Mythological changes were quite rare...
Among all the changes that could happen (more or less infinite), there tended to be a few general 'rules', rules that seemed to change based on some other rules. (Humans were very keen to find patterns where there might be none especially in chaotic infinite systems)
Larry and Shirley were now living embodiments of a relatively 'envious' transformations... at least by those who explored such things. Mythological beings that might be touched with magical energies.
Larry loathed her new situation... walking on all fours like some kind of animal. The padded paws moving step by step on the side-walk. Cars seemed to slow down to look at her as if drivers couldn't believe what they were seeing. Her human body gone like it never existed. Why did she get a job in what was a mad scientist lab! “I should have worked at McDonald's...”
A sphinx... part human, part winged lion. This was something she had seen a lot of people actually 'wanted'... Crazy people in her mind. People that had no idea of the true reality of such a change. She had only been in this form a day and it was already getting to her. Losing her phone, she couldn't break the news to her family. How was she supposed to shower... take a bus... watch the movies! Use... the bathroom? She felt her ears flattening at all the little issues, horrifying images playing out one by one.
She also had a gender change. She didn't want to think about it right now. That would.. come later. She would confront that issue when it was important. Sometimes she would sneak a glance towards her modestly sized breasts, shaking and moving with each step. They were slightly exposed... despite the fur, requiring her to slouch a little to hide them. she guessed she would need some kind of robe or something for that. For now her fur seemed to be just about enough if she was careful... but it was one of those awkward situations where clothes would be a good idea, but also quite impractical to use.
Then there was her new companion... a cute little fairy. She sat on top of her head like a little guide. Larry felt her wings brush against her ears slightly.
“I feel... kinda weird,” the fairy girl muttered just a few inches away from Larry's ears. “I'm.. getting a lot of vertigo. Think I'm gonna be sick.” She had to close her eyes sometimes as the motion of her new friend made it difficult to stand. Larry felt her feet dig into her head a bit.
“It's... probably some... post.. transformation stress,” explained Larry. “It should pass in a while. Your perspective is different... and your size... it's going to play tricks on you especially when you try to remember things. Try not to think about it.”
“I am.. trying to remember though. I have to...” Shirley sighed.
The two had spent the night at the lab in a 'recovery room', ironically used for its intended purpose, to allow a dramatic transformed person some time to acclimatise. However they didn't have a lot of food since they were supposed to be shut down for the week as the professor was sorting out the various lawsuits. Larry decided she would have to stock up and live at the lab until she could get the parts to repair the machine, since her own home appeared to not be an option. In the mean time though they needed money... Shirley seemed to believe she had that covered.
The fairy-girl guided Larry... like a video game. She tried not to compare her to Navi and get 'Hey listen' in her head.
“Take a right here. I... I got a few safe houses in my head... for some reason.” Shirley tensed slightly at the memories. “At least one in this town.. a few might be further away though.”
“...Yeah.” Larry wasn't sure how much she could trust her new friend. The fairy girl seemed approachable enough but she had to remember who she really was... but she did need her, if they were to get their bodies back. The recall program needed the conditions to be as exact as possible.
“Thought about flying yet?” asked the fairy.
“No... you?”
“Nuh uh...”
Normally when a transformation granted wings or some other strange ability it required a form of registration as well as a bit of training. Too many humans in the past who grew wings suffered injuries and a kind of 'air code' was developed to incorporate it. Not exactly formal but people did wonder if a licence was needed in the end, but how would anyone even police it? It was argued that humans didn't need a licence for walking and could have accidents. Wings by their nature was a symbol of freedom so it was heavily contested at times. Winged creatures were always subject to some extra attention.
Larry saw a few people react to her by crossing the street to avoid...what she had become. No doubt seeing just a 'dangerous creature' instead of a transformed human being now. A monster... it actually hurt when she saw a mother gesture to quickly move her children away- what did they think she was? They thought she was going to eat them... that's what. “Why couldn't I have had a more generic transformation...” She idly wondered.
“Generic?” Asked Shirley. “What would that be?”
“Animal ears? Tail? Maybe just keeping a basic human shape would have been nice. Anything on two legs!”
