[Vfw-times] Story : Figment, Part 15

[Hedonism]

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Figment, Part 15

Conclusion, and The Achievement of Goals

By Hedonism

Note : Conversations enclosed by colons : like this : are telepathic
communications, such as between Figment and her host, or from the mind of
one creature directly into another.

Synopsis : Rebecca has kept her best friend with her since childhood,
despite knowing full well that this friend, Figment (AKA Hedonism), is just
an imaginary one she never had the heart to forget with maturity. Putting up
with this minor psychological idiosyncrasy, she got on with life. Until two
vicious gangs attacked her, and the friend she knew damn well was just made
up turned out to be quite real, and capable of giving her ass-kicking powers
of transformation.

Rebecca is on a mission to find Figment after her friend, was extracted from
her by a sinister police-like organisation, the Union Of Coils. The Union,
composed of Werecreatures (animals capable of transforming into humans) and
Yuan-Ti (serpent-like entities also capable of appearing human) is dedicated
to hiding the world's population of supernatural creatures from humanity,
and protecting everyone from supernatural threats. Doctor Jagar, an evil
Yuan-Ti, extracted Figment from Rebecca and hid the creature away, tricking
the other members of the Union into thinking she had died.

Figment, still trapped in Jagar's Operating Theatre, is due to have her mind
destroyed so the doctor can take over the part of her brain that gives her
the ability to transform. Then he will merge the creature with himself and
gain her incredible powers.

When Rebecca confronted Jagar, he framed her for the murder of another
Yuan-Ti and had her jailed. She since escaped and found her way through the
Union installation back to the doctor's lair. Now slowly turning into a
lowly Lesser Serpent, she must find a way around the doctor's guardian, a
huge spirit Yuan-Ti. This is an impossible task, she has admitted even to
herself.

But Rebecca has found her allies - Werebird Sarah 'Magpie' Fritz, Nice Rack
the Weredeer super hero, and Amanda, her Weresquirrel sidekick.

Update from Oren Otter's simultaneous tale, Council Of His Peers :
Unpredictable but love-struck monster Critter-Man has also found his way
into the Union base, intent on rescuing Figment and Rebecca. Like Rebecca,
he is also pursued for the murder of a Yuan-Ti. The only difference is, he
is sure he committed the murder, and doesn't know if his alien instincts
will force him to kill again. At the same time, his allies, the super
powered humans of Kodhosian island, attack the Embassy to keep the Union
troops occupied.

With the human-countometer nearly at zero, we begin our tale.

* * * * * * * * * *

Jagar's mottled brown serpent body loomed over Hedonism as she lay on an
operating table, her body completely immobile from the paralyzing
electricity running through her body.

"I've received an update from John," said the doctor calmly. The captured
reptile swiveled her eyes up to meet his. Her neck remained immobile.

"He's nearly at your old host's prison cell. You know only I can stop him
from killing her now."

This time he used his mental powers to hide his thoughts from the parasite.
His agent would by now have killed himself and Rebecca. The stupid specimen
had taken too long to work out what she would do, so now he had to pad
things out, wear her down with waiting. He despised her inconsiderate
resistance.

"Yes," croaked Hedonism. "Only you could stop him... "

"Then give me your mind, and I'll save Rebecca."

"You don't think I know what you're doing, doctor? You killed Rebecca! I let
her die!"

Jagar snarled at the obstinate specimen.

"Now I'm going to die, doctor. I'm going to escape you. I'm going to meet
her again, maybe she will forgive me..."

The doctor's already sinister reptilian face darkened with fury. His whole
body writhed with unconcealed hatred as he slithered to the control panel,
tapped in a series of commands and flicked a switch. The electricity running
through Figment's form changed it's nature and massively increased as an
illegal modification he made to the bed created sensations that crushed her
nerve endings. As his patient screamed pitifully, the doctor wound up the
torture even more, typing calmly into the keyboard as her muscles were freed
just enough to thrash madly.

