Strange Happenings
Midnight. They always came at midnight. The chimes from the old grandfather clock in the den jolted Daniel out of his restless dreams. It wasn't the chimes that woke him so much as the knowledge that They were coming. It was the same horrifying ritual, every single night.
The room was illuminated by an eerie pale green glow. Three figures in haz-mat suits stood around his bed. One of them held a large briefcase, another held a gun, and the third--the apparent leader, from the way he acted--was making entries into a large handheld computer. Daniel tried to escape, to run, to even move, but some unseen force held him in place, as immobile as the bed itself. The leader looked up from his computer and signaled to the one holding the briefcase, who set the case down and began to open it. Daniel strained to see its contents, but couldn't from his position. If only he could move...
The leader reached forward, grabbed the bedcovers and--
The shrill blast of Daniel's alarm clock filled the room. He'd had that dream again, the same one he'd been having every night for nearly a month. Except that it didn't feel like a normal dream. It felt more like a memory, but one that had been partially forgotten. Anyway, Dan had more important things to worry about, so he pushed whatever it was aside for the moment. Today was the last day of school, finally. All he had to do was survive his last few final exams, and he'd be home free. He wasn't about to let a creepy dream get him down.
***
Dr. DiCaoz glanced over his biology classroom. "Is anybody still working on the final?" he asked tiredly. He paused for a moment, then said, "If everybody is finished, you may talk quietly amongst yourselves for the remainder of the period." As the class erupted in chatter, he went back to nursing his hangover.
Daniel loved his biology class. It wasn't just that he was good at it, or that it was the last class of the day. By some bit of luck or fate, he happened to be in the same class as his four closest friends, Gassan, David, Pammy, and Jake. Gassan, David, and Pammy had become absurdly popular since coming to high school. Gassan was Lebanese and therefore "exotic," David was a star swimmer, and Pammy was a cheerleader. In retrospect, popularity was an inevitability. To the other popular kids, Jake an avid follower of the Furry subculture (he called it a craze, but nobody else did) and Daniel, the introspective writer, were social liabilities. Still, Gassan, David, and Pam never let their newfound "friends" keep them away from Jake and Dan. Privately, Daniel was grateful that he had managed to befriend the four people who appeared to be immune to high school drama.
"So, what'd you guys think?" Pammy whispered.
"I'm pretty sure Dr. Di is a nutcase," Gassan answered quickly. He was met with a chorus of approval from his companions.
"Anyway," Pam continued, "are we having our annual Thank-God-The-Schoolyear's-Over party tonight?"
"I can't go," Jake said, "I've got a convention."
"I can't go either," said David, "My dad's taking me camping. He's on a back-to-nature kick."
"I'm visiting my grandma," Gassan said. Pammy rolled her eyes.
"Alright," she sighed, "when do you guys get back?"
"Sunday"
"Sunday evening"
"Sunday, but it'll be late."
"So," Pammy continued, "is Monday night alright with everyone?"
***
The days passed quickly. By the time Monday arrived, he had gone an entire weekend without his mysterious dreams. He was mostly relieved, but part of him wished the visitors would come back so he could find out what they were up to.
The streets were charged with an eerie calm. A summer storm was coming. As Daniel reached Pam's door, he couldn't help but feel a strange foreboding. Something was decidedly wrong. He rang the bell.
"Come in," called Pammy. Dan opened the door and found friend sitting on the floor in a tidy circle. They were all staring at him, an unsettling hunger in their eyes. "We are playing Truth or Dare," Pammy intoned mechanically. "Please, join us. Truth or Dare?"
"Please choose Dare," Gassan said, in the same unearthly voice.
"The Truth is never any fun," agreed David, still in the same tone. Throughout the exchange, none of the four took their eyes off of Daniel.
"Is everything alright?" he asked. "You all seem...different."
Pammy answered in the same monotone as before: "We are collectively unnerved at a series of recurring dreams we have been having. Perhaps you too are experiencing these visions?"
"Yeah," Dan said, "but I'm not acting that weird about it."
"Perhaps," Pammy said, "All will be made more clear if you answer this simple question: Truth...or Dare?"
Written by Zodiac on 31 May 2008
The Dare
"Dare," Dan said shakily.
"Very well," Pammy responded, "your dare is to go to Area 50. You are familiar with Area 50, I trust?"
Jake jumped in: "It is a military complex on the outskirts of our town. It has been abandoned for a long time, though, so it will pose no immediate threat to you."
"It is nothing to be afraid of," said Gassan, "consider it to be something of a rite of passage."
"If you are truly afraid," said Pammy, "then we will accompany you."
Daniel stared at his friends incredulously. They had never acted this strangely before, and they had certainly never gone for childish dares before.
David appeared to sense his hesitation, and added, "perhaps Area 50 is somehow related to...Them."
Dan knew what that was about, and David was right. There seemed to be some connection between his nightly visitors and the military base. He couldn't quite place it, but the link was there. "Actually," added David, "all this talk of Area 50 has sparked my curiosity." He didn't sound the least bit like his curiosity has been even remotely sparked."
"I, too, am interested," agreed Pammy disinterestedly.
"As are we," said Gassan and Jake in eerie unison.
