The world was darker in America in 2085. The last of the old oil and coal barons had clashed with the battle against climate change and the result was a sky almost permanently overcast, thick with yes, mist and smog, but also the new chemicals they were pumping into the clouds to keep the earth warm and hopefully purify the rain. They said if the science didn’t keep up, they’d be facing an ice age in the next two centuries.

Below, the world now relied on a combination of nuclear and chemically created energy to power its ever-increasing lust for light and technology. Corporate headquarters soared through the sky like knives lit by bright leds, and tenements squatted, graffitied in glowing paint and piss, and chemical trash. Democracy had fallen decades ago, with the smiling face and reassuring hand of the free market replacing it, a seething, hissing hydra of Corporatocracy. Health Care brought to you by Coca Cola!

The elderly decried the changes as the fall of man, but the rich, the elite, assured everyone that life went on. Bread and circuses was the policy of the day. Everywhere you looked a new entertainment, a new distraction. Even a street rat who couldn’t feed herself could scrounge up the money for a cell to watch the latest bright stars rise and fall. The corporations counted on this bright misdirection to keep the young, the brilliant and the disenfranchised from rising up and tipping the scales. In many cases, it was enough.
Some people were even lucky enough to be sheltered from the reality of it all. The more money you had, the more privilege to ignore the darkness, the poverty and injustice , and to wrap yourself in bright lights, glamor and glitter. For some, it wasn’t even a choice, just the way they had been raised.

Jerrica Benton, born in the mid-sixties, had never lived in an America that had a president instead of a CEO, nor had she ever had to walk through a neighborhood where young mothers sold blood plasma monthly to pay their electricity bills. She was the daughter of an eminent scientist, and founder of one of the larger new media production corporations on the west coast. The science, her father had always said, was the goal, but the celebrity paid the bills. Her father was a kind, charitable man who wanted to use his inventions to ease the burden of the poor and he had tried to impart his values on his daughters.

But still, both Jerrica and her sister Kimber had attended expensive private schools in the Hollywood hills, and grew up in a world where you threw out clothes you had worn twice in order to make room for the new season’s fashions. They grew up in a world where you came home to a private penthouse on the 40th floor, where the flat screened window was saved to an image of the golden Bahamas, and the help had already left dinner in the oven.

And that was what Jerrica was meant to come home to, a night in her 19th year, after a day of doing volunteer work as an organizer for one of her father’s charities. A night like any other, her umbrella slick with rain, dripping as she walked into the mood-lit condo.

She shook off the umbrella at the door, and placed it in its precise place on the rack just inside. Her spirits were high, as they often were when she worked with charity. Tonight was especially wonderful as she rarely actually got to see the underprivileged youth her volunteer work focused on as opposed to simply organizing different meets and events for them.

She’d gotten to teach a group of sweet young girls out of what she was told to be one of the poorer districts in the city how to sing.

She walked eagerly into the softly lit condo with a bright smile on her pink-glossed lips “Father! I’m home!”

No one answered. Not that surprising. Her daddy was probably working late in his lab down the hall on some new miracle.

She laughed, a soft and light little chuckle as she kicked her shoes off, and walked into the kitchen with the intention of bringing one of the meals the help had prepared down to her father before he worked himself into exhaustion! She loved her daddy, but… he was the type of genius you always saw in the movies. Brilliant, but scatterbrained!

There was a meal in the oven, waiting. But it was when she entered the bright, shiny chrome kitchen that she smelled a strange, metallic scent in the air.

Jerrica’s nose scrunched up in response, and she brushed her short blond hair over her ear. “Well that’s strange….” She picked up the meal, carefully, and followed her nose “Did the help burn something?” Her soft footsteps echoed all too loudly in the stillness of the apartment.

The hall was quiet, and dim as she walked past her room, and Kimber’s and further down the hall to the door of her father’s lab. An unusual site, it was partially open.

Jerrica’s footsteps faltered slightly, the pitter pat of her feet slowing to an uncertain shuffle. “Daddy?” She called down the open door. She usually had to balance the plate while she got the door open….

The smell was more potent here as she approached. There was still no answer.

She covered her nose as she eased the door further open with her foot. Her heart pounded, almost audible in the silent apartment. She started walking down the stairs, holding the plate “Daddy, I know you’re probably busy, but I… I have your dinner” She called, feeling her voice hitch as it usually only did up on stage in front of dozens of staring eyes.

Jerrica could feel something was wrong. Maybe it was how silent the lab was. It was never quiet when her father was working. As she came down the stairs, she saw the edge of her father’s rolling chair.

Jerrica Benton’s steps grew panicked, and she burst into her father’s lab with the strained edges of her hope in a weak smile on her face. “Daddy, Did you….fall asleep…?”

Hope died. Hope died with two bullets professionally placed in the back of the skull, slumped backward in a rolling chair in a sight that would haunt its viewer for decades to come.

The uneaten meal fell to the floor from trembling fingers. A young woman’s scream went unheard up within the mist and smog. Jerrica Benton’s tears joined her father’s blood as a hysterical girl who’d never seen violence or pain was introduced in one life shattering instant. No matter how much she shook him, pleaded, or sobbed…. her father was dead.

Starlight Media’s security cars were there soon, flashing lights surrounding the tall building, a severe woman in a sleek uniform looking tired as she tried to console the teenager. They ended up taking Jerrica to the hospital, where the doctors sedated hysteria into numbness and brought in an expensive psychologist who would bill the estate.

