Previously,
Rusty watched the door open and Feng, one of Trevor's other guards interrupted his boss. Then the reality shift ended and everyone clutched their heads and shifted back into their old selves. The others argued. Then the bathroom turned into a barn and he was a horse. Then Todd's Xarxos dispelled magic and sent them back to the casino.
Now Rusty was after one of the Dolans, racing to save Rok from Mind Dolan.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Rusty ran up the stairs after Dragon Dolan. The flying snake was fast, and although Rusty was also fast, his bulky body was a huge hindrance and the Dragon didn’t have to run up three flights of stairs. The absolute silence of the casino was eerie and unnerving, but Rusty didn’t let that stop him. He reached the soul floor and paused, panting. He hadn’t actually done any physical activity in the last month, unless you counted sex. He took the time to sniff the air, scenting the Eastern Dragon. He’d ducked into the Magic Theater. Rusty followed after him.
He walked into the theater and studied the scene before him.
Rok and Mind Dolan sat at a table in the middle of the stage and stared at each other silently. On the table were two glasses full of water and two large pink pills. They appeared to be engaged in some sort of battle of wits. Eastern Dragon Dolan stood next to them, arms crossed, and watched.
“Eastern Dragon!” Rusty bellowed, stepping into the room. “I challenge you!”
ED Dolan turned to him and floated sinuously towards the giant anthro-Cerberus, a slow smile playing across his scaly lips.
“Ah yes, Rusty. So good to see you. Protective as ever. Or should I call you Dustin?”
“Who?” His heads glanced at each other, confused.
“Of course you wouldn’t remember your original name.” ED said with a sad smile. “I’m not here to fight you or kill him. I merely observe.”
“Oh? Had a change of heart?” Rusty snarled, on guard now.
“No, Dustin, I merely wish to save an innocent bystander who got caught up in a battle he has no real stakes in. To free you from the shackles of two people who have let you died multiple times.”
“And what’s stopping me from turning into a fucking rubber snake?” Rusty growled and advanced.
“Oh, him.” ED Dolan pointed behind Rusty.
Rusty’s left head glanced behind him just in time to get punched in the face.
A silver tiger with two tails stood in a fighting stance being him, wearing athletic gear.
Rusty yelped and staggered forward a few steps from the blow. He brought a hand up to his left head and felt blood flowing from the nose. The Nekomata started doing light footwork, hopping in place.
“I never thought I’d get the chance to fight someone like you.” The Nekomata grinned.
“The guy from the magic show?” Rusty asked.
A ball of absolute cold streaked past his right face, only the Cerberus’ amazing senses and reflexes letting his twist out of the way.
His right head growled at a dark corner of the room. From the shadows, a kitsune stepped out, 7 tails waving behind him. The kitsune tossed another coldball at Rusty, forcing the canine to hop back out of the way as it shattered on the floor.
“These two guys? You’re sending lackeys to do your dirty after I already issued you a challenge?” Rusty growled. “How can you people even work with this monster after all the lives he’s destroyed?”
“I don’t see anything wrong with what he’s been doing. We owe him a debt.” The kitsune smirked. “Besides, how could I ever say no to testing my skills against a Book owner with a unique form such as yours?”
Rusty smirked.
He did have a body most people could only dream of. Rusty lived for the attention he received from other patrons as he strutted through the casino. It was also why he hadn’t made any Mind or Soul chips, despite Rok bitching at him to make them. With a body like his, who could possibly defeat him? And, if worst came to worst, they could simply change him back.
“Go easy on him.” Dragon Dolan said. “We simply need to keep him distracted.”
“Right!” His opponents said.
“Two against one, huh?” Rusty cocked his right head. “Technically three if the Nekomata splits. Not exactly fair.”
“Fair?” ED scoffed. “There’s no such thing as fair fight between Books. The best way to rid yourself of an opponent is to catch them off guard. Who filled your head with such nonsense? Xarxos?”
“It’s called courtesy.” Rusty rumbled, sucking in air with all three of his heads. “And since you’ve shown me none, I shall answer in kind. Blazing Hell!”