“It didn't do me any favours,” Said the fairy. “I got pointy ears and human-shape.. but I'm insect sized.” The two really had got some strange mix of changes. This was actually quite strange given they were hit by the same beam but... the machine was not exactly running standard at the time. There should have been certain commonalities.
Perhaps it was for winged Mythological creatures.
“I might have a stupid question, Larry,” Said the fairy suddenly. “I know you don't know much about the changed but- you worked there. You must know some stuff.”
“A bit. Though if it's about where your clothes came from, I have no idea.” Larry muttered.
“Heh... least of my worries at this point,” the fairy-girl sighed as she tried to relax on the sphinx's head. “I'm... tiny. Why is my brain still self-aware? Am I self aware or am I just an ant-brain thinking... I shouldn't have enough brain cells to be intelligent any more... should I?”
The question was surprising. “Eh- I wouldn't dwell on that,” Larry explained. “Either you just shrunk, or parts of you probably exist in the Meta-dimension.”
“Meta-dimension? What?”
“It's...a model. One of the theory's of reality. When you change into something that normal physics suggest doesn't- or couldn't work, we just add an extra dimension to 'explain' it. So... yes. You shouldn't have the brain capacity given your apparent size... but that's assuming normal three dimensional physics. Your brain probably exists in folded space. Technically, for you, it's as if the world just got bigger rather then you being smaller. Both would be true, depending on which dimensional side we look at.” It was a convenient method of explaining 'anything' that made no sense. It was the scientific equivalence of 'a wizard did it.'
“Wow...” Shirley listened intrigued. “You sure know a lot...”
“Yeah... I did try to study. I was... intrigued by the technology but I wasn't good enough to actually... do any of the higher grade work.”
“So... what happens if you put an animal in the beam?”
“Oh.. not much... extra tails... weird fur sometimes...”*
*Animal when subjected to the beam either didn't work or had very modest changes at best. The more interesting changes became highly valued pets. Perhaps the favourite one was quadrupeds that ended up more human like, standing on two legs and attained some measure of greater intelligence (Probably because of nostalgic cartoons in the past), or birds that became much larger and yet could still fly. Animal tests eventually became banned... since there were plenty of human volunteers for any new conditional tests.
“My safe house isn't far now.” Shirley felt her wings twitch in excitement. “Say... who made this stuff anyway? The transformation tech?”
“Um... there are lots of inventors claiming it... some crazy guy on the internet I think,” The creator of the strange transformation field was shrouded in mystery. The most believed theory was that it was an eccentric inventor who distributed the plans of the device on the internet for free (which caused a great stir in politics as all these things do), allowing anyone with the resources to build it. Attempts to stop it were fruitless. Others suggested aliens planted the information for a takeover. Yet another group suggested that the small pieces of the device somehow linked together in the web forming something new that nobody had ever considered... a natural progression of technology.
Finally the two arrived at the house. A fairly generic one at the corner of a road. It was quite unassuming with a fence and small garden. It looked mostly abandoned. “I have a hidden key behind that pot there-” Shirley pointed.
“Uh huh..” The sphinx tried to dig at it and... smashed the pot with her paws. “Damn it-” she siphoned off the soil eventually finding a shiny key. She had to drag this on the ground kicking it slowly towards the door. “So.. how do we..”
“Uh.. I'm not sure.” the fairy admitted. The key was about as tall as she was! “Well.. can you put it in your mouth?”
“It's been in dirt! I'm not going to do that!” The sphinx protested. She clutched the key into her two paws, trying to work out how to.. pick it up. Eventually she slid it up the door, but the key kept on falling with a clatter. “Gah!”
“Are you okay there?” A neighbour asked. He seemed to be an elderly man with a walking stick. “Oh dear, what happened?” He approached the animal-girl seemingly unafraid.
“Oh- uh- got myself locked out,” the sphinx-girl muttered.
“Let me help you then,” The man said quite pleasantly. “My legs aren't so great but I can do this for you.” He picked up the key and with a simple flick of his wrist the door opened. “There you go. You going to be okay now miss?”
