Soralynd
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#1 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:36 | Edited by: Soralynd
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PROLOGUE
"Heh. I feel like I'm a kid again, being sent to the principal's office. I almost wish he was still here, so I could say how we've come full circle."
"Well he's not here. He's gone."
"A touchy subject, eh? My apologies."
"Will you quit being so flippant..."
"Now stop grumbling, Sean, it won't get us anywhere."
"Just tell me what you can do."
"I can make most of this go away. Lawsuits settled for very reasonable amounts, the government off your backs, and most of the plaintiffs will be placated. I can also ensure that your daughter will go to a good home and never want for a thing, and that the unfortunate Mr. Marwin will no longer be a problem."
"If you can do that..."
"I have my methods. I can't decide the final fate of your stock prices, but I can protect your golden parachute."
"'Golden parachu—' oh, that's real mature and professional."
"Now, now, whining won't solve anything. I can also arrange for my good friend Tommy to give your boys a nice loan to get you back on your feet, and if things go well I might be able to persuade him to forget the debt."
"And in return, you want what?"
"I was looking over the geological surveys of some of your facilities. Particularly the Khalena Island facility, and one of your buildings in Florida, the one with the rather spacious basement."
"Want them?"
"Yes, actually."
"You got them. Is that all?"
"Actually, there was one small project I was hoping to use your laboratories for... just a little thing, shouldn't take more than a few months. Oh, Dr. Vann will be heading that project."
"Va... Karl?! Karl is one of the reasons we're in this mess!"
"To forgive is divine. Don't worry, I can promise he'll behave himself this time."
"I will not have one of the guilty parties showing up back on my payroll!"
"Which is why he's undergone a name change."
"Oh, well he certainly has experience in that."
"Now, don't be obstinate. Just a few months and we'll be out of your hair. Take it or leave it."
"Ugh... fine. Anything else?"
"Oh, just sign over a couple of your minor excavation and construction contracts to my own company, and I think that will be all. Renz, pass me the paperwork."
"Right here, boss."
"Thank you very much. Now, Sean, please sign here, and initial here. Mm hmm... there, that was easy, wasn't it?"
"Yeah, yeah, just go work your magic."
"Oh, I will. Thank you for your time. Sorry about what I said before, about the age of science having ended, that was out of line of me."
"You know what they say about those who forget the past, Derek."
"Gone but not forgotten. Have a great day."
ELSEWHERE
TWO YEARS LATER
Ring.
Click.
"H'lo?"
"Eddie?"
"Oh, hey David. What's up?"
"Oh, nothing... well, not nothing, but... uh... are you free?"
"I think so, what's going on?"
"Uh, I think Cipher might not be dying."
"You mean you cured him? Hey, Sam, he cured his cat!"
"Wha... hey, don't tell any—"
"Gimme that phone! Hey Dave, it's Sam, did Eddie get that right? You saved your cat?"
"Well... er... I think so... it looks good, anyway."
"Can we see?"
"Huh? Well, actually, why I called—"
"We'll be over in a few minutes. Bye."
"Um, bye."
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Soralynd
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#2 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:38 | Edited by: Soralynd
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CHAPTER I
Sam and Eddie rushed in before David could even finish opening the door for them. Sam's hulking frame nearly knocked David over as they rushed up to his room to gaze in awe upon the little cage. And what they saw, instead of the flabby orange striped meatball they knew, was a shining white Persian, purring contentedly on an orange floor mat.
"Whoa! Is that him?!" Sam gasped.
"Yeah... I didn't realize he cared for that."
"How did that happen?" Eddie asked. "I thought it was just supposed to heal him!"
"Well, that was the original design, but then I was hacking into the records of Langcorp, and found a formula for actually altering the physical makeup."
"So it doesn't just read your genes, it shifts them?"
"It's a little more complicated, but that's the basic idea. Apparently Langcorp was screwing around with this and that's what got them in trouble in the first place. But that coupled with the brain mapping gave me an idea. This new tech doesn't just read what you used to be, it reads what you'd LIKE to be."
"You mean it gives you your ideal body?" Sam was mesmerized, and he reached one finger into the cage to tickle Cipher under the chin.
"Yeah, that's basically it. I still need to run some tests, but I... what are you doing?! Get your hand out of there!"
Sam realized his mistake, and yanked his hand away. "Whoa!"
But it was too late. the cat remembered the games they often played where Sam would dangle objects just out of reach and Cipher would try and attack them, and the long-term memory of his cat brain kicked in. With lightning speed, he zeroed in on Sam's finger and gave him a playful little love-bite as it departed.
Sam's skin went pale.
"Oh no... no, no, no..." David scrambled through the piles of equipment on his desk looking for something, then found a tube of ointment that he rushed over to lather onto Sam's finger. "No, no... dammit..."
"It... it didn't break the skin..."
"Not on a visible level, but if it was hard enough to raise an abrasion that means the skin was damaged, and that means... why did you do that?!"
"Sorry, I wasn't thinking... are the nanobots still active?!"
"Probably! They remain on for a few minutes afterwards to clean up any residue, and at the rate you two rushed over here... if they enter a new host, they might snap right back into phase one!"
"So... how many of them..."
"I don't know! It could be none, or it could be a million of them!"
Ed rushed over. "Dammit, why did you do that?!"
"Sorry, force of habit... I just wasn't thinking..."
"What's gonna happen to him, David?!"
"I don't know... here, come here, let me scan to see if they're in you..."
"If they are, are they going to read my mind or do they already have cat blueprints coded in them?"
"Well... I don't know, I think they can recognize a new host and know to start over, but... here, let me scan... I need a little skin sample, hold still..."
"Ouch!"
"Sorry, but I need to see! Now, go somewhere, go to the couch, get out of this room and let me work!"
Ed and Sam were huddled on the couch, both looking horrified, both scared to move, scared to do anything, not sure if any course of action would stop or jump-start the nanobots, when David stumbled down the stairs, looking like he'd been at his work for two straight years instead of two hours.
Both of them wanted to ask David, "What happened?" but they were too scared to open their mouths.
"I... well... good news first?"
"No, bad news first." Eddie said. "Oh... er... I mean, Sam? What do you want? Your choice."
"He's right, give me the bad news first." Sam buried his head in his hands.
"The bad news is, they did get into you... and they were still active, and the location shift did set off the alerts, so they know they're in a new host, which means they've reset... and they're replicating again. Now, the good news," he added quickly, "is that I looked and they had shifted their locator modes, and were now scanning for a new wave pattern to lock onto, so that means you won't turn into a cat... in fact, I think you'll get the good benefits."
"I... I will? You mean, I'll get the body I... most want?"
"Yes... you know, you are already on the football team, and you're popular..."
Ed was relieved, and snapped back to his usual wisecracking nature. "Yeah, how much will you improve? You already have a dozen girls after you, if you improve on that you'll look like a cross between Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom."
Sam couldn't help but laugh. "Too bad you weren't infected, you could use an upgrade."
"See? It's not so bad!"
Sam shrugged. "Well, um... is there a way to reverse it?"
David shook his head. "Once they're in, there's no calling them off, and it's not possible to survive more than one DNA shift within your natural lifetime. If someone tries it more than once, their genes implode and their bodies dissolve, it's not pretty."
"So I guess it could be worse after all," Eddie quipped.
Sam groaned, both at the bad news and the bad joke. "So how long does this take?"
"Well, there's a dormancy period, then you black out and it happens all at once over just a few minutes. The dormancy period, I think, is dependent on body weight... now, the version that reads your own DNA code takes a while, but this one is a bit quicker... Cipher's was about two hours, he was seventeen pounds and you're... how much do you weigh?"
"One-seventy."
"Ten times as much... so, about twenty hours, give or take. Maybe a little less, since dispersity doesn't increase at the same rate as mass."
It was the longest day of Sam's life. Sure, David was a genius, but he had said "probably." Which meant that there was a chance he wouldn't get the good benefits, and they'd do something horrid to him. On the other hand, David was a famous pessimist, in fact Sam had been a bit surprised he'd ever been bold enough to try something like this in the first place, so maybe he was fretting over nothing. However, that didn't calm Sam's nerves. He didn't know when it would happen exactly, so every waking moment he was gripped with horror.
