"Sorry for that long break folks, seems one of our producers was having medical trouble. But everything should be back on track now," the host said. "Though this does mean we're now fighting with Cow Ball Forty-Nine for this time slot... why people are fixated on seeing naked amazonian-buff brainwashed cow girls smash into each other to carry a ball across a field I'll never know..."
"But it does seem out unexpected break did allow for our contestants to get some juicy banter in that I know you, our audience, are totally eating up.
Brady having seen the hopes and dreams of his opponents, he promised to include their passions in their new selves after they suffered death of identity from the transformation (even if mom doesn't approve of drinking, Brady sure Larry's new self could figure out something).
---
Henrietta thought about her options.
Fate always did seem to have its favorites, and just fate seems to be faving the blond delusion oaf unable to let go of his own suffering...
It did seem to be favoring Keith as well... but even if she doesn't win, she won't lose either.
"... Where were their names?" Keith asked.
"Hm?"
"Your three friends whose souls you fed to a demon. What were their names?"
Henrietta thought for a moment. Then grinned. "Grape Soda. Orange Soda. And Cherry Pop!" She laughed at the last one.
"You're sick."
"Heh. Whose joking? The curse I made with the demon made so those WERE the only names anyone can remember them by, including me. Even gave them false memories so they thought becoming cat-girl shaped bottles of soda to be drunk had been their life long passion, which they 'finally' 'confessed' to each other. And naturally, I was happy to help. And good thing too, my patron would have eaten me if I couldn't get him three tasty souls by the next sunrise as a down payment after making our contract."
"... I'm personally gonna make sure you never seen the finals," Keith promised her.
"Now now," Henrietta wagged her finger looking up at home. "There isn't as much dramatic tension with YOU at the finals instead of me. With me verses Larry or Brady, it gives this episode a good set of 'good' vs 'evil' instead of two opposing goods. Isn't that much more satisfying for the audience?"
Keith retorts, "Don't forget, the audience loves a happy ending too!"
"Oh? You mean like the blond ape and his forgery born of delusion? She still has the soul of Magda, not the soul of the Lilly who died. She's a fake. A replacement goldfish!"
Keith and Henrietta both heard a little girl crying.
The witch has a sadistic satisfaction in her voice.
Transformation resurrections were not illegal... mostly cause the mind set needed for such things made them culturally incomprehensible (or so it was thought) ... like how there were no laws regarding the eating of rocks. Brainwashed animal girls lived for the purpose they were created for, be it servant, accountant, soldier, doctor, work of art, furniture... so purposely turning someone into a recreation of a dead person with a mind define only by the function 'be this person' with free-will to otherwise do as they would, was incomprehensible. Even theme parks and movies did not use this particular trick.
"... I'm tempted to make you my spunky tomboy little sister black cat just to SPITE you!"
Keith would have said 'little brother' but male transformations were illegal and a capital offense, and impossible given how the Gift had been tailor made.
Anthro dragons, due to their obscenely slow reproductive cycle (an old woman on her death bed in dragon years would be a teenager), were the only exception. And still highly regulated.
Even though anthro unicorns had an infinitely longer life cycles (to the point that there has been no record of a unicorn dying of old age in humanity's 8000 written years! And unicorns felt no overwhelming urge to reproduce unless one of their number was lost.) That same old woman on her death bed would become a toddler unicorn instead!
'Go right ahead fool.' Henrietta thought silently to herself. 'Since souls remain constant even though personality-deaths... when I lose, the soul of the new me will go straight to my patron, (...witch who fails their demon, has their soul is taken instead). Even if my personality is wiped by the transformation, new me won't be around for long before becoming demon food.
'She'll exist just long enough to appreciate her own existence... then her spirit snatched up to collect the collateral. Henrietta would never see Keith's face, but any 'little sibling' he created, WOULD end up demon chow in a couple seconds.
'Assuming fate, being the cheeky little bastard that it was, didn't twist and space itself to spare the newly created brat.
'After all,' Henrietta grimly thought. 'The more confident someone is that their chances of something are a sure thing, the more eager fate is to turn it all around on its head.
'After all... my parents had went to such truly insane lengths to hide mother's family history from me so I'd grow up without knowing grandmother's secrets... it didn't work.' Now her parents were just a pair of super-busty (as in parody-level giant chested) identical twin brainwashed cat girl maids who cooked and cleaned for her without a care in the world.
And it seemed fate was fixated on Brady and Keith refusing to fall. Keith for fate bending over backwards like a two-dollar whore for his endless oversized talents. And Brady... the total empty-headed idiot who SHOULD NOT HAVE gotten passed the first round and should have been a friggin' FOOTNOTE on his entire contest!!!! As absurd as Keith's talents were, at least they were talents... while Larry was slithering through thanks to the slime trail he left behind, Brady seemed to win purely because he opponents thought it was impossible for the to lose!
