CHAPTER 008 - (JACKIE’S PERSPECTIVE)

 When the three of us woke up the next morning, the phone was ringing. Peter picked it up since he was closest, and it turned out to be just his wakeup call. He thanked the operator, hung up, and got out of bed. I watched his cute ass vanish behind a pair of black jeans and a simple black turtleneck appeared to match it. He kissed me goodbye since Jay had gone back to sleep, poor soul. I rolled over to look at him, and I felt my heart turn over again in my chest. I was so pleased with him for going along with my little schemes; first, he overcomes his blindness about poor Suzanne and makes her a happy lady, then he surprises me by altering Peter so we could all love each other at the same time. Considering the energies he’d been working with, I was surprised he even come awake at the phone call.

 I got up and hit the shower, since I was still feeling kinda groudy, no matter my cleaning spells. Even with all of Jason’s work with defensive magics and Peter’s insanely powerful weaponry, I was still uneasy about letting Jay out of my sight. I knew how he thought ‘Protect your loved ones. Sacrifice yourself if necessary. Don’t let bystanders get in the way.’, and I shared them. Unfortunately, my own actions would get in the way. If I died with Jason, all of my careful work wouldn’t mean squat. I thought over the problem while I was in the shower, and the only idea I’d had would have set both the boys off.
I could modify the spell I had on Jay to redirect to another target in the event of my death, but that would mean interfering in someone else’s life. Wait! What about David’s stepmother? She’d already been altered by Master PC to such an extent that I wouldn’t be fucking someone else’s life, and she probably wouldn’t even notice, except that her husband-dildo would be displaced during the birth. I could even accelerate his development with more magic, if I so desired! Perfect! I could even use it on myself! But, no need to tell the boys, at least not at the moment. I’d better leave a letter for Peter, since I was fairly certain that he would survive anything short of an atomic explosion, and we’d need a pair of hands around to make sure our rebirth wasn’t too complicated. Gross, but a workable solution. If only I had another usable uterus, but Daphne wasn’t due for another few months, and if she got pregnant that would screw the whole affair.

 I went back across the threshold to the condo after I made sure Jay was still sleeping, and did my dirty work. Jay might not like what Peter and I had thought up, but at least this way he’d be around to bitch at us for it. Frankly, I was willing to take any amount of lambasting if it meant that I wouldn’t be bereft of my lover/Maker. As bad as the boys were, they had nothing on me in the vindictiveness department, which sometimes scared me. The boys were capable of a great many things when their blood was up, but if someone hurt what I considered mine, namely the boys, Suzanne, and Daphne, they’d better hope they killed me first. I shook my head, clearing out those depressing thoughts. Jay and I had a big job ahead of us, and we both needed to be at our sharpest. Just so I had some coverage for making this trip home, I got out the dress that Peter and Jay both loved to have me wear.

 “Boys,” I said with a grin and a headshake. “Gods willing, they’ll never change.” I slipped on my dress and went back through the doorway.

 “Morning, beautiful.” Jay was coming out of the bathroom, his hair loose from it’s braid. He wolf-whistled at my dress, a slinky little number that was skin-tight and nearly flesh toned, making me almost worse than naked. I twirled around for him, so he could appreciate it.

 “I forgot to pack this one, and since we’re going out, I thought you might like it.”

 “Oh, I like, I like.” He grabbed his package like he was a construction worker. “But I might have to bring along a baseball bat to keep guys off you.”

 “Then it’ll match the one I’m taking to keep the girls off YOU!” I joked. I knew that even with his tweaks to himself, Jay never felt like a very attractive man, but he was perfect for my taste. “And if I see you making eyes at some other woman, I’ll have to kill the both of you.”

 “Ha, ha.” He made a face. “The day you have to worry about competition is the day Hell freezes over, babydoll.” He pulled his clothes out, blue jeans and a T-shirt with his disreputable duster jacket with some of his magical devices in the pockets. I picked up my purse, loaded with my own arsenal, pulled on the bracelets Peter had made me, and we were all set to go. “We going to rent a car, or just use the bus?”

 “Bus. I hate trying to find parking space.”

A FEW HOURS LATER

 We’d been riding the bus for hours, and the numbers of people bearing the mark of the Master PC’s manipulations was staggering.

 “Jesus, must be about 30 % or more of the population. How’re we going to track down all these fuckers?” I asked my compatriot.

 “My spell located the nexii for all the signals, so we’ll just have to pick one and scout it out.”

 “Which one’s nearest?”

 “There’s one about half a block north.” We got off the bus at the next stop and headed in that direction. When we arrived, we looked at each other. The nexus was centered in a fetish shop up above a coffee shop. Being in the Pacific Northwest, the coffee shop was packed.

 “Shit, I don’t like this. How’re we going to get any kind of scouting done with this many people around?” Jay thought it over for a second.

 “How do you feel about being Spider-Woman?”

 Ten minutes later, covered in an invisibility spell, I was inching my way down the wall to a back window. I looked inside, but all I saw was a bathroom, with a woman passed out on the floor. Her proportions were average, and her looks were the same. I opened my mind to Jay, and filled him in.

“Okay, baby, come on down. I’m going to just go in the front.’

“No, you aren’t! If you think I’m letting you start a private little war, you’re fucking crazy!” I angrily jabbed at his mind, and I felt him flinch.