Ed suggested they stay the night so David could keep an eye on him. David reluctantly accepted, and asked his parents if he could use the spare bedroom. They said, "Eh, fine. Keep the noise down."
David obviously didn't tell his parents why, although Eddie joked afterwards that the Worthingtons probably wouldn't care. "You could paint the walls green and they wouldn't notice unless you hid the TV remote."
The tough part, of course, would be explaining to Sam's and Ed's parents why one of their two sons suddenly looked different. Their parents weren't nearly as inattentive as David's, and even though both of the brothers were well into high school, their mom hadn't quite gotten over her soccer mom phase. "Even if they do believe us," Eddie pointed out, "they'll come after David with pitchforks and torches."
They bandied about ideas. Claim that there had been a car crash and his face had needed re-structuring? No, there would probably be too many changes for that. Plastic surgery? No one would believe that. They could try the old movie trick of saying, "Ask me something only he knows," and just refuse to explain, but it would still be too weird.
Eventually they decided that he would pretend to have run away. No one would find him because nobody would be looking for his old self. Maybe then he'd be able to make contact again, via Ed. It wasn't pretty, but it was their best option.
Sam spent most of the day just sitting around, staring off into space. Within twenty hours he was going to black out and wake up in some new body. Maybe it would work and he'd look great, or maybe he'd turn into a freak and have to join the circus. Or he'd just disintegrate.
He could barely eat a bite, and when it came time for bed, he spent most of the night staring at the ceiling. Several times he felt strange pangs in his gut, but wasn't sure if they were the nanobots or just his own frazzled nerves.
He was a wreck over breakfast the next day. On top of having not slept at all, he was dreading every moment, waiting for some telltale sign, whatever it would be. He frequently glanced at the clock, then realized how pointless that was, and finally just leaned down at the table, finally getting a little sleep. He woke up around nine, and sat on the couch some more. Eddie attempted to console him with that unstoppable wisecracking that was his trademark, but Sam's heart was pounding so loud he barely heard the jokes. David had spent nearly the whole time in his room, hunched over his lab desk, furiously pounding away at his research, trying to find some answers.
Around ten, he started to wonder if maybe it wasn't going to happen at all, maybe the nanobots had shut themselves off, or there weren't enough of them, or something like that. But not even knowing if it would happen at all was even more agonizing than not knowing when. He almost found himself wishing it would just happen already, so it would be over with and he would know how bad or good it was, and they could get on with something else.
A few minutes later, he got up to head back to his room, to try and catch some sleep, when his vision started swimming a little. He thought it was just fatigue at first, but then things looked blurry, and he had trouble concentrating. Oh no, was it happening? Was this it? Was he about to go to sleep as Sam and wake up as either Brad Pitt or the Penguin?
Ed noticed Sam was stumbling, and rushed over to him. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah," Sam lied, "just feeling a little... weird... ow, my guts are cramping..."
"David, I think this might be it!" Sam yelled.
"Keep your voices down!" shouted David's mother from the living room, not taking her eyes off ESPN.
David came rushing downstairs, his face white as a ghost. "Oh no... is your vision getting weird, and your center of balance... looks like it is... come on, let's get him to his room, let him sleep through it."
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Soralynd
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#3 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:39 | Edited by: Soralynd
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They managed to walk Sam upstairs even in his rapidly exacerbating stupor, and managed to get him sprawled onto the guest bed. They then retreated to talk in the hall.
"So, how long does it take?" Eddie whispered.
"Well, about ten minutes, maybe a bit under."
"Yikes. Will it hurt him?"
"Well, sort of. The physiological changes do put tremendous strain on the netve endings, but he's grayed-out, so his mind won't register it, he'll percieve the whole ordeal as having been painless for him."
"Uh... so basically, it won't hurt?"
"Basically."
"Well, okay. Do you want to watch?"
"I set up the recording equipment already, I'm not sure I want to see it live, I'll just look at the data records later. In the meantime, give him some privacy."
"Okay. I'll wait here, if that's okay."
"Fine. I'm going to work on a remote activation feature. Just grab a chair and stand guard. Oh, and don't just rush in as soon as your watch says ten minutes."
"I know. I was already planning on letting him get used to it before coming out to see us anyway."
"Good. Well, not good, exactly, but... um..."
"But passable?"
"Yeah."
"Okay... well, let's prepare for the worst, anyway. Go, get to work."
"Gotcha. Oh, and get some fresh clothes from the closet, any excess body mass will be broken down into sweat and expelled through the pores, so if there's a major shift his clothes will get soaked."
"Is that why there was so much orange fur on the bottom of Cipher's cage?"
"Yeah. And if he gets bigger, the nanotech will break down pollutants from the liver and convert them into extra body mass, but still, have fresh clothes handy just in case."
"Okay, okay, already, just go, run, do some research or whatever!"
David scurried off.
The minutes seemed like hours as Eddie waited in the hall. Once or twice he peeked in to try and catch a glimpse of what was going on, but the light was turned off, he couldn't see, and didn't dare turn on the light. He just heard a little groaning from Sam, but no shrieks of pain, nor any squishing sounds as his body rearranged itself. Eddie was unnerved by the lack of sound, smell or sight, and had to resist the temptation to rush in and watch live. But instead, he willed himself to stay put, even when he heard... snoring?
Eddie rushed into David's room. "Uh, I hear snoring..."
"Oh... well, that's a good sign."
"Huh? Why?"
"If he's snoring, he's still breathing, and if he's asleep it means that whatever happened to him hasn't got him in excruciating pain."
Eddie had been hoping that this somehow meant it hadn't worked, but this itself was a decent sign. "But why's he asleep? Did it knock him out?"
"He's asleep because the gray-out switched off the adrenaline rush. None of us slept much last night, but you and I are still too scared to notice."
Eddie had to smile a little. Of course Sam was asleep, who wouldn't be exhausted? He went back to the hall to wait.
If the minutes had seemed like hours, the hours seemed like weeks. Fortunately Eddie didn't experience a full hour before Sam's melodious snores lulled him off to sleep as well.
Sam sat up, bleary-eyed, head a little foggy. Had that been a dream? Was he dreaming that he'd been about to shift his shape? Were these strange feelings just post-dream hallucinations?
He jolted awake, as he realized that his sense of touch was not clearing up. He felt all wrong, his body was misshapen, distorted, not right, nothing a human was supposed to look like. He got up, shaking like a leaf (and the shaking sending vibrations throughout him, making him feel like he was a rickety vehicle, with all sorts of weird protrusions wobbling around. His clothes were soaked all over, and he nearly ripped open the shirt to remove the clammy feel, too nervous to even bother with the pants. He staggered over to a mirror, fumbled around for a light switch, found one, shut his eyes, slowly opened one to peek, and saw what he'd become. His eyes flew open to confirm what he'd seen, and he shrieked.
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Soralynd
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#4 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:40 | Edited by: Soralynd
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CHAPTER II
Eddie was jolted out of his slumbers by a piercing squeal that was higher pitched than anything he'd ever heard Sam say. It took him a moment to remember what was going on, but then he rushed in and saw, standing in front of the mirror, a lithe young woman, topless, gazing in horror at her ample rack, watching it sway as her panicked breath shook her, her long brown hair flowing down around her heart-shaped face, her slender waist making a neat hourglass figure.
Ed shouted, "What the fuck? Who... how... Sam?"
Sam turned around, not bothering to cover his chest, and shouted, "What happened?! What... David... I'm going to kill him!"
Through the floor, they could hear the TV in the living room growing louder, as David's parents turned it up to block out the noise.
David came rushing out of his room to see what was the matter. He stood in the doorway to the guest room, eyes wider than Sam's. "What... Sam? How did..."
"What the fuck have you done to me?!" The girl shouted, in a voice that managed to sound cutesy even when she was terrified.
"I don't... I don't understand... are you a transsexual?!" David blurted out.
"No, you idiot! Why did it do this?!"
"Well, it is possible you had some repressed desires... oh... er... sorry, I'll shut up now... oh no, wait a minute!" David ran into his room.
"Get back here!" Eddie roared, running after him.
"What the hell is going on?!" Sam shouted, running out after them.