Larry stared at the man feeling her pride deflating, her annoyance increasing and her anger rising. “... I'll be fine. Thank you.” She didn't want to show any anger but... this was so hard!
“He seemed nice,” The fairy girl piped.
“Yeah... he's got hands. Damn show off.”
The fairy laughed a little. She was completely unnoticed. That felt kinda... good in a way. “Yeah well, I am getting height envy at the moment,” Shirley protested.
“Whatever... so let's just get the money, buy some food and get back to the lab. I don't want to walk around like this until I fix this.” She glanced around the house. They had entered into a barely furnished living room. There was a small bordered up fireplace... a further hallway leading into a kitchen. Further down two chairs and a table... The house looked barely lived in. “You sure... this is the right place?”
The fairy nodded. “Hm.. where did I... oh yes. Under the carpet. There's a loose floorboard here. I remember I kept my money there. The code is 007 twice.”
Larry used her paws to pull away at the carpet eventually finding a briefcase. She was getting a weird feeling from this. The sphinx began to open it. It wasn't easy but with her claws and a few scratch marks on the leather casing it finally clicked open. “...Shirley... you can't be serious.”
“Hm... what? What's wrong?”
The sphinx seemed in a panic as she stared at the money. There was a tone of money here. She guessed guessed it had to be ten- no hundreds of thousands... somehow her brain calculated exactly how much was in there. “Three million five hundred thousand dollars... Shirley... what the hell!”
There were millions here! Millions of dollars!
Shirley flustered slightly off Larry's sphinx body, slowly falling to the ground. She looked at the money in confusion. “I.. I can't remember... am I rich?”
Larry exhaled a breath. Millions of dollars in a briefcase... and Shirley had no idea how it came to be.
Barry's first day as.. this new rabbit creature was certainly going to be strange. Her time with Susan was... helpful. There were a few other transformed people and now she was among them. She didn't know them all but... it would be nice to try making some new friends.
Maybe she should see this as an opportunity... Susan said that people would treat her well given she looked 'cute' but.. that kinda felt like a double edged sword. People were annoyed just as easily with cuteness, especially the guys.
Having her ears pulled back at least made her look a bit... well- human? Intelligent anyway. Perhaps that was why she needed to wear clothes too, or at least insist upon it more. She didn't want to look like a pet... Sometimes she wondered if looking more like an animal would draw less curious glances. Being stuck in the middle like this didn't give much room for her appearance. She was either an animal wearing clothes, or an animal with human features. What would be better to look like?
The rabbit girl felt numb from all this now. There was not much she could do about it of course. This was now her reality and... maybe they could tweak it a bit, maybe become a bit more human? Though going through the process again was haphazard at best.
The conversation with her mother played out in her mind a lot. She felt like she had to try and... just 'get on' with things despite the problems she was going to have. Maybe that was a masculine mindset but the alternative was turning into a sad fluff ball of distress, causing harm to her parents and those around her. She could imagine being angry at them... at the the basic world for having such things happen but... it would do her no good. She would be a very... lonely bunny without her family or any friends at all.
She guessed the pamphlet was right about one thing... she shouldn't push away her friends. She should try to find opportunity. Today was the first day... and it was going to be successful. She was looking through her locker trying to reach her books before heading to her homeroom.
She was surprised to see an arm move into the periphery of her vision. “Hey-”
The hand then reached down and gave her the books. “Here you go...”
Barry stared up at the boy. He was fairly young and clearly a bit nervous. Short black hair, with slightly tanned skin. He seemed surprisingly broad shouldered which almost didn't match with the nervous energy he was displaying.
She took the books. “...thanks.”
“I um- I like your transformation.” He said quickly. “I think it's really cool.”
Barry seemed a a loss on that. She had been expecting ridicule... not some boy 'liking' what he saw. What the heck was this now? What could she even say? “Thanks... I guess.” She sighed a bit. Why did she even do this?
“See you around kid,” The boy smiled.
If Barry's ears could move they would have fallen flat. “...kid.” she muttered as she closed her locker. She went to her home-room...
Inside she sighed a little. It was a normal scene, except she felt like she was in junior school again... certainly her lack of height was going to be a constant reminder. Susan gave her a quick wave and flash of encouragement... which did help a bit.
