Maid to print

Note this a rubber maid story from Legion Kid

Rubber Maid-13
Maid to Print

Location: The South Side Old Town Newspaper Building, After Sunset

i

Stepping around clutter aside the old newspaper building, a pensive
Rubber Maid shifted from one shadow to the next. Ronda Mord stopped
suddenly pressing up against the wall. A circular path of
approaching headlights was coming into view; someone else was
arriving. Keeping an eye on the vehicle, Ronda nervously fingered
the edge of her darkened outfit. The car passed toward the front and
out of sight. There was a slight sigh of relief although it carried
some disappointment, not a single face could be made out as it went
by. A low mechanical rumble brought Ronda back to attention. It was
from around front and she had to take a peek. What she saw around
the corner was nothing, not a car nor any persons, and now the
rumbling stopped. The car had disappeared into the building.
Ronda's mind returned to what she was after, and it all started with
getting safely inside.

Back around toward the rear of the building Rubber Maid carefully
scrutinized what entry points she could come across. There were some
doorways; even a loading dock, but avoiding detection was on her
mind. This wasn't the way. She looked long and hard at a pair of
overhead air ducts; they looked rickety, then there was a slowly
dripping pipe below. Studying it she sighed, "Maybe this'll do."
Ronda gave herself an once-over in preparation for action. "Oop,"
she peeped abruptly. Her nervous fingers had accidentally stretched
a seam of white from her outfit. Normally a bright purple and white,
those catchy colors just wouldn't do on an occasion like this. Ronda
readjusted her outfit as Alice had taught her to do before letting it
go with a slight snap. Satisfied with her blackened elastic catsuit,
Ronda's attention returned to Georgio Gambini and entry into the
building.

The dankness was unmistakable as Rubber Maid squeezed herself hands-
first into and through the small opening. Apart from the dribbling
water, the way seemed clear enough. Elongated in the slippery pipe,
Ronda took to a wriggling motion that helped squeeze her hips in
through the opening and move her farther along. In the darkness
Ronda couldn't see anything, but somewhere ahead she knew there would
be an opening, like perhaps where the water was coming from. She
just hoped it wasn't from something disgusting. The idea
of `eeeyeww' crossed her mind given the possibilities. Putting it
aside she stretched and wriggled onward up a low incline. Bending
herself around a curve Ronda encountered a pair of sideway openings,
each leading away from the main pipe. The Maid of Rubber pondered
her options before coming to a conclusion. She had been feeling her
way along anyhow and reaching into both openings just came natural.
She would investigate them all. Being Rubber Maid does have its
advantages. Besides Ronda supposed, stretching her body in this way
would allowed her to explore more passages, perhaps turning something
up sooner. At least that was the idea. From the confounding network
of twists and turns she found though, Ronda might have thought
herself a Pretzel. "What a maze", she began thinking. With
perseverance new openings started to reveal themselves, and as it
happened one was directly above her head going straight up. It was a
cause for optimism. At the same time elsewhere one of her hands felt
upon some kind of grille structure hindering the way. It caught her
curiosity. Feeling her way through the narrow openings, her flexible
fingers encountered yet a second grating on the opposite side. She
seemed to have found something.

Staring upward into the darkness, a drop of water from the vertical
pipe splashed down onto Ronda's cheek. "Hey…," she thought, "that's
it!" Her hands were still fumbling around as Rubber Maid twisted
herself into the vertical opening with the rest of her flexible body
stretching to keep up. Somewhere in the ascent Ronda caught a glint
of light. It's what she had been looking for and a victory smile
stretched onto her face.

ii

Rubber Maid peered through the small opening to see a standing pool
of water spread out before her. Her eyes circled the elevated rim of
what appeared to be a large reservoir. As it turned out, her own
present position was an attached overflow drain, though from where
she was she still couldn't see much of anything. Ronda was
bemused, "Well, not exactly the best vantage point". The area seemed
clear enough and Ronda decided to have a better look. Extruding
herself through the small orifice, Rubber Maid's elongated form
spilled into the water and wound its way across to the far side.
Peered over the rim she had a look around. "Hmm not much here," she
said quietly. The area seemed to be just a back room, a pair of
double doors being the only entry or exit. Rubber Maid had reformed
her normal features but decided for the moment to collect herself
before pressing on.