“Jackie, for all we know, whoever’s got the program isn’t altering anyone out of spite. Could even be a woman, for all we know.’ He responded. ‘Don’t we owe it to ‘em to not judge before we go inside? C’mon, they may not know there’s someone passed out on the floor of their bathroom. Besides which, it’s a moot point. I’m at the front door now.’  I felt him partially close off the link, and I nearly screamed in frustration. My initial impulse was to break the window and get inside, but I knew Jay was right. B&E isn’t the way to make people get along. I was just going to have to sit it out. If I got any intuitions about him being in danger, though, all bets were off.

JASON’S PERSPECTIVE

 I shut the door on Jackie just enough that all I had to do was shout if I needed her, and tried to shut out the tooth-achy headache her little mental slap had given me. I was standing on the staircase just in front of the door that read  “Actungsten Du Leither”. Cute name. Whoever ran this place, at least they had a sense of humor. I opened the door, and let the smell of vinyl, leather, and steel waft past me. I stepped up and across the threshold, and found myself in a nice shop, for a fetishist.

 There weren’t any mannequins standing around modeling leatherware, all of it was on racks or in display cases around empty glass cylinders. Racks of collars, leashes, and teasing gloves filled the middle of the room, and in the far corner was the glass cases with the leather treatments, lubricants and personalized tags for collars with a decent electronic cash register on top. Behind the counter was a very attractive woman wearing a yellow PVC shirt and a rubber skirt. Her platinum blonde hair was done up in a multitude of small braids, several of which were braided with barbed wire. ‘Nice eyes,’ I noted to myself, even if they did seem to be measuring me for a leash.

 “Anything I can help you with?” she asked, almost belligerently.  I shook my head and said no, I was just browsing. She nodded, a half-smile decorating her face. I pretended some interest in a nice purple rubber bodysuit, and I pulled my glasses out of my pocket. When I slipped them on, the saleswoman glowed green, marking her as one of Master PC’s subjects. Good, I was onto something here. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her turn around and start typing into an open laptop that was on the table behind the counter. Oh, hell. Sure enough, I felt the micro EMP buzz, and discharge. The register and laptop both went blank, and the saleswoman came around the counter, her entire physique expanding. Better head this off before it gets nasty.

 “Did you know there’s a woman passed out on your bathroom floor?” I asked, in a casual conversational tone. I’d expected a grunt, or maybe even a short dissertation on the subject, but her entire stance changed. Her muscles, formerly of a Mr. Universe class, shrank back down, and she wheeled away from me.

 “Oh no, not again!” She sprinted towards the bathroom, and I followed, sending Jackie a short message to come inside. The blonde was shaking the shoulder of the other woman, a brunette that was shifting as I watched, becoming a twin to Jackie! “Pam? Pammie? Come on, sweetie, you’ve got to wake up?” When she registered me standing there, she looked at me with blood in her eye. “How did you know she was here? Did you do something, you miserable little piece of shit?” Her arm came up and, well, it stretched, grabbing me around the temples.

 “I didn’t do anything, miss, but I would ask that you move your hand. My girlfriend might not like it.”

 “You’re damn right I don’t like it. Lady, I’d take your hand down before you lose it.” Uh-oh. Jackie was pissed, and if my hearing wasn’t going, she was juggling a ball of lightning.  The hand in front of me dropped, and resumed normal proportions. “That’s better. He didn’t do anything to her, in fact, I’m the one that told him she was here.”

 “How.. How are you doing that?” She was shaking to the roots of her hair, justifiably so. It’s not every day you see a woman playing with electricity and telling you to play nice with her boyfriend.

 “Long story, girlfriend.” Jackie squished her lightning sphere into nothingness. “Is she OK?” she asked, jerking her chin at the still-unconscious shifting form on the floor.

 “She.. should be.” The blonde’s fingers danced over the other’s throat. “She’s still breathing and has a heartbeat, but I don’t know why she’s asleep. I’d better get her back into bed.” She scooped up her friend, or whatever the brunette was, her muscles taking on more bulk. “Come on back, but if one of you could flip the door sign to say closed I’d appreciate it.” I looked at Jackie, who took up that errand. I followed the blonde down the short hallway and around the corner into a loft space. There was a king-size bed in the far corner, a couch, couple of chairs, kitchen area, and a big-screen TV, not to mention all the books lying around and in the cases lining the walls.

 “I’m Rebecca, by the way,” the blonde said as she laid the other down in the bed. “She’s Pam.” Rebecca pulled the comforter up over Pam’s unclad form, and checked her pulse again. I introduced myself and Jackie, who had come around the corner just moments earlier. She came up behind me and laid her head against my shoulder, breathing a sigh of relief.

 “Does that happen to her often?” I asked. Rebecca nodded, her eyes still on her companion.

 “On average of about once a week or so.”

 “She have epilepsy or anything?” A negative shake of the head. My glasses had been knocked off by Rebecca’s hand, so I hadn’t had a chance to see if Pam had been touched by the Master. Jackie, however, had stopped and retrieved them, and put them on. I looked at her, and she nodded, emphatically.

 “Were you the one that used the Master PC on her?” This made Rebecca’s head snap around, and if looks could kill, I’d have been dogfood.

 “How do you know about that? You have it too, I guess.” I nodded, and helped myself to a seat, Jackie taking hers on the armrest. “No, I didn’t. And before you ask, I didn’t use it on myself, either.” Apparently her emotional states were driving her metamorphosis, since when she got worked up, her muscles increased.

 “So who did it to you?”