"You useless, _spiteful_ piece of meat!" he shouted, his needle teeth bared.
"You'll give me your mind or I'll keep the pain up! You don't need to die to
go to Hell!"

Jagar increased the voltage right to the top. He watched her squirm,
undergoing a torture without mercy of unconsciousness, and listened out for
her screams of regret while he prepared his machinery to destroy her
forever. He would never forget this day. He hoped the parasite really would
go to some Hell for not protecting her host, and for being such an obstinate
little bitch.

At that thought, he shuddered. Without Figment's power, he would sooner or
later go to Ssseth's Hell. This was utterly wrong to him. He needed
Figment's power to save himself from the inevitable...

No, not the inevitable!

* * * * * * * * * *

"Look at the size of that!" shouted Nice Rack over the indoor gale as she
aimed the heavy disintegrating rifle into the air. In a deeply sarcastic
tone she added, "Well, you could have made it _harder_ to shoot you!"

Rebecca fed her terror into a powerful sprint as the Weredeer fired liquid
light at the serpent apparition. The human hoped an anything-destroying
blast would attract the monsters' attention, whether it harmed her or not.

It didn't harm the ghost, and it didn't attract her attention. The immense
serpent watched Rebecca with interest as she ducked underneath her
translucent, floating coils. The disintegration blast went straight through
the entity and crumbled a wide area of ceiling into dust. A table tumbled
down from the room above and nearly landed on Rebecca as she ran.

An enormous tentacle descended, followed the human's running body, then
snatched her up. Rebecca screamed shrilly as she looked down at the floor
falling away. The monster's grasp was extremely gentle because it didn't
even have any solidity to injure her with. A vivid yet painless flash of
electricity swept over her, leaving behind a feeling of warmth and
relaxation. Rebecca slowly lost her fear of the enormous serpent, and
without understanding why felt a strange sense of trust replace it.

The spirit Yuan-Ti carefully placed Rebecca on the ground, about twenty
meters behind the rest of her group. Now on her stomach, she tried to get
up, but the huge Yuan-Ti fingers pressed down on her back. She saw a group
of three Union guards running towards her. One was a Yuan-Ti, the other two
were some sort of mammal-things, their bodies so well covered in armour that
she couldn't work out what species they were.

Rebecca looked up at the newcomers, quite terrified of them, as she
floundered against the floor in her struggle to get free from the ghost's
fingers. Despite her fear, there was opportunity to feel an odd kinship with
the ground, as if standing would make her sway and fall again.

As Rebecca struggled, she felt something crack on her face.

Ick.

She tried sliding forwards to escape the pressure on her back, and the crack
widened over her skull. Suddenly the world was filled with pink as her eyes
were covered by the flaccid skin on her face. Then her head burst free of...
her head? The monster's grip on her spine was no more, but it now felt like
she was trapped in a tight sleeping bag, or more accurately, constrained in
her own skin. She pulled again and wrenched her neck free, desperation to
escape this constrictive tightness stopping her from realising what she was
doing. More neck slipped free, a hell of a lot more than she used to have.
It was green, like most of Figment's scales. She pulled out her arms, only
now they were stubby little tentacles.

Rebecca desperately wanted someone to tell her what was going on. And hug
her and say everything would be all right. And... She wanted everyone to
stop fighting and be friends with her...

The serpent guard was praying fervently, lost in holy ecstacy as he looked
upon the splendour of his god's agent, the spirit. His
Weresomething-or-another companions looked on with slack-jawed horror as
they stared up at the unadulterated glory of the Angelic Yuan-Ti, emanating
power and indestructibility. They switched to watching the detention centre
escapees and tried to stop entertaining thoughts of converting to snake
worship after that demonstration of divinity. They certainly weren't willing
to look down and see a Lesser Serpent shedding her way out of a human skin.

Nice Rack screamed and bashed the disintegrator as she waited impatiently to
charge up for a fourth blast. By now the much-weakened roof above the
Angel's head was creaking alarmingly. The spectre kept her glowing eyes on
Rebecca.

