Master PC: the Urge for Self- Loving
By Aphotic
Disclaimers: If you're under 18, leave now! This story ain't for the faint of
heart. Go find Disney. Com or something.
My thanks to:
J R Parz, the inventor of the Master PC universe, one of the better class of
MC stories.
My heartfelt appreciation to J R D author of the magnetically compelling
Witch Chronicles series.
Xanthos Pendragon , his Master PC Eclectic's Edition reminded me of the
consequences of messing about with others' actions and how it troubles
the conscience of the self-respecting, not to mention frequent mentions in
this little yarn.
Bill Hart, creator of the Spells R Us and it's Wizard, master of the fine
print,
Robert Heinlein for writing such wonderful classics as Stranger in a
Strange Land, and
finally, all of you out there who read these stories..
If you want to repost this story in a free place, go right ahead, just drop me
a line at
[email protected] . If you want to repost this in a
paysite, DEFINITELY send me a message, or I'll have the Doom Dragons
eat your face. Nice people are okay. Mean people that try and get stuff
done are cool. Mean people who don't give a shit about anyone else suck.
And now, on with the story!
As best I can recall now, the whole life-changing incident occurred
in springtime. You'll have to forgive my blurred memory. At this distance,
it becomes difficult to remember exact dates. Anyway, on with the whole
sordid story. So, let me just tell my story, and if you want to alter anything
to make it fit together better, be my guest. I'd be the last guy on the planet
to insist on accuracy if it's lack makes a better story.
It was an average spring morning. The temperature was
somewhere in the high sixties, a bit overcast. Since I had the day off work,
I decided to spend the day surfing the 'Net.
A few bits of junk e-mail, nothing worth even a first look.
Anything in newsgroups? Nope, nothing.
Let's try some of the story archives? Ahh, here we go. A new Master PC
story. Download that. Nothing new from J R D. Oh well. J R Parz got
anything? Yup, here we go. Nothing else interesting. Must be a slow day.
I logged off the 'Net, opened up MS Word, and started reading.
The new Master PC story wasn't all that interesting, just the usual 'geek
gets ultimate power, geek uses ultimate power to enslave most of the
distaff gender'. How dull.
J R Parz, however, never fails to entertain. Sometimes it's sad
seeing what some people do with such a good story idea. Too bad the
Master PC doesn't exist. Or does it, and I'm just not finding it?
What the hell, it's not like I've got anything better to do today. I logged
back onto the 'Net, and started cruising the search engine sites. Entering
'Master PC' gets me a few hits, but even adding in 'Xanthos Pendragon'
and a few other items doesn't give me jack. OK, then, time to take off the
kid gloves. I went back to the search engines, but I found the occult ones a
much better resource. Most of them only were reviews of various Master
PC stories, but a few others were more enlightening. Wait a sec, some of
these posts have attached files. Let's see?..
Paydirt! "Master. Exe!" Download that sucker now! As the
computer downloads the file, I rub my hands in anticipation. "Wait a
sec? If Master PC DOES exist, what're the chances that some of those
stories are real? Wha? Xanthos! His backtrack-and-erase add on must
have taken effect. So Master PC is limited to those people that had the file
before his wipe. Shit!" I was pissed. Xan's actions I approved of in broad
terms, 'cause who knew what'd happen if a bunch of repressed computer
geeks got a hold of god-like power, but when it came to myself, I thought I
was smart enough and selfish enough not to get stupid with it. I pulled up
Xanthos' story, and reread the initial few chapters. Aha! He put a back
door on the program just in case he had to reload the thing! Now all I have
to do is guess what he'd have made the password?
Hell, how'm I to know what he chose? I ruminated for a while, the
computer having finally finished downloading. I knew enough
programming to know that Xan's virus wouldn't take effect until the
program had been unzipped and a set number of failed passwords was
entered. If he were really smart, he'd have nested the commands, and used
something simple so that if one of his wives had to reload the program,
they wouldn't have to work too hard.
"Lessee, what would I use if I were paranoid, but wanting to cover
my ass at the same time?"
I unzipped Master. Exe while I thought. The Install Wizard
window popped up, and I entered the file path I wanted. I lit a cigarette
while I waited, then decided that I had nothing to lose. I tried the first
thing that came to mind. When the Master Control Console opened up, a
smaller window for password entry popped up. I typed in "Xanthos
Pendragon needs the Master PC". No dice. Second try, probably 2 of 3
chances I'd get. Shit! Better make this good! "I need the Master PC!"
Failure. What the hell, if it worked, I'd never need to remember it again,
and if it failed, I'd forget all about Master PC being real. "Xanthos
Pendragon's backdoor." Success!!
I'd done it! I now had the reality-warping, body-altering, mind-
controlling program at my beck and call. First things first, though, that
nasty little password has to go!
"Please enter User's Name." 'Jason'
"Welcome to the Master PC control center. You now have access
to the Master PC, and can act as a god to all those around you!"
Good, I'd hate to think I went through all that work for some damn
registry cleaner or something.
"Enter Subject's Name." 'Jason *******' The view window on the
right of the Control console now had the oddly-familiar image of my body,
wearing the shorts and T-shirt I had on, spinning on a wire-frame globe.
Under the Intelligence heading, the original reading was "Genius level
intelligence" with a bar extending from room-temperature intellect all the
way past Einstein. I decided on just a simple upgrade, to Mega-Genius.
The elapsed time was 10 seconds, a decent interval while I pondered if
this was really such a good idea. 10 seconds later, I agreed with my initial
impulse. My mind was now much broader in scope, with an enhanced
memory, and much faster processing speed. Now that I had the
brainpower to accomplish the feats, I decided that my first order of
business was to construct for myself an override for the Master PC. I
didn't want just anyone to be able to use it to ruin all my fun.
I decided to follow Xanthos' lead and input a few password
controls over my person, to prevent anyone from altering me with this or
any other computer with the Master. However, I knew (from my own
recent escapade) that it was possible for someone with enough
information on me to reconstruct my thought processes to get the
password. Better to have too much protection than to risk my ass on
getting fried by arrogance. I gave myself complete understanding of
current state-of-the-art electronics, and after a little thought on the matter,
decided to construct a micro EMP for my person. Anyone trying to
overwrite my own alterations with Master PC would have to get past the
EMP to do it. Not bad, and if I happened to be close enough, I could short
out the computer running the program. Now, though, I had the diagram in
my head, but no materials with which to make it, and less in the way of
funds for it. Hell!
