marci assumed as an elbow, reached into its own body, and pulled out a softball-sized piece of itself, which it then threw at Future Girl.

Marci assumed Future Girl would fly to dodge the attack, but Future Girl instead stood still, letting the wad of plant hit her. It stuck to her chest, and then grew in size, spreading and then covering most of Future Girl's body. Seconds later, it turned from green to grey, and fell off Future Girl, leaving her looking just as stunning as always.

"Nice try," Future Girl said.

More brown vines appeared on Milfoil's arm, flowing out its long fingers, curling around to form a fist.

"We can work out a deal," Future Girl said. "I can bring you food. You don't have to hurt these innocent..."

Milfoil swung its vine-fist and knocked Future Girl through the air and into the classroom wall, knocking over several desks and some of the other students' experiments. Milfoil's babies, getting larger and larger, slithered toward her. Future Girl got up to her feet, knocking over a heavy metal box, held together in places with duct tape.

Cold air, so cold it condensed into white fog, burst out of the box. The smaller blobs stopped and creeped away from the box. Milfoil also retreated, letting out a moan of pain.

"It freezes," Milfoil said. "Make it stop."

Future Girl smiled. "Whose project is this?"

A chubby ninth grader raised his hand. "Mine. It's supposed to be an energy-efficient refrigeration unit, to help reduce reliance on..."

Future Girl didn't wait for him to finish. She picked up the kid's project and its accompanying battery pack, and started flying in a circle around the room, with Milfoil at its center.

"Huddle together, guys," she said to the students. "It's going to get chilly in here."

She flew faster and faster, until she was nothing more than a yellow and pink blur blasting around the room. True to her word, it got bitterly cold, even with sunlight coming in from the hole in the wall.

"No more!" Milfoil said.

Milfoil collapsed, dropping its arm to its side. Its mouth fell open and slack. The smaller milfoil blobs around the room stopped moving.

Future Girl flew to a stop, her breath now visible in the below-freezing room. She hurried over to the girl with the flip-flops, whose tears were frozen into streaks of ice down her cheeks. Her legs now looked just like the immobile Milfoil blob.

"Am I gonna die?" she asked, her teeth chattering.

"Close your eyes and try to relax," Future Girl said, gently touching the girl's shoulder. She and flip-flop girl both shut their eyes. The girl's hips and thighs reformed, from plant back into flesh. This continued all the way down to her toes, until the last remains of the milfoil had left her body.

"I heard you could heal people," the girl said. "But I had no idea."

Milfoil and its "babies" remained motionless in the cold air. Future Girl ripped the now-dead vines off of everyone's wrists. Marci heard the familiar woot-woot-woot of the campus security vehicles arriving outside the building.

"Are you all right, Marci?" Future Girl asked.

Marci found it hard to speak, with Future Girl's bright blue eyes staring right at her.

"You know me?"

Future Girl smiled. "Of course I know you, Marci. I know everyonethat goes here."

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Next: Secret identity.