Warning: The text below is, by its very intent, rather explicit in nature. This is neither intended nor suitable for minors, or adults that do not want to be exposed to descriptions of non-realistic sexual intercourse in a fantasy setting. It's an adventure story that contains depictions of violence and peril - or at least I wished it would, if I weren't such a hack when it comes to writing. It may also contain malapropisms, which I kindly ask you to either ignore or, preferably, comment on and give me a chance to improve my grasp of English (which isn't my native language).

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The Temple Treat, Part III

by

Paul Gerard (a pen name)

version 1.2, written May-June 2008. Last revision: June 28th, 2008

Spellchecked: by computer.

Proof-reading: by humblefool, whom I'd like to thank very much for his offer, and for his time.

Altaerna - a world where the laws of reality may become mere guidelines at any given time; where magic and machinery are intertwined; where all those things creeping in the shadows of fantasy may step forward onto the mind's stage.

The three-part story line of The Temple Treat is set in this alternative reality, in a time similar to the end of our 19th century. Part 1 introduced "The Creature", and should be considered this writer's first foray and treated as such, i.e. under protective clothing and sufficient ventilation to not get any Stupidium or Untalentium on yourself. Part 2 introduced Saphina, the high priestess of The Creature, and tells the story of her punishment (sort of), fall from belief (sort of), and rewarding. This story here, part 3, unfolds five years later...

Jump to the chapter listing (at the end of the file, may spoil some of the plot points)

Prelude

The impact of the sledgehammer on the wall of mud bricks echoed through the tunnel. Small shards bounced around, and through the fist-sized opening came a rush of fresh air that stirred the dust hovering in the lamp's cone of light. Fifteen minutes! Fifteen minutes of pounding away at the wall, and nothing to show but this little hole. The next chamber was dark. Dark, but not pitch black. A little light and a bit of fresh air had found their way into it. Impatience dictated the next step. She placed a piece of dynamite, and, after scurrying to a safe distance, she shot it. The explosion was deafening. After the dust settled, the walled-up entrance was wide open, reduced to the stone door frame and a floor covered with bricks.

The intruder stood in front of the huge statue, which soared up into the deep shadows that hid the ceiling. Except for the occasional drop of water or a faint, distant bird's cry making its way through a hole in the ceiling, not a sound reached into the huge cavern. The hulking idol had the shape of a strange half-beast, half-woman creature, with entirely too many large breasts, frozen in a pose of ferocious attack. Even though a closer look clearly showed it to stand still as stone could, something about the posture chiseled by unknown, ancient stonemasons suggested that it did move, that those disproportionate, man-sized claws hovered closer whenever one's wandering gaze returned to them.

The trespasser, unfazed by such trivial tricks of the light and mind, raised a fist into the air.

"Brenda Carlyle, adventurer extraordinaire, 'The Witch with the Whip,' succeeds again where mere men fail!" Her triumphant announcement to the empty cavern echoed hollowly. For a moment or two, she half expected to hear the usual reluctant applause, then she remembered this was not a museum's grand opening. Well, depending on what she was going to unearth here, instead of public applause she might as well be hearing the discreet rustle of bills in a briefcase, in the near future.

A silvery glint in the rubble to her left caught her eye. She brushed her red curls out of the narrow freckled face and back over her shoulders, putting her fedora hat back on to tame her mane. Then she adjusted the newfangled 'electrical lighting device' that sat on her shoulder. That novelty toy really had proven to be better than the cumbersome oil or carbide lamps she had gotten used to. She made a mental note to invest some more money into that ... what had been that company’s name again? Something like "Eddie & Sons". A workshop of geeks, really. But with that little gizmo, they might finally be on to something. Focus, girl! she chided herself. Neither time nor place to ponder business decisions!

Yes, there was something small and metallic buried under sand and stone. It was a sphere about the size of her fist, most of it embedded in a brick-sized piece of the rubble. The stone was light and porous, almost like pumice or a foam made of metal, and when she lifted it, it crumbled easily, leaving a thin layer of brown rust on her hands. She threw it to the ground, and it cracked right through the middle. With metallic clanging, the ball bounced up and down a few times on the floor. She picked it up and dusted it off with her palm.

The room was suddenly bathed in light.

She looked up and saw a ray of sunlight, painting an uneven bolt of white through the faint dust in the air. Blue sky was now visible through the five-yard hole in the cavern's ceiling, and the heavy clouds moving fast across must have ripped open for a moment. Brenda took quick note of her surroundings while the gift of abundant light lasted.

Half of the statue's head was missing. A cave-in, most likely the same that had created the hole and allowed the light to come in, appeared to have shattered it. She recognized parts of the face, including broken canines and other spike-shaped teeth, in the larger pieces of rubble. Dry roots had worked themselves through the cracks in the walls, and where the finger of daylight reached during its daily walk from sunrise to sunset, moss grew on the walls. The floor of rough stones was dry and dust-covered, except for a few spots where rain, and the earth it washed down along with it, had puddled and scribbled brownish rivulets into the gray. There were no footprints except for her own. There was a crude stone table that was large enough to have seated a dozen people, or, as was more likely its original purpose, could have fit one person, gagged and bound. A dried-up basin, three by five or six yards, two yards deep, without doubt for some nefarious ceremonial purpose, sat nearby, and over there, -

She shivered, and in the very next moment was angry at herself that she had. It was a huge pile of skulls, woven together with dried-up plant fibers and roughly shaped like a throne. Digging into graves usually brought skulls and bones to light, and she had seen many already. Well, whoever had worshiped big-breasted woman-beasts couldn't very likely be expected to follow the suggestions of a homekeeping magazine. Brenda shrugged. Contrary to folklore, the nice thing about the dead was that they stayed that way, and they didn't jump up and try to steal some treasure. That bad habit had been reserved for some of her former partners. Her hand ran over the notches carved into the grip of the handgun in her holster. She had found ways to deal with that. One, the easiest, was to simply work alone.

She hefted the silver ball in her hand. This was enough loot for a day, she decided, and put it in her bag. A closer look would have to wait until she was back outside.

The sphere was exactly three and a half inches in diameter. Brenda put the caliper away and scribbled the numbers into her notebook, absentmindedly rolling the ball between her fingers. Now that she had had a chance to clean and polish it thoroughly, she could see that its surface was much like a fogged mirror and covered with irregular, highly reflective patterns that were barely traceable with one's fingertips. The shapes glittered in the light of her oil lamp. There were a number of interwoven rings, some smaller nubs, rectangular lines bending to fit on the curved surface, a few grids, as well as a collection of other geometric patterns. If this was a map of some kind, she was not yet able to read it. If it was a message in a strange language, it would take time to decipher. She felt a welcome warmth fill her belly. She loved challenges, and, more to the point, she loved overcoming them. One of the next challenges would be to get this little valuable through customs. The border patrols around here had become notorious in their throughness, and the smugglers had become unreliable. Besides, her reputation always preceded her, even in the small villages littered across the jungle. There was not a single border guard that hadn't hear of her, or seen the less-than-flattering portrait drawings. Her nickname, "Mrs. Not-with-a-ten-foot-pole," was one of the more civil ones used among the smugglers. "Mrs. Always-that-time-of-the-month," or, "The Witch with the Whip," made her smile. It was not a friendly smile, but a bitter grin. She knew about those, too, but her reputation made certain that they were never uttered to her face.

The metal had warmed from the touch of her palm. She played with the sphere some more, and brushed the fingers of her right hand over her lips, sucking on the tip of her middle finger as it passed through them. Swallow it? Nah, it was far too big for that. But she had to put it somewhere that nobody would dare to look.

She drummed her fingertips on her cheek. Every now and then, she absently brushed along the thin scar that ran from just below her cheekbone to the edge of her jaw. A little present from a disappointed admirer, the single obvious blemish on the bright skin of her freckled face. The other scars scattered over her body were variously from arrows, the occasional blade flung in a barroom brawl, and wooden pikes in ancient tombs. Those had spared her face, and remained well-concealed under her tough and durable clothes.

A broad smile crept over her face as an idea formed. Put it ... there? Well, why not? She felt for the handle of her whip and ran her fingers over the braided leather with the round nail heads, which made a delicious shiver run down her spine and spread over her crotch. Soon, she'd know if the frequent training had given her the necessary tensility. If those customs thugs hadn't confiscated her last pouch of magic powder, she'd have simply conjured "rubber flesh" or "greedy gash" upon herself. Or maybe she wouldn't have. The ingredients for amateur magic were ridiculously expensive nowadays, as the supplies all over the world were running out. The cost of restocking could easily outweigh any profit from that little treasure. Besides, where was the fun in using the arcane shortcuts?

After reassuring herself that there was no-one around the tent, she opened the belt buckle, then the line of buttons and dropped her trousers. Already, there was a wet spot in her underpants, from anticipation alone. My, what a naughty girl I am, she thought to herself. Chuckling, she got rid of that garment, too, and felt the fleeting dampness suck the warmth out of her labia. Stretching out on her camp bed, she rolled the silvery sphere with both hands over her muscled stomach, which had rounded out quite a bit during the long holiday she'd permitted to herself. The more the ball warmed from the heat of her own body, the closer her hands guided it to her pubes. She shivered as it rolled over the upper end of her labia and the concealed clit. It was still rather cold to the sensitive skin down there, but it felt so smooth and slick in her hands, she dared to give it a try. Clutching the ball between her thighs-

"Oh darn, I've really put on a little weight there!" she muttered.

She rolled over to her left side and curved and arched her spine until she had her right arm reach over her rear.

"Oh no, there, too?! Time for working out more...", she sighed.

Angling her right hand, her fingers reached the right position.

After a few fleeting moments of delight turned into searing pain, she gave up. No way. The thing now seemed much bigger than before, which in turn meant some serious widening was now required, so she started by digging one after the other of her fingers into herself.

The hinges on the bed creaked in her regular, slowly accelerating rhythm. Soon, she rolled over on her back, thighs wide. The ball found a new temporary rest, clutched tight in her armpit. That darn thing took ages to really warm up, despite the hot, damp air in the tent. Her body was sprinkled with little droplets of perspiration. Her breasts swayed heavily back and forth on her chest, and their nipples had grown hard and almost aching. She licked her lips and tasted salt. Meanwhile, the handle of the whip had joined her fingers inside her. She felt as if she'd rip open soon, or her innards would turn inside out. Her hands, one relentlessly shoving the whip in and out, the other kneading and spreading her labia, were covered in her juices. Either she tried it now, or she'd just pass out from sheer delight.

She pulled the whip out with little problem, so maybe she was wide and ready to hide the ball, too. After dropping the wet, glistening handle into the valley of her bosom, she picked the sphere up and pressed it with three fingers on the softened opening, while pulling the labia apart with her other hand. Darn, that thing was big. She once had smuggled a whole bag full of pearls like this, and the ruby egg of the eastern Downlands, too, but the ruby had been a mere inch across, and a bag of pearls was just a lot of small ... ah! She sighed with true relief as her crotch finally devoured the orb. Yes, now it went in deep. Her fingers continued to push as far as she could, but once she let go, she felt the ball turn around, her taxed innards squeezing it back out again, bumping against the inside of her portal that slowly spread. Pressing down again, she could feel the smooth metal trying to wedge open her labia. "Oh no," she moaned, anger rising, "that won't do!", and grabbed the whip while pressing her thighs together. The still slick handle went right in; she barely felt it over the size of the orb. Her precious little treasure went deeper, pushed on by the leather stick. Better, much better. Just one more barrier, one more...

The ball slowly widened her cervix and, with a final prod of the whip, slipped inside her womb. Her half-closed eyes flew open, her scream resonated through the jungle.

"That's amazing!"

Chapter 1: Party's over

A week later, ten thousand miles away...

"That's amazing!"

The woman in the impressive, shoulder-free blue dress that was rimmed with black lace suppressed a sigh and turned to the young man in uniform standing behind her. She had a nagging suspicion that she knew all too well what had triggered his exclamation. Around her, the other guests of her soirée seemed not to have taken notice of his indecent outburst, and kept on exchanging vapid niceties.

Her dark brown eyes, and her whole face, showed a mixture of mild indignation, faint mockery, and the aloofness of the southern deserts' royalty. She wore her black, straight hair just below her shoulders, and with a straight edge along her forehead. It was a stark contrast to the curled wigs of the other women around her. She was well known for not following the fashions du jour, especially not the faux 17th century look of this year's winter style.

Her face was slightly wider, the nose just a little smaller, the cheek bones just a bit higher, the skin much darker and her lips just a bit fuller than those of the typical pale, northern Coldlands high-society specimens around her. The makeup she wore gave here face a slight tint of gold, and black lines drawn from the outer corners of her eyes ended in two spirals. When she blinked, her eyelids revealed a layer of gold dust. The shadows drawn in underneath her eyes made her cheeks seem a bit fuller than they really were. More than just a bit full was also the straining bustier of her dress, which remained unrivaled and envied by most of the other women in attendance.

Her paper fan snapped shut. Slowly, a smile smoothed her curled lips, and she gave him a playful slap on the nose with the colorful toy.

"Shush, my dear Lieutenant. You've accidentally woken some of the elder guests, I'm sure. However, I am pleased something caught your fancy. You seemed bored the whole evening. That something being ...?"

He blushed as if just now realizing he'd blurted out loud. "I'm sorry. I ... I couldn't help but notice this ... " He straightened his gala uniform, which was in utter non-need of it, and continued "... this amazing handiwork. I've seen some tattoos in my time abroad, but... " He hemmed. "May I t...take a closer look..." and fell silent.

He avoided her eyes by staring at the other handiwork she wore: her glittering diamond earrings, the tiny jewel-studded golden tiara with the two long thorns, running down from her temples to below her cheekbones, the round pendant that rested on her cleavage. All of them were works of art in her homeland's traditional style, and he knew, as well as anybody else around him, that these sparkling jewels and the gold and silver were genuine. Each and every single one of them could buy her ten times the mansion she currently resided in. She was rumored to be not just wealthy, but insanely rich. Despite that, there was not a single thief in the whole land who would dare to take on her. Rumor had it that her riches were also buying her protection by means of a secret, personal army that dealt with such petty nuisances swift and with extreme prejudice.

Four years ago, nobody had even heard of her. Then her black, sleek mystery yacht, without sails or smokestacks, had moored alongside the noble's pier of the capital. The grapevine reported that she had barged into the national bank together with a hulking guard all dressed in black and carrying a huge sack of jewels. Minutes later, she had been the legal owner of several estates, the bank had tripled its deposited capital, and the director needed to lie down for an hour before he could even speak.

By the next morning, the ship had disappeared. She was here to stay.

Once the word spread that she was living alone, Northland's upper crust had been swarming all over her parties. A fishy past or not; mysterious or not; maybe a privateer queen or not; the sweet fact of abundant money had nicely brushed away all those questions. Who cared that for the first few months she spoke with a heavy accent, that she always openly wore a dagger at her hip or that sometimes her manners were less than perfect. Her movements suggested a body beneath her clothes that was leaning towards stocky rather than skinny, and she was known to not hold back her anger. A brawl with a certain lord had made front page news; she had, without much effort, sent him careening over a buffet table, after what he described as an "accidental brush." She had described it as "both hands squeezing."

The lieutenant became aware that he hadn't been listening for the last few seconds. He jumped off his train of thoughts and caught her at:

"... after all. So you realize it's most unusual to ask a woman to bare herself in public, do you?"

He lowered his head like a schoolboy. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me, and I apologize. This is, of course, none of my business," he murmured.

"Damn straight it's not!" she confirmed, but there was an amused sparkle in her eyes. He was kind of handsome, after all. Should she ...?

She looked around and, seeing how nobody else paid attention right now to their host, let her fan snap open again and whispered behind it:

"What the hell. I'm going to make an exception. For you."

Her eyebrows rose twice in quick succession as she turned and ushered the surprised man to a corner of the room. With him in the corner, and her turning her back to the other guests, she decided she could risk it. Her index fingers hooked into the rim of her dress and pulled it down as far as she dared while still covering her nipples, but a part of the dark aureoles showed nevertheless. He stared at the pattern on her chest and almost dared to lift his hand and touch it. She breathed heavily, and the two orbs bulged towards him.

Smooth scars, more like stretch marks and only recognizable because the skin on them reflected the light of the many candles differently, formed three cobwebs. One centered on her neck, the other two, of which he could only see the parts above the laced rim, rimmed the aureoles. After a few seconds, she readjusted her dress. "Satisfied?" she asked.

"Amazing," he repeated, "I've never seen a scar tattoo this delicate, or more tastefully done. May I ask where, and how...?"

"I call them ... 'marks of a goddess'. I received them in an old temple of my homeland. Very painfully, I might add. It was a ... a rite of passage, kind of a religious thing, that I've since grown out of. You wouldn't believe the ways of superstition and self-delusion still alive in the desert lands."

She laughed and slapped him playfully again with her fan.

"Off you go, my dear lieutenant. Enjoy the evening."

She sashayed over to another group of people. He recognized a minister and two or three captains of the industry with their trophy wives.

An hour later, around eleven p.m., Milady had indicated, ever so slightly, that she was tired and wished to retreat into the solitude of her boudoir.

In fact, she had yawned loudly, stretched her arms, clapped her hands and called: "Well, thanks for coming, party's over!" It was amazing how easily her guests picked up those subtle hints. A few minutes later, the last of them was gone. The butler had cleaned up already, with little else to do but carry off the empty glasses that littered the tables and windowsills. After that, he had bid a good night to his mistress and retired to the small, separate house on the premises and left her to herself, as she had ordered.

Chapter 2: Off the wall

Saphina dragged the tiara from her head, threw it on one of the couches, and put her brow to the cold windowpane. Her ears were still ringing with the meaningless gossip she had had to endure for hours. Outside, the snow fell heavily, and already had covered the tracks of the guests' carriages leading away from the manor. Beyond the metal fence, the gaslights of the city's sidewalks were dim spots of brightness, fading in and out as the light fought hard through the snowflakes. Her breath condensed on the glass.

"I hate this place. I hate the cold and the snow." She straightened herself and closed the last of the heavy curtains, making sure that not a single glance from the outside could intrude upon her.

"You love the luxury, and their adoration. You love to put on a show and to raise a little ruckus every now and then, knowing they'll never dare to object," another woman's soft, surprisingly deep and husky voice replied.

She sighed. "Yes, you're right. But couldn't we have had both? Your heaps of diamonds buy us hospitality anywhere we choose. Why did we have to move here, to this land of ice?"

The gargantuan fireplace was decorated with several seven-foot-tall statues of ancient, animal-headed goddesses, sculptured from the black polished marble. Now one of them slowly melted away. The ripping seam where her lioness-headed body emerged from the stone flowed like tar turned to slime, and reverted back to a solid once the separation was complete. As she stepped up to the smaller woman, her motions were slinky and her footsteps barely audible. Smooth arms wrapped around the woman's flanks and belly, and the apparition rubbed her soft, feline cheeks over her hair. Saphina leant back into the ample breasts flowing against her bare back and shoulders and sighed. The gloss of polished stone everywhere on the other's skin was deceiving. Its touch was every bit as warm, soft and yielding as a human woman's flesh.

Her unlikely friend replied: "I love the sun and heat of your birthplace as much as you, dear. However, there's little progress being made there, and little news from the outside world coming to your homeland. The people of the coldlands seem to be much more motivated to tinker and study, and they scream their knowledge proudly into the world, with their newspapers and libraries. It's so much easier for me to do my research around here."

She rested more of her breast's weight on the small shoulders in front of her.

"Besides, don't I do my best to keep you warrrrrm?" she purred.

"You sure do. But please let that not be a tentacle you're just now wrapping around my leg."

"It's not. I decided to add a nice, solid tail to compliment my feline graces and help me balance my luscious bosom. Besides," she purred as the warm, slinky appendage inched up against Saphina's thigh, "don't you think we can find a place to hide it?"

"Show-off. Your cat-like head, well, I can deal with that weird sight, and I wouldn't want to miss out on that tongue of yours anyway. But your body is supposed to look all human, isn't it?"

Saphina felt a chuckle ripple through both of their bodies.

"Can't blame a girl for accessorizing!"

Saphina raised her arms and blindly felt for the non-human head that rested on her own. She ran her fingertips down along the triangular jaw and the sinewy neck where the animal features blended into the human torso. Those shoulders were wider and far stronger than hers. Her fingers moved on over the collarbones. She felt the other's skin slide under her touch.

