Fran easily skipped into the room where Adam had earlier become Alice to find Jack waiting for her.
"I believe I have five coming after me," Fran spoke, "did you read over the instructions?"
"Yes," Jack answered simply, "and I'll take my turn well to help your master."
Fran smiled, "Good."
Fran then rushed out the side door and went outside. It was mostly to give Jack the best shot at getting the maids and inside staff following her to say "transform", even though the inside staff didn't seem entirely frightened by her or her twin. She stayed close to house, though, to make sure nothing went wrong.
Almost a second after Fran left the room, the two cooks came into the room and looked around quickly, hoping to spot he she-wolf. They only found one of the grounds keepers standing quietly in the center of the room, with no sexy she-wolf in sight, and the door that lead to the outside was wide open.
"Jack!" one the cook's gasped, "what are you doing here? I thought you all had tree trimming to do on the north end of the estate."
"Did you see a she-wolf come through here?" the other cook asked, not really that concerned with why Jack was there.
"I've seen no wolves," Jack lied, "but I'll help you look if you can wait for help to arrive and you all answer a question."
"What question?" the second cook asked.
"That'd best wait till the others arrive," Jack answered.
The two cooks glanced at one another and looked out a small window for any sign of the she-wolf they had been following. They saw none. As they turned back, the saw the rest of their group begin to enter the room. Two of them were older female maids while the third was male. They were all surprised by Jack standing there as well.
"Jack, what are you doing in here?" one of the maids asked, "Mr. Smith would kill you if you're shirking your work."
"Have you seen a she-wolf come through here?" the male servant asked, noticing the open door.
"I just came in for something," Jack answered with a shrug, "I've seen no she-wolf."
"I could have sworn she came this way," the other maid spoke, "didn't she?"
Both cooks nodded. The last man in the group then sighed heavily and began to approach Jack to at least bring the grounds keeper up to speed. He didn't really know why he was inside, but that wasn't important at the moment.
"Jack, we've got a bit of a problem," the man spoke, "you see, there are two, seriously stacked, she-wolves running around the estate. We caught them as we came in, but they split up and moved off. We don't know why they're here and what they're doing here, and they didn't give us any straight answers. If you're not doing anything, we could use your help."
"Sure, but may I ask something, first?" Jack asked.
"Something's up with him," the second cook spoke up, interrupting him.
The others then glanced at the grounds keeper before him. His hair was a golden brown color, which wasn't that bad. He could have dyed it the night before. But his eyes seemed to lack whites and were a solid black, or extremely dark brown, they couldn't really tell. His ears and arms were also slightly different. His ears ended in slight points and his arms looked like they were becoming narrower. This was strange to them.
"May I ask something first?" Jack repeated.
"Sure," one of the maids sighed, "what is it?"
"Transform or dare," Jack said firmly, "to all of you."
All of them glanced at one another in surprise. They had heard rumors of the game, but none of them believed it. The two maids, like Frank and Daryl the day before, were not even natives of Glendale.
"Jack, this is nonsense," the second cook spoke, "we need to catch that she-wolf, or it will be our heads!"
"Yes," the third man nodded, "and she had to have come in here. Which way did she go?"
Jack didn't answer, but watched a wall clock nearby.
"Thirty seconds," Jack then spoke calmly, showing now fear or emotion.
"This is a waste of time," the last man grumbled, "come on, she must have gone outside. Maybe we can chase her off the property and be done with her."
The others slowly began to follow when Jack spoke again as they all reached the door.
"I'm afraid you've all used up the time given to answer the question," Jack answered, "and you will have to do both."
They all turned back to him as if Jack lost his mind.
"For your dare, you will contact all your family members and inform them something has come up in your lives and you will need time to sort everything out, and that they are not to expect to hear from you again for quite some time, if ever," Jack spoke, "once you've completed the dare, you will return here and will undergo your transformation."
The gathered five looked at one another.
"For your transformation, you will all become large, female, grotesque creatures that resemble a cross between a dragon and a wolf," Jack continued, "you will be made of stone, but still capable of movement and even flight. However, you will only move when instructed to do so by the leader of the Big Bad Wolf Pack, who is to ultimately be your master and the one that you will defend until the end of time. You will be loyal to him and will work with the grotesque already created to serve as the Big Bad Wolf Pack's guardian."
The two cooks looked nervously at each other for a moment, remembering a monstrous stone creature perched on one of the walls as they went in. They ignored it then, but something made the cooks feel that they shouldn't have. They were about to say something, when their minds went into a sort of haze as the "dare" took over. All of them had to make some phone calls, and they moved off in search of a phone not in use.
It was only when they left that Fran reentered the room and approached Jack.
"How did I do?" Jack asked.
"Quite well," Fran gave a polite smile, "I got a little nervous when they didn't answer, but you managed to recover quite well. The master will be pleased."
+++++
"Really?" Bart asked in surprise at Alice as she gave her report about what she had seen.
"Yes," Alice answered, "some of them wear Mrs. Smith's former attire."
"We need to take pictures!" Jenny and Marcy then cheered with laughter, "We'll laugh forever!"
"We will remain here until the master says it is safe to leave," Martha spoke with one of her heads, which took a great deal of effort, but she could manage that.
Both Marcy and Jenny pouted. Bart, however, looked more concerned.
