Chapter Five – “Strength in Numbers”

Robin rested his weary head against his forearms, which were folded neatly on the table in front of him. Organizing hundreds of panicked convention-goers was not going well. Far too many refused to leave their rooms and many were hoarding supplies already. That was just one among many problems though.

“The hotel manager wants to know why he was not consulted about our survival plans.” A blonde woman with the largest breasts Robin had ever seen spoke.

Robin groaned. The sun was just starting to go down outside of their sanctuary, not that it was overly apparent from their command center, which was on the ground floor and well below the canopy. We’ve been here for less than half a day, survived an attack by a giant lizard and a tribe of Amazons and already I’m dealing with people thinking they’d make a better leader than me. He silently complained. Even though he quickly took on the leadership position, he only did so because he was the highest-ranking member of the staff left. The others were either left behind or taken by the Amazons.

The mere fact that he had long stopped staring at the bountiful bosoms before him was evidence enough that the job was already eating away at his resolve. They were after all, magical breasts, rather literally. Her breasts stretched the event staff polo she was wearing to the limit, making it so she showed a considerable amount of her flat belly. As she tabulated the totals of the head count by candlelight, her massive mammaries were forced to rest on the table in front of her.

“You know, you don’t have to stay like that. Anne could change you back like she has with all the other men.” Robin spoke up.

“I already told you, I am perfectly happy the way I am.” She brushed some blonde curls behind her ear with her pen.

“It’s just–”

“Listen Robin, I know you are trying to be helpful and all, but I really am happy. Asking me to change back is like curing somebody’s paralysis and then telling them they are not allowed to walk. What Anne did is a miracle. I’d sooner die than go back to the way I was.” She smiled at the frustrated man.

“Okay, I’ll drop it. I just don’t know what to call you when you look like this.”

“I have been thinking that Madison would be a nice name, but I am not set in stone on that yet.” She circled the totals on the page in front of her. “Though, I suppose I should decide if I am going to be your secretary.”

Robin sighed in agreement.

“Alright then, I have the totals from the counts the rest of the staff took today. We have 48 confirmed missing, though there is the chance that there are others missing that no one noticed. 1,516 people are currently in the dealer’s room waiting for your big speech. Unfortunately, that leaves about a third of our total locking themselves in their hotel rooms, but we were still able to come up with the total of 2,342. That includes all people that we have accounted for. It’s a lot of people to take care of, but considering the size of this place and the number of people registered for the convention, the number is actually pretty small.”

“Well, thank goodness for that then. Hopefully, Jason will get back soon with information about the missing. Until then, there’s not much we can do other than keep everybody calm.” Robin said tiredly.

The door opened and Anne stumbled in, her complexion pale and beads of sweat lining her brow, where strands of red hair stuck. Madison got up from her seat by Robin’s makeshift desk and helped the sickly looking woman to a chair.

“You know what? There is something the two of you can do until then–rest! You look even worse off than Robin does Miss Anne. You shouldn’t strain yourself so much.” The busty woman tended to the witch.

“Magic takes a lot out of you, you know. It’s not like I can just snap my fingers and say ka-change.” Anne sighed.

Since there was no way of knowing which of the women were men to begin with, she was forced to announce to the entire crowd that she was responsible for it and that all those that had been men needed to see her individually to change back. It was quite a strain on her, since she was not used to casting so many spells in such a short period. Then, she had to fix the memory of the entire crowd so that they would not remember any of it. There was only so much the inexperienced witch could do without collapsing.

“You know, I could at least make those smaller for you.” Anne said, noticing the enormous breasts hovering above her head as if they were defying physics.

“Nope, you have done enough magic for the day. Besides, I rather like them this big. They are magical, and I am not feeling a strain on my back at all. Plus, now that everyone has forgotten that I was not a woman to start with, I am sure they will be quite the attention getters!” Madison giggled.

 

***

 

“Psst, Ani, why did she call you Cassie?” Jenette nudged her sister.