"Bet you're feeling pretty weak now!" shrieked Nice Rack, furious that it
wasn't paying any attention to her. But others were.

"YOU'LL PUT DOWN THE WEAPON OR WE FIRE!" shouted the furry guards. Their
submachine guns were a better weapon at this range - a disintegration blast
travels slowly enough to dodge, unlike a flock of screaming bullets or bolts
of incapacitating electricity.

Realising Nicey was having too much fun to comply, Amanda ran towards the
guards and took a taser shot in the chest for her efforts, putting her to
sleep effortlessly.

Suitably distracted by the self-sacrificing squirrel, they didn't see Magpie
fly past them, now an inconspicuous little bird. She transformed back into
her half-human shape and stalked towards them, her irregular feathers and
low squat making her look like the shadow of a ragged scarecrow. In a flurry
of calculated movement she grabbed a mammal's gun with her feathery hands
while ramming a skinny talon into his groin. He willingly let her have the
gun and decided to roll around and sob for a while.

The second mammal twisted around, lifted his own weapon and was beaten to
the draw by Magpie. He barely felt the taser blast before sagging to the
carpet. The moment she turned her weapon towards the Yuan-Ti, a beautiful
glow beamed down on her black body. She looked up to see the Angel's hand
close on her and smash her into the ground. When the hand lifted again,
there was only a scruffy little magpie under it, surrounded by big black
feathers.

Sarah cawed and flapped around in a futile fashion. She tried to turn back,
but the angelic Yuan-Ti had done something to her. The knowledge of how to
transform had been robbed, as was her ability to fly. She muttered as she
realised she was now as useful to the fight as a bucket of chicken wings.

Rebecca whimpered pitifully as she looked around at herself, yanking her new
coils free from a deflating, sagging pile of skin and clothes. What happened
to the other fourteen days it was supposed to take her transformation to
finish? It had to be the ghost-thing, she must have wound the clock forward
somehow. Yet she wanted to hug the ghost and ask to be forgiven. She wanted
to hug everyone.

Rebecca had no choice in the matter anyway. The Yuan-Ti soldier placed his
gun on the ground and lifted Rebecca's sinuous body into his
squirmy-tentacled embrace. She didn't expect to feel happy at this, but she
did nonetheless. Her legs were no more and her arms were now flexible
tendrils, less than half their original size. Her face carried on into a
snout; this at least she had gotten used to earlier when Figment was part of
her life.

"I'll take you away from all this, Lessssser..." cooed the Yuan-Ti sweetly,
turning and slithering away. "You'll be ssafe in your cssell..."

Rebecca doubted that, given her experience so far. She craned her head
around at the hopeless duel between deer and ghost, and squirmed like a...
well, a snake, in his grasp.

"W,wwwaait!" she stammered, moving her serpentine mouth cumbersomely around
the word. Just getting enough bravery to talk was an effort, and her mind
was slow and jittery at the same time. She wished she didn't need to argue.
She just knew she'd get it wrong.

"Can I pleasssssss,ssss..." Okay, yes, a forked tongue was really hard to
get used to without Figment around. "Pleasssss,sse, ssssss, be with my
friendssss,sss?"

The Yuan-Ti stopped his crawl and sighed softly. "They won't be harmed.
Probably."

Rebecca tried to remember the creepy things the guard had said when she came
into the Embassy. Something about hoping she had the faith to come through.
And if she didn't, that they would look after her. And he put his hand on
her shoulder, looked at her like she was a child.

It was this Yuan-Ti's look that reminded her of that. He patted her on the
head and stroked her coils. She whimpered pathetically.

The creature tickled her belly. There was a hell of a lot of it to choose
from. She squirmed joyfully as she got used to yanking around her coils
until she could make some level of meaningful movement. She used this to
crawl over the serpent's body and back to the floor again. She smiled, proud
at her achievement in learning to slither. Now she used that movement some
more.

