Chapter Fifteen – “Into the Fire”

Rivulets of foamy mucus spewed from the cadaver’s mouth and dripped from its chin, splashing on the artificial turf of the miniature golf course. One crooked, outstretched arm reached out, mere inches from the blonde pigtails of the little girl. The other, an entangled mess of wires and broken circuitry hung loose at its side. Cornered with the water behind her and death in front of her, an ordinary little girl would follow her natural fight-or-flight instincts, but Lilly almost seemed amused at the dead thing before her. The innate fear that should be attributed to the walking dead was not there. Either Lilly did not recognize Haley’s former body as being dead, or she was just too young to understand what death was. Instead, she covered her mouth, trying to force her giggles back inside. She knew it was rude to laugh at someone’s appearance, but as a bubble of saliva formed between the corpse’s lifeless lips, she burst into laughter.

“Silly lady!” Lilly announced with childish glee.

Cold, varicose fingers wobbled in the air as the zombie seemed reluctant to approach the cherubic girl. The old adage that what you are afraid of is most likely more afraid of you definitely appeared to be true in this case. Met only with screams and fleeing humans in the past, the dead inventor’s body was surprised to find that such pleasant sounds could come from one of the strange beings that treated it as a monster. Curious to find out more about the miniature female, it gave Lilly’s pigtail an exploratory tug. Lilly responded with another giggle as the wretch stroked her yellow hair with unexpected gentleness.

“What’s your name?” She asked the creature.

Try as it might, and although it looked like it understood her, the undead fiend could not muster a response that could remotely be considered a word. Groans, moans, gurgles and gasps were the only sounds it could make, all of which made it seem more frightful than friendly. Still, the little girl was not without a heart.

“Oh, you can’t speak? Hmm, what should I call you then, lady?”

As Lilly pondered what to call her new friend, another spit bubble formed between the dead thing’s lips. Lilly smiled as inspiration and a certain fondness for a saccharine Cartoon Network original gave her the perfect name.

“I’ll call you Bubbles cause you’re blonde like her and you blow bubbles. Do you like it?”

With no frame of reference, the walking corpse had no clue how silly the name was, and thus croaked out a sound that was about as close to mirthfulness as it had in its repertoire.

“Yay! I’m glad you like it! My name is Lilly and now that we’re friends, we’re going to have tons of adventures together!”

Lilly clutched her new friend’s hand and led her to the edge of the water hazard. Beneath the surface, enticing her with its perfectly painted exterior was her red golf ball. It taunted her like the cherry on a sundae, begging to be plucked. In turn, Bubbles squeezed the little girl’s tiny hand, perhaps a bit too tight. Lilly struggled to pull her hand free, and as she pulled away, she took layers of dead skin with her. It peeled off the dead, bloated fingers like the casing on an overstuffed sausage, leaving behind a sanguine mess.

“Ew! You’re gross Bubbles!” Lilly shouted, throwing the hunk of flesh away and wiping the blood from her hands on the bridge’s railing.

Bubbles mimicked the little girl’s actions, which only served to make the scene look like a murder had taken place there with blood smeared everywhere. Lilly tugged on Bubbles’s pair of carpenter jeans as the creature continued to smear its own blood all along the railing, having a great time painting it red. It took a few pulls before Bubbles took notice of the little girl.

“You have to help me get my ball now, Bubbles.”

Lilly pointed at the red ball in the water, which the zombie woman could easily reach if she got down on her knees at the edge of the pool. Realization was slow in the dead woman though, and her brain was not exactly working at its peak efficiency. This meant that when Bubbles finally understood what her new companion wanted, she went about retrieving it in entirely the wrong way. Bubbles bent herself entirely at her waist, expecting that all she had to do was reach down and grab the object. This left her incredibly off balance though and she toppled face first into the water, sending sparks flying as the little bit of charge left in her cybernetic arm reacted quite violently with the water now that its innards were exposed.

Bubbles flailed about in the water as the smell of burning flesh permeated the room, and when she finally managed to come up for air with the red ball tucked between her rotting lips her blonde hair was cut a few inches shorter and was still smoking. Lilly burst into giggles again at the sight of her uncoordinated friend.