Wait a second! Master PC! I could use it to? Typing rapidly, I
gave myself the ability to rearrange all non-living matter that I touched
into other material of my choice. Great! Problem solved! "Why bother
with body-shaping when I've got the Master?" I mused aloud. I left my
bedroom and went out into my backyard. I gathered up a few chunks of
wood, since I had it to spare. A visualization and touch later, I had the
materials I needed. It was the work of a few hours to make the micro
EMP, but I knew it was well spent. With a sigh of relief, and feeling a
little more secure in my power, I went back inside and proceeded to start
playing with the Master. A few tweaks here and there, mostly to immunize
myself against diseases and with regeneration to take care of injuries.
Also, from my readings on the matter, I knew that women had something
like 40 percent more in the sensory nerves department than men, making
them much more susceptible to touch and sensation. What the hell. I
added in those as well. When that little change went through, I realized
why women didn't have to be visually oriented. Why should they, when
they can get such a charge out of the fabric of their clothes? No wonder
the fabrics marketed to women cost so much, it was a guaranteed sale! An
application of my new power over matter changed the nubby cotton I was
wearing into silk, but without changing it's appearance. Much better!
Some of my more traditional changes also registered their
approval. My new, thicker dick stirred. I hadn't added anything to it's
length, just it's width. I was now 40 percent thicker, no longer a pencil
dick. As it continued to rub against my silk underwear, I started to get
hard. I thought for a moment about just letting it happen, but I was too
interested in playing with the computer. A twitch of mental muscle, and
my half-erect member subsided into dormancy. Time enough for games
later. After another twenty minutes and a few changes later, mostly to
make my other changes not noticeable to anyone that knew me before and
to keep anyone else from messing around with my computer, I was
starting to run down on energy. My new brainpower told me that the
energy to rearrange matter had to come from somewhere, and the best
source for that was me. I went back upstairs and raided the kitchen,
making off with a few cans of tuna fish and some chips, while I ordered 3
pizzas from a nearby pizza place. I transmuted a few extra socks into some
cash, and while I waited for the delivery guy to get there with the food, I
reread some of my fave stories from the 'Net, gathering more ideas.
Downloading the entire Master PC program into my head was interesting,
but not interesting enough for me to monkey with my mind any more. A
better idea suggested itself from the other extreme of my stories. Bill
Hart's Spells-R-Us Wizard's image floated around my brain for a little
while, seeming to indicate my subconscious' interest in the idea. I decided
to try it. I input the command 'Give to me all of the magic usable by the
Wizard of Spells-R-Us and the knowledge to make the magic work." I sat
back in anticipation. A shift in my mind came rapidly, filling up my
enlarged memory to the brim. "No wonder Wizards use spellbooks. Too
much here to risk forgetting." I transmuted a pair of shoes into a large
leather-bound tome, and with the aid of a spell in my head, I transmitted
all of my spells into the book. I had to transmute more stuff into books to
hold all the spells, there were SO many of them!
A knock at the door, and my dog's barking told me that the pizza
delivery guy was here. I edged past Savage, and slid out the door. The
pizza guy took my transmuted money without a second glance, along with
a large tip for getting here early. I waited till he was back in his car, then
slipped back into the house, where the dog was waiting. Between the two
of us, we polished off all three pies, and I turned the boxes into a long
cylinder of balsa wood, since I'd probably need to material for something
eventually. Besides which, I didn't feel like answering any questions from
my parents on where I'd managed to get the cash for pizza (Yes, I know,
what kind of guy lives at home when he's an adult? Only a geek.) Besides
which, with Master PC and my new talents to work with, I should have the
whole matter under control shortly, so why make more work for myself?
Come to that, I thought about the concerns of the federal government, the
IRS, and other various political entities, not to mention the other users of
Master PC. If I wanted to avoid notice, I should do something not-too-
remarkable about my money problems. My concerns were valid, as I
couldn't continue to live off my parents forever, but I was now even less
inclined to work for a living. All of my material needs could be seen to by
virtue of my matter-rearrangement abilities, and who knew what I was
capable of with my new spells?
Okay, what was the easiest way to get some money to assuage my
worldly financial needs while according the least attention to my personal
life? A little thought clarified the matter. I needed a job. But not one as an
executive, I lacked the requisite experience, not to mention the toadying
skills usually prerequisite with such a job. Also, without a job, I was
unlikely to leave the house. Big problem. Okay, now, how do I get a job
that lets me live on my own, while not requiring me to either alter
someone's mind with the Master or being a bootlicker? Back to the
bookstore, I guess. But that job was boring as hell, not to mention
stressful?. Hold the phone! What if I had a duplicate? Someone else to
work while I played, and if I felt the need to do something ordinary, I
could switch places with him! Sounds great to me! A little fiddling with
the Master proved fruitless, about all I could do with that was alter
someone else to be my duplicate. Boring, not to mention cruel. Why
involve someone else, their family, and anyone else that was watching?
Maybe the Wizard's spells could help out. I searched through my memory,
and found just what I needed. It was possible, via a simple Clone spell, to
make an exact duplicate of myself with just a little semen, blood, and hair.
I pulled the hair, and nicked my arm with my pocket knife to get the
blood. Then all I needed was the semen. I smiled to myself as I released
the controls I'd imposed on my dick.
With my enhanced nervous system and a well-practiced hand, I
went to work. A few minutes work (and a little lube) later, I had the semen
I required. Unfortunately, the dog picked that minute to start barking at
my mother's car, which had just pulled up in the driveway.
"Shit!" I yelled at the ceiling. A simple rearrangement of a couple
of cigarette butts yielded a small corked test tube, into which I scraped my
seed. "Guess this'll have to wait." I put the tube in my junk drawer and sat
down on my bed, picking up one of my new spell books to kill the time till
dinner. My mom came in, I yelled that I was home, and so proceeded a
normal evening. I went upstairs an hour or so later, when Paul, my
stepdad, yelled out that dinner was ready. Over the meal, my folks asked if
I had had any luck with my job seeking, and I replied that I had a few
leads, some stuff I was going to work on the next morning. They wished
me luck, and I thanked them. No stupid revenge on my folks, hopefully I'd
manage to steer around the other distasteful aspects of the average Master
PC user as well as I had this one. After dinner, we watched the usual
Tuesday night TV, dateline and so forth. After an evening of this, I was
anxious to get back to my tinkering. I waited till they went to bed, and
went back to work.
"Okay, now, what next?" I muttered to myself as I
collected my materials. Blood, hair, and seed. What else did I need for this
spell? Enough water to comprise a human body. Well, I wasn't going to
spend the night hauling water in buckets into my bedroom. The bathtub
would have to do. A like amount of at least once-living matter. Was I
going to have to go digging in graveyards like some bargain-basement
Frankenstein? No, wait, the wood in the back yard! Once-living, all right!
The spell's description said it would take a few hours to complete, so I'd
better get to work, since I'd need the darkness for the spell to work at all.
A few simple keystrokes with Master PC, and my folks would sleep till
morning, and my brother and sister wouldn't come home till after sunrise.