"That's good, Rebeecca! It'll be all right, you'll be sssafe with usss....
Rebecca? What are you doing? Put that down..."

The Lesser fumbled clumsily with the Yuan-Ti's discarded submachine gun. She
had to hug it to her underbelly and wrap her little tentacles around it.

"I'm ss,ssso, ssssorry... Don't Move! Pleasss,se?"

She wilted under the creature's stern gaze, but continued to disobey him.
But he didn't move. Lessers couldn't be trusted not to do something stupid,
and this Lesser was holding a gun.

"I, musssst resssscue my friend... Umm... how do I alternate, between
bulletssss,s and the tassser thingy? I'm going to ssshhhoot you, but I don't
want to drill you a new one..."

The Yuan-Ti asked for the weapon so he could show her. Rebecca was amazed
when she nearly gave it to him. After he told her instead, she beamed with
achievement when the Yuan-Ti sank bloodlessly to the floor.

* * * * * * * * * *

The roof caved in on the Angelic Yuan-Ti. Had the creature been solid, that
tactic would have buried her in tons of rubble. All it really did was make
the dust swirl mysteriously around the creature as anything heavier went
straight through. Nice Rack was immensely angry at all the effort she put in
for nothing. She ran to her suitcase and pulled free another weapon.

Having politely obliged the doe by staying in one place throughout the
attack, she swept forwards and raised her glowing tentacles above the
creature.

Surrounded in a nimbus of light, Nicey tumbled out of the way just before
the fist slammed down, saving herself from a cervine version of Magpie's
fate. She rolled back to her feet, pointed the Lesbo Laser at an area of
blank wall, then rolled again and found herself pointing it at another wall.
Muttering, she got up and aimed the weapon properly at the spirit's head,
then opened fire.

A beam of ruby light flashed into the serpent and diffused through her smoky
body.

"Are you not tired of this yet, deer? That doesn't hurt me either!"

"It's not meant to," replied Nicey. "It's the love that hurts!"

The Angelic Yuan-Ti raised her enormous tentacle over her foe. Then stopped.
She twitched as she felt something wrong deep inside, a terrible, gnawing
hunger, evil lusts that she thought had left behind when she departed her
mortal coils.

Nice Rack took Magpie's set of false serpent teeth out of her pocket and
slipped them over her own. She wriggled on the floor, laughing wickedly.

"Look at me, pervy! I'm a sexy serpent!"

The creature hissed softly, then writhed through the air towards the deer,
until she cackled, got to her feet and took out the teeth.

"And now I'm beautiful again! If you're too weird to dig mammal babes like
me, you'll have to go after a snakie instead!"

She grinned maliciously, and added, "Rebecca for instance!"

The creature looked around. She shook violently and gusts of wind forced the
dust from her body. Everything the Weredeer said was true. Every terrible
thing.

"Please, no!" wailed the spirit. "Ssseth, punish me now before I hurt
anyone!"

There seemed to be no divine help in that direction.

"Woo, snakie!" screamed Nicey, pumping her arm. "Bet yah love submissives!"

"Forgive me, Rebecca..." cried the spirit, unable to control herself.
"Though I deserve... none... Rebecca?"

The Lesser was gone. In her place was an unconscious Yuan-Ti, but he was a
damn male! That only left...

"Forgive me, Nice Rack... not even you deserve this..."

She turned around in mid-air and blew a gentle airstream over the doe. Nice
Rack stepped backwards as she felt some odd things shifting around about her
person. Her tongue probed a new set of sharp teeth, and these were quite
real.

"Oh, shinola..."

The ghost fought her implanted urges. The poor thing looked like it was
losing. That meant Nice Rack was also about to lose...

* * * * * * * * * *

Critter-Man thought the island of Kodhos was strange. Now it turned out
there was an even weirder civilisation on Earth, and unlike that of the
reclusive Kodhosians, the people that called themselves Werecreatures
actually dwelt amongst the humans. Apparently capable of assuming human
form, they formed a hidden subculture that, according to his ally Shtara,
had been around for over a thousand years.