 “A little shithead named Sherman McCoy. We used to be in school with the little pervert, then the next thing I know, I’ve been turned into a bombshell.” She came over and shifted a pile of books out of the nearest chair. “Unfortunately, he didn’t bother altering our minds, so I guess we’re lucky.” A few leading questions had Rebecca spilling her story. Apparently, this Sherman had just altered their physiques and kept their minds normal just to torture them. Rebecca was given the power to shapeshift when she got angry, scared, or horny, but she couldn’t use them against her ‘master’. Amy would change into whatever form Sherman or any other man seeing her wanted, and she was unable to refuse any offers of sex.
“Like I said, the guy was  a sadist. So, why’re you here?” I laid out a brief synopsis of my own experiences with the Control Console, and she relaxed.

 “So, if you were a sex-toy for the little nut-job, how’d you get your hands on the Program?”

 “Sherman ran into another, meaner guy with it.” She smiled nastily. “The other guy took him apart with his bare hands, and left the pieces for the vultures. He’d left his copy running, and he’d never bothered with a password, so I used it to set me and Pam up with the shop and this apartment.” She shrugged. “Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to change either of us back. Every time I type it in, I’m forced to delete it.” Her eyes were starting to tear up. “Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to have salvation right in front of you, but you can’t use it? I couldn’t even let anyone else know about it. Sherman may have been stupid enough to forgo the password, but he made damn sure that only he could release us.”

 “But you could tell us, and maybe we can help you change back!” Jackie got up and went over to her, taking the other woman’s hands in her own. “Sherman never counted on you meeting someone that knew about the Program. That’s why you could talk about it with us.” Rebecca’s face snapped up.

 “You mean I don’t have to stay like this? I can’t date anyone like this except submissives, and even they won’t come back for a rematch. Whenever I get worked up, I tend to squeeze too hard.” The tears were flowing harder down her face. I told them I’d be right back, and went out into the shop to snag the laptop.
My micro-EMP hadn’t completely shorted it out, just reset it, so I unplugged it and brought it and it’s power cord back to the loft. I plugged it into the nearest outlet, opened up the control console.

 When I typed in her name, Rebecca’s image appeared in the viewing box. I looked over the screen, and saw that it was laid out a bit differently than my own. The IQ bar, for instance, only allowed downgrades in intelligence. It also had several pre-programmed routines, making women room-temperature smart while up-sizing breasts, sexual sensitivity and libido, and was completely missing the Other box. So basically, this allowed the User to make boring dipshits of his subjects, didn’t allow variations like psychic abilities and the like, and had preset slut-makers. I called Jackie over, and she said it more eloquently than I could.

 “Jesus, this thing is a power tool for Inferiority Complex Anonymous.” I reset Rebecca’s body to it’s default state while leaving her memories alone. She became smaller, and her hair darkened to a chestnut brown, but otherwise she was the same.

 “God DAMN it!” I thumped on the table. “The other User must have added some commands. As far as this PC is concerned, you’re back to your normal state!” Jackie confirmed that Rebecca was still under the influence of the Program.

 “But I thought you could fix this!” Rebecca shouted. “You mean I’ll still be a horny slut that crushes people?” Her horrified look shook me to my core.

 “I can still fix it, but I need to find the other User. His commands are still over-writing the ones Sherman put in place since he didn’t password-protect you.” I squeezed her hand, and her answering grip nearly shattered my fingers. “Can you tell me anything about the other one?”

 “No, I don’t even remember his name. I can still see his face, though.” I asked her to describe him while I reset Pam. She snapped awake, sitting bolt upright in the bed. Her appearance stabilized, more or less. Her hair was set back to a blonde color, almost the same shade as Rebecca’s used to be. She was trim, and about 5’6”, 110 lbs.

 “Becca? Who’re these people, and why am I lying here naked?” she asked.

 “We’re here to help you, miss. I’m Jay, and my girlfriend here is Jackie.” I looked over Jackie’s shoulder while Rebecca filled Pam in on what had been happening. The guy she’d drawn was big and blonde, with light grey eyes, according to Rebecca. The image of the guy was frightening. He had muscles on top of muscles, he could probably bench press a half-ton truck without breaking a sweat. Apparently, Sherman was in the habit of keeping a list of women he’d altered in his pocket, which the stranger had pilfered off his corpse. Shit! We needed to get that list if we were to find out who else Sherman had fucked with, since his version of the Program didn’t have a memory function, unlike my own. Fuck. I was going to have to get these two back to the condo and scan ‘em with my computer.

 “Ladies, I’m sorry. I can’t do anything more with this thing. It’s about as useless as tits on a bull.” I had it copy Master.exe onto a CD just in case I needed it. “However, it’s possible that my copy of the Master will at least tell me where we’ve got some leeway with your alterations. I’d like to invite both of you back to our home, since I didn’t bring my computer with me.” They agreed to come with us; since they owned the shop, they could afford to shut down for a while, if not permanently. Well, that problem at least I could help with. While they were packing up a few things, I told them some more about us. I’d neglected to mention that Jackie and I were a Sorceress and a Wizard when I’d given them a thumbnail sketch, but when I told them this, they had to have a little proof, which was fun enough, since all I had to do was fly them around the room briefly. Just for fun, I added Jackie to the mix, and when they came down, all three had pleased expressions.

 I also told them about why we’d come to Portland, and about my absent twin Peter. They brightened when I told them about what we were trying to do about all those copies of the Master out there, and they approved. They even volunteered to help, even if it was just to get themselves back to normal, which impressed me. “However, ladies, and I regret to ask this, but I need your permission to limit your ability to talk about what we’re doing. It’s not just for your safety, but for mine, Jackie’s, Peter’s, and two of our dear friends and their unborn child.”

 “But why not just block us from talking, why even ask?” Pam was hurt by my question. “You’ve got all the power, we can’t stop you.” The bitterness in her voice stung, even though I knew it was justified.