"Perhaps," Pammy went on, "we should go to Area 50 ourselves, whether or not Daniel is interested." The four of them stood to leave. Pam stopped for a moment, and asked, "Are you joining us, Daniel?"
Written by Zodiac on 02 June 2008
Area 50 Arrival
Daniel looked at his friends nervously. "Al...alright," Daniel said reluctantly, "I will go..."
"Nice to have you coming David," Pammy exclaimed. All David could do is let out a sheepish smile. "We will meet at Area 50 at 9 P.M. tonight, everyone can run by their houses and grab anything we may need. Flash lights, snacks, etc."
"I am just going to relax at my house until it is time" David said
"We'll I will see everyone then," Gassan said. Everyone soon dispersed and left to their respective houses.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Later at 9 Daniel met his friends at the base.
"Everybody ready to go in?" Pammy inquired.
"Yeah!" Gassan shouted.
"Let's do it!" As did Jake.
"Sure am" David said
"Unfortunately..." Daniel murmured.
David looked around and saw the front entrance directly ahead.
Far down to his left a hole in the fence could be seen.
And to his right a large tunnel could be seen. Though it was pitch black, so somebody better have a flash light.
Written by Shuusuke on 03 June 2008
The Welcome Wagon
Daniel headed toward the front gates of the sprawling complex. Curiously enough, they had been left wide open, presumably because any military secrets worth plundering were long since gone. The other four followed Dan a half step behind, in a perfect crescent. Daniel pulled a flashlight from his backpack and scanned the base. Directly ahead of them was a large, hangerlike structure, with an enormous double door out front. Behind the main building were rows of barracks, and beyond them, guard towers. There was also, off in the shadows, the silhouette of a staircase leading underground.
"Are you guys sure about this?" Dan called over his shoulder. "Guys?" No answer. He spun around, only to find that his friends had vanished. The distant, echoing thunder served only to amplify the silence. A dull panic began to rise in Daniel's throat. His friends were gone. He was alone in a creepy military base, and his friends were gone. Maybe they had chickened out and gone home...but he didn't hear them leave. Maybe he had gotten turned around in the darkness, and they were ahead of him somewhere, already within the vast base.
"Guys?" he called again, this time louder. For a moment, there was no answer, but then a noise came from the hulking arch of the main building. The doors shrieked open, and there were his friends again, standing against the building's illuminated interior.
"Took you long enough," called Pammy. "We've been waiting for half an hour."
Dan rushed to the open doorway. In his relief, he wanted to throw his arms around his companions, but Pammy's irritation made him change his mind. "What do you mean," he said, "you guys were right behind me."
Pammy's face quickly changed from irritation to confusion. "No," she answered, "we weren't. You called me and told me to have everyone meet here at 8:30."
Gassan cut in, "We were waiting outside, but we went in here when we heard the thunder. We called you, like, 8 times."
Daniel checked his phone. It was on, had plenty of battery life, and the display showed no missed calls.
"Hey," he said, "when I called you, was I talking funny? Like...like a robot or something?"
"Oh, that's smooth," David jeered, "Blame your jerkiness on your secret robot clone."
"No," Pam interrupted, "You did sound funny."
"Because I thought I was just with you guys," Dan said, "and you were all talking weird. Pammy, were you at your house at all today?"
"Not since about noon. I've been shopping, why?"
"Because, I was at your house. And I thought you guys were all there too, but if--"
"None of us were at Pammy's," Jake said, "as soon as you--or your evil twin, or whatever--called her, she called us and said we were moving the party here. Which I was totally cool with, but now I think something weird is up."
"You don't suppose," Gassan began, but then stopped. "Nevermind, it's stupid."
"Well," said Pam, in an obvious attempt to salvage a ruined party, "as long as we're here, why don't we poke around a bit? C'mon inside, I'll show you what we found so far."
Daniel stepped into the building, and was momentarily dazzled by the lights inside. "Whoa," he muttered, "How'd you get the power back on?"
"We flipped the light switch," Pammy answered nonchalantly.
They were standing in a sort of vestibule, a cramped space that belied the enormity of the building itself. Ahead of them was a small, unmarked door. To their left was a rickety-looking spiral staircase. It came up from an unseen basement, and disappeared into the floor above. Directly below them was a red square, painted onto the room's concrete floor. Stencilled onto the square, in white block letters, was simply "PROJECT ZERO." The line moved straight ahead for a bit, then turned abruptly and vanished under another pair of double doors.
Written by Zodiac on 03 June 2008
Taking the high road
"Hey let's go up the staircase" Daniel says.
"Are you sure?" Pammy questioned, "Looks as if it could fall at any moment."
"No, it looks sturdy to me," Daniel said, "Here to prove how sturdy it is, I will go up first and when I get to the top without it breaking I will call to you guys.
"Fine, but break a leg; will ya?" Jake laughs.
"Thanks." Danie held onto the railing as he climbed. Each stair squeaked as he moved toward the top, rust started building up on the palm of his hand as he continue to drag his hand up the rail. Why did I want to do this, Daniel though to himself. He was nearing the top now. A dim light could be seen, it then took him a minute to realize he no longer hear his friends. He turned around and as he did he felt the staircase give under his weight. He instinctively grabed for something and caches the ledge of the next floor.
