Lab Rat

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<title source="name"><default>

Lab Rat

</default></title> <image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group> <header>Basic information</header> <label>Civilian name</label> <label>Alias(es)</label> <label>Gender</label> <label>Worm start</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> </group> <group> <header>Personal Status</header> <label>Status</label> <label>General location</label> <label>Family</label> <label>Relationships</label> <label>Occupation</label> </group> <group> <header>Parahuman Status</header> <label>Legal status</label> <label>Team(s)</label> <label>Previous team(s)</label> <label>Power</label> <label>Known classifications</label> </group> <group> <header>Media</header> <label>First appearance</label> </group> </infobox>

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“	That guy is crazy. At one point he made himself into some kind of photosynthetic lardass, so fat he took up two stories of a house. It’s the only reason they caught him in the end.	”
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Lab Rat is a Tinker<ref name="field_test"/> imprisoned in the Birdcage. He acts as a leader of one of the cell blocks.<ref name="intro">All in all, there were twelve cell blocks with leaders. That meant that there were eleven leaders with eleven lieutenants arriving. Acidbath, Galvanate, Teacher, Lab Rat and Gavel were leaders of the cell blocks on the men’s side of the prison. Lustrum, Black Kaze, Glaistig Uaine, String Theory, Crane and Ingenue were the female leaders. There were other cell blocks, but twelve was generally agreed on as a good number. It left room for discussion without too much chaos, and it left enough cell blocks leaderless that they had elbow room to do business elsewhere. - Excerpt from Interlude 16 (Donation Bonus #3)</ref>

Personality

Lab Rat is dismissive of the life of others, willing to perform his experiments on both other people most convenient to him.<ref name="homeless"/> Even after his imprisonment, he asks for human subjects first, only resigning himself to working with an animal shelter after being refused.<ref name="animal_shelter"/>

That said, Lab Rat is also willing to risk his own well-being, performing experiments on himself.<ref name="homeless"/> In fact, Clockblocker mentions that the only reason he was captured is one of these experiments: It made him 'so fat he took up two stories of a house'.<ref name="caught"/> Lab Rat does however value his own survival, preparing a device with distilled essence of himself in case of his death.<ref name="in_a_jar"/>

He maintains a rivalry of sorts with String Theory, although it isn't clear whether he finds her amusing or irritating.<ref name="darling"/>

Appearance

Taylor describes Lab Rat as 'the last person one might expect to be a Tinker'. He has a mouth full of teeth crammed towards the front of his mouth while overlapping and sticking out of lower gums, while he has a mop of hair and heavy brows. He is tall and broad shouldered, but he has 'a bit of a belly'.<ref>String Theory and Lab Rat stepped out of the same portal. String Theory was short, shorter with her slouch, and petite, her dark hair tied back into a braid, her lips pulled back into a wide expression halfway between a grin and a smile. With her glasses, it made me think of a frog, or a small lizard. Lab Rat was the opposite, the last person one might expect to be a tinker. He had a mouth full of teeth that were screaming for braces, all crammed towards the very front of his mouth, overlapping and sticking out of lower gums. He had a mop of hair and heavy brows, was tall and broad shouldered, and had a bit of a belly. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3</ref> He is later seen wearing a lab coat.<ref name="caught"/>

Abilities and powers

Lab is a Tinker specializing in drugs that temporarily turn subjects into monsters while storing their original form.<ref name="power">Lab Rat Specializes in tinker drugs that turn subjects into monsters while storing their original state for when the transformation ends. - parahumanList, bolded edit by Wildbow.</ref> The drugs trigger a transformation that draws in extra mass,<ref name="dog example">It wasn’t additive growth. I could see how the dog swelled. Lab Rat’s power had to tap into something to create the flesh. Had used my blood and bone. Except it was tapping into the same things that Rachel’s power provided. Mass.

It was like a limiter had been removed altogether. The can of worms cracked open. Muscle, rippling. Claw. Horn and bone. Calcified flesh. Like water from a waterfall, tendrils and body parts raining down from the lump that clung, snarling from many different mouths, to Scion. All one connected mass, incoherent. - Excerpt from Venom 29.2</ref> with even water being a possible source.<ref name="needle">Pause… and then a prod.

A needle, piercing the skin.

A pressure, as something pumped into my body.

Heal me.

It wasn’t healing.

Flesh knit together, but it wasn’t healing.

The pain faded as quickly and dramatically as it had taken hold, but, still, I wasn’t healing.

Not exactly.

My thoughts became clearer.

Water churned where it came in contact with my blood. Where my flesh closed together and trapped water inside me, the effect intensified. It was soon the only pain I felt.

We’re eighty percent water, or whatever the number is, I thought. Resources have to come from somewhere.

Water was seeping into my throat, despite my efforts to keep my mouth clamped shut. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref> While the transformation can hold off injuries, it doesn't actually heal the subject. The subject returns to their injured state when the transformation stops.<ref name="matchboxes">Weld looked at me, and his eyebrows raised.

