Rubber Maid - Reaching Out

Rubbermaid – Reaching Out

*Rhonda Mord joins a superhero league and has her powers gauged.  But then an unexpected crisis erupst.  Can she prove her worth?








Rubbermaid - Rhonda Mord - elasticity
Speed Demon aka Speedy – Dana Hartman - superspeed
B'Rayeen - big headed, gray skinned, alien telepath/telekinetic




Rhonda felt nervous.  This whole superhero business was new to her.  Her ride in the hovercar was a smooth one as it made its gradual ascent into the clouds.  It was piloted by a robot known as Sentry 13, and boy was he a dullard.  All he did was drone on about SSSS protocol and procedure, talking about the various forms and documents that must be filled out for full membership and its benefits
The hovercar reached its destination, though not soon enough with Sentry 13 prattling like a Steven Hawking if he were a tour guide.
“Wow, I didn't know that the Super Secret Superhero Society had a floating fortress,” Rubbermaid said as climbed out of the hovercar and onto the landing platform.  She walked to the safety rail, looked over the edge and was amazed to see a large installation effortlessly float above the clouds.
“The Skyfortress is an amazing technological feat made from a combination of human and alien technology.  It is powered by an energon/dark matter fusion reactor and there are redundant antigrav...”

Rhonda was greeted at the locker room door by an unusual looking woman with blood red skin and horns sprouting from her head.  She held a clipboard.
“Hi there,” she said showing a toothy grin and offered her hand.  “You must be Rubbermaid.”  Her strong grip shook Rhonda's arm so vigorously that it flailed around like a wet noodle.  “I'm Speed Demon but my friends call me Speedy.  Anything you can do, I can do faster; that's my motto.”
“So I see you've already been fitted for a suit,” she looked Rhonda up and down with a rather lecherous grin.  Rhonda couldn't help but wonder what this woman's sexual orientation was.  “It suits you well.”
“Thanks, some big headed floating alien made it.  He said it was made of unstable molecules to handle my stretching abilities.  Rhonda demonstrated by stretching her arms around herself many times giving her self a tight hug, showing that her sleeves stretched with her arms.
“Good, good.  Well, I've been assigned to you to gauge your powers.”  She looked at her clipboard and flipped though a few pages.  “I see you're been classified as a elastic/shapeshifter.  Ok then, let's get started.  Shall we?”  She opened the door to the gym complex.

There were many different weights and exercise equipment throughout the entire gym.  Speed Demon gave Rhonda a mini tour showing the olympic swimming pool, track and field, and battle-sim room.  The both of them were about to pass a treadmill when Speed Demon stopped in her tracks and hopped onto it.
“Check this out,” she hit a few buttons and the treadmill whirred to life and Speed Demon was already jogging at a fast past but the machine's whine only got higher pitched as its speed got faster at an amazing rate.  Soon her arms and legs were moving so fast that they were a blur.  But Rhonda noticed not even a bead of sweat was on her brow.  Sparks and smoke were coming from the treadmill and Speed Demon hit the kill switch and leaped off.
“Wow, you're fast.”
“Fastest broad alive.  At my fastest I can travel at the speed of sound.”  She said proudly.  “But enough about me.  Let's find out what your limitations are.”  She picked up her clipboard and pen and led Rhonda towards the indoor track and field.  “Just how far can you stretch?”
“Well I once stretched as tall as a ten story building but that's the furthest I've ever done.”
“Then let's see how much further you can go.  The distance from between both field goals is 120 meters.  Stretch from here to there and back as many times as possible.  GO!” she inhaled sharply and puffed into her whistle with a shrill chirp.
Startled into motion, Rhonda moved into action.  First thing she did was tie her ankles to the post of the field goal and then launched herself at the opposite side of the field.  Without effort she stretched there and back, already at 240 meters.
“Wow, I have never stretched out this long before.” Rubbermaid gasped.
“Does it hurt?”
“Not a bit,”  she gave her elongated midsection an experimental tug and it still had plenty of give.
Rubbermaid stretched some more at the other field goal again.  By then she could already feel strained and she could hear her rubbery body creak and groan.  360 meters but she knew that she still wasn't at her limit and went for the opposite field goal.  The strain of her stretching was an unfamiliar sensation since she never had fully tested her powers.  The rubbery squeaks and groans only got louder and Rhonda barely made it to the field goal, tugging at her outstretched body like climbing rope.  She grabbed hold of the field goal post.
“Four hundred 'gasp' and eighty 'gasp' meters.  Whoo a new record!”  she held her arms up triumphantly.  That proved to be a mistake as the tension in her outstretched body made her snap back, her arm flailing about helplessly until collided back into her tied up ankles.
“Wow, you okay?” said Speed Demon as she zipped over to Rhonda's side.
“Fantastic,” said Rhonda hazily as her head bobbled about.  Her vision cleared after a few moments, she checked her body, everything was fine.  “So what's next?”

