Note: The MORFS universe is now open for submissions. Please send any
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MORFS: Grey - Part 1
By Nist Shadow
Part 1. A New school and a New Life.
Towelling down the dark black fur on my arms and chest has been a chore
in the mornings, one that sometimes makes me wish that I didn't need to
shower every day. But my sensitive nose means that I notice when I
start to smell, often before most people, so the necessary pain comes
with desiring not to have to spend a day smelling badly. At just under
5'1, I am well built and defined for a 16 year old, but then with my
father, being who he is, that's not surprising.
I'm the first born son of a pair of highly skilled operatives, which as
most know, is the polite way of saying the person who takes what the
spies have collated and does the dirty work, think James Bond, but
without the public image. Their enemies didn't know their names, they
knew nothing, my parents had never failed a mission and no one knew it,
which was exactly how they wanted it. With the birth of my sister, four
years after my own birth, our parents retired. Well, retired is a
strong word, you never really retire from their line of work; they
relocated and became the heads of a training academy developing the
next generation of operatives. Since I was able to walk, Dad had me
training with him. The MORFS virus had given him the appearance of
being a Humanoid Black Cat. Well almost, he had cat paws instead of
feet and hands, though his fore paws were just as flexible as human
hands so it never held him back. He also had the defined form of a man
who works out every day but has pushed more for stamina and speed than
bulk lifting force. With the exception of his eyes, his head was mostly
human, though with a fine soft fur covering it.
Mum had taken on a more tigerlike appearance with her change. Her
golden hair had become a glorious mane, her body, though appearing
lithe and skinny, could probably match my father's for strength, though
physically she only took on the colouring of a tigress, and remained
fully human in body shape, well, except for the fur in places. Mother
has this look about her, as if she wouldn't hurt a fly, though from
personal experience, I can tell you that she is possibly deadlier than
most people I know. Both my parents have cat's-eyes. My sister
Katherine took on the appearance of our mother, much as I have
inherited an appearance similar to our father, and,as I had found out
to the bruising of my arm, the same uncanny strength. As with our
parents our eyes were feline.
I was staring into my own eyes in the mirror one morning when my sight
blurred.
Mum found me embracing the toilet in the bathroom half an hour later,
my stomach still retching even though there was nothing else to heave.
Being born like I was, human mostly, human hands and human feet, but
the light black fur all over my body with a tail and the cats eyes like
my fathers, I, like so many others, assumed I had gone through the
MORFs changes in the womb.
You can imagine my shock when the doctor said to my mother, "I have the
test results back and confirm both your son and your daughter have the
first stage illness responses for the MORFS virus..."
"I'm sorry, but I thought they would be immune to MORFs..."
"Well ... usually children growing up like they have, with the physical
appearances like their parents, have gone through an early MORFS
metamorphosis, and or their DNA is immune to further editing. However,
in these twos cases, the virus is effecting them, in Jace's case, quite
badly. These are prescriptions for their QTPs. (Quick Transition
Packs). I'm afraid that beyond this, I can't be much help. As a
military doctor, I usually only have post MORFs patients. If you like,
I can refer you to a doctor more familiar with the MORFS virus and its
effects."
*******
We had been here only 2 weeks, and I had thought I had done well at
school, all considering the newness to it. In England I had been at an
all boys private school, quite popular, well known, with my own group
of friends. Here in the US the nearest equivalent was 100 miles away, a
boarding school and one for "pure" humans only, as in no one who looks
not human need apply, and that meant me straight out. Oh well, public
school for me. Drats, mix school you say? I have to go to school with
girls? Oh damn! Stop being sarcastic? Mother would I be ...Ow, did you
have to hit me, Sis? Suffice to say my initial reaction was that this
was an improvement.
I guess you could say my first day hadn't gone too well, I had gone in
to do some tests so they could place me in the best classes for my
abilities. Walking from the office to my appointment in the gym for a
physical analysis, I had seen this cute blonde, short skirt, tight top,
smile to die for. As she walked past, I smiled and simply said "Good
morning." She took one look at me, and said "Fuck off, you sub human
freak." Well, that was a downer, I must say, considering the mix of
students that were supposed to be here.
First up was gym or more precisely, 'test the new guy to see what he
can and can't do.' Jump tests, sprint tests, balance tests, stamina
tests such as the bleep test, long distance that sorts of things. I did
well on the balance test, my tail letting me balance on the thin bar
the coach had me walk along. It snaked around the hall with increasing
difficulty and reducing thickness. I slipped on the final stretch when
the pole rolled. The standing jump test was fun, I shocked the teacher
by somersaulting so my feet were my highest point, adding another meter
to my max height, I'm not sure what shocked him most though, the fact I
somersaulted, or the fact I landed on my hands.
The only tests that weren't done were the martial arts and self defence
ones. The note from my parents informing the school they did not wish
me to do that section of the curriculum got me out of it. I never
understood why martial arts were added to the curriculum in a lot of
schools. Oh, sure, it sounds good in theory, teach everyone how to be
able to defend themselves, and not only will the kids be less likely to
be bullied, but you have done some of the work in training them if you
ever need to call them up in war. Strangely enough, the kids who got
the most benefit from the training weren't the kids who needed it the
most. Oh, sure, some would be pretty damn good and most would leave
them alone. But it was usually the bullies who excelled, and it just
made them better bullies.
After the session, on the way back to the school office with a sheet of
paper listing my physical abilities for class placement, I saw my
little sister, pushed up against a locker. There was a group of normal
looking girls standing around her. She had this look in her eyes. I had
seen that look before, and it wasn't a good look. It happens when she
is getting angry, and like our mother, that meant dangerous.
"Look, you little bitch, that bathroom is for human girls only. You
will not go in there, ever!" It was the blonde from earlier; she had
her hand in my sister's hair and was holding her up against the
lockers.
"Yeah you must go outside like the animal you are." I couldn't see who
had said that, but the other girls in the group thought it was pretty
funny.
"I would let go of her, if I was you...."
"Fuck off, Freak! This is between us and the little animal here. None
of your business..." yelled a brunette had turned around to scream at
me.
"Hey, I recognise you; you're the dirty animal who tried hitting on me
earlier. James! This is the freak I was telling you about." said the
blonde to a guy who had been leaning against a locker a few meters
further down the corridor. He stood up straight, easily six and a half
feet in height and walked towards me.
"Huh, well I guess I got to pound you, hitting on my woman isn't
allowed." He moved towards me and threw a punch. Jumping back, I let my
tail unwrap from around my waist.
"Huh, the freaks got a tail. That's another reason to pound you, I hate
tails."
"Hey Sis, there's only 8 of them, try not to hurt them too badly, OK?"
Her response was to growl. Oh dear this wasn't good, I had once heard
my mother growl, and the guy who had hit me is now a cripple. I blocked
the punch from the big guy, slipped inside his defences and brought my
fist up onto his jaw. His eyes crossed briefly, he shook his head,
pulled back his fist to hit as if to try again to hit me, then
collapsed into an unconscious heap.
