The more Skyla thought of it, the more the tale of how her aunt had murdered several humans and fed on their life force to speed up her evolution didn't make sense with how the ray gun worked. She was transformed by the splash effect of the ray gun wasn't she? No way a Maid would ever do such a thing. But there was nothing pointing to her grandmother lying. What could have caused this anomaly?
The only explanation Skyla could think of, the only one that made any sense, was that her aunt hadn't existed in the old timeline, like her one-tailed brother Vincent... Which meant, all those humans whom her aunt had killed, hadn't died at that point in the old timeline. 'Everything has a price,' Skyla thought ruefully. 'Or maybe there is just no such thing as the 'perfect' timeline.' What was she supposed to do? Invent a time machine and go back and apologize to the families of those murdered by the woman who wouldn't exist if not for Skyla saving the life of her grandmother?
Shifting her train of thought to more recent matters, Skyla knew Meredith was proving incredibly helpful in delegating tasks, but she was still Curt's personal assistant at work. All Maids were proud and eager to help, but everyone had their limits, and Skyla worried Meredith might overwork herself juggling two positions at once. And Skyla WAS Head Maid, delegation should have been her job, but with the ever growing sisterhood, trusting things to other maids to divide up the command structure was the only way to keep things coherent.
So Skyla was confused when she spotted Meredith, rechecked the time and day, and made sure it was Meredith she saw. The mouse maid was doing an inspection tour of the manor, with note pads both paper and digital, running through what maids should do what on what days and what time.
"MEREDITH! Why aren't you with Master at work?!"
"Oh! Sorry Head Maid!" Meredith bowed. "But Master is having a sick day!"
"WHAT?!" Skyla exclaimed. "Since when does Master call in sick?!"
"Well, he did after the incident with the Academy maids... "
"Don't remind me! Where is he?!"
"In his room, last…” Skyla was already gone. “...time I checked."
"Master!" Skyla knocked on the door. "Master are you alright?!"
Skyla was a Maid, it was her responsibility to respect her Master's privacy in all things. But she was also supposed to look after his well being. But just because he was 'sick' didn't mean he was in immediate danger did it?
"Skyla?"
Skyla burst into blue flames, the blue flames slipped under the door, and reformed into the brown five-tails. "Yes, Master?!"
"I... wanted to say I was fine," Curt said, sitting in his shorts, on his bed, with his computer.
"Oh! Sorry Master!" Skyla bowed. Then she said. "I was concerned! You pretty much never call in sick! You're practically a workaholic!"
"I am not!"
"What else would you call going into a day job when you have enough wealth to sit and let your butt grow for the rest of your life Master?"
"Say the woman who could just have every girl do jobs around here including giving other girls their jobs and still wants to be useful."
"... Fair point Master. What'cha lookin' at? I won't mind! Seriously, you know how broad my tastes are! ... 'I was a High School Senior Hypnotist'? Since when do you play virtual novels?"
"Just something I looked up, to see things from the outside in... The only routes where the player character is happy is when he resists the temptation to use the hypno-wand to get the girl. If he's not arrested, or brainwashed back, is miserable when he realizes their love isn't real if he had to brainwash her to love him, and in the happy route finds out she never wanted a boyfriend. In all the routes where he does use it, he doesn't end up happy. One of the characters even says that people aren't a video game where you just need enough 'relationship points' for someone to love you. The perception filter is the only reason nobody has arrested me for basically having a harem cult."
Skyla slammed the laptop closed. Curt startled. Those couldn't be... REAL flames in her eyes could it? Her eyes would just shrivel up right?
"Master!" Skyla growled, truly growled, baring her mouth of canines and fangs, reminding Curt of the quadruped beast he'd seen before, and wondered if that was actually her true form. "I get it already!" She hissed it. "You don't like the 'unearned' love we all give you, even though we aren't PROGRAMMED to love you! Reality was simply tweaked so we got see how good, and to be frank, braindead selfless you are sometimes! I'm PROUD of you for finally showing some selfishness for a change! Keeps you from being so dang FLAT Master!" Skyla's eyes widened and covered her mouth. "But... that braindead selflessness... is why I loved you, why I love you as Skyla the kitsune yokai, and Scott the man. So maybe... I've been corrupting what I love," a look of horror and shame on her face, eyes misting over. "But... dammit!
"'Maybe the source of a king's authority does not so much matter, as long as his name serves to unite the people.' Heard that in a video game once. And what's what you've done Master, united us! And... maybe I was being as empty headed as the Blank Maids, not thinking what I'd do AFTER you after... after I realized I'm basically now eternal. Assuming kitsune don't reach a critical point where we become one with the world's magic or something. But you did the one thing NONE of these game characters thought of.... dammit... you thought of AFTER you.
"Maybe without the perception filter, people WOULD BE a buncha paranoid gits, if not for the numbers of maids and nudists who never have anything bad to say about working for you, then they'd come for ME for turning every drug dealer and rapist I came across in my new life into a city decoration. But that isn't here nor there! And I promise, if you do go on to reunite with
your ancestors... I'll keep the sisterhood going, loyal to what you'd want for us, and to others, as your Head Maid, I swear. Because we're not just 'servants and master', we're a FAMILY! 'Family isn't just about blood, it's about the heart too.' Another video game."
