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All characters are property of their respective authors, and this story is
copyrighted 1994 by Mike Escutia.  Permission is granted for the
distribution of this story via SUPERGUY and for archival, but all other
rights, including repost, are reserved to the author(s).

                              Pliable Lad #19
                         The Dark Pliable Lad Saga
                                Part Five
                "Stretches of Darkness, Stretches of Light"
                                    or
                      "Showdown of the Shapeshifters"
                                    by
                               Mike Escutia

                                _-<+*+>-_

        Multi-Tasking Man was monitoring events in Net.ropolis, playing
Net.Trek, listening to a sports reporter complain about how badly the Net.ropo-
lis Nets had lost to the Omaha Eagles, and posting to alt.retcon when the com-
puter alerted him to the strange going-ons at the LNH-Knightforce battle.
        He looked at the monitor just in time to see Pliable Lad become the
Master of the Net.  It was quite obviously shapeshifting.
        He looked again and saw Kid Unknown shapeshift as well, becoming...
Pliable Lad.
        He punched the intercom button.  "Amazing Ninja, please report to the
monitoring room."
        He shut off the sportscast and advanced another level in Net.Trek just
in time for his rank to be retconned to ensign.

                                 _-<+*+>-_

        "No!  It can't be you!" the Master of the Net shouted.
        "Unfortunately for you, it is!" Pliable Lad responded.
        "How...how did you know?  How?!?" the MotN (you think I'm going
to type the full thing in every time?  Ha!) demanded.
        "Last night, I snuck into my own quarters (believe me, it wasn't
as easy as it sounds), and found this journal in a drawer."  Pli produced
a small book and tossed it to Kid Kirby.  The Kirbian quickly put it in a se-
cure compartment on his armor.  "It told me everything I needed to know.  It
told me how you craved vengeance against the person who defeated you: Tsar
Chasm.  How, even after you learned of his death, you still wanted vengeance,
though now against the people who helped defeat you," Pli said.
        "Vengeance is my right!" the MotN shouted.  "I will personally destroy
everyone involved in my defeat -- starting with you!"  He lunged at Pli, fin-
gers extending into razor-sharp blades.
        "You know what?" Pli asked as he sidestepped the villain's attack.  "I
DON'T CARE!  *You* abducted and replaced me in Net.Hampshire!  *You* made ever-
yone believe I had turned Evil!  *You* alienated my friends -- THE ONLY FAMILY
I HAVE!  So don't go talking to *me* about vengeance!"
        "You want revenge on me, net.hero?  First you'll have to catch me!"
the MotN said as his body began to morph radically, becoming a car, which
promptly took off at ridiculously high speeds.
        "Pli!" Kid Chivalry called.  "We'll call for a flight.thingee!"
        "Thanks, but no thanks, KC," Pli said.  "I've got my own transporta-
tion.  He held out his balled hands in front of him and they turned into...
car tires.  Touching them to the ground, he crouched down; as he did so, his
feet also became tires, and his rear end and legs became the back of a car.
The transformation worked its way to his arms and torso, which became the pas-
senger compartment and doors, and his head, which became the hood.
        The red Porsche revved its engine and took off down the street in the
direction the MotN had gone in.
        Rescue Lad looked at the other LNHers.  "Turbo Teen?"
        "Who cares?" Kid Chivalry said.  "We've got to help him!"
        "No," Kid Kirby said.  "This is Pliable Lad's fight.  Besides," he
said, turning.  "we have other matters to attend to."
        "Indeed you do," Stormguard said.  Most of the Knightforcers had re-
covered and were ready to fight again.  "But not now.  We'll meet again, Leg-
ion!"
        Suddenly, there was a green flash, and the Knightforcers were gone.
        "Hey!  Where'd they go?" Gestalt Lad asked.
        "Teleportation beam," Kid Kirby said.  "Now, if you'll excuse me, I
am needed in another storyline.  Cannon Fodder, return the weapon the Master
of the Net was using to my lab.  Kid Chivalry, give this to Multi-Tasking
Man for safe keeping."  He handed KC the journal Pli had given him and
rocketted up into the sky, leaving the six remaining net.heroes pondering
what to do next.