Great crimson-red flames belched forth from all three heads. They spread across the room like a wild fire, consuming seats as it churned hungrily towards the main stage. The silver Nekomata leaped and rolled out of the way, hellfire singing his tail as it chased him.
Yuyaku chanted something and made some gestures and the hellfire was met with an icy blizzard. As the two met, there was a actual explosion that sucked the air out of the room room and put out both spells and sent everyone in the room sprawling. Everyone except the two on the stage, who still had not moved. The blast had struck some sort of magical barrier and rebounded.
Rusty staggered to his feet, meeting the Nekomata’s eyes as he leaped down from a light fixture and patted the flames on his tails out. The kitsune struggled to stand, shrapnel from the explosion peppering his beautiful fluffy coat, staining him red with blood. ED Dolan shifted on the floor to his left but didn’t move.
Rusty caught ED Dolan pointing at him from the corner of his left head’s eyes and dodged. The spell struck the floor and sizzled harmlessly. He glared up at the Dragon, who simply shrugged.
“Worth a shot.”
“Bastard!” Rusty growled.
The dragon floated back into the air and smiled.
“Now that was powerful! I’m going to give you a chance, since I respect you. If you can beat them before either your friends or Rok finish their challenge, I’ll let you pass and maybe fix your friends. But if you can’t beat us quickly enough or lose…” ED Dolan eyed his huge muscles and stroked his whiskers. “I’ll turn you into something docile and cute. Perhaps even…dare I say…fluffy.”
Rusty gasped. “No! Not cute and fluffy!”
“Y~es.” The dragons whiskers curled in delight.
“Why not take my Book instead if I lose?” Rusty asked.
“Because, Dustin. When I want your Book, you’ll give it to me willingly.” ED Dolan checked his watch. “The offer’s on the table. ALECK will kick back in ten minutes and all of this will be for nothing. What’ll it be? Clock is ticking.”
Rusty pondered his choices. The dragon was incredibly hard to read. Reptiles were not noted for their expressions. He could hear lightning cracking, punching and kicking, screams of pain coming from downstairs. Whoever it was, they were getting the absolute shit beaten out of them.
“I agree to your terms. But I ask for one thing. Tell me why you are so sympathetic to me.”
“I’ll tell you when the time is up.” Dragon Dolan snapped his claws and Yuyaku and Taijin started to circle Rusty. “Don’t go easy on him, but don’t kill him either.”
“Yes sir!” They both said.
Taijin rushed forward, fist flaming. He threw a straight punch that struck Rusty directly in the chest. The sheer speed he moved gave him a huge advantage over the comparatively bulking and slow Cerberus. He followed up the heavy straight with a flurry of blows that struck Rusty’s stomach, chest and face. Taijin noticed his punches weren’t doing much damage, but it was hard to judge. He’d never fought a Cerberus before. He continued punching and dodging, observing the Cerberus’ reactions carefully.
Rusty barely noticed the impacts, the flames doing absolutely nothing to his heat-resistant skin. He waited for his chance to strike and then, when the Nekomata over-extended, swung his fist with all his might directly at the silver tiger’s face.
The tiger ducked away.
Just as Rusty had expected. In the split-second after he threw his punch, Rusty’s stubby tail extended, his spine stretching out to its fullest. The snake-like tail was strong and as thick around as an anaconda. He swung it up, under the Nekomata’s line of sight, and managed to hit the silver tiger full-force in the chest.
Taijin was flung ten feet backwards. He coughed, spitting blood, and tenderly rubbed his ribcage. His shirt was torn by the razor-sharp scales, but he wasn’t severely wounded. He looked up at his opponent just in time to see Rusty point at him and whisper something. His fur stood on end, reflexes activating automatically.
The Nekomata leapt out of the way, using his torn shirt as a shield.
The spell struck the shirt and the silver tiger flung it to the floor before the magic spread to him. The fibers of the shirt began to warp and twist, becoming fuzzy and cute. Soon, all that was left of his t-shirt was a silver-furred tiger plushie.
“Book of Transmutation, huh?” The Nekomata stared at the plushie with an expression that was a mix of fear and excitement. “Guess I have to be careful with you, then.”
