Sam was looking farther down the candy aisle at a large contraption with clamps, gears, hooks and pistons. It seemed very dangerous at first glance, but Amy and Lina saw a large pillar of compartments next to it holding various taffies.
"A mechanical taffy puller?" Lina wondered aloud. "Why would a shop need something like this when it's got magic things all over?"
"Well," Amy thought. "It was machines that turned me into a cat. Maybe this kind of magic actually needs a mechanical component in order to work? The candy you had might have been made with DNA-altering chemicals."
"Science AND magic?" Sam said. "Sounds like my kind of thing." He walked right up to the machine and deposited two quarters in the slot marked "50 cents." He noticed a cone-shaped receiver that looked like it belonged on a vintage telephone. Above it was a sign saying "Please choose a color pattern."
Sam looked over the choices. The numbered patterns were strips of color with one row of diamonds going across each strip. He went back to the receiver and said "Number four, green with yellow diamonds."
Suddenly the machine sprung to life. A giant clamp zoomed toward Sam on a flexible tentacle and picked him up off his feet. Sam screamed in surprise, but tried his best not to squirm. He knew what he was getting into before he even put in the quarters.
He was deposited on the large hook, which he noticed had grooved rubber grips. He grasped them with both hands as the clamp lifted his legs up. Two smaller tentacles clamped onto his feet. They tore off his shoes, socks, pants and underwear. The metal was ice cold, making him shiver and almost lose his grip on the hook. Sam held fast, however, knowing it was a long drop down, and right below him were menacing gears that could possibly grind him to pulp if he were to land on them.
Lina and Amy looked away for a split second when his pants came off, but their curiosity as to what was going to happen to Sam brought their awed gazes back almost immediately. They tried not to look at his exposed manhood, and found it rather easy once the clamps returned and latched onto his bare feet. They began twisting around and around, causing his legs to curl around themselves in a bone-crushing manner that once again had the girls looking away...this time in disgust.
But there were no bones to be heard breaking. His legs seemed to have turned to rubber. Even Sam didn't feel much discomfort. Slowly, as his legs were pulled farther and farther out and twisted more and more together, they melted into each other. Eventually, the swirl pattern made from the twisting was gone as well, and from the waist down he had a perfectly smooth body that tapered to a small, rounded point. It was freakishly long, perhaps fifteen or more feet.
Numerous robotic nozzles shot out across his body, spraying him all over in green and white pellets. Sam closed his eyes as they ran over his face, and when he opened them, he saw that his arms were now a deep green, with a yellow underside. The pellets made his arms look pebbly, and he realized they looked just like scales. From Amy and Lina's vantage point, they saw that his new, stretched body had been given the green and yellow patterns of a snake. Lina shrieked. Amy knew she was frightened of snakes, and grabbed her tightly. She didn't want the new monkey girl to be in a panic over someone who was still a kind and very human-thinking person underneath. At least, she hoped he still was.
As Lina looked away, Amy looked on. A small device plugged into his mouth and she could hear Sam's muffled scream. She remembered a similar scream as she had gotten her muzzle formed the day before. Now Sam was slowly being deposited back on the floor. He looked over his upper body, seeing that everything from the front of his neck, down his chest and continuing all the way to the end of his tail was a rippled yellow snake's underbelly. His genitals were gone now, replaced with whatever organs a snake had for reproduction. Diamonds stretched across his back. He had bright yellow eyes that were slitted, and long fangs stuck out of his mouth. His face was covered in green scales, and his short hair was turned a matted-down blond. A long, forked tail stuck out of his mouth for an instant.
"Isss... Isss ssshe okay?" he hissed. He sounded amazed by his own voice, not frightened.
"Yeah," Amy said as Lina continued to plant her face into her shoulder. Her monkey tail was curled around the both of them. "She just doesn't like snakes."
"I'm ssssory," Sam replied. "I didn't know thhhat wasss going to happen."
"We know," Amy said. "Come on, Lina. It's still Sam. He won't hurt you."
Lina slowly turned her head, a frightened doe-eyed look in her eyes. She looked at Sam's long body and took several deep breaths. She let go of Amy and walked up to him, staring into his yellow eyes. Amy could hear her letting out faint pathetic ooks. Lina raised her hairy arms and grasped Sam on the shoulders. Sam responded by hugging her tightly...but not too tightly. Lina ooked again in fright, but hugged him back.
"Sssee? I'm the ssssame old Ssssam. Kind of."
They ended their hug and Lina now looked very embarrassed. "Sorry," she said. "I think I'm getting over it." She smiled. Sam smiled back.
"All right!" Amy jumped in the air. "Mrrrnow we're all transformed and happy!" She looked at the others, seeing their faces as she gave her outburst of jubilation. "Uh...what do we do now?"