CHAPTER ONE

As best I can recall now, the whole life-changing incident occurred in spring time. You’ll have to forgive my blurred memory. At this distance, it becomes difficult to remember exact dates. Anyway, on with the whole sordid story. So, let me just tell my story, and if you want to alter anything to make it fit together better, be my guest. I’d be the last guy on the planet to insist on accuracy if it’s lack makes a better story.

 It was an average spring morning. The temperature was somewhere in the high sixties, a bit overcast. Since I had the day off work, I decided to spend the day surfing the ‘Net.

A few bits of junk e-mail, nothing worth even a first look. Anything in newsgroups? Nope, nothing.  Let’s try some of the story archives… Ahh, here we go. A new Master PC story. Download that. Nothing new from J R D. Oh well. J R Parz got anything? Yup, here we go.  Nothing else interesting. Must be a slow day.  I logged off the ‘Net, opened up MS Word, and started reading. The new Master PC story wasn’t all that interesting, just the usual ‘geek gets ultimate power, geek uses ultimate power to enslave most of the distaff gender’. How dull.

JR Parz, however, never fails to entertain. Sometimes it’s sad seeing what some people do with such a good story idea. Too bad the Master PC doesn’t exist. Or does it, and I’m just not finding it?  What the hell, it’s not like I’ve got anything better to do today. I logged back onto the ‘Net, and started cruising the search engine sites. Entering ‘Master PC’ gets me a few hits, but even adding in ‘Xanthos Pendragon’ and a few other items doesn’t give me jack. OK, then, time to take off the kid gloves. I went back to the search engines, but I found the occult ones a much better resource. Most of them only were reviews of various Master PC stories, but a few others were more enlightening. Wait a sec, some of these posts have attached files. Let’s see…..

Paydirt! “Master. Exe!” Download that sucker now! As the computer downloads the file, I rub my hands in anticipation. “Wait a sec… If Master PC DOES exist, what’re the chances that some of those stories are real? Wha… Xanthos! His backtrack-and-erase add on must have taken effect. So Master PC is limited to those people that had the file before his wipe. Shit!” I was pissed. Xan’s actions I approved of in broad terms, ‘cause who knew what’d happen if a bunch of repressed computer geeks got a hold of god-like power, but when it came to myself, I thought I was smart enough and selfish enough not to get stupid with it. I pulled up Xanthos’ story, and reread the initial few chapters. Aha! He put a back door on the program just in case he had to reload the thing! Now all I have to do is guess what he’d have made the password…
Hell, how’m I to know what he chose? I ruminated for a while, the computer having finally finished downloading. I knew enough programming to know that Xan’s virus wouldn’t take effect until the program had been unzipped and a set number of failed passwords was entered. If he were really smart, he’d have nested the commands, and used something simple so that if one of his wives had to reload the program, they wouldn’t have to work too hard.

 “Lessee, what would I use if I were paranoid, but wanting to cover my ass at the same time?”

 I unzipped Master. Exe while I thought. The Install Wizard window popped up, and I entered the file path I wanted.  I lit a cigarette while I waited, then decided that I had nothing to lose. I tried the first thing that came to mind. When the Master Control Console opened up, a smaller window for password entry popped up. I typed in “Xanthos Pendragon needs the Master PC”. No dice. Second try, probably 2 of 3 chances I’d get. Shit! Better make this good! “I need the Master PC!” Failure. What the hell, if it worked, I’d never need to remember it again, and if it failed, I’d forget all about Master PC being real. “Xanthos Pendragon’s backdoor.” Success!!

 I’d done it! I now had the reality-warping, body-altering, mind-controlling program at my beck and call. First things first, though, that nasty little password has to go!

 “Please enter User’s Name.” ‘Jason’

 “Welcome to the Master PC control center. You now have access to the Master PC, and can act as a god to all those around you!”

 Good, I’d hate to think I went through all that work for some damn registry cleaner or something.

 “Enter Subject’s Name.” ‘Jason *******’ The view window on the right of the Control console now had the oddly-familiar image of my body, wearing the shorts and T-shirt I had on, spinning on a wire-frame globe. Under the Intelligence heading, the original reading was “Genius level intelligence” with a bar extending from room-temperature intellect all the way past Einstein. I decided on just a simple upgrade, to Mega-Genius. The elapsed time was 10 seconds, a decent interval while I pondered if this was really such a good idea. 10 seconds later, I agreed with my initial impulse. My mind was now much broader in scope, with an enhanced memory, and much faster processing speed. Now that I had the brainpower to accomplish the feats, I decided that my first order of business was to construct for myself an override for the Master PC. I didn’t want just anyone to be able to use it to ruin all my fun.

 I decided to follow Xanthos’ lead and input a few password controls over my person, to prevent anyone from altering me with this or any other computer with the Master. However, I knew (from my own recent escapade) that it was possible for someone with enough information on me to reconstruct my thought processes to get the password. Better to have too much protection than to risk my ass on getting fried by arrogance. I gave myself complete understanding of current state-of-the-art electronics, and after a little thought on the matter, decided to construct a micro EMP for my person. Anyone trying to overwrite my own alterations with Master PC would have to get past the EMP to do it. Not bad, and if I happened to be close enough, I could short out the computer running the program. Now, though, I had the diagram in my head, but no materials with which to make it, and less in the way of funds for it. Hell!

