A Whateley Academy Tale

Jade 6-b – Dreams and Awakenings

By Babs Yerunkle

 

36: Body shopping

November 15, Wednesday evening, 6:15 PM

Jade sat quietly through dinner.  Her mind seethed with turmoil from her meeting with Thuban.  She had accepted an acting role with a twist that was uniquely Whateley, but what occupied her mind with the stunning revelation of the BIT-slicer.  Find yourself a donor, Thuban had said.  Pointed questions had revealed that she could retain her own face, hair, and other details, but the majority of her body image would be derived from her ‘donor’ template.

But who?

Nikki caught the eye first.  She had long, graceful legs.  Her hands and feet were both dainty and delicate, which Jade appreciated.  Nikki had the largest bust at the table, being a C-cup even though she was only fourteen.  Jade wondered how big the poor girl would eventually get.  Her large bust combined with her tiny waist gave her easily the best figure at the table.  Her gorgeous, exotic face and wild red hair topped it off for a truly stunning package.  Jade stared at her in bemusement, imagining herself with that body.  She’d never even dared imagine herself as a C-cup.  That would make people notice her!  What would it be like to straining the seams of her blouse every time she inhaled, or to have all the boys staring at her?  Unless… would she prefer to have all the girls staring at her?

Either prospect was intriguing, and frightening.  It was nice to fantasize, but she figured that even after the change, she might bind herself down so that her changes weren’t so fast or so obvious.  That made her grin in goofy delight.  The idea of strapping herself down because her breasts were too big…!

But what if she also picked up Nikki’s allergies?  Jade certainly couldn’t afford Nikki’s wardrobe.  And then she remembered that Nikki wasn’t an exemplar.  In fact, she wasn’t an avatar either.  The doctors seemed a little puzzled by Nikki, which made plenty of sense given how she puzzled everyone else, too.  No, Nikki wouldn’t be able to provide a template for the BIT-slicer, so she was out.

Well then, how about Toni?  She was slimmer in the waist and hips than Nikki, which suited Jade fine.  Toni was a B-cup, which was also less frightening.  And Toni’s bust on her sleek body gave her a figure that was as dramatic as Nikki’s.  Best of all, Toni was definitely an exemplar, which the process required.

But… Toni wasn’t quite finished transitioning.  There was something about cracking her hips or something, Jinn was fuzzy on the details, but she thought she’d better not take the body of anyone who wasn’t ready for childbirth.  She thought that Toni was having periods, but Jinn wanted a body that could bear children, even if she decided to wait for quite a few years.

Her main problem was that Toni was black.  She thought they could probably “filter” for skin color (whatever that meant).  Heck, if they could leave her blood type unaltered, they could probably fix the skin.  But Jade realized with a bit of shame that she wasn’t as free of prejudice as she hoped.  She loved and respected her sempai, but she didn’t want to be black herself.  She wanted to change her gender, not her race.  And while she admired Toni’s figure, she didn’t want to stop being Japanese.  She wasn’t sure that race mattered, once you dropped below the surface of the skin, but that didn’t change her feelings.

She realized that, because of her own prejudice, she’d only be comfortable taking a template from one of the Asian girls.

Chou had a substantial figure that was also trim and athletic.  But Billie…!

She’d done her roommate’s laundry enough to know that Billie took a 32-B bra.  She was close enough to Jinn’s seventeen-year-old dimensions for them to share bras (she’d tried once, as a joke) – although Jinn was a small B, where as Billie was an ample B.  She knew what the other girl looked like, clothed and naked, happy, sad, sweaty, and freshly bathed.  And there was a connection there.  There was no one in the school she was closer to.  Come to that, there was no one in the world (still living) that she was closer to.

She thought of the countless times she had watched Billie in secret jealousy.  She’d never imagined that one day that body might be hers.  She tried to suppress a giggle, as she stared at Billie, imagining her naked.  That could be me!  I could walk like that, move like that!  I could have that flare in my skirt, those long, perfect legs.  That could be me, squeezed into a tight sweater and filling it so attractively.

She would never have Billie’s beautiful face or amazing eyes or devilish smile.  But she would have a womb.  A real womb nestled in the bowl of her hips.  She would have children one day, growing inside her body.  Billie had been having periods for months now, and her hips certainly seemed wide enough for easy childbirth.

“—I said, HELLO!” Toni yelled in her ear.

Riptide waxed poetic.  “Look at that vacant gaze, that goofy grin, the subtle line of drool – our little girl’s become a dyke.  I’m so proud!”

That partially snapped Jade out of her daze.  “Huh?  What?”

“So she was staring at me!” Billie yelled.  “Big deal!”

Trying to look inconspicuous, Jade focused her attention on her casserole.

“Naw, face it, Tennyo,” Rip said, “she wants your body.”

Jade almost swallowed her spoon.  “How did you—?”  Then she realized what the water-worker was talking about.  “WHAT?  Ewww, no way!  That’s like incest, isn’t it?”

“Uh, Jade, it’s only incest if we’re related,” Billie explained.  Then seeing everyone’s eyes on her, she began to panic, too.  “Wait, that came out wrong!  I didn’t mean it would be okay … Jade!  You know what I meant!  Help me!”

But Jade’s mind had already moved to imagining what it would be like to have a body that was a near copy of Billie’s.  Then they would be related, even closer than sisters.  More like half-twins or something.

Only… now that she had embarrassed the heck out of Billie, how was she going to ask for such a huge favor?

*****

November 16, Thursday evening, 6:40 PM

 

“Come on!” Billie bellowed, “you guys aren’t going to miss the dance, are you?”

Nikki blushed.  It was a skill the redhead excelled at, and the girls watched as the pink tinge first coated the elven girl’s face, then traveled down her neck and well into her cleavage.  “I was going to help Bunny … study.”

Toni was looking heavenward.  “Thank you, God, for giving me a decent skin color.”

“How far down does that blush go?” Chou asked.

“Come on,” Toni protested.  “You must have noticed in the showers.”

“I’ve… uh… I’ve been trying not to ogle the other girls in the showers.”  The Asian teenager gave her own blush, which was partially concealed by a more forgiving skin tone.

