Part I
A chilling giggle broke through the silent darkness. The goddess tucked a pink hair behind her ear, proud of her handiwork.
“That’s the last gem, dear sister,” she hummed, lips innocently curling around the words.
The red haired goddess crossed her arms and nodded approvingly. “And, with all the havoc this city has seen in the past month, no one will be able to fend off this level of magic,” she added.
Satisfied, the two took their places on either side of the radio tower’s flashing light, placing their palms flat against it.
“Here goes,” beamed the younger twin.
“The raiders will certainly be in for a surprise when they wake up tomorrow,” purred the older.
As the light on the tower groaned into its next crescendo, a pulse of pink and blue energy exploded from the epicenter, charged by the four gems scattered throughout the city, completely altering everyone in its wake, and no one felt a thing.
---
Early morning sunlight pierced through the yellowed studio window, somehow finding the most dickish way possible to hit the raider directly in the eyes. With a groan, Mahlua rolled over, pushing her face into the pillow for more comfortable darkness. Something out of place itched at her chin, so with a jerky movement, she scratched at it. In her discovery she jolted awake, suddenly much more alert than anyone should be at daybreak.
“The hell!?” she exclaimed, keeping a hand to the newly grown patch of wiry ginger hair. It almost didn’t register that her voice had dropped about an octave or two as well.
The raider sat dumbfounded for a moment, then jerked the bed sheets out of the way to confirm her suspicions. Surely enough, her body was not how she left it the night before.
She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, running through various reasons for why, suddenly, overnight, her body changed its sex entirely. Writer-tan’s DEM magic came to mind, and nothing else made much sense, but that didn’t explain why her, unless other people had been hit with the gender-bender as well.
As she pondered this, she swung her legs over the side of the bed, careful upon standing up. Her center of gravity felt different, and she took things slow on the way to the closet. Upon sliding the door, she found even her wardrobe’s contents had changed to match the adjustments. Thankfully, at least, nothing was particularly out of her taste. After a quick browse, she threw something on and entered the small side room of the upstairs bathroom.
No stranger to drag, she understood her masculine features before, but having them exaggerated without contouring and makeup was a sight to see, and the chin beard, as itchy as it was, didn’t look terrible. Not that she had a razor to shave it off with if it did. She turned her head and new body all sorts of ways, gauging it, feeling its differences. She wondered if anything had fundamentally changed, internally. A wave of anxiety swept over her. She wasn’t in the mood for an identity crisis.
Instead, she threw on a thick jacket and went down the stairs to her art studio and took a left to enter the garage, grabbing the keys to her beloved Suzuki. The purple motorcycle met her with a familiar gleam. Pleased, she carefully took a seat and started up the engine. Thankfully, nothing had changed about her electric manipulation. She felt in tune with the little static hum of the battery.
“Guess some things don’t change,” she sighed.
That voice could take some getting used to.
---
It didn’t take long to reach MR Pub so early in the morning. Mahlua parked her ride in the same spot on the bike racks and killed the engine. She took another deep breath and tried, again, to perceive anything different about the atmosphere. She had tried along the way, but got nothing, the same as she did this time. Hopefully the mistress of the pub had some answers.
The raider pushed the heavy door aside, met with the same orientation the bar had yesterday. Nothing out of place, except Pub-tan, who was nowhere to be found.
“Hello?” she called, voice booming and carrying far more than she was used to. She winced.
The pub wasn’t closed, otherwise the door would’ve been locked. The raider clenched her jaw and took a seat, careful not to cross her legs as usual.
Finally, someone emerged from the door behind the counter. He sported a nice button up shirt with a light tan vest and striped tie, which he adjusted in a way that betrayed his irritation. “When I get my hands on those two,” he muttered tightly before turning to see the raider. “Oh! And who might you be?”
Mahlua blinked in confusion. It wasn’t like Pub-tan to hire another bartender. “They call me MahluaandMilk, but generally only Coryn calls me by the Milk part,” she explained.
The bartender paled and silence fell for a hard moment.
“Those b-----s.” The man spat, turning elegantly on his heel to pace back and forth behind the counter.
“Uh, who are b-----s now?” the raider asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“The Twins, of course,” the other hissed in reply. “They’ve gone and used their magic for some new prank of theirs.”
Finally, two and two made four.
“Wait a minute, Pub-tan?” the ginger gawked.
“The one and only,” the bartender said flatly, crossing her arms, “And I suspect once the mods wake up, there’s going to be one hell of a party.”
