Rookies 2
a
Trust Machines story
by
clancy688
Quite a bit nervously, Janice looked at the inconspicuous Venn Machine sitting in the middle of the abandoned mall. Everything seemed dead and peaceful, but it wouldn't be long until the space would be occupied by terrifying monsters - her boyfriend Ben and herself, transformed into monstrous shapes. Of course she was feeling excited about the prospect of becoming a Monster Wars fighter like Mary, otherwise she wouldn't have agreed to her friend's proposal in the first place, but after being a normal human female for nearly thirty years, the prospect of becoming something fairly horrendously different still gave her the creeps.
"Now look at how the two of them are staring at the Venn Machine longingly. I bet they can't await to become monsters!" a slightly mocking voice chirped behind her back, and both Janice and Ben turned, facing the grinning facades of their friends Janice and her boyfriend Steve. A few days before, the couple had introduced them to 'Monster Wars', a shady underworld installment where people changed into monsters and fought against each other until their temporary body's death.
The sight of Mary, a rather petite woman, becoming a frightening worm to battle an equally frightening dog-creature from hell had, in strange ways, intrigued the two. They'd consented to try a shot at this strange 'hobby' themselves, and Mary and Steve had enthusiastically agreed to train them for an upcoming 'Rookie Event' where newcomers to the franchise would be sent to battle against each other.
This was now the second day of their training, and Janice still couldn't quite believe what they'd done at the first - it had been some kind of 'Predator 101' with Ben and herself being changed into full jaguars by her friends and learning the basics of controlling and fighting with a beastly body. At the end of the 'course', the two of them had faced Mary, who'd been changed into a fully grown tiger. Both their Monster Wars-versed friends had placed emphasis on the need of acquiring the experience of 'dying' - when you died in a Venned shape, you came back to life either after your change time was over, or when your dead carcass would be put into a Venn Machine. It was only this peculiarity of the Venn Machines which made Monster Wars with its "fights to the death" possible.
And to achieve their goal of letting Ben and Janice experience temporary 'death', Steve had made sure that for their 'sparring match', Mary would have every edge. Even with a matchable body, Mary, with her experience of over a dozen fights to the death, would probably have made short shrift of the two first-time predators. With her outweighing them by over a hundred pounds, they didn't even have a snowball's chance in hell against the massive tiger. Ben hadn't lasted for more than a few moments until he had succumbed to his wounds. Janice had at least managed to injure Mary slightly before the larger animal had ripped her throat out.
Nearly 24 hours later, this experience of 'dying' still caused Janice icy shivers running down her back, but in the end, she had to concede that Mary and Steve had been right. Now, after they'd experienced it once, the fear of the 'unknown' was mainly gone. Yes, dying while being Venned would still be a very unpleasant experience, even with their pain receptors dialed down, but so was a trip to the dentist. You only had to endure it, and when it was over, you were as good as new.
All of which culminated down into the nice little question what Mary and Steve had in store for them today. Because this time, they weren't in some remote mountain valley, but rather directly next to Monster Wars' arena with its own, private Venn Machine. Apparently, Mary had some leverage with the shady Monster Wars organizers' and had used this influence to 'rent' the location for the evening so that they could practice fighting. When Janice and her boyfriend had shown up in front of the entrance earlier, they'd again been greeted by the imposing man they by now knew as 'Jorge', the chief of Monster Wars' security.
Contrary to their first visit, he'd not shown them the way to the observer's galley, but rather led them into the building which held the Venn Machine, a large space with a roofed passage to the main building where the arena was, and formerly a mall. Everybody who changed into a monster could first admire his or her new body in a large mirror section on one of the walls and then head off towards a couple of holding pens which served as temporary housing for the monsters until the fight was officially started.
"Well, of course we're curious." Ben rose now a bit testily to Mary's challenge and Janice found herself nodding in agreement. "After all you made us do yesterday, you can't fault us for wondering how it would feel doing the same with more... fight-oriented shapes."
Mary giggled. "Oh, of course you are." The woman said cheerfully. "But who said that you'll become monsters and fight now?"
"Wait a moment." Janice put in confused. "We're not? I thought that was why we are here?" she gestured at the hall and the accompanying arena and again her friend giggled.