"Will you guys pipe down?!" David's mother snapped, arriving at the top of the stairs to glare at them. "We are trying to watch... oh for the love of God, put a top on, girl! What you do with these two is your business, whoever you are, but don't run around our house like that!" She turned to head back down the stairs.
Sam and Eddie arrived in David's room, to find him kneeling in front of the cage, his head buried in his hands. "I should have... guys... sorry, I should have examined him more closely, but I didn't want to touch him, and once you'd gotten bit I didn't think of it..."
"Examined him why?!" Sam demanded, grabbing a robe from David's closet.
"He... Cipher, he's turned into a female cat."
"Why?! Did HE want to be a girl?!"
"No... the nanobots were scanning the wrong part of the brain, the wrong fantasy centers. It navigated to the stronger image, but the stronger mental projection isn't of our idealized self, it's our idealized—"
"Speak English!" Eddie snapped.
"It... okay, in English... it doesn't turn you into the person you want to BE, it turns you into the person you want to MEET. Your ideal mate."
"My ideal... it turned me into my dream girl?!"
"Yes... yes, it did. Oh holy... oh, I can't believe it..."
Sam slumped down on David's bed. "What... what can I do?!"
"I don't know... it's too late to change you back."
"I'm going to live like this?!"
David nodded.
"But I... how..." Sam slumped down on the bed.
Eddie did what Eddie did best, he tried to lighten the mood. "You have light brown hair now. I didn't realize anyone fantasized about that color. Who has—"
"Michelle Trachtenberg," Sam grumbled.
"Really? Your face looks more like Amy—"
"Oh shut the fuck up..." Sam rolled over and tried to lay on his stomach, but finding it uncomfortable now he settled for laying on his side and crossing his arms over his face. "How the fuck am I supposed to explain this..."
Ed looked over at the cage, but David was no longer there. He was sitting at his desk again, typing furiously on the computer. "Um, I hate to ask you now, but I need a hair sample."
Without a word, Sam reached up and yanked out one of his new long hairs, holding it up without moving the rest of his new body. "Want more?"
"No, one should be fine... now, let's see..." David picked up the hair with tweezers and placed it in a scanning machine. "I need to... oh great..."
"Now what?" Sam groaned.
"Um... well... according to the nanobots, it looks like they are recreating all the characteristics of your ideal mate... in both body and mind..."
"So now I think like a girl too?" Sam raised his head, too tired and disgusted to even be crying.
"From the image, it looks like... the mental changes will take a bit longer to take effect, but they will happen. Uh, your memories will remain the same, but—"
"Oh, just tell me what kind of girls I like, already."
"Well... bad news or good news?"
"Bad," Sam and Eddie said at once.
"Okay, the bots are saying that your new sexual orientation is primarily heterosexual... for a female, that is."
"Oh great, I'm gonna like guys now."
"Well obviously, or you wouldn't have fantasized... but anyway, there is a trace of latent bisexuality, so if you are recalcitrant, a relationship with a woman is not out of the question..."
"Ah, threesome fantasies." Eddie grinned.
"Well... er... moving on. Your lib... oh great... you read the rest yourself, I'm going to soak my head in ice water for a couple of centuries." David trudged out of the room.
Ed rushed to the screen. "Okay, let's see... wow, you have a healthy sex drive."
"How healthy?" Sam was feeling pangs of terror all over again.
"Well, let me see if I can translate it into non-David-ese... Ah, okay... well, not quite nymphomania, at least."
"Some comfort." Sam resumed folding his arms over his eyes.
"Let's see, what else... oh, wow! Good news. I always thought football players liked bimbos, but apparently you liked smart women."
That got Sam's attention. "What... what are you saying?"
"Well, your old IQ is coming in at 137... wow, must be some mistake, huh?"
"Very funny. What's the new one?"
"Um... 171, actually."
Sam was silent for a moment. "I... I'm a genius?"
"Looks like. And unlike David, you seem to have social skills on top of it. Hopefully some fashion sense, too."
Sam sat up. "Um... okay. Uh... well, I'll believe it when I feel it."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," David said, returning to the room with a glass of water. "You should go take a shower. A long one and a hot one, get the sweat off, and make sure you inhale some of the steam, it'll open up your lungs and cycle some residual fluid out."
Sam, still a little dazed, stumbled towards the bathroom.
"Hey," Eddie asked, "if it works by shifting his DNA, are our codes still similar enough for us to count as siblings?"
"DNA testing won't catch you," David grumbled.
"Actually, I was just wondering if it was okay for me to hit on her."
"Don't even think about it," Sam growled, before slamming the door.
"Hey, you're lucky I didn't say what I was thinking when I saw your IQ reading."
Sam had already turned the water on, and so heard no more.
David sat down at his desk and leaned his head against the monitor.
"Hey, man, it's not that bad, did you see the specs?"
"Yes, I saw the statistics, Ed. I also just turned someone's life upside down... why are you so calm, anyway?"
"Hey, she didn't seem to mind after I told her about the IQ thing."
"Wha... 'she?' You're calling him a she?"
"Well, you said she can't change back, so no point in delaying the inevitable."
Sam practically had to learn to walk all over again. It was strange, his figure didn't look like that of an overblown sex doll, but the way his waist and hips felt... was this how all girls' bodies felt? Would a girl feel so out-of-balance if she were changed into a guy?
But apparently his tastes had run towards the slimmer, quieter, more petit figures. His chest wasn't oversized at all, and his hips were slender, delicate. The face he'd liked wasn't sultry, it was cute, almost elfish, heart-shaped, with slender lips and large, soft green eyes.
He hadn't consciously thought about any of this before. It was kind of interesting, seeing a representation of what his ideal woman had been, without ever consciously realizing it.
During the shower, he had kept absently running his new feminine hands over this body, feeling it, scoping it out, trying to comprehend just how this felt. A couple of times, his hand wandered to places from which he quickly yanked them away.
Once the sweat was finally washed off, and the steam helped his breathing, he didn't stay in there long, not wanting to keep still, wanting to do something, to not have time to think about what was going on. He dried off as quick as he could, trying to ignore the tactile sensations the towel created as he moved it over certain parts of this new body.
As he grabbed a new robe from the linen cupboard, his thoughts idly drifted to his name.
Sam.
And now that he was a girl, that could only become...
Samantha's thoughts were interrupted as he tried to leave the bathroom and his fingers grasped empty air where the doorknob should have been. He looked down in confusion, had the doorknob vanished somehow? But no, it had simply raised up several inches, so his hand had missed it. How could a doorknob raise up like that?
Oh wait... the doorknob hadn't risen, Sam had shrank.
This was going to take some getting used to.
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Soralynd
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#5 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:41 | Edited by: Soralynd
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CHAPTER III
"David, quit doing that before you give yourself brain damage."
"Swell. My brain got us into this, serves it right," David grumbled, as he sluggishly bonked his forehead against the computer screen.
"Hey, serves HER right for sticking her hand in there."
"I shouldn't have even called you guys over here until it was done and the bots switched off."
"Hey, you called us with news, and we ran over here without waiting for you to invite us, remember?"
"Yes, but... urgh, I should have... something... I should have designed the bots so they'd turn off at a sudden host shift, or designed a kill switch that isn't dependent on an antidote which varies with the host's species."
"I understand. The one member of the football team who didn't stuff you into lockers, and you put him on the cheerleading squad, that's bound to sting."
"Cheerleading squ... are you insane?"
"Well yeah, but that's not the point. Hey, at least now you have a girl willing to talk to you."
"Very funny."
"Hey, death threats count as talking."
David was relieved when the door opened and interrupted them, although he didn't dare look Sam in the eye.
Ed looked up and smiled. "Oh hey, Samantha."
Samantha rolled her eyes. "I was afraid you'd think of that."
"Well, you gotta admit, it was obvious."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. David, you got clothes I can wear?"
"Sure, take what you need. Oh, but you're shorter than me..."
"But you're thinner than she is," Eddie pointed out.
"HEY!" Samantha shouted.
"It wasn't an insult, sis. I'm serious, David. I know your folks don't know you exist, but they don't padlock the fridge, do they?"
"I have a high metabolism!" David said defensively.
