Stopping time is impossible, right? I mean, how do you freeze the entire universe into complete immobility? How do you keep black holes from spinning, planets stopping on their axis' or a 747 hang in mid-air, defying gravity as if God himself were the pilot. Exactly. You don't. Doesn't mean we can't change the paradigm though, right?

The watch doesn't stop time, despite the corny name of my tale. It hyper-accelerates the person holding the watch so that they seem almost to stop time. Suffice to say the watch is somewhere between cold science and fiery magic.

So, gentle reader, you probably wonder about me. Physically, I'm not much to look at. I mean, I get my share of tang, and I have my share of tattoos. Brown eyes and brown hair, if you must know. I'm in pretty good shape, as I work out regularly. About 5'11" tall. Not quite a thin build, but not carrying extra weight, either. My most distinguishing feature? Probably the self-drawn Celtic cross I tattooed above and around my belly-button three years ago, when I was twenty-two. It's a work of art. Really.

I own a small tattoo and piercing shop in a local mall. My shop is not your typical grease-ball joint. It's very clean and sterile and in fact, though the mall isn't exactly where one might find a Macy's, it isn't half bad. They certainly charge me enough in rent! I actually do a great deal of my work right in front of a plate glass, two-way mirror in the front of the shop. I often have people stop by and stare at my customers.

You know, I still haven't figured out why some people seem to forget that my two-way mirror is in fact a mirror, despite the fact that they have probably looked through it themselves and pass the damn thing to get in my shop. I've had girls take off their shirts and stand there in just a bra, not realizing they're drawing a crowd. Yes, the mall security and management have warned me on several occasions. I try not to let it get too crazy.

But before I go on, I do have to mention this one story. I have a chair and a bed/mat kind of thing that people lay down on, depending on the position they need to take for me to do my art. So, picture this - four beautiful women, down to just their g-strings and heels, all bent over my table in one neat line, hip to hip, asses to the world! It was amazing. They'd asked for weird tattoos as well, right on their asses. One actually wanted "Spank Me" spelled out.

Anyway, back to the present, as it were. I believe it was Tuesday night, two weeks ago. I'm just finishing up the relatively short process of attaching a ball to the end of a pin through this girl's tongue. She was a cute little thing, barely eighteen. I had to check her ID, but I had the feeling her daddy wasn't going to like his baby girl getting a tongue piercing. Not my problem.

I didn't hear the door ringing, signifying someone had entered, but POOF, like magic, someone was standing in front of my counter. I jumped slightly, tugging a bit hard on the poor girl's new piercing. She yelped and I stood up quickly.

"Can I help you?" I asked. Irritation crept into my voice. I'm generally soft spoken, but I'm not into surprises, particularly when surprised by a dork in front of a pretty girl. And this guy fit the bill. I mean, the typical greasy hair, thick glasses and a lab coat even.

Surprisingly, he had a rather cocky tone for a schoolyard punching bag. "I need you to do a few piercings and maybe a tattoo or something."

I raised my eyebrow, skeptical of his intent. "I see. Are they for you?" The girl stood up behind me, and clicked her tongue piercing several times against her teeth as she came around the counter.

The geek noticed her for the first time. His eyes roamed all over her body. She wore a fuzzy sweater that accented her already large breasts. She only stood about five foot two, she wore a very short plaid, pleated skirt and she had very short, blond - almost white, hair.

"Hmmm." The geek said.

I saw out of the corner of my eye where he reached into his pocket. I blinked, and the girl's breasts dropped. I mean, it's like one moment, she was wearing a push-up bra, and the next moment she wasn't. I jerked my head in surprise, and the girl noticed where my eyes were staring as she was approaching my counter and the cash register to pay me.

She stopped and looked down and forgetting her surroundings, gasped and grabbed her breasts, realizing her bra indeed was gone. I looked around as was she, and I noticed something different about the geek, but I couldn't put my finger on it. She turned around, looking back at the table. She bent down and her skirt rose precipitously. And like some kind of thing out of a high schooler's wet dream, the back of her skirt was pinned up to her shirt, and she had no idea that it was.

Get this straight. One moment, it was just a short pleated skirt that rose high up her legs, threatening to expose her ass. And the next moment it was pinned up to her shirt on the back side, and the front remained right where it was. I hadn't moved. Neither had the geek, though I heard him start to laugh.

I didn't know what to think, but I knew what I did. I stared at her ass! She had a yellow cotton thong, and I've seen my share of asses in my day, hell, nearly every day in my line of work, but hers was fantastic. I am sure the voyeurism of the moment added to the affect.

She had a bikini tan line. Apparently, she preferred (and her parents allowed) a Brazilian cut. Maybe they wouldn't be so mad about the piercing. She sent a confused look at the geek. And then another one at me, as she whipped around, and pointed a finger in my face.

"Where the hell is my bra?" She looked at the ceiling for a moment, apparently feeling the cold air on her ass. She reached her non-finger-pointing hand to her backside and nearly choked.

"What the hell is the matter with you?" She nearly screamed. And then, without pause, interruption or some kind of indication of how it happened, her bra just appeared on her still pointing finger.

"Erp. Argle, brocker..." I think you can imagine that she made no sense. She was sputtering in utter amazement. I have to say I appreciated her bra. I mean, I'm as patriotic as the next guy, but having a lacey thing in all red, white and blue. Now that's an interesting way to show feeling for your country. Even said "Support our Troops." Wonder where you can get such a thing?

"Look, I don'th know whath you're doingth here, but you damn well betther stopth." She said.

I had to keep from laughing at her. And then her sweater disappeared. Omigod. The girl had amazing breasts and it took her several seconds to even realize it was gone. She had to be at least a D cup, but she had such a tiny waist! If she were a little older, I would have asked her out. Of course, after this experience, I'm sure she just wanted to run like hell away from me.

Sue me. I couldn't keep my eyes on her face, I was staring at those tits. She noticed that, and I'm sure the temperature of the room made her realize her lost sweater in no time. She looked down, and then threw her arms across her chest. I swear, she almost ran out of the room right then. I could see her look to the door. I could only imagine what kind of a crowd had formed outside the two-way mirror.

Geek boy was beside himself. He was laughing hysterically now. I'm sure he was! It was me who was going to get sued by cute girl's daddy when he found out a girl-stripping ghost had taken residence in my shop!

The girl was standing in place, reaching for her purse, not knowing what to do. I noticed her sweater was lying on the tattoo table, so I moved from around the counter.

"Here, look, your sweater is over here." I pointed to it and as I reached for it, it disappeared. What the hell? When I looked around the shop, I noticed it on the counter.

I rolled my eyes and headed for the counter again. I mean, it's only about ten feet away, but before I could move two steps, the girls mini-skirt disappeared. She screamed. Not loud, a yelp really. But what on earth was going on. She was standing on tip-toes now, and kind of spinning slowly, trying to keep anyone from seeing her there in nothing but her shoes and a yellow thong. Obviously a futile effort.