For a while she was like the city itself. The terror, pain and despair inside her muffled under a fog of chemicals and psychiatric ‘help’ . But it was as the fog cleared, that hysteria began to melt into a new feeling. One the sweet-tempered Jerrica hardly ever felt. Anger. Anger and Despair.

Her numbly honest replies to her psychologist changed to putting on a mask. Pretending to recover while under their watchful eyes.

It was her father’s business partner who came to get her, days later, in the hospital that was disguised as a relaxation spa. He was dressed in black, his hair slicked back from his temples, though if it was greying there it was expertly dyed. He had bullied his way past several doctors, it seemed.

Even through her placid mask and hidden pain, she had to smile sadly at the man. She’d grown up knowing Eric Raymond. Listening to his stories. Sharing ideas with him. He…and the memory of her dead mother… was the reason Jerrica had pursued her love of music. To impress him. All because of a silly childhood crush.

So seeing him here, dressed in mourning black just as she was…she couldn’t hide her feelings. She wasn’t able to stop the tears.

Eric didn’t say anything before putting his arms around the mourning young woman that he’d known as a little girl. He let her cry, petting her hair with large hands, lotion smooth and expertly manicured.

She’d sobbed into his shoulder, letting it all out. All the tears. All the nightmares she’d been plagued with since her drug regimen was softened. All the sobbing unanswered questions about why. WHY would anyone do this. why would anyone kill her father? He was a good man…. why she and her sister were left all alone.

She even told him about…that alien demon clawing at the back of her head, weighing her down. Anger. Vengeance.

He’d listened to it all, taking her away from the hospital in his sleek, black sedan, hand on her shoulder to steady her. Taken her back to his high-rise downtown- she wouldn’t want to go back in the house, not after that. Not even with everything professionally cleaned and in order. And she wouldn’t want to be alone- Kimber was still in transit, trying to get back from the school break vacation she’d been on down in Mexico.

She needed the presence of someone else….far away from the home she’d never be able to enter without the phantom scent of blood driving her panic into a fever pitch. So, she’d let Eric Raymond take her to his home. To the high-rise. There, she dropped the mask she’d formed for the psychologists and doctors. The once bright and radiant Jerrica, always ready with a smile or an attempt to help, had fallen into a depression. Depression mingled with thoughts of vengeance. Fantasies of finding her daddy’s murderers and …and …

It was around then that her thoughts turned into another bout of crying.

The funeral came and went in a blur. Eric had arranged it. It was huge, and so many people were there. Her father had known so many people… She saw Kimber there, for the first time since… Kimber was staying with friends. She wrapped her arms around her sister and cried.

She cried with her sister. Held her. Tried to reassure the younger girl that things would be okay. Even if she didn’t believe it herself. They mourned their father together, surrounded by strangers. A beautiful Frenchwoman in black, wearing a broach in the shape of a crown had given them personal condolences for the loss of such a good man.

In the wake of the funeral, the numb misery returned. The whole world became a blur.

Their father’s will and testament was still in the hands of his lawyers.

Eric kept a careful eye on her while they both waited through the probate period. He made sure that she ate, but he didn’t try to force her to get dressed or interact with anyone. He let her know when her sister called, but didn’t force her to call back.

Sometimes…sometimes she would talk to her sister. Long, sad conversations where they both attempted to console one another, and nobody ever felt any better.
But that was it. Jerrica Benton kept herself locked away in Eric’s home, wearing only her pajamas. She’d spend long nights…writing in on her tablet. Updating her diary. Reluctantly eating but mostly sleeping.

Lots of sleeping. Even if Eric found her sitting bolt upright some nights, screaming under the grip of night terrors.

Eric sat with her a long time on those nights, waiting for her to fall back asleep. Watching her while she slept.

Finally after a month, the lawyers had the contents of the will for them. The money, the houses, and his stock and interest in Starlight Media were Jerrica’s. Kimber had a significant trust, to be managed by her sister until she was 21. He had left his patents and scientific work to his business partner.

Surprisingly, among the other charitable donations her father had left, there were two other significant trusts, in the names of girls called Aja and Shana. These, to Jerrica’s surprise were children who had been born of affairs shortly after Jerrica’s mother’s death. Eric explained that he had known they existed, but her father had sworn him to secrecy, not wanting to disrupt the girls’ lives.

Jerrica’s first reaction was shock. They’d had half-sisters this whole time….and neither her father nor her family friend saw fit to tell them? She’d looked from the lawyer to Eric with an incredulous look. Feelings warred within her through the fog of activity. Anger at her father for cheating on their dead mother, guilt for being angry at both her loving father whom she’d never see again, and the man who’d done so much for her in the wake of his death. Curiosity about this family she’d never known. Fear. and Duty….

Somberly, Jerrica accepted the terms of the will. She would own the company, the houses, the stock, the money. She’d look out for her sister’s interests and wellbeing. Perhaps someday she’d even meet these half-sisters of hers.

But right now, all she could do was accept.

Accept and dream of vengeance. Through the somber haze of the meeting, there was always that dream playing in the back of her mind.

Meanwhile Starlight Security was doing their best, over the last month to track down their founder’s killer. They had leads, plenty of leads, unfortunately a lot of them led to places they had a hard time investigating further, at least on the surface. Places like Silicon MetaDynamics, one of the three most powerful tech companies on the west coast.

