[Plot] Sea of Monsters

[Will Stanton]

"You saw how we were before you strapped us into the mirror, right?"

"Confusion; different voices calling for different things.

"We need one voice; one mind in control."

"We could go system by system..."

"No, no; what if propulsion and weapons have different reads on the situation? Bad plan."

"If Natalie wrote some sort of central command program?"

"Ehhhhh...."

[Miriam Bell]

"Right, less severe in difference but ultimately the same problem. Maybe worse seeing how you bicker with yourself..."

[Will Stanton]

"My initial plan here was similar to yours,"" BigWill admitted to Miriam. Just without the adding extra material. Just stretch out and out, beyond what I can do on my own, and trying to establish that as a new baseline, and then repeat the process over and over. These three reprobates were brainstorming ways to do it when you came in.

This might still work," he added, trying to flex against the metal restraints. "Adding mass like this is a really convenient shortcut, and you're right -- a bit of your....hard-headedness might not go amiss when it comes to shielding, though I wonder if that wouldn't be better placed as a final addition as opposed to mixing it with the hull itself.

"Or mixed in with the fuel?"
"No, no, that wouldn't work; it needs to be it's own system"
"Shut up, they're talking."


Big!Will tried to flex again, and Miriam's metal bands around him looked like they had a little more give this time.

"It's like I'm pushing against a weight here. It's getting easier the more I do it, but there's still some resistance."

[Miriam Bell]

"What you're saying is you need to work the stiffness out of your proverbial muscles rather than be mashed around."

[Will Stanton]

"Yeast the dough so it can rise."
"Tear the muscle and let it re-knit."
"Coil the spring and turn the potential energy into kinetic."

"Maybe they're right. Maybe it's not 'you need to act more like me', but rather I have to fight off more of you,," he said, flexing again and getting a little more range of movement. "You're very different from me, but that's complimentary; you're giving me something to push against. Literally, metaphorically, psychically, whatever you want to call it.

[Miriam Bell]

"Yeast the... the hell does that even mean in this situation? Throw a wet towel on him and shove him in a damp room?"

[Will Stanton]

"See, my idea was to literally stuff him full of yeast and let the gasses cause him to get bigger..."

"And it was a stupid idea, which is why we're not doing it."

"Uh-huh. This coming from captain Hot Air Balloon? I still think that would just create a floppy, useless bag."

"YOU'RE a floppy, useless bag!"

"I still say we go back down to normal size, or even smaller. Compact him as tight as we can, let him push against it, and then *whammo*, release all the pressure all at once."

"And be cleaning up bits of him for three days, right? That's an explosive decompression waiting to happen!"

"He has to get used to the pressure if he's going to be under the sea!"

"And that's why we need to try filling him with air, so he can hold an atmosphere!"

The bickering and arguing continued, as BigWill just rubbed his temples.

"Too many kooks spoil the broth," he sighed.

[Miriam Bell]

"None of those ideas sound entirely right or wrong. The metal stripes are already kind of coiled through him like a spring. We need... Danger Room, give us a chamber fit right around the large Will with a hydraulic press attached to the ceiling. Keep it engaged until it's been pushed back up to the starting position."

[Will Stanton]

"Wait, wh..." Will said, as the chamber materialized around Will.

Normally, the safeties wouldn't allow such a thing, but the safeties were calibrated for each student, and Will had long since disabled his own.

[Miriam Bell]

"Relax, this thing has safeties and only a fool would turn those off, right?" she says as the hydraulic plunger slowly but doggedly comes down on Will.

[Will Stanton]

"Well, you see..."

"I suppose it would depend..."

"On what you were using the danger room for."

[Miriam Bell]

"Okay which one of you geniuses turned the safeties off?" Miriam groans.

[Will Stanton]

"Will did," they said in unison.

[Miriam Bell]

"You do realize that answer is uniquely useless?" she asks, touching her temples with thumb and index finger.

"Better hope this works the way we want it to then..."

[Will Stanton]

The press kept pressing, with the Will inside getting more and more compacted as it continued to squelch down. It showed no initial signs of stopping, at the very least.

"So, it's pressure he needs to push against, then?" one of the Wills said, desperately trying to change the subject from their other self's mistake.

