[Clown TF, Genderswap]

"Kuroto! What did you need me for?"

The energetic pastel-colored AI girl chimed as she jumped out of the console housing her game, giggling a little as she landed right in front of the well-dressed game developer with a smile on her face. It was always such a delight to have her creator over, and she made that very clear.

"Oh, Poppy, there's something I needed your efforts for. Something simple, but something only you can do." The dark-haired young man replied, smiling back as he slowly pulled out a cartridge shaped device from his pocket. A Gashat, akin to the one that was plugged into the machine that the AI known as Poppy Pipopapo used as her home. "I want you to test out this new game that Genm Corp is working on. After all, if the enemies aren't acting as they should, somebody could end up catching Game Disease before a Bugster even gets involved." He explained as he tapped the side of the red and white item, causing the girl to tilt her head in response.

The AI spun around a little as she let the thoughts bounce around inside of her head, humming in the process... "But, Kuroto? I'm a Bugster too, won't my meddling cause problems for the game if it's still in a buggy state?" She raised concern, only for the concern to be brushed aside by her creator with a hearty chuckle.

Kuroto, or rather Dan Kuroto as he was formally known, could hardly truly care about the buggy state of his games. At least, outside of his crown jewel. But he wasn't going to reveal that jewel to anybody until it was complete. He had plans for it. "Relax, Poppy. The game'll accommodate for your presence, and everything will be as smooth as can be once we're sure that it doesn't malfunction with a 'player' in play." He assured her while he swapped out the Gashat plugged in the machine with the new, unlabelled one. "You just have to jump right back into the machine, and we can get to testing."

Poppy continued to jitter back and forth a little. "Maybe we should wait for the others to come back, they're busy fighting Bugsters, and I'm sure they'd want to keep tabs on whatever Genm Corp is putting out. After all, all of these digital monsters have come from games like mine, so..."

The Developer gently ran his hand through her hair as he smiled supportively. "Don't worry. The Riders won't need to know a thing. You just do your job to support them, like through bug-testing this game, and they'll appreciate you more. Now, I'll have to go. Please, don't wait too long."

Worried or not, the AI had to listen to her creator as she nodded in agreement. "If you say so, Kuroto. I'll go deal with the bugs in the program, and you won't have to worry either! I bet when you're back, everything'll be just right!" She chimed as she jumped into the screen, leaving the well-dressed man behind...

Where he had all the time in the world to laugh to himself as he departed. "Oh, she's as easy to trick as ever... Well, I hope those bothersome Riders will enjoy the little Present I'm leaving for them..."

His true colors had not yet been exposed, but the effects of his plan would certainly show on Poppy while she explored the trap of a game that he had developed...

---

"Hmmmmmmmmm."

Poppy looked around the inside of the Gamescape, scratching the back of her head as it felt kind of... empty. It was a lot of black and wide space that didn't seem to have its environment properly initialized. Maybe Kuroto hadn't actually finished programming the game and she was just taken for a fool? It wasn't entirely out of character for him to spring a little prank on her, but this was absurd.

"Helllloooooo? Anybody in here? Anything? Anywhere? Come on, there has to be something for me to interact with!" The rhythm game mascot shouted into the far reached of the unknown plain, only for static to suddenly replace all of the black that surrounded her. "Ah! Finally, a response!"

Her expression quickly grew wider and more surprised as the endless, massive void was quickly replaced with... a circus? Such a tight space compared to what was around before, but it definitely was a little better than what was there before. Curious environments were always better than nothing!

The pink-haired Bugster stepped around the stage illuminated by a few lights, humming to herself as she looked around into the stands, spotting several shadowed figures that seemed like background objects. "So far so good, the actual stage seems to have been initialized, which means it's just a matter of the actors getting into play too... But, where are they?"

As if on queue, the lights then focused on the pastel-dressed girl, illuminating her from head to toe as a bunch of laughs echoed from the audience. "Eh? What? I'm not an actor in this game, I'm just a visitor!" Poppy cried out, only to giggle a little herself. She tried to stop... but the giggling continued.

"Eheh... Wh..ehehe... Why can't I eheheh... Stop laughing? Ahahaha!" The laughing continued to slip forth from her lips as she tried to stop the flow, only to find that she couldn't control herself. The reason why became readily apparent as she tried to look upward, only to notice that a specific light looked a little more off than the rest... as it displayed a message on its lens.

'BUGSTER DETECTED. REPROGRAMMING AND ADDING TO ACTORS'.