"Oh shit," he screams. The adrenaline is pumping through him and he slowly pulls himself onto the next floor. He rolls over onto h<is back, breathing heavily, As he lies there for a few moments to catch his breath. "Where are my friends now," he thought.
He stands up and looks around and notices the dim light is coming from a switch to his right. He walks towards it and tries to read what it says, but the words have rusted away with the metal. "Maybe it's the power" he thought. He decided to pull the switch, as he does, the lights above him come on. He takes another look around and sees that he is standing on a board walk and on each side of it are several vats with a variety of coloured liquids.
He starts crossing and hears something from behind him, he looks, but nothing is there. He sees small waves emitting from the liquids to his right. He looks to the other side and sees they are also moving. He decides to look inside one of them to see what is going on.
Which one is it? There are a few to choose from.
Written by Shuusuke on 18 June 2008
Bio Suits from Outer Space
As he looks at the liquid it bubles and a suit flows out and covers him completly. "Don't struggle" he hears. "Now lets see. You need wings to avoid falling." He feels a pair of wings grow from his back, just below his shoulder blades, expanding and covering with a manbrane and scales. "You will also need something to protect you with." His skin begins to dry and crack over every inch, itching all over as patterns form, the skin hardening and turning silvery white, becoming scales. "And ways to fight." Hands and feet cramp up as the toes and fingers change, nails lengthening and curling out into long, sharp claws. The heels rose up as the feet lengthened, forcing him to stand on the balls of his feet with his claws helping keep him steady.
"Good. Oh, you need something to also help you flying. A rudder for the sky." His spine cracks and unfuses from his pelvis, stretching and growing, extending over 6 feet long, becoming flexible and curly. "That's good. Hmm. What else? Oh! Horns and your head. You need fangs." His skull began to shift and crack painfully, nose and mouth extending, pulling the face as his gums bled while his teeth grew longer and sharper, until they were like knives. The ears flattened to fin-like apperance, while the top of his head pushed outward in two places, growing two sharp horns.
"Yes. A dragon. A powerful dragon." A wave of power was felt through his body as his muscles grew in definition, abs getting toned. "It feels good, right?"
He looks arond "What? How?"
"I can change you." The voice said. "Anything you wish me to add? You do look handsome, though I'm not finished." It gave a small nice laugh.
He gulps thinking of his friends on the floor underneath. "What about my friends?"
"What about them?"
"Won't they be scared if i just walk up to them ou tof the darkness?"
"It's alright. I can change you back at any time I want. I'm one with you now. Here, let me show you something I can do." Suddenly his body began to quiver all over, and he shrunk down a little bit, hips widening, waist narrowing, the muscles in his arms shrinking, adding to the legs to make them shapely, as he felt himself suddenly become herself, chest ballooning outward a little bit, while her voice raised in pitch until she stood there as a beautiful dragoness.
She gulps "You made me female too?"
"Yes." The voice sounded different, female as well. "I wanted to prove a point on something. I sensed some doubt in your mind about this. Relax. As long as you and I are one, you can take on any form you want. Just ask me and I will do what I can."
"Can I be my old form?"
"Well, it's not a good idea to change you back while your up here. If I do, you could fall. Let's wait until your in a safe place." The voice said. "Whats your name?"
"Daniel, do you have a name?"
"My designation is BF-217, however you may wish to call me what you want. Oh, and I made you female because your smaller mass and size would make you more stable on this platform."
She nods and heads down the stairs. When she is down. "Now can you turn me back?"
"It's dangerous still. I can't do it without threatening your safety. Changing you will leave you vulnerable."
"What do you mean? I am on the ground. I can't fall."
"No, but your in a dark room. In this place, anything can be lurking in the shadows. Anything that could kill you in human form."
"Well what about being male?"
"Hmm." The voice thought about it. "You sure? You can help your friends like this."
"Yes, I am sure."
"Alright. But your friends will be afraid of you, seeing you as a powerful male dragon bent to kill them. Plus monsters in the place would want to kill you easily, seeing you as a threat. Female and they might leave you alone. Either that or they will still attack assuming your weak. But don't worry. With me, you could lift the world." She giggled in Daniel's head.
"You are going to keep making excuses to keep me like this arn't you?"
She sighs. "Until we know your safe. A bedroom, your home, with your friends in a camp. I don't know, but my duty is to protect you. I sense your a kind person, and so I want to make sure your safe along with your friends"
She nods "I see, I suppose I need to go talk to them now."
"Sorry about this. Just don't tell them who you are. Say your another person who came around her a long time ago. Since you look completely different, even are a different sex, they wouldn't know it's you." The voice giggled, making Daniel feel a little giddy too.
"But won't they wonder about me?"
"Most likely, but that doesn't mean they would go searching for you. If you told them that they were in danger and you were trying to protect them, they might let you lead them away from harm. Go find them. They won't notice who you really are." The voice said, trying to urge Daniel to get moving.
"And I tell them Daniel is safe if they ask?"
"Yes. You can tell them your safe. Say whatever you like to get them going. If you want to, you can tell then your Daniel and tell them what happened. IF you want." The voice stressed the if.
She nods and walks to where they were but they are not there "They are supposed to be here"
"That's not good. To be honest, nobody should be wandering around here. There are a lot of bad things that are trapped here. Things that want out, and will do anything, stop at nothing to do that. They will kill anything standing in their way." The voice said with a hint of fear.