“I love you Bubbles! You’re so silly!”

 

***

 

“Don’t tease, Nephie. You know you’re going to let us walk right by.”

Sekkai casually walked toward the holographic guard with Shota following a few steps behind. The redheaded dryad was not quite as confident as the cat girl was when it came to the Professor’s minions. It was difficult for her to trust even Sekkai when she first befriended the feline. It was like asking a child to betray their parents. In a matter of speaking, the Professor was the father of his creations, and many of them seemed to forget their lives outside of the Ark rather quickly. Thus, her hesitance was not without merit.

“Nobody is getting past me, Sekkai, not nobody, not no how!” Nephlite exclaimed, raising his palm into the halt formation. “If you turn around and walk out the way you came, I will allow you to leave here peacefully, but believe me, you are not getting to the Professor or your comrade, Jason.”

“Oh please, you’re not going to do anything. You wouldn’t dare fire on your most favoritest cat girl in the whole wide world.”

Sekkai took another step towards the raven-haired man, only this time, her nonchalant attitude was met with resistance. A ball of flaming blue energy fired from Nephlite’s palm with the ill-mannered being its intended target. Sekkai was quick to react, practically jumping out of her pittance of a dress, but the blast would have been too close for her to escape unharmed. An explosion erupted less than a body-length from her and she hurdled back into the dryad’s comforting arms. When the cat girl opened her eyes, she saw the remnants of a paper shield burning away in front of them. Shota saved them all from the smell of burnt animal hair at the last possible second it turned out.

“Holy crap! What the hell are you thinking, Nephie?!”

“As much as I love your exuberance, kitten, I do believe that your so-called friend is quite serious about his warnings. I would suggest we take a moment to think through a plan of action.” Shota said, stroking Sekkai lightly to keep her calm.

“Like Hell! I’m not going to let my lackey turn his back on me and get away with it!”

Sekkai burst out of the tenuous embrace Shota had her in and leapt to her feet. She stormed forward with a fiery determination, locking Nephlite in her sight. She was going to remind him who she was and why he could not get away with such an act of treason. She was a tiger, ready to intimidate her prey into submission, but in this case, her prey had a different idea. The man positioned his hand and prepared to discharge another blast, the azure energy circling in his palm.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it just a second. I just wanted to talk!” Sekkai shouted, throwing her hands up in a defensive pose while backpedaling a few steps.

The forming ball of fire subsided and Nephlite lowered his palm reluctantly. His dour gaze told the girl that this was only a temporary cessation to their battle however. There was no doubt in his mind that he could blast them both to kingdom come should they try anything fishy.

“I’m listening.”

“Be reasonable, Nephie. Think about who you’re trying to shoot here. It’s me, Sekkai, your bestest buddy and sometimes mistress. Don’t you remember all the fun we’ve had together?”

“I do, but my orders are to keep you out of the compound and to eliminate you if necessary. It is against my programming to disobey the Professor’s orders.”

“That’s nonsense and you know it.” Sekkai exclaimed. “You have not been a slave to your programming for a long time. You’re a… what did you call it? Advanced artificial intelligence? I don’t know much about your crazy science stuff, but I’m pretty sure that means that you can think for yourself.”

Nephlite stared at the feline woman, looking as if he was unimpressed by the speech thus far. However, as Sekkai sighed and took a few more steps toward him, he did not show any signs of aggression. His eyes just followed her movements, carefully analyzing both the situation and the words in his processing core. Was he really more than well-designed software? Just because he could take a solid, human shape did not mean that he was not still a machine.

“What happened to my fellow cat girl? I loved when you would change form and we would joke about the Catgirl Republic. Was that in your programming? Or how about that time where you went to all the trouble of gathering silk from the drider? I mean, sure, the spider-woman really couldn’t harm you, but I’m sure it was still not easy, and what did you do with that silk? You fashioned it into a rather sexy pair of special underwear for me. Who told you to do that? I don’t remember any orders that said Nephie should make Sekkai sexy underwear.”

