Taralynn’s Desk

“Rise and shine, my little prisoner. Today is a big day!”

The lights came back on and Spook’s eyes fluttered open. He could feel a kink in his lower back. Sleeping up against the wall of a tube wasn’t very comfortable. “Unck. These tubes are terrible for sleeping in!”

“Well I didn’t exactly design them to be a nice bed.”

“Yeah, but if you’re going to leave people in them overnight you could at least make them a tad bigger so there is some leg room. Do you have plans on putting people in these tubes often?”

The villain paced around the Faderulzene® tube. “Hmm–maybe. I haven’t fully decided yet.”

“Just a suggestion.”

“Duly noted. Thank you for your input. Anyway, did you have a good DREAM session?”

Spook grumbled and rubbed his eyes. He stood up slowly; his entire body felt slow and heavy. “I don’t remember my dreams often. What does it matter anyway, villain? Can’t we just get to the part where you reveal your villainous plot and then I kick the tar out of you because I’m the hero and you’re the villain?”

“Okay, dude, you said villain or some form of it like three times. You really need to work on your redundancy problems.”

“My question still stands.”

Dr. Faded walked to a control panel and started pressing buttons. “Then to answer it, no. I’m kind of an old-fashioned villain in this regard; I like to draw it out a little for dramatic effect.”

“Damn it.”

He scanned the view-screen, nodding at a few figures with a smile. “Perfect. He finished reading the screen and faced the hero. “Anyway, I wasn’t asking if you had a good dream. I asked if you had a good DREAM session. DREAM is an acronym for the gas that you’ve been breathing in all night. Remember my story about the mutagenic chemicals I stole from the Gaussberg Chemical Disposal plant? DREAM was designed by modifying those very same chemicals.”

“And how was I supposed to know it was an acronym?”

Dr. Faded ignored Spook’s actual question and answered the question he felt that should have been asked. “DREAM stands for Deamination Reagent Eventually Allowing Metamorphosis. It’s absorbed through the lungs when you respire and eventually passed through the blood. You may have noticed that you feel slightly heavier than normal. That is to be expected as DREAM is heavier than normal blood cells. Given the amount you’ve breathed in I’d say you should feel about three pounds heavier than normal. Not much but you’d definitely notice the change.”

“De-animation? You’re going to make me stop moving?”

“No! DeaMINation. It’s a mutagenic process where a guanine-cytosine base pair can be transformed into an adenine-thymine base pair. Most cases of deamination are random mutations to a person’s genetic code and as such cause complications. But DREAM can be custom designed to fit a specific person so you can change their DNA as you desire. You just have to have a DNA sample from the person you desire to change.”

Spook’s eyes went wide. “You’re changing my DNA‽”

Dr. Faded put his hands in his pockets. “No.”

“Whew!”

“I’m GOING to change your DNA.”

“You just said you weren’t going to.”

“No, I didn’t. I said I wasn’t currently changing your DNA. But I will be shortly. There’s a difference.”

“I thought you said I had already been breathing in this DREAM stuff all night. Isn’t that the stuff that de-animates my DNA or whatever?”

“Again, not de-animate; it’s deaMINate. Work on your pronunciation. And yes, it is the stuff that will change your DNA but it’s inert. That’s why the E in DREAM is ‘eventually.’ If it happened immediately the acronym would have been DRAM.”

Spook rolled his eyes. “Yeah, that’d be just horrible if the acronym didn’t match up with a cute little word.”

“Indeed.”

“So if the DREAM is inert, what is it exactly that activates it?”

Dr. Faded smiled and pulled his hands out of his pockets; in his left hand was a large syringe filled with a pinkish liquid. “Just a little bit of honey.”

“That doesn’t look like honey.”

“Ah, another astute observation. Honey is just the short version of the real acronym, HONIE-F.”

“Geez, another acronym? Do you give stupid acronyms for everything you invent?”

