xp_logs | Mondo and Forge - On Flippers and Dust

Mondo has a powers-related Oops and goes to the Lord of the Machine for assistance. Set mid-afternoon.

Mondo made his way cautiously down to Forge's lab, knocking politely before entering the lab itself. "Mr Forge?" he asked concernedly. "I really need to talk to you. Like, right now." he said. "Are you here? It's kind of import-tant!" he sing-songed.

Welding torch in hand and dark goggles over his eyes, Forge poked his head up from behind what looked like an auto engine on steroids. "Over here, Mondo," he said, setting down the torch and wiping his forehead on a towel. "What's up?"

Mondo eyed the engine with something approaching fascination, but quickly enough pulled his mind back to business. "I had an Oops." he said simply. "I think I need your help."

"An 'oops'?" Forge questioned, pushing his goggles up onto his forehead. "How bad an 'oops' are we talking? Like a 'whoops, I broke the fabric of the universe' or 'I dropped an anvil on my foot'?"

"Powers oops." he said softly, then held up his shirt to display the green felt flippered foot sticking out of his side. "It's kinda stuck." he said softly, blushing.

Forge blinked, just looking at Mondo for a while. "You ate Kermit," he said with a sense of astonishment.

"Yeah." he said, still acutely embarrassed. "Help?"

"Help?" Forge was puzzled. "I'm not a doctor, I mean... if you're hurt, you ought to... you absorbed a stuffed frog? What in the world were you trying to do?"

"I was watching my birthday present from Yvette. And I was holding onto Kermit here because Kermit makes everything all better and I really love the movie lots it's my favorite and I was kinda sleepy afterwords so I fell asleep and had really weird dreams and then I woke up late this morning and I was going to take a shower and then I saw this." he said, all in one breath. "So I went to classes, because I'm supposed to. Skipped lunch - I really wasn't hungry. I'm still not, really, but I thought I should come and talk to you because Dr Vogt is scary and she'd yell at me and I don't want people to yell at me I didn't do anything wrong."

"No, no, no, of course you didn't," Forge said as he eased around his workbench to take a closer look at the young Samoan. "Um, have you tried... letting go of Kermit? Like, when you borrow an object's properties, how you return to normal? Maybe that would help?"

Mondo blinked at that idea. "I'm not holding onto anything." he said confusedly. But he closed his eyes, stuck his tongue out, and concentrated. Fiercely.

"It ... tickles." he said, giggling just a bit and trying to scratch around the absorption point. "And ... son of a BITCH!" he exclaimed. Then immediately looked contrite. "I'm sorry." he said in a much more normal tone of voice. "I said a bad word. But someone spilled a soda on Kermit and didn't clean him up right."

Forge smiled at Mondo's outburst. "Don't worry about offending me. Share a lab with Toad sometime, it kind of acclimatizes you to all sorts of creative profanity. Here, maybe if I help a little..."

He gently reached out, grabbing the felt foot and tugging gently. "Let me know if this hurts or anything - if you can't let go of the doll, we really ought to go get an x-ray or something..."

Mondo just looked confused at that. "Who's Toad?" he asked, wrinkling his nose. The foot that Forge was tugging on slowly began to give way until, slowly, the entire stuffed Muppet came out of Mondo's midsection, looking not at all the worse for wear.

Mondo, on the other hand, was looking almost as green as Kermit himself. "I feel funny." he said, and then lurched for Forge's trash can.

He almost made it.

Forge inspected the Muppet with curiosity. It seemed absolutely normal, having suffered no ill effects from being absorbed by Mondo's body. Completely whole, dry, and unsullied. "Fascinating," he murmured, before looking over at where Mondo was crouching. "Oh, maaaan..." he moaned, walking over to the supply cabinet for a mop. "You feeling all right, Mondo? Better go over and see the docs after all."

"I'm OK now." he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "Really. I'm ... wow, I'm hungry." he said as his stomach rumbled audibly. "Really hungry. I should get something to eat. I think I deserve some delicious Spam." he said to himself. \

"Do you need anything else from me? Need to do the Science Thing?" he asked, the capitals plain. "I mean, I can wait..."

Forge shook his head. "No, but I do want you to promise me that you'll have the doctors check you out for any ill effects. If you start feeling any kind of pain, constant nausea, or dizziness, you sit right down and have someone call them for you, okay?"

Mondo started to reply, but his words were interrupted by a very mighty sneeze which he covered with his hands. "Ewwww." he said, then looked over at Forge. "Bathroom?" he asked faintly.

"Out, left, two doors down," Forge gestured automatically.

Mondo scurried away to get cleaned up, then reappeared a few moments later, looking much better. "This is gonna look really gross, but you need to see this." he said, holding the wadded-up cleanup tissue in his now-clean hands. "I sneezed dust!"

"Dust?" Forge peered at the tissue, his scientific curiosity outweighing his innate "eww, snot" response. He held up the tissue, then turned to the Muppet. "It looks like you absorbed whatever foreign contaminants were on the doll into your body, and it's using your natural processes to eliminate them. If I had to guess, I'd say your body adopted the properties of the doll to such an extent that you were able to absorb its mass into your own, and expel it later.
However, you merged with the doll, not all the dust and stuff on it. You'll want to be careful with that."

"I don't even know how I did it!" he protested automatically. "Guess we've got something to work on here in Powers class." he said glumly.

"But it was kinda cool..." he said, looking at his Kermit on Forge's workbench speculatively.

Forge nodded, remembering the feeling he'd had the first time he actively used his power instead of just letting it passively show him the inner workings of machines. The headache had lasted almost a day, but ever since then, it had become easier.

"Definitely cool. Come on," he said to the younger mutant, "let's get some Spam into you, replace whatever protein you just upchucked all over my floor, what say?"

Mondo grinned at that. "Oh, but I need to clean up my mess first." he said, spying the mop and bucket. "Or did you get it while I was cleaning up?"

Forge smiled and handed Mondo the mop. "All yours, buddy. Meet you in the kitchen."