I had a hard time keeping focused on the concept of "Hey, I don't want to get sued or kicked out of this mall." This girl looked amazing! Her naturally fair skin though tanned, caused her to blush like no one I've ever seen! Even her ass cheeks turned red.

And then, just as someone was going to enter the doorway, all of her clothes re-appeared on her body. Even the pin was removed from her skirt. I could see out of the corner of my eye that the geek had stopped laughing, literally, in mid laugh. Like, "ha ha ha ha ---".

And he'd changed positions. I remember one hand being in his pocket and his other hand over his mouth, but then, he'd .. I don't know, teleported? About two feet to the left. One hand was still in his pocket, but the other one just hung at his side. I started to get a bit suspicious.

A mall security guard came in. "Todd. What the hell is going on here? Some old lady outside said there was a girl half naked in here."

"Obviously, George, that's not the case." I kept my cool. I'd have to have girls cover up quickly in the past. Just not this quickly.

The girl, for her part, looked down, removed her arms from her front and continued to breathe heavily for a few more seconds. Then she cleared her throat.

"That'll be twenty-five dollars, miss." I told her.

"Umm. Yes. Umm. Okay. One second." I think she wondered if she should make a fuss or not, but obviously wouldn't be able to convince anyone of anything. I could see her glance at the mirror as she reached in her purse. Since people were out there watching, they'd have seen that the other two people in here hadn't moved a muscle.

So, she reached into her purse and pulled out the money! I'd debated about the idea of giving it to her for free. I mean, the girl had to be traumatized and I still was completely bewildered by what had happened. But George had come in and the last thing I needed was to raise his suspicions further. Sides, I still had that high rent.

I took her money, gave her the receipt and she left. She paid me in cash. I almost wish I had gotten her name, so I could look her up. A girl that fine just shouldn't be allowed to walk out of your life without another word.

George scampered after her. I'd never seen him miss a chance to talk to a pretty girl. And if one had had her clothes off recently, all the better. Of course, he didn't KNOW that for sure. As I did. I didn't have my own video surveillance in my shop for nothing.

Geek boy sauntered up to the counter. "Well, now that that's taken care of..." He rested both hands on my counter.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I shot him a raised eyebrow.

"What do you think? The girl was half naked in here. You could have been arrested."

"So could you. You had just as much cause to rip off her clothes as I did. Or.. well, not cause, perhaps, but, hell, you know what I mean."

"Not just the cause, my good man. The ability." He said.

"What in the hell are you talking about?" I stepped back and sat in the stool behind my counter.

Before he could answer, a teenage guy came in the shop.

"Duuuudde! Did you see that chick, man? She was fuckin' hawt!"

I tried to keep from rolling my eyes. Just because I do tattoo art doesn't make me an uneducated lout, like this kid was. Not to mention, how could I NOT have seen her. She was standing right in front of me. Fine grasp of this obvious, this one has.

So, instead of answering his question, as there was no point to repeating the obvious yet again, I'd ask one of my own. "How many people saw her?"

"I dunno dude. I was only out there like a minute. Saw some people laughing, and I walked up in time to see that chick's skirt flipped up. Couldn't see much cuz of your stupid counter. But then when her shirt disappeared like that! Oh MAN! Wow. What a rack."

"Rack, what the hell are you talking about? But how many?" Geek guy seemed to really want to know as well. He was staring through his coke bottle glasses.

"Oh, shit, man. Maybe twenty?" he said. Geek guy swallowed. I could sense his cockiness ebb just a bit. Why would it do that, unless he was responsible? So, it was no ghost. Geek guy was to blame. He did say he had the ability after all, but you'll forgive my reluctance to believe him.

"Well, I'm certain you've no idea what you're talking about. The girl's clothes never left her body. She got a tongue piercing, not a tattoo. If you're not getting anything... " I flicked my eyes in the direction of the door.

"Oh. Yeah. Well, whatever dude." He turned and walked out.

Great. That's what I needed. Twenty people thinking a girl had spontaneously disappearing clothes when she entered my shop.

"Alright. What's this about having the ability to make that girls clothes disappear. Some kind of ray gun?" I have to admit to being intrigued by the idea. The possibilities were endless.

"Not quite. But, I have shown you exactly how much fun it can be. I need the piercings and the tattoos. Are you willing to do them?"

"Well, that's what I get paid to do." I said.

"Oh, well, yes, of course. But what I need is for you to do them offsite. As in, not here."

I narrowed my eyebrows and looked around my shop. What problem did he have with my shop! I take pride in how well it's kept up.

"Hey, if you have some problem with my shop, then you're going to have a problem with me."

"It's not your shop. In fact, it's because you seem to have some kind of taste, is why I came to you in the first place." He looked from side to side and then lowered his voice.

"Look. I need to know if you can go somewhere to do these tattoos. I've seen your work, and you're good. You also look the type who won't try to screw someone over. Am I correct?"

Well, he had me there. I'm an honest businessman. I'm also a loyal friend. I'm not perfect, but I'm basically a good guy. And, of course, I love my art.

"Yeah, well, I guess. What's the point to all this. And how much are you willing to pay?" I said.

"I'll pay you whatever's double your standard rate."

"I'm going to have to close down my shop. I'm going to need more than that. A standard tattoo is about a hundred bucks in my shop. If I have to close down for a day to do this for you, I'm going to need something like a thousand."

Without batting an eyelash. "Done." He said. I should have asked for more.

"When do we do it?"

"Now." He said.

"Dude." I borrowed a word from our most recent visitor's vocabulary. Seemed appropriate at the time. "It's 7pm. There's no way I can do it right now."

"Another grand says you'll shut the shop right now and you'll come with me." "Right now?" I asked.

He reached into his pocket with one hand and with his other hand, pulled out twenty one hundred dollar bills. "Good enough?"

I grabbed the store keys from under the register. "Let me pack my things and we'll get going."

I had enough portable equipment to take care of what he wanted. Several sets of nipple rings and ink and sterilized needles for four tattoos.

"Alright. Good to go." I told him. He turned, waved for me to follow him and after closing the store, I did.

We got into his car, a Ford Mustang. Not what I expected for a science geek. And he started explaining to me what he wanted done and how we were to do it. Since I hate trying to quote people's extensive expositions, I'll paraphrase what he told me.

Lloyd DeHaney (the geek scientist) worked in a defense lab. They'd been working on methods for increasing the metabolic rates by which we process caloric intake. I know, sounds like a new diet pill. But what they wanted to do was to simplyspeed up anatomy, yet use existing caloric intake, so that though a human was expending a tremendous amount of energy, the human didn't "burn themselves out."

