The Magic Shop

Free TF Ray Gun: growing the family

Robert smiled as he took a tour of one of the city’s fire stations, though it was tinged with regret. So much had changed since he first applied here back in the fifties. The equipment, the people, even the building itself had been remodeled. But the firefighters themselves still held the same courage and ideals that had inspired him so many years ago. It all gave him a sense of nostalgia.

He hobbled along behind the children and their parents with his cane, as one of the firefighters showed the group around. Robert looked idly over all the fancy new equipment, the words of the guide just starting to seem like background noise as he thought back to his early days, back when he had studied and trained hard through his teenage years to join this very station. Yet despite his efforts, he had never been able to beat out the fierce competition for the job. Nevertheless, he would try again each and every year for fifteen years, until he finally passed the maximum age to apply. He’d missed his chance to live his dream, and was forced to move on, and while he hadn’t had a bad life, it hadn’t been anything special, either.

The old man was so lost in his reminiscing, he likely wouldn’t have even noticed the firefighter acting as a tour guide begin to change, even if he could have. All of the firefighter’s clothes, whether at home, at the station, or on his person, vanished as he grew white fur with black spots, wide, floppy ears, paws, tail, and a canine muzzle. The man kept on speaking on the uses of various pieces of equipment as if nothing had happened. And unknown to those in the tour, two more men on the station’s crew had changed similarly. The three had been children of women who had been changed earlier, so they remained male, having now been born anthros, as far as the world was concerned.

Just as the tour was wrapping up, navy blue scales began to form on Robert’s face. His pupils became slits, while his hair began to grow longer, its former brown color being restored as the wrinkles and signs of age became less and less apparent. His teeth sharpened, with more growing in as his jaws stretched forward like those of a crocodile, and his tongue forked. His ears fanned out, looking somewhat fin-like, and a pair of horns grew from his head, curving down either side like a ram’s.

A series of spines grew on the old man, starting at the top of his head, and trailing down his back, (which quickly straightened up,) and atop his thick, rapidly growing tail, a fin-like membrane forming between them. He let go of his cane, which faded from reality before it could hit the ground. His clothing disappeared similarly while navy blue scales spread over his back, thicker, cyan plates forming on his belly, chest, and the underside of his tail. His hips widened, and a pair of breasts forming on her chest as her sex changed.

Her once atrophied muscle began to regain mass and definition, as the nails disappeared from her hands and feet, the bone in those digits sharpening and extending through the fingertips, becoming claws. Her feet reshaped as well, the toes growing longer and spreading apart, as webbing formed between them. Finally, new bone, muscle, skin, and scale formed on her shoulders, two new arms taking shape on her back. Each one grew four elongated “fingers” between which a leathery membrane grew, forming a pair of bat-like wings.

While the rest of the tour group left, the water dragoness stayed, her reason for being here today becoming very different as her mind, memories, and very history changed. Roberta remembered watching firefighters in awe for years as she grew up, and even trying to sneak in some help from the sidelines with water magic once she had mastered it. She had studied and trained for decades in the hopes of joining them some day. And when she’d finally reached her eightieth birthday, she had begun taking the exams to prove herself. She’d passed with flying colors, (plus being a creature that was naturally resistant to fire gave her an edge over the competition,) and today would be her first day on the job! Master was gonna be so happy for her.

+++

Angelica saw what time it was and closed her shop for the afternoon with a sign saying when she'd be back. Her customers hadn't changed from the fallout because customers by their nature were not meant to 'belong' to a business they visited.

"Hello Celest," Angelica greet outside. She was speaking to the dove girl, one of the many child prodigies that made up the next generation of maids. She had already finished high school. She also maintained the small chapel on the estate.

"Hi Angelica." She greeted the quetzalcoatl.

"How is Master Angel doing today?"

"Heh, Angelica, you've read the bible, you look more like an angel than me."

Celest honestly found it silly how many people thought angels looked like Hallmark cards. Angels typically appeared as normal people... Or in forms so mind bendingly impossible the had to tell people "Fear not!" at the sight of them.

"All the same, you're an angel to us and Master."

Celest giggled sounding like a bell's jingle.

The pair made their way to the public park, in Angelica's duffle bag were pamphlets and mini bibles.

It wasn't pleasant. There were people who did their hardest to look the other way when walking by, or people walking in a large circle around them like they were radioactive. It reminded the pair sadly of how some people reacted to homeless people.

One person stomped by in a straight line, but more like it was an act of defiance, like they were evil dictators out to evangelize people by force.

"Care for some free reading?" Angelica offered.

The middle aged man was about to say to them, "It's your Hell, you burn in it," for offering books for free.

But reality changed.

His legs fused together, lengthening until his new tail was twice as long as he was. His clothes vanished at the same time, as blue scales covered most of his body, while pink scales covered under his chin, down his torso, and down the underside of his tail. His hands morphed into webbed claws with an opposable thumb. His body shape became feminine as maternal material that had no sense being on a reptilian expanded on her chest, being rather modest all things considered. Her ears morphed into a fin shape. Her hair vanished and was replaced with a fin crest that went all the way down her back as a second set of lungs, gills, formed underneath the air breathing set. A set of folding fins formed on her forearms, and on her tail end. Her face stretched out into a fang filled muzzle. A second layer of transparent eye-lids formed over her eyes.

The nude sea serpent woman politely accepted the bible. But reality wasn't done changing. In the new timeline, the sea-serpent woman had a roommate who had been a very close friend in the original time, and had once joked, 'If you were a woman I'd marry you'... it turns out she was more right than he thought.

And a child who hadn't been born in the original reality blurred into being... a grade school age wood pecker boy wearing just his feathers. He saw his mother distracted, and quickly flew to one of the nearby trees, and began to peck his initials into it.

Any biologist will tell you that while wood peckers had their skulls designed to absorb impact (including a bone for their tongue that wrapped around the inside of their skull), it was their smaller size that was the major factor... but whatever enabled Ashley and Celest to fly, apparently also allowed a wood pecker boy to hammer at a tree without a headache...

"You stop that this instant young man! Respect your mother and father!" But he did get a scolding from his mother for mangling public trees.

"Just having some fun mom."

"You can have your 'fun' on our next nature walk."

"... Yes mother." The boy flew down and walked along side her, having no idea that he hadn't existed in a previous reality.

The next along was a man with his wife and son. He politely accepted it, figuring it might be interesting reading next time he was caught in traffic. He didn't change, but his wife did. Her shoes were replaced with sandals that left her claws exposed as her lower body became golden brown and digigrated, a feline tail with a black tuft popping out from her pants. Her clothes morphed into a laced black and white maid uniform, her upper body covered in brown and white feathers. Her back exposed by her dress to let her wings 'breath' freely. Her hands becoming scaled claws. Her hair vanished, replaced with a crest of feathers in similar shape, her face pushed forth her teeth fusing into a beak.

His mother having transformed first, the boy became a second gen anthro rather than becoming a junior maid. His body became covered in onyx black fur. His feet morphed into digi-grated hooves, his hands into a set of three fully armored fingers. His shimmering black feathery wings grew his back as his face grew into a equine muzzle, his teeth flattening out, and his ears thin and pointed at the top of his head, his blond hair become a mane.

The pegasus boy's clothes became a simple set of blue over-alls, his shoes vanishing. The boy flew up and flew around his parents as they continued on their walk.

A woman in her sixties stepped by.

"Care for a free bible miss?" Celest offered.

"It's Mrs," she said gratuitously. "And did you know what one group of people in a under-developed country did when given free bibles? Used them as toilet paper!" She laughed.

"Actually," Angelica added, "They then went to the priests with questions about the text from their 'toilet paper.'"

The old woman's face twisted into a snarl, and would have uttered something best left unsaid in front of children.

Instead, her face stretched into a large goofy beak, while her eyes shifted to the sides of her head, her neck elongated and bent backwards like a tuba. Her ears vanished, her hair ironically remained and done up in a white beehive. A round short fluff tail emerged from her dress' rear, her whole body becoming puffy with feathers, and her hands and feet (now with sandals), covered in yellowish scales, as her arms became wings. Her dress becoming a large black and white dress over hear feathers, her maternal material was big, but it was hard to tell over her feathers gave her body a rather round form.

The snide remark was erased from existence.

"Oh, no thank you Celest, Angelica," The big dodo maid said politely instead.

The next to take one of the bibles was a divorced father who had moved to a new city to get away from the shameful memories and hope to find some mercy in its words.

Later came by a woman in her late thirties and her two teenage children.

She responded to the offer politely, "Sorry, I'm Hindu."

"Oh! Apologizes!" Celest said.

The woman's clothes vanished, though she still wore her wedding bead. Her body was instantly covered in deep orange feathers that looked like tongues of flame. Her hands and feet became scaled claws that glowed like heated gold. Her face elongated into a beak that also shimmered golden. Her winged arms moved with a perfection and grace. Her eyes were like hot coals. Her long tail of feather trailed behind her, never getting in her or anyone else's way, but always in motion. Her figure was that of a physically fit mother. Her hair turned a different shade of orange tied behind her.

Her daughter changed, gaining fur that was the same 'burning orange' as her mother, her grew out the iconic tail of a fox, while her shoes vanished, and she gained black 'socks and gloves' on her fur, as her belly was white. Her clothes became a purple maid uniform with gold trim. Her face became a fox's muzzle, as her ears moved to the top of her head. However, she was also now bouncing a purple ball of flame back and forth between her hands. She was a one-tailed kitsune, over ninety years from her second tail forming and gaining REAL power. All she could now was a few parlor tricks.

She also lost an inch in height. She wasn't one of the numbered maids created by the ray gun's fall out, but she was a devoted daughter, and had of her own free will in this reality chosen to embrace family tradition and willingly serving Master Curt, and was on Skyla's maid mailing list, even if she wasn't on the ray gun's list. But this didn't mean she wasn't curious, and accepted one of the mini-bibles, figuring it would be at least interesting.