Not two seconds later and Poppy finally realized what the game was supposed to be. Sure, it was supposed to be fun for people to play, but it was also a trap for independent AI like her, the ones born from games, the Bugsters! Of course, she couldn't blame Kuroto for making one since they did need some way to fight back against the hostile ones, but she could blame him for using her as a test subject for the entire process.

"Kurotoooooo! Let me out! I don't want to be a part of some dumb clown game!" The pastel-colored AI managed to cry out amidst her continued laughter, but the complaint fell on deaf ears as the laughter from the audience continued to intensify in turn. "And can you guys stop laughing too!? It's not funny! I... Okay maybe it's a little funny to watch me squirm and shout, but that doesn't mean you have to do it so much!"

That complaint fell on equally deaf ears, as she was just yelling at the background... which resulted in her laughing more as well, given how silly she was acting. Why was she even bothering to try and talk to people that didn't exist? She shouldn't be that silly, but she was. Silly was her entire lifeblood at that point. Rhythm? Style? None of that really mattered anymore, at least not within her internal electronic mind. She just wanted to laugh and make others laugh... or one part of her did, and that part was quickly overpowering the rest of her.

"Ehehehehe..." Poppy giggled, her eyes briefly flickering into a flash of colors as she slowly spun around in place, all of the lights from above focusing on her as the spinning quickly grew stronger and stronger, until she had managed to throw off her entire dress, leaving her nearly naked aside from the cute pink undies that nicely decorated her smoothed out form.

Now that she had fully disrobed, she needed to take the next step to become a part of the Bugster-trapping Circus. To achieve that, a rope dropped down from above. "Why there's a silly little rope hanging from nowhere, I wonder what happens if I do something as silly as pull it?"

She giggled loudly and clear as she grabbed ahold of the rope before yanking downward, causing it to fall and a bucket to fall down with it, landing squarely on the poor gal's head and covering it all up while a bunch of white liquid splashed down and all around her.

The liquids gradually soaked their way into her skin as her giggling just kept on growing louder and more captivating, while she removed the bucket to reveal her chalk-white face and hair, devoid of color. Even her eyes were so white that you could barely just make out the iris within. The rest of her body had taken on the same chilling shade of white as she started spinning around, shaking the remaining wet stuff off her.

"That's a nice makeover, but we're still forgetting something!" The near-naked girl chimed, only to suddenly wince as a pie hit her face from out of nowhere! Where had it come from? Nobody cared, the audience in the background merely laughed at the pale clown-like girl as the tin fell to the ground.

A big ol' tongue shot out of the lips covered up by the smushed up pie, licking off the entire thing before revealing the newly added color on the pale girl's face. Where there had previously been nothing but white, now there were plenty of colors! Around her eyes were bright yellow triangles that made it look like her eyes were suns, while her cheeks were adorned with a pair of music notes in that very same pink. Her hair wasn't spared a recolored fate as the whitened locks had turned a more disgustingly bright yellow, to match the sun-like markings around her eyes. Lastly, her lips had plumped out just a little to make them pop out more against her pale skin as those black puckers popped right against the 'background'. She looked like a proper clown when she wore all this makeup...

"Uhuhuhuh! That's muuuuuch better! What do you all think, am I done?" Poppy asked the audience, only for them to shout collectively in disagreement. "What's that? Do you want more? Well, I've got more, just watch this!"

A clap resounded from the stage as a pair of boxes unceremoniously dropped down behind her, marked with a bunch of question marks. "Watch me now, everyone! Gone'll be silly Poppy, and a new Bugster'll be born when I pop back out. Goodbyeeee!" She chimed cheerfully, not even noticing that her yellowed eyes were spiraling as if she had been brainwashed... because of course, a victim couldn't notice their own reprogramming.

The door to the box shut after the former pastel-colored girl slipped on inside, and the person-sized container started to jolt and jitter and bounce and wobble... until it pinged, and a small bit of smoke started to emit from the crevice between the door and the box.

Open went the box... but there was nobody left inside. Where did Poppy go?

"Over here!" A voice cried out from the other box, only for that door to fly open as a girl jumped out, landing with a spin in front of all the lights and roaring applause. "Say hello to your new and bestest friend! Circus Bugster!" The remade AI laughed as she declared her rebirth to the background while showing off the entirety of her new look...

Standing in the middle of the stage was the changed Poppy Pipopapo, now dressed from head to toe in a proper outfit fitting for her new role as a clown! Up top was a simple cap with a bunch of floppy little bits with bells on the end, with the same pink and yellow that adorned her face. Across her entire torso, she wore an equally simple bodysuit in those very same colors, from her neck to her feet, which clung so tightly that it was almost as if it was a second layer of skin. Her hands and feet were both covered in equally silly and oversized gloves and shoes, completing the look of a clown that she now had. And to top it off, she wore a bright red round clown nose to put the proverbial cherry on top of her look.