Anyway, he used a lot of scientific jargon that I'm not going to pretend I'm qualified to pronounce, much less repeat. The end result was they created a device, as opposed to an ingested pill. They never figured out how they would have slowed the people back down if they'd ingested the food. The theory (born out by experiments on rats) was that permanent changes to the affected person's DNA would have had irrevocable affects. Fortunately, it was only lab rats that disappeared. Eventually, they died, as they'd lived in a cage in a hyper-accelerated state until their deaths, when they reappeared in their cages.

The device created allowed a person to hyper-accelerate the speed at which they performed actions. So, fast, in fact, that a person moved literally 3600 times faster than normal. For those of my gentle readers who are too absorbed in my fantastic tale to do the calculations, that means someone using the device could do things in one second that would take someone else an hour. Or, conversely, when a second passes for someone else, it's an hour of time for the person with the device.

In retrospect, it's easy to figure out exactly how the "ghost" in my shop did his work. Reach into his pocket, turn on the device, and it was quite simple to remove the clothes or anything else from the girl. Everyone else seems to nearly freeze in time.

My mind boggled at the possibilities! I missed some of what he said after that, some garbage about the various exploits he'd done so far and pranks he'd pulled. I caught a few mentions of my name and that's when he started describing what he wanted me to do. He had another stopwatch and he'd lend it to me. We'd do some tattoos and nipple piercings on several girls he knew. They were having dinner that night in one of their apartments.

Geek guy (Lloyd) was getting pretty kinky, I'd say. Has this phenomenal power, and he wants to use it to slap some of my art on unsuspecting female asses. Normally, I'd object, but where my art is concerned, I don't think there's a single body that doesn't deserve it.

One thing that bothered me though. I'm not a bad guy, but it's not like I have a top-secret clearance or anything. How could he be telling me all this and trust I wouldn't go somewhere and sing like a wall-mounted, fake fish? He doesn't know me. But, he also didn't look the type who'd try to off me, either. I mean, this isn't worth killing someone over, is it? I figured I'd just keep my eyes open.

We pulled into a parking lot of a pretty swanky high-rise apartment building. He handed me the spare stopwatch. "This is the place. We can't turn the watches on until we're actually on the seventeenth floor, where she lives."

I looked a question at him. "Think about it. We move faster than everything else. That means anything that we can't personally manipulate doesn't move very fast. Including elevators. And even those things you can manipulate, you have to be careful with, or you'll break them. Doors, windows, peoples ARMS." He both glared at me for emphasis and winked, because he'd just stripped a girl in my shop an hour earlier.

Dude had to get a life, I tell ya. "Roger that." I said. I grabbed my bag full of work supplies and followed him to the door of the high rise.

"Okay, I'm not allowed in here, so we'll have to use the watches to get past the security guards." He said.

I nodded and he pulled out his watch so I could see it. There were two buttons, one on each side of the knob. It looked like a classic stopwatch. He pressed the button on the right. I shrugged and followed suit.

I looked around and saw him in the foyer of the high rise waving to me. He'd already gone inside through the doors. I looked around first. Cars were stopped mid-zoom on the interstate that ran next to the apartments. The world was so ... quiet. Like walking outside when it's snowing. A girl was getting out of the right side of a car and a guy was pulling the keys out of the ignition in a reserved parking space near the front of the place. I had to try this out!

She was a brunette, wearing jeans and a t-shirt that said, "Guess!" on the front. Rather flat-chested, really. But she wore diamond earrings and he drove a BMW. She had one long leg stretched out of the car and she was frozen in a crouched position. I couldn't get over how cool this was. I mean, my heart was beating so fast, and I am sure the fact that it was beating at 252,000 times a minute had something to do with it. But I was still excited!

I reached out and touched the girl's face. She had a nice jaw line. I pulled her hair back. She had a rather blank look, so I stretched her lips into a smile. Didn't quite work out right, but it was still rather neat.

I started to feel the heat rush to my face. This kind of power! I swore to myself that ultimate power was not going to corrupt me, ultimately. But, she was quite cute, and was probably a high-brow pain in the butt anyway, so I leaned forward and brushed my lips across hers.

She smelled great too. Something by Estee Lauder, probably. Beautiful, perhaps. I ran my hand along her breasts, and then un-tucked her shirt, and reached up and cupped her boob. Mmmm, it was nice.

I have a theory. For every girl that has a great set of tits, there's another that has a phenom ass. Well, since this girl did not have the tits, then, yes, naturally, she had a great ass. And long legs. I still haven't used that line in a long, long time. "I love how your legs go up and make an ass out of themselves." Naturally, since she couldn't hear me and her apparent boyfriend would make my honest face look like a slap of tenderized meat, I didn't get the opportunity to use the line on this girl. But I did spend several minutes grabbing her wonderful backside through those jeans.

I had to do something more permanent. But what? Then I got an inspiration. I pulled out a pen and wrote, "I love you, honey" on one of her breasts, under her shirt. I wonder how that would improve her boyfriend's sex life?

I turned around just in time to see Lloyd running up to me. "Hurry UP! What are you doing?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" I said. "We've got all the time in the world. Just because you've had these neat toys for who knows how long, doesn't mean you can't appreciate my need to try 'em out, right?"

"Well, I guess you're right." He looked down at the ground and then back up at me. He had a rather fishy look to him, and I just filed that away for later.

"C'mon, let's get inside then." I said.

Following his own instructions, he slowly opened the door. As in, it seemed like he took over a minute, just to slide it open enough for us to squeeze through and then patiently close it back again. That explains why it took so long for him to catch up to me at that car. He spent as long on this door as I did on that girl's behind.

We strolled casually past the guards and then around the corner to the fire escape stairwell. We slowly opened that door, repeated the trick on the second floor door, and then came out of our time-stop at the elevator for the second floor.

And like that, sounds happened again. Things you don't notice, like the hum of an air-conditioner, the slight buzz of a light or the sound of an elevator. I didn't think it would, but it felt good, actually. Living outside of reality is .. well, it's obviously freaky, but you don't understand until it's happened to you.

We rode the elevator to the seventeenth floor. Someone was waiting for it to go down and we did our level best to hide our faces. Lloyd had warned us that we didn't actually want to be seen, since we didn't want to be suspected of anything when tattoos started appearing. Made sense, in a demented kind of way. Would these girls actually admit to having been tattooed without knowing it? Anyone can see that's a rather flakey thing to have happen, at best.

When the elderly gentleman took the elevator down, we walked over to number seventeen forty-one and tapped on the door. I heard several chuckles on the other side and as soon as it was opened a crack, Lloyd gave the signal and we hit the buttons on the watches.

Neither of us was a locksmith or had a key, you see, and we had to have someone on the inside open the door. As soon as it was open a crack, we forced it open the rest of the way. We had to do it extremely slowly, as Naomi (her name I found out later) was standing right next to it. As we pushed, she moved backwards, sliding across the floor.

