A Whateley Academy Tale

Jade 6-e – Dreams and Awakening

By Babs Yerunkle

 

45: We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!

Whateley Academy, Shuster Hall November 22, Wednesday morning, 8:03 AM

They’d all heard rumors about the Thanksgiving assembly.  The students who’d already attended it last year were tight-lipped, but a few dropped clues.

“Introduction to fascism.”

“No big deal, unless you have plans as a supervillain.”

“Amerika with a K.”

“Same old, same old.”

“You have the right to be strip-searched.”

So naturally, the crowd for this assembly was a bit more subdued than they’d been for any of the previous assemblies. 

Unlike the first assembly, Jade knew a lot more people this time around.  Her immediate circle of friends was sitting beside her.  Naturally, Nikki and Toni were in the center of that block.  Sara and a couple of her closer friends were in the row ahead of them.  The row behind them included several of the sophomore girls and guys, and oddly, a few from other cottages.  Mary and Juanita weren’t back yet, but Lily sat nearly behind her.  She also recognized the black guy, Dredz, from the dance the previous week.  Lily and Dredz were conversing in close whispers, but Jade seemed to catch a snatch of, “Oh, is that all?” from them.

The mutterings and whispers faded to near-inaudibility as Headmistress Carson took the stage, then died out completely as she dimmed the lights and projected the first slide.

On the screen behind her was the famous Brooklyn bridge, with both ends barricaded or smashed and a full load of commuters trapped in the middle.  In the air above, a titanic battle raged.  The image had become such an icon over the past decade and more that it no longer had a single, simple association.  Heroism?  Evil?  The plight of the normal man caught up in forces beyond his control?  A metaphor for the planet?  All that and more.

“I hope none of you have trouble recognizing the images of the terrible events of April 1, 1991.”  She clicked to another slide, showing Entropy, as he created the trap, blocking off the rush-hour traffic.  “The famous ‘Fools Fight.’  While Entropy’s minions threatened civilians, Entropy finally got his face-to-face battle with his eternal nemesis.”  Another famous slide clicked into place, showing the battered hero as he delivered the final blow to Entropy.  “Of course, Entropy perished, along with most of his minions.  As did Battery, and the First City Irregulars were never reformed as a team.”  The final slide showed the craters, along with the hundreds of bleeding, weeping civilians.

“We, rather, we mutants at Whateley, tend to focus on Battery and Entropy, and what happened with the various teams.  We examine the strategies and morality, we even re-run the battle in our simulators.  What we often fail to appreciate is the impact that battle had on normal humanity.

“Of course, that was just one battle.  There are hundreds of others, I dare say, that have had similar casualty levels.  But the Fools’ Fight was unique because of the still and video images it generated, because of the live news coverage, and because it has become such an icon, particularly among groups such as Humanity First.”

That generated mutterings and mild boos throughout the crowd.  Jade heard a mutter coming from Nikki’s direction, “They should have named themselves ‘Baboons First.’”

The Headmistress continued.  “What many of you have not realized until now was how those events, which took place before some of you were born, will affect your lives.  Mutants have always had a prominent position on the battlefield.  Terrorist mutants and even mass civilian casualties have been a fact of life since the Mystic Six first fought Gasman back in 1919.  But the Fools’ Fight brought mutants into a new and frightening prominence in the public eye.  It was a key issue in the United States presidential campaign of 1992, and led to promises to track and monitor mutants.  Initially this was restricted to foreign mutants entering American Soil, but the Frankfurt train derailment in 1993 and particularly the Indonesian tsunami in 1994 made this an international issue.”

The next slide was a publicity shot, showing the MCO’s Deputy Director Kenneth Loman, standing behind one of the MCO’s well-known “intervention squads” – overhead was the distinctive powder-blue dropship that also served as a mobile command center, while crouched in front of him were a half-dozen troops in powder-blue power armor, as well as the medics and observers that had such a welcome reputation with the non-mutant public.

“Most of that armor comes from Darpa research,” Nikki whispered.  “My dad worked on it for a while.”

Someone, Jade thought it was Chou, shushed the elf girl.

Headmistress Carson continued.  “Despite the superb reputation of many heroic mutants such as Champion, the events of the nineties changed the world.  The public was left with a renewed fear of rogue mutants.  This combined politically with a growing international need for mutant supervision.  It culminated more than a decade ago, in 1995, when the various national bodies ceded authority to the MCO, which incidentally stands for Mutant Commission Office, not Mutant Control, as so many of you have dubbed them.  In late 1996, it was made an international law that mutants must report themselves when crossing national boundaries.  Identification records became standardized, and the process has continued to evolve until the present day.”

There were mutterings among all the freshmen, as they began to figure out the implications.  The upperclassmen, who’d all heard this before, watched with grim satisfaction as their younger counterparts lost a bit of their innocence.

“Traditionally this talk is given shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday.  When you came to Whateley, you fell under a carefully crafted exemption.  But with the long holiday weekend ahead of us and the winter break approaching, many of you will be traveling by plane as you go home, or visit other destinations.”  Her voice turned suddenly grim.  “Let me be clear about this.  US law is rock-solid on this point: Any mutant must carry and present their identity card before boarding any commercial aircraft.  The Mutant ID card, or MID, must also be presented at any border crossing or customs station.  It’s something of a convenience, actually, since it’s better than a passport, and will get you expedited processing.”

“Yeah,” Toni muttered darkly, “no point in having an underground railroad, when the slave states are everywhere.”

In a lighter tone, Carson added, “Of course, Whateley maintains an aggressively neutral stance toward certain elements of social order.”  She paused, not getting the reaction she’d expected.  “We coddle lawbreakers,” she explained.  The students all laughed at that, although Jade suddenly noticed Adam Ironknife, in a back row far to her left.  He didn’t seem to find the situation at all humorous.

“I even sympathize with a bit of that,” Carson admitted.  “While I have no tolerance for killers or terrorists, society sometimes needs its rebels and iconoclasts.  I am sure that more than a few of you will be tempted to travel without a MID.  First, let me say that everyone who intends to stay at Whateley will be issued a MID.  That means that we will measure and record all your biometric parameters, staff members will negotiate with you to determine an official summary for your powers and abilities, we will condense certain other records, and obtain official clearances with both your own national governments and the MCO.”

Behind her, the screen switched into a live display, illustrating a wealth of measurements.  The headmistress herself was shown, along with displays of fingerprints, retinal prints, DNA identifiers, Kirilian signature, height, weight, age, bone structure, medical statistics, and a wealth of other data.  Just before the display changed, Jade noticed the “age” entry.  Seventy-five years old?  That can’t be right!

“None of this has been done yet!  The process begins this week, prioritized for those of you who will need to travel over the Thanksgiving weekend.  It is voluntary, but if you refuse, you will not be returning to Whateley.”  She held up her hand to forestall the murmurs.  “I understand your reluctance, but this is not a negotiable point.  That’s why we’re telling you now, to give you a chance to think this over.  Even if you plan an eventual career in world domination, I think the education you will get at Whateley will more than compensate for the downside of having a public record.