Jerrica’s numb depression began taking on more shades of her anger. In private, the young woman despaired to Eric. Why couldn’t they just confront them if they knew they did it? If Security thought that Silicon MetaDynamics was behind it, why don’t they do something! That was one such frustrated question in a sea of desperate pleas.

Eric was patient with her, explaining that there were politics involved. Of course, they’d get to the bottom of the murder, but they had to go through the right channels, or MetaDynamics would bring a tribuneral against them for improper conduct. There was only so much that could be done, and remain on the right side of the law.

That was when little Jerrica said something surprising. She’d scowled, an expression that didn’t fit on her pretty, kindhearted face, and asked him that if the law wasn’t bringing justice, then what was it good for? Her daddy believed in justice for all people! And now the Law was failing him!

“Of course, Jerrica, of course,” Eric said in his warm, soothing voice, “you know that I want your father’s killer to face justice. Hell, I’d like to see the whole of Silicon MetaDynamics go down for this. But it’s a house of cards. Without the right kind of evidence, we have to move through certain channels. It’s not as if we can just…. storm in there and interrogate people.”

Jerrica had tears in her pale blue eyes, leaking down over her pale cheeks in rivulets. Her tears followed the lines on her face, around her scowling lips and over her shaking chin “W-Why can’t we?” She asked, misery causing her sweet voice to crack. “Why can’t we just–just go right to the top! I own Starlight Corp!”

He mopped up her tears with a pocket handkerchief. “God, I wish it worked like that, Jerrica. But I’ve tried to negotiate- the heads of MetaDynamics are staying completely silent on this. They refuse to even acknowledge our claim unless we can prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt- and in their eyes, there’s probably no way to do that.”

Jerrica sniffed, breathing in sharp, jagged breaths meant to stop her from falling into another round of crying. “But if we can’t….can’t prove it to them…” She whispered desperately “”It’s like all the music in the world died at once…Daddy will never have justice. And… I can’t live in a world where dad’s killers just…. just walk free!”

She wiped her dried eyes with the back of her slender hand

Eric put his arm around her. “I know, Jerrica. And I promise, I’ll keep fighting this. I have a lead on the man who is said to have held the gun. If we can get him to talk, we should have an in.”

Jerrica leaned against him, her face pressed to the expensive material of his suit’s shoulder. She sniffled softly “Eric…” she said “I just wish there was something I could do. I feel so…so useless ” she whispered “But I can’t face the world knowing that…that dad’s killers…are out there. It’s like…. It feels like” she stammered “like when I’m up on the stage, and everyone’s looking at me. But all the time. Even when I’m alone.”

He pet her back gently and nodded. “I understand, Jerrica. I wish there was something you could do. But I think the best you can do now would be to learn to steer the company. Meanwhile I’ll have my top people on this assassin.”

Jerrica hesitated “I… I’ll of course steer the company. Father wanted that after all.” She sighed, looking away. But vengeance clawed at the back of her mind. It whispered, and her eyes went wide as an idea came to her.

It wasn’t as if someone could just…infiltrate MetaDynamics. right? Someone dead set on finding proof. On stopping them?

She blurted out “what if I infiltrated MetaDynamics? I… I could get proof! I… I can avenge Daddy, Eric! I… well…our family. Kimber…you…we’re the only people who care enough to stop them, right?”

Eric looked at her incredulously. “Jerrica, you can’t be serious. You’re a very beautiful- and talented- young woman, but you can’t just go chasing down assassins….”

Jerrica clasped her hands together “Eric, I have to. You said yourself! no amount of proof will ever bring them to justice!” She looked at him with wide blue eyes “I… Eric, please…”

“Jerrica….”he narrowed his eyes, looking her over. “I can’t just have an unarmed teenage girl go out as some kind of vigilante. And the daughter of my best friend. How could I live with myself if you got hurt?”

Jerrica’s eyes started to bead with tears once more. But her jaw was set in a determined frown “Eric. I… I’m going to do this” She’d become set on it. The ideas were already coming. Ideas of grand and glorious revenge. Of justice for her father. “I… I’d like your help. But even if you refuse that, I’m going anyway. Someone has to do something Eric!”

Jerrica…was not very physically imposing. She was a shade shorter than average height, with narrow shoulders and a slim figure that tapered down long limbs. She wore a pair of blue and white vertical striped pajamas that hid most of that figure from view. She had a pretty, sweet face, with bright blue eyes and bow shaped lips. Her bobbed, golden-blond hair was unkempt today…given how depressed she’d been, she didn’t bother to comb it.

“Is there any way I can stop you from doing this, Jerrica?” The older man asked, the wheels in his mind turning even as she spoke.

She shook her head vehemently “no, Eric.” She said, determination in her voice “I… I’ll never be able to face the world again if I know father hasn’t been avenged. I’m doing this. Even if I have to march right up to their CEO and….and finish this”

He sighed, putting his hands behind his back. “In that case, Jerrica… I have something your father left that might help you.”

Jerrica’s crystal-blue eyes went wide “W-what? You do, Eric?” She stepped forward, her hands clasped together “Please, tell me!”

“I don’t know that you’ll believe me if I tell you,” he said, straightening his cuffs as he looked down at her. “But I’ll show you. It’s still in your father’s lab- I haven’t had the equipment moved yet.”

