Comm: Latex in Love 8

Summary: A mutated variety of rubber trees alters the DNA of those who come in contact, turning them into latex beings.  Commissioned by Ninten.

[Story Listing]

---

Kyrie was worried about Lana. 

Kyrie travelled a lot as a consultant regarding the emerging rubbermaid mutant situation, for many reasons: to educate, to organize, and to discover and research new cases. But her travels took her away from Lana, who kept to her secret facility to study the mutagent-generating rubber trees. 

Lana was a special case, even without considering their relationship as lovers. As far as Kyrie knew, Lana was the only semi-robotic rubbermaid in existence. Kyrie didn't think much of it at the time, given Lana's initial enthusiasm in exploring her new form. That was until she was contacted by Giselle.

Kyrie did hear about Mick and Giselle from Lana some months ago, but Kyrie's busy schedule didn't allow her to check in and get introduced properly until very recently. Giselle found a way to reach out to her expressing concern about Lana's work habits, and how she would lock herself away for her experimentations, rarely coming out to speak. Kyrie grew worried, and scheduled a trip to the lab to surprise Lana. 

Considering the lab was kept a secret for the safety of humans, Kyrie headed into the jungle without an escort; thankfully, as a rubbermaid, crossing long distances on foot was hardly a trifle, slingshotting herself over the canopies and rolling into a ball to land safely. The nature of movement with such fluidity caused her skin to shift to her new normal, a vibrant, glossy blue hue. 

Even with her enhanced abilities, it took all day for her to pierce into the jungle and reach the secret facility. She reckoned the couple would be asleep at this point... but the light in the attic window indicated that someone, probably Lana, was burning some midnight oil. 

Kyrie stretched her midriff upwards, her torso snaking along the side of the building up three storeys, until she could comfortably peer inside. 

"Lana? Are you in there?" Kyrie tapped the class. She expected to see Lana moving about, but all she saw was a closed metal chamber, surrounded by the usual unkempt notes strewn across the countertops that she typically expected. 

Kyrie grimaced, flattening her hand enough to slip inside, unlatch, and open it just enough to allow the rest of her body to slip through, compressing flat; she winced as her buxom pressed against the opening, before, BOING!, finally letting her through. She dusted herself off and approached the curious metal contraption. 

"Guess I won't know if she's in there until I open it... I mean, tch, what is this, Schrodinger's Rubbermaid?" Kyrie furrowed her eyebrows, reaching for the console...

But before she could start messing with the controls, the machine whirred and beeped an affirmation, before opening wide with a steaming hiss! Kyrie covered her eyes from the blast of hot air, before lowering them to find...

"...Lana??"

She blurted. Not because she was surprised Lana was in there, but because she appeared in the flesh! Or, something that appeared approximate to flesh. It seemed oddly pale. Kyrie's cheeks blushed, seeing Lana's nude form. 

"Kyrie??" Lana flinched, her body squeaking with the motion. She staggered forward out of the contraption. "What're you doing here?? Don't you have important work stuff??"

"I came to check in on you, see how things are going." Kyrie looked Lana over. "Did... did you finally figure out how to shapeshift??"

"Nope! But I invented this!" Lana spun in a circle, then struck a curtsy. "It's a skinsuit, developed from rubber tree composite material out back; I was getting steamed so it'd fit me all snuglike!~"

"You made this from the... mutant trees?" Kyrie paused. Lana squeaked like a rubber chew toy with every move she made.

"Mmhm! With this, I can go out in public again! Oh this is great, I'm so happy to see you, to finally present this to you..." Lana hurried forward. "Gimme a hug!"

Kyrie felt herself pulled into a great big bear hug, her grip as tight as ever. Kyrie raised her arms to reciprocate, but grimaced as she felt Lana's skin. It felt tight, tensed up.

Rip... Where Kyrie felt, Lana's false rubber skin was beginning to tear. She heard the gentle whrrrr of Lana's hairdrills and nippledrills spinning happening, burrowing through the material. And Kyrie recognized that the skin was covering points of ventilation for Lana's machine functions... she felt like she was developing a fever.

"E-eh? I-I feel funny..." Lana staggered back, her body trembling. Kyrie reached forward.

"Lana, you're overheating!" Kyrie exclaimed. "And your skin's breaking apart!"