Dr. Faded started shaking the syringe. The pinkish liquid turned more of a fuchsia color. “No, just whenever I feel like it. These acronyms aren’t the easiest thing to create either. Anyway, HONIE-F stands for Heredity Overriding Nano-machines Imitating Endocrinal Functions.”

“I’m going to have to endure another explanation, aren’t I?”

“Yes. You see, what looks like just a simple gelatin is actually millions of little cell-sized machines built out of simple proteins. Normally, the immune system would try to destroy them as soon as they entered the body but they are designed to look like normal bodily hormones. Quite ingenious if I do say so myself.”

“Yeah, you’re a real Einstein.”

The mad scientist adjusted his goggles. “You know, you really should feel quite honored.”

“Is that so?”

“It is! You see, the DREAM gas has to be specially formulated to the DNA it’s going to eliminate. It’s a process that takes weeks! You have been all I’ve been working on for a month. From the time I got the first sample of your DNA to now, everything has been designed for this moment.”

Spook squinted. “How on earth did you get a sample of my DNA?”

Dr. Faded laughed. “Please, Daniel! You’re a shipping manager who works in a mail room for one of the biggest companies in Pinnacle City; you leave your DNA everywhere.”

The hero grumbled. “Your point is well made. Still, what do you gain by changing my DNA?”

The villain smirked. “Ah, now we get to the main event. The ever so predictable, ‘why are you doing this?’ segment of the bad guy/good guy dialogue. It is an ever so diabolical plan, dear hero. Very well, this plan has two benefits for me. You see, both DREAM and HONIE-F are untested in humans. You’re my guinea pig.”

“Guinea pig‽ I’m a human being, you monster!”

“No, you’re a super human. You might have gained your powers by experimentation anyway.”

“Experimentation? What experiment would give me the ability to phase through solid matter and possess people?”

Faded shrugged. “Could be anything really. Could be a time travel device blows up letting you move out of phase with space-time. Or perhaps someone was trying to take readings on some mystical item designed to help ferry spirits to the afterlife. Or maybe you were just bitten by a radioactive ghost. But at any rate, you’re my guinea pig. Should this experiment prove successful I can produce less, how we say, illegal versions of DREAM’s genetic altering abilities and honey’s nano-technology on the open market and make a killing.”

“Why on earth does a villain care about the open market?”

With a tug, Dr. Faded pulled his gloves tighter. “Super-villainy has a large overhead. Large overhead costs require large sums of cash. Large sums of cash are most easily gained not by stealing, but by legitimate business. Did you heroes think you’re the only ones with secret identities?”

“Well—I mean I didn’t think heroes were the only ones who had them but… okay, I guess I have to concede that point to you.”

He cackled. “You heroes assume too much.”

“Okay, so you need a test subject. But any random shmo off the street would have sufficed for your experiment. Why did you decide on using someone with super-powers?”

“Ah, a very shrewd question, Spook. To answer your question you must understand a bit of the organization of the Villains’ Union. Much like how DEVO has different classes of heroes, the VUA has various levels. Right now I am a Phi-level villain and have been so for over a year and a half now. I would like to move up to Chi-level but that is impossible currently.”

“Why is that?”

An evil flash of light glinted of Faded’s goggles. “From Sigma-level up to Phi-level, you advance based only upon the principles of time served and villainous competence. To advance to the next level, one must prove you also have the ability to lead—and part of the leadership qualities is I must have an honest to goodness minion… preferably sexy female ones with super powers.”

Spook’s hands clenched into fists. “And what does that have to do with me?” Dr. Faded pulled a remote control from his pocket. He pressed a small red button and Spook felt an electrical surge coursed up through the floor and into his body. “GRG!” It wasn’t immensely painful, but he could feel all his muscles tighten to the point of not moving. “What…is…” Even his lips froze.

With another press of the remote control, the Faderulzene® tube lifted off the ground. Freedom was so close; but Spook couldn’t move a muscle or force his body to become incorporeal. “DREAM has this wonderful property I worked into it. You see, once it is in the system, if I send the right amount of voltage into your body, it reacts in such a way that you can’t send the proper signals from your brain to your body to move. You’ll find it also interferes with your ability to control your powers.”