The man lowered his eyes, once again contemplating the girl’s words. It was true; those were things that he did on his own, well, mostly on his own. Sekkai had pleaded with him for quite a while before the first time he took the cat girl form, but still every action after that was the result of a sentient being, and not a computer program following orders. Besides, he had a ton of fun doing those things.

“I don’t care how advanced of an artificial-whatsamawhosit you are, first and foremost, you’re my friend, and friends don’t shoot friends in the faces with fireballs.” Sekkai pleaded with him. “Now, how about you be a friend and let us pass?”

Nephlite smiled and his body flickered, altering itself and shrinking in height. It became modestly curvy with long brown hair and a pair of calico-colored cat ears and a tail. The changes showed that she wore just as little as her cat girl companion did as well.

“I’m sorry I was mean, Sekkai. We’re friends, so let the consequences be damned!”

“That’s my girl!” Sekkai proclaimed, ruffling the hair between Nephie’s pointy kittenish ears. “Oh, and don’t worry, we won’t let the Professor punish you. Only I’m allowed to do that.”

Sekkai giggled and Shota rolled her eyes as the pair passed by Nephie without any further trouble. The girl smiled happily and then set about cleaning herself as if she was just as much of a cat as her friend was. Sekkai leaned over to the dryad once they were out of the girl’s hearing range and whispered to her.

“I can’t believe she bought that load of crap.”

 

***

 

“Not so damned tight! Can’t you tie a knot without cutting off the circulation to my hands?” Kacie complained.

Now in a different, more secure room without any easy escapes, Agent Midea was tying the querulous girl down to a bed, her arms and legs spread far apart, giving her nowhere to run. It was like a scene out of Stephen King’s Misery, with the scruffy agent taking Kathy Bates’s place in the starring role. The creepiness of the position she was being put into was not lost on the blue-eyed girl either.

“Stop giving me that look too. You remind me of that creep from Hard Candy that Ellen Page beat up. I swear if you start tearing my clothes off I’m going to scream.”

“I’m not going to do any such thing. Now shut up or I’m going to put the gag back in your mouth.” Midea told the girl.

“Oh no, don’t play coy with me, Mister.” Kacie was not having any of his denials. “I see how you’re looking at me. How could you resist staring at my long, sensuous legs or my perfect pert little ass? I know that I’m adorable. I have the most inviting blue eyes, like wells of the purest water imaginable and the cutest face. Then of course there’s my breasts, also the perfect size, just enough to get a good handful. Face it, any straight guy or really sexy demon girl would want me.”

“Actually, I think your breasts are a bit on the small side.”

“Your brain’s a bit on the small side!” Kacie shouted back at him, grumbling about the one part of her body that she was sensitive about.

Even in the direst of situations, she was characteristically combative. Of course, she did not want Agent Midea nor his partner to take advantage of her, but she was still a bit insulted that the thought was not even crossing their minds. She grunted as Midea pulled another knot even tighter, most likely in response to her rash response to his criticism.

“Can we switch jobs?” Midea asked Agent Cronocke, who was at the door stringing a net up, which was stained with dried goat’s blood.

“No, we can’t. If the whiny little bitch is annoying you, stick a sock in her mouth. Nobody said that we have to listen to her bullshit. This is your chance to get revenge on all the demanding, whining bitches that video game designers saddle us with on escort missions and the like. How many times did you want to smack Navi with a sword or shoot Ashley Graham in the face? Here’s your chance. Give her a good slap and let her know her place.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Kacie asked umbrageously.

The tanned agent ignored the offended female and continued to set the trap that they were laying for the angel, should he try to rescue the girl again. He finished tying off the net, which hung right above the entranceway, ready to fall on anybody that walked through, and then set about wiring a trigger.

“Oh fine, ignore me, go back to setting your shitty trap. What? Was sticking a carrot under a box too complicated for you? I’ve seen better plans out of Elmer Fudd.” Kacie chortled. “You think you’re going to catch Anibelle in that? You’re dumber than you look. Anybody that walks into something so obvious should lose their right to live.”