Lana gawked as her skin began to peel off in places, and melt in others. Growing increasingly molten, her skin bubbled forebodingly, until...

POW! Lana flinched as molten, flesh hued rubber exploded from her form, revealing her chrome, robotic form once again. Kyrie yelped, collapsing into a puddle just in time to avoid the spray of liquid rubber splatter through the lab. 

There was a pause as an awkward silence filled the room, save for the whirring of Lana's mechanical parts twirling on their own.

"Another failure..." Lana sighed, her shoulders drooping. 

"...Lana? Is... everything alright?" Kyrie approached her carefully. "You're not one to let a botched experiment get you down."

"It was a long shot anyway. The rubber tree natural product is an unstable, irrational substance to begin with. Going out in public like that would've been dangerous." Lana hugged herself, her body creaking as she swayed. "It's just... Kyrie, do you know how long I was working on that?"

"...how long?" Kyrie gulped.

"I was up for 332 hours, 23 minutes, and 47.392 seconds straight working on this project. Without rest." Lana grimaced. The statistic boggled Kyrie's mind.

"Three hund- Lana, you were up for two weeks straight!?" Kyrie clutched her shoulders. "You can't work yourself like a... like a-"

"Like a machine?" Lana shuffled backwards, her metal heels clicking against the floor. "I can't help it. I don't have... human needs anymore, Kyrie. I get so absorbed in my research, I-"

"Let's get one thing clear, Lana." Kyrie cut her off. "You always had a bad habit of losing yourself in your work, even before this whole rubbermaid mess. As far as I see, you... haven't changed a bit."

"...sorry..." Lana lowered her arms. "I didn't want to make you worry. I just..."

Lana trailed off, struggling to articulate herself. Kyrie placed her arms around Lana's shoulders, not recoiling at the cool metal touch. 

"Lana, let's go somewhere. Take a little siesta, you and me." Kyrie smiled. "Just so you can get your head out of the lab, and recalib- no, um, reset- urgh, not that either, um... unwind? ...Wait, shoot, not that either-"

Lana paused, and then snorted in response. 

"Don't worry about it. A weekend of relaxation would be nice, but..." Lana tilted her head. "What'd you have in mind? I can't really go out in public like this."

"Mm... I have some ideas." Kyrie winked.

---

Some time later, Kyrie would open the door into a luxurious master bedroom, with a window overlooking a beachfront and a view of the ocean. Kyrie kept her cards close to her chest when it came to her vacation claims, and she was eager to surprise Lana. 

Pulling a suitcase behind her, one which never left her side, she hoisted it onto the bed, clicking the latches open. 

"Lana, we're here!" Kyrie called out. "Just need to reassemble you, and our island siesta can begin!"

"Okay! But hurry up, it's cramped in here!" Lana responded, her voice slightly muffled. 

Kyrie chuckled, opening the suitcase to reveal Lana inside, neatly packed into the suitcase; her head turned upwards, surrounded by her arms, legs, and body pieces, which were all packed into the chest and bent like little puzzle pieces so she would all fit. Kyrie took the head first, snuck a quick kiss, and then put her aside to reach for the torso. The two pieces would align with a strong magnetic force, before Kyrie twisted the head on tight, then rested her against a pillow. 

Lana turned her head to look out the window, her eyes widening in surprise. "We're at the beach...?"

"Mmhm." Kyrie reached for the waist part to affix to Lana. "We always wanted to vacation in Hawaii."

"For our honeymoon!" Lana exclaimed. "For when we got married! Which hasn't happened yet, last I checked..."

Kyrie poked around at a spot right above Lana's well-defined ass, pulling out a tail-like USB recharging cable, which she plugged into a bedside outlet

"Well, a lot has happened since we talked about that." Kyrie paused, turning Lana's left thigh in her hands as she moved to assemble her legs first. "I spotted an open rental, and you know how rare those are this time of year."

"You said I'd look good with a tan..." Lana grimaced. "So much for that. If anything, with this salty sea air, I'd probably rust."

"Ohhh, I dunno about that." Kyrie tilted her head, squeezing Lana's feet tenderly as she screwed them on. "Worst case scenario, I'll... give you a nice polish."