Surely enough, as soon as the words left her mouth, the door burst open again, revealing a Nekomimi in a familiar trench coat and face cover plate. “Something’s wrong,” Lego said, accent still as round as usual, but distinctly raised into the feminine range. His tail flicked agitatedly.
Unimpressed, Pub-tan’s lips pressed into a line. “Clearly. We’re all genderbent, and to add insult to injury, the Twins drew out your fetish on you. You poor bastard…”
“That’s not all,” he said breathlessly, “Efurry time I talk, cat puns slip out!”
The raider and the tan at the bar shared a pained look.
---
Finally, around ten o’clock, the mods called for a town hall meeting. Concerned raiders, all affected by the Twins’ spell, crowded the plaza around a quick stage the mods set up. Writer-tan and MR-tan were in attendance along with the citizens. After two taps on a center-stage mic, Hasith himself began the announcements.
“Raiders,” he began sternly, “I’m sure you’ve all noticed something different this morning. Our intelligence leads us to believe that the Ecchi Twins are the culprits. We still don’t know the agent of the genderswap, but we are presently working with Pub-tan, MR-tan, and Writer-tan to resolve the issue.”
From the crowd, Mahlua raised her hand. “What about Writer-tan’s DEM magic?”
Writer-tan, upon hearing the question, hoisted herself onto the stage and took the mic. “I tried that earlier, but it seems that this magic can’t be undone without some proper process. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, the Twins must’ve instilled their own form of DEM into whatever this is,” she explained, adjusting her glasses.
Raiders shifted uncomfortably around the plaza. Murmurs broke out.
Suddenly, as if a smoke bomb had been dropped, the stage flashed with an explosive light. A hearty, boyish giggle emanated from the speakers. “Hello, raiders. I hope you’re enjoying your little present?” a new voice called.
As the smoke settled, surely enough, a pink haired wonder stood, holding the mic in one hand and a tell-tale kendo sword in the other, drooped over slightly broadened shoulders. In her new, masculine form, Ecchi-tan maintained a Japanese-style school uniform fitted for the opposite sex. Behind her, Lewd-tan’s wardrobe went from pencil skirt and blazer to a three-piece American cut suit that looked like it at least cost a year’s salary, even for a mod. The twin tans appeared to revel in their show-stopping awe before continuing.
“Now, now. We know things around here have been rough with the influx of spam ninjas lately,” Ecchi-tan hummed, averting her eyes.
The redhead took the lead from there. “So, we decided to set up a little game for all of you. We took four gems imbued with our power and scattered them through the city,” she explained making a graceful gesture with an outstretched arm, which almost looked off with her new appearance.
“And to reverse the spell, all you guys have to do is find them and break them,” the pink haired one finished with a smile.
At this point, Pub-tan had pushed through the crowd of raiders and had started to storm up the stairs, seething.
“Ah, looks like that’s our exit cue,” Lewd-tan sighed, placing a hand on her twin’s head as she kicked something on the stage that caused another flash-bang. As everyone’s eyes scrambled to adjust, her smooth voice called out, “If you’d like a hint, start at Pub’s place. Under your nose, and all.”
When the visual white noise dispersed, only Pub-tan was left on stage, clenching her fists. Some raiders started to leave, either headed home or to the pub. Mahlua fell into the latter category.
---
Before any of the raiders made it to the pub, its owner used her Tan abilities to teleport there. By the time Mahlua and the mods and other concerned even made it to the door, Pub-tan had practically torn the place apart looking for the gem, seething in rage.
The first inside, Coryn, sporting chin-length hair now and an American flag crop-top to fit his almost broken new form, tried to sedate her.
“Woah, woah, what’s going on?” he asked, ducking as a polishing rag hit the wall behind where his head had been moments before. “Getting this mad isn’t like you at all.”
“I cannot BELIEVE they had the NERVE to come through here like that, let alone deposit one of their smarmy TOYS here,” she shrieked.
Squeezing through the small crowd of raiders trying to enter the bar, MR-tan hopped over the counter, practically an unheard of sin, and grabbed the taller Tan by the shoulders. “Hey, use ya head,” she said, straining her eyebrows worriedly up her forehead. “Yeah, they shoulda never put one here, but you gotta calm down. You’re makin a mess.”
There was practically a fire in Pub-tan’s eyes as she bore her gaze down at the shorter Tan, but she set her jaw tightly in one place and stood stock-still. The air grew thick with tension, practically popping like a circuit on past its maximum voltage capacity.