I opened my mouth to speak, and found I couldn’t. My tongue was thinner, layered in something hard, and the sides of my mouth were odd.

I communicated through my swarm, instead. What little of it remained, anyways. Drones and buzzes and chirps. “Lab Rat. The boxes he gave us, they’re designed to trigger when we’re hurt, force a transformation.”

“Might get a few more recruits,” Sanguine said, not looking up from the wounded. He had hands extended to two different wounds on one individual, and was drawing blood into one hand and letting it snake out of the other, flowing into the wound. Was he cleaning it?

“His transformations are temporary. Buying time. He cut me in half, and I’m not sure I’m going to be in one piece when this stops working.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref>

Lab Rat's formulas are geared toward turning people into weapons, with hormones kicking into overdrive and priming their fight or flight instincts. Taylor noted that she was riding a tide of emotion and put herself in danger by trying to reach Scion, even while she knew she couldn't affect the fight. She was unable to fight this effect even while she was aware of it.<ref>Rage bubbled inside me, but it wasn’t mine. I’d experienced my own anger, I knew how it influenced my own body, how it was connected to my emotions. This was something else. Hormones kicking into overdrive, compelling my body to react. Other parts of my body being designed angry, designed so they were primed for fight or flight, driving me to act and refuse to let me sit still.

Lab Rat’s stuff was geared towards turning people into weapons, making them take whatever forms he keyed into the formula and then act. I knew it. My awareness of what was going on wasn’t stopping it. I was riding a tide of emotion, moving towards a fight where I couldn’t possibly do anything to stop Scion, putting myself in danger. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref>

As a Field Test Tinker, Lab Rat is only able to work himself to valid results by experimenting on his subjects (either others or himself).<ref name="field_test"/> He is an extremely fast worker, producing a full batch of his serums within 37 minutes with access to only an animal shelter.<ref name="animal_shelter"/>

Known inventions

Name/Description	Details
Transformation serums	Very much the core of Lab Rat's work, as outlined above.<ref name="power"/> There are four examples of the results of ingesting these serums: Taken by Lab Rat himself, it transformed him into what Clockblocker describes as 'some kind of photosynthetic lardass, so fat he took up two stories of a house'.<ref name="caught"/> When injected with the serum contained in one the matchboxes (listed below), Taylor transforms into a seven-limbed creature with at least one claw, covered in studs at regular intervals, very much like teeth.<ref name="seven_limbs"/> While the transformation is useful for climbing,<ref name="seven_limbs">I tested my right hand. The flesh wasn’t tender. It was hard. There were studs at regular intervals along either half, like teeth. Very like teeth. A claw. I raised my claw over my head, then drew it down violently, driving it into a crack. I was able to climb faster. I reached the point where the concrete ended. A shaft of four steel beams reinforced by criss-crossing beams set at diagonals loomed above me. It was an even faster climb than the concrete. My legs ended in points, and those same points slipped off of the metal beams, but I had seven limbs to work with. Even if half of my limbs were reaching out for holds, I still had three or four solid points of contact I could maintain at any given point in time. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref> it is poor for swimming.<ref>My legs kicked, but they weren’t good legs for swimming. I kept kicking anyways. Something about the way they moved, they were designed so that the motions shifted my abdominal cavity, pumped it, forcing air in and out with the rhythmic activity. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref> Taylor noted she was unable to speak. Instead, there was something odd about the sides of her mouth, and she had a thin tongue with a hard layer.<ref name="matchboxes"/> Another subject of the matchboxes' serum manifested spreading scales around prominent veins instead. The full transformation is not shown.<ref>After a pause, he pressed it against one of the wounded. It beeped, then a light went on in the corner. The cape convulsed, his back arching. A moment later, transformations began, veins standing out along his arms and legs. “Another one,” Weld said. “Get me a spare.” Sanguine handed him another. Weld applied it. Scales were manifesting around the most prominent veins on the first one by the time the second patient started reacting. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref><ref>“It’s working,” Sanguine said. It wasn’t. I looked at him, confused. His eyes were on the patients. He’s talking about Lab Rat’s matchboxes. I looked, and I saw how the scales were spreading. They were breathing easier. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref> Bastard is injected with the serum while also being exposed to Bitch's power. This results in a transformation where the limiter, mass, has been seemingly removed. Bastard becomes one connected but incoherent mass, with muscles, claws, horn and bone, calcified flesh, tendrils and body parts raining down from the main lump, with many different mouths, snarling at Scion.<ref name="dog example"/>
Matchbox-sized devices	White little plastic cases the size of matchboxes, complete with straps,<ref name="caught"/> these pierce the wearer with a needle when they are harmed,<ref name="needle"/> injecting one of Lab Rat's serums and temporarily undoing their injuries.<ref name="matchboxes"/>
'Jar' of essence	Not an actual jar, but a device the size of a baseball,<ref name="death"/> it contains distilled Lab Rat.<ref name="in_a_jar"/> Not exactly a clone,<ref>Not a clone, exactly. - reddit comment by Wildbow.</ref> the jar was meant for when things where unrecoverable.<ref>The jar wasn't supposed to be recovered. It was supposed to be for when things were unrecoverable. - reddit comment by Wildbow.</ref>

