Kyle liked to call himself a bounty-hunter, which was a perfectly accurate description of his occupation, depending on what part of the Empire he was in. He tended to stay out of the other parts. Kyle himself underneath his armour and clothing was tall, with pale skin from his preference for night and indoor environments, with a thick, muscular body covered in whatever scars and burns he had decided weren't worth the price of having surgically removed from his body.
He wasn't in this game to be pretty, and despite his age of forty-seven, he had the body and look of a man twenty years younger had that man been an unaltered, base human, of which there didn't tend to be many save for genetic purists and religious crazies. After all, thanks to modern medicine and the evolution that came with it, he was going to remain in this physical condition for many years to come. He had short, light-blonde hair and a rugged, unshaven face, a not particularly handsome one with its square-jaw and large nose, but one that you would expect to be shoving a gun against your head and suggesting that you may want to make some generous donations to him, which he had certainly done quite a few times, although he tended to consider himself above that these days.
The planet itself was an arid desert, too close to a sun to support life normally on the outside of the settlements, but the breeze of the contained city's night-cycle was pleasant and cool. He passed a multitude of stores, night-clubs, a casino, and illegal establishments that didn't need to bother hiding themselves in this city. He was only interested in one particular bar today, and strictly for information. The owner there had been a helpful informant and news-source for the last ten or so years of his life, and was in a similar state for many other people of his ilk. While it was a friendly relationship, there were zero delusions that both of them weren't in it exclusively for their own gain, regardless of what he was there for. He couldn't have a drink passed to him without her claiming it as a favour to be cashed in later.
He stepped into the bar, music playing gently in the background as the smokey atmosphere condensed around him. It was one of the classier places in the city, although it still naturally offered the usual selection of activities and entertainment. The all-female staff helped. He passed one, a blonde woman in a black tank-top, mini-skirt and the same plain choker-band that all of the staff wore that was an easy identificator of their job, curvy enough to attract attention wherever she went, aided by her sauntering walk, although Kyle rarely had time for any time with the women of this establishment. The fact that the blonde had a convincing but extremely artificial smile on her didn't help. It always put him off for some reason.
He went up to the mistress of the house, who doubled as the bartender, currently sliding drinks over to a couple of men at the end of the bar. Jasmine Decata, a dark-skinned, dark-haired beauty who was wearing her usual extremely form-fitting black evening-dress, high-necked over her heaving chest, and her expensive jewelry and perfectly-applied makeup completed the effect of her being the classiest person in the room, and she was well-aware of it. She looked like she was in her late twenties, but she hadn't changed a bit since he had first met her, and she could have been a hundred for all he knew. He sat down, and waited for her to notice him. She didn't like being treated like she was being told or asked to do things. She came to you. Not the other way around.
"Oh, I see you're back already. How did your little job go?" She said in her usual slightly-flirty, seductive tone, although he knew that their relationship was as platonic as it could get, and she just enjoyed doing it.
"Same as always. Brought him in, minimal collateral. Had to shut up a couple of bystanders, but they were nobodies. They won't be missed. I'll have the usual, and I need information." He said, cutting straight to the point after providing her with what she wanted to hear.
"Oh, now do you? Am I blessed with a name today?" She said, as Kyle leaned in, whispering the name into her ear. It paid not to take any chances.
"In the back. Now." She said, Kyle heading around as she motioned for another girl to take over for her.
--
"So, Melissa Jackson? You trying to retire or something? You're going for the big leagues now, dear. Assuming you can get to her." Jasmine said, handing him a shot-glass filled with his usual drink, the strongest you could get short of stopping your heart upon the glass reaching your lips. He downed it in one go, grimacing slightly. Tasted like shit today.
"Not quite. Thought I'd move up the ranks a bit." He said, he and Jasmine sitting sitting down on opposing armchairs in the small back-room behind the bar specifically for meetings like this.
"With a Class C bounty? She killed Ishimura's CEO, stole half their money, and made off into the sunset to never be seen since in fourteen years. What makes you think I've got anything on her?"
"You haven't said you haven't." Kyle bluntly said, smiling slightly, her responding to it in her normal self-assured, confident expression.
"Oh, you seem to know me perfectly, don't you? As it turns out, I happen to know exactly where she is. I don't think you'll have much luck taking her in though."
"I'll worry about that when I get there. Where is she?" He said.
"Depends. What am I getting from your little adventure?"
"Fifty-fifty. It's enough to buy half the city on its own, I don't think either of us will be missing out." He said, Jasmine laughing in response.
"For her bounty? I was thinking twenty-five-seventy-five. After all, you'd never find her without me."
"You get sixty. That's my highest offer."
She sighed in response, shaking her head slightly. "Oh, you really should have taken my offer. I'm afraid you won't be cashing that in any time soon."
Kyle wasn't stupid. He immediately went for his weapon, finding that his arm was failing to respond to the commands he was sending it. He couldn't seem to be able to move anything below his neck, and his expresison quickly became furious.
"The fuck are you doing!? I'll-" He was cut off by a painful electric shock going through him, and Jasmine putting away a gun-like device.