I put my things on the kitchen table next to the open bottle of cabernet and looked around. It was an elegantly decorated apartment. Oak tables, black leather couches and some nearly museum quality paintings on the walls. I think one was a Monet print. Of course, the real delicacies in the place were the women. I could see why Lloyd wanted to come see them.

Naomi, who kindly opened the door was a Nordic goddess. Nearly six feet tall, with long, curly blond hair. Not curly like the girl from the movie, Annie, but rather it cascaded down her back. Perhaps she was a model. If she were, it was a Victoria Secret model, since she was no bean-pole, cavity-for-a-stomach, type. I could see the flush in her face, from having been drinking the wine and the glass in one hand was a dead giveaway.

I have to stop and make a point. People generally look REALLY silly when they're motionless in time. Your average person looks like they are perpetually being photographed in unflattering situations. Everyone's seen a picture where, instead of smiling, they catch someone mid-word. Especially digital cameras with their goofy timers.

Naomi, for example, had her eyes closed - we'd caught her mid-blink. Her lips were framed in an O, fish-mouthed, about to say, "Who's there?" or something similar. She still had her hand on the doorknob. She was taking a step backward, since she'd been opening the door, but we'd pushed her out of the way. Fortunately, she was barefoot, but the really weird thing was that she was hanging in mid-air, tipping backward. If we'd left her that way, she'd eventually fall to the floor, quite possibly knocking herself out.

It was neat, really. I mean, being able to move someone into a position, even one that with the laws of gravity would seem impossible. I'm sure for the person involved, to be lifted and moved and then put back again, it might feel that they had a bit of déjà vu or that they'd just lost their stomach in an elevator. They'd feel a slight twitch, to have one's armed moved in a fraction of a second. Perhaps that's where muscle spasms come from. Food for thought...

In any case, I stood Naomi back up and took the opportunity to smooth out the red dress she wore. I cupped her ass, and straightened the laces along the back of the dress. She wore no bra, I found. I was quite surprised actually, because she had extremely firm breasts, I'd guess at least a D cup. She worked out. I ran my hands along her legs. What legs! Her dress only went to mid-thigh, but before I could lift it up, Lloyd cleared his throat.

"If you can pull yourself away from her, I'd like to get this show on the road."

Before I turned around, I slowly pulled her dress back down. I'd hardly even realized I'd started to lift it up. Something disturbed me. Look how quickly I'd been ready to lift that skirt. Under normal circumstances, it's unthinkable. But what keeps a person from doing it? Is it only the fear of repercussions and punishment that keeps a person from behaving badly? I was getting a crash course in the affects of power. And ethics and morals.

Finally, I turned around and headed for the living room where I heard Lloyd rustling around. A petite auburn-haired girl wearing red glasses held another one of the wine glasses half filled with cabernet; she sat on the couch with her legs tucked underneath her. She seemed to be in mid-gossipy sentence, talking with a brunette who sat leaning back in an easy chair. The petite one (Lacey was her name, I later found out) was hunched forward and her face held an animated expression.

There are few things more attractive on a small woman than a huge pair of breasts. I mean, large breasts are great anytime, but when combined with a woman of perhaps, five feet in height, the contrast is simply stunning. Especially when they're real. Add some sparkling green eyes, a smattering of freckles and a cute little ski-jump nose and it makes for a delightful package.

I took all this in with the briefest of glances. I could sense Lloyd's impatience. I took a moment to see the last of our victims, err, I mean, my clients.

The brunette's (Deborah. Not Debbie, not Debra. Deborah.) face dripped condescension. I never found who the object of Deborah's sneer was - her friend Lacey or the one they were talking about. But for a beautiful woman, it really didn't add to her desirability. In fact, it made her look downright unattractive. Like an ice queen. She had a very straight nose, not long, actually, quite nice. Very clear complexion and immaculate hair. She had it piled up, as if she'd just come from a ball. In fact, she wore an evening gown as well. All of them may well have come from a fancy shindig, I realized then. I wonder what they were celebrating?

In any case, Deborah had a nice build as well, though without the notable features of the other two. She may have been the prettiest of the bunch, except even for that one moment of time, it was easy enough to imagine what she thought of herself and the world around her.

"Quit gawking. Let's get to work." Lloyd said.

"Wait a minute here. Who are these people. It's not everyday you walk into an apartment and three models are just hanging out." I said.

"It's not important -"

"The hell it ain't!" I interrupted him. "There's still a chance this could get back to me and if one of these is like a senator's girlfriend or something..."

I let my voice trail off, because I'd seen from the look on his face that I'd hit a little too close to the truth. I saw several emotions cross his face, from shock to fear to a that fox-like grin. He knew something he was not going to tell me. It surprised me a bit when he started to reveal some truth about these women.

"No, it's not a senator's girlfriend. Not exactly anyway. That one," He pointed at Deborah. "Her father is a senator. I work with Lacey." He nodded in Lacey's direction. "And Naomi is her friend."

"So what's with the tattoos?" I asked.

"Look, I just want to have a little fun, alright? Let's get going here. Despite what you think, we don't have all the time in the world."

"Alright, already. What do you want done then? Wait. One question first. Why are they all dressed up?"

"Do you see this?" He pulled out the watch. "They don't know what it is, but they were celebrating it. Well, Lacey has an inkling, I think, but the rest of them don't. But Deborah's father sponsored the grant that funded this project. I am one of the lead developers, Lacey is an assistant to one of the other researchers. I have the hots for her, okay? That's why we're here."

I could sense he was still holding back. There was something he wasn't saying, though I certainly believed he had the hots for Lacey. "Alright. So, what exactly do you want. A tattoo for Lacey?" I asked.

"No. Well, maybe. But I want nipple piercings on Deborah. And she's getting a tattoo as well." He said.

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh?"

"Yeah, she's a nasty bitch. I have a little something extra for her as well." Lloyd tapped a pocket on his chest and looked at him expectantly. He just shook his head.

I reached down and pulled out my equipment while he went over to Deborah and untied the straps to her elegant, green gown. He had to manually pull the gown down, as it would have hung suspended if he hadn't. As I pulled out the puncture that I was going to use on her nipples, I realized we were going to have a problem. Her nipples weren't hard.

"Lloyd, I need her nipples hard to pierce them."

"Oh hell. This is going to be harder than I thought. Let me think."

He paced back and forth around the room, as I tucked my tools away again. He stopped tapping his chin and looked around the room several times, finally spying what he was looking for. "That closet will do. Put your stuff in there. And get in there, I'll be there in a minute."

After I got in there, I saw what he was doing. He loosened the straps so that as soon as we stopped the watches, her dress would fall down. Simple enough.

He came into the closet, we hit our watches, and, pardon the pun, it happened like clockwork. Her dress fell down, the cool air brushed across her nipples, and we froze time, all in the matter of a few seconds.