“Christ almighty,” Ayla let out.  “This is Poe!  Every single one of those girls is either a lesbo checking you out, or a T-girl, peeking to see how far along your transition is.  Are you telling me that you never look?”

“Well,” the admission was almost a whisper, “I’ve been trying not to.”  Then Chou seemed to realize something about her roommate.  “Besides, who are you to make accusations like that?  It’s not like you’re studying the view either!  You zoom in and out like it’s some sort of race!”

“Yeah, well,” the punk girl defended, “you have any idea how hard it is to do anything in the girl’s bathroom without getting a raging hard-on?  It has been pointed out to me on more than one occasion that the compliment is not appreciated.”

“They aren’t really checking us all out like that, are they?” Jade asked with some trepidation.

“Don’t worry,” Billie comforted.  “It’s not like you’ve got any worries along that line.  I don’t think any of them care about kiddie porn, and even if you haven’t finished transitioning, it’s obvious you’re a girl.”

Ayla rolled her eyes.  “She’s saying that since you haven’t even got the first wisp of a bush, it’s pretty plain to everyone that your dingle doesn’t dangle.”  Everyone just stared at her.  “She’s got a slot, not a pole, okay?”

Privately, Jade was mortified.  They were checking her out!  If it wasn’t for her telekinetic tuck, they would have tagged her as a phony long ago.  Her “female” anatomy was achieved by taking the extra flesh of her boy-sack and then using her powers to tuck, pull, stretch, and fake what she should have looked like, if she hadn’t been born into this freakish male body.

But soon!  As soon as she could get up the nerve to ask Billie.  How would she do it?  Excuse me, Billie, but you’re my closest friend and I really love you and I was wondering if you’d let some people connect you up to some really gross machine so that I could steal your body and then we’d be just like twins and we could be like friends and sisters forever.

Hmmm, maybe that wasn’t quite right.  Besides, they wouldn’t be twins if she didn’t have Billie’s face.  And she doubted that she’d be getting any of Billie’s powers.  She didn’t think it worked that way for Jello.  So, maybe not twins, but a big-sister, little-sister thing?

She wondered if she’d pick up Billie’s scent.  The taller girl always smelled really good: a sort of peach and ozone, with just a hint of girl-musk.

“…I might show up later,” Toni was saying.  “It all depends.  I’ve got a hot date tonight, and he said he wanted to surprise me.”

Fortunately, Riptide wasn’t around to hear that comment.

“I’m definitely going,” Chou said.

Billie gave the Chinese girl a wide-toothed grin.  “Going to rendezvous with your little snuggle-bunny Molly?”

“No, she’s busy – HEY!  That’s none of your business!”

Jade knew she should practice with the equipment Thuban had given her.  “I need to do some studying, but I don’t want to miss the dance.  I think I’ll stay, but Jinn will go.”  And if she stuck close to Billie, maybe she’d get a chance to ask her.

“Let me shower and change and we’ll take off,” Billie decided.

Back in the room, Jade couldn’t seem to keep her eyes off her roommate.  Billie was odd.  Sometimes, she would get so overcome with modesty that she’d completely cover up.  But when she wasn’t thinking about it, she’d strut around in the nude as if she was the most confident person in the universe.  As if she, in the buff, was tough enough to take on any threat that might appear.  As if she was woman enough to out-vamp any other girl in the state.  Maybe any other girl in the world.  As if she was lover enough to … Jade wasn’t sure.  Lover enough to capture whoever or whatever she wanted, and make them hers forever.  The details were fuzzy for Jade, but the astounding confidence and utter magnetism of the taller girl were undeniable.  Even if she got the body, she’d never have the personality.  But that was okay, she was happy to be herself.  Besides, the world only needed one Tennyo.

Right now, Billie was fresh out of the shower, stark naked, and swaying and dancing as she moved around the room, impossibly light on her feet.  Her legs were long and athletic and smooth.  The stretch of muscle didn’t need heels to bring out the beauty in the lines of her calves and the back of her thighs.  Billie’s backside was an inverted heart, rounded but curving smoothly inward to a tight waist.  The girl’s back displayed trim muscles and the shifting outlines of ribs, spine, and shoulder blades, but it had enough flesh to soften the lines.  Her neck was long and slender, and that took you to Billie’s improbable head, with her peculiar out-jutting ears and the spiky cascade of silken hair that was unique to her.

Her naked roommate bent, searching through her panty drawer, flashing Jade just a hint of her feminine secrets.  Billie stepped into a lacy pair of sky blue high-cut panties and them pulled them up snugly.  She rooted through her brassieres for a moment, before snorting and abandoning the effort.  Instead, she slipped into a camisole, and put a satiny blue-green leotard over that.  She didn’t actually jiggle that much, but the two prominent points made it clear what she wasn’t wearing.

I wonder what that feels like? Jade wondered in awe.  Would I dare to go braless?  She loved wearing camisoles.  What would it feel like to wear one properly, with breasts of her own inside to give it a proper shape?  What would her cotton camisole feel like against the soft swell of her own breasts?  What if she bought a silk camisole, or satin?

“You okay, Jade?  You going to get ready?”

“Right!” the younger girl nodded eagerly.

Jade’s closet was much less interesting than her roommate’s.  It was hung with a bare half-dozen outfits (not including assorted sizes of school uniforms), and a grisly collection of flayed human skins.  Or that’s what they appeared to be.  They were actually rubbery plastic “pours” of false skin that she’d made in costuming workshop.  She picked out a full-body suit and charged herself into it.

*****

As always, it was a thrill to come alive as Jinn.  She settled into her skin and then had a second thought.  She reached for the metal locker and then held it out to her kid-self.  “Better have the full package,” she advised herself.

Jade reached out and charged her again, incorporating the locker full of tools and weapons.

The full-body skin only had a few seams.  Her scalp pulled up from the back of her head where hair covered the seam.  After she “swallowed” her other supplies, the seam was sealed closed on the inside using a modern miracle binding known as Velcro.

Jinn picked out a black polyester halter, a miniskirt, and a matching set of cuffed gloves and ankle boots.

“The black two-piece outfit again?” her roommate chided.  “You always wear that.  Or something close.  And what’s with all the black?”