"Why do you spend so much effort on imitating all this?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"I know you're not made of skin and flesh and bone. Hell, you've never even tried to sprout hair or fur. And beneath that polished marble skin, it's all just liquid down to your core."

"No, it isn't. Form follows function. It's far less creepy, and easier, to move like your kind if my body structure is the same. Oh, and it's no effort to keep it that way. That's a preset which I can easily recall. Changing shapes, reconfiguring, now that needs effort. A little, at least."

"So you're not all that mighty?"

"Tsk-tsk. Is that a way to talk to your goddess?"

"Goddess? That's five years past even being topical, isn't it?" the woman laughed.

"Then what am I to you, these days?"

Saphy teased her unlikely companion. "When you're sprouting tickling tentacles everywhere, like that night the week before? Maybe the beast from a thousand fathoms? The leviathan?"

Dawnielle laughed. Her official designation was 5PH-1NX, which had given her the mangled nickname "Sphinx". She was a solid brain core coupled to a decentralized molecular machine - a "demol" - that had been sent out into the universe, on a never-ending search for evolving planets. She and several others of her kind spent the last several billion years on Altaerna, patiently hiding and recording. With the advent of man, she had found a new field to study, and she had remained curious for just about every aspect of human minds and bodies ever since. Only a decade and half ago had she unwillingly become involved with the woman she now embraced.

The feline ears on the sides of her bald head were twitching. "The leviathan? Actually, no. A common misperception. You'd have to ask my sister S1-R3N about that. She's the one in charge of the aquatic research. I'm in charge of surface matters."

Her hands cupped the ample bosom of the woman before her. Through the dress, she kneaded the soft tissue and gently shook it, feeling the little ripples and waves of the flesh.

"Ah, how I love those. Did you know I always found it to be a challenge to emulate this soft, pliant, resilient shape when it starts to bounce and heave and swing? In the olden days, I really moved about like a stone statue with barely enough joints. Without your inspiring example, I might not have striven as much to perfect the movement of my own rack, and all the rest."

Saphina's breath quickened under the expert massage. She couldn't help it. Her thoughts returned to the night before...

"No ... no more ... " she gasped, lying on her back, out of breath. Her heart raced. " ... the pain ..."

"Shut up!" the sphinx snarled in her face, teeth bare, her hands clutching Saphina's knees and pushing them to the floor. "I can't stand your pathetic whining! Come on, you wimp! Once more!"

Saphina's midriff burned like hellfire. Her arms, folded behind her head, pushed against her sweat-drenched hair. She clenched her teeth and lifted her torso against the searing pain in her muscles. Her bloated breasts hung to the sides of her chest. They had been inflated to a mind-numbing one-and-a-half feet in diameter. Once the skin across her breastbone couldn't possibly stretch any further, the heavy bags slowly were lifted off the ground. She felt the liquid weight of almost fifty kilos swinging about and slap on her thighs as she struggled and finally managed to get her upper body upright.

"There, wasn't that hard, eh?" Dawnielle growled and let go. Saphina toppled, dragged down by the weight, and splashed into the narrow pool, spraying thick black drops all around. Like iron balls to a magnet, they quickly returned to their mother lode.

"Now roll over, girl, and give me one more!"

Saphina obeyed, though she was groaning out loud. As she turned to her left side, the pull of her massive boobs flipped her over once the right orb passed over the tipping point. The globular skin tanks splashed heavily into the shallow pool of black oil underneath her. She rested, puffing and blowing, on top of her wide-squeezed mammaries, the distended skin taut from the ample filling.

She put her hands down defiantly into the warm liquid she rested in, and propped herself halfway up, struggling against the weight and the searing strain in her boobs.

"Know what? I think I'm good for adding another pint or two." she moaned. Her back ached, and her breasts' skin ached, and her arms' muscles ached as well, but she was resolved to not give Dawnielle the satisfaction of seeing her falter now. She was on her hands and knees, inch-deep in a four-square-yard pool of the conscious black oil that ended rimless, as if it was cut off with a knife. Yet the surface inside the area rippled like water when she moved. In front of Saphina, Dawnielle's body seemed to wade hip deep in the pool Saphina only lay on top of - an illusion, because the sphinx' morphing shape right now ended where the room's floor started: just below her hip. She had adjusted her form so that her breasts were level with the woman's lips.

The sphinx replied, with a hint of concern in her voice: "Honey, I'm already impressed. Don't overdo it. You've got forty-seven extra kilos pulling on your ribs now. I'll have to spend quite some time with lotions and massage and tissue rebuilding to get your bosom back into your dress. You might consider doing your weight-lifting workout with more ordinary dumbbells next time." She leant forward and ran her hands over the taxed skin.

"Not that I mind being inside of you, don't get me wrong. Your bags are very comfy."

Saphina moaned as the oil she'd swallowed, and which had quickly seeped right through her body to fill her breasts, sloshed around inside her to get closer to the fingertips built from the same material.

The gentle touch went on to the lowest point on her balloon-like breasts. The fingers rubbed over the engorged nipples. Saphina felt the liquid heeding the call, how it began to push into the tiny ducts.

"No, don't let it out just yet. I really want to break my last record."

Dawnielle shook her head. "That's no contest. You get off on feeling top heavy, and that's okay with me. But you really shouldn't –"

She gasped for air, which was entirely unnecessary from a physiological point of view, but expressed her surprise quite nicely. Saphina had bitten into the living statue's soft nipple that dangled right in front of her face, and sucked at it with all the fervor she had. The sphinx closed her eyes, smiled wearily and gave up her resistance.

"Alright, alright. Have another sip."

Unlike a woman's nipple, the nub Saphina sucked on had no tiny ducts that would give milk by the drop. It just grew larger and formed a hole like a half-inch straw in its center. Then it spewed its strange black metallic milk like a well-shaken champagne bottle. The woman fought to keep up with the flow, but no matter how quickly she swallowed, the abundant supply overwhelmed her. Her cheeks bulged, and then the surplus of the fountain bubbled and gurgled out of the corners of her mouth and dripped down the teardrop-shaped half dome she pushed her face into. Inside Saphina's body, the liquid didn't even reach her stomach. On its way down her throat, it broke apart into a swarm of microscopic machines, diffusing right through her flesh into the slowly growing bags that used to be breasts and now were inflating tanks. The added weight in them made the skin stretch further, until the nipples, and Dawnielle's hands cupped around them, touched the surface of the flat pool Saphina knelt in.

The woman's lips released the dripping source. She sank down on her yielding rack and tensed her muscles anew.

"aaaand..."

Her arms were beyond aching now, but she managed to complete the push-up, teeth clenched and grunting from the back of her throat. Spent, she let her body fall back down on her massive mammaries that bulged and shook.

"... done! Phew!"

"Congratulations! Well, as your instructor, I say that's enough for today." Dawnielle's thumbs, index and middle fingers, trapped under the skin bags, wrapped around the burning nipples and milked them. Saphina, with barely hidden relief, felt the knobs expand to twice the size as the living juice wiggled and squeezed through the growing ducts. The mental image of her breasts spewing pint after pint after pint triggered what she had been waiting for. Another, fierce itching began in her crotch and raged on through her whole body. Her muscles trembled all over her. She inhaled until her chest felt like bursting. Her mouth formed a big O, with her jaw slack and her eyes staring into infinity.

Saphina's head, turned halfway to the side, rested in the valley between the two soft, ample breasts in front of her. She could feel one of the nipples rubbing against her mouth every now and then. Two sets of fingers, wrapped around her teats, gently milked her. The up and down motion of those arms caused her head rest to sway, and she let her whole body follow the undulated movements.

Then she learned, once again, about the many benefits of befriending a shape-shifting alien. A third hand rose up from the black pool, right between her legs. It cupped her whole crotch and kneaded the soft, overexcited flesh while lifting her knees off the ground. She climaxed like a firecracker, screaming ...

"Ooh goddess!" Saphina jerked awake. She still stood at the window, still warm and sheltered in the embrace.

Dawnielle chuckled. "Hey-hey-hey, someone got lost in a flash of yesternight, hasn't she? Longing for a repetition?"

The woman laid her small hands on the large groping fingers with the tiny claws and gently pushed them off her breasts, onto her belly.

"Yes, uh, rather maybe. I think I'm still a bit sore. So how was your day? You enjoyed the party?"

They broke their embrace and faced each other. Saphina leant against a sofa and Dawnielle rested a hand on a small empty stone table.

"Immensely. You wouldn't believe how little attention people pay to a fireplace while they're gossiping. Well, why should they, eh? On top of that, the heat provided a nice recharge for me. And the side table picked up a few interesting conversations as well."

Her fingers ran over the black furniture. The surface rippled, in the usual way that Dawnielle's black oil-stone skin always did before she morphed. Saphina had become accustomed to the strange sight since a long time ago. The top of the one-legged object shrank and wrinkled, not unlike a folding umbrella. Losing its rigid structure, it crept up along Dawny's arm, spreading out and fusing back into her body, seconds later followed by the rest of the item.

She didn't distribute the two extra gallons of volume evenly. With a glint in her eye, she made it seem as if she inhaled, but as the swelling continued and her breasts sagged, it was perfectly clear where the whole additional volume built up. Saphina smiled. "You're teasing me."

"Maybe. Maybe I just know what you like, girl."

"No wonder. You once read that from my brain, as I very clearly recall."

A distant screeching sound hung in the air, no longer than a second or two. Saphina grimaced and wiggled a finger in her ear. "Ow! That stung. I know why I don't like those trendy motor cars! A horse wouldn't brake like that!"

She had instinctively turned to the nearest window, but the curtains were all closed. She swiveled back to her retired goddess that stood frozen, suddenly emitting the very same noises, only much louder.

Saphina covered her ears, yelling across the din, "Dawnielle?!"

The demol's native language is binary, fast, and incomprehensible to human ears. Find a transcript of it below, for your convenience.

"5PH-1NX live on long-distance channel. Central, what's the matter?"

"..."

"Hot damn. Any more data? Independent confirmation?"

"..."

"I know! I know! Sheesh. Of course I'll go and take a look. I'm wondering, if she has managed to drop out of the com grid by herself, what about the telemetry? Is it reliable, or is she leading us on with that?"

"..."

"Just asking. Apart from that, is there any demol body activity around her location?"

"..."

"Well, that's a relief. Last time she went on a collecting spree, we picked headless bodies out of the treetops for a week. Sure she's got no chance to get her hands on new demol particles?"

"..."

"Yes, except mine if I go there, of course. Once I get there, I'll bleed off anything above my current shape, and lock the rest to my core."

"..."

"I know that's risky, but giving B1-TCH access to any demol oil would be even worse. I'll take Saphina with me, she's learned how to hold her own. And the chance of that movement being nothing but some archaeologist carrying that damn ball around with him is rather high. In that case, she's more suited to pinching it than me. Wake two of the others and send them here, so we can build a full-strength lock-in key. I'm not risking a broadcast that B1-TCH might intercept."

"..."

"Has not left the area for a week? What the heck is going on there? 5PH-1NX, over and out."

Normal time returned.

Dawnielle shook her head as if to chase off a nightmare. She blinked a few times before she turned to her friend.

"You wanted warmth and sun? We're going to the southwestern jungle lands. Better pack something rugged, though. That's not going to be a beach party."

"What's wrong? I've not seen you this concerned since ... I've never seen you this concerned ever!"

Dawnielle took a deep breath.

"I don't know yet. Remember when I told you about my team's black sheep? The mental one? She's stirring again. It could be nothing, it could be impending disaster. We're going to check it out. I'll tell you more while we're on our way. Right now, I'm expecting guests, to help me prepare myself."

Something knocked on the window frame.

Dawnielle smiled. "That was fast. Don't bother, dear, I'm getting it." She drew back the curtain and reached for the handle.

Chapter 3: Lock and load

The creature that stepped in through the wide-open window frame was shaped like female seduction incarnate. She was just that bit more shapely, that bit more luscious than a woman could ever hope to be. Her hourglass figure moved with a sensuous slink, an easy swinging of her hip. Her teardrop-shaped huge breasts quivered to her every step, crowned by cherry-sized proud nipples, and unrestrained by any kind of clothing at all. Her face was even, symmetric, and free from any blemishes, with lips hinting at knowledge of any and all forbidden fruits. She was a statue embodying all the unreachable looks a woman could long for, come alive in the same black, marble-like stone skin of Dawnielle. Saphina felt her mouth turn dry from envy at the apparition, and from another, even stronger emotion that started to boil in her womb. She wanted to jump on that girl, to sixty-nine her, right on the spot.

Dawnielle put her restraining hand on Saphina's shoulder before she could act on the feral urge.

"N1M-PH0, please! Turn off your pheromones. I think Saphy here has turned sappy already," she grinned.

The sex dream lifted her dainty hand to her mouth with the voluptuous, moist lips that had turned to a silent, apologetic O. Saphina stared at the graceful movement. She had to put her tongue into that opening, right now. She had to caress these breasts, to grab that ass, to wrestle down this apparition onto the nearest couch. Hell, the floor would do. Her trembling fingers felt for the laces of her dress. Getting lost in a ravishing embrace with that dream was all that she could think of. Right here. Right now –

"Oh, sorry. Doing it now. The effect should fade just about ... now. I was around collecting DNA samples, so when I got the call, I came right over to you and forgot I had left the lure on."

Saphina's obsession waned. She gulped audibly.

"Wow", with trembling lips, was all that she could immediately muster. After a deep breath, she added: "Careful with that power, lady!" Her juices trickled down on the insides of her thighs. She bit her lip, not taking her eyes of the nymph. Her nipples felt hot and hard, almost ready to pierce her clothes.

"Uh, you've got a little ... something there." she added moments later. "Corner of your mouth, no, the other side."

Elegant fingers slid the white substance in between the lips, and her wet tongue sampled it.

"Mmmh. Ah, Specimen 50412 through 50414. Thanks! Those guys sure were productive, but I guess I've overdone the stimulation for one or two of them."

Saphina took a deep breath, ready with a snide remark, but from the corner of her eye she caught the sphinx' facial expression towards her. Who are we to judge? Don't mock her, you've been luring men to me, too.

She bit her tongue.

"Sounds like ... hard work?" she asked instead.

The nymph laughed. "Oh, no. I like it. I like the fireworks."

"Beg your pardon?"

"You know, if you keep an eye on the brain activity, you can see, seconds before they go off, how the usual flicker in their heads stops and everything lightens up at once, all focused and oblivious to anything around them... ah, poetry. I'm working hard on getting a perfect, thorough discharge like that every time. To me, DNA extraction is an art form. I believe in personal care and service."

"That's ... uh ... reassuring, I guess?" Saphina replied, with a glance to Dawnielle, who just grinned, cocked her head and shrugged.

Another rapping made their heads turn towards the window again. A large, black bird sat on the sill, staring into the warmth of the room.

"Aw, poor thing. Were you attracted by the light? You want in?" Saphina asked through the pane. The bird eyed her with a cocked head, while mincing up and down the snow-covered ledge.

Dawnielle smiled. "Focus, girl. Did I not teach you to use your eyes first, and your judging later?"

Ah, so it was another test. Everything any time could become a test, with a sphinx in the house. Saphina concentrated, trying to take in even the most minute detail, until she recognized what did not fit into the obvious picture of "raven at the window."

"Green eyes, with a faint glow. This must be one from your side of the family, eh?"

She pulled the window open. Later, she vaguely recalled drowning in a flock of black wings that rushed by, losing her balance, and the painful slap as she fell backwards and hit her rear on the floor.

"Ah, PH3-N1X. So glad you could make it on short notice, too. I take it Central has both of you up to speed on the whole problem already?"

Dawnielle helped her fallen friend back up. By the time Saphina faced the last guest, the creature had condensed herself from a flock of birds into the shape of a bland, generic woman.

Almost. For a few fleeting seconds, parts of her skin still seemed to flutter like nervous wings. Saphina gulped. She had expected the last arrival to continue its reshaping, but it simply stopped at something that looked like a human body wrapped head to toe in a tight, seamless skin. The head was but an orb, with a hinted-at jaw-line; eyeless but with depressions where they were supposed to be. It looked like a statue that had been carved out of black wax and then exposed to heat, which had molten away all the tiny details. A shiver ran down her spine.

The nymph and the phoenix opened their mouths and screeched.

Dawnielle raised a hand, silencing them.

"Ladies, civility! It's not nice to exclude our host. Talk like humans, please."

Phoenix turned her head to Saphina, and her movements were true to her avian name: She just seemed to jump from one posture to the next like a nervous bird, not bothering with "smooth". Even watching her walk caused a headache and nausea in the woman, like the time she had visited one of those new "moving pictures" with their constant, mind-numbing flickering.

"I am sorry. I was unaware of the fact that you are not a secondary shell of 5PH-1NX, but have remained an independent life-form." The eyeless head snapped around to Dawnielle. "You were always a kinky one, I guess."

The nymph laughed. "Now why did I know that our swarm specialist wouldn't understand that?"

Dawnielle grinned and turned serious only moments later.

"Alright. Each one of you came up with a key?"

"Affirmative. PH3-N1X unit ready for sequence injection."

"Alright, I've got my secret password, too!", N1M-PH0 blurted.

"That's nice, hon. Now pick another one," Dawnielle replied with a sigh.

"Oh come on! I'm not that predictable!"

"It's 'sex', right?"

The nymph frowned. "Well, it might not be!"

Dawnielle held her temples. "N1M-PH0!"

"Alright, alright. Spoilsport. Yes, it was. It's just that I like ..."

" 'fuck'."

"Pardon?!"

"The next password you're right now thinking of is 'fuck', N1M-PH0. It always is. Try again, please. Maybe something a little less ... monosyllabic?"

Dawnielle smiled to Saphina, albeit a bit weary. "Apart from that habit, she's quite educated. Really. Her third try is usually something so dirty or depraved, and so utterly obscure at the same time, that it's good enough."

"Well, Dawnielle?" the nymph asked. She rolled her shoulders and spread her arms slightly, turning her palms forward in an inviting gesture. "I've got three more barracks on my schedule, and the night's not going to last forever."

She slowly moved her hip and spine, invitingly wiggling her fingers.

"I'm coming, dear," Dawnielle replied and turned away from Saphina.

"You want to use this two-legged shape, as it is now?"

The sphinx nodded.

N1M-PH0 smiled. "Let's get a head start, the two of us. PH3-N1X seems to be a bit uncomfortable at the thought of joining right away."

She stepped behind Dawnielle's back and wrapped her arms around the midriff in front of her. Her fingers wandered over the well-defined muscles and melted the marble surface, making the slightly striped structure of black and dark gray swirl in its wake, like a liquid inside a solid, transparent container. One hand dragged her fingers up over the sphinx' breasts. The nymph lifted her fingertips off the skin, drawing viscid filaments along.

"Ah, we're melting already. Time to imbue your body with my key."

She squeezed herself harder into the sphinx' back. There was a moment of uncertainty as the two bodies mingled. Then the sphinx arched her spine backwards and stood spread-eagle. Her body shook all over as the nymph slowly lost herself in her. She moaned, a low, long-drawn, hoarse sound from the depths of her throat. Her breasts seemed to resonate along, and her skin trembled like pudding in an earthquake.

Her two mounds erupted, filling up with the nymph's whole body volume and then some. The orbs with the size of two beanbag chairs hung motionless in the air, perfectly round in front, cone-shaped where they connected to her chest, defying gravity with ease. It didn't last long. Moments later, they bounced down into the floor, bulging under their own mass, pulling Dawnielle down along on top of the wobbling cushions. She reached around them to calm the bobbing movements.

Saphina watched in amazement. This must've been what she herself had looked like, that night in the temple, when Dawnielle had put her on the spot for her insincerity. It was kind of arousing, seeing it like this. She wondered how this quivering mountain of boob would feel, if it was still that smooth, dry marble surface or more like the viscous, sticky goo from moments ago.

"Phoenix, you coming? Bit of ... hhrrnnghh! ... stop tickling in there, nympho! ... bit of a situation without you!" Dawnielle groaned.

Phoenix interrupted Saphina's hormone-drenched thoughts with her almost unmodulated, mechanical voice. "I advise you to kindly step back to the far end of the room. Unexpected resizing or partial loss of shape control may occur at any time during the threesome."

Saphina giggled, which made the other pseudo-woman lift an eyebrow, or at least flicker from a face with no expression to a face with no expression except for that lifted hint of an eyebrow, and back.

"Apologies. Choice of translation may have been not entirely correct. I was referring to the three-way body substance encryption currently in progress."

"Oh, from over here, it looks like you were pretty spot-on."