Perfect!
Hours later??
I sat on the toilet, staring into the bathtub at what once had been a
pile of wood with a smattering of semen, hair, and blood. Staring back at
me was my clone, down to the pierced ears and dyed hair.
"Holy shit." We said in stereo. When we heard the other speaking
in synch, we both laughed.
"Hiya Jason." I said.
"Hi Jay." He replied. He snickered again. "Did you remember to
bring me any clothes?"
"Sorry, I forgot. Here." I stuck my hand into the water still
surrounding him and shaped him a pair of shorts and T-shirt like I had on.
"Better?"
"Much. Not that I mind seeing me naked, but I don't think we need
to get into a bad habit."
"Good point. You want I should give you a minute alone?" I was
conscious of my own clothed state, and wanted to give him any privacy he
required.
"Please, if you don't mind." I stood and left him, standing out in
the hallway. A peek at my wristwatch told me that it was almost 6 am.
"Shit! I almost forgot, Paul's going to need to get up." I turned and
knocked on the bathroom door.
"Jay! Better get a move on, Paul's going to be getting up soon!"
"Oh fuck. I forgot." He opened the door and we both went back
down to the basement. "Shit, this could get complicated real quick."
"You said it, dude." We heard the master bedroom door open, and
someone coming out. Jay looked at me for a minute, then pointed at the
computer. My alterations to it had made it impossible for anyone else but
me to touch it, but he WAS me! I nodded, trusting him implicitly, and
followed him over to the desk. He typed in under Command:? 'Give me
the power to mentally communicate with my clone'.
Geez, I'd forgotten that the Clone spell would have cloned me as I
currently was, post-Master PC alterations! He had my enhanced
intelligence, and all of the other changes too!
As the command kicked in, I felt an extra sense unfolding inside
my head. I reached out with it towards Jay, and made contact.
"Damn, that worked even better than I thought!"
"Don't you mean WE thought?"
"True. Now what? We're two of the most powerful beings on this
planet, and we're more alike than identical twins!"
"Well, first things first. We'd better change my name, so that any
changes we make to one of us leaves the other alone."
"Good point. Any name you prefer?"
"Anything except Steven. I HATE that name."
"How about Peter?"
"Works for me."
I typed in 'Rename my clone Peter *******'. The command
separated us from each other, and I felt a little loss at this. Peter remarked
mentally that he felt the same, but that the command was for the best.
Also at his prompting, I removed his spell-casting ability, and his ability to
use the computer. When I asked him why, he simply replied, "Because
one of us with god-like power is enough. Besides which, I trust you. And if
I need anything done with the Master or with your spells, I can always
ask. It's too complicated and risky to have two of us running around." I
agreed, and entered the commands. He could no longer manipulate reality
with spells or the computer, but I made his alteration commands even
more complex and encrypted it with a mirror spell on the program.
While Paul was in the shower and unlikely to hear us, I started up
the CD player and took the opportunity to talk with Peter. "So, how do
you feel?" I asked.
"Just like you, you dope!" he said with a smile.
"Dumb question, I know, but still, I had to ask." Both of us seemed
to regard mental communication as something to used only when other
methods didn't work. "Got any suggestions as to how we avoid notice till
we get out of this house?"
"Well, we could use Master PC to keep them from noticing that
we're twins, just ignore whichever of us comes into the room second or
whichever of us they don't expect to see there."
"Good call. We'll use that one." I typed, and so it was done.
Anyone that was looking or expecting to see me would only see one of us
at a time, and the other would be ignored, completely invisible or
unnoticeable. I added in a second command, making it so that when we
spoke to each other, no one would hear anything unusual or suspect us of
talking to ourself(ves). Peter approved of this addition, and made an
additional one. " Cast a spell over us so that if we're together, and two
people are looking for each of us, they'll only speak to one of us." I did so,
and so we avoided a small hole in my programming logic.
"Groovy. Now we can talk without suspicion. Although we'll have
to avoid being together at a party or anything, just to avoid confusion." I
smiled, pleased with myself. I looked at my twin, unable to help my
insatiable curiosity. I'd always been too prying for my own good. I studied
his form, mirror to my own. All I'd done with Master PC was to slightly
tone up what muscles I had, not wanting or liking a muscle-bound frame.
We were both sleek without being scrawny, and just muscular enough to
convey power without the overload of too many hormones. I reached out
and started rubbing his chest, causing both of us to shudder.
"Don't do that! You know neither of us is gay!" he growled at me.
" I know, I just wanted to see my? our reaction." I replied. Then, I
had a brainstorm. Smiling evilly, I pulled one of my spell books off the
floor where I'd left them, and started to browse. I could feel his
suspicions, and heard his mental knocking on my mind, but I shook my
head and kept reading. Finally, I found what I was looking for. For those
of you who've never read the stories, the specialty of the Spells-R-Us is
gender changing spells and artifacts. I'd found one of the Wizard's
temporary sex-change spells, and with a few words and gestures, I cast the
spell onto myself. With a rapid ballooning, my shirt was suddenly filled
with something besides just muscle and bone, now there were tits! My
hair, already long, was suddenly a lot longer, now down to my ankles! My
hips were much wider, and my previously non-existent butt was stretching
out my favorite pair of shorts. What I had failed to take into account,
however, were the effects I'd programmed into myself via Master PC. My
already-enhanced nerves were now quadrupled in frequency, to the point
where I was about to pass out from too much stimuli just from the clothes
I was wearing and the random breeze coming from the box fan in the
corner. I started shuddering in ecstasy, and through my fluttering eyelids I
saw Peter's face break into a grin with more than a little lust behind it.
The smirking little bastard rubbed his fingertips around the
neckline of my shirt, and I almost came right then and there. A little moan
escaped my lips, and Peter's grin got even nastier. He grabbed me around
the waist, sending even more paroxysms of sensation down my body as he
picked me up and put me down on the futon. With a pair of scissors he got
out of my desk, he started cutting the clothes off of me, but when I got my
scrambled wits together enough to shake my head he stopped and stared
quizzically at me. Apparently, he'd forgotten all about my abilities to
reshape matter, and also that he shared them. With a touch and an evil
smile of my own, I dissolved my clothes into oxygen molecules and
started squirming sensually on the futon. He got on at the other end of the
futon, and as he started crawling up to lay on top of me, I used my powers
again, so that he matched me in undress. He looked down at himself,
startled at the change, then sat back on his haunches to look me over. This
time, when I felt him prodding at my mind, I let him in.
"Dear god almighty, we would have made a gorgeous woman!"
"You really think so, Pete?"