“Okay now lets see what else you are capable of.  I want to see how good you'd be at a stealthy entrance, like flattening underneath a door or squeezing into a keyhole.
“I have flattened myself and snuck underneath doors a fews times, usually when forgot the key.”
“Okay then, you wouldn't mind demonstrating it would you?”  Speedy directed her to a standing metal plate, 2 inches thick, with holes and slits of various sizes.
Rhonda examined it up close, seeing that all the holes and slits had their measurements labeled on them.  The smallest hole was 1 mm and the smallest slit was .5 mm tall.
“Go through the smallest one you can fit through,” she puffed on her whistle again, startling Rhonda into action.
Eager to impress Rhonda chose the smallest hole first.  She took a couple of deep breaths and tried to loosen herself up and relax.
“Okay Rhonda, you can do this,” she muttered under her breath.  “Just think thin.”
She started with her arm and pressed her finger through, like threading a needle.  After fitting her hand through the rest was easier.  It was an odd and new experience when Rubbermaid extruded her needle-thin head through the hole.  Almost like being sucking into a black hole and being blown out the other end.  She had a couple of hitches fitting through when it came to her ample chest and wide hips but she managed.
“That was amazing,” Speedy helped Rubbermaid up from the ground.

“Okay, how about size change?  Can you grow or shrink in size?”
“I dunno.  I've never tried,” Rubbermaid said anxiously.
“Now is as good as ever.  Now start shrinking” Then she blew on the whistle, again spurring Rhonda in action.
Rubbermaid scrunched her face in deep concentration.  She kept at it for several moments,  feeling kind of silly because she wasn't even certain if she could shrink, might as well try breathing fire or something.  Her face was so scrunched up that her eyes were held shut, 'Come one Rhonda you can do it'.  But then she noticed that the world around her was gradually getting bigger until her eye level was equal to Speed Demon's shins.
“Shrinking, check.” said Speedy, ticking off a mark on her clipboard.  “Okay, now how about growing?”
Rhonda relaxed and lost her concentration, instantly returning to her normal size.  She waited for a few moments before trying to grow.
Growing turned out to be something different.  Rhonda huffed and puffed, concentrating as hard as she could on growing as high as the ceiling.  But the she had an idea.  She inhaled a great big breath of air, so much that her chest and stomach puffed out a great deal.  And the she huffed and puffed again, concentrating on diverting all the air around her body.  Essentially she was just blowing herself up.  And it worked!  She grew to ten feet, then twenty, then thirty, and then forty.
“Wow, Rubbermaid, you did it!” she checked off another box on her clipboard.
Rhonda felt very dizzy from practically hyperventilating and fell over.  Except that when she fell, it was at a sluggish pace, like moonwalking astronaut.  As soon as she collapsed on the floor, all the air came rushing out of her body, making her body zip around the room like a deflating balloon.  Her limp, deflated body collapsed on the floor at Speedy's feet.
“That was really tough.  Can we break for lunch?” she said weakly.
“Sure,”