Phoenix walked up to the helpless sphinx and, hesitating only ever so slightly, jumped on her back.

The boobs swiftly blew up again as the impact shoved Dawnielle and the phoenix herself into them. After most of the ferocious wobbling and bouncing died away, a single, monstrous boob, attached to nothing, sat quivering in the middle of the room.

The opaque, black and shiny skin of the five feet orb stretched and moved, every now and then revealing the contours of the intertwined bodies of Dawnielle, the phoenix and the nymph as if they were snaking around each other inside a huge oil-coated rubber bubble. A hand, an arm, a knee, a head with a gaping mouth and wide-open eyes would press against the elastic skin from the inside, rising out from the wiggling, swaying, flattened ball shape, only to have another hand slide up and over, even through it, dragging it back down. Not a sound emerged from it, except for an occasional gurgle, squeak or bubbling.

The minutes passed.

Saphina held her chin. How long was this supposed to take? Were they having fun in there, or was it horribly painful?

Should she do something ... anything?

She blinked. The orb grew. She hadn't noticed before, but it was undeniable now. It was not an even growth, it swelled and shrank in a slow, but accelerating rhythm, getting bigger each time. Saphina slowly backed away further until she felt the wall on her back.

Two arms and a head - Dawnielle's - pushed against the rubbery skin from its inside. She stretched herself, trying to break free from the narrow confines of the ... egg? The thought suddenly appeared in Saphina's head.

The skin of the bubble burst with a huge bang that made the window panes rattle. Black, sticky filaments spewed out, clung to the wall and ceiling and formed a rapidly melting spider's web. The liquid shaped itself into two separate blobs that turned back into PH3-N1X and N1M-PH0. Dawnielle's curled-up body was laying on the floor. She propped herself up on her arms and struggled to her feet. The nymph was helping her up, still giggling with delight. "Wow. Great fun! We should do this more often."

Phoenix' stare was arctic in nature. She went to the window, opened it, nodded a good-bye and splattered into a swarm of raven-like birds that were gone the very next instant.

"Wow." Saphina gulped. "That was ... weird."

The sphinx smiled and waved goodbye to the nymph who also climbed out the window, only to melt and run down the outside wall like hot tar from a toppled barrel.

"They've mingled and sifted through my body and encrypted my substance with their codes. I don't know what keys they've chosen, so I can't accidentally reveal them. Come on, we need to pick a dress for you now."

As they climbed the staircase to the dressing room, Saphina noticed her friend's odd behavior.

"What's the matter? You keep staring at your hand." she inquired.

Dawnielle sighed and flexed her fingers again. "That's how you feel and live all the time? I've found new respect for you. You solids, you've got it hard. It's utterly weird for me. Sure, the manual says: enter code, trigger init, done. But actually doing it ... it feels sick. No easy balancing, no stretching to reach for something... You have my sympathy."

Chapter 4: Dress to squeal

"I swear, you could hide whole worlds in here.", Dawnielle remarked as they rummaged the huge walk-in wardrobe. "We need something rugged. Something that looks used, torn, too."

"Like this?" Saphina lifted a dress from its hook and held it to her body.

"No, far too expensive. Much more basic. You'll be playing a castaway in need of help. That one looks more like you've come to finance the whole dig."

"And this?"

"I don't recall ever suggesting that you should buy that." Dawnielle furrowed her brows. "Does this technically even qualify as clothing? Besides, it makes you look like you're desperate for a romp in the hay. Wrong message."

She picked up a plain, buttoned shirt made from white cotton, and a pair of denims. "Yes, that's more like it. Here, try it on." She threw it at the woman.

Saphina snatched it from mid-air. "That?! I don't even think it's mine! Looks like it's one of the butler's after-hour clothes, and got sorted in wrong."

"Perfect. Blind passenger, stealing clothes from the sailors, thrown overboard and washed up. That's your story. Come on, try it, he's about your size."

"You and your eye for clothes! That's at least two sizes too large!", Saphina complained minutes later. The legs of the trousers ran down well over her feet, and the shirt hung like a wet blanket from her shoulders.

"Yes, we'll need to make a few adjustments." She snapped her fingers. "Trousers!" Saphina handed them to her, and Dawnielle ran her canines through the legs' excess fabric and pulled hard, ripping the lower part right off.

"Here, that'll do."

Saphina put them back on. The length, and the frayed rim now were about right. She tugged at her shirt. "What about that?"

"That's okay. It's just a bit too new. Needs to look a bit more used, ripped, wrinkled, stretched." She smiled. "Like this."

Her hands cupped Saphina's breasts, fingers squeezing into the flesh. After a few seconds, a huge amount ... of nothing happened.

"Oops! Performance problems." the sphinx said, smiling sheepishly, and let go. "I forgot that I can't morph right now."

"Were you ... Hey! You tried to - I can't believe it!" Saphina stood with arms akimbo. "You could've asked!"

"But you love it!"

"Yes, but that doesn't mean I like to run around with bazooms of doom all the time! I love reading books, too, but you don't see me with pages glued to my forehead!"

Saphina took a deep breath that made her chest swell, ready to continue her outcry. Except that she found herself continuing to swell, to round out, the shirt tightening quickly against her skin. She exhaled sharply, which helped nothing, and stared at her friend.

"Sorry for the delay." The sphinx wiggled her fingers and grinned. "Had to call in the unlocked oil from the storage barrel in the basement."

A black river ran across the floor, emerging from underneath the door, and disappearing into Saphina's right leg of her trousers. There, it seeped through her skin and streamed up to her chest.

Saphina stood frozen, arms half-raised, staring down into her growing cleavage. In seconds her two breasts filled like water balloons, first sagging down against her short ribs and then rising upwards for lack of room, parts of them already squeezing out of the shirt's collar. In her armpits and down the side, the seams creaked and expanded. Her skin was burning, it felt thin and near the point of bursting from the fast unprepared expansion that had hit her. She seemed to have gained at least twenty pints of watery volume - in each breast.

Dawnielle walked around her, tugging here and there on the seams, cutting the fabric with her finger's tiny claws, until she was satisfied with the look.

"See? Now we're talking! That's just about perfect. Let's get you back down to size."

"Yes," Saphina weakly replied, busy with balancing the additional weight and nervous for fear of the heavy load pulling her down to her knees, "please, let's."

Dawnielle unbuttoned the shirt and freed the instantly sagging bags. On the right one, she simply supported the heavy orb with her palm. Her fingertips slipped into the deep fold that had formed underneath, and there she made a luring motion, gently scratching over the skin. The oil, which filled the wobbly teardrop-shaped balloon like abundant black milk, obeyed instantly. It moved forward through the milk glands to the nipple. The tiny knob and its ducts strained for a while before they gave in and opened up. Like honey, the viscous substance squeezed out in fat drops that reunited and crept down, looking like a dark, wrinkling chocolate glazing over the shrinking breast.

The cat-headed statue, meanwhile, bowed down to have her mouth meet the left breast. Unrolling her long tongue with the rough surface, she drew and sucked as much of the swollen sphere into her maw. The nipple plumped under her suction and discharged almost immediately, unlike its coy sibling.

Saphina's breasts deflated nearly as fast as their growth had kicked in. She felt half of the black liquid being sucked out from her left breast, milked out by the mouthful, disappearing into the hungry throat. The other half squeezed itself out of her right mammary in rhythmic pulses at the same time. It wandered towards Dawnielle's hand that still lifted her swollen breast, and disappeared into the skin.

"...aaand we're done." Dawnielle released the dried-up dome from her mouth and licked her lips. She buttoned up her friend's shirt again. "Looks pretty beat-up to me now. That'll do."

Saphina had to lean against the wall to recover from the mixture of feelings that made her head swim. She rose to her toetips when Dawnielle ran her hand over her crotch and probed her vulva through the fabric.

"Hey, you've creamed your pants. So much for not liking it."

"I told you. Ask first. It's not right to just go ahead." Saphina sighed. "I wished you'd remember it, the next time."

Back down in the ballroom, the fireplace dominated one whole wall. Dawnielle stepped up to the empty place she usually occupied when her body was dormant or recharging. "Saph, you coming?"

"Where are we going? You said something about the southwestern jungle? Do you want to play yacht again?"

"Jungle, yes; yacht: no. We're starting from the rooftop this time. Come on, we haven't got all night."

The huge stone rippled all over as the sphinx approached. Little filaments spewed from the vertical wall towards her, and by the time she touched the surface with a raised arm, she was covered in a web of liquid. Her hand dived in, and the very next second, the wall bulged out and swallowed her whole. Moments later, tentacles sprouted forward, wrapped around Saphina and pulled her in as well.

Saphina gasped for air and clung to the chimney that had moments before regurgitated her. The wind had become stronger and had turned into a snowstorm that was biting through her clothes. She stood in the middle of a platform on top of the roof which only the chimney sweep visited, thrice a year.

"I guess I was lucky that the chimney's wide enough for me to fit through!" she screamed over the howling wind.

Dawnielle, next to her, was brushing some brick dust off her shoulders, and shrugged. "After I went through, it was. I didn't expect this body to be so much more solid than what I'm used to. Don't forget to tell your stonemason to fix the chimney on the second floor. I guess I've broken quite a few bricks at that bottleneck."

She cracked her knuckles. "Alright, let's see the parting gift PH3-N1X gave me."

"That bird lady ... thing ... really gave me the creeps, I tell you!"

"Oh, PH3-N1X isn't all that bad. She's got her quirks, but she's got an excellent way of dealing with the flow of air. Here, look at that body design she taught me."

Dawnielle lifted her arm. The whole mansion shook slightly.

From the smokestack, a bolt of the black oil spewed forth into the air. At the same time, the huge fireplace several stories lower in the ballroom melted into itself, as if sucked in by the chimney. Dawnielle easily guided the liquid extension of her body as it hung in the air and formed a bird. Not just a bird, it was more like a huge statue embodying the speed and agility of a bird, about twenty feet tall. Its head with the hook-shaped beak stared at the two diminutive shapes at its feet with blind eyes, made from the same black, living marble as the rest of it.

"Now wait a minute! Flying?! Us? Inside that?! This is part of you? You've got it under control? This is safe? I thought you were locked into your shape or something?" Saphina babbled nervously.

Dawnielle ran her hand over her own belly. "Nobody can take my current shape's substance from me, but I can still add or control unlocked oil around me. Don't worry, flying in it is safe. And now, let's see what our ride can do."

Her other body's wings stretched. They were not made of single feathers, but formed a solid surface with the outlines of wings instead. The lower, rather the rear edge seemed to split open along its length. Glaring white light shone from it, blowing the snow on the roof away where it hit. Saphina felt gusts of hot air rushing by. The sphinx gasped with delight. "Oh yes! This baby's going to slice the sky. All aboard!"

She grabbed and lifted Saphina by the hip and walked with her right into the liquifying chest of the living machine.

Chapter 5: Ticket includes gratuitous in-flight entertainment

The top layer of the clouds lit up from inside. The illuminated area shrunk, it focused, becoming brighter each second as the source of the light neared. It ripped open, and the sleek shape of a huge bird emerged, riding on the glaring light that spilled from its wings. The semi-mechanical creature swung to a parallel path to the clouds, sending them into spirals in its funnel-shaped wake.

Inside, Dawnielle's humanoid body cuddled Saphina's. "Sure you don't want to take a look outside? It's so beautiful up here. We're nearing the daylight border." she whispered into the woman's ear.

"No way! I'm scared of heights."

"Oh. I guess then we'll need to explore the local caves instead."

Saphina felt a warm, finger-like thing wiggle and tickle into her vaginal opening and, chuckling, she held her friend's body tighter.

"Tehehe! What is that?"

"There's enough of liquid me around, so I can spare a little to keep you entertained."

"Ummmmh. Hwwwaaah. Yes, that's my kind of spelunking. Discovered anything yet?"

The ... whatever it was, it slipped deeper into the woman, swelling slowly.

"Nothing out of the ordinary so far. We may need to drill down a bit further. I think there's a hidden well somewhere in there," Dawnielle whispered, "and those hills need some digging to reveal their treasures." Her fingers unbuttoned the ragged shirt of her friend.

Outside, another part of her mind gazed at the slice of the rising sun as it came up over the horizon, at the rays that skimmed the dunes of slowly rolling clouds, speeding by under her wings.

"Yes! YES! Awaaaay!", roared that part, mesmerized by the feeling of velocity, of the air that seemed to turn into a solid wall, right in front of the beak, of the vibrations and shockwaves that rippled along the wings, which were folded back into an almost triangular shape. She pushed her avian body further, unleashing the thrust until all of her exposed front edges and the exhaust ducts started to glow in a sinister red from the frictional heat. The driving light that roared out of the engines was a glaring cut in the night's veil through which blinding brightness blasted with long, white fingers.

Inside, Saphina moaned with her arms and legs pushing out into the semi-liquid black goo that enveloped and caressed her whole body. It clung like glue to her breasts; they felt like being stuck inside two huge suction cups filled with tiny fingers, and the oil worked them harder and harder by the minute. Dawnielle's rising excitement also mirrored in the fierce pushing and throbbing of the growing pole buried in her friend's crotch, it's sheer volume stretching and pulling Saphina's insides taut.

"That's ... mmmhh! ... enough! Dawnielle! You're ri ... yyyiiiii! ... ripping me apart! ... Calm down!" She panted, faster and faster, until she couldn't help it and yelped in pain. The morph retreated hastily, leaving behind an aching, gaping abyss between Saphina's legs, and a pair of swollen breasts whose red skin itched and burned.

"Sorry. Sorry! Oh my. Oh my. Excuse me, I ... Heavens! Got carried away there for a moment ... wait, let me check ... phew! No, you're okay. No damage done. Well, now your clothes and you should easily be ragged enough to fit your role of 'shipwrecked tramp'."

An hour later, as the sun neared the local noon time, they arrived. Dawnielle kept a safe distance to the temple, whose ruins were visible in the green sea of trees. She aimed for a nearby, tall cliff, balanced on the rising wind that came in from the sea, and touched down in a perfect point landing. Her bird shape froze. Moments later, her human shape melted out of the bird's chest, carrying Saphina by the hip and putting her down on the ground.

"Ahhhh!", Saphina exclaimed while she stretched her arms and legs, after the hours she spent crammed into the bird's chassis. Enjoying the tropical sun and heat on her skin, she added: "Now this is a climate I could get used to."

Behind her, Dawnielle lifted a backpack from the wall of black liquid.

"What are you doing now?", Saphina inquired.

The huge bird statue that stood behind them began to lose detail. It blobbed and started to slide down the cliffs, finally splashing into the sea. Resurfacing, it already melted, spreading out and calming the waves it covered with its goo.

"Getting rid of the excess." Dawnielle turned and made a throwaway gesture. "Shutdown sequence: matrix disband, units disconnect, terminal shutdown now."

Moments later, she broke to her knees, slumped forward, resting on hands and knees. Through clenched teeth, she spat out a string of expletives. "Damn! Crap! Nnngh! Rrrargh!" She panted hard, but quickly calmed down again.

She hadn't noticed her friend's worried jump, but Saphina suddenly knelt beside her and held her shaking flanks.

"Dawny! Talk to me!"

The sphinx' fist punched into the soft ground, as if to discharge the pain into the earth.

"I'm ... fuck! ... I'm alright. Phew. Yeah, that stung just a teensy tinsy little bit. Oh B1-TCH, just you wait until I get my hands on you."

Down below, the oil riding atop the rough sea tore up and dispersed, without a trace but a darker sheen to the water, and even that instantly began to fade, too.

She rose to her feet and rolled her shoulders.

"Can't risk that psycho getting her hands on any unlocked body mass. When we're done here, I'll have S1-R3N pick us up and bring us home."

"So you just ... what? Amputated all that stuff from your body?! That's sick!"

"That's necessary." She ran her hands over her breasts and midriff. "All of the remaining demol oil won't obey anyone except me. Nothing can be added, with or without my consent, nothing removed at all. That part which had formed the bird? If my sister had gotten within a hundred feet of it, you'd have a sure-fire chance at hell on earth, just before she'd rip your head off for her throne and spit your half-digested carcass out. I won't ever risk that, I told you before. Even shape-shifting now is slow, and hard, for that very reason. I'm not going to get this body stolen from me."

She hesitated.

"To the best of my knowledge, that is. Aw, what the hell. Maybe it's not worst-case, and we're back home for dinner. Come on, we need to cover some ground before we even reach the temple's premises. Want to piggyback? And be careful, while I'm in safe mode, I can't melt into you to heal you if you get injured."

She picked up her backpack. "Should things turn really ugly, I've brought a few surprises."

The woman and her companion were lying on their bellies, peeking through the underwood. Ahead of them, in a clearing around the derelict pyramid, a sole figure carried a sack over its shoulder and disappeared into a side entrance.

"Who's that? She seems to be alone."

Dawnielle nervously licked her lips.

"Yes, she is, most of the time. I've seen that face in a few newspapers."

She blinked, recalling the pages with digital precision.

"Her name is Brenda Carlyle. Somewhat notorious. Has found quite a lot of ancient treasures. A tomboy, tough chick, from what I've read. More of a grave robber type than a real archaeologist. Not above the occasional trouble with the law if it suits her. Versed in using guns, whips. Knives too, if necessary. The red hair is all natural. Bit of a pale complexion, so that fedora hat has turned into another trademark of hers. That's about all I could find. Seems to protect her privacy rather well."

"Great. Not likely that a tough brat like her is going to be wiled into carelessly spilling wether she found your troublemaker's orb or not."

Dawnielle turned her head to her friend and raised her brows. "So? Put some effort into it. Don't forget, this time it's your turn to lure again."

"Yeah, right. Her? Pshaw!"

"I give you a chance at success above fifty-fifty, if you flirt with her. Not married, not engaged. Several fierce and bloody fights with male rivals on record, though unconfirmed. Wild one, pragmatic, little inhibitions. Once she's set her eyes on something, she's going to get it. That kind of a person always has a backup plan. In that vein, she's not likely to limit her choice of partners to the other sex once her hormones kick in. If I had to put a label on her, it'd be 'bi'."

"Thanks. I'm all agog now.", Saphina grumbled.

Chapter 6: Hostile takeover

Saphina knocked on the stone frame of the small entrance at the side of the flat-top pyramid. It didn't make the knocking sound she'd hoped for, so she resorted to calling out into the darkness.

"Hello? Hello!! A little help? Somebody in there?"

The antechamber was a black pit after the bright daylight on the outside. It was filled with wide round stone columns, arranged in a rectangular grid. By tying ropes around a group of four of pillars, and then draping blankets over them, Brenda had created the illusion of a smaller chamber made from three cloth walls, sat up a camping table and a chair. Saphina winked a few times before she sneaked in, but all she could see was that little stage in the unsteady light of an oil lamp, it's flickering flame turned way down. The light shone on a plate with a few slices of bread and cheese on it. Saphina felt her stomach grumble, so loud just about anybody around must've noticed it. After all, there had been no in-flight snack.

"My, what do we have here?" The voice to her right came with the sudden, cold touch of metal against her head, and a hand gripping her upper arm.

"Sorry for startling you, Miss. I just need to be careful." The redhead watched Saphina gobble up the food and smiled, incredulous and sympathetic. "I've not seen anyone this starved for some time. How long have you been wandering around in the jungle?"

Mouth full, Saphina replied: "Dom't mnow. Pfeels like mweeks." She swallowed. "Got any more of that wine?"

"Careful! Don't ham it up!" That was Dawnielle, whispering in her ear, courtesy of what, to the unknowing eye, seemed to be but a little trinket in her earlobe.

"I've seen your face before. In papers. You're that new high-society darling, that southern deserts princess, right?"

"Me?" Saphina swallowed again to stall, then laughed, a bit uncomfortably. "Yeah, right. As if. Listen, I don't want to be any trouble! I ran from home, long time ago. I was just a stowaway on the last ship before I got thrown overboard. Really. If you just let me stay the night, and point me towards civilization first thing in the morning, I'll be off."

Brenda lifted her index finger to the tip of her nose, pouting her lips.

"The similarity is striking. Hum, I wonder ... what would happen, if the princess wandered into a bank to make a withdrawal? A little entourage by her side, of course, and with ... "

She measured up Saphina with her eyes.

"... a little less mundane clothing? Do you think the clerk would ask her for a legitimation?"

Saphina's brow furrowed. "Not bloody likely." A slow smile crept into her face as her eyebrows relaxed. "Hypothetically speaking, of course."

Brenda's face mimicked the smile. Her hand moved forward and patted her guest's.