"I thought high metabolism meant a larger appetite. You look like you're allergic to food."
"Enough jokes!" David shouted. "Ed, you are insane! This is serious!"
"Hey, it worked, she's laughing, isn't she?"
David looked up and realized that indeed, Samantha was failing to keep a straight face.
"I... I'm sorry," she said, "but David... man, I mean I know you hate fried stuff, but seriously..." she managed to gasp out before fully cracking up, "...you look like a third-world beggar!"
David was relieved that Samantha was able to laugh, but he was feeling sensitive at the moment. He just grunted.
"Hey," Samantha said, slapping the back of her hand across her brother's shoulder, "maybe you should e-mail him some pounds. You can spare a few."
"What?" Eddie tried to act offended but he was still grinning. "I'm only two-twenty, some of your now-ex-teammates are heavier!"
"Only because muscle weighs more than fat."
"I'm five-foot-eleven! It's not abnormal weight for my height!"
"David is six foot nine, and he weighs about half of you."
"You're holding up David as an example of average body mass?" But Eddie was laughing too.
Even David managed a lopsided smile.
The three gathered around the kitchen table for lunch. David still wouldn't eat a thing, and he spent most of the time with his head down on the table, but at least he wasn't trying to cave his own head in with blunt objects.
Once they had stopped laughing, Samantha had felt some of the horror and shock return, but much of the tension was diffused.
The words, "So, what now?" were on everyone's tongue, but nobody wanted to be the one to say it, so they sat and ate lunch in relative silence, once in a while making an idle pocket of chit-chat.
Finally, Samantha rose and fished her cell phone out of her jacket. "Okay, we're not going to all stay locked in here forever. On Monday, I want you two going in."
"Sami, are you kidding?" Eddie said.
"Have you gone completely insane?" David asked.
"Nope. Ed, I need you to start spreading the cover story about Samuel's mysterious disappearance. David, I need you to act like you don't know a thing."
"Sami, look at David. Do you think he's in any condition to pretend nothing's wrong?"
"David has panic attacks over library fines. If his best friend's brother is missing, he could have a coronary in the middle of class and nobody would suspect him.."
"Good point."
"Hey, I'm right here!"
"Sorry, David, but it's true. Nothing you do will raise half as many eyebrows as not showing up at all."
"Very well, if you insist. But I warn you... oh no..."
"What?" Samantha got a little nervous at the look of horror on David's face. Was something else about to happen?
"I forgot... I didn't just phone you guys yesterday, I e-mailed Alex too."
"Alex?" Eddie rose suddenly. "I thought he was your nemesis!"
"That's why I e-mailed him, I wanted to brag!"
"Oh great, now he's in this." Samantha rolled her eyes, but was secretly relieved that this was all the bad news was. "Did he mention when he was coming over to grill you?"
"I don't know, once this whole thing started I didn't bother checking my e-mail... I'll be right back."
The doorbell rang.
"Speak of the devil," Eddie whispered, as David scrambled to the door.
David opened the door a crack. On the step stood his personal rival for the title of "Biggest Tech Wizard in School." Alexander Renfield, AKA "The Great Renzino," a classmate and fellow übergeek.
They were polar opposites in many ways. Alex had no interest in biochemistry, and instead had started building robots out of spare parts in his garage, and concealing wires and mechanics inside ordinary looking objects. Alex was a born showman, slim and fit, handsome (although rather short), confident, and overflowing with charisma. So, while David was working on nanotech that could advance medical science, "The Great Renzino" was taking up a job as a stage magician, using his concealed gimmicks to create illusions, and programming robots to be his ensemble. "Daaaaaaavid Worthington. Showing off?"
"Um... er... I was mistaken. I didn't really succeed, I thought I had, but... hey, don't come in here!"
"You wouldn't have e-mailed me in the first place unless you were positive, you're too insecure."
"I am not insecure! Now get out of my house!"
"Yeah, like I'm really going to leave. I assume he's upstairs? Oh, hello Eddie. And my oh my, who's this?"
"I'm Samantha. And he's right, you shouldn't just barge in." Sam and Eddie were on much better terms with Alex than David was, but they still didn't want him here right now.
"Well, Samantha, I'm afraid I can't be kept away from this for the wide world. But if you're not too ticked off, I'd like your phone number afterwards." Without waiting for a reply, Alex darted upstairs.
Samantha didn't want to admit that she kind of liked the idea.
David caught up with him just in time to see him examining the cage. Cipher was rubbing up against the bars and purring. "Interesting."
David couldn't resist a little jab. "Well, now that you've seen what I can do, shall you be off?"
"Oh, I never really had any doubt you could do it. And don't get me wrong, I am impressed."
"Good. Now, shall you be off?"
"What, no more gloating?"
"I'm not in the mood for gloating."
"I imagine you wouldn't be. On a totally unrelated note, your e-mail said you'd cured 'him,' but this cat's a female."
"It... it was a typo!"
"Really. The same typo, I suppose, in all your previous e-mails telling me about this subject? Or did you not know her gender until you were examining her afterwards?"
"I... that has nothing to do with it!"
"I'm sure."
"I... uh, you caught me, I switched cats on you!"
"All those yellow hairs on the floor of the cage, that's quite an elaborate ruse. And one that you wouldn't have the confidence to try anyway."
David's stress level caused his resentment to boil to the surface, and he snapped, "Oh what do you know, you're an entertainer!"
"Yes, I'm an entertainer. I still know my way around computers, which is part of my entertaining career."
"You could be using your talents to improve the world, to advance science ahead, to build a better world, and you waste it making tricked-out chairs and tables to entertain people on a stage!"
"Well, you seem to think that making people laugh and forget their troubles is a luxury, and I view it as a basic human necessity. We all play to our strengths. Now, if you'll excuse me," he said as he brushed past David out into the hallway, "I have a hot chick to flirt with."
"Hey, keep away from Sam...antha!"
"I'll let her be the judge of that." Alex slid downstairs and into the kitchen, where he greeted her. "Salutations. I'm a wizard." He snapped his fingers and a lighter hidden up his sleeve caused a burst of flames and sparks to fly out of his hand and disappear. It was a trick that rarely failed to impress. "And you? He said your name was Samantha... which is extended from Sam... which he seemed to be starting to say... and you have a very interesting look on your face right now. I've seen that look before, from my audience volunteers who believe I really have mind-reading powers and don't want me to read their naughty secrets. And I just saw that David's nanotech switched his cat's gender, as well as his breed. And you didn't ask me who I was." Alex grinned.
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Soralynd
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#6 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:42 | Edited by: Soralynd
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A quarter of an hour later, the four of them sat around the kitchen table, Alex wolfing down a sandwich as Eddie finished the tale. "Interesting, very interesting," Alex said. "May I ask how you got the gene-altering formula?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but I hacked into Langcorp's servers, and got it from their encrypted lab notes."
"Ah, Langcorp. I remember them quite well. They finally went belly up a few months ago, did you know?"
"Yeah."
"Well, maybe you know why, now. So tell me, did you think to put a few of those nanogenes in this sandwich?"
"Of course not!" David said angrily. "Do you think I want more people getting infected?"
"Well, if it were me, I'd be going through my enemies list about now, and cries of 'Are you my mummy?' would be echoing through the streets. But to each their own."
"I'm not going to use this on people for fun! I'm re-designing the bots right now so this won't happen again!"
"Good for you. Clever work on the mind-reading bit, by the way."
"It was supposed to read what they wanted to be, not who they wanted to be with."
"It shouldn't come as a surprise, it was bound to be a much stronger desire. Sex is the subconscious motivator behind just about everything we do. It's hardwired in our instincts, a survival pattern from the days back when life was all about trying to survive long enough to reproduce before you became food for something else. Vanity is just a means to an end, intimacy is the real desire. Your mind-readers just latched onto the strongest mental picture they could find."
"How very Freudian of you."
"You can't be a great magician without knowing how your audience's brain is wired. You should have put in a preview feature. Well, Samantha, I hope you're not too shook up."
"I'm fine," she grumbled. "Just try not to think of me as hot."