Relaxing up against the rim, Rubber Maid watched the rest of her body
falling in from behind. "I don't think I've ever been this long
before," she mused swaying from side to side. Her right hand slipped
from the pipe dropping to the water with a slight splash, but the
other seemed to offer more resistance. A firm tug coincided with
a `clank' from within the room and Ronda spun around on the lookout.
Nothing was there but a second tug resulted in similar noise that
seemed to come from the floor. Ronda rolled her eyes upon looking
down while saying to herself, "Oh brother." What she saw was her own
fingers intertwined in the drain on the concrete floor. No wonder
she was meeting resistance. Before she could do anything the door
opened and she ducked out of sight below the rim.

Footsteps could be heard in the room but they stopped off to one side
of the tank. Ronda counted to ten and then took a chance to peek
over the edge. It was a young man facing a gauge with switches and
operating some kind of hand wheel. A low hum emanated from where he
stood. Ronda glanced away to her hand stuck in the grating. "I
don't dare take a chance with any noise, "she pondered, "but what if
he sees me!?" Luckily the boy left as quickly as he came although
his steps came unnervingly close to landing on her exposed fingers.
Ronda again counted to ten before proceeding to untangle her hand.
It was tricky business but she had gained some good experience at
this of late, most of it out of necessity. Success was hers again
and she laid back to relieve any remaining anxiety. It didn't last
long. A strange tugging pulled upon her distended body. "Oh hell
what now?" she moaned in annoyance. The tug seemed to want to pull
her away from the edge.

Rubber Maid stared into the clear water seeing the far end of her
serpentine body being drawn into an opening at the base of the water
tank. Ronda had only just retrieved her wayward hand and now her
body was disappearing. "The plumber around here is really going to
hear from me," Ronda said under her breath while attempting to pull
herself free. But the suction proved to be surprisingly strong and
more of her body was disappearing into the pipe below. She writhed
about grappling at the rim of the tank trying to free herself but
couldn't seem to get any good leverage. Her body in its elongated
form continued to be pulled into the orifice at an alarming rate and
nothing she did seemed to help. In a huff Ronda let out, "Well isn't
this special."

Her rubbery body disappearing out from under her, Ronda considered
the circumstances and tried to remain calm. "That guy!" she
thought, "It must be something he did." Ronda made an effort to look
at the gizmos he was playing with but in doing so she lost her grip.
Splashing into the water she instinctively looked at the bottom, the
suction seemed stronger than ever. Reaching down in an attempt to un-
pry her body didn't do any good as her hand also became stuck. That
was enough; Ronda resigned herself to her fate and took a gulp of
air. "Well there's isn't anything going on here," she thought
disappearing underwater, "so let's see where this takes me."

Rubber Maid found herself on an involuntarily roller coaster ride
through a labyrinth of pipes. She had no idea where any of this was
going but fully expected a bizarre set of circumstance at any time.
Her Rubber Maid body filled the entire diameter of the pipe and
pressure from behind kept her moving along. It was strange; Ronda
wasn't much of a fatalist things suddenly started to feel a little
warm, and she swore she could hear voices speaking to her.

iii

"Something is clogging things up!" shouted a bespectacled man in a
white smock. "Did you do what I told you to?!" he said addressing a
younger man next to him. "Yes I did" shot back the response, "I
don't know what's wrong." "Well go over and check it again!" he was
instruction. The boy left the room while the older man fiddled with
a large apparatus connected to a series of pipes. His name was Dr.
Perdu Monomer; this was one of his many projects, and he banged on it
in frustration. This was also his laboratory and a cooling system
malfunction wouldn't do, not with guests arriving, important guests.
Impatience led to motivation. He took matters into his own hands.
Dr. Monomer shuffled over to a large canister and pushed it
underneath before pulling down an overhead lever. Monomer was going
to see personally what was holding up the system. He was greeted
with a deluge; some of it water, most of it flaccid rubber.
Stumbling backwards he fell over yelling to his assistant.

What seemed out of control was now out of control. Jumbled loops of
rubber maid were shooting out of the open valve in turbulent
fashion. Ronda herself felt jolted; like on the back seat of a
coaster taking her breath away. The lengthened form of her rubbery
body cascaded downward into a tangled pile below the exit; half in
and half out of the container. A showering of water followed pouring
in from above. For this moment it was nothing but circling stars
around Ronda's head. The bowl of rubber Spaghetti she was lying in
was almost as blurry as the young man rushing by to close the valve.
Ronda may have preferred it be left open; the splattering water could
prove refreshing, but it slowed to a trickle. The young man stood
aside bewildered, he had just rushed in and wasn't quite sure what he
was seeing, or what to make of it. Dr. Monomer stepped forward; he
did not appear nearly as bewildered. He had been watching while his
associate shut down the system. No doubt this had been unexpected,
but it wasn't incomprehensible, not to Monomer. He saw what he saw
and didn't dally. The wild eyed doctor shouted instructions but
wasn't leaving everything to his assistant.