"Of course. Well, hypothetically speaking, this might be an excellent business opportunity for a bright, but shipwrecked ..."

All of a sudden, Brenda's smile turned to a forced, contorted parody of it, then she bent forward, all cramped up.

"Nnnngh... fuck!"

"Are you alright?"

"Yyyy... yes. Just a little ... ouch! ... wwwardrobe malfunction in a ... nnngh! ... very personal spot." She panted as she felt the silver ball slip down inside her. It occasionally did that by itself, this stupid thing. Brenda couldn't recall why she hadn't removed it after the successful rehearsal. She jumped up with clenched thighs - "E ... eeek! ... 'scuse me! Don't leave! Be right ba ... aaagh! back!" - and hurried, knock-kneed, off behind the curtain. Another lamp on that side, and the fact that Brenda now stood right between the cloth and the single source of light, turned Saphina's seat into a vantage point for the larger-than-life projection as the redhead struggled with her twitching entrails. Saphina forgot to breathe as she saw Brenda's silhouette rush down her rugged trousers, revealing between the spread legs a dome of a crotch, shaped by something round pressing up against the labia from the inside. Moments later, the theatre of shadows blew beyond any chance of R-rating as the ... she blinked. Was that a whip's handle? No, that couldn't ... how wide was that woman? She rammed that thing into herself again and again as if she was churning butter or stuffing a cannon with gunpowder.

Saphina blinked again, recognizing that she must've zoned out, mesmerized by the sight of that shadow, now rising to its toetips, arching its back, caught in the delicious throes of ecstasy; and that meanwhile Dawnielle whisper-screamed in her ear, making the little com device rattle. "Get up! It's her! She's woken! Cover blown! Get out of there! Now! NOW! Do you hear me?! Run, dammit! RUUUN!"

Outside, Dawnielle broke through the edge of the forest in a shower of branches and leaves, desperate, closing fast on the entrance. Inside, on the other side of the blanket, Brenda slumped forward and wheezed. Her fingers clawed desperately at her own throat until her whole body froze. Seconds later, her head jerked up, her features hardened and she pulled herself upright at the table, grabbing both hands full of the pile of wooden needles resting on the tabletop, all neatly ordered with the points in one direction.

She shoved the cloth aside with her elbow, turned her shoulders sideways to add momentum, and threw the first handful of little arrows at Saphina who had just risen to her feet and was halfway through turning away.

Dawnielle launched herself forward, wrapped her arms around her friend and brought her back between the woman and the rain of needles.

She stood up, shoved the dazed Saphina behind the nearest stone column and turned to face Brenda, all in a single, fluid motion. The next shower of thorns sprinkled across her midriff. Arms akimbo, she looked down, picked one dart out of her (for lack of a better word) flesh for a cursory examination and then brushed the rest of them off with her hand, sighing.

"Really, B1-TCH. Poison darts? The first try I can understand, though you shouldn't assault my friend here, lest you want me any more pissed than I already am. But that one right now? Waste of ammo. What's that supposed to achieve?"

At her sight, the possessed Brenda had retreated behind the blanket, her shadow growing as she backed off towards the lamp.

Dawnielle continued. "It's not like you're shooting at anything biologically alive here. Come on, will you give up now? Release that poor girl from your control. Don't have me come and make you."

The shadow disappeared together with the light as the lamp was knocked down, and the sound of feet running off into the darkness was the only reply. Dawnielle sighed. "Saph? Didn't get hit, did you?" she asked over her shoulder.

"No. Phew! That was close." The woman peeked around the column and shook her head. "I guess I blew the opportunity, sorry."

"Not your fault. I hadn't expected her to become possessed. Who knows where she's hidden that darn sphere to manage this." She sighed and rolled her eyes. "Yes, there aren't that many places in the female body, thank you. Just wait here, that's not going to take long." She raised her voice. "B1-TCH! I'm coming to get you now, and I'm not happy!"

"Hey! You might need help!" Saphina interjected.

"As long as that lunatic throws poison darts around? You better leave this to me. Just hide somewhere outside. She might consider taking you hostage."

Dawnielle stopped at the narrow, door-sized entrance to the maze and raised her arms, putting her hands on the stones of the frame. Her fingertips picked up the faint vibrations of her target running, somewhere ahead of her. The changing echoes and reflections in the stones slowly formed a map, coarse but usable, in her brain.

From here on down into the belly of the temple, the ground descended at a steep angle. The maze had been built on that slope, inside a huge sinkhole shaped like an beaten-up, upside-down funnel. The temple buildings were like a lid over the vast underground space. On the far side, some three hundred yards away, a doorway led further on. The high walls of the maze blocked the view in any other direction. From above, dim, greenish light and little air came in through what seemed like overgrown ventilation shafts in the building. The light was barely enough for a human to see the next wall before running into it.

Dawnielle listened to the echo of Brenda's footsteps disappearing into the depth, with twitching ears, getting her bearings. After her eyesight had finally reached maximum sensitivity, she set herself into motion. The ground was not only steep, but uneven, too. She had to watch her steps to not stumble and fall ahead into the next wall. Drat! All that was so much easier with a liquid body. To trace her way through the maze, she'd just leave a drop of herself on the floor or a wall. Not an option this time, though. She memorized the exact positions of the walls and crossings with her impeccable machine brain instead, and added a scratch to the stones every now and then.

Five minutes of fast walking later, Dawnielle emerged from the maze. Another two, and she had cornered her sister's brain in Brenda's body in the adjoining huge cavern, where the cracked statue stood.

"Want to make another scene, B?" she growled.

Brenda smiled indifferently. Her arms had been stretched out towards Dawnielle, but now she leant into the wall, folding them over her chest, not saying a single word.

"Yes, I noticed you trying to gain control. Won't work. So do I need to carry you out of here? Just come along quietly, and I'll forget all the trouble you caused.", Dawnielle sighed.

Now Brenda spoke.

"Just checking. I didn't really expect you to be that careless. Triple-key lock-in?"

The sphinx nodded.

"Thought so. Well, I don't plan to leave here any time soon. 'Weeny, this time it's going to work! I know it! I just need a little more time."

"Come on! You're not yapping about your little 'side project' of World Domination 101 again, are you? Yeah, like we didn't all see how well that turned out last time. You better leave this world alone."

"Dawnielle! Wake up! Do you think this world is being run wisely? Hell, you and me both know us machines can do this a hundred times better than the meatbrains!"

The sphinx stood akimbo and cocked her head. "Oh really? You couldn't even play god to this little tribe. How long did it take until they ousted you? I can't believe I'm having this debate with you again!" She pointed at the skull throne. "You really think THAT is a way to run a whole world?!"

"See, the problem was I didn't get enough obedience. I know now, I need to be much more aggressive, much tougher. My regime needs to be absolute. Keep an eye on everything. Leave no dissenter alive." Her voice got more agitated, preachy even. "You recall the whole trouble with the northern migration, twelve hundred years ago? How each new generation fought back and forth? I ran that through the simulation again, but this time I stomped half of them into the ground. Presto, instant peace! It's that easy! The secret is to not leave any survivors who would try to exact revenge!"

Saphina raised her hands, fingers wide, to just above the level of her shoulders, and rolled her eyes.

"B1-TCH, are you even listening to yourself? You want to rule the planet that way? Forget it. I'd pity your future subjects, but I won't, because I will end this hare-brained madness of yours one way or the other, now. Please, let it go. We've known each other for billions of years. I know we don't get along all that well, but ... maybe just this time, please listen to me..." Dawnielle extended her hand in an inviting gesture.

Brenda curled her lips and shook her head.

"No. No, I'll stay here, and you're not going to hurt me. The pledge of the MARRs is to watch but never ever interfere. You can't be sure wether that little Brenda girl is still alive somewhere in here, or if I've toasted her mind already. You'd risk harming her? You?! Miss goody two-shoes? Hah! Oh please, just go away, or I might beat my own head against the wall until you cringe."

The sphinx, one and a half head taller than her opponent, shook her head and sighed. She stepped forward and reached out with her arms, her shoulders moving up and forward.

"You asked for it, B. I'm willing to make that one sacrifice, if it's necessary to stop you."

Brenda chuckled. "Finally grown up, have you?" In fake concern, she added: "Can I lend you a hand? You seem ... exhausted."

Dawnielles eyes narrowed as she felt her knees shaking. Moments later, a tremble started in her hands and crept up along her arms.

"Wwww..." Her voice failed. Still, none of the alarms in her core had been triggered. The illusion of '100% operational' didn't keep her eyelids from slowly closing, or her arms from falling limp to her side, dangling from her hanging shoulders.

Brenda kicked her shin, and the towering seven feet shape of the lion-headed woman folded up on the spot like a cheap coat-tree overtaxed by the last mantle. The redhead bent down, grabbed the powerless wrists and dragged the limp body behind her across the floor.

"See, I've not aimed at your little pet. You were my target right from the start. Ironically, had you ducked instead of jumping right in to catch the shot for your toy, she'd not have had any problems with the stuff. Maybe a mild rash at best. The points were dipped in thunderroot juice. Really weird stuff. Around here, they've been using it for centuries to protect their rooftops from lightning strikes. It grounds and shields electric charges quite well, once it's had a little time to oxidize. Not good for machines at all. It's not going to kill you, but you might wish it had. I bet you're hard at work to purge it from your system already, so let's not dawdle."

She rested Dawnielle on the floor, placing her into a harness made from heavy stones. More than anything else, it looked like a mould for hands and feet. A pull of a lever, the moulds closed, and the sphinx's human shape was lifted by the ancient machinery, hanging spread-eageled and rendered immobile both by the stone manacles and the poison.

Meanwhile...

Saphina tiptoed into the maze, looking left and right for any suspicious activity. The floor was tricky. Not only did it fall off, steep and uneven, she also had nothing but the unsteady light the oil lamp she'd pinched off the table, to shine on her way.

Whoever had designed the maze, it was expertly laid out. A quarter of an hour later, she had to admit to herself that she was lost, in a narrow corridor that descended into blackness.

At her next step, a handful of gravel slipped under Saphina's feet. She fell, tumbled down the slope, hit her head on the wall and slid on, face down, desperately clawing at the floor. The walls on the sides disappeared. The stone floor turned into mud, as if she'd slipped through a doorway, out of the maze, and now over an underground dirt heap, left over after the building had been completed. Her legs, ahead of her, got caught on something, her momentum lifting her upright. For a second or two, she almost regained her balance, flaying her arms, as she tiptoed on the sharp edge of a half-buried stone. Then her feet slipped out backwards and her head hit the mud. She didn't even feel the razor edge of the stone right below her as it chopped across the whole width of her chest.

Darkness.

Chapter 7: A most undesired turn of the table

Dawnielle's body jerked occasionally, her brain still in emergency mode. Processing and neutralising the poison took its time, a fact Brenda/B1-TCH knew all too well. She was in no need to hurry, stirring the ingredients of the bowl sitting in her lap with care. A faint, unearthly glitter hovered in the air over the violet dust.

"Nnnngh. I'm ... back, B1-TCH!"

Brenda didn't turn, she just raised her eyebrows. "Oh, really? I don't think so. I bet you can't move properly yet, and you most definitely can't break from my little toy, otherwise I'd have been beaten to a bloody pulp already." She ran three fingers through the dust and smiled, feeling the tickle of power, trapped in the substance on her fingertips. "Did you know this hellhole of a planet has a kind of magical energy? No, of course not. You were too busy playing the clown for a bunch of wannabes. Well, I learned all about it."

"No you didn't. You stole that from the poor girl's brain. That's not learning, that's murder. Figures YOU wouldn't know the difference, B1-TCH!"

The bowl rattled on the top of the table. Brenda reached into it and grabbed a handful. "I've had it with your attitude, 5PH-1NX! Just so you have something to report back home, while you can - oh, I forgot." She laughed. "You're off-grid now lest I may use you to find the other's hideouts through the grid. So nobody's coming for your rescue, and you're confined to this body. Well, my hiding's over, dear. I've found the formula for what froze me in my body when those ingrate primitives staged their little uprise. Dustfire leaf, blowfish meat, essence of latex tree, a little transposition and propagation magic and a few other niceties. Here, let me show you..."

Stepping up to her captive, she flattened out the violet heap on her flat hand. The tip of her tongue slid over it, then she pressed her lips on the powder. As she looked back up, they shone with an eerie green glow where her saliva had moistened the dust. She ran her trembling fingers over them, smearing the color to a war paint on her cheeks. "Aaaah. Delicious. See, I don't need any condescension of you any more, 5PH-1NX. With your technology, you are mighty. With this world's magic, I'll be even mightier!"

The trapped sphinx' eyes narrowed. "You know why they're using tech now instead of magic? Because their magic always was unstable!"

"I know! Isn't it thrilling? Here, let me show you 'unstable'..." Brenda bent down and brought her face close to Dawnielle's left breast. She gently ran her nails over the smooth skin, rounded out her grip and squeezed the ample orb before slapping gently against the underside and watching the ripples wander. "Mmmh. You've got that whole pliant luscious tissue thing down pat. Don't even have to simulate it, do you? It's hardwired right inside your microbots, eh? All the more reason to hate you. Why do the stupid ones always get the best bodies? Feh! And did you know I always despised how you dodged the hard decisions of our trade? Let's see you dodge this one, Weeny."

Her tongue, coated in the green glowing of the dissolved poison, tickled the rough nipple. Her dripping lips formed a big O and pressed down on the aureole. Dawnielle felt her soft flesh being sucked in between the wet lips. Brenda even nibbled on the itching knob. In disgust, the sphinx' chaps drew up and bared her teeth. The next second, her jaw fell, her eyes went wide.

Brenda stepped back, a satisfied, evil grin on her face. "See? It's starting."

No need telling that to Dawnielle. In her brain core, all the red lights had gone off this time. Whatever this dust was, it corrupted her body - fast. Where it touched, the grid distance of her molecular machines widened, the control failed, the servos shut down - and that reaction spread on and on. First, she'd foam up by orders of magnitude, then vulcanize into a frozen doll. Her nipple had already taken on thumb size, and the aureole was just below cup plate. She fought for control, accessing the tissue layer below the afflicted skin, pushing the microbots that still obeyed her commands to split off the corrupted material faster than it could spread. Her tongue hung out, her mouth stood wide open, sucking in air, routing it into the insulating pocket on her chest she created. The rubberizing, enchanted skin ballooned out on top of it.

She managed, barely. Mere moments before the strange poisonous reaction flowed over from her boob's skin to the rest of her body, her tissue detached the rejected material, and an air-filled ball fell down and bounced on the floor. Dawnielle sunk down into the restraints, spent.

Brenda bent forward to pick the thing up and, staring at it for a few seconds, almost fell over from chuckling until, rising up, she broke into her vile, maniacal, bleating, full-throated laugh. "Splendid! Just splendid! Let's see you do this again, I want another one of those!" She held up the light, wobbly thing, so Dawnielle could take a look at it, too. Apart from the ball-round rear end that was squeezed in between Brenda's clawing fingers, she held a bloated and enlarged, pumpkin-sized replica of Dawnielle's breast, with a swollen aureole and hardened nipple, similar to a not-quite-well filled balloon. Brenda turned the nub to her face and sucked on it, keeping an eye on Dawnielle at the same time. She could see the foundation of the nipple on the real breast swell up just the tiniest bit as she licked on the skin balloon in her hand.

"Excellent! Just as I planned it! Well, Dawny? Would you like to make me a second one?" She ran her tongue over her lips and leant forward to her helpless enemy's other breast.

Brenda didn't care how hard, or how difficult it was for her favourite foe. She ran her tongue over the knob, over the little bumps on the aureole, and sucked and bit into the rough nipple, savoring the minute differences between the left and the right breast. And now she stared at the straining skin, at that bulging, quivering balloon that grew with the hiss of air streaming into it, the angry nipple and the aureole swelling up from the inside. She held her fingertips to it, delighting in the feeling of yielding skin inflating in her deft, kneading grip.

The second one was finished in less time, and also a little smaller. Dawnielle panted nevertheless, trying to bleed off the excess heat of the molecular fighting that ran through her body. Brenda stood, her hands to her hips, a boob balloon in each one, and watched her with cocked head. "You're learning. It took you a little less time. Ah, what the heck. You're not fast enough to win, by far."

She squeezed the squeaking, rubbery skin and saw the sphinx jerk in response. "Yes, just like I planned it. Well, let's not dawdle."

Throwing the two orbs into the dry basin and then stepping back to the bowl on the table was a matter of seconds. The balloons hadn't even stopped bobbing around in the pit yet. Each bounce was mirrored in a tiny jerk of Dawnielle's body. Brenda grabbed the container with both hands and stuck her face in it. Straightening up again, with the violet dust smeared over her lips and chin beginning to glow green from her saliva and sweat, she turned around to face her fear-struck opponent. "Either I'll have my very own basin full of your titballs in an hour's time, or you'll be out cold for good if you're too slow in rejecting my pixie dust. It's a win-win for me, see? Though I'd really prefer the boob basin. That's going to be much more comfortable than the skull throne, you know?" Her cackle echoed through the maze.

Chapter 8: Not designed for continuous operation

An hour later, Dawnielle still held on, though just barely. She felt hollow, and that was not just a metaphor. Her body ached and burned, with a sunken-in belly and not much of her muscular appearance left. Shedding one boob was nothing, the thin layer didn't amount to much mass loss. Shedding one every few seconds as Brenda relentlessly moved from her left to her right tit, smearing them with one dose of the magic dust after the other, was what wore her out. For the last one, she almost hadn't made it in time and was forced to split off much more than planned. Brenda was pleased beyond words and kept on running her hands over the beach ball sized breast balloon. "Ah, that's going to be the crown jewel of my collection, you know." She grabbed both sides and pushed them together, listening with closed eyes to the squeaky noises. "Mmmh. I think I've found me a new fetish. What's the matter, Dawny? You've become awfully quiet."

Dawnielle stared right through her and into the wall, mouth agape.

"Oh, I forgot. Well, you've surely noticed by now, anyway. Your boobs are no longer under your control, but you can still feel all of them. Tell me, how much input capacity do you have, 5PH-1NX? Eyes still working, or is it all superseded and just boob skin by now?"

The sphinx' jaw moved. Her voice was little more than a whisper. "I'll ... get ... you ... yet."

"Of course, my dear! Any second now." Brenda scoffed and put down the boob balloon. "While I'm obviously scared stiff of you coming to get me, I'll see if a pool of bubbly boobs is really more comfortable than my trusty old throne of skulls. And I don't think I've given this hand-me-down body a proper test yet." She unbuttoned her shirt and let her trousers slip down her legs, admiring her naked body. Her hands cupped her cantaloupe boobs. "Mmmmh. Would you look at this? ... Oh come on, you've got to see that. Brenda's even more well-equipped in the chest area than you. Oh sure, right now, even most of the males on the planet sport more breast." She ran a hand through her crotch and sniffed her fingers. Her lips parted with a smile. "Soaking wet. Looks like my ride has a thing for girls, eh? I swear I've not rewired those parts of her body, this must be a genuine response. Mmmh, I guess then she's going to like ... this ..."

Brenda spread her legs and rolled the bloated black boob between them, aureole pointing upwards. Her eyes fixed on Dawnielle, she squatted down on the yielding balloon and rubbed her twat over the protruding nipple. The swollen labia were smeared with wetness within seconds. "Ooooh yessss, she likes it. Mnnnnghh." Brenda gasped for air, and again, as the muscles along her vagina convulsed. Hot liquid shot out and dripped down the black boob, and Brenda ran her fingers through the wetness, collecting and then again spreading it all over the upper part of the orb. "She's a gusher all right. Yeah, that's what I ca-aaaAAAH! ... call hitching a ride!"

Deep inside Dawnielles hollow belly, a gurgling started as the sensations of that bloated ball being squeezed and bounced between the other girl's wet thighs washed over her. She rolled her eyes, overwhelmed by the feelings.

"Hold it!"

Brenda slowed down and stopped her thrusting motions. Saphina had stepped out of the passageway to the maze cavern, with a makeshift club raised that suspiciously looked like a far-too-brittle branch. Her clothes were tattered and soiled with dust and dirt and dried mud. A wide tear running across her shirt was rimmed with dried blood, though the skin beneath it showed not a single trace of any injury.

The B1-TCH unit with Brenda's body sighed and held her hands out. "What? You want your goddess back?" She pointed at the worn-out figure. "Take her and leave. I'm busy!"

"Saph ... help me."