Anibelle’s one good eye locked in the woman’s gaze. The nurse’s azure eyes always had been hauntingly stunning, but they were idyllic in the demon’s former life. Now, with a scar radiating beneath the right one, Nurse Campbell’s eyes looked positively malevolent. She expected a stare like that from her brethren but not from someone who had been so meticulous in her care.

“Shut up Jenette.” Ani whispered back in a direct manner.

“The last time we spoke, you told me that Cassie wasn’t your name. Well, I guess it’s my turn to tell you not to call me Nurse Campbell. I haven’t been a nurse for a long time thanks to you, so if you have to call me anything, call me Kacie. We might as well be casual about things.”

“Since you haven’t heard it before–”

“Your name is Anibelle. I know. What kind of stalker would I be if I didn’t at least know your name?” Kacie cut off the succubus.

Ani gave the woman a glare that exuded the ire she felt at being spoken to with such insolence. Jenette watched mirthfully, expecting her quick-tempered sister to snap the girl in half at any moment. While it would not make up for missing the huge battle that recently took place, the well-endowed demon imagined it would still make for a good time.

“I suppose you want the whole story, as to why I’m stalking you? Well, frankly, you ruined my life.” Kacie was met with silence at her revelation, though she failed to notice this fact. “It started with the slash you made across my cheek. Scars are extremely compromising to one’s adorability you know.”

Kacie smirked at her own flippant remark. Anibelle’s tail lashed back and forth. It was unclear if she was listening to the girl’s words or not, because her eye seemed to be scoping the length of her body taking particular notice of each of the most vulnerable areas.

“Get on with it.” Ani muttered.

“Besides cosmetic reasons, this scar is nothing but a curse. Something, maybe a part of your essence, is sealed beneath the skin now. Every time I’m near a demon, it starts to burn. Sometimes it gets so hot that it glows. Right now, in fact, one side of my face feels like it’s on fire.” The girl’s moment of levity was brief as seriousness returned to her voice. “I could deal with the pain though. It’s the knowing where your kind are at all times that’s really awful. I was an optimist before this, now all I see is darkness at every corner. Every loathsome act a demon commits, I’m privy to. When others see a stranger in the park asking a pregnant woman when she’s due, I see a hag planning a barbecue. Humans weren’t meant to know what really lurks in the dark. Do you know how crazy it makes you sound when you’re raving about demons being everywhere?”

Jenette looked to her sister, as if asking something that she need not say aloud.

“Let her finish.”

“My parents won’t speak to me anymore. Any friends I had are long gone, and you’d think ‘well she can just retire to the countryside and lead a quiet life then’, but being the only survivor of one of the biggest mass slayings ever isn’t exactly the best way to get people to leave you alone. I had to change my last name to Cross. Ironic choice, don’t you think? Heck, I think they’re already making the movie version right now. My life is going to be reduced to a crappy horror movie starring some teen drama bimbo!”

“At least the movie version will have better tits.” Jenette muttered, prompting a glare from the blue-eyed girl.

“Are you done?” Anibelle asked.

“I guess so…”

“Let me get this straight then; I ruined your life and you dedicated yourself to tracking me down and telling me all about it, why? Do you want revenge or something?”

“No… I just thought you should know what you put me through. You should care that you ruined somebody’s life.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you’re more naïve now than you were before. I’m a demon, honey. I hate everybody. I don’t care when I feed on some man’s soul and I don’t care that I ruined your life.”

“You don’t hate me.” Jenette chimed in after Anibelle’s denouncement.

“I especially hate you Jenette, now shut your food hole.”

“That’s not true! You care, or else you wouldn’t have left me alive. If you didn’t care, I wouldn’t have a reason to track you–!” Kacie started.

“Oh!” Jenette interrupted the girl suddenly. “I think I get it now. She’s a lesbian!”

“What?!” The girl looked confounded.

“I think she is!” Anibelle said with a grin, taking a step closer. “It makes total sense. Obviously, she took one good look at me and has been obsessed ever since.”

“I am not a lesbian, and I am not obsessed with you. I just wanted an apology for what you did to me.”

