Merritt trotted away from the back door of the S&M club and couldn't help noticing that, back in his greyhound body again, his own back door no longer hurt. Near the end of the alley, he stopped and discreetly rubbed his light brown fur covered backside against the fender of a car. It wasn't sore at all. Somehow in the transformation from human to dog the walloping inflicted on his buns and his hole by the dominatrix, trainees and mechanical chair had gone away.
Fine, thought Merritt. This once I'm happy to be a dog. And where his luck had been entirely bad earlier that afternoon, the timing of his transformations driving him further and further from his apartment and landing him naked and wearing a dog collar outside an S&M club, now Merritt's luck was almost entirely good.
He still suffered random transformations from dog to human and back but mostly he remained a greyhound and trotted casually for a couple hours back toward his apartment without anyone making any fuss over canine Merritt. Even when he transformed there was no issue. In one case, he went instantly from greyhound to human in a park beside a pond. He jumped in the pond without anyone seeing what had happened to him and swam to the far end of it, which was the direction he wanted to go anyway. As he got to the end of the pond a couple hundred yards away, he turned back into a greyhound and simply dog paddled to shore and shook himself in typical dog fashion.
In another instance, after snatching a hot dog and a half out of a dumpster, Merritt the greyhound eventually felt the need to shit. He squatted in the flower bed in front of some condos not seeing an old lady coming around a corner walking her tiny leashed poodle. "Oh, look at that!" she fussed. But in mid-defecation, Merritt changed instantly back into his six foot one, 165 pound track star human body. He completed his business and out of the corner of his eye saw the woman just 20 feet away. He started to run and in mid stride turned back into a greyhound. The old lady was left gasping, pointing at the sleek greyhound receding into the distance but not making any sounds.
Finally, Merritt got back to his apartment complex and trotted to the brush just outside of his building. Luck was with him again as right away he turned instantly into his naked human self and quickly climbed up from one balcony to the next and then onto his. Just as he got the slider opened, he turned into a dog again and trotted into his own apartment as a greyhound.
His focus now was on contacting Trans Dem. Something's obviously gone completely wrong with this thing. Whatever the cause is, maybe they've faced it before and can fix it. He couldn't go through life randomly human or a dog like this. Even just being a dog would be better than that.
With his long, thin muzzle, Merritt pushed the laptop off the owner's manual and got a corner of the manual over the edge of the desk. He grasped the corner with his greyhound teeth and gently pulled it off the desk, being sure he didn't pull the laptop with it. It hit the floor with a thud. Merritt eagerly advanced to it then used his long thin muzzle to laboriously turn pages. He was looking for some kind of emergency number. It took him several minutes looking through the table of contents in the front and the index in the back. He wished he would turn human again for just a few minutes. He got a couple of humiliatingly short, five second long transformations. He was a greyhound with one paw holding down the table of contents. He was instantly human again. He picked up the manual in both hands but only dropped it to the floor just seconds later as he was a fur covered greyhound again in just seconds. He gave a furious angry growl at his predicament.
At last he found something in the back of the manual. On a page after the index was a blank page and then one which said EMERGENCY RESPONSE and gave an 888 toll free number. It said to have your unit number ready. Merritt puzzled. My unit number? Was there one stamped on the box? He memorized the phone number and stepped away from the manual to find the box. He wasn't sure that he still had it. But as he stepped away, he saw that there was a number stamped on the manual cover. He decided to try that.
But now there was the problem of using his phone while stuck in the body of a greyhound. His sleek fur covered body was peerlessly graceful at running but hopelessly awkward in manipulating a phone. It took Merritt a couple minutes to get it off the desk and onto the floor where he could try to dial and another minute just to turn it over when it fell face down. Merritt grabbed a pencil in his teeth and tried to dial it took him several infuriating minutes to dial 11 digits as he kept getting one or another wrong. Finally he got through and heard a message thanking him for calling the Trans Dem help line. It asked him to put in his unit number. With the greatest effort, drooling all over the carpet beside the phone as his manipulated the pencil in his long, thin muzzle, Merritt input the number. At last!
But then he suddenly realized. Wait a minute! I found this in the trash. They don't know that I have this. They probably think some other guy has it. They'll send help to him. I've probably wasted all this effort!
He barked furiously over and over.
The call was terminated and Merritt slumped to the carpet feeling beaten.
There was a knock at the door and Merritt heard a faint call of "Mr. Sivertsen?"
Merritt's greyhound eyes went wide. Could it be?!
He jumped to his feet and ran to the door giving a happy bark as he got there.
The voice outside was very soft now. "Mr. Sivertsen . . . if you're . . . temporarily incapacitated and not able to open the door but want me to come in, scratch the door two times then pause then three times.
Merritt scratched the door as told. The door opened and an walked a young, red haired guy in a maroon bellhop's uniform like he'd walked out of an old black and white movie about a hotel.
He closed the door behind him. In his hand he had a small laptop. "Merritt Sivertsen?" he asked looking down at Merritt.