 “True, which is why he made Peter, and then me. We keep him human,” Jackie said, with a smile for me. “We’re asking because neither of us wants to abuse you like Sherman did. Does that make any sense?”

 “Of course it does. I’m sorry, but…” her voice trailed off into silence.

 “I understand, Pam. Believe me, I understand. I still get the heebie-jeebies when I think too much about it. But let me tell you a little story that Jay probably wouldn’t.” She looked to me to get my agreement. I nodded and kept my mouth shut. I trusted Jackie’s instincts better than my own. “I was less than a day old when Jay and I were almost raped by another User.” Gasps from them both, and Becca looked at me. “Before you ask, Jay was a girl at the time.” She laid out the whole tale, up to the part where I beheaded David.

 “So you’ve killed someone else with the Program to protect yourself. What does that have to do with anything?” Pam was still brusque, and she’d stopped packing. I decided to pick up the rest of the story myself.

 “But I didn’t kill David, Pam. I beheaded him, yes, but I didn’t kill him. David is currently looking forwards to graduating from high school in June, and the birth of HER first child in April.” Pam was looking at me wide-eyed. “Daphne Breenan, formerly David Breenan, is the friend I mentioned earlier. She’s going to have a beautiful baby boy named David, and she’s going to give him a better childhood than she had.” I smiled at the prospect.

 “But why didn’t you just kill him? Wouldn’t that have been easier?” She was flabbergasted at the prospect, and Becca was speechless. “I’m not much of one for executions, but I’d say it was justified.”

 “He’s a lot softer-hearted than he lets on, Pam. If I’d been in any shape to do it, or if Peter had moved faster, David probably WOULD be dead.” Jackie was implacable. “We weren’t able to undo a lot of what David had done, since he’d protected his copy with a wipeout program, but we’ve contained the damage. David’s only known victim, a nice lady named Suzanne, is renting an apartment from us, and his father and stepmother are kept away from other people, since neither of them can talk or act even remotely normal anymore.” After a few minutes to chew this over, the girls decided to trust us, and we used their car to get back to the hotel. Back in our room, we showed them some of the neater toys Peter had made. He was still at his conference, so Jackie and I each held onto one of them and took them through the Doorway.

 On the other side, they both dropped their bags in the corner of the lab and we showed them around our place. They loved it, especially the housekeeping spells that kept dust at bay. Finally, we finished our tour back in the lab, where I scanned them with my copy of the Control Console. A little tinkering with it gave me a readout on the commands that had been laid onto them. Aside from the heightened sex drive and a bisexual preference, Rebecca’s body was geared to react when her brain produced adrenalin, endorphins, or had high levels of norpinephrine, the body’s chemical reaction to fear. Okay, blocking it won’t work, because she’ll still need to have those things in her bloodstream in a fight-or-flight situation. Try the arousal centers…. Aha! Her thyroid was set to produce massive levels of growth hormones that her body would use to fuel the muscle growth. Okay, what if I backed it down to normal levels? I used Jackie as a base level, and cast a short spell on Becca that would cap her thyroid’s production of growth hormones. Since she was past puberty, I didn’t worry too much, but I made a note on my whiteboard to look up the functions of the thyroid when I had the time. Pam, on the other hand, was much simpler to cure. She had been ‘cursed’, for lack of a better term, to latch on to someone as a submissive, and her form would shift to that one person’s desires, and of course she’d been made a walking hormone, and bisexual in the bargain.

 “Pam, who’re you bonded to?” A blush answered my question, which she was compelled to answer by the command’s wording.

 “Becca.” She wouldn’t even look at her roommate.  When I saw Rebecca’s cheeks flaming just as red, I guessed that before they’d been altered, they hadn’t experimented with each other. Oh well, hopefully they’d get past it. Pam crawled on her knees over to Becca and held her around the knees. “Please, don’t be angry, Becca.” Rebecca’s emotional state must have fluctuated, because she picked Pam up and the two of them curled up in my chair. Jackie and I smiled at each other.

 “I’m sorry you were both being forced to remember being differently, ladies.” I was trying to stifle my grin. “I’m not laughing at you,” I added when Rebecca glared at me. “I was just thinking that Jackie tends to sit in mine and Peter’s laps a little too often.” I smiled at my lover and took her hand.

 “That’s the worst part of this,” Rebecca murmured into Pam’s hair. “We’d done a little petting and kissing before Sherman decided to play god. I don’t know if we’d have ever become lovers if not for that.”

 “Maybe. But from what I’ve been able to determine, Sherman was too sadistic to bother with your minds or emotions. It’s a lot nastier if the victims know that they DON’T want to do something, but are forced to anyway.” Jackie said, as she pulled me down to the floor, and laid her head in my lap. “If I’m being nosy, tell me so, but I take it that neither of you is completely repelled by what you do together?” The pair of them shook their heads negatively. “Then just chalk it up to a good thing that came out of a bad situation.” I couldn’t resist, being a romantic at heart; I used a spell to eavesdrop on their emotions. Pam was filled with love for Rebecca, the compulsion to submit to her notwithstanding. Rebecca was just as crazy for Pam, but was still feeling guilty for it. I ended my spell before I got any more information. There were some things I didn’t need to know.

 From the Doorway, I heard Peter’s voice calling out my name. I shouted for him to come across, and he did. He took in the two women in my chair, and nodded politely. I introduced them, and he shook hands with both of them.

 “So, I guess they’ve filled you two in on what we’re trying to do?” I rolled my eyes at his bluntness.

 “Yeah, they have. You have some problem with that?” Uh-oh. Becca’s muscles bulked out again, so she must be getting worked up.