The laboratory was a scene of activity and none of it had to do with
cleaning up the mess. The rubber maid container was shoved on one
direction and then another. Ronda was trying to regain her senses
when the world turned upside down. The stars around her head
reversed direction. "Hold it there!" the Doctor exclaimed steadying
what was now an inverted canister. Lengths of rubber dropped through
the opening of a transparent holding vessel he had pulled from
elsewhere in the lab. Doctor Monomer was a fortunate man in his own
mind; he had been counting on his shady associates to lure Rubber
Maid into one of those grandiose traps they kept talking about. That
she would just somehow drop in like this had him almost dancing in
his smock. With his own hands pushing loose ends of rubber into the
Pyrex bottle, he reached for a makeshift plunger to finish the job.
Ronda meanwhile was starting to get the idea. "What the..?" she
began struggling in protest. "There!" shouted Monomer following a
series of mechanical clacks. He had been anxious to secure the lid
in place and now he'd done it. Straight away he stood back to admire
his handiwork. Ronda's struggle didn't free her from the container,
but it did enable her to view a clearer perspective on things.

Ronda found her face pressed flat against a glass surface. Her eyes
blinked. Although distorted, she could still make out her vague
surroundings. The full realization hit her; it was a container and
she was not on the outside looking in. In semi-panic Ronda contorted
herself until coming eye level but upside down to a shoe; make that
shoes. Her gaze followed the shoe upward in ominous fashion; then
coming face to face with a curious bespectacled man in a lab coat.
Ronda's eyes grew wide.

iv

"Welcome Ms. Rubber Maid!" Dr. Monomer said in gloating fashion. He
put is own face closer to the glass and smiled. Ronda's return stare
was transfixed. "Glad you could drop in," Monomer continued, "We had
been expecting you, but not quite like this." Not getting a response
he tapped on the outside and turned his head sideways, "Disoriented
perhaps?" Leaning even closer he appeared to be studying her,
humming as he did so. Ronda managed a frown as their eyes met
again. "Ah!" Monomer exclaimed. Ronda had suspected the unexpected
but she didn't expect to have been expected. She didn't know who
this man was but knew this was not a position she wanted to be in.
Monomer chose that time to make an introduction, "I am Dr. Perdu
Monomer," he stated proudly, "and of you Ms. Rubber Maid, I am a
truly great admirer." He went on to explain his years of research in
the field of polymers, laboratory breakthroughs, and a bunch of other
dribble. Rubber Maid lost interest in his pontification and instead
pushed against the lid. It held fast but the effort snapped Monomer
out of his dialogue. "You Ms. Rubber Maid have an amazing body," he
said tapping on the lid to emphasis it was secure, "And it was very
kind of you to come into my laboratory so we can study it here
together." A disturbing pause came over Ronda.

"Look you perverted crackpot," Ronda tried to scream. It only came
out as a muffle and not something that could really be understood.
She was having a hard time getting the words out. It got Monomer's
attention though. The noise continued, "I don't know who you are but
I know what's going on here and you..." Monomer tapped on the Pyrex
container like a badly tuned radio. "…I'm a city detective… my body
is not yours to study…" The doctor studiously shuffled around the
container oblivious to whatever was being said. "Well it seems this
arrangement does not make communication easy, and my hearing is sadly
not what it used to be," Monomer said standing erect, "But don't
fret. During our time together we will have plenty of time to chat.
Perhaps we can compare notes." He motioned to his assistant who had
been standing at attention taking things in.

The container was lifted onto a platform. Nothing Ronda did or said
made any difference, she felt helpless. Monomer was right in that
the lid wouldn't budge, and as flexible as she was, she still
couldn't seem to squeeze even the slightest bit through the seal.
Rubber Maid was trapped. "Let me out!" she shouted. Monomer paid no
attention and was already busy doing something else. His assistant
though seemed intrigued. But his eyes darted away anytime he saw
Monomer looking his way. He had listened so now knew that it was
Rubber Maid in the container, and it wasn't like he hadn't heard of
her. But now here face-to-face and personal it was different.
Monomer shuffled over and elbowed his assistant into helping him with
the apparatus. "Now Ms. Rubber Maid," he said not even looking her
way, "If you would be patient." Ronda tried to observe what he was
fiddling with. "I was in the middle of something when you arrived,"
he went on, "But it appears that will have to be postponed. There is
something however that I would like to do before our other guests
arrive." Monomer rotated a hand-wheel and adjusted it until he saw
just the right amount of flame below the Pyrex bottle. "Rubber is
easier to work with when melted," he exclaimed.