And why did the Were exist? Shtara said they were simply speeded up
evolution to compensate for the human destruction of nature. As people paved
over animal territories, the animal gods changed their subjects into humans
and lived in the houses that were built over their lairs. Everyone was
happy. Except for those humans that found out that the Were existed and were
killed to keep things secret.

Apparently the Yuan-Ti came along only thirty years ago. Also a hidden race,
they bossed the Were about, taking the role of policemen. Though this got up
the Werecreature's noses, they were forced to accept that the discipline and
organisation of the Yuan-Ti police force, the Union Of Coils, made life a
lot easier and less unpleasant. The Were even started joining this force.
When other supernatural entities and super heroes started taking an
interest, the Union let them join because making them members stopped them
from committing crimes or becoming uncontrolled vigilantes. The Union became
very powerful indeed.

Now they had stolen the woman, or women, he loved. And now they were his
enemy.

The Union Embassy employed a lot of workers, in addition to their troops.
Now these people milled about the foyer, corralled by soldiers both to
defend them and ensure they didn't wander off into trouble.

They were almost all monsters, animals shaped as human and put into clothes.
Rabbits mixed with crocodiles, big cats chatted together in cliquish groups,
horses clopped the carpeted floor and weasel / ferret / stoat creatures
ordered sweets from the vendor. The serpentine Yuan-ti were almost
everywhere, normally naked in odd contrast to the smartly dressed others,
their tails bunched up so no-one trod on them.

There were occasional humans as well, or reasonable facsimiles of the same.
Like the Kodhosians, they exhibited powers that set them apart from regular
humanity. Indeed, they showed off these powers routinely. They needed to
look in some way inhuman or supernatural to ensure they didn't get confused
with a completely human intruder and arrested. It was a sort of reverse
racism, where looking different _stopped_ you getting into trouble.

It resembled Kodhos in other ways. He was a creature, but then no one else
here was normal, and he knew he could really fit in here. At least, he could
if he wasn't being hunted by the Union for the murder of one of their own.

This brought Critter-Man to thinking about that tragedy. He didn't
understand fully why he did it. Standing in Rebecca's library, he talked
reasonably to the cop and figured out what was going on. Then he became
angry at the creature, and lost it in a way he never had before. The cop
just talked reasonably to him and did his job. In return, he was murdered.

Critter-Man gripped his chest tight enough to draw blood as his thoughts
brought on his fears. That he would do it again. That he was losing control,
and there would be a point where it was unusual if he _didn't_ try to kill
innocent people.

Desperately unwilling to think about this any more, he watched as his
companion, Shtara the Greek Weremink, chatted familiarly with a Yuan-Ti to
find out where her boyfriend was. He was a Union soldier, the only one she
could trust not to turn him in. Maybe he also knew where Rebecca was.

Shtara took Critter-Man up a tight corridor towards the living quarters. The
obscuring cloak he wore and random psionic suggestions from the Weremink
kept people from taking too much notice of him.

"FREEZSSE! GET AWAY FROM THE WOMAN AND PUT YOUR HANDSSS UP!" shouted a voice
from behind. It boomed through the corridor, Yuan-Ti sibilation mixing with
an electrical hiss. Animal-people looked around and hurried away, leaving
Shtara and Critter-Man alone.

They turned around. Critter-Man sighed with annoyance, but the sound died
from his throat as he looked at the massive monster before him. Every inch
of flesh was covered by bulky, serpent-shaped armour, and it held the
biggest, longest infantry gun he had ever seen.

"YOU KILLED ONE OF OUR OWN! JUSSST GIVE ME A REASSSON TO BLOW YOU IN HALF!"

The electrically enhanced voice reflected anger and bitter pain. Inside this
war machine was a creature who was suffering.

"He is not who you are looking for!" interrupted Shtara, throwing out her
psionic power to convince the Yuan-Ti of her blatant lie.