                                 _-<+*+>-_

        "What's going on?" the black-clad ninja asked as he entered the mon-
itoring room.
        "See for yourself," Multi-Tasking Man said.  He punched up the live
feed from the LNH-Knightforce battle, and watched the ninja study it.
        "Interesting.  So 'Pliable Lad' is actually the Master of the Net,
and 'Kid Unknown' is the real Pliable Lad?"
        "Apparently so."
        Ninja 2000 pulled up a chair, straddled it, and continued watching
the event.

                                 _-<+*+>-_

        Traffic in Net.ropolis in mid-afternoon is normally not terribly bad.
Most people are still at work, and those that aren't are usually at the beach
or relaxing by a pool somewhere.  This quite nicely leaves the roads relative-
ly open, even at two in the afternoon.
        Which is good, because the two vehicles engaged in a high-speed car
chase didn't have time to care about the traffic.
        The car in front -- a black, beastial thing -- tore around the corner,
knocking several cars and pedestrians out of its way.  One pedestrian was kil-
led, but his death would later be retconned away.
        The second car -- a red Porsche -- threaded its way through the crowds
before picking up speed to catch up to the first car.
        It should be noted that the most interesting thing about this car chase
wasn't that it was between two really fast cars, but that neither vehicle had
a driver.
        <I can't keep this form for much longer,> Pliable Lad thought.  <Have
to stop this...and quick!>
        Spotting a makeshift ramp used by construction workers down the street,
he got an idea.  Positioning himself just behind the black car (a.k.a. the
Master of the Net), he drove onto the ramp, launching his car form into the
air -- and right over the other vehicle.  Regaining his normal form, he landed
on top of the black car, got himself a good handhold on the front end, and
wrapped his feet around a pair of lampposts.
        This served to slow the black car down considerably (tho it hurt like
heck for Pli), and it regained its true form of the Master of the Net, who
promptly punched Pli in the stomach, forcing him to let the villain go.
        Unfortunately, Pli's feet were still wrapped around the lampposts, and
before he could free them, he was flung back the way he had come, knocking him
into a man who was admiring the ring on his finger.
        "I will run no more, net.hero!" the MotN shouted.  "You will die now!"
        Pli got up and darted towards the MotN, determined to stop the villain
once and for all.  There was NO way he was going to let him win and/or get
away, not after what he had done.
        Not after what he had put Touri through.

                                 _-<+*+>-_

        Ninja World Class continued to watch the battle, now that the live
feed had been moved to where the fight had moved to.
        "M-T Man, have someone bring me another Yoo-Hoo."