Jerrica’s lips formed a smile for the first time that day. A bright smile that lit up her face like a thousand suns. Her pink lips parted over white teeth. “Thank you, Eric!” She embraced her longtime family friend.

He pet her hair, a small smile forming over his own lips as well, unseen.

0000000000000000000000000000000

Eric opened the door to the condo. Jerrica hadn’t been there since the night IT had happened, but Eric had had it kept clean and had been in and out. The window screens were turned off, and the lights only came on as they approached.

Even so, Jerrica tensed visibly the moment they set foot before the door. Her body froze…and for the moment she was too terrified to cross the threshold into her family condo.

Eric reached out and steadied her. Such a delicate girl. “Easy there.”

She looked up at him, her eyes pinpricked in her panic “Can I hold your hand?” She managed to whisper.

“Of course,” he nodded, offering it to her. She was so vulnerable like this. She had been since her father’s death> which of course, was why he had swooped in to …. shelter her.

She took his hand, and a few grounding breaths. Her eyes slowly dilated, and her breath became more even as she calmed herself. She looked up at him with a weak smile, and stepped through the door, holding his hand tight.

He held her hand tightly, leaning close as they walked through the hall of her former home, past her bedroom- where he hesitated just a moment.

She hesitated with him, looking at the closed door of her bedroom. It …. even at her age it was still decorated with the trappings of her childhood. A ‘movie star’-esque star labeled ‘Jerrica Benton: Changing Room’ with day glow stickers of musical notes surrounding it.

She flushed, and looked away, her hand shaking.

He nodded, and led her further down the hall, to the closed, locked room that had once been her father’s lab. He raised his hand, and pressed it against the scanner. The door opened softly.

Jerrica squeezed his hand, her breath starting to quicken once more. She wanted to get past this. To go into her bedroom and take possession of all the memories locked inside. But she was so scared.

Her eyes glanced down the stairs, as she waited for his lead.

Eric Raymond led her down the stairs, his hand still in hers, the tall man’s eyes hidden behind the pair of glasses he used for driving and reading small print.

The lights came on in the windowless lab as they entered. The rolling chair was gone as was every one of its like. Eric had replaced them with metal chairs.

Jerrica walked a little closer to the tall man. She trusted him, and that trust was obvious in her wide blue eyes. She’d begun shaking “you…changed some things” She whispered.

“I didn’t think anyone needed to see those chairs in here again,” he said. Aside from that change, most of the lab was the same, still strung with fireproof chemical lights like long glow sticks overhead. There were screens, and machines Jerrica had no name for, giant tubes and what seemed to be medical equipment. It was her father’s lab alright.

“If I never see another one of those chairs, I… I won’t complain” She said with a small, timid smile “Which of these machines is the one you’re going to show me?” She asked, gesturing around the lab.

He led her toward the back of the lab, to a great mass of machinery. A huge pod, surrounded by other boxed in machines; all connected by tubes and cords, with screens and read outs.

“This,” he said. “This is what your father was working on when he died. The Synergy Central System.”

Jerrica’s eyes went wide, flicking over the pod and all its connected machines and screens “Synergy Central System? ” she asked in surprise. “What is it? He never mentioned that name to me.”

“It was his most secret project,” Eric said, pulling over a chair and sitting down backwards on it. “a harmonization of biology and software that would allow the human body to be advanced, upgraded and maintained like, and with, machinery.”

Jerrica placed her hand on the outside of the pod “It’s his..final creation” her voice hitched in her throat “It….it allows people to…. meld with machinery? Or…or be…advanced? How…how is that even possible, Eric?”

“With Synergy,” he said, tapping the console so that a screen lit up. “A nano-based Artificial Intelligence that bonds with the nervous system and can make repairs and rebalance human biochemistry in real time.”

She gasped “An AI?” She leaned close to the screen, her head cocking “Like Crown Versailles Robotics have as their lobby secretary?”

“I’m much more advanced than that, Jerrica,” a droning, synthesized woman’s voice said, as a pair of lips appeared on the monitor.
Eric smirked, and waved a hand. “Jerrica, meet Synergy.”

Jerrica gasped, her hand covering her mouth as she startled backwards “Oh!!!” she yelped “You know my name!” She swallowed, and watched the lips move on the screen “I… I’m sorry. It’s….it’s n-nice to meet you, Synergy” she said once she composed herself.

“It’s nice to meet you, Jerrica. I can see you be reading your weight and heat signature, and the moisture content of your breath. Your profile is associated with Jerrica Benton, daughter of my creator, Emmet Benton.”

The girl’s hand was still over her mouth, surprise in her eyes “Th… that’s me… I …I know daddy was smart, but….” She hesitantly touched the screen again “wow! you can really interface people with…with machines?”

The screen was warm, and lit up as her fingers touched it- displaying an image of her hand, and then a photo of her from her high school photo shoot, along with her vital statistics.

“I can.”

Eric smiled. “Synergy is so advanced that it can know what your body is about to do before its done it. Once Synergy is tested and implemented, no one would have to have a heart attack, or an aneurysm, if they had synergy installed. Not only that but even without extra modifications, Synergy can boost your metabolism, increase strength and speed for short periods of time, heighten vision and hearing….”

Jerrica gasped again, and looked delighted “Synergy is a miracle!” She said with the first genuine enthusiasm she’d shown since he agreed to help her. “She…she can save so many lives…. she can stop people from ….” She faltered “From…dying” She swallowed, looking down “and….and… make us better humans.” The enthusiasm faltered. Synergy hadn’t saved her father, after all.