"Actually, I'm bisexual, so I already thought you were hot," Alex replied offhandedly, in the tone of voice one would use to discuss the weather. Casually ignoring their shocked glances, he said, "You said your sexual orientation had changed, so I take it you'd be more interested now?"
"Get out of my house," David growled.
"Think it over," Alex sang as he skipped out the door. "I'm sure Josh will be thrilled that he's quarterback now." He shut the door and was off.
"You think he can keep a secret?" David asked.
Eddie fought to keep a straight face to avoid offending David. "He's a magician, keeping secrets is what he does. Besides, he knows no one will believe it. He thinks... Sami, are you okay? You didn't look that scared when he was flirting with you."
Sami was doing the thousand-yard stare, and murmured, "I... hadn't thought about... who'd become quarterback once I'm missing..."
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Soralynd
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#7 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:43 | Edited by: Soralynd
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CHAPTER IV
A few minutes later, Eddie was heard to say, "No, I'm not talking about the nanotech, I'm just saying we need to do something."
"Well count me out," David said, "I've done enough damage."
"It'll be a cold day in hell before I let that dickwad take over my team," Samantha growled.
"I hate him almost as much as you do," David said, "but I won't help in any insane scheme to stop him!"
"Fine, sit there and sulk, Eddie and I will figure it out."
An hour after that, David said, "No, we're risking too much already!"
"David, he may be the most popular jock in school, but none of his friends really like him. They're all afraid of losing their social standing if they get on his bad side, is all."
"Do you realize what you're saying?"
"We can just tell them he transferred out, and no one will come looking for him. It's different with Sam, people really like Sam, they'll look for him, no one will look for Josh."
"That is the least of our worries! He has a family!"
"Who make yours look doting by comparison."
"I don't care how indifferent they are, they'd notice if he disappeared!"
"And for all the effort they'd put into finding him..."
"Won't someone notice if two members of the football team disappear in the same week?"
"Who said anything about the same week?" Eddie said. "The team is off for the rest of the month. By then we'll have figured out a way to get back in touch, so they'll call off the search discreetly, thus making them think that it was resolved, and with the attention span that most teenagers have..."
"I think they'll still remember!"
"Like I said, he transfers out."
"This is ridiculous. Arrange a car accident, have him break his legs, something, but not this!"
"That's less reliable than this."
"Yeah, right. Since you're such good buddies with Alex, why don't you ask him to do it? He's a magician, he can wave his magic wand and make it happen."
"This is better, and you know it. Don't be petty."
"How is this better?"
"Hey," Eddie pointed out, "you're a feminist, right?"
"Well yeah, I respect women!"
"Then you don't like the sort of women Josh likes. Don't pretend you haven't noticed some recurring themes in the cheerleaders he picks out."
"So what?!"
"So, wouldn't this be a nice punishment?"
"Yeah," Samantha chimed in. "It's poetic."
"I... that's not... there's more to it than..." David threw up his hands and stormed out of the room. "No! No, no, no, no, no!"
David spent the rest of the weekend working in his room and sulking, while Sami and Eddie worked up the plan.
"Is Josh really taking steroids, or is that just a rumor?"
"I think so, but whether he is or not, he'd keep it a secret, and that means we'd have a hard time getting it in there."
"Okay, but it would be perfect. Sterile needles, he doesn't share them with anyone, it'd be the perfect way to make sure he didn't infect anyone else."
"We need to find some other way."
"Okay, what would be a good way to... oh man."
"What?"
"Um... I hate to ask this of you, but would you be willing to..."
"To... oh come on!"
"Yeah, stupid idea, I know."
"Yes, it is."
There was a silence.
"On the other hand, it is the perfect cover."
"Yeah, and you don't even have to go through with it, you can back out somehow, or maybe knock him out. Slip him a roofie."
"The question is, do I have the guts to even go far enough to get him alone."
"Use that high IQ David gave you, and think up a scheme."
"All right, let's see where we stand on Monday, after he gets the news. Give me a report back on how he takes it, then I'll go in and see what kind of effect I have."
"Okay. Anything else?"
"Yes, I thought of a better cover story for us. Is it okay if we wreck your car?"
On Sunday evening, Mr. and Mrs. Gondery rushed to the hospital to find some good news, and some bad news. The good news was, one of their sons had miraculously pulled through the accident with only minor injuries, in fact he wouldn't even need to be kept out of school the next day. The bad news was that their other son appeared to have been thrown clear of the car right into the sea, and in fact the paramedics could not even locate him. There was no blood from him found in the car, and the fall could easily have not been fatal, but there was no sign of him. Police determined that the crash had been caused by a fallen tree, and so there was no one to blame but an act of nature.
As the search for Samuel Gondery kicked into high gear, Eddie's parents tried to insist he stay home on Monday, but he refused, claiming that he needed to go in to see if any of his classmates had heard rumors of any bodies, or perhaps comatose youths, being washed up on nearby shores. Eventually, his parents relented.
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Soralynd
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#8 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:44 | Edited by: Soralynd
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CHAPTER V
On Monday, David and Eddie had expected the school to be buzzing with gossip about the disappearance and possible death of the school team's quarterback. However, with everything else going on, the three of them hadn't read the paper or checked any news sites that morning, and thus were surprised when they found all their classmates talking about a different tragedy, one from halfway across the country.
In Chicago the previous night, some unknown person had snuck into a state-run children's home and gutted a dozen kids. TV and newspapers all across the country were plastered with grainy images of the blood spattered on the walls and floors, and photos of the one child who had been awake and witnessed the slaughter, and was currently in a psychiatric ward rendered catatonic by the shock.
Compared to the dismemberment of a dozen orphans, a measly car accident with two teenagers seemed rather trivial. Sam's friends and teammates expressed their sympathies for Ed, of course, but even they seemed preoccupied.
And there was one teammate who didn't seem disturbed by either event.
Josh Randall was found in the school gym, working out. Eddie and David pretended they were dropping by to deliver news.
"Hey," Josh said, "you guys heard about this mess in Chicago?"
"Yeah," Eddie said, "think they'll catch the guy?"
Josh shrugged. "I dunno. Hope so... still, some of the girls are going around saying, 'hold me, protect me,' so it's kinda... eh, sorry, man, I know it's not funny."
"You're right, it isn't."
"Sorry. Hey, I also heard about Sam, that sucks too."
"Yeah, and we're without a QB."
"'We?' You're on the team now?" Josh laughed. "Oh... uh, sorry, man, but anyway... don't worry about the QB, I'm taking that job. Next in line, after all."
"Congratulations..."
"Thanks, man. See you around." Josh went to a different part of the gym, ignoring them.
"Well... that was real nice of him." Eddie turned and trotted over to where David was standing. "So..."
David nodded slowly and grunted, "Okay, I'll do it. But this is a one-time thing."
"Obviously."
Due to the Chicago massacre, the entire school day passed without Eddie needing to fill any holes in his story about the accident. Eddie didn't know whether to be happy or sad. And as Sami had predicted, David's continual jumping ten feet in the air at the sound of a pin dropping raised no eyebrows.
They felt a bit surreal, like they were walking through a backwards universe, as they left the school, Eddie promising to drop by ASAP.
David walked through his front door half-expecting to find the house empty, that Samantha would be gone, that he'd call over to Eddie's and Samuel would answer the phone in his deep voice and David would realize that the whole thing had been some kind of strange dream.
No such luck, Sami was sitting at the kitchen table with a pile of books beside her. She looked up and smiled. "Hey, David." She actually looked a little flushed, like she'd been caught doing something. David felt a little lurch in his stomach when he saw her blush like that, and tried to attribute it to nerves. He sat at the table, trying not to look directly at her, and muttered, "So what are you reading?"
"Ah, I just got bored, nothing good on TV so I started reading... never had much time to read before, but you know what they say about idle hands. So I rooted through your bookshelf... oh, I hope you don't mind..." she smiled apologetically.
David felt even more awkward, and tried to figure out a way to squeeze his eyes shut without coming across as rude. "No, that's okay."
"Good, thank you. So, I'd heard of a lot of them, but I'd never heard of Discworld before. Man, these things are awesome!"
"I know... you should read them in order, though."
"I am reading them in order."
"You're halfway through the second book in eight hours?"