“Normally I wouldn’t stoop so low as to use magic in a fist-fight, but I have to protect my friends.” Rusty said apologetically. “I suggest you give up now or prepare to become a stuffed toy.”
Taijin glanced at Yuyaku and they both began to laugh.
“Give up? We’ve just gotten started.” Yuyaku wiped a tear from his face. The kitsune cast a spell on Taijin. “Go get him, tiger!”
Taijin began to glow, his muscles thickening and growing dense, both tails lashing wildly behind him. He grinned as the support spell did its thing. Rusty pointed at him again and the silver tiger bounded forward at incredible speed. He closed the distance, right fist charged with crackling electricity. Taijin fist hammered Rusty’s guts. He watched the Cerberus double over from the force of the blow, then seize and twitch as electricity coursed through his body.
As Rusty’s body twitched involuntarily, he noticed the tiger smirk, and realized with dread that the tiger had figured out his weak point. Even though the heat of the electricity wouldn’t damage his body, it could still stun his muscles and lock him in place.
Just as he started to recover, Taijin swung a right hook at his middle head.
The blow struck Rusty on the temple, stunning him and making lights flash in his head.
Rusty reeled, forcing his fist up and backed away. The Nekomata seized the opportunity and started softening the Cerberus up, pummeling his torso, forcing the Cerberus lower to protect his stomach. Rusty could only endure the blows until the numbness in his limbs wore off.
Even though Rusty was an expert in hand to hand combat, he was having trouble blocking all of the hits. Unfortunately with multiple opponents, his nearly invincible defense was being punched to its limits. His left head tracked Taijin’s movements, looking for an opening. The middle head was busy defending himself. The right head was tracking Yuyaku.
Each blow Rusty took wasn’t very effective but they stacked up. Taijin was landing blows where ever he could, avoiding vital area. Rusty was forced to use his tail to block hits, but even then the silver tiger managed to duck and weave and pummel him.
The Nekomata was grinning with delight.
Even though Rusty could slowly regenerate, the tiger held the advantage on movement and was hitting Rusty faster than his regeneration could keep up with. Rusty knew that turning this fight into a battle of attrition would just result in a loss for him. He needed to end this quickly and decisively.
“Alter.” Rusty whispered, pointing at Taijin and thinking about a stuffed tiger.
Taijin’s ears wriggled as soon as the words left Rusty’s mouth. As Rusty looked on in surprise, the Nekomata disappeared, replaced with a slot machine as the spell left his fingers. It struck the machine instead.
The slot machine changed, becoming oddly fluffy, changing shape into a more feline-themed game. The cold slick design altered to fit the new theme and a stuffed cat’s head appeared on top. The lever for the machine turned into a cat’s paw that began to move up and down, as though pawing the air. He heard a mechanical meow echo from the machine’s speaker’s. The power cord became wrapped in faux fur, the design on it orange with black stripes as it became a cat’s tail.
“What?” Rusty blinked.
“I’m not going to stand here and let you turn my best assistant into a plushie.” Yuyaku smirked, hands in the same position they were when he teleported the Nekomata during the magic show.
“Teleportation? Where’d go, then?” Rusty muttered to himself.
He searched the room, using the down time to heal himself from the blows the Nekomata had landed earlier.
“Up here!” Taijin called.
All of Rusty’s heads looked up and saw the tiger drop down from the ceiling, splitting in two. Yin and Yang did and flip and slammed their paws into Rusty’s left and right heads with full force. Reeling from the blow, Rusty was stunned as electricity flowed from their feet.
Rusty stumbled back and realized he’d lost track of the tiger. He looked down just in time to receive an uppercut. His nose spurted blood as the twin tigers blasted him with strong shocks. He reeled back, muscles twitching and numb.
He was going to lose if this keeps up.
As the tigers began to dart away, sensing his recovery, Rusty lunged, scooping both tigers up into a bear hug.
“Agh!” Yin gasped.
“Ack!” Yang wheezed.
Rusty tightened his arms, clasping his fist closed behind their backs, and squeezed. The Cerberus felt himself slowly heal the damage he’d just sustained. He squeezed them tighter and tighter until the merged together under the strain.
