As the train began to pass through a tunnel, Simone stirred within her egg, drawing Curt's attention.
'Something is wrong,' her thoughts said to him, 'the magic in the storm... The rift in reality... I can feel my essence pulling on it... I'm putting you all in danger just by being here.'
Curt hugged Simone's egg tighter, rubbing along where he could feel her to comfort her. "Its okay, you didn't know... And I'm not just going to abandon you, I want to protect you as much as you want to see me safe," he said, "still... Thank you... It means a lot to me that you're worried about us."
Curt could sense Simone crying, in a mix of happiness and sadness, and held her tight. Even as the sudden gale of magic blew through the train around him visibly in glowing pink streaks, hitting him before anyone else.
His vision slowly began to dim, and around him, Skyla, Anna, Dannielle... He saw they were all getting younger rapidly, with Anna and Dannielle joining Skyla and Pearl on all fours, just as he felt his own arm shifting to be more like legs to stand on... Pearl seemed to be the only one not getting younger, instead her belly swelling with her unborn life.
His last thoughts before he fell into sleep, was that he would gladly take the worst of it if it meant someone else wouldn't have to suffer.
---
Kitty and Susan were both facing the direction the sudden surge of magic was coming from, and so when kitty saw it coming, she jumped in front of Susan, hoping it would shield her, holding her tight in her arms as the magic streaked past. She didn't want to be separated from her, not by age, not like this.
As the gale passed, she was relieved to still feel Susan's breasts pressed against her. Though as they fell to the side, lying across the row of seats, she could see Susan's arms were now forelegs, as were her own to either side of her.
She leaned closer, the two of them nuzzling each other while the kids were asleep.
She could live with this.
---
The moment Randy saw the gale coming down the train, he felt himself grabbed and constrained in darkness. It took a moment before his shock settled down and he realized it was just Cherry holding him, and a moment latter to guess that she was just trying to protect him from whatever magical or reality warping effects were happening.
As she untangled from him, he looked back and saw her eyes closed. She seemed the same size, though knowing she was a kraken, then even if she'd gotten even younger, she might have just gotten larger from being more kraken like.
She turned, and saw Marceline and Kara, looking like newborns from the waist up, not really knowing how to judge the age of their lower halves. Though with the odd looking diaper covering their abdomens, it was a good bet that both the spider girl and the dragon-mantis were about as young as they could get.
Randy gathered the two and placed them together on a pair of seats, placing his jacket over them to keep them warm.
For some reason, the sight made him think... Maybe he should have kids of his own.
---
Many others on the train simply followed a trend of becoming 'feral' mythic babies, falling asleep before causing any commotion for the rest of them.
Meredith and 'Dave' both huddled together, Eva having dutifully made sure the food she was serving wasn't going to fall before she let sleep take her, Skyla's old boss Morgan had managed to fall asleep in the overhead baggage out of what might have only been the desire to watch over her underlings both present and past from above, then there was Carrie and Kathy lying together with Emma next to them, Kasai having suddenly found herself in a fireproof baby-carrier bag not unlike a backpack slung over one of the seats, Silvey and the would be 'blank' maids found themselves taken by sleep even before they saw the gale as they had barely anything left to change, as did the dragon kids from Simone's school.
Though the chimera teacher, three maids in one... They found themselves staying awake even as their changes accelerated, their legs doing an almost comical split as their body shrunk while their legs still gripped the carpeting of the train car where their feet were before, their legs sliding across it once they lay flat against the floor, rapidly approaching newborn status only for the wave to pass before they'd gotten young enough to fall prey to sleep as the others had.
The snake part was blushing profusely, somehow still psychologically aroused with her adult mind by the humiliation of the diaper forming on their shared butt that was sitting on her, and grateful she couldn't get physically aroused from this anymore with her new child body. Though that didn't stop her from squirming as if being tickled as the other two poked at their shared body to inspect it, it being clear to her that even though she could only control her tail part of their body, she could still feel everything they felt.
---
Myra had set herself up at the very opposite end of the train from where the gale had come from, and wasn't at all surprised at the sudden flood of magic into the train by the time it reached her, though she just accepted that this was something she didn't have much business trying to fight. Not after all she'd been through today.
The former statues quickly found themselves following the same pattern as much of the rest of the train; Myra's focus being drawn to the first three she saw become animated. The Amazonian puma falling to all fours, and shrinking to a baby, clothed only in a diaper. She didn't fall asleep, unlike some of the others on the train taken this far, and instead too it in stride, trying to puff her chest forward and imitate a proud lion statue.