“Oh really? In my experience, there are only two reasons why a person becomes a stalker. Number one is they intend to kill the person they’re stalking, which you’ve already professed that you have no desire to do to me. That leaves the second option. You’re in love with me. I really should have seen it at the asylum.” Anibelle grinned as if she were patting herself on the back. “Even before I was sex-personified, you sat at my bedside for weeks while I got better. You were always so sickeningly cheerful around me and then there was that schmaltzy speech you gave me when I was leaving.”

“You were in a mental home?” Jenette asked her sister, receiving a middle finger as an answer.

“You’re delusional! I guess the whole changing into a succubus thing has gone to your head. I swear I’ve never met anybody who was so full of themselves. Well, guess what! You may think that everybody is in love with you, but you’re dead wr–!”

Anibelle’s lips touched Kacie’s in a soft embrace. The girl’s cheeks flushed with crimson at the small sign of affection from the demon, her body frozen in its irritated position. Kacie’s lazuline eyes remained wide-open long after the succubus gently tugged on her lower lip as she pulled away.

“Buh…” Kacie muttered, as if she could not get her words out.

“What did you do that for?” Anibelle’s older sister asked.

“It shut her up, didn’t it?”

 

***

 

“Get off me! You’re probably infested with fleas.” Jason shouted at the cat girl perched on his chest.

The feline gazed at him with a perplexed look on her face and then somersaulted off him and onto her feet. Her toes sank into the foamy soil as she crouched down to look Jason in the eyes once more. Her long tiger-striped tail bandied about behind her.

“I do not have fleas. I did have a tick on my tail last week, but I dug that out with my claws. So now, I’m completely pest free.”

Jason shuddered as he slowly pushed himself up out of the dirt.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’d like to see you manage to keep the bugs out of your fur after living in the jungle for a month.” Sekkai asserted.

“I don’t have fur. I’m not a freak.”

“I know you don’t have fur. I’m not stupid. Aaaanyway… let’s get a move on. It’s time to save the world.” The cat started to walk in the direction opposite the one Jason wanted to go in, and the trees parted like the Red Sea for her to create a path.

“I’ll pass.” Jason muttered as he tried to get past the sentry-like growth that blocked his path.

“You can’t pass!” Sekkai whined. “We have to save the world. You know, like the entire planet? That’s sort of important. You’re a lousy mystical hero from another world.”

“Yeah, I am not any of those things. Now tell your bark-covered friends to move so I can back to the hotel and finish reading my comics.”

“Yes you are! You’re from that monolith that appeared in the early light and I saw you use your magical powers to conceal yourself amongst the big women!” Sekkai argued.

Jason tried to slip between the outstretched branches that held him at bay, but every gap he found seemed to seal itself immediately. He was surprisingly calm, considering that the jungle was conspiring against him. He turned and looked at the cat girl, who looked far more frustrated than he was, and then slipped the camera’s strap around his neck. Instantly he changed into a spitting image of Diana Prince.

“See, this thing around my neck is enchanted. I do not have magical powers, but a friend of mine does and if you clear the way back to the hotel for me, you can nag the hell out of her instead.” Jason explained, removing the disguised camera afterwards so that he was once again his usual self.

Sekkai’s brow furrowed as if she was having difficulty processing the information she had just been given.

“I don’t believe you, and the forest is under instructions not to let you pass until you agree to help me.”

Jason cursed under his breath and lined the girl’s head up between his thumb and his forefinger, glaring at her intently as he did.

“What are you doing?” She asked.

“I’m crushing your head with my psychic powers.”

“No! Don’t crush my head!” She shouted, with legitimate worry in her voice, crouching down and cradling her head in her hands. Jason stopped.

“You don’t have sarcasm on this planet, do you?”

The cat girl’s eyes opened slowly, nervously as if she expected that her head might really be crushed. Once she saw nothing but Jason standing there with his camera strap tied around his wrist, she rose.

“We have strawberries. Are those like sarcasm? I know the pixies like to eat them. I like chicken personally. It tastes meatier.” She trailed off.

“Kill me now.” Jason muttered.

“If I killed you then you couldn’t help me save the world.” She stated flatly. “Maybe if I explained why the world needs to be saved…”

“Sure, why not? It’s not like I can go anywhere. Feel free to blather on for as long as you like.” Jason sighed.