Ronda reacted instinctively. She couldn't see a flame but didn't
need to, what was happening was as obvious as it was diabolical. She
shouted again, "Let me out Monomer! I have backup and this operation
is going down!" This much the doctor heard. "No Ms. Rubber Maid,"
he stated getting closer to the glass, "I said you were expected.
Would you believe me if you knew your report earlier today had been
re-routed to one of Gambini's men perhaps? They are quite convincing
it would appear; you should be more careful." He paused letting
Ronda reflect on the words. She remembered the clicking noise, and
it dawned on her. My boss she thought would never have given in so
easily. Her elastic heart sagged. In a blank stare she noticed a
nearby bottle, much like her own. A bubble of rubber boiled up
inside of it, and plopped, followed by another, and
another. "Monomer!!" Ronda yelled as loud as she could manage, "Stop
this Now!" The doctor laughed. "No, Ms. Rubber Maid," he said, "You
are quite alone, and quite contained. The only surprise is how
conveniently you dropped in. And now if you will excuse me, I have
preparations to make and some news to pass on." Monomer with that
abruptly walked out of the laboratory with his assistant in tow.

v.

In the center of the doctor's laboratory, a perturbed facial
expression pressed against a transparent container. Rubber Maid had
gotten into situations before, but watching the doctor leave, this
seemed ominous. He intended her to become his own personal science
experiment. "Monomer!" she screamed one last time, "Let me out!"
The door clinked shut; no one was listening.

Rubber Maid suddenly felt very alone. Surveying her surroundings,
she began to look for something, anything that would offer hope.
Nothing she could think of seemed to help. "I'm really trapped", she
thought in a moment of quiet dejection, "…help?" She stared blankly
at vials of liquid and test tubes arrayed on a table across the way.
The longer she sat and the more she stared, the more something seemed
familiar. Like what she had seen while touring the plant with
Alice. The realization brought her out of a stupor. There were a
variety of colored liquids, and she took note of the clear liquid in
a vial showing Badyear's logo on it. It was not the only one with
that label. Monomer had to have something to do with the previous
break-in Ronda noted to herself, the one at the plant [RM1]. How
else could Monomer have obtained this collection? But this wasn't
Ronda's only discovery. During her time with Alice she had also been
shown a hardening compound. Seeing what it did to rubber had
startled her. A treated sample dropped from her own hand had
shattered into brittle pieces! Ronda was sure the milky-white liquid
now in her focus was that very same compound. Alice's words were
hard to forget, `It can only be added to rubber in a liquid state and
at high temperature.' Ronda's alarm and attention returned to the
heat emanating from the walls of the container. "Nooo," she said
squirming, "what's happening to me!?"

"I'm melting," Ronda said matter-of-factly, as if the ridiculous
nature of such a statement would somehow make it stop. "My rubber
maid body is melting, I'm trapped in this lab, stuck in a container,
and a mad scientist wants to do experiments on me," that's all.
There wasn't anything calm about her current thought process, "What
happens if I melt Ronda!? Oh I don't know. Did you ever think to
ask Alice? No of course not, that would require forward thinking now
wouldn't it." Talking to herself didn't do anything to turn down the
heat. She paused. Her face slid down on the glass. "This
heat, ..." she slurred in angst, "It's really melting me." The
drooping smear on the glass turned the edges of her mouth upward as
if she was happy about it.

Alone for maybe 20 minutes; Ronda found time hard to gage. In the
heated container she churned about keeping heated parts of her body
away from the glass. It was a nimble dance only her extendable form
could pull off. But the dance dribbled onward. Time wasn't on her
side. A frustrated shove against the lid only plunged Ronda down
into a rubbery mix. Heated rubber bulged over her with a burble of
protest. It was sweltering heat. Rubber Maid was losing her
cheerful rubbery cohesion.