The naga's arms started turning into wings as she shrank, and a thick bit of cloth wrapped around the end of her tail (about the best one could manage for a diaper for snakes Myra supposed). She soon did her best to help her puma friend look more impressive, wrapping herself around the Puma's tail, and spreading her wings, resting her head between the forked bit of the puma's tail. Something of an imitation of a certain medical symbol.
The baby eastern dragoness was already quite young, and after a cute little yawn, all she could really manage to do to help her friends before she fell asleep herself, was to wrap herself in a circle framing the puma's feet, holding the tip of her tail in her mouth like an Uroboros charm.
Myra watched the rest of her former art pieces that filled the entire car follow suit, their shrinking forms framing the coming gale perhaps too well, exaggerating the feeling of it growing in comparison as it approached her, and its sudden focus right at her after all her works had been changed.
At first, it seemed her changes were different than some of the others. Instead of simply changing her existing form, her feral form was dragged into the forefront of her being while her humanoid form was being pushed back to occupy some less relevant portion of her being. If her feral form wasn't already her true form, it was now, and for a moment she found herself growing towards her usual size in that form as she began to fill the whole train car, only for her form to shudder as the magic pouring into her began to compact and become denser, making her own magical energy of this form become more packed as well.
As shrank back down, she made sure she watched where her paws stepped, not wanting to hurt her creations. And almost as soon as it came, she was the size she was in her humanoid form, and then a little smaller again. It didn't take her much to realize this was meant to be an early teenaged form, and it was a hint of indignity that she noticed the changes add some breasts to her chest as a reminder what little humanity she had, along with her mop of hair. Her shrine maiden outfit reformed around her as the process finished, somewhat reshaped for her new posture as can be expected.
With a nudge of her forepaws to her chest, she looked up at the direction the gale had come from. "If this is your doing, you're a very naughty girl, are you happy at making something so scandalous young lady?" she muttered, not really expecting the future goddess to reply.
A sudden feel of a kick in her stomach drew her attention away, noticing the sudden six month bump she carried beneath her. She sighed and turned away. She mused herself with a bit of wisdom that it seemed that increased magical potential ended up leading to not just staying as a newborn longer, but also were born sooner. Birth... The ultimate moment of a living being.
She was distracted from a moment of reflection by the light coming in from the windows as the train exited the tunnel. They were beyond the storm's reach now, but it wasn't like it could do much more to them if they'd have stayed at this point. Though staying would have made the storm worse from their magic adding to it.
Looking out at the view... The serene countryside, the pleasant view... She felt... Good... In a way she hadn't felt for a long time, but also in a way she wasn't sure she'd ever felt... Like she could do anything, though she chuckled at foolishness of that idea.
Was this what a demi-god felt like? More importantly, had she just become one? She'd have to ask the young Simone when she got a chance as she herself hadn't met enough demi-gods to know for sure, though she was sure that Simone wouldn't really know herself.
Still... Today was certainly... Interesting for the trickster.
---
Curt woke a couple of hours later, and something felt... Different.
With a look down, her old clothes had been replaced by something that looked like a Japanese schoolgirl outfit, she had forelegs rather than arms, and the scales had lightened to pink and baby blue, as one would expect of a younger version of herself. Between her hind legs a diaper pressed itself against her new feminine parts. She smiled and shrugged, not really surprised anymore at the ray-gun's limits being bypassed by future Simone anymore; and a part of her realized that if this still had any trace of how the ray gun normally worked, it had probably made her being a girl feel like her natural form.
At that moment, Simone's egg began to crack open, her dark scaled muzzle poking out as she clawed her way out; though two golden vambraces were attached to her forelegs.
"Good to see you're okay", Curt said, it coming out a little weird with her baby voice, but thankfully without a lisp. "What's with... Those," she said, pointing at the bracers.
Simone smiled. "I was told it would be easier to explain if you just check your messages," she said.
Curt's eyes widened, and she tried to bring up the messages on the ray gun as best she could with her new body. She ended up holding it between her two front claws and pushing the display with the end of her snout. There were a couple of update messages which he ignored for now, and just read the most recent one. She found it somewhat less formal than usual.
" Dear curt,
Unfortunately we couldn't follow up on the discoveries made on your end and ours soon enough. Perhaps the outcome becoming one of your own maids isn't entirely unexpected, but nonetheless we need to take responsibility for this, even though it was far beyond our control or preview. You may not see anything wrong with your current state, but this is partly due to your new... Instincts, but this is still not something we wanted to happen, at least not while the programming isn't finalized. Still, given you're unlikely to consent to return to your previous form now, we don't see how we can make it up to you in that regard. So we'll leave it at that for now.
