Larry heard a light groan... coming from himself? It sounded... off.
What happened? He felt like he was flat on his back, arms and legs felt stiff to move despite his attempts. He limply tried to move but that stiffness felt... unnatural. He slumped onto his side suddenly and blinked, trying to clear his vision. A spark of energy crackled across the wall and broken wires exposing the insides of the... field generator thingy? There was also this intense smell of ozone, making him cough suddenly. Rather high pitched gasps added to his confusion. “Urgh... wha-” What the heck... maybe helium was filling the chamber?
Larry glanced around to get a better idea of his surroundings, craning his neck which, fortunately. was uninjured unlike the limited motion of his arms and legs. He could see the door had automatically opened now though there was a red siren flashing. It gave an ominous ambience of danger. With the door-seal open, he could finally escape before...
Realization set in as his memories of the last few seconds played in his head. He had to get out of here! Maybe there was still time if the machine just failed. He tried to get up again though he felt heavy. He stumbled onto the wall of pod chamber- where he then lost his balance and fell forward again. Confused he was at.. a loss. There was still some smoke making it hard to see what was going on, though it was clearing up with the open door. He looked at the chair where the man had been. Did he.. get vaporised?!
With no other choices he started to crawl through the smoke to at least leave the room. Maybe once there was fresh air he would be able to stand up again.
“Help!” A – a female voice cried out. “Where am I- what the heck am I wearing?”
Larry felt his ears twitch at the faint panicking voice, his instincts unable to ignore such a plea. Despite the danger he crawled towards the chair. There was something 'glowing' up there but from his position he couldn't see what it was. He managed to get one hand up to lift himself up-
“Ah don't eat me!” The voice screamed.
“Huh?” Larry stared at the chair. The man's clothes were... deflated. All flattened neatly against the chair. Though there was a tiny figure standing on top of it. She had green hair, vibrant like a leaf that seemed to have a light glow. The tendrils of hair going all the way down her back, down to her thighs. In addition she had two long bangs a the front which made him think a bit of the style of 'Hatsume Miku'. They were tied by a tiny twig on each side giving her a rather cute girly vibe about her. Insect-like wings extended from an exposed skin on her backless dress which was a very light blue with white highlights. Her eyes were shimming blue, reflecting confusion and fear. She had doll-like proportions with what looked like C-cup sized breasts- though she was only six inches tall! Her small hands were at the moment examining her hair finding two golden antennas extended outwards. She seemed to be giving them a tug with a lot of confusion in her expression, not to mention the breasts that were... 'tastefully' shown off by her style of clothing. She kind of looked like a little tinkerbell but longer green hair.
The fairy girl suddenly cowered at the sight of Larry, making him worry at what the little creature was seeing. If this was that man... then... fearfully he glanced down at his hand... and screamed, the force of it enough to make the fairy girl fall back.
“What happened to my hands!” The hands Larry had used to climb up the chair were actually a paws... the paw of a lion. His other hand was the same. “What the heck! No!” He jumped as if he could move away from his own body... stumbling back to the ground. He tried to get up on his legs but his weight felt all wrong, as he fell forward on... all fours... taking his now natural, quadruped stance.
Then he realized something else... he had breasts. They were covered up by the fur, but they were existing between that point where he might need to hide them in a bra (if one could even fit there), but his fur was doing enough to hide them- it was somewhere in between those two points. That meant that he... “I'm- a..”
“You too?” the fairy asked looking over from the chair. She bit her lip slightly. “The machine must have been set on the weird setting..”
Glancing behind Larry saw a lion- well- a lioness's body with golden fur. A tail extended outwards flicking nervously to 'her' motions. 'Her' hind legs and front legs showed she was currently lacking in.. actual hands, though she had retractable claws. On her sides, she saw as well as felt white feathery wings which she seemed able to flex and move... an odd sensation since she technically had six limbs now...but none of them were manipulable hands. “Oh no...”
The fairy was glancing around at her clothes... the ones she used to wear, flattened against the chair. There was also something else.. a single bullet which was now... no longer in her body. Then again neither was 'she' in his body! On the positive side she was no longer injured or in danger of dying... but... “Huh... well... at least that worked.” she thought scratching her head, her wings giving a slight odd shimmer behind her.
“You! You... YOU!” Larry growled with anger at the fairy. “You stupid- STUPID! STUUUPID!” the words became guttural, lost in the fear and rage of what just happened. This idiot! She just broke the machine and changed them! She was a freak... a... a... Larry had never felt such rage and hate as now. Someone she didn't even know.. this criminal... destroyed her life! It was only now she noticed red hair flowing down the sides of her face. She was an animal! A freak! She didn't want this!