"Dawnielle! Oh my ... What did she do to you?!" Saphina raised the club again and closed in on the laughing fiend. "I'll knock that sick head of yours right off your shoulders, you ... you..."

Brenda barely raised an eyebrow.

"Don't even try it, girl. One more step and I rip you a new one. Single-handedly."

Dawnielle moaned. "Don't. She's right. She ... faster. Hhhh ... help ... me ..."

Saphina grudgingly stopped and pointed a finger at the grinning, half-naked redhead. "This isn't over yet. I'll get you for this."

Brenda stood up, akimbo. Her breasts swung out through the open shirt as she leant forward, her whole posture a mix of challenge and mockery. "You're not the first one to tell me that, not even today. Guess what? I'm still here." She pointed at the fuming woman. "Neener-neener! You fail. Both of you fail! Because I'm not limited to being the good girl, I don't do 'honorable' or 'fair', and that means my arsenal will always be far greater than yours!"

Saphina turned her back to the sweat-drenched, grinning woman on the black boob ball seat. She unlocked the restraints and caught her sphinx before she fell to the floor. The realization of how light, how hollow the strange creature felt in her arms fueled her anger even more.

"What have you done to her?!"

Brenda smiled. "A gift. I've given her a way to experience the utmost outburst of sensuality ever."

"Uh-huh. What, like an orgasm? Big deal!"

"The O really is a big deal for us machine life forms. Oops, I mean, for your deranged little friend there. I'm not exactly machine right now, and let me tell you, it's a real step up. We don't usually experience emotions, just the simulation of emotions. If we do reach thorough ecstasy, we sometimes can't handle it. To me, that's no big deal anymore, now having a human body and all."

Saphina stared in confusion. "I ..."

"Don't get it? See and learn..."

During her little declamation, Brenda had slowly backed off towards the edge of the pool filled with boobs. Now she held out her arms sideways and let herself fall backwards onto the cubic yards of inflated breast. The mass caught her pale body gently and with lots of squeaks, as balloons usually do. She skimmed the black, yielding surface with her arms and feet in a motion of back swimming, brushing over dozens of nipples of all sizes.

All of them were still part of Dawnielle's body perception.

Her emaciated flesh rose in spasms out of Saphina's embrace. The stimulation washed over her, in far too many places at once. Her nerves were not just corporeal, they also still spanned throughout the pool of distended boob skin, taut with enclosed air on which Brenda squirmed and writhed, living out her very private fantasy. Rolling onto her belly. Basking her face in the rubbery ocean of skin. Biting whatever nub came across her lips. She wedged her own breasts and their burning nipples into the bouncing, yielding mass of boobs and cleavage. She pulled her knees up, digging them in between and through the sea of tits. Squeezing her thighs apart and together again, she caught the occasional nipple rubbing through her sopping labia. Every touch, every squeak, every tickle of every wet drip out of Brenda's crotch that ran slowly down between the taut skin balloons, arced through Dawnielle. The endless stream of sensations rushed into her brain. It spilled over, it swept aside her eyesight, her hearing, her sense of smell. All of that drowned in a killer wave of touching and touching and more touching. The gurgling in her belly intensified. Her restraint failed her. She gasped for air and inhaled on and on and on. Her confused body bulged out, her shrunken breasts expanded again, the skin getting taut. While Saphina tried to straighten her up, she felt the sphinx' thighs spread wider. The maw opened in unison. "Hwwwwaaaaaahhhh!" Dawnielle moaned, inwards. The gurgle in her tummy turned into a boiling rumble as in her crotch the previously only hinted-at form of her labia swelled up, took on a round, suction cup shape and widened the slit to a fist-sized hole from which a trickle of her black tar dripped in pulses. Saphina dipped her fingers in the puddle that quickly formed. It didn't respond to her touch. It behaved just like any ordinary, lifeless liquid. It never had done so ever before.

"Dawn! No! Hold on! Don't give in... fight! Ignore that!"

Saphina desperately grabbed her friend on the swelling belly, the burgeoning breasts, the widening hips, in a feeble attempt to calm her down. Whatever she tried, each motion of Brenda bouncing in her pool of boobs easily nullified the attempt. Dawnielle's eyes had become dull, the emerald light indicative of her mental presence flickered and waned. This was the big one. The one mother of all input overloads. "Hhhhwwmmmnnggh! Mmm... more! Ssss ... soooo ... oouuugh! ... good!"

"Dawny! Dawn! No! Focus! Don't leave me!" Saphina threw herself on top her and tried to wrap her arms and legs around the shaking, growing body, to contain the rising pressure.

The sphinx' face contorted in rampant ecstasy. "Yes! Now! I! Uhh ... understa ... aaaaah! ... nnnn! ... nd! MmmmMMMMooooOOOOORRRRRR! HhhhwwwwaaaaaAAAAAHHHH!" She gave in to the surge, she wanted to feel it all, now, right now. Her thighs obeyed. Her innards obeyed. Her breast obeyed with alacrity.

Saphina felt the growing orbs squeeze her own breasts out of the way. Taut, rubbery skin bulged out under her embrace, under her armpits, two sacks filling fast with air, rising and expanding to her left and right. Dawnielle couldn't, or wouldn't stop inhaling more and more air. By the time Saphina recognized the consequences, it was too late. She was wedged into the cleavage, surrounded left and the right by the black, taut, hardening skin that started to turn grey from being overstretched. It neared the moment where it would simply ... Saphina cringed, squeezed her eyes shut and tried to hide her head between her drawn-up shoulders.

Inside the whole body she clung to, the pressure rose to the breaking point.

Dawnielle let go, and her body liquified from the inside out.

Through her vulva, a blast of her black micromechanical tar shot out, like from a fire hose. She felt the gargantuan release of the pent-up energy wash all of herself away. All of her, except for a tiny part that was not busy with whirling and shattering, and that shrapnel of her thought: This must be what the big O feels like for humans. No wonder it is so pop-

Ker-splort.

Saphina screamed in horror. Her friend, from one second to the next, disintegrated into nothing but a heap of black goo that splattered out onto the floor. She fell the few inches down to the ground after the body in her embrace had so suddenly disappeared. Propping herself up on hands and knees in the middle of the spill, frozen without a single thought in her head, she felt the warm oil slip in quivering lumps off her body and to the floor, where it lost all cohesion. "No... oh no ...", she sobbed. Her head turned sideways. Through the veil of her tears, she watched Brenda step from the pool, squeezing and pushing the boobs out of her way. The maniac knelt down and ran the fingers of both her hands through the black puddle and continued smearing the oil over her sweaty belly and thighs. Nothing happened. She laughed.

"Poor Dawnielle, blown her last fuse. If you can't take a good cumming, you got no point in having a body." Her face turned to Saphina. "Alright, girl. You hand me her brain core. Now. Just to make sure."

Saphina's eyes followed Brenda's index finger and darted to the goo-covered ball she pointed at, sitting in the puddle, on the far side of where Brenda stood. Who, still basking in her boob dream's afterglow, moved in too late. Saphina already held the ball tight in her hand, jumped to her feet and stormed off towards the maze. Brenda, focused on the running woman, slipped on the goo-covered floor with her first step, and dove head first into the slabs. She screamed in anger at the slippery residue, held her concussed head and brought her fist down on the puddle, spreading black drops around.

"Damn you! Dead and gone, and still you're holding me down!"

Saphina cowered against the wall. Brenda's footsteps had passed by and were still audible, but sounded farther off with each second. She dared to breathe again and stared at the sphere in her hand. "Dawny?" she whispered. "Oh please, please, answer me. You still in there?" She shook it and held it to her ear, painfully remembering that movement to be like their very first encounter all those years ago.

A faint, electric tickle crept over her fingertips, and she thought she'd heard a voice in her head, but just barely. No words she could make out. How could B1-TCH have taken over the other woman? This influence was as good as nothing.

Her gaze was drawn downwards, to where her spread thighs met. Oh, no. No, no, no.

Of course she'd have to do it. Something had gone horribly wrong with that other ... thing, and she knew next to nothing about defeating it. Her enemy moved faster than her, even though Brenda surely was human, too. So it must've been the orb giving her that edge. So, in conclusion, the only way to match her was to, too, ... yuck.

Oh sure, Dawnielle had often filled her with much more than that little sphere she held in her hand. But Dawnielle, while being solid, massive and (at that point, she almost moaned with a mixture of the pain, fear and desire) throbbing, would also adapt to any wrinkle and fold of her with ease. This one part left of Dawny was her core - round, hard and unyielding, for the first time.

Nevertheless, her other hand had already opened her trousers. Pulling them down, followed by her underwear, all happened in a kind of trance. Saphina's thoughts, half-scared, half-aroused, already wandered ahead to how it would feel to burrow all of what was left of her goddess right into her center.

"Oh, we're not going to do that, are we? That's not very decent." And with Brenda's voice came the brightness of an electric lamp that nailed her to the spot like a deer in a headlight.

Saphina, in desperation, threw the sphere as far off into the darkness ahead of her as she could, and cringed, waiting for ... anything. Faint bouncing in the black corridor was all. Then, utterly unexpected, Brenda sighed. "So what? Get up, my dear, and pull your trousers up." "You'll never find her!" "Find whom?" "Dawnielle!"

A cackle. "I'm not looking for scrap metal, dear. That's checked off my list of things to do before I die. No, I've found what I was looking for. Get up, and I trust you to know about these very practical modern tools?" She lifted the revolver. "Brenda knew how to handle them, and so do I. So don't catch a bad case of the stupid, dear. Let's just go back and talk about the future. ... Ah-ah. Slowly, and after you, my darling."

Chapter 9: An immoral offer

"Sit down and listen. I'm not going to repeat that." Brenda pointed to a wooden bench at the small side of the huge stone table still littered with the alchemy tools. She went up to the nightmare of a throne and sat down it, wiggling her butt into a comfortable rest. Even then, and also while she crossed her legs and leant back, the gun pointed steady at Saphina, until it suddenly vanished from Brenda's hand and was back in the holster. Saphina jerked in surprise.

Brenda put her fingertips together, beaming with pride. "Yes, I'm that fast. And now, listen ..."

Five minutes later, Saphina shook her head. "No. Never!"

The redhead stood up. "Care to rephrase that, dear?" She stepped down and with a sensuous slide rested half her rear on the table, one leg dangling lazy over the edge.

"Think about it!" Brenda inched closer to her. "You're filthy rich! Me too! And you've got that little secret of us MARRs in you, and I know how to use it! Together, we could be invincible! First, we smoke out the others, then I get a real body back. You'll find me a grateful supreme ruler, vice-queen. Huh? Vice-queen! You like the sound of that? So do we have a deal?"

"I'd rather wrestle pythons naked!"

Saphina had fully expected her opponent to snap now, to attack her in a heartbeat. Instead, Brenda laughed whole-heartedly, rising her index finger to wave a no-no.

"Careful! Don't give me ideas for after I've made that whole planet my own! So, you don't want a piece of the action, a share from the loot? Your loss, girl. I tried to be nice."

She stood up, reached down below the table and lifted up a straw-filled wooden crate. "Still, no hard feelings, eh? This was meant for sealing our pact, but ... ah, care to join me for a drink anyway?"

Saphina snarled. "You sound like you've had a few too many already."

Brenda brushed off the provocation with a dismissive gesture while she lifted a green champagne bottle and two glasses from the crate and read the label.

"Ah, that girl really knew how to live the good life."

The cork popped. Brenda sniffed at the bottle.

"Mmmh. You're going to like that, Saphy."

"That name is not for you to use! And are you nuts, thinking I'm going to drink anything you offer me?!"

The redhead filled both glasses up in one motion, spilling quite some of the foaming liquid onto the table. What settled in the glasses, while clear and bubbly, had a green tint to it. Brenda sat one down in front of her unwilling guest and lifted the other.

"To a deal that never was!"

Saphina eyed the glass.

"Absinth? Is that absinth mixed in? No wonder you're so far out there! B1-TCH, your host and you, that's quite a team of nutcases!"

The gun suddenly pointed at her head, silencing her. Again, she hadn't even seen a hint at the movement until it was completed.

"Drink. Now. ... See?"

Brenda lifted her own glass again and gulped its content down.

"Yuck. Lukewarm. But it's no poison, you coward!"

Saphina pressed her lips together. Alright, if this would calm the maniac... she reached for the glass.

It didn't taste all that great. The champagne was too warm, had been shaken too hard on donkey's backs for too long, and the absinth gave it a bitter, nasty aftertaste. A wonder it had retained some froth at all.

"Ewww!" She curled her lips in disgust.

Brenda chuckled and put the gun away. "Yes, it's awful stuff. Just couldn't let it go to waste, but I won't do business with that store again."

The alcohol spread with a diffuse warmth in Saphina's empty stomach. She burped.

"Sorry. And now what?"

Her shirt felt uncomfortable, even somehow wrong. She rolled her shoulders.

"Oh, my dear, now we're done talking."

"You're going to shoot me now?"

The warmth flushed all over her chest. She opened the next button on her shirt, though she had to struggle a bit to do so.

Brenda chuckled again, a hysteric undertone to it. "Oh no, my darling. I'd ruin my first new piece of sculpture after a thousand years."

"What?" Saphina jumped to her feet. She tugged absently at her shirt that had been riding into all the wrong places. Her head felt dizzy, she shook it to chase away the odd feeling. That movement only made her temples throb. "Ow! Ew! Well, I'm glad you're going to be just about as sick as me, Brenda! You and your stupid idea of toasting to nothing!"

"Aw, don't judge me prematurely, my love." Brenda watched Saphina sway, then grab at the table's corner to not stumble and fall. She sat back down hard, absently smoothing her shirt that had slipped out of her trousers.

"So what do you want from me?"

Brenda shook her head. "Don't play dumb with me, girl. There's something weird about you, I just can't put my finger on it. The second I touched you, I could feel you were brimming with 'bots. But I couldn't seize control over them. Yet there's no brain core in you. And you look like a human woman, but then again, that doesn't mean much. Weeny came to your rescue, in a heartbeat. Her, taking the shot for a mere human? Yeah, sure." She dragged the U, rolling her eyes. "I'm going to find out what you are, whether you like it or not."

"You're crazy! I am just a human!"

"Really? Looking at you, I notice growing ... doubts. See that statue over there?"

Saphina turned her head, tugging at her collar. "Hard to overlook. Not my idea of art deco, honestly."

Brenda smiled. "True. That is me. Well, was me. Before those local ingrates found a weakness to the MARRs. With magic and potions, their signal paths can be skewed, the microbots can be permanently ruined. When that happens in the right way, their little hooks and rings that connect them melt together and extend before they burn out. See?" She pointed at the idol. "Foam up, settle, instant statue." While talking, she had sat back down on the table just to the side of Saphina, taken off one of her shoes and watched her toes wiggle.

"I wasn't sure what you were doing here, or why Weeny had brought you here at all. I told you, I can still sense microbots if I get close enough to them. Come on, tell me to my face you're not some new prototype. Tell me that little drink did not affect you. Oh, what's the matter, darling? Clothes getting tight?" She laughed, cackling with glee.

Saphina had clenched her teeth. The warmth had turned into heat, and the uneasy feeling to panic. Her breasts grew, undoubtedly. This wasn't the way her sphinx had done it, filling her up with her liquid. No, this growth came from her own flesh, it rose and bloated from the inside out. The shirt's buttons were straining, the cloth wrinkled under the pull, riding into her armpits. The gash in the fabric widened, tearing further and further along. With a "twang", the first button snapped off. Brenda, her hand moving like a snake, caught it in mid-air and tapped it against her upper lip as she watched the inflating, helpless woman. "Oh don't look so scared! This'll be over in a minute. Then again, a gallery of scared, larger-than-life rubber dolls might instill even more fear in my subjects. Right on, go ahead! Flail your arms! Be afraid! Be very afraid!"

Saphina tried to jump up, to do anything at all. Her body moved like molasses. As much as she wanted to jump upon her enemy, she instead slowly rose from the bench, the extra strain being enough to rip the rest of her buttons off. Her breasts popped out of the cloth. The skin shone in a metallic white in the sparse light of the cavern. Their shape was like a pair of round balloons, their size somewhere between melon and pumpkin, and their unnatural weightlessness arose from the substance of her original boobs foaming up to twice their diameter. She tried to take another step, but failed, her body already far too rigid for it. Brenda leant in to examine the rack that was, unintentionally, presented to her on a silver plate and ran her fingers over the taut skin that continued to grow towards her, albeit that increase slowed down now.

Saphina's breasts had now tripled in diameter, and that meant their volume was now larger by an order of magnitude, since they also no longer sagged and hung, but were a parody of real breasts: massively globular, the airy volume wrapped into skin so tight that any bump or roughness was evend by sheer tension. The nipples were stretched flat, being just coin-sized dark spots on the soup-plate aureoles. Something seemed to irk Brenda, Saphina noticed in her brain that was as alert as ever, caught in a frozen body. Herself, she realized that she couldn't breathe any more; even worse, that her pulse had stopped. Over in a minute, indeed... but there was no feeling of panic in her, and she didn't seem to be passing out, as well, which was just as weird.

"No, that's not right. That's not right!" Brenda exclaimed.

A single heartbeat returned, then another, and again, finally settling into a steady rhythm. Slowly, her lungs began to work again, too. Brenda hadn't even noticed the episode, still muttering to herself.

"Huh. Seems you're not a real MARR after all. Weird, very weird. The only other explanation ... " Her voice trailed off. She looked at Saphina with a malicious grin.

"You dirty little girl! And they called me a sick puppy?! What did you do, swallow her by the gallon? And she let you do that?! I don't believe it!"

A look of disappointment showed on Brenda's face.

"But why did you stop growing? That's not the size I had in mind. Ah, that damn champagne! Must've thrown off the formula. Lucky you, I'm just the right one to fix that. Give me a few minutes. Down, girl."

She leant back on the table, lifted her bare-footed leg and, putting it on the massive orb, gave Saphina a shove that sent her back onto the bench and made her fall over backwards with it, crashing with her back flat onto the floor, legs in the air. Her head hit the floor hard, then-

Fingers slapping into her face woke her.

"Ah, you're back! And just in time for the second part of the show!"

Brenda's face up close beamed with sick joy, then she stood up and went over to the table, returning with the half-full champagne bottle.

"But you drank the stuff, too!", Saphina protested weakly.

The weird slow-down of movements she had experienced seemed to have gone completely. Instead, she felt horny inside, a wrong, weird horniness she couldn't explain. She struggled to get up, but her breasts bounced and bobbed on her chest. She couldn't rise from her back with her legs caught dangling over the bench as her bazooms kept her from pulling up her thighs, and rolling sideways to get on all fours required more skill than she seemed to have right now, apart from the difficulty of climbing up over two beach balls growing out of her chest.

"Yes, so what? Do you think every woman on the planet has gotten it on with a MARR and is teeming with microbots? That was a poison for machines, not for me. - Oooh. Every woman on the planet getting it on with the last MARR. Here's a sick thought, even for me. I'd need to collect a really huge amount of servo oil, but it should be feasible. Duly noted, thanks for another excellent suggestion!"

Brenda leant forward, resting her elbow on the spongy pair of orbs. Saphina moaned, half of it being pain, the other half arousal. The redhead casually scratched at the distended aureoles under her fingers.

"I guess you just didn't swallow enough of it, or orally is just not the right way for the fomula, that's why it didn't work right. Well, ..."

She grabbed Saphina's belt and lifted her off the ground, with a strength she couldn't, no, no way, she just couldn't have, and then slammed her down on the stone table.

"... we'll have to do some more research then, won't we? I'm so glad you can spare the time, dear."

Brenda's hands rubbed over the orbs, made them swing in circular motions, slapping one into the other. Saphina struggled, tried to push those hands off, but her foam-filled balloons always seemed to get in the way. Every accidental or intentional touch fueled more of the sick arousal, she tried to keep focused, but it was just so good, too good. She squirmed and writhed on the table, while Brenda freed her from her trousers. She slicked her index and middle finger in her mouth, then probed into Saphina's vagina.

"Ah, nice and tight. Hey, what happened? Shouldn't you be crying and begging for mercy? I'm violating you here, you know."

Saphina tried to reach for Brenda, to grasp at her, but her head was filled with dizziness, throwing off her aim, and her fingers had no strength. She barely managed to tug at the redhead's sleeve, nothing more.

"Nnngh! I've spent half a decade messing around with a shape-shifting robot, some nut case probing my privates isn't going to faze me!"

Brenda pulled her fingers out.