"such as the robotic voices that brought us here?"
"That's.... yeah. You should find them. There's no telling what they could have found. Only things here that are safe are the others just like me. And there aren't many left. Go. Your sense of smell is improved beyond that of even a dog. You can track them."
She sniffs "Wow I can actiually smell them"
Daniel could smell all of her friends, though they went off in separate directions. Jake went down one hallway, Pam went down another with Dave, while Gassan, who's smell was the strongest, left last to follow after Jake.
Who does Daniel run after?
Written by Universal6 on 28 January 2012
Run after Pam and Dave.
Daniel turned to the right and proceeded down the hallway. Jake could handle himself with Gassan. Dave was a good friend, but Pam was her real concern. She was her girlfriend. Daniel ran as quickly as she could, finding that the shape of her legs allowed for great speed. Following the smell of Pam and Dave, he came to an intersection. A quick wiff showed they split up, which wasn't something smart to do in a strange place. Going after Pam's scent, Daniel ran further and faster than humanly possible after her girlfriend. She was important to him.
Seconds became minutes as she ran, then heard a high pitched scream. It sounded just like Pam.
"Pam!" Daniel yelled, trying to go faster. "I'll save you!" She cried out, following the scent into a room, the door broken and wide open.
Daniel stopped just inside, and looked around, but found it was too dark to see. She blinked, squinting, and suddenly found her vision clearing, the room appearing to get brighter, some things glowing. It took a second for Daniel to realize that her vision changed to allow her to see body heat.
"This should help." 217 said in Daniel's mind.
Daniel nodded, and scanned the room, but only saw trash all over the room. "Pam!" She screamed. "Pam, where are you?"
Walking through the room, she tried to find anything that could tell her where Pam was. The smell of her girlfriend was so strong in the room, but there was nothing to say that Pam had left.
"Daniel, crotch down and place your ear against the floor."
"What? Why would I do that? I need to find Pam." Daniel said, confused.
"Just do it. You can hear and feel vibrations with your fin like ear."
Daniel looked around the room, and finding nothing else to do, complied. She kneeled down and placed her head on the floor, ear pressing against it. The sensation was intense. She could almost feel the entire building. Every sound, ever motion, was causing vibration against the floor, and she could feel it. Daniel had read that snakes could feel the smallest vibration a mile away, but this was cool. She could feel Jake and Gassan on the other side of Area 50, while Dave was just sitting. But, what Daniel found weird was that he was feeling a ton of vibration coming from under the facility. And the sounds, the frequency of the vibrations made it seem like there was a lot of machines, a lot of electronics, and people. Lots and lots of people. That shouldn't have been possible. Area 50 was suppose to be abandoned.
Daniel stood up, confused. "What's going on here?" She looked around the room.
"It appears Area 50, as you call it, isn't as abandoned as it would seem." 217 said. "Daniel, can you give me a name? You haven't called me anything, and I feel that by having an identity that you give me will make you feel that I'm really here."
Daniel stopped and gave a blank look. "A name? I don't know. Any preference?"
"None."
"Okay. Um.... How about... Michelle?"
"That will do. I'll be called Michelle." The voice said.
"Alright, Michelle, what do we do now?" Daniel asked.
"I would recommend we get your friends out of here. The ones that are still around that you can find."
"Any way to speed this up?"
"There is... but... It would involve a few things. Splitting you into 2, and that can leave you feeling a little cold."
"What? I don't think I could handle being in two places at once."
"Oh, not exactly. You will still be you. I would be controlling the second body. My mind and perception would be split amongst both that body and with you, but mostly my mind. My senses would mainly be in the other body though."
"It would? Really?"
"Yup. You want to do it? Double our resources at the expense of a few things."
"Um.... No. Not now." Daniel walked out of the room, her tail trailing behind her.
"Understood. Let me know when you need something." Michelle said as Daniel's vision changed back to normal.
Written by Universal6 on 29 January 2012
Something's wrong with Dave.
"Let's go find Dave." Daniel walked down the hall back the way he came, and took a turn down where her friend went.
The hallway stretches out with many doors. Dave's scent goes through one of them.
Daniel walked up to the door and peered inside, her vision once again shifting to let her see body heat, and he saw Dave inside, his back to her. Suddenly every muscle locked up in her body
"Don't get closer!" Michelle shouted in his head. "Get out of here. Now."
"W-wha?" Daniel tried to speak, but was cut short.
"Now!!!" Her muscles acted on their own, turning her body around and rushing out of the room, turning around the corner and stopping just around the corner, and peeked out.
A few seconds later, there was a sound of gears moving as Dave stepped out of the room. Only, it looked like Dave in shape, but only in that. The skin was gray, metallic, and a little reflective.
The thing that looked like Dave turned it's head to the left, then to the right, looking towards Daniel.
She felt her body suddenly go cold, falling to the same temperature of the hallways.
The machine looked around again, before turning and walking down the hallway away from Daniel, going out of sight.
"That was close." Michelle said.
"Close? What was that thing? Where's Dave?" Daniel asked mentally, still unable to move.
"Unfortunately, I think that WAS him."
"What do you mean?"