Naomi had said, "Who's.. what?!"

Lacey said, "And then Lloyd - "

Deborah's noticed the dress and then her hands flew up, apparently to lift the dress back up, but time stopped before I could see her intent.

I grabbed my stuff, and dropped it in front of her. She had very nice C cups with rosy red areolas. I pinched her nipple, and punctured it. "Bar or ring?" I asked.

"Anyway to make it permanent?"

"This isn't exactly titanium here. Anyone could go back and clip it with some strong wire cutters."

"Hmmm." He tapped his chin again. That is an annoying habit, I might add.

"Oh, make them rings. How big do you have?"

"Does it matter?" I asked.

"Just make them as big as you got."

"Well, I have these, but no one ever - "

"Perfect!" he said. I was holding up a set of two inch in diameter earrings. No one in their right mind would wear something so large. I told you, this guy's demented.

I shrugged and slide the first one through. Then I did the other one. I had to admit, they looked damn good. She looked like she'd be a fantastic slave in some harem, with those exotic nipple rings. I figured they'd stay there about fifteen seconds of real time.

"Okay, and for the tattoo? I warn you, it's going to take several hours."

"Not a problem. I'll just tap my watch for a moment or two. That'll be two seconds for me, and two hours for you, eh?" He smiled, thinking he was a genius. Hell, I'm sure he was.

"You haven't told me what you wanted for the tattoo."

"Oh, I almost forgot. Just put the word 'SLUT' on her ass." He laughed.

"Ouch. That's pretty harsh, don't you think?"

"You have no idea. It gets worse."

"Damn, guy. What did she ever do to you?"

"Watch it. And I'll have you know, that she damn near killed the project. Came barging in one day while her father was having a meeting with my boss. Then had the gall to tell her father that I was looking at her funny. Ya know I got reprimanded for that? Dressed down, right in front of, just to appease her dad? Screw her."

"I see." Rather petty, don't you think? Of course, she did sound like a bitch...

"Okay, see you in a second!" he said. And he froze in place, his hand on the watch.

Indeed. So, I set to work. I stood Deborah up, trying to remember exactly where she'd been located, so I could put her back afterwards. I tried to simply pull her dress down to the floor, but it was rather tight and it wouldn't go over the flare of her hips. I struggled a moment, but I was able to get the dress off of her over her head. Standing there, in just her g-string and thigh-highs with garter, I was impressed. She'd matched her thong to go with the emerald green of her dress. And wow, almost naked she was gorgeous. I just can't resist a woman in a thong. I felt my member begin to swell.

Fortunately, her sneer had changed into a look of vulnerable shock which is a lot more appealing. I stood behind her and cupped her breasts, and gently twisted her newly pierced nipples. From behind, I ran my hands down her stomach and into the front side of her thong. She kept her hair trimmed in the 'landing strip' fashion. Very nice. I slowly drove a finger into her labia.

I briefly thought of piercing her clitoris.

In fact, the thought was so shocking to me that I backed away from her for a moment. What the hell's the matter with me? I'm scoffing at Lloyd for being demented and how quickly is this power-hungry madness catching up with me? Too soon.

But damn, it was good. I moved forward again, and sat down on my haunches, just looking at her ass. "Slut, huh?" I said to myself. I looked again at her front, and I could just see the bulge in her thong where her labia pressed them outward. It was so damn lickable! Was it that vulnerable look on her face? I don't know. I wished at the time that somehow these watches really could just freeze someone, instead of stopping the flow of time. Would have been neat to finger her pussy and smell her musky scent.

Ahh, well. Can't have everything, I guess.

I picked her up and laid her on the floor, away from the coffee table. I plugged in my equipment and set to work. Since it wasn't very complicated, it didn't take me long to do. I added some flourishes, of course. It's not like I could just print out a word on some girl's ass. I strove to make it seem like the word was branded into her ass, and the effect came off quite well, I must say.

I then stood her back up, put her dress back on her, including tying up the string, and then sat her back down in chair.

Since Lloyd hadn't unfrozen yet, I took the opportunity to stand Lacey up. She WAS a tiny little thing. I mentioned earlier that I'm nearly six feet tall, and Lacey with heels barely came past my chest. She was a cute thing, but I figured I'd have a little fun, while I could.

I put her in several different positions. First, kneeling, looking up at me. Delightful! Then, I manipulated her so that she was standing on one foot. Her other leg out straight as a board and her body to the side, so she looked like a giant "T." I realized then that her little blue dress was just going to HAVE to come off.

So, I straightened her up, and unzipped her dress. It didn't fall the ground, though I'd expected it to. I realized belatedly, that gravity didn't work right, so I tugged it slightly, and the dress slid over her hips. Her boobs were so large that her dress hung loosely over her ass.

Ahh, the invention of the thong. Whoever made that thing, deserves some kind of an award. Lacey's was white and shiny, some kind of acrylic, I guess.

I lay Lacey on the floor, breasts facing the ceiling. Ohmigod, was she amazing. I mean, just totally scrumptious. Her breasts were real and they were huge. I was totally overcome with lust. I sat on top of her, and I realized I wanted to feel my skin against hers. I stood up and removed my pants. I took off my shirt too. I then spread her legs and lay down between her legs, with my dick pressed up against that wonderfully smooth thong. I reached inside and as expected, she shaved completely down there.

I lay my face down between those wonderful globes of hers and pressed them against my face. She smelled so good! Then I framed her face in my hands and I kissed her neck, jawline and face. I pushed her hair out off of her forehead. It may have been the lust talking, but I was beginning to like this girl! I'm not usually just a 'looks' kind of guy, but she had an innocence about her, a vulnerability that combined with beauty in an completely irresistible way.

I pulled down her thong and dropped my boxers. I had to taste this sweet thing. I pressed my cock up against her pussy, and stopped. What was I doing? What if I did like this girl? Would I want to start this out on this type of experience? She wouldn't know, but I would have. I had to stop. I pulled back and started pulling up my boxer shorts.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Lloyd had obviously returned.

"Oh, you were taking so long, and I had a little extra time."

"You asshole! I told you I had the hots for Lacey."

Oops. I guess he had, at that. I tried to change the subject as I scrambled to put on my clothes.

"One thing I don't understand though. How is it that I put the watch down, but I still maintained this accelerated time bit." Pants on. Now for the shirt.

"Oh. Oh. Well, you see, it actually creates a field around you, taking the shape of your body. It's like as tight as latex, completely invisible. Kind of electro-magnetic, as it were." Bingo. Get him talking about his work, and he'd forget about the women. I reached down to pick her up and put her dress back on.

"But that doesn't change the fact you were trying to fuck my woman!"

"I wasn't trying to fuck her. Calm down." Well, almost forget about the women. An idle thought crossed my brain. I hadn't gotten to sample Naomi yet.