Eric put a hand on her back. “She will be able to, hopefully,” he said. “Your father did amazing work. And with it, it’s possible you could achieve justice for him.”

That reinvigorated her. She looked at Synergy, her eyes bright with determination “Synergy. could you help me become…? b-better? So I can avenge our father’s death?” She asked the machine “He…He created you. And now he’s gone because of…of MetaDynamics!”

“I can help you, Jerrica,” Synergy said. “I can be used to make you stronger, faster. To enhance your bones and your muscles. I can be whatever you need.”

Jerrica swallowed, nervous but…this was her big shot “Then I want you, Synergy. I… I want you to make me strong enough to stop them. To…To avenge Dad. I don’t care what it takes.”

Eric put her hand on her. “Jerrica, it is a serious procedure. I want you to be sure of this.”

Jerrica looked up at Eric “I. I’m sure of it” she said. “I can’t just let this end” she smiled at him “B-besides. It’s dad’s technology and you’re …. you’re showing it to me. It can’t be so bad, can it?”

“Of course not,” he purred, his hand on her wrist, glasses slipped down on his nose. “But I don’t want you to look back and feel like you were pushed into this,.”

She turned her hand around, and took his fingers in her delicate hands. Looking up at him, she faintly smiled “I wasn’t, Eric” She said in a shaking voice “I have to do this. Dad…I can’t let his death be for nothing. If….if I avenge him, and this process works on me…we can start using Synergy to save lives, can’t we?”

“It’ll absolutely be a huge kickstart for Synergy,” he said. he put an arm around her. “If you’re sure about this, Jerrica, then I won’t stop you.”

Jerrica flushed, and leaned into his arm. “I’m sure about this, Eric. I’ve never been more sure of anything else.” She leaned her head against him “After this works…. I’ll help organize the development of Synergy for the masses” She smiled nervously “As acting head of Starlight Corp”

He stroked her hair and nodded. “Then we shouldn’t waste any time. we can start the procedure tonight, if you’re ready.”

Jerrica nodded, leaning into his touch “I want to start tonight. I’m ready” She took a deep breath “Synergy…?” She called to the machine.

“Yes, Jerrica?” the female voice responded’

“It…” She stammered, before clearing her throat “It’s Showtime.”

0000000

There was a part of Eric Raymond’s scheming, multifaceted mind that couldn’t believe his luck. Jerrica Benton. The daughter of his late partner. He girl he’d wanted to get his hands on before her 15th birthday was about to be entirely within his power.

Synergy. Synergy was a marvel. The AI technology could do everything he had claimed it could, and more, there was no doubt about that. After all, Eric knew genius when he saw it, and Emmet had been a genius. But even with that genius, he hadn’t been able to solve all the bugs in the system before he’d died.

Or maybe Emmet hadn’t even seen it as a bug. He always had been a naive fool. Maybe he didn’t believe that someone would exploit Synergy’s design to let them input commands into a host’s mind possibly without them even knowing it had been done.

But that design, flaw or feature, was one that anyone who had Synergy installed in them would be stuck with. Including Jerrica. And Eric had some wonderful ideas about what to do with that.

He stood up as Jerrica spoke to the AI. Showtime. It certainly was.

“You’ll have to take off your clothes, I’m afraid,” he coughed politely.

Jerrica’s pale cheeks flushed red at that “w-what?” She asked “I…I can’t go in my clothes?” She gestured to the simple and plain white and blue striped dress she wore.

it matched her pajamas back home.

Synergy answered before Eric could. “You will be fully submerged, Jerrica. And I will need access to your entire dermis.”
Eric waved his hand. “What the lady said.”

Jerrica bit her lip, chewing on it nervously. But….

She was willing to subject herself to untested technology to avenger her father. She supposed she could take a little embarrassment at denuding in front of the man a younger her had a crush on.

She slowly slipped out of the dress, and removed her bra and panties. She immediately covered herself with her arms

Eric appeared to shade his view politely, while failing entirely to actually do so, instead watching her undress with an internal smirk. He’d seen her naked a few times this month without her knowing, when he’d chanced to catch her coming out of the shower.

It was a good view. Jerrica was a lithe little thing, with B-cup breasts topped in cute pink nipples, and slight hips that lead into long, elegant legs. Currently though, most of that was hidden by her shaking arms “w-where do…do I go?” she asked

The great tube in the center opened with a hiss, and expelled a little steam.

“In here, Jerrica,” Synergy said.

Jerrica hesitated again, her pale and narrow shoulders shaking as she stepped forward. “O-okay” she finally said

She mistakenly gave a good view of her cute round ass as she attempted to climb into the tube.

His lip twitched into a smirk, seeing it. “Don’t worry, Jerrica, I’ll be right here the whole time.”

The tube was angled gently, perfect for her to step into, and lay down as if it were a bed.

She slipped inside, and settled down into it just like that. As if it was a strange sort of bed. She smiled at him before she lay back “Thank you Eric…I don’t know what I’d do without you, these last few weeks”

“You know I’ll always watch out for you,” he said. The tube hissed closed, and Synergy’s image appeared on a small screen inside it.

“ready to begin procedure. Subject, Jerrica Benton.”

Eric pulled himself up to the control panel. It was time to get to work.