"This place did a lot of experiments. One was creating a very good robot. I... I think that room was the one that did matter conversions. From what I remember overhearing, they used that to turn test subjects into machines, and took those apart to see about rebuilding them. David must have activated the device in there. He's no more. Only a security bot. And trust me, if he saw us, he would have either dragged us in there, changing us into something similar, or taken us to anybody in charge."
"But... he looked right at us."
"He is activated by motion, hence why I stopped us from moving. As for looking at us, I know you felt your body temperature drop. He would have easily seen us if we were still warm. By matching temperatures with the room, he couldn't see us using Infrared, which is the best thing to use here. I'm sorry Daniel, but Dave is gone. He's just a robot, and now we have to get your friends as soon as possible. If he finds them before we do, there's no telling what will happen to them."
Daniel gulped, and felt herself move again. "Alright." She turned and went down the halls, searching for the remaining two friends she knew were still here, running faster than ever before, her reflexes so well tuned that she was turning corners and running down halls faster than the eye could see. Little she know that she was being watched.
Written by Universal6 on 06 February 2012
In the security center
"Well that suit seems to be adapting quite well to her."The person said, looking over the 5 active screens.
He reaches up and turns one of the screens off. The last thing on the screen was the robot that used to be Dave.
"I wonder what the fate of the other 4 are going to be."He said as he sat back down.
Meanwhile, Daniel had come across where the others had gone, finding they were smart enough stick together. Daniel stopped to catch his breath, finding he wasn't that winded. "Wow."He stood there. "I... I ran maybe... uh."
"You ran nearly a mile and you can still run more. Your current form is designed to be the best physically possible. Agile, strong, and more."Michelle said.
"Wow. I could get used to this. Aside from the breasts of course."
"It's needed to give you the best flexibility as possible. However, if you wish to become bulky again, I might as well give you that."
"No... I... I um... I like this. It'll help out. Plus as you said, it would allow me to hide my real identity a lot easier."
Michelle chuckles. "Your like most males. They are curious about females."
"N-no. I'm not curious."Daniel blushed.
"Ok then, Danielle."Michelle laughs, making Daniel blush even more.
"It is Daniel and not Danielle."
"Right now it is. Your a girl, and Daniel's a boy's name."Michelle giggled.
"So where did all this stuff come from anyway?"she asks.
"The people who ran this facility brought it here. I would assume that, like me, all this was technology from downed ships of various species."
"Wait... are you saying that.... the..."Daniel stammered.
"Say it. The alien conspiracy is real."Michelle ended.
"But how have they kept the weapons needed to bring the ships down secret?"Daniel asks.
"Well I believe most of them simply crashed."Came the response from Michelle .
"I know that. But how could they keep this stuff secret? Transporting all this tech here?"
"How else? Claim they were part of meteor showers, which half is actually true. I was part of one. And take the tech apart carefully. There are some things they have been messing with for nearly 40 years now and haven't got working properly."
"Such as?"Daniel asked.
"Um... well, they can transport inorganic matter from one place to another without problems."
"Huh?"
Michelle sighed. "Transporters. Like from Star Trek? They can't get it to transport living matter though. They've had... set backs... to say the least."
Daniel gulped, knowing about stuff like that. "I...I see. Thank you for not going into detail. How do you know about Star Trek anyway?"
"Your mind. We are joined together now. I've been learning about your culture by scanning your mind."
"I see. So can you do anything about looking for the other 2?"
"Of course. Hold on. Let me try something."
Daniel took a deep breath, and felt his vision changing. Suddenly he was seeing through walls, and saw the skeleton frames of his friend's bodies, wandering the halls not 30 feet from where she stood. She looked up and down, but for some reason the floor appeared perfectly black, like something was blocking her vision.
"What is this?"Daniel asked, looking around in awe.
"Well, your culture would dub it ‘X-Ray Vision', however that isn't what it is. Your just seeing beyond the walls and ceiling. I don't know why the floor is blank though."
"I see. Well we need to get going after them"
"Just follow the paths, using the translucent walls to help you find your way."
Daniel nodded, and walked slowly and quietly towards his friends. "I hope they're alright."
"So am I."
Written by Universal6 + Catprog on 07 February 2012
Feline taurs
Daniel tries to find a way to her friends but before she can get to them, they stop moving and their skeleton starts to change.
Daniel stops and look through the wall to them, confused as she sees the bones expanding and shifting, mostly around their waists and faces. The bones around their waist started pulling back behind them, the spines getting longer. It looked like the rears had been changed, and the new rear bones grew more, growing two hind legs, with pawed feet. The normal legs reshaped, feet turning into paws.
Daniel finally find a way to them and when she arrives they are banging frantically on the doors of a machine that they are trapped in.
"H-hold on! I'm coming!" Daniel yelled, and tried to open the metal door. It was bolted shut. "Grr. Damn it!" She groaned and gripped it hard. "Gotta... get this..... open!!"
She watched as the bones of their faces changed, slowly the face bending and curving outwards, the nose flattening and becoming one with the upper jaw, the lower one getting longer and wider. The teeth grew bigger and sharper.
"What is happening to them?" She asks Michelle.
"They're changing. But... I don't remember hearing about anything around here that could do this."
Daniel groaned and continued to pull on the door, and suddenly it ripped off.
There is a buzzing sound coming from inside the room, which dies down almost immediately, with a whooshing noise and then smoke slowly filling from the side.
