Story and image by Creation-Spawn on Deviantart. A little editing by me. 

"The Directrix was smiling.

What else would one do whenall goes according to plan AND it was fun?

She sidestepped a puddle of black goop, ignoring the writhing woman coated in the stuff next to it. A guard barged out from around the corner and pointed her pistol at her and froze immediately, not at the sight of the infamous Directrix, but rather at the two operative flanking her, armed with what looked like grenade launchers. The moment of hesitation gave them more than enough time to fire. The guard saw her life flash in her mind, but rather than a fireball and a messy death, she received what felt like a gut punch as the projectile hit her stomach, slamming her into the wall behind her. Had she not been stunned by the impact she would have noticed the thing was still stuck to her belly...and was shifting and expanding.

Around 16 seconds later, the material had consumed all of her clothes and gear and was effectively cocooning her against the wall. She would have begged for mercy, but for one the thing was blocking her mouth, and for two the directrix had already moved on. The Directrix was smiling. The prototype was working just fine. Nanites had been a thing forever, making them consume inorganic matter to self replicate was also mundane for MIRAGE. No, the real treat was successfully producing both a weapon and a casing able to fire it effectively. Sounded simple, but the last tester had seen the previous prototype blow up in her face, turning her and half the lab into shiny mummies, now used as decoration in MIRAGE's main hall.

She adjusted her glasses while one of her goon moved a pair of freshly packed victims out off the way. This place would be dealt with soon enough. Originally she offered the owner a fair offer to buy her business, and was mildly offended when told no, she didn't like being told no. But with the benefit of hindsight it turned out much better than expected, now she would get the place for free, along with free labour, and she got to test new gears. When life gives you lemon, kidnap several people. A door opened to see a panicked woman run through, stop in the middle of the corridor and look around frantically before noticing Phantom.

The Directrix grinned at the sight of the owner and snapped her finger. The woman opened her mouth to protest but took two hit in the chest, knocking her down. She struggled fiercely as the nanites engulfed her. The last thing she saw as it covered her face was Phantom's expression.

The Directrix was smiling."