"Quoting a lot of video games there," Curt replied dimly.
"Well, you're the one who got thinking from looking at one... " Skyla took her Master's hand. "Come on. And bring the ray gun. You and me, we're going for a little ride."
Curt found himself being pulled along. "... As Master, I think I get to make that call. Also a ride to where, exactly?"
"Around. You trust your head maid don't you?"
"I... I trust you. Can you please turn around as I change now please?"
"Oh! Of course Master!" Skyla bowed and did so.
Glenda, the golden retriever mechanic, waved the two off as they drove off from the Estate, ever slowly assimilating more of the city, but still nowhere as big as you think. Eight billion people in the world. 327.2 million people in the US of A. 100,000 people in an average city. What was ALL OF THAT to around 500 maids? Curt could zap every day of his life and there'd still be more human beings.
Skyla drove, Curt sat in the passenger seat.
"It's funny, well, not really, but still, maybe a little enlightening, in the country right now there are 554,000 homeless people, cross reference that with 7.4 million unemployed people. ... Is giving any of them a better turn in life wrong? Maybe I'm just making excuses for the zappings for you. But seriously, can you SERIOUSLY say you're not making their lives better?"
Skyla stopped the car. On the lane divide There was a man in a wheel chair with 'Anything Helps, God Bless' cardboard sign.
Skyla didn't say anything. She didn't even look at Curt. Her expression was grim and stern, her eyes focused only on the road ahead as she simply parked on the side of the road, waiting for Curt to order her to drive on, keeping her claws on the wheel. Curt waited for her to give some argument for her side. But none came. This WAS her argument.
Curt took out the ray gun, aimed and pulled the trigger, and the green lightning struck true. The wheel chair vanished as the man stood up. Chestnut fur began to cover his body, as his shoes vanished, his feet morphed into hooves. His dirty jacket, pants, and shirt, morphing into a skintight suit of sorts that ended between her uppers arms and thighs, with pieces of the same material in a shape resembling a skirt, all of it colored black with white trim (Curt wondered how well the material breathed). The man’s hands became a trio of armored fingers, while an opening for the outfit allowed for the long hair tail. Their neck lengthened, as did their face, while their ears became tiny little things pointed upwards, their hair becoming a blond mane behind their neck. Their figure changed too; they grew taller, waist slimming, hips and chest widening. Looking like a cross between an athlete and a super model. She blurred. She was now jogging along the street. (#470)
"Homeless people go where they don't have to worry about freezing to death at night... if they can," Skyla said, matter-of-factly.
Skyla drove again. It was sincerely depressing how little time it took for her to stop at another person with nowhere to go. He had a shaggy beard, and the only thing he was wearing was blue jeans, he could have been in his fifties (but he could have been very much aged before his time), he was curled up in a fetal position on a bridge, shaking. Skyla stopped the car again and waited.
Curt sighed, and used the ray gun again. The man stopped shaking, stood up straight with his arms at his sides and legs together. His pants turned into black cloth, moved up his body, becoming puffy shoulder sleeves, with a square neck cut, and the skirt, with buttons and white frilly trim all around. His figure becoming shorter and petite, his body covered in silver and gray fur, his feet were soon digigrated paws, and the claws formed. HIs hands were similar, but with an opposable thumb. The by now quite familiar tail of a wolf emerged from an opening in her dress, while her head become that of the wild canine, her hair vanishing, except for a small wild mop between her ears. She gave an adorable giggle and curtsied and said, "Good afternoon Master, Head Maid!" And then skipped along without a care in the world (it was her day off after all). (#471)
Skyla didn't drive very far at all this time before they came to what they could only assume was a human being... covered in cardboard and black plastic bags on a bench, angry mumbling heard from within, a sign stuck on the side said 'THERE IS NO GOD!'
Curt wondered if the ray gun could even work through complete cover like that, but it turned out to be moot point when he got an error message. The man was a father. Skyla wilted and cringed.
Curt looked at the profile of the wolf maid he'd just zapped, she was still close by.
"WENDY!"
"Yes Master? What do you need?" She quickly bowed.
Curt found himself wonder, what DID he want Wendy to do? Finally, Curt said the only thing he could think of. "Get that man the help he needs. Whether it's for his physical health or mental health, get him to the homeless center if he'll let you. Be as polite as you can. Be as unconfrontational as you can. If he acts violent, tell the authorities, and KEEP telling them until they do something. Help him. If... if he doesn't want to help in ANY way... accept it, and know that you've done your responsibility."
"Yes, My Master," Wendy bowed. "I shall obey."
Skyla whispered. "Master I'm sorry."
"Don't be..." Curt said, his head laying against the dashboard. "You knew I wanted to use its power to help those in need, they're in need. Let's go to the homeless shelter. It's been way overdue."
"Yes, Master."
The idea had been a simple one, finally make that visit to the homeless shelter, find out who was compatible with the ray gun, bring them aside, and see who was willing to work at the estate. But someone else had a simple plan that day too: 'take money, have money', but that had gone off the rails. The bank robbers had found their escape route cut off, and their carefully put together scheme had fallen apart at the seams almost at once. If you called 'show up wearing masks, demand money, take money, and drive away really fast' a 'plan.' If they'd robbed a convenience store, they'd have been long before the police had arrived and have likely just vanished into the shadows.