I turned to see my sister do a similar thing to the blonde, who flew
across the corridor. She turned to the next one, who had taken a step
in towards her, but the girl began having second thoughts after her
friend had gone airborne. Both our tails were flicking back and forth,
hers out of anger, and mine out of agitation. She threw a punch at the
girl, and I moved to catch it.
********
"I can't believe you two got pulled into the principal's office for
fighting on your first day. Your father is going to be furious. What
were you thinking?"
"It's not even a suspension, Mum, and it was self defence. You know we
don't have any classes till next Monday, and they have processed our
old school records and tested us in the areas they are unsure of."
"That is not the point. YOU" she said pointing at me, "are supposed to
be looking after your sister."
"Looking after my sister? Mum she hardly needs me looking after...."
"Mum, I don't need...."
"Be quiet, both of you. You're both grounded."
"What?? We have been in the states for 2 days, and you're grounding us
already? Are we supposed to have no friends?"
"Ok, you're not grounded, but you have both lost your TV privileges for
a week, and you, young lady, a month for answering me back." Mum was
getting the look in her eyes; I spotted it immediately and signalled
Katherine to stop arguing. Mum is pretty easy going as long as you
don't push her too far. Oh, she gets angry, and she shouts and screams
a lot, and we get punished. But if we take it maturely, the punishment
often got reduced once it was decided we have learnt the lesson. Both
our parents believe that we should have a say in how thing go, so if we
think a punishment is unfair we can argue about it, to a point. Ague
too much and the punishment will get increased.
I remember my father's words, "'Well son, now you're 12, you are mature
enough to make some decisions for yourself. But with this comes
responsibilities. You will have to do chores around the house, help out
your mother and me when you can. Oh, and if you think me or your mother
has unjustly punished you, you can argue your point, as long as you do
it in a mature fashion. Understand? Good. Remember one thing though,
we're still your, parents and there is a point where if you go too fa,r
you will be punished. But learning when to argue and when not to is
part of life."
I had learnt, the hard way more often than not, how far I could go with
my parents, and when best to argue my case, which was often the
following morning at the breakfast table, after they had calmed down
from whatever reason they had given us the punishment. I shifted the
ice pack on my face and sighed. That blow was going to give me such a
nice black eye.
Dad's response was pretty typical for him. While Mum was in the room he
was a stickler for how bad we had been. The minute she left, after
Katherine had gone to bed, he conspiratorially asked in a whisper, "How
did the fight go really?" Then he quietly chuckled as I relayed the
fight, and how I'd had to pin Katherine on the ground until she calmed
down. He looked at my swollen eye, "Katherine?"
"Yep." He couldn't help but laugh out loud at that one. Mum's look was
questioning when she came back into the room.
"Jace was just saying how he got that great shiner."
"What is so funny about a bully punching your son in the head?"
"It wasn't the Jock, Mum. It was Kat, when I held her on the ground to
stop her killing those girls ..."
"She's getting more like you every day, dear ..." Hmm was it too late
to get out the room ...
********
Over the next few days I took a stupid number of tests, which coupled
with my school report effectively placed me into the best classes for
my skills, abilities and previous education, though looking at my
timetable for the following week, I didn't have a clue what I would be
doing. It was all stuff like SC502, Rm J201, Dr Hansworth. Now I think
that SC was science, as J block, according to my school map is a
Science block. So 502 maybe meaning year 5 set 2, without anything to
tell me for sure this was all just guess work.
I was glad I had gotten the physical tests done already, as my balance
was well off with this shiner, though the breakfast from Kat when I got
up was nice. Seems I should stop my sister hurting people more often,
as she seems to get all nice when I do.
Monday came around so I found myself outside the school grounds,
looking at the swarm of kids heading into the building. Having not
really had chance to learn the area, or even having seen another
student to get an idea of the limits of the rather vague student
uniform of the place, I had opted for a casual form of my old one, my
old black trousers, white shirt and black shoes. So as you can expect,
I stood out from the other guys, who were wearing jeans, t-shirts,
shorts, and hoodies.
I started to weigh up looking like a dweeb on my first day of school or
getting a bollocking from my mother for being late on my first day of a
new school, when a good looking Brunette said, "You new?" I looked at
her, meeting her green eyes with a smile. Her dark hair was tied back
into a pony tail and she was in a black miniskirt and black tank top
with a pair of trainers on.
"Yeah, and wondering whether it might be a good idea to go home, get
change and turn up late..."
"Ohhh, you're English. I like your accent. Let's see who you've got."
Before I could do anything, she had whipped my timetable from my hand,
turned it over and was quickly looking at who and what I had. "Right,
well you've got Mrs. Jameson first. So if you value your hide, you
won't be late. She never forgives tardy students."
"Damn...well I guess I can always shake the dweeb opinion people will
make of me."
"Haha, no one will think you're a dweeb, that is school uniform. It's
just for the first day of a new year we can wear what we like, which
you wouldn't know if this is your first year, as I doubt the office
told you. Right?"
"Yeah ..."
"Good, I've got Jameson first thing as well. This way. I'm Kaitie,
Kaitie McSammuel." She was leading me towards the building I had been
staring at just a moment before.
"Jace Neumer."
It seems Kaitie and I were in a lot of classes together and she ended
up showing me around, not that I'm complaining, she was good looking.
Lunch was different. Having been use to a more formal sit down style of
school meals, the fast food style with the benches was all new to me.
"You ever see the movies where a character gets shown around, and is
told their social status is decided by where they sit?"
"Err...a couple. Why?" I was looking around the room as we walked
towards a table in the centre.
"Well, sadly, it's true, only here you tend to get three distinct
groups." We sat down at a round table in the middle of the room. I
noticed around this table the room definitely felt like it had been
split into three sections.
"The three groups here can be described simply as the "Pure" humans,"
she nodded her heard towards one section, "They think that they are
better than anyone who has been effected by the MORFs. Some are pretty
vocal about it." I could see the blonde who had attacked my sister, as
I understand it, she had been lightly bruised, a sprained ankle, and a
small cut, she was however well bandaged.
"The Supers, People who have been effected by the MORFs virus quite
strongly and think it makes them better than those who haven't." She
nodded towards the group as far from the "Pures" as you could be,
"Obviously the pures and the supers hate each other, and then there is
the third group, which I like to call the sane and normal. The people
who don't care one way or another."
"Normal? Kait, you're not giving another new person your morality
speech are you?" I looked up to see a tall guy in a tight black T
shirt. He was wearing black specs, and I could see from his whiskers he
was post MORFs.
"Ahh Jimmy! Have a good vacation?"
"It was alright, got dragged around Canada by my pops in his truck.
Who's the new guy?"
"OH, my bad." She giggled, "This is Jace, Jimmy ... Jimmy, Jace."
"Hi."
"Nice to meet ya, man. Where's the rest of the gang?"