“You should sit down; this will take a while to explain everything.” The cat girl said, as a rock, the perfect size for Jason to sit on sprouted from the loam.

Jason took a seat, his head lowered. He would give anything for a comic book or an iPod at that moment, anything that would allow him to drown out the mewling voice of the girl.

“We should start at the beginning, and by the beginning I mean when this world got the name of Haven. You see, once, this world was a magical, harmonious place where the animals and the magical beings that inhabit it lived together. At the time, there were no giant muscular women or anything resembling a human for that matter.” She explained. “But one day, an ark appeared in the sky above our jungle. Those that saw the ship arrive say that it looked like it had come from somewhere over the rainbow. It was made of material none had ever seen before, and inside was the Professor.”

A grasshopper landed on Jason’s knee as he listened with a bored stare on his visage. Casually, he brushed the insect aside.

“Now, the Professor was from a distant world, just like you are. Only, his world was dying. In order to preserve the human species, he put together a crew and took to the stars. Somewhere along the journey, the women on board started to die out. As I’m sure you realize, this meant that they would die out in a generation. The Professor desperately searched for a cure to no avail, until his ship landed on our world.” She continued. “See, the Professor is a brilliant man, but he never had access to the magic that we have here. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived all the women were dead, so in order to live on, he had to come up with another solution. By combining his science and our magic, he was able to create women once again. Since this planet was their saving grace, the crew decided to call the place Haven.”

Though the question of how somebody just taps into magic that he has no understanding of came to Jason’s mind, he did not want to give Sekkai the satisfaction to know that he was interested.

“Of course, this success did not come immediately. Those large muscular women are one of the by products of his experiments. The members of his crew that volunteered were set to be changed for the good of the species, but they came out too large and aggressive for the Professor to handle. With his first failure experimenting on human subjects, he turned to the local fauna.” She smiled in a way that let Jason know that she was referring to herself. “The potions he created were not potent enough though, and the transformations from beast to human were left incomplete.”

Jason was now sitting up, attentively, though he was not pleased to learn that there were more furries running around out in the jungle.

“While his experiments were going on, the race of super women he created started to attack, kidnapping some of the remaining crew members to further their own species. They took to their new home rather quickly, and developed a partnership with some of the magical beings that inhabit the land. With this symbiosis, they were able to succeed where the Professor had failed, but refused to share their secret with their former shipmate…”

Sekkai trailed off again, this time not coming back to finish her thoughts. When Jason looked up at the girl, he saw her pawing at the air, jumping as a moth hovered in the darkening sky just out of her reach.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Jason yelled, snapping the girl back to reality.

“S-sorry, where was I? Oh yeah, this made the Professor very angry of course and he continued his experiments futilely. He is a very stubborn man after all, and even with successes such as myself, he will not tolerate his own failure. Unfortunately, all of his experimenting has had a profound effect on this world. The potions he’s created have run off that’s been seeping into the ground steadily for years, and when an entire planet becomes anthropomorphic, it doesn’t take kindly to the insects running around on its surface.”

Jason nodded. “Just like you and your tick.”

“Anyway, we need your help to stop him. He’s destroying the planet and giving it the ability to be really pissed off at the same time.” Sekkai finished.

“I have no idea how you expect me to do that, especially when I have no powers. However, I do take exception to anybody creating a race of furries. I still think that we should go back to the hotel and ask Anne for help.” Jason responded.

“I don’t know who this Anne is, but if you think we need her help, I’ll ask Irene to seek her out. We don’t have much time though, so you’ll have to stick with me.” The girl said, crushing Jason’s last hope to stay out of it.

“Fine, how do we get to this Professor?” He acquiesced.

“Simple, we follow the yellow stick road!” She motioned to the direction she was heading, and sure enough the branches of the bushes along the path looked like they were gold leafed.

“Oh joy.”

 

***

 

The pale raven-haired woman huddled low to the ground with Haley cradled in her arms. The inventor received quite a bump on her head and her eyes were fluttering to stay open.

“Sh, there, there, just rest.” The woman mothered her as Simone bounded up the stone staircase as quickly as her muscular legs would allow.

