Dormammu12

01:09:50:29 SINCE DISPERSAL The treadmill belt ground into motion beneath her slippered feet, and Lindsey started to walk, breathing in great, greedy gusts. Unbuckling her belt, which had begun to bite painfully into her waist, she tossed it to the floor with a dismissive snort. She’d had to use an actual belt, a leather belt, to get presentable for Gilbert – because she’d outgrown her bathrobe. The clothes I ordered had better arrive soon. Or else. Wrapping her fingers around the handrails, Lindsey widened her stride, quickening her pace, and looked up. A puffy parody of herself stared back from the floor-to-ceiling mirror of her home-gym. The two halves of her bathrobe flopped apart, and although she wasn’t completely sure, she was fairly certain that her belly was bouncing as she walked. God, she was so heavy. She could feel her entire body vibrating as she moved. Although she wasn’t feeling terribly optimistic, Lindsey forced herself to admit (grudgingly) that there were some

00:18:12:55 SINCE DISPERSAL “You don’t need us to, like, come in with you, right?” Lindsey scoffed. Her voice was still a little wet, which wasn’t good, but on the whole, she sounded much better. “I’ll be fine, Blair.” Shoving the other girl backwards, she stuck her tongue out and slammed the door shut. Blair waited until she could hear the bath start to run before turning on her heel and stalking back out into the living-room, which opened out onto Lindsey’s immense patio. Isabelle was on the balcony, sprawled out over one of the loungers. She turned as Blair made her way over to her. “Showering?” “Yeah.” Blair settled onto the lounger beside Isabelle’s and exhaled gustily. “So…” “Yeah.” Isabelle held up her phone. “I’ve ordered a bunch of stuff. Kale salad, smoothies, yoghurt, fruits, more salads…” “It’s a start.” “Mm-hmm.” The two girls sat in silence for a moment. “You know, I used to think I was the heaviest.” Isabelle looked up, eyebrows raised. “You’re shorter than

00:13:24:49 SINCE DISPERSAL There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” “Robert?” “Ah.” Robert looked up from his desktop, rising to meet Gilbert as he strolled into his small office/apartment. The lights hummed above, glittering over his thick, dark hair, cropped-short just recently. “When did you get back?” “Ten minutes ago.” Gilbert tossed a small, whirring device at Robert; as he plucked it out of the air, the two men moved to the couch. “Just got this from the freshly-formed Tracking Division. It’s quite, uh, bare-bones. They just jury-rigged this, actually.” “I thought you could track affected individuals?” “That’s only if there’s an available broadcaster to discharge a certain signal. We’ve got access to telecoms within our borders. Outside? Less so.” “I heard that the PM’s already authorized raids overseas.” “Yeah, uh…” Gilbert scratched his jaw. “He has. And you’re going to be using one of these when you go hunting.” He pointed at one of the many finicky little items

00:09:00:17 SINCE DISPERSAL “We should’ve stayed for the Q&A,” Laura moaned. “For what? We can just ask him.” Lynette turned to face the man in question. “Hey, Gilbert. How much do you know about this stuff? Do you, like, haul affected individuals away to experiment on them? Or is this –” “Uh, we don’t,” Gilbert interrupted. He’d slumped into one of the chairs in Lindsey’s office, and was pinching the bridge of his nose, head tipped backwards. He looked utterly exhausted, but Lindsey didn’t really care, because she really wasn’t feeling very empathetic at the moment. “We just… bring them in. There’s cells and stuff. It’s not a prison. More of a… holding area. To keep them and everyone else safe while they go through their metamorphosis.” “So I’m going to blow up?” Lindsey demanded, voice going shrill. “Is that it?” Her head throbbed, and her stomach growled, desperate for more food. God, I’m going to puke. “What? No.” Gilbert shivered. “That’s never happened before. No, it’s just

00:01:32:57 SINCE DISPERSAL Gilbert drained another can of Red Bull and cracked his knuckles. He’d been pacing back and forth for the past hour. After Dr Nqakula had been captured and detained (properly, this time), the plenipotentiary had taken control of the facility and made clear that Gilbert had been relieved of his duties. He wasn’t under arrest, of course, but he had been made responsible for the identification and apprehension of all citizens of the Republic who had been contaminated by the nanites, which wasn’t much better. Algorithms had been crafted and let loose. While Dr Nqakula was brilliant, she hadn’t made much of an effort to cover her tracks, and Gilbert’s men had been able to hotwire a means of tracking the contaminated. Teams had been dispatched to apprehend the aforementioned subjects, and as Gilbert took another long draw from his cigarette, one of his aides made an appearance. “Sir, the first subject has arrived.” Gilbert tapped a long string of characters