"YOU ARE USING THOUGHT INFLUENCSSSE ON ME. THAT CONSSTITUTESSS AN ATTACK!"

The creature raised his gun, but didn't point it at her.

"ONLY IT WILL GO DOWN ON MY REPORT AS COMING FROM CRITTER MAN. RUN AWAY, I
GOT TO DISPENSSSE JUSTICSSE!"

"Do as he says, Shtara! Find your man while I teach this guy my own
justice!"

The Weremink nodded mutely and ran up the corridor.

Critter-Man leapt at the Yuan-Ti and clawed at it's armour. His natural
weapons were aided by a truly monstrous strength, combining into enough
power to slash a manhole cover in half. But he only put scars on this metal.
The monster slapped him off with it's tail, throwing him against the floor.

It raised it's rifle and fired a three-round burst. Critter-Man fell back
from the force of the impact as he felt some very thick ordinance perforate
him. He looked down at his stomach and estimated by the two ragged holes
there that it was firing bullets the width of tennis balls. He leapt back to
his feet, to the monster's amazement, and ran behind it.

Critter-Man knew he was in real danger here - if it incapacitated him by
dishing out too much damage, he could be captured, and they'd sooner or
later find out his real weaknesses.

He underestimated the flexibility of serpents. The monster twisted it's
tentacle arms and head around a full 180 degrees and fired another burst,
the rounds catapulting our hero backwards and ventilating his throat and
chest.

Wheezing roughly, Critter-Man jumped to his feet and leapt to the side, the
change of direction causing bullets seven, eight and nine to miss him. He
ricocheted off a wall and slammed into the beast, sending them both to the
floor. He punched the monster's gun and smashed it in two.

Scream-hissing with fury, the Yuan-Ti whipped it's coils around Critter-Man
and covered him from head to foot. It tightened it's grip, to the mechanical
click of servo-motors straining, the rattle of armour running over armour,
and Critter-Man's wheezes as his lungs emptied and his ribs imploded.

He bit into the coil under his head, but only drew light battle-scars across
it's metallic surface. His head filling with blood, his sight filled with
misty redness, Critter-Man's struggled to stay conscious.

In the relative calm of imminent coma, Critter-Man relished the pain and
violence he was suffering. Yet, there was something bothering him. Apart
from losing, of course.

He was fighting the same type of monster as the one he killed earlier, this
foul species that was responsible for Rebecca's abduction and Figment's
likely death. Yet he didn't feel so murderous as when he fought the earlier
Yuan-Ti. Indeed, this fight was a lot more desperate and frenetic than the
earlier one, but he still felt in control of himself, in control enough even
to think like this while he was dying!

Critter-Man lost the feeling in his lower body as his spine gave up. His
head felt like it was going to pop messily. He had to think clearly to
escape.

The Yuan-Ti's tentacle-gauntlets sprouted long talons, each one resembling a
curved combat knife. Unsatisfied with it's attempts to kill with
constriction, the monster thrust it's blades downwards towards it's captives
head.

Critter-Man's fist flew out in the opposite direction and pounded the
monster's scute plates. The armoured Yuan-Ti flailed backwards and partially
unwound from it's victim. As Critter-Man's limbs were thin and scrawny and
his body rounded, he managed to slip free of the coils.

Noticing the effectiveness of his earlier attack, he followed it up by
leaping towards the Yuan-Ti's helmet and landing a punch into it's
faceplate, forcing the creature's head to swing away. As it's tail rose, he
punched out at that, sending it reeling to the side. An arm swung drunkenly,
but Critter-Man just knocked it back down. He knew he couldn't damage the
armour much, but the blows were certainly keeping its occupant off balance.

The helmet suddenly raised and slammed into Critter-Man's head and a claw
dug it's cruel talons into his newly healed chest, performing instant quack
surgery. Inspired by this and driven by vengeful anger, Critter-Man hooked
an armour segment with his claws and pulled with all his might, wrenching
the plate away and exposing the creature's underbelly.