She gave an ironic smile.  “After saying all that I have to tell you, having a MID is not the same thing as using it.  Some of you will always stand out.  Changes due to your mutation will make it difficult or impossible to pass as one of the ordinary rabble.  For you, a MID will often be a godsend.  It is literally your passport to interact with mundane society.  Others, however, can pass as normal if they choose.  They could board a plane without showing their MID.  Of course, you’d need falsified ID documents, since the airline computers always cross-check with the MCO.  And often, they’ll take biometric scans and cross-check those with the MCO.  And it’s a felony in the US to board a plane or cross a border without showing your MID – you’d be looking at six months for a first offense, more once you reach your majority.  Any situation of ‘covert mutant activity’ is immediately relayed to the MCO, and you may be looking at a dropship on your head with no warning at all.”

The Headmistress spread her hands, as if in apology.  “So, you have a lot to think about over the break.  The first Thanksgiving at Whateley represents a significant right of passage for every student.  You have many options.  You can drop out, hide from the MCO and the world, and keep a low profile.  This won’t protect you from the legal consequences – every one of you in this auditorium are legally required to carry a MID, whether you stay at Whateley or lay low.  If you’re spotted, you’ll still have to comply.  But you may choose to hide.

“You can follow the straight and narrow path.  In which case your MID will evolve into much more than just an ID and passport.  As your record of good activities grows, the MID will grant a variety of privileges – sky Marshall authority on even international plane flights, expedited border and custom privileges, connections with Interpol and other police organizations, and discounts at many restaurants and clothing outlets.”  There were laughs at that last.

“Finally, if you chose a life on the other side of the law, your MID will become the first entry in your case history.  This is why supervillains are so quickly tied to a codename – it’s the quickest reference to their MID file.  Don’t worry about that part too much, your first codename is only temporary; you have until spring to finalize that.  After that, it becomes a paperwork nightmare to change your codename.  As an example, the villain ‘Wrecking Ball’ changed his name twelve years ago, and he’s still being referenced under ‘Power Pork.’”

As the lights came up, the headmistress stepped away from the podium.  “That’s all.  You’ll all find information in your mailboxes, and counselors will be available to answer questions.  You have a lot to think over.  I know these are big decisions, but I hope to see all of you back here, following the break.”

*****

Class was fairly anticlimactic after that.  Like many of the other freshmen, Jade was only about 50% aware of her lessons.  That still left her with two brainpower to consider things – counting both Jinn and Jann.

I wonder if that’s a measurement like horsepower? she wondered.

The biggest question was, should she claim to be “Jade Sinclair”, or would they need her real name?  And the whole “biometric” scan was a bit disturbing.  Could that discover her true gender?  Would she need to report her true gender?  If tonight worked, all her biometrics would change.  At least, she assumed they would.  Weren’t biometrics just measurements like height, weight, and so on?  If tonight succeeded, her measurements would certainly change.  She grinned at the thought.

She was reminded again of Robert Shih’s “third path.”  Nothing like Thuban’s “Faction Three.”  Robert had said, “You don’t join the establishment, and you don’t fall to the depths of a true villain.  You walk your own ground in the middle.  It’s the toughest path, since you receive none of the advantages of either side.  Even worse, you can never simply ‘declare’ for one side or the other.  You are always walking in ambiguity, defined more by what you are not.”

But the MID made that difficult.  It recorded your every official action, clearly dividing you into the “law breaker” or “straight arrow” camps.  It was worse, because she’d have to lie on her MID.  As much as it hurt to admit it, Jade was physically still an eleven-year-old boy.  A pure male eleven-year-old.  But she’d been passing as a girl for nearly three months now.  It was nothing next to the wonderful dream of actually being a true girl, but dressing and passing was the next best thing.  She would never go back to being a boy.

It was electrifying, to realize how solid her resolve was.  If the only choice was to list her physical gender on the MID, she would refuse.  She would drop out and make a go on her own.  She would find a way, somehow.  She would not be a boy.  Never again.

On the other hand… what if the MID allowed her to declare as a girl?  A high-level international passport that clearly identified her as female.  That would be a marvelous token.  It would simplify so much – her driver’s license, credit cards, bank accounts, jobs.

The next question was: Should Jinn get a MID?

Again, there was the same set of advantages and disadvantages, except that there would be no gender confusion there.  She thought that perhaps she would get one for Jinn, but not admit the presence of Jann.  What about Lazuli?  Would her gargoyle-self be sticking around long enough to need a separate identity?  If so, then she could cross that bridge later.  Certainly, Lazuli wasn’t going to class.  Until she needed any of the school services, it seemed like a question that could be put off.

*****

She was hoping to discuss it all at lunch.  The whole crowd was there, with even some of the their more distant friends like Harry Wolfe dropping in to sit beside Billie.  They had to push three tables together, and made a fair-sized crowd, but it was a little too big for the intimate and serious discussion Jade had hoped for.  Everyone looked at each other too calmly, discussing trivia and silly campus events, rather than dealing with the looming issue that they all feared to broach.  Then Harry’s girlfriend arrived and plopped into the open seat next to him.

Harry gestured around the table.  “Samantha Everheart, allow me to introduce you to my friends.”  He then proceed to go around the table, introducing everyone.

Jade spared half a glance for the new girl, a medium tall blonde of about Billie’s age, or perhaps a year older.   Her face and body said sophomore, but there was a maturity to her attitude and body language that said “senior” or maybe even older.  The girl didn’t show the ultra-violet glow of an active mutant power, but sometimes the most powerful kids never showed a glimmer of power until the last moment.  Jade hoped that Billie wouldn’t be too upset.  She didn’t know whether Billie considered Harry as anything more than a friend, but they did share a dance class and Billie might be a little upset if Harry started spending all his time with the blonde centerfold girl.

Harry’s next announcement was decidedly odd.  “Samantha is moving into the tower in Kane Hall.  She’ll be a floor or two below the observatory.  She hired Fran and me to help turn the empty room into an apartment.”

Toni asked the question they were all suddenly wondering, “How is it you rate an apartment when all we have are dorm rooms?  You look like a senior to me.  Is one of your parents on the board to the school?”

The blonde brushed her hair back, as if she were unused to the way it drifted across her face.  “Actually, I’m going to be working here.”

“Teacher’s assistant?” Toni asked, with sudden interest.  “What do you have that got you a job here at Whateley?”

Jade wondered if Toni was considering the same option.  Toni was her sensei, but Jade had more hours of old-fashioned training with martial arts.  She knew when to listen to Toni’s advice on the higher arts and deeper truths – and when to ignore her sensei’s fumblings as she struggled with simple movements and dealing with beginners.  In Jade’s opinion, Toni sensei wasn’t yet ready to become a general instructor.

But Samantha’s reply was unexpected.  “I have a lot of military experience.  I start working in security Monday.”

Toni turned to the rest of the table and gave a stage whisper, “Oh man!  It’s the cops!”

Jade wondered if the blonde was serious.  Sometimes the other girls pulled jokes on her for being the youngest and most naïve.  Was this something like that?  But then Jamie joined them, and spotting Samantha, burst out with, “Oh, don’t tell me… look, that bully thing happened a couple weeks ago, and none of those guys have dared to come near me since then.  Really!  You can tell Ms. G that I’m fine and I really, REALLY, don’t need a babysitter at school!”