"Coming. I saw Penny earlier; she and Jen are having a meeting with the
principal before coming to lunch. They probably saw Karen and the twins
and dragged them with them."
"Ahhh good."
"How's Mel?" she asked as she put a chip in her mouth.
"MORFS."
"What? Damnit am I going to be the last in the group who goes through
it?"
"Haha, looks like I might win the pool after all."
"Pool?" I asked.
"Oh we have a pool on who will be the last of us to go through the
MORFs. Penny, Jen and sweet Kaitie here are the only three of us to
have not gone through it yet. I put my money on Kaitie."
"Just me and Jen now...Penny went through it a week ago."
"She did? Did she change?"
"Nope, nothing fun anyway. Just cosmetic."
"You don't have any fun super powers do you?" he asked me.
"Huh? Fun?"
"You know, being able to fly, pick up cars with one hand, teleport
yourself?"
"Errr...No, sorry, I've got a tail..." I let it unwrap from my waist
and wiggled it behind me.
"Damn."
"Oooo, that looks nice, can I touch it?" I looked at Kaitie, shrugged
and swung my tail to her; she took it in one hand and started to stroke
it. "Ooo it's so soft. How come I didn't notice this before?"
"I keep it wrapped around my waist and out the way...Oooo that does
feel relaxing..."
"Who's Mr Purrer?" I was purring, quite content to enjoy the relaxing
sensations from my tail.
"Haha, this is Jace, new guy, Kait's just demonstrating her magic
fingers on his tail."
"Welcome to Derek Samuel's High." I managed to open my eyes to look at
the 5 people who sat down. Kait let go of my tail and I wrapped it
grudgingly back around my waist.
"Jace, these are Penny" she indicated a blonde with a pair of Elvin
ears, blue eyes and a smile from ear to ear. "Jen." A grey eyed, raven
haired beauty. "Karen" she had dark sunglasses on, and her hair was
covered by a bandana and a baseball cap. "And these two miscreants" she
said indicating the twins who sat down on opposite sides to Karen and
Jen, "are the twins, Mike and Tike." Both had certain physical
similarities to monkeys, neither had opposable thumbs, and both had
tails.
"Haha, we like to get our tails stroked as well..."
"Don't think I have seen someone who starts purring, though.... "
"I thought it was sweet, very catlike."
"Does he?"
"Nope, no super powers..."
"Damn..."
"Damn..."
"What's with the fixation with super powers?"
"Well, based upon national statistics, 50% of the population feels no
change from MORFS, so statistically, half the group should have no
powers. Now if we look at the numbers, there is a lot of kids in this
school who have had no change. So we figure, most, if not all of us
should be effected by MORFS somehow, especially as we all come from
families who have been effected. Now 25% should have some kind of
special ability, nothing spectacular, and 1% should be amazing. Now the
monkey boys here can swing and move around like real monkeys..."
commented Karen.
"Hey..."
" ...We're better than real monkeys."
"That's arguable. Monkeys often have more sense" Karen kissed Tike on
the cheek before carrying on. "Jen can sing in perfect key."
"Not much of a power, she could do that before MORFS hit her."
"Anyway, in a school of 4000 students, you would expect half to show
signs of MORFs. Out of that 2000, 1000 should have some sort of
ability, so in our grade, 143 students should have some sort of extra
ability, and 5 or 6 should have some sort of super power. As far as we
can tell, there are only 3."
"4, if you include Kevin Samuels" Commented Jen.
"Kevin is a super brain, hardly a super power" Replied Tike.
"Plus he is way too fixated with weapons," added Mike.
"So, do you have claws?" Karen asked with a mischievous grin.
"Err, kinda." I held out my hand and let my claws slide out of my
finger tops. Slightly curved, they were just a little smaller than the
length from my finger tips to the first knuckle. "Not much use for
anything other than climbing and scratching holes in things..."
"Could be nasty in a fight..."
I retracted them, "I've promised to never use them that way in a fight.
If I do, then it's because I have no other choice."
"Well this is morbid, guys. Anyone see 'Love Triangle' last night?"
asked Penny.
"Groan, not another soap. Do you girls do anything but watch soaps all
night?" asked Mike.
"Sure we do, there's also the sports" smiled Jen.
"You watched the Football game last night?"
"No the soccer match, those hot guys in those tight shorts."
"Sheesh, don't even know why I bother."
"Cause you like me." She kissed Mike on the lips.
"Well..." she kissed him again. "Ok, yeah I do."
"Jace?" I looked at Kait again. "What are you doing this afternoon?"
"Oh ...err." I pulled out my lesson timetable, "Lets see, SP501, Dr.
J.P Pearson."
"You're in Pearson's Gym Class?" Mike and Tike were looking at me in
shock, the others in disbelief.
"According to this, yes...why?"
"Were in that class....you must have scored a kick ass score in the
test to get into our class..."
"How far did you get on the Balance maze?"
"The track around the edge of the gym?" I got a nod, "I got to the bar
that spun around as I got half way over."
"Damn..."
"Impressive! Well, we better be off or we will be late for class. We
meeting up at Flappinos after school?" A round of nods and yeps before
Kait looked at me and said, "Wanna come? It's a Smoothey shop on main."
"Sure...will I have chance to get changed? Or is it a go as I am sorta
place?"
"Changed is good. Not is good as well. If you will be more comfortable
changed, go changed. K?" I smiled and nodded. "Mike, show Jace where
Flapps is will you? We'll meet you there."
"Sure thing Kait, Come on Jace, the Doc really isn't a teacher you want
to be late for."
"Two hours of jumping jacks sucks."
My afternoon was taken up by Gym class, 3 hours of things I love,
jumping, bouncing and generally throwing myself around.
Dr. Pearson is, to be honest, an orang-utan. We started the lesson
looking up at him as he hung from the ceiling where he explained what
he wanted us to do throughout the session. Circuit training, 5 minutes
doing one activity, then you move on to another activity and so on. In
groups of three, which found me working with Mike and Tike, as the pair
of them used each other as spring boards to throw each other around.
"Ok, Gents." The doc, as he asked us to call him said, fell from the
ceiling to land on one of the mats. "To finish the lesson off, I want
to offer an open challenge to anyone who can ring that bell..." he
pointed to a bell set in the centre of the ceiling.
"Ahh, this will be easy."
"...WITHOUT, jumping up and ringing it! That means 'you', Mr Piles. We
all know you are capable of clearing that height with ease. So the
requirement is to ring the bell three times in quick succession,
without touching the ground, leaving a second between each ring."
"Drats."
Mike turned to me and said, "He always does this, thinks up a puzzle
for us to try and solve."
"As an added incentive, there will be 50 points awarded to the person
to ring the bell for the interschool cup."
"Interschool cup?" I asked Mike.
"School competition, near the end of the year. Teams compete for prizes
throughout the year. You can gain points for your team by doing well in
certain classes." We watched Tike try to swing a rope close enough to
ring the bell.
"You know, I think I can see away to ring the bell....but it will take
teamwork..."