The fairy stared and seemed to know that look, as if she had seen it a few times before. “Okay- uh... calm down...please?” she gulped. “Before we do anything rash...” The difference in size was quite apparent given that just by shouting she had been knocked down on what had been her shirt, now extending like a large carpet. “We can reset this can't we Doc? I read-”
“I'm not a doctor! Just a technician!” Larry spat. Though what did that even mean now? She wasn't even human... could she even do anything like... this?
“Wait- you're not a doctor?” The fairy-girl gasped in her high pitched girly voice. “Then- why did you say you were!”
“I didn't! You were going to shoot me-” She blinked as he realized the gun was still on the ground. The sphinx quickly ran, stumbling on her four legs and tripped towards it. The gun slid by the impact of her legs towards the exposed electrodes forming a weird electrical arc. The gun began to glow from the energy emanating against the broken machine.
The fairy-girl ducked down her eyes widening. “Stop! You might make it go off again! I can't exactly use it right now can I?” What could she even do at this size? The implications of it... this was... not good.
Larry breathed harder and deeper... that was true. The fairy couldn't do anything at her size, but neither could she grab the fairy with these stupid paws... a fact that the fairy-girl seemed to have realized given that very slight smirk on her face as she looked at those paws.
“so... need a hand?” the fairy asked with a faint grin.
Larry growled almost animal like but then she heard a whining sound. It was a lot higher pitched then a human could hear... very high frequency and it seemed to be coming from the gun? Glancing she saw it seemed to be enveloped by a weird purple field. From what he knew the field didn't change non-organic materials though so... what the heck was going on? The sound became even higher pitched.. and it looked like the gun was somehow changing? He dare not look more having seen enough of this crazy machine. She had to get out of here... but how to pick up the fairy without injuring her?..'urgh..' she jumped up to the fairy, her whole body looming over her as if she were a mouse.
“Hey I was just kidding! What are you- Eeep!” she was picked in Larry's mouth, the lips clamping on the fairy's dress. “Hey- Le me go! Let me go!” she screamed. She tried moving her tiny body but was completely helpless.
“Wefgofugefouf” Larry tried to say, slowly bringing the fairy out of the pod.
Relief flooded her to be out of that hellish place... before it could do anything worse. Then again I had already done the worst thing it could possibly do... there was a crackle of energy as the gun vanished from the pod... as did the bullet and clothes left inside.
The fairy-girl fell out of Larry's mouth and onto the ground as finally, the pod seemed to blow a fuse from being in this compromised state... and the entire building lost power.
“...great.” Larry sighed.
It was a strange world, but some things never changed.
Barry was a teenager in love... He was average, with black hair, glasses and lightly tanned skin. Very little muscle and perhaps even just slightly overweight.
Being in love was not exactly uncommon but the girl he had fallen for was the same girl 'every' boy in class had fallen for. Her name.. was Angel. The teenager smiled wistfully as he stared a her beautiful wings from several desks away. She was a literal angel... a joy to behold with a little halo above her head. She was a special girl, kind and considerate to everyone. She always made people feel like they could do anything...
… at least that was what Barry thought as he beheld this beautiful picture of loveliness that only existed inside his head. He was in the library watching her... She appeared to be reading a book... what book could it be? Something nice no doubt...
Barry was disrupted from his revere by he sound of a wheel chair and something slimy slapping against his legs.
“Earth to Barry, come on you're going to fail if you don't study.” she sounded rather annoyed and perhaps even a little saddened.
“Oh.. yeah.. hi Susan.” He smiled to his mermaid friend. “Uh... sorry about that” he blushed a bit not sure how he could explain it.
The mermaid shook her head. “Yeah yeah, I know. Boys, you always fawn over her. Just because she has bird wings. I mean I just think that means she probably lays eggs,” The mermaid gave a slight grin. “You know if I was in water I could be just as graceful as her. What does she have that I don't?”
Barry though of saying 'wings and legs, a halo, perfect hair and the voluptuous body- but something told him that Sue wouldn't exactly feel happy with that. hey did have to work together on this project for class... and their grades were important to both of them.
Besides being a mermaid, Susan was.. bland. She had small, barely noticeable breasts, frizzy hair and wore a special kind of goggles that had water inside them. Apparently her eyes were 'water adapted' so she had perfect vision when in water... but outside of it, (spending 80% of her time outside her natural element) she had to wear these thick glasses that everyone made fun of. To get around she had a wheelchair which supported her shimmering orange fishtail. It.. kind of made her look like a goldfish. (She didn't even get the 'cool' fish to be, just a literal carp.)