Jinn flicked her fingers up as she counted.  “First, I’m seventeen.  And while I have a certain fondness for Hello Kitty, you have all made it quite clear that it’s barely tolerable for an eleven-year-old, and completely unacceptable for an older teenager.”

“Yeah, unless you’re making an ironic statement, which you can’t carry off worth a damn.”

“Two, black coordinates well.  Three, it’s got a sort of ‘see, I’m Shroud, too’ thing going.  Lastly, I’m running out of ways to use the same five pieces of wardrobe.  You know, if it wasn’t for school uniforms, I wouldn’t have had anything to wear to class after the first week.”

*****

Jade watched them getting dressed, herself and her roommate.  Billie looked so pretty as she finished her outfit.  The under layer was a teal body stocking, with a high collar and billowing sleeves.  The color complimented her hair perfectly.  Over that, she had a pink vest with a matching full skirt.  The vest served primarily to draw attention to her bust, while the skirt billowed and wrapped around her legs as she moved.  Finally, a high, wide, black belt cinched just under her chest, further emphasizing her ample bosom.  The high-waisted outfit would have been out of place on most girls, but Billie had longer legs and a shorter torso than most girls, and this outfit took advantage of that.

The older girl noticed her gaze and explained.  “I’ve been dying to wear this somewhere,” she admitted.  “I picked it up back in Boston, but I never had the nerve to put it on.  What do you think?”  She did a pirouette in mid-air, forgetting to drop back to the ground when she finished.

I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, and I am so happy and so jealous and I wish I could be you, Jade thought.  Aloud, all she whispered was, “It’s really, really nice.  It’s … it’s beautiful!”  She blushed, realizing that she was going too far, so she quickly corrected with, “I’m a little surprised the colors work, but they do.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah.  It’s perfect with your hair!  And I especially like the vest.  It’s like it hides the fact that you aren’t wearing… you know.  But if any of the boys peek in at the side, I’ll bet you’ll really tease them.”

Billie pulled out the fabric of her top.  “Is it bad?  Should I wear a bra?”

“That look is way sexy!  Is that what you want?  Or are bras really that bad?”  She had a personal reason for asking.

“Well, I guess they’re not so bad, it’s mostly just the principle of it.  And I admit, it sometimes feels like I’m getting rope burn or something when I slide around inside my blouse.  The camisole helps.”  She reached under her vest to rub the tip of one breast.  “But it’s a little more comfortable without a bra.  If I do a lot of dancing, I sometimes sweat in the band.  It’s much cooler to do without, so I think I’ll skip it.”

“How about me?” Jinn asked.  She launched into the air as well, spreading her arms wide in a spin.  She also neglected to return to the ground.

“You’re good,” Billie said, without much enthusiasm.

“But?”

“Well…” the admission reluctantly came “…polyester?  That same outfit would be really hot if you did it in black leather.  Or maybe even denim.  You can’t use the money argument all the time, because I know you’ve gotten some good paychecks recently.”

“True,” Jinn confessed.  “But it was either clothes or guns.  And… and…”

Jade remembered the other good news.  “And Bunny said she would finished my ‘egg-splosive’ missiles by the end of the week!”  It was exciting enough to get her mind – momentarily – off the prospect of achieving her dream.  “Once I buy the factory unit, I’ll only have to pay for raw materials.  Her ‘factory’ egg will hatch out as many missiles as I need!  Ha ha ha ha!”

Billie narrowed her eyes at the deranged child.  “You had the money for clothes and you used it to buy weapons instead?”

Jinn took up the conversation with a supercilious air.  “Look, I’m sure that mega-destructive plasma blasts are all very nice and all, but it’s not my fault that you can’t appreciate the beauty and elegance of multi-purpose ordinance with a self-guided missile delivery system.”

“What ‘self-guided missile’?  You told me you were just going to charge Jann into tiny bombs and fly them down your opponent’s throat!  What kind of—” her eyes narrowed in realization.  “Wait a minute… you haven’t been watching Project A-Ko again, have you?”

“Uh, well, it was playing in the lounge.  There isn’t very much lesbian comedy animé around, so the other girls keep putting it on.  And if I’m passing through, I maybe stop to watch a couple of minutes.”

“Uh huh.  Come on, Jinn.  Let’s see if Chou is ready.”

Before she left, Jade took her roommate’s hand.  “Uh… Billie?  Tennyo-san?”

“Yeah?  What’s wrong?”

“I…” she was suddenly to shy to ask.  “I just wanted you to have a good time.”

“Oh.  Thanks.”

*****

The three of them were fairly cheerful as they made their way toward Emerson, but Jinn could see emotions.  There was no way for the other two girls to hide their apprehension.

“So, you’re feeling it too?” she asked, broaching the taboo subject.

“Pretty hard not to,” Chou said quietly.  “Halloween was supposed to be just a dance, like this.  Instead…”

Billie was typically gruff.  “I refuse to be traumatized, just because some bastards thought a dance would be a good time to catch us off guard.  I’m going to have a good time!  And if anyone tries anything this time…!”  She held up a fist that glowed with disturbing power.

Chou recoiled immediately.  Even to Jinn, the energies that swirled around Billie’s fist seemed almost like a blasphemy on the face of creation.  It was a feeling that was almost reminiscent of the terror she’d felt at the farthest end of the sewer tunnels.  And that had definitely fallen under the classification of “blasphemy.”  That had been like a gaping, pustulent wound in the fabric of reality.

“Stop that!” Chou shouted in desperation.

“Sorry.”  Billie’s hand went back to normal.

“Do you have any idea what that was?”

“Some idea, yeah.  If I hit someone with that, they’re dead.  I mean, really dead.”

“You hit them with that,” the Taoist girl pronounced, “and death with be the least of their worries.  I think I’d rather feed them to Sara.”

“Guys, guys!”  Jinn quickly floated in between the two girls.  “We’re here for the dance, remember?  Fun and good times!”

“Yeah,” Chou agreed.  “Maybe you’re right, Tennyo.  If anyone’s dumb enough to hit us twice in a row, they deserve some serious pain.”

“You know,” Jinn realized, “I think this is the first time that just the three of us have been out.”

“So?” Billie asked bluntly.

“Well, I mean, we’re the three Asian girls, right?  That’s got to be good for something.”