 Wait a second! Master PC! I could use it to… Typing rapidly, I gave myself the ability to rearrange all non-living matter that I touched into other material of my choice. Great! Problem solved! “Why bother with body-shaping when I’ve got the Master?”  I mused aloud. I left my bedroom and went out into my backyard. I gathered up a few chunks of wood, since I had it to spare. A visualization  and touch later, I had the materials I needed. It was the work of a few hours to make the micro EMP, but I knew it was well spent. With a sigh of relief, and feeling a little more secure in my power, I went back inside and proceeded to start playing with the Master. A few tweaks here and there, mostly to immunize myself against diseases and with regeneration to take care of injuries. Also, from my readings on the matter,  I knew that women had something like 40 percent more in the sensory nerves department than men, making them much more susceptible to touch and sensation. What the hell. I added in those as well. When that little change went through, I realized why women didn’t have to be visually oriented. Why should they, when they can get such a charge out of the fabric of their clothes? No wonder the fabrics marketed to women cost so much, it was a guaranteed sale! An application of my new power over matter changed the nubby cotton I was wearing into silk, but without changing it’s appearance. Much better!

 Some of my more traditional changes also registered their approval. My new, thicker dick stirred. I hadn’t added anything to it’s length, just it’s width. I was now 40 percent thicker, no longer a pencil dick. As it continued to rub against my silk underwear, I started to get hard. I thought for a moment about just letting it happen, but I was too interested in playing with the computer. A twitch of mental muscle, and my half-erect member subsided into dormancy. Time enough for games later. After another twenty minutes and a few changes later, mostly to make my other changes not noticeable to anyone that knew me before and to keep anyone else from messing around with my computer, I was starting to run down on energy. My new brainpower told me that the energy to rearrange matter had to come from somewhere, and the best source for that was me. I went back upstairs and raided the kitchen, making off with a few cans of tuna fish and some chips, while I ordered 3 pizzas from a nearby pizza place. I transmuted a few extra socks into some cash, and while I waited for the delivery guy to get there with the food, I reread some of my fave stories from the ‘Net, gathering more ideas. Downloading the entire Master PC program into my head was interesting, but not interesting enough for me to monkey with my mind any more. A better idea suggested itself from the other extreme of my stories. Bill Hart’s Spells-R-Us Wizard’s image floated around my brain for a little while, seeming to indicate my subconscious’ interest in the idea. I decided to try it. I input the command ‘Give to me all of the magic usable by the Wizard of Spells-R-Us and the knowledge to make the magic work.” I sat back in anticipation. A shift in my mind came rapidly, filling up my enlarged memory to the brim. “No wonder Wizards use spellbooks. Too much here to risk forgetting.” I transmuted a pair of shoes into a large leather-bound tome, and with the aid of a spell in my head, I transmitted all of my spells into the book. I had to transmute more stuff into books to hold all the spells, there were SO many of them!

 A knock at the door, and my dog’s barking told me that the pizza delivery guy was here. I edged past Savage, and slid out the door. The pizza guy took my transmuted money without a second glance, along with a large tip for getting here early. I waited till he was back in his car, then slipped back into the house, where the dog was waiting. Between the two of us, we polished off all three pies, and I turned the boxes into a long cylinder of balsa wood, since I’d probably need to material for something eventually. Besides which, I didn’t feel like answering any questions from my parents on where I’d managed to get the cash for pizza (Yes, I know, what kind of guy lives at home when he’s an adult? Only a geek.) Besides which, with Master PC and my new talents to work with, I should have the whole matter under control shortly, so why make more work for myself?  Come to that, I thought about the concerns of the federal government, the IRS, and other various political entities, not to mention the other users of Master PC. If I wanted to avoid notice, I should do something not-too-remarkable about my money problems.  My concerns were valid, as I couldn’t continue to live off my parents forever, but I was now even less inclined to work for a living. All of my material needs could be seen to by virtue of my matter-rearrangement abilities, and who knew what I was capable of with my new spells?

 Okay, what was the easiest way to get some money to assuage my worldly financial needs while according the least attention to my personal life? A little thought clarified the matter. I needed a job. But not one as an executive, I lacked the requisite experience, not to mention the toadying skills usually prerequisite with such a job.  Also, without a job, I was unlikely to leave the house. Big problem. Okay, now, how do I get a job that lets me live on my own, while not requiring me to either alter someone’s mind with the Master or being a bootlicker?  Back to the bookstore, I guess. But that job was boring as hell, not to mention stressful…. Hold the phone! What if I had a duplicate? Someone else to work while I played, and if I felt the need to do something ordinary, I could switch places with him! Sounds great to me! A little fiddling with the Master proved fruitless, about all I could do with that was alter someone else to be my duplicate.  Boring, not to mention cruel. Why involve someone else, their family, and anyone else that was watching? Maybe the Wizard’s spells could help out. I searched through my memory, and found just what I needed. It was possible, via a simple Clone spell, to make an exact duplicate of myself with just a little semen, blood, and hair. I pulled the hair, and nicked my arm with my pocket knife to get the blood. Then all I needed was the semen. I smiled to myself as I released the controls I’d imposed on my dick.

 With my enhanced nervous system and a well-practiced hand, I went to work. A few minutes work (and a little lube) later, I had the semen I required. Unfortunately, the dog picked that minute to start barking at my mother’s car, which had just pulled up in the driveway.

“Shit!” I yelled at the ceiling. A simple rearrangement of a couple of cigarette butts yielded a small corked test tube, into which I scraped my seed. “Guess this’ll have to wait.” I put the tube in my junk drawer and sat down on my bed, picking up one of my new spellbooks to kill the time till dinner. My mom came in, I yelled that I was home, and so proceeded a normal evening. I went upstairs an hour or so later, when Paul, my stepdad, yelled out that dinner was ready. Over the meal, my folks asked if I had had any luck with my job seeking, and I replied that I had a few leads, some stuff I was going to work on the next morning. They wished me luck, and I thanked them. No stupid revenge on my folks, hopefully I’d manage to steer around the other distasteful aspects of the average Master PC user as well as I had this one. After dinner, we watched the usual Tuesday night TV, dateline and so forth. After an evening of this, I was anxious to get back to my tinkering. I waited till they went to bed, and went back to work.

