Editing Echidna Clones (section)

==Biology==
Once contact between Echidna and an organism is made, it takes minutes for a corresponding clone to form inside Echidna.<ref>It took a minute and a half for her to form the clones within her.  We closed the distance as her body swelled.  When she’d reached critical mass, each of the three mouths on her lower body opened to heave out a tide of blood and gore, along with eighteen or twenty people.  Half of the people she’d heaved out had clothes.  The other half had mutations.  The mutants were on their feet as soon as they could find traction in the sludge, the innocents seemed as though they could barely move. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/queen-18-7/ Excerpt] from [[Queen 18.7]]</ref> They start off as pre-prepared nuggets of flesh within Echidna, rapidly developing into a clone of a chosen organism within Echidna's many stomachs.<ref name=":0" /><!--Missing interlude has some insights from witness and i wouldn't be surprised if it sheds some light on the matter.-->

The appearance of the clone depends on the amount of time they spend within Echidna's body. If spat out too soon, the clone is malformed, missing limbs and features. If spat out too late, the clone is also malformed, but with extra material instead.<ref name=":0">Noelle tagged several of the bodies in her internal stomachs, felt flesh constrict tight against them, felt the pre-prepared nuggets of flesh in her gullet forming into close replicas in an instant.  Timing was crucial; if she spat them out too soon, they’d be malformed, missing limbs or features.  Too late, and there was extra material. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/interlude-18/ Excerpt] from [[Interlude 18]]</ref> This often means that clones will be mutated, with deformed features and strange, bizarre body-shapes. In many cases, these mutations may also make clones stronger and unusually durable compared to their originals.<ref name="sabotage">I sneaked cockroaches in through the gaps in the weapon’s exterior and started them chewing through the wiring.<br />[...]<br />Leet pulled the trigger.<br><br>“There we go,” Eidolon said.  The gun wasn’t firing.  He pulled the trigger again, and an arc of electricity ripped out from a space by the power supply, toasting half of the bugs I’d positioned on Leet and sending him sprawling to the ground.  He was back on his feet seconds later, tearing one panel away to get at the sparking power supply.  Tougher than a normal person. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/queen-18-7/ Excerpt] from [[Queen 18.7]]</ref>

When a [[parahuman]] is cloned, the clone inherits the original parahuman's [[shard]] connection. They can either receive an identical but stronger version of the power, or receive a variation upon the original power.<ref>Some of the time, the powers would be different.  Most of the time, going by precedent, they were stronger.  Trickster was left to wonder how Perdition’s powers had changed.  Duration?  Range?  The amount of time reversed? - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/migration-17-8/ Excerpt] from [[Migration 17.8]]</ref> These variations can be quite extreme, as seen when a clone of [[Vista]] was altered to produce radiation with her power.<ref name="radiation">“It’s radioactive,” Tattletale intoned.  “Everything she’s dissolving like that.”<br><br>“Unless I cover it?” Grue asked.<br><br>“Unless you cover it.  Should cancel out the effects.  But you did want me to let you know when I’m making an educated guess.  This is one of them.” Tattletale said.  “I hope I’m right.  We could win this fight and still wind up dying in a hospital bed a few years from now, because we got too close as that stuff dissolved.” - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/monarch-18-6/ Excerpt] from [[Queen 18.6]]</ref>

Echidna is also capable of cloning bacteria and molds, altering them into a weaponized form that infects and weakens anyone that is caught within her body.<ref>With that thought, it dawned on me.  Noelle absorbed living things, and that apparently extended to bacteria.  Where others had bacteria in their digestive systems to help them digest food, Noelle, ''Echidna,'' had no need for such.  When she absorbed the ambient bacteria and molds from her surroundings, she was storing them, weaponizing them like she did with rats and insects.  They were used to debilitate her victims, render them unable to fight back while her clones got the upper hand. - [https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2013/02/19/scourge-19-1/ Excerpt] from [[Scourge 19.1]]</ref>