Instead, they'd taken a turn into the wrong neighborhood (by their standards), had found their car damaged, and then crashed, being forced into a building. One of the bank robbers, of Asian descent, wore a prayer-slip around his neck. One of them had robbed their own grandfather's weapon store for their firepower. Which... actually went a long way to explaining WHY they'd invoked such a strong reaction.
The police had blocked off the streets surrounding the building.
"Sorry Master, rules are rules." Said a black furred monkey girl wearing only her hat, badge, and utility belt. After all, as Curt had figured out, in this reality, he'd told any of the maids who were police to NOT play favorites.
Curt remembered Eva, the woman at the robbery where they had zapped Cassidy and turned the dangerous criminal into his tiger woman body guard, and discovered the limits of the ray gun for the first time. Eva had been shot, and only by altering reality so she never was, had things changed, along with her being zapped... And had for odd reasons become a girl on the verge of her teenage years in the new reality. Something Curt was still trying to figure out the mystery of, and likely, might never know the exact reasoning.
Curt hadn't realized just how many police officers had become part of the sisterhood. A quick search of the gun’s profile list revealed 16 in total.
While he didn’t mind the idea of maids on the force, (assuming they already would have chosen that career path, there was one major danger to it. He couldn't zap them twice. Hopefully it would never come to that.
Realistically. They should have just stayed out of the way and let the professionals do their job. But when you're close friends with and/or have people who have made vows of loyalty to you, many of who happen to have super powers, it tweaked things a little. But still...
"I don't get it," Skyla said. "I make so many examples... and still scum finds its way into this tiny little corner of the world I watch over."
Curt cringed a bit hearing Skyla talk like that, but still, he had to tell her, "Why do criminals still do crimes in cities with superheroes in comic books? Same reason they do in cities with police, they don't think they'll get caught.
"Skyla..." Curt put a hand on her shoulder. "It's not our concern, we shouldn't muck things up and get involved, someone could get killed. Storming those human traffickers with Sergeant Roberta was one of the, no, THE most reckless things I've ever done IN.MY.LIFE! And on top of all of it, we still got lucky. We shouldn't gamble our lives when the professionals can handle it, magic power or no."
"Master! My sister Maids are here! THey're part of the police! That means I have a right to be worried and concerned!"
A shot was heard. The police returned fire. Things had just escalated.
Curt saw him. A police office on the ground, bleeding, his comrades rushing to give him first aid. Curt saw the blood spreading. Maybe he was just being an idiot at this point. Seeing his breath slowly getting shallower... Curt aimed... and he got the error message. This man was going to leave a child and a widow!
"Damn you! Why couldn't you make anthro butlers too?! I know you're listening! Help me save him! I know you can add new features!"
Curt was surprised when he got a message:
"Unable to comply with your request. The current state of your reality is too patch-worked due to unauthorized editing to allow for unscheduled updates. Probability of permanent dimensional damage: critical. Sorry Curt."
Curt wasted three few precious second throwing a tantrum, before realizing there were other options. Could he turn one of the police into an angel or unicorn whose magic could heal him? What of Skyla's magic!? Could she just turn him into a figurine until the paramedics got here?!
In the meantime though, unseen by Curt, and Curt unseen by Kent, saw the bleeding officer too. He wasn't about to risk his own life getting near these criminals, and he wasn't about to let his weapon out of his sight by giving it to one of his drones, but he could make use of, er, be helpful to the police.
Ted felt his fellow cops pressing against the shot, slowing down the bleeding. He felt the piece of hot lead inside him. He wondered if he'd ever see his wife or his sons ever again. But... what was he worried about? Since when did objects get married or have children? Unless that was the function given to him. He was a magical machine, something created. A machine... like... in that movie? About the robot police man? What had been their programming? To protect innocents, to sustain the people's trust in the police, and to enforce the law... Yes, that had been their directives, so that must its directive, yes, that made total sense. And there was another directive: obey Owner above all else. That last one... FELT wrong somehow, which for the drone, might have been confusing, were it not for the fact it lacked any other feelings at all... but it was part of its instructions so it would fulfill them to the best of its ability!
Curt thought he knew what an automaton was with the blank maids. He hadn't had a clue. The blank maids were at least HAPPY. An ant might not care for itself, but it still cared for its Colony (and the value it had towards the Colony). These Latex Drones, they didn't even really care about their Owner, only the instructions given.
Curt meanwhile wondered why he'd be pointing his ray gun at a rental drone.
"Master," Skyla declared. "It could have been a human being shot right now instead of a rental drone. Command me to stop if you must, because I must act!"
Skyla became like shadows, slipping and twist around, slipping in past police and the eyes of the criminals. But as the fox shaped shadow tried to slip in through a window, an electrical spark was seen. The shadow tried to force its way inside at different points, the rooftop, under the door, but the electrical sparks came into being every time. Finally, the shadow slipped back to Curt, and formed into the brown kitsune maid again.
"I... I don't understand... there was nothing physically there, but it was like trying to push through an electrified grate... Even though I was a shadow, it was like the 'me' that's me at my core couldn't get inside... I don't get it."
"If you had your memories of your four hundred year life, you would."
Skyla's eyes widened. "Sophie? What are you doing here?"