[Miriam Bell]

"I figure it'll compress him down and if he wants to push against it he'll have to expand back out while keeping at least some of the density. Something you'd think he would have a lot of naturally. It's like your explosive decompression idea only without the part where we intentionally explode the work we've put in so far."

[Will Stanton]

"...That's a fancy way of calling us dense, huh?"

[Miriam Bell]

"A little bit. Plus he has a lot of me in there, which can't possibly help the matter."

[Will Stanton]

The press was getting dangerously close to hitting the ground, despite what had to be literal tons of clay and metal between it and the floor; there was a squelching and grinding sound as more and more got compressed into a tighter and tighter space.

And then, maybe a quarter of an inch from the ground, it stopped. And there was a whine of building up pressure, as the force of the press and the force pressing UP seemed to briefly equalize...

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam surprises herself a bit when she breathes a sigh of relief at the press stopping short of the ground. That had gotten much closer than she would have expected it to. And this had been the easy part...

[Will Stanton]

...and then the press slammed down into the ground, making full on contact and squashing Will completely flat.

But just for a moment, as with a roar, the mass of clay and steel in the press shot up, slamming into the press with excessive force, and shoving it back up, up, up, up, up...

[Miriam Bell]

"Bloody hell!" Even though she was the one who came up with this whole process, seeing it in action and watching the amalgamation of Will not just push back but almost piston back up against the now-creaking hydraulics is something else.

[Will Stanton]

The clay was slowly reforming into something vaguely human-shaped, muscles rippling as it fought back against the piston, which itself was increasing in power as it tried to counteract Will's force.

Intense waves of effort and stress were coming off of Will, psychically soaking the room, as he fought back, but fighting against adversity was working. Slowly, painfully, but working.

[Miriam Bell]

"You don't even realize how powerful you really are, do you..." Miriam says quietly, more to herself than the Wills.

[Will Stanton]

Gasping for breath and slick with sweat, Will finished his lift, forcing the top of the press back into the ceiling, disengaging it.

He was taller still now; the steel restraints around him looking more decorative than restrictive. Or, at least, as far as Miriam could see, craning her neck up to the treetop-sized shifter.

[Miriam Bell]

"There's definitely a lot more of you than of me right now." she says, slowly shaking her head at the sheer size of Will.

[Will Stanton]

"Four to one, if I'm counting right," he said between gasps.

[Miriam Bell]

Miriam clamps her hands over her ears at the thundering voice.

"That's great, but no reason to shout!" she shouts back.

[Will Stanton]

"Shout?" Will said, confused. "Oh!"


"Right," he added, dropping to a whisper. "Is this better?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Significantly. How does it feel? Any stiffness?"

[Will Stanton]

"It's...difficult," Will said, flexing and stretching. "But not tight, per se. Just...complicated. You wouldn't think just being larger would be hard, but I can feel the weight as I try to move. I feel like I'm lumbering."

[Miriam Bell]

"That sounds like it makes sense? How about different materials? Everything shifting as it's supposed to?"

[Will Stanton]

Will frowned, concentrating, as his skin slowly -- much more slowly than usual -- rippled and changed through a cycle of materials and textures.

"Difficult. Maybe there's just too much of me at the moment; I've never...never come close to handling this much. Might just be an issue of practice, though."

[Miriam Bell]

"Or it just takes effort to move this much mass, be it normally or through shifting. As long as it still works at all I think this was a great success."

[Will Stanton]

"I think you're right. Honestly, this worked better than I anticipated.

I don't think I could have done it without you, Miriam. Thank you."

[Miriam Bell]

"Just make sure you use that extra iron to keep everyone safe." she says, not making eye contact and pretending it's because she'd have to crane her neck.

[Will Stanton]

"Worried about everyone going out there? Or, at least, a couple people?"

[Miriam Bell]

"Well, I don't care much for Victor or the headmistress. And don't get me started on Tosh, his mind is a mess and not the interesting kind." she not-so-subtly dodges the question.

[Will Stanton]

"Vic's a good egg. He grows on you."

He gro...oh for fuck's sake, Will, put that grin off your face.

[Miriam Bell]

"Well at least that answers the question of whether or not there's too much of me in there." she rolls her eyes dramatically.