"How?"
"Call Tike, it will take all three of us."
One of the exercises we had to do, involved climbing up a rope,
crawling through a vent and dropping onto a pile of crash mats. The
exit hole for the vent happened to line up with a rope on the other
side of the room, and the bell in the middle. So I found myself
catching the bottom end of the rope that Mike had thrown up to me,
which had Tike holding onto the ring which secured the other end to the
ceiling. Once I had a good grip on the rope and braced my self in the
vent, Tike changed grip onto the rope and moved along it till he was
under the bell, where he reached up and rang it.
Dr. Pearson was positively beaming when he congratulated us. "Five
years! In the five years I've been offering this prize, not one student
has ever managed it without some kind of power being involved, until
now. Well done! You boys well deserve the 50 points between ... Oh what
the heck, make that 50 points each. There should be rewards for good
teamwork."
"You guys have got 50 points already??? Damn, isn't that more than the
pair of you got together last year?" Karen was smiling at Mike as she
kissed him.
"Well...yeah it is. Never seen old Doc so happy" Kaitie and I were at
the counter buying the drinks, Flapps is a traditional teen hangout.
They sell nice tasting drinks at a reasonable price, play good music,
and have arcades and consoles dotted about the room. All the staff were
young and the whole atmosphere was one of fun. I was pretty relaxed.
After gym had got out Tike, Mike and I had taken a quick trip to my
house where I got changed into a pair of my black combat trousers and a
t shirt, before coming here. We had a half an hour wait before the
others got here, due to us finishing earlier, so I got a full
demonstration of Mike and Tike's DDR skills. Believe me, when I say,
these two were good, they were swapping platforms and still hitting
perfects on every touch.
"You having fun?" Kait was looking up at me while we waited our turn
for the drinks.
"Yeah. The music is good, the company is great..." she smiled, wrapped
her arms around my neck and pulled me into a kiss.
"Whoa, Kait just dragged Jace into her world."
Karen looked over and smiled, "Yeah she said she would do that."
"Huh?"
"Mike, Kait has a list of things that's she is looking for in a guy."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, can you remember then, Jen?"
"Yep, let's see, nice personality, deep, intelligent eyes and a sexy
tail."
"And a fit body, I believe. Basically, Jace."
"I think the accent is a bonus as well."
The kiss was great...no better then great it was... Ok, probably not
the best description of the kiss, it felt great, but to this day I
can't describe how I felt or really remember much about it, only that
it felt great and I didn't want it to stop.
"What would you two like?"
"Huh?" Our lips broke contact and Kait told the bartender our order.
She smiled as she walked away to make them up.
"Want to go see a movie with me?"
"I'd love to, but isn't it normally the guy who asks the girl?"
"It is, but I'm not like most other girls" I grabbed two of the drinks,
put a third between them and lifted a forth carefully with my tail.
Kait grabbed the last two. As we headed towards our table, 4 faces were
looking at us with big grins on their faces.
"You think they saw us?"
"Probably." The applause we received as we came over confirmed we had
been seen
"I can't believe how useable your tail is. Ours only seem to be any use
for changing our centre of balance," commented Mike as I put down the
drink which I had carried with my tail.
"I've had a lot of practice. It's like your other limbs, the more you
use them to do things, the easier it gets to do them. My sister can
write with both hands as neatly as one."
"Can you write with your tail?" Tike asked.
"Haha! I wish, no, nothing too small or it's hard to grip. I could
carry the glass as I could use the shape and rim to stop the glass
sliding out."
"His tail is silky soft..." purred Kait, I grinned and wrapped it
around her.
After we had had a couple of drinks, Kait and I went down to the local
cinema to watch a movie, Batgirl: The legacy of the Bat, following on
from the Batman of the future movies which had been a big hit in the
cinemas 15 years ago. It told the tale of the girl who took on the
mantle of Batgirl and joined the new Batman and Robin as they fought
crime. It felt good to feel Kait's body against mine, as she hugged me
tightly during the bits which made her jump, and the fight scenes, and
the romance scenes, and since she was already there, the rest of the
movie.
Since we both had school in the morning we finished off our date and
walked home, ending up outside her home just after 11.
"Tonight was fun."
"It was, I find it hard to believe I only met you this morning..."
"Want to do it again tomorrow?"
"Yes, but we need to work on this. I'm sure I'm supposed to be the one
doing the asking out." We finished of with another kiss, before I broke
it off and started to back away.
"See you tomorrow Jace." She said as she opened the door and step
backwards into it.
"See you tomorrow, Kait." I didn't know it then, this would be the last
time I ever saw Kaitie.
*********
"Who was that, Dear?"
"That was Jace, Mum."
"Jace who, Dear?" her father asked as he came into the hall way.
"Jace Neumer."
"English boy?"
"Yes, Father, just started at school today."
"He's a fast mover isn't he, if you have only known him a day?"
"That was me, Mom. I followed Pop's advice, saw a chance and took it."
"Well, I didn't mean it when it came to boys. With those you have to be
careful. I want to meet him before I will let you go on another date
with him."
"Yes, Father. Goodnight."
"Night, Princess."
"Night, Darling." Kait's parents walked back into the living room as
the girl ran upstairs to get ready for bed.
"You know Jace's parents, Dear?"
"Michael Neumer has just assumed command of the Alliance Security
Agencies Operative Training Installation. His wife is his second in
command, and commandant of the female training program."
"The ASA's OTI? Damn ..." she sat down and looked at her husband, who
had been recently elected State Senator. As his wife and Secretary, she
had almost the same security clearance as he did. "Of course this does
offer a certain advantage ..."
"Oh?" He looked up from his glass of wine.
"We now have a legitimate reason to meet them. Publicly we aren't
supposed to know about the OTI, but since our daughter is dating their
son, I think it's only fair we meet the parents of the boy. How did an
Englishman become the head of an ASA OTI?"
Kait's father chuckled, "You are devious, but don't start making plans
for what we're having. I'll need to check. There are no guidelines in
place for this sort of situation. He's English, but she's American,
since neither side wanted to really let the other side have an
advantage, the Neumers made an attractive offer. The third in command
is an American friend of the couple, so both sides feel they are
getting the best that they can for it."
********
I got home with a big smile on my face, walked into the kitchen and
took a seat at the island counter, Mum and Dad were both just finishing
their dinners, so they hadn't been home long, Kat was digging into a
bowl of ice cream.
"So, good day at school? Make any friends?"
"He sure did, Kaitie McSammuel. He's become very good friends with
her."
"Shut it, shrimp," I said with a grin, as I ninja'd some ice cream from
her bowl with a spoon.
"Hey!! Mine! Get your own, you big bully."
"McSammuel? George McSammuel's Daughter?" I looked at both my parents
and shrugged.
"Could be, I haven't met her parents ..."
"He was too busy letting his tongue meet her tonsils"
"Oii"
"Kat, its late, put the ice cream back in the freezer and go to bed."