Jerrica smiled faintly at the screen before her eyes “Hello Synergy.” She asked softly “this won’t hurt, will it?”

“The initial injection may sting somewhere,” Synergy said. “but afterward you will be dosed with a drug that will put you under for the rest of the procedure.”

Jerrica nodded slightly “then…then I look forward to, ah, w-working with you, Synergy.” she lay back on the ‘bed’ with a deep breath “You’re going to be part of me, now”

“It will be a pleasure, Jerrica,” Synergy said. A small breathing mask descended from the tube, and pressed gently to her mouth and nose.

At the controls, Eric was smiling as he entered commands. Of course, he should enhance her appearance as well as all the other things. Why not?

Jerrica was shaking in the pod, but she took several deep breaths from the breathing mask. She had to relax. When she came out of this…. she’d be stronger. Better…able to stop those corrupt and wicked enough to have killed a good man like her father.

A warm, syrupy liquid started seeping into the pod from the bottom, covering her legs, and creeping up her body.

“everything’s alright, Jerrica,” Synergy said soothingly. “I can feel your heartbeat is elevating, are you nervous? would you like to stop the procedure?”

Jerrica’s toes curled in the fluid, and her breath hissed rapidly through the breathing tube. But…she shook her head. She could hear her heart hammering in her ears, even as she whispered “no… No… I am nervous, Synergy” she admitted shakily “but…but …while I’m scared, I know this is something I have to do…”

“You’ll be sedated soon, Jerrica,” Synergy promised as the fluid crawled up her body, and over the line of her mouth and nose. To her surprise, it didn’t’ affect her vision at all, nor did it feel strange against her open eyes.

She blinked in the strange liquid, her eyes wide open and not stinging at all. “thank you” she whispered. “I trust Eric and you…”

She felt something cold, and metal press against the base of her spine. “Preparing initial injection, Jerrica.”

Jerrica stiffened, but squeezed her eyes shut “r-ready Synergy!” she squeaked through the breathing tube.

Eric was watching her from his vantage point at the console, her body displayed for him on the screen as he put the finishing touches on her program.

“Showtime,” he muttered.

The injection stung. It stung like a bad pinch, like when Jerrica was a kid, and her sister Kimber was mad at her and would pinch her hard under the table…

She winced, and made a sharp sound of surprise as the pinch of the needle stabbed into her spine. She had a brief moment where she felt…guilty…that she didn’t tell Kimber about any of this.

She didn’t have long to feel guilty about it. She heard Synergy say. “Injection complete. Introducing sedative.”

Something tasted sweet in her breathing mask.

Jerrica’s lips parted, and she breathed in the strange sweet air. Her eyes opened only halfway, focused on Synergy’s image before her.

The image went hazy and so did her thinking as she lost touch with her body, and her vision faded.

Jerrica, the sweet taste of the sedative on her lips, surrendered herself to sedation.

Maybe the sedation never fully put out her optic nerves, or maybe Jerrica just had too good an imagination, but whichever it was, she would later see in her mind flashes of the process. There was no pain associated with the memories, but pain isn’t always necessary for horror.

There was an image of her arms, floating in front of her, dethatched, as long metallic needles shot into them, delivering some kind of payload deep into the bone.

The image of great, long needles at the end of blocky, wire and diode covered machines coming right at her eyes.

At some point she saw her head, chest, stomach and legs all in different segments as machine arms clever knit technology into them. She saw light burst from her toes.

The reflection in the curve of the glass of a great web or wing like structure of robotics joining into her back. Something pressing to the base of her skull. The sound of a drill.

Those sights and sounds would come to her in the night from then on. Or when she was alone and allowing her mind to wander.
Strange, confusing images and sounds. As if her entire body was reconstructed before her paralyzed senses.

Eric, of course, saw all of it. In between cups of coffee, phone calls about minor matters at Starlight Media, and games of Tetris on his cell. He watched over the many hours as Jerrica’s body was torn apart and reconstructed in his own design. What would her father think?

The procedure took upwards of 20 hours, and Jerrica was sedated for five hours more than that. Her vitals were good, and everything had healed up without scarring. Eric took the opportunity for a little bit of sleep, and a shower, and finally, another cup of coffee. He tapped his watch- just a little more than an entire day had passed.

Jerrica awoke with the feeling of cool, dry air against hot, moist skin, as if she had just come out of the shower. The heavy sedation was wearing off, but it hadn’t worn off entirely yet, and her mind was fuzzy. The last thing she remembered- at the moment- was climbing into the pod.

She stirred, her eyes opening….very slowly. Slow enough to try to adjust to any bright light she’d encounter. She gasped out a soft breath, unsure for a moment of what exactly was going on. Her head was swimming through a fog, and she was finding it hard to latch onto anything but….the fact that she had gone into Synergy for the procedure.

As she slowly opened her eyes, she saw the dim lights of her father’s lab, which were still a bit overpowering. She seemed to be lying on a soft medical couch of come kind. She saw a face above her, but it was a moment before it would resolve into features.

She had to close her eyes briefly against the glare of the lights with a soft , and muzzy whimper. But she’d opened her eyes again to try and resolve the face into something familiar to grasp onto.

Her vision resolved, crystal clear this time. Eric Raymond was looking down at her.

“Can you hear me?”

That was something familiar, and she tried to smile at him.

“I can hear you, Eric..”