"This could be a problem," Bart spoke after a moment.
"Why?" Kevin asked, "it is kinda funny that a bunch of men are wearing women's business suits."
"If that was the only thing to be concerned about, then no that wouldn't be a problem," Bart answered, "Glendale has been very tolerant about that sort of lifestyle. I think there is even a cross-dresser on the city council. But the shadows are a creation of the game and they're to be shadows of myself and Jenny."
"You think they might actually change genders?" Jenny asked, "nothing in the dare said they would become women."
"True, but they're becoming shadows of us," Bart answered, "and you, sis, are a girl. Which could mean that your shadows might just turn into women because of the game's powers. The website that has the games rules is rather incomplete and has plenty of holes in it. If they actually become women, all of their previous information would be invalid."
"What about surgery?" Martha asked, trying to calm the now very nervous looking Bart, "they actually do surgeries now to change people's genders."
"It's possible, I guess," Bart sighed, "but the closest surgeon that could perform that surgery is a good two hours drive from here and it's unlikely that he would have had the time to do more then one surgery in the course of an afternoon-evening."
"We might just have to keep the "female" shadows here until enough time has passed that people would believe that they've had the surgery," Jenny commented, "there is so much that we did online and from the estate that we do not need to have all of them out in Glendale at the same time."
"We'll still need to let the master know," Bart spoke.
"We'll let that wait until after the inside staff is finished changing," Martha cut in, "For now, all we can do is wait."
+++++
Fran and Jack waited patiently for their five to return. The first to return were the two cooks, each looking very sad, as if their calls had led to fights with their relatives. As they entered, the saw that the she-wolf was back, and were about to move forward when they were struck by a wave of pain so fierce it knocked them both to the ground.
"What's happening to us?" the first cook asked in horror as he looked at his hand, to see long claws shatter his human fingernails and grow out.
Unlike the bone claws on Fran's fingers and toes, these claws looked like they were made of granite. Their hands were also starting to grow larger, and the appearance of rock-like skin progressed from the claws and onto their hands.
"Nooo!" the second cook moaned as he crawled forward, his shoes splitting open to reveal stone covered wolf-like feet.
Fran watched quietly as the two cooks crawled closer and as their frames also began to expand rapidly, putting on layers of muscle that neither had really had before. As their clothes grew tight around them, Fran however noticed that the musculature, while larger, was still rather feminine. At the same time, the remaining inside staff that had been part of Jack's group returned, and attempted to rush Fran, but fell to the same pains of transformation.
Both cooks were, meanwhile, in absolute agony. They were both on all fours, although with their growing frames, the heads were nearly equal with where Fran's belly button was underneath her blond fur. Their hands still resembled hands, but had taken on a decidedly draconic appearance as scales were "carved" into the now stone appendages, tipped with sharp claws. Their feet were more wolf-like and they also looked like they had been expertly carved to be very realistic.
But that wasn't where the pain was. Much of that was in their chest and abdomen, their backs and along their spine, as well as on their faces as everything inside them seemed to be slowly changing to rock. Their clothing was barely hanging on, and after a few moments, the two cooks roared with pain as two draconic wings, made of stone, grew out of their backs and flared out, doing some damage to the ceiling of the room. The growth of their wings destroyed the white jackets that they wore to reveal thick looking belly scales and carved fur that made it look like their backs were covered by it, with the obvious exception of the wings.
"Not much longer now," Fran smiled at the two cooks, who found that the look was no longer the flirtatious look they had seen before, but one that was more triumphant.
The two cooks looked down, trying to avoid eye contact with the she-wolf. They then looked back at the other three. All of them were screaming with pain and were rapidly approaching the same state the cooks had transformed to, so far. As they turned, they were hit by another wave of pain, and two serpentine stone tails burst rapidly forth from the end of their spines, revealing the now feminine shape of their hips, but being made of granite, it wasn't like their "gender" now served any purpose but appearance.
"No," the cooks moaned as the pain focused its way onto their heads. Their hair fell out to reveal their moving ears, which looked increasingly wolf-like and were moving toward the top and rear of their heads.
They then found themselves roaring again as their stone faces pushed out into a wolf-like muzzle, with teeth to match, and two large horns grew from the their stone skulls between their ears. Fran and Jack quietly watched as their group completed their transformations.
"Who do you serve?" Fran asked once their transformations completed.
"The Big Bad Wolf Pack," all five dragon/wolf grotesques rumbled in voices that while feminine, could have been mistaken for a human male if one didn't know who was talking, because of the stony growling tone all five voices took, "we protect them... protect you."
"Very good," Fran answered, and pointed to one of them, "you are to remain here, just in case more people followed my twin then followed me and you will help them join the pack."
Fran then turned to the remaining four, "the rest of you are to take your places on the corners of the estate. You are not to move unless ordered to do so, or unless you see something that is clearly attempting to attack the Pack. Also, you will not use your turns unless ordered by Master Jensen. Do you understand?"
The four nodded and then lined up to go outside and take their places. Their massive stone bodies only just barely fit through the doorway, nearly taking it with them. Fran then watched as they then flew in the direction of the stone pedestals that were on the four corners of the estate.
Seeing their sheer size and strength, and knowing that being made of rock made them impervious to the weaponry that even a SWAT unit was given did give Fran some sense of relief that the pack and its master would be safe, for the time being.