Kyle looked around the environment she found herself in. It was only half-formed, doubtless from the parts of the other server she'd managed to download into the PS2 cluster; patches of empty space and garbage data mottled the copy of the cathedral-like environment she'd been copying. With the church-like architecture and the patches of void and glitch, it looked like something out of a dream, only adding to the surreality of her situation.
While she wasn't really traumatized by this, the bravado she'd felt at first was beginning to wear off, and she was struck by the reality, the strangeness of her situation - gone from a slovenly, unattractive man to a cute young woman! She couldn't get much farther from her old self without a species change, and in a way she had that as well - certainly she was human in form, but you could hardly say she was actually human, being some kind of...
What was she, actually? Obviously some kind of software entity, but not exactly a digital fairy. From what she'd read about them, they could not actually manifest in the physical world - or at least, depending on the report, not in any way that could actually affect anything - yet she seemed just as real in the physical world as she was here.
But she wasn't a robot, either - she'd seen herself change appearance with just a thought, in ways that couldn't be accounted for by simple electromechanical approaches. Was she...what, some kind of "hard light" construct? That made her chuckle, but then, such comic-book science was as much a plausible explanation for that as anything else she could think of. How strange...
She looked around. This was her cluster, seen from the inside - it could be her own server, her own little corner of the Internet, where she could offer shelter and assistance to the other denizens of the new digital frontier. Her thoughts turned back to the fantasies of being some kind of mighty superhero...
She frowned as she realized that she hardly fit her own fantasies anymore...she looked down at herself, seeing the body of a cute young woman, long pink bangs hanging down into her field of view, nothing at all like the mighty demigod of a man she'd imagined herself as. At least her CG look fit in here...and her polygon count was certainly high enough to look convincing in these surroundings, if not out in the real world.
But still...she wondered what her new life would be like. If she merely didn't look the part of the ass-kicking god-hero, that would be one thing, but...what powers did she even have? Her pen...the pen was the medium of information, wasn't it? The thing that turned the abstract into the concrete...perhaps she could use it for that purpose here.
After all, this place needed some fixing up...and really, it wasn't even hers to begin with. If this was to be her home, her place in the new world...it ought to reflect that. Kyle...or should that even be her name anymore? "Kyle" didn't seem to fit, "Ultimix" even less so...
But she could figure that out later. The young woman smiled to herself - here was a project for her.
Consciousness broke in on Andy like a hammer to the head. God, the pounding...who was pounding what? Why wouldn't they stop? Stop this...oh damn it this was a hangover. He peeled one eye, then immediately shut it tightly as light from the lightbulb in the room pierced his eye. Gahhhhrgh. Where was he? In a bed...
Moaning, he forced himself to open his eyes to a tight squint, which brought the light down to a less apocalyptic level. He was...this was his bedroom, his bed...he was home, then. How did he get here? He didn't quite remember...something about being in a car...and there was a rock or a pig or something driving it...augh why did he have to be thinking about this now?
It was another ten minutes before he actually managed to sit up and get out of bed. Coffee...he needed coffee...where was Susan? And Tylenol, where was Tylenol? He needed that too...he stumbled downstairs into the kitchen, where he found the Tylenol in the cupboard above the sink, where it always was, and popped a couple, wishing to God they would hurry up and take effect.
It was then that he noticed Susan sitting at the kitchen table. She had her coffee, and there was another cup poured...he slumped down in the chair across from her and took a gulp from his mug. She was looking at him...how was she looking at him? He thought she would be mad...it was...sad or something...he couldn't really tell right now.
"Whadappend?" he mumbled. She sighed. "You came home drunk and collapsed on the porch. I put you to bed. What did you think happened?" He said nothing. Susan waited while her husband nursed his coffee, until he seemed more awake and coherent. "Andy," she said, "we need to talk."
He blinked in confusion for a moment or two, then frowned. "If this is about those two..."