"Master, Head Maid." Sophie curtsied. Then she said,"I was following the line of places that use Rental Drones, wanting to see what's on the end, and maybe ask why they didn't use them if all their neighboring businesses did. But I saw this happening, and I sensed Skyla trying to get past a barrier. Oh, and I put up a noise-camouflage barrier around us just to be on the safe side... Skyla, that was a barrier you pushed up against. Something meant to keep Yokai out. I don't think whoever is using it meant it for you. People have never bothered with such thing with you before, and I doubt they would start now. But it's possible the robbers brought something with them as a good luck charm, or maybe one of the tenants simply has one as an ancestral treasure. Or maybe someone just had a blessing on the house to keep out yokai. ... We don't have the most beloved legacy when it comes to interacting with humans Skyla." Sophie sighed and spoke in a formal tone. "Head Maid Skyla, do you want to disable the violent criminals in the building non-lethally?"
"... Yes."
"Master, do you approve of Skyla's desire?"
"... I... I don't object to what she wants. What I fear is us meddling will just make things worse."
Sophie looked with pleading eyes, "Master do you trust me?"
"... I do Sophie. I promise I do. Even when you learned the truth you've been nothing but supportive."
"Would you trust me with... your 'heirloom?'"
"... Sophie... you'd be aware of changes you'll have made to reality if you use it. And there's no telling if the criminals in there hadn't been father at some point. You'd be risking your life. That's the police's job."
Sophie asked, "What's better? To have a remote air-copter sneak in and blow them up?"
"We... don't know it'll come to that."
"Maybe it's just the nature of my transformation, leaving with an impulse to make new servants for you, but-"
"You're not the first maid to tell me that-"
"But can you really say that it won't be better for them? They'e already fired on the police. Do you really think things are going to turn alright for them? This isn't about saving just their lives, but the police's too."
"How can you make it in if I can't?" Skyla asked, feeling a bit indignant, maybe some of her family was rubbing off on her.
"I can enter because... to be frank, my magic is WAY WEAKER than yours... my magic... Does have some unique tricks yes-"
'Like slowing down time,' Curt thought.
"-But it's still weaker than yours, enough not to set the barrier off. Don't think of it as a wall to break through, think of it as a fence to squeeze through, my power is smaller, so I can wiggle in. Or perhaps like a pressure plate alarm. It's not exact, but perhaps that is a decent analogy. And who would be better? Emma? Kasai? Simone?"
"I don't want you hurt Sophie. This isn't a video game where the enemy purposely is made so they can lose."
"I don't PLAY many video games master. And I've seen real war. I've got enough tricks so I can retcon things with the heirloom's power so this never happened."
"And if they're all fathers?" Curt asked.
"... I am willing to take that risk."
"Maybe I'm not."
"If that is your will Master, then I shall obey. I know I'm not like you or Skyla, this reality is the only one I know. And I don't want to know a life where we were never friends Skyla. Master. I took an oath to serve you Master, if us not getting involved is what you think is best to prevent further tragedy, then I shall obey."
"But you WANT TO..." Curt said solemnly.
Sophie sighed. "I lied Master. Forgive me. I don't think it's my impulse to create new servants for you, not entirely... I think I want the chance to prove myself."
"Sophie! You don't remember! But YOU DID prove yourself! Anna was kidnapped! But you risked yourself along with us to rescue her!"
"... Then Master... I want a chance to prove myself that I'll remember in THIS life. Not the life of the human I was... Those who hold the weapon remember using it don't they? Othewise the children would have never gone crazy with it."
"Yes they can."
"I'll admit, I was keeping something from you too Master, and you too Skyla. I told myself it was better if you didn't remember... Or the chance you gave me... Look at my tails Master. I call myself a Bakeneko. But my split tail marks me as a nekomata!" Sophie said darkly. She saw the blank look on Curt's face.
" My kind, the nekomata, is EVEN MORE known for being untrustworthy than ANY kitsune to the point they don't even bother with games and will upfront murder their 'owners.'"
She Curt and Skyla cringed from her.
"We're cuckoos in the nest. They say our first instinct upon our tails splitting is to kill our caretaker. Almost no one in the united states know the difference between the bakeneko and the nekomata, all anyone ever sees is 'CAT GIRL!' My parents knew what I was, but loved me all the same, they naturally died of old age before my tail ever split. I feared that day coming. You supported me Master, an you too Skyla, all my friends did. You taught me to face that day, not run away from it. I feared every day that I'd develop homicidal tendencies, as the nekomata were legendary for. But you trusted me Skyla, and so Master trusted me. And I let go of my fear."
Curt was reminded, this woman, she looked eighteen, but she was really over a hundred.
"Master. I know it's foolish. But let me do this... Let me have this. I have the power to help this end in a better outcome for all involved."
Curt sighed, and he began working the safety lock, bringing up Sophie's profile, and added her to the safe list.
"I'm removing you from privileges after this is done." As the true Master of the Ray Gun, he'd remember every change.
"Fair precaution Master, the fewer who can use this power the better."
"You trust me with it."
"You rightfully fear your own power. That's what makes you worthy of it."
Curt handed the Ray Gun off to Sophie. If things went south, he'd likely never seen the Ray Gun again... who was he kidding, if he asked politely enough, one of the police maids was bound to return it to him if it was picked up if the police decided to simply raid the building.