Samantha was as puzzled as Jade was, but apparently Jamie had recognized the blonde right off as a bodyguard type.

“Oh, you’re not here for me?” Jamie belatedly realized.

Nikki shook her head, “No, Jamie, this is Sam.  She’s working for security.”

Jamie gave a suspicious look at Billie and Sara. “What happened?”

Billie scowled back.  “Nothing happened!  Harry’s just helping her move in!”

“Oh.”

“So I know it’s not something asked in mixed company, Samantha,” Nikki probed, “but how old are you?”

The blonde gave a wry smile as she unscrewed the lid off a mason jar.  The harsh reek of raw alcohol was immediately apparent.  The blonde chugged down half the jar, wiped her mouth, and smiled innocently at them.  “I’m forty-seven years old.”

That was a bit weird, but then, they’d seen worse.  Jade herself was older than she looked – so was that loner kid James.  And one of the teachers, Circe, was rumored to actually be a couple of thousand years old.  Jade wasn’t sure she believed that, but a forty-seven year old teenager – that was possible.  It would certainly explain why Samantha conveyed adult attitudes and body language.

“I guess it is origin time,” the blonde conceded.  “Up until about a week ago, I was working at a research lab in Washington State.  There was an attack.  After I had taken care of some of the guards, I went into the lab to check on a doctor friend of mine.  She had died.  I started coughing and went home feeling sick.  Later I woke up looking like this.  After some things happened, I ended up here with a job to work in security and a chance to work on some personal issues. “

Jade nodded to herself.  She’d heard a couple of other stories about nanotech accidents.  There were a couple of victims that suddenly found themselves reverted to their prime, like Samantha.  The girl was lucky that she hadn’t ended up with new limbs or mechanical borg parts growing out of her, like some of the accidents.

“Any of you interested in earning some extra cash?” the girl continued.

“Most of us have already gotten jobs through student services or are on a scholarship with living allowances,” Toni said.

Jade wasn’t going to miss an opportunity – not when she was so far in debt.  “I’ll be busy today, but can my sister help?”  School let out early today, so Jinn would only miss one class.  It was the Powers Theory lab, and she was always afraid that Mrs. Bohn would insist on retesting her, and moving her classification up to TK-3.  She could afford to miss that, especially if it meant more money.

“I’ll take all the help I can get.  When will she be available?”

“She could skip Powers Theory Lab,” Jade offered.  “Since school lets out early, she’d only miss one class.  So she could start right away, and work as late as you like."

Samantha didn’t sound that enthusiastic.  “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble for skipping classes…”

“Fran and I are skipping a couple of classes,” Harry pointed out.  “And Jinn might be pretty useful.  She floats, so she could help with the ceiling work.  And she might be good if we need to fish any cable through the ceiling or floor.”

Samantha nodded.  “Sounds good.  Tell her to meet me at my place in Kane Hall after lunch.”

*****

She only had one more class that day, civics.  She missed Word Processing (which was no great loss) and martial arts (which she did regret).  Ito Sensei seemed pleased with her in both forms.  In her physical body, he consistently complimented her on her dedication and drive.  She wasn’t anywhere near providing a challenge for the tougher students, but her movements were starting to reach that magical state where they just came, without conscious direction.  She was just beginning to master the basics enough that she could tell that she was on the edge of being able to act and react, without stumbling over having to think through all her movements.  And even better, she’d been taught for years to center herself, channel her breathing, and focus her energy into her ki.  But now, Toni Sensei (who was assisting Ito Sensei, more and more often), said that there was actually something happening there.  She was beginning to show the first sparks of a genuinely focused ki.  So far, the most she was able to do was to make surprisingly solid punches and kicks (and even that wasn’t reliable), but it was real progress!

Martial arts had gotten just as fun for her as Jinn.  Ever since her breakthrough with the punching bag, a month ago, she’d been coming up with more and more tricks and techniques.  As Jinn, she’d stopped even trying to master her ki, or to maintain proper forms or movements.  Instead, she and Ito Sensei seemed to have come to an understanding.  What she did wasn’t the art – not as he knew it – but it was mayhem.  Jinn had been happily handed off to Tolman Sensei, who was using her as a foil for all the tougher students in class.  She couldn’t be hurt, so she made an excellent sparring partner.  In turn, many of them couldn’t be hurt by her, which was an open invitation to become ever more devious and creative in her effort to use every dirty trick, surprise gadget, and underhanded ploy that she could devise.  Her strength wasn’t enough to overpower any of them, but she was learning to compensate.  They, in turn, were learning to respect her, and to be prepared for “unfair” surprises.

As she trudged up to the second floor, her mind was split between the missed martial arts class, the thought of her MID, and the dread/anticipation of tonight’s session with the BIT-slicer.  That’s why Bunny caught her by surprise, with a tackle from behind.

You could have warned me!  She mentally sent to Jann.

The point of these exercises is to make YOU more alert, not to make ME into your permanent watchdog, the enveloping sprit answered back.

Jade grumbled, knowing that it was pointless to argue with herself.  “Hi, Bunny, what’s up?”

Bunny was hopping with excitement.  “That line needs a ‘Doc’ and a carrot to come off properly.  Oh, never mind!  I’m done!  I’m done!  You gotta come test it!”

It took Jade a moment to switch gears and realize what the bouncy girl was talking about.  When the message finally penetrated, her eyes lit up.  “The missiles?  I thought you wouldn’t be done until Friday!”  But her glee was tempered.  “Buuuny… you know how far behind I am on my payments.  Jinn’s off right now helping this new security girl, Samantha, but still…”

“Yeah, yeah, forget about that!  I finally got you some real STOPPING POWER.  Just step into my lab.”

“Jeez, talk about straight lines.”

They closed the door behind them as Bunny moved to her desk.  On it, a large egg, about three feet high, was putt-putting away.  There were sections of the shell popped open, and it was slowly delivering small baby eggs out one side.  Each baby egg was the size and general appearance of an olive.  Overhead, Sniffer Egg was patrolling around like a round helicopter, looking for unwanted eavesdroppers.

Bunny put on her “Professor Bunny” glasses, and Jade knew she was in for a lecture.  Bunny didn’t need the glasses, but somehow she got the idea that they made her look like a professor.  As if professors wore rhinestone-studded glasses.

Bunny touched an egg and it projected an image on the wall.  That section of the wall now looked like a whiteboard.

“Eh-hem.  This,” she drew an almost-oval “is a classic egg shape.  As we have discussed before, the finest, strongest, most secure shape in nature.”  She scribbled, coloring in the inside.  “Now we fill it with high explosives!  But, this is still completely safe, because the explosive mix is not complete!  It still needs a catalyst.  This catalyst will trigger a violent exothermic reaction, to wit, an explosion.”

Professor Bunny pulled out a small pen and extended it into a three-foot long pointer, which she used to tap the board.  “Und where would ve put zis catalyst?”

“Uh…”

“Think EGG.”