"Hells yes, woman, haven't you seen yourself?of course you
haven't. Here." He recalled his power over matter quickly enough, and
shaped a mirror out of one of the throw pillows on the bed. He turned it to
face me, and my eyes widened in amazement. Instead of the stark black
hair I'd had as a man, my hair was back to it's natural chestnut brown, but
with some reddish highlights in it. My eyes weren't hazel, but instead
were a light brown, making a nice contrast with my darker hair. My face
was still the same overall, but softer, it's angles less harsh. My beard was
of course gone, and instead of the simple hoop earrings I now had slightly
dangling metal feathers in my ears. I recalled what I knew of the spell I'd
used; it would draw on an alternate universe, one where I'd been born a
girl, and would temporarily reshape my body into that one. The drawbacks
to the spell were that I couldn't use magic like this, and if my
programming logic was correct, I was unable to touch the computer as
well until the spell wore off. Mercifully, the spell itself would wear off in
two hours, so I decided not to waste what I had. I dissolved the mirror
back into a pillow, and let it drop to the floor. I spread my now-hairless
long legs to my lover, and he dove to his task with a will. With what he
knew to be my responses to arousal, he was quite easily able to eat me to
an orgasm.
His tongue laved my clit in arabesques of fleshly desire, leaving
me even more enflamed with lust. I bit down on my thumb and moaned in
approval. Ever so slowly, he edged his way back out of my snatch and
began nibbling gently on my inner thighs. I howled my approval, knowing
that noone would be able to tell that I was making noise at all since it was
with Peter. Apparently, my female counterpart in whatever universe she
was from had accessed the Master PC as well, because there were a few
additions that I'd not have thought of nor put into my own computer. As I
reached my peak, I apparently began exuding clouds of pheromones,
further inflaming my lover. Also, I had the ability to lactate with my lust-
increased bust. The milk was apparently the source of these pheromones,
because when I managed to spray Pete with my spray, he lost all interest
in tonguing me further, and to be honest, I forgot about it as well?
With a bestial growl, he crawled his way up my body, palming my
tits somewhat roughly on his way up. I squirmed in pain and pleasure at
this, and tried to kiss him, but I was rebuffed. Apparently in apology, one
of his hands snaked down to toy with my woman-flesh again. At this
point, I'd had enough foreplay. My new nervous system knew what it
wanted, and decided to take control of the situation. I reached out and
grabbed his dick, ever so gently maneuvering it into position. With a
gentleness I'd thought forgotten in him, Peter eased his cock into me,
pausing momentarily at my hymen. His girth stimulated me greatly, and
after the tearing pain of my deflowering, I started to slowly ease my way
further down his dick. My pleasure only increased as I slid down, and
from what I could see on his face, he was just as happy. In a haze of
pleasure, I recalled the sole sexual experience I'd had up to this point. I'd
been relatively old to lose my virginity, at nineteen, and my lover and I
weren't sexually compatible. Her idea of foreplay was to turn off the lights
and just lay there. Not one of the better times in my life, and I was just as
happy to have had it in this case, as I knew what Peter would find pleasing
in his lover. I clenched my inner muscles tightly, almost to the point of
pain, while coaxing him onto his back while I rode him. His hands slid up
my front, grazing my still-leaking tits on their way upwards. His fingers
intertwined with my hair, and he used his strength to firmly seat me on his
dick. We continued our mutual exploration for hours after that, but what
we found worked best was for me to be sitting on his lap, his cock firmly
lodged in my pussy while I fed him from my breast. That orgasm was best
of all, I think.
Afterwards, we'd curled up on the bed, with me being
spooned with him behind. Unfortunately, we were still in that position
while the spell wore off. I woke up after it happened, but I'd slept longer
than Pete, who woke up with his dick up against my back. The look on his
face was mortified, as he had morning wood at the time. I smiled, shook
my head, and got out of bed. "No need to apologize, Pete. When we fell
asleep, I was a woman, and now I'm a man. Physical reactions happen. No
shame." I felt a twinge of loss at my female form, but it was more from
curiosity satisfied than anything else. I got my shorts from the previous
day back on, and tossed Pete another pair. A glance at the clock told me
that I was unlikely to find anyone else still in the house, but I was still
cautious. I knew I'd need to get out of this house, particularly if my fervid
imaginings were to take form. I looked around the house, but even my
sister, who was on vacation at the time, was gone. I smiled, and booted up
my stepdad's computer, which had a better connection to the Internet than
my dial-up. On impulse, I raided the kitchen while it booted. I scarfed
down half a sandwich and soda, and immediately felt better. Must have
been from the magic and the matter-rearrangement.
I bellowed downstairs for Pete to come up and start hunting up
things on the Internet while I did some work with Master PC. With a little
effort, I refrained from teasing him about his blushes whenever he looked
at me. He asked me what he should be looking up, and I told him. "Look
for retail book stores. Any of them will be convenient, as long as they
have stores in other states." He shrugged and started searching for
openings. Back downstairs, I puttered around some more, remembering
that I'd need to stabilize Peter's body while I was at it. I wasn't sure if the
Clone spell would work forever, but better to be certain. I used Master PC
to lock his body in to it's current shape, no longer subject to magic, except
at his whim. Since I had the experience now to work with, I shaped my
last remaining shoe into a micro EMP for Peter to wear. While I'd
finished with the device, I started thinking about what had happened last
night; I'd gotten hold of Master PC, turned myself into a Wizard (or at
least the SUCCESSFUL apprentice of one), cloned myself with a spell,
changed my gender, and then back again. Holy shit, I'd been having an
eventful 24 hours.
Still, I found myself day dreaming again about my gender-change.
While I didn't want to alter things so severely as to be female full time, it
was something I'd keep in mind for the future. Maybe another clone, this
time in female form?. Still, such matters would have to wait a bit. First, I
needed a place of my own, or perhaps I should say OUR own. From
upstairs, Peter yelled out, "Jay, there's an opening for a caf? manager at a
book shop down in Lexington, Kentucky! You interested?" I pondered
momentarily. Lexington was far enough out of the area that no one I knew
was likely to just drop in on me uninvited. It'd be cheaper to live out
there, probably cheap enough that with some 'roommates' I could afford a
decent sized house. With a little money and a couple of months of
watching the market, I knew I could make a decent sized pile of money,
and enough accountants to manage it for me without having to get overly
involved. Following some advice I got out of a Robert Heinlein book, I
decided that I could have my clones working just long enough to get the
money we'd need, spend a year or so building up my fortune, then pay out
more in taxes than I got in income, and draw a fat rebate every year. Or I'd
figure out something with an accountant to where that's what happened.
Finally, I decided that we'd have to move out to Lexington, which was
going to take some doing, since I had almost no funds to begin with.