Speed Demon only helped herself to some several slices of pizza while Rubbermaid took two helpings of everything.  And they sat at the booth seats by the windows.
“Wow, I'd expected that sort of eating behavior from any of the guys especially the tanks but not one of us girls.”
“I've always had a healthy appetite,” she responded cheerfully before cramming an entire sub into her mouth, puffing out her cheeks as she chewed.
“So do I, having a hyper-fast metabolism and all, but don't you worry about your weight?”
“Nah, for some reason all the extra pounds always seem to go to the right places,” her chest seemed to puff up a bit as she spoke.  She gave Speedy a wink, making her smile as well.
“You know, I'm a bit envious of you.  Your superpowers allow you to change shape into anything you want, look however you like.”  She looked wistfully into her reflection in the window, looking at the stumpy horns protruding from her brow.  It didn't take a telepath for Rubbermaid to see that Speed Demon had issues with her looks.
“So, tell me more about yourself.”
“It's a long story.”  She paused looking at Rubbermaid, seeing that she was eagerly waiting for the rest of the story, “Well, my human parents were tricked and made a bargain with Destrak, lord of the Underworld.  The bargain involved saving my life from a rare genetic disorder that made me age at an accelerated rate in exchange that I willingly became his bride when I physically matured into a woman.  He fulfilled his part of the bargain by transforming me into an ageless demon but only after I've prematurely entered womanhood at the age of two.  Mentally at the age of two, I was unable to speak, let alone recite marriage vows.  According to the precise wording of the contract, my parents had failed their part of the bargain and were turned to cinders.  But not before seeing the new form of their beloved daughter.”    The rest I don't even want to talk about.”
Speedy didn't know why she unloaded her painful story on her so freely.  Despite her cheerful demeanor she never talked about her past to anyone.  It was something she kept trying to forget.
Rhonda stretched her hand underneath the table and gave Speedy's hand, resting on her lap, a comforting squeeze.
They were interrupted when a muted boom and the sound of metal shredding could heard somewhere not too distant.  The dull murmur of the cafeteria came to an immediate stop and the silence was interrupted by the blaring klaxon of the emergency alarm.
“ALERT!  ALERT!  Airborne enemy attacking the Skyfortress is under siege by unidentified enemy!  Man your battle stations people!”
Speed Demon jolted out of her chair with lightning quick speed.
“We've have to get to the command bridge.  Do you know the way?” she said too quickly.
“Nuh ugh,” Rhonda shook her head.
“Wanna piggy back ride?” she said with a sly grin.
Rubbermaid hopped onto her back, wrapping her legs around Speedy's waist like a belt.  Speedy's head was inadvertently stuffed in her cleavage.
“Hold tight,” she said before taking off like a speeding bullet without further warning.
Speedy zoomed through the corridors so fast that it made Rhonda's lips flap in the wind like a cartoon.  Zigzagging and weaving between so many other superheros that they all looked like a blur to her.  The both of them reached the command bridge before anyone else.
“What's the situation, B'Rayeen?” said Speed Demon, looking up at the center station of the room.  It was the same floating big head alien.
“It's the insane Doctor Diabolical, he has somehow penetrated our security and disabled our sensor array and now he is attacking us from a dirigible acting as a carrier for hundreds of kamikaze winged robot monkeys.”  As B'Rayeen spoke, he punched several keys on a nearby console, the pale glow of the viewscreens reflecting of his gray skin.  The way that he spoke seemed so dull, as if nothing bothered him.  “Since our sensors are down we can't track the movements of these kamikaze winged robot monkeys.  In fact there could be more than one dirigible hiding in the nearby clouds.”
“Why is he attacking now?”
“I don't know.  His actions are difficult to predict on account of him being insane.  From what I know about him, he could either be working in conjunction with an organization of supervillains or he could simply be bored.”
“I need you two to guard the landing bay.  Get going.”  Having said that, he hovered to some other console, shouting orders into the intercom.  “All level 7 tech specialists, meet me on deck 15.  Captain Commando, assume command on the bridge.  Everyone else...”
By then Rubbermaid couldn't hear him anymore as she was, once again, riding on Speed Demon's back to the cargo bay.
When they arrived, the cargo bay doors were blown wide open and the wind of the open sky blew everywhere, tossing papers and trash around.  The SkyFortress kept shaking as explosions kept happening at other places on board.  A squad of robot monkeys had already landed and they could see there were many more flying about outside.  Rubbermaid stretched out her arm and easily swatted all of them back out tumbling into the open sky.  Another squad of robot monkeys swooped in, firing at the two of them with their wrist mounted lasers.  Speed Demon rushed in and pulled Rubbermaid out from the line of fire, ducking behind some cover.  But then she sped off, taking out three of them with a thrown crate, they exploded.  Then she threw one into another, and they exploded too.  But she was too close and the explosion flung her over the ledge.
“Speedy!” shouted Rubbermaid as she saw her newfound fall off the flying fortress.
“What happened?” said a voice behind her.
Rubbermaid looked around to see a tall man wearing an all blue refrigerated Eskimo outfit and holding, presumably, a freeze ray.
“Speed Demon, she just fell off” she said panic stricken.
“I can't fly, and neither can you.”  He quickly turned back to the door.  “I'll find someone who can.  You stay h...”
“There's no time,” she interrupted him.  Already she was tying her rubbery ankles to some handlebars near the ledge.  “Cover me, I'm going after her.”  Without any further thought, Rhonda dove after her.
Rhonda already knew that her stretching limit was at 480 meters and that Speedy had probably already passed that but she had to try anyhow.  She made herself as aerodynamic as possible to catch up to the barely visible Speedy, falling so fast that it made her lips flap wildly again.  As she fell she tried doing some math in her head, which she wasn't so good at, let alone in an emergency.
The SkyFortress cruised at about 10,000 meters from the ground and which was roughly over 6 miles in length.  A skydivers average rate of fall was about 190 kilometers per hour.  Which means she has... Crap!  She couldn't figure how soon until impact.  In fact she didn't want to think about it.  It was then that she realized that THIS was the moment that every math teacher talks about when they say that math could save your life.  But she didn't care about that now.
She had passed 480 meters some time ago and already she could feel the stress on her body.  'Just a little bit further' she told herself.