 “No, not at all. Just wanted to confirm a hunch.” Peter raised his eyebrow at the two of us on the floor, and pulled us up. He gave Jackie a deep kiss, and squeezed my shoulder. “I hope you two have a better grasp on what ‘secret’ means than these two.” He smiled as he said it. “But then again, their instincts are excellent. If they trust you, I will too.”  The five of us had dinner while debating plans of action. I took a minute or two to enact a ban on them with the Control Console that prevented them from talking about us to anyone outside our little group, and also locked away their knowledge of Daphne and Suzanne. It wasn’t fair to my old friends to let someone else know about them. They’d get to meet and/or make friends with Pam and Rebecca all on their own. Admittedly, I’d broken my vow to stay out of their minds, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity. A mental flash told my twins what I’d done. They weren’t very enthusiastic, but understood my reasoning. After dinner, we told the girls to make free with the stuff in the apartment, just warning them to stay out of the lab and the workshop, and my clones and I went back to our hotel room.

 I checked my wards, and found something interesting; someone had been probing at them, and the residual traces matched those of the Master PC’s carrier signals. I recorded the frequency, but since I didn’t have a live trace, I couldn’t track the vector.

 “Oh, hell. Someone’s been probing in this room, guys.” Peter’s nod confirmed my reading. Apparently he’d set up a barrier as well with his toys. “Guess our cover’s blown. We’d better move base, and quick.” A knock at the door caused all of us to jump. I looked through the peephole, and saw only a very attractive redhead in the hallway. Peter pulled out one of his weapons, and stood in the bathroom to give me some cover. I nodded at him to confirm his readiness, then I opened the door. The redhead’s face was hypnotically beautiful; porcelain-pale complexion without freckles, electric-blue eyes, and a nice round shape, giving the impression of youth and innocence.

 “Mr. Jason *****?” I nodded. “I’m Camille.” She tittered briefly. “Mr. Phillip Bracie sends you this message;” her voice dropped a half-octave and became much more masculine. “Surrender yourself to my little messenger, and I might let you keep your dick a while longer. Come now, sir, you might as well give over; you can’t possibly think to challenge me.” The glazed look dropped from the redhead’s eyes. “Will you be coming with me, sir?” She batted her eyes at me. “If you behave, Mr. Phil might let you stay with me for a while….” Her voice was hypnotic, lulling me into lowering my defenses. A short bark of command rang out behind me.

 “Down, Jay!” Jackie wasn’t taking dissenting opinions. I dropped to the floor, and I heard a hissing something pass over my head. I looked up at the redhead, and saw that she was caught in a suspension spell. “Grab her!” I made a grabbing motion with my hand, and her backwards fall was arrested. I got back up on my feet, and pulled our captive inside. “Dammit! This guy’s quick. I didn’t even suspect anything till I heard her voice change.” I looked at Peter, who was standing stock-still in the bathroom. I said his name, and he snapped out of it.

 “What the hell? She shouldn’t have been able to hypnotize me, I wasn’t looking at her!” He followed me back into the main room.

 “Must’ve been a gender specific effect, she couldn’t grab Jackie.” I levitated the redhead over to the bed and laid her out before going over and giving Jackie a kiss of appreciation. “Thanks, baby.”

 “That’s what you keep me around for, buddy.” She stepped around me to inspect our guest. “Pretty slick. She doesn’t look like a threat, does she?”

 “Not a bit. I’m still surprised she got past my protections. How in the hell did she do that?”

 “You were standing pretty close to her. Maybe a combination of pheromones and vocalized tones?” Jackie’s studied calm was soothing. “I dunno, but I’m not about to go poking around.” She pulled the unitard I’d made, and took out a few of Peter’s nastier pieces of hardware. “However, I AM going to go hunting.”

 “Good idea, but how’re we going to do that? She doesn’t look like she’s carrying a map saying ‘Demented demi-god at Address X’.”  Peter was arming himself as well, taking everything he could cram into his coat pockets. “Unless you’re planning on waking her up and letting her walk out of here with Jay in tow, that is.”

 “Actually, that’s JUST what I had in mind. I can suppress his personality with a spell and set it to retract when I want to.” Jackie was awfully blasé about the prospect. “I don’t like it either, Peter,” she added, forestalling his argument. “But if you’ve got a better idea how we find this asshole, I’m all ears.” When he admitted to blankness, she came over to me. “I’ll use a standard spell with a three hour maximum.” She waited long enough to get a last kiss from me and for Peter to pull all of the goodies out of my pockets. “We want him to think you’re helpless. The tattoo will still work for you, but it’s a passive defense.” She kissed me again, and I felt the anxiety running through her.

 “It’s OK, baby. Don’t sweat it, I doubt he’ll kill me out of hand. But, we’d better get his little puppet back in place.” I waved my hand and put the redhead back in the hallway. Mercifully, noone had been there earlier, and noone was there now to see us. “I’ll get back in place, you drop the spell on me, and then you can track me with the tattoo.” They nodded, and got into position. Peter was going to call the girls through, then join up with Jackie, who was going to be following me. I went and  stood back in the doorway, looking towards the messenger.

 “I’m sorry, Jay.” Jackie’s hand came past my shoulder and discharged a bright light in my face, and my world bled away into darkness.

TWENTY MINUTES LATER

 JACKIE’S PERSPECTIVE

 I’d dropped the memory-spell onto Jason, then removed the stasis on the redheaded messenger. Within a moment, I heard Peter running back across the threshold to avoid the hypnotism of the girl.

