Angels part 1
-- Ch 1. Crash Landing
Introduce Annette, the dorky, short, and pudgy science researcher, and Steve, her lifelong geeky 'just-friend' crush
??? Annette brings Steve a fancy coffee, and dotes on him, but his eyes are on a cute tall girl.
??? Steve laments to Annette about how the cute girl he was dating screwed him over.
??? show something Annette is vocally annoyed about being short .... can't reach something Steve put on a high shelf in the lab just to tease her
outside a mid-western college town, a large asteroid crashes to earth. It becomes a spectator site, until it is closed off by the military for public safety.
-- Ch 2. First Contact
It turns out the asteroid was partially biological in nature. A group of researchers at the university is given a fragment of the asteroid to study. The students don't understand why they have to follow bio-hazard protocols for a rock. Until they perform some experiments, and after putting the organism in fertile agar, they see it multiply under the microscope.
The rate of growth is unlike anything they've ever seen. In just a day, it's oozing out of the petri dish. While cleaning it up, the material starts to mutate based on things they touch it with. Part of it mutates into a long-legged spider-like creature. They're all fascinated, until Annette touches it. It instantly punctures her suit and skin and starts electrically shocking her, after a few frantic moments it falls inanimate to the floor.
They quarantine Annette, and run a set of blood tests. Though they admit they don't know what they are looking for. Everything comes up normal. They decide to keep her overnight for observation.
She has a weird vivid dream. She and Steve are having a picnic in a field of daisies. Her dress fits her trimly, her body an idealized version of reality. It's a bit of her 'dream come true' with Steve. Steve refers to himself as "we", and talks about how much "we need you to understand.", "will you accept us?". They kiss, only it's more than a kiss. It starts to consume her.
In the outside world, the team watching over her suddenly realizes something is happening when the body monitors go haywire. Her body is sending off electrical shocks. Then it starts to turn metallic black, like the organism from the asteroid. The researchers are going haywire trying to call someone, not knowing what to do. In just minutes, her body is reduced to a gelatinous pool of the metallic black stuff. With a heavy heart, they decide to press the red emergency button, burning everything in the quarantine room to cinders.
-- Ch 3. Connection
Annette has a dream she doesn't understand, which is actually about another part of the entity. It seeped into the water supply, oozed up through a river spring, consumed a small chipmunk and took it's form, running through the forest, until it came upon a dog that tried to eat it. The dog howled terribly as it was consumed.
We see a scene where a pet owner is calling for her dog at the edge of the forest. At first she's getting frantic, because she's not responding. Then finally the pitbull comes bounding out of the woods, jumping around her. She rubs the dog's fur, "don't you run off like that, he'll kill me if I lose you. Now come on, lets get back to the house." However, the dog doesn't follow her. She puts the leash on and tries to pull it, but the dog won't budge. She grabs it by the collar, and finds her hand burning and sinking into something. A moment later, she pulls her arm away, and it's a stump of shiny black metal, her hand entirely gone. She screams out. Then Annette wakes up.
-- Ch 4. Reborn
Annette wakes up feeling the cold solid floor beneath her. She can't get up. She tries to open her eyes, but she can't see. Not exactly. The world is just blurry shimmers of light around her. She hears a confusing mix of muffled sounds. She tries to scream, "help! Where am I?" - A voice answers her, "Do not be afraid, we are one." -- "Afraid? I can't move. I can't feel my arms or legs! What is happening!?"
Outside, the researchers are talking to the CDC about what to do. What exactly happened? What is the state of the material in quarantine? Should they call the military? One of them notices some movement in the room, and they all look to watch as the goo starts to change form. It crawls upward into a vertical pillar, and then protrusions emerge. In a few moments it's obvious they are limbs, a few more moments and the shape, while still metallic black, looks vaguely humanoid. A few more moments and it begins to look feminine, though with unnatural angular features. As it solidifies, the head turns, inspecting the room. Then she speaks...
"Hello? What's going on here? Hello?" Annette doesn't recognize her surroundings. She's in a room of metal covered with black soot from a recent fire. A part of the far wall is a thick glass window, with familiar and unfamiliar faces behind it. She can't just see them, she can *feel* them. Their hearts beating, heat emanating from them.
Outside, the scientists are stunned silent. What had moments before been a pile of black goo incinerated in the emergency procedures was now a stark naked Annette, looking entirely human. Steve stirs at the chance that his lifelong friend is not dead. He jumps to the microphone, "Annette? Is that you?"
She immediately recognizes his voice, though she can hear two versions of it. One soft directly from his lips, and the other emanating loudly from speakers in the walls. "Steve?" She looks around the room again, and feels suddenly unnerved as she looked down at herself. Her body was an unfamiliar form of metallic black metal, resembling the organism they were studying. She hardly believed it as the arms moved under her will, each shimmering with black inorganic perfection. "No! My arms! What am I?"