History

Background

Lab Rat was a Tinker working in secret to develop his formulas, testing them on local homeless and on isolated individuals when the homeless ran out.<ref name="homeless">Lab Rat, conversely, had worked in secret, developing formulas that could transform people into monsters. He had used formulas on the homeless, then when the local homeless ran out, started picking off individuals that were isolated, out for jogs in the early morning or new visitors to his town. It wasn’t clear just what he was searching for, in developing the formulas. What I found myself wondering was whether he’d been testing his work on his test subjects before using them on himself, or if it was the other way around. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.3</ref> He performed experiments on himself, and transformed into a 'giant photosynthetic lardass' just before he was caught.<ref name="caught"/> His workshop was sealed,<ref name="animal_shelter">Defiant looked at Lab Rat. “Your old workshop is still there, sealed off.”

“No. I’d be spending more time cleaning up than working, and the samples would be dead, if you haven’t tampered with them. Something else. A room in a hospital would work. I can stay out of the way.”

“We’re not giving you access to humans,” Defiant answered, his voice hard.

Lab Rat frowned. “Animal shelter? With the animals still present?”

“Fine,” Defiant said. “Thirty-seven minutes. If you’re going to contribute, you should get started. Door, please. To an abandoned animal shelter on Bet.”

The door opened.

“Mm,” Lab Rat grunted. “I’ll figure something out.”

Then he was gone. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.4</ref> and Lab Rat was sent to the Birdcage, where he became a cell-block leader.<ref name="intro"/>

Lab Rat's country of origin is unknown, but he swears in a language Taylor is unable to recognize.<ref name="death">Lab Rat, who had apparently realized the futility of trying to move, wasn’t running at all, but was rearing back, a device the size of a baseball in his hand. He threw it, aiming to put it over the water.

Not enough. Lab Rat wasn’t one of those prisoners who’d packed on muscle in prison. The ball fell short, then started rolling slightly back towards him.

He swore in a language I didn’t know, started to run towards the object. Too slow. If he wasn’t going to make it over the edge and get to safety, he wasn’t going to reach the object.

My bugs hit the object as a mass, rolling it. It tipped over the edge. Lab Rat stopped.

The bugs around him caught one word. “Angel.” - Excerpt from Extinction 27.5</ref>

Post-Slaughterhouse Nine

As a cell block leader, Lab Rat attends the meeting where Marquis introduces his daughter. Though he stays silent throughout most it he does provide information about the Birdcage before Teacher cuts him off.<ref name="hollow mountain"/>

link title===Gold Morning=== Lab Rat would spend seven years in the Birdcage before being released during the start of the event.<ref name="darling">Slouching, hands clasped behind her back, String Theory made her way over to Chevalier and Defiant. The petite, odd-looking woman glanced around, not speaking up, but waiting until Chevalier deigned to look at her. Lab Rat, behind her, looked more impatient. He wasn’t good at hiding his feelings.

“I’ll need a lab,” String Theory said. “Tools. My tools, if you can get them.”

“You can prep something in time?” Chevalier asked. He sounded surprised. “We expected the tinkers to take part in the next attempt.”

“I’m not an ordinary tinker,” String Theory said. She tapped her head. “I’ve had four years to think, plan what I’d build if I got out. All up here.”

“Me too, seven years of thinking,” Lab Rat said. “Need a lab. Not sharing one with her.”

“I wouldn’t let you, darling,” String Theory said, condescending. I could see Lab Rat’s lip curl, but I wasn’t sure if it was in irritation or amusement. - Excerpt from Extinction 27.4</ref> He is given access to an abandoned animal shelter,<ref name="animal_shelter"/> from which he produces a batch of little plastic cases the size of matchboxes.<ref name="caught"/> The matchboxes are designed to trigger a transformation when the wearer is hurt, temporarily removing the wounds from the subject,<ref name="matchboxes"/> and it is this feature that manages to save Taylor's life.<ref name="matchboxes"/>

He himself does not benefit from the matchboxes, as he is killed by Scion's golden orb at the rig.<ref name="death"/> Before his death, he is able to throw a device the size of a baseball, containing 'distilled Lab Rat',<ref name="in_a_jar">Good question.
Distilled Lab Rat in a jar. In case he didn't make it. - reddit comment by Wildbow.</ref> into the ocean with the aid of Taylor's bugs. His final word is 'angel', thanking Taylor.<ref name="death"/> After his death, his transformation serums are used on Bitch's mutated dogs in the continued fight to stop the golden man's rampage.<ref name="dog example"/>

References

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