"I don't understand it either. I don't know why, but I feel I can concentrate more now, and remember things... man, am I lucky I didn't like dumb blondes. Hey, what kind of girl do you like?" She then saw the look on David's face, and stammered out, "Oh... er... never mind. So, uh, have you read—"
David was so relieved when the phone rang that he almost scrambled out of his chair for it. "He... hello?"
"Hey David, it's me."
"Eddie, what's up?"
"Mom and dad are feeling a bit overprotective right now, so I can't leave. Why don't you drop by to pay your respects?"
"Drop by... your place?"
Sami heard that, and looked up. "Oh, I don't know if I'm ready to face them yet..."
"Come on, do me a favor."
"Ed, do you WANT us to go to prison?!"
"Hey, we're going to have to do it sooner or later. Like Archie Gates said, do the thing you're scared of, then get the courage afterwards."
David pulled up to the curb outside of Eddie's house, and cast a silent glance at Samantha in the passenger's seat.
"How am I going to... walk in there and see them crying... and not tell them... what am I supposed to..." She looked helplessly at David, as though expecting him to know what to do. She realized how silly that was given that David was useless even in everyday social situations, let alone ones like this. Still, she couldn't help it. So, they sat there in silence for a while, until they just thought, 'This moment isn't worse than any other,' and gingerly approached the house.
Sami was ready to shut her eyes at any moment just to avoid having to look her parents in the eye now, but it quickly turned anticlimactic once they realized that her parents were not there at the moment. They were a little relieved at it being postponed, but they were also a little frustrated that they couldn't just get the mess over with. As they sat around the table, David looked the most embarrassed, Sami slightly embarrassed, and Eddie seemed to be coasting on the waves.
"So, has David told you how Josh reacted?"
"No, how did he react?"
"He... he..." David stammered.
"He, shall we say, took it in stride," Eddie finished.
"Let David talk," Sami said, eyeing Eddie suspiciously.
Eddie looked taken aback. "Well, okay then."
"And don't give me that look, either. Your attitude was funny for a while, but I'm getting a little disturbed by how frickin' cavalier you are about all this!"
"Hey, when life gives you lemons..."
"Easy for you to say, you're not the one who's had his life turned upside down."
"Oh, and I suppose that as soon as we were gone and you had some alone time, you didn't spend half the morning playing with your breasts?"
"Th-that is SO not true!"
So that's what she was blushing about earlier, David thought with a mixture of relief and disappointment.
"Anyway, David?"
"Yeah... yeah, Josh was... he said some... yeah, I'm persuaded."
"See?"
"All right, glad to hear it. I was having second thoughts myself, but okay. So, shall we work out a plan?"
"I... was actually... installing a new feature, a microtransmitter. It'd relay their location and the images they were capturing, and send a copy of that image to my computer, so I could check out the specs before telling them to go ahead."
"A preview feature?"
David nodded. "Yes. I wanted to make sure this doesn't happen by accident."
"Sounds good to me," Eddie said. "We even have a little margin for error on getting the tech into his body."
"No we don't," David snapped. "It's still experimental. We can't just toss them around and count on the preview function working the first time around. Even if the new circuitry works fine, I will not risk another of these incidents. We're going about this carefully."
Their conversation was cut off then by the sound of the front door, and Sami's blood ran cold. Was this it? Was she about to face her parents and have to pretend to be someone else?
But they heard them talking to someone else as they came in. Sami heard her mom say morosely, "That's very kind of you... and we do appreciate your concern, it means a lot to us."
"Oh, it was the very least I could do. You know, even with this mess in Chicago going on, a lot of people were talking about Sam today."
"That helps a lot. Thank you, Alex."
"No problem. Is Eddie in?"
"Yeah. He's hiding it well, but we can tell he's shaken up. Ah, here he is in here. Oh, hello David. And this is?"
"Samantha," Alex said quickly, entering right behind Sami's parents, and patting her on the head sweetly. "She's a mutual friend."
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Samantha."
"And you too. I... I'm sorry... I mean, to hear about..." Sami's heart lurched to see that sad, sweet half-smile on her mom's face as she greeted someone who she thought was a stranger dropping by to console her remaining son. The pat on the shoulder she received made her skin crawl with panic, and she was almost grateful she didn't get a chance to continue.
"We appreciate all the support. The students have been really kind, we've had a dozen calls, it means a lot to us," Mrs. Gondery said wistfully, before she and Mr. Gondery went into the kitchen, speaking softly to each other. Sami wanted to know what they were saying, but didn't have the nerve to ask.
Alex sat down at the table with them. "I came by to pay my respects."
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Soralynd
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#9 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:46 | Edited by: Soralynd
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"What are you even doing here?" David grumbled.
"Well, I figured there would be tension when you came back here to pick him up, so I came by to ease the tension a bit."
"How did you know when we were coming here?" David asked suspiciously.
"I heard Eddie couldn't leave home because his parents were too sad, and when I dropped by your place and you two were gone, it didn't take a genius to work out where you went."
"So you came by out of the goodness of your heart, huh?" David sounded even more skeptical.
"Hey, my mother is a therapist. She taught me to always help out others during rough times."
"She must be quite a therapist to produce you," David whispered, to himself this time.
"So what really brings you by?" Sami asked.
"I wanted to ask if you've picked your next victim yet."
"No we haven't!" David snapped. "I meant what I said before!"
Alex looked at Eddie's and Sami's faces, and he wasn't fooled. "So, is it me or Josh?"
"What did you say?"
"Well, if it's Josh, I'd like to help, and if it's me I'd like to offer a few suggestions."
"And they called me cavalier," Eddie said.
"Oh, I see how hard you're working to keep a straight face."
"Let's finish this another time," Sami whispered, seeing her parents heading back towards the dining room.
"Swell. I have to go anyway." Alex got to his feet. "See you later."
"Bye Alex, thanks for coming," Mrs. Gondery said.
"We'd better be going too," Sami said, getting up as well. "Eddie, I'm sorry about... everything... I'll see you later. David, I need a ride."
David had been counting the seconds till he could leave even before Alex had arrived, so now he had to work even harder to mask his look of relief. "Okay. Eddie, I'll see you tomorrow."
Eddie just replied, "See you, and thanks." and David couldn't tell if his hurt look was genuine or faked. Probably faked.
On the drive back to David's house, Sami just stared out the window.
David finally said, "Um... I'm sorry... for acting like that, he just gets on my nerves... Alex, I mean."
"It's okay," she said distractedly. "I wanted an excuse to leave anyway."
"So... how do you... um..."
"I'll be okay. It's just... it's like I was shocked, but then I got numb, and now I'm going back into shock. I saw my parents and it just hit me that I had to pretend I didn't know them, until we figure out a way to tell them, and then they probably won't be any happier with that, either... Alex said he dropped by your place, what do you think he wanted?"
"Who knows? Why did he even say that? What did he think we were going to say when he just casually mentioned it, did he think... ugh." David was getting angry, but he was grateful for the subject change.
Sami tried to cheer them both up. "Well, it's comforting to know that someone else besides Ed finds it funny too." She then looked contrite. "Sorry, I know you don't like him, I was just—"
"It's okay, I shouldn't get so irritated anyway." David would never admit it, but he was a little hurt to hear Sami point out that he didn't like Alex in a way that implied that she did. "I just... I don't know. I don't know anything, anymore. First this happens, then Alex takes one look at us and figures it out..."
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Soralynd
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#10 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 10:49
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And that's as far as I've gotten at the moment. Questions? Comments?
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tristra
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#11 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 12:30
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Great work so far.
The opening is a little rough but the story builds well after that and has a nice flow.
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GreatSage
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#12 | Posted: 25 Sep 2009 12:56
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That was excellent - well written, decent spelling - a total delight. Please write more
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Soralynd
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#13 | Posted: 26 Sep 2009 19:58 | Edited by: Soralynd
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tristra: The opening is a little rough but the story builds well after that and has a nice flow.
I probably should make it a little clearer that you're not supposed to know who's talking in the Prologue yet... ^_^;
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kork
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#14 | Posted: 3 Oct 2009 15:58
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great premise, and good characters. I would make the prologue a little easier to understand. but other that I would like to know your deviant art site. So I can fav this story.