Through the glass she could hear the scientists clamor with each other. They were all speaking at once, making it hard to follow any one speaker. However, she knew what they were saying, they didn't believe she was herself. They were talking about calling in the military. Whatever she was, they wanted to stop her. Then she heard Steve's voice through the speakers, "Annette. Something happened. You had an accident with the organism. Don't worry. We're all here trying to make sense of it. Just sit tight."
His words were meant to be reassuring, but she could hear the nervous tremor in his voice. He was afraid, really afraid. Then the voice inside her head responded. "You are us. We are one. We are here to help. Take whatever form you wish."
As if by magic, Annette watched her arms change and lighten, the angular shapes fading into smooth curves, the metallic black turning into a natural skin tone. When it finished, she found herself looking down at a naked and obviously human form, though it wasn't exactly the unflattering body she was used to. It was slender and attractive - more like she wished herself in her dreams. Briefly, she was self-conscious about standing naked in front of the scientists. Reacting to her needs, parts of her skin became roughly textured and changed color, as the shape of a dress emerged from the surface. After a few moments, the fabric separated from her body, hanging lightly from her frame.
"Wow. That was something!" She moved her arms in wonder, and for the first time the dread that she was no longer herself gave way to the possibility that she was something more, something better. She took a few steps towards the glass panel, her feet making footprints in the ash. She could feel the heart rates of the unfamiliar scientists rise as she moved closer to them. Whatever she was, they were afraid of her. She didn't want them to be. "Whatever you'd like to do, I'll cooperate. If I were you, I'd want me to stay quarantined. Is there any chance we could do that somewhere that wasn't burned to a crisp?"
Steve was awestruck. Moment's ago he thought he friend Annette was dead. Now she seemed both very alive, and very alien. Her face was familiar, but the body he'd watched forge itself from the metallic goo was not. It was lithe and pretty, the dress showing off its flattering shape. Her voice was familiar too, but there was something unnervingly confident about the way she stood, the way she walked. His boss reached for the microphone, "Annette, what do you think is happening to you?"
"Well, that organism pricked through my suit yesterday, so if I had to guess, I'd say it's using me like a host." She held up her hand, still in wonder that it was hers even though it looked slightly different than she was used to. "It seems to have morphed into this body at my request. I can hear it in my head, but I admit it doesn't say much. Mostly just reminding me that 'we are one'." She lifted the hem of her skirt, inspecting what appeared to be completely natural fabric. "As for this dress, I don't know how that happened. I also have no idea how I've retained consciousness, or what this body is made of. Though if you get me some basic instruments I can start investigating."
"Alright. Let me confer with my colleagues a moment." He stepped from the microphone, not realizing she could still hear his every word. As he spoke, she walked around the room, inspecting the charred remains, trying to occupy herself. "I don't know if this is Annette, or the organism. We're dealing with something way beyond our technology here. The only immediate safeguard we have is the room incinerator, and there is no reason to believe it'll have any more effect if used a second time. I think we should try to keep it in confinement, and call the military in as a precaution. Any objections? Any thoughts?" The scientists shook their heads. "Excellent, Steve and I will stay here to observe, Pete, you call the CDC and get the military out here." Several of them stood and anxiously left the room.
Annette decided telling them she could hear through the glass would probably only create more fear. At the moment she felt like she was in control, like they had nothing to worry about. However, she was beginning to feel isolated and alone. She desperately wanted to be closer to Steve, to not be held captive in quarantine. She wanted to prove who she was, both to them and to herself. She got an idea, and turned to the glass. "Steve, ask me something. Ask me something only I would know."
Steve's boss nodded at him, and Steve took to the microphone. "Okay. How about when we were ten, and we were playing on that log by the lake. What happened next?" Annette smiled at the memory, happy that her history was still with her.
"My pants got caught on a stray branch, and I fell and tore a pretty bad gash in my leg. I was freaking out, but you calmed me down. You turned my torn pants into a tight bandage, and spent an hour helping me hobble out of the woods on one leg. I was so grateful." Even as she spoke, Annette found herself brushing off an ash covered electrical outlet attached to the wall. She didn't know why, but she could feel warmth emanating from it. She set her hand to rest against it as she looked back to the glass. She could see Steve tearing up as he nodded to confirm the story.
"Steve, it's going to be alright," she offered, trying to comfort him through the thick glass. She could feel her hand getting very warm, and tried to lift it away from the outlet, only to find it wouldn't budge. Her hand was mis-shapen, having morphed and dug into the outlet cover. The current didn't hurt, it just felt like warm energy seeping into her, radiating up her arm. She didn't want to alarm Steve or her boss, so she tried to appear comfortable, as if she was just casually leaning against the wall. She called out in her mind, "stop. whatever you are doing, you have to stop."
The organism's voice came to her. "We are feeding. We need energy to grow." She didn't like the organisms answer. She felt anger welling up inside her at it, and inside her head her own voice screamed out, "Stop. Now!"