Firmly in control of the situation, the villain fearlessly approached Spook with the needle of “honey.” He tapped on the heroes left wrist, looking for a good vein. “You see, Spook, I wanted a minion with powers that could prove quite useful as well as be interesting to study. As I previously stated, the nature of your powers are quite a mystery to me, so that fulfills the interesting to study aspect. As for useful,” he chuckled, “being able to move through solid material is always useful.”

The mad scientist pushed the syringe into Spook’s arm and pressed the plunger down slowly. “Once I decided that you were to be my minion, I needed to devise a way to turn you into a sexy female. To that end I created DREAM and modified the nano-technology I already possessed to make ‘honey.’ All that remained was to determine how to, shall we say, domesticate a former hero into doing my bidding.”

An unpleasant grating sensation entered Spook’s body, like grains of sand rubbing against the linings of his blood vessels. “The pain will subside as the ‘honey’ dissipates throughout your system.” Dr. Faded pulled the syringe out and placed it on a tray. He then opened up a small metal box, pulling out what looked like a purple microchip. “Remember yesterday how I told you about that chip I stole from Gaussberg University that was used to control wild animals? I modified it until it could be used to control something a little more complex than a cat. I call it the BABE-R chip. And yes, BABE-R an acronym Brain, Attitude, Body, and Emotion Regulator chip. I am going to place it on your upper spinal chord and it will act as a router for your brain systems to help me regulate what you do and to control the nano-machines that are now running alongside your red blood cells.”

Faded pressed a button on his goggles. “Now, as to how I’m going to get this chip on your spinal chord. I’m going to have the nanomachines send a signal to your brain to go incorporeal, then immediately the nanomachines will cancel that order. If my theories are correct, and they usually are, this should cause only the dermal layer of your body to be incorporeal for a few seconds. I will then use my x-ray feature on my goggles to make sure that I place the Babe-chip in the right spot. Now, I must warn you that the effect will only last for a few seconds so if I don’t work quickly enough there is a chance your skin could become solid while I’m still working through it. If that happens we both will be regretting it. Also, there is a very minute, but nevertheless non-zero chance that in doing this your skin might just fall off your body, in which case you will die a horribly painful death. Again, it’s an incredibly remote chance, but I thought it only fair to warn you.”

This was not good at all. Spook tried to remember what the Department of Enhanced Vigilante Oversight field book said about situations like this. Step one was activating your emergency alert signal—which of course Dr. Faded had wisely confiscated as soon as he had been knocked out. Step two was engaging your foe in conversation as long as possible to delay him or her—which he couldn’t talk right now because he was paralyzed. Spook was beginning to see the situation was out of his hands.
An unfamiliar tingle reverberated throughout Spook’s body. He could feel something turning on his intangibility against his will, only to then deny his body from doing so. His skin turned onyx and he prayed it didn’t fall off as Dr. Faded had warned was possible.

“Ah, excellent! Seems your intangibility is indeed based upon quantum principles. Now this should only take a second. First I just need to destroy your pain receptors where this is going so that you don’t go mad from the constant pressure the chip will apply.” A terrible sting seared at the top of Spook’s neck as a syringe plunged into his spine. He wanted to scream but couldn’t muster his muscles to do so. Then the pain stopped. “There we go. And now, we install the BABE-R chip… make contact with the nerves…” With no pain, the remaining sensation of a hand moving along his spine was just—fuzzy was the only word he could think to describe it. Then again that could have just been his brain craving the oxygen it wasn’t getting because his muscles were frozen and hadn’t breathed for a little over a minute.

“All done!” Faded tapped his goggles again to turn off the x-ray feature. He stepped away from Spook and pressed a button, bringing the Faderulzene® tube back around the paralyzed hero. With another button press on the remote control, the electricity coming from the floor stopped, freeing his muscles. Spook collapsed to the ground, panting for air like never before. Dr. Faded laughed. “Oh yeah, I forgot that you wouldn’t be able to breath without use of your muscles. Silly me.”