Her son meanwhile, shrank down, blue fur covering his body, his feet become digigrated hooves like deer, armored fingers, a long ropey tail like a lion, his body and head equine as a spiral horn grew from his forehead, and his black hair became a mane... he also shrank down, now pushing himself along in a stroller with his magic. Thankfully unicorns had invented magical self-cleaning diapers. If people thought dragons aged slow, unicorns were a whole other story. Thankfully the 'everything is normal' filter meant that his school mates found nothing odd with a anthro unicorn in a diaper attending high school with them.

The tradition of the maid district was for women to become maids, though he wanted to become a butler for the Evenson estate like his little sister and mother! After all, Emma was only a trivial sixty years older than him about, and she was allowed to help Mr. Evenson!

"I'm so sorry I forgot! It was very foolish of me!"

"It's alright Celest, we all make mistakes," the fire-bird woman said as her family continued on.

After that came a father and mother and their daughter and son, who due to legally living outside the maid district were not transformed. They happily took one for each of their family.

The last person that afternoon was a plump a middle aged woman, wearing an overcoat and a little too much make-up, and none too proud of her sons.

"Are you interested in bible study?" Celest asked in her typical cheery attitude.

"Not interested in being preached at," the woman said curtly.

"I'm sorry madam. You don't appear to understand what the word 'preach' means. It's bible STUDY, preaching is helping with the interpretation of spiritual truth," Angelica said. "'Bible study' is just that, study, to learn about something."

The middle age woman's acts changed as she changed. Black knee and elbow length 'gloves' and 'socks', and brownish gray fur, and pale cream belly... a striped tail, a short white muzzle, her short ears at the top of her head, and the signature 'mask' of raccoons and their Japanese cousins, the tanuki. While she didn't get much thinner, what they said about a male tanuki's 'sack', apparently also applied to a female tanuki's 'jugs.' Her shoes became sandals. Her overcoat morphed into a black kimono with white trim, that made no attempt to hide her cleavage.

"Alright Celestie-dear," she said instead to be polite, accepting the mini-bible and burying it between her breasts. She wondered what mischief her sons were up to today, but they knew better than to cause trouble for Master Curt, and knew better than to cross Head Maid Skyla.

At this point, there were more than a few anthros in the park, but there was also one thirty year old man. He sat on a park bench. He had a brush in his hand, and a canvas in front of him, painting large bold colored figures as he listened to the park life around him, in particular the pigeons. He was also legally blind.

His feet and hands morphed into orangish pink claws, his body was covered in mostly stone gray feathers, with streaks of dark gray that occasionally shined different colors. His arms became wings, and his hair vanished, replaced by more of the 'rainbow dark gray' feathers. His face became a short squat beak, and he grew a fan-like set of tail feathers, completing his transformation into a rock dove. Then he lost some height, his body slimmed down, he gained a very modest set of maternal material. She'd actually found a way to curve her feathers into a faux ponytail. Her clothing vanished except for a black artist's smock with white trim (and a artist's beret she wore for fun on occasion). She had random bits of paint on her claws and bits of her fur, but she didn't care one bit. What she cared about was her paintings... and her family.

Fun fact: pigeons could actually see more colors than humans. This resulted in her painting often being bizarre to some, painted in colors only she could see, but then again, maybe only she could appreciate them that way. Meh, that was an excuse for lazy artists, but it did present a challenge often having to 'blind down' her work for Master.

Reality blurred... in the new timeline, when she was younger, she'd seen a handsome young man that she'd asked to paint...

And today, had been her day to look after her son.

"Stay still Tommy! I can't paint you if you keep fluttering around!"

"Sorry mom! Oh! Hey Celest!"

"Hello Tom!" She said to her fellow dove, Tom proudly wearing a faux-toga similar to hers. He'd actually gotten into wearing clothes thanks to her, even if he was still on the fence of working for Mr. Evenson like mom did.

"Hey mom! Can you paint Celest too?"

The Pigeon Artist Maid sighed. "Why not? Master thinks you're both adorable." Plus, she knew that Celest would at least help keep her son still.

Angelica meanwhile smiled at the adorable sight.

+++

When Curt arrived at the office, he was surprised at how normal it all still looked from the outside. Even now he was part of the 1% apparently, the software company was still a software company, and he was still a programmer and employee here.

'I wonder how many 'weird millionaires' videos I'm on. The guy with a fortune who still drives to work to program every day,' Curt thought.

Meredith got the door for him, and her walking three steps behind him, he entered the building.

The paintings on the walls all looked the same; they were still all generic landscapes. Though he knew that could change at any time. Hopefully the building was outside the 'range' of the transformation fallout. Curt wasn't about to let his love of furries be destroyed by what happened to the blank maids... But things had gotten so big, so fast... he couldn't wait for the fall out to run its course and that to be that.

"Good morning Mr. Evenson, I mean, Curt."

"Macy?" The receptionist who sat behind her desk every day to greet employees and visitors and check in who had come and who hadn't, has become an anthro peacock wearing a back open dress that compliments her feather colors. Curt had never thought Macy was unpleasant to look at, but now she looked like a painting from India.

"Last time I checked. I didn't think the work I did on my feathers changed my appearance THAT much."

"Sorry! Sorry! There was a lot of drama over the weekend."

"Sorry to hear that, I hope you have a good day at work then."

As Curt walked away the elevator, it hit him.'She called me, Curt, not Master!' Curt's head swam for a minute, then he remembered Paige's son, who transformed because he mother had, and hadn't been driven to serve Curt's wants and needs... Curt took out the ray gun. Curt saw that the number was going up. 'Her mother or grandmother must have been changed by the fallout.'

In a way, Curt felt a strange sense of relief, that he could 'enjoy' there being animal people around him that weren't wanting to serve him hand and foot. That he could just be people around. Well, if not for the insane amount of wealth that was being retconned into his life from who knew where to continue to support the hundreds of maids that worked for him.

He was stunned when he saw a naked blue-furred monkey anthro walk around with an ID tag around his neck that read Kurt. Well he wasn't the only Curt in the universe, but he didn't recognize the name, must have been new. Kurt didn't know the intern had been retconned to life since his mother had had to have her ovaries removed to save her life two years before he'd been born, but the fall out of the transformation had cured that sickness.

Curt found his humble work space exactly as he left it... okay, the trinkets and other 'territorial markers' looked a tad more expensive, but it was still his.

"Hey Curt! Howdy Meredith!" Curt heard Dave's voice next to his work space and turned... and saw a humanoid white mouse anthro with blue eyes in Dave's seat, in Dave's typical 'I'm not not lazy, I'm relaxed' pose. He was also a NAKED humanoid white mouse! A most definitely MALE humanoid white mouse! In spite of himself, Curt couldn't stop himself not noticing the size of Dave's sheath and tried not to feel self conscious.

Curt also saw Dave's gaze wasn't directed at him, but at Meredith. Who merely warmly smiled at him, "Good morning Dave! Good to see you too!" She then leaned down and gave him a peck on the cheek that Dave didn't see that surprised by.

Dave had never been afraid to talk to the ladies. Curt thought about Dave hitting on Cassidy when she'd been here, and how well that had gone. Curt wondered how many retcons things had gone through since that last encounter, and wondered if Dave had even hit on Cassidy now! Maybe Meredith and Dave were just super close friends? Then the logic hit Curt... Meredith had been going to work with Curt for who knew how many years now with all these retcons... and Dave had been his workspace neighbor... Curt realized what Dave's 'favorite animal' was in the old timeline.

Curt still wondered what had been the trigger, who in Dave's family line had been changed by the fall out? Curt then noticed a picture of Dave's grandmother... now showing a dodo woman... Well, that explained that. Curt thought of adding Dave to the 'hands off' list, but remembered as a anthro, Dave was automatically added.

Then it dawned truly on Curt, his workmate, was now an anthro nudist, and as far as reality was concerned, he'd always had been. He'd be seeing a naked mouse man next to his workspace for a very long time... Oy.

Then Curt realized that Dave and Meredith were looking at him.

"Uh, Master, is something wrong?"

Curt realized he'd been staring this whole time.

OH! Nothing nothing!"

++

At a pizza shop across town, a gecko girl, naked except for her pizza delivery cap, reported in for work.

"Hey Giana!"

"Hi Greg!" The two waved as they past, and she passed other employees. All of the people staying completely human. The shop itself being outside the radius of the fall-out. So Giana remained the only maid working at the place, though she did have an exclusive contract to be Curt's delivery girl to his workplace or anywhere else at the drop of a hat.

++

Meanwhile, at the beach, in spite of there being anthros from the day before, or other maids from around town visiting the weather while it lasted, no new ones were created. This wasn't due to the beach being quite outside the radius, more because the tourists were, by their nature, transient guests and weren't to 'belong' there to begin with. The nude Cerberus maid(s) who served as the lifeguard(s) remained ever vigilant, her three sets of eyes always on the look out for trouble.

++

Under Squad Leader Kitty's directions, the bees were like clockwork, keeping the estate's impressive gardens and outside gallery in flawless condition.

"We wonder, what was up with Master ordering the graduate academy maids to the back?" Asked one.

Kitty himself hadn't given it any thought, after all, she'd been focused on her daughters. "I honestly don't know. Master didn't say anything, they just seemed to stand around for a few minutes before getting back to work."

"We know that if it was another inspection, Head Maid Skyla would be there," said another of the worker bees.

"Maybe they're being reassigned?" Kitty suggested casually.

"We hope Master doesn't assign any to us..." Said a teenager among the bee swarm along with her mother. "Their collective... feels wrong. The parts do not add to the whole, the parts do not add together to create a new whole. A drop is the ocean, and the ocean is the drop. They're not quite right."

"Really? I never noticed," Kitty said, not really thinking about it at all.

"We are a collective," said the teenage bee girl's mother. "So maybe that's why we notice. We are the one who are many, they are... the many who are none."

Again, not thinking about it, accepting it all as completely normal, Kitty said, "Maybe if some are assigned to you, maybe you can teach the 'none' to be 'one."