The good news is a final safeguard was able to keep your mind as it was largely intact, but not without additions. Its difficult to explain completely, but imagine your mind was encased in a shell, and rather than altering your existing mind, the effects formed a new maid-like mind around your existing one. The 'shell' dissolved when it was safe to do so, but it means you've got a little bit of extra mind you didn't have before.
As for Simone, we got permission to create a power limiter of sorts for her, I assure you personally that she's wearing them voluntarily and can take them off or suppress their limiter function if she wants to or if it becomes necessary. They mostly just keep the energies inside her from spilling out, and she should only be outputting at most the amount of energy she would need to perform most regular chores. Its also not going to stop her from absorbing additional energy. We would have had them prepared earlier to save much of the hardship they could have prevented, but unfortunately there was some legal loopholes that had to be navigated... Its something of a tragedy of our own existence.
They are shaped like vambraces, and will grow with her... Which isn't saying much, given how long the maturation cycle of herself and everyone around you have been drawn out due to their expanded magical potential, but I digress. I caution against removing them unless you desire a repeat of what happened in your home town.
Speaking of, I know it goes without saying, but she should avoid going back there until the fragment of her future self embedded there has learned how to control her own energies.
As for whether or not you count as one of your own maids... We've erred on the side of caution and said yes, in case you end up developing a split personality between your old self and your new self. We've given your maidhood the reserved index number #00000 on the maid profiles.
We hope that no more unexpected occurrences happen. But Simone's existence may preclude that, and its unlikely that we can ever generate a suitable fix that doesn't restrict her existence in ways we cannot condone. However, we will still seek to minimize the damage.
-Sincerely, an employee of the makers of the ray gun.
P.S. Due to the circumstances, we have filed for Simone to become an official C class deity. With her future self's status as one confirmed, official or not, it was precedent enough to convince some of the more relatable higher ups in the hierarchy of gods. Its been conditionally approved... and by conditionally, I mean the legal equivalent of 'maybe when you're older', but without the maybe."
Simone was watching Curt nervously. "Its... Not all bad news right?"
"There's some good news for you," Curt said, "they've basically said that you'll be made a goddess some day. Something you said was part of your true self before... Well."
Simone smiled. "That sounds like me alright," she said, "but I'm okay just being a demi-god for now. Be the princess rather than the queen, it suits me better right now."
Curt chuckled, and started trying to bring up her own profile on the ray gun. After a little bit of wriggling, it complied.
#00000
Name: Curtana Evenson
Species: Dragon
Busty/Adorable Toggle: Adorable
Nude/Maid Uniform Toggle: Maid Uniform
Age: 201 years
Occupation: Programmer
Other notes:
-The owner of the Ray gun, became their own maid as a result of an unintended exception.
-Potential to become a Class E Divine Entity “Pseudo-Deity,” at one thousand years old.
-Age raised to retain various relationships.
-Maturation cycle drastically extended by large magical and reality altering disturbance. Will attain adult level physical maturity at roughly the age 2,000. Presently resembles a near newborn, but will likely resemble a two year old by the end of next year, and age at a rate of 1 human year every 100 years.
-Due to being her own maid, the loyalty part of the maid programming manifest as being true to herself.
-Possesses autophilic tendencies due to the love part of the maid programming; might not manifest until puberty.
Reading the notes were getting Curt, or rather, Curtana... A little flustered, as she read it, making her blush. "I'm going to be stuck like a child forever aren't I?"
Simone nuzzled Curtana. "Look on the bright side. We're all the same age now, and probably similar lifespans and rate's we'll age at. It won't be weird if we date," she said.
Curtana blushed, her little tail wagging behind her diaper. "I... Well... I can't exactly say no to that, not after what we've been through... But I only just started dating Skyla, and I still need to tell Danielle about that... So..."
There was an awkward silence, but neither stopped wiggling their tails, as they blushed with guilty looking smiles.
"Just do it," Danielle said from Curtana's left, only just getting up to stretch herself out besides them, "trust me, none of us would mind sharing. Honestly, I'm just glad to know I'm your first."
"I mean, I would like to have some private moments," Simone said. Giving a slight pout for emphasis.
"What teenager doesn't?" Skyla said from Curtana's right, also looking like she just woke up. "It should be fine every now and again, but maybe not make a habit of it. There's not enough days in the week."
The four of them started to giggle, which seemed to rouse a sleeping Pearl.
"Could you not laugh so loud, I don't feel so good with this many eggs inside me," Pearl said.
---
It would be another couple of hours before they arrived at their destination.