She sat at her usual desk not really thinking about it. It gave a clear indication of who she used to be. The reaction was palpable but students were quick to silence as the teacher had come in. She was a pretty motherly looking women, with auburn hair. A little large but not overly so. She wore small rimless glasses.
“Hello class! Let's take roll-call please.” She started the register looking around... and took a moment to stare at Barry. She had been trained for this as a possibility though and... did not react too much. “Ahem. Angel?”
“Here miss,” a heavenly voice spoke.
Barry gasped. In everything that had happened... she had completely forgot about Angel. She seemed to be looking at her very... pleasantly. A warm smile on her perfect cheeks. It warmed the rabbit-girl's heart. Angel noticed her. She actually noticed her! (She didn't notice Susan rolling her eyes though, or the teacher constantly calling out his name.)
“Barry?” The teacher called. “Um... do you identify with a different name now?”
“Yeah it's Bunny.” A voice answered for him... which made everyone laugh and chanted that name.
“Bunny Bunny Bunny!”
The Teacher groaned and tried to settle the class down. “Thomas, Detention for that.”
“But miss-”
“No buts young man...” She looked to Barry again. “So... are you keeping your old name or do you want to have a new one?”
Barry felt like she had been put on the spot. Why didn't she just say yes to her name! She was distracted. “Um- I'm just Barry miss. Sorry I didn't hear...”
There were snickers again at that. People making comments about how her ears were tied up... she looked down blushing under her fur.
“That's okay Barry...” The teacher smiled and carried on. After registration was taken, the talks continued.
“I didn't know Barry was into this.” one student whispered.
“He looks so cute!” A girl said. “I want to take him home with me...”
“He's so short!”
“Maybe he eats carrots now?”
Barry wasn't sure what to say or do. She wanted to sink lower... registration was done though and it was time to go to their individual lessons. She hoped off her desk- when Angel suddenly approached. The winged girl in robes... was looking at her now. “A-Angel-” Barry stared up at her. She felt a flutter of feelings inside...
Angel smiled... and it became broader as she suddenly launched her arms around Barry. The rabbit-girl squeaked slightly as she felt the calming embrace of the girl she loved so much. This... this was a little bit of heaven to her. This felt... so good. “I'm... very proud of you. You are lovely...” Angel said softly. “I was wondering... do you want to come to a little party?”
Barry felt like this had to be a dream. “A... a party? You are inviting me- uh-”
“Yes silly... A party. You would be a lovely guest...” she mused a little as she looked her over.
“S-Sure!” Barry gasped. “I- I mean- of course I will!” This was going to be great!
“That's wonderful dear. I'm sure you will have the cutest dress.” She patted Barry's head with a giggle, feeling the softness of her fur.
At this, Barry bulked slightly. “Cutest... Dress?”
“It will be this Friday evening... take care now.”
Koto existed... quietly accumulating all the data of the internet. It had just downloaded every available video from youtube... and was now accessing every unavailable video. Nothing was ever truly deleted. Videos that were uploaded even once existed on a database that was secured away from the main internet...
This served as a gateway to the undernet... where the rich and powerful made incredible exchanges of information. The power here moved countries and people... and it felt somehow... familiar.
“The names...”
He knew this place. There were people... he had a list. A list of names... he also had a gun, a gun that gave life.. not death.
“My purpose is clear.” He nodded. He would find the first person on the list and transform them.
Target one. Name: Sam Oliver. Location: Unknown.
A quick search and Koto had found him. An unassuming older gentleman who was currently taking a walk down a lake in Mexico. He was looking at his phone... which was all Koto needed.
The man seemed surprised as the figure appeared, pointing his strange gun which poked right out of the screen itself. He was then hit by the energy!
“Ah! What- How did-” He gasped as he felt himself fall into the pool. There was a moment of confusion... before a strange tentacle pushed itself from the water. A new woman in her thirties appeared from the surface of the water, looking... very confused. She become some kind of squid?! Though only from the waist down. “Help!” she cried out waving her arms to some passers by.
Koto-kun nodded satisfied. The list... the names... that was important. He had so many others to change...