“I suppose,” Chou allowed.  “I guess I never quite thought of it, not originally being Chinese.  And people have certainly been treating me different, but it’s sometimes hard to tell whether it’s because I’m Chinese, or because I’m a girl.”  She considered it.  “I suppose we have a bit in common.  We all do martial arts.”

“Some of us better than others,” Jinn said with a touch of jealousy, looking at Chou.

“We all use swords,” Billie suggested.  “Though you’ll pardon me if I don’t bring mine out.  I still sometimes have trouble putting it back away again.”

“I’ve heard,” Chou said, dryly.  “Wait a minute.  Since when did you use a sword, Jinn?”

Billie smirked.  “Show her.”

Jinn sighed.  “On our way to the dance?  Well…”  She held her right hand out.  “You know Harry Wolfe, Billie’s friend?  He helped me with a little surprise.”  With a deadly sounding –CHANG– a foot-long blade shot forward out of her hand.

Chou’s eyes bugged out at the sudden appearance of the double-edged blade.  She couldn’t help giving a slight backwards leap and settling into a stance.  By the time she thought to look more closely, Jinn’s gloves had vanished away somewhere, so that now the girl appeared to have normal fleshy arms, black fabric wrist bands, and blades instead of hands.  They weren’t quite short swords, but they were a lot longer than daggers.

“Sorry,” Jinn said, chuckling.  “I only train with them when I’m up against an invulnerable sparring partner.  And you haven’t been around for sparring, not since you started all that sword training.”  As she spoke, the blades slowly withdrew back inside her arms.  A moment later, her gloves seemed to unfold from somewhere inside the wrist area.  The wrist bands rotated for a moment, then her gloved hands resumed their normal appearance.

“So anyway,” Jinn said, still amused, “I guess this applies to both of you.  How do you do it?  Sword combat, I mean.  Isn’t it pretty hard to fight someone without it turning really serious?  I mean, like deadly maiming lethal bloody serious?  How do you fight that way?”

“I haven’t used my sword on any people,” Billie admitted.  “Ugg.  There’d be nothing left but well-cooked chunks.”

“I’ve fought some against demons,” Chou said.  “That’s not the same thing.  I don’t feel any guilt over slicing one of them up.  People… so far I’ve fought mainly to disarm and pin.  That’s really more of a sword-versus-sword style.  You’re not fighting the person, so much as their sword.  I suppose I should watch for that, since I might overlook a crippling or lethal shot in a real fight.  Also, most of the time I leave Destiny’s Wave in her sheath.”

So, as girls are prone to do, the three Asian-looking girls bonded a little closer while discussing those topics that are closest to a young girl’s heart: proper slashing techniques, when to take a life, and how to clean bloodstains out of silk.

37: I want your body!

November 15, Wednesday evening, 6:35 PM

After making sure no one was up to anything in the hall outside, Jade opened her laptop and connected a set of headphones.  Sliding Thuban’s disk in, she selected “play.”  She was the only one of her that could do this, since she needed to be in her physical body to see a computer screen.  Fortunately, the laptop could double as a DVD player.

That same screen cleared a moment later, and as the show began, a logo appeared: “Gargoyles.”

From the headphones, a narration began.  “It was an age of darkness…”

*****

The party became evident as they reached the stretch of parkway between Emerson and Twain.  Normally, the brick path that wound between the cottages was an empty trail with overhanging oaks, occasional clearings, and benches convenient for either picnicking or warm-weather study.  Now, that space was transformed.

As they passed Emerson, they noticed that nearly every window was open, and in every open window, there was a stereo speaker.  The wall of sound was impressive, but not as impressive as the speaker towers in the central clearing.

“It’s WARS,” Billie realized.

“What?” Chou sounded concerned.

“Whateley Academy Radio Station.  They must be doing DJ duty, so everyone can pick it up on FM.”

Jinn gave a humorless grin.  “I guess this means that we won’t be able to squash Greasy and Peeper if we see them at the dance.  Too many witnesses.”

“I’ll bet they volunteered,” Billie speculated. “Those guys must be desperate for a little support about now.”

The beat became more powerful as they approached the “stomp stage.”  Early in the school’s history it had been discovered that too many ultra-heavy types dancing in unison would create vibrations powerful enough to collapse any tunnel or building nearby.  The solution, used ever since, was the “stomp stage”: an elevated platform designed to damp the vibrations it transmitted down the support legs.  At the same time, the stage acted as a sort of giant tympanic surface, becoming the world’s largest drum.  When the heavies could get their act together, they made an unbelievable rhythm.  The girls were still several hundred feet away, and Jinn could already feel the waves of sound pulsing through her body.

“Wanna do some groupie dances around the stomp stage?” she asked them.

“No, I’m going to check out the kata dancers,” Chou said.  “I got an informal invite from a couple of the Dragons yesterday.  I think I might give them a chance.  Beside, I want to see if I recognize anyone’s moves.  How about you guys?  You’re both as good as any of the freshman Dragons.  Why not come on by?”

“I think I’ve got the urge to fly,” Billie confessed.  “How about you, Jinn?”

“Can we join the pattern around the Stomp Stage?”

Billie rolled her eyes.  “Do we have to?  I want to go wider.”

With a wave, the two of them split from Chou and headed toward the illumination stand.  When they got there, they saw a second booth set up next to it.  The second booth had a tall black boy (at least, Jinn assumed he was black, based on his dreadlocks, the sunglasses he hid behind, and the patter he spoke).  Next to him was a girl – Jinn got the mild impression she was white, with her hair in a thick braid.

“You, you flyer types, check it out.  Prototypes to show off your flyin’ skillz.  Free samples, you hear what I’m sayin?”

Billie sauntered up.  “What have you got?”

“Yo, the name’s ‘Dredz.’  Got somethin’ new for you sky dancers, hear?  Vital equipment.”

“Cut to the chase,” Billie advised him.