Curt blinked, Sophie vanished, there a faint hint of a light violet blur, but it was gone so fast it could have been a trick of the light.
+++
Sophie could use time magic, but damn, it was brutal, and she couldn't sustain it for long. She had to rest between bursts. It also created the illusion that was teleporting.
Some part of Sophie had to admit, this was insane. She hadn't lied to master exactly, she'd seen war, she didn't say she'd ever been a soldier. Maybe finding everything she remembered about herself was the result of Master changing reality, and by human standards she should be dead, had led to a moment of foolishness. Maybe she wanted to risk herself. Maybe she wanted it both ways, to not have to remember a life that was no longer hers, but still have a chance to wield the power of the object given to Master. Something made in the shape of a toy from the fifties. Sophie snorted a bit indignantly.
'Stupid higher dimensional beings, gods, the fates, angels, whoever you might be. You got it wrong. A toy ray gun in that time was more likely to be made out of metal than plastic.'
Or maybe Sophie wanted an excuse to see this power for herself, she was a cat after all, and what cat didn't want to learn a few more secrets?
'Likely ones who don't want to test to see if cats have nine lives,' Sophie thought.
Distracting herself with questions took her mind off the insanity she'd embarked on. She could just turn around. She should just turn around.
There was a saying that 'one bullet could stop most wizards, a lot of bullets would stop any wizard.'
Pst. A hail of bullets would have meant nothing to beings like Myra or Atarah. To Kasai a bullet would have simply meant 'starting over', and unicorns like Emma could supposedly teleport away less as a conscious action as more an involuntary response to 'move or die' danger, and unless you should snipe a dragon through the eye or similar, most dragons like Carrie and Kathy were more worried about surface-to-air-missiles than guns. But Sophie was not those things. And while Sophie had magic, it did not compare to the power houses she worked with.
Sophie adjusted the settings, wide field zapping. All she had to do was get them all at once. With less accomplishes, the criminals were bound to be less confident and things would have never gotten this far, right? It made logical sense, or that was what she kept telling herself.
She was trying to figure something out: something important. It was like grasping at something made of smoke. She knew it was there, but she couldn't touch it. Was she hoping the adrenaline rush would cause something to snap into place? Maybe knowing the truth had driven her crazy, and she just didn't know it yet.
To her credit, Sophie was still a cat, a cat with over a hundred years life experience in her arsenal. And her eyes, ears, and nose, weren't just for show. She could smell the sweat, dust, and gunpowder. She could hear the cursing, clicking of weapons, the creek of foot steps, and their hammering heartbeats. They were scared. Scared and holding a gun, never a good thing. Then again, she was too.
It seemed anyone who'd been in the building had fled, or was keeping themselves hidden and safe, the bank robbers didn't have any hostages, that was always a good thing.
Sophie moved slowly. Utterly silent. She heard the bank robbers on the other side of a door. She could smell them too. She could hear where they were, including the one who was besides the door.
Knowing the size of the universe, Sophie didn't know if she was really freezing time itself everywhere, just in her immediate area, or if she was speeding her own relative time up. She knew the Earth turned, the Earth orbited, the galaxy turned, and the galaxy moved, so one moment was always in a different spot from another. So time frozen for a pebble would suddenly be a million miles away in the next moment. Or was she slipped into a different flow of time? Though everything she learned about time magic said it was tricky to learn, and dangerous if misused.
'Maybe I've always been a risk taker,' Sophie thought. After all, she'd made friends with a kitsune, who were legendary for putting a twist on things.
No more delays. Time to throw the dice. Sophie slowed time to a crawl, and allowed the door's time to flow normally relatively to her as she pushed through the atmosphere (it never really occurred to her before how Curt was able to breath and speak just fine in their time distilled chat, but she'd never shared this magic much with others before).
Sophie forcibly knocked the door open, the damage would have never happened when she was done.
She positioned herself so she'd get all of them in one blast (or figured she would) with the wide-beam option, and pulled the trigger.
She noticed then there was a woman in the room, casually dressed, dark skin, long hair, standing face to face with one of the robbers. She wasn't armed, but she wasn't scared either, she looked angry and agitated instead. The men didn't look angry or agitated with her, he also didn't have nhis weapon pointed at her, instead, the one she was speaking too looked like he was trying to make himself smaller.
The robbers hadn't come here by accident after all.
Two of the other robbers also looked worried, scared, panicked, in over their heads, clutching their guns. With the forth robber looking out the window with a mirror holding his weapon calmly.
While the green lightning had hit all five targets, nothing was happening, yet, and Sophie realized that time was still going slowly. And she let time move forward at its normal pace, entranced at seeing this power of Master's at work.