"But...."
"No buts! Now! Go."
"Ahhh, it's so unfair!!"
"Jace will be going to bed soon as well, Dear." Kat grumbled a bit but
was soon in bed.
"I take it then your first day of classes, wasn't a replay of your
first day at the school?"
"No, I met Kaitie and had a pretty fun day. We're going out again
tomorrow."
"That's nice, Dear."
"Son, I think its time we had 'the talk'." I stared at my dad, he
stared back.
I stared at Dad some more, he still just stared back.
"Why are you two just staring at each other?"
"I don't know about Dad, but I'm trying not to laugh." I said, stifling
a laugh. I could tell from the cracking of Dad's eyes he was equally
amused.
My mum rolled her eyes. "You two? I really don't know what to do with
the pair of you. I really don't."
"G'Night." I said as I made my way to bed.
The following morning I got up bright eyed and bushy tailed, well not
really bushy tailed, but I was looking forward to my day. I entered the
bathroom, I got over to the mirror and looked at my reflection, my
sight blurred, I felt woozy, my stomach churned. I dived for the toilet
and managed to empty my guts into it.
It couldn't have been more than 30 minutes, but I was still grasping
the toilet and emptying my guts into it, or at the very least trying
to, every few seconds retching, my body trying to expel anything that
might have been in it. I looked up to see my mum walking into the
bathroom.
"I was coming up to tell you that I'm taking your sister to the doctors
for a check up, she has been up half the night in pain, but I think you
had better come as well." She placed her hand on my forehead. 15
minutes later, we were bundled into the back seat of Mum's new Fiat
Samara for the drive to the doctors.
"These are the subscriptions for their QTPs. (Quick Transition Packs).
I'm afraid that beyond this I can not be much help, as a military
doctor, I usually only have post MORFs patients, if you like I can
refer you to a doctor more familiar with the MORFS virus and its
effects." The doctor was offering Mum a stack of medical forms. Doctor
Sinclaire as I later found out is a master at keeping people alive, his
genius had saved more peoples lives than people really gave him credit
for, but like most genius, his bed side manner sucked.
"Will these cover them during their transitions?"
"Certainly."
"Then I doubt there is anything another doctor can do..." My mother
smiled at him.
"Probably not, no. Have them use them as soon as possible, there is no
reason to prolong the suffering. If you like, I can pop round a few
occasionally and check on them."
"Thanks Doctor."
"No problem. To tell you the truth I am most interested in their cases.
It's rare I have to treat a MORFs patient at this stage. First though,
let's get the interfaces installed."
"Mum, I got a date tonight, I..."
"What will your date going to say if you spend most of the night
rushing to the toilet? Call her home and leave a message!"
I called Kait and left a message on her parent's answer phone, then,
with a sigh, I made my way up to my room. Sitting on my bed I took a
look at the plastic frame on my arm. The tight fitting device had
telescopic arms which closed around the arm, holding the intravenous
drip's needle stable in the arm. According to the instruction booklet,
the design allowed for rapid changes in size of the arm, while
protecting the wearer from ripping out the needle if they moved around
while asleep. Opening the pack, I took out one of the high energy bars
and took a nibble. It tasted disgusting, but I chomped my way through
the bar while I looked through the rest of the kit.
There was a foil wrapped pack of 10 capsules, 10 cartridges, and 9 more
energy bars. According to the instructions, each cartridge would last
around 11 hours, and the sleeping pills 12. I finished the bar, took a
quick trip to the toilet, stripped to my underwear and then headed for
bed. Lying down I took the first capsule with a glass of water, slipped
the first cartridge into the interface, clicked it into place and
rested my head against my pillow. Mum came in and sat down on the bed
next to me.
"Your sister has gone under." She took my hand and squeezed it. "Think
happy thoughts, and I'll see you when you wake up." It was the last
thing I heard before I couldn't stay awake any longer.
Fortunately for me, I have an en-suite bathroom ... well, I share it
with my sister, we both have a door leading from our bedroom to it. But
by unspoken agreement between us, she uses the main bathroom and I use
the smaller one. Our parents have their own. The room has a shower
cubicle, a toilet and a sink. It's fortunate that I have this, as I
don't think I could have made it to the main bathroom before I emptied
what should have been a relatively empty stomach. Mum, hearing me
retching, came in and started to rub my back.
"I just got your sister back to sleep. Feeling ok?"
"A little." Mum passed me a glass of water to sip, then gave the toilet
a quick clean up.
"Err, Mum, could you, err give me a minute?"
"What? Oh? Sure, Dear." She smiled at me and moved into my bedroom. As
soon as my door was closed I sat on my toilet and started to empty
myself out the other way.
"Any messages for me?"
"One from a girl called Kait, 'Get Well soon.'" I smiled.
Walking back from the bathroom I noticed my mother had just made my
bed. "Mum, its only going to get messed up again."
"I know, but I'm your mother."
I grabbed an energy bar from the box and took a mouthful. "Sheesh, this
stuff tastes disgusting."
"I think that's the idea, if they tasted nice, people might eat a lot
of them, and unless you need high energy for some reason, that's a bad
idea. Your hair's grown dear, I had better take you for a hair cut.
Once you're finished ..."
I finished the bar and grabbed another capsule and cartridge. "You OK,
Mum?"
"Just a little worried about you two...it's hard to have one kid going
through it...but two..."
I gave her a hug before swallowing the capsule and replacing the
cartridge.
"Don't worry Mum, we'll be fine."
I woke up feeling a little groggy, sat up and looked over to the
curtains. The sun was shining through and it looked to be a glorious
day outside.
My boxers felt pretty loose around my waist as I walked over to the
bathroom. I took a quick shower and washed off the slimy residue that
coated my skin, pat dried my fur and skin and pulled my boxers back up
before heading back to bed.
I opened my eyes to see a monster crawling up my chest, I knocked it
across my room, then waited a few seconds. Nothing happened, so I
assumed I must had imagined it. Getting up, I staggered once more to
the bathroom. I ended up having to hold my boxers up, as they kept
slipping down off my bottom and hips. Walking back across from the
bathroom, I noticed the monster. It was a little black cat cuddly toy.
It looked like it was ready to pounce on something, and it had a ribbon
around its neck. Picking it up, I noticed a white envelope not far from
it.
I sat on the bed and opened the envelope. Inside was a Get Well soon
card, everyone had signed a little message wishing me luck, with a
bigger one on the back from Kait, 'You do of course realise, that
cancelling our date at such short notice, now requires you to take me
on two dates. Get well soon, XXX'. I smiled, shoved the cat on my
pillow watching over me, took my medicine and went on another trip into
the world of my unconscious.
I felt a pair of hands poking my stomach, carefully, methodically
checking. Opening my eyes, I looked up into the face of Dr. Sinclaire.
"Ahhh, young man, you're awake. Jolly good."
I shook my head as I sat up and headed for the toilet. "How do you
feel?"