"Yeah, later. I may have gotten permission to use the Venn Machine for the next few hours, but we're only allowed to do two fights and not more. Because of cleaning and stuff."
That made sense, actually. From what Janice had seen over the course of her previous visit, Monster Wars fights tended to be bloody and gory affairs. To make the arena usable again after a fight, you needed lots of manpower and pressurized water to remove the... debris. But if they were only doing one fight each, why had Mary asked them to free time for several hours? Puzzled, Ben and Janice looked at the other couple. "And... what do you plan on doing then?" Ben put in cautiously.
"You know, Monster Wars is not only about mayhem and destruction dealt by your claws and teeth, it's also about designing those claws and teeth." Steve explained helpfully. "You need to create your own monster bodies, and we will not help you with the creative process. We don't wanna spoil our trade secrets, after all." He gave them a humorous twinkle. "And to be a creative designer, you need to have experienced lots of different shapes, so that you know all the differences between having claws and having tentacles, for example."
"Wait, you're basically going to turn us into all kinds of strange monsters?" Ben inquired bewildered, but Mary waved her finger in front of his face.
"Tsk, tsk." she said chidingly. "What did we say? No spoiling trade secrets and therefore no monsters. Turning you into monsters we have designed would give away all our little secrets to you. Maybe one, to learn, but certainly not a handful or more. No monsters. But changing you into monsters for learning purposes isn't necessary, after all, nature is the best teacher..."
Janice was the first to catch on. "Um... so you're... basically turning us into all kinds of different animals, so that we can build our own monsters out of all these creatures, kinda like Frankenstein?"
"Bravo, that's an A+!" Mary beamed. "Yeah, that's the gist of it. Although we'll adjust the size of the animals we turn you into upwards and downwards for practical purposes. A rhino doesn't fit into the Venn Machine, and lizard may be too small. So, wanna begin?"
"Errr... sure..." Janice replied. It sounded fairly reasonable. And she had been a jaguar yesterday, even enjoyed it, so becoming an animal again didn't put her off. She was just wondering what kind of animals Mary had in store for them.
Her friend interrupted her thoughts. "I thought we'd begin with something basic first. A lecture on how convenient a flexible body can be. So, who of you wants to go first?"
Janice made eye-contact with her boyfriend. He smiled and nodded, moving his head towards the Venn Machine. Janice sighed. "Okay." she said, "I'll go first."
After both women had entered the Venn Machine, the interface popped up, showing a grinning Mary. "Alright!" Janice's friend replied cheerfully. "First you'll change me into myself with some kind of chalk board and, of course, chalk in my hands."
Puzzled, Janice obeyed. "Um... and I need to do that exactly why?"
Mary winked. "Oh, your changed form will be very flexible but hearing is a bit of a problem. At least all the higher frequent stuff like speech. So I need the board to talk to you."
"Hearing will be impaired...? What... will I become?" Janice asked curiously. An animal that could only hear lower frequent noises? That excluded nearly every mammal she knew... she was still thinking when a grinning Mary hit the button and Janice's point of view was suddenly only a few inches above the floor, the executed transformation answering her question.
A bit awkwardly, Janice slithered her changed body out of the booth. The sudden lack of limbs made it abruptly clear what Mary had turned her into, but the look in the mirrors was a bit of a shock anyway. Swiftly, she slithered closer, amazed at both the sight of the large python, herself, and the realization that the sudden lack of arms and legs wasn't bothering her. Instead, she started coiling herself into a tight bun, amazed at the powerful muscles she felt moving under her skin.
I may be lacking arms and legs, but that's not a disadvantage, actually... Janice realized while she inspected her body, marveling at all the new agility of her spine. In this shape, she didn't need arms or legs. Her trunk was more than enough to trap any animal... or enemy. In fact, she was fairly certain that she was powerful enough to crush anything close to her size between her coils - as long as she managed to wrap herself around it.
A low, rumbling sound interrupted her and Janice turned her head towards her friends, a bit annoyed at the fact that she couldn't hear them. Ben was obviously talking to Steve, the two men's mouths moving and both gesturing at her, but all Janice received was this strange low-resonant rumble. Oh well... that's what the chalk board was for after all. Mary was already scribbling madly.