The biggest man became smaller, and smaller, and smaller, he wasn't becoming younger however. His feet became digigrated hooves, his fingers became three with armored ends, while a pink flowing tail of hair grew from his rump as his clothes vanished, his whole body covered by thick shagging green fur, his hair become a pink mane that went down his back. His face pushed forward, his teeth all turned flat, his nostrils flared, while his ears moved higher on his head and became more triangular. His figure became squat, with a pair of petite breasts that moved lower on her body as he became a she. The green and pink pony woman giggled to herself. Contrary to popular belief, ponies were a separate species from horses. And there was a level of annoyance from ponies of being mistaken for foals. (#472)
Another of the men's clothes vanished, his body immediately covered by golden and white fur, with the fur pattern of a Siberian Husky, his feet becoming padded paws, along with his hands except with an opposable thumb. She stood on her digigrated legs as her furry tail formed in, already having made the shift from man to woman with the reality bending power of the ray gun. The face pushed out into that of a husky, except with the gleam of intelligence behind those eyes. His hair turned golden as well, pouring down her back. Her figure ballooned and warped into something out of a fifteen year old boy's fantasy. Nutty's figure was cartoonish. Susan had the body of an over the top super model. This figure reminded Sophie of her sister maids who Skyla had assigned to the employment office Master ran, (mostly to keep them from away from Master, while all the sisterhood loved them, these Maids were infamous for doing everything but physically throwing themselves on him). Even Bombi's figure was tame by comparison. It was a wonder her spine didn't crack under the weight of her chest, maybe the size of her hips balanced it out? The spark of reason and intelligence was there... but it was like out of a teenage boy's fantasy with one thing obviously on her mind. (#473)
As the next man's clothes vanished, his body actually become more muscle toned, but not muscle bound. His upper body was covered by gray, almost dark blue feathers, while the lower body had white feathers. Yellow scales formed on his feet as they became talons. His face pushed out into a sharp curved beak that ended in a dagger point. His hair became a huge pale blue plumage of feathers. A set of tail feathers formed from her now shapely rear. Her body was definitely shaping up on the busty side, but on the smaller side of the scale, in a 'take charge' kind of way. And instead of sprouting a pair of shoulder wings like Sophie was used to seeing, instead, her arms became a set of giant wings, with functional talons on the tips. Her stature, her form, the way thin nature of her chest's plumage, her species... she was a harpy. A harpy eagle (no, seriously, that was the species' name, look it up). She stood stern and proud. (#474)
As for the woman, her legs fused together as charcoal black scales covered the back half of her body, while bone white scales covered the front half. Her entire trunk of her body and her legs became one. Her chest size stayed exactly the same, this woman had no self image issues. Her hair vanished. A black hood of sorts spread out from her head. Her face stretched out and flattered, fangs became visible, a forked tongue flickered out, her eye-lids ceased to exists replaced by protective scales. her clothes... mostly vanished, making room for her tail. She now wore a tied together leather corset, that didn't even trying to hide her scaly breasts (never mind what a reptile needed those for). She wore similar leather straps around her tail and arms, with the white trim expected of a maid. And she had a whip with her. It seemed the transformation had let out some of her repressed traits. (#475)
Reality began to blur. Retcons affecting the current reality.
Except, Sophie had been so entranced by seeing the transformation for the first time, she didn't notice the nervous and scared man who hadn't changed. Whether he was a rapist, a family man, or had unwittingly produced a child during a fling, Sophie didn't know. He was also the man who had been wearing the prayer slip. All HE knew, in the phase between reality correcting itself, he had seen a nekomata, the man eating cat yokai of legend appear right in front of him in his friends' house: he had yelped, and had pulled the trigger on his weapon without even thinking about it. The other maids cried out in alarm or warning... Sophie's time magic was not like Emma's teleportation, an involuntary response she'd have to consciously repress, she had to consciously focus. And in that moment of shock she could not.
Sophie wondered where she was.
She was standing, she knew that, she could see herself just fine, but the blackness around her went off infinitely.
Then, an instant later, someone was in front of her. She didn't have the flash of a teleport, nor had she walked up to her. In one instant Sophie was alone, and in the next instant she was not.
The woman was an anthro to be sure. But what kind sincerely left Sophie confused. She might have been some kind of chimera. Her figure was lithe and graceful, and at first Sophie thought she looked sort of like an elf with marble pale skin, or maybe fine white fur. Her eyes' centers were dark like the night. She had small fine claws.
Sophie couldn't see the woman's feet hidden underneath the woman's dress, or any tail she might have had from the angle she was facing Sophie, and it felt strangely rude to circle around her.
Her ears, the best way Sophie could think to describe them was the positioning of an elf, while having the general shape of a cat, but the length of a rabbit's.
Her dress was... Sophie remembered a woman artist who had described the skulls she used in her work as 'quite lively' and not meant to be macabre, and that seemed to be the intention here, too. The mysterious woman's dress was of light material, dark gray like charcoal, with a slew of frilly white lines around it, and a skull symbol neck ribbon. Her hair was very wavy and reached down her neck. She was also using a lady's parasol.
Instead of feeling scared or alarmed, Sophie felt a sense of ease around this stranger, like she was barely a stranger at all. Her every motion held poise and dignity, like the epitome of lady-likeness.
Finally, Sophie asked the obvious question of the angelic white gothic bunny/cat/elf.
"Am I dead?"
"Dead? Alive? You think of such things in biological terms. That that is all there is to the universe. You think the glass produces the water, rather than the glass holding it."
"That doesn't answer anything."
"Then ask a better question."
"... What is your name?"
"Alinbird."
"What kind of name is Alinbird?" Sophie couldn't stop herself from asking.
"A not uncommon name from when I stand."
"Are you part of the Sisterhood of Maids?"
"I am Maid number... #19998."
"There is no maid by that number, and unless Sharon and Suzie go on another a zapping spree, won't be for a while. Time traveler?"