The boy sighed and let a bit of his accent lapse.  “Yeah, so there I was, working on my laser shield.  Piece o’ crap that don’t work worth shit.  Then along comes the Red Lensman here,” he gestured to the girl, “and she’s, like, all over me, offerin’ to help out.  When we’re done it still won’t stop spit, but it puts out one fine glow.  Leaves a little trail of sparkles, you know, that Tinker Bell shit.  Just the thing for a flyer to be wearin’ at a dance like this one.  Once we get the last bugs out, we’re goin’ to start renting ‘em out, maybe pick up a few Benjamins, hear?”

The girl next to him was apparently trying to massage away a migraine.  She translated, “Next dance we’ll be renting them out, but since these are prototypes, we’re just offering them as samples and to see if there’s anything we still need to adjust.  Hi, I’m Loophole, by the way.”

Billie nodded.  “Tennyo.  Pleased to meet you.”

“Whoa, hold up there, chika!”  Dredz snatched back the slim backpack.  “My homie told me all about this one!  No offense, Babezilla, but you attract a bit too much property damage for our expensive little prototype, hear me?”

Billie’s face started to cloud up, when Dredz put up his hand in protest.  “No, no, don’t get me wrong.  Got nothing but respect for you.  Deep respect.  You got the power, you got the moves, you the slayer.”

“Star Stalker, actually,” Billie muttered under her breath.

“Ain’t got nothing but respect.  But our poor little hardware isn’t quite ready for major damage.  You followin’ me?”

Billie made a rude noise.  “Let’s get some sparklers, Jinn.”

“Yo, don’t have to go away mad!  The ghost girl’s fine by me, I’d be happy to slide her my package, hear?”

“Uh, I’m with her,” Jinn said, following Billie.

Loophole slumped down, rubbing her head once more.  She glared at her partner.  “Word,” she muttered.  “Dirty word.”

*****

Jade was engrossed in the show.  Thuban had sent her home with a cartoon!  It wasn’t any animé she’d seen before, though something about the style was reminiscent.  She understood why Thuban liked it, though.  It would be perfect for his Faction Three.  Each of the heroes were members of a race of monsters, called “gargoyles.”  No two of them looked alike, and they were shunned and feared by humans.  But each of them was a heroic warrior.  Each of them had their own personality and dreams and foibles.  Despite their hideous appearance, they were all wonderful people.

And they were totally loyal to each other.

She wondered whether this show had been chosen to help Faction Three, or whether the show had been the inspiration for Faction Three.

The big trick would be to convince mutated humans to behave with the nobility and confidence that the gargoyles in the cartoon had shown.  Thuban clearly wanted the members of Faction Three to look at each other the same way the gargoyles saw each other:  not as a bewildering array of monsters, but as members of a broader family – each different, but with their own strengths.

She snorted, as a realization came together.  With Lazuli’s blue-stone body, the form Thuban had given her was plainly intended to be a gargoyle.  That explained what he meant by, “playing a part” and “we’ll admit that you aren’t real.”  And she was certain that the dragon-man would be showing the cartoon series at his meetings – probably as a sort of episodic thing.  As the token gargoyle, she would represent all the values Thuban wanted to express through that show.

Or to put it in the harshest terms, if the school freaks were going to learn to accept each other, to love and trust their fellows, she would have to teach them.  She would have to become their example.

And she hadn’t even been able to accept Toni-sempai for her BIT-donor, because of her skin color.

Gosh, thanks so much, Thuban.

With a sigh, she started the next episode.

*****

“Slow down!” Jinn called to Billie, as the Cyan-haired girl shot up in the sky.  Jinn was decent as a flier, but she sure couldn’t match her roommate.

They rose up to about 80 feet, then she noticed what Billie was looking at.  Ahead of them, soaring in an elegant glide, was the white-winged form of Mary Goodhope.  Mary carried a pair of flickering sparklers, one in each hand.

Billie already had hers out, and Jinn quickly grabbed two from her locker.

Billie called ahead.  “Hey Mary, got a light?”

As Mary spread her wings wide for a smooth glide, Billie flipped over on her back, then slid in under the winged girl.  They came together until they were face to face, close enough to kiss.  Mary held her arms straight ahead and Billie matched the pose, lighting her sparklers off of Mary’s.  Once Billie’s sparklers caught, she peeled off, doing a couple of quick loops around the winged girl, her sparklers blazing like twin comets.

Jinn flipped over on her back, and performed the same maneuver.

Unlike most light sources, Jinn could actually tell when her sparklers were lit since small flecks were ejected as it burned.  She couldn’t see the light, couldn’t feel the heat, but she could see the flecks as they sputtered off.  She could also hear the telltale hiss.

She was the slowest flier of the three, but she was more maneuverable than Angel.  Billie was both fast and maneuverable.  For the three of them to keep together, Angel had to slow down a bit, and allow the other girls to perform more complex maneuvers around her as she swooped and glided.  She and Billie tried a few sky dances, the spiral, the ring belt, but when the song ended they waved to Mary and went their own way.

“Billie?” Jinn asked tentatively.

“Yeah?”

“You don’t mind me following you, do you?”  It was uncharacteristically timid for her.  As Jinn, she was usually much more confident.

“Naw, I don’t mind.  It’s more fun to be in a group.  Although… if I see any cute guy fliers, I’m dumping you.”

Jinn laughed back, as they burned up their sparklers, racing across the sky, weaving in and around the other sky dancers.

After a few more dances, Billie swooped down for some of the punch.  Jinn followed, though she didn’t need a drink, and couldn’t consume it in any case.

Billie immediately began to attract a crowd, but she rocketed up to treetop level to drink her punch.

“This is what Halloween should have been like,” the spiky-haired girl decided.

“You going to try dancing with any of the guys?”

Billie took another sip to hide her face, even though Jade could see the color of embarrassment clearly lighting up her skin.  “Uh, guys.  Well, yeah, probably.  Maybe in another couple of dances.”  She sighed wistfully.  “You ever feel like you know what your body is telling you, but your spirit isn’t quite ready for it?”

She looked at Jinn then suddenly glowed with regret.  “Oops, sorry.  I didn’t mean it like that.”

“That’s okay—” Jinn began.

“No, I’m really sorry.  Anyway, I don’t mean to say that we’re in the same boat at all.  I … like … being a girl.  I mean, a lot.  But sometimes, I’m not sure that I’m ready for all the stuff that comes with it, you know?  Like how Toni is always kissing and stuff, and just how many people is she going out with, anyway?  I’m not sure I’m cut out for that, you know?”

