Ela becomes her outfit

You immediately start walking away from Laura, who seemed less than thrilled that you were ignoring her ranting. "Hey... HEY! Come back here Emily, I'm not done with you!" You didn't heed any of Laura's commands though, as you hurried around a corner.

A sudden thought occurred, as you escaped Laura's wrath for the moment, and you ducked into an empty break room to think. "Ela, maybe not take over her full body yet, but what about if you replace her outfit? You'd done that before, we know it works, and that you could move her around and everything."

"Ooh, that does sound really fun!" It didn't really matter what activity you chose, Ela seemed game for it. "Are you going to be able to move me like clothes though?"

You paused. Looking down at yourself, you realized you felt a connection to the body, but when you touched the fabric--which you knew Ela had created from her elastomer as well--you felt nothing, no sensory input like you normally did from the cloth itself, although everything else about the human part of you was fine. "Maybe that requires more nanites or something... hmm. That poses a problem. If I'm not able to keep my consciousness in your body when you become clothing, could you find your way back upstairs? You'd just walk back the way we came. If you can't, then just keep Laura in her office, and if you're not upstairs in fifteen minutes then I'll come get you."

"I... yes, I think I can." Ela sounded unsure, the idea of being left alone even briefly like that briefly filled her with dread. It seemed so far away, to navigate someone without actually being them... But she strengthened her resolve, in order to do this. To Ela, all this seemed like a big game, so having fun with Laura's body was just another fun activity to pursue--and if she was able to have fun with you as well, then that's even better! "I know I can. It's down the hall, left, down the second hall, elevator at the end, up to floor... five. Floor five, lab five. Five minutes. Five. Yes."

You giggled a little. "You're truly adorable, Ela." You weren't sure, but you could almost feel her beaming at the compliment.

You stepped out of the breakroom, hustling down the hall toward Laura's office. You guessed she probably went to grab a coffee quick, which gave you a couple minutes of breathing room to get into position. As you approached the door, you tested the handle. Locked. That was a good sign that Laura wasn't in the office, but presented a new complication.

"I can do things from here," Ela said. "I'll slip under the door. If you don't mind... try projecting your consciousness into me a few times? If I can't get around Laura, I'll go somewhere and turn human again so you can take over. I'd... really appreciate it."

You nod briefly, glancing around to make sure nobody was paying attention to Laura's door. "Happy hunting, Ela." And then... your mind dropped from Ela's body the moment her head lost its human shape, you felt like you were melting right up until the disconnect.

You opened your eyes upstairs again, sitting up. When you looked down, you realized you were still inside Zoe's body, and that Chloe was still present in you too. ...Well that posed a strange conundrum.

"You're moving, but where's Ela?" Zoe asked in your ear. "Is she still okay?"

"...So, um. Ela is fine, We're doing... another test, pretty much." You smiled nervously.

Your mouth wasn't fully yours, however, as Chloe began to speak next, creating a hodgepodge of conversation as three beings in one body tried to get organized. "Another test? What exactly are you two doing?" She seemed somewhat skeptical of your plans.

"Well, you know Laura Estrada, in testing?" You asked quietly.

"Laurazilla? Loudmouth Laura? Laura the four-letter-words-I-don't-want-to-repeat, that Laura?" Zoe asked, herself growing a bit concerned.

You nodded, leaning forward, feeling the considerable size of Zoe's body react easily to you--it felt so different from Ela's form, where Ela still had shape and curves that you didn't normally possess, but she still stayed fairly slim in her base body compared to Zoe's really generous breasts and hips that could easily mesmerize a human. "Right, well... hmm. I guess I'll just say it. Ela's going to turn into her outfit and move her around to bring her upstairs."

Silence followed your statement, and every passing second added a bit of nervousness to the surely inevitable lecture the two Hideki-made beings were going to give you about their own creation. You braced yourself for a verbal lashing not unlike Laura's own barrage of words, to tell you how stupid you were for leaving Ela alone like that.

"Sounds fun," Zoe said, casually.

"I can't wait to see the look on Laura's face," Chloe added. You looked puzzled, staring off into space, as they agreed with you.

Chloe laughed a little, to break the second silence. "Laura's the one who vetoed funding for Ela's initial creation. The committee that handles funding new projects has to be unanimous in giving the go-ahead for something. She was the only one who voted against our project, she thinks most of our projects are a waste of time and money at Hideki and that we read too much science-fiction. She essentially said that straight to our face. Needless to say, a demonstration of Ela, created after we cut funding to our own other projects, will at least be entertaining. Maybe not very convincing for Laura, but she could stand to be knocked down a couple pegs."

You scratched your head, stunned. "I... okay, well I guess I misjudged how you were going to respond. It was sort of spur of the moment for Ela and me to agree on it."

"She's going to do just about anything you find interesting, Emily," Zoe interjected. "But it's not a problem, at least not for now. We'll have to do something about her memories later, but there's a Hideki tool for that." There's always a Hideki tool for whatever, it seemed. "Did you at least establish backup plans if there is a problem?"

"Yeah, of course. If she can't do anything to Laura, she'll turn human again so I can bring her back myself, otherwise we'll go find her if she can't get Laura up here in fifteen minutes." You also briefly tried transmitting your consciousness back into Ela's body, but with no luck. You were still really low on your nanite limiter's threshold, so there was a long, long way to go before you were really connected with Ela, so it didn't surprise you that you'd have to ramp up nanites to be able to connect to her non-human shapes.

"That's why we agreed with Ela that you'd be the best pick for all of this," Zoe said, still perfectly calm. "This is like pushing a bird from the nest so they can learn to fly, a little bit. But having backup plans seemed like something you'd do, so it's only if you put her in harm's way without good reason and good planning that we'd be angry about it. Laura might be a pain, but it's unlikely that she can do any damage to Ela's body."

You nodded a little. "I suppose Ela can withstand things like a punch or kick without a problem when she's in taffy-mode. What exactly could cause her harm that I should avoid though?"

"Taffy-mode, I like that," Chloe piped up. "And yes, physical blows or kinetic impacts aren't going to do much to her, if she dulls her senses. Cuts and such also won't harm her. But she's plenty susceptible to flame and chemical reactions, **** temperatures of course could also damage her structures. She can withstand far more than a human, but no jumping into a volcano or running around in the Arctic without a jacket."

"...I'll do my best to keep adequate distance between her and volcanos, yes. Okay, what about the other dimension stuff? Could she leave this three-dimensional space entirely and just exist in that sort of 'adjacent' space she talks about to avoid danger?"

"In theory, yes," Zoe replied. "But you haven't calibrated enough nanites for that with her. I've done the math when adjusting their broadcasting signals to include a fifth-dimensional component, and a strong enough signal between connected nanites is possible across that dimensional gap. But those signals are really weak, so you'd need to either be encased with her, or have enough nanites active to be able to sense her extradimensional structures, in order to bring her back. Otherwise, if she were to fully pull out of our three-dimensional universe's membrane, she'd lose all connection to you and be unable to find the motivation to return. She'd just... exist, without anyone able to tell her what to do, and be unable to tell herself to do anything." That thought was particularly frightening, adding to your nerves about leaving Ela alone...

You waited patiently, testing your connection to her every so often. Five minutes passed, then ten minutes. You stared at the clock nervously, not knowing how things were going downstairs and realizing you were having the same sort of separation anxiety now that Ela probably had about you. Still, you said you'd wait.