Latiff threw the door to the security office open. It was designed for safety and ease of emergency access, so grabbing a heavy door and opening it simply didn’t have the same effect as entering. It made him look and feel a little weak, like a child who had run to his parents.
There were a dozen technicians and employees milling about the room. Sterile lights lit the wooden conference table on which numerous laptop computers were set up in an organized mess. A large map of the public facility was on a gigantic wall-mounted screen. The VR simulation area - the part of the MirageCorp compound that they were in - was bright red.
“Where’s everyone else?”
“Outside,” said one. “keeping anyone else out. Higher-ups are elsewhere.”
The red of the LOCKDOWN on the map expanded to fill the entire screen, as if from a bleeding wound. The custom animation quickly transitioned to show the grinning visage of Mitre D. Bel. She sat behind a large desk bearing a very visible Oasis logo - her company.
Even if she wasn’t hacking into their facility, she had the face of someone who always meant business . A drive, a glare, and a fluid control of her face that had only come with years of practice and discipline. Clearly, Latiff thought, she’s using all her self-control not to burst into a gloating laugh.
“I just love to pass a good time with friends. And really, there’s no better time than making your own fun. I really can not congratulate your team at Morgana enough for their recent successes.”
She held a finger up to her mouth, pausing for a moment. She had rehearsed this.
“Why, the Mansion simulation sounded so lovely that I was nearly tempted to try it myself. After my last encounter with Phantom’s virtual reality work, I knew that your team would be moving on to great things indeed.
That’s why I wanted to congratulate Phantom and the team with a very personal gift. I’ve brought her beloved serpent skin to life.”
There was a ping from the video-screen. Mitre looked down at something off-camera.
“Excuse me!” she said with a smile. “My delivery is here. Can’t wait to dive into that Peking duck. Ta-ta!”
The screen cut out, back to the map indicating that the entire simulation wing - including the guests, the staff, and Phantom - were sealed and cut-off from any chance of escape.
Mitre’s Georgia accent was still ringing in his ears when he went to one of the screens and flipped to static cameras. He swallowed, pursing his lips and squinting at the black mass through the feed.
Phantom was in prime form, slithering through a large, shattered window and onto the programming floor. Staff hid beneath desks, leapt behind couches, and babbled incoherently. Many remembered their training and ran, only to realize that the doors had been locked. The slick, rubbery sound of Phantom’s scaly, predatory suit squeaking around doors, underneath desks, and into side-offices could be heard by all of them. Even Latiff was unsettled by the noise as it came through the speakers, despite how safe he currently felt.
Her predations varied depending on how she found her victims. Those she spotted at range, she’d spit a slimy torrent of liquid latex upon. MirageCorp uniforms, already designed to be broken down and recycled, became feedstock for the slime’s nanobots and so, any business attire was quickly converted into black cocoons of inescapable bondage. They fell squirming, occasionally moaning, and writhing in place. At times, the goo would secure them to a wall; at least two employees found themselves rubberized and pasted into their office chairs.
Those who were closest to her were privy to Phantom’s ravenous appetite. All the ones who were further away could do, was watch in horror as their co-workers were devoured by the directrix. Piper crawled beneath her desk just in time to realize that someone else was already hiding there. Their yelp of surprise led to Piper being yanked out first with startling speed, followed shortly by the other employee. Up close, Phantom’s serpentine suit rippled with power and the squirms of the other captives already swallowed inside. Piper felt the incredible, immense pressure of all those slick coils wrapping around her from her legs to her waist to her stomach.
There was no other option than to look up, eyeing the gigantic, waiting, and open maw of Phantom’s suit before feeling the coils coat her from the middle outward. Ten seconds of coiling, churning, and begging later, she was an ebony-black rubber cocoon. Ten more seconds and she’d been slurped up like a delectable latex worm - swallowed in the thick embrace of high-tech latex. She could hear the occasional moans of pleasure from those she was now squirming against…
Latiff turned away from the screen and rubbed his temples. The big display was changing to red again. Another video missive from Mitre.
“Ah do know, by the way, how troublesome a predatory CEO like Phantom can be. ‘Specially when she’s got a… demeanor that’s not conducive to well-behaved business. Perhaps I can be of some assistance? In fact, I’ve already sent some people to help take Phantom off your hands.”