"Like I need the toilet" my voice was a little rough. Standing up, as I
started to head to the bathroom, my underpants slipped off, so rather
than bending over and grabbing them, I kicked them off, and headed into
the bathroom.
Mum was standing in the doorway to the corridor smirking. "Doctor
Sinclaire has just come to check up on you and your sister." I nodded.
As I came back from the bathroom, I grabbed a clean pair of underwear
and sat down on the bed.
The tests didn't take long, he checked my blood pressure, listened to
my heart and did the cough test. While he did this, I chomped my way
through an energy bar. I took my pill and replaced the cartridge after
the doc had said, "Everything seems fine."
I woke up chilly. I had kicked my covers off my body while I slept, and
my body was sore. Sitting up, I blinked a few times and looked down at
my body. I could see the marks where I had scratched myself, but I was
finding it hard to focus. My skin still felt a little tingly.
Carefully, I crossed my room to the bathroom and took another shower.
My eyes widened as clumps of the soft fur on my body washed away. I had
been warned I might suffer some hair loss, but not fur. Quickly, I felt
my head. Other than being a lot longer, the hair up there seemed fine,
if anything, thicker than what I was used to. Getting back to bed I
noticed the sheet was covered in my hair and the slime that was coming
out my body. I took the time to replace the bedding before taking the
pill.
The sun shone down onto my face and it's gentle rays gave me a warm
awakening. Smiling, I staggered to the bathroom, grabbing a T shirt to
wear instead of the boxers which I couldn't be bothered to hold up
anymore. What had been a good fitting T shirt, was now pretty big for
me. I got to the bathroom and looked into the small mirror over the
sink. I had been resisting looking into any mirror until the change
finished ... another advantage of my small bathroom was that it only
had a small shaving mirror. The eyes I saw weren't my eyes, not the
eyes I had looked into every day for the last 16 and a bit years. Gone
were the cat like slit pupils. It was irrational, it was so unlike
me...
Dad found me a little while later, curled up in the corner of the
bathroom. "I'm....I'm not me anymore ..." I sobbed between
uncontrollable tears.
"Nonsense, what makes you say that?" He had sat down next to me and put
his arm around me, cuddling me like he used to when I had a problem
before I grew out of it. He stroked my hair and I turned to look into
his cat like eyes.
"My eyes, they..." He looked into my now blue eyes and smiled.
"Son, they are your eyes, oh a different colour maybe, and certainly a
different shape, but the rest is you." He helped me stand up. "One part
of your body doesn't make you who you are, what matters is what is in
here." He tapped my chest where my heart is, "and Here," he tapped my
forehead. "If I have taught you anything, it's that these things are
the only things that are important. Everything else is just dressing."
I nodded. "It's just ..." He stopped me.
"Don't, just take the pill, slap in a cartridge and get the changes
done. If at the end you feel the need to cry at what you have lost,
feel free, I won't think any the less of you for it,. Just promise me
one thing, while thinking of what you have lost, think about what you
have gained, and remember your family will love you, regardless."
I nodded, smiled and headed back to bed.
"How is he doing?"
"Took the change in his eyes hard."
"I remember seeing my eyes become like this. How do they look now?"
"Human, he's lost a lot of weight and muscle mass..."
"The doctor said height, as well, I didn't notice, but apparently we're
a similar height now, and he used to be a few inches taller..."
"You don't think he's going through the same changes we did, do you?"
"It's possible, Kat as well you think?"
"She's barely changed much. A bit more muscle mass..."
"How did you calm him down?"
"Same way my father did me, gave him a hug and told him no matter what
we would still love him..."
"He should know that..."
"He does, it's just sometime you need reminding..."
"Want to remind me how much you love me?"
"All night long."
Half asleep, I staggered over to the bathroom and sat down, pulling the
T-shirt up and bunching it up around my waist. This thing used to be a
good fit on my upper body. Now it was a loose fit and covered my
bottom. My stomach itched a little, so I scratched it. As these things
always do, the itch moved north, I carried on up and then out...and ...
Out? I looked down, blinked, rubbed my eyes, looked down. No, I didn't,
I cupped them, I reached under the T-Shirt and cupped them again. I
decided I really didn't want to know, so I got up and crossed to my
bed, grabbed the 8th pill and swallowed it without water. The cartridge
clicked in and I closed my eyes, waiting to fall asleep.
I laid there looking up at the ceiling in my bedroom. My stomach wasn't
asking for food, I wasn't light headed like I expected to be, all in
all I thought, 'It's over.'
Slowly, I sat up. There had been a strange weight on my shoulders. A
trip to my bathroom relieved my body's waste disposal needs, and a
shower cleaned me up, and also gave me my first chance to rediscover my
body. I decided to start at the top and work down. Grabbing my shampoo,
I lathered my hair and started to wash the gunk from it.
Here I had my first shock. Normally I've always had short hair, less
through choice, and more through the fact it never got longer than its
inch and half length. Now, as I washed out my hair, it cascaded down
past my eyes, red, strong vibrant red hair, and judging by its presence
on my back, and well, front, it was down past my shoulders.
I looked at my hands. The good strong hands I'd had, had been replaced
with much daintier digits. I concentrated and my claws slid out, They
hadn't changed much, and looking at the size, my fingers were the same
length, just thinner. Pulling my claws back in, I did what had really
been on my mind the whole time, I cupped my breasts. It felt kinda nice
to touch them, it then occurred to me, if I had ... these ... then did
I have...? My hand went down.
I had gotten no further than cupping my nether region, and even that
had sent signals I wasn't sure were safe. I hastened my shower,
cleaning my body thoroughly, but in certain areas carefully, then
climbed out. Using my tail, I closed the shower door. Grabbing my
towel, I made my way to my parent's room and my mum's big mirror.
I should have been surprised to see the yellow post it on the glass,
but instead, I was somewhat relived. Ignoring it for the moment, I
looked at my reflection. My vibrant red hair was tipped by the black
ends from my old hair. Green eyes were on either side of a pert nose,
which was over a pair of lips I would have loved to have kissed. My
eyes flowed down my body, admiring my breasts, and acknowledging the
flat area between my legs. My tail's colour matched the root colour of
my hair, and other than a small bit which went up a little bit from the
root of my tail, held the only fur on my entire body. I looked at the
reflection again, at a girl I would love to get into my bed with me,
I'd just never thought, hoped, not thought that someone with this body
would be in the same bed as me for the rest of my life. Only there
being another person in that bed was no longer a necessity.
I took a look at the note.
'Jace, if you read this, I've taken Kat to buy some new clothes. You
should be about my size, so I left out this dress for you to wear. See
ya when we get home, Love Mum.'
There was an arrow pointing to the right. I followed it to a dress
hanging on a hanger. It was a light shade of pink, cotton and zipped up
the front. I sighed and walked towards the door, kicking my towel into
my hand as I passed it, thinking, 'I may be a girl now, but there is no
way I'm wearing Pink without a very good reason.'
