Dawn licked her black cheetah lips as she pushed some buttons on the remote. Zack stood there, trying to be cool. He was scared of what Dawn had in mind for revenge...and, he was even more surprised to realize...he was excited to find out as well.
After a bit, Dawn smiled. "There. I think that's right." She held the remote toward Zack and activated it.
"Please state creature," it said.
"Rabbit," Dawn said with a fangy grin.
Zack looked nervously down at his hands. He waited for a few seconds, but nothing seemed to happen.
"I set it to five minutes. A little more time than you gave me."
"Time for what?" Zack asked, knowing there had to be more than just a simple rabbit transformation.
"For me to pick out a book. Stay close." She scraped a claw underneath his chin, and he felt a tingle go up his spine. Suddenly he felt afraid of her...deathly afraid. It must be the rabbit instincts manifesting in his mind, he thought. Dawn a predatory creature and Zack, turning into a creature of prey. After a few more seconds he began to feel fur growing all over his skin. He was fascinated by the subtle feelings...a slow transformation allowed him the time to examine every minute aspect of his change. He watched as his nails slowly, almost imperceptibly, thickened and sharpened into rabbit claws, while his fingers grew thicker and covered in soft white fur.
He looked up and saw that he was losing Dawn. He walked quickly to catch up to her, but when his feet bounded forward in unison, he stopped in his tracks. He was hopping! He tried to get his animal instincts under control as he walked step by step to where Dawn now stood, reading through a science fiction novel.
Zack stood there impatiently for another minute. He felt his ears stretching out and growing hotter. He felt one of them. It was four inches long and pointing straight up, quite furry. Then he noticed his shoes were tight. He removed them quickly, and his socks with them.
His feet were turning into large white paws, and his legs were thickening up as well, gaining the muscle and bone structure needed to perform impressive hops. He was glad he wore baggy shorts today.
He looked over and noticed a man down the aisle, open book in hand, with his head turned and staring straight at his legs. Zack turned to Dawn, still passively scanning the book.
"Um, Dawn, did you remember to set it so that nobody thinks this is unusual?" he asked in a nervous voice.
Dawn didn't look up from her book. "I remembered, but I didn't do it. You'll just have to deal."
A pained expression flashed on his face. He gritted his teeth, and his two upper front incisors grew past his bottom lip. He tried to cover them up, but they poked insistently out of his mouth. "Oh, that's just great."
After another anxious minute, Dawn closed the book and said "Okay, I think I'll take this one. Could you buy it for me?"
"I...have to go up to the...?" Zack said, looking to the front of the store and the checkout desk.
"It's the least you could do. You know, for scaring the bejeezus out of me." She pushed the book into his chest, and he took it with his large furry hands. "Now hop to it."
Zack mustered up what remained of his pride. He straightened his back and tried to give her his most serious look, despite the pink button nose, whiskers, downy fur and buck teeth. "Okay. I'll do it."
As casually as he could, Zack walked up to the front counter with Dawn smiling and wagging her tail beside him. Every customer they passed gave him looks...surprise, amusement, puzzlement, even fear. But they all ignored cheetah girl Dawn. He was thankful that there was no waiting line. Together the two transformed friends walked up to the cashier.
The cashier was a woman in her late thirties, with brown hair and glasses. She smiled pleasantly, but her high eyebrows betrayed her urge to giggle at Zack. "That's a really impressive disguise you have there," she said as she scanned the book's barcode.
"Uh...thanks," was all Zack could think of to say in his deep embarrassment.
Dawn hugged his arm and smiled at the cashier. "It's my makeup work. We do charity shows for kids. Like at hospitals." Her tail brushed the back of Zack's ankles mischievously. He tried to keep a straight face, but his ears suddenly twitched by instinct.
The cashier's mouth fell open. "Wow! Working ears and everything! That's amazing."
"Thanks!" Dawn said with a giggle. "We're really proud of that part.
Zack felt a pushing in the back of his pants and knew it had to be his rabbit tail growing in. He tried to stand still despite the growing discomfort.
"Sir, that's eight ninety-nine, please," the cashier said pleasantly.
"Ah, right." He reached into his pocket, stuffing his rather large hand inside. This caused his pants to shift a little and upset his crowded tail. He groaned a tiny bit...not as much as he could have, but enough to make the cashier's eyebrows quirk. "It's...just tight. Cuz of the gloves." He stamped his paw on the floor. It made cute muffled padding sounds.
The cashier chuckled. "Maybe you should take them off?"
"NO, nope...I got it." Finally Zack pulled out his wallet and opened it. However, his fluffy, clawed digits couldn't separate the dollar bills from each other. "Umm, maybe you should...?" he passed the wallet to Dawn.
She used her slightly less thick cheetah hands to pull the correct amount out of his wallet and handed it to the cashier. She then accepted the change for Zack. "Thank you so much!"
"Thank you! It's great what you do for the children. Keep it up!" The cashier said as Zack hurried Dawn toward the exit.
Once outside, Zack took his wallet from Dawn and pocketed it with some effort.
"Maybe we should actually do that. Charity work, or something. Maybe makeup effects for movies!"
"Can you just change me back, please?" Zack said. "I'm sorry. I learned my lesson. You had your fun. I don't want to be a goofy rabbit." It was taking all of his willpower now to stop from hopping to keep up with Dawn's speedwalking. "Could you slow down?"
"Hey, you made me a cheetah!" Dawn said over her shoulder. "Just try to keep up!"
With that, Dawn waved the remote in her hand and burst into a full run down the sidewalk, zooming away faster than Zack had ever seen anyone go.