"... Maybe we will speak with Master with it," said a fourth bee. She had been the boyfriend of the teenage daughter in the previous timeline, but had merely been close friends in the new. Before they'd both become part of the swarm, that is, which they agreed had been the most wonderful moment of their lives.

'I' was considered taboo among the swarm, since (to them at least) it implies your wants and needs were more important than the swarm's. Thoughts and emotions were to be shared among the whole.

+++

Another morning, another day of classes for Sheri and her friends. Well, five of her friends. The little fox and hedgehog, Milly and Andrea, were junior maids (even if Andrea hated being called that) and Debby the “teenage” dragon at the age of 70 was not a student.

Sonjia running through the halls, as usual, disrupting the academy's precious order. True, this might not have been what the Instructor wanted, but it was apparently what Master wanted! And the hedgehog wasn’t one to waste an opportunity to show off.

Rhoda, the walrus was hoping to get a job at a hardware business to marry with the software company that Master worked at.

Her bunny friend, Bonnie wanted to be a hair-dresser for her fellow maids. Even if she'd come from a family of southern farmers.

Annette, her coyote friend, may not have made as much “trouble” for the academy as the others, as she apparently didn’t mind housekeeping. But she still went to the effort to encourage her fellow students to express their individuality more.

As for Noel, she was hoping to get picked for the country's Olympic boxing team! And the echidna worked like a dog to be the best.

Master had always told them to follow their dreams. Even if Sheri's was simply to serve as a squad leader for her group of friends for Master. That and maybe find a way to become immortal, but you can't have everything.

However, the maid Academy consider Sheri and her friends be ... 'less than ideal'... when compared to the rest of the academy maids... Who as far as Sheri and her friends were concerned, were more like robots, and had been since they day they were born. The perfect ideal maids, like dolls. Each one as good at their job as the last. Interchangeable like parts. That might have been fine with some people, but Sheri knew Master, and Master did NOT like his maids to be interchangeable parts.

The whole reason Master had the ground squirrel and her friends continue to attend the Academy was trying to get things to loosen up. Chief Instructor Fisher was simply eager to please, she'd taught the Academy Maids along with the other Instructors, and they'd absorb it all flawlessly. Sheri could tell Miss Fisher was less than pleased with them. But Master was pleased with them, and that was what counted after all.

As for the Academy Maids’ parents... they couldn't BE more proud of their daughters being so 'pure' to the ideal of maidhood, like they were the ultimate evolution of the proud tradition of domestic service that the maid district upheld.

Sonjia said that traditions were made to be challenged.

And then, there was the three children of one of the Academy Maid Instructors... Milly had played with them once, and Debby had once babysat ... they were exactly like their mother, obedient, interchangeable, reflections of each other.

Sheri had met the raptor triplets, they were also stunningly similar, act like, feel alike, think alike, be alike... but something about them just felt more... well, ALIVE than the Academy Maids, the triplets were like they were part of a whole rather than mass produced replicas. The triplets themselves found them a bit disjointing, maybe because of how close they were?

Debby had told Sheri how the daughters of Instructor hadn't been like that when they'd been born, unlike the Academy Maids, those three had been TAUGHT! Seeing three girls of different ages acting like copies of each other was... interesting... to say the least.

+++

'Anna, can we go for a walk down town? Just us two?' Was Skyla's text message.

A while later the brown furred five-tailed maid was walking down the street next to the nudist Siamese cat girl.

Skyla stayed silent as they walked along with no particular end goal in mind, Anna asked,

"Sooo, it's a bright and sunny day isn't it?"

"Eh? Yes it is. I know it sounds contrary, but I think I wanted some company while I thought to myself," Skyla said.

"Oh? I don't think it's contrary at all. Sometimes just someone's company is what you want," Anna said. "What are you thinking of?"

"It's... personal. And no, it doesn't have to do with Master, believe it or not. With everything that's happened, I don't want to add to your stress with my dilemmas. No! I'm not going to go to hide out at my old shrine again."

"... You have a shrine?"

"Oh! I guess Curt must have left out that part..."

Anna looked around at the district and asked, "Is it my imagination or is the town cleaner than it used to be?"

"That's what happens when you have a population focused on cleanliness," Skyla couldn't keep the pride out of her voice.

Anna and Skyla passed a little outdoor cafe. And before their eyes, it became a little maid cafe. The waitress becoming a cute flat chested ocelot maid, while the barista became a busty porpoise woman wearing only an apron. The one lazy late afternoon customer, whom Anna hadn't gotten a good look at before, became a blond dog of a breed Anna didn't know (it was a shih tzu) with ears that went down the side of her head, looking adorable and wearing a green maid dress with white trim.

'I guess we still have some time before the 'fall out' is done,' Anna thought.

"Hello Lady Anna! Head Maid Skyla!" The three maids waved at their Master's sister, and their chief maid.

"Good afternoon," Anna smiled and waved. Anna looked around, and she realized something in that brief moment.

"Skyla, I don't see any humans." It might have felt weird for her to say 'humans' like that, except Anna's had adjusted to this new fact of life.

Skyla looked around, and Anna was right, for a full minute, she only spotted anthros going about their day, mostly female, some males, half going around naked, the other half wearing maid uniforms (the rare males having varying states maybe wearing their favorite shirt and nothing else, nude, or dressed for business).

When she did spot a human, he was clearly a tourist taking snap shots.

"Well," Skyla whispered, "It is Monday, of course there are going to be fewer people, and I guess fewer people from outside the radius of the 'fall out'."

Anna nodded. In spite of herself, she couldn't hold back the blissful thrill, the novelty of it all, and yet it being a novelty only to her and a few others. Of seeing a city, so still human, and yet now for a moment, seeing just the maids and the secondarily transformed, she could imagine she lived on a planet where anything with brain-cells and bones had evolved into human sized tool users, and where prejudice, murder, and other such evils were all dead. After everything that happened, Anna simply let herself enjoy the fantasy.

As Skyla and Anna walked, they didn’t realize that they were being watched. A photographer working for a local tabloid, The Spotter, had been following them for a while now. Norris was always on the lookout for some juicy gossip, and seeing the head maid and sister of the town’s biggest celebrity, without any of their bodyguards? Opportunity was knocking! That Evenson guy’s public image had always seemed far too clean for his tastes.

‘There has to be some dirt on the guy. Some shady deal, or sordid secret. I’d even take a weird fetish,' Norris thought, regarding the man who in the current timeline proudly displayed statues of furries in his yard, while having dozens of nudists on his nearly all-female staff.

Tabloid “journalism” was difficult when a perception filter and reality distortions were involved.

Nonetheless, he didn’t see either Anna or Skyla doing anything unusual. Sure one or two of the photos he’d taken could be shopped to look compromising if you squinted just right, but when it seemed like half the city didn’t have a bad word to say about the guy, he’d need need something more substantial if he wanted to move papers.

He was considering following them closer, to see if he could eavesdrop on their conversation, but he had heard rumors about the head maid, rumors that made him more hesitant to get near her than a whole entourage of Mr. Evenson’s wolf or big cat bodyguards. Sure, they might have been natural born killers, but if they injured him trying to get him away from their Master, the law would be on his side. But if that multi-tailed vixen could really turn people into statues when she was angry, there was a good chance nobody would ever know where he’d gone. Or would even realize he was missing.

He tried to put that thought out of his mind for now, and steeled himself. He, of all people, should know that rumors were usually exaggerations at best, after all. He started following them closer, trying to close as much distance as possible without arousing suspicion.

His steps grew quieter as his shoes and socks disappeared, his feet growing soft pads in their place. His toes shrank and curled up, and little claws grew from them, while his feet bent into a digitigrade stance. Black fur covered her legs and feet, switching to a muddy brown as it reached his torso. His hips expanded as his sex switched, and a short, puffy tail formed above her rear as her clothes vanished. Her chest swelled to the point each breast was nearly as large as his head, and was covered in soft fur. Black fur grew from her arms as little claws emerged from her fingertips, and small pads formed on her palms. Brown fur covered her head, save for a “mask” of black fur around her eyes, while her nose turned dark and wet. It was pushed forward along the end of her changing mouth as she gained a short, rounded snout, and her ears stretched upward, becoming triangular.

One of Skyla’s tails twitched. She wasn’t quite sure how, but she somehow sensed magic being used nearby. “Hang on, Anna,” she stopped their conversation, and suddenly turned around to see… a statue. A racoon-like statue. A racoon-like statue that hadn’t been there when they walked past that spot just seconds ago.

Skyla frowned, and knocked on the statue’s forehead. “Hey, you’re not really a statue, are you?”

The stone softened to fur as the Tanuki lady took her true form. “Sorry ‘bout that, Miss Head Maid, Ma'am! I was just tryin’ to get some natural lookin’ pictures of you and Lady Anna for the website. I wanted to do it all discreet-like, I didn’t mean to bother you!”

Skyla shook her head and smiled. “No, no, it’s not your fault. I’ve just been a little jumpy lately.” She paused. “I would say ‘carry on,’ but now that we know you’re following us, it’s a bit harder to look natural for the photos.”

“Don’t worry, Miss Head Maid! I think I’ve got enough good ones already! I’ll see you two later.” She took a little bow, stuck her camera in bag, and headed back to the mansion.

The two continued on their walk, Skyla struggling with whatever she was thinking of, quickly getting deep in her own thoughts again. Then Anna gave her a shake.

"I think I've found out who keeps the district looking so neat and tidy."

"Why thank you Lady Anna!" Said a fox maid with bright orange fur and her tail with a white tail tip and 'gloves and socks.' Her red hair done up in a bun. She looked at Skyla and knelt down and said, "Five."

Skyla reacted without thinking, fanning her tails out behind her, "One."

Then the maid stood up again. "An honor to see you Head Maid Skyla."

Anna wondered what just happened. Skyla figured it out, and said it in a way that wasn't completely awkward for Ann'a sake.

"So how many years now until you get your second tail?" The sisters had had no clue about how many tails kitsune were 'supposed' to have, unlike Curt when zapping Scott, so it make sense these kitsune would be under a hundred years old.

