Stick to the script

The orange ball of goo struck, wrapping up around James and Ivy simultaneously! For a while, the two disappeared into the orange translucent mass, vanishing from sight as Dr. Walker silently watched. And then, the slime receded, returning to the hospital bed, leaving Ivy and James standing still, stunned.

"What... just happened..." a wide-eyed Ivy asked.

Without warning, the orange slime re-formed on the bed. Out of nowhere, Lucas appeared perched on the bed, grinning widely at the two. "Hey gang, long time no see--kind of."

With a happy laugh, Ivy and James both hug tightly against Lucas, before they back off. "That's amazing, Luke! You look normal, like... not a single cut or bruise," James said. He was absolutely right. Not long ago, Lucas had severe injuries from head to toe, as well as messy hair and an unshaven face. This Lucas, however, looked more like he did the day of the accident, clean-shaven with groomed hair. Only the hospital gown was the giveaway that he had been in here as the patient.

"That's part of the trick," Luke said, looking down at himself. "I, uh... it's hard to explain. I couldn't really just 'fix' myself, if I didn't slurp up you two then going solid again I would've just formed back into my injured self. So, I borrowed a little bit of structure from both of you, it's sort of like I copy and pasted little bits to fix myself."

Dr. Walker tapped her chin, before lifting up Luke's arm. "Looks about right. See this?" She pointe to little patches on his arms, where cuts had been. They looked sort of like scars at first, but on closer inspection it looked like patches of other skin--both Ivy's and James's. "Using you two as templates for healthy living, I see. And that's just what's on the outside."

"Yeah, I think I have... one of Ivy's kidneys, at the moment, too." Luke shrugged.

"So, what now?" Ivy asked. "Do we just... go? Can we talk to the hospital and just discharge him here and now?"

That suggestion seemed promising, but Luke shook his head. "There's no way. If I'm just fully fixed now, that becomes too big a deal to ignore. People will ask questions, it'll be a problem. I don't want to end up as 'miracle boy' on a talk show. So... I'll stay here for a while. I can form back in the casts and stuff, just without some of the injuries to get rid of the pain. Especially my insides won't feel like a mess."

The reality was strange, and James was surprised by Luke's rational decision. But, everyone agreed it was the right decision. He turned back to orange slime, before re-forming again in the casts and other devices, even re-connecting the IVs and everything, as well as assuming some of the wounds--at least on the surface--that existed on the visible parts of his body. Dr. Walker set up Hilda to give her nightly reports, and then when she was satisfied with her ability to monitor the situation, everything went back to normal. Luke returned to the Ascend transmitter, in turn returning to a remote connection with Ivy. Ivy and James departed that night, feeling better about the future, so long as they remained patient.

One week passed, then two, then three. And then the amazing news arrived, delivered by Lucas's dad to James: Lucas was ready to be discharged! According to Mr. Grisham, Luke still needed physical therapy and wheelchairs and everything. He probably wouldn't be able to attend school normally still, but at least he could be back home, and still use the headset. It was harder to find time outside of the school day for Luke to spend time in Ivy to spend time with James, realizing that perhaps he was a little too eager to get out of the hospital now that family wanted to spend time with him again.

Still, Ivy and James were able to make time to head over to Luke's, spending time like a typical trio of friends. When the family split off to do other things, the other three spent time in Luke's room, as the guy grinned like an idiot. They turned on the game console, letting the music play loudly, so parents would just think they were all playing games.

"It's been a while to get a moment away from family," Luke said. "I'd been practicing my slime stuff late at night though. You wanna see some stuff?"

Ivy was the first to nod. After feeling slightly more of a disconnect from Luke since he returned home, she was anxious to find out what he might do, after Dr. Walker described all these things that were possible.

"Okay, first thing's first. Do you want to see a trick on the biological side? Or the technological side?"

It seemed Luke had some ideas cooked up for a while.

"How about one, then the other?" James suggested. "Just something small to start. Let's build up, yeah?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah, okay. How about... can you get me the Ascend receiver? And that old laptop on my desk, the red one."

With a shrug, James retrieved the laptop. Ivy dropped the Ascend receiver next to Luke on his bed. Luke picked up both, and they disappeared into his body with an orange shimmer. Ivy covered her mouth, suddenly a bit nervous--the receiver had disappeared into the unknown, and she for a moment felt like her connection to other parts of herself had vanished. But with a bit of 'slime magic', he produced the headset again. And then... a second headset appeared next to it, with a bezel in the same color red as the laptop.

"...Does it work?" Ivy asked, picking it up.

"Atomically, it's identical," Luke said. "But it also has an identical serial number to the original one, we'd probably need to tweak the firmware a bit to be able to use them both."

Ivy turned it on curiously, putting the new Ascend on her face, sighing in relief. "Phew, all the settings are still here. The digital side of Hilda's still present. I'm gonna keep this one as a backup, if you don't mind."

While Ivy tinkered with her Ascend copy, James crossed his arms. "And, how about a biological trick? What else can you do with a living form?"

Luke held up a finger, and then put a hand on Ivy's shoulder. She didn't even seem to notice the touch, as his hand shimmered orange, the slime suddenly merging with Ivy in a cold rush. She squeals at the cold sensation of the slime flowing into her--and her hands immediately gripped at her growing bust! The bra under her shirt strained heavily at the increased mass on her chest. "LuuuuUUUUKE!"

Ivy's face reddened at Luke's trick, but by this time, Ivy felt comfortable with what he would do with her body from within, that this felt strange but still even a bit enjoyable to her. And with James's wide eyes scanning the 'improved' Ivy, she almost was ready to encourage him further.

"These are just the small tricks. I want to show you two something big!"