Spook glared daggers at him. “You pant are a pant madman!”

Faded folded his arms, amused. “Am I now?”

“You plan to use your nanomachines to turn me into a woman?”

Faded shook his head. “No, I plan to use my nanomachines to turn you into an especially curvy, buxom, and delicious woman. Big difference.”

Spook grit his teeth together. “But why? If you could control me with this chip like you claim, why go to the effort to change my DNA?”

Folding his arms, Dr. Faded simply smiled. “Because, foolish hero, if I kept you the same, people would recognize you. Plus, I’m a villain and good villains are surrounded by sexy minions. It really makes a lot of sense if you’d just stop and think about it.”

Spook stood up and pounded his fist against the tube. “You’ll never get away with this, Faded!”

Dr. Faded shook his head. “I’ll never get away with it? Really? So cliché. But if you wish that to be your last words as a super hero, then so be it. Babe-R Zero: Activate. Authorization code delta-thirty-six. Register Administrator as Dr. Faded.”

The hero could feel the chip on the back of his spine spring to life. “Not good!” The villain snapped and a light purple mist filled the chamber. “What the hell is this gas for?”

“It eats away at clothing. Your body is going to be doing lots of shifting so for your comfort we’re just going to do away with clothing until you’re finished with your metamorphosis. Also it will obscure what’s going on inside the tube to keep you decent.” Faded chuckled. “Shall we begin? Initiate Process Velvet!”

Spook punched the tube as his superhero uniform began falling apart. “Eat away at my clothing? Do you realize how long it took me to make this costume?” He could feel the millions of nanomachines inside his body come to life.

“I don’t know? Ten minutes from the looks of it. Did you buy it all at a thrift store or something?”

“It took me hours to design that thing! I’m on a limited budget you…” Spooks hands and feet lost their calluses. His body hair fell to the ground as his skin lightened to a very faint peach. Goosebumps popped up over his suddenly supple skin. “…you… brrr, did it just get colder in here?”

“I’m sure it would seem so from your perspective. I must warn you that this next process might be a bit of a shock for you.”

“What process?”

Dr. Faded activated his x-ray goggled. “Initiate Process Plumbing.”

Spook was overcome with a feeling of nausea. Dizziness threatened to overcome him, so he braced himself against the wall of the tube. After a few moments, the sensation passed. He sighed but something still felt very wrong. He looked down and quickly discovered what wasn’t right.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

“Thirteen point seven seconds between process beginning and ending judging by that sound.”

“You son of a BITCH! Change it back! Change it back or I’m going to…”

Faded grabbed a clipboard and began writing something on a piece of paper. “Hmm, that process took much shorter than I thought it would. Nanomachines must be more efficient than I previously estimated. Initiate Process Junk-In-Trunk.”

“…and then feed it to… did you just say ‘Process Junk-In-Trunk’?”

“Mhmm.”

“I don’t like the sound of that.” Spook felt his hips press outwards. “No! Stupid ass! Don’t listen to him!” He turned his head and looked down, watching as the cheeks of his butt swelled outward like beach balls being inflated. “No! Quit it!” They didn’t stop until he had a rear that looked like something that belonged on the cover of a hot rod magazine.

Faded whistled. “Woo! Now that’s an ass a man can stand behind!”

Spook shook his head. “I’m not going down without a fight, you bastard!” His skin turned onyx as he activated his powers, trying to disrupt the mad scientist’s control over his body.

Dr. Faded just yawned. “Babe-R Zero terminate meta-abilities until auditory permission is given. Initiate Process Catwalk.”

Spook winced as he felt something click in his brain. The ghostly black faded, and his skin returned to its new cream color. “What the…how did you enk!” He winced as he felt the nanomachines come alive in his legs. His bones thinned, twisted, and shortened. His knees pulled closer together as his rock hard calves and hamstrings gave way to soft, long, luscious legs atop dainty feet.

