Kyle was more than a little surprised when up walked Ben Richards. Ben was a good guy. I mean a really good guy. He never laughed when Jake or the other kids at school bullied him. He was just a nice person.
After Jake and his friends had pantsed and humiliated him, it had been Ben who had talked to him, apologizing for his friend's actions, telling him it was going to be ok. Ben had even told him something that he was hiding from the rest of the school as well, that he was gay. He gave him the whole "it gets better" talk and had tried to make him feel more human. Of course, Kyle had plotted revenge instead, but Ben tried.
Now, Kyle was going to have to make good on his promise of life-altering revenge transformations but he didn't want to hurt one of the decent people. That thought alone almost made him change his mind. But then he realized, he had the power to make Ben's life better too.
Kyle turned back to Mr. Smith in his clown paint. "Go ahead and take the curtain down from the mirror over here."
Mr. Smith went over and pulled off the velvet cover on a floor length mirror with the words, "Fun House Mirror" hanging above it.
Of course, the mirror wasn't anything special, he had just wanted to give his victims a way to see the changes happen in real time.
"Ben, take your place in front of the mirror." Kyle said, with his big-top voice back in place.
Ben stood there, looking at himself a little awkwardly, baseball glove in hand.
"Now Ben, I want you to trust me. Know that this part of the production is all in fun." Kyle said reassuringly, knowing that his power of suggestion was going to win out.
"Of course I trust you. Let's have some fun." Ben said with an easy smile.
"Ok, until I say so, your clothes will transform with you as you change." Kyle said, concentrating on easing him into the situation. Ben nodded his understanding.
"You're three feet tall." Kyle said.
Ben lost a little more than half his height. He laughed at himself in the mirror. The other guys gasped and murmured.
"You're nine feet tall."
Ben shot up so that he had to stoop to see his head in the mirror. The guys started to get louder.
"That's enough racket. Don't speak until I give you permission." Kyle said with a glare at the other guys.
"You're back to your normal height and you're incredibly skinny." Kyle said and Ben's body complied immediately.
"You're morbidly obese."
"You have 3 legs! You're 60 years old! You're 7 years old! You've gained 200 lbs of muscle mass! You lay baseballs like eggs! You're Chinese! You're a cyclops! You have 4 arms!"
Kyle kept changing him and changing him and Ben kept laughing at the odd changes as Kyle made them up and made them happen instantly. Then, pausing, he changed him back to how he was when he came forward.
Kyle looked at the crowd who watched from behind Ben as he morphed and changed and shifted before their eyes. Their eyes were wide. They couldn't comprehend what they had witnessed and probably wouldn't have spoken even if they could.
Kyle turned back to Ben and said, "Let's play a fun version of this game.