“The yolk?”

“Bingo!”  She drew another oval in the center.  “This is actually another egg shape, held in the exact center by shock-absorbent standoffs, and it contains a variety of creamy fillings.  In this case, the catalyst.  In other cases, a small explosive charge.  Finally, at the pointy end of this ‘yolk’ is the primer.  A set of tiny disks separated from one another by an inert gel.  Pressed together (which requires about a pound of force), they make a small bang, either cracking the yolk or igniting it, as the case may be.  Now, because of the shape, and the strength of the egg, and the shock-absorbers and cushioning fluid, these won’t ignite on impact.  I’ve tested, and it takes in excess of 500 Gs to trigger these accidentally.”  She picked up a ‘olive’ and threw it to the ground, as hard as she could.  “See?  Nothing.  But imagine if a TK was to squeeze these parts together – BANG.”

“So, they’re tiny little grenades?”  Jade was impressed.  This was exactly what she’d been hoping for!

“Grenades?  Pffft.  I haven’t even STARTED describing my brilliance yet.  I promised you missiles, you get missiles!”  She went back to her drawing and sketched in a small cuff around the equator.  “Remember those old fashioned paper swords?  A little spiral of paper, so when you flicked it forward, it telescoped out like a lightsaber?  This is sort of the same thing.  It telescopes backward, making a tube.  There’s little fins at the bottom, but you’ll have to hold them in place with TK.  The best part is the dust that I’ve put in around the paper.  On contact with air, it exhibits a temporary but significant expansion, resulting in a grayish cloud.”  She tossed the ‘olive’ to Jade.  “Try it out.  This one’s just a red color-cloud, not an explosive.”

Jade looked at the tiny black egg, still not quite understanding.  “Is it… a rocket?”

Bunny leaned forward.  “Technically, I supposed you’d call it an RPG – that’s Rocket Propelled Grenade, not role playing game.  But I prefer to call it a mini-missile!  The best part is, it’s a complete FAKE.  Look, you cast Jann into it.  She takes an olive and flies off.  At the same time, she unfolds the paper cuff and pops up the fins.  At the same time, she slowly leaks out some of the powder.  This makes it LOOK like you’ve just shot off a missile, which is zooming around on some sort of super-advanced targeting system, and leaving a trail of exhaust behind it.  And when the missile approaches its target, BOOM!  All the evidence is destroyed.  Meanwhile, Jann is instantly back in your head, and you can cast her into another missile.  Since these things are tiny, you can carry hundreds of them!  Who needs a gun when you can shoot off self-guided missiles?  Try it out!”

Jade opened the door and stepped into the hallway.  “Uh, not that I don’t trust you, but…”  She held out the ‘olive’ and dropped it on the floor, cringing back.  There was no reaction.

“Don’t drop it, throw it!  As hard as you can!”

Jade did.  There was still no reaction.  Then she held it in her hand and charged Jann into it.  On impulse, she gave a voice command for effect.  “Missile: fire!”

The olive seemed to launch off of her palm.  Before she could blink, there was a five-inch long flat-black missile with a slightly bulbous nose cone.  She could see the tail fins, and it seemed to be propelled along by a powerful propellant which left smoke in its wake.  The mini-missile zoomed down to the girls’ end of the hall, at the sunroom past Ayla’s room.  At the last second, it made a right-angle turn and vanished from sight.  They heard a voice yelling from the opposite hallway.

“What the hell?  Hey, no missiles indoors!”

Knowing what was coming, Jade turned to look behind her.  A moment later, the missile made a right-angle turn and came barreling toward them.  It seemed to fly erratically, spiraling and twisting unpredictably.  It shot toward them surprisingly quickly, then flew past them and exploded, two doors down.  The explosion sounded like a loud cap pistol, and produced an opaque red cloud that expanded to fill the hallway.

Bunny turned to her with a hopeful expression.  “So, whaddya think?”

“FanTASTIC!  Oh, and flying it was pretty damn cool, too!  So what kind of loads do you have?”

“Well, I was going to talk to you about that.”  Bunny led the way back into her room, to the large egg on her desk.  “This is ‘Betty Boom’, my latest egg.  She’s the reloader.  Well, ‘constructor’ would be more accurate.  Once I get her set up, each egg should be pretty cheap to make.  We’re only talking about fifty cents worth of materials for each one.”

“Hey, can I make a request?”

“Sure.”

“Well…” Jade fidgeted for a moment.  “The black ‘olives’ are cool, but it’s really more of Shroud’s style than mine.  If I’m going to use these, could you make them more colorful?  I’m thinking, some bright yellow, and orange –“

“How about stripes and spots?  Or stars?  I could color-code the loads.”

“Solid colors would be okay,” Jade decided, “just so long as they’re pretty.  And don’t worry about matching them to loads – I’ll be able to figure that out by ‘feel’.  I think I’ll probably cast Jann into the whole batch at once, and she’ll drop everything but the load we want.”

“I like it!  Now, we’ll have to test the real loads at one of the underground test ranges.  For fillers, I was thinking…”

And although there was no martial arts class that afternoon, it still turned out to be delightfully destructive.

>46: If at first you don’t succeed…

Whateley Academy, secret underground lab November 22, Wednesday evening, 7:13 PM

Removing the permanently glued-on appliance had been difficult, but nowhere near the challenge of dragging Billie back into the underground lab.  Jade could almost feel the other girl’s morbid shiver at the thought of the vulgar pawing they would both receive.  Billie had protested, with that flay-the-nerve-ends vulgarity that never actually descended to swearing or true obscenity.  It was one of Billie’s more unique talents.  But in the same way that Jade could sense the other girl’s fear and dread about the procedure itself, she could also feel Billie’s absolute determination to help her roommate.  It helped her, as she literally dragged Billie forward, knowing somehow that the taller girl needed the excuse of being physically coerced.  As if Jade could have pulled Tennyo against her will!

So once again, they had entered the rock-walled underground laboratory.  Once again, electrode contact points were painted on intimate areas of her body, and once again, she was strapped into the strange, insulated rubbery outfit.

The new machinery on the wall indicated how hard the devisors had been working, in preparation for this second trial.

This time, Rafael Eagan strapped a new box over her abdomen.

“What’s that?”

“Instrument package.  It’ll tell us if we’re on the right track.”

Behind her back, she heard Billie cussing up a storm.  Jade ignored the words, and reached for the feel of the emotions behind the cursing.  Form and expectations aside, how annoyed was Billie?  From what she sensed, the answer was, quite a bit.  And still, her roommate went through this for her.  Not once, but twice.

Against her back, she felt the thud of a final clamp being snapped into place.  Then Eagan and Kew stepped down from the revolving platform.

“Okay, Knick-knack.  They’re both locked up tight here.”  Both the devisors moved back behind a screen that looked like armored plate from the hull of a battleship.

“Hold on, girls,” Knick-knack called out in his deep voice.  “We’re going to need to up the power a bit on this one.  It may sting a little.”  Then, “Initiating rotation.”

As with Monday’s session, the platform began to spin and the lights shining on her began to flick on and off, like strobes.  Although she knew she was spinning, the strobe effect gave her a glimpse of the room beyond, always frozen in the same spot.

