[Author Note: While I might not be 100% happy with this episode, with all the reediting I have done, I think it is at least more presentable. To the other authors, be a bit flexible about this, it was a pain to type (and retype) and it was the best I could do.]
Friday, Toby's News Office
Jay was in Toby's office, deciding to organize a few things after the news report and the phone call. Ever since the trial, it got into a bit of a mess, and Toby was too busy to get it clean. As upset as she was with the trial, at least it was behind them, allowing the news crew to move on to the next tasks at hand: like the overview on the new school and the upcoming presidential address. Then, there was that odd data that they received, about something that might have been what was responsible for the change with the sun.
Suddenly, Toby came in the office, exhausted and a bit upset. "Hello, Jay."
"Hey, Toby! Did you get the phone call from the higher up," Jay asked, trying to hold back her joy, figured that she did Toby a great favor.
The annoyed expression on Toby's face, though, has shown the opposite reaction. "Y-yeah, I did," she hissed sarcastically, "Thank for that by the way! Next time, talk with me before trying to help me 'climb the ladder'!"
Confused, and a bit irritated and hurt, Jay replied, "I thought you would be happy. This could be your chance to hit the big time. Imagine what it would be like for you: a better salary; a better position, especially being the only competent person to get such a position...!"
"And, more time taken away from being with my family, by putting more work on my shoulder," Toby added.
Jay opened to counter that, but nothing came out. She cracked a nervous smile, her eyes was displaying how she was feeling, that she just made a huge mistake. "H-hehe, I did not...consider that possibility...! Sorry about that."
"Yeah," Toby's groaned angrily, but she cooled down quickly afterward and sighed, "It's okay, though. I can easily convince them to find someone better to fill in Anderson's role." She paused and gazed at Jay with an apologetic expression, "...And, sorry about getting ill with you, by the way; I know that you were just trying to help and I appreciate it."
"Don't worry about it. Speaking of the creep, talk about the perfect irony," Jay said with a huge smile, trying to move away from the past issue, "The creep won the bloody case, only to walk arrogantly into the sun and fulfilling his worse fear: to get transform by the sun."
"While a part of me agrees with you, that he got what he deserves, I can't help but feel sorry for him. From his reaction, he couldn't even understand anything you were saying, and you got to admit, being in a world which you can't understand is a bit scary and lonely."
Jay was taken by surprise; she never expected that Toby would take the creep's side. "Come on, Toby, this is the same creep that tried to get me fire and hired someone to you expose to the sun."
"True; and I am upset that he won, but I don't think I have the heart to enjoy that kind of suffering. I mean, how would it feel if you are restraint to only move on all four and unable to speak, only able to make fox sounds? It would be very lonely not be capable of talking to other like you used to. That level of loneliness should never be wish upon anyone."
"...I guess you got a point. Still, I must admit that, after all the cold stares that he gave me in court, I love the look on his face when he realized his big mistake. Talk about a classic gold moment!"
Toby couldn't help but laughed at that, Jay joined in soon afterward.
"By the way, I must ask something," Jay asked, though only out of curiosity, "Why the sudden interest in wearing dresses? Yesterday was the first time that I saw you wear one, and today you are wearing another dress."
Toby shrugged and replied, "Eh, I just feel like it, I guess. Perhaps I am just feeling particularly feminine lately." She reached into her purse and pulled out a large kiwi-flavor sucker, putting it in her mouth. Taking it out of her mouth temporary, he continued onward, "What I am curious about is what happen to that 'hitman' he hired before? There doesn't seem to be any trace from him, as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth."
Ignoring the question in her head about Toby's sucker, Jay replied, "Good question. I found that puzzling as well."
Before they continued onward with their conversation (and break), Toby's cell phone was going off. Looking at who was calling her, Toby was surprised to find that it was from Terri. "That odd, I wonder what Terri wants." She opened the phone and answered, "Hello, darling; is anything wrong?"
Jay relaxed on the chair, her legs was raised and resting on the desk, toning out the conversation between the two couple, mostly since she knew it wasn't her business. She took a quick glance at the sucker that sat on top of its large wrapper, pondering what that was about. 'I thought Toby said he didn't like sweets. And, odd that he got one that size, it could nearly fill up her mouth without much problem. Hmmm, maybe I should ask him about that sometime today.'
