It didn’t take long for changes in Allan’s body to become apparent. His thin, six-foot tall body quickly grew larger in multiple ways. He was rapidly growing taller. Also his arms and legs were clearly growing thicker. Lastly, the one that I couldn’t figure out, his head seemed to be getting bigger as well.
His clothes began to rip apart all over his body. Buttons flew off his shirt. His pants and shoes burst apart. When that happened I was able to see additional changes. His feet no longer looked like regular human feet. In fact they looked more like human hands. Before I could work that one out I saw thick, black fur sprouting on his increasingly muscular legs. The fur quickly covered his legs entirely.
At this point he was taller than Shifter and still growing larger. His behavior began to change as well. He began to hop around on his altered feet and he beat his hands against his bare chest. His chest started to grow the same black fur as his legs. His hands, meanwhile, also changed so that they were much larger. As his size continued to increase he placed his hands on the ground with the knuckles down.
Now I realized that he was turning into a gorilla. Yet as one might expect he was no ordinary gorilla. He looked larger than any one I had ever seen pictures of before, and he was still growing. His behavior was becoming much more agitated as well. As his legs, arms, chest, back and shoulders kept adding muscle and fur, he began to jump up and down repeatedly. He also began to make noises that were of a gorilla, not a human.
He stopped growing when he got to what I guessed to be ten feet tall. His genitalia had already become lost in his changed body. This was mostly due to the fur, but I did remember something about gorillas not having very large…organs, as well. The final changes happened to his face and head. His forehead, which had already grown larger, now resembled that of a gorilla. His nostrils flared out and grew large like those of a gorilla. His face pushed out into that small gorilla snout. But most interestingly his teeth grew much longer and sharper than a gorilla’s teeth. Not all of them, mind you, just the two on each side on both the top and bottom. They grew large enough that they stuck out of his mouth. This gave him a very monstrous looking appearance on top of everything else.
With his changes complete, the gorilla began to jump up and down with what seemed to be a contented look on his face. Commander Victory stood up from the table and held up both his hands with the palms facing the gorilla. The gorilla immediately stopped jumping and stood. Commander Victory then lowered his palms and pushed his hands down. The gorilla responded by obediently sitting.
“This is Beringer,” said Commander Victory. “He is a mountain gorilla of monstrous proportions. What I mean by that is that there is no actual mountain gorilla of this size, shape and demeanor.” Beringer roared in what I assumed to be approval. “Even though he shares a mind with Dr. Tolliver, he does not have the luxury of sharing the self-control of Dr. Tolliver. After all, he is a wild animal.” Again Beringer roared. “All of us in P.H.A.N.T.O.M. have the ability to understand Beringer when he speaks and all of are capable of controlling him, if necessary. In fact, we are the only ones who can. You should already have those abilities. Go on, say something to him.”
“OK,” I said nervously. I looked at the gorilla and said, “Hello, Beringer. I am Bambi Buxom. How are you?” He walked over to me, on his knuckles and his feet, and looked at me closely. He sniffed at me a few times. This made me feel really uneasy. But he soon stopped and looked at me again. He made a few positive sounding noises.
“What did he say to you?” asked Commander Victory.
I answered, “I think he said…‘nice boobies.’ And then he said, ‘I happy to know you.’”
“That is, in fact, what he said,” Commander Victory affirmed. “I would not get too offended at the remark regarding your anatomy. He has said the same thing about Lady Lightning, and about Julie and Victoria when he has seen them.”
Beringer made a few more noises. I understood them to mean, “But this one has biggest and best.”
“Now I think I should be offended by that,” I said. “But I will let it go. I am happy to know you, too, Beringer.” He roared in approval.
Commander Victory said, “So now you have it. This is P.H.A.N.T.O.M. These are you teammates. They are the ones you will help and protect at all times, and in turn they will do the same for you.”
“I’m happy to be a member,” I said. “I just hope I can do right by all of you when the time comes.”
Commander Victory walked over to me and put his large hand on my shoulder. “I am sure that you will,” he said. “Otherwise you would not have been chosen to be here.” He smiled ever so slightly and then took his hand off my shoulder and returned to his previous position. I supposed that was about as emotional as he could be. Even so, to see some warmth from him made me feel a lot better.
“So what else is there to do?” I asked.