“Excitation current on.”

The bite of tiny electric shocks began dancing up and down her sides.  They traced down the back of her legs, as if following the seam on an old-style stocking.  Her fingers and toes tingled, and she could feel her earlobes.

“Commence template collection.”

Again, the blue glow began to form.  It was strobe-frozen the way the rest of the room was.  At first, it was just a fuzzy fog that surrounded her body, but it quickly solidified into a shell around her.  She could see transparent blue breasts forming in front of her, and felt as much as saw that outline that was both more mature and more feminine than her own.

*****

In the control both, all three devisors studied newly improved readouts.

“We have a physical mis-alignment,” Knick knack noted.

“I can correct,” Eagan announced.

Kew adjusted a readout.  “I have template resolution at maximum.  Stage three filtration: all exotic elements masked.”

“Lock it in.”

“Done!”

“Sensitize recipient!”

Knick-knack pointed to his own readout.  “There.  The lower waveform is her energy body.  See?  They tell me our tests helped prove that the energy-body is a shapeshifter.  The physical template has been pushed way up in potential to here.”

“What would cause that?” Eagan wondered, scratching at his sideways-jutting hair.

Knick-knack shrugged.  “You’ve got me.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  But with that direct power tap from the reactor…”

“That’s an awful lot of power,” Kew cautioned.  “Is it safe?”

Knick-knack gave a demented laugh.  “Safe?  Since when is being a devisor… safe?”  He reached over and snapped closed the master switch.

“Initiate transfer!”

*****

The stage was spinning fast enough that she was barely clinging to the edge of consciousness.  A motor started in the back plate she was strapped to, raising her up until her feet dangled above the floor.  The transparent energy-breasts were now superimposed precisely above her own flat chest.

“Sensitize recipient!”

Now actual arcs of electricity began to play over her body.  Looking down, she saw the hollow inside of the oversized pushup bra-strap they’d wrapped around her.  Her own flat chest didn’t come close to filling the pre-shaped cups.  Along the inside of the rubber device, a host of electrical contacts stood, removed by inches from her own skin, and the liquid metal painted onto her skin.  But now those contacts emitted arcs of current – arcs that played like lightning across her flat chest, piercing like needles through her tiny nipples.

Jade clenched her teeth and refused to scream.

“Initiate transfer!”

The strobe flashes changed, becoming more powerful.  Each time she spun into position, it pumped energy into her.  The blue energy body was being crudely forced into her physical body.

Now the pain arrived.  On the rack, that medieval torture device, a victim was stretched until their bones were pulled apart at the joints.  In contrast, Jade was being pulled apart molecule by molecule, as her bones were stretched longer.  She felt her leg bones being pulled longer, forced to become longer.  Her arms pulled out.  Not from their sockets, it was as if ever single part of her arm was being exploded larger.

She screamed aloud, but had the strength of will to add a shout at the end, “KEEP GOING!”

This time, she could tell, something was happening.

*****

Billie nearly jumped out of her skin at the scream.  Sure, the damn shocks were hardly comfortable.  She didn’t mind the spinning, of course, but the flickering lights were irritating.  Then she heard Jade scream, and nearly pulled out of the cuffs and clamps.  But the scream was followed by a “KEEP GOING!”

Reluctantly, she held her place.

*****

“Sounds painful,” Eagan commented.

Knick-knack grinned.  “Can’t make an omelet…”

“Trouble,” Kew said.  “Still not getting signal penetration through sigma band.”

“More power,” Knick-knack decided.

Eagan winced, as the screams increased.

*****

Now her back was being broken.  She could feel it.  Someone had their knee in the small of her back, and they were shoving her spine through her belly.  At the same time, they were choking her to death around that same belly.  Giant hands were squeezing her like a toothpaste tube, and she could feel herself squirting out into longer arms and legs.  At the same time, her legs were being pulled out – sideways, as if a giant had grabbed her on each side of her hips, and was pulling her legs out of their sockets.

She screamed again, even louder, but as her head thrashed in agony her eyes looked down.

Her chest was… larger.  Her nipples had grown to double their original size, and were still growing.  And her chest itself was swelling, rising like bread in an oven, her breasts swelling as they struggled to fill the cups of her bandeau.

Her screams continued, but changed in tone.  Her throat and voice were changing, slightly, even as her emotions changed from pain to exultation.

The electricity continued to torture her nipples, to the point where they began to swell in reaction.  From their tiny, wart-like beginnings, they began to grow and expand, swelling like popcorn kernels about to explode.  She turned her head down, staring at her chest, and saw with her own eyes how her nipples were changing.  As they had when she’d first tried hormones, the small ring of flesh immediately surrounding each nipple, her areola, had darkened and thickened.  As she watched, the areola grew, increasing in diameter, thickening, and becoming darker.  Now a collection of fine bumps began to show, in a random ring through the disk of her thickening areola.  Each of those small bumps was as exquisitely sensitive as her boy-nipple had been.  As for the nipples themselves – they had size and structure.  She’d always thought they would be round little lumps.  But her nipples weren’t quite round in profile.  They were more squared-off.  The center was dimpled, pushed in almost, as if there was a duct there that would release its fluid.

Milk, she realized.  That’s where the milk comes out!  And that was why girl-nipples were larger, and shaped differently than boy-nipples.  They had to be functional.

But milk production required more than a large, functional nipple.  As she continue to watch, her neck straining painfully forward, she saw her chest beginning to develop.  Her nipples and areola were already quite large, now the flesh underneath became slightly puffy.  Already, she was losing the strict outline of her ribcage.  Now, her chest visibly swelled.  Like molehills growing into mountains, her nipples rose atop peaks of her own flesh, as Jade watched her breasts form and grow.

She was alarmed by her initial shape – far too narrow and pointy.  Then she began to fill in from the sides, and she began to take on a more conical shape.

The inside of the rubber “cups” over her chest was supposed to be the size of an A-cup.  Although she certainly didn’t fill the cup yet, as she grew her nipple finally brushed the inside surface, directly touching the electrode there.

It was like a icicle stab which turned into a soothing warmth.  With direct contact, the transforming energies poured into her like a flood.  Quickly now, her breasts continued their growth.  She filled the A-cup, and then more.  Her soft, tender new flesh began to strain at the rubbery bindings, stretching the rubber as her chest expanded.  She had no idea what she would look like unrestrained, but she could feel the soft warmth of her flesh straining at the rubbery cups, and her contours now were lush and rounded.

*****

Kew reported her visual inspection.  “Morphing in progress!  I’m seeing changes in the arms and legs, height coming into alignment.  Waist and hips, yes, all secondary sexual characteristics are aligning.  We’re approaching match.”

“Let that be a lesson to you,” Knick-knack instructed.  “If at first you don’t succeed, crank up the power.”

“Hit it with a bigger hammer?” Eagan queried, in amusement.

“If you like.”  Knick-knack activated another monitor.  “I’m beginning the ultrasound.  I think we’re ready for the primary sexual characteristics.”