“How? I have a chip filtering and sending signals throughout your brain. Your powers might interfere with the transformation process and we can’t have that, no can we? Initiate Process Hourglass.”

Spook’s entire waist began thinning, creating the look of a pear when combined with his sizeable butt. His shoulders narrowed to match the width of his hips. But most concerning to Spook was the fact that everything around him seemed to be getting bigger. Through the purplish smoke that filled the tube he could make out the figure of Dr. Faded and he was getting taller. Before he stood eye to eye with the villain, and now he found himself eye-level with Faded’s collarbone; that was a drop of eight to nine inches!

Faded laughed. “My, my, my you shrunk quickly.” He clicked his pen and continued writing notes. “This process is going much quicker than I anticipated. I might be able to pick you up with one arm at your current weight.”

Spook snarled. “Just try it and you’re going to have a broken arm!”

“Hmm, looks like that could be true. But not for very long because it’s time to fix your unnaturally long and beefy arm problem.” Spooks old arms did look ridiculous on his current frame. His hands hung around his knees and his strong biceps did not match his lithe body. “Initiate Process Arm-Candy.”

Just as they had in his legs, his bones thinned in his arms and shortened until they were of a length that matched his smaller stature. His ripped muscles lost mass and merely became willowy and toned. Even his fingers narrowed, contrasting to the lengthening of his fingernails. “No! Dammit, no!” He balled his dainty hands into a fist and punched the Faderulzene® wall in frustration. Spook quickly realized that his new hands couldn’t take the punishment they used to.

Faded smirked. “I wouldn’t do that. You might break a nail.”

Spook shook his throbbing fist. “I’ll make you regret messing with me Faded! Mark my words!”

“Unlikely. Initiate Process Bombshell.”

A burning sensation overcame the man’s chest. “Oh no.” Two small bumps pressed outwards from beneath the skin. “No no no no.” The bumps further swelled into a pair of pert mounds. “No! Just… just no!” The mounds, heedless of Spook’s pleas, continued to balloon outwards, until a proud pair of marvelous mammaries that would rival any model’s rested on the former hero’s torso. “No! NOOOOOOOO!”

Faded cackled wildly. “Nice rack you have there, Daniel.”

“SHUT YOUR TRAP YOU ASSHOLE! I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

Dr. Faded sighed. “So very, un-heroic of you, chesty. All that mass you lost had to go somewhere. I would really think you’d be more understanding. Initiate Process Facelift.”

Spook winced as he felt his jawbone chisel itself down to a point. His cheekbones lifted and rounded while his brow receded. He temporarily lost vision as his amber irises swirled around like paint being mixed and turned into a brilliant emerald. Vision slowly returned as he batted his extending eyelashes. “I’m going to faind a bay to… dabbit!” He found it difficult to speak as his lips swelled, tongue shrunk, and teeth rearranged themselves to match his smaller jaw and cute, effeminate face.

“Almost there, Spooky. Just two more steps to go. Initiate Process Red-Mane.” His short brown hair dribbled down his shoulders and seemed to rust, becoming more and more read. Soon the rust had given way to brilliant blood red locks that oozed down his back like lava slowly flowing down a volcano, finally stopping at her sizable rump.

“What the… red?”

Faded shrugged. “Hey, I like redheads. And though the smoke conceals you, I can tell you’re ready for the final touch. Initiate Process Songbird!”

Spook wanted to yell, to curse, and in general lambaste Dr. Faded, but was cut off by a fit of coughing. He felt like millions of tiny spiders were crawling up his throat. With each wheeze, his voice jumped up another pitch. Finally the fit passed and Spook could breathe again.

“I’m not going to… oh god! Tell me that’s not my voice!” The sound of Spook’s new voice terrified her. It was as dark and thick as ganache, oozing sexy with each syllable. Its breathy tones penetrated the tube and filled the room with a timbre so electrifying that it sent chills down Faded’s spine. “Ooo! Nailed it! A couple of lessons and you could be my own personal cabaret singer, doll!”