“There you go. Calm,” MR-tan continued, slowly loosening her grip on the other’s shoulders. “Now don’t worry. We’ll find the gem hidden around here, and we’ll give you the honor of shattering it to bits.”
“Gotta love how you up and decided that for everyone,” Pub-tan replied curtly. With that, she jerked herself out of the other’s grip and seated herself on the inside of the bar.
“Right then,” the sporty ginger grinned as she hopped back over the counter. She scanned the faces of the little crowd that had collected and put both hands on her hips. “We’ll help her out by doing a thorough sweep through the building and around its premises.”
The group nodded and split up, each going around in its own direction. Mahlua found herself clumped in the usual group with Coryn, Lego, and Everlastin. They searched around for a while, but upon not finding much of anything, resigned themselves to sitting around the purple Suzuki outside, musing.
“We don’t even know what the gems look like,” the ginger groaned, rubbing at her bristly chin beard. Its texture had almost started to comfort her, in a weird way.
“Maybe we could look fur traces of meow-gic and find it that way?” Lego hummed, swishing his tail back and forth.
“I’m not really sure why it’s such a big deal what we find them so quickly,” Everlastin shrugged. “I mean, this whole change doesn’t really bother me. I’ve always been mistaken as a boy anyway.
“Okay, but these things are killing me,” Coryn huffed, gesturing at his chest. “How the hell do you manage when they just…bounce when you run? That actually kinda hurts!”
“Yeah, and now I have to stop and think every time I sit down. Biologically speaking, both sexes have their issues,” the electric elemental shrugged, hopping off her bike. “As for the idea of searching for magic, I think Lego might be onto something.”
His ear twitched at the mention of his name. “Fur real?”
“Mm-hmm,” she nodded, laying her hand flat on the ground. “I’m going to try sending a low-voltage pulse and see if anything gives resistance.”
Everyone exchanged a glance. Mahlua exhaled deeply and felt her veins become as copper wires and channeled through the ground, the air, through the building, through metal, around rubber, through people’s brain waves, until finally—
The ginger stood up and hissed in recoil. “Surprise, surprise, I may have found a clue,” she said, making way around the Pub into the alley beside it.
“Where are you going?” Coryn asked, stumbling to follow her.
Not long after they all started walking, Mahlua stopped outside a familiar closed door, tapered off and dusty from lack of use in recent years.
“The Mortal Combat Room?” Everlastin blinked, rubbing the back of her neck.
“Maybe,” the ginger said, planting her foot hard against the wooden barricade. Surely enough, it gave. Inside, dust flakes filtered in the light, and behind them, a table held a bizarre pink gleam.
Coryn slid past her and went over to pick it up, but hesitated, hand inches from it. “They certainly gave a vague hint. I guess since this room is closed now, it is part of Pub-tan’s place. Still…” He carefully tapped it with a finger, and upon not being smote to death or whatever he expected, he picked up the pink gem. It had the general shape of a diamond, about the size of a baseball. “…guess we’ll let Pub-tan have at it.”
“What was she so pissed about anyway?” Mahlua asked from the doorway.
The scientist shrugged and pocketed the gem.
A quick walk landed the party back in the bar. Raiders stood around, looking puzzled. Proudly, Coryn cleared his throat. “We got it for ya, Pub-tan. It’s all yours,” he called, tossing it to the bartender.
She caught it one-handed, without hardly looking up. “Where was it?” she asked tightly.
“The old Mortal Combat room we had back behind your place,” he explained, pointing a thumb behind him. “Milk found it with her electric stuffs.”
The Tan sighed, relieved. “Good.” Then, without even turning to look at the offensive item, she crushed it to dust in her fist.
As the powder filtered to the floor, it released a sound, as if it had been holding an audio recording. “Good job!” Ecchi-tan’s voice bubbled in its natural, feminine tone, “You got the first one!”
“The next one will be somewhere familiar to most of you,” Lewd-tan’s cool voice chuckled. “I can’t develop your idea too much for you, but follow the outline to the writer’s section.”
With that, the pink remains of the shattered gem disappeared.
“Guess that means you guys are headed to the Develop Your Story district next?” Pub-tan smirked.
“I…I thought that, but I wondered if they really made it that obvious as a joke,” Mahlua blinked.
“No time like the present to find out. Pretty as the girls are, they’re hurting my back,” Coryn groaned, stretching.