[First lesson - arms and legs are not necessary for being powerful. It all depends on the type of body you're designing!] the white letters on the black slate said after her friend had finished, and Janice nodded her head, storing away the information. Mary grinned, apparently pleased that her hint had been well received, and then said something to Ben.
Janice's boyfriend nodded, gave his python-turned lover a grin and thumbs-up and then walked towards the Venn Machine with Steve in tow. One minute later, a nearly identical, though differently colored python slithered up next to her and tested the limits of its body, much to Mary's and Steve's amusement. To Janice, the whole scene appeared like out of some kind of strange, colored silent movie, but it didn't take long and she was emulating her boyfriend, slithering her body through the wide mall.
The two teachers let their snake-turned friends explore their bodies for a bit more than ten minutes and then gestured for them to come back to the Venn Machine. Janice even felt a bit sad, during the last few minutes she'd grown accustomed to her body's power. If she'd fought Mary like this yesterday, and if she'd have managed to evade the first bite and wrap herself around the big tiger, strangling it in the process...
Oh, come on. She chided herself as she slithered towards the booth. It's not as this will be the only powerful shape I'll possess today. In fact, I'm wondering what else Mary has in store for me...
*******************************************
"So, you ready for the big final?" Mary giggled on the other side of the interface. Janice only replied with an exasperated snarl, absentmindedly grinding her claws at the unyielding metal of the booth. The snake before had only been the beginning, and Ben and her had spent the last two hours in a dizzying number of bodies - there'd been bats to demonstrate other means of orientation than seeing, rhinos with their mass, crocodiles with their armor of scales, gorillas with their brutish power... Her current, second to last shape was that of a Velociraptor, apparently a famous "natural" (although unused by nature since 76 million years) design in Monster Wars, with its sleek, clawed lethality.
Janice had enjoyed most of the forms, had also enjoyed her current form, her dagger-sized teeth and sickle-sized claws making her feel dangerous. But the last change, the one which would be coming now, she wasn't looking forward to. Especially since Steve had already changed Ben, and even to a ten-feet predatory dinosaur, his shape had looked distinctively odd - and threatening. Intellectually, she had known from the first moment that Mary wouldn't skip such a form, and she even agreed that it was a necessary part of their familiarization with the pros and cons of the animal kingdom's natural weapons. Which, of course, didn't mean that she had to like it.
Mary laughed, looking into Janice's slit, reptilian eyes and being unfazed by the display of her impressive maw. "I take that as a yes. Don't worry, it'll feel as comfortable as all the other changes. Once you're changed, it won't gross you out anymore. Bon voyage!"
A few moments later, Janice, again in a new form, exited the booth under the clicking noise of numerous chitinous legs on metal and concrete. Of course Mary had been right and the change felt perfectly comfortable, but it was still a lot more alien than the other shapes she'd been in today. A few feet away, Ben already waited and clicked one of his giant pincers in encouragement, his dreadful maw shifting to something which he may had intended as a smile, but didn't quite work as intended thanks to his radically changed face.
Nonetheless Janice clicked her own pincers in agreement and then rotated her body on her eight legs towards the mirror, slowly moving closer. Of course she knew what she'd see there, even so the sight of her body was disconcerting to say the least. A chitin-armored carapace, lifted by four pairs of legs. A pair of giant pincers for arms. A long tail with a bulbous venom sack and a stinger. And last but not least her "face". The tiny, evil black eyes on her head were scary enough. But what was below, between her pincers, was way worse. A large maw, guarded not by a jaw but by a pair of mouth-claws.
Scorpions had always been animals which had scared her a bit, and now she herself was one. Not to mention a larger-than-human sized version! Testing, Janice spread her mouth-claws, presenting a horrendous gullet. Swiftly, she closed them again, the fangs at the end scraping across each other with an audible click. For a few moments, she simply marveled at the fact that the terrible monster squatting in the mirror was actually her! Then she started trying out her body, doing a few mock stings with her tail, shifting through her legs and clicking her pincers.
