The rest of the movie was just as ridiculous as its first act had suggested. The aliens' plan backfired without much in the way of explanation, and somehow or other their weapon caused the sun to return to normal but blew up their mothership in the process...
But oddly enough for a movie made by the unchanged (well, at least the actors were humans,) nobody was turned back at the end - the restored sun just destroyed the zombie horde like they were vampires or something. The movie closed with the guy-turned-cheerleader and the werewolf sharing a very energetic kiss - Haru felt strangely pleasant watching that, despite the fact that it made no sense even within the context of the "plot."
As the credits rolled, she turned her attention to Ken. There had been a couple more times over the course of the movie where she'd felt him looking over at her, though not always at her...her breasts. Didn't it bother him that she used to be male? Or was it just inevitable, like some people thought?
Haru...Harry had always thought that "we're men, we can't help it" line to be a bunch of bunk. People should take responsibility for their actions - after all, it wasn't like anything was forcing her to look Ken up and down, noticing the way his furred parts meshed so nicely with the form of a mostly-human boy, or the pleasant hints of canine features in the rest...
She trailed off as she realized what she was thinking, and that...uh, her nipples were doing that thing again. Was she...? Was she...this was too much to take in right now. Time to change the subject. "Uh, that was really bad," she said, laughing a bit. "What did you think?"
Ken grinned toothily and made a so-so gesture. "It was pretty cheesy all right," he said. "But you could tell it was a quick cash-in. The best ones are the ones where everyone is 100% sincere right from the get-go, but they don't realize what a ridiculous movie they've made...I'll have to show you some of those sometime."
Haru smiled. "Yeah, that'd be fun...thanks for taking me."
Ken laughed. "Thanks for coming. It was nice to have someone to share it with...usually it's just me. Any place you want to stop before we head back?"
She tried to look a little hopeful. "...maybe we could go for ice cream?"
He grinned. "Sounds all right by me!"
Jenny laid in bed that night, thinking of the day she'd had. It was scary that the enemies had tried to bomb her school...she was very glad she'd been able to stop it...however it was she'd been able to figure that out, she didn't know. But...she felt bad that the other kids might've got hurt because of her...
But she couldn't just not go to school - at least that's what Muriel said. School stuff was important so she didn't wind up stuck in some bad place without enough money to pay for things...she felt like she'd heard someone tell her that before, but she couldn't think of where or when.
And there was that witch-girl, too - she'd disappeared as soon as the bomb was taken care of, and Jenny had never got her name...who was she? And how did she know about magic? Were there other kinds than the one Tetra was trying to teach her?
She drifted off to sleep still wondering where this would all lead...
Jenny found herself alone with that strange man again...she still didn't know who he was or if she knew him, but this was a dream, and it seemed natural for him to be here even though she didn't understand. This time, instead of trying to follow the money that she knew led into that pit, he was just looking around, confused...
Still, she thought she should get them away from the pit, just in case he changed his mind. It seemed like the money made him stop thinking about what he was doing...even if it meant he was going to get hurt.
But...maybe he wasn't as scary as he had seemed...she thought she remembered something, something about him protecting her...
He was surprised when she started to drag him towards the horizon where the sun was rising. "H-hey!" he protested. "You can't take me there! I'll...I'll disappear!" But...he didn't fight it this time, not like he had...it was like he didn't want to hurt her or something.
She looked at him. "But you won't, remember?" she said. "Maybe you'll hafta lose some bad things, but you'll still be here..."
He held up his hand, seeing again that it was beginning to look translucent in the light - yet there was the shape of a smaller hand underneath the skin that was quite solid - what did this mean? "Don't you see it?" he asked. "I'm already starting..."
She nodded. "Yeah," she said. "Sorry 'bout that...I think when you lose your bad things, it kinda takes some of that with it...but we gotta go. Even if you're different there, it's safer..."
He sighed. "Do we? I don't want to lose myself...I can keep us safe over the other way..."
Jenny smiled. "I know...you protected me from...from something...but there's stuff you can't fight with just guns...I wanna protect you from that."
He frowned, looking off at the sun in the distance. "Don't worry," she said. "I'll do it. Whatever stays with you when your bad stuff's gone...I'll protect you."
Steve was attempting to cut away the petals that had formed around his waist, but progress was slow. There was just so much of it that was tied into his nervous system...it seemed like there was a living core in the middle area, where he could see veins branching off from what looked like a large vein running down the center of the petal...
Why did this have to happen? He'd had no real problems hiding it until now, but this...this would be more difficult to hide even if he could cut them down...why had this happened? Was it...had the rain triggered it? Oh God, would things like this happen every time it rained!?