 “Changed your mind, lover-boy.” She ran her hand proprietarily down Jay’s chest, and I had a simultaneous urge to rip her eyes out and to scream for what had been done to this young lady. Jay grunted in response to her question. “Goody, then maybe Mr. Phil will let me use you for a while.” She took his hand and the two of them started walking down the hallway. I cloaked myself with an invisibility spell, and went after them. I could keep track of Jay’s movements through the spell-link , but I wasn’t about to let this little chit alone with him longer than I could help. The two of them took an elevator down, but I wasn’t about to try and go with. I bustled to the stairs, and chanted a levitate spell while I jumped over the rail. I hit the bottom floor running, and was waiting when they came out. The unknown User had manipulated his messenger into hypnotizing anyone that looked towards them, since she’d pulled Jay’s dick out and it was at full mast, shiny with her saliva. I had to forcibly stop myself from blowing the shit out of her with a lightning ball. The pair of them went out through the lobby door, where there was a limousine waiting. One of the hotel bellhops pulled open the door for them, not taking notice of Jay’s partial exposure. Shit! I wasn’t about to try a flying spell while maintaining invisibility, so how was I going to follow them? I dropped the invisibility, and tracked their motion. They were heading north, at least for the moment.

 All of a sudden, Peter came barreling out the door, looking around. He called my name, and I snapped out of my trance. “You certainly got back quick enough, sport!” He was carrying a huge attaché case, which seemed out of character. He bustled me around the side of the building towards the parking lot.

 “I shrank the car down to this so I could get it through the Door. Amy and Becca are heading down with some of my other gear.” He set the case down in an empty parking space, and touched it. It warped, and their was our beat-up looking tank on wheels. Amy and Rebecca came around the building then, pushing one of those skycap trolleys filled with Peter’s travel cases. We threw them into the trunk, cramming it down tight.

 “How’d you manage to carry this thing?” I asked. He said something about being able to alter gravity’s effect on material he was touching, but I wasn’t really listening. The four of us piled into the car, all armed to the teeth. Amy had something Peter told me was a gravity cannon, and Becca had an infrasonic gun in a holster on a bandolier of grenade-like things. “Okay, they’re heading…north by north-east, out towards the suburbs.” Peter started the car, and we roared out of the lot.

 I continued to track Jay’s movements, and finally we tracked them down to a fairly substantial mansion. The guards at the gate looked seriously tough, so we settled for driving half a block away and parking.

 “How’re we going to get past those guards?” Amy asked.

 “Just a little magic, kiddo.” I answered with a smile. “Let’s get the gear out, this is liable to get messy.” We started pulling gear out of the car with some alacrity, piling it onto the ground. “Magic carpet, anyone?” I chanted a short spell, and got what I desired. My carpet was 50 feet on a side, square. We loaded all of our gear onto it, and I had to laugh at the incongruity; an amazon, a shapeshifting submissive, a Super-Geek and a Sorceress breaking into a god’s house with a flying carpet and a few cases of guns.

INSIDE THE MANOR, JASON’S PERSPECTIVE

 My vision cleared, and I could see again, even if I couldn’t do so much as blink on my own. I was a helpless passenger in my own flesh, and it was more than a little unnerving. I was walking through a hallway of a large house, but it wasn’t anything like what I’d imagined. The furniture, the carpet, and even the walls themselves were flesh! I could see the blood pulsing through the walls of skin, tinting all of the lights a reddish color as it flowed through the lampshades. How had this guy managed to do all of this? Had he taken a single person, or even a group, and expanded, shaped and firmed their flesh until it became this house? Whoever the user was, it was impressive work. I felt a breeze blowing across my dick, which I could tell was at full mast. When we passed by a mirror, I saw it hanging out of my jeans, and I would have blinked, if I was able. The redheaded messenger was leading me along, her hips swishing exaggeratedly. Nice sight, even if I knew what was waiting for me at the end of our journey.

 Finally, we went up a flight of cartilage steps, and came to a valve-like doorway. The redhead never even paused, just walked straight into it, and I followed. The doorway opened at her approach, and we went into the room on the other side, apparently a study or an office. As in the rest of the house, the furnishings were all flesh, and the massive desk appeared to be the molded bodies of women in the throes of orgasm. Behind the desk sat an older gentleman, somewhere in his early 40’s. His hair was graying at the temples, but other than that, he seemed in the prime of his health. His right arm, I could see, was moving up and down in his lap. He was masturbating, but why? His left was still on the keys of the computer in front of him, and he hit the enter key.

 “Oh, please, Mistress Camille, may I cum?” He pleaded, speaking to my redheaded captor. She nodded perfunctorily, and with a loud groan, he brought himself off. He leaned back in his chair, wiped out from his climax. What the fuck?

 “Poor Master Philip. Was Camille a bad girl and didn’t let you cum today?” she responded.
He nodded breathlessly, his hand still pumping at his dick. “Well, Master, take your pleasure from this unworthy slut. She walked around the side of the desk and knelt in front of him. Philip fell on her with a growl, his still-hard dick slamming home into her ass. The pair of them rutted like animals for a few minutes, before Philip raised himself off of Camille’s back, howled in agony, climaxed and passed out. Camille, when she got her breath, pulled her pants back up and stood.

 “Miserable bastard. At least I won’t have to worry about him for a while.” Her entire demeanor had changed; instead of the sex-kitten act, she was now a dominatrix from Hell. I was thinking frantically; how was the power being exchanged in here? Apparently, when Philip was awake, she was subservient to his will, but now that he was out, she was in charge. More importantly, did she have access to the Master PC?

