(Gamma World) Not a Test #97 - Boom!

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, have returned to their "Pool Room" with their "glow-resistant" suit to clear out some odd objects, and continue their experiments on the Alchemical Laser.

================= 

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.   Looking for trouble in all the right places. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"

Sonny Helianthus: a nearly 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places,  and finding it often.   He  has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.  He may be pregnant... again!

================================================================

Sonny had been in heaven, working on the Alchemical Pool in the old Toard Jakey research facility.   His time with the Restorationists had taught his the very stringent and scientific methods of dealing with such  potentially dangerous device.   While Sneaky Pete had demanded a large amount of the yellow powder he apparently was addicted to, and Sonny conceded, everything else involved a box of famer's nails, producing a fascinating series of results.  

This device, this transformation from the natural order did not sit well with everyone.  When Squiggles had been tasked with using his telekinesis to attempt to move a nail in the tank that was incredibly dense, the nail created a mental link with the worm, begging for death.   Squiggles went outside, to clear his mind and avoid any other catastrophe.  

His timing could not have been any more perfect. 

With the next activation of the devise, Sonny appeared to have removed sentience from the nail at the bottom of the tank, but with some potentially even more disturbing.  

Sonny had left the control room to grab the skimmer and remove the hopefully transformed nail out of the tank.  But as soon as he was in the room, things began occurring.

Sonny noticed the bucket with the nail had tipped over somehow, amber liquid pouring across the floor.  It was Sonny that noticed the jars on the experiment table began moving, skidding across the table, falling to the ground, shattering.  The nails appeared to move towards the pool, the glass shard sliding as well, but not as fast.  

Sonny's medallion around his neck was now horizontal pointing towards the nail..

There was an odd metallic thud hitting the tiled floor.  The guys looked to Lathar, who was holding a ring that had been attached to his belt.  

"Guys?  Something's missing."

A grenade, which had never been identified, was rolling towards the alchemical pool.....

Lathar was frozen with indecision.  Should he just pull his shield off his back and cover the grenade, shielding everyone else?  Or did he have enough time to scoop the grenade up, toss it in the tank, and hit buttons in the control room.

His overthinking was quickly replaced by Sonny.  The 9 1/2 foot tall sunflower, scooped up the grenade with his fronds, and in less than a second, disappeared. 

Lathar, fell on the floor, unsure what was going on.  

For Sonny, he had milliseconds to register in his senses  that had he successfully teleported above ground, in the woods, a number of meters away from the facility.  

Then his whole world went purple... or whatever colors or imagery a giant sunflower could sense.

Squiggles was sitting alone, contemplatively trying to piece together what Sonny was doing downstairs, when he heard the odd explosion off in the woods.  The worm did his best to stealthily go up the wooded hills.   

He found Sonny, covered in some purple slime, desperately rolling on the ground, trying to remove the substance off of him.  The sunflower was obviously in pain.  

The immediate area was covered with the purple gel, the bark melting off of the nearby trees.  

Sonny quickly ripped off his frockcoat, which was also disintegrating.  Any part of his body that had been subject to the goo was burning.  

He heard a voice, "Sonny is that you?"

"Squiggles, I need water, all the water you got!"

"Water I got, what the hell is this?"

"It's some sort of defoliant bomb... I'm... burning..."

Squiggles rushed up with his waterskin.  He squeezed all the fluid out onto the sunflower.  The purple substance seemed to become diluted when spray upon, but Sonny was still burning, as when the worm touched him, he was burning too.  

The closest stream they knew about was more than a kilometer away, so Squiggles grabbed Sonny and helped him down the hill where No-Name and the supply cart was hidden.  All the prepped waterskins inside were emptied onto the sunflower, but it wasn't enough.  

"I need to go back inside...."

Just about then, Lathar emerged from the facility entrance, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.  

Lathar donned the gloves from the glowsuit.  He hoisted the sunflower and carried him through the facility.  The sunflower pushed the pure-strain away and stumbled into the control room, praying the similar setting for water  from the Children's Alchemical Laser lined up with the Alchemical Pool.

He activated the pool, and staggered over, pulling himself into the tank. 

"Squiggles, if I don't make it... bring Justinian here, give him my notes, continue the work..."

Sonny submerged himself, a minute later, he arose from the tank, still badly burned and wounded, but alive.  The purple goo somehow congealed in floating blobs within the liquid of the tank, like a giant lava lamp.

Sonny climbed out of the tank.  He seemed okay....

Sonny and Squiggles left the facility, leaving Pete and Lathar to clean up the nails and broken glass. 

"Can somebody explain to be what the hell just happened.  And why does everything smell like fruit?"

Sonny planted himself outside to rest.  Squiggles camped out nearby.  Once they were done, Lathar and Peter came out to camp for the night, setting up a small fire. 

Once the sun set, the group discovered they could all read in the dark... illuminated by Sonny's new glowing visage.

Sonny: "Oooh, bioluminessance!"

GM Notes:

Boomfruit Bomb (Blame AI for this one):

Blast Radius	10-foot radius burst
Damage	2d6 acidic splash damage on impact (save for half) – not from heat, but from corrosive enzymatic pulp
Sticky Residue	Targets hit are coated in sticky fruit goo. Movement speed is halved for 1d4 rounds unless cleaned. The goo is also highly attractive to insects and small scavengers.
Armor/Equipment Effect	Organic-based materials (leather, hide, plant fiber) take 1 point of damage per round while coated. Metallic or synthetic armor is just annoyingly sticky.
Additional Hazard	Any fire damage applied to coated targets has a 25% chance of igniting the goo, dealing an additional 1d4 burning damage per round for 1d4 rounds.
Social Side Effect	Anyone hit smells like fermented citrus for at least 8 hours, making stealth nearly impossible and increasing chances of being trailed by mutant bees, fruit bats, or hungry road gibbons.

]Next: #98 - Day of Birds