It didn't take long until Janice started to appreciate her form. She was vicious and appalling, but at the same time dangerously lethal. Her natural weapons as a Velociraptor had already been formidable, but as a scorpion...! Her chitin-armor was probably even harder to penetrate than a dinosaur's scales, and if she'd manage to get an enemy leg between her pincers... not to mention the fact that more squeamish opponents would probably hesitate to come close to her maw.
"Guess there's someone who likes being horrible." Mary finally piped up, interrupting Janice's self-exploration and the woman-turned scorpion rotated her body until she was looking at her friend. As a human, she'd have glowered at the woman, but since she was currently not capable of glowering, she settled upon spreading her mouth-fangs wide open and clicking with her pincers.
As a response, Mary simply waggled her finger. "Is that supposed to be scary?" she taunted Janice. "Don't forget, I've been some way worse looking creatures. But you do like this shape, don't you? Isn't it powerful?"
Janice considered how to respond to this statement. Nodding was effectively impossible, for that motion to work she was missing a neck. So she settled upon bobbing her whole carapace up and down. Mary grinned and then, to Janice's surprise, came closer and even laid a hand on one of her pincers, the other stroking over her chitinous back! If their roles had been reversed, she'd never have moved this close to a giant scorpion, regardless if a good friend was piloting it or not.
"So, that concludes our little expedition through the animal kingdom. With the final lesson being: Even disgusting looking creatures have their advantages!" Mary told Janice while she kept stroking her, oblivious of her arachnid friend's stinger hovering barely a feet above her head. "Now that you've experienced most useful animal forms there's come the time for you to create your own form. First, you'll have to change back..."
She motioned at the other scorpion, Ben, who'd waited a few feet away and now obeyed the command, scurrying swiftly towards the Venn Machine. Interested, Janice's gaze followed her boyfriend's arachnid shape to the booth. The creature was moving with a flowing, yet deadly grace, its eight legs drumming on the floor in a perfectly synchronized dance. Interesting... so that's what I'm looking too when I'm walking?
Seconds later, Ben's human shape came back out of the machine and he gave Janice a thumbs-up which she acknowledged with a raised pincer, prompting a giggle by Mary and Steve. Then she followed her boyfriend into the booth, and shortly thereafter, she as well was human again, a decidedly odd feeling after all the different shapes she'd inhabited during the last couple of hours. Not unpleasant... but weak. Most of the animals she'd been would have had no problems whatsoever in killing them puny humans within microseconds, and somehow she was missing that power.
Janice was still deep in thoughts when Ben inquired regarding the follow-up program. "So what'll happen now?" her boyfriend asked with an excitement in his voice he hadn't shown before. So she hadn't been the only one whose spirits had been fired up by changing into countless predators' shapes? Interesting! "Will you do some kind of creature-design workshop with us?"
Mary giggled. "Close." the woman answered. "But no. We'll give both of you an hour to hatch a couple of cool monster designs. Look for all the advantages your different forms had and try to remove the disadvantages. Create your monsters by putting together parts of what makes real animals effective. There are other ways to design successful monsters, but this is the best approach for rookies."
Janice furrowed her brows. "Wait, you're not gonna help us?" she asked with irritation. "Why not?"
"Trade secrets, my dear." Steve offered as an explanation. "And frankly... we're curious as to what you'll come up with, so we don't want to pollute your ideas with foreign input. After all, we want you to test your monster shapes in a real fight against us two. If we know what we're up against, that would flaw the results."
He chuckled at the short flicker of consternation on his friends' faces and Janice felt a tiny impulse of indignation. Of course they'd known that this was the plan, but it was still hard to grasp that soon they'd face off against their friends in hideous, monstrous bodies. Even when it was just a friendly sparring match... to the death. Now that I think about it, it's really, really crazy... Janice marveled inwardly, but Steve was already continuing.
"Maybe you'll be able to think of things we never even considered! Which is why we'll leave you alone now and come back in an hour!"
"And I expect you two to come up with something interesting!" Mary put in, widely grinning. "We two will use the sparring matches to validate a couple of experimental monster designs, so we want to put them up against your best!"
And with that statement, the friendly couple retreated before Ben or Janice were able to find an answer. The two looked after their friends for a few moments, until Ben was the first to speak again.