Eagan studied the ultrasound monitor.  “Nothing yet.  Just intestines.  I’m getting a good readout on the kidneys.”

“Primary sexual characteristics… now!”

*****

The change energies were jabbing through her everywhere, like tiny knives of energy.  It felt like every cell in her body was being touched by the blue energy.  But she could see the glowing outline of Billie’s body.  More and more, her own body seemed to be matching that outline.  Then something changed.  She felt the pain begin to ebb, before it gathered together in a single point, seeming to settle within the center of her hips.  It was in the middle of her abdomen, perhaps five inches below her belly button, but inside.  The pain swelled into an orb of agony, as large as an orange.  Tendrils of energy reached out from the orb, traveling to her penis and reaching down the length of it.  Tendrils like tiny filaments stretched out and over and through her boy-sack, wrapping around the small balls inside.

Then, with an abrupt yank, the tendrils tightened.  She felt her testicles yanked up into her body, as if pulled by piano wires.  The electrical fire filled her penis and burned.  She couldn’t tell whether it was being pulled in or simply burned away.  Either way, she didn’t care.  It was so painful that she could no longer even scream, but this was it!  She was becoming a true, genuine girl!

*****

“What do we have on ultrasound?”

“Nothing yet – wait.  Two small bodies… they might be ovaries.  They aren’t forming in place, they seem to be traveling upward.”

“Interesting.  Anything else?”

“Something stating to form.  It might be the beginning of a uterus.”

*****

The orb of fire was now blazing, pulling all of her mind and all of her attention into the sphere inside the cage of her hips.  Her penis was gone, burned away, and a line of fire flickered back and forth along the length of her crotch.  Abruptly, there was a coldness.  A cold, hard metal rod pressed against her, at her very undermost region.  Electrical fire flickered at the tip of the rod, changing her, burning away the flesh that obstructed it, until it abruptly slipped forward and the cool hard shaft was suddenly inside her.  It was only an inch, but it was actually inside her!

She reveled in the violation.  The was proof!  She was becoming a real girl.  Her screams transitioned abruptly into hysterical laugher, as she imagined Pinocchio.  Only she was becoming a real girl.  And she couldn’t help imagining the puppet’s nose, there beneath her, growing longer and longer as it penetrated into her.  “Lie, puppet, lie!” she shouted feverishly.

Without warning, it felt like she wet her pants.  She suddenly felt moisture down there, and the cold, hard rod slid into her even farther.  All along the length of the rod, electrical fire sparked outward, filling her with sensation.  She was supremely aware of her own flesh and how that flesh had been shaped into a moist tunnel to contain the rod, now thrust nearly six inches deep into her body.

In time with the pulsations of the strobe gun, the rod began to emit pulsating waves of energy from its tip, from the deepest point within her.  Those waves washed over the burning orb within the cage of her hips, until the orb and rod seemed to be performing some type of searing duet between them, where flesh was first burned away and then reformed in a miraculous new configuration.

*****

“Yes, there we go.  That’s all major structures!  If those are the fallopian tubes, that must be the uterus.  There’s the vaginal barrel, with our probe pressed right up against the cervix.”

Kew winced.  “That can’t be comfortable.”

Knick-knack chuckled.  “Not unless high voltage turns you on.”

“Not there it doesn’t.”

*****

And then the fire’s work was done, and it receded.  The electricity was still there, playing over her sensitized skin, caressing her entire body from delicate ankles up her long legs, past curved hip and slender waist, up to feminine shoulder and graceful neck.

The first time she’d been so sure she was changed.  This time, she had three sources of proof to guarantee that she truly had.  First, she could look down, and see the mounds of her own bosom, pressed tight into the rubber brassier.  Second, she could feel her waist.  With every breath, with every small movement, she was keenly aware that her middle was smaller around than it had ever been.  Lastly, there was a stiff, cold, metal rod inside her.  It was a sensation utterly unlike anything she’d felt before.

As the stage spun down, the current diminished and then finally stopped entirely.  Two silvery robots drifted forward and began disconnecting the straps that held her tight to the rotating stage.  With the last cuff removed, she pulled her hands and feet free of the gloves and boots and dropped to the stage, clad in only a rubbery black bikini.

She was wobbly, and had to put her hand out to steady herself.  She’d grown vastly taller, from her own diminutive four-foot-nine to Billie’s towering five-foot-three.  She stood, feeling how her longer legs were also set wider apart in her larger hips.

Billie came floating around from the opposite side, gliding in to stand in front of her, giving her a quick once-over.

Jade was amazed to be looking her roommate in the eye.  She had always been so much sorter than Billie.  Then her eye drifted down.

Their figures were the same.  Their curves were the same.  She didn’t know about her face, but Billie seemed to be nodding at her in satisfaction.  Jade tried to smile at her roommate, but for some reason her mouth was already stretched as wide as it would go.

“Looking good, Jade.  I guess you’ve finally grown up, huh?”

She nodded manically.  “Is it real?  Tell me I’m not just imagining it!”

Billie smirked.  “Nope, that’s the real deal.  In fact, they must have amplified my figure or something, because I’m sure I don’t have that many curves.”

Jade charged herself into a speck, then flew away to get perspective, a look back at her face, and a third-person view that compared them.  After a fast look, she popped back.

“You’re too modest, oneesan.  You’ve just never seen yourself from this perspective.  We’re exactly the same.”

“You’ve still got your face and hair, except maybe a touch more grown up, and your ears don’t stick out like this.”

Before Jade’s eyes got too watery, she hugged her oneesan as hard as she could.  “Thank you!  Thank you, oneesan!  I’ll never forget this, never!”

“Yeah, I guess.  C’mon.  Unless rubber panties turn you on, let’s get into some real clothes.

Before they could reach the changing room, Knick-knack intercepted them.

“Superb!” he boomed.  “It looks like a complete success!  However, I need to caution you…”

Jade suddenly felt the smile slip from her face.

“…since this procedure is so new, we still don’t know what the long-term implications are.  If you really are a shifter, you might lose this shape in as little as twenty minutes.  More likely, you’d lose it when you sleep.  If you last the night, I’d think you’d be stable, particularly considering the solidity of your template.  Whatever happens, keep us informed.”

Jade was briefly sobered, as she returned to the dressing room.  The thought that she might loose her dream, so soon after achieving it, was too much to contemplate.  So she didn’t.  She just concentrated on getting dressed.

Her panties barely fit.  They were tight, but for the first time ever, there was no extra “junk” down below.  Once she had the panties on, she couldn’t help running a hand over her smooth contours.  Smooth and flat down the front, between her legs, and all the way back!  Well, not exactly “flat.”  Her flesh swelled slightly, with puffy, fatty lips to each side protecting and hiding the feminine gap between.  She had felt these contours before.  She wore clothes as Jinn, and she’d dressed herself often enough, even feeling her curves and contours.  But not like this!  Each bit of flesh had some new sensation to it.  And the sensations weren’t restricted to just the private bits, either.  It was the swell of a hip, the narrow dip of her waist, the play and movement of her longer and more graceful fingers.