Well. If fate was so determined for her to lose... she'd give this story the most twisted and warpped 'bad ending' she could once she had a platter of 15 souls to offer up to her patron.
'What is the happy ending? A tacked off few lines at the end of a story after all...'
Henrietta whispered to Keith, "I think I'll turn you into an animate cat-girl-shaped vanilla-pudding creature that can still move and verbally speak, but whose only thought is to be eaten."
"That future isn't happening."
"We'll see. Tell me, if your victories had been nothing but fate for the hero to win in the end... is the only way to defy fate is to be defeated by me?"
"... If fate's plan is me whooping your ass, then fate's a'okay in my playbook."
---
In the depth of Hell, Henrietta's patron sat back in his easy-chair, licking his lips at the tasty treats that Henrietta was preparing for him. He scratched behind the eat of his pet, a cute demonic cat-girl-imp... thing... that in life had been Henrietta's great-great-grandmother. But since time wasn't really a thing in the spirit world, it had been eons it had serves its master, compared to the hundred years it had been alive as a human.
---
Brady called first. "Dude, Larry! I like, challenge you a surfing contest!"
"No way! Don't know the first thing about it. How about a drinking game?"
"Mom doesn't like drinking."
"She isn't here now though."
"So?"
"... I don't get you."
"And I told her to watch too."
"Wish I could say my mother was watching."
"Don't worry, you'll have one soon."
"GENTLEMEN!" The host shouted. "I MUST remind you, if you can't decide on a game, the computer WILL chose one for you!"
STRIP PORKER!" Larry said, even if he had a bad feeling about that one, at least he'd go out showing his body to the world.
"NO!"
"Is there anything FUN Your mother allows?"
"Extreme sports. Video games. Movies. Scuba diving. Dancing. Singing. Lots of stuff."
"Oh. If I lose... can you make me a nudist furry cat girl?"
"WHAT?! Why?"
"If I become a hot babe, I wanna show my stuff."
"Fine. Whatever happens, please don't separate me and my sister."
"... Wasn't planning on it."
"ENOUGH!" The host declared. "Martha! I mean COMPUTER! Pick a challenge!"
"You got it Bruce!" Saluted a digital naked blue cat girl on a screen, happy to fulfill her function. Her oversized breasts moved in ways that defied gravity. On the screen she pulled a giant cartoonish slot machine that, like everything else, had a nude cat-girl shape to it (it was amazingly how quickly people could become desensitized to anything). The golden contraption spun the wheels on her belly... until the picture a terry bear appeared.
"AND THE CONTEST WILL BE! BUILD A PLUSHIE! See you guys for the final round! I'll be picking your final test based on all the data I've collected so far, to ensue both contestants have a fair chance of winning! Bye!" The digital cat-girl and her prop flickered off.
The wireframe table appeared, before it, as always, filled in, becoming a perfectly mundane appearing table. More wireframes appeared, filling in to form the raw material and patterns needed to build a plush toy. The blueprint provided was a recreation of Peppermint the Horsie.
"OH PEPPERMINT! She's so cute!" Lilly shouted. "... Too bad the news cartoons don't have her."
Plushie if anything had only become more popular with kids. Even after three different countries had each accidentally launched a nuclear missile at the living plushies theme park city state... all at the exact same time. The explosions had turned into fireworks and the fall out into non-radio-active confetti once they crossed into their property (much to the relief of the populated city right next door and the farmland to the south). The plushie said they understood that accidents happened and send candies to let everyone know there were no hard feelings (the candies were just candies).
The two sat down.
Bruce held up his hand. "And ready-set-" He shouted "GO!" just Martha appeared again to pop a toy pistol.
The two men immediately got to work. Larry sadly, had never done anything like this in his life. For all his talk of being on the lower end of the spectrum of humanity's good fortune, he still had never worked in some factory putting together the same toy over and over again.
Neither had Brady to be honest. But he had taken Lilly to 'Construct A Plush' once or twice... But that was more than Larry had.
And he did wonder. Had Martha REALLY picked this at random? It felt too good to be true. Brady really, REALLY wouldn't put it passed the show to nudge the dice if they thought it would make the more 'sympathetic' character move forward. Brady was no idiot, he knew how it worked on 'reality TV', where editors would string scenes together in ways that could make day into night and helping someone into an act of betrayal if they wanted. If it was just his own sake, Brady would have thrown the contest then and there just to spite them. But there was Lilly to think of.
Larry did his best. He truly did. He was not a loser. He was not a prick. He was not scum. He'd gotten this far on his wits, not dumb luck. He kept looking at Brady until realizing what a total waste of time that was. And focused even harder. ... Until he heard the words by Brady, "DONE!"
Larry and Brady locked eyes. Brady did not look proud of himself, only a sense of grim resolution.