"I have just thirty years to go!" She said proudly.

Behind her, Skyla and Anna saw a near identical looking fox maid, but with gray fur bits instead of white, tirelessly cleaning every street and ally of the districts in systematic order. A permanent smile pasted on her face, moving with the precision and repetitive of an industrial robot.

And besides the first cleaning maid were two more, one pale blond with white 'gloves' and the other pale red with black gloves. Their hair done in similar buns. They also worked with a near mechanical tirelessness.

"I exist only to serve my Master, I am a loyal, perfect, foxgirl maid. I will do whatever I am asked. I am ready to serve forevermore," they said together like it was a work song.

"All the blank, er, Academy Maids were to report to the mansion," said Skyla without thinking.

"Huh? Oh! You mean my tails? I didn't know the order was meant for them too! Sorry!"

"Tails?" Skyla asked.

"Oh! That's just my nickname for them."

"They're part of you?" Anna asked.

"Huh? Head Maid Skyla never explained?" She asked.

"Explain to her, and formally introduce yourself."

She put her hands in her lap and bows. The other maids stopped what they were doing and mimicked her actions. "I am Squad Leader Daisy Miss Anna. And these three, I guess you could call them my puppets. They don't have much self-determination of their own, so I share mine with them."

A bright yellow flame floated from the tip of Daisy's tail, the same colored flame floated from the tips of the other three.

"I don't determine them breathing, blinking, swallowing food, going the bathroom, stuff like that, but basically I have to put ideas in their heads for them to act them out. The doctors said it has to do with their magic being an extension of mine somehow, so that part of their brains is wired to mine, or something. Without me, they mostly just stand around smiling and going through basic routines of living. I guess a BETTER way to think of it is they're the musicians, and I'm the conductor. Their parents were either dead, or didn't care much for them, so Master said it was the kindest thing."

"Daisy helps us think, we like being her puppets," the three fox maids said. "Without her, we are but hollow."

"So... " Skyla felt herself tremble a little. "They have no life of their own?"

"Like I said, it's more like I put ideas in their head, and they act them out, rather than me having three extra bodies I control remotely. I basically breath life into them."

Skyla really really wished she knew what had brought about this reality, and how in the Hell this could have happened.

Fate it seemed, was happy to oblige.

Skyla saw him, a man wearing sun glasses, an overcoat in this heat, but still the sort of face you could easily lose in the crowd. He kept his cool completely as he walked past them, but Skyla smelled it... she was no bloodhound, but she'd been in college long enough to recognize that smell.

Then the man changed as he walked past the maids, his body blurring, his clothes becoming a maid uniform, his head tied up in a bun, and his chest ballooning out, and in moments, there were now four puppet vixens obediently standing, the new one dark red with pale gray 'socks.'

Then reality blurred, and another man was standing there. This one dressed like a completely average man. He walked on by, Skyla again picking up the faint scent, and then there were five puppet vixens, blue with white gloves.

A new man blurred into place, a teenager with a duffle bag and a tank top and long bangs, but he blurred quickly, and now there was an orange puppet vixen with gray fur with her hair down int he same bun as the others.

Skyla thought about what they said about drug dealers, if you got rid of one, another would just take their place. These men, who had sought to reduce people to empty shells to fill their own pockets, who had preyed on the weaknesses and inner demons of others, it seemed such men had been so empty inside, that even the effects of the ray gun couldn't find anything to salvage. Or maybe this was just karma expecting their souls to pay their debts in their new lives.

Before Anna and Skyla's eyes, the cycle just repeated over and over and over. Skyla's eyes widened as she realized how deep and vast the number of criminals waiting to jump in to claim an empty territory was!

Gray seemed to be the go-to choice for their highlight colors. The primary colors became: Green. Gray on gray. Yellow. Dusty Pink. Firetruck red. Black. Pale brown. Dark gray. Snow white. Platinum blond. Daisy yellow. Canary yellow. Indian yellow. Mustard yellow. Golden yellow. Indigo. Violet.

It was like a factory. The worst scum of humanity, politely appearing only to be retconned into hard working girls who just wanted to improve her community for Master.

And... Skyla thought of Cassidy. Cassidy in the old reality had bullied an man into committing a robbery for him, and from the sound of it, may have done worse things before an encounter with Curt in the new reality put her on a new path. Yet she wasn't like these puppet vixens. Was it a glitch left over from the zapping mixing with the fall out?

And... how long before one of those men was a rapist who had conceived a child? And how many could Daisy 'feed' life to before it began to take toll on her?

Skyla thought, 'If there was a way for me to protect my home, my fellow maids, my home town, from such people, even if it was just in this district in town... I would.'

And the 'assembly line' creased, and reality blurred around them. However, the laws of the ray gun remained in place: under no circumstances what so ever, could a life be retconned out of reality.

Skyla blinked.

"Head Maid Skyla, are you okay?" Daisy asked.

Skyla looked around. Anna saw them too.

Good fortune statues. Some knee high, other the size of a kitchen nicknack. Some were feline statues, holding an old Japanese gold piece. Others were the Tanuki, grinning, standing at attention in both meanings of the word with their 'sack' hanging all the way to their feet. Some on desks, other at the corner of the store. There was female ones included who were just as short, and as busty as the males were well endowed.

Skyla didn't know it, but she'd also erased a traumatic experience from the life the raccoon nude maid who worked in the convenience store.

Skyla also didn't know, that Eva's father, who had been killed in a robbery, was now retroactively alive again, (like father like child), and Eva now had a baby brother.

Nobody paid them the least of mind. But Anna could literally feel them looking at her, and it made her fur stand on end. But she calmed herself down, 'They can't hurt anyone anymore, they're harmless.'

Skyla realized what she had, what she in the past had done... the mugger in the alleyway had not been the first. Murderers, rapists, drug dealers, human traffickers... She'd let none disturb Master's happy little community. Skyla shivered, scared of herself.

"Brick, will you stop hiding among the good-fortunes? You're making Lady Anna uncomfortable," Daisy said.

And one of the statues morphed into a human sized MALE Tanuki. "Sorry! Just having some fun!" He said jovially. "Didn't mean to make ya feel haunted Miss Everson, just keeping in practice!"

"Keep to the public park," Daisy said. "That's what your mother told you."

"Yeah, cause it's what Mr. Evenson said, I got it! Don't worry! I'll be good!" He said, a mischievous glint in his eye, but not malicious.

He knelt down and took Anna's hand. "Seriously, sorry Miss Anna, it was just a joke. It was for Daisy, not you."

Anna kept herself polite. "Alright."

Skyla, being what she was, wondered if all Tanuki in existence had a collective species statue fetish.

+++

"Oh come on! I'm a hundred and fifty years old, really! Let me in! See?" Iva, the red teenage dragon protested. The Bar was the Foxy Dragon, or that was its name in this reality. She reached into her dress and pulled out an ID card.

The bouncer took the card, and changed. Their body was covered in pale gold fur, their ears became floppy on the side of their head. Their hand and feet became like paws, while keeping an opposable thumb. Their face pushed into a muzzle with a black nose on the end. One of the base of their spine grew a long, thin, furred tail. Their clothes vanished, their sex inverted, their figured changed slightly, as her breasts grew to match her height, her body was still that of someone had put a lot of work into their muscles.

"Come on Iva, giving me a fake ID? Really?" The labrador woman said with a roll of her eyes. "And this picture has you with green scales. You're old enough to drive, but you're not old enough to step claw inside the Foxy Dragon."

"It's not like I'm going to get drunk Patty! I just want to hang out with the others!" There remained a sacred rule among the Maids of Evenson Estate and conmen alike, 'do not get drunk.' As such, non-alcoholic beer was a Maid standard. And had a booming business in the maid district.

Iva could drive, was old enough to vote, could legally sign a contract, but she couldn't wet her whistle, not that she really wanted to, Master wanted them all to take care of themselves, but it was the principle of the thing!

"Can't you let me in between friends?"

"Sorry Iva, rules are rules."

Well, at least there was the 'classic' soda shop down the street.

"Hey Patty!" Waved the Raccoon maid, now completely nude except for her purse.

"Hey Lorraine!" Waved the Labrador.

"Nice to see you," said Iva.

"Nice to see you too Iva! I'll tell the girls you said hi!"

She stepped inside without trouble.

There were already six of the Estate's maids inside the Foxy Dragon, as afternoon was about to give away to sunset, and their number would go up soon enough without anyone needing anyone else to step inside.

Cindy, Jennifer, and Elizabeth (the business women the sisters had zapped just before arriving at the colleges) all sat together. Dazzle sat with one empty stool between them. And on her other sides was Susan, and the 'satyress' nude goat anthro maid... who needed to adjust her seat to be on equal height with her fellow maids.

"Hey girls!"

"Hello Lorraine, happy you could make it!" Cindy welcomed. If Curt, Skyla, or Anna had been there, they'd wonder at how these animal women had likely been mostly strangers before, but now were close friends. They'd also remark on how apparently had the Maids' brains had the ability to add a lot more to their 'this entity is a person' list than any human could hope to. Most human brains top out at roughly two hundred and fifty. This was one of the reasons the human brain had created mental short cuts to feel empathy for a group or a category rather than a person.

Lorraine took the seat between Elizabeth and Dazzle.

The bar tender meanwhile, changed. He didn't decrease in age, but becoming his secret favorite animal, he had to use a lift board to be on level with his costumers. Shaggy brown fur covered his body, his feet turned into hooves, his hands became three armored fingers, a large shaggy beige mane went down his back as a similar shaggy tail grew from his tail bone. His face pushed into squat muzzle and short thin ears at the top of his head. His dirty clothes turned into a black and white maid dress with extra frills, and extra space showing off his cleavage that was all the more obvious with her decreased height.

None dared laugh at her, as others had found out that ponies had a lot of compressed muscle underneath their shaggy fur and could kick like a donkey. She was proud to own and manage the bar in Master's name, he let her run it as she pleased as long she didn't let anything shady go on.