There was the sound of coughing, and groaning, but the voices sounded higher in pitch.
Daniel carefully walked into the room and looked inside, and gasped as he saw two creatures on the ground, laying against the wall. Looking them over, he could tell they weren't human, but apparently looked like felitaurs. Female felitaurs when he saw the mounds of fur on their chests. It was hard to believe that he saw these two creatures were human before.
"Gassan? Jake?" She walked up to them.
They looked up at her in fear and surprise, and then screamed at the top of their lungs, which due to their bodies having 2 sets of lungs was quite loud.
"Who are you!?" The white tigress screamed.
"It is me, Danielle." Daniel said to them and then to Michelle. "Why can't I say my name?"
"Because your female now." Michelle responds cheerfully. "You don't want to let them know who you are, right?"
"I... but these... they both are... they're female." Daniel groaned. "They have to know that they have a friend who understand their.... situation."
"Hmm... Alright." Michelle said.
"Sorry .. I am Daniel, the suit changed me into this and would not let me tell you who I was."
Gassan and Jake stared up at Daniel in shock, then at each other, and back to Daniel. "R-really?" If they hadn't been changed just a few minutes ago, they wouldn't believe the dragoness standing before them.
She nods "Apparently it can change me back but it doesn't want too. Did you touch anything on the machine before you got stuck in there?"
They looked at each other, then up to Daniel. "Well, yeah. That... that board over there." The panther looked over to the far wall, where there was a switch board.
Daniel turned and looked at it. "Hold on." She walked up to it, her tail trailing behind her. She could almost feel Gassan and Jake staring at her body. Daniel approached the wall, and looked at the board. Both switches on it are in the middle, apparently rusted there. "Did you touch the switch?" She looked at the two taurs, noticing them fidgeting a bit. "Something wrong?"
The blushed under their fur, only the tigress appearing pink under her white fur, the panther's black fur hiding the redness. "Um..."
"They're not completely female, Danielle." Michelle said. "From what I can tell, they are dual-gendered."
Michelle stared at them, then blushed herself and looked away, back to the board. "What did you touch on here?"
"We..." The tigress looked at the panther. "Gassan stepped in there while I looked at the board. I didn't mean to trap him in there, but I just touched a light on there, and suddenly his door closed. I didn't know what to do. The switches wouldn't move. They were just stuck there."
"Yeah. It still wasn't a good idea to walk into your chamber to find a way to get me out." The panther, named Gassan, growled, and immediately blinked when she heard the sound coming from hir throat.
The tigress, apparently Jake, hung hir head. "The door to my chamber closed, and that's when we started changing into these.... shapes."
Daniel looked the board over. "Let me try something." She reached out to the board and carefully pressed a button. Looking at the chamber, she saw nothing happen. Again, she pressed a button. Nothing happened. She pressed a bunch of buttons, but still nothing happened.
"Maybe it's those switches. They need to be repositioned." Jake said.
Daniel looked at them, and tried to pull on them. They creaked, but didn't move. "Come on." She pulled them down, but they were too rusted. "Come on!" She growled and pulled so hard that the entire board creaked and suddenly ripped from the wall, knocking her back. Slowly sitting up, Daniel looked at the hole in the wall with various wires sticking out of it, and then at the remains of the board in her claws. "Shit."
Jake and Gassan stared at the scene. "W-what happened? What did you do?" Gassan asked.
"It's broken." Daniel groaned. "The machine is broken."
"What does this mean? Can we still change back?" Gassan looked at Jake in fear.
"No. It doesn't. With it broken, we won't be changing back any time soon. If that could have done it that is."
Gassan looked at Daniel, then at hir front paws. "Not good."
Jakes looked at hir, then turned to Daniel. "Do you know what happened to the others?"
Daniel looked at them with worry in her eyes. "They... Dave is... he's been turned into a machine. And Pam is missing. I can't find her. Even my X-Ray vision can't find her."
"You can see through walls?" Jake looked at Daniel in awe.
Daniel nodded. "Among other things. Can you both stand?"
They try to stand and while their front legs follow the instructions, their back legs remain lying down.
"What about your hind legs?" Daniel asked.
"It's hard. We can't get them to move."
"Why not?"
"We weren't born like this!" Jake yelled, a small roar in hir voice. "I don't know how to move these limbs. Our brains can't handle them."
Gassan groaned, using hir arms to hold hirself up, as shi worked on moving the hind legs. They shook a lot as they slowly stretched, allowing hir to stand up. Gassan panted in exhaustion, feeling slightly different in hir head, somehow the struggle to get the legs moving making hir mind rewire itself to the new body.
Jake stared at Gassan in surprise, and with renewed hope, tried to focus and force hir own mind to finally be one with hir body, to stand hirself up. With much effort, shi found hirself standing in the chamber, panting heavily.
Written by Universal6 + Catprog on 27 March 2012
He is alive.
Dave woke up with a start. He could feel himself laying on something solid, bright light shining above him. Covering his eyes with his hands, he saw the sun, though it didn't look quite right. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it just felt different.
Slowly he sat up, looking around. He was sitting in the middle of a field, grass as far as he could see. Looking down, he saw he was sitting on some stone-like platform, cut into the ground. "Where am I?"
His voice seemed to echo, sounding a little hollow.