 “Okay, now, what next?” I muttered to myself as I collected my materials. Blood, hair, and seed. What else did I need for this spell? Enough water to comprise a human body. Well, I wasn’t going to spend the night hauling water in buckets into my bedroom. The bathtub would have to do. A like amount of at least once-living matter. Was I going to have to go digging in graveyards like some bargain-basement Frankenstein? No, wait, the wood in the back yard! Once-living, all right! The spell’s description said it would take a few hours to complete, so I’d better get to work, since I’d need the darkness for the spell to work at all. A few simple keystrokes with Master PC, and my folks would sleep till morning, and my brother and sister wouldn’t come home till after sunrise. Perfect!

 Hours later……

 I sat on the toilet, staring into the bathtub at what once had been a pile of wood with a smattering of semen, hair, and blood. Staring back at me was my clone, down to the pierced ears and dyed hair.

 “Holy shit.” We said in stereo. When we heard the other speaking in synch, we both laughed.

 “Hiya Jason.” I said.

 “Hi Jay.” He replied. He snickered again. “Did you remember to bring me any clothes?”

 “Sorry, I forgot. Here.” I stuck my hand into the water still surrounding him and shaped him a pair of shorts and T-shirt like I had on. “Better?”

 “Much. Not that I mind seeing me naked, but I don’t think we need to get into a bad habit.”

 “Good point. You want I should give you a minute alone?” I was conscious of my own clothed state, and wanted to give him any privacy he required.

 “Please, if you don’t mind.” I stood and left him, standing out in the hallway. A peek at my wristwatch told me that it was almost 6 am.

 “Shit! I almost forgot, Paul’s going to need to get up.” I turned and knocked on the bathroom door.
“Jay! Better get a move on, Paul’s going to be getting up soon!”

 “Oh fuck. I forgot.” He opened the door and we both went back down to the basement. “Shit, this could get complicated real quick.”

 “You said it, dude.” We heard the master bedroom door open, and someone coming out. Jay looked at me for a minute, then pointed at the computer. My alterations to it had made it impossible for anyone else but me to touch it, but he WAS me! I nodded, trusting him implicitly, and followed him over to the desk. He typed in under Command:? ‘Give me the power to mentally communicate with my clone’.  Geez, I’d forgotten that the Clone spell would have cloned me as I currently was, post-Master PC alterations! He had my enhanced intelligence, and all of the other changes too!

 As the command kicked in, I felt an extra sense unfolding inside my head. I reached out with it towards Jay, and made contact.

 “Damn, that worked even better than I thought!”

 “Don’t you mean WE thought?”

 “True. Now what? We’re two of the most powerful beings on this planet, and we’re more alike than identical twins!”

 “Well, first things first. We’d better change my name, so that any changes we make to one of us leaves the other alone.”

 “Good point. Any name you prefer?”

 “Anything except Steven. I HATE that name.”

 “How about Peter?”

 “Works for me.”

 I typed in ‘Rename my clone Peter *******’. The command separated us from each other, and I felt a little loss at this. Peter remarked mentally that he felt the same, but that the command was for the best. Also at his prompting, I removed his spell-casting ability, and his ability to use the computer. When I asked him why, he simply replied, “Because one of us with god-like power is enough. Besides which, I trust you. And if I need anything done with the Master or with your spells, I can always ask. It’s too complicated and risky to have two of us running around.” I agreed, and entered the commands. He could no longer manipulate reality with spells or the computer, but I made his alteration commands even more complex and encrypted it with a mirror spell on the program.

 While Paul was in the shower and unlikely to hear us, I started up the CD player and took the opportunity to talk with Peter. “So, how do you feel?” I asked.

 “Just like you, you dope!” he said with a smile.

 “Dumb question, I know, but still, I had to ask.” Both of us seemed to regard mental communication as something to used only when other methods didn’t work. “Got any suggestions as to how we avoid notice till we get out of this house?”

 “Well, we could use Master PC to keep them from noticing that we’re twins, just ignore whichever of us comes into the room second or whichever of us they don’t expect to see there.”

 “Good call. We’ll use that one.” I typed, and so it was done. Anyone that was looking or expecting to see me would only see one of us at a time, and the other would be ignored, completely invisible or unnoticeable. I added in a second command, making it so that when we spoke to each other, noone would hear anything unusual or suspect us of talking to ourself(ves).  Peter approved of this addition, and made an additional one. “ Cast a spell over us so that if we’re together, and two people are looking for each of us, they’ll only speak to one of us.” I did so, and so we avoided a small hole in my programming logic.

 “Groovy. Now we can talk without suspicion. Although we’ll have to avoid being together at a party or anything, just to avoid confusion.” I smiled, pleased with myself. I looked at my twin, unable to help my insatiable curiosity. I’d always been too prying for my own good. I studied his form, mirror to my own. All I’d done with Master PC was to slightly tone up what muscles I had, not wanting or liking a muscle-bound  frame. We were both sleek without being scrawny, and just muscular enough to convey power without the overload of too many hormones. I reached out and started rubbing his chest, causing both of us to shudder.

 “Don’t do that! You know neither of us is gay!” he growled at me.