"What the hell do you call it then? You know, I almost liked you."

"Hey, no need to get mean about it." Her dress was back on, and we both fumbled with putting her back in position. Technically speaking, he'd seen her in that position more recently than I had.

"Well, dammit. I'll have to show you another function of this device. You can become invisible. Not silent, but invisible. Basically, the energy field around you that's making you speed up can also be used to blend in with the surrounding area."

Lloyd looked at me sideways and his hand strayed up to that coat pocket on his chest. I almost didn't want to find out what was in that thing. "I'm still pissed at you, but I can't wait to see this bitch's reaction." He reached for yet another coat pocket. "Now, put your stuff in the closet, this is going to be entertaining."

He pulled out his stopwatch and a camera. "Now, to go invisible, simply hold down both buttons together." I could imagine the uses the Department of Defense could use with such things. They must be worth billions of dollars. I gulped as I thought of this.

I pressed both buttons. I blinked out, just as Lloyd did. I then resumed normal time.

A moment passed as Deborah re-oriented herself from having her dress dropped to now being tied back up. Lacey shifted a moment, having been slightly out of place. Naomi tried to figure out how the door closed and how she'd been knocked backward three feet.

"Omifuckinggod. OWWW!" Deborah shrieked. Deborah's hands flew to her chest as the nerve endings in her nipples kicked in. She flew out of the chair. And one of her hands flew to her left ass cheek. "What the fuck, man? I feel like someone's stabbed me in the chest and ass. OW!"

Naomi ran into the room. "What's going on?" Lacey stood up as well. She looked so tiny next to Naomi.

"I.. I need to go to the bathroom." She ran off and I sensed Lloyd following her, so I followed him. She hadn't quite shut the door, so I could see right through Lloyd. Deborah yanked up her skirt and looked in the mirror at her tattoo- reddened ass.

"T...U....L...S." Pause. "Slut?!" She said incredulously. "How in the .. what in the hell..."Then still feeling the shooting pains in her chest, she undid the strings of her dress and pulled them down. Her eyes grew round as saucers and her jaw dropped when she saw the huge rings in her nipples.

She reached up to pull them out, but I'd screwed them on extremely tight and there's a flash soldering solution that I added to make sure they were on securely. Plus, as soon as she barely touched them she shrieked in pain again. She attempted this several more times, before finally giving up. They'd obviously have to heal some before she could take them out.

"Is everything all right in there?" Lacey called out.

"No! You bitch, this is your house!" Deborah yelled over her shoulder.

"What the heck are you talking about?" Lacey said.

"Because, it's you I'm going to sue over this."

Still confused. "Over what??" Lacey said.

"Arrrgggh." She tied up the top of her dress and stormed out. I had to press hard against the wall so that she wouldn't touch me.

"Something's happened to me in your apartment." Her cheeks flushed as she said it.

"What? What are you talking about?"

Daughter of a senator actually show her breasts? I don't think so. "I.. I can't show you. But something did happen!" She stomped her foot, petulantly.

The other two women had no idea what to think of this. Both looked completely at a loss. Their friend had turned into a little girl, apparently. Or maybe she was always that way.

"You're going to have to do a bit more than that. Why did you run to the lavatory and scream your bloody head off?" Naomi asked. She had a delightful British accent. Lavatory?

Deborah still cupped her breasts, obviously in pain. And hiding those ridiculous nipple rings. "Okay. This is freaky, but I have a tattoo on my rear."

"So? Lots of people do." Lacey said.

"You idiot! I never had one before like two minutes ago!" Deborah said.

I decided to have a little fun here, at Deborah's expense. Especially since she was being rude to Lacey.

I'll not bore you with the details, but you'll see the effects of what I did.

Deborah yelped and turned around, as if someone were behind her (I wasn't. At least not then.) She tried to discreetly lower one hand and pull her thong out of her butt-crack.

"Do you have a fucking ghost in your house? What the hell is going on, you freak?" Deborah screamed at Lacey.

Time for a bit more fun, eh? Pun intended. I went to see if Lacey had a few "toys."

Deborah gasped and fell forward. She reached behind her and fiddled with something, as Naomi and Lacey looked on, completely confused. Deborah's face turned seven shades of red as she finally pulled a dildo out of her ass, and she tried to slide into a chair to hide it behind her.

Unfortunately for Deborah, Lacey and Naomi saw what she tried to hide. They both doubled over laughing. "What the hell do you have a dildo in your ass for? How long as it been there?"

Lacey stopped short when she realized it was her own dildo, though she still snickered several times.

"Okay, that's enough. I'm leaving. This is total bullshit." Deborah stood up, trying to stare down her nose at Lacey.

I felt Lloyd nudge me with his elbow, so I kicked in the watch again. I turned off the invisible field.

"Enjoy a few tricks, did you?" Lloyd said as he came into view and the girls had frozen.

"I sure did, what did ya think?"

"Not bad. Looks like something I would have done." He grinned. "Now, I want a tattoo for Naomi as well. You did a good job on Deborah."

Lloyd walked over to Deborah and lifted her dress to admire my handiwork. He grabbed her right ass cheek repeatedly while staring at her left, where the tattoo was. "Oh yeah, daddy's gonna love this. It gets better, Todd. Watch this."

Lloyd pulled out a weird looking shot. It looked like a pen of sorts. He gripped it in his hand and then jabbed it into Deborah's ass. "Ever heard of a truth serum? Well, this works in reverse."

"You say nothing but lies?" I asked sarcastically.

"No, it makes everything you hear sound as truth. You believe every word you hear. And it stays that way."

I let that sink in for a few minutes as I starting taking off Naomi's dress. She had SUCH a voluptuous body. These girls were like the three bears, one real tiny, one just right and one large. But Naomi had such perfect proportions. It was like having a huge helping of your favorite food. There can never be too much. I had to correct my estimate, she had to have 38E's. And her hips were 38's if they were an inch, but she didn't look an ounce overweight. Just picture a bettered endowed Claudia Schiffer.

Wait a second. "Are you saying that's some kind of control serum?"

"Yep." Then Lloyd leaned over and started whispering in Deborah's ear. It sounded like he was repeating himself. I continued working on Naomi.

"Okay. Finished. What do you want done with her?"

I had her on her stomach, figuring he'd want another ass tattoo. You'd be amazed at how popular those things are.

"An appropriately sized nose-ring and let's brand her hip."

"Brand? Don't think I have any irons." I said sardonically.

"Oh, you know, make it look like a brand. Put "Property of"... hmm. What do you think, we make her a school mascot somewhere? At a university? Or make her a porno queen?"

I looked askance. "Huh? What did she do to you?" I shook my head.

"She was telling Lacey not to go out with me! Said she was too good for me. Well, fuck her, man. Who cares if she was Miss London."

"If you insist..." I muttered under my breath.