"Not precisely. Neither of us have left our present. But time doesn't exist as you understand where we are right now."
"Where is here?"
"You technically should be in the void between life and death, but due to the liquid state of reality at this point, you are instead being, well, perhaps for a lack of a better word made to sit it out in a make-shift waiting room."
"How can you exist if reality hasn't been altered yet so you always existed as a Maid?"
"Because for me it has. Which means it will. Or that is how it should be for me. Reality has begun distorting in ways other than Master's instrument. So I might cease to exist. So I shall tell you Senior Maid Sophie, you never succumbed to the curse of the nekomata in my timeline."
Sophie imagined her eyes misting up some. "... Thank you. You have no idea, thank you. So how far in the future are you?"
"My Great-Grand-second-father fought in the Trademark Wars."
"You're joking."
"I'm not laughing."
"I've lived a hundred years, you talk rather well for a language that’s very far behind you if you're as far away as you say you are."
"You think this is my normal way of speaking? I'm translating it to fit your era of dialect."
"Why are you here?"
"A good question Lady Sophie. Reality is just realigning itself, so you were never shot, so you were never dead. I am just taking this moment so we can speak. Since you are between life and death."
"So this foolish mistake did kill me, it's what I earned I suppose."
"I believe the phrase is 'no harm, no foul', you'll be alive since you were never shot, but you are also aware of THESE changes in reality... which make things interesting... There are some important things I need to tell you. My history is changing, and I don't mean the changes your Master is making, those are part of my history."
+++
Human nature, being what it is, led to a crowd of people and on-lookers slowly gathering beyond where the police had established a barrier to keep civilians away from the danger. People with their cellphones and cameras taking pictures.
'Buncha cattle', Kent thought, with the purple chimera drone at his side. 'Right near a crime scene and they don't have the common sense to stay away from people with guns.'
Some distant part of Kent worried what might happen if someone, somehow, someway, got these drones to remember their former realities... And he silently laughed to himself.
So what if they ever remembered their former existence? That existence had never happened. As far as time and space itself was concerned, those were memories of people who had never existed. 'Heh, how are you supposed to bring back something that never existed?' Kent thought with dark amusement.
Either way, these drones existed to serve him without question, they had ALWAYS existed to serve him without question, the humans beings who had existed in the old timeline in their place had never existed, their function and impulse to obey and serve without question would remain anyway. Kent felt no fear of his drones ever being able to turn on him.
Kent zapped away. Young, old, black, white, Catholic, Hindu, man, woman, parent or barren, none of it mattered, had they had a boy friend, a girl friend, had dreams or nightmares, those had never existed. Their clothes vanished, as the elderly grew back into their prime, while the young grew into their prime. Opening closed up, sexual organs vanished. Their insides turned to air, while their outsides, skin, hair, everything, became a single rubbery shell that had the power of locomotion on its own. All turning various odd and bright colors. Some gained digigrated hooves, other paws, some webbed feet, a few had their legs fuse together into a singular tail. Some formed fans like tail feathers, some gained a long thick tails, other other short round ones, or thin snaky ones. Claws formed, or hooved hands, or webbed fingers. Their belly buttons vanished. Their figures were neither exaggerated nor petite, simply 'male' and 'female.' Patterns forming on some like scales or feathers. And the heads of various beasts atop their shoulders. They weren't children, they weren't adults, they had been made in the form they were now in, and would be forever.
They all stood perfectly at attention, mirrors of each other in perfect lines. Skyla almost would have liked it, almost, had their souls not went silent. They still had souls, making them still beings, aware of their own existence, but assigning it no value, or assigning any value to anything else, orders were to be carried out, nothing else, even their Owner held no value. There was no harmonious music among souls some desire, nor was there the comforting white-noise of belonging that others desire, only silence. Except one who gave Kent the noisy error message.
He wasn't as discouraged by the annoying error message as before, since each error message helped him triangulate where the person with this world's device would be.
"Make a note of when and where," Kent told the purple Chimera.
"Yes Owner," she said.
Jennifer Western (Maid #36), shivered among the crowd of latex drones in front of the police stand-off. She was a teenage vixen with brown fur, a gray maid uniform, and a busty figure. She'd come from a wealthy family, and so when she'd become a maid to serve Mr. Everson, she knew exactly how a maid should behave: less than dirt, no better than furniture. That was what she'd been taught her whole life, so upon becoming a maid, she'd embraced this truth. She'd admired the Academy Maids for embodying this truth.
'You are a SERVANT, not a SLAVE.' Jennifer... she remembered Head Maid SKyla's harsh words to her, telling her how Master saw his servants, and if he saw them with such respect, shouldn't she show that to herself and others? Head Maid Skyla had told her to socialize with girls her own age. She'd done that before choosing on her sacred path to become a Maid for Mr. Everson, but she'd treated them like objects. Now since then, she'd been speaking with, learning about other girls her school age, and not just as blackmail or gossip material to file away for later... but now... she wondered... why had she spent so much time socializing with latex drones? Was she that scared of interacting with real people? She felt so ashamed of her weakness.