 “Come here, little man.” Her glinting blue eyes were locked onto me. “It’s time for you to learn your place.” She sat down on the edge of the desk, stroking the body it was made of. I barely heard a moan, as if from someone in the heights of ecstasy. She smiled at this, and continued it while I walked over to her. “You’re MY plaything now, whatever your name was. Is that acceptable and understood, slut-boy?”

 “Yes, Mistress Camille.” The sound of my own voice was hollow. Shit! Until Jackie released the suppression spell, I was stuck here watching this! I knelt in front of her and kissed her boot.

 “Take off those clothes. Sluts don’t wear clothing in my home.” I stripped, not that I had a choice. She watched me carelessly, while she spun over the desk to sit behind it. She started tapping keys on the board. “What was your name, Jason *****?” I nodded, once. She tapped a few more keys. “Dammit! You were more clever than I thought. What is the password for you?” I said nothing. “Did you understand my question, slut?” I nodded yes. “Then what is the password to alter you with the Master PC?” I remained silent. She stared at me for a moment. “You shouldn’t be able to refuse me anything, so you must not know it. I guess I’m stuck with you as you are.” She raked me over with her eyes. “Although, that’s not too shabby. Have to do something with your hair, though.”
 

OUTSIDE, PETER’S PERSPECTIVE

 Jackie was directing the carpet over the walls of the estate while I gave the newcomers a crash course in destructive weaponry, a la me. They got the idea pretty quick, since I hadn’t made the equipment too complicated. We were hovering over the grounds of the manor, searching for the best place to land the carpet. The roof seemed like a good idea, until we actually touched down. The damned thing opened an orifice of some kind and swallowed us whole! We traveled down what appeared to be a gullet of some kind, before we ended up in a small room, ribbed with giant bones and muscles. All of our gear, including our clothes, had been dissolved by the secretions of that giant throat. However, Jackie’s jewelry-weapons, my own last-resort knife and our boots all survived. Amy and Rebecca, on the other hand, were as naked as the day they were born.

 “Holy shit, what in the hell is this?” Becca’s voice was panicky, and I saw that she was shifting, becoming bulkier. Jackie had briefed me on the transformation powers she’d demonstrated, and Amy’s own altered state. She started punching on the walls, trying to batter her way to freedom. The entire room shook, as if in pain. Suddenly, giant tongues sprouted from the walls, immobilizing all of us against the opposite wall! I struggled, but was unable to free myself, but I did start feeling horny…..

IN THE STUDY, JASON’S PERSPECTIVE

 Camille had me bent over the desk and was thrusting her fingers into my ass while I moaned in agony/desire when we felt the entire manor house shake. Camille removed her sticky fingers from me and laid one of them on the desk, her eyes going vacant.

 “Looks like we have some visitors, toy.” I squealed in need, while my original mentality raged. She’d been violating me for the better part of an hour, and now she had my lovers trapped! “Let’s go take a looksee, shall we?” She reached into the gaping sex of one of her desk-women, and pulled out a slimy collar and leash, which she snapped around my neck. She took the leash’s handle, and proceeded to lead me down the hallway, which was filled with a wail and a moan, as if the house was in agony and ecstasy simultaneously. I walked along behind her, whining with each breath in thwarted lust. We walked for what seemed like half a mile through those corridors of muscle and tendon, occasionally passing some poor soul writhing in lust/agony on the floor. Camille took no notice, but I made note of every one of them. Each of them could be me, if I didn’t get out of this quick. Even worse, it could happen to Peter, or Jackie! I managed to master the tide of loathing rage that swelled up over me, and I bided my time.

IN THE CELL OF FLESH, JACKIE’S PERSPECTIVE

 I was writhing in arousal against the tongue holding me in place, trying to work the saliva all over my body. I could feel the cilia of the tongue rasping against my clit, my labia, and my nipples, driving me wild with lust. Peter was quiet next to me, his eyes closed, even if he was breathing hard. Poor Amy was screaming in lust, tossing her head from side to side. Becca wasn’t any better, screaming out her lover’s name while tossing the tongue around. Of us all, she actually managed to shift the tongue a few times, but it still fell back down on her. Finally, she got her arms wrapped around it and spread her legs. I couldn’t help but become more horny at the sight. For I-don’t-know how long, the tableau remained like this, three of us wailing in need, the fourth silently resisting. I don’t know how Peter managed to stay silent, but he did. Finally, respite came. The cell door opened, and the same redhead that had taken Jay from us earlier entered our cell.

 “Well, well, what have we here? You didn’t tell me you had a twin brother, toy!” She addressed Jay, who was standing in the hallway. I managed to catch a glimpse of him, and I could have wept. His beautiful black hair, mirror to my own, had been shaved down to a stubble. He was just standing there in the hallway, stroking his cock in lust. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to crawl over to it and worship him with my mouth. I moaned loudly, drawing the woman’s eyes. “And a sister, to boot! I have a matched set of sluts, now!” She laughed with glee. She came over to me and stroked her hand down my face, while I managed to turn my face towards it and lave it with my tongue. “Oh, how sweet, it seems like this little slut already knows her place. But it’s these two that are the real treat!” She stalked away from me after yanking viciously on Peter’s hair in passing, crossing our cage to stand looking at our allies. “ A cute little blonde, and an Amazon! Quite a collection, you had, my pet!” While she was enjoying looking over her new ‘treasures’, I was frantically collecting my wits. All I had to do was say one word, loud enough for Jason to hear it. I looked over at Peter, stoically managing to retain some composure, and I hardened my resolve.

 “Re..re.lease…!” I managed to get out. No good, it wasn’t even loud enough for me to hear over the others’ cries. Try again, girl! “RELEASE!” I squealed, using the action from the tongue to drive it out.
The woman turned around, her eyebrow raising at me.