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Soralynd
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#15 | Posted: 4 Oct 2009 12:16
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I don't have a DeviantArt... ^_^;
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GrimGhost
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#16 | Posted: 4 Oct 2009 16:21
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9.9 out of ten, so far. I'm unclear about the events prior to the prologue, or how the prologue relates to Sam(antha)'s story, but those problems are fixable. Very well-defined characters. I am impressed.
Josh reminds me of "T.J." from "Narcissus' Twin."
I eagerly look forward to more.
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Soralynd
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#17 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 18:54 | Edited by: Soralynd
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Thank you for the nice feedback! :-D
Here's the rest of chapter five...
---------------------------
"Have you considered taking him up on his offer?"
"Of what? Of help?"
"Yes. If we bring him into the loop, we can keep an eye on him. I'd rather have him working with us than against us."
"Ugh... I'll think about it. Maybe."
There was more awkward silence. Sami wanted to reassure him that it wasn't all bad, but didn't know if that would help or just make him feel worse. She wasn't sure how she would take that kind of reassurance herself. "Wanna catch a movie later?" She said whimsically, then catching herself, she stammered, "Um... I didn't mean for a date or anything, I just want to take our minds off things." Some part of her registered how weird it probably sounded for a girl to say that to a guy.
David shrugged. "Sure, wanna catch the new Pixar flick or something?"
"Yeah. Say, the late showing?"
"Sure. Um..."
"What?"
"Nothing. I'll check movie times when we get back." David had been about to ask her to dinner afterward, but chickened out. "Um, you liked Discworld, have you heard of the Thursday Next books?"
"No, what are they about?"
Neither of them could truly distract themselves from the situation, but they were both glad to find some other things to talk about. Samantha made a mental note to check if her skills at video games had improved any.
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Soralynd
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#18 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 18:56 | Edited by: Soralynd
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CHAPTER VI
As they pulled up to David's house, Sami said, "Oh, I noticed you're running low on food, want me to stop at the store?"
"Oh, I can go."
"No, don't worry. I need to get out. I've been hiding indoors all day, it's too nice a day for that. I'll need to get used to going outside in this body eventually, might as well rip off the band-aid."
"At least let me give you the money."
"Well, obviously." Sami smirked, and David managed a smile as well. "Any requests?"
"What did you notice we were lacking?"
"Oh, some milk, lettuce, your mayonnaise is past the expiration date and you're out of broth powder. Also I wanted some juice."
"Okay. I'll get you a hundred bucks, buy some stuff for yourself."
Sami wasn't lying, she really did want to go outside for a while, but she was also a little curious. She'd stared in the mirror for a while this morning, and was wondering what kind of effect she'd have in public. She was dressed a little sloppy, in a borrowed T-shirt and jeans from David's closet, but they fit very snugly on her (Eddie was right about David's weight), and none of David's mom's bras were big enough for Sami. She was embarrassed, but couldn't help but wonder what kind of reaction she'd get from men.
Or what reaction she'd have to men. She'd been told she would now be bisexual, according to her new DNA, but she wasn't sure when that was supposed to kick in. She hadn't felt any kind of shift so far, and she wondered if her personality had simply overridden it. Sexual orientation isn't really a function of gender, she realized, so maybe she was just a lesbian. Still, David's nanotech knew a lot more about the body than she did, even now after her thirty-point IQ boost. It was a little frightening, and she wanted to prepare for the worst.
The store wasn't exactly crowded on Monday afternoons, but there were a few shoppers, and quite a few of them were men. Men of various ages, some with women, some without. She was a little relieved that a lot of them didn't notice her, being engrossed in their own consumerism, but the ones that did, liked what they saw.
And in some cases, so did she.
It was very subtle at first, she hardly even noticed that she liked the attention, but before she knew it her embarrassment had turned to bashfulness. And she couldn't help but smile at a couple of them. Those couple were about her own age, and ones she didn't know. At one point, however, she came across a couple of her old football teammates, and she didn't feel at all happy to see them giving her a once-over. She tried to hide her discomfort, and fled into an aisle she thought was empty. She heard them chuckling behind her, and she recognized that laugh as the "Ooh, she's shy" laugh that she had not really been above sharing with the guys when she'd been one of them. Fortunately, she knew those guys well enough to know that she wasn't really in any danger. Only a few members of the team were really troublesome. Like Josh, for instance.
It was about that time she realized that the aisle she had ducked into wasn't empty. In it was her parents and her brother. She froze stiff as they walked by. Her dad din't recognize her at all, but her mom remembered her from earlier. "Oh, hello Samantha." She smiled that sad, comforting half-smile. That smile that made Sami's heart ache.
"Uh... hi." Sami's mind raced, trying to think of something to say, but mom had already walked away after her husband. She turned to watch them go, and then jumped as she felt a sausage-like finger tap on her shoulder. "Oh... Eddie," she mumbled.
"Hey, Sami. They're just shopping for the dinner they're planning for your funeral."
"I should probably feel more choked up by that than I am."
"Look at it this way. After they've gone through all this hullabaloo about losing you, they'll feel overjoyed to learn that all that happened to you was a genetic rewrite."
"Very funny. How are we going to tell them?"
"Well, we could... oh great."
Sami heard footsteps to the side. Thinking it was their parents back, she wheeled around, to find herself face to face with Josh Randall. "Hey there, cutie. What's your name?"
Sami's mind raced once more, this time trying to figure out how to get rid of him without having him become violent. It was hard to convince Josh that there was anyone else on the planet who wasn't interested in him. "I'm Samantha," was all she could say.
"Samantha. That's a pretty name," Josh said with a voice that indicated he'd barely paid attention to her name at all. "Looking for something?"
"I'm just here to shop."
"Well, let me show you where to find stuff." He reached for her hand.
"She knows where she's going," Eddie cut in.
"Who's talking to you?" Josh asked.
"His brother was killed, if you recall," Samantha snarled, yanking her hand away, "and you should pay a little respect."
Josh raised up his hands. "Fine, fine, whatever. Have a nice day." He turned around and pushed his cart away, muttering "Bitch."
"That guy is singlehandedly responsible for half the stereotypes about jocks," Sami grumbled.
"Not for long," Eddie winked.
"Yeah, not for long. Speaking of which, I'd better hurry up and get back."
"Yeah, how is David, anyway?"
"He'll live. He's still wringing his hands, but I think he'll calm down."
"You're calming down pretty well."
"When someone else feels worse than you do, it helps you concentrate on their problems instead of worrying about your own. I can't stay mad at him since it's my own fault for sticking my hand in there, so I can't make myself want to make him feel worse, and he's so torn up that I can't wallow in my own misery too much. It helps."
Eddie chuckled. "Okay then. I'll swing by tomorrow after school."
"Okay. We'll work on our... battle strategy... then. See ya."
"Bye." As Sami finished shopping, she felt a mixture of disappointment and relief that her little expedition had been cut short. She knew she felt something happening.
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Soralynd
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#19 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 18:58 | Edited by: Soralynd
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When she got back, she noticed Alex's car parked outside David's house. It was easy to spot Alex's car. Alex drove one of the promotional cars that had been made in the early days of the Pokémon craze, a yellow VW Beetle painted and modded to look like Pikachu.
He got here fast, she thought as she went inside. There was no sign of them downstairs, so she put the food in the fridge and headed upstairs. As she passed by David's room, she noticed the door ajar, and could hear their voices arguing. She peeked in to see Alex and David sitting at one of David's desks, looking at files and papers spread out on the table.
"Where do you GET this stuff?" David snapped.
"I'm just asking hypothetically, here."
"Alex, I've invented nanotech that can rewrite a person's genetic code, and even I would have laughed this out of my office! This is a fairy tale! Who in the world WAS this guy, and what insane asylum did you find him in?"
"I'm not asking for the whole thing, just this one bit here."
"Yes, yes, technically that one part would be possible, but what would you use it for? There's nothing with the kinds of powers that this can work against, that's my point!"
"So phase one wouldn't do any harm."
"Incremental shifts have never been tested."
"Hence the preview feature you were already working on."
"Did you not hear me when I said there are no circumstances under which this could ever come in handy?"
"You of all people should know that anything's possible."