 “ I know, I just wanted to see my… our reaction.” I replied. Then, I had a brainstorm. Smiling evilly, I pulled one of my spellbooks off the floor where I’d left them, and started to browse. I could feel his suspicions, and heard his mental knocking on my mind, but I shook my head and kept reading. Finally, I found what I was looking for. For those of you who’ve never read the stories, the specialty of the Spells-R-Us is gender changing spells and artifacts. I’d found one of the Wizard’s temporary sex-change spells, and with a few words and gestures, I cast the spell onto myself. With a rapid ballooning, my shirt was suddenly filled with something besides just muscle and bone, now there were tits! My hair, already long, was suddenly a lot longer, now down to my ankles! My hips were much wider, and my previously non-existent butt was stretching out my favorite pair of shorts. What I had failed to take into account, however, were the effects I’d programmed into myself via Master PC. My already-enhanced nerves were now quadrupled in frequency, to the point where I was about to pass out from too much stimuli just from the clothes I was wearing and the random breeze coming from the box fan in the corner. I started shuddering in ecstasy, and through my fluttering eyelids I saw Peter’s face break into a grin with more than a little lust behind it.

 The smirking little bastard rubbed his fingertips around the neckline of my shirt, and I almost came right then and there. A little moan escaped my lips, and Peter’s grin got even nastier. He grabbed me around the waist, sending even more paroxysms of sensation down my body as he picked me up and put me down on the futon. With a pair of scissors he got out of my desk, he started cutting the clothes off of me, but when I got my scrambled wits together enough to shake my head he stopped and stared quizzically at me. Apparently, he’d forgotten all about my abilities to reshape matter, and also that he shared them. With a touch and an evil smile of my own, I dissolved my clothes into oxygen molecules and started squirming sensually on the futon. He got on at the other end of the futon, and as he started crawling up to lay on top of me, I used my powers again, so that he matched me in undress. He looked down at himself, startled at the change, then sat back on his haunches to look me over. This time, when I felt him prodding at my mind, I let him in.

 “Dear god almighty, we would have made a gorgeous woman!”

 “You really think so, Pete?”

 “Hells yes, woman, haven’t you seen yourself…of course you haven’t. Here.”  He recalled his power over matter quickly enough, and shaped a mirror out of one of the throw pillows on the bed. He turned it to face me, and my eyes widened in amazement. Instead of the stark black hair I’d had as a man, my hair was back to it’s natural chestnut brown, but with some reddish highlights in it. My eyes weren’t hazel, but instead were a light brown, making a nice contrast with my darker hair. My face was still the same overall, but softer, it’s angles less harsh. My beard was of course gone, and instead of the simple hoop earrings I now had slightly dangling metal feathers in my ears. I recalled what I knew of the spell I’d used; it would draw on an alternate universe, one where I’d been born a girl, and would temporarily reshape my body into that one. The drawbacks to the spell were that I couldn’t use magic like this, and if my programming logic was correct, I was unable to touch the computer as well until the spell wore off. Mercifully, the spell itself would wear off in two hours, so I decided not to waste what I had. I dissolved the mirror back into a pillow, and let it drop to the floor. I spread my now-hairless long legs to my lover, and he dove to his task with a will. With what he knew to be my responses to arousal, he was quite easily able to eat me to an orgasm.

His tongue laved my clit in arabesques of fleshly desire, leaving me even more enflamed  with lust. I bit down on my thumb and moaned in approval. Ever so slowly, he edged his way back out of my snatch and began nibbling gently on my inner thighs. I howled my approval, knowing that noone would be able to tell that I was making noise at all since it was with Peter. Apparently, my female counterpart in whatever universe she was from had accessed the Master PC as well, because there were a few additions that I’d not have thought of nor put into my own computer. As I reached my peak, I apparently began exuding clouds of pheromones, further inflaming my lover. Also, I had the ability to lactate with my lust-increased bust. The milk was apparently the source of these pheromones, because when I managed to spray Pete with my spray, he lost all interest in tonguing me further, and to be honest, I forgot about it as well…

With a bestial growl, he crawled his way up my body, palming my tits somewhat roughly on his way up. I squirmed in pain and pleasure at this, and tried to kiss him, but I was rebuffed. Apparently in apology, one of his hands snaked down to toy with my woman-flesh again. At this point, I’d had enough foreplay. My new nervous system knew what it wanted, and decided to take control of the situation. I reached out and grabbed his dick, ever so gently maneuvering it into position. With a gentleness I’d thought forgotten in him, Peter eased his cock into me, pausing momentarily at my hymen. His girth stimulated me greatly, and after the tearing pain of my deflowering, I started to slowly ease my way further down his dick. My pleasure only increased as I slid down, and from what I could see on his face, he was just as happy. In a haze of pleasure, I recalled the sole sexual experience I’d had up to this point. I’d been relatively old to lose my virginity, at nineteen, and my lover and I weren’t sexually compatible. Her idea of foreplay was to turn off the lights and just lay there. Not one of the better times in my life, and I was just as happy to have had it in this case, as I knew what Peter would find pleasing in his lover. I clenched my inner muscles tightly, almost to the point of pain, while coaxing him onto his back while I rode him. His hands slid up my front, grazing my still-leaking tits on their way upwards. His fingers intertwined with my hair, and he used his strength to firmly seat me on his dick. We continued our mutual exploration for hours after that, but what we found worked best was for me to be sitting on his lap, his cock firmly lodged in my pussy while I fed him from my breast. That orgasm was best of all, I think.