"What?" he asked, not hearing me.

"Nothing. What's Lacey's last name?"

"What? Oh, you want to make her Lacey's property? No dice. I want the bitch outta this state. Put 'Property of Florida State University' and make it look like a brand. Right on her left hip, just below the waist. Pretty much any bikini she'd wear would show it. Then I'll fix her."

I shook my head, but set to work. After about thirty minutes, he seemed to be done with Deborah and then came over and jabbed Naomi in the ass as well. He started whispering in her ear.

Lloyd finished before I did and he went over and sat on the couch next to Lacey. He wrapped his arm around her like they were watching TV as opposed to him watching me tattoo a girl's hip while time stood still. He looked back and forth between Lacey and me. The looks were dark, glaring. I was trying to concentrate and I'd had people watch me work when I'm in the shop, but I always felt they were watching my work, not just watching me!

I didn't like the thought of what was going to happen to Naomi, just because this fruitcake was offended she advised Lacey not to go out with him. All things being equal, I couldn't blame her.

All things considered, at least the tattoo was pretty. As I finished up and started putting Naomi's dress back on, he said, "We'll start and stop the time again. I can't wait to see the reaction now. I think you'll like it as well." He paused again, debating whether he should continue.

"You've been fair, I suppose, but I hope you realize, I'm going to have to use this truth serum on you."

"What, what are you saying?" I felt the blood rush to my head.

"Well, think about it, it's for your own protection. If you don't know about any of this, you won't crave it and you won't have to worry about some government agents showing up on your doorstep."

"Yeah, sure. And how do I know you won't fuck with me, since you thought I was doing your girlfriend?" I said.

"She's not my girlfriend. And that's a risk I'm willing to take." He gave me an evil smile. "Okay, we read to decelerate? And don't any funny stuff, this isn't my entire bag of tricks you know."

He hit the two buttons and decelerated. I thought about my options. I could run out of there right now, but he knew where I worked. I'd have to give up my entire life and then live on the run as the entire federal government would start looking for me. But I honestly didn't trust this sonofabitch. Look what he was going to do to these two women.

Well, technically, I didn't know what he was going to do, and I didn't know if that serum crap worked. Only one way to find out.

I put the invisibility field up and I slowed time down. Now it was Naomi's turn to scream out in shock and pain. I put some ointment on it, it shouldn't have hurt that much! Sheesh.

"Omigod! What the hell is happening in here, Lacey?" Naomi hiked her skirt right there and looked down at the tattoo. She couldn't read it very well, so she unabashedly showed Lacey, who raised her eyebrows at the expanse of leg.

Deborah had continued on her way out of the door, after her outburst about the whole thing being bullshit. But, before she reached the door, she turned right back around and headed for Naomi.

Lacey seemed to take her time answering, enjoying the site of Naomi. "It says, Property of Florida State University, Naomi."

Naomi blinked several times. Then she muttered something. "I... I.. I'm the school mascot, Lacey." And then she looked at the ceiling, at the floor, trying to figure out what just made her say that. And she still hadn't put down her dress.

Lacey screwed up her face, thinking her friend had just lost her mind. Deborah stood there, blinking oddly, wondering why she wasn't in the hallway outside of the doorway. "Deborah, did you say you had a tattoo as well?"

"Yes." She grumbled, but then turned around and hiked her dress. The room was graced with another shot of her emerald green thong and thigh-highs.

And then Naomi and Lacey burst out laughing. "Slut? Slut!?" Lacey croaked out. "You're the biggest prude I know! You won't even show us what happened to your chest that you're so freaked out about."

Something happened to Deborah though. While she'd been just as haughty about leaving before she showed her tattoo, after she had, she'd been embarrassed. But then, after Lacey read her tattoo something came over her. Her face softened. She slid her hand along Lacey's arm and licked her lips.

The bitch was coming on to her! And Lacey could tell.

"Uh, what are you doing Deborah?"

"Did you say you wanted to see my chest, Lacey?" Deborah asked, all innocence. She looked a bit confused, but there was no mistaking the desire in her voice.

Lacey looked skeptical. "Uh, sure, Deb - actually, can I call you Deb?"

Deborah growled slightly, as she started untying the laces to her dress. "Sure, Lacey." She said through gritted teeth.

Deborah pulled down the front of her dress, trying to look seductive. She sent sidelong hateful glances in Naomi's direction. Whatever had affected Deborah's opinion of Lacey had obviously not affected Naomi. Finally, her pierced nipples popped out.

"Oh. My. God." Lacey said.

Naomi burst out laughing again. "Niiiiicccceeeee. Deb, those are so tasteful!" In spite of herself, Deborah thrust her chest out and beamed with pride. I couldn't help but notice the change in her reaction. Lloyd's serum was working.

Lacey noticed it too. Deborah's chest was heaving and she was turning her said from side to side, slowly, her eyes never leaving Lacey's. Deborah seemed to be having a hard time keeping her hands to herself as she touched Lacey's arms several times.

Finally, Deborah could stand it no more as she leaned forward, her new rings dangling in Lacey's face as she whispered in her ear. Lacey's eyes grew round, and she said, "Really! I had no idea, Deb. But I'm not a lesbian." She said sweetly, as she pushed Deborah gently away.

"Please. Please! I'll do any-" She looked around, desperately, wishing Naomi wasn't there to witness what she was doing. "Look. I NEED you, now. Please. Do you want me to eat you? I will."

Then a strange look passed over Lacey's face. Possibly that same look that's crossed my own - power. She realized she could make Deborah do anything.

"You'd kiss Naomi?"

"Hey now, don't bring me into this. I am most certainly not a lesbian, my American friend." Naomi said.

"Yes, if you wanted me to." Deborah said. She looked like she couldn't believe she was saying nor could she believe to what level she'd sunk so quickly.

"You'd lick my asshole?" Lacey said. She didn't look quite as scrumptious any longer.

"Of course." Deborah said, licking her lips

"Stand up, Debbie." Deborah gritted her teeth, but stood up.

"Remove your dress." She did so.

"Now, tug on your new nipple rings, daughter of a senator." Lacey's face had almost taken on that same haughtiness that so possessed Deborah. She waited patiently, for several minutes while Deborah continued to tug on the rings. After a minute or so, Deborah started gyrating her hips like a topless dancer.

"Go kiss Naomi's ass, Deb." Lacey said.

Naomi shrugged. "I can hang with that. She's always been so nasty anyway." She turned and faced the wall as Deborah approached.

Deborah got down on her knees, but could barely reach Naomi's rear. She had to stretch way up. And she gave it a peck and stood up to walk back towards, Lacey.

"Nope, gonna have to do better than that. Give it some real loving."

"Laaacceeeyyy... " she whined. "It's you I want."