Speedy shut her eyes tightly.  She had already tried flapping her arms wildly like a hummingbird; it was worth a try but didn't work.  So all she could do was close her eyes, not wanting to watch the Earth closing in on her, and wait.
Rhonda was closing in on her.  'Just a little further' she kept telling herself.  Every inch of her body felt as if it was on fire as she continued to stretch her body so very far beyond established limits.  The ground soon became more than patches of blue, green, and brown and she now make out buildings and roads.  'Just a little further'.  But every cell in her body told her to let go and snap back before she breaks into a million pieces.  'Just a little further'.  Speedy was now within arms reach and she just  gave a little more stretch and wrapped her arms around her.
Speedy whimpered quietly thinking that it may be the arms of the angel of death.  She could imagine the irony, an angel embracing horned demon such as herself.  But then she gasped sharply as she felt two familiar soft and warm lumps on either side of her head.  It was Rubbermaid.
She looked up and Rubbermaid's face smile weakly at her and saw a purple streak leading all the way into the clouds.  She couldn't even imagine the distance she had stretched just to reach.  Over the near deafening roar of the wind, she could hear the groaning and squeaking of her rubber body pushed beyond its limits.
Just then their descent slowed to a halt, only a few hundred meters from the ground.  The air was silent.
“I've got you,” said Rhonda whispering into Speedy's ear.
And then they shot back upward into the sky, ending the silence, with such speed that it alarmed the Speed Demon (although she was more familiar with horizontal speed and not vertical).  Within moments they shot past where Rhonda's feet were secured.  Then their ascent ended and just when they were about to fall again, a strange force pulled at them, slowly drawing them to the safety of the cargo bay.
It was B'Rayeen using his telekinetic powers.  He had telepathically sensed that Rubbermaid and Speed Demon were in danger as he was repairing the sensor grid and came to the cargo bay.
Rubbermaid's body was so overstretched that her torso looked like several dozen meters of flaccid noodle.  She had passed out a fraction of a second after B'Rayeen caught them.  Speedy still laid there on the ground still in her grasp, shaking.
“Amazing.”  B'Rayeen said incredulously, looking over the both of them, mind racing.  “Absolutely amazing.”
The kamikaze flying robot monkey threat was already over.  Whirlwind and Scorch had flown to the dirigible and destroyed the dirigibles remote control system, making all the robot monkeys inert lumps of metal.  Unfortunately, the ship was unmanned an automated.  Naturally there was a self destruct mechanism activated via tripwire but the heroes managed to escape, as usual.  He would have to investigate the reason why Doctor Diabolical attacked, along with the other senior members.
“She's still alive.  Let's get her to the med-bay.”  And with just a thought, he hoisted Rubbermaid's elongated body and levitated it through the corridors.  Speedy came along, not saying a word.

When Rubbermaid woke up, she found herself in unfamiliar place.  She was in a cushy bed with warm blankets and the furniture and decorations around the room indicated that this was a girl's room.  But when she moved to get up she felt incredibly weak and could only flounder about like a beached fish.  She then remembered what happened.
“You awake,” came a familiar voice from another room.  Speedy popped her head into the room and saw that Rhonda was awake.  “Okay, good.  I'll heat up some soup.”  She vanished again and Rhonda could hear the beeping of a microwave.
She tried to get up again and but only managed to pull the blanket off her, only to realize that her body was stretched out laid on the bed like a heap of spaghetti.  And on top of that, she was also naked.  Her only reaction was to give out a loud yelp.
Speedy came in with a bowl of soup.
“Oh, that.” she said sheepishly.  “We couldn't have you wearing the same thing filthy thing for days and nobody has anything in your size, really.”
Rhonda relaxed and sat back.  Speedy sat closely in a chair beside the bed.
“It's not that, I'm actually a bit of an exhibitionist.  It's just that, is this permanent.”  She said motioning her head at her body.
Speedy's eyes brightened up, “That's the good news.  It isn't.  B'Rayeen discovered that your body is slowly recovering its normal shape.  Kinda like memory foam, he said, it always recovers its shape.”
“And what is the bad news?”  She said, lifting her eyebrow a tad higher on her brow than an average person could.
“You'll be like this for at least two weeks.”
“Wha-mmph”  Speedy jabbed a spoonful of tomato soup into Rhonda's mouth.
“There there,” she reassured.  “My hero has to gather her strength if she is going to fight crime again anytime soon.”
Rhonda swallowed the soup and then spoke up.
“Thank's, Speedy” she said
“Call me Dana.  Dana Hartman, that's my real.”
“I'm Rhonda Mord,” she said trying to hold out her hand but she felt too weak.  After a short awkward pause she said, “You know there's enough room for two in here.”  She softly patted the bed invitingly.
Dana smiled and hopped in, pulling the blanket over the both of them and continued to feed Rhonda her soup.
“When I recover I need to show you a neat trick.  I call it the Water Bed.”

Fin