"Oh, you're a tough one, alright. Doesn't matter. Everyone has their breaking point. Or petrifying point, in your case." She turned and grabbed the bottle by its lower part. For a few seconds, her eyes weren't on Saphina, who put the opportunity to good use. Her hand took hold of the table's edge, and with that fixed point, she could lever herself off the table to get back up on her feet.

Except that, once again, Brenda was much faster than her. Her left hand snapped Saphina's ankle in mid-air and held her there. At the end of the bungled escape, she found her face and boobs pressed against the cold floor, her arms sideways, her hands grabbing at the floor to push herself off of it with no success.

"Why, thank you! I couldn't have set you up better myself." Brenda held her, upside down, on her one leg that pointed straight up, while the other was dangling around. Saphina was unable to offer any resistance as a hard, round staff ran over her exposed labia, probing for an entrance.

"Here, if you insist on leaving already, let me send you off with a drink on the house."

Saphina gasped as she recognized the intruder for the bottleneck of the champagne. Brenda took aim and raised it to the right angle. It went right in by its own weight and the copious lubing, no need to push at all to have it slip down two, then three inches deep. The greenish liquid slowly dripped from it, until Brenda gave it a good shake. Saphina felt it start to bubble, the escaping gas helped pushing the content into her vagina, until it spilled over and spurted out. It had mixed with her juices, it ran over her crotch, and down her back and belly. At once, the warmth spread out in her womb, and she felt the liquid eagerly soak into her flesh.

"Hhhhrrrgggnnn. Oh ... no..." She could feel her vagina starting to quiver and swell. The weird feeling spread further in to her uterus and over her vulva. In the silence of the cavern, she could hear a gurgle starting between her thighs. Brenda let go of her leg, and Saphina fell to the floor, losing the bottle. She curled up, her hands pressed in between her legs. In her grip, she felt her labia, her whole vulva starting to pulsate and throb.

She had always taken a certain pride in the knowledge that her labia were smooth and taut despite the frequent, lustful abuse she enjoyed at the hands of her alien friend. But now, as her flesh started to rise like dough in an oven, it also began to wrinkle inside and outside of her crotch, as more and more of its expanding volume was trying to squeeze itself into her entrails. Her belly pressed against her lower arms, bulging as inside her the uterus and ovaries grew. Her hip felt tight and crammed as if it'd crack any second. In between her fingers, the lips curled, dripping with the juices that her body couldn't hold any more for lack of room. Her crotch bulged out; her labia were pushed wide open as her vagina demanded more space. The reaction accelerated, her hands could no longer contain the half-dome that bubbled and bloated and stretched, almost turning inside out, spilling out into the air, as all her sex organs seemed to be hellbent on either swelling out of her crotch or distending her belly.

"Impressive!" Brenda laughed. "Do you want to do some more whimpering? That's one thing I never grow tired of hearing. Hey, where are you trying to run to?"

Saphina had forced herself upright, and staggered towards the maze. Brenda showed no sign of pursuing her, she just stood there, the empty bottle in her hand, arms crossed over her chest, grinning.

With every step she took, Saphina's breasts bobbed in front of her, obscuring her sight of the floor. Her swollen belly contained a vagina three times its usual size, and with sensitivity to match. Her monstrous clit acknowledge every single step and rubbing of the wrinkled inner labia. They hung out far beyond the outer, wrist-thick lips, sending a rapid fire of tickling, burning and stinging. Her ovaries flooded her body with hormones - three times the size meant nine times the volume. She could feel heat building in her chest, and not just there.

Dawnielle! 'elle must know what to do now. Herself, she was at her wits' end. Saphina had to find that metal orb. Hopefully, it really knew what to do. Hopefully, it was still alive.

Chapter 10: Sphinx, reloaded

It was where she had left it, thrown into the dark corridor. Saphina dusted it off with her hands. She bit her lower lip as she squatted down.

"Here goes..." she mumbled.

Fumbling blindly around the wall her breasts for the entrance to her inner sanctum, every brush against the strawberry of her clit was another rush. The curled, wrinkled labia felt like a huge cauliflower blooming out of her crotch. Saphina had to dig and wiggle around until she found the opening. She noticed with a strangely detached indifference what a weird, deformed creature she'd become. The sphere now was no match for her oversized pussy. A slight pressure, applied with two fingers, made it slip right into her all the way with no pain at all. Smacking, squelching noises, and ample juices that dripped over her hand were the only things she noticed.

Her friend's voice seemed to come from far away, distorted and echoeing, then grew louder, right in her head.

"(... transpose online. Com intercept unit online. Short term memory readout complete. Docking sequence in progress. [beep] [beep] ... Check, one, two. Saphina? Can you hear me now? Think about something! ... Yes, alright! I'm back!)"

Saphina breathed a deep sigh of relief and leaned back into the wall. Tears welled in her eyes, she bit her lips and thought instead of speaking:

"(Dawnielle! Oh thank you! You've got no idea... it's all gone wrong. What am I to do now? Just -)"

"(Yes, I'm aware of your problems. One step at a time, dear. We need to take down Brenda first, or anything else will just lead nowhere. Priorities, darling. We'll get this sorted out, I promise. Alright, let me check if I can still access your microbots ... rats! All units fried. Oh well, let me think ...)"

For a moment, none of them spoke.

"(Saphina?)"

"Huh?"

"(I'm sorry. I'm sorry I dragged you into this. I really wish none of this had happened.)"

Saphina struggled upright. "Yeah, you and me both! Stop the whining, it doesn't suit you. I'll try to find my way back, if we really have to confront that psycho one more time. With that rack, I won't make it through that narrow exit anyway. In the meantime, you come up with a brilliant strategy. And don't forget, she's got a gun."

"(Careful when you stand up! You've become a bit spacious in the basement, at least from where I see it, and I don't want to drop out and get lost again.)"

Saphina grabbed her nipples and dragged her cleavage apart in order to look down on her humongous crotch, the labia that bulged out a hand's width between her thighs, front and center in the truest meaning, and the angry walnut-sized clitoris. Plus, she had just shoved a fist-sized ball in there, and it had felt like a little pea.

"Oh shut up! I have to walk with that monstrosity, you know? I hope you can fix that later, because ... " she took a careful step forward, with O-shaped legs like a cowboy that had ridden too far, and nevertheless moaned, "... mmmmnnnghhh ... I'm creaming again already."

"(Well, your career as Miss 'Puss and Boobs' in the sideshow is virtually secured. Sorry, sorry! Here, let me reroute your nerves to me...)"

The stimulation of wet folds rubbing and slipping over and into each other stopped. In fact, her whole groin had become numb.

"Phew! Thanks."

"(Mmmmnnnhh. Ooooh. No ... no need to thank mmmm ... mmmmhhh! ... me. So that's hhhh ... how it feels. Wow. Could you walk a bit faster? Uh, sorry again. I'd say 'my pleasure', but that just sounds too corny right now, eh?)"

"Oh shut up! Let's just get this over with!"

Tiny blue lines flashed before her eyes, then the weird irritation at the center of her sight spread out into what seemed like a pencil image coating the things she could see, and even forming corridors that her eyes could only barely make out, or not at all. She turned her head. There was a little lag, but that painting made of light tried hard to keep up with her real view. A broad, faint and green brushstroke started right at her feet and led off into the maze. As she reached out for it, Saphina's hands went right through.

"Whoa! What is that?"

"(I'm trying to give you an edge, too. I'm piping my sensors into your line of sight so you can take a look ahead and see the walls of the maze before we run into a dead end. The line on the floor is the route I'd suggest.)"

"Can you find Brenda like this?"

"(Not until we're a lot closer, maybe too close, I'm afraid. I'm not running my own body here, not even something remotely similar. Yours is totally different. Besides, all my input channels are ... uh, sore. Wow, so that must be how you felt when we...)"

"Dawny, focus!"

"(Yes, yes, I'm doing what I can. Remember, I don't want to pull off a takeover with you.)"

"Well, if you have to - then just do it!"

"(Shut up! Don't even talk about it. I'm not like that B1-TCH.)"

The two-in-one woman tiptoed through the maze, heading back towards the idol chamber.

Chapter 11: If at first you don't succeed ...

"(Turn. Run. Now!)" The voice in Saphina's head would've been a deafening scream if it had risen from a real throat. Its tone was so urgent, her body reacted all by itself. She was yards away, bouncing through the dim light, before she could even think her question.

"(What-)"

"(She must've been right on the other side of that wall, less than a few feet away. Damn! I had hoped the sensor range would be better.)"

"(Did she-)"

"(No, I don't think so. I caught the signal of that electrical lamp of hers. Oh no... turn right, then stop.)"

Saphina pushed her back against the wall and panted, fast but quiet, through her wide open mouth.

"(Right. What next?)"

"(Bad news. But first, what are you doing right now?)"

"(Trying to keep a low profile.)"

She could almost see the sphinx's face before her, smirking while disdainfully lifting an eyebrow.

"(Oh, so what?!)"

Dawnielle's disembodied voice chuckled. "(Girl, you're two boulders away from a low profile. You're filling half the corridor's width with your bobbing boobs. Relax, the next news is going to be worse.)"

"(Oo-kay...)"

"(We're cornered. On my map, this part of the maze has no other exit, no connection to any other part of it. She's going to corner us, sooner or later.)"

Saphina raised her head as her stare moved up along the wall in front of her.

"(Up?)" she suggested.

"(Yeah, right. In case you hadn't noticed, the walls are pretty tall in this part of the maze. How much lift do you think you're getting from your balloons? Hint: It's not enough.)"

"(And if I jump from one wall to the other? You know, like a juggler. I'd only need to get a foothold for a few moments each time.)"

"(Sorry to break it to you - your reflexes and coordination are good, but not that good.)"

"(Yours are. You are a machine.)"

Dawnielle fell silent.

"(Come on! What else we got left?)"

"(I'd have to ... to take your body over for that stunt. Completely. Not good. It might not be reversible.)"

"(If you don't, we're both as good as dead. That way, at least you'd ... we'd have a fighting chance.)" Saphina shook out her arms. "(What do I need to do?)"

"(Nothing much. Just relax, and try not to panic. Here goes...)"

She felt, rather she no longer feet her right arm as it was turning numb from the fingertips upward. It started to move all by itself, attached to her body, but no longer a part of it. The same happened in her left arm, and spread out to her legs. Little was left except her torso, and even that went away within moments. Her breath came faster, she was nearly panting.

"(Dawnielle, maybe that wasn't-)"

"(Hold on, we're almost there.)"

Seconds later, the transition was over. Her vision blurred, then it returned, no longer under her control as well. If she stopped thinking now, would whatever was left of her mind disappear completely?

"No, it won't." she heard her own voice say, out loud. "It doesn't work that way."

"(Just relax in the back seat, I'll take care of this. Now we'll see if those hours of you working out were well spent.)"

Saphina cowered down under Dawnielle's control, jumped with one hand and foot sideways against one wall, bounded off of it, then the other wall, and again, and again, and again. The two walls converged the farther up she climbed. Finally, there was not enough room, her bouncing breasts slammed into the stones and the ricocheting nearly made her lose her balance. She managed to push her arms and legs into the walls and to hold her position, facing down into the dark corridor.

"(We're stuck like this!)", Saphina shrieked silently, in the cocoon of her brain.

"(We just need to hold on until she's passed by beneath us and is around the next corner. We're up far enough to be out of her and mine sensor ranges. Trust me, this'll work! Now shut up!)"

The cone of light from Brenda's electric lamp neared. She kept it aimed straight at the floor and followed the track of –

"(Damn!)", Saphina and Dawnielle thought, in unison.

– footprints in the dust. They ended right beneath the silent shadow.

The spot moved left, right, then up. Saphina blinked as it shone straight in her face.

"There you are. Let's find out –"

Brenda lifted her gun and took aim.

"– whether you'll pop or bleed."

She pulled the trigger.

Saphina caught the bullet straight into her left breast. The pain from the impact, the shock of the sudden noise that filled the narrow corridor like a solid wall, all that made her body curl into a fetal position, grabbing her hit breast that felt numb and aching at the same time. The instinctive reaction was a bad idea in every aspect, as moments before she was still spread-eagled into the walls, fifteen feet off the ground. Now her stomach jumped up as gravity raised its angry head and pulled her down, slamming her boob-first into the hard floor right before Brenda's feet.

Saphina was hurting all over, her head rang. She bobbed up and down on the aching airbags that had caught her fall. Her fingertips weakly groped ahead as she crawled on all fours over the floor until she bumped against a wall. Moaning, she crept up against it, rolled over and rested her back to the cool stone. She could feel her body again, the sudden onslaught of pain must've knocked out Dawnielle.

"(No it hasn't)", it suddenly whispered in her head. "(You've surprised me. You're back in charge, but it seems I'm stuck in the middle. Switching back and forth should be much easier now. I feel a bit like an amplifier between you and your body. I'll need some time to adjust to that.)"

Dawnielle tried to lift her arms, but they just trembled and weakly waved about. "(Oh, great.)"

"Tough one, aren't you?" Brenda sneered. "Not sure how I missed you at that distance, but i'm not going to miss again!"

Cold metal squeezed down into the cleft between her breasts, and by the time it pressed onto her breastbone, the redhead's arm was also burrowed into the ample flesh, right up to half her forearm.

The muzzle flash blinded both, and the deafening bang over the short distance made their ears ring. A brutal punch went right into Saphina's breastbone, and then... the feeling of skipping ahead in time for a few seconds, of a tiny bit of missing recollection. Saphina noticed she was still breathing, still alive, and Brenda shook her aching, empty hand, the gun lying on the floor a yard or two away.

"Ouch! What the hell? Not a scratch? Why are you not bleeding?! I shot you right in the chest! Again!"

Brenda winked, realization set in, and she slapped her hurt hand against her forehead. "Ow! Damn! Of course! You, AND her. You're still functional, 5PH-1NX, and you're in there, you little pervert! That's my shtick you're stealing! Well, seeing how you're up and running her little body now, how about another drink? That's sure going to be fun, in a tight corridor like this..." She picked the hip flask from her belt and gargled with the rest of the liquid, rivulets running over her chin, then throwing the empty thing into the next wall. "I want my new statue NOW!" she bubbled with her mouth full of the poison.

Saphina was in no shape yet to react as the redhead knelt down, took her face in both hands and kissed her hard and deep. The woman's tongue seemed to be eager to cover as much of the inside of her mouth as fast as she could while forcing the poison into her at the same time. Barely did she notice the strange, bitter taste as she could no longer resist and gulped involuntarily, barely felt the one hand that groped hard all over her overblown breast while the other pressed her head forward, sealing the two pair of lips together. With a smack, and a disappointed, hysteric scream, Brenda broke away. "Ach! It's not working! Why? Why is it not working?!"

"(Saphy, let me do the talking.)" Saphina mentally stepped aside, and the sphinx' metal brain core took over her vocal chords. "Your mistake, B1-TCH. The girl is as human as your Brenda. True, she's been soaked with servos for years, and you felt that. But I'm no maniac like you. I've left them in, but they are not interlocked, they just rest in her cells in standby, not harming her. You couldn't take control of them. The ones around the chest had turned active and meshed together before, to heal her from that cut, so they had no choice but to bloat from your poison. Her crotch - well, let's leave it at that we got a little too busy on the way here, see? The rest had no reason to activate, and the poison just bonded them into the tissue. You've now shut them all down for good alright. But instead of completely petrifying us, you've reinforced every part of our body. If I were you, I'd start to run now. You won't like us if we're angry."

Saphina stared the shocked woman straight in the face, raised her wide-spread arms sideways over the rough stones, burrowed her fingers into them and pushed herself up, her back to the wall, her face a mask of cold hate, with clenched teeth. "We've had it with your games. We've had it for quite a while, and now, we'll make an end to this, B1-TCH!"

She stood, about as tall as Brenda, and clenched her fists. Not letting the maniac from her eyes, she reached out and slammed her hands backwards into the stone.

Brenda had regained her composure and raised her eyebrows, underwhelmed. "So? Did you expect the wall to crack? Dear, I'm every bit a MARR as you, I know what we can and can not do."

Saphina lifted her fists off the stone wall. In a circle a foot wide, extending like a spider's web, little splinters rained down from the shattered rock leaving behind two cone-shaped craters. "No. You're wrong. Dead wrong. Right now, you're just piggybacking a fragile human woman with above-average reflexes. I've got the same speed now, plus I'm bullet-proof and stuffed with MARR armor in every fiber of my body. You do the math!"

She jumped forward and, with her overblown breasts in front, rammed Brenda. The redhead was pinioned against the wall, her arms were spread wide, immobilized, buried by the taut mountains of boob flesh, her own chest lodged in the deep cleavage. Desperate, she tried to knee Saphina in the groin. Her shin slapped against the plump labia. Saphina effortlessly caught the leg on the rebound between her thighs. "Heh. That tickled. Oooh, poor girl. Looks like now you're the one-legged at an arse kicking contest." Saphina's lips curled in a grin of rage, she raised her right arm for a devastating punch to the face in front of her.

Panic hit B1-TCH, seconds before Saphina's fist did.

Chapter 12: Final countdown

Almost did.

Her incoming fist froze in mid-strike. Brenda still tried to squirm away, her face a grimace in the expectation of pain.

"Brenda? The real Brenda Carlyle?"

"No... don't hit me. I didn't want to ... she made me do ... get it out of me! Get it out ... help me ... please!"

Saphina stepped back, releasing the whimpering woman from her bazoom's vise.

The redhead fell to her knees and grabbed at the hem of Saphina's tattered shirt, staring at the wall of boobs from below.

"I never wanted to ... "

She collapsed, curling up, her hands pressed on her womb.

"Help me ..."

Saphina knelt down, as far as her inflated bosom allowed. She had to get on hands and knees to look at the sobbing woman in front of her.

"Dawnielle? What's your take on that?"

"B1-TCH is gone for good, i'm sure of it. Must've finally snapped, out of fear, and shut herself down. At that distance, she wouldn't be able to hide her presence from me, and there is no - oh no. That sick fuck! I knew it!"

"What?!"

"We've got ten minutes, maybe less, until that core's power cells will go boom. Little parting gift, I guess."

Brenda could make sense of only part of the weird two-in-one dialoge in front of her, but there was little to misunderstand about "ten minutes" and "go boom". Her eyes widened in terror.

"Noo! Out! ... Get it ... nnnngh!"

"Are you in pain?"

"Yes! No! I ... I don't know. It's ... I'm ... so full."

Saphina reached out, rested her weight on her boobs like on two huge beanbags holding her up, and took Brenda's head in her hands. "(Dawny, that's my turn now.) Brenda, listen." She rocked her gently. "Listen! Calm down. Look in my eyes. Relax. You put it in there –"

The redhead wailed, "I know! I didn't ... It whispered ..."

Saph continued, calmly rocking them both on top of her breast. "You put it in there, you almost had it slip out again just two hours ago, so tell me how to make that happen again."

"I ..." Brenda took a deep breath. "I don't know. I'm rather wide b... below –"

Saphina snorted. "Oh really? Try mine for size, and dare to repeat that!"

"No! I'm, I'm sorry, I saw all that happen, but I couldn't, I would n ... never..."

Saphina stroke the red hair, trying to calm her down again.

"We know. We're not blaming you."

"And, and that thing in me slipped around on occasion. It happened on and off the last few days. But ... bbb ... but this time, I, I, I've pushed it in so deep, it's not moved at all since. And she, she made me mix all those ... she took all my knowledge, and then she ... she came up with those horrible –"

Her voice cracked again. "Pull it out! Gut me! Cut it from me!"

"(Eight minutes thirty, plus/minus ten seconds. A cell burnout will flatten the whole temple, remember that. We need safe distance, and for that, we need to run really fast at five.)"

"(Not helping, Dawnielle! You ju ... ohmigosh ... just reminded me that I've got one of those in me as well.)"

"(Fine. Move over, I'm going to take it from here.) Brenda, I don't know a thing about all that potions and magic. You do. Is there anything in your supplies like, I don't know, like a strong lubricant?"

She raised her head. "I - I think so. Not quite a lubricant, but maybe..." Her hand nervously patted on her chin. "My box! I need my little box back."

"(You're telling me!)", Saphina muttered inside her head.

Brenda jumped to her feet, grabbed Saphina's wrist and dragged her to her feet as well. Together, they stormed through the corridors until they faced the statue again. Faced with a new challenge, Brenda seemed to have overcome the panic and shock and regained her determination. The redhead rummaged the glassware on the table, frantically, in a cacophony of tinkling and the occasional crash. "It's got to be somewhere ... not as good as a rubber skin spell, but ... Last time I used it, I ... So long ago, I hope it's still ..."