I felt that nudge in my elbow again. I immediately hit the buttons to speed up time. I didn't want to give Lloyd any more time in accelerated time than I had to. I still hadn't figured out what I was going to do, but I damn sure knew I wasn't going to trust him with that serum.

If I had to give up the tattoo shop, so be it, but I wasn't going to be turned into a bisexual or a mindless love slave. Or worse.

"Whoah. What the hell happened to Lacey?"

Maybe it's my personality type. I can read people really well. Maybe Lloyd is just an anti-social prick, I don't know. But this all seemed pretty obvious to me.

"When you give someone that kind of power, it's easy to abuse." As I said this, I walked over to Naomi, who still had her dress up around her waist. I gave her a good smack on the ass for emphasis.

Lloyd looked thoughtful for a moment. Then he shrugged it off. "Okay, ready for the next piercing?"

I blinked once. Twice. What an idiot. Does he think nothing of what this is doing to him? Apparently not. I wonder how long he'd been using these devices.

"Sure, Lloyd. The nose ring for Naomi, right?"

"Right. I want to see this power thing affect Lacey some more. Maybe she'll need a piercing after all." He nodded sagely.

I turned Naomi around and took her dress off. I still couldn't believe the body on her. It's like Lacey's body accented all the right places - hips and breasts, to give her the classic hourglass figure and then topped it off with a delightful face. Naomi was given an Olympian's body.

For the hell of it, I spread Naomi out in a classic 'spread eagle' with her back to the wall. Then I took out the ring, made the puncture through her septum and inserted the ring. It took all of two minutes. Again, I soldered it so that it would take more than a little tugging to get it out. I had the feeling that Lloyd made sure she wouldn't be taking it out. For kicks, I attached a little bell to it.

"Nice touch!" Lloyd stood right behind me. I jumped, startled.

"Thanks." I covered up my nervousness by tinkling the bell. Apparently the field stretched out enough for me to hear the bell.

"Alright, let's do this. I have a little test for Lacey, though." He walked over to Lacey, turned her over and hiked up her skirt. Then he jabbed her with the pen-needle thing and spent a few minutes speaking in her ear. He repeated the process with Naomi.

"Okay. Let's go."

I hit the buttons to go invisible then I slowed down time.

Naomi screamed. She looked down and realized she was completely naked, except for her shoes. She'd worn nothing under the dress at all. Lacey looked at her eyes wide, apparently wondering how she'd teleported across the room. She must have seen the nose ring as well, as she shook her head slowly back and forth.

Deborah took it more stoically, enjoying the fact that someone else was getting harassed for a change.

"What the hell?" Naomi said. But she didn't move her arms away from the wall. Must have been more of Lloyd's doing. She looked at her arms and they didn't appear to be tied to the wall, but she couldn't move them.

Lacey stood up, still shaking her head and sauntered over to her. Deborah hovered around, putting a hand on Lacey as she walked by. Naomi was twitching her nose and making the bell jingle. She winced and crossed her eyes, trying to get a good look at it.

"Naomi, my dear, you do look a site. Of course, I'm rather curious what's going on here. I think I'm beginning to have a clue..."

"Would you help me? What's going on? One second I was getting my ass kissed by Debbie and the next I'm tied to this wall."

"You don't look tied to me." Lacey said. But she started looking around at empty spaces.

"What's in my nose? It huurrrtts." Naomi whined. Lacey looked around the room.

Lacey started waving her arms. She'd found us out. Lloyd had said she was an assistant up there where he works, and she must know about the devices, or something like them. I hit the buttons on my stopwatch.

I couldn't see Lloyd, but I probably had enough time to find him. There was no way I was going to let him get the jump on me. If I left now, I could probably be okay. Who knows, I'd probably have to leave the country. This was bad. This was very bad. But I had a billion dollar piece of hardware in my pocket and I wasn't going to get mind-fucked, brain-wiped or killed over it.

But one thing I HAD to have was that damn pen of Lloyd's. If I used it on him, I'd have a shot at surviving this thing.

I started waving my hands around the room, finally locating Lloyd in the corner. I grabbed the shot-pen out of his pocket as well as his wallet. I wanted to see if I could find where he worked. I left the other watch with him. I had no idea what would happen if I took it away from him while he had that invisible field around him, but I had no wish to kill him. He hadn't done anything to me yet. I was going just on premonition and assumptions.

I found a few other gadgets in Lloyd's pockets that I just stuffed into my bag. I'd have to figure them out later.

I then stuck the needle in Lloyd's ass. Maybe the arm would be easier, but I wasn't going to risk it. Then, I whispered sweet nothings in his ear. I saw him repeat things four times to the girls, so I did the same to him.

"No one was with you tonight." Times four. "You want to stop using the stopwatch." Times four. "You don't think the stopwatch technology will work." Times four. I figured I could go for broke. "If it's safe for you to do, you'll make sure the project tanks." Time four. "You have no idea how Naomi, Lacey and Deborah got their tattoos or the piercings."

I honestly didn't know how long it would be till he pressed the button on his watch. I could tell he had his hand on it, as he usually did. One twitch of his fingers and I'd be screwed.

I went over to Lacey. I shot her in the ass with the needle.

"You're going to go to the 7/11 on Myrtle and Elm at 12:54 am tomorrow morning." Times four. That should give me about a day to figure things out. "You're going to be amicable and agreeable to the gentleman you meet at the 7/11." Times four. "You won't bring anyone with you and you will be absolutely truthful to that man you meet there." Times four.

I had no wish to change her personality. I think I was going to like her a lot as she was.

I then jabbed the needle into Naomi's ass.

"You will not be the FSU Mascot and you will not fuck any of the members of the sports teams any time they ask you to." Times four. I told you, Lloyd was getting pretty sick.

I wasn't quite clear on what the rest of the Lloyd's instructions were. I know he said something to Deborah about having to leave the nipple rings in. Ditto on the nose ring for Naomi. Don't know how she was going to live that one down. And with a bell on it! But, as I said, it was my art and I liked it. Her problem.

I figured Deborah probably deserved whatever was going to happen to her. Shouldn't have been such a bitch. From what I could tell, any time anyone said the word "Slut" she'd do whatever she had to for whoever said the word to her, I assume until she successfully consummated the short-term relationship.

I grabbed my bag and got the hell out of there. I didn't even bother with the elevator, I just took the stairs down. I kept my invisibility on. I walked out of the building and then kept walking for about another couple of miles. I needed to get out of any kind of radius where Lloyd might catch me.

Finally, at about 2am, I was walking down the strip of the town I lived in Missouri and I realized I could go anywhere - such as the 'strip' in Vegas. I could make some cash, get entertained, and I could move on from there.

But first, a hotel room. Easy enough. I walked into a motor lodge, took a key from behind the counter, let myself in my room. Turned off the invisibility (who knows what effect that has on someone?) turned off the hyper-acceleration. Didn't even bother with turning on a light. Hit the sack.