The barflies meanwhile also changed, since they were pretty much fixtures at the place anyway.

Their maid uniforms were all standard fair. Black with white lace and trim, and a white hair piece on top of their heads.

The first barfly was overweight, slouched, had dirty clothes, messy brown hair, and had a bar tap the length of his arm. His body was soon covered in brown fur that was barely distinguishable from his hair, he still had a slouch, but it was now a natural part of her. Her big boobies were like oversized water-balloons, exactly as he had liked them. His nose became bigger and black, white his face gained a white masked with black stripes underneath. His legs and arms became longer, and her fingers and toes gained curved claws. The sloth woman fur became much more combed and neat.

The second barfly started out with a gray jacket and unmarked baseball cap and glasses... his glasses vanished as his nearsightedness was cured. His fur was golden brown, his hands and feet and belly and a string down his head was white. His hands and feet became paws except his hands had an opposable thumb. His ears grew long and fell to the sides of his head. A incredibly short and stubby tail emerged from his rear. His nose became round and back, the coloring around his mouth bright pink. He gained a muzzle with droopy flaps of skin. She gained some extra muscle and had a silver chain necklace around her neck. Her chest as much like a amazon as her figure. The bulldog woman's hair vanished.

The third barfly was bald, had a constant five o'clock shadow, overweight, and loved to belch, and dress as an average working man, not bothering to even take off his work ID badge. His transformation was... odd to say the least.

First came the grayish black fur that covered everything except the underbelly. His eyes became round and amber. Ears became redder. And mouth gained more pronounced fangs. And... his face became bright blue skin with deep lines, with a striped red down the middle resulting in a big red nose, and a big blue butt. This was no mythical beast, this was a Mandrill. Her chest was as big as her butt.

The last barfly was a married man, and had three kids, and didn't change.

Reality blurred and one by one they vanished, no longer drowning their sorrows every chance they got, freed from the bottle. This meant the Foxy Dragon lost constant customers who'd pay money to kill their own braincells. On the bright side, there were maids who consider the Foxy Dragon their hang out away from home (meaning the Estate). As for the last male barfly, he also blurred away, as his close friends actually helped him through his troubles instead of diving deeper into them, and actually became a father that his son respected.

The barflies however were replaced with young men, and the code-monkey girl now sitting next to one.

The Foxy Dragon ironically reality retconned slightly to be something of a couples bar. It had always been a challenge finding single men in the maid district.

The seven maids at the bar casually drifted from one topic to the next, there was almost no question they couldn't ask, the maids felt completely safe around each other, there were no locked closets, and there was no judgement here. Curt would have been proud.

"Susan, would you sleep with Master if asked?" Pauline asked like it was any other question.

"HA! In a second, cause I know for him, it wouldn't just because he wanted sex. Some men, let me tell you, then again, maybe I shouldn't... Heh, when ya got a bod' like this and charms like mine, you can have pretty much any guy ya want! Which is what makes it BORING!"

"Surprised you don't hang out more with Nutty and Bombi more," Dazzle asked.

"Those two?!" Susan said, speaking of the cartoonishly hot red squirrel and deer doe. "They're nice girls, and I look after them. They aren't airheads, not REALLY. But dang, they are SOOOO friggin' NAIVE! At least Bombi has Armanda and friends to look out for her at work."

"Have you SEEN some of the stuff Nutty draws? I don't think guys COME in that size! But she's a GREAT artist, can't deny that!" Lorraine added.

“I just thought of something: Toilets," Elizabeth said.

"What about them?" Cindy asked.

"We all love Master, but that doesn't mean we like it when it's our turn to scrub the toilets."

"Suzie and Sharon are just lucky they're too young to be punished with THAT job!" Dazzle remarked.

“Anyway,” Elizabeth continued, “Cleaning the toilets is something that needs to happen for society to function, but nobody wants to do it. How do you decide who takes care of the dirty jobs in a society where everyone is equal?”


"Well, the Acadamy Maids DON'T mind." Jennifer said."Does that make the Academy Maids better at being true maids than us?"

"I don't think so," Susan said. "Master has his preferences, but like still likes diversity."

++++

Skyla had looked scared and worried and Anna couldn't blame her, if she'd really retroactively become a magical vigilante that everyone else just accepted.

"Am I a monster?" Skyla asked.

"...No," Anna put a paw over hers, "If you were, you wouldn't ask that. Maybe we can put some of your... convicts to better use somehow?"

Changing their focus for now, the two enjoyed pizza cooked by the pig woman they'd met on their chase after the sisters the other day.

"I wonder how much the estate has grown upwards and price-tag with all today's new 'fall out' maids," Anna said.

"Eh? Oh! Me too. But I want a chance to digest the sight when we see it."

"Me too."

A short distance away, at another set of benches and tables, Anna could faintly hear a couple guys chatting over lunch. She wasn’t normally one to eavesdrop, but with her more sensitive hearing, and the lack of other customers around at the moment, she literally couldn’t help but overhear.

“And at that point, I knew this relationship just wasn’t going to work out for either of us. I told her how I felt, she agreed, and that was that,” one said.

“Sorry to hear that, man. I’d been hoping she’d be the one, this time,” the other said. “I’m sure you’ll find someone though. Not like this town is lacking in ladies, heh.”

The first man chuckled. “You’re pretty optimistic, given your own record.”

The second man shrugged. “Nobody likes a downer. And honestly, I’ve got a feeling you’ll find someone who’ll treat you right one of these days.”

Anna tried to find something else to focus on, but she noticed Skyla looking behind her with interest. Turning around, Anna saw that the second man’s clothes had ceased to exist, reddish brown fur growing in its place.

Anna winced. ‘Not again’ she thought. Sure, it didn’t sound like either of these guys were in a relationship, but today, the what-ifs had been eating at her.

The man seemed to shrink a few inches as his figure shifted, his hips seeming to widen as a short, fluffy tail popped up above her rear, curling cutely. A pair of small bumps formed on her chest, while leathery pads formed on her hands and feet. Her toes curled up, while her feet stretched into a digitigrade stance.

The woman continued her talk with her friend, her speech coming through clear even as her teeth sharpened, and her mouth stretched into an almost conical snout, her cheeks becoming flaps of skin that drooped down the sides of her mouth. Her nose turned dark and wet, little whiskers forming at the sides. Lastly, her ears shifted to the top of her head, bending into triangle shapes and standing at attention.

Even as worried as she had been Anna had to admit, the Shiba Inu woman looked adorable.

Then something happened that caught both Skyla and Anna off guard. The world seemed to blur around the couple, and when the image cleared… There was a Shiba toddler right beside her, the little boy’s tail wagging as he munched on his slice of pizza.

“Hey, hey! Don’t eat so fast, you’ll give yourself a tummy ache,” the man said.

“Yes dad…” The puppy said with a frown.

Anna blinked and turned back to Skya. “You saw that too, right?”

Skyla nodded. “I never thought I’d see something like that.” She chuckled weakly. “Seems like things really worked out for them, huh?”

Anna nodded, looking back at the couple, and their “new” child. She hadn’t really thought about it, even knowing that both of her brother’s dates had been guys before the changes. But if it was possible the gun might prevent a relationship from happening, it could be just as possible for it to make a relationship work that might not have before. It gave her a lot to think about. More than she really cared to, at the moment, given they’d taken their walk to relax.


To get their minds off things, they went to the beach, and had chosen to simply walk there, Skyla's self in the new timeline was a workaholic to keep things perfect for Master, so none were unhappy about her taking the afternoon off.

Skyla stopped at a swimsuit rental shop just besides the beach. The owner was married, his wife and daughter however did change. While the mother was a maid, Skyla and Anna couldn't tell if the daughter had become a secondary anthro or a junior maid, and Skyla uncharacteristically didn't bother to check her 'maid contact list' to check.

The already round woman's hair almost completely vanished as she increased in size and mass, only the Brontosaurus nudist maid came second-place to her. Her backside was dark dark blue with a hump. Her underside was while with strips of indented flesh.

Her and feet became webbed, while a horizontal finned tail grew out from her. Her ears vanished.

Her nose hole moved to the top of her head. Her face pushed out broadly, and her filter like teeth smiled.

The humpback whale maid's blue green ocean pattern maid dress Skyla remembered had been Skyla's greatest personal challenge.

And her big eyes, big smile, baby like curves, all made her a CUTE giant humpback whale anthro maid.

Skyla wondered what the love life of the whale maid's husband was like.

The daughter meanwhile, her outfit became a blue-green (with sparkle trim) one-piece swim suit with a skirt that she insisted was (somehow) in tribute to her mother.

Her body was covered in water proof fur, colored white and pink. Her face pushed into a equine snout, and the familiar small pointed ears and blond mane. She also had a fin on her back, and fins on the sides of her arms, her hands became armored but webbed.

Her lower body was covered in the scales of the same color pattern, her legs fused together (she hated shoes anyway) becoming a vertical tail, and gills appeared on her lower body's sides.

If Anna and Skyla were not so desensitized to the transformations, they'd have noticed the child looked down at her herself and gasp in delight of her transformation, the hippocampus foal overjoyed at becoming a 'mermaid.'

At the beach, Anna and Skyla saw the Cerberus nudist lifeguard(s), and a scattering of maids (some recognized, some not), second gen anthros, and a couple male anthros (Skyla noted that ratio for nudists to clothed was actually higher for males). The pair didn't see anymore new transformation though.

But when Skyla and Anna returned the swim suit, they found the blonde husband had become a cute blond cat man nudist. Skyla didn't know this was due to the change of his grandmother.

The pair had returned the swimsuit and stepped outside when Skyla's planner beeped. "Oh. Looks like it's time for Simone's recital."

As the afternoon had gone on, both Anna and Skyla had lightened up. And the afternoon had gone more quickly than the cat and kitsune had thought.

Anna noted how solemn Skyla had suddenly turned from their relaxed poise a moment before as her body stiffened, and the casual smiled that had won its territory in a hard fought battle retreated. Just staring.