Latiff and the rest of the technicians felt the building shake. A team of Mitre’s trained security had just penetrated the front door with a sturdy-looking van; heavily-equipped in advanced Oasis-branded technology and non-lethal weaponry. They needed all of it - Phantom was now 13 meters long, and held nearly a dozen employees in her belly already. Two opened fire with gel-rounds to shock and debilitate the suit; two more ran behind her and climbed on her back.
Elaine, Mitre’s security chief, held out a scanning device and pin-pointed where - under all those heavy layers of latex nano-machines - Phantom’s body was, and gave a hand-signal. The two busy trying to wrangle her back quickly plunged a needle through the skin, administering a charge that knocked out Phantom and would inhibit the nanomachines from any further replication to stop her from growing any larger.
Mitre was delighted, watching all of this unfold from her living room. She reached for a box of rice, speaking to her capture team with complete assurance of her success. “Go ahead and bring her in, Elaine. Don’t be afraid to skimp on the winches. She’s always been a wriggly one, and sealing her in a monstrous new skin ain’t gonna change that.”
Luckily, they had plenty of tools for Phantom once she arrived at her country estate. Mitre had always wanted a pet snake, and she’d long believed that Phantom would satiate that want, under the tightest layer of rubbery scales.
=====
The Bel manor was just secluded enough to avoid scrutiny, and close enough to amenities to allow Mitre to leave when the mood struck her. Its grounds were large, but not large enough to be obscenely wasteful. Plenty of natural, local trees were planted to ensure privacy and to deaden the sound of the massive cargo truck arriving with Phantom.
In lieu of a second or third boring dining room, Mitre had installed a series of containment cells; instead of a stable for equestrian horses, Mitre had a high-tech lab. These all existed at her Oasis office, but now she didn’t even need to commute to humiliate her rival.
Phantom, still in the snake-suit, was heavily restrained against the floor with dozens of bright orange nylon straps. Wires and cables were plugged into the serpent-suit’s rubbery skin. The unconscious latex reptilian’s maw hung open, a small pool of liquid latex drooling out. Mitre stared down at her slumbering beast of a rival from an observation window that led directly to a comfortable living room. Through the transparent snake eyes lenses, she could see Phantom’s closed eyelids faintly obscured by a few wisps of her midnight black hair. She was thankfully in a deep sleep.
Reprogramming the suit was going to reprogram the wearer as well. The reactive fluid, composed of tiny machines, had been designed to synchronize with the user’s neural pattern, after all. Just as Phantom had effortless command over the suit like her own body, the bots could just as effortlessly command Phantom! The suit itself would be reprogrammed to constantly keep Phantom in something of a hypnotic trance, thanks to it directly interfacing with her mind. It would keep her in a highly suggestible and obedient state, programmed to respond only to vocal commands from her new owner. Mitre was almost salivating at the prospect.
Elaine was by her side - rope concealed in her sleeve, though she doubted she’d be needing it on Phantom. Her chief of security was still a bit sore after wrestling the snake into the cargo container the day before. They’d barely managed to get the door on the container shut and drive off before Miragecorp security could step in.
“Elaine, I don’t want you to think you’re being replaced, by the way.”
“I never thought anything of the sort,” responded Elaine.
“Well, I only wanted to say it aloud. Phantom’s reprogramming into a guard for the manor has nothing to do with your abilities; her programmed orders to capture intruders are not at all a strike against your talented skills.”
“Of course,” said Elaine with a bow. “I’m adult enough to recognize that sometimes you want your bodyguard to take care of business… and other times you want it to be a 30-foot-long rubber snake.”
Mitre smiled. “Exactly. Besides, you’re not much of a pet.” They smirked at each other. Lilian tapped the intercom.
“Ready for the test order?”
Technicians in the holding area gave her the all-clear, and she reciprocated with a loud and haughty, “Give it to her!”