 Afterwards, we’d curled up on the bed, with me being spooned with him behind. Unfortunately, we were still in that position while the spell wore off. I woke up after it happened, but I’d slept longer than Pete, who woke up with his dick up against my back. The look on his face was mortified, as he had morning wood at the time. I smiled, shook my head, and got out of bed. “No need to apologize, Pete. When we fell asleep, I was a woman, and now I’m a man. Physical reactions happen. No shame.” I felt a twinge of loss at my female form, but it was more from curiosity satisfied than anything else. I got my shorts from the previous day back on, and tossed Pete another pair. A glance at the clock told me that I was unlikely to find anyone else still in the house, but I was still cautious. I knew I’d need to get out of this house, particularly if my fervid imaginings were to take form. I looked around the house, but even my sister, who was on vacation at the time, was gone. I smiled, and booted up my stepdad’s computer, which had  a better connection to the Internet than my dial-up. On impulse, I raided the kitchen while it booted. I scarfed down half a sandwich and soda, and immediately felt better. Must have been from the magic and the matter-rearrangement.

I bellowed downstairs for Pete to come up and start hunting up things on the Internet while I did some work with Master PC. With a little effort, I refrained from teasing him about his blushes whenever he looked at me. He asked me what he should be looking up, and I told him. “Look for retail book stores. Any of them will be convenient, as long as they have stores in other states.” He shrugged and started searching for openings. Back downstairs, I puttered around some more, remembering that I’d need to stabilize Peter’s body while I was at it. I wasn’t sure if the Clone spell would work forever, but better to be certain. I used Master PC to lock his body in to it’s current shape, no longer subject to magic, except at his whim. Since I had the experience now to work with, I shaped my last remaining shoe into a micro EMP for Peter to wear. While I’d finished with the device, I started thinking about what had happened last night; I’d gotten hold of Master PC, turned myself into a Wizard (or at least the SUCCESSFUL apprentice of one), cloned myself with a spell, changed my gender, and then back again. Holy shit, I’d been having an eventful 24 hours.

Still, I found myself day dreaming again about my gender-change. While I didn’t want to alter things so severely as to be female full time, it was something I’d keep in mind for the future. Maybe another clone, this time in female form…. Still, such matters would have to wait a bit. First, I needed a place of my own, or perhaps I should say OUR own. From upstairs, Peter yelled out, “Jay, there’s an opening for a café manager at a book shop down in Lexington, Kentucky! You interested?” I pondered momentarily. Lexington was far enough out of the area that noone I knew was likely to just drop in on me uninvited. It’d be cheaper to live out there, probably cheap enough that with some ‘roommates’ I could afford a decent sized house. With a little money and a couple of months of watching the market, I knew I could make a decent sized pile of money, and enough accountants to manage it for me without having to get overly involved. Following some advice I got out of a Robert Heinlein book, I decided that I could have my clones working just long enough to get the money we’d need, spend a year or so building up my fortune, then pay out more in taxes than I got in income, and draw a fat rebate every year. Or I’d figure out something with an accountant to where that’s what happened. Finally, I decided that we’d have to move out to Lexington, which was going to take some doing, since I had almost no funds to begin with.

Monkeying with banks wasn’t a prospect I found to be safe enough to risk, so I started off small. I figured with a job, and some starter cash I’d make, we could afford a cheap apartment in Lexington. I knew that in amounts of less than 500 dollars most people would be reluctant to contact a bank, so I’d produce the cash and  convert it into postal money orders. With those and a local bank account, getting a deposit and apartment would be easy. If all else failed, though, I’d rewrite reality with Master PC, although I was loathe to do so. Fortunately, via the Internet, I was able to at least temporarily reserve us  an appointment with a real estate agent. The landlords in Kentucky must’ve been desperate for business, because Phil, the manager I talked with, didn’t even hesitate when I said that my first, last and security deposit would have to be paid in money orders or cash. And before you ask, I set a spell on all of this cash to be destroyed with the next burn run when they were at the Treasury Department. All of it would be absorbed into the electronic system, only to appear as debits and credits. All in all, a fairly neat way to avoid detection, I thought.

I ran the idea past Peter, and he ratified it, as I thought he would. Now would come step one. We had to get out of this state. With Pete’s help and a few rolls of packing tape and some boxes, all of my/our stuff was packed up. All of the essential stuff was compacted into enough boxes that would fill a small U-Haul unit with the aid of a few helpful spells. I called ahead and reserved us a U-Haul, and would pick it up in a few days. Now all I had to do was break the news to my folks. When they got home, I outlined my plan, including some fairly ingenious evasions. So it was that we began our journey out of the DC area.
 

A few days later, on the road to Kentucky, Peter was finally  comfortable with being ignored, although it made it difficult for him to avoid being stepped on or injured when we were around people that knew me before. Since they were expecting to see me, that’s usually who they saw, with the result that Pete was often trampled, or had to jump aside to avoid being hit. I tried to minimize it by avoiding people in the area, and that probably helped to no end. I knew that to avoid confusion I’d have to alter my commands  slightly when we got to Kentucky, but I was in no hurry. Finally, after a day on the road, we arrived in Lexington. After a brief stop to get a hotel room for us to stay in, we went to meet  Phil.

Phil was overjoyed to find someone looking for a house in the depressed housing market in Lexington, so much so that he didn’t even bother to lie when we were looking at condos. I figured it would be a good investment once I got the cash together, and with a little effort, that wouldn’t take too long.

 “Well, gentlemen, this is the last one. Southern exposure on three rooms including the kitchen, a building out in the middle of nowhere with a view of the lake, and we’ll even arrange to have it repainted, if you’d like. What do you think?” By mutual agreement, Peter did all of the talking. I wanted to do my best to remain as invisible as possible.

 “What’s the cost? I mean, we can’t afford to pay anything beyond (x).” Pete enjoyed bartering, a surprising development of his character. He’d already managed to get Phil off the topic of full blown houses in the area, and managed to snooker him into showing us the condos. However, sometimes he overdid things. “And not to mention, what are we going to do when we want to throw a party? I didn’t see a clubhouse when we pulled in here…”

 “Well, in your price range, there’s not a lot to be had, Peter. However, if that’s what you want, the company has a few properties in some controlled-access facilities only a stone’s throw away.” Phil was desperately trying to sell us something, probably so he’d have some money to eat off of this month. Peter’s wrangling was also starting to get a little nitpicky, so I decided to intervene.