“What happened?” Simone asked desperately, looking at her fallen friend.

“Her robot went boom and then I think she hit her head. She might have a concussion. It’s hard to tell.” The woman explained.

“Give her to me.”

Slowly, the woman who was to become one of the Amazons’ handmaidens not too long before passed Haley into the giantess’s expansive arms. Simone held her carefully, looking down into Haley’s fluttering teal eyes.

“Haley, are you okay? It’s Simone. Can you hear me?”

“I can’t feel Brute.” She muttered, her eyes open just a crack. She was clearly with it, but just a little worse for the wear. “And I can’t move my arm…”

Simone smiled, saline tears streaming down her charred cheeks, leaving streaks behind. She lifted the girl into her arms and hugged her against her grand bosom.

“Ahh! Not so tight! I hurt all over and you’re too strong.” Haley winced, squeaking out a little bit of laughter.

The raven-haired woman was preoccupied, listening in on another conversation that was going on simultaneously. She was dressed in a black top that now had two bubbles pushing it out, so that it no longer looked the way it was intended. There was a collar around her neck, which made it look like her outfit had been Goth before she was dipped in the pink goo inside of the vat. Now any makeup that she once wore had washed away, staining the convention pass attached to her shirt and making her first name illegible other than the letters B, E and A. Her last name read as Black. She blushed as she saw Kacie being kissed by Anibelle, probably as much as the shorthaired girl that received the kiss.

“Thanks for taking care of her.” Simone interrupted, causing Bea’s cheeks to turn an even deeper shade of red, which was quite noticeable, considering how pale she was.

“You’re welcome.” She turned her attention back to the tall redhead. “Um… this may sound strange, but will you be my Mistress?”

“Your what?” Simone looked at Bea strangely, as the woman stared back at her with one of the meekest looks she’d ever seen.

“My Mistress. I know, it’s weird, but ever since you freed me, I’ve felt like I need to serve someone. I should be wigged out that I’m a chick and all, but it doesn’t bother me at all. Instead I just have this feeling that I need to belong to somebody.” She explained.

Simone shook her head, thinking about the way the handmaidens acted. There must have been something in the potion that changed them all that made them naturally this way. She sighed.

“Sorry, I don’t really need a handmaiden, but she might want you.” Simone pointed in Anibelle’s direction, though when Bea looked over; it was unclear to the girl whether she was pointing to the demon or the girl with the cross-shaped scar on her cheek.

Bea just nodded as the demons came walking over, with Kacie trailing behind, still looking embarrassed by what Anibelle did to her.

“So then, is everything okay over here?” Anibelle asked, looking at Simone and Haley, who was now sitting up though still looking a bit woozy.

“I’m going to need to carry Haley back, but otherwise we’re okay. What about you? Who are your friends Ani?”

“These crapsacks? They’re not my friends. This is my sister Jenette, and the other one’s some lesbian named Kacie that’s been stalking me.” The succubus responded, not eliciting a response from either woman. “Anyway, this place is boring now and I want to get back so Haley can give me my new eye. You’ve still got the key to her stuff, right?”

Simone patted the side of her shredded jeans, where the pocket was still intact. “Yup, still there.”

“Good, let’s bounce then!”

 

***

 

The sun crept below the horizon, the mix of crimson and orange in the sky turning a dark violet. Brute stood, motionless at the apex of the temple stairs, the black smoke emanating from where his oval-shaped head had once been was slowly starting to die down. For all eternity, he would be stuck there overlooking the ruined city, side by side with Rana, the woman who ended his life. Beside his ersatz wife, he would have wept if he was programmed with emotions, or tear ducts for failing his erstwhile creator. Instead, he just stood there as the shadows faded around him.

It was thus that he showed no care when the ground undulated and oozed out a gelatinous green slime at his feet. Even as it slithered up his tree trunk-like legs and seeped in through the tiny gaps in his joints he made no complaint, but his body did seem to creak to life once more, moving mere centimeters. From within the cavernous hole, where his head once was, came a ghostly voice.

“Mmm, warm. There’s no place like home.”