A series of shocks administered to Phantom’s suit made the serpent violently return to consciousness, bucking and writhing under her straps. Several of them released, allowing her a tiny bit of movement. The “test order” to calibrate the suit’s new programming was a simple one - regurgitate all of her victims. To do this, a series of medium-powered electric shocks to ‘loosen’ up the nanobots were administered; loud, zappy, and effective. The electronic order to free the captives was followed to the letter, as the serpent unhinged her jaws and loud squeaky noises rose from her gullet as the captives in her belly were forcibly pumped up her body until they spilled out of her maw in a slimy mess. A few minutes later, there was no longer a single gigantic serpent in the holding area - but now a much smaller snake, and 11 cocoons.
Mitre’s grin became a laugh at the comedic value of seeing all these gorgeously wrapped trophies in a pileup.
Piper, Prathiba, and nine others were cocooned from head to toe. Tight black rubber encased their faces, allowing the vague visual of lips and eyes behind advanced polymer rubber. They groaned and grunted, grinding against one another with their arms behind their back, in front, or at their sides. Barely recognizable through the curves, they were almost cute.
“Pathetic,” she said. “Eleven new additions to my collection, though… I was just thinking I could use some new art here. Elaine, you don’t think there will be any issue in me going to the floor in person?”
Elaine stared at the glass wall separating the living room from the lab. “Only if I’m allowed to come with.”
Mitre had dressed, arriving in the lab as the eleven rubber-clad captives were being wheeled away, each of them heavily strapped to a hand-cart for transport.
Phantom was barely more than half of the size she’d been earlier.
“Take off the rest of the straps. I’d like to test out my new toy.”
The green eyes of the snake tracked Mitre’s every motion, as did Phantom’s own eyes under the lenses. Their expression was blank, yet primal. She strutted around Phantom once, letting the snake stand more or less still, as she got a good look at the suit. It was impressive stuff; she wondered how dangerous she must have been when she was in The Mansion simulation. Perhaps it would be worth hacking Miragecorp’s database a second time, to swipe those simulation recordings for her own viewing pleasure.
The guards, especially Elaine, were a bit more skeptical. The idea of being ‘replaced’ hadn’t even struck until Mitre had said it. There wasn’t anything wrong with using advanced tools like the serpent suit, but it was a bit… unnerving.
“Phantom. Your second order. Go on patrol until 11PM, then stand guard in the hallway. The rest of my security will patrol the mansion. Do not interfere with them. Is that understood?” Mitre stepped closer to her new latex pet, and stroked her hands across its flawless rubber scales. Feeling around the neck, she managed to find Phantom’s tightly wrapped breasts. Massaging them, she could sense the rubbery reptile shudder under her touch. The latex around the serpent’s head stretched out slowly into a hood, as if erecting in response to the pleasure Mitre had evoked. “If you prove proficient as a loyal pet, I’ll allow you to accompany me to bed… it can sometimes get quite cold during winter nights.”
The loud, rubbery slither of Phantom’s long, sleek body was hypnotic, almost alluring in its reptilian grace. Mitre grinned. “Elaine, something on your mind?” She shook her head. “No, though I think I might take the night off.”
Mitre put one hand on Elaine’s cheek. “No stress about this, alright? This is just me having a bit of fun with my nemesis and turning her into a loyal pet. Head home, go take care of some things that you need tonight, all right?”
Elaine nodded. Some time away would do her good. She was confident in Mitre’s technology, if not the results. At least she wouldn’t have to look at that thing slithering up and down the hallways tonight.
That night, Mitre slept as sound as a kitten; that is, she would have slept well, if not for the recurring strange sounds that would reach her ears repeatedly in the night. Over and over, she’d plunge deep into a restful slumber only to wake up to the sounds of something occurring in the manor. She’d slip out of bed in her nightgown and walk to her bedroom door and open it… and gaze upon Phantom, her beautiful latex serpent.
Her new pet was obediently following her orders to the letter, guarding the door to her bedroom that night.
Mitre did it a second time, later in the night. She could swear she had heard something, but again - the serpent was completely stoic and unmoving from her predatorial guard stance. She went back to bed, without bothering to examine further. “Good girl,” she said aloud to Phantom as her bedroom door creaked shut.
Finally, there was a long enough impenetrable stretch of silence in the night that allowed Mitre to get a brief amount of sleep. But it didn’t last, and the creaking of an exotic red oak door was enough to interrupt her slumber. She ran her hand through her hair as she glanced around her bedroom. The room was an ominous gant color somewhere between midnight and dawn. Clouded moonlight, the quiet hum of the heatering, the rattle of a snake’s tail filtered through sensual, thick rubber.