"I have to say..." he told his girlfriend, "...that while you were really impressive as a scorpion, I like you even more as your usual, beautiful self."
Janice giggled as Ben swept her into an embrace and a kiss. "Oh, you made a pretty cute scorpion yourself." she assured him and for a moment, Ben looked almost crestfallen.
"Cute?" he asked huffily. "I had expected all kinds of things, but certainly not cute."
This prompted another giggle by Janice. "Hm... and deadly. Veeeeeery deadly." she offered him which seemed to heighten his spirits.
"That's what I thought." Ben huffed. "So, what do you say? Wanna sketch out some really bad ass forms for us two? So that we'll kick, or rather bite, their asses?" he asked with a slight twinkle.
Janice simply smiled back, nodding vigorously. She already had a few ideas in mind and she was curious for what Ben had in mind for her... and who knew - maybe they'd even manage to spring a nasty surprise upon their friends.
Janice had enjoyed most of the forms, had also enjoyed her current form, her dagger-sized teeth and sickle-sized claws making her feel dangerous. But the last change, the one which would be coming now, she wasn't looking forward to. Especially since Steve had already changed Ben, and even to a ten-feet predatory dinosaur, his shape had looked distinctively odd - and threatening. Intellectually, she had known from the first moment that Mary wouldn't skip such a form, and she even agreed that it was a necessary part of their familiarization with the pros and cons of the animal kingdom's natural weapons. Which, of course, didn't mean that she had to like it.
Mary laughed, looking into Janice's slit, reptilian eyes and being unfazed by the display of her impressive maw. "I take that as a yes. Don't worry, it'll feel as comfortable as all the other changes. Once you're changed, it won't gross you out anymore. Bon voyage!"
A few moments later, Janice, again in a new form, exited the booth under the clicking noise of numerous chitinous legs on metal and concrete. Of course Mary had been right and the change felt perfectly comfortable, but it was still a lot more alien than the other shapes she'd been in today. A few feet away, Ben already waited and clicked one of his giant pincers in encouragement, his dreadful maw shifting to something which he may had intended as a smile, but didn't quite work as intended thanks to his radically changed face.
Nonetheless Janice clicked her own pincers in agreement and then rotated her body on her eight legs towards the mirror, slowly moving closer. Of course she knew what she'd see there, even so the sight of her body was disconcerting to say the least. A chitin-armored carapace, lifted by four pairs of legs. A pair of giant pincers for arms. A long tail with a bulbous venom sack and a stinger. And last but not least her "face". The tiny, evil black eyes on her head were scary enough. But what was below, between her pincers, was way worse. A large maw, guarded not by a jaw but by a pair of mouth-claws.
Scorpions had always been animals which had scared her a bit, and now she herself was one. Not to mention a larger-than-human sized version! Testing, Janice spread her mouth-claws, presenting a horrendous gullet. Swiftly, she closed them again, the fangs at the end scraping across each other with an audible click. For a few moments, she simply marveled at the fact that the terrible monster squatting in the mirror was actually her! Then she started trying out her body, doing a few mock stings with her tail, shifting through her legs and clicking her pincers.
It didn't take long until Janice started to appreciate her form. She was vicious and appalling, but at the same time dangerously lethal. Her natural weapons as a Velociraptor had already been formidable, but as a scorpion...! Her chitin-armor was probably even harder to penetrate than a dinosaur's scales, and if she'd manage to get an enemy leg between her pincers... not to mention the fact that more squeamish opponents would probably hesitate to come close to her maw.
"Guess there's someone who likes being horrible." Mary finally piped up, interrupting Janice's self-exploration and the woman-turned scorpion rotated her body until she was looking at her friend. As a human, she'd have glowered at the woman, but since she was currently not capable of glowering, she settled upon spreading her mouth-fangs wide open and clicking with her pincers.
As a response, Mary simply waggled her finger. "Is that supposed to be scary?" she taunted Janice. "Don't forget, I've been some way worse looking creatures. But you do like this shape, don't you? Isn't it powerful?"