Monkeying with banks wasn't a prospect I found to be safe enough
to risk, so I started off small. I figured with a job, and some starter cash I'd
make, we could afford a cheap apartment in Lexington. I knew that in
amounts of less than 500 dollars most people would be reluctant to
contact a bank, so I'd produce the cash and convert it into postal money
orders. With those and a local bank account, getting a deposit and
apartment would be easy. If all else failed, though, I'd rewrite reality with
Master PC, although I was loathe to do so. Fortunately, via the Internet, I
was able to at least temporarily reserve us an appointment with a real
estate agent. The landlords in Kentucky must've been desperate for
business, because Phil, the manager I talked with, didn't even hesitate
when I said that my first, last and security deposit would have to be paid
in money orders or cash. And before you ask, I set a spell on all of this
cash to be destroyed with the next burn run when they were at the
Treasury Department. All of it would be absorbed into the electronic
system, only to appear as debits and credits. All in all, a fairly neat way to
avoid detection, I thought.
I ran the idea past Peter, and he ratified it, as I thought he would.
Now would come step one. We had to get out of this state. With Pete's
help and a few rolls of packing tape and some boxes, all of my/our stuff
was packed up. All of the essential stuff was compacted into enough
boxes that would fill a small U-Haul unit with the aid of a few helpful
spells. I called ahead and reserved us a U-Haul, and would pick it up in a
few days. Now all I had to do was break the news to my folks. When they
got home, I outlined my plan, including some fairly ingenious evasions.
So it was that we began our journey out of the DC area.
A few days later, on the road to Kentucky, Peter was finally
comfortable with being ignored, although it made it difficult for him to
avoid being stepped on or injured when we were around people that knew
me before. Since they were expecting to see me, that's usually who they
saw, with the result that Pete was often trampled, or had to jump aside to
avoid being hit. I tried to minimize it by avoiding people in the area, and
that probably helped to no end. I knew that to avoid confusion I'd have to
alter my commands slightly when we got to Kentucky, but I was in no
hurry. Finally, after a day on the road, we arrived in Lexington. After a
brief stop to get a hotel room for us to stay in, we went to meet Phil.
Phil was overjoyed to find someone looking for a house in the
depressed housing market in Lexington, so much so that he didn't even
bother to lie when we were looking at condos. I figured it would be a good
investment once I got the cash together, and with a little effort, that
wouldn't take too long.
"Well, gentlemen, this is the last one. Southern exposure
on three rooms including the kitchen, a building out in the middle of
nowhere with a view of the lake, and we'll even arrange to have it
repainted, if you'd like. What do you think?" By mutual agreement, Peter
did all of the talking. I wanted to do my best to remain as invisible as
possible.
"What's the cost? I mean, we can't afford to pay anything
beyond (x)." Pete enjoyed bartering, a surprising development of his
character. He'd already managed to get Phil off the topic of full-blown
houses in the area, and managed to snooker him into showing us the
condos. However, sometimes he overdid things. "And not to mention,
what are we going to do when we want to throw a party? I didn't see a
clubhouse when we pulled in here?"
"Well, in your price range, there's not a lot to be had, Peter.
However, if that's what you want, the company has a few properties in
some controlled-access facilities only a stone's throw away." Phil was
desperately trying to sell us something, probably so he'd have some
money to eat off of this month. Peter's wrangling was also starting to get a
little nitpicky, so I decided to intervene.
"We'll take it, Phil." The poor fool actually jumped when I
spoke, since I hadn't said more than a word or a grunt in the entire time
he'd been with us. "When can we move in?"
"Well, if you wanted to, you could move in tomorrow, but I
have to tell you that you'd pay an extra fee for immediate occupancy.
That's assuming you'd even qualify to live here." Gods bless the man, he
was at least relatively honest for a real estate broker.
"Not a problem, Phil. We've sunk most of what we've got
into this little jaunt. No sense wasting money on a hotel when we could
spend less of it per diem on a permanent residence."
"Well, I can tell you didn't just fall off the turnip truck."
He smiled, and even did it nicely. " I remember how it was when I moved
out for the first time, I felt the same way." I liked Phil; he wanted to get us
set up in something so he'd get paid, he was up front about that, but he
wouldn't stick us with a shit hole. "If you'll just fill out the application,
we'll get the ball rolling." I held out my hand, and got the application
forms. I had every intention of filling them out, and even if I were
normally not approve-able to the complex, a little typing with Master PC
would have all that sorted out. Phil led us back outside, and locked up.
However, I had little intention of staying in a place where the cum-stains
on the sheets were someone else's. After Phil left, we'd circle back around
and start making ourselves at home. I looked over at my twin and smirked.
Once Phil was out of earshot, he asked me what was up. I explained my
plan, and neither of us saw much harm in using the Master PC to ensure
our approval.
"Gods, it's so good to be out of Virginia!" Pete enthused. I
echoed him, and slapped him lightly on the back.
"Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let's get this
show on the road." We got back into the car, and followed Phil back out
of the complex. "I know why I want this place, but why were you so dead
set on it?" I asked.
"Because I like the lake view. Not to mention that it's out
far enough to prevent anyone from getting too curious. And yourself?"
"The lack of a gate. The last thing either of us needs is
someone tracking our movements. If someone puts two and two together,
someone might come knocking one night, and I'm too lazy to spend my
life pumping iron in a jail or drooling in a mental ward." He nodded in
approval. As time went on and our experience varied, Pete and I were
becoming more different. He was developing the more aggressive persona,
and I was beginning to retreat further back, as was my nature. I always
preferred to work behind the scenes, but Pete had taken the melodramatic
tendencies and put it to good use. I wondered how different we might
become as time progressed, and decided to shelve it for another day. For
now, I was just going to enjoy having someone that thought like me, but
wasn't going to look at me strangely for it.
"Jay?"
"Yeah?"
"I've been thinking. How much effort would it be for you to do the
Clone spell again?"
"Not too much, why? You want to make this a triad instead of a
duet?" I smiled.
"Well, not exactly. I was thinking that this time we could make a
woman." I was so startled by this that I lapsed into mental communication
with him.
"You what???"
"You heard me, you're not deaf. Besides which, do I need
to remind you of how attractive you were as a woman?"
"No, the memories are pretty vivid," I riposted. "But what
brought the whole thing on?"
"Just a random thought I'd been having. I was thinking
that we seem to be turning down our own roads as we progress. I'm not an
exact copy of you anymore. I was curious to see what would happen if
there were a girl version of us." I thought carefully before I replied, this
time aloud.
"But she might?never mind. It's an interesting thought, but let's
get settled into the condo before we start mucking around again. It's bad
enough we're going to have to fill out all of this damn paperwork, much
less get all of our stuff unpacked in the next day or so." A flash of insight
cracked through my brain right then, and it seemed like such a good idea
that I had to follow through with it. I whipped out my laptop, turned it on
and loaded up the Control Console.