"And that should have taken care of your implants. Now don't try squirming, the mutagen relaxes your body for a reason. Raises your chances of surviving to a whole forty-six percent, you know." She said, holding up his shot-glass, Kyle attempting to hide his panic behind his anger.
"Mutagen? Where the hell did you get-"
"Well, not easily, and not cheaply either. Being illegal and punishable by death upon the slightest suspicion of possession will do that to the price. Definitely worth it though. I really don't like killing, you know. It's messy and a hassle and I can get much more out of you this way. Assuming you live."
"You crazy bitch, why?" Was all he could force out before he lost control of his mouth.
"Honestly, you really shouldn't have gone for me trying that bounty. I think the situation is pretty self-explanatory now. You're not the first to try to go after me, after all." Jasmine, or rather Melissa said, sitting back down with an incredibly self-assured and smug look.
"Now, now is my favourite part, assuming you don't die. The mutagen should start working any second now..."
Kyle couldn't physically express fear, but if he could, he would have been quite loud right now. Mutagens were illegal for a reason, and he had heard a hell of a lot of horror stories from the few people who had tried to replicate them. She seemed to have something planned, so hopefully he wouldn't end up some pile of tumors. He felt his muscles begin to stretch and reshape, and could only move his eyes as the mutagen began to alter his body, in a way he definitely hadn't expected out of all of the horrible changes his mind flashed through.
His body began to lose height, his clothes growing loose as he lost a whole head's worth. His shoulders crunched as they slid closer to each other, his arms quickly growing more slender and smaller as his muscle melted away. He lost excess muscle and fat from his frame as his waist shrank in on itself, his hips growing wider as his clothes alternated between falling onto his smaller body and stretching out in places. His legs went through a similar slimming process, even his feet shrinking as his thighs thickened slightly, going from muscular to curvy and toned. Body hair began to line the floor and the inside of his clothes as he quickly shed it, his face growing smoother as the changes continued.
He desperately tried to regain some control of his body as his strange alterations continued, Jasmine watching with clear enjoyment. On his slender chest, his abs started to swell, nipples growing larger and longer as what were increasingly obviously breasts, as surreal as it was to him, began to grow outwards, settling on a large and obvious D-cup, even through his heavy clothing. His ass rounded out and plumped up as his hips finished growing, giving him an attractive hourglass figure, except for one important feature, one that was quickly receding, quite painfully so, as a slit replaced it in functionality. His insides churned as his internal organs changed and rearranged, the only reason he didn't throw up being his, or rather her, empty stomach. Kyle was attempting to convince himself that this was an utterly insane nightmare, even as her body made a few bone-cracking final adjustments, slimming out a few remaining areas and becoming perfectly slender outside of her curves.
Up top, the last place affected, presumably for the same reasons why his head was the last to go before, began to painfully reconfigure itself. Her jaw narrowed, her cheeks becoming thinner and smoother as her lips pouted and swelled up, her nose shrinking to a fraction of its original size as the rest of her face feminized, eyebrows growing thin as her blonde hair grew out to back-length, nearly obscuring her vision. She was coated in a layer of sweat from this, and glistened as Jasmine realised that the show as over, and walked over to Kyle, who was ready to sob at this point if she was physically allowed to.
She put something around Kyle's neck, which pricked slightly as she realised just what the kind of thing she would be putting on her would be.
"You..." She managed to force out before her mouth failed her, her higher-pitched voice putting her off.
"I can't have you running off now, can I? This little thing violates pretty much every human right you have, particularly the ones around slavery, although I wouldn't really call working for me slavery, even if you don't really have a choice in it. You're far more valuable to me like than that dead, wouldn't you agree?" Jasmine said, starting to strip Kyle, removing his blaster, and commenting briefly on the price that his armour and weapon would get, as well as the implant that gave her access to his ship when Jasmine would eventually dig it out.
"Now, that little choker is quite advanced, you know. If you try to say anything I don't like, such as my name, your name, anything that happened to you, what's going on, that sort of unpleasant thing, or try to write it down or communicate it in any way, depending on where you are a few things might happen. You might be quite painfully shocked as well as rendering you mute, or you might earn a reputation as a girl who has fainting spells. It's all up to you, really, after your training." Jasmine maliciously rambled, "That pretty face should more than make this worth it after a few years. Maybe I'll even let you go outside in a year or two. You really should have picked a better bounty, really."
"Now, what to name you..." Jasmine continued, Kyle desperately trying to regain any control over her new body. "A female verison of your name is really overdone. How about Jessica? Oh, that sounds a nice name for a pretty girl like you. So, Jessica, I'm going to have to ask you to go to sleep for a while." She said, Kyle forcing her mouth into use as she screamed slightly incoherently at her.
"Oh, don't be like that. The room is soundproof, anyway. Now don't try to take that collar off. It'll be non-lethal the first few attempts, but anything serious and I'd be forced to lose my investment. Don't try suicide either, it'd be a waste of good money." Jasmine had planned this out completely, and was enjoying her sadistic treatment of him tremendously as she tapped her choker, Kyle quickly growing drowsy as her new life of servitude in the bar loomed over her.
"Don't worry, you'll be perfectly happy not too long from now. Well, one of us will be. You'll have all the time in the world to try out that new body of yours soon." She said, the last thing Kyle heard before she went unconscious.