Janice considered how to respond to this statement. Nodding was effectively impossible, for that motion to work she was missing a neck. So she settled upon bobbing her whole carapace up and down. Mary grinned and then, to Janice's surprise, came closer and even laid a hand on one of her pincers, the other stroking over her chitinous back! If their roles had been reversed, she'd never have moved this close to a giant scorpion, regardless if a good friend was piloting it or not.
"So, that concludes our little expedition through the animal kingdom. With the final lesson being: Even disgusting looking creatures have their advantages!" Mary told Janice while she kept stroking her, oblivious of her arachnid friend's stinger hovering barely a feet above her head. "Now that you've experienced most useful animal forms there's come the time for you to create your own form. First, you'll have to change back..."
She motioned at the other scorpion, Ben, who'd waited a few feet away and now obeyed the command, scurrying swiftly towards the Venn Machine. Interested, Janice's gaze followed her boyfriend's arachnid shape to the booth. The creature was moving with a flowing, yet deadly grace, its eight legs drumming on the floor in a perfectly synchronized dance. Interesting... so that's what I'm looking too when I'm walking?
Seconds later, Ben's human shape came back out of the machine and he gave Janice a thumbs-up which she acknowledged with a raised pincer, prompting a giggle by Mary and Steve. Then she followed her boyfriend into the booth, and shortly thereafter, she as well was human again, a decidedly odd feeling after all the different shapes she'd inhabited during the last couple of hours. Not unpleasant... but weak. Most of the animals she'd been would have had no problems whatsoever in killing them puny humans within microseconds, and somehow she was missing that power.
Janice was still deep in thoughts when Ben inquired regarding the follow-up program. "So what'll happen now?" her boyfriend asked with an excitement in his voice he hadn't shown before. So she hadn't been the only one whose spirits had been fired up by changing into countless predators' shapes? Interesting! "Will you do some kind of creature-design workshop with us?"
Mary giggled. "Close." the woman answered. "But no. We'll give both of you an hour to hatch a couple of cool monster designs. Look for all the advantages your different forms had and try to remove the disadvantages. Create your monsters by putting together parts of what makes real animals effective. There are other ways to design successful monsters, but this is the best approach for rookies."
Janice furrowed her brows. "Wait, you're not gonna help us?" she asked with irritation. "Why not?"
"Trade secrets, my dear." Steve offered as an explanation. "And frankly... we're curious as to what you'll come up with, so we don't want to pollute your ideas with foreign input. After all, we want you to test your monster shapes in a real fight against us two. If we know what we're up against, that would flaw the results."
He chuckled at the short flicker of consternation on his friends' faces and Janice felt a tiny impulse of indignation. Of course they'd known that this was the plan, but it was still hard to grasp that soon they'd face off against their friends in hideous, monstrous bodies. Even when it was just a friendly sparring match... to the death. Now that I think about it, it's really, really crazy... Janice marveled inwardly, but Steve was already continuing.
"Maybe you'll be able to think of things we never even considered! Which is why we'll leave you alone now and come back in an hour!"
"And I expect you two to come up with something interesting!" Mary put in, widely grinning. "We two will use the sparring matches to validate a couple of experimental monster designs, so we want to put them up against your best!"
And with that statement, the friendly couple retreated before Ben or Janice were able to find an answer. The two looked after their friends for a few moments, until Ben was the first to speak again.
"I have to say..." he told his girlfriend, "...that while you were really impressive as a scorpion, I like you even more as your usual, beautiful self."
Janice giggled as Ben swept her into an embrace and a kiss. "Oh, you made a pretty cute scorpion yourself." she assured him and for a moment, Ben looked almost crestfallen.
"Cute?" he asked huffily. "I had expected all kinds of things, but certainly not cute."
This prompted another giggle by Janice. "Hm... and deadly. Veeeeeery deadly." she offered him which seemed to heighten his spirits.
"That's what I thought." Ben huffed. "So, what do you say? Wanna sketch out some really bad ass forms for us two? So that we'll kick, or rather bite, their asses?" he asked with a slight twinkle.
Janice simply smiled back, nodding vigorously. She already had a few ideas in mind and she was curious for what Ben had in mind for her... and who knew - maybe they'd even manage to spring a nasty surprise upon their friends.