"At least I'll leave a super-hot corpse like I always wanted."
And Larry was blasted, and everything that made Larry 'Larry', was wiped clean, except that which Brady was able to spare within the rules of the transformation.
In the same flash of light, Leona, Rachel, and Sal changed as well.
At the same time, the objects created all vanished, including the finished, and almost finished Peppermint plushies (much to Lilly's dismay).
What had been Larry and Leona unlike Zelda and Milly were most definitely still 'all-grown-up. Both now possessing the killer figure that Larry had given Leona. In fact, that wasn't the only thing that shared. The two were now identical twins... They were also now only dressed in their fur. Well, except for the daisy in Leona's hair. And a purple clematis flower in what had been Larry's... A minor detail to tell them apart.
"Hey Leona! Hey Lenora! Great to have you back!" Zelda said like she'd known them all her life. From her point of view, she might have.
"Great to be back!" Lenora said, pulling up her little sister and giving her a hug, the early bloomer's bosom pushing against her big sister's.
Leona nodded. "Yeah. You just need to win one more game big brother, and our whole family can just go home!"
"I can't wait to open a juice bar at the beach when we get home!" Lenora declared.
"I'll be sure to help manage it. Twin brainwashed cat girls? That's bound to attract some curiosity seekers!" Leona said putting a padded hand on her sister shoulder.
"It's almost over," Milly said hugging herself. "I'm not going to become a cookie, a piece of sound equipment or something."
Rachel's changes were both less, and more dramatic.
Rachel's age had been reduced to a teenager, between the ages of Zelda and the twins. The jaguar girls' outfit had become a swimsuit was now black with little silvery bits... and she had 'fur tattoos' (much to her mother's cringe), done in a style that complicated a jackal girl... (who sadly was straight, but they could still be best friends right?).
Rachel shuddered at the idea that she might have been feeling things for her own sister (BLECH!).
That left Sal. Her harem outfit had become a two piece red swim suit, and like Rachel she'd become a teenager. The lioness felt a bit dizzy. Thoughts of country and lasso obliterated in favor of rock... and then for fulfilling Larry's dream of his bar, and being a dancer for the glorious establishment... now that too was swept away... replaced with a total absolute truth in the core of her existence: "be part of Lilly's family," all else was vanity. Sal sat down. She only hope the 'her' she was now... remained, and wasn't wiped away by the witch or by Keith. She wasn't even sure who the 'her' she was now even was... or maybe that was normal for teenagers?
"I wonder if I'm gonna meet a baby sister next!" Lilly wondered out loud. Though having one of those living plushies she'd heard about for a best friend would be super cool too... though there'd be plenty to go around right?
Brady wondered if he'd made the right choice... but he'd made his choice... this was the fate he'd gone down. He looked at Henrietta and Keith... he'd either of them next. He honestly wasn't sure which one he was more scare of facing at this point.
"Hey... yo... Computer-Lady... Miss Martha... I wanna talk to you."
A holo screen floated down and the naked blue cat woman appeared. "Oh? What do you need our final-round contestant?" She smiled, bouncing her breasts for all to see.
"... That semi-final challenge you picked... was it really random?"
A glitch flicker and Martha was crying cartoonish fountains of tears... "Whaaa... you're so mean! Accusing me of cheating!" A second glitch flicker and she was smiling again. "Buuuut... I'll just leave that up to final round stress..." Then her eyes narrowed and background behind her briefly darkened and her tone suddenly became 'deadly serious' instead of 'bubble-head-playful.' "And I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Then back to bubble-brain-happy. "SO GO OUT THERE AND WIN OKAY?!"
Brady sighed. He looked at Lilly. Regardless of all other circumstances, she was his little sister now, and he'd look out to see she continued to exist instead of having her identity wiped with the mind of a cookie or a funky-pop dancer or something.
Milly, wanting to know if her big brother was right about Martha being bias in picking the challenged, looked left and right, and pulled out a paper thin 'scroll pad' and began typing on the display. She was a cat, she had a right to be curious. Then she an angry red 'X' symbol on her screen, followed by Martha's face taking up the whole of her little screen.
"HEY! Prizes aren't allowed in my mainframe! You just sit there and look cute for the audience like prizes should!! Remember! Until you final master wins, you are a Prize! An object to be won!" Martha commanded of the Prize before kicking out The Prize Named Milly's connection.
Milly felt dizzy at Martha's overwhelming command, 'be part of Lilly's family', echoed back, and objects were not part of a family.
"What you up to little sister?" Zelda asked.
"Just doing some digital snooping."
Meanwhile, Chestnut, Bitty and Kylie cheered for Keith.
"Believe in your dream boss!" Chestnut cheered bouncing up and down.
While Candy, Cake, and Sacrifice did the same for Henrietta.
"Don't let him steal our glorious fate of being delicious food for your demon mistress!" Cake cheered back.