Project ROWDY 2-26B (Patreon)

TEN DAYS LATER (HOURS AFTER THE GUARDIANS BRIEFING)“-as the enhancile stack managed to layer rather cleanly over the steroidal base you received in pre-adolescence, which was honestly the part we had the least confidence about going in. A layered synthesis with your existing physiology proved to be our best bet.”

“Yeah, mm-hm.”“We already had records on the compatibility markers and… well, there’s no real way to put this but Radcliffe’s people were running blind for a lot of this. You just happened to fit exceptionally well. From what I know about the former director, I doubt that was a matter of chance.” The man in the tan suit hummed a little under his breath. “Either way, they got a lot wrong but that… they got that much right.”“Cool, cool.”“Generally, we didn’t have to strip anything out, so much as build on top.”“Yeah…” Rex Splode was not listening. “Yeah.”That much wasn’t new for him. What was new was his forearm, which he was looking at right now.

Because this was not his forearm. If anything, it looked like somebody had glued someone else’s onto him while he was under, thicker through the muscle with even the veins sitting out a bit more and…

Rex turned his hand over to make a fist, knuckles popping as the joints moved smooth. Smooth or not, his whole hand was bigger somehow. Somehow…“Yo, Deputy Director.”Donald looked up from the tablet he was reading from, the tablet that was also his hand, and stared at Rex with a question on his face before he spoke again. “...yes?”“I’m bigger, right?” The question was simple, but judging from the look on Donald’s face, it might have been a bit too simple. “I mean, like muscle-wise, since I went under.”“Well, yes. But that was the expected result.” The Deputy Director nodded at that, glancing down at the tablet for another moment. “Like I mentioned, we were worried about the interactions between serum stacks given Radcliffe’s people were a bit sloppy with the dosage they gave you, side-effects being a melanin increas-”"Yeah, well, Radcliffe wasn’t exactly big on long-term healthcare.” Rex rolled his neck, eyes still on his arms. “But yeah, how much bigger am I?”

“...ah—”“C’mon, Donald. Just toss me a number.” Rex clicked his tongue. “I’m sitting here in this bed with my ass out. Least you could do is gimme that much.” The hospital gown was a little itchy too, on top of that, but Rex was pretty sure it wasn’t the fault of the cotton.

Not that the GDA cheaped out on their blended fabrics, but it was just the fact that the meat under it was just thicker than he remembered. “Number, Donald.”“...a rough twenty-four pounds of additional lean mass, distribut-”“Twenty-fuckin’-four.” Rex sat up further, the gown pulling weird across his chest for the simple fact that there was considerably more chest for it to pull across. “In a week and a half? While I was conked the hell out?”“Ten days. And it wasn’t organic growt-”“Yeah, yeah, yeah, Donald. Don’t ruin it.” Rex shook his head as he flexed his arms again, the explosions expert halfway to gigling as he took in how much more brolic he was now. More than anything, his whole body felt like a jacket that had been tailored a bit too tight.

It wasn’t a bad feeling.

But Rex knew it’d definitely take some getting used to either way. “Okay, hit with the rest. Just the clipnotes, though.”Even behind the mirrored glasses, Rex could tell Donald was narrowing his eyes for some reason. “The osteometallic reinforcement process went well enough…” It didn’t stop him from speaking anyway. “And the Smart Atom hardware threads several layered emitters through your forearms, wrists, hands and palms with secondary nodes in the metatarsals. You should notice less latency, and reduced charge times as well.”“Nice nice.” Rex nodded, not even blinking as a bunch of those words went right over his red head. “...nice.”“There are also emitters seated in the soles of your feet now.”Rex glanced down the edge of the bed, his toes wiggling on instinct. “...my feet?”“Yes, your feet.”

“What am I doing with my feet, man?”

“I genuinely can’t say as to what. I’m not sure that’s in my notes here.” Donald swiped through his tablet-hand, the man looking oddly close to sweating for a cyborg. “Th-that’s really more of a question for Weapons Devel-”“You can’t say?” Rex pulled a face. “What? Is it another classified spook thing?”“No, I can’t say because I don’t know. I’m the Deputy Director, no—” Donald caught himself with a shake of the head. “Look, Weapons Development will talk you though it.”With a classic Rex Splode patented groan, Rex let himself flop back onto the GDA hospital bed and rolled his eyes. Donald didn’t bother stopping with his speech, the Deputy still going on and on about shit Rex was too annoyed to listen to now — stuff like mass ceilings, increased charge densities, force venting, integrated wrist emitters, and then something about bringing both arms together into some kind of heavy cannon that would ‘require a controlled environment for first-fire testing.’

Rex snorted. Yeah, fuck that.

He could do his own testing whenever and wherever he felt like.

Donald still wasn’t done, though, still with the actual point buried at the end of everything else like fine print; the reason for the twenty-four pound muscle gain. He used to have to throw his bombs and then get gone. Staying too close to the blast radius of one of his bigger explosions was a great way to get his shit royally rocked.

His body was built to lift about half a ton normally and maybe double that if he had to put his back and legs into it.Emphasis on the was.

Apparently, he could do about six times that same range now.

“-etallic reinforcement is meant to work in tandem with your enhanced musculature, meaning while this can’t necessarily be relied on for lifting strength, you should ideally be in a range of fifteen times your previous output range.”“Yeah, yeah.” Rex waved a hand Donald’s way, cutting through the briefing before the man could really get going and drown him in more words he didn’t care about right now. “I get it, you guys put more ways to blow stuff up into me and I’m not gonna get flyswatted the next time a medium-heavy gets too close. I’ll figure the rest out on the job.”He didn’t waste another moment in swinging his legs out over the side of the bed. The floor came up about a half-inch sooner than he expected, Rex covering his near-stumble by standing up as quickly as he could. Huh…Shaking his head, he turned back to Donald. “Where’s my new fit?”“...your what?”“My new fit, Donald. My super-suit?” He raised an eyebrow at his fellow cyborg, one of them unfortunate enough to be standing there with their brown cheeks out in the drafty GDA medical bay. “Cecil said he sent the design to Art before I even went under, man.”

Donald didn’t answer at first, the man tapping the tablet twice before his mouth twitched. “It’s in your locker. They delivered it last week.”“Nice.”