"What're you doing?" Peter queried.
"Just hang on a second. I'll tell you when I'm done." I
typed rapidly for a moment, and when the command executed, I felt a
small tension release from my conscience. "I just removed my matter-
rearrangement power."
"Why in hell'd you do that?" Pete seemed genuinely
confused for a moment, until I started explaining.
"It only seemed fair, Pete. I've got the Control Console,
and I've got all of the old Wizard's magic. All you had was enhanced
brainpower and the matter-rearrangement touch. I wanted to even the
playing field." His scowl lessened, and he actually smiled.
" OK, I guess that makes sense. Hell, who am I to argue with my
brother and Maker?" He stuck his tongue out at me. "Although you've still
got influence over matter, what with all those spells. I should know, I
remember a good chunk of what's in those books too."
"Yeah, but it still takes me time. Everyone should be made
to feel special, particularly by those that love 'em." I squeezed his
shoulder.
"I love you too, you goofball. Now, you ready to turn around, or
should we stop for some food?"
"Turnaround is fine with me, chief." I was practically itching to try
out some of the more intriguing spells I'd gotten. "Besides which, you can
make food? shit, I guess you can't, can you?"
"I dunno, I've never tried. Since it ain't living, I should be able to.
But I think we'd better have something else available in case it doesn't
work. That little trick takes a fair bit out of the body, as I'm sure you
noticed, so we'll need to keep buying at least SOME non-created food." I
nodded. "Mind if I stop at the Burger King? I'm starving." I shrugged in
dismissal, and continued to play with the Control Console. When we
pulled up to the drive-thru, I decided to have just a little fun with the
teller. I read her name off her nametag, and put it into the Subject line.
Subject's Name?: Barbara
Command?: Provide readout of Subject's thoughts on-screen.
I watched as the cute little blonde's thoughts scrawled across the
screen. She was primarily thinking about how she was going to get enough
gas in her car to get home, seeing as how the cheap asses that ran the BK
were having to mail her a new check to replace the one that had gotten
lost. I smiled and opened my mind to Peter, and shared with him the girl's
thoughts. He asked what I had in mind, and I told him to flirt with the girl.
We needed to get some information on this area, after all, and a local
source would save us some time. With his responses tuned by the Control
Console and my mental prompting, he'd promptly asked the young lady to
dinner, and offered to pick her up here when it was time. She countered by
saying that she'd want to bring someone along just so she'd feel safe, and
Peter didn't even bat an eyelash. All of this took less than a minute, too,
which had been my deadline. Barb, as I'd discovered she preferred to be
called, was good at her job, and had delivered our food and flirted with
Pete all within 45 seconds. I was impressed. I'd never been quite that glib
when I'd been shoveling hash. Matters were set, and we'd meet Barb and
her friend here at about 7:30. Pete and I nodded in unison, and we set off
back towards our future home. On the trip over, Peter asked me to put the
application paperwork on his knee. I asked him why.
"Just a little experiment," he replied. I finished my fry, and
shuffled the papers back out of my laptop's case. After I laid them on his
knee, his eyebrows drew together for a moment, and then released.
"Take a look, and tell me what the papers look like now," he instructed
me. I shrugged, picked up the papers, and looked, my eyes widening as I
looked. Instead of the blank forms they'd been when I put them in the
case, they were now neatly filled out in black handwriting, MY
handwriting!
"How'd you do that?" A flash of processing time later, I answered
my own question. "Ah, now THAT'S what I call a little matter
rearranging! What did you use for the base material?"
"Just the grease from this crappy burger," he replied, polishing off
his 4th cheeseburger in as many minutes. He crumpled up the wrapper in
one hand and threw it into the sack of garbage. "I figured it wouldn't be
nearly as hard as making polymer steel out of wood chunks."
" I guess not. Ink's a lot simpler compound, but oil's even simpler.
I must have done better'n I thought when I upgraded my brain." He
grinned evilly at me.
"Yeah, you certainly did. I just can't wait to really test 'em out.
That girl Barb and her friend oughtta do nicely, we can get some feedback
on the body remodeling you've done." His grin turned lustful, and he
reached down and patted his dick fondly. "After all, I don't have to worry
about knocking some girl up or getting an STD with this bad boy." He
referred to some of my alterations, making him sterile and immune to
diseases. I shook my head in mock dismay.
"Less than a week old, and you're already turning into a teenager.
How fast they grow up," I sighed, and then busted out laughing. Peter
drove us around for a little longer, then we headed back to the complex. It
was the work of only a minute or two to 'discourage' anyone from coming
up to this floor of the building via a short spell. Peter's touch opened the
door, but unfortunately, he chose to do it by removing the hinges of the
door. He looked at me sheepishly.
" I don't know exactly how locks and tumblers work, so how was I
going to fix it?" I nodded. After all, his power worked by his
understanding. He could have removed the lock with his power, but how
was he to replace it? He would have been completely unable to replicate
the delicate internal mechanisms of the lock, which would have raised
suspicion, so he'd removed the hinges, which he COULD remake as
necessary. Together we hefted the steel-core security door inside, and
leaned it against the wall.
We looked around the empty rooms, trying to decide what should
go where, and the exact logistics for what we had in mind for the future. I
said, "Pete, we'd better set aside a couple of these for a lab. I don't know
about you, but kitchen magic ain't high on my list of favorite things."
"Better make it two or more. Gods know what either of us'll get
into later on. And is it me, or does the paint job on this place suck?" He
was right, the complex must have hired a crew of crack-smoking monkeys
to do the painting. There were globs of paint everywhere, matting into the
carpet, with light streaks of the original paint still peeking through. "I'll
start on that, if you wanna get moving on whatever you've got in mind." I
agreed, and we went to work. Pete swept around the apartment, reworking
the paint so that it was even, and even pulling up the carpet in a few
places. When I heard the ripping sound of the carpet staples giving way, I
raised my eyebrow. He responded, " I hate this crap. Better to have
hardwood floors." I shrugged and went back to weaving spells. I was
weaving spells into the walls themselves to protect us from storms,
electrical surges and burglars. I watched as best I could as Peter reworked
the carpet into teakwood floors, only overriding his choices when he
would have given us a pine-pale floor. Too hard to keep clean, in my
opinion. I had him make it a dark reddish tone, so we could ignore the
mopping if we got too busy. "Wait a sec, Pete, I've got an idea." I dug out
one of my spellbooks, and started rummaging. First order of business once
we'd gotten set up, I promised myself, I was gonna write an index for
these things so I didn't have to keep hunting for what I wanted. I puttered
with a few spells, and finally got what I wanted. I got Peter to conjure me
some white paint, and I overlaid one of the walls with a large, intricate
diagram, surrounded by words in archaic languages. He looked at me
askance.