With a groan, he stood up, and looked around again. "Hello?" He shouted, his voice echoing into the distance.
"Hello." A voice said right behind him.
"Woah!" He spun around, and fell over.
"I'm sorry." The voice said.
Dave looked up at the source of the voice, and saw a tall looking man, with long red hair, purple eyes, and a square face. The man was wearing robes with lines embroidered into them.
"Who are you?" Dave asked, startled.
"My name, in your tongue, is Slartibartfast, but call me Bart." The man said, holding out his hand. "Please, I have much to tell you."
"What happened? Where am I?" Dave asks the man, taking his hand.
Bart pulled him up. "You are in a virtual environment. You've been uploaded into a computer, your body is moving around the facility you were in."
"I'm sorry. What?!?" Dave asked in disbelief.
"You're not in your body, none of us are, and we need your help to get back into the real world."
"My help? Why do you need my help?"
"Because your body is still intact. It's still functioning and hasn't been tampered with."
"What do you meant tampered with? Who would tamper with them?"
"That is not important right now, what is important is getting the Transmogrification Unit repaired."
"Transmogrification Unit?"
Bart looked at Dave. "It's the device that uploaded your mind into the computer during the conversion process, as well as other things. Please, walk with me." He turned and walked into the grass
"Conversion process?" Dave stood there, confused for a minute, before running after the other person. "What's going on here?"
The man stopped. "Look, here's the story. You broke into a room and accidentally activated a machine of my people. That machine uploaded your mind into a computer specifically designed to house the consciousness of living beings. After the upload, your body was disassembled at the molecular level, and using advanced imagers and subprocessors, creates a robotic version of your body with its original physical data stored in its very structure. It doesn't age, and performs functions sent to it from the computer, which we are in. This was used by my people for long journeys that would normally take life times. It allowed us to actually reach other planets and live to see the fruits of our labors."
"But how do you get out?" Dave stood next to him.
"The machine was supposed to be able to restore our bodies, or in the event that they get destroyed or damaged, repair them. Sadly, when we crashed onto your planet so many years ago, the machine itself was damaged. Ordinarily, our bodies would immediately work on repairing the machine, but we were all captured by your people, and things didn't work out well on either side."
Bart turned and looked at Dave. "Their minds are trapped here too.."
"I'm sorry. Their minds are here too? What happened to them?" Dave was confused.
"They attempted to experiment on the machine. After their first person was changed, and we couldn't communicate as we were not used to their anatomy, by the time we had worked that problem out, no one was coming in."
"Why was that?"
"Because..... things didn't work out well for them to be restored. We need you because our bodies, and the bodies of those who came before you, were all destroyed. You're the only one who can control your body and make it get what we need to fix the machine and send you back."
"Lets go then. Show me what to do."
Bart smiled. "Thank you. While your body is working, you can relax in this environment. Sadly, due to the actions of the ones who came before you, we have to restrict you to the common areas of the place. If you wish to move around or see things, I'm certain someone could escort you. I have many things to do, so I won't be able to show you around."
Dave nodded. "If only I could get my friends to help out."
Bart smirked. "You might be able to, but it would be hard."
Dave sighed as they continued walking. Before long, they came upon what looked like an advanced city, with tall building, flashing lights and signs with symbols he couldn't understand. There were a bunch of people wandering around, most of them looked human, though some of those people were wearing clothes like Slartibartfast, and others were wearing cleaning suits. But some didn't look human at all.
Some looked like anthropomorphic cats, foxes, dragons, snakes, and there were a few that were centaurs. They were all walking with some humans, majority of the humans male and the nonhumans female.
"Um.... what's going on? What's with all the different creatures?" Dave asked, pointing to a few.
"In this place, we can choose to look like different things as easy as changing clothes. I don't normally look human."
"Oh, so you all look like which one of those creatures?"
Bart chuckled. "I'll leave that to your imagination. Needless to say, some of those humans enjoy the company of.... what you say, your fetishes."
"Oh." Dave nodded. "That's weird."
Bart laughed. "Not for us. I have to go. I'll leave you to look around here. Someone will come to be your escort." He turned and walked away, fading before going too far.
Dave stood there, still trying to take it all in, but just shook his head and looked around at the various buildings. "I wonder if they have an arcade."
"There's one a few blocks from here." A feminine voice said behind Dave.
He jumped and looked around, seeing a beautiful young woman. "Gah! Why do you do that!? Don't appear behind me!"
"Sorry." The woman laughed. "I'm Corina. I heard your name is Dave."
Dave nodded. "Yeah."
"You're probably feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment right?"
"Yeah. I am."
She took his arm and pulled on it. "Come with me. I have something that will take your mind off of this and let you relax."
"What?" He blinked at her.
"The arcade!" She giggled and Dave felt a rush of air. Corina let go of his arm, and he saw he wasn't in the same place anymore.
He looked around. "What just happened?"
She smiles. "We came to the arcade silly"
Dave looked up at the sign, but couldn't read it. "Um...."
She pulled him into the building, where they heard some sounds of video games being played. They walked in and saw a variety of games, many looking like classic arcade games found back home in the real world.
"Wow. You have a Neogeo, Atari, woah!" Dave walked over to a small black console with a controller that had a large button in the middle with a green X in it. "You have an Xbox 360 in here? How is this possible?" He turned to her.