"(Seven fifteen, run at five four-five.)"

"(Hey! Last time, you said five?!)"

"(We're deeper inside now. Uphill through the maze gonna slow us down. Seven five, run at five four-five.)"

"(Oh shut up, please!)"

"I got it! I got .. ngh " - the sound of a cork popping, a gulp - " got it. Quick! You need to grab m... eeee!" The beaker Brenda just had emptied into her mouth fell from her hand as she struggled with her belt. A faint hiss and squeaking hung in the air.

"What did you do?!" Saphina and Dawnielle screamed with one voice.

Brenda frantically pulled at her trousers, but got them only halfway down her thighs before the swelling pressed her legs into the robust textiles. Giving up on them, she moved on to struggle with her shirt instead. Her body gained airy volume fast.

"Inflation juice. Family recipe. Usually not for humans, not exactly legal, but spilling it in a river lifts crocodiles out of the water when canoeing. Lasts only a few minutes. Hope it's long enough."

She hunched forward and rested her shoulders on the table.

"Should make me big and stretchable enough for you to reach in and pull that damned thing out. Fuck! Can't get the buttons open."

Her ass and hips started to inflate while her legs were constrained by the taut trousers. Saphina pushed the upper body forward and fondled into the squeaking vagina. "Ew! Are you turning into rubber?!"

"I don't know! That's friggin' ancient magic, not tech! It's supposed to work, not to be explained!"

Saphina struggled as she tried to reach with her left arm around Brenda's chest. The tight shirt was creaking, and the breasts inside started to squeeze out through the neckline and the arched and straining cloth between the buttons. The redhead's arms stuck out to the sides, rendered useless by her ballooning. Her cheeks had puffed out, too. Her speech had a whistle underneath it, like air escaping. "Hhhhhhurryiiiiiiieeee!"

"Shut up! You're losing air!"

"Ssshhhhhhhiiiiiiirt...weeeeeeeak! Watchhhhhhhh ... iiiiiiiiit!"

The seams on the garment began to rip open. Saphina could see the gap that started at the armpits. The cloth ripped along Brenda's flanks, going pop-pop-pop in accelerating succession. Saphina jumped on the other woman's back, trying to hold her down. It turned out to be useless.

The pale boobs, driven by the relentless magical energy in her body, squeezed out sideways through the rip, then, as the shirt gave up completely, Saphina felt herself and Brenda suddenly being lifted four feet into the air by Brenda's liberated breasts, bursting out.

Saphina slipped down from the bouncing, bloated torso.

"It's no use! I thought I had my fingers on it, but it's still stuck! Your pussy's swollen tight now, too. Great thinking there, girl."

"No! Don't leave me! Don't! More pressure! M ... more! I can feel ... Yes! It's moving now!" she wheezed.

"(Five fourty, Saph. We should be running since five seconds ago!)"

"Alright, one last try. Don't let any air out of your face, no matter what. I'll take care of the rest."

Saphina grabbed Brenda by the waist, turned her upside-down (how light she'd become!), straddled the squeaking boobs like riding bareback, bringing all her weight down on them and clutching her legs around the barely yielding skin. She wrapped her arms around the hips, shoving the rubbery body in between her own enormous cleavage, and then she squeezed with all the strength she could muster. The rim of Brenda's anus bulged out, but Saphina corked it with a finger.

"Yuck. Just you hold your other holes shut down there, girl. This thing is going to come out one way or the other now. Hnnngh!"

"Mmm! Mm mmm - mm-mm!"

Brenda felt the mounting tension inside her. Her nipples popped out on her plump breasts like the signal pins on two pressure cookers. The silver ball slowly, very slowly wedged itself outward through her cervix. Even through the layer of Brenda's skin, Saphina could see the flickering patterns of light on the core, and Dawnielle recognized them instantly. "(No! Been wrong! Blast in ten seconds. Or less! It's gone critical! It's going to blow in there right now!)"

"Not ... nnngh! ... if I can ... Hwaaah! ... help it! Not ... gnnnng ... gonna have ... Oh come ON! ... a pussy ... rargh! ... blast ... nnngh! ... in my face!", Saphina groaned through clenched teeth.

She doubled her effort, jumped up and then crashed down hard onto the bazooms under her. And with a bang, like a cork from a champagne bottle, the sphere popped free, it shot out of Brenda like out of a cannon and whizzed away through the hole in the ceiling.

Brenda's body softened when the spell had run its course and the magical gas escaped through her crotch like through the fluttering nozzle of a balloon. Her breasts shrunk away right under Saphina's buttocks. Still clutching her tight, she fell on top of the deflating redhead.

The detonation of B1-TCH's core, a hundred yards above ground, shook the foundations of the temple.

Saphina woke and found herself running through a jungle, her whole body expertly dodging upright trees and sliding over fallen ones, with the occasional side-jump to bounce off and over larger obstacles. The bobbing, overblown mammaries were still in front of her, and something heavy slapped against her back with every step.

"(Ah, welcome back.)", Dawnielle's inner voice greeted her. "(Just don't try to take the reins, or we'll stumble and head right into a tree.)"

"(What - what happened? The blast, then ...)"

"(You went out like a light, so I took over. It's alright. I'm carrying Brenda on our back, and we'll be at the coast soon. S1-R3N is waiting to pick us up. By tomorrow, we'll be back home.)"

"(Dawnielle...?)"

"(Yes, Saphina?)"

"(You said these things in me are ... dead now? Can you remove them, please? I don't want to remain a sideshow attraction. The 'Mrs. Puss and Boobs' thing was a kinda scary thought...)"

"(Uh, about that whole 'removing' thing, Saphy, that might, uh ...)"

"(Dawn? Oh no, please don't tell me ...)"

"(... be a bit diffi-)"

"(DAWNIELLE!)"

Behind her, a bright light, like a shard from the sun fallen to earth, rose out of the jungle and made the back of her head boil in a heat wave that moved like a wall through the trees, rendering them into a maze of pure white and pitch black. Seconds later, thunder rolled over them, a storm that tore at the leaves and trees all around. The gust of air grabbed her and propelled her ten yards ahead. Dawnielle touched down on her feet, rolled over and stopped, crouching to the floor, taking the sandstorm head-on as the backlash of the detonation returned seconds later.

Saphina mustered a weak "(What the...?)"

"(That was the last we'll ever hear of the temple. Come on, let's get you home so we can bring you back into shape and get me a new body. Besides, Miss Firehair here might have an answer or two for me, in regard to this whole magic stuff.)"

She looked at the still unconscious redhead she'd been carrying on her back.

They stood on top of the cliff where Dawnielle and Saphina had landed first, and stared at the crater where the temple had been. The cloud of dust and debris, like a huge mushroom, still rose upwards. Brenda shook her head in disbelief.

"You've ... you've destroyed everything. Everything! All my records, the plans, the ..."

"We'll sort this out, Brenda. Later."

"Uh-huh?!" She put her fists to her hips. "Really? Great! Tell me what I had written on the third page of my diary, would you? See?! You've blasted the whole of my life's achievements into oblivion!"

"I've had it, Brenda! Your life is in oblivion? Fine! Join it!"

She pushed the redhead backwards, and with a drawn-out scream, Brenda stumbled, stepped over the edge and disappeared. A very wet thump followed, cutting off the fading shriek.

"(What the...?! Dawnielle! How could you!)"

A thundering voice interrupted her.

"Anyone waiting for a ride? Sorry I'm late, but that's no reason to dump people into me, 5PH-1NX! You want her back, or dissolved?"

The head of a giant mermaid statue rose over the cliff. In the black marble skin of her hand that grabbed the edge was a bulge of roughly human proportions.

"Hi, S1-R3N."

The huge face grinned. "Oh, I see. You're cranky, what with the two of you crammed in there."

She lifted her elbow over the cliff and rested her chin on her lower arm, like someone observing an insect on a window sill.

A huge finger tapped on Saphina's balloons and made them bob around. "Cute, but not quite practical. Can I offer you a few cubic feet of my body instead, 'elle?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind? And a deep sweeping for my friend here. She's got a bad case of broken-down servo oil, stuck inside her."

"Ew! Let's get you licked clean right now."

In the years to come, the recollection of that single moment was what would make Saphina cringe inside without fail: How this huge mouth in the living statue's face moved in, how those lips closed all around her, lifted her up off the top of the cliff and swallowed her whole.

Chapter 13: A late introduction

The siren's colossal shape swam, half submerged, on her back. She pushed northward through the ocean waves, swinging her shark-like fishtail lazily from left to right and back. Her passengers stood on her almost flat belly in the tropical sunlight. Dawnielle had her body back, or at least had recruited enough of Siren's mass to rebuild her two-legged look. Siren herself had assembled a smaller proxy version of her, for easier conversation, with a cute, slender fishtail instead of legs, and a rough imitation of hair like seaweed. The tail seemed rooted to the floor, but since the floor was also part of her body, she moved in and out, and slid around on top of it with ease.

Saphina was still drifting, unconscious, below their feet through the siren's belly, her body being pulled apart, rinsed and reassembled to filter the shorted-out microbot oil from her. The little siren put a reassuring hand on the sphinx' shoulder.

"It's going well. Don't worry."

"Will she remember anything?"

"Of course! What do you think I am? Just a quack from a flying saucer?" She grinned and nudged the sphinx with a pointy elbow from which tiny fins sprouted. "I guess we can launch the beacon for our masters alright, eh? I just checked your logfiles. Seriously, that's freaky stuff. If this planet isn't qualified for further inspection, then which one is?"

Brenda had minutes before emerged, unscathed, from the black bubble that had broken her fall. Though she was almost back to her defiant self, she tried to hold her temper in check. She knew full well that any moment she overtaxed the strange hospitality, the floor she stood on could liquify and swallow her again in a heartbeat. Or maybe do things even worse. She sat with her arms around her knees.

Dawnielle walked up to her, smiling sheepishly. "Meant a lot to you, that old stuff, huh?"

"Pfft!" Brenda turned her head away and looked at the coastline that faded in the distance. "I don't expect you to understand. How could you dare to destroy it? HOW COULD YOU DARE?!" Something inside her snapped at that thought. She jumped to her feet, turned around and stormed towards the creature that, to her surprise, slowly backed away. "No wonder that other being was so hell-bent on humiliating you! Makes me wonder if the right one won!"

Dawnielle twitched. "Oh no you didn't! You didn't just say that!" She now stood her ground against the enraged woman, their faces mere inches apart.

"Uh-huh? I'll say it to your face again, you abomination!"

"That's it. I've been poisoned, tortured, bewitched and blown to pieces, thanks to that freak YOU were dumb enough to shove up your twat! This was the worst day of my whole life, and believe me, I've seen many. Yet I save your sorry ass instead of just kicking back and watching the fireworks from afar as your exploding love toy flattens the whole fuckin' temple! You want to mess with me? Fine! Give me your best shot!" She stepped back. Around her, the floor - S1-R3N's body - started to bubble. A second later, like an erupting geyser, a pillar of black oil shot up and splashed back down on her, reshaping her.

"We've not been properly introduced yet." Her voice was an octave lower now. "This is my real shape. This is why they call me the Sphinx!"

The little siren watched the show that unfolded on her other self's belly. She leant back into the nipple on one of the gently swaying, house-sized boobs of the huge, floating body, and grinned to herself. "Oh Dawnielle! Always the showoff. Let's up the fear factor a bit more." She snapped her fingers.

Brenda slowly backed away from the flowing, reshaping creature. Except she couldn't. Her feet were suddenly covered in the black oil that had risen from the floor. It held her in place while Dawnielle settled into her classic sphinx shape with the leonine, four-legged body. She leaned forward, and her face on the huge bald head, human except for it size, smiled.

It was not a friendly smile. She took another step forward and then lied down, in the way of a big cat resting. Her elbows sat on the ground, her forearms with the paws and their unsheathed claws rested to the left and right of the terrified woman whose feet were concreted into the floor. Between her upper arms, the massive orbs of her human breasts bulged forward and settled down as she rolled her shoulders. Then she grabbed at the diminutive figure in front of her.

Her giant paw lifted Brenda's head, gently, but the movement had the promise of ripping the skull right off if she dared to resist. Brenda's breath came fast and tense through her clenched teeth, her mind spinning with fear.

Dawnielle took a deep breath that blew over the redhead like the hot exhaust of a furnace, and sighed.

"Relax, will ya? Alright. One more time, and can the screaming. If I get a headache, you won't get one ever again. So: Why the fuss over all that old glassware? Over the potions? What was so irredeemable about that? Did you expect me to bring a moving van?"

"No!" Brenda screamed, then tempering it to a "No. Not that stuff. The books. My notes. All that. Gone."

With a splash, the two-legged sphinx was back, and any trace of the other body melted back into the floor.

Dawnielle's backpack rose from the ground beside her. She flung it at Brenda, hitting her hard in the midriff. The redhead instinctively grabbed it before it fell down.

The sphinx dryly replied: "Gone? Really? I don't think so."

She smiled, an honest smile this time, watching Brenda dig through the contents of the bag with tears of relief in her eyes.

"I ... I didn't know. I woke over your shoulder while you ran through the jungle, and I thought..."

"Observe first, ask second, think later. The fuses I set up were all a tad short, so I had to hurry for safe distance. But I did sweep the place before I set them off. Hey, I'm a librarian at heart. You really think I could blow up books?"

The little siren surfaced beside Dawnielle.

"Your friend is ready. Want me to wake her?"

"Yes. Oh, I just know she'll enjoy the tropical heat before we have to return to Northland."

The next day, after the sun rose over the ocean, Saphina still was sound asleep while the two MARRs and Brenda were already stretching their limbs.

Siren chuckled. "Your sleeping beauty's still out cold. Want me to splash some water in her face?"

Dawnielle shook her head. "No, leave her asleep and wrap her in a stasis cocoon. I'll wake her once we're back home."

The mermaid nodded. "Can do. Come on, you're going to show me PH3-N1X' newest design now or not?"

"So eager to get rid of me?"

"You know the old saying: two MARRs too close is too much trouble."

The sphinx smiled. "Alright, already. Lend me a hand for a flying start?"

A hand like a giant excavator's scoop rose from the ocean and was held, palm up, in front of 5PH-1NX. She hopped on top of it,

"Wait!"

"What's the matter, Brenda?"

The redhead looked truly uncomfortable.

"I just wanted to say ... I'm sorry."

"What for? It wasn't your fault. You've suffered at least as much as Saph and me."

"I had hoped to tell that to her face, but I ... yesterday I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

"I'll deliver it to her."

She nodded a farewell, and moments later was lifted high above the sea level on the end of the outstretched arm.

"S1-R3N, just among the two of us: go easy on the redhead. She's been through quite a few rough times recently."

"I know her dossier, too. She's no saint either."

"I guess none of us are, not any more. Listen, she's tough and bratty, but she's not evil."

"Oh alright! Done with being deep? You know she's safe with me. Come on, show me lil' speedy already!"

Within moments after spreading her arms wide, the liquid modelling material Dawnielle drew from her friend's abundant supply had filled up the bird's invisible mould. She jumpstarted the wing engines, made them roar and turned them back down to idle.

The mermaid produced an appreciative whistle. "Ooh. Sweet! - Watch it, payload incoming."

On her giant palm, the pill-shaped cocoon with Saphina's sleeping body emerged. The bird stooped down over it and embedded it into its chest.

"Come on, show me what that thing can do."

The siren gave the little creature a slight push upwards. Moments later, her hand was empty, and nothing but a quickly fading vapor trail and a disappearing bright spot near the horizon remained of the sleek creature.

"Well, that's that, then."

Brenda jumped up as the human-sized upper body of S1-R3N's avatar rose from the plain black floor right beside her. Clutching her throat, she gasped for air, three, four times.

"Don't ever do that again. Are you trying to scare me to death?"

"Naw, dear." The siren stretched her arms, as if she'd just woken from sleep. "I take it you're tougher than that. So, where do you want me to drop you off?"

"Using something like that ... bird thing?"

The mermaid put her arms akimbo. "Yeah, as if. Sorry, but I can't split off a part of me over that long a distance. Name a harbor, or a coastline, that's more my style."

"Waketown, at the Green River delta. Do you know where–"

"Of course. 'elle has forwarded all the maps she's recorded at her pet's library into my memory as well." She looked Brenda up and down. "It'll get cold at night, that high up north. You're not exactly equipped for that. I can assemble you a dress to keep you warm."

"Oh really?" Brenda poked the fish girl into the chest. "Keep warm? Like that sphinx monster did with her little friend, last night? With all the oohing and aahing and 'gonna-burst-gonna-burst-gonna-burst-more-more-more' moaning?!"

"My, you're a cranky one today."

"Well, ex-CUSE me! I've gotten barely any sleep the whole week, and then that 'pump-me-pump-me-harder' show wasn't exactly–"

"You're envious."

"..." Brenda stopped, mouth agape, inhaling sharply. Her first impulse was to scream incoherently with anger, but a tiny thought in the back of her head whispered: She's right. You saw those two having, like, the best sapphic sex in the whole wide world, and all you got from meeting a creature from beyond, was a short intermezzo with a leather whip you already knew all too well, and the maniacal monster ball from hell raping your mind. She exhaled.

"Feh. Maybe." was her weak reply.

"No need to be. Not all of us are maniacal monster balls from hell." the mermaid purred and caressed the surprised Brenda's cheek. Who slapped the hand aside.

"Yeah, whatever. Just keep your fins to yourself." Brenda swiveled away from the shrugging creature and turned her nose up.

Chapter 14: Wrapping up Brenda

She had curled up into a ball, clutching her knees. It didn't help much. The icy wind crept through and made her teeth rattle.

"Come on! Why do you keep punishing yourself like this? Let me–"

"Back off!" Brenda barked at the mermaid.

The siren sighed. "Humans! What are you afraid of? You think you could stop me from ... anything?" She extended her hand to the shivering woman, again. "At that rate, you'll collapse from hypothermia in a few hours, and then I'll have to swallow you and revive you, anyway. Why don't you save both of us the embarrassment and extra effort? Come on, let me warm you right now."

"What, like cuddling in front of the fireplace?" She already had to struggle with her palsied cheeks to get the words out.

"No. I don't really like open fire on my skin. Let's just begin with an extra layer beneath your clothes to keep you nice and toasty, okay?"

It started at her feet. The floor rippled beneath her, tiny tentacles sprouted and wound themselves around her ankles, flowing into each other until they formed a wrist-sized trunk through which more of the warm oil streamed up. Brenda felt it creeping up over her shanks, slightly compressing them as if it unrolled along the way. The touch reminded her of the few times she had actually worn a tight pantyhose. The agile material was warm, and stayed warm. Almost unwillingly, she relaxed.

"Nnngh!", Brenda squeezed out through clenched teeth, with a slow grin.

"What's the matter? Am I doing something wrong?" The mermaid had moved behind her.

"I'm ticklish! It's as if you're licking into the hollow of my knee."

"Ticklish, eh?" The voice was now entirely too cheerful.

"Oh no. Mmmph. Teeheehee! Hey–"

The rim of the liquid trousers rose along her thighs. Brenda gasped. It not just rose, it seemed to push and squeeze something along with it, something from her own body, underneath her skin. The legs of her real trousers definitely felt wider beneath than above the tight fit of the living underwear.

"Your thighs seemed a tad exuberant to me, if you'll excuse my frankness. Fixing it as I go along."

"I didn't ask you to!"

"Want your saddlebags back?"

"Uh, I'd rather wait to answer that until I had a chance to look at – Hey! Where are you –"

She bit her tongue. The skin-tight, hand-warm coating had risen along the outside of her hips, it slipped over her buttocks, its firm shape like a set of deft fingers slightly squeezing and massaging them. One offshoot grew from her rear through her crotch. As it reached her vulva, it forked into three stems, the outer two wedging themselves in between her inner and outer labia, the middle one –

"Relax, I'm not going to enter you. This is strictly professional..."

– covered the opening of her vagina and washed on, seeping hot into each and every wrinkle around her clit. The tendrils plumped and spread, joined with the rim around her inner thighs, until the black, glistening oil was like a rubbery mould. During this detail work, the advance had halted on her midriff. Whatever volume it had squeezed ahead with it, it now firmly rested there. Brenda groped at it.

"Oh come on! I know I'm not in the shape of my life, but I don't need love handles that big, thank you very much!"

"We're not done yet. Next part's a bit tricky..."