 “We’ll take it, Phil.” The poor fool actually jumped when I spoke, since I hadn’t said more than a word or a grunt in the entire time he’d been with us. “When can we move in?”

 “Well, if you wanted to, you could move in tomorrow, but I have to tell you that you’d pay an extra fee for immediate occupancy. That’s assuming you’d even qualify to live here.” Gods bless the man, he was at least relatively honest for a real estate broker.

 “Not a problem, Phil. We’ve sunk most of what we’ve got into this little jaunt. No sense wasting money on a hotel when we could spend less of it per diem on a permanent residence.”

 “Well, I can tell you didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.” He smiled, and even did it nicely. “ I remember how it was when I moved out for the first time, I felt the same way.” I liked Phil; he wanted to get us set up in something so he’d get paid, he was up front about that, but he wouldn’t stick us with a shithole. “If you’ll just fill out the application, we’ll get the ball rolling.” I held out my hand, and got the application forms. I had every intention of filling them out, and even if I were normally not approve-able to the complex, a little typing with Master PC would have all that sorted out. Phil led us back outside, and locked up. However, I had little intention of staying in a place where the cum-stains on the sheets were someone else’s. After Phil left, we’d circle back around and start making ourselves at home. I looked over at my twin and smirked.  Once Phil was out of earshot, he asked me what was up. I explained my plan, and neither of us saw much harm in using the Master PC to ensure our approval.

 “Gods, it’s so good to be out of Virginia!” Pete enthused. I echoed him, and slapped him lightly on the back.

 “Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get this show on the road.” We got back into the car, and followed Phil back out of the complex. “I know why I want this place, but why were you so dead set on it?” I asked.

 “Because I like the lake view. Not to mention that it’s out far enough to prevent anyone from getting too curious. And yourself?”

 “The lack of a gate. The last thing either of us needs is someone tracking our movements. If someone puts two and two together, someone might come knocking one night, and I’m too lazy  to spend my life pumping iron in a jail or drooling in a mental ward.” He nodded in approval. As time went on and our experience varied, Pete and I were becoming more different. He was developing the more aggressive persona, and I was beginning to retreat further back, as was my nature. I always preferred to work behind the scenes, but Pete had taken the melodramatic tendencies and put it to good use. I wondered how different we might become as time progressed, and decided to shelve it for another day. For now, I was just going to enjoy having someone that thought like me, but wasn’t going to look at me strangely for it.

“Jay?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking. How much effort would it be for you to do the Clone spell again?”

“Not too much, why? You want to make this a triad instead of a duet?” I smiled.

“Well, not exactly. I was thinking that this time we could make a woman.” I was so startled by this that I lapsed into mental communication with him.

 “You what???”

 “You heard me, you’re not deaf. Besides which, do I need to remind you of how attractive you were as a woman?”

 “No, the memories are pretty vivid,” I riposted. “But what brought the whole thing on?”

 “Just a random thought I’d been having. I was thinking that we seem to be turning down our own roads as we progress. I’m not an exact copy of you anymore. I was curious to see what would happen if there were a girl version of us.” I thought carefully before I replied, this time aloud.

“But she might…never mind. It’s an interesting thought, but let’s get settled into the condo before we start mucking around again. It’s bad enough we’re going to have to fill out all of this damn paperwork, much less get all of our stuff unpacked in the next day or so.” A flash of insight cracked through my brain right then, and it seemed like such a good idea that I had to follow through with it. I whipped out my laptop, turned it on and loaded up the Control Console.

 “What’re you doing?” Peter queried.

 “Just hang on a second. I’ll tell you when I’m done.” I typed rapidly for a moment, and when the command executed, I felt a small tension release from my conscience. “I just removed my matter-rearrangement power.”

 “Why in hell’d you do that?” Pete seemed genuinely confused for a moment, until I started explaining.

 “It only seemed fair, Pete. I’ve got the Control Console, and I’ve got all of the old Wizard’s magic. All you had was enhanced brain power and the matter-rearrangement touch. I wanted to even the playing field.” His scowl lessened, and he actually smiled.

“ OK, I guess that makes sense. Hell, who am I to argue with my brother and Maker?” He stuck his tongue out at me. “Although you’ve still got  influence over matter, what with all those spells. I should know, I remember a good chunk of what’s in those books too.”

 “Yeah, but it still takes me time. Everyone should be made to feel special, particularly by those that love ‘em.” I squeezed his shoulder.

“I love you too, you goofball. Now, you ready to turn around, or should we stop for some food?”

“Turnaround is fine with me, chief.” I was practically itching to try out some of the more intriguing spells I’d gotten. “Besides which, you can make food… shit, I guess you can’t, can you?”

“I dunno, I’ve never tried. Since it ain’t living, I should be able to. But I think we’d better have something else available in case it doesn’t work. That little trick takes a fair bit out of the body, as I’m sure you noticed, so we’ll need to keep buying at least SOME non-created food.” I nodded. “Mind if I stop at the Burger King? I’m starving.” I shrugged in dismissal, and continued to play with the Control Console. When we pulled up to the drive-thru, I decided to have just a little fun with the teller. I read her name off her nametag, and put it into the Subject line.

Subject’s Name?: Barbara
Command?: Provide readout of Subject’s thoughts on-screen.