“Great tactics.” Rusty’s left head spoke first, the other heads still recovering. “It was close for a second there, but now I’ve got you in hand.”
Rusty squeezed harder, hearing the Nekomata’s bones creak. As soon as his other heads recovered, he grabbed the tiger in a headlock and started punching the tiger in the face. He knew that as long as he had the tiger in his grasp, that teleportation wouldn’t work so well. He kept the tiger out of the Kitsune’s view just in case.
Taijin struggled in the headlock. The Cerberus hadn’t stopped slamming his fist into the silver tiger’s face, his thick tail wrapped around his legs, locking him in place. Taijin felt the air whoosh out of him as the Cerberus kneed him in the gut. If things continued the way they were going, he’d lose.
He stopped trying to block the blows and slapped one paw against the Cerberus’ chest and the other slapped against his balls. Taijin let loose with most of his power.
Thunder rumbled and Rust howled, his grip loosening. Not enough for the Nekomata to escape. He channeled his power again, and then conjured a wave of force. The Cerberus’ arms loosened and the wave of force knocked him away into he wall.
Rusty screamed as his shirt was completely brunt away by the voltage flowing through him. He staggered backwards, hands gripping his groin. The Nekomata slipped out of his grasp and began to hop back into a fighting stance. Rusty growled and his middle and right head began to glow with supernatural heat and breathed a gout of flames at Taijin.
The silver tiger yelped in pain. The crimson hellfire spread quickly, not extinguishing when he rolled don the floor in a desperate attempt to put it out. A blast of cold covered him as Yuyaku cast blizzard. The ground around him began to freeze, frost spreading across the floor. The flames weakened as the air became frigid.
“Are you alright, Taijin?” Yuyaku asked, looking over the Nekomata.
“Yeah,” The Nekomata said, though it wasn’t true. He had extensive burns, half his fur scorched away. “It’s hard going easy on him and not badly hurt him.”
Rusty growled again, breathing more flames, eyes going red. Slot machines began to slump and melt under the intense heat.
“Shit!” Yuyaku stepped in front of Taijin and cast blizzard at full strength.
The hellfire and blizzard collided and reflected, small explosions happening where they met in the center. They’d already experienced the air burst before and braced themselves. Yuyaku struggled as even his magic couldn’t withstand the flames of hell. The floor around Rusty glowed orange and started to melt, leaving the Cerberus standing up to his ankles in melted concrete and rebar. The floor behind the duo began to freeze and crack.
Rusty rotated his heads, breathing fire, his left head charging up a blast as he walked ever closer to them.
“Holding back? Do you think me weak? That I’m some kind of pushover?!” Rusty snarled and pointed at Yuyaku, thinking of him as his own personal fuckbot. “Alter!”
As the spell left the tip of his finger, Yuyaku used his other hand to conjure a shield. It cracked, but withstood most of the spell. Not all of it, as Yuyaku’s fur lost its natural shine and became more like strands of polyester. As the kitsune struggled with the changes, Rusty charged, closing the distance and hit him with a gut punch.
Yuyaku was knocked flying and crashed into a pile of broken chairs. He vomited, struggling for air. His vomit was streaked with blood. Stupid ED had demanded he hold back, which was hard enough, as he didn’t think he could take Rusty if he were angry like he was now. He froze when a heavy paw slammed into the ground next to his head.
“I win.” Rusty pointed his finger at Taijin and stumbled, feeling woozy. He’d used up most of his energy already during the fight, but Taijin would be powerless when Yuyaku was out of the picture. “Alter.”
Before the words could leave his lips, the silver tiger shoved his finger away. The spell hit the wall harmlessly.
Rusty roared and swung his fist at the Nekomata's face.
The tiger split himself at the last second and the fist hit empty air. They had strength for one last attack. Yin and Yang grabbed his crotch at the same time. Rusty stared at them in horror. They grinned and fired their final charge of electricity into Rusty’s balls.
Rusty screamed as electricity coursed through him for ten seconds before the hands fell away and the tigers stayed on their knees, panting.
“That all you got?” Rusty wheezed and tried to move, but his legs gave way.