Mitre sat up in bed, pulling her blanket up to her chest protectively. She could hear noise filtering through the open bedroom door. Mellifluous mewls. Gentle groans, almost inaudible. The piercing sensation of eyes watching her from the dark made her squint.
Glowing reptilian eyes of emerald color beamed directly into her own eyes from across the room. She swallowed to herself, clawing her way back against her 19th century headboard. “Phantom, please go back outside and guard my room.”
There was a distinct hissssss. Mitre tried again, more stern with her stubborn pet this time. “That’s an order, Phantom! Back outside, and on guard duty.”
The snout of the creature had a menacing silhouette as the massive serpent reared up, the rubber of its neck stretching open into a cobra hood. It hauled its tail over the edge of the bed, grabbing at the comforter and blankets which Mitre’s shaking hands clutched ever so nervously. It slowly started to peel the covers back. Mitre squinted her eyes inquisitively, then threw the blankets away and went to bolt towards the door.
In an instant, Phantom was upon her. The serpent’s massive body lay on top of her, pinning Mitre back down against her bed. She lay on her back, arms up against her shoulders as she lay in surprise. The cobra-hood, wide, seemed to fill up Mitre’s entire field of view.
Mitre blushed. She could vaguely feel the sensation of Phantom’s warm and heavily encased body within the suit rubbing against her own. The weight, the exotic materials of her scaly latex body, touching against her through thin clothing. The pungent smell of latex; the physicality and muscles of the creature pressing her down, forcing her against the comfortable foam of her bed.
The serpent reared back a little bit, but not enough to give Mitre a chance to wiggle out from underneath. It spread its jaws impossibly wide, unhinging, and revealing the shiny, ivory colored roof of its mouth, where Phantom’s body was comfortably encased. The vacuum sealed sack holding Phantom detached partially from the mouth’s roof, and stretched out of mouth a little, like a tongue. The slick ivory rubber around Phantom’s head split open like the petals of a sinister flower, and retracted, revealing her sweat-soaked and grinning face.
“Hello, Mitre,” said Phantom, her face less than a foot from Mitre’s. Some sweat beaded from her chin onto Mitre’s cheek. She had to lick her lips to speak; she hadn’t been conversing much lately.
“H-hello, Phantom...”
“Thank you for the gift, dear. I really do love the suit. It’s quite nice. You said you wanted to give me a gift that made my fantasy into something very real and very tangible…” Mitre tried again to tug her legs out from under the serpent’s massive coils. “Ah-ah-ah... No trying to squirm out. It wouldn’t work anyway. My serpent body has grown a bit too hefty for you to simply push off. Also, I bet you’re wondering where your plan went wrong, and why I’m not the docile and obedient little pet you tried to turn me into...”
Mitre furrowed her brow. “Guessing it was foolish of me to bend someone as stubbornly resilient as you to my will?”
“Flattering, but no.” Phantom said, “I think you couldn’t have chosen anyone better than me as your personal latex guard-serpent. Unfortunately that little shock to reset the system also brought the suit back to its original configuration. I also must say, there’s nothing quite like a quick zap to get your mindset out of that of a primal beast and into an incognito operator.”
“You were fakin’?” asked Mitre, mildly growing worried as she felt Phantom’s warm tail coiling slowly and surreptitiously around her legs.
“Faking sounds so childish. I prefer acting. I played the part of the submissive guardian for as long as I needed to, before sneaking away to take out any of the guards that patrolled near your bedroom.” Mitre looked at Phantom’s serpent suit trailing out through the bedroom door, and to her horror, she could definitely make out the encased shapes of her guards, all of them squirming against each other, their moans of pleasure and protest nearly muted by the layers of rubber they were housed within.” “Rest assured, they’re safe, sound in there... coated in a layer of high-tech liquid latex. I will admit, with all your... professional security guards wrapped snugly in my latex belly, it’s a bit crowded, and I’m feeling a tad bit full...” Phantom let out a tiny chuckle.