“Good,” he nodded, and gave her a reassuring smile in return. “It seems like everything went well. It’s good to have you back.”

Jerrica’s lips felt strange as she smiled, as if she were using the muscles for the first time.

She was glad he was here…To wake up alone in the haze of sedation and the strangeness of her own body would have been terrifying. She raised her hand to her face, pressing fingers to flesh and muscles that should have been familiar.

“How…How long was I out, Mr. Raymond?” she asked in a shaking voice.

The combination of heavy sedatives and whatever had been done to her body made her feel half-numb and stiff, and out of tune with her own form. Her fingers looked normal when she looked at them, but they felt foreign.

“About 24 hours,” he told her, “a little more.”

He offered her his hand.

She flexed her fingers with a soft sound of confusion. Her body felt like someone else’s. But it was hers. She could tell from the shape of her fingers, but….

She’d stepped into the machine feeling like herself, and woke up feeling like a stranger in her own body. All in the blink of an eye.

She finally noticed his hand through the fog of her own mind, and took it.

“A whole day?” she breathed. “And…how many more sessions?”

“No more sessions,” he assured, closing his hand gently around hers. “It’s all done. I told you, your father’s technology is a miracle. Once Synergy is in place it makes the rest of the procedure as simple as anything.”

She squeezed his hand.

“She’s a miracle,” she agreed, her voice quivering in an unfamiliar throat. “I feel so strange, Eric..”

“I can only imagine. But I think you’ll be happy with how it went.”

She squeezed his hand, feeling the lotion-soft skin against her still-moist and shaking fingers.

“How…How did it go?” She tried to sit up, to look down at her body

She felt a soft voice in the back of her mind. Synergy.

“Internal temperature 98.3 degrees. Respiration: Good. Heart Rate: 60 beats per minute. Presence of foreign chemicals in bloodstream: 10%.”

“It went great,” Eric said, nodding. “As soon as you can handle it, I’ll show you.”

Jerrica gasped, and her hands went to her temples, fingers winding in the hair

“Oh!” She gasped. “She…Synergy!?” she stammered “She’s in my head.”

Her heart rate increased slightly.

Her hair felt a little strange. Almost softer than before.

Eric nodded and put his hand on her shoulder.

“That’s normal,” he assured her. “She interfaces with your nervous system through your cerebral cortex.”

Her pulse slowed, and she took a deep breath. Jerrica’s fingers brushed through her strangely soft hair, and she managed a small smile.

“Oh, that makes sense. Welcome, Synergy…I hope my mind’s a comfortable enough place to be.” She laughed softly.

“It’s just fine, thank you, Jerrica,” the warm voice intoned. In her mind, it was more human, lacking the digitized quality of the voice from the speakers.

“You’ll be able to communicate with her to help condition your body for anything you want it to do,” he said. “And Synergy will be able to relay you information about your vitals you might not know otherwise.”

Jerrica liked it. The warm voice was pleasant as it drifted through her mind like her own thoughts. She looked at Eric a bit awestruck.

“Wow!” she finally sat up “So if I was getting sick, she could help me know what was going on ? or…if I was in some sort of biological danger?” she nibbled her thumbnail gently “What sort of things can I ask her to help me do?”

“Exactly, exactly,” he nodded. “She can let you know if you’re getting sick and help tune your body to fight off the infection. Or hell, let you know if you’d been poisoned. As for what she can help you do, lets see… change the spectrum of your vision. Adjust your center of gravity, increase grip strength, deploy modifications…”

Jerrica’s eyebrows knit together in a worried look, her smile fading.

“Mo-Modifications…you’d mentioned those earlier. But we never t-talked about them…Sounds like she can do a lot…..” she paused. “Synergy, can you help me…I…I don’t know, s-see heat signatures?” she wondered, as a test of her new abilities.

“Of course, Jerrica.” Synergy said soothingly. Something shifted inside her, and her vision— changed. Now instead of seeing colors, she was seeing clusters of heat, which there were a lot of in the room.

She stifled a shout, and her fingers tightened on Eric’s hand. She looked up at him with her strange new vision.

“Eric! I…it works!”

His face was a blob of warmth, above the warmer trunk of his body. It was strange to watch him smile. She could see his breath puffing out gently.

“Fabulous,” he purred.

Her fingers tightened on his hand

“Please return my vision to normal, Synergy” she breathed. “This is just outrageous! I ….I can do things I only ever dreamed of…”

Though, even Synergy probably couldn’t curb her crippling stage fright.

“Sure I can, Jerrica,” Synergy said, as her vision returned to normal.

“You’re super, Jerrica. Outrageous is right.” Eric grinned at her.

She blinked as the blobs of color and heat faded from her vision. She flushed, smiling at him with a timid chuckle.

“Thank you , Eric…You’d mentioned…augmentations?”

“I did,” he said with a smile. “I can run through them for you, or you can ask Synergy.”

She bit her lip.

“Either way. I just want to know what’s in my body now.”

He put his hand on her shoulder.

“Of course,” he said. “To start with, all your bones and muscles have been enhanced and reinforced.”

She leaned on him, and looked down at her arms. She made a muscle, confused

“Enhanced?” She asked, looking at her thin arms. “So I’m stronger and…probably won’t break a bone quite so easily?”

Eric nodded. “Exactly. Synergy can tell you just how much, but you can do things like life heavy objects, and survive high falls.”