"THEY DID WHAT," Toby hollered in alarm, nearly causing Jay to tumble backward in her chair, her fur was standing on end. "Okay, I'll be there in a moment!"
"What wrong," Jay asked, trying to recover from her fright.
"Anna and Charlie just exposed themselves to the sun!"
"WHAT," Jay shout, astonished at the news, "Why?!"
"That what I am going to find out," Toby put the sucker in her mouth and gathered up her stuff, "You are in charge while I head home."
"Sure, just tell me what happen when you get the chance to."
Cooper's Resident, After the Phone Call
Terri was sitting down on the couch beside his daughter, still wondering what was going on. "I don't understand why you got so upset when I called you kiddo? It is just a simple expression."
"You don't even realize what is happening to you and Daddy, do you?"
This got him really worry, not sure what she meant by that. "I...don't follow."
"It was another reason why we decided to expose ourselves. We weren't sure how long it would be until you totally change, and no longer your original self. We want to spend as much time with you two before that happen. We weren't sure if the new you might even remember us, or even consider us your children. We were afraid that you two are losing who you are!"
"What are you talking about?!" Terri was trying his best to stay calm, but this was too much confusion for anyone to handled, "How did you get that from me calling you kiddo?!"
"Momma, when have you ever called us that?"
"I called you guys that a couple of times!"
"The first time was just before we decided to go into the sun, when we was eating," the girl pointed out, "Before that, never!"
Terri sat quietly on that note, trying to consider what she just said. He must admit, he never did recalled him ever called her (or them, she reminded in her head) that, neither before nor after his transformation until recently. But, she felt that there was a good rational explanation, "Y-yeah, but I think you guys might just be overreacting. I mean, perhaps it just my new gender influences."
The girl shook her head, and sadly replied, "Anna had already considered that possibility and dismissed it, even before she and Charlie ate today."
"Huh, she did," Terri inquired with a cocked eyebrow, "Why?"
"I don't think changing gender should really affect anyone that much. Other than maybe a slight vary in prospect, it shouldn't affect your normal habits or manners." The girl got up and gestured her mother toward the mirror she was walking toward.
Terri was tired of being confused, but he apparently going to be suffering from it through the whole day. He followed her toward his direction and stopped at the mirror, then glanced at her, waiting for her to explain why she wants him in front of the mirror.
"Momma, I want you take a good look in the mirror. Can't you see something isn't right! You always took great care of your hair for example. But, now look at it, it doesn't seem like to taking care of it like you used to."
As Terri was staring at his hair to see what she meant, she then put her pointing finger toward his chest, which shows a beginning of abs, "And, why are you working so hard to impress Daddy all of the sudden?! Neither of us ever saw you guys went out of your way to impressed each other." She stopped to rub her arms behind her back, and continued in a more depressed expression, "Anna always got the notion that you and Daddy never felt a need to try, you two were happy and comfortable with yourself and each other. So, please tell me, why are you worrying about it now?"
"T-that's not it," he tried to defend himself, mostly out of denial, "I was just trying to get in better shape...!" He turned his head toward the mirror and held up his hair. He did see what her daughter was saying, it wasn't as well brushed and cleaned as before (it wasn't in bad shape, it just wasn't taken cared of like before). Glazing downward toward his body, he did noticed that he was showing signs of becoming more muscular, probably because of his anime body was easier to get in shape than his normal female body (or any normal body in general), well beyond his original goal in the past. He took one last look at the mirror, before turning back toward her fused daughter, his face and tone was showing a deep apprehension now, "A-Are you sure about it, ki...err...sweetheart? One hundred percent sure that we are still changing?"
She hung her head down, feeling sorry for her mother, barely able to responded back, "Charlie wasn't at a mature age to properly tell for sure, but even he could tell something was off. That, in itself, should pop some red warning flags up in your head." She sighed and looks back into her mother's eyes, trying to work up the courage and holding back her tears, "Think a-about it for a moment, Momma. You didn't become an anime transgender version of yourself, you become more like an entirely new character altogether. And, I'm afraid you and Daddy have been subtly becoming more like the anime characters that you two now represent."