"Skyla you okay?"

"Uh-huh. I set this to remind me assuming I'd be at the estate. We don't have time to get back." Anna waited but Skyla didn't continue.

Anna sadly had to think about getting to Simone's recital as Skyla was someplace else.

'Okay, we can stop by the house and search through new rooms for our rooms and hope we find them. Or we ask Master to have Meredith drive us all there, and Skyla's never the kind to ask that of Master anyway.'

Anna used her cell phone.

"Hello Master, we need a ride to Simone's recital, you know that spot by the beach where you found that dead jellyfish? That's the one. Can you tell the other maids they need to make their own ride? I'm really sorry for that. Huh? Meredith? The garage's Minibus? Driven by mechanic Roxie? Oh! Oh right!"

As Anna worked out the details, Skyla was looking out in the distance, lost in thought. Finally Skyla's fist clenched and her eyes narrowed.

When Meredith and Curt drove up to where the pair were waiting, Skyla asked, "Master, what time would you say that..." Skyla glanced at Meredith. "You'll have cooled down from her fallout of the girls stealing the heirloom?"

Curt took out the ray gun and looked at the display.

"I'd guess like the halfway through Simone's recital."

"I see... please tell Simone I'm sorry. I have a family matter I need to care of. Master, may I please take care of the heirloom for you during the show?"

"I'm... not so sure about that."

"Please Master, I know it would be a MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH if something happened to it."

Meredith, Curt, and Anna all saw Skyla's eyes misting up.

"Alright Skyla, I'll trust you."

"Thank you Master."

Skyla accepted the ray gun. She held the ray gun in her jaws, and in a sweep of blue flames and became her feral form, and leapt away on all fours.

Meredith, not being stupid, asked, "Master, what was that REALLY about?"

Curt said, "I honestly have no idea Meredith. Skyla will say when she can... let's not keep Simone waiting..."

++++

Curt and Anna were driven by Meredith to Simone's high school as the sun was setting. The mini-bus driven by Roxie arrived a couple minutes later, and several of the maids poured out.

Emma teleported out, Kasai flew out a window. Eva hopped out the door. Marceline on her four legs scurried out. Ashley stepped out as well, having chosen to ride rather than fly on her own.

"Hi Anna!"

"Hi Ashley!... Where's Misty?"

"... We had a talk, and, we agreed that me going somewhere without her might be good for me."

Anna gave her a hug and Ashley hugged her back. "I understand."

Meanwhile, Rachel came out, and gave a howl at the rising moon, which was echoed by some other wolves around her, and she didn't look the least bit ashamed, happy to express herself.

Silvey stepped out next, holding a suitcase in her hand.

“What have you got there, Silvey?” Curt asked.


“Hi Master,” Silvey smiled. “It’s a few costumes I made for a few of the students tonight, Nya! They were going to act out a scene from ‘Once Upon a Mattress, and paid me to make them some costumes for it.”

“Sounds nice,” Curt nodded. “I’ll look forward to seeing it.”

Morgan came out, squirming and struggling as she was carried along by Luna, Stephanie, and Gabrielle, the three busty rabbits squishing the kitten between their maternal material.

"I don't wanna! I've got portfolios to organize! Budgets to go over!"

"Now now," said Luna, "You're a little kitten, and you're going to watch the talent show with all of us."

"Master wants you to act your age sometimes, and this is sometimes," Gabrielle added.

"Cam corder!" Anna said.

"Yes Lady Anna!" Meredith provided her with one.

'There's no way Skyla will forgive me if I don't record this!' Anna thought as she recorded Skyla's former boss being dragged along the three former desk drones. Curt did his best to restrain a chuckle.

Carrie and Kathy HAD chosen to fly over, and landed with a smile and a wave.

"Hiii Master! Like, great to see you here!"

"I know Simone's going to do great!"

"I'm... sure she is," Curt said.

Things weren't done yet, as Vicky, Susan, and Danielle, all showed up in their own rides.

"Hi Master!" Vicky said giving Curt a quick peck on the cheek. "Great to see you could make it too!"

Of all the retcons, learning the mailman he had zapped on a whim was now his close childhood friend, had perhaps left Curt most unsure of his reality almost more than having his house replaced with an oversized mansion.

"Hey Master, happy I could make it!" Susan said causally. "This should be fun, or at least a good laugh from the students we don't know personally! Haha!"

And Danielle, just walked up to Curt, and put her arms around his and leaned into him. "Hello dear."

Curt felt like one of those cliche high school jerks who double dated women.

All the maids looked the other way and said nothing.

"Hello Danielle... it's, nice to see you."

The naked busty jenny women just answered, "And it's always nice to see you, too."

It was more than just the maids arriving of course, there were other families and students who attended the high school after all.

"No sign of Sharon or Suzie, guess they're still grounded," Anna said. (it didn't matter anyway, since a high school talent show wasn't something any sane parents would bring a five year old or seven year old to to begin with.)

Curt and the others weren't the first to arrive, in fact they were among the last!

As Curt found seats for himself, Meredith, Anna, and Dannielle, he saw other maids had already arrived.

The bakaneko in the old fashioned dress with the red ruby was there, she waved at him. "Hello Master, where's Skyla?"

"... She wouldn't say. She just said it was important."

"Oh, I see." She said solemnly.

"Hey Sophia!" Emma said.

"Hey kiddo!"

Well, that was a relief for Curt to know her name, he and Skyla needed to simply go down the list of maids already!

Curt noticed the Bee maids, who were sitting next to a penguin boy who was surprisingly snappily dressed for someone his age, as well as a man with glasses.. 'Do they go everywhere together? How do they go to the bathroom?'

There was also a black and brown wolf woman in a black and white maid uniform. Next to her was a bright yellow duckling in just his feathers. Next to a gruff looking man with a scar on his face. (An accident fixing a car in highschool, he told everyone it was a racing accident).

A busty white fox maid sat next to a little koala girl in a red dress. Next to a overweight but cheerful looking man.

The Koala girl sat still and standing up straight like her mom had said. 'I live to serve.' Seems to be her mother's new favorite phrase, and the girl had begun to assimilate it into her own language. It was the right thing to do for Master after all.

Setting right next to them was a well dressed man, and a black furred wolf in a purple velvet maid dress. Between them was a black furred pony girl wearing some pretty bows.

Curt had to hold Anna back before she started snuggling the small pony to death.

Curt remembered there was less than a couple hours at most left until the fall out met its end and the ray gun was safe to use again. He hoped that this would be the end of these random changes once and for all, and maybe put the ray gun to GOOD USE again... But... he couldn't resist the feeling of awe of seeing so many diverse creatures all living in the same cultural identity and working together with no prejudice to be found.

A part of him worried about there being more random transformations in the audience, but another part he couldn't quite resist was excited at the idea.

The lights dimmed as the talent show began. Curt didn't know what would be going on back stage.

--

Simone considered herself 'saving the best for last' since she was the last performance of the talent exposition.

There were others students besides Simone taking part (including the kids who had commissioned costumes from Silvey), they'd had the preliminary showings, so these eight were the best. Something Simone took great pride in.

'They're all going to see how great Dragon Princess Simone is!' she thought holding her violin made exactly to her size, and covered with a fire proof coating just to be on the safe side.

Of course... what is a princess... without her royal court?

Maybe it was Simone's undying will, maybe it was Simone's presence, and the dying embers of the fall out used her form as the final template, maybe it was just luck.

The other students transformed together, being 'upgraded' as Simone might say. Becoming the 'superior creatures' as far as any dragon would say.

Their forms were what Anna might call 'recolors' of Simone's, though this would be a generalization, as there were subtle differences in their horns and physiques that weren't obvious at first glance, and their facial features and body language were all unique.

Their bodies shrank down, biologically looking like three or four years old each. Those that were male had their genders invert, not that anyone could tell with everything being internal anyway. Colorful scales colored their bodies as their ears shrank away and little stubby horns formed on their heads. Wings formed on their backs. Their finger nails and toe nails became claws and talons. The wide but a little short reptilian tails grew out. Their faces stretched out as their teeth became fangs. Their eyes became silted. Becoming the cutest little clutch of dragons in existence.

Two boys, both named Benjamin, (no relation) became two dragonlings named Mina in nothing but their scales.

The first Mina, whose performance was tap dancing, had generally brown scales, but had a golden underside, horns, and claws and the webbing of her wings.

The second Mina, who was performing magic tricks, her body was blue with purple as her secondary colors with all the world to see.

The third was a girl named Saria, whose scales were light green, and dark green, wearing a blue maid's dress with white trim, and could still play the flute in spite of her claws and muzzle.

The forth was a girl named Marin, with orange scales and yellow as her secondary colors. Her pants and blouse turning into a white maid uniform with light blue highlights. Her performance was singing.

The next was a boy named Micky, who became Medley, her scales being green, and her secondary color being turquoise, her dress being simple black and white, like her piano.

A girl whose nickname had been Goldie, became this in actuality. Her entire body golden with silver highlights and she shined like a gold coin with nothing to hide. Her act was juggling, but she had plenty of ways to spice up this old trick.

Finally there was Terry, who became Terra, her scale became white with pink highlights shown as her clothes vanished, her performance was a comedy routine... she also now had a crush on a certain anthromorphic boy in the audience.

"Hi Princess!" Said Saria jovially. Before it had been the 'everything is normal' filter that had kept most of the students from being rubbed too much the wrong way by Simone's attitude (before and after her transformation in both timelines), but now she saw them as, well, if not equal, they were at least her peers. They were dragons after all. They were destined to rule the world. They all look up to Master, and wanted to help him anyway they could.

"Greetings my royal court!" Simone said proudly to her fellow baby dragons. "Master is out there!"

"And some other important people!" Terra giggled.

"And my little sister," Goldie smirked.

It was part of the ray gun's transformations that the maids jealous towards each other would never reach critical levels in regards to Curt, it just wasn't in their nature now, but that didn't mean they couldn't feel competitive!