I watched as the cute little blonde’s thoughts scrawled across the screen. She was primarily thinking about how she was going to get enough gas in her car to get home, seeing as how the cheapasses that ran the BK were having to mail her a new check to replace the one that had gotten lost. I smiled and opened my mind to Peter, and shared with him the girl’s thoughts. He asked what I had in mind, and I told him to flirt with the girl. We needed to get some information on this area, after all, and a local source would save us some time. With his responses tuned by the Control Console and my mental prompting, he’d promptly asked the young lady to dinner, and offered to pick her up here when it was time. She countered by saying that she’d want to bring someone along just so she’d feel safe, and Peter didn’t even bat an eyelash. All of this took less than a minute, too, which had been my deadline. Barb, as I’d discovered she preferred to be called, was good at her job, and had delivered our food and flirted with Pete all within 45 seconds. I was impressed. I’d never been quite that glib when I’d been shoveling hash. Matters were set, and we’d meet Barb and her friend here at about 7:30. Pete and I nodded in unison, and we set off back towards our future home. On the trip over, Peter asked me to put the application paperwork on his knee. I asked him why.

“Just a little experiment,” he replied. I finished my fry, and shuffled the papers back out of my laptop’s case. After I laid them on his knee, his eyebrows drew together for a moment, and then released.
“Take a look, and tell me what the papers look like now,” he instructed me. I shrugged, picked up the papers, and looked, my eyes widening as I looked. Instead of the blank forms they’d been when I put them in the case, they were now neatly filled out in black handwriting, MY handwriting!

 “How’d you do that?” A flash of processing time later, I answered my own question. “Ah, now THAT’S what I call a little matter rearranging! What did you use for the base material?”

 “Just the grease from this crappy burger,” he replied, polishing off his 4th cheeseburger in as many minutes. He crumpled up the wrapper in one hand and threw it into the sack of garbage. “I figured it wouldn’t be nearly as hard as making polymer steel out of wood chunks.”

 “ I guess not. Ink’s a lot simpler compound, but oil’s even simpler. I must have done better’n I thought when I upgraded my brain.”  He grinned evilly at me.

 “Yeah, you certainly did. I just can’t wait to really test ‘em out. That girl Barb and her friend oughtta do nicely, we can get some feedback on the body remodeling you’ve done.” His grin turned lustful, and he reached down and patted his dick fondly. “After all, I don’t have to worry about knocking some girl up or getting an STD with this bad boy.” He referred to some of my alterations, making him sterile and immune to diseases. I shook my head in mock dismay.

 “Less than a week old, and you’re already turning into a teenager. How fast they grow up,” I sighed, and then busted out laughing. Peter drove us around for a little longer, then we headed back to the complex. It was the work of only a minute or two to ‘discourage’ anyone from coming up to this floor of the building via a short spell. Peter’s touch opened the door, but unfortunately, he chose to do it by removing the hinges of the door. He looked at me sheepishly.

 “ I don’t know exactly how locks and tumblers work, so how was I going to fix it?” I nodded. After all, his power worked by his understanding. He could have removed the lock with his power, but how was he to replace it? He would have been completely unable to replicate the delicate internal mechanisms of the lock, which would have raised suspicion, so he’d removed the hinges, which he COULD remake as necessary. Together we hefted the steel-core security door inside, and leaned it against the wall.

 We looked around the empty rooms, trying to decide what should go where, and the exact logistics for what we had in mind for the future. I said, “Pete, we’d better set aside a couple of these for a lab. I don’t know about you, but kitchen magic ain’t high on my list of favorite things.”

 “Better make it two or more. Gods know what either of us’ll get into later on. And is it me, or does the paint job on this place suck?” He was right, the complex must have hired a crew of crack-smoking monkeys to do the painting. There were globs of paint everywhere, matting into the carpet, with light streaks of the original paint still peeking through. “I’ll start on that, if you wanna get moving on whatever you’ve got in mind.” I agreed, and we went to work.  Pete swept around the apartment, reworking the paint so that it was even, and even pulling up the carpet in a few places. When I heard the ripping sound of the carpet staples giving way, I raised my eyebrow. He responded, “ I hate this crap. Better to have hardwood floors.” I shrugged and went back to weaving spells. I was weaving spells into the walls themselves to protect us from storms, electrical surges and burglars. I watched as best I could as Peter reworked the carpet into teakwood floors, only overriding his choices when he would have given us a pine-pale floor. Too hard to keep clean, in my opinion. I had him make it a dark reddish tone, so we could ignore the mopping if we got too busy. “Wait a sec, Pete, I’ve got an idea.” I dug out one of my spellbooks, and started rummaging. First order of business once we’d gotten set up, I promised myself, I was gonna write an index for these things so I didn’t have to keep hunting for what I wanted. I puttered with a few spells, and finally got what I wanted. I got Peter to conjure me some white paint, and I overlaid one of the walls with a large, intricate diagram, surrounded by words in archaic languages. He looked at me askance.

 “What’s that? Not bad artistically, but I could have gone for some babe in a bikini.” He mock-leered for a moment.

 “Just another example of efficient laziness, bro. This is a general housekeeping spell. Lint, dust, extraneous grease marks, shed hair and the like will be banished by this li’l beaut. Why waste time with housework when you can get magic to do it for you?” I smiled broadly and patted myself on the back.

 “Good call. I suppose it WILL free up a lot of time. What about laundry and dishes, though?”

 “I’ll worry about that later. Let’s get this carpet up, I’ve got all of the primary protections in place, and I’ll tweak it later. Never worry about what you can put off till later, that’s my motto.” I looked out the  window. “Shit, it’s getting dark. We don’t have power yet, but I think I can get us something…” I muttered a few words I’d run across in the book, and small globes of white light appeared , pinwheeling in an intricate pattern in the middle of the room. “Take one of those into each room, that way we won’t have to worry about finding our way in the dark.” He nodded and hauled off a few of them. I took the remainder, and so we had ourselves some light. For a few hours more, we puttered around, remaking the place itself into what we wanted.