Merritt nodded his fur covered head and just after he did, turned instantly human again. He stood up, indifference to being naked. "See what's happening to me. I turn randomly into a greyhound or-"
He didn't finish the sentence. He turned instantly into a dog again and let out a whimper.
The red haired guy just nodded all the while tapping away at his laptop on the kitchen island counter. "I see. Not very convenient for you, is it."
Merritt shook his furry head.
"Well, there's something that I can do that should stabilize things while I confirm what's going on."
With that, he turned his laptop so that its emitter was facing toward Merritt. He felt the usual electromagnetic wave pass through his dog body and in just a couple seconds he was human again. Only he was not Merritt but Mary, the female version of himself that he'd once transformed into. And she was naked. Mary's one hand went to her pussy and her other other wrapped around he ample breasts.
"Thanks, I guess," she told the guy.
He shrugged but was back typing. "I can't get you all the way back just yet. This is another identity from back before the scan date so I think it will let you stay this way."
"The scan date?"
The guy went over to Merritt's laptop and turned it on. "I think you were hacked and the particular program that's causing you all the trouble is based around deceiving your laptop into believing that it just did a security scan and that everything's okay. I think we'll find that it was at one of the times when you'd changed yourself into a greyhound. Quite a useful identity, by the way."
"I thought so."
The young guy glanced at Mary and continued typing away. "Incidentally, you make a beautiful woman. Some users have to make a whole series of modifications but you just switched "M" to "F" and look at you."
Mary smiled. "Thanks."
The guy kept typing away. "Not entirely a surprise, actually. You've got that slender, small waisted runner-dancer sort of body. Just take that depth of hip and make it width and you've got the right sort of face, too." He went into another flurry of typing. ". . Ah! . . . there it is!"
He turned to Mary. "Yeah, you were a really pretty guy but you're an even prettier girl. Or maybe that's just my personal bias. Some clients are really thrown by how beautiful they are on the other side. They even . . . well, anyway-" he pointed to a particular line on the screen of Merritt's, now Mary's, laptop which showed a wall of text.
"See that line with the date and time? The way this particular hack works is that the virus gets to stick around because your laptop is constantly in a state of thinking it's just done a scan that found nothing and so everything's okay. At the time it did that scan, you had transformed yourself into a greyhound. So, when it resets all the laptop's systems back to that time, it, effectively reset you back into being a greyhound. And that would be it, except that your laptop had one security system that kept trying to fight back against it, effectively at first but not so well after a while. And in the stretches when your laptop's security had gained the upper hand you were transformed back into human."
"Why was it so random?"
"Because the virus kept adapting. Have your times as human been shorter lately?"
"Yes, especially today. Yesterday I think I was chased by half the DC police force because I kept changing back and forth and they were going nuts trying to catch naked Merritt Sivertsen. Then, last night I-I changed back to human with a dog collar on at the back door of some kind of underground S&M club."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Of all the times to stay human for a couple hours. They trained a couple girls at walloping my ass. They had a machine that . . ," her voice trailed off.
The red headed guy tilted his head. "Well, I'm sorry, but I think the problem was that you opened a fake email that said it was your paypal monthly statement. Be wary of those."
He engaged in another flurry of typing, finally hitting the return key with a dramatic flourish. "Annnnd now it's gone. But explain to me just how you came to have this unit."
Mary explained Merritt's dismissal at the NSA, finding the Chronivac unit in their trash and how Merritt wanted to use it to root out the corrupt people at the agency. The red haired guy listened intently.
"That's very interesting, much more so than the clients who want some sort of simple gratification from it. So, these guys, Carruthers and Fairfax, that you think are part of it, did you do that to yourself," he nodded his chin at beautiful naked Mary, " to be a sort of honeypot to ensnare them and get info from them?"
"No. I was just trying it out. I slipped into both their places using a series of identities, bird, fly and miniaturized me."
"Good thinking. People don't use a series of identities enough."
"But I don't think either of them is really interested in me the way I am. I found images of rapes of underage boys on both their computers."
"I see."
"Even with the Chronivac, it's really hard to surveil people."
"Have you tried . . ? There are categories that I think are underused. Are you willing to try something?"
Mary nodded.
The guy typed away furiously at Merritt's laptop. Mary could see him going through the Chronivac menus over his bellhop uniform shoulder.
"I'm going to make this quick. It'll be a little disorienting at first. But it'll be fine."
Mary nodded. She felt the familiar electromagnetic wave go through her. And she instantly fell to the floor and was completely disoriented. Arms. legs, head, body. nothing was right. Everything was completely weird. Even his thoughts felt . . odd, sort of restricted or channeled although as fast as ever, maybe faster. Merritt didn't feel like he could move anything and then suddenly movement of a sort was easy. He was blinded then suddenly he was looking at the maroon ankles of the bellhop guy's uniform. He couldn't hear anything bu then he could hear the guy's voice like the booming voice of God. Merritt tried to get up but couldn't. He tried to complain. What have you done to me?