"Let's give everyone a good snow!" Medley said with a smile.

"I know we will," said Marine.

"Mina C! It's show time!" Called a teacher's voice.

"You heard him," said the brown Mina G.

--

Curt stared as one after another, an adorable dragonling around Simone's age came on stage, and gave her performance, with a decade's more talent and skill than you'd think possible just from eyeballing them.

"THEY'RE SO CUTE!" Meredith couldn't help but say when Marin began her singing.

Anna also felt her brain having since turned to mush at the adorable baby dragons. Curt found himself memorized at the sight.

When Goldie came out for her juggling act, the pony girl twisted a bit in her seat. "Hey! Big sister can't be cuter than me now! That's not fair!"

Her wolfish mother gave her a dark look, which shut her up.

But the Koala girl right next to her looked in surprise and awe. "You can tell people are turning into animals too?"

"... So can you?" The pony girl whispered.

"Yep! I'm Kelly!"

In the old timeline, the pony girl wouldn't have given the koala girl the time of day... now however?

"I'm... I'm Patricia," Patricia whispered back to Kelly.

"Dear, please be quiet," Patricia's mother insisted.

"A good maid does not interrupt," quoted Kelly's mom.

The two girls quieted down, but had every intention of speaking more to each other first moment they got, which given the perchance of adults to talk forever after a big event, wouldn't be that hard.

Time crept towards Simone's turn.

++++

The hospital Skyla's grandmother was at was out of the maid district's range. Skyla had the mad fantasy of kidnapping her grandmother and leaving her into the middle of the transformation fall out, but there was no way to know her actions would be retconned, and if they weren't, or if her grandmother wasn't changed, she'd be remembered by her family as a mad woman who kidnapped her dying grandmother, as it had nothing to do with Curt being her Master.

Then she thought about having her transferred to the hospital inside the range of the fallout, but the doctors said she couldn't be safely moved. She could have maybe brainwashed them, but so what? It wouldn’t change the reality her grandmother would likely die from being moved.

Skyla THEN thought about brainwashing everyone, turning her grandmother into a kitchen nicknack, then changing her back, and then hoping the fallout did its thing. But Skyla wasn't sure she could remember HOW to undo a transformation! What if she never remembered? Skyla felt disgust at herself for being a hypocrite, then again, she'd condemn monsters to the happy fate of the good fortune statues, but wouldn't do the same for her grandmother if it meant saving her life? Skyla tried hard not to think about it.

And Skyla, after seeing what herself in this timeline was capable of... was terrified of what lines she was willing to cross.

In her feral form, leaping across rooftops, across trees, across roads, she finally came to the hospital her grandmother was at.

She checked the ray gun... it was still counting down.

Skyla stepped inside, after being surrounded at least in part by anthros in the maid district, being surrounded by only humans suddenly felt disorienting.

It took a minute to realize she was still in her feral form and shifted to her humanoid form her dress reforming around her, and took the ray gun out of her mouth and check the time, she sighed and put it in her pocket.

So many humans, there was a planet of seven billion of them, and there were only a few hundred anthros... even if the gene was a dominant one (which Skyla wasn't so sure of), Skyla realized how silly the idea was of transforming all humans was. Maybe if it was a self-replicating cascade transformation, it could happen, but like this? Heh, Anthros were just a tiny thing, like the number of people doomed with stone man's disease.

Skyla went through things in a daze, ignoring nearly everything around her. She kept enough cognition skills to ask the receptionist where her family was (she sadly had time).

Laying eyes on her Homo Sapien parents, Skyla didn't wait, she hugged them, crying.

"Mom, dad, I'm sorry, I... I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm sorry it took me this long to gather up the guts to come here! I just! I was just so scared! ... I'm scared of losing her!"

Her parents hugged her.

Her mother looked like she could barely speak.

Her dad said. "I know Skyla, me too... but... this happens... I remember when... I had to... when I said to say goodbye to my own grandmother."

'Not if I have anything to say about it,' Skyla thought. 'Screw 'it's our time,’ if you can defy death, then you have right to!'

Her aunts and uncles and cousins were there, those who could make it. Skyla was ashamed to admit, but she didn't think about what she said to them, or what they said to her. Because it wouldn't matter soon. Grandma would be good as new. Everything would be fixed. Everything be repaired. Everything would be okay again. So none of this mattered right? Grandma would hold on until then wouldn't she? She had to. Of course she would. All of this couldn't be for nothing... could it?

Time passed far too slowly. Too slowly. For Skyla it was torture. Each second seemed to last forever. Seconds like minutes, minutes like hours. She wished she had the power to move the time of the whole world forward, but that magic was beyond her.

Skyla wondered, 'Maybe if I do it early, maybe things won't be so bad? I mean, it just means more anthros right? That's good right? I mean... it's not like they'll be like the blanks maids... and ...' But she couldn't do it. She knew Curt would never forgive her if she did something that reckless that resulted in say, the entire state or something turn into anthros.

Far too long later, Skyla saw that the timer was down to minutes.

"I'll go see grandma now," Skyla said simply. No one argued, no one stopped, they just gave her some more hugs.

She walked towards the room and followed the directions, she had no reason to hurry, the timer wouldn't run out faster if she ran.

She ignored the humans, they didn't matter, grandma mattered. And Skyla stepped inside the room. The lights were low, there was the constantly beeping of the life support monitor, and in the bed, was her grandmother. She was asleep.

"Grandma... I just want to say, I'm sorry. We were close when we were younger. Your cookies, your pumpkin pie, kid's network channel... the beautiful trinkets everywhere, the trees in the backyard, the beautiful garden, the beautiful house, your warm smile, how you insisted on everything being so neat and tidy... old me hated that, maid me I think worships you for it. I love you. I want you to know that. And I apologize for drifting away from you. Doctors say that if a patient can't be spoken to, it's assumed they want to live... but that feels like an excuse. But I refuse Granny. I refuse to surrender. I refuse to give up. If I have the power to say no to the grim reaper, I'm going to use it. And I'm going to fix things!"

Skyla looked at the timer. A couple minutes left. Skyla set the ray gun to 'splash effect: family.' Then she set the ray gun to Kitsune... nine tails. She wasn't going to be not related to her family now. ... But what if it made her entire family nine tails?... What if the ray gun just carried over the kitsune detail?... Skyla realized she no longer cared. 'LET THE CARDS FALL WHERE THEY MAY!'

She aimed the ray gun at her grandmother waiting for the timer to count down. "I spent the last day thinking it over, thinking if it was right or not, If it was safe or not. But standing here and now? I can't not do it. If I had the power of a god and could bring someone back to life a child who'd just died a horrible, random, meaningless death, I would."

Skyla held her breath... and the timer ticked down to zero. The 'new message' appeared. Skyla was past carrying. She pupped the trigger.

The ray gun actually felt hot in Skyla's hand. In fact, she actually had to frantically pocket it, it felt like she'd burned her hand!

She felt a similar shockwave to when the Blank Maids were created, but far less devastating, though she was still felt dizzy and disoriented.

+++

"Hm?" Sophie turned her head this way and that, as did Emma, as they listened to Simone's violin. Both had felt something. Like when the sisters had gone on their wild goose chase around town with Master's heirloom.

That various baby unicorns around the maid district also felt 'something' but not sure what. Daisy also turned her head in the direction of the hospital miles away, only know she'd felt something intense but distant, like thunder. The teenage kitsune daughter of the phoenix also got an odd feeling.

The asian dragon twins felt a slight tingle but shrugged it off, as did the much younger asian dragon maid in another part of town.

Angelica sat up on her head, confused, having felt something far away, but knowing how she felt it.

+++

And... nothing happened. The room was exactly the same, her grandmother was exactly the same. And the heart-rate monitor flatlined.

Skyla burst into tears. She was too late! Too late! She'd WANTED an insane blob of transformations like the sisters gave, and then she wanted another insane blob like the fallout gave! Where they worth her grandmother?! WERE THEY?! WHERE THEY?!?! Hanging out drunk with her friends! WERE THEY WORTH MORE THAN TIME WITH HER GRANDMOTHER?! AND NOW SHE WAS GONE AND NEVER COME BACK!

Skyla nearly tore her own ears off. She screamed. Her tears down in rivers. She practically collapsed in on herself. She walked out like a broken wind-up toy as the doctors and nurses came in, doing what they could, but everyone knew there was nothing to do. Her body was simply shut down.

Skyla stood out in the hallway like a tailor's dummy. She felt empty inside. 'The blank maids... are you lucky ones after all? After all, you're happy with your fates, and you don't feel the pain of loss... maybe fate was the kindest to you after all... Why should I care about some humans I'm not related to, serving Master is my only-I! Curt wouldn't want that! ... So what do you want Skyla? ... I don't know anymore!!!'

"Thank you for the help Skyla. Your acting skills have really improved over the last hundred years! Last time I had to fake my death, your mother had to bring onions to get you to cry."

Skyla turned to see a woman in her middle age, a fox woman, with cream colors fur. Naked as a jay bird except for a red hundred-and-eight bead necklace. Taller than Skyla, with a lithe figure but well toned muscles, her breasts were round, firm, pronounced but not oversized or eye-opening as Skyla had gotten used to this last week. Nine tails waved behind her.

"Living a lifetime disguised as a human was a change of pace, and I glad I tried it once, but I don't think I'll be trying it again," she said casually in a younger version of her grandmother's voice.

There was a new beep-beep from the ray gun. Followed by a second. Skyla ignored it for now.

Skyla tried her tears, looking at the kitsune before her in awe. The humans around them didn't seem to notice her.

"G-gramma?" Skyla said, sounding like a seven year old. Skyla was scared, hopeful, and confused, all at once.

"Oh Doodlebug did granny scare you?" She said warmly.

Hearing the nickname Skyla yelled, "GRAMMA!" Skyla hugged her for all she was worth.

"Oh sweetie, I didn't mean to scare you like that. Thank you for the compliment on my performance. Don't worry, I don't think I'll be doing that again. Come now, let's go see everyone else."