Meanwhile, Kent zapped along the police here as well. Now he didn't have to worry as much about police ruining his life because of a ticket quota or a misplaced address for a police raid. He had the purple chimera make notes of every police officer who gave an error message. 'I guess whoever it is, they had the same idea as me, he must not be here, or all these cops would be changed.' Kent assumed whoever it was likely male, that did seem to be the pattern. (Naturally he had no idea about the world where Anna was granted the ray gun and had created a society of eye pleasing anthro men).
The new police drones were a green bison male, a dark violet yak male, a male fuchsia aardvark, a female medium violet red coyote, a male aqua colored skunk (still with the white stripes), and a female saddle brown crocodile. All of them with the word 'Police' embroiled upon them and wearing police equipment but nothing else.
It was ironic. In the world Kent had stolen the gun from, Kent’s coworker Dave was the owner of the device. Dave had been set to slowly create a world of genies, that, in time, would have eventually sought out other worlds to grant the wishes and dreams to, as the genies of Dave's ideals desired with all their hearts (opposed to the actual myth of powerful primal beings who chaffed under such control and always sought a means to torture any who dared command them). In Kent’s hands, the gun’s power HAD reached into other worlds, but now it only deprived others of even their ability to desire.
+++
Thankfully for Curt, he and Skyla had unwittingly moved to the side of the building opposite Kent, not wanting to make the situation more complicated.
Curt thought, looking around at the latex drones, spotting one of the maids in the horde, 'Why is it that whenever there are fewer maids around lately, I feel something in me scream 'danger!'? Am I that used to being surrounded by loyalists already? Ugh!'
Curt said the first thing that came to mind to get his mind off the subject, and his worry for Sophie somewhere in that house. "Well look at them Skyla, an army of rental drones, devoted to their purpose utterly and completely. Remind you of the blank maids at all?"
"Oh I do believe that devotion to another is the ultimate virtue Master, I'm pretty sure all the sisterhood does... but the rental drones... it's like if you programmed an copter robot to drop candy instead of bombs, it's just GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS, there's no virtue if there's no conscious action. At least the blank maids were HAPPY at their lot in life."
The sound of a gun shot. Slyla could tell it had come from the part of the the robbers were in. Both felt their heart leapt into their throats while the bottoms of their stomachs fell away. Horror filled their heads. Worst fears realized. Recklessness repaid with its just reward. Eyes widened and mouths tried.
"Sophie," Skyla breathed.
Curt couldn't even speak.
Neither entertained the comforting possibly that maybe one of the bandits had simply misfiled his gun. Maybe... it had been someone else. Maybe there had been a deadly moment of thieves fall out. Their worst fears had been haunting them as they pushed them out of their heads, but now they came crashing back in full force.
But then reality blurred. The crowd of latex drones and one maid were gone. The police, maid and drone alike were gone. The robber's car was gone. Everything was peaceful in the city again. People even walking by one of SKyla's fortune statues without so much as a glance.
"She did it," Skyla said with relief, feeling like she'd been in a soft warm rain. She clasped her hands together and lowering her head with her eyes closed, her tails flaring behind her.
"But, where is she?" Curt asked, thinking of Sophie, thought of the location of the ray gun not even entering his mind. The idea of one of the thieves having taken it for themselves after hurting Sophie was meaningless as it'd been shown Curt was the ray gun's true owner no matter what. "Skyla, wait for me, I'm going in there."
"Oh no you're not!"
"Oh yes I am."
"Master I BEG you to reconsider! We don't know precisely how reality changed!"
"We know that there's no sign of the get away car and no sign of the police."
"We might have lost Sophie because we thought we were willing to gamble even when we knew it was a bad idea, I'm not losing you too!"
"I command you to."
Skyla's eyes widen, and her mouth opened slightly, then she closed it and in a proper maid pose bowed her head. "Master, I obey."
Curt hated himself. He ran for the rental building... and ran straight into Sophie, with the ray-gun.
"Oof! Sorry Master! I had to politely excuse myself from your new maids after I'd apparently dropped by to say hello."
"You're alive!" Curt hugged her. Skyla in a flash was hugging her as well. Sophie hugged them in return.
"Yes... yes I am. I never died." Sophie looked unsure of what to say next, but Curt and Skyla didn't notice during their epic hugging sessions, overwhelmed just by the fact their friend was not dead. Curt hadn't in his memories known her long, but she had helped him find Skyla, and for that he was in her debt. As for Skyla, while she didn't want to lose the humanity her memories of the old timeline gave her, she admitted that the memories of a friendship with this woman was something she was a little sad she couldn't have too.
The epic hug lasted for at least a minute before finally breaking.
"Sophie... you are NEVER doing ANYTHING that reckless, EVER AGAIN. Do you UNDERSTAND? That is an ORDER from your MASTER, and you shall OBEY."
Sophie breathed in deep, and let it out slowly, and bowed. "Master, I obey." She considered calling Master a hypocrite for apparently rushing head first himself, but now wasn't the time. She gave the ray gun back to Curt. Curt finally remembered the thing, it felt like an afterthought when compared to this woman. She’d been given a new lease on life, and it would have been unthinkable to have it cut short so soon.
"Thank you Sophie," Curt said.
Sophie gave him another hug. "Master, I have some interesting things to tell you, but first I need too confirm some things, so I know what I experienced was not a trick of my mind. I'll explain later. But I may have been given a piece to solve a puzzle I didn't even know was there! And the truth of our orphaned boy!"