Barry sighed as he got on with the work. Maybe Susan would know how to get Angel's attention? They were both transformation fanatics after all.. given their state. “Um.. if I wanted to- you know... talk to Angel uh-”
“She won't even touch you,” Susan sighed. “I tried to be her friend once. I thought we might have something in common. She said I was 'unworthy', that cow.” She muttered.
“Hey come on, you probably heard her wrong. She's an angel! She's got to be nice to everyone.”
Susan gave a 'look'. “Barry... she gets what she wants, whenever she wants. Everyone gives her gifts thinking they will get God's grace from it. She's obsessed with her image and the people she wants to be with are 'all' about that image. She's got a freakin' blog devoted to legions of followers that fawn over her as much as you do. Why don't you just join that?”
Barry frowned a little. “Well.. because I genuinely love her.” he said simply. “I'm not in love with her image...”
“What if she was a boy before?” susan asked with a smirk.
“Uh- was she?” Barry gulped.
“Um. No... she wasn't.” Susan sighed again. “But you see? You're only in love with her because she's pretty. She's someone that uses that!” She bit her lip at her raised voice. “As a friend... I think you're just infatuated with her, because she's an angel.” She couldn't blame Barry for it. Angel got away with 'everything'... she literally couldn't do anything wrong. “I wish I got that sometimes... I mean my name is freakin' 'Sue'... nobody likes a girl with fins, unless they are freakin' Ariel and had a crush on her.”
Barry sighed again. He didn't realize Susan was so hung up on her change. Maybe he could as her about it. “So... why did you transform?”
“My parents thought it would be a good idea,” she said annoyed.
“W-wha?” Barry blinked. “Wait- is that legal?”
“Back then it was... that's how Angel there is an angel too. Sometimes it works out. You get to be something cool, gain influence and power. She got the benefits and I got the worst of it...” She glumly looked down. She touched her goggles... no even able to shed a tear. “Sometimes parents think... a transformation could 'improve' their child if they were doing badly you know? I was always falling back in class... so they changed me. I um... I did get better in class- at least a little bit... but I didn't want to trade my legs for it.”
Barry looked down at that. He couldn't imagine a parent deciding to do that... why would they change their offspring? “Couldn't they... change you back?”
“Unfortunately no. For some reason the recall program didn't work... I was stuck as a very unimpressive mermaid. They said there might be TV programs for me but... I wasn't a 'good enough' mermaid. Urgh.”
Barry sighed. That was a depressing talk but he was focussed on Angel. “I'm.. I'm gonna go talk to her. I'm sure she's nice...”
“Your funeral,” Susan shrugged as she went back to taking notes on their assignment.
Barry nodded. He had taken up the courage to at least try. Of course everyone loved her... how could he stand out? He approached her one step at a time... it was like approaching heaven. He stared at her beautiful hair.. gorgeous body (all the while Susan stared daggers from the other end) “Uh- Angel?” he asked with a slight lump in his throat.
“Oh... yes?” The girl smiled to Barry. A somewhat.. odd smile.
Barry smiled back but stopped. “I um... I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me...”
Angel stared at him and then just giggled. “Oh you silly boy...” She shook her head. “I can only be with people who are pure of heart and soul... those who have God's blessing as I do...” she made her wings grow outward suddenly to emphasize the point. “However if you truly wish to touch that light, then subject yourself to the change and let me see your true soul... if it is worthy, perhaps then we can... as you say, 'go out.'”
Barry was almost shaken out of his reverence at that. He wasn't being shut down! “Oh... so there's a chance?”
“Yes. If you show yourself to possess a truly divine form... then I might consider it the will of God... though I understand if such a thought terrifies you. Not everyone can be pure...”
Barry smiled broadly as.. reason seemed to jump out of his head. “Oh- well- yeah... I can see that.. sure.” he slowly wondered back to the desk where Susan was. His legs were shaking.
The gold scaled mermaid flopped her fins again towards the love struck boy. “So what did she say? Were you worthy to be anywhere near her?”
Barry frowned a little. “Not yet but... maybe I can...” He thought carefully. The recall program had become a lot better... why not subject himself to the transformation? He could see what form he would get.. and perhaps it would be a body that would impress Angel. Perhaps he would become an angel himself! Someone that Angel would... actually like. A duo of diviniy... the Divine Duo? Heh... that had a certain ring to it.
Susan shook her head. “Well I'm glad for you. Come on let's finish this assignment,” she tapped the book. “I still think you're wasting your time with her though.”
“It's my time... I mean... she really is very nice...”