Jinn nodded seriously.  She’d had similar thoughts herself.  Was this her opportunity to ask?

“And Nikki,” Billie continued, “I mean, for all her protests, she sure jumped in with both feet, didn’t she?”

“You’re always hanging off Hank,” Jinn pointed out.

“Well, sure.  Because he’s safe.  I mean, I know he’s not seriously interested in me, so I can play around with stuff, without worrying about it getting serious or hurting anyone.  That’s why I’m glad he’s seeing Wall Flower, although I’m not convinced the girl is good enough for him.”

“Billie?”  Jinn thought this might be her best chance to ask.

“After all, what do we really know about that girl?”

“Billie?”

“She comes out of nowhere.  Did you know that security arrested her on like her first day on campus?  Does that sound like the kind of girl Hank needs?”

“Can I ask a … favor?”

“And he’s part of Team Kimba, right?  Not some junior Star League or whatever.”  She humphed.  Then, “What kind of favor?”

Jinn took a metaphorical breath.  “Well, I’m doing a job for Thuban (and I can’t tell you what that is because it’s secret, but it doesn’t affect any of us) and the way he bribed me was by showing me this new devisor invention called a ‘BIT-slicer’ that copies the Body Image Template from one person and transfers it to another only they can adjust it so that my face would be the same and other stuff like fingerprints but if it works I could become, you know, my dream would finally come true and I really, really want that only I need someone to be the ‘donor’ for the body part of the template and I looked at everyone but you’re the person who’s closest to me and I was hoping that you felt like I did that we really getting close like if we’d been born sisters or something and I really like you and this isn’t just because you look so incredibly beautiful, although who would mind having your figure, you know? And I’m afraid you won’t because you have to be naked when they connect you up to the machine and it looked super embarrassing but I really need someone and more than anyone else I was hoping it would be you even though you don’t have to if you don’t want to, and I’ll understand, but if you would I’d be grateful forever.”  Having finally got it out, she just stared at Billie, waiting for the other girl’s reaction.

Billie blinked once.  “Uh, was there a question in there?”

Jinn nodded.  When she was Jinn and not Jade she tried so hard to act like she was really seventeen, but sometimes the mask slipped.  She thought that maybe it had just slipped pretty severely.  “Do you think… maybe… you could help me?”

Billie scratched behind one ear in embarrassment.  “Well, the thing is, my blood is kind of … different.  Remember the Boston Brawl?  I blew myself out of that ice cube by letting some blood out, and it’s sometimes kind of explosive.  I don’t think you’d survive.”

Jinn nodded, trying not to show how crushed she was.  “I understand.  Hey, how come you don’t blow up or whatever whenever you get cut?  You’ve taken some pretty bad wounds.”

“Has to be under special circumstances,” Billie explained.  “Normally my blood just sort of steams and evaporates.”

“But they said they had to filter out the blood changes anyway.  I think they normally do that.  Even a little thing like changing your blood type might kill you.”

Billie looked worried.  “What if I hurt you?  I couldn’t stand it, if it was my fault.”

Jinn smiled.  “It wouldn’t be you hurting me, it would be my responsibility.  And I’m more than willing to take the chance.”

The other girl frowned.  “I don’t know.  Hey, did you say ‘naked’?  And just how embarrassing are we talking, here?”

“Uh, it looked a little worse than a pelvic exam.”

“WORSE?” Billie thundered.  “Worse than a pelvic exam?”

Jinn nodded, cringing.

Billie floated in a sitting position, scowling sightlessly out at the dance below.  “I hope you know that I wouldn’t do this for ANYone else!”

Jinn looked up, barely able to believe what she was hearing.

“And they’d better do a DAMN good job of convincing me this will be safe for you!”

Jinn flung her arms around her roommate.  “Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!”

*****

Two shows gave her an idea of what this person should act like.  Now she needed to try it on her own.  Jade charged up a Jamie (Jamie Bond, the SpySpeck), who circled the perimeter of the room, looking for peepers, observers, cameras, or anything else.

It’s too bad my spirit-form can’t see electronic signals, she thought.  That would make it a lot easier to check for bugs and stuff.

Instead, she activated Bunny’s “anti-nano” egg.  Several weeks back, a devisor down on the guy’s end of the hall had discovered nano-sized spies infesting the dorm.  Several of the girls had taken up the task of stopping the intrusions.  One of the guys had created a multi-purpose jamming device, with a signal strong enough to overpower any nano or micro transmitters that weren’t shielded.  Shielded nano-bugs were no longer microscopic, so they could be searched out the old-fashioned way.  Bunny had cranked out a few copies of the invention, which she called “anti-nano” eggs.

Satisfied with her precautions, Jade took Jamie back.  She pulled a small white box the size of a pack of cigarettes from her purse.  She charged it, and waited while the box floated in mid-air.  Abruptly, the box vanished.

“Cloaking’s good,” she told herself.  “It’s not quite invisible – I can still see the outline, but it’s pretty good.  Try doing some sort of stealthy sneaking along the floor or wall.”

The nearly invisible box complied, flying into a corner and then moving along the wall.  If she hadn’t been looking, she would have missed it completely.

“Great,” she said.  “Come on out.”

The box became plain-white visible again, then the top flipped open.  And then the impossible happened.  A hand reached out of the opening.  The hand was larger than the opening, larger than the entire box.  It was as if the mouth of the box contained some sort of magnifying glass, enlarging everything that passed through, making it nearly a dozen times larger.

First a hand and arm came out of the opening.  It wasn’t human, it was a deep blue veined with gold.  Then came a gold-haired horned head, followed by a black-winged body.  In moments, a tall, blue-skinned demon-girl stood in the room.  She grabbed the floating box and briskly slid it into a small pocket on the side of her leather miniskirt.

“Look?”  The demoness asked.  Jade tended to skip a lot of words when she talked to herself.  She was asking, How do I look?

“Fine,” Jade answered.  “Or as Toni-sempai would say, ‘fiiiine.’  How’s it feel?”

The demoness stretched her black, leathery wings wide.  She gave a few tentative flaps, then settled them around her shoulders like a black cape.  “Feels like our Shroud-cloak.  Needs some adapting.  Not too bad.”  She softly touched her ample bosom.  “I feel it here, when I flap.”