Her grandma took Skyla's hand and led her along down the hallway, as they went, green flames floated from grandma's tails, floating around them, humans stepped around the kitsune, but at the same time not seeming to see them.

Skyla saw the amused look on grandma's face as the humans went past.

"Oh dear! Skyla! What happened to your hand?"

Skyla looked to see her right hand was indeed burned and was starting form a blister under her skin. 'I was in THAT MUCH shock that I forgot about that?!'

"Oh! Oh that! I had an accident! That's all!"

"Well, let me get that for you." The green flame appeared in grandma's hand, and before Skyla could protest, the flame went over Skyla's palm, and was healed.

"I'm no angel, but I can handle a little burn on my favorite granddaughter!"

Skyla was left in more awe than she'd been in before, and couldn't bring herself to speak. It was like she was walking through a dream.

The pair stepped into the waiting room, where their family was still waiting.

Skyla saw her father, still human, looked like that rule 'no one who has fathered a child can be transformed into a maid.' And she saw her two aunts were still human as well, along with her married aunt's husband, and Skyla's male teenage cousin, Dean, checking his phone.

'I guess because the transformation can't change him because he's not blood related to grandma, and he ... technically he DIDN'T father me... since I'm 400 years old... So... how is dad still human and still male?' Skyla pushed aside that line of logic of a moment.

She saw her mother, dressed in a more classical maid outfit but with more jewelry than any maid would ever wear (but not excessive amounts), her black hair color and 'rooster' hair style was still hers, her fur color was bright silver with bright white tips and underbelly... she had seven tails.

And there was her uncle Vinnie on her mother's side, dressed up in a red outfit with red trim and that white fluff under his neck, dressed up as a victorian era MALE kitstune. He had jovial yet lazy body language, that constant smirk, and six tails. His fur red with white tips. And he was still smoking, but it now looked like an opium pipe.

And his daughter, Kayla, dressed up as a anime character interpretation of a maid outfit... bright yellow fur with white tips, she had three tails. With that constant smile she'd picked up from her father.

And Kayla’s mother, Theresa, naked, hot, long blue hair like her fur that went down to her five tails, her entire body screaming amazon princess, but not a muscle bound hulk like, say, Cassidy. She wore she jewelry around her wrists, waist, neck, earrings, and a braid in her hair. Looking ready to just hang back and let things go as they may.

"I'm back everyone!" And the humans and kitsune all hugged grandma at once. Their tails wrapping around each other.

"Nice to see you grandmother," dad said.

Grandma narrowed her eyes. "You don't seem surprised. Victoria! Did you tell him?!"

"Of course I told him mother!" Skyla’s mom rolled her eyes. "This isn't the middle ages anymore! Do you think anymore DOESN'T know what our family does anymore?"

"Pst! Where's the fun in that," Grandma said.

Dean took a photo of grandma with his phone on the spot. So did uncle Vinnie.

"I hope you're not going to ruin a sacred family tradition!" Grandma said.

"Victoria's right mom, this isn't the middle ages anymore, remember? This whole thing IS fun, but it's not like anyone couldn't, and HASN'T figure it out without enough detective work."

"Then they should take away the thrill of discovery then. Little Master Curtie hasn't figure it out yet has he?"

"Uh... Master recently did," Skyla said.

"Oh." Grandma said with a flat face.

Skyla's mother then took the vague tangent to strike, "So are you going to finally start courting Master? I've waited CENTURIES! WHAT IN JIGOKU is keeping you?! I want grandkits!"

"Your mother was just under 200 when she had you!" Grandma added.

"WE HAVE STARTED COURTING! Just this weekend!" Skyla said, suddenly red face.

"Finally!" Mom, dad, grandma, uncle Vinnie, and Kayla all said together.

Grandma then said, "You mind if we head home sooner rather than later? I know you wouldn't want me throwing my welcome back party in the hospital, but I may get impatient. I bet that woman over there would make a nice cocktail waitress."

Mom frowned darkly.

Uncle Vinnie looked a little excited.

Kayla looked uncomfortable, Theresa looked interested.

"No, mother. We'll have the celebration at the shrine like we planned." Mom said sternly to grandma looking up at her determined and defiant.

"Well, alright then!" Grandma put a hand on mom's shoulder. "Maybe afterwards we can pay Master Curtie a visit! He's bound to be adorable right now! Humans go by so fast. I was worried he'd die of old age before you got around to it Skyla. I'm sure the other maids will be fun to play around with."

Skyla knew that tone Grandma was using for Curt... it was like Kayla's for her favorite dog ... like Curt was a pet. Skyla thought, 'Unconditional love for Curt, nothing about it being the STRONGEST love we have. 'Our greatest desire to see to his wants and needs' nothing about it being our ONLY desire.'

"I'm back! Did I miss anything!" Skyla turned to see another kitsune, one tail, male, wearing black with white trim shorts that looked strangely out of place, shoes, gloves, and a red scarf with the same brown coloring with silver marks as her... "Grandma! I missed it!"

"Hello Vincent," Grandma said.

"So this is the real you!?" The young kitsune rushed up, looking grandma over.

"Yes dear, it is, and yes, you did, how did you not feel it?" Mom asked.

"Sorry mom, I was kinda distracted on the can."

Skyla felt dizzy... this was... this didn't... she was an only child... this didn't, this couldn't... this was how her father was still male even if he wasn't her birth father still from these changes in reality... but ... but... HAD he existed before? Or... had he died in the old reality and no one had ever told her? It... ugh.

"Sis' you okay?" Vincent asked.

"I..." Skyla felt dizzy.

"Well, I'm going to stretch my legs a little, follow me dears." Grandma casually walked to the hospital doors, the rest of the pack and humans followed, it was all Skyla could do, was simply go through the motions, the whole thing was like a dream, all she could do was follow along.

Grandma's in a sweep of green flames changed into a Japanese kimono, black with white trim with a sweep of green flames.

Once grandma had stepped outside however, she undid the sash with one gesture, flinging it off, like she's put it on just so she could dramatically take it off!

The green flames rose up around her hands and feet, and she shifted to a quadruped stance, as she got bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER until Skyla could have fit in her mouth, and grandma became the size of a small house! The four legged nine-tails got no dramatic reactions to the humans around her, why should they? Everything was normal.

"I'm not changing out of this killer outfit," Uncle Vinnie said defiantly as his wife and daughter followed behind. "Hey! Michel! How about I give you and the others a ride?" Uncle Vinnie walked up to a perfectly maintained victorian era motor car. Red flames flickered on his tail and covered it, shifting into a modern sports car with enough seats for all.

"Thank you Vinnie," dad replied and his sister and nephew followed.

"WAIT FOR ME GRANDMA!" Vincent jumped doing a triplet forward flip, white flames covering him... revealing a pretty much normal sized fox still wearing the red scarf, hopping and skipping after the giant beast that was his grandmother.

"Well dear, we might as well catch up," mom said, purple flames swooshed around her, and before Skyla eyes, grew to the size of a bus, a seven tailed four footed kitsune, still wearing some of her jewelry.

'I wonder how big Simone and the other will grow, do dragons ever STOP growing?' Skyla randomly thought. As an obedient daughter, Skyla transformed as well, the blue flames covering her, and becoming a feral formed creature herself, naked and wild, and followed after her mother and grandmother, and ... little brother.

As the group closed in on the shrine, (Uncle Vinnie having to leave the car behind and disguising it as a rock to prevent theft), the kitsune shifted back to their humanoid forms. As they did, Skyla finally took out the ray gun.

There were some new upgrade alerts, including another 'FREE!!! Upgade' but SKyla ignored those for now. The three latest messages were, first, a message saying that the ray gun was now safe to use as Skyla guessed and skimmed it.

The next message was to HERSELF!

'Dear Head Maid Skyla Winters. We must inform you that no further transformation of your blood line or immediate relatives is now possible. They have been security locked for the protection of your own reality. Further modification might result in causality collapse, or a total unharmonious reality transformation cascade that will result in a new universe completely unrecognizable to your current one. And as such are now forbidden and will no longer function. We apologize for any misfortune this may cause, but your blood line due to the unique changes there is, and its new branches, can not risk being changed further... We hope you and your Master continue to make good use of our product.'


Skyla shuddered. New branches? Too much was happening too fast.

Skyla checked the third message.

'You have created your first class E divine entity. Also known as a 'pseudo deity.' 'Myra Mary Arai-Butler-Fox-Wolf-Winters'. Warning: while the ascension of Class D and below divine entities without existing divine consent is possible within our product's ability, misuse or abuse of this will result in termination of your ownership. And if one is seeking to create a new pantheon of gods, one should think of this CAREFULLY, and remember to respect other divine entity's authority and the existing faiths of mortals.'

"... Grandma is considered a class E god?" Skyla felt dizzy, this created some very disturbing philosophical questions. And questions about what 'new family' she suddenly had. How many kitsune now inhabited the world using their magic as they pleased? Or were they far more mature and restrained about it than Skyla had been? Too many questions. Skyla had to let go or she'd go stark raving mad. Skyla had no choice, she put the ray gun back in her pocket, and walked towards the paint starved shrine where she and Curt had had their heart to heart two days before.

her grandmother shifted back to her kitsune form, wearing a kimino that was opened wide and hid little of her body. Grandma pushed a furry tail against one of the shrine's pillars. Green fire spread from where she touched, restoring the paint job, adding a carpet, lamps, candles, seats, a table, a full course meal, a open fireplace, decorations, instruments, banners. Little flames danced to the instruments that began playing themselves. The shrine became a one house festival in the middle of the dark woods.

"WOW!" Vincent exclaimed.

The rest of the green flames went back to grandma's tails. "That dear, is true power."

What do you do now?

• Let's enjoy a little Kitsune Party! A BM I S TG Anthro Mental added 6 years ago

• Sophie is curious about Master and Head Maid Skyla's odd behavior.
• Silvey tries to help her old friends on her own.
• Skyla practices spells with Marceline.
• Breaking the news to Danielle.

Write a new chapter