The reptile squirmed madly as it tried to get it's attacker off, but
Critter-Man rode the bucking bronco. One easy stab was all it would take.
Here was the serpent's death and his victory! One down, a few hundred to go!
He pushed his claws into the flesh, but not yet hard enough to break the
skin. The creature convulsed and lay still. The air filled with an
electronic crackle-hiss as the beast prayed for the delivery of its soul.
But Critter-Man paused.

"You should have died, like the last snake," said Critter-Man softly,
tensing his claws. "I don't know what's wrong with me..."

Then he started to smile, unconcealing his fangs. "Maybe a lot less than I
think..."

The serpent halted it's prayer.

"I don't want you to get this the wrong way, but... Take your clothes
off..." said Critter-Man. He winced and smiled.

The Yuan-Ti twitched it's tail and pointed it's claws at him. Critter-Man
responded by jabbing it's exposed belly. Eventually, it lay flat and pulled
off it's helmet, revealing a scared scaly face. Rather than disassemble the
suit, the Yuan-Ti just pulled it's way out of the neck. It looked at
Critter-Man, puzzled.

"Why _didn't_ you kill me?" it asked.

Critter-Man shrugged. "I'm pretty surprised I didn't. I take it you're glad
I didn't kill you?"

"Uhhh... Yeah."

"That makes two of us. Now go away."

Alone in the corridor, the furry creature checked his body for errant
wounds, but his immortal flesh had edited out all the mistreatment inflicted
upon him. So he still wasn't yet an irrational killer. Well, that was some
progress. Oh, and he was still alive, which was also nice.

* * * * * * * * * *

Doctor Jagar flipped his body around as several shots smashed away at the
wood surrounding the lock on his door. Suddenly terrified, he grasped his
gun and shot through the door at about the height he expected his intruder's
chest to be. When the portal flew open, he realised his mistake in not
expecting the intruder to be a Lesser Serpent, her body almost completely
against the ground.

Rebecca rolled and flipped her serpent length through the entrance as Jagar
adjusted his aim and holed the carpet where the creature's long body had
been. Ducking out of sight and squirming behind machinery the Yuan-Ti tried
to work out why on Earth a Lesser Serpent was armed with a gun and breaking
in. A lick of the air, a taste of the intruder's scent, told him. Rebecca
had somehow made an early transformation into a Lesser Serpent.

The Lesser wondered if she had it in her to kill someone. Even a snake. Even
a monster like Jagar! Then she looked ahead and saw poor Figment. The
creature was now utterly still on the table, and the Lesser's enhanced scent
glands picked up the unpleasant smell of burning skin, while some
unidentified serpent sense picked up the tang of high voltage surrounding
the body. The Lesser submissive trait was battered and crushed under shock
and pain. She now knew she could commit murder.

The doctor smiled slickly and reached into a drawer. He hadn't too much to
worry about from a Lesser, and nothing to worry about at all if the creature
was Rebecca.

Figment opened her eyes. The massive voltage continued to stream through
her, but there was no accompanying agony. There never had been. The first
thing she had done when she expected to be tortured was turn off her pain
sensations. But she _was_ getting electrically cooked on this table. She was
dying, and she still couldn't get up.

But Figment was filled with happiness as she saw Rebecca, the once-human's
mental signature instantly recognisable even if her new form was not.

The doctor leisurely dialled into his mobile phone the tones that when heard
by Rebecca would put her back in a trance. The lesser heard the tone and
shrieked as she knew what would happen. Her desperate screams to drown out
the sound ended as Jagar completed the number combination, and the
post-hypnotic suggestion inside the Lesser took her offline.

"You will come out into the open, serpent!" ordered Jagar.

Rebecca slithered aimlessly out of cover and raised her front half to look
at the doctor. Her tentacles clutched the submachine gun loosely. The
Yuan-Ti grinned maniacally and raised his pistol. He wished he had time to
make things a lot more painful for the human, but he was much more concerned
with covering his messy tracks. As far as anyone else was to know, the
Lesser had returned and tried to murder him again. So what choice did he
have but to kill her?