He couldn’t move, electricity and exhaustion completely locking up his muscles. Yuyaku staggered to his feet, supported by the machine. Rusty struggled to move, but all he could do was lie on the semi-frozen ground and twitch.
“I think we have our winner!” Dragon Dolan clapped Yuyaku on the back and held up hi hand. “I have to admit, though, for not being used to casting spells you did pretty well, Dustin.”
“I didn’t hear no bell.” Rusty wheezed.
“And I haven’t heard any fighting downstairs for a minute now.” ED Dolan glanced over at the stage and grinned. “And it looks like Rok’s battle is over too. So you lose either way.”
“Who won?” Rusty asked. He couldn’t move his head to see.
“My next opponent.” ED Dolan winked. “I’ll leave you to decide who that is. Well, maybe after you turn back.”
“I said I’m not finished fighting!” Rusty shouted, tears in his eyes. “I can win and save my friends!”
He was so goddamn useless!
“Do you know why you lost?” ED Dolan said gently, floating towards him. “Your regeneration uses up the same energy your Book does. You also likely haven’t physically trained after being transformed, or even fought in combat. You also didn’t build up your magical ability by using your Book. A drawn out fight like this was always your biggest weakness.”
“Using the Book on people just to build up tolerance is wrong.” Rusty spat. “I won’t be a monster like you!”
“I applaud your convictions, but they just lost you the fight.” ED Dolan shrugged.
Rusty laid his head back in defeat.
“You said you’d tell me why you cared about me even though I’m your enemy.”
“You aren’t my enemy, Dustin. The two people you’re associated with are the true enemies. They are the ones who we are afraid of.”
“Who and why?”
“In a every timeline we encountered these two people have the same thing in common. The Book of Body always seems to start somewhere in Arizona and escapes us. The cyclops formerly known as RK is a complete unknown to us, his past completely hidden.”
“Good for him? So what?”
The dragon rubbed his chin. “Let me explain. Not all Dolans have the same mindset. We all gained our Books in one of two ways: we killed or transformed our opponents, like Mind and Transmutation did, or we befriend them, like MB or Pine Martin or myself.”
“So? Are you saying you met Troy and I in your timeline.” Rusty said.
“Yes, although at that point, Troy wasn’t the owner, you were. Mark owned the Book of Myth and invited you all to his DnD game. I used my Book to observe your group before I approached. And it turned out, we became really good friends. We had a blast experimenting with what we could do with our Books, corrected the occasional reality shift….”Dragon Dolan trailed off, reminiscing. “Anyways, you guys were great. There was always something fun to do. Then it happened.”
“What happened?”
“Someone with the Book of Body killed you all searching for your Books. He took the Book of Beast from you.”
“And he didn’t kill you?”
“I was running late for the game that day.” ED Dolan swallowed.
“Why not just…rewind Time?”
“I tried. The guy had the Book of Time, too. Probably from a different timeline, searching for easy victims. He didn’t know that unless your timeline is within 1% of your original, the Books won’t merge.” Dragon Dolan shrugged. “All I know is, the Book of Body is absolutely merciless. Every Dolan here has a story about them.”
“Merciless? Quite an accusation coming from a guy that erases people’s lives.”
“Perhaps. However, they’re all adults and we now offer tours to highlight the risks. What they decided to do is up to them.” Dragon Dolan smiled. “And we do help people who are good-intentioned. Like Yuyaku and Taijin. We’re not horrible monsters.”
“You tried to turn us all into horses!”
“As was appropriate for violating the rules. You attacked another patron. And...Dustin, you would have been happy as a horse. Happier than you will be if you stick with Rok and Xavier. Or Xarxos. Or Feng. Or whatever the hell he calls himself now.”
Distantly, Rusty could hear footsteps pounding up the stairs.
“I suppose I’ve stalled for long enough. I really wish you had listened to Rok and made copies of your Mind and Soul chips. You’re going to be a very cute pet.” ED Dolan snapped his fingers and smoke filled the theater.
“Wait!” Rusty struggled to his feet, muscles finally working again. He couldn’t see anything through the smoke cloud. A shiver rolled up his massive spine and a taste of copper filled his mouth. The smoke cleared, revealing an empty room “Anything but cute! Seriously, I’m begging you!”