"Kyrie." Lana pouted, kicking Kyrie as soon as she gained sensation in her legs. Kyrie chuckled from the foot-sized imprint in her stomach, which quickly reformed back to its proper shape.  

"It can be like applying sunscreen." Kyrie reached for Lana's arms, affixing them to her shoulders. "Just like before."

"Yea, but you know I'm sensitive about this situation." Lana glanced to the end of her arm, staring down a socket hole where her hand would be inserted into. "It's bad enough I had to stow away in your luggage at the station..."

"At least we got to spend some quality time together in the train cabin." Kyrie gently took Lana's arm, inserting her hand, before placing the components for her other arm to her side. Kyrie took a seat as Lana leaned forward to finish her assembly. "I don't think it would've been so bad to have you out in the open though."

"Ugh, no thanks." Lana shook her head. "Random people walking up to gawk at me, and marvel at how life-like I am... how I talk just like a human." Lana extended her arm in front of her, rotating her wrist in circles, watching it whir in place around her and spin like a drill head. She lowered it, and leaned back against the bedrest. 

Kyrie frowned. It was hard watching Lana brood like this over her lost sense of humanity. She had seen Lana's initial excitement, bordering on manic, regarding her new body, and had to some extent embraced her new capabilities, but she empathized with the sense that she may have lost something in turn. 

"Lana? I have something I wanted to show you." Kyrie stepped over to her suitcase as Lana's head swivelled in her direction. 

"Eh? What's that?" Lana watched as Lana pulled out an envelope, then removed what appeared to be some sort of disc. 

"It's a DVD. I compiled some old photos and videos of us." Kyrie turned the disk in her hands. "Though I... don't see a player near the TV. Perhaps I might need to ask for-"

"No need. Give it here." Lana reached forward, her arm elongating to pull the disc from Kyrie's fingers. She straightened her back and slid the disc between her cleaveage. Kyrie gawked at Lana.

"That's quite a party trick." Kyrie blinked. "When'd you pick that up?"

"I can run Doom, Madden, and Mario too." Lana shrugged with a laugh. She raised her hand next to her head and tapped against her ear; her irises twisted, revealing to be lenses. She opened her eyes wide as beams of projected light hit a nearby wall, projecting the contents of the DVD. Kyrie, realizing what was happening, drew the curtains closed and flicked off the lights with an elongated stretch of her arm to darken the room. 

Lana flicked through old clips and photos of the two of them together. When they had met in their university's astronomy club, some embarrassing photos snuck when the girls snuck unflattering shots of them crashing after cram sessions... graduation... the celebration of their new lease for the lab. And the odd party where they couldn't keep their hands off each other. 

"A lot of memories here..." Lana smiled warmly. Kyrie reached over to take her hand in her own. 

"We know that a lot's changed since we met, but... the caring person inside you, that hasn't changed at all." Kyrie smiled. "No matter what, you'll always be Lana to me."

"...Thanks hon." Lana leaned over and pecked Kyrie on the cheek. "I still wanna be your better half. Go to the places you get to go to."

"...Mm..." Kyrie grunted, averting her eyes.

"It was always those conference speeches you delivered, your confidence, the way you projected yourself, and... and..."

The slideshow paused, flickering as Lana blinked her eyes. Her lenslike eyes widened and shuttered. 

"...? Lana?" Kyrie tilted her head. 

"Project.... project..." Lana gasped, a lightbulb rising from her head and flashing. "Idea! Big idea!" 

Kyrie felt Lana's hand grow warm, the bed shaking as Lana's body whirred with activity. Lana bit her lip with concentration, Kyrie watching intently as Lana did her thing. It was actually rather dark in the room with Lana no longer projecting the slideshow, so Kyrie reached to turn on the lights, then turned to watch Lana as she boop and beeped at the foot of the bed. 

Lana's body resonated with the information on the DVD, internalizing the memories within it as hard data. With the epiphany flushing over her, her eyes opened wide with more light. She flexed her wrists and bent her legs, with more beams of light coalescing near the front door. 

The light shimmered and twisted as an image materialized before the two of them. Kyrie gasped as the image crystallized and grew sharper, coming to resemble a clone of Lana... only human once again! And in a revealing two piece bikini, sitting in a chair in the same position as Lana herself.

Kyrie's eyes narrowed as she studied what she was examining.