David sighed. "All right, I'll do it on one condition. You tell me EXACTLY why you want this and what you intend to use it for, and no lies this time!"
Alex laughed. "All right then. We're in business."
"And I also want to know where you got this mess in the first place!"
As Alex got up and headed for the door, Sami leaped back several paces and pretended to be just coming up the stairs. "Oh, hey Alex, I thought I recognized your car."
"Hello Samantha. Nice to see you're holding up."
"Well, it's a little disorienting, but I'm adapting."
"Good to hear."
"What brings you by?" She was curious.
"Oh, just brought in a little request. So, I take it this is your home base?"
"Well, for now. David's parents don't mind."
"Mind? I doubt they've even noticed."
Sami chuckled. "Yeah, there's not a whole lot they do mind."
"It's allowed David the creative freedom to revolutionize medical science. Well, I must run."
"See you." As Alex left, Sami opened the door to his room. "Hey."
"Hey. How was it?"
"Better than I'd feared." She sat down on the bed. "I don't suppose you're getting along any better now?"
"He's... he's weird. He brought me this idea... ugh, I don't even know what he thinks he's after." David stuffed the files into his desk. "I don't know. I don't even know."
"Is that about Josh?"
"No, this is something else. Something... well, I took your advice, I dealt with him civilly."
"How civilly?"
"I accepted his offer."
"What are you going to do?"
"Well, he's offered to be the beta tester for the new batch."
"Are you going to turn him?"
"No, I've made those improvements I was talking about. I'm going to use him to test the preview feature, and the kill switch if something goes wrong."
"So he's staying as he is?"
"Visibly and mentally, yes."
Sami had a feeling she wasn't going to get any more answers, so she didn't ask what that meant. "I ran into Eddie at the store, he said he'd be dropping by tomorrow after school. What say we discuss our stretegy then?"
"Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
"See how Josh is acting tomorrow, and ask me again then."
"You're vindictive."
"Aren't I just." For a moment, Sami felt an urge to put her hands backward on the bed and cross her legs in an eye-catching manner, then she remembered who she was flirting with. "Oh, here's the change." She dropped a lot of money onto his desk.
"This is a lot of change, what did you buy?"
"Well, I wasn't really in the mood to browse, so I just got the stuff you're low on. If you like, I'll go again tomorrow."
"Do. Have some fun, you need it."
On impulse, Sami went over to behind David's chair, leaned down and hugged him. "It'll be okay," she whispered, "We'll get through all this."
"Is that Sam talking, or is it the nanobots rewriting your personality?" David blurted out, a little too aware of her body's proximity.
Sami froze. The possibility hadn't occurred to her. Was she just coping so well because she'd been programmed to? Was one of her new traits an ability to take all these insane occurences in stride? To enjoy it?
David realized he'd made a big mistake, but he didn't have the faintest idea how to correct it now, so he just froze as well.
"I... I don't know. I need to think about it." Sami got up and stepped out of the room, walking back to the guest room to sit down and think.
David banged his fists on the desk.
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Soralynd
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#20 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 19:00
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And that's chapter six. Chapter seven soon to come.
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GreatSage
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#21 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 20:52
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Excellent - my guess is Alex wants super powers - dumb ass - make him a Magic girl - that'll sort his head out :)
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Soralynd
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#22 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 21:44 | Edited by: Soralynd
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Heheh... it's much weirder than that. :-) I've edited it to drop a couple more hints...
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GreatSage
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#23 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 21:53
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Mmm - well we shall see then. I really like this story
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GrimGhost
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#24 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 22:08
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Josh is still a guy? What's the holdup?
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GreatSage
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#25 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 22:11
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I look forward to meeting Josie the Huge titted giggling blonde bimbo:)
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ccmariecc
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#26 | Posted: 5 Oct 2009 22:15 | Edited by: ccmariecc
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Good writing, Soralynd. Nice multi-character dialog though for easier readability you should think about spacing between sentences. I know, there isn't much room for it.
I always look for some kind of background, a town description, rural setting, summer or winter, what country, temperate or tropical, but of course adding things like that takes up room and slows the pace of the story.
Like with Sage, it's good to see you step out on the stage.
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Soralynd
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#27 | Posted: 6 Oct 2009 06:57
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As per Marie's request, I've changed it to double-spaced format, for easier reading.
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ccmariecc
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#28 | Posted: 6 Oct 2009 19:19 | Edited by: ccmariecc
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Yes, that's easier to read. After all this is something like 9 or 10 point font.
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Soralynd
Member
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#29 | Posted: 6 Oct 2009 23:20 | Edited by: Soralynd
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CHAPTER VII
She shouldn't have been this calm about it, Sami thought to herself. Why wasn't she freaking out? Sure, she had freaked out at the time, but hadn't she gotten over it really quick? Sure, there was the good news about her new brainpower, but that was only so big a comfort, really.
She went over and over in her mind everything that had happened. Her memory was improved, but she couldn't think of any one place where her actions didn't make sense. Or hadn't, at the time.
She'd been acting weird, but that was just the shock, right? Maybe she just compartmentalized it somehow. Or maybe it's not as bad as all that. It didn't have to be some creepy spell forcing her to enjoy it, it could just be that she'd been equipped with better coping skills, the ability to think clearly in a crisis, to count her blessings... it's not necessarily a personality override. Or is it? There's the sexual thing, she was getting hot from a couple of those boys watching her... but sexual urges are more subconscious than conscious anyway, maybe it's just some new hormones. Hormones affect moods, sure, and it's not really brainwashing or anything freaky like that.
But why did it take this long to wonder about it?
Or had she already, and just never given it her full attention? Was she just being paranoid now?
She heard the doorbell ring, and was almost glad for the interruption. She heard David go down to answer it, and heard Eddie's voice. She dragged herself out of the room and went downstairs to greet Eddie. She didn't look at David, torn between not wanting to hurt his feelings and not trusting him anymore. "Hey, Ed."
"Hey, Sami. Mom and dad let me come over for a bit. I only have an hour or so, but I want to talk strategies."
The three of them ascended to David's room, and began planning things out.
Eddie began. "Okay. David, how long before you can finish the upgrades to the nanobots?"
"It shouldn't be more than a couple of days, I've been making great progress. Alex has volunteered to be the guinea pig."
"He has?"
"Yes. I've prioritized the kill-switch and analysis functions, so it'll be safer, but I still need to adjust the calibration."
"How long will the testing take?"
"Depends on how many bugs we have to iron out. If it works the first time, we should be ready to go by the end of the week. If you're still sure you want to do this."
"I somehow doubt Josh will do anything to change our minds."
"We'll see. You know, I won't just be using these for childish pranks. Sure, this one program will do this, but the bots can be adjusted to do a number of different things."
"Of course," Eddie said. "You were trying to revolutionize medicine, and you still can. This is just having a little fun on the side."
Sami cut in, "I think what David was getting at is that we'll need to do a better job of covering up Josh's disappearance. When David brings his inventions to the patent office, he's going to get put in the spotlight, and people will be asking questions. If there's some girl with no identity wandering around claiming we used the tech to turn her into a girl, there's going to be very little that people won't believe."
David nodded. "Thank you, Sami. It's bad enough I'll have to make up some story about where I got the formulas that doesn't involve my hacking into Langcorp's records, I won't need the additional dirty secret."
Eddie was hoping they weren't going to have to call it off altogether.. "So we just need a better cover story?"
"Not only that. We can't have him randomly going about blabbing. As fun as it would be to just turn him into his own dream girl and let him go around wondering what happened, it could get ugly if he went to the police."
"We could pretend that we have the power to change him back so long as he does what we say."
"That's a little cruel even for Josh," Sami admonished him. "Besides, how long could we keep that ruse up?"
"Okay, so we don't tell him we did it, we act like we're the only ones who believe his story and that we're trying to help."
"Eddie!"
"HEY!" David cut in, clearly uncomfortable with any of this. "Okay, we're not getting anywhere here. Let's get some organization. You two know humans, I know technology. Let's concentrate on our respective specialties, and we'll just make contact if we have any questions. Does that sound reasonable to you?"
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ccmariecc
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#30 | Posted: 7 Oct 2009 00:12
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Torturer.
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