"What's that? Not bad artistically, but I could have gone for some
babe in a bikini." He mock-leered for a moment.
"Just another example of efficient laziness, bro. This is a general
housekeeping spell. Lint, dust, extraneous grease marks, shed hair and the
like will be banished by this li'l beaut. Why waste time with housework
when you can get magic to do it for you?" I smiled broadly and patted
myself on the back.
"Good call. I suppose it WILL free up a lot of time. What about
laundry and dishes, though?"
"I'll worry about that later. Let's get this carpet up, I've got all of
the primary protections in place, and I'll tweak it later. Never worry about
what you can put off till later, that's my motto." I looked out the window.
"Shit, it's getting dark. We don't have power yet, but I think I can get us
something?" I muttered a few words I'd run across in the book, and
small globes of white light appeared, pin wheeling in an intricate pattern
in the middle of the room. "Take one of those into each room, that way we
won't have to worry about finding our way in the dark." He nodded and
hauled off a few of them. I took the remainder, and so we had ourselves
some light. For a few hours more, we puttered around, remaking the place
itself into what we wanted.
The Next Day
I woke up at about 8 am, rather surprisingly. Until now, I'd always been
more of a night person, and since we'd not gotten back to the hotel till 3
am, I'd only had about 5 hours under my belt. Not feeling inclined to go
back to sleep, I went over and said Peter's name loudly a few times, till he
woke up. I could have shaken him, but both of us hated that. "Pete, wake
up!" His eyelids creaked open, and he looked like hell. I guess all of our
renovations had really sucked the juice out of him. His eyes were
bloodshot, and he looked like he'd dropped a great deal of weight in a
hurry. "Jesus Christ, you look like shit!" In my alarm, a spell came to
mind. It would allow me to share some of my energy with Pete until we'd
managed to recharge our batteries. I muttered and gestured as I walked
over to the phone and put in an order with room service, to be delivered
ASAP. With the spell splitting my energy between the two of us, Peter
started to look more normal, although not in top shape. I was starving, and
feeling more drained. "Why the hell didn't you say anything? I'd have
stopped hours before, if I'd known you were so drained!" He lacked the
energy to respond, and seemed to lapse into a doze. I stared at him for a
few minutes, not even trying mental communication since that would only
drain both of us further. Finally, room service arrived.
I tipped the porter lavishly, seeing as how I'd gotten the grub
within 10 minutes of my call. I pulled the lids off of all the plates, and
started gorging myself, not even using the silverware. As soon as the food
hit my stomach, I started to feel better, and Pete's breathing seemed to be
coming easier. I felt bad about what had happened, since I should have
realized what a drain transmutation would have on him. Maybe my
decision to remove my own power had been a bit too hasty, but I couldn't
do anything about it at the moment. As I ate, I thought frantically about
the energies we were toying with. Master PC itself seemed to draw on the
ambient power across the Internet, and thus across the world to fuel it's
effects. My magic drew directly on stellar and solar forces to accomplish
things, but matter-rearrangement seemed to draw it's power directly from
the life force of it's user. So far, it seemed that the more radical the
change in states, the greater the power required to reshape something.
Peter had been reshaping polyester fibers into 2 inch thick wood for most
of the night, and thus his current state. His work with the walls seemed to
have left him alone, since he was just redistributing the matter evenly.
Shit. I was going to have to watch out. Given that he mirrored my nature,
he'd drive himself to collapse and never even notice. But how was I to
keep an eye on him while I played around on my own?
I got it! Pete's idea yesterday, to make a female version of me/us,
seemed to be an ideal solution. If I made another clone, she'd be able to
watch out for both of us, particularly if I gave her extended monitoring
capacities. The more I thought about the matter, the better I liked it. I
resolved to do something about it at my earliest opportunity, but I didn't
think I'd have the time until we'd finished moving. While Pete slept, I
showered, shaved, and repacked our stuff. Hold on, what about the girl
from the drive-thru yesterday? Shit, I'd forgotten about that! Dammit, now
I had another mess on my hands. Well, it would just have to wait. I had to
get Peter moving before the cleaning crew arrived. But how? He was like
a diabetic recovering from an insulin reaction. Nothing for it but magic, I
guess. I cursed myself for sloppy planning and got to work. A few minutes
work and Pete was reduced in size to where I could stick him in my
pocket. I did so, grabbed our bags, and checked out of the hotel. I was
screwed. The lease we'd agreed to sign was to be a two party lease, and
who knew how long it would take him to recover? Guess I'd have to work
the Clone spell sooner than I thought, or I was going to have to alter?..
"Hey, Jay!" a squeaky voice called from my pocket, and I felt
something moving around in there. I looked down, and sure enough, Peter
was hanging on the ledge (to him) of my pocket.
"Feeling better, Pete?"
"Much. I guess we overdid it."
"That ain't all. We forgot about the girl at the fast food place." He
lapsed into a session of violent cursing. "Calm down, we'll figure out
something. But first, you need to get back to regular size." With a gesture,
I cancelled the spell holding him at his small size. Unfortunately, I'd
forgotten to take him out of my pocket, so he ended up ripping his way out
of my jeans. He was lying there on the parking lot, laughing hysterically.
"Sometimes, Jay, you make me think there's hope for you after
all." He smiled, and pulled a pair of shorts out of his bag. "I find it hard to
believe that someone so powerful forgets the simple stuff."
"Hey, sue me, sometimes I forget the details." I was mortified, not
to mention getting a breeze. I looked at him and gestured down at my leg.
Mercifully, the parking lot was empty, so no one noticed the naked man
that appeared out of nowhere. While he got up to at least pseudo-modesty,
I unlocked the car and started it up. Peter got in on his side, and put his
hand on my leg, mending my jeans. "Thanks. I happen to like this pair."
"No sweat. We'd better get moving, though, if we wanna get
moved in today." I nodded and started driving. We headed back to the
condo's leasing office, and with a little aid from Master PC, we got
approved to lease, and signed off on it. A further tweak would ensure that
no one at the complex would bother us unduly or allow anyone access to
our apartment without our approval. I wasn't entirely enamored of doing
so, but Peter insisted.
"Look, it's nothing too bad. All we're doing is ensuring our
privacy, for which we're paying, if I need to remind you."
"I know, I just don't particularly want to get used to having the
Master rewrite everyone around us. Most of the users of this thing end up
being major buttheads."
"True, and if I ever see you doing so, be sure I'll call you on it."
After signing the lease, we shook hands with Ms. Cornwallis, the
complex's manager and got our keys. I pocketed mine, making a mental
note to make all other copies useless. We pulled the car and the U-Haul up
to the parking spaces immediately adjacent to the building, and got on
with our unpacking.