The Next Day

 I woke up at about 8 am, rather surprisingly. Until now, I’d always been more of a night person, and since we’d not gotten back to the hotel till 3 am, I’d only had about 5 hours under my belt. Not feeling inclined to go back to sleep, I went over and said Peter’s name loudly a few times, till he woke up. I could have shaken him, but both of us hated that. “Pete, wake up!” His eyelids creaked open, and he looked like hell. I guess all of our renovations had really sucked the juice out of him. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like he’d dropped a great deal of weight in a hurry. “Jesus Christ, you look like shit!” In my alarm, a spell came to mind. It would allow me to share some of my energy with Pete until we’d managed to recharge our batteries. I muttered and gestured as I walked over to the phone and put in an order with room service, to be delivered ASAP.  With the spell splitting my energy between the two of us, Peter started to look more normal, although not in top shape. I was starving, and feeling more drained. “Why the hell didn’t you say anything? I’d have stopped hours before, if I’d known you were so drained!” He lacked the energy to respond, and seemed to lapse into a doze. I stared at him for a few minutes, not even trying mental communication since that would only drain both of us further. Finally, room service arrived.

 I tipped the porter lavishly, seeing as how I’d gotten the grub within 10 minutes of my call. I pulled the lids off of all the plates, and started gorging myself, not even using the silverware. As soon as the food hit my stomach, I started to feel better, and Pete’s breathing seemed to be coming easier. I felt bad about what had happened, since I should have realized what a drain transmutation would have on him. Maybe my decision to remove my own power had been a bit too hasty, but I couldn’t do anything about it at the moment. As I ate, I thought frantically about the energies we were toying with. Master PC itself seemed to draw on the ambient power across the Internet, and thus across the world to fuel it’s effects. My magic drew directly on stellar and solar forces to accomplish things, but matter-rearrangement seemed to draw it’s power directly from the life force of it’s user. So far, it seemed that the more radical the change in states, the greater the power required to reshape something. Peter had been reshaping polyester fibers into 2 inch thick wood for most of the night, and thus his current state. His work with the walls seemed to have left him alone, since he was just redistributing the matter evenly. Shit. I was going to have to watch out. Given that he mirrored my nature, he’d drive himself to collapse and never even notice. But how was I to keep an eye on him while I played around on my own?

 I got it! Pete’s idea yesterday, to make a female version of me/us, seemed to be an ideal solution. If I made another clone, she’d be able to watch out for both of us, particularly if I gave her extended monitoring capacities. The more I thought about the matter, the better I liked it. I resolved to do something about it at my earliest opportunity, but I didn’t think I’d have the time until we’d finished moving. While Pete slept, I showered, shaved, and repacked our stuff. Hold on, what about the girl from the drive-thru yesterday? Shit, I’d forgotten about that! Dammit, now I had another mess on my hands. Well, it would just have to wait. I had to get Peter moving before the cleaning crew arrived. But how? He was like a diabetic recovering from an insulin reaction. Nothing for it but magic, I guess. I cursed myself for sloppy planning and got to work. A few minutes work and Pete was reduced in size to where I could stick him in my pocket. I did so, grabbed our bags, and checked out of the hotel. I was screwed. The lease we’d agreed to sign was to be a two party lease, and who knew how long it would take him to recover? Guess I’d have to work the Clone spell sooner than I thought, or I was going to have to alter…..

 “Hey, Jay!” a squeaky voice called from my pocket, and I felt something moving around in there. I looked down, and sure enough, Peter was hanging on the ledge (to him) of my pocket.

 “Feeling better, Pete?”

 “Much. I guess we overdid it.”

 “That ain’t all. We forgot about the girl at the fast food place.” He lapsed into a session of violent cursing. “Calm down, we’ll figure out something. But first, you need to get back to regular size.” With a gesture, I cancelled the spell holding him at his small size. Unfortunately, I’d forgotten to take him out of my pocket, so he ended up ripping his way out of my jeans. He was lying there on the parking lot, laughing hysterically.

 “Sometimes, Jay, you make me think there’s hope for you after all.” He smiled, and pulled a pair of shorts out of his bag. “I find it hard to believe that someone so powerful forgets the simple stuff.”

 “Hey, sue me, sometimes I forget the details.” I was mortified, not to mention getting a breeze. I looked at him and gestured down at my leg. Mercifully, the parking lot was empty, so noone noticed the naked man that appeared out of nowhere. While he got up to at least pseudo-modesty, I unlocked the car and started it up. Peter got in on his side, and put his hand on my leg, mending my jeans. “Thanks. I happen to like this pair.”

 “No sweat. We’d better get moving, though, if we wanna get moved in today.” I nodded and started driving. We headed back to the condo’s leasing office, and with a little aid from Master PC, we got approved to lease, and signed off on it. A further tweak would ensure that noone at the complex would bother us unduly or allow anyone access to our apartment without our approval. I wasn’t entirely enamored of doing so, but Peter insisted.

 “Look, it’s nothing too bad. All we’re doing is ensuring our privacy, for which we’re paying, if I need to remind you.”

 “I know, I just don’t particularly want to get used to having the Master rewrite everyone around us. Most of the users of this thing end up being major buttheads.”

 “True, and if I ever see you doing so, be sure I’ll call you on it.”

 After signing the lease, we shook hands with Ms. Cornwallis, the complex’s manager and got our keys.  I pocketed mine, making a mental note to make all other copies useless. We pulled the car and the U-Haul up to the parking spaces immediately adjacent to the building, and got on with our unpacking.

END CHAPTER ONE

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