'REPROGRAMMING COMPLETE. CIRCUS BUGSTER REBORN. SCANNING VICINITY FOR ADDITIONAL BUGSTERS'

---

By the time Poppy had finished her reconstruction, both of the doctors working to deal with the Bugster Virus had returned to the hospital, the younger of whom collapsed into one of the chairs from exhaustion.

"Sheesh, working with you is such an ordeal..." The young intern, Emu, complained as he pulled himself up into a proper sitting position while the sterner of the two took note of the altered machine in the back.

The surgeon, Hiro, narrowed his eyes as he looked at the screen displaying... a circus? "...Intern. Take a look at this. Poppy Pipopapo is nowhere to be seen." He grimly noted, while the other Doctor Rider practically bolted out of his seat as a result.

"What do you mean Poppy's not here? And... Wait, is that a circus? Wasn't DoReMiFa Beat plugged into this?" The younger man took note of the discrepancy, only for the screen to suddenly flash a bright array of colors.

'BUGSTER VIRUS DETECTED. DISPATCHING ANTI-BUGSTER DEFENSE.' Displayed in bright red on the screen, as the colors on it started to warp and ripple before the Circus Bugster suddenly jumped straight out, giggling all the while as she spun around to stare down the two Doctors moonlighting as Riders.

The clown-like girl winked at both the intern and the surgeon as she beckoned them. "Come on, boys, let's have some fun. You'll make great parts of the circus once the game's done with you!" The Bugster taunted them as she continued to laugh, stretching slightly as she waited patiently for them to transform.

"Wait... Kagami-san, that's got to be Poppy! There's nobody else that could be in that machine, it has to be he-" Emu tried to protest the impending fight, only for the surgeon to ignore him completely as he pulled out his console-shaped transformation device. "Kagami-san!" He shouted defensively as he did the same, prepared to fight against his ally to protect the corrupted Bugster.

Hiro ignored the pleas of the intern as he pulled out his personal Gashat. "Proceeding to Level 2." Bugsters would receive no remorse from him, as his transformation sequence commenced.

The younger of the two riders gritted his teeth as he followed behind swiftly, drawing out his own Gashat before echoing with his own phrase. "Dai-Henshin!"

And while those two idiots were just about to transform, a glint appeared in the clown's eyes. The corrupted machine behind them equally started to glow a foreboding set of colors as a set of data transmitted straight to the two Riders' trinkets, overwriting the transformative information within...

In turn, corroding the results of the end transformation. Where two masculine mascot-themed riders would've stood, now stood two different kinds of cute and feminine mascots to match the clown.

The intern, who would've turned into a jump-mastering hero, had instead turned into a simple clown-like the Bugster that had prompted their aggression. Unlike Circus Bugster however, her new attire was way simpler. A single-colored bodysuit that covered everything, complete with a simple expressionless mask that adorned her 'face'. No mouth, which meant that she couldn't speak or even squeak out a single struggling noise as she started to tremble after the transformation finished.

The surgeon, who would've turned into a hero of a generic roleplaying game, had instead turned into the exact kind of companion such a hero would have. Like his teeth-clenched partner, he was dressed in a bodysuit, but she was a little luckier as there was a bunch of wonderful fur covering up every little inch of her face. Like the other Rider, she wore a mask for a face that displayed a cartoonish lion. Any words that'd slip out of her new face's mouth would turn into cute mewls, leaving her just as helpless in the face of her new permanent form.

"Aw, you two turned out quite cute. A little assistant, and a pretty little kitty that'll serve as a nice plaything for the Circus to enjoy." Circus Bugster chimed as she put her hands on both transformed girls' cheeks, grinning as they suddenly froze. "No more of that bad Bugster behavior from you two. Now you obey the Circus. Understand?"

'FORMER PROGRAMMING DELETED. NEW ROLES ADDED. REGISTERED TO THE CIRCUS.' The screen displayed as both of the transformed Riders saluted, a little 'meow' echoing from the former Surgeon's mask causing all three of them to giggle to the best of their abilities.

With the threat to the machine and the game removed, it was time for the Bugsters to return to their game. And thus they did, each of them jumping straight back into the screen as it quietly shut off, its functions being complete for the time being.

Hopefully, somebody would come by and help out the former heroines and their helper. Or they'd just stay a part of the new game forever.

As part of Bugster Circus.