CHAPTER 002
In a remarkably short time, even with my spells to help out, we'd
managed to set up shop in our condo. Everything was in a place that was
either aesthetically pleasing or convenient, and Peter's ability to reshape
our packing trash into other shapes had eliminated our debris. I'd set up
shop in one of the spare bedrooms (there were 4 in the condo), and we'd
converted another of them into a fabrication shop for anything technical
we'd need. Soundproofing and the like was assured by more spells, and
we'd even thought ahead, and the entire space was filled with defensive
spells to keep attention away from us. Anyone coming in through the door
or any of the windows would only see furnishings appropriate to two
bachelors, and they would completely ignore the teak floors, leather and
metal furniture, and the tapestries on the walls.
Peter had managed to get the job as caf? manager, so we had some
income. I'd started playing the stock market by using my intellect (and a
lot of scrying with my new crystal ball) to make some smart calls and
buys. Mostly, though, I was getting antsy to do something else. On an
impulse, I started up the Control Console, and started running through the
names of the local stockbrokers in the Yellow Pages. On my fifth try, I
found what I was looking for. A, more honest than most, broker usually
managing to make a decent living, with only a few setbacks. The Control
Console remarks were that this Madeline Phesant was of above-average
intelligence, 35 years old, and financially struggling. Her ex-husband had
apparently married her for her money, run her into debt to the tune of over
200 thousand dollars, and then skipped town. I shook my head, and made
a note to look him up later.
With a few keystrokes, I'd increased our Ms. Phesant's
intelligence to genius level, and removed the ulcers that had been
troubling her lately. I planned out what I'd need to say, and picked up the
phone.
"Phesant Market Brokers, this is Madeline."
"Ms. Phesant, my name is Jason *****" I began. "I've been
looking at your track record, and I've been impressed. Not only have you
managed to be ethical in your dealings with clients, you've actually
managed to turn a profit."
"Well, Mr. *****, I do try. I can't stomach screwing people out of
their money. Besides which," she laughed in self-derision, "my ulcer
would keep me up at nights if I didn't." I smiled, but of course she
couldn't see it. "So what can I do for you?" I outlined my plans, and she
was impressed. Then, with only a momentary hesitation, asked the real
question. "How much were you looking to work with, Jason?" I'd already
asked her to call me by my first name, but I insisted on calling her Ms.
Phesant. I smiled even wider. My initial forays into the market had been
VERY lucrative.
"Well, I was looking to 'work' with 350 thousand, to be honest." I
said into the shocked silence on the other end. I had her image up on the
Control Console, and I saw her mouth working silently on the Picture
Display. "Ms. Phesant? Are you still there?"
"Ye..Yes!" Her thoughts, according to the Control Console, told
me that she didn't have that much money coming from all of her other
accounts combined. "Jason, I have to tell you, that's quite a bit more
money than I'm used to handling." I had to give her points for her honesty.
"Well, I wouldn't mind increasing your percentage if you needed
to hire someone else to work for you." Not only would that free her up to
work full time on my portfolio, it would take a good deal of stress off of
her. "Do we have a deal, Ms. Phesant?"
"Yes, we do. Could I get you to come down to the office, so we
can fill out some paperwork?" Bother. MORE time taken away. Oh well, I
guess it couldn't be avoided. I agreed to come down to her office after
lunchtime. We finished our conversation, and I hung up the phone. Peter
was still at work, so I had time to do some puttering about. I went back to
my workroom, and started pulling books off the shelf. I still hadn't
managed to put together my index, but it was a work in progress. With my
crystal ball, I'd discovered that Xanthos' virus hadn't managed to knock
out all of the Master PC's still out in the world. At best guess, there were
something like 10000 users of the program on the earth. These others
bothered me. Some of them, like Xanthos, and Dan, the high school
teacher, didn't particularly bother me, but the majority of the others were
seriously scary fellows. Even worse, some of them were in the process of
making themselves gods on earth. My current project was to start
cataloging and tagging the bastards so that I could keep easier tabs on
them.
90 percent of the little fools had already made themselves immune
to manipulation via the Master, so I ruled that out as a way to solve the
problem. However, most of them seemed to suffer from limited
imaginations. All of them had built themselves harems, and were
constantly on the move trying to accumulate more. I shuddered to think
about what state the world would be like if Xan hadn't put his virus in
place. I shelved the problem for a while, and decided to do something
about my watcher problem. I still hadn't taken the time to construct a
female clone, mostly because I kept forgetting about it until it was too late
at night to start. I opened up one of the spellbooks and started browsing.
An hour or so later, I ran across a Splitter spell, one that operated similarly
to that of the Clone spell, but it had a drawback; it didn't furnish the body
with a will of it's own. No good. The Clone spell required some hours to
work, and it all had to be done after sunset. Not good, since I usually was
preoccupied these days with trying to finish my index. "Ah, screw it! I'll
just have to do the Clone spell." I burned myself a message onto the
workroom's door, just to remind me. I shelved the books, and turned my
mind back to the problem of the other Master PC users.
How was I to get these idiots away from the power of the Master
PC? Magic only seemed able to modify the effects created by the
computer, not reverse them. They'd made their minds immune to
influence with the Master, and thus they'd locked me out as well. Shit!
There had to be SOME way of doing it, I just had to find it! To be honest,
I could have set a spell onto the Master PC program itself, but I was leery
of doing so. I could lose my own copy, not to mention my magic, since I'd
gotten it via the Master's influence. The image of a DO loop made me
shudder. Save that as a last resort. Assassination? Far too risky,
particularly since most of them had some form of paranormal senses, not
to mention being tougher and/or regenerative. Thievery? For some of
them, that would work, but not for all of them. Add it to the list of
possible solutions. I could free some of their victims with the Control
Console, but I had a limited range to work with, and not all of them could
be freed. Shelve it till later. It wouldn't do me any good to fix the victims,
only to have them snatched back up by the controller. Christ! An entire
lifetime, even one as long as mine was likely to be, may not be enough to
stop all these bastards! Maybe Peter would have some ideas. I looked over
at the clock, and realized I had to get moving if I wanted to meet up with
Madeline. I shut down and packed up my laptop, got dressed, and headed
out to the meeting.
I'd gotten dressed in some of my better clothes to meet with Ms.
Phesant, since appearance counts in these things. Much to my dismay, I'll
hasten to add. Ms. Phesant's office was run out of a small run-down office
building in downtown Lexington that had seen better days. I went inside,
and waited out in reception. The secretary told me that Ms. Phesant had
just come back from lunch and would see me shortly. I smiled and sat
down, pulling out the laptop to indulge in some recreation while I waited.
However, something about the secretary made my suspicion itch. When
I'd moved to Lexington, I'd noticed that there was a copy of Master PC in
use in that area, so I'd made my moves and adjustments very subtle. I
loaded up