Her old bra didn’t fit at all.  The band measurement wasn’t that different – her ribs were perhaps an inch larger around – but she’d added at least two inches of bust.  Which was to say that she’d had none before, and she was a solid B cup now – if she matched Billie.  She finally decided that it was pointless for a substantial B-cup like herself (she posed for herself once or twice, just to enjoy the effect) there was no way that she could wear a teeny old triple-A bra.  So she discarded it, and reached for her blouse.

That was the wrong size, too.  Buttoning up left her loose around the waist, and overstraining her top.  The buttons were tight, in danger of being pulled loose.

“I guess that’s why they give us a blazer,” she said to herself.  She put that off until she was finished dressing.

Despite her wider hips, her pleated skirt was loose around the waist.  She spent a moment readjusting the elastic waistband, then slipped the skirt back on.  It had far more flare than she’d ever managed with her boy-body.

It’s a shame I didn’t have this body for yesterday’s hot tub party, she thought.  But then the girls would have been definitely checking her out.  Now that she was a genuine-for-sure girl, she paused to consider, trying to determine her feelings on that matter.  The answer was… she still didn’t know.

Her socks fit, but her shoes didn’t.  She decided to leave them both off and carry herself home.  She couldn’t afford to ruin a pair of socks.

The jacket caused more problem than she expected.  Rather than concealing her new breasts, it seemed to squeeze and push them into greater prominence.  Jade shrugged and cast Jann-sensei into her clothes.  She was gently lifted until her weight was only a few pounds.  She’d done this before, but she immediately noticed a few differences that she’d never noticed before.  First, a lot of the lift necessarily came at her hips and crotch.  Even with Jann’s gentle touch, the lift was now much more comfortable than when she’d been “tucked”.  Second, she seemed to be getting extra lift at her boobs.  While she had to admit that they did provide substantial handles, it felt very odd, and she wasn’t sure she needed quite that much support.

Lofted like that, she didn’t need shoes.  It also helped as she virtually skipped over to her roommate.

“Oneesan!”  She waved, manically.  “Let’s go!  We need to get back to Poe!”

Billie turned around and almost choked when she saw Jade.  “Urk.  You aren’t going out like that, are you?”

Jade shrugged, scrunching her shoulders in together.  It was a feminine gesture that she’s used often enough in the past.  She hadn’t fully appreciated how it needed to be modified once you had boobs.

“Whoa!” Jade muttered.  “Another reason to wear a bra, or slip, or something.  To keep you from sliding against your shirt like that.  Weird.  It is always like this?”

Billie gritted her teeth as she dragged her roommate away from the devisors, who were now watching them closely.  “We’ll talk about it back in the room, okay?”

“Okay!”

The older girl didn’t waste any time, as she dragged Jade out of the underground complex and back through campus toward Poe.  Some girls might have worried about being alone on campus after dark, but no one with more than half a brain was going to bother Tennyo.  Jade was gleeful and buoyant (in more ways than one) as her roommate pulled her along like a balloon.

All the while, Billie maintained her own constant stream of disgruntled muttering.  “I don’t see how they can sell you a skirt like that!  It’s indecent, that’s what it is!  Which is just the word I’d use for the way you’re wearing that jacket – no, don’t take it off!  Gah!  It’s like you give a kid their fondest wish and they go all loopy on you!”

“It’s because I’m so happy, oneesan!  I’ve seen the best, prettiest girl on campus, and now I practically get to be her!  Who wouldn’t be happy?”

“I hate to burst your bubble, kiddo, but we’ve both seen Nikki.  In the buff and dressed to the nines, both.  And Sara was drawing the eyes of everything out there equipped with a Y chromosome, and more than a few without, even before she shifted into her new ‘more fully packed’ stackage.  There’s no way on earth I can even compete with those big guns swinging around.”

Jade spontaneous grab-hugged her roommate, releasing again almost immediately.  Another advantage! she realized.  Boobs make hugs so much more squeezably nicer!  Out loud, she said, “If you say so, oneesan.  But you know they’ve both got magic, which makes it kind of unfair, doesn’t it?  And even if I now have your wonderful, fabulous curves, there’s no way I could compete either, because most of what makes you so super-great is just you.  The person you are and the way you move and the way you talk and everything about you!”

Billie snorted.  “Geez, you ought to get an award for the sincere delivery.  Maybe I should keep you around all the time.  You do wonders for my self-confidence, you know that?”

Jade grabbed Billie’s arm like a leech.  With telekinetic lift, she only weighed a couple of pounds, so at this point anyone could have waved her around like a signal flag.  In a normal town she would have left bugged-out eyes and fainting pedestrians in her wake.  Here at Whateley, everyone that saw them just chalked it up to Tennyo’s strength, and ignored it.

Jade, in her new role as over-sized bracelet, said, “You don’t really have any problems with self-confidence, do you oneesan?”

Billie carefully settled her roommate back to the ground, before replying.  “I don’t know.  Maybe sometimes, I guess.”  They’d reached the front door of Poe, and Billie paused, waiting until they were inside before continuing.  “Maybe that’s part of being a girl – thinking that you can always be just a little prettier, or built a little better, you know?  Sometimes it’s really hard to compete here in Whateley.”

“What is it really, oneesan?”

Billie paused, looking around the downstairs kitchen.  For the moment, no one was inside.  She pulled Jade in for a quick explanation.

“Look, I’ve only been a girl for about six months now.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, Toni and Nikki and Sara, and it seems like practically everybody, I mean, they all have relationships.  Boyfriends, girlfriends, Toni’s got both.  And they’re already kissing and who knows what?  And I know that Sara and at least three others have gone lots farther…

Jade beamed at her, the radiant confidence never even wavering.  “So?  What does any of that have to do with how fabulous YOU are?”

“Well… I’m not sure I’m ready for that.  I’m not sure I’ll every be ready for it.  Is there something wrong with me?”

Jade’s smile got even brighter.  “Billie’s got a secret!” she whispered.

“What?”

“I know your secret!”

“What are you talking about?”

Jade drifted up to her ear and whispered it.  “Oneesan’s a romantic!”

“What?  What does that have to do with anything?”

“Admit it!”  Jade shook a finger at her.  “You want someone who’s going to love you and appreciate you and think gooey thoughts and get stars in their eyes whenever they look at you.”

“Huh?”  Billie thought about it.

“Wow!  Imagine that!  The dread space pirate, the most feared girl in all the galaxy, and all she wants is for someone to bring her flowers and chocolates!  If I told anyone, your reputation would be RUINED!  Ha ha ha ha!”  With a gleam in her eye, she raced out of the kitchen and up the stairs to their floor.

Billie came right behind, shaking her fist.  “Oh, don’t you dare!  You’re going to be in so much trouble!”

But by the time they reached the “gurlzone” end of the hallway, they’d run into the entire crew, in the hallway.

“Jade?” Nikki asked, her jaw hanging open.

Jade bounced around like she only weighed two pounds.  “Yep yep yeppers!”

“Is that you?”  Toni traced an hourglass shape in the air.

Jade did a front flip followed by a back flip, bounding off the ceiling both times.  That was easy to do, since she was telekinetically weightless.  “Me, me, all me, in the fabulous FLESH!”