                                 _-<+*+>-_

        Hero and villain clashed in the middle of the street, their hands
shaped like bricks.  Pli landed the first blow, knocking the MotN with a right
(brick) jab.  The villain quickly recovered, however, and retaliated with a
brick to Pli's stomach.
        The MotN then did something which caught Pli by surprise:  he expanded
and covered Pli like a sack -- which started shrinking to crush its occupant.
The villain quickly stopped this when Pli turned into a ball with spikes all
over it.  The MotN backed away from Pli and regained his true form, as did Pli.
        "Give up, mister!  You can't win!" Pli shouted.
        "No!  I will kill you once and for all, net.hero!" the MotN shouted
as he charged again, his form shifting again.  Pli knew what the villain was
doing: he was going to try to smother him as a blob-like mass.
        So Pli did the only thing appropriate:  he returned the favor.
        The two shapeless masses collided, struggling against each other.  One
was colored like Pliable Lad's costume, the other like the costume the MotN was
wearing.  To the passerby who didn't know any better, it looked like an almost-
comical pair of amoebas doing...something.
        One of the blobs wasn't winning the battle, and was soon ejected out of
the conflict.  Landing several feet away from the MotN, Pli regained his normal
form, but was too weak to get up.
        "Ha!" the MotN gloated.  "So I've finally defeated Pliable Lad!"
        Pli heard a familiar -Plink!- and saw Kid Chivalry materialize on a
wall, unseen by the villain.  "(Hang on, Pli!  I'll save you,)" he said.
        "(No...KC, listen to me.  The gun Kid Kirby brought...get it for me,)"
Pli said, strangely unheard by the MotN.
        "(Um, why?)"
        "(Just trust me, old friend.  Please.)"
        Hesitantly, Kid Chivalry teleported away just as the MotN put his foot
on Pli's chest.
        "I wonder what would happen if I pressed down hard and squished you,"
the villain mused.
        "Keep wondering," Pli muttered as he picked the villain up with his
feet (now shaped like hands) and threw him several feet back.  Pli got up to
take the offensive, but the villain combined his arms to form a battering ram
and ran into Pli with it, knocking the net.hero to the ground (again) a good
fifteen feet away.
        The Master of the Net began his approach again, malice in his voice.
"Now...prepare to die, net.hero!"
        -Plink!-...-Plink!-
        Pli turned his head and saw it behind a mound of dirt a few feet away,
unseen by the villain.  It was the gun he had sent KC to get.  "Bless you,
KC," he muttered.  Realizing that it was the only way to defeat the villain,
Pli quickly grabbed the gun, aimed it, and fired.
        The energy beam released didn't affect the MotN physically, but rather
in a different way.  As pain shot through his head, the villain clutched the
back of his neck.  His body was fluctuating rapidly, and his features were be-
coming scrambled.
        "Aaarrrrgghhh...Control unit...malfunctioning...must abandon body...
This isn't over...Pliable Lad...I shall returrrn..."  The unconscious former
host body of the Master of the Net slumped to the ground face down.
        Kid Chivalry, Cannon Fodder, Echo Lad, Rescue Lad, Gestalt Lad, and
Curly, who were all watching the battle from nearby (and ready to step in at
a moment's notice), ran over to Pli to congratulate him and help him up.
        "Good job, Pli!" Kid Chivalry said.
        "Thanks," Pli said.  "And thanks for getting that gun for me."
        "How did you know it would affect him?" Gestalt Lad asked.  "Don't
tell me his body was a clone like the KFers."
        "It wasn't.  But Kid Kirby had let me know after we had...acquired
the gun that it could affect electrical activity in a person's brain," Pli
explained.  "Needless to say, we kept it a secret."
        "Our lips are sealed," Gestalt Lad said.
        "Thanks.  Anyways, while we were fighting, I happened to catch a
glimpse of the control implant on the MotN's body, on the back of the body's
neck.  We found one on Reggie Davenport, a previous host body [freed in Read
Between the Lines #4 --mre], so I knew he wasn't using his real body.  Other-
wise, I wouldn't have used the gun."
        "That just leaves one last question," Kid Chivalry said.  "If the
MotN wasn't possessing *you*, then who *was* he possessing?"
        "Let's find out," Rescue Lad said, turning the body over.  "He doesn't
look familiar."
        "Not to you," Pli said.  "That's Amorphous Lad."
        "You don't seemed surprised," RL observed.
        "I'm not.  I knew the MotN was using his body all along.  The journal
explained it all to me."
        "He's in pretty bad shape," RL said.  "but still alive.  We'd better
get him back to LNHQ.  Cannon Fodder, you help me carry him."
        "Too bad the Master of the Net got away," KC said as Rescue Lad and
Cannon Fodder prepared Amorphous Lad for transport to LNHQ.
        "He'll be back," Pli said.  "And we'll be ready.  Come on," Pli said,
jogging to catch up to the others.  "I've got to go make sure Touri's alright."


FIN.

[Reposter's Note: An ADMINISTRIVIA post concerning the LNH reposts will come
out either today or tomorrow, depending on when I get to it.]

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