Spook tried to sound menacing, but her voice seemed to only allow inviting purrs. “I’ll make you pay for this, Faded! You here me‽ You will pay!”

“Will I now? I haven’t even had a chance to see the finished product and I’m already convinced you’re worth the cost. Clamp her down!”

“Clamp?” No sooner did the words escape her lips did four arms descend from the top of the tube, each clasping and locking an elbow or knee in thick metal cylinders. “The hell?” They were right and rigid, not allowing any room for her arms or legs to bend. A heavy whirring noise spiraled above her, and she lifted off the ground and hovered in the air. “Aek!” The unexpected nature caused her to emit a short, girlish shriek. “What in the name of justice is happening now‽”

“Oh, don’t worry my little minion. Those are just metal restraints that are very responsive to magnetic fields. I needed to keep you still so you can get dressed in your new uniform.”

The same four arms that clamped her went to work dressing the former super-hero. With expert quickness it slid a black strapless bra and panties over her naked body. Spook was amazed by how much less strained her back felt. The mechanical hands somehow squeezed her into a pair of black short-shorts. The magnetic field changed and forced her arms high into the air, allowing a tube-top with a sweetheart neckline to be pulled over her head and zipped up, putting her cleavage on full display.

“I’m not your little dress-up doll you bastard!”

“Apparently you are.”

Knee high boots with three inch stilettos were slid over her legs, along with purple, fingerless gloves going over her forearms. Two arms slid a short sleeved, purple jacket over her arms as the other two pulled her long, red hair into a high ponytail. A red belt with a silver “U” buckle snapped around her waist to complete the look as the magnetic field was turned down, gently setting her on the floor. The arms unfastened the knee clamps, allowing Spook to move her legs once more. Before she could respond the other two arms gripped her by the ears and simultaneously pierced them and placed pearl-studded earrings in the newly created holes. “YEOWCH! That hurt, dammit!” One final hand pressed a stick-on purple domino mask over her eyes.

“Don’t be such a baby.” Dr. Faded snapped and the purple smoke was vented out of the tube. Dr. Faded got his first true look at his newest creation, and he liked what he saw. “Oh my! You will do quite nicely.”

Looking down, Spook got the first real look of her new body. “This can’t be happening…this has to be a nightmare or something.”

“I’m afraid not, sweety.” Dr. Faded snapped again and the Faderulzene® tube lifted off the ground, giving Spook her first chance to escape in over a day and a half.

“Big mistake!” She charged out of the tube, ready to rip the mad scientist’s head off. “You are going to die!” The Babe-R chip was still interfering with her ability to use her powers, but she wouldn’t be deterred…

…which made the fact that she didn’t run three steps in her stiletto boots before falling flat on her face all the more deflating. “Ouuuuuch.”

Dr. Faded chuckled at the scantly clad redhead on the floor. “You cannot run like a man in those things, my dear. Now, Babe-R Zero, stand up and let me get a good look at you. And no attacking at all.”

“Like hell I’ll…I’ll…” Spook trailed off as she felt the microchip spring to life once more. An overwhelming urge to obey Dr. Faded’s command flooded her mind. She didn’t want to listen to him, much less do what he said, but it didn’t matter. She needed to do what he said.

She pushed herself off the ground and stood up, precariously perched in her boots. She wobbled forward and posted herself in front of the Doctor as she had been commanded. “What… what am I doing?”

“What you were designed to do—obeying me. With the Babe-R chip filtering everything in your brain, you’re somewhat of a cyborg now. Complete autonomy is somewhat pointless for a minion so try to worry about it too much.” He circled the young woman and stroked his chin. “Hmm, your eyes are green; they were supposed to be purple. You’re a bit leggier than planned, though that isn’t a bad thing. You’re skin is also much paler than I thought I designed it to be.”