“Dragons and immortals,” Chou swore, “she actually did it!  It worked!”

“It worked!  It worked!” the hyper girl sang.  “And now I need more money than ever, so I can buy new clothes!  I mean, look at how this blouse fits!”  She yanked open her blazer.

Bunny had come into the hall now, and got a goofy grin on her face.

Toni just looked blank.  “Yeah… I see your problems, there.”

Jade suddenly had a manic gleam.  “I’ve got to go try on some clothes!  Oneesan, can I borrow one of your bras?  After all, we’re the exact same size now…”

Billie looked back with a look of terror on her face, before she was pulled into the room.

After the door slammed, the other girls were left staring at each other in stupefaction.

“…well…” Chou finally said, “she seemed pleased.”

Toni nodded.  “I never thought it would happen quite that quickly.  One moment she’s little and … uh … not so feminine.  Then an hour later, BOOM.”

“They should package that and sell it in salons,” Nikki suggested.  “They’d make a billion.”

Hank wandered up to them, with Sara following not too far behind.

“Hey, did you see the new girl?” he asked.  “Must be another mid-term transfer.  I only caught a glimpse of her, but she looked typically stacked.  Not that you ladies have anything to fear.”

Nikki scowled at him.  “Your transition seems just about complete.  You’re acquiring the classic pig behavior, right on schedule.”

“I like to be surrounded by beautiful women.  Sue me.  So who’s the new girl, and where’s she staying?  Aren’t we just about full up?”

Sara quietly joined them, leaning forward to hear the answer.

“That was Jade,” Chou said calmly.  “She seems to have… how to put it?”

“Blown away her little problem?” Toni suggested.

“Undergone some new ‘developments’?” Nikki offered.

“Grown herself a huge pair of hooters!” Ayla said, from behind them.

“Oh, delicately put,” Toni moaned.

Ayla shrugged.  “It’s an art.”

Oddly, Sara seemed less pleased.  “Are you sure about this?  From my research…”

Whatever doubts she might have expressed were silenced as Jade burst back into the hallway.

“Arg!  What am I supposed to wear to bed now?”  She was dressed in her old “Hello Kitty” nightgown.  Not only had she grown six inches taller, but her expanded measurements at chest and hip also used extra fabric.  So where the nightgown had formerly reached nearly to her knees, it was now within an inch of being completely indecent.  “See?  And if I have to reach for anything overhead—”

“Don’t look, Hank!”  Toni moved to cover his eye, while Hank moved to avoid Toni.

“Oops,” Jade said, suddenly dropping her arms.

“Well, that answers that little question,” Bunny decided, smugly.

Jade ducked back into her room, emerging a minute later wearing one of Jinn’s outfits – a black halter and extremely abbreviated black miniskirt.

“Did you know that  I have almost no clothes of my own that I can fit into?”

The crowd just stared at her.

“Funny, I’ve worn this outfit as Jinn, plenty of times, but I guess I never realized how … exposed … it was.  I mean, when I’m Jinn I don’t actually have any skin, and it’s not like I could feel the air on me anyway.”

“Takes some getting used to, doesn’t it?” Nikki asked, sympathetically.

“Yeah.  Even the halter.  I never used to have anything to halt, you know?”

Toni nodded.  “Been there, done that.  It’s kind of cool, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah, it is a touch drafty.  The weather’s definitely getting too cold for an outfit like this – Oh!  You mean the whole…”  Jade’s grin, which had never entirely vanished, blossomed again into full force.  She suddenly threw her arms around the black girl to hug her.  “Why didn’t you tell me how great it was!  And hugs are so much better, with boobs to squish!  It’s like you’re putting an extra bit of yourself into the hug, isn’t it?”

Toni tried to pull the enthusiastic arms off her neck.  “Uh, yeah, sure.  It’s not something we talk about very much.”

“Congratulations, Jade,” Sara said it quietly, but there was a note of regret in her voice.

Jade looked at the pale white sex symbol and blew a raspberry.  “See?  I did it, and I didn’t even need to carry your child.”  She grinned.  “Not to say that I don’t plan to have babies someday.”  She moved forward and embraced the surprised demoness.  “Do you forgive me?”

Sara was dumbfounded.  “Forgive you?”

“For being mad at you.  For saying… really horrible things that I never meant.  I didn’t mean them, you know, not even when I was saying them.  It was just…”

Sara patted the back of the new girl.  “It was just that sometimes your needs are so strong that you’ll do almost anything.”

The Japanese girl nodded silently, while squeezing harder.

“Believe me, I always understood.  There’s nothing to forgive.”

“In any case,” Nikki decided, “welcome to puberty, even if it was on fast forward.  And now that your body is simmering with the good old feminine hormones, you’ll be as vulnerable to her as everyone else.”

Jade let go with one arm and leaned back, to get a better look at Sara.  “The whole sex thing?”

“Exactly,” Nikki confirmed.  “That’ll definitely perk you up, once li’l miss wet dream sends her lust rays your way.”

Sara scowled.  “That’s under control now!  It’s been weeks since I leaked any of that stuff.  Has anyone here met me in a wet dream in the past three weeks?”

Several hands went up, and Sara gasped.  “No, I swear, it’s under control.”

“Uh, I don’t think it was due to psychic powers or anything,” Ayla offered.  “Cause it didn’t feel that different from the dreams with any of the other girls in them.”

Billie looked up in alarm.  “What?”  Then she shook her head.  “No.  I don’t want to know.  It’s times like this that I’m glad I’m not a telepath.”

“I have to admit being curious about that,” Jade admitted, one arm still around the pale demon princess.  “Everyone gets so wigged out by that whole lust thing.  What’s with that?”

Sara winced.  “Well, like Nikki said, now that you’ve zoomed past puberty, you’re bound to begin finding out.”

“Aw, give me a clue!  I know you can do it.”  Jade gave her friend a pouty smirk.

“You can find out the natural way.”

“Aw, come on!  Just a little zap.”  She squeezed her breasts together like a porn star.  “Does it fill my bosom with sensual heat?”

Billie winced, and covered her ears.  “I do not know this person!  She’s just a stranger!”

“I don’t think I should…” Sara said.

“Dare you!  Just a little zap.”

Sara sighed.  “Just a little.”

Jade leaned forward eagerly.  “Okay, give it to me.”

Behind her, Toni moaned.  “So many straight lines!”

Sara paused, as if expecting a reaction, then frowned, as she saw Jade was still waiting.  “Maybe I’m shielding too tightly.  Well then…”

Behind, Jade, Toni wobbled for a moment and then slammed her knees together.  “Woo!”

Nikki just waved a hand in front of her face and scowled.

Ayla was showing prominent points beneath her blouse, and now the front of her pants began to strain, as well.  “I just remembered that I hadn’t had my cold shower yet this morning…evening…whatever.”  She raced off.

Jade shrugged.  “Maybe it’s too subtle for me.”  She gave Sara another innocent squeeze.  “Still friends?”

“Always.”

As Jade turned away to join her roommate, she missed the perplexed glances that passed between the demon princess and fairy queen.

 

  since 7/09/06