Corina giggled. "We can make anything in this simulation. There isn't many restrictions in here, and the technology we have is by far superior to your own. We only have a limited selection of games though, based on the memories of your people in here. But we do have something else that can be used for fun." She smiled.
"What do you mean?"
"Come with me." Corina motioned and turned. Dave followed behind her as they walked around to another part of the building.
"Where are we going?"
"You'll see." She responded. They walked for about a minute before coming to a door. Corina walked to a small console beside the door and entered some commands into it. A second later the console beeps and the door opened, light shining through. "In here." She smiled and walked on in.
Dave stood there for a second, trying to shield his eyes, and then walked through. There was a slight buzzing around him as he passed the threshold, and then he found himself standing by the side of a pool. A breeze was felt, and he looked down to see his clothes had changed into normal swim trunks.
Corina was already in the water, wearing a 2 piece bikini swimsuit, light blue in color. Her hair was tied back with braids to keep it out of her face. "Water's fine Dave. Come on it." She turned and dove underwater, swimming to the other side of the pool. What was surprising was that she stayed underwater and didn't surface when she was on the other side, staying there.
Dave blinked at this, and slowly walked down the steps into the water. When he was touching the bottom of the pool, he looked at Corina, still underwater, motioning him to come to her. He waded over a bit before taking a dive and swimming to her, holding his breath. He barely got halfway to her before surfacing for air.
As Dave surfaces gasping for air Corina swims up beside him. "One of the advantages of living like this is you can make your body what ever you like. Once you learn how their are no limits here."
"How? Do I just think of what I want to become and then it happens or is there something else?"
She smiles "Think hard about what you want to change. Or I could change you if you let me."
Written by Universal6 + Catprog on 16 July 2012
Mermaids?
He nods. "I think that would be a good idea to get me used to the process. "
She grins "Ok."
Dave would then feel his legs merging together and then flowing out, into a very large fish tail.
He looks at it in a mix of shock and surprise. "What are you turning me into?"
She grins and shows off her new tail which looks remarkably similar. "Have a guess"
He opens his mouth to speak when there is a growing sensation on his chest. "A mermaid. Your turning me into a mermaid?"
She giggled. "Yes." She smiled while a bikini appeared over his chest, to cover his growing assets.
"Why female though?"
"Well, you are going to have to get used to quite a few different bodies. So this is the start of your training."
"Training? As a woman? But I'm a guy. A man." Dave responded, his voice crackling and rising in pitch. He felt around his throat and discovered his Adam's apple shrinking and vanishing.
"Oh yeah?" She grins as a mirror appear, floating upright in the water. "It does not look like it at the moment."
He looks into the mirror to see the full extent of the changes done to him. He felt as well as saw his facial hair slowly vanish, leaving smooth skin, which began to soften more, while his face rounded out, losing its rough edges. His eyelashes grew longer, nose shrunk down and became cute button like, and lips plumped out.
Breathing became hard as his gut flattened, belly button becoming slim and stretched, like on a supermodel, and his hair started to lengthen and grow down to mid back. He felt other changes, around the region where man became fish, and he could tell he was no longer a man in any form.
Dave looked at her reflection in awe, blushing when she realized she was getting turned on from looking at herself. "This is my training?" She asked.
"In a matter of speaking. While you're here you might as well learn to be other things." She smiled and swam underwater, the pool expanding and turning into a deep ocean.
"But don't we need to get my old body going quickly to start repairs?"
Corina surfaced. "Your body is stored in records. Don't worry. The data is backed up so we can change you back whenever. We're not that stupid." She laughed before diving, tail splashing Dave as she swam deeper into the water.
Dave follows her "I am talking about if someone finds the body"
Corina turned to her, smiling. "It's waiting for you to issue a command. Only you can control it, but overall it is on autopilot. Come on, give it a shot. Focus on the connection and tell your body to walk around. Leave the room and walk around."
"But I'm not in the room."
"Your mind isn't. Your body still is. The converted body. Go. Just think of walking out of the room and exploring, gathering data and sending it to the central processor for the rest of us to see."
She tries to think about it and in her mind she sees a view of the room. "I have a view of the room. However I can't seem to get it to move."
She smiles "Of course not. Out there is slow compared to in here. Your body is already receiving the command, and will function. Give it a few seconds. The system is made like any machine, and they couldn't fully slow it down enough to where it be real life speed. You will feel like you've been in here for days when it's only been a few hours."
Dave nods "How long do you think it will take to repair the machine and get me back to normal?"
"Inside or Outside time?"
"Um, inside." Dave asked.
"A month, if everything goes smoothly." Corina replied.
"And how long of that will you keep me female?"
"That is up to you, the sooner you can change yourself, the sooner you can make yourself male again." She responds with a large grin before turning and swimming away.
"What? Hey!" Dave swam after her, her long powerful fish tail glimmering in the sunlight.
Corina looks over her shoulder and grins before putting on a further burst of speed. By the time Dave draws level they have arrived above a shipwreck.
"So you have gotten the speed part of this body down, but now it is time for the maneuvering part. We have a shipwreck to explore." She quickly swam through a hole in the side of the ship, leaving Dave to float outside.
Written by Universal6 + Catprog on 17 July 2012
The end (for now)