When the bladapods first showed up in the brane that would come to be known
as bladapodoverse, they didn’t do anything but breed. Once they were
discovered, they seemed to have felt so trapped that they just kept having
offspring at an alarming rate. It was only when they were distributed across
the world to make them feel safe that they started releasing their bladapod
gases. Since then, studying the bladapods in captivity was both dangerous,
and illegal. They were sentient creatures, who deserved to be left alone.
Yes, the gases they produced into the bladosphere were causing problematic
base modifications, but there was no telling how bad things would get if
anyone attempted to interfere with their natural habits. Of course, this
being a world with eight billion people on it, curious criminals were bound
to figure some things out. After a lot of work, and some unfortunate side
effects, a team of rogue researchers managed to kill and dissect a bladapod.
Eventually, they were able to synthesize bladapod blood, so they could
replicate the effects of bladapod gas without actually needing the gas. They
started selling wipes that a customer could wipe on their body, which would
transform them in unpredictable ways. After further study, they hoped to
create a line of wipes that were designed to modify people and things in
predictable ways, so they could make some real money, but they never got to
that point. The global authority found them, and shut down their operation.
They stuffed all the scientists, and other workers, into blacksite holding
facilities, where their secrets could never get out. They destroyed all the
evidence, so that no one could do this again. They weren’t able to find a
list of customers, so the wipes that were already out there could not be
brought in, at least not right away.
These customers quickly discovered that any base modification they
experienced from a wipe, as opposed to the gases, was only temporary. So
good or bad, it would only last a few weeks before everything reverted back
to the way it was. This only gave people more incentive to try them out,
because it shouldn’t do any permanent damage to their lives. The problem was
that when someone underwent a base modification, but then reverted back, it
would be immediately obvious that they were a black market customer. It
wasn’t technically against the law to modify yourself on purpose, but there
were consequences. The government wasn’t obligated to help if you chose it
for yourself, because you would be taking resources from innocent people,
who had no other choice. Over the course of the next few months,
nearly all of the customers were caught by the authorities. Again, what they
did being not illegal, they couldn’t be arrested, but their stashes were
seized, and destroyed. One man avoided capture for a pretty decent amount of
time, but then he came across a wipe that changed him in a way that no
bladapod gases had ever changed anyone before. He could undo other people’s
base modifications, and put things back as they were. As a somewhat decent
human being, he knew he couldn’t just sit on this. He walked right into the
nearest Base Modification Center, and turned himself in for testing. They
studied his new physiology every day for weeks, trying to figure out how to
replicate his ability. While he wasn’t undergoing tests, he would help
people who wanted to be transformed back to their natural state, in case the
scientists never figured it out. They never did. His ability wore off, just
as it always did, and though they continued to test him, he never got that
ability back, and was not able to help any more people. The clients who got
to him in time were grateful, but in the grand scheme of things, it probably
would have been better if it had never happened at all, because now they
knew it was possible, but likely forever inaccessible.
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