Spook glared her hate straight into his eyes. “Guess you aren’t as smart as you thought you were.”

He ignored her. “But you know what? Your skin kind of has that quality you see in those girls in Victorian era paintings. There is something, oh what is the word…classic about it. Only you’re wearing more clothes than those girls.”

“Not by much, freak!”

Dr. Faded sighed and shook his head. “Such name calling. That’s just not acceptable for my minion. From here on out, if you are referring to me you must use respectful names like Doctor, sir, boss, my awesome master, etc. Understand?”

Again, she didn’t want to, but she couldn’t even begin to resist the need she had to obey him. She looked away with a grimace. “Yes, boss. I understand.” She slammed her fist on the table next to her. “Dammit! This can’t be happening! I’m Spook, the Specter Protector of Pinnacle City!”

“Ah yes, while we’re on that subject…” Dr. Faded sat down in his large chair in front of his view screen. “Unit Babe-R Zero, state your name then super-power alias.”

“M…my name is Daniel Hutchings Eerie. My alias is Spook.”

“And what were some of your goals as Spook?”

The thought of not telling him her goals as Spook crossed her mind, but once again the need to tell was too great. “To advance within the ranks of the Department of Enhanced Vigilante Oversight, to protect the citizens of Pinnacle City, and to fully master my meta-human powers.”

“Good good.” The mad scientist tapped away on his keyboard. “Babe-R Zero, overwrite primary designation with value ‘Gabrielle Celeste Edenview.’ Overwrite secondary designation with value ‘Umbra.’ Overwrite directives with values ‘obey the will of Dr. Faded and his alter ego’, ‘to protect his life and honor at all costs’, and ‘to be the best minion a villain could ask for.’”

Spook could feel electrical tendrils reach in and invade her brain as the microchip went into overdrive. She couldn’t be certain what was going on, but she knew she wasn’t going to like it. “Finished, Doctor.”

“Great, now…” he left his chair leaned in close to her face. “Tell me your name, young lady.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Gabrielle Celeste Edenview. Wait… what the hell am I saying‽ My name isn’t Daniel, it’s Gabrielle! I mean… GAH!”

Faded smiled. “And tell me your alias.”

“My alias is Umbra. NO! Quit messing with my mind!” She gripped her head and stomped around in anger. She just couldn’t stop herself. “How is this possible‽”

“It’s possible, my dear Umbra, because I am a super-genius and you are kind of dumb. Now…” He opened his desk drawer and pulled out another syringe. This time it was much smaller and actually looked like something a medical doctor would use. But he was not a medical doctor and so there was a great cause for concern. “… while I can just order you to change your name, I cannot just tell you to do something you don’t know how to do like walk and move like a lady, because you frankly just don’t know how to do that. Luckily, I have a solution. Unluckily, in order for it to work, you’re going to have to be asleep for a couple of days.”

“And why do you need me to be asleep?”

“You’ll see. Give me your left arm.”

“Yes sir.” Umbra held out her left arm, awaiting the prick of the needle. “What on earth are you planning?”

Dr. Faded smirked. “Don’t worry so much about that. We just need to get you all the skills you’re going to need to be the best minion ever.” He delicately pushed the needle through the skin and pressed down on the plunger. By the time the syringe was empty, Umbra was already out like a runner at home plate.

I always have a hard time with how people should react when they’re being transformed. I can really see the appeal of waking up different from the author’s standpoint—still I can’t bring myself to do it. I hope it seemed believable to you all.

I like Dr. Faded as a villain. He is so affably evil! And he loves overly contrived acronyms! More villains should be like him *nods her head*

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Please donate if you haven’t donated before! If everyone just donated one dollar I could probably just drop one of my jobs and do this instead XD. I doubt that will happen but I can dream. Still, ANYTHING will help. You don’t even need a credit card to donate! You can just send the money directly through the mail! Don’t be shy! We love you!

Thanks for reading,
Taralynn Andrews