“Synergy can…can I have specifics?” She asked hesitantly. It would be nice to feel..strong.. She’d felt so frail since her father had died.

Synergy’s pleasant voice intoned the specifics to her about her new enhanced strength. She could lift over 1000 pounds, and survive a 30 story fall.

“Thirty stories,” she said in wonder, “Wow…”

And then she laughed.

“You know, Eric” She said with a shy, but playful grin “with enhanced muscles, I could probably finally outrun the paparazzi”

Eric laughed lightly.

“Why Jerrica, you remember that?” Back years ago, Jerrica had asked to date him, and he’d sadly had to decline. her father had been alive after all and he… would NOT have approved.

Jerrica giggled.

“It was only two years ago. Don’t worry, Mr. Raymond, Back then, I as just being a silly teenage girl” She brushed her hair over her ears “And I’m just teasing ”

“Oh, so I shouldn’t take you out to dinner then?” he asked with a little smirk.

Jerrica blushed a crimson, and she began to stammer.

“B-b-b-b-b…but…but…you…”

She looked like she was thrust out without warning before a crowd of a hundred thousand.

Synergy spoke in her mind.

“Jerrica, I’m detecting a high level of anxiety. Would you like me to correct for that?”

Jerrica continued to stammer to Eric, her eyes wide. Her thoughts caught on Synergy’s words with a strangled ‘yes!’

Almost instantly she felt her brain relaxing, and unknotting-in fact she felt very slightly faint for a moment, before that too, corrected itself.

“I wasn’t trying to make you so nervous,” the older man purred.

She was halfway through a swoon before her body corrected and relaxed. She laughed, a little easier. She looked up at him with a shy smile.

“It’s alright, Eric” She said sweetly “I didn’t know you were intending on taking me out to dinner.”

“I feel like you deserve it, after all you’ve been through,” he said.

She put her hand to her lips, thoughtfully for a moment

“Then I wouldn’t turn you down, if you asked. ” she said with a timid, but relaxed smile.

“Consider me asking,”

Jerrica flushed. She hadn’t thought about her childhood crush on Eric ….for a long while. In truth, she’d only tried asking him out two years ago. And being turned down hurt, but she’d just been happy to have such a good family friend… She’d meant to tease him with the comment.

She bobbed her head, her blond hair falling over her ears.

“I accept, Eric. And if need be. I’ll run from paparazzi” she teased , with a wink “but ah, first we should talk about…” she gestured to her body “So I don’t break any cups or something at the dinner table.

He laughed. “Very true. That would be embarrassing, wouldn;’t it? Lets see…. You’ve got some new internal paraphernalia.”

“I wouldn’t want to embarass myself on my first night out in weeks…” she said with a shake of her head “that’s sort of a funny way to put things, Eric” she said with mild concern “Internal…paraphernalia?”

“Oh things you’ll be able to access like lockpicks and infiltration tools. Hidden blades….” he gauged her reaction as he spoke.

Her reaction…wasn’t entirely positive. Concern grew in her eyes at ‘lockpicks’ , mingled with the reluctant admittance that they were probably necessary….But when he got to hidden blades, she just looked stricken “Blades Eric!?” She asked incredulously “Why on Earth do I need hidden blades! ”

Eric raised his hands in defense. “It was in the program, Jerrica,” he said. “your father’s pursuits may have been humanitarian, but he was working with security money to begin with.”

“Synergy was going to make more dangerous security personnel?” She asked them both “B-but why are there weapons in me Eric? Couldn’t you…h-have picked and choosed? I don’t want to be a living weapon! I don’t want to kill anyone! I just wanted to…to make them confess!” Her voice cracked with rising panic, even through the haze of her mental calm.

He put his hand on her shoulder and purred warmly.

“Jerrica, Jerrica, don’t think you have to do anything you don’t want,” he said his voice charming, and reassuring. “Even if you have this stuff inside you who’s going to make you use it?”

Her narrow shoulders were shaking. She averted her eyes.

“You didn’t say you were going to be putting…b-blades in my arms, Eric,” she said, almost accusingly. “It doesn’t matter I…if I use it or not. It’s still part of me! What if I don’t know how to control them? What if I hurt someone?” her eyes had pinpricked again, her heart rate increasing.

He put his hands around her upper arms, steadying her.

“Jerrica, of course you’ll know how to control them. I wouldn’t have even suggested this if I thought it would hurt you.” That was completely true. Eric had already used test subjects to get some of the kinks out.

“Jerrica, your heart rate is rising. Do you need assistance managing your stress level?” Synergy asked.

Jerrica’s breath grew strained, and she nodded silently to Synergy. The weight of the day was crushing her lungs.

“But…” She stammered, “is that the only weapon you put inside me?”

Synergy’s influence started to work immediately on her brain chemistry, and she felt the tension and stress ease. So what if there were weapons in her body?

“There are others, unfortunately,” he said slowly.

It meant…she was a walking weapon. And that scared her. It scared her terribly.

“….just…just tell me all of it, Eric. Weapons and all. I…I won’t freak out” she said as her breathing slowed and her shoulders relaxed.

“Alright,” he nodded. “a high powered taser in your hands. And a chemical spray. but that one is non-lethal.”

Jerrica’s shoulders relaxed even more, and she sighed with visible relief. Synergy’s efforts in her mind, and Eric’s reassurances calmed her enough that she was able to stop shaking.

“Those