The bellhop picked up the special surveillance drone with its four motors, special cameras and microphones. It was a top of the line model capable of flying almost 100 miles per hour and with a much longer operating time than other models. It had by far the most powerful processing unit and in this particular case, the processing unit contained the mind of Merritt Sivertsen.
"Can you see me, Merritt?" whispered the bellhop. "You're a top of the line surveillance drone, now. I think they protect some areas against these things by sending out jamming at various frequencies. But it wouldn't affect you because you're inside the machine. You *are* the machine,. You're not being controlled by someone else."
The drone let out a beep.
With each second, Merritt was gaining more mastery over this incredible new mechanical body. He turned down his microphone sensitivity so that the bellhop's voice sounded normal. He panned back and forth with the camera. He had almost a 180 degree field of vision in front and had another camera looking to the rear.
Now the bellhop carried him over and held him in front of the mirror. Amazing, thought Merritt. I'm a-a machine!
He looked in wonder at what was his body at the moment, four black metal pods sticking out from a central bulb, each pod with a small but powerful propeller and everything shielded in high grade but light metal. He realized that his mind was somewhere within circuitry inside that central bulb. He could see his tiny cameras and microphones, too. He fired up his propellers now. They were barely fluttering as the bellhop held him. He had so much stored power within him. He could feel the experimental battery just below his processing unit it surged with energy.
"Do you want to take a test flight, Merritt? If so, beep twice," said the bellhop. The drone immediately beeped twice and rose briefly out of his hands, its engines surging. The bellhop grasped it again and went to the slider door. he opened it with one hand, the other still holding Merritt the surveillance drone. "Take a half hour," said the bellhop and Merritt beeped in response. With the door opened, Merritt lifted off and flew out away from the building.
In no time, Merritt mastered control of the flight of his incredible new form. Like a bird pushed out of the nest enjoying its first flight or a horse its first gallop, Merritt reveled in all that his new identity could do. He zoomed across suburban DC, at 75, 80 . . . 100 miles per hour. He flew straight up, dove and turned so fast it would have given whiplash to any mere human trying to keep track of him. He slowed himself as fast as he could. He hovered. He practiced using his cameras. He also had one underneath him. He took pictures, felt them coming into his processing unit, and then analyzed them as if he were sitting in a movie theater staring at the screen. He recorded sounds from his microphones. He sped them up, slowed them down and sorted out different sounds from them so that only a particular couple talking to each other as they walked along a sidewalk could be heard.
He couldn't resist and flew off at top speed towards Carruthers' condo. The street network below was easy to follow and 200 feet up there was no traffic to impede him.
He found the right address and then the right building. He hovered soundlessly, that was another power that he now had. He could manipulate his propellers just so and make almost no sound whatsoever. He hovered just outside the bedroom window of Carruther's condo. He turned his microphone toward the building and increased the sensitivity all the way. He had to filter out the sounds of insects in the ground below, the building's hvac system and the tv in the unit below but then he had two voices, clear as day, as if they were sitting right there talking to him. Now Merritt zoomed in with his camera. Further . . . there.
Now he could see Carruthers. Ugh. The flabby scum was sitting there naked on the end of the bed.
". . It happens to lots of guys," said a woman still mostly under the covers. "You just weren't that . . into it tonight. Impotence isn't the end of the world . . "
And with that, flabby, naked Carruthers stormed out of the room.
Merritt wanted to laugh. I'm a machine and I don't even have a penis right now and I'm more masculine than you, Carruthers!
He decided that he didn't need to see any more of this scene and flew off back to his apartment trying all kinds of aerial maneuvers along the way to see what he could do with this new body. He slowed at the slider door and glided back into the apartment emitting a beep as he did. The bellhop guy was typing away at Merritt's laptop.
"I downloaded a few updates to your Chronivac," he told Merritt the surveillance drone hovering six feet high in the middle of the room. "Want to change back now?"
Merritt beeped. He felt an electromagnetic wave competing with the transmissions of his own circuitry for a moment and then, instantly, found herself, naked Mary, dropping to the floor in the middle of the room. She stood up a little surprised at not having gone back to being Merritt.
"Hey!" she protested to the bellhop.
He smirked. "I just wanted to get a kiss from you in this form before I turn you back to your original identity."
"I'm not gay."
"I know. I saw your original identity profile. 98 percent straight. I just think you look so incredibly hot. How 'bout just a little kiss?"
Mary sighed and nodded. She did owe him something for fixing the virus.
The bellhop stepped forward and grabbed slender Mary in his arms giving her a kiss on the lips and pressing his tongue down on hers. He squeezed her full, round ass as he did so. Finally he let go. Mary let out a sigh as he turned back to the laptop.
She felt the usual electromagnetic wave pass through her and in seconds he was Merritt Sivertsen again. He thanked the bellhop who quickly exited. Now it was on to other things.