Mitre opened her mouth in protest, but found herself shuddering as the forked tongue of Phantom’s unhinged jaws slithered around her neck possessively like a collar and Phantom leaned in to whisper into her ear. “But there’s room in my belly for one more delectable morsel... and I’m dying to know how you’ll tasssste going down...” Phantom planted a kiss on her quivering lips before allowing the suit to retract her into its jaws. Mitre got one last look at Phantom’s maliciously grinning face as ivory tendrils of rubber slither across her cheeks, before hungrily leaping to violently encase her face in the hood once more. As Phantom’s body was sealed to the roof of the mouth, the jaws snapped shut, and the serpent hissed. Mitre screamed, and tried frantically more than ever to tear herself free from the latex beast. But Phantom’s tail had now wound its way up to her chest, pinning her arms to her side, and starting to secret liquid rubber over her body. Mitre was going nowhere...
It wasn’t a violent process, but Phantom’s voracious activity involved coiling all around the squirming and helpless Mitre, destroying what little clothing she wore, and coating her skin in two skintight ebony layers. Soon enough, Mitre was prepped to be devoured.
Mitre mewled into her latex gag, she squirmed and wriggled against her living latex cocoon. It wasn’t going to help her though; Phantom took a moment to marvel at her prey’s body. Tightly wrapped from the mouth to her toes, with the latex highlighting her skin and curves like bodypaint as it reflected the moonlight. Beautifully ensconced, and of course very helpless.
She kicked her legs, but with them kept trapped together by the living latex which tightened every time she struggled, she wasn’t able to gain any traction. If anything, it made for a nice wiggle that helped Phantom slither her tongue around her waist and get her into her jaws.
In a marvelous motion, Phantom swallowed her competitor whole. As she passed through the mouth, Mitre could feel her body rubbing against Phantom’s body as she passed into the black snake’s throat. Phantom could feel the captive mummified in thick rubber, mewling inside her belly. Face pressing against the outer wall, and her body grinding against her own bodyguards.
Phantom slithered unceremoniously out of the manor. She triggered the alarm when she made a brief stop to retrieve her own employees and the two beta-testers from earlier, but it was no problem - she’d be long gone, disappearing into the countryside by the time Mitre’s other security arrived. It was going to take her a few days to get back, but she wasn’t perturbed by that, not at all; she had plenty of space in case any witnesses caught sight of a gigantic snake…
===
“Latiff,” said Maree, “There’s no clear villain.”
Latiff shook his head. “Of course there is. The tomb itself is the villain.”
Maree looked at the other techs. “I’m just not sure if this is as appealing as the Mansion simulation. Nobody’s going to want to “play” as a mummy. While it is fun to torment captives, I’m not sure if it has the commercial appeal.”
Latiff shrugged. “I’d just rather not have a repeat of last time. I don’t even want the chance for that to happen.”
“If Prathiba was here,” said Maree, “She’d be saying that the user’s experience is way more important than the tiny chance that the user is going to get corrupted with a virus, take over the nanomachines, and go on a voracious rubbery rampage.”
Latiff stood up, looking out over the balcony of the large glass-walled meeting room. “I think… maybe you’ll have the chance to ask her.”
Phantom had wriggled into Miragecorp’s massive loading bay, distended to a massive 40 feet and shrinking. The snake was depositing each of its cocooned captives, which included a few familiar faces, as well as some new ones that she’d picked up along the way.
After days of controlling it, she was quite tired and ready for a shower. The suit reluctantly released her body, and she crawled out of its jaws and strode naked onto the floor of her VR campus.
“Not to worry, everyone,” she said. Phantom playfully teased Mitre’s coated body as she squirmed on the floor. “I just want you all to know what a massive success the project has been. The suit gets a little hot and a little tiring, but it’s a complete success. I’ve never felt like such a predator in my life, and there’s nothing like having a bunch of squirming meals mewling around in your belly. If you’re all lucky, you’ll get a turn with the simulation too one day...”
Phantom smiled, looking at the suit. It seemed to have a mind of its own, quietly coiling up in the corner, and staring at her through its hollow reptilian lenses. Hungry to be worn again by her someday. She grinned; it was incredible to become such a fearsome serpent, but she needed to return to her own responsibilities as CEO. But deep down, Phantom couldn’t wait to slip it on again one day...