“Did you just sigh audibly?”
Vanessa started, a guilty flush spreading along her cheeks. She hadn’t meant for anyone to hear that, least of all Nick. Her best friend had a supernatural gift for picking out the exact right things to embarrass her.
“N-no.” Was the best she had to offer. Her cheeks reddened further as she realized the futility of her lie. “Yes.” She sighed the last part, giving up on any hope of a successful façade. On the bright side, he was only bugging her about that, and not on her choice of costume: a sexy dog-girl outfit that her sister had bought her. She’d switched off the costume’s ears and tail almost immediately, disliking how they twitched in time with her emotions.
For a moment, the only sound was the constant beat of the music, an upbeat pop song by some foreign artist. Vanessa stared idly at the dance floor, watching someone in a cheaply 3D-printed costume take to the dance floor. It looked like he was supposed to be some sort of anthropomorphic turtle.
“What’s he supposed to be?” Vanessa inclined her head towards the guy, hoping to distract from her little slip.
Nick peered over her shoulder, staring intently. “I dunno... Oh! A Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtle! Or something like that. You know, with the pizza and the ‘Cowabunga’? I think I read about them at the town’s Wikipedia Center.”
Vanessa nodded, trying not to correct him on his slip. She was a big fan of the oldies, but she did her best to make sure nobody knew. After all, it wasn’t ‘becoming’ of a college student to spend all of her time watching shows on the ‘net. “Where do you think he got his costume printed? A home job, I’d say.” She tried to keep the conversation going.
Nick blinked, a slow smile spreading across his face. “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing!” He grinned from ear to ear, and Vanessa flushed again.
Damn.
“You’re trying to distract me from the fact that you’re bored! It’s the dawn of a new century, and you’re bored!” Nick laughed at his friend’s discomfort.
“It’s 2094, that’s hardly the new century.” Vanessa muttered with a scowl.
“Hey, there’s rounding involved.” Nick said.
Vanessa turned, ready to chew him out for whatever mathematics he’d been raised on. Instead, her voice died in her throat as she looked at Nick for the first time that night. He was buff! Really buff, like he was stretching the seams of his New Captain America costume just by breathing.
“Oh, you like?” Nick smirked, flexing for her benefit.
Vanessa nodded dumbly, her eyes wide. “How did you? What did you?” She blinked, common sense reasserting itself. “Your senior project.”
Nick clicked his tongue, giving her a thumbs-up. “Right in one.” He’d been working on some picotechnology, current-gen stuff that was supposed to be able to remodel people. And from the looks of it, his project was a total success. A muscled success with a chiseled jaw…
“You’re drooling.” Nick smirked, and Vanessa colored as she swallowed nervously. She hurriedly picked up her cup from the table beside her, sipping from it nervously.
“So… They let you change yourself for Halloween?” Vanessa mumbled, trying not to stare at his chest.
“Better.” Nick grinned. “I’ve been told to get us some free advertising, so… I spiked the punch.”
Vanessa blinked, then blinked again. “You did what?” She shouted. Luckily, the DJ had chosen that moment to switch to a dubtrance song, and her voice was lost to the rising bass.
“Yep!” Nick chirped, pulling up the sleeve of his uniform. His phone flashed to life on his forearm, and h swiped at the tattoo to unlock it. He walked a little closer to Vanessa, and her face colored at the proximity. “You see?” He had to half-shout to be heard over the music.
Vanessa looked closer, noticing that amid what looked to be biometric readouts there was a little display showing what looked to be green wireframes of everyone on the dance floor, right next to a button. Vanessa nodded, tapping at the display to pan it. A moment later, she had an outline of herself leaning over another wireframe. Only this one was glowing yellow.
“Green’s for inactive, yellow’s for the stuff that’s working!” Nick shouted an explanation. “But that’s not the cool part! The cool part is, I had to work the ‘bots to read off of what people were wearing, and when I press—” he paused to breathe—“When I press this button, the fun begins!”
Vanessa prepared to shout, but the music died down. She looked to the DJ, her eyes widening in surprise as she realized the man was Nick’s project parent, Byron.
“Ladies and gentlemen, as promised, a night you won’t forget! Hit it, Nick!” His voice rang clear and loud through the room.
Vanessa tried to stop her friend as she realized what was going on, but she was unable to grab his hand in time. The phone on his arm expanded so the button was as large as his palm, and he slapped it with undisguised mirth.