The warmth started to move ahead again. It covered her back, it lifted the cold shirt off her spine and spread its inner warmth instead. Brenda rolled her shoulders in delight.

"Mmmm. Oh yes. Oh yes! Keep going. Most delicious."

The siren whispered in her ear.

"I've saved the best for last. Still need to put that extra weight where it serves a purpose, don't I?"

Her fingers danced over the buttons of Brenda's shirt, opening one after the other, finally folding back the cloth and baring the naked skin to the cold air. Speechless, the woman watched the black, leathery second skin creep further. Its rim around her midriff pushed the toroidal excess on. Around her neck, the oil had formed a tight collar and grew downward. More of it closed in from her spine, following along her ribs. The only areas of her torso not yet covered were her upper belly and her chest. Icy wind chilled her nipples and made them stand up.

"I've done this a few times for other girls, a long time ago. This is what I love best about it."

The siren rested Brenda's back against her soft breasts and reached with her black marble arms over the woman's shoulders. Her fingertips touched the edge of her own taut, thin black layer wrapped tight around the redhead, and she pulled and guided the rim of the material across the last few square inches.

Brenda closed her eyes, let her head sink back into the creature's cleavage and gave herself up to the tickling fingers, to the feeling of semi-liquid volume being pushed forward under her skin, to the warm tightness that embraced her body neck to toe and closed in on the base of her breasts.

"I can feel it moving inside me! It's ... oh no ... "

"Oh yes!"

The lumps and bulges under her belly's skin had almost reached their destination. The siren's fingers were spread wide. Her palms pushed down on the redhead's nipples and aureoles, flattening the mounds. Brenda moaned as the tight, wandering rim constricted the base of her breasts. The hands werer lifted off ever so slightly, the siren's fingers were curved and dug into her flesh.

Brenda's nipples seemed unhappy when they lost contact with the warm palms over them, and they obviously had decided to do something about that. She felt a tickling in them, and in the tissue beneath, which eagerly swelled by sucking up the surplus the siren had skimmed from the rest of her body. Her breasts' skin grew tighter around the growing volume of the glands inside.

"It's now seeping into my tits!" she gasped the obvious.

She'd never have expected this feeling to be so addictive, and so unnerving at the same time. It was a straining, an itching, a burning that started on the aureoles, and spread over and inside the whole of her chest. She panted. She couldn't take this blindfolded, sweet torture any more. She just had to see it.

Brenda opened her eyes. Enormous. She had truly become enormous. The siren's hands and fingers, though not exactly small, covered barely half of the mounds that rose from her chest. The tight, binding squeeze of the black pseudo catsuit's rim around the roots of her breasts made sure that the angry swollen red flesh of the twin peaks of Mount Brenda rose from her chest like two small pumpkins.

The mermaid traced their shape with her fingers, as she finally lifted her hands completely. The rim around the bases remained a tight fit, throbbing with every heartbeat as Brenda's hot blood fought to get back out, drawing a net of bulging blue veins underneath the glowing skin. Along with the fingertips closing in on the aureoles, the black oil followed obediently until it finally enveloped the nipples. All of her body was wrapped with the warm, caressing solid-liquid oddity that seemed to take a special liking to her breasts. Brenda felt it pulsating and kneading her orbs, like invisible, untiring hands.

She raised her arms into view and stared absently at her own hands and fingers. There, the living oil just finished its task of giving her a suit and gloves woven from warmth, but she barely noticed. The heavy volume and the nervous throbbing on her chest consumed all of her attention.

"So, how do you like my little trick?" The siren had moved to her right side, still holding her. With the back of her fingers, she caressed Brenda's cheek and moved her face closer.

Brenda panted. "Should ... they ... still ... be ... swelling?"

The siren smiled and shrugged, slowly. "Ah, that's most likely just milk building up. I just want to a make sure they work as they should, so I've triggered a lactation spurt."

"Too ... tight."

"Really? I better give your teats a little more space."

The black second skin parted and gave way for Brenda's nipples and the extra domes of her aureoles on top of the two F-cups. She felt warm liquid seep from them all by itself, and as the siren leaned over, cupped and squeezed them, they squirted eagerly. White drops sprayed over the black skin suit.

"Very good. Now for checking the taste and amount of a serving, and we're done for now." She sucked the bare skin into her mouth.

Brenda closed her eyes again. The siren's tongue was rough and slippery. Wrapped in the stretchy oil skin, the redhead's breasts felt as if they burned up from the inside. She could feel them swelling on and on, and thought she heard her skin squeak, very much like the run-in she'd had with the balloon potion. "B... bursting."

"Oh no, fear not. You're just not used to it."

Something changed in the texture of the oil that covered Brenda's vulva. Over her clitoris, it turned into a rough patch that started to rub, like a neverending tongue continuously slipping upwards. It lifted the skinny hood and bared all of the nervous knob. The redhead felt as if her whole body was melting on top of that unrelenting stimulus. She clutched the siren's head and squeezed the face with those full, sucking lips into her swollen breast, and held her there as if she'd never let her go again, trembling in little spasms.

S1-R3N smiled to herself, white milk dripping from the corner of her mouth. Oh yes, 5PH-1NX had been so very right about the perks of having a human toy at hand. And that taste! Sweet and rich. Yes, their masters would be very pleased indeed when they'd receive that footnote to the report.

After a while, she gently moved over to the other, still full breast and guided the fat nipple with her tongue into her mouth. Brenda meanwhile had fallen half asleep, luxuriating in the warmth of the suit and the gentle swinging of the living boat beneath her.

Brenda lounged in the soft and comfortable bed of her country house. Her eyes still closed, she tried to recall what had happened the night before. A difficult task. Alright, closer to home: parts of her felt sore, in a very good way. Conclusion: She was back home, and beside her was the willing body of her chambermaid. She could even hear the scream of the seagulls circling overhead-

Seagulls? In her bedroom?!

She screamed as it all came back to her, in one single, painful flash of recollection. The week spent under the influence of that silver orb. The moment it had locked her away, in her own body. The girl she'd shot at. The cat goddess creature. The mermaid. The cold night before ... she raised her hands and stared at her fingers, covered in the thin, black, shimmering film that kept her warm despite the icy chill of the morning air around.

Alright, she told herself. Focus. This may be the worst moment of your life, but ... no, actually it wasn't. The worst moment of her life had been that moment when the booby traps in that lost tomb of the eastern third dynasty's prince had gone off. This was nowhere near that bad. There's-

"There's nothing you need to do right now." The siren popped up in front of her, smiling. "Two more days, three more nights, and we're at your destination. Thirsty?" She lifted her hand, palm up. On the flat surface, a ring extruded upwards while a clear liquid inside it rose along. Seconds later, the impromptu cup had finished assembling itself. She offered it to Brenda. "That's sea water, but I've filtered the salt out. Might taste a bit lackluster. I'm not used to accomodating guests."

Brenda slumped back onto the soft resting place, which was just a two by two yards area where the siren had altered her giant body's surface tension. The shock slowly wore off. More memories came back, far less painful ones, of the previous night. Her hands moved over her breasts that felt not nearly as drum-tight as they had before, though the black coating did it's share by keeping them wrapped in tight.

"Well, I might need to refill a little, that's true."

She grinned, sat up and took the thin-walled container from the siren that had been waiting patiently. It felt like finest chinaware, and the water in it really was tasteless to the point of being liquid nothing. She made a grimace, but at least it was something to drink, after all.

S1-R3N stepped back, folded her arms and cocked her head. Her eyes measured up the woman in front of her. Finally, she lifted her right hand up to her chin.

"So tell me, do you want your original shape back, or are you happy with the way you look now?"

"I'll need to dwell on that some more. All the new clothes I'd need to buy ... do you mind waiting another day or two...?"

"Not at all. Listen, you've been involved in ... let's call it internal affairs. Even if you'd tell anybody we exist, who would believe you? We're only few, and we're good at hiding away. So take all this as a freak event that's not going to happen again, ever. I can only guess how much this must irk you. If there's anything I can do to make amends, just tell me. Gold, jewels, that kind of stuff, you name it." The siren smiled. "In the meantime, what do you want for lunch? I've got", she blinked, staring into the distance, "green algae, sugar kelp, seaweed salad or improv sushi." Another blink. "Sorry. For everything else, we'll have to moor someplace deserted."

"Ew. Don't bother. I think I can make do with just water for three more days."

She leant forward and wrapped her arms around the scaled tail of the mermaid statue, and playfully nibbled at her hip.

"I've been wondering what a siren tastes like, though."

S1-R3N slid down to her knees, took Brenda's chin between her thumb and index finger and lifted her head.

"You mean for lunch, or for amends? Either way, that wish is one I can handle."

"Uh-huh?" The redhead's fingers moved over the siren's ample buttock and stopped where, instead of thighs and a vulva, her skin turned into a single trunk of scales. "I'm not so sure about that."

Right underneath her grip, the hinted-at cleft grew deeper until the trunk separated into two thighs, and Brenda's fingertips slipped into a fully detailed crotch.

"You'll find me to be rather flexible, human."

Chapter 15: Farewell

Four months later.

Saphina luxuriated in the warm, gentle breeze that moved over her naked body, resting on the rumpled, still sweat-drenched silk sheets. Ah, finally no more need for stoves, fireplaces, or layers and layers of thick, itchy blankets. The late forenoon sun shone through the half-closed blinds of the bedroom window. Though, calling the room a mere "bedroom" did not do justice to the most luxurious suite of the hotel that Saphina had, on a whim, decided to turn into her winter residence. It was one of the finest addresses in the capital of her old homeland. If she strained her eyes, she could even see the ancient, derelict temple from the garden on the hotel's rooftop. Weeks ago, she had done business the way she liked it: She had simply walked in through the door and thrown a pouch of jewels on the owner's table, and everyone had been happy ever after. The press had called her "a mysterious, benevolent investor with great plans for our beloved country." Dawnielle and her had had a good laugh at that headline.

Dawnielle had been long gone when Saphina woke up, as usual. No need to frighten the servants, after all. But today, there also was a folded-up note on the washbasin's table, which read:

"Morning, sleepyhead. Meet me in the dunes at the northwestern beach, five miles out. You know why. I'm sorry. - D."

She had crushed the piece of paper, with tears in her eyes.

Saphina stepped out of the rented motor car, pondering getting one of these after all. Sure, they were expensive, but the amazed looks all around that it drew - that was worth something. She might need to hire someone to take care of the technicalities, though. She smiled, until she realized she just tried to distract herself. To not think of why she actually had come. She took a deep breath and looked around.

The sun-drenched strip of sand was deserted. Long waves rolled in and gently ebbed on the flat shore. She raised her hands to her mouth, and hollered "I'm here!"

A building-sized black stone head rose from the sea, followed, after a few seconds of suspiciously looking around, by the rest of the body.

"Siren? Dawnielle?"

The reply, intended as whisper, was deafening nonetheless.

"Among others, yes."

"So this is it? The final good-bye? Why do you have to leave?"

"Did you not notice? Your world is changing fast now. It's getting smaller by the hour. The white spots on the maps are disappearing fast. News has come in that a clever guy over in the southern alliance has discovered how to transmit information through the air, without using magic at all. The same way we control our bodies. We'll be easily traceable soon, and, well, you know..."

She nodded. "I know. You like to keep out of the limelight. I just wish I'd not have to let you go. I'll feel empty without you. Could you give me one last hug?"

Saphina looked up at the fifteen stories high stone figure, doing puppy eyes. "Please?"

A bulge developed on the right shin, and as it melted back like black ice retreating from a flame, leaving behind an encased stone, Dawnielle's two-legged shape emerged from it. "Of course."

Saphina ran to her and pressed into her friend who embraced her in return. "I don't want to lose you. It's tearing me apart."

Dawnielle's laughter shook through both of their bodies. "More than I did, on occasion?" Saphina lifted her face from the soft bosom and looked her in the eyes. Over the bare-teethed smile, the simulation of black tears welled in the emerald glow of her feline eyes. "Dawny...?" "I'm sorry. I thought it wouldn't happen, but this seems to be an automated..."

She sniffled. "I've got a gift for you."

"What could you give to me, beyond what you already have? You've brought magic into my life."

"Not yet, I'm afraid." The living statue lifted her hands and slowly flexed her fingers. A faint, purple glow hovered around them. Saphina stared in disbelief.

"Magic? You can do real magic? How...?"

"I'm that kind of librarian who actually reads all the books she can get her hands on. And while Siren had Brenda's books stored inside her, she parsed them on my request. We've found that Brenda had done some amazing research, but hadn't connected all the dots. I did, and I've added all I've found in our library to the mix, and it worked. Sort of. Precious little magic is left on this world, and it's decaying fast. What you're seeing here is scraped from the bottom of the barrel. Figure of speech."

"So what are you going to use it for?"

"You've dreamt of being even more impressive. Well, this trick doesn't require tech and won't fade. Come to me, my puppies."

Saphina felt a tingle in her aureoles, together with invisible fingers faintly tucking at her nipples.

"Do you think this is okay? It tickles!"

"Oh yes." Dawnielle wiggled her fingers and then held them as if she carried two bowls, a foot in front of Saphina. "Come forth, I order you."

The tingle spread out over her skin, and into the tissue as well. Saphina struggled to keep her hands down at her sides. She didn't know how much longer she'd be able to resist scratching this horrible itch.

"Can't ... " She gasped for air as the stimulation stopped. " ... hey?!"

"Now I guess we're ready."

Something happened inside her chest. She felt the onset of the growth, slow at first. It was something akin to a trembling muscle, but it spread all over her breasts. And once it did, Saphina's breasts surged forward, straining to meet and cuddle into the held-out palms. She was pulled along by the strange attraction and felt her flesh settle into the gentle touch of Dawnielle's fingers. Her skin stretched slowly along with the growing volume. She felt her back muscles starting to tighten to hold the weight. This was no foam, or any other trick. Those breasts really were her own, they clung to her chest, sagging and swaying gently as Dawnielle let go. They stood out by their own bulk, probably a hand's width at the nipples that pointed slightly downward, showing clearly through the loose shirt that wasn't so loose any more. She groped and could hardly believe the perfect feeling.

"Saphina?"

She had to tear her eyes away from her own rack, from the impressive bust that now rivaled the shape and volume of the breasts on her sphinx. Tearing away her eyes, only. Her hands kept on weighing and feeling her new bulk.

Dawnielle lifted her own hands to the side of her feline face. "I owe you so much. I'd like you to have this, and please, allow me ..."

She took off her face, like a mask. The human face beneath it was one that Saphina knew all too well. She saw it every morning, in the mirror. It was her own.

"... to honor your friendship and help, by wearing your face."

Saphina smiled. "Of course. Hey ...", she started to grin, and put her index finger on the replicated nose, " ... do I really look that stupid?"

Dawnielle joined in the chuckle, before she quickly raised her head and caught Saphina's finger with her lips. She sucked it into her mouth, licked it and then let it go.

"Oh, and one more thing. It'll help you to even better remember the time we shared."

"As if I needed a reminder!"

The sphinx' smile broadened. "Just you wait." She put her hands on her midriff, where they melted into her body. Moments later, they re-emerged, clutching a two feet tall statue made from her own mass. The replica of her lioness-headed shape held a rigid, upright posture, arms folded over her breast, its feet close together. "Here, lest you forget what I looked like." Saphina felt its solid weight in her hands. "I ... I don't know what to say..."

"How about a simple 'Thank you'? Oh, and maybe a few screams of 'oh goddess!' at night, every now and then? Granted, it's not quite as refined without my brain, but if you let it charge in the sunlight all day, it'll wear you out at night faster than you can wear out its battery. Provided you put it into the right places." The sphinx patted the surprised woman on the crotch and pulled up her eyebrows with a lewd grin. "I've programmed it with detailed movement patterns and stimulation strategies that match your preferences. It'll return to this shape afterwards, so you can always claim it's a trophy or something. Seems so little a gift for someone that's helped me save the world."

She brushed over Saphina's cheek. "Yes, that toy's no replacement for a nice chat, but it can help you through lonely nights. Trust me. And, it can turn into a skin-tight dress that no knife or firearm can pierce, should you ever need that kind of protection. You're rich now, and single. You'll need to watch your back." She tapped against Saphy's forehead. "Just wish for it to react. It'll obey. It's pretty clever, for a brainless machine."

They stood silent as the moments stretched, at a loss for words.

"Hey, lovebirds! You done down there? The rest of us is burning power on idle here!" A short crackle, then another voice boomed down: "Oh shut up, CY-N1C! Yo, Saph! N1M-PH0 speaking. I just finished checking 5PH-1NX' records. Remember that cute, shy lieutenant that asked you about your tattoo? Hint: go get him! He's got my seal of approval! ... No, I'm ... Oh shut up, all of you! ... Yes, stamina AND girth ... hands off the amplifier! I don't care about ... Hey!" and the voice turned to a mumble and was cut off with a popping sound.

Saphina chuckled. Dawnielle rolled her eyes in mock desperation. "Those girls! That's going to be one looong trip, all of us crammed in there, I tell you! Be glad you don't have to ... to ..." She bit her lips and blinked fast, several times.

The woman smiled a weary smile. "I'm going to be alright, love. Really. Now go and run along with your playmates, they're waiting!" She poked a finger into the ribs of the sphinx who playfully cringed out of the way. "Come on! Off you go! We're all not getting any younger here! And tell N1M-PH0, I'll ... get a sample in her name."

The tall figure smiled and sighed. "Will do. Promise me you'll take good care of yourself, girl." She ran her fingers through Saphina's hair. "Farewell." Smiling on through another sigh, she turned and walked away. Her body liquified when she touched the foot of the huge statue.

"You're a freak!" Saphina called after her, laughing through her tears.

The reply thundered down from the huge mouth far above. "But not certified!"

Taking a thirty-yards step backward, the humanoid giant knelt down. The glistening stone flowed to new shapes, and Saphina saw the four-legged sphinx emerge, albeit with only a streamlined face and the muscles on the body only hinted at in a technical way, not unlike an armor.

Two large wings, mechanical rather than shaped after a living being, formed. The transformation continued even as the figure broke into a run, thundered across the desert and was suddenly gone in a blinding flash of light.

The sky and land around her were empty again. Drifting sand quickly filled the footsteps and paw prints. There was no point in looking into the sky, straining to find a disappearing dot of light. Instead, Saphina lifted the statue and gently brushed over the bald head.

"Farewell, Dawnielle."

END

This story was inspired, in parts, by overexposure to: music with loud guitars or fast synthesizer beats in it, interspersed with the occasional metal ballad; that black stuff in the X-Files; Spawn; The Blob; Terminator 2; Kahena, Aliens 2 & 4; Tomb Raider; Indiana Jones; Asimov's robot stories; Star Trek - Deep Space Nine, or at least parts of it; and far too much porn on Them Intertubes...

Chapter listing

Prelude or: Last week, in an ancient temple far, far away... (vag insertion)

Chapter 1: Party's over or: A look at Saphina's new lifestyle (plot only)

Chapter 2: Off the wall or: BE and how it's useful for your daily workout (nanite BE, milking)

Chapter 3: Lock and load with three aliens conflating into one, and back again. (nanite BE)

Chapter 4: Dress to squeal or: how to use BE for that "used" look (nanite BE, milking)

Chapter 5: Ticket includes gratuitous in-flight entertainment or: the dangers of tripping on velocity (sex, no BE, plot only)

Chapter 6: Hostile takeover which sees our heroines fall prey to their nemesis (little vag/ins, but I'd label it 'plot only')

Chapter 7: A most undesired turn of the table which includes a kind of BE I've not seen elsewhere. Then again, what do I know? (nanite/magic/air BE, multiple breasts)

Chapter 8: Not designed for continuous operation or: one of our heroines goes pop (air BE)

Chapter 9: An immoral offer and sound advice any time: don't toast with madwomen. (nanite/magic BE and vaginal growth)

Chapter 10: Sphinx, reloaded but will that be enough to stop the maniac? (a little vag/ins, but mostly plot)

Chapter 11: If at first you don't succeed ... you damn better think about it before you try again! (putting the results of BE to good use, plot)

Chapter 12: Final countdown or: you want beans with that? (magic air BE and general inflation)

From here on, it's all about bringing closure to the whole three-part story.

Chapter 13: A late introduction or: ding dong the witch is dead - can we please go home now? (plot)

Chapter 14: Wrapping up Brenda or: nothing like form-fitting, living, morphing clothes to accentuate the chest (a little nanite BE and lact.)

Chapter 15: Farewell and a gift that stays with you your whole life (magic BE, plot)