From within the container, Rubber Maid in newly-found liquid form
swirled around slowly; it was the end result of her
struggles. `Blurp,' came out in her attempt at speech. She still
found some motor control but seemingly came to care less. It was
like floating in a glass, surrounded by cellophane flowers and
marshmallow skies. Ronda was feeling really relaxed. The warmth
spreading through her body and the feeling it gave her was
intoxicating. "Wow, why didn't I ever do this before," Ronda
wondered. The thermal conditions in the bottle were really having a
soothing affect. Heat that was building only loosened up the rubber
viscosity of her body even more. Ronda appeared not to mind.

vi

Tranquility set the mood. Rubber Maid lounged in the container
seemingly oblivious to everything that had happened; her body a
comfortable warm goo. A slamming door had no effect. Monomer had
returned; this time with an entourage of associates. Talking
absentmindedly Monomer pulled around to the Rubber Maid container
where he proudly gestured. His associates had been kept in the dark
and didn't seem to understand. "Is this what you wanted to show us
Monomer?!" Giorgio Gambini growled, "Just another concoction?!"
Monomer stood his ground. He advised them to take a closer look;
which they did. "I have captured Rubber Maid," he said in an even
tone. Gambini's closest henchman abruptly straightened up. The
vague feminine outline pressed against the glass became
clear. "He's right," someone said.

Giorgio Gambini removed a stump cigar from his mouth and bellowed
approval. He might not have believed it if his own eyes weren't
looking on. It was Rubber Maid inside the container. Monomer
meanwhile was taking the credit; perhaps even rubbing it in a
little. It had been Giorgio's job to capture her, or at the very
least, make sure she didn't interfere. Gambini got the point, but
didn't let it show. The commotion did eventually draw Rubber Maid's
far-away attention. The surrounding figures to her had been just
slow-moving apparitions in a happy landscape. That was until
something clicked.

Gambini and Monomer's images had been etched into Rubber Maid's
mind. Suddenly these images and the ones in view matched up.
Reality snapped into focus. A bubble erupted from within the
rubbery mix. "Hey Boss, I think she likes you," one of the men
remarked. Giorgio sneered into the glass, "Well now agent Gumball,
seems you got yourself into a bit of a fix here." Ronda was
alarmed. She knew Gambini as a brute. No telling what could
happen. "Just goes to show you snooping don't pay," he went on.
Monomer interceded. "Just remember," he said, "Our arrangement is
that I give you the chemicals and things you need, and you fund my
work. Rubber Maid is mine." Gambini stood erect and frowned. He
didn't like the egghead weighing any authority, but he needed him.
He knew that. Gambini nodded in acquiescence.

Dr. Monomer spooked everyone by suddenly popping the top off the
container. A poof of steam clouded out. "Hey, are you crazy!" one
of the men shouted. Monomer quickly made a calm gesture. The men
backed off. "This is heated to over 300 degrees," he stated, "Ms.
Rubber Maid isn't going anywhere in her... um... present
condition." Ronda would like to have disagreed; escaping would be
just fine. But she found her motor control inhibited. In this form
she managed only feeble slurps at the edges. Escape wasn't going to
happen this way. Monomer picked up a ladle and talked without
looking up, "Ms. Rubber Maid was kind enough to drop in so I
arranged a warm reception." Giorgio interjected, "Nice touch
there." Everyone else just watched Monomer go about his
business, "and… rest assured. If her intent had been to interfere,
that has all been forgotten. She'll be more cooperative now. In
fact she's cooperating quite nicely." The ladle Monomer held up
dribbled a stream of viscous rubber.

"Uhnng… " Ronda fumbled. Monomer was plying her melted form with a
ladle. Whether it was part of a demonstration or just for fun was
hard to tell. Whatever the reason, her body smeared against the
glass. Ronda's already flaccid expression became distorted in more
bizarre ways, as did her view of things. "Hey she doesn't seem too
happy about this Professor," one of the men said. The stirring
continued and Giorgio piped up, "Ms. Gumball has always been a mixed
up dame. The good Doctor is just helping her out, right Doc?"
Monomer didn't pay much attention; he was preoccupied. The ladle
turned the rubber like taffy. "Oh... Oh my," Ronda mentally
stammered. Ronda learned early on that being Rubber Maid was on-the-
job experience but this was over the top. This seemed to stimulate
every sensation. Being mixed up was mixing her up, but more than
anything it was getting her going. Everyone else saw only the
progressive making of a psychedelic rubber slurpie.

Rubber Maid had a job to do but was losing herself; again. Monomer
was putting a lot of energy into this and Ronda felt every bit of
it. No amount of training would have helped. Being melted and
mixed up was the most intoxicating thing she had ever experienced.
Now being unable to see it was totally up to her
imagination. "There!" Monomer stopped abruptly, "Now like I said,
she won't be any trouble for everything we have planned." He
pointed out the door. "Right," Giorgio responded, "I want to see
the production."

People filed out the door. Ronda might as well have been on a
different planet. She wasn't one to notice Giorgio being oddly
courteous. He hung back until the last person left. A moment later
he was in front of the bottle containing Ronda. "If you can't take
the heat," he said turning a black knob, "Stay out of the kitchen."
end