“Well, duh,” Jade agreed.  “That’s why birds have such a prominent breast bone.”

“Not like I’m using muscle,” the tall blue girl protested.  “Let’s try some tail exercises.”

Lazuli began to swing her tail from side to side, practicing her walk as she did so.

“Not quite natural.  You need to swing in sync with your gait.  And with hips that wide, you ought to have a bit more sway when you walk.  Heck, since you’re always standing on your toes, it’s practically like you’re in invisible high-heels, isn’t it?  Think high heels, and try the walk again.”

*****

Jinn held the hips of the boy in front of her, as he walked up the side of the cottage.  Billie had finally taken off to try her courage dancing with some boys.  Jinn had gleefully waved her off, still buoyed by the joy and anticipation from Billie’s agreement.  So she joined the wall-crawler’s conga line as they danced up the side of Emerson, and across the peak of the roof.  Afterward, someone started a line dance, and the fliers started a second and then a third layer up in the air.  It was a lot like the Halloween party, but with less death and explosions.

Singing through her all the while was exultation at the knowledge that Billie would do it for her.  She would have her chance to be a real girl.

Truthfully, dancing was more fun when you had a physical body.  But she had never had a better time.

38: Bring back my body to me

November 18, Saturday afternoon, 2:23 PM

Toni munched a carrot stick as she sprawled over her bed.  “So what’s the problem?  You told her you’d do it, right?  You still worried about the danger?”

Billie crossed her arms under her chest and frowned.  It wasn’t a scowl, but she was obviously exasperated.  “The problem is that I want my life back!  Lately, Jade’s gotten really clingy.  Half the time she’s staring at me and you’ve seen that look of hers!  It’s practically drooling.”

Toni snorted.  “You mean, the one where she’s the rabbi and you’re the world’s last uncircumcised boy?”

Billie rolled her eyes.  “Where do you come up with these?  And can we skip the whole circumcision thing?  It’s a bit too close.”

“Okay, the look where she’s Mad Max, and you’re the last gas for 500 miles.”

“Better.”  Billie sighed.  “In a way, I guess it’s not so bad.  I’m glad to help her, and I’m really hoping that we can make this thing safe.  And I know how much she’s been wanting this.”

“I’m waiting for the ‘but…’.”

“Well, she’s started watching me and it’s getting sort of… possessive.  Like if she lets me out of her sight, she might lose the golden ticket or whatever.”

“Uh huh.”

“And even that wouldn’t be so bad – if it was just Jade.  But there’s like five of her!  And they’re all doing the same thing!  Circling like vultures!”

Toni had picked up a textbook.  The way a someone else might spin a basketball on their fingertip, Toni spun the textbook.  “Five?  That’s a bit of an exaggeration, isn’t it?”

“Well… only a little.  There’s Jade, there’s Jinn or Shroud, depending on whether she’s dressing like a ghost.  Lately, she’s been being Kimba the lion, just sort of hanging around my desk or watching me work.  Have you seen it?  Her new lion toy?”

“That’s still only three of her.”

“Feels like four, since Jinn is sometimes Shroud, or vice versa.  At night, it’s almost crowded.  Shroud’s getting ready to do something, visit Sara or whatever, her textbooks and homework are doing themselves, and half the time there’s a toy or compact or dirt speck or something zipping around the room doing something.”  She lowered her voice confidentially.  “It’s the toys that make me the most jumpy.  Last night, I thought I had the room to myself.  And you know I’ve got that toy cabbit?”

Toni nodded.  “Hard to forget chasing it around the cottage, our first day.”

“So I’m doing my algebra, sort of distracted, just thinking about stuff.  I’m zoning out, and suddenly the cabbit squeaks up and says, ‘You forgot to carry the one.’  I swear, I fell out of my seat!”

“Ow.” Toni winced sympathetically.  “Hard landing?”

Billie looked at her in puzzlement.  “On the floor, you mean?  No, I fell up.”  As she spoke, she seemed unaware of the fact that she was actually floating a few inches off the ground.  “It wasn’t the fall.  The problem was that I almost blew out the side of the room!  And now,” she looked around furtively, “I’m suddenly paranoid of all the toys.  And I’m afraid that if I tell anyone, they’ll just laugh at me.  I can just picture telling one of the counselors.  ‘Pardon me, but you know how stuffed animals have those beady little eyes?  I think they’re watching me!’  Oh, sure, that’ll go over well.  Half those headshrinkers already want to lock me up.”

Toni obliged, by laughing at her.  “Just look at it as a good opportunity for training!  Develop your ki senses or something.”

“I don’t have any ki senses.”

“Well you must have something.  Feel it out, try to figure out when she’s lurking in toy ambush.  Heck, maybe I should convince her to pull ambushes on all of us.  Nikki could use a couple of good wake up calls.  Have you seen that girl when she concentrates?  Talk about the ‘dead zone.’  You could stick a sword right through her and she’d probably never notice until she was done with her mystic philosophizing.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Billie agreed, without much enthusiasm.  “I’d fault you for realism if that same exact thing hadn’t happened to Sara.”

“Is Jade really getting on your nerves?  I though you liked her as your roommate.”

Billie frowned.  Her strange cat-eyes and small fangs gave her an alien-looking scowl that was quite intimidating.  “It’s not that.  I do like them.  A lot.  Particularly since she’s starting to treat me more like a big sister than a mother.”

Toni raised an eyebrow at that, but she’d made it a point not to poke too deeply into the strangely close relationship.  “Okay.  I’m definitely getting an odd vibe here.  What’s the real problem?”

Billie’s face and features could look angry, or dangerous, or sexy, or mischievous, or any combination of those.  They weren’t made for looking vulnerable.  But just for an instant, the mask cracked, and the sometimes insecure person inside peeked out.  It was only a moment, but Toni saw a look of heart-wrenching anguish.

“What if something goes wrong?” Billie whispered.  “She wants this so much!  What if I wreck it for her?  If she gets hurt, how could I ever forgive myself?”

There wasn’t a thing Toni could say to that.