She held up her hand. "No. No, we're not going to keep doing this dance. Alex and Sally are our children, Andy - the children you and I conceived and raised. They have not been destroyed, they have not been corrupted - they are wholly our children. That is not open for debate. And I don't want to hear you badmouthing Mrs. Maple, either - what you said yesterday was horribly inappropriate and completely uncalled for. If you can't..."
She choked back a lump in her throat. She didn't want to say this - she didn't want to be in a situation where it needed to be said - but she had to. "If you can't understand or won't accept that, Andy, you're going to have to leave."
He gaped, half from incomprehension and half from astonishment. "You...what? You can't...howc'n you do this t' me?"
She took a deep breath, trying to hold back tears. "I don't want to, Andy. I love you, and I always will. But I can't just stand by and watch while you reject and abuse our daughters. I love them too, and they need me more than you do. I don't want it to come to that...but if it has to, then I'm going to have to stay with them."
"You...you'd take them over me? I'm your husband! You can't just betray-"
She couldn't keep the tears from starting to trickle down her cheek, but she kept a firm expression nonetheless. "No. I'm not going to be made the villain here. I'm not the one driving it to this, Andy - you are. I don't want you to leave - I didn't want it so badly that I was willing to overlook everything you were doing until now. But I can't keep ignoring it forever. I never should have in the first place - if I hadn't, maybe it would never have come to this..."
He was shaking now - she couldn't tell if it was from rage or something else. "You say you don' want me t'leave, but you want me to leave, you want...what the hell do you want, Susan?"
She gazed at him remorsefully. "I want my husband back - the man I married, not the beast he's becoming. I would give anything I have to get the old you back - except my children. Andy, love, I can't make this happen, not by myself. I need you to work with me...I need you to...I just need the old you back..."
He stared at her, confused, then astonished, then angry. "You...you want me to change, don't you?" he snapped. "You're all in on it! You're trying to get me! I'm not going to stay here while you plot how to get me out there!" He turned and strode towards the front door.
Susan gasped. "Andy, wait!" She dashed after him, praying that she could stop him before he opened the door...
It was too late. Angrily, he flung the door open and stomped out onto the porch, then stared in shock and horror at the bright morning sunlight. He dashed back inside and slammed the door, panic in his eyes. "No! No, no, no!" He sank to the floor, kneeling, staring up at his wife. "I didn't!" he yelped. "I didn't do that! Tell me I didn't do it! Oh, please, God! Please, I didn't-"
He abruptly trailed off as he realized he could feel things beginning to change. He looked to his wife, his eyes pleading with her. "Don't leave me!" he cried. "Susan, please! Don't leave me..."
Susan had stopped short of the entryway, avoiding the sunlight, but now, with the door closed, she rushed over to her husband. "I won't," she said. "I'm here, Andy. I'll be here with you."
She put her hands on his shoulders. Already he was shrinking, slimming down, his shoulders gently sloping. Susan watched as her husband went from an average adult male to a short, lithe creature, his legs slender and flexible. She knew now what was happening, and watched as he changed from a tiny, strangely-built man to a petite woman, with small yet perky breasts, girlish hips, and long black hair, all the while staring up at her in shock.
That, however, was not the end - as Susan watched, Andy's ears began to change, growing out longer, moving upwards on her head, becoming covered in short grey fur, growing long enough that they flopped forward under their own weight halfway up. She peeked behind her changing husband to see that a grey tuft of a tail had also made its way out from the band of her cargo shorts.
Those, too, were changing, and as Susan watched, the new bunny-girl became clad only in a blue leotard, her tail poking out through a hole in the back. That seemed to be the end of the changes, and Andy stared down at herself in shock and incomprehension.
Susan wasn't sure what to expect next - would he...would she be angry? Confused? The question was answered when Andy began to wail, bursting into tears. Susan embraced her changed husband, trying her best to soothe her - but she was looking over the bunny-girl's shoulder at the front door.
Should she...expose herself? Was there any reason not to, now?