“First of all, it’s not for Anibelle. It’s for your guardian angel friend. Second, it’s far more ingenious than some net hanging from the ceiling.” Cronocke explained, sounding just a bit aggravated that the girl was calling him stupid. “It’s activated only by the sound of a guitar, so when that winged bastard comes back and tries to put us to sleep it’ll go off. He’ll think everything’s safe and walk in and be trapped. That net’s coated in ritualistic goat’s blood. He doesn’t stand a chance.”

“Way to tell me your plan, dumbfuck! Did you read the Guide to Shitty—?”

Midea stuffed a gag back into Kacie’s mouth and duct taped it in place so that she could not continue to throw vile insults their way. It was going to be a long night of guarding the chocolate-haired girl and he did not want to spent it listening to her curse and whine. Cronocke smirked and gave his partner three slow claps.

“You know, now that she’s not talking, I see what she was talking about. She is rather cute. Too bad she’s got a mouth like a banshee.”

 

***

 

The strange looking hourglass taunted Jason as he sulked in the corner of the air lock. With each grain of sand that dropped, he felt his manhood slipping away. He spent more than enough time examining the device once the Professor left, and had come to the conclusion that there was no way for him to slow or stop the sand from passing from one side to the other. He tried setting it on its side and upside down, but both times the sand inside defied gravity and continued to pour into the other end with the same steady speed. It was a devilish invention that the comic book aficionado hated with all of his being. The blue sand was taunting him as it passed through a filter in the narrow center of the hourglass and came out pink on the other side. The absurdity of the sand’s color was not lost on him, but he was having a difficult time dwelling on it. His mind wandered to wondering what he would be like as a girl. There was an assumption that he would look like the wavy-haired redhead that he had been when Anne changed him before, but then again, nobody in his family had red hair, so perhaps the thought of being a woman he would be attracted to was nothing more than a pipe dream. He regarded himself as a trollish looking individual, so he held little hope that things would be different as a woman.

His appearance was not the only thing he thought of as his life as a man ticked away with the grains of sand. The Professor had said that he was going to be his wife once he was changed, but Jason doubted that this was true. He imagined it would be more like the way Inara’s clients treated her in Firefly. Sure, they said they respected her as a woman of high standing, but in the end, she was there to provide little more than pleasure to them. For once, relating his problems to pop culture did not ease his mind. He was inexperienced enough as a man, so the thought of performing the same tasks from the other side of things gave him a shiver.

As the blue sand dwindled and the pink filled the bottom half of the hourglass, he knew his time left was short. He thought about giving his manhood a eulogy, but was interrupted before it began by the sound of the air lock releasing. He suspected he would see the Professor and Nim walking through the door to watch the final transformation, so he was surprised when it was something entirely different.

“Sekkai to the rescue!” The cat girl proclaimed as she leapt into the room, looking around as if she was ready for a battle.

Jason gave the girl a weak looking wave as Shota stepped in behind her.

“If it’s not too much trouble, do you think you could get rid of that hourglass before it goes off? There’s not much time left and I’d really rather not be a girl.”

“That is so cute. Jason Grey is about to be a damsel-in-distress.” Shota giggled. “Well, fear not, fair maiden, for we will rescue you from the evil clutches of womanhood. Although, have you really thought about this? I mean, being a woman is not all that bad and—”

“Just get rid of it!”

Shota nodded to Sekkai and the feline pounced toward the contraption with the speed of a cheetah. Jason smiled just a little, thinking that he had escaped just in the nick of time. After all, the last few grains of sand were just starting to trickle into the filter. His luck however seemed to always take a turn for the worse around here as instead of throwing the canister out the air lock door, Sekkai kicked it like a soccer ball right into the wall above Jason.

“Worst rescue ever.” Jason muttered as pink gas engulfed his form.

Shota stared at Sekkai as if asking her what she did that for and received a shrug for an answer.

“How was I supposed to know that breaking it would be bad?”

Jason groaned as his body quickly shifted and jostled in ways that he did not wish to feel. While it was not as quick as the ka-spell method that Anne utilized, the changes did happen fast. His Phoenix t-shirt simultaneously became looser and then tighter once his chest expanded into a pair of perfect orbs. His body felt more slender almost everywhere and even though he could not see them through the fog, he wiggled his now dainty fingers in front of his face. New, longer hair tickled the back of his neck and as his hips widened, the sound of a straw at the bottom of a glass was a sickening reminder of the new vacancy between his—now her—legs.