“Now, nobody panic—these changes will only last the night!” Byron boomed, his announcer’s voice running clear through the speakers.
Vanessa shuddered as she felt something run through her body, a tingle of what she correctly feared was oncoming change. Her costume’s ears flattened against her head, and her tail stood upright. They burned for just a moment, then twitched.
Meanwhile, her skin started to itch all over, and Vanessa whimpered as she looked down to her arms to find little golden hairs forcing their way out through her pores. It looked like the machines inside her body were taking a liberal interpretation of her costume, making her a little more canine than the cheap outfit implied.
“If you want out at any time, don’t worry! Our little project will only work as long as you’re inside this lovely apartment building!”
Vanessa looked up from her body as a girl shoved her way out from the room. It looked like this particular redhead had come as a robot-insect hybrid, and was now deeply regretting the decision. Her clacking mandibles parted the crowd, and she had to fall onto her belly, crawling on her reshaping limbs as she made it to the door.
As the bug-girl continued to move, she started to shrink, her brown carapace turning a reflective silver, little LEDs lighting up on her shell. The good news was that it made it much harder for people to step on her. The bad news was that it also made her distress a good deal more noticeable, and Vanessa noticed that more and more people were looking at her than at their own changing bodies.
“That said, anyone who stays until the party is over will have their tuition for this semester paid off in full, as a part of being the first test of PicoTech’s Costume Transformation—name pending.”
The bug-like girl stopped at the door, instead skittering up the wall to view the party from a more secluded area. She was joined moments later by a half-formed pixie and girl on her way to becoming a spider. No doubt the group was finding some sense of community in their shared size.
Good for them, Vanessa thought as her tail started to wag of its own volition. She looked down to it irritably, but was soon distracted by another change. Her tongue started to tingle, and Vanessa whimpered as it tripled in length, hanging well past her chin. She slurped it back in, and to her amazement it shrank back to fit in her mouth. She stuck it out again, blinking in surprise as it lengthened again, hanging well past her chin.
“As the dog-girl in the corner has noticed, our machines do our best to keep you comfortable, albeit in character.” Byron chuckled.
Vanessa looked up to find almost everyone in the room staring at her, a mix of human and changed eyes alike. Her ears flattened against her head, and she crossed her furry arms. “Oh, cugh ahw!” She frowned, slurping her tongue back into her mouth before continuing. “It’s not like I’m the oddest one here!”
As if to contradict her statement, her nose darkened, and Vanessa’s tongue instinctively slipped out to moisten it. Much to the dog-girl’s surprise, this was greeted by a cheer from the crowd, and she found her tail wagging again from the attention.
“She. Is. Right.” A flat, mechanical voice spoke from the dance floor, and the crowd parted to reveal a man with a boxy robotic head. “Case. In. Point. I. Am. The. Shuffle. Bot. Here. From. The. Past. And. I. Am. Here… To get freaky.” An old techno song started playing from the robot’s vocal grille, and it proceeded to begin dancing in an old-timey fashion.
The crowd laughed, and he was soon joined by a pair of succubi and a grinning clown.
Byron hurriedly swapped audio tracks, bringing up the song the self-proclaimed ‘Shuffle Bot’ was playing. “You heard the man… Robot… Guy! Let’s party like it’s 2089!”
Vanessa giggled as she watched the crowd, everyone’s changes nearing completion. A pouting jack-in-the-box girl giggled with glee as a fantasy dwarf picked her up, letting her bounce about on the dance floor. The villainess from the new Star Trek reboot started to do ‘the worm’, while a couple that had merged started to make out with themselves, grinding away at the air.
“Still bored?” Nick asked, scratching Vanessa behind her ears. She looked up to find him grinning at her conspiratorially at her.
Vanessa barked in response, laughing as the loud noise made Nick jump in surprise. “Stop gloating and find us a room.” She said by way of response.
Nick blinked in surprise, his face turning as red as a strawberry. “I—I.” He stammered, doing his best to look everywhere but at his friend.
“So you can keep scratching my ears and petting me, you pervert.” Vanessa laughed, licking his cheek. “You won’t be giving this dog a bone just yet.”
“Oh.” Nick’s face fell a little, then his eyes lit up. “Yet?”
Vanessa laughed, grabbing his hand. Her tail wagged as she realized that even his fingers were toned. “Lead the way, Mr. Rogers.” She subconsciously added a small bark, and her cheeks reddened.
Nick grinned, back in his element. “Did you just yip audibly?”