"The Pepper's ghost effect?" Kyrie turned to the robotic Lana, still seated beside her. "A trick of the light?"

"Something like that! Thanks to that DVD you gave me, I encoded all the data and prepared a database for image reference material. Using that, along with some light technology, I can project a hologram of myself..."

Lana stood up, as did the projection of herself, in perfect sync. Lana watched as the projection of herself mimicked her, her robotic body whirring as she twisted back and forth.

"Just need to make some adjustments..." Lana raised her hands as if pecking an invisible keyboard. The hologram shifted in her direction as if sliding across ice, until it enveloped her form entirely. Lana's human form projection continued to wobble and distort, stretching and bubbling up to overlap with and consume her more curvaceous robotic form. 

Lana looked over herself, raising her arms before her. It was like she was looking at her own skin again! Her eyes lit up with excitement as she twirled with excitement.

"Perfecto! I think I pulled it off!" She hopped up and down. "My human hologram outputs are perfectly synced to my physical inputs, so my outer appearance will move to copy whatever I'm doing!"

"W-wow, that... that's amazing!" Kyrie stood up. "You're so amazing, Lana! You thought of all this just now??"

"Mmhm! It was an explosion of inspiration! And I have you to thank for it, Kyrie!" Lana outstretched her arms to pull Kyrie in for a big arm; oddly, her robotic limbs seemed to stretch beyond Lana's normal arms, as they wrapped around her girlfriend in possessive coils.

"I didn't do that much..." Kyrie stirred bashfully.

"You were right! A change of scenery helped a lot, to get out of my own head. And that slideshow of memories..." Lana squeezed tight. "Thank you. You're everything to me..."

"I'm just happy that you're yourself again..." Kyrie leaned in. "Brooding doesn't suit you, you know?"

"Mm... heheh." Lana opened her eyes, realizing the strange, familiar sight of her stretching chrome limbs wrapped around Kyrie. She yelped and retracted them, watching as they disappeared under the cover of the hologram. She tensed her fingers, looking them over.

"Guess there're still some glitches to iron out." Lana shrugged. "But this has potential! And better yet, there's no risk of introducing a biohazard to the community!"

"Certainly we wouldn't want that..." Kyrie rubbed her neck. 

"Kyrie! Lana! Are you two settled in there??"

A familiar male voice called out to them. They turned to the closed door behind them. 

"Just a minute, Mick!" Kyrie called back.

"Mick?" Lana turned to Kyrie, raising an eyebrow. "What's he doing here? I thought this was a coupled getaway?"

"Ah, that's still true, but..." Kyrie tented her fingers. "Well, this was going to be their honeymoon trip until, well, things happened. I confided in Giselle a little about our situation, and she offered to let us have a room at their rental, yada yada, and now... I guess it's a double couple's retreat."

"Oh!" Lana blinked. With the dawning realization, she smiled and nodded. "It'll be nice to spend time with other rubberfolk like us."

"C'mon, let's show them what you came up with." Kyrie took Lana's hand; the robotic woman yelped as she was pulled along. 

"Mick, Giselle, it's nice to see you!" Kyrie called out to them as they mulled about in the shared kitchen space. Mick was a rare case of a rubberman, his body a shade of ebony black; Giselle, meanwhile, was an ivory shade of white. The two, caught in the middle of a flirty, twisted little dance, were coiled around each other; upon seeing Kyrie and Lana enter the room, they needed to pull each other apart again.

"Yeah, it was a long trip and... wait, Lana, is that you?" Mick blinked. "Your skin, it's..."

"It's positively glowing!" Giselle beamed. "Literally!"

Lana and Kyrie chuckled. Kyrie gestured towards Lana. "I'd like to formally introduce you two to the love of my life..."

"The new and improved Lana!" Lana stepped forward and struck a cutesy pose.

"You found a way to restore your humanity!?" Mick gasped.

"A working solution, at least!" Lana nodded. "It's a work in progress, though.'

"I'm so glad..." Giselle clutched a hand to her chest. "I know how important this is to you... and you worked so hard."

Overcome by emotions, Giselle embraced Lana. Kyrie and Mick joined them, the four rubberfolk sharing a long moment together in a group hug. This would surely be the start of all of their happily ever afters.