Jason emerged from the fog as a short girl with wavy red hair, though the fact that she was in her desired female form did not make her feel any better about the situation. Shota’s eyes lit up and Jason knew that she was about to make some comment about how cute she was.

“Ooh, your hair is the same color as—”

“Save it. I’m a girl now, big whoop; let’s finish this thing before it gets any worse.” Jason stopped her. “Oh, and don’t even think about calling me Sonja!”

 

***

 

Jenette received a swift kick to her butt from her demon sister as the two of them as well as Haley—in her fancy new body—followed the bloody trail the inventor’s old body left behind. It was a situation that Haley herself did not know how to explain. Was she alive? Was she dead? How the Hell was her old body walking around on its own? All she knew is that she was not quite herself at the moment, and the more exaggerated curvature of her current form was a constant reminder of that. Then there was the occasional screaming that echoed through her mind. June, the woman she was possessing, was not pleased with her predicament and made sure that Haley knew it in the most expressive way she knew how. The blonde girl stopped to rub her temples, hoping that it would calm the migraine she was developing.

“Stop kicking me!” Jenette yelled back at her sister.

“Well, then go faster. How is it that you can find me and Haley with no problem at all, but you’re as slow as a constipated tortoise when it comes to tracking down a walking corpse?” Anibelle asked her sister in about as polite a tone as she ever used with the shapeshifter.

“This is boring though. Haley already took somebody else’s body. Why do we need to find her old one?”

“Because possession is not a long-term thing! Her mind is going to shatter if I don’t reattach her soul to her body soon. Do you want to make the poor thing go crazy?”

“No…” Jenette got a little quieter. “I don’t see why you can’t just attach her soul to that body though.”

“I swear there’s more intelligence in a baboon’s bloated blue behind than in that melon you call a brain.” Anibelle shot back, essentially telling her sister that the argument was over.

The bickering demon sisters made Haley’s growing headache even worse, unfortunately. Listening to June’s tortured soul scream at her was not the way she wanted to live her life, but she did still want to live and if this was the only way she could search the hotel’s grounds, then so be it.

As the trio left the mall, finding that the trail there had long since gone cold, they heard the soft strumming of an electric guitar. It had a calming effect on Haley’s mind and even though it was unmistakably a guitar, the way it was being played reminded her more of a harp. Well, at least it did until the player broke into a face-melting rock solo. The change of styles caught the demons’ pointed ears and it was not long before Jenette and Anibelle trailed off course in the direction of the music.

When they turned the corner and saw a man with long light blonde hair that reminded her of some heavy metal stars and tattoos covering both of his arms. He was shredding away on a cherry red Strat at the time, but stopped and smiled at the group as they approached. As soon as Anibelle’s senses returned to her, she hissed like an alley cat at the man.

“Nice to see you too, Anibelle. I guess I should have expected that sort of response from a demon of your ilk.” Hamel grinned at the demons.

“Fuck off, angel. As awesome as it is, I will shove that guitar up your ass if you even think about trying anything!”

“He’s an angel? How do you know he’s an angel? He doesn’t look like some tightwad prick with a perpetual stick up his ass.” Jenette questioned her sister, unable to detect his holy aura as her rather unholy sister could. “He smells like a cheap bar. I’ve never met an angel that smells like that.”

“You must be Jenette. You’re as endearing as I’ve heard, and that means that your human friend is—oh!” Hamel gave Haley a worrisome stare. “This is what happens when you keep demons for friends, they lead you further and further away from the light. Haley Ravenlock, did your fiendish friends explain nothing to you about possession?”

“Wha—?” Haley started to ask before Ani interrupted her.

“It’s none of your business what we explained to her. I told her all she needs to know, you bloody fuck. Now go away. We need to get her back into her old body before it’s too late.”

“I should say so, though you may have already done irreparable harm to her soul. Possession puts a nasty taint on the spirit, you know.”