Back in my room I hunted through my drawers till I found an old pair of
shorts that had become a little too tight. Pulling them on I found them
to be a good fit around my legs, but incredibly loose on my waist.
Fortunately there was a draw string. I sniffed the T shirt I had been
wearing, and threw it onto my wash basket with the two changes of
bedding already in there. I opened a drawer and pulled out a T shirt,
the American football top my father had gotten me when he came back
from a business trip here a few months back, the trip that had brought
us over here in the first place. It had been big on me before, now it
was positively massive. I opened a window then stripped my bed, the
bedding was filthy again. Grabbing it all, I carried my basket down and
shoved it all in the machine.
The calendar revealed it was now the Friday, 4 days I had been out,
which tallied up with the pills, bars and cartridge. I sat down on the
sofa and went to pick up the TV remote, there was another post it.
'The home work you've missed is on the table. Do that first.'
I ripped the note off and pushed the button to turn on the TV. Nothing
happened. I flipped over the remote and opened the battery compartment
... No batteries, but there was another post-it ...
'We will be busy all weekend, Darling, so get your homework done now.'
I blinked, sighed and got up; I was beginning to think, 'That women
knows me too well.' Sitting down at the table I opened the first book
and read the note
'That's my child; there are some BBQ ribs that just need heating in the
fridge. For when you get hungry'
"Yep, she knows me too well..."
My homework was no easier or harder than I expected it to be. First
week of a new year there was only really stuff that I had covered in
previous years, as a refresher for what was going to be taught. I was
just finishing my maths when I heard the car door open and close twice,
and realised Mum was home.
I walked into the kitchen and put the kettle on, if Kat was on normal
form she had probably dragged Mum around every shop in what ever
shopping centre they went to.
I heard the Front door open, the dropping of a lot of bags and then the
sound of someone running outside. Walking into the hallway I could see
it was blocked by about 6 bags full of clothes. Mum was just coming in
the door with some groceries. She saw me and smiled.
I started to make my way towards her to help. "Its OK, Dear, Kat can
get the last of it."
I nodded. "Well let me get a look at you!"
I spun on the spot. "I've done my homework; can I get the batteries for
the TV?"
"Nope, I need to take you out shopping."
"That's OK, Mum. I'm sure you're tired after being dragged around every
shop in the shopping centre."
"Hahaha, actually I had to drag Kat around."
"Hang on?! What caused this miracle?" I looked up to see my little
sister carrying 12 bags. Some were clothes, but most were food. Seeing
her carry that much after shopping wasn't that much of a shock. For my
family, that's the norm. Her appearance was a shock, though.. You've
got to understand my sister, she's an avatar for the goddess of skirts.
For as far back as I can remember I have never seen her in anything but
a skirt. But here she was, in shorts and t shirt, with a pair of
trainers, white sports socks, and a baseball cap on.
She looked at me, sighed, and pushed past, "It's so unfair ..."
"Huh?"
I looked at her as she walked away from me and noticed her tail was
gone and so was her hair.
"Kat's taken a similar change as you have ..."
"You mean ... ?"
"Yep, you have a little brother now..."
I stifled a laugh.
"I heard that!" She, or should I say, he stormed back, "You think its
funny I have to be a male? You think its fair? I had plans, you
bastard." She spun round and threw a kick at my stomach, or at least
tried to. The minute I realised what she was doing, the whole world
dulled and everything slowed down. I saw her foot swing round in slow
motion and aim for my waist. Almost painfully slowly, I moved my arm up
to intercept it. With a casual slap, I redirected her force away from
me and into the door frame. She had a look of surprise on her face, as
everything resumed normal speed and the colours brightened.
"KAT! Jace wasn't laughing at you, he ... she was laughing at the
situation. Now give your big sister an apology."
"Mum?" I turned to look at her. Kat started to cry. I turned to look at
Kat. Even as a Girl, Kat wasn't the crying sort. She was on the floor,
her trainer looked swollen. Looking at the door frame she had kicked,
it wasn't surprising why. The thick wood had been cracked, the point of
impact indented.
"Sob ... Sorrry ... sob ... Jace ... Its ... Sob ... just ... so ...
hard ..."
I bent down and gave her a hug. "It's Ok, Sis."
Mum had taken her trainer off and was looking at her foot. "It's
broken. We will need to take her to the hospital."
I watched as she set the bone and used some pencils and the bandages
from the kitchen first aid kit to splint it.
"Ok, Mum." I tried to stand up and pick her up with me, and realised I
couldn't.
"I'll carry her, Dear. You just go up to my room and put on the dress I
have ..."
"No, Mum."
"Dear, it's only a dress. Girls wear dresses. You will need to get used
to ..."
"Its not cause it's a dress, Mum. It's because its pink, and I won't be
seen dead in pink."
She had picked up Kat and was carrying her towards the front door. I
opened the house door and then opened the back passenger's seat so Mum
could put Kat in. Kat pulled herself onto the seat and rested her foot
across the back seat. "Girls wear pink dear."
"Not this one."
"But ..."
"No." I went back in to put on some trainers and realised as soon as I
put my foot in mine it was way too big.
"I picked you up a pair of trainers, I...err....I don't think you will
like them..."
"Huh?"
"They sorta match the dress." I sighed. The minute I saw the box I knew
I would regret it. From one of the bags she had pulled a pink shoe box,
and out of that box she pulled a pair of pink and white trainers.
"Did you get any socks?"
She looked worried, and pulled out a pack of 6 pairs of sports socks in
different shades of pink. I rolled my eyes, grabbed the palest of the
pairs and slipped them on before slipping into and doing up the
trainers.
"You'll wear them?"
"I don't like it, but getting her to Hospital is more important than my
pride."
She smiled. It didn't occur to me then, but Mum had done me a favour
getting me the shoes and socks, even if I did hate the colours. Mum
grabbed another smaller bag from the pile and passed it to me.
"You can put these on in the car. No daughter of mine is going around
like a hussy."
"Huh?" I looked in the bag as we headed out to the car, a bra and a
pair of panties.
"Oh...thanks Mum..."
"Trust me, once you start walking around a lot, you will thank me for
the bra."
Once in the car, I turned and smiled at my little sibling, and shimmied
out of my shorts and pulled out some pastel blue panties. I slipped my
feet into them and pulled them up and on, followed by the shorts. We
had just made it to the freeway when I started to pull my t shirt over
my head.
"No, Dear, keep your t-shirt on. You don't want to flash the other
cars."
"Err ... ok ..." I looked at my mum and smiled, everything suddenly
seemed so much brighter, and so much faster, and I could hear a high
pitch noise all around me.
"..CE!? Answer me!"
"What? What just happened?"
"Your eyes turned silver and you stopped responding. Are you ok? It's a
good job you came along. I think we need to get you checked out as
well."
I sighed and turned to look at my sister, sorry, brother. Got to start
thinking of Kat as my little brother.
"How you doing, Sprout?"