"Rebecca! You will shoot the living s**t out of me!" cried the doctor's
voice. Jagar looked around, his smile gone. He should have used that time to
dodge instead. Rebecca's gun spat it's bullets into his right tentacle and
he screamed as he dived behind Figment's table.

"Now you'll wake up and never respond to any of my hypnotic suggestions
again!" shouted Figment, her voice exactly matching Jagar's despite fighting
to overcome the paralysis.

Rebecca shook her head, making most of her body wiggle. The doctor hissed
with hatred as he poked his gun out and tried to shoot the Lesser from
around the corner. Rebecca slid behind a machine-laden trolley, then looked
at Figment's bed. Seeing the creature's eyes now open, she became elated at
the possibility of the creature still being alive. She fired full auto into
the table in a bid to stop it from electrocuting her friend. Then she ran
out of bullets.

The doctor heard the sounds of her submachine gun clicking on empty and
darted forwards. Rebecca looked up at the monster's endless scaly body as he
loomed over her and aimed his gun again, clutching it in his shaking left
hand. Rebecca dropped her spent firearm and tried to leap away.

A tail looped around the doctor's tentacle and yanked it to the side. Scaly
arms grasped his chest, and a maw closed around his neck, followed by the
mouths of twenty snakes. Figment's angry serpent hair.

Screaming with fear-enhanced fury, the Yuan-Ti grasped the little parasite
and threw her across the room. Rebecca leapt after the tortured creature and
they collided in a pile of assorted scaly limbs.

Rebecca clutched her beloved creature tightly. In return, Figment snapped
her teeth around the Lesser and bit deep into her side. She shrieked with
pain and surprise.

Jagar brought his pistol to bear and immediately shot their clutching forms.
They twitched with the force of his bullets as he punched thirteen holes
through them, emptying his own weapon. They wriggled a little more then lay
still.

The bullet holes started to close up on their shredded forms. Jagar's maw
dropped open.

Rebecca was paralyzed. If she hadn't been, she would have been squirming
with pain as Figment re-entered her through the bite wound she had
inflicted.

: I'm sorry, Rebs! I can't be gentle! I'm sorry I'm hurting you! :

The little serpent felt all the icky but important liquids seeping out of
her get replaced by her friend's body.

: Don't be such a wuss and get the hell in there! Don't leave me again! :

Figment basked in the profound emotions of her host as she collapsed their
bodies into one mass.

Jagar slithered free of the room and desperately made his escape as the
bodies resolved into a round blob. The green flesh split, and a knot-muscled
arm pulled free, the hands tipped with silvery claws. The conglomerate
form's head next breached the egg-shaped mass, a crocodilian maw with
out-proportioned fangs and serrated horns on a long reptilian neck. It's
other limbs followed, the sturdy mass of muscles making them look like
gnarled tree trunks. Hedonism stood up on her new legs as her shapeless
chest resolved. Enormous wings spread from behind her as foot claws dug into
the floor. Her tail slid free and swept table and chairs out of it's way.
The serpents grew once more from her head, but now their faces were just
huge mouths crammed with teeth. She was now nine foot tall and covered in
sinuous muscle, her hardened scales glinting nastily - each overlapping
plate was sharp as a razor and tougher than a tank hull.

This powerful form was immensely draining, but the emotions that fuelled it
were practically limitless. Rebecca and Figment still felt like they would
explode through the brunt of feelings they shared. Their main emotions were
of relief and unity. And naked anger and vengeance. They started off in the
pursuit of doctor Jagar.

By Hedonism

Critter-Man © Oren Otter

The Scientist, Nice Rack, Amanda Hugnkiss, Beverly Bunny © Jesse "Karva"
Blough

The Yuan-Ti, Ssseth © ReynardFox

My Story an' Stuff Archive :
http://users.transfur.com/hedonism/