The room was silent, but Rusty could feel someone watching him. The Cerberus could smell the Eastern Dragon, hear him softly breathing. He must have gone invisible somehow, Rusty realized. He tried to conjure up enough strength for a final spell as his weakened body began to change.
Rusty’s left and right heads gasped.
His middle head could only watch in horror as their features sagged. Their eyes glazed over as their skulls began to deflate. He had the honor of experiencing the disconcerting feeling of having his other selves lose all thoughts as their brains crumpled away into nothing but fleshy wads that quickly sank into his shoulder as though they never existed.
He patted his shoulders, tears rolling down his face and could feel his muscles wither and deflate under his touch. His lovely pecs and abs quickly lost all definition. Rusty stumbled, unused to walking around without two other heads guiding him and he leaned against a wall to steady himself.
A gentle pressure pushed down on his head. The wall slid beneath his paws, slowly at first, but faster and faster as the pressure increased. His pants grew loose and slid to the floor in a pile at his feet, his jockstrap following soon thereafter. Rusty’s head spun as the room rose around him. He stopped shrinking at around 3/2 feet tall, but the pressure increased.
Rusty grunted as his neck scrunched into his body. He toddled and fell onto his hands and knees. The pressure continued and the bones of his arms creaked and compacted, becoming rather stubby little things. His front paws grew a scaly webbing between them. He flexed them experimentally as the fur shortened and turned a soft brown color. They looked like a mix of otter and dog.
A mirror appeared and was set down next to him.
Dolan must have been right above the mirror, Rusty realized. By the time he could stabilize himself enough to raise a paw, however, he could tell Dolan had retreated elsewhere. The Dragon floated, so he could only try to detect a shift in air pressure to find him.
He lowered his head back down, distraught, and caught his reflection in the mirror.
Rusty watched his powerful bull dog face streamline, the bone structure thinning and becoming more delicate. He looked like a corgi that crossbred with an otter. His ears became scaly, his fangs shortened and restructured as they shifted into something more appropriate for piercing and tearing tender fish. His neck began to itch and gills formed on the sides, flapping uselessly.
What the hell was Dolan turning him into? Some kind of otter/dog/fish hybrid?
The bones in the rest of his body followed, thick bones thinning, his torso elongating. His legs were knit together by a band of flesh and shrank, his hind feet altering and fanning into three fish-like tails. Soft, glittery scales spread from his former waist down to his new fins.
Rusty’s thoughts drifted, new memories forming. He remembered swimming in a lake, eating fish and sunbathing on the shore. He smiled as he recalled curious swimmers coming up to him and petting him. The heavy weight of a collar appearing around his neck startled him from his pleasant recollections. He pulled it closer, the words harder to read.
One of the tags read Book of Transmutation and the other said Rover, Property of Feng and Troy
He blinked, wondering why the Kirin was also considered his master. The fur from his bottom lips and down his belly fell away, leaving behind more of those pretty, glittering scales. Rusty wanted to turn himself back, but he couldn’t, not without the Book of Myth. His mind wasn’t helping him come up with a good plan, all it wanted to do was play with his master.
The wave of scales spreading down his belly reached his crotch. He felt his cock get enveloped by a scaly sheathe. He felt nauseous as his big Cerberus balls shrank from baseballs to golf balls. His cock slimmed and grew thinner and shrank as well, down to maybe 7 inches in length, the deep crimson hue lighting to pink.
He wanted to rub it, the transformation had him shockingly aroused despite his misgivings, but he knew his masters would be mad if he made a mess.
Rusty shook his head. He was not their pet, he was their friend. He couldn’t let his mind fall too much into the mindset of the fluffy little mutant he was becoming or…
A plate filled with delectable chunks of sockeye salmon lowered itself into his line of sight.
He licked his lips. The plate was waved tantalizingly close to his face. As he reached for it with a paw, it scooted away. Rusty fumed, embarrassed at how easily he was falling for Dolan’s stupid tricks.
He paused.
Dolan was literally right above him. He had to be. He could picture the dragon right now. In order to hold the plate the way he was, he would have to be a little up and to the left, almost directly above the plate.