"Hey!" He had stopped crying and his foot looked a lot better. I
smiled. "My foot's stopped hurting, unless I poke it." He did so for
emphasis, and winced. "I'm really sorry, I could have really hurt you
there ..."
I smiled back. "You didn't though, did you? You seemed a lot stronger
than last time we sparred, you haven't been holding back on me have
you?"
"Well no ... when I woke up, I was really strong, I jumped of my bed
and instead of landing at the foot where I expected to, I hit the wall
..."
I giggled. He smiled.
"We could hear the thud from downstairs. Your Dad and I were worried
one of you might have injured yourselves," Mum commented as we pulled
into the hospital car park. "When he got up there, Kat was doing two
finger handstand push ups."
ER was pretty packed, we told the receptionist, then Kat and I found
some seats and sat around waiting for Mum to get back from trying to
find a friend of hers.
"It's really unfair you know..."
"Huh? What is?" I looked over at my now little brother.
"I spent 2 years waiting for my breasts to grow. They had just got a
little sensitive and started..."
"But you had..."
"Training Bra...and some padding..."
"Oh..."
"Some of my friends started growing and I didn't want to be left
behind... and ... and you get yours practically over night."
"Oh yeah, that's fair, I lose everything I know. Probably including my
girlfriend, because I doubt she is a lesbian and even if she, is I
doubt her father would be too happy ..."
"Well..."
"Not to mention, I happen to have liked my old body."
"Go and put your bra on, Dear," Mum whispered into my ear as she took a
seat next to me. I nodded and headed for the toilets.
"I don't think you want this one, Miss. This is the Gents. The Ladies'
is just behind you." I gulped as I realised I was about to go into the
Gents and turned and walked in through the pink door into the ladies.
Standing in a cubicle, I hung my top on a hook and slipped my arms into
the straps, took hold of the ends, and pulled them behind my back. It
took me 6 attempts to get the first hook to enter one of the loops ...
only unluckily for me, it was the wrong hoop for the hook. Next attempt
got it, and I had to rearrange myself to be comfy. Grabbing my top, I
stepped out and had a look at myself in the mirror. The bra lifted me
slightly, not that I had been sagging before, but the extra support
made my breast seems a little bigger. ... 'Not sure if that's a good
thing right now ...'
With the bra on, my breasts stood out that little bit more in my top,
and I could feel the stares of the men on me even more. Getting back to
our seats, I realised my Mum and sis ... brother ... weren't there any
more.
I crossed over to the receptionist, "Have the Neumers been called?"
She looked up at me, smiled and looked at a clipboard. "Room 5.C, your
mum said you would ask, just down there and to the right."
"Thanks." I followed her instructions and walked into the room. "I'm
sorry Ma'am. But there is nothing wrong with your son's foot."
"I'm telling you he broke it, not 20 minutes ago."
The man pointed to the X-ray. "Your son is very lucky then, because
this shows that the foot is healed. I will admit, this area here
implies the foot has been broken recently and healed straight, but not
20 minutes ago. I'll bandage it up for you, you should be fine."
Mum shook her head and Kat tried to put some weight on the foot and
smiled as he felt no pain.
"You took your time, Dear ..."
"It took me a while to get it on...and then..."
"You were admiring yourself in the mirror?"
"Yes...how did you ... ?"
"I was exactly the same."
"What?"
"When I changed at your age, I did exactly the same thing." I was
sitting in the back
of the car, holding my little brother in a hug when I felt a pull,
heard a twang and then the smack as my bra strap hit my back.
"Ouch." I looked at my little brother.
"Revenge," he said.
"NOT in the car. Kat, don't twang you sisters bra strap or you will get
the same punishment as she got when she did it to you."
"Mum, you were saying that you changed as well?"
"Yep, when MORFS hit me I was a nerdy little computer geek."
"Wow. So changing sex might be a Genetic response to MORFs?"
"Possibly, we don't know."
"Maybe it was triggered by you finally swapping spit with a girl?"
I eyed my little brother and then used my tickle skills to mercilessly
attack him.
"Mum...this isn't the way home. Where are we going?"
"Dr Sinclaire wants to give you a complete check, now you're out of
your transition, remove that interface from your arm, and then the base
gynaecologist will need to give you a full examination."
"Come again?" I said, my eyes widening as my brother laughed.
"Dr. Shelly Darkwater would like to give you a checking over. It's
something we girls all need to go through every now and then ..."
"Actually, that's two things I don't think I'm going to miss."
"Kat, stop teasing your sister."
"I'm going to have periods ... aren't I ...?" Looking back, I think
this was the moment when I first acknowledged what I now was. That was
the first point when it truly struck me. I was now a girl.
The OTI looked like an office block. Publicly they were a stock trading
company, buying and selling anything that would make them a profit.
Underneath that though, were the offices and training facilities which
churned out some of the best operatives in the world. At the time, I
didn't really know any of this. That came later.
Mum led us through the building from the car park to an elevator, where
she swiped her key card through the slot. The elevator option screen
changed and an extra button appeared on the digital screen. She pushed
that, and we descended. This was the second time we had come here. Both
Kat and I had been brought up with this, and knew to keep our mouths
shut. While here, or anywhere like it, we didn't see anything, we
didn't hear anything.
When I'd turned 16, both my mum and my dad told me that we had both
been hypnotically programmed to not be able to speak of anything to
anyone outside the family and people our parents said were safe. As you
can imagine, I was pretty upset about this. However once they explained
why they did it, I really couldn't do anything but accept it and
forgive them. This of course, meant our parents never had to lie to us
or in front of us. We knew the score, we just couldn't talk about it.
"Hello Karen, This must be your daughter, Sara." She smiled at me
before looking at Mum, who had briefly looked a little sheepish. "I
have spoken to Sinclaire, and he's in agreement with me, rather than
pass your daughter around to lots of doctors, I get to be the friendly
face that does them all." She was blonde, taller than me, but I had
already realised that my perspective screwed up my ability to judge
height, so I was guessing she was just under 5'10/5'11 in her shoes. A
white lab coat covered her black trouser suit; she held a clipboard in
her left hand, a traditional stethoscope round her neck.
"That's good, Kat was passed around to 6 different doctors this
morning. We were just on our way to see Slash. When would be a good
time to bring her by?"
"Oh, any time. I'm just doing paper work today, so any excuse for a
break from it,"
she smiled.
Mum nodded and we carried on down the corridor. "Why did she think my
name was Sara? And who is Slash?"
"Slash is your father. His code name was Black Slash, and so everyone
around here just calls him Slash, or the boss."
I noticed she had ignored my earlier question. "And her thinking I'm
called Sara?"
"Jace! Wow! You look almost like your mom did when she was your age,
only she was blonde where your red." I looked up to see Dad approaching
down the corridor, carrying two envelopes.
"Thanks ... I think." I replied
"It's good to see you up and about. After seeing you like that though,
I think I will have to invest in that shotgun a few years earlier than
I expected to need to ..."
"What?!"
"To keep the boys