He wondered if he couldn't just cut it all off...he could handle pain in a short burst, it would be like ripping a scab off. He lifted up the frontmost petal, holding it between his fingers as he lined up the scissors, then closed down with a quick snip.
"AH!" He gasped in pain. That hurt more than he would have thought...and the petal was thicker and tougher than it seemed - he'd only got partway into the "core." Gently, he attempted to pull it away to inspect the cut, wincing as he did. His finger felt a bit sticky...
He looked down to see a greenish fluid seeping out of the cut. It was...it was blood?
He screamed, involuntarily. What was happening to him!? What was he becoming? He...
There was a knock at the door. "Steve?" his mother's voice came. "Steve, are you all right? I heard you...you sounded like you were in pain."
He stammered for a moment, trying to find breath. "I-I'm all r-right!" he said. "Th-thanks for as-s-sking!"
"You don't sound all right, Steve," she said. "What were you screaming about?"
"N-nothing!"
"Steven, I've lived with you long enough to know when you're not being honest with me. You come home sick and now you're in pain...if you're injured you need to see a doctor, not try to macho it out. Come on, let me see what's wrong."
"N-no!" he gasped, panicking. "D-don't come in, I'm...!" There wasn't a real lock on his door, just one of those crappy ones that can be popped with a paperclip...if she came in and saw...
Pop.
Steve's mother opened the door, hoping that this was just some minor sprain or something, that her son wasn't seriously injured. She saw him seated on the chair in the middle of his room, frozen in panic...and it was obvious why - he was no longer completely human. No longer unchanged.
She looked him over. Her son had never been particularily masculine - it wasn't something she minded, but it had certainly bothered him sometimes, when he got to comparing himself with some of the other boys in his class. He didn't look so very different now, still with the slender, lighter build he'd always had, but...those were breasts on his chest. Small breasts, no more than an A-cup, but still breasts.
Even though she could tell he hadn't changed that much, this new context gave him a different appearance - instead of an un-masculine boy, she was looking at a willowy, slightly under-developed girl. The hair that had seemed a little shaggy on her boy now looked merely a bit unkempt (and maybe a little short) on a girl. Steven's legs had certainly changed a bit, though, and added to the effect - he (she?) looked like a dancer, to her eyes.
Of course, there was also the matter of her son's...daughter's being something other than human...where a normal girl had nipples, Steven had small flowers, the yellow stamens poking out from the center, surrounded by pink petals that opened out against her breasts like areolae...and there were much larger petals encircling her waist like a skirt...
"M-mom, I-i..." Steve stammered.
She held up a hand. "It's all right, dear," she said. "We'll get you through this...come on, let me see." She moved a hand to the frontmost petal, and noticed the cut, now lined with green blood. "Oh, Steven," she said, "you can't...nothing is worth mutilating your own body over, dear..."
She lifted the petal, trying to minimize the movement when she noticed her new daughter wincing. What she saw wasn't quite what she had expected. As she thought, Steven's male genitalia were gone, and there was a slit between his legs...but rather than the fleshy lips that any normal woman had, it was formed by two petals of a darker pink, not quite red, peeking out from inward and curling out against her mound. The whole thing was closed up like a snapdragon...
Steve gasped as he...as she looked down past the petal her mother had lifted. This...this was new...how long would this keep happening to her!? What would she be when this was all said and done?
Her mother let the skirt-petal drop and sat down on the bed facing her. "How long have you been like this, Steven?" she asked.
Steve sighed, knowing that the jig was up...if only she could talk her mom into keeping her secret, but the odds of that...were not good. "A little over two weeks...the, um, the ones on my..." She indicated her chest. "They were there from the start, and my..." She gestured to her crotch. "...that was changed, but...the petals there...and the ones around my waist...those just happened today..."
Her mother nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Why didn't you tell me?"
"I...I was afraid...if everybody found out, they'd start treating me..."
"Like a girl?" Steve nodded. Her mother sighed. "I guess I can understand...but honey, you are a girl now. And if something had gone wrong with you, how would we know if you didn't tell us?"
"I dunno...I was just afraid...I...didn't want it to be real..."
Her mother nodded. "I see. Steven, you're going to have to accept that this is real. You're not alone in any of this, you know - lots of people have become the other sex since the sun changed. Now, you said some of this just changed today?"
Steve nodded. "I...it was damp out, after the rain...I dunno if that's what made it happen, but that's when it happened...mom, what's happening to me!?"
"I don't know, honey," her mother replied. "We're going to need to take you to see a doctor - maybe they'll know."