 “Now, now, pet-ling, you’ll get your release sooner or later, if I remember.”

 “I think that’ll happen when hell freezes over, bitch.” I pulled my eyes open with an effort, since the tongue’s spit had managed to glue them shut, and I saw the most terrifying sight I’d ever seen; Jay, standing in the hallway with a collar around his neck, a leash hanging down his chest, stark naked, erect, and with his hair shaved. I nearly came from the relief of seeing him back in his own eyes

PETER’S PERSPECTIVE

 I opened my eyes when I heard Jason’s voice. When I laid eyes on him, I knew we were in for a real fight. He was pissed, and there was no way Jackie or I could stop him, imprisoned as we were to our lusts.
 

JASON’S PERSPECTIVE

 Jackie’s word dissolved the barrier between my mind and my body, and my self flowed outwards to fill in the gap. My rage had an outlet, and I was going to make use of it.

 “How can you talk?” Camille asked. I shrugged, and took a step forwards. The burning sensation in my asshole increased with that step, and it was the final straw keeping me from sheer madness.

 “Would you like to see what happens when you’ve pushed someone too far, Camille?” Tongues surged out of the ceiling, walls, and floor all around me, trying to imprison me. A flick of my will, and they burst into a bloody mess, sending another shudder through the house. I stepped forwards again, driving Camille further back, the coppery smell of blood wafting around me like a good perfume. With a grin straight off the devil’s face, I batted aside her further attempts to use her home against me, pushing against the floor with my mind, walking on air. I backed her into the farthest corner of the cell, where she tried desperately to merge with it. A gesture pressed her arms against the walls, and spread her legs. “Well, you’re about to find out.” I focused my will on her clothes, and they disappeared with a flash of green flame.

 “No, please, sir, Master will be angry if Camille cums first!” Those words cleared the haze of anger from my mind, and I hovered there a moment. Philip must have woken up, and his programming reasserted itself on Camille. I gestured, and her body was encased in a green sphere, still held immobile. I turned away from her, knowing that I’d have to sort out Philip and my little family first. I destroyed the tongues holding them with four glances, and they fell to the ground. Becca and Amy recovered first, and pulled each other into a tight clinch, completely ignoring the gory surroundings. Peter and Jackie were wrapped in a 69, each trying to devour the genitals of the other. The saliva from the tongues must have an aphrodisiac effect, I thought, so I conjured some water that splashed all four of them clean, as well as making a bloody soup on the floor. No good, they were still intent on pleasing themselves. Shit. I gestured again, and all of them were levitated off the floor and in spheres of their own. I set them to follow me, turned, and stalked back out of the cell. It was only a minute or so later when I came back to the study, where Philip was rubbing himself on the floor, in vain search of relief.

 I hovered above him and started questioning him. It turned out that he had gotten the Master from a newsgroup almost a year ago, but it had copied all of the addresses out of his email program and copied itself in this fashion. He’d gotten himself a few slaves using the Master, mostly by visiting homeless shelters. However, one of his little toys, Camille, turned out to have Multiple Personality Disorder, and was thus partially immune to the Master’s power. While he was awake, he had complete control over her, but when he was unconscious, her other personalities could take control. It had only taken a few days for him to be enslaved by the Control Console as he’d enslaved her. That explained the oddball scene I’d experienced when I’d first come into this room. While he was spilling his guts, I went around the other side of the desk and sat down, looking at his copy of the Master PC.

 It was more similar to my own, in that it had bars that allowed its controller to make their subjects superhuman in multiple categories, and it even had a few that I didn’t. It could reshape inanimate matter to whatever whim you desired, even to making an entire house become flesh. “Holy shit, you could do damn near anything with this,” I breathed. I searched, and mercifully, there was a record of everyone and everything ever done with this copy.  There were apparently 40 or 50 people involved, but most of the alterations had been to do with the house itself. When I input the global command to undo all changes, the Program sent up a window telling me that reversals would take more time, and would work in reverse chronological order, limited to the memory capacity of this computer. Shit. I halted the operation, and programmed in for all of these people to leave the house and gather on the lawn. This was liable to take some time, and it would be handy if I had some help.

 I looked up, and saw that my little family was pounding on their spheres, trying to get my attention. I released their spheres, dropping them to the ground. “I’m sorry, folks. I was working on something.” A swirling gesture washed all of them clean with more water, leaving me looking at four sopping-wet, very attractive people. Peter whipped up some clothes for the four of them, and some dignity was restored to the proceeding. I briefed them on what I’d been doing while they were indisposed, and after some awkwardness from Pam and Becca, I signaled for the subjects of Philip’s Master PC to come inside and line up along the hallway outside the study.

 “Becca, Pam, I’m sorry for dragging you into this. I had no idea…” Jackie was saying to the ladies.

 “It’s okay, Jackie.” Ever since they’d been released, the two of them had been touching each other, even if it was just holding hands. “Besides, we’re free, aren’t we?” Pam said, curled up on Rebecca as she was.

 “Yes, but I should have left you two outside. I had no right to involve you in this.” Jackie’s discomfort was palpable, and Peter wrapped his arms around her waist to soothe her. She patted his hands.

 “We agreed to come in, Jackie, so stop being so noble.” Rebecca’s voice was softened by her smile, truly a beautiful thing to see. “Something good came out of it, though. I realized how much I love my little Pammie here.” She squeezed her lover tightly. “All I could think about when that tongue was on me was how much I wanted it to be hers.” Jackie looked surprised at this turn of events, and I had a grin of my own on my face. I love happy endings.

END CHAPTER 008