*****

There weren’t many places that Jade could practice without being spied on.  The maintenance workshop under the library was old, ugly, and had unpleasant aromas, but it was very private.  After pulling extra shifts to clean up after Halloween, Morrie and Stan were taking a few weekends off.  Which meant that Jade had the workshop to herself.  She had to stay clear of the armory locker.  Her TK could probably trick it open, but she knew it was wired to security.  There were a few other secured lockers, but most of the large space was set aside for clothing, fairly ordinary plumbing supplies, and similar boring equipment.  That made it the perfect place to experiment with Lazuli.

She charged the invisible cigarette box, then lost sight of it as it flew away from her.  After a moment, she linked with Jann-sensei, who had no problem tracking the invisible box.  Its camouflage only worked for the visible spectrum, it couldn’t hide from her spirit-vision.

Watching Lazuli come out of the box was definitely weird.  The movement was far quicker, this time, as if the gargoyle was stepping out of a hole in space.

“Pretty good,” Jade judged.  “The question is, can you do it inside the hollow stone shell?”

“The trick will be the wings,” her gargoyle self decided.

“We’ll practice.  Do the walk, first.”

“Slave driver,” Lazuli told herself.  But she folded up her wings and did the tip-toe catwalk from one end of the room to the other.  She’d been practicing.  It was similar to a high-heel strut, but not exactly the same.

“Not bad,” Jade decided, impartially.  “That tail flip is sexy.  And the little wing flutter is pretty good, too.  I wonder if he deliberately made your skirt match your wings?”

“You think anything Thuban does is accidental?” Lazuli asked.

“Good point.”

They both knew the practice list, and they worked through the movements, trying to get them natural.  Jade let her attention to threats and ambushes lapse.  For once, she delegated that entirely to Jann-sensei, while she concentrated totally on watching her gargoyle body move, trying to see it the way the guys and girls would when movie night finally arrived.

After an hour of hard coaching, Jade decided it was time for a break.  She’d practiced normal movements to death.  Even something as simple as sitting was a new discovery, once you had to contend with a tail.  There were a variety of gargoyle motions that were pretty unique, including work with her wings and a sort of four-legged panther gait.  But she’d practiced everything, critiqued it, and readjusted until it looked smooth and flowing.  She wasn’t learning to coordinate physical muscles, but to simulate what they looked like through her telekinesis.  But after practice, the movement seemed to “lock in” so that she could simply react naturally, without thinking of each little movement as “simulated” or “fake.”  It took work to reach that point, and while Lazuli might not get tired, she did.

“I’m starting to feel pretty good about this.  Even the wings and gliding are looking good,” Jade-physical decided.

“Then let’s break for a bit.  I want you to look at some stuff with real vision.”

Jade knew what was coming, but it was still a bit freaky to have the large blue gargoyle approach her, then lift up her halter.

Jade reached out to the breasts, feeling them, hefting them, touching the nipples.  “How’s that feel?”

The gargoyle shrugged.  “You know me.  Pressure, not pleasure.”

“Then why is your nipple getting stiff?” Jade wanted to know.

“Don’t you get it?” Jinn asked.  “A few more days and we might be feeling this for real.”

“Mmmm.”  Jade did her own fantasizing.  “Right.  Got it.”

“Okay,” Jinn-as-Lazuli said.  “Here’s something else to check out.”  She spread her legs wide and reached behind her.

Jade had already guessed what she was talking about.  “How are you supposed to get the skirt off?”

“Uh… there’s snaps in back, on each side of my tail.”

The skirt-and-panties were a single unit that came off in one piece.  While Lazuli removed her skirt, Jade knelt down to look.  She felt no embarrassment, this was her own body she was looking at, after all.

“Uh huh,” Jade reported.  “Gold, almost metallic gold, same as our nipples.  Figures that Thuban would put gold there.  I guess I hadn’t expected this body to be so… accurate.”  Another thought hit her.  “Hey, do we have an inside, too?”  Without thinking, she stuck her finger forward to stroke her other self in a very intimate region.

“Hey!  If you weren’t me, I’d be tearing your face off right now!”

“Right,” Jade agreed absently.  She was surprised to notice that, despite the other girl’s stony skin, this part of her was quite soft.  Abruptly, as her finger slid backward along the other girl’s channel, her finger slid into a small depression.  “Hey, you’re wet!”

“Uh huh,” Lazuli agreed.

“And… slippery!”  Jade pulled her finger out and touched it to her tongue.  “Kind of musky, but not too bad.”  She returned her finger, trying to find out just how deep in she could feel.  She was surprised at how soft and warm it felt, and then was doubly surprised at her other self, when she felt the girl’s tunnel beginning to gently and rhythmically squeeze around her finger.

“Remember how we’re only supposed to drink pure water?  The stomach reservoir can pump it to the bladder, or down there where it mixes with some sort of lubricant powder.  You know… it’s definitely weird to feel you doing that.”

“I wish I could really feel it,” Jade muttered, more to herself than to the other girl.  “I’ll bet Bunny could teach me how to do this right.”

Lazuli’s tail had wrapped around Jade, pulling her in closer.  “Uh huh.  You know, this is kinda interesting the way it is.  I’m not sure if I could handle it, if we had real feeling.”

Jade gave in to her curiosity, bent forward, and carefully licked the other girl up the length of her cleft.

“Oh, okay.  THAT was definitely interesting.  How do we feel about licking girls?  ‘Cause I can tell you, it’s pretty interesting from up here!”

“I don’t know,” Jade admitted.  “I think I was more interested in testing that I really was a girl.  The sex stuff itself… I don’t know.  Playing around with myself is one thing.  I can’t really imagine doing something like that with someone else.”  She moved back and stood up.  “Hey, your nipples got all popped-out again.”

“That’s odd.  Must have been subconscious.”

“So how’s it like from that side?”

“Interesting,” Lazuli instantly answered.  “Like you said, it would be different if I wasn’t just touching myself.”  In the midst of pulling her skirt back on, she suddenly straightened.  “Oh no.”

“What?”

“Let me put it this way: Do you think that Thuban accidentally made this body so functional?”

“Nothing Thuban does is… Damn.  He’d better not expect…!”

“Agreed,” Lazuli said.

 

  since 7/09/06