“Yeah, well, I doubt she gives a fuck about the state of her soul right now. She’s D, E, A, D, dead. I’m trying to help her get over that little affliction, but you self-righteous angels never seem to care about intentions. You see two demons and you immediately think we’re trying to corrupt her.”

Hamel fiddled with his tongue stud as he listened to Anibelle admonish him for his concern. There was good reason why angels and demons did not get along, and failure to see the other’s side was a major part of it.

“Listen, you’re not the only one with no time for argument. I came here about Kacie Cross, not to tongue-lash you about your irresponsibility with Miss Ravenlock.”

“Ooh, you mean the lesbian? What about her?” Jenette asked curiously, preventing Ani from unleashing another torrent of foul language.

“I have it on good authority that she likes men just as much as women, but that’s not the issue.” Hamel responded. “The issue is that Damon Blake is holding her hostage and is setting a trap for you.”

“What do you want me to do about it?” Anibelle questioned the man.

“I thought that you might want to save her. I’ve already tried once myself, but I was ambushed as we were about to leave. Considering the special relationship you seem to have with the girl, I thought you might want to—”

“Hold it right there! I have no such relationship with any female. I’m a succubus. I like men and lots of them. Females are of no use to me, even the really cuddly and adorable ones.” Anibelle insisted, though one might say she protested too much.

Hamel let out a frustrated sigh, knowing the history between the two girls and that there was far more there than Anibelle wished to admit. Still, if she was not going to make the effort, then he would. For both parties, the time for bickering was over. Two lives were possibly hanging in the balance and everything else would have to be left for another time.

 

***

 

Jason tugged at her clothes to keep them from falling down as she followed Sekkai and Shota through corridor after corridor. There was little time to even think about how boring a spaceship was in reality compared to how they seemed on TV, especially with her new feminine figure at the forefront of her mind. However, when they passed into a large room with glass on both sides that reminded her of Superman’s alien zoo in the Fortress of Solitude, she took notice.

“Where are we?”

“We are in the atrium,” Shota explained. “According to what I have read, when the Ark was in service the atrium served as sort of an indoor park for the crew members to experience the outdoors without going outside. Now, it is a gathering place for many of the Professor’s failed experiments that do not wish to reintegrate with the rest of their brethren.”

Jason watched through the glass barriers at the literal menagerie of creatures frolicking about in the grass grown by artificial sunlight. She could see why they would want to gather there, as it was the prettiest part of the ship she had seen thus far. Even with the numerous creatures that looked as if they could have been furries, he was still impressed. Shota pointed out a few of the creatures, assigning them names.

“That there is Pet.” She pointed to a human sized skunk strolling in front of the window. “She is one of the Professor’s newest creations. I think he has run out of ideas for names, personally. Toad there has spent too much time reading fantasy novels and thinks he is a mage now, but as you can see, he is just a toad.”

“Oh, and over here is Obsidian.” Sekkai announced, wanting to get in on the tour guide act.

She was pointing at a woman that seemed to be half-snake. The bottom half of the woman was a long, slithering, black tail and when she bared her fangs, Jason jumped back.

“Don’t worry about her, she tries to act scary sometimes but she’d rather snuggle you than bite.”

Further down the line, Jason stopped and pointed at the wall at a hanging flashlight.

“Let me guess, this flashlight is actually a fancy fellow from the nation of Cornwood.” Jason giggled, trying to make a joke.

“No, silly, that is just a flashlight. It just sits there and does not say a thing, rather annoying if you ask me.” Shota responded, clearly not understanding the idea of a joke.

The passageway started to get hot as they approached the other end and they saw fewer and fewer creatures on the other side of the glass. In fact, when they did see one, it seemed to be running in the opposite direction as if it was trying to escape. Jason’s eyes lit up as she looked forward for once, rather than to the side. Blocking the end of the path a giant bird, as tall and as wide as the passageway stood. Its wings were spread wide and the glass on both sides of it was melting away. Flames replaced feathers and Jason was left awestruck. It looked strikingly similar to the bird on her t-shirt.

“What do you call that one?” Jason pointed directly at the majestic and quite threatening bird.

“Trouble…”