Terri just froze in horror, never once considered that possibility at all. She turned his head quickly to once again examined his self and finally saw what she was going with this. He was so comfortable with this new body, since he was able to be with Toby again, that he never once examined himself farther to a deeper level. There weren't much, if any, traces of his old self within this body, nothing at all.
Not sure how to comforted her mother, she decided to just simply hugged him. Her father tilted his head toward him and kneeled down to his knee, so he could hug her back. A gloomy silence, with the exception to the background noise, was the only thing that was talking at that point.
Terri and his daughter were sitting on the couch, resting and recovering from their exhausted experience, and were still cuddling each other, trying to comforting each other. Sound of the booming engine and a gentle brake, however, was enough to break the family embrace. They knew that those sounds mean that Toby had finally returned home, which was a nice distraction. They listened as the car stopped in the garage and its door opened up.
It didn't take long before Toby come through the door, worrying to death about Anna and Charlie. When she entered through the door, however, she never expected to see her husband with a young mysterious looking girl. "Sweetheart, what is going on here; where is Anna and Charlie; and who is this girl?!"
"Well, babe, you see," Terri started to explain, when he suddenly caught something off (this time without his daughter's help), but choose to continued as best as he could, "This girl you see is Anna and Charlie. They...ummm...seems to be fused together and became this girl. Fortunately, from what I could tell by what she told me, they didn't disappear from her subconscious, just linked together." He watched his wife's brain just froze in shock, which was to be expected. However, his mind drifted back to a moment before, toward a different matter: 'Did I just call Toby 'babe'?!'
Toby stood motionless, unsure on how to handle this new information. Finally, she shook her head and turned toward the fused girl. "Anna...Charlie...is that really you two in there?"
"Yeah, it's us. Trust us, Daddy, we know how you feel, this is just as confusing to us as it is you. I think it might be a good idea to use a new name for us, since it would be strange if you call us by our old names, as well as a bit confusing. How would Riley Ann Cooper work for you guys?"
"Riley Ann Cooper," Terri asked this time around, moving away from his last train-of-thought, "Why did you pick that name?"
"Heh, actually, I must admit that we were being clever with that name. It is just our names with some letters dropped and rearranged and added a 'y' to it." Riley grinned at that, happy with coming up with that name as fast as she did. However, as she was mentally patting herself on the back, she took a notice at the object in their father mouth. "Dad," she said with a now worried tone to her tomboyish voice, "What is that in your mouth?"
That question took Toby by surprise, so did Terry, as she pulled out the sucker and replied, "Sorry about that, I was so worry that I forgot that I was sucking on it at the time. It is just a sucker."
"Ba-I mean sweetheart, I thought you hated sweets," Terri questioned, once again seeing where her daughter was going with this. And, as he was waiting for a replied, he noticed something else off. Two small bumps were barely pronounced through her outfit, which was odd indeed, since she should be wearing a bra.
He couldn't believe it, was his wife actually aroused right now? But, she was acting just normal right now. But, perhaps her mind was too focused on her daughter right now, or maybe she had been keeping her arousal in check so far.
"Ummm, well I have been having a craving for it, so I brought one. But, what that has to do with...Riley right now?"
"Sweetheart," Terri started, "I think Riley might have discovered something very bad about our...condition. We might still be changing."
"What," was all that came out of Terri's mouth, once again felling confused.
"You may want to sit down for this, dear. This is going to take a while to explain."
"A-are you guys sure," Toby questioned after the long explanation, with a clear nervous tone to her voice, "Maybe you guys might just be overreacting?"
Terri leaned forward, his arms between his legs, and stared at his wife, knowing how she was feeling. "That what I believed at first as well, but I am beginning to see it now. We had never noticed before, because the changes are so subtle and we just didn't think anything about it. And, seeing you right now, I can understand what she was saying much better. I'll...t-talk with you further on that a little later onward in private."
Feeling overwhelmed, Toby toward her attention toward Riley, who had returned back to her 'civilian' form, "Why didn't you...uh, two...say anything about this to us before?"
"They didn't tell us about it," Terri stepped in, "Because they was worry about us and was too afraid to say anything."
"But, I don't understand, I thought we were already changed. How can we be changing again?! I never heard it happen to any other transformees."
Riley decided to answer this time around, "It probably got to do something with that strange hole. This all started the moment when you two returned from it. I don't know how, but it must have triggered something within both of you."
That new tidbit took both of them by surprise, unable to believe that the stupid hole was messing with their life once again, even after it had disappeared. Terri was the one who decided to voice his irritation, "Wait, you saying we are going to lose ourselves, because of that miserable hole?!"
Riley didn't know what to say to that, she just slump her head, feeling depressed about the whole matter. Terri realized that he just put his foot in his mouth and hugged Riley to comfort her. "I don't know about that," Toby said out of the blue, drawing the inquisitive glances of the two girls, "Thinking a bit clearer now, I don't ever recall that happen before, at least not totally. The worst thing that could happen to us might just be a temporary identity change, maybe like having a split personality. I doubt the sun can actually erase anyone out of existence...t-thankfully."
"Are you sure, Daddy," Riley asked.
"Well, I'm not entirely sure, but I am sure we won't disappear. However, I am curious about one thing: who are we changing into?!"
"I-I don't know, I doubt you changing to any 'official' characters," Riley noted in a gloomy tone, looking like she was in mid-thought as well. "Actually...Daddy, do you remember the outfit you were wearing when you were transformed?"
"Huh?! Well...um...I am not really sure. I think that I have seen something like that before, in one of Charlie's anime shows, but I afraid I don't know the name. Why?"
"Well, you see, it is a form of Japanese school uniform, famous for popping up in anime. I asked because Charlie figured that it would cut down the list. In anime, there is 'usually' some form of clichés, but there are some exceptions. One known cliché is the love-sick school girl. I can't say for sure who you are going to become, but that the closest I can come up with."
Terri and Toby's eyes went wide, alarmed at this. "What about me," Terri reluctantly asked.
"Well, you seem to go with Daddy here, being nearly the same age. So, you may probably become the average love interest or...errr...p-pervert."
Terri literally flinched in horror, "P-per-pervert?! Y-you...saying that I could ended up as a...!" He didn't finished, refusing to even consider that outcome, and groaned in disgust. True, he had developed an unusual interest in breasts, but he couldn't believe that he might be becoming a pervert.
"Momma, I'm not sure that would happen," Riley quickly said in order to comforting her mother, "I don't fully understand how this character-change work. The changes, for all we know, could be influenced by your decisions. Right now, all of this is just educated guesses, and might not be the case. All we can do is just be together and be a family as long as we can."
Toby smiled and replied, "Sweetheart, Riley is right! There is no point worry about things we can't control, and I would rather spend our time with our fused children anyway."
Terri stared at the two for a moment, filling the atmosphere with silence for a few minutes, then sighed and smiled as well, "Heh, I guess that it would be pointless to worry about it. We just have to deal with the matter later onward."
Toby stood up and stretched, "Well, I got to tell Jay that I am going to be spending some days off. I believed that I got some vacation time saved up. I hate to leave Jay with all that work, but under the circumstance, I don't think she would mind. Beside, we need to talk with the school about a few things."
"Okay, Toby-chan, we will be waiting for you," Terri noted with a grin. As Toby headed for the house phone, Terri realized that he just said something off. Nevertheless, he realized it was going to happen a lot more often anyway and just let it slide.
'I guess we did it,' Anna voiced within Riley's subconscious. 'Yeah, I guess we did! You know, this feels funny and neat, being connected to you like this,' Charlie noted. 'Heh, you would think it would be disgusting to share a body with your brother...but, it actually feels nice.'
'Hey, Anna, do you think everything will be all right?!' Anna paused for a moment, thinking about that for a moment. 'Can't say for sure, but we'll find a way to fix everything if it doesn't. Until then, let just enjoy ourselves as best as we can.'