“Alter.” He squeaked softly, reaching out to the invisible dragon as he set the plate on the ground and thought of the only thing his little head could imagine: a soft plushie to cuddle with.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
ED Dolan set the plate full of salmon chunks down, chuckling to himself as the little Dormarch slide over to the plate. It raised a clawed paw and squeaked something at him. He wondered if Rusty was still in there somewhere, still angry.
“Just to keep you happy until the others come.” ED Dolan said.
He started to wind away through the air as sinuously as a snake when he suddenly flopped to the ground, boneless.
That son of a bitch!
Eastern Dragon Dolan wanted to chuckle, but his face wouldn’t move. His body began to shrink down, insides drying out and puffing as his organs shifted into stuffing and little plastic beads. His scales softened and were covered in fuzz as they were reduced to mere print on the four-foot long Eastern Dragon Plushie.
The change spread and accelerated, softening certain features and removing others entirely. The changes moved from his long, floppy tail and up into his chest. He stopped breathing as his lungs froze mid-breath, transforming into fluff. The changes spread up his neck and into his head.
Dragon Dolan's eyes glazed over, vision fading as they turned into big, bright plastic. As his mouth pulled up into a happy smile and stitched itself in place, his last coherent thought was that he was proud of Dustin. He’d finally beat someone. Then his mind started to fade, thoughts becoming literally cottony, and all the plushie wanted was for his owner to cuddle with him.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==
The Dormarch watched with a fading sense of accomplishment as ED Dolan was reduced to nothing more than his very own soft plushie.
He grimaced, trying to shake the childish thoughts out of his head, but that was all the brain power this form could muster. He tried to remember what it was like being big and normal like he used to be but his mind was simply incapable of it. All his memories had shifted to him being by Troy’s side as a pet than an actual friend. Rusty’s ability to even consider himself as something dangerous was difficult, despite his sharp teeth and claws. Good pets didn’t bite.
Rusty took a look at the dragon plushie and then eyed the plate of salmon in front of him. He’d won the fight…did he really need to hold on to himself anymore? There was a voice in the back of his head that was telling him he didn’t have his Mind of Soul chips, that giving in might destroy him.
He heard the voice and listened to it, but found he simply didn’t want to be him anymore. Rusty had to fight, but Rover was just a pet. He never had to worry about anything and he got all the pets and scritches he could ever need. He gave into the mindset of the pet and let Rusty go.
Rover dragged himself over to the fish, his tails wagging behind him and heaved a happy sigh. He never felt so completely relaxed. There was nothing for him to worry about any more. Someone else would take care of it for him.
He took a bite of the succulent salmon, savoring the flavor. It practically melted in his mouth. Rusty faded away as his memories were happily forgotten. Only one thing was left to worry about. Master would be angry with him wandering off again. At least he didn’t lose his pretty collar this time.
There was a clatter as something fell from him while he enjoyed his fish. Rover looked down and saw a Chip on the floor between his scaly front legs. On it was a picture of a mean-looking dog. Rover whimpered in terror and backed away.
“Scary Dog!” He said, voice quavering.
Rover thought of changing the chip. The collar tingled in response. The chip changed.
Rusty’s Body Chip inflated, rounding into a small ball. The Dormarch stopped shaking and blinked at it, confused. On the one hand, he knew that the chip was supposed to be important. His master collected the. On the other hand, it was a ball and he wanted to play with it.
So he did. Rover didn’t really think so much as he had impulses and simply did them. He rolled around with the ball on the cold floor, barking happily. It didn’t matter if it was important. If something was wrong his master would fix him. For now, he just played and enjoyed being cute and cuddly.
“Rover?!”
Rover looked up and saw Feng staring at him. He wanted to say something, but he just whimpered and barked. The kirin stooped over and picked him up, petting him on the head. Master was saying something but it was hard to understand. Rover held onto his new, favorite ball. He nuzzled into Feng’s scales and felt the kirin pet him and say something soothing. The kirin picked up the Dormarch’s plushie and carried them both back to his room.
RUSTY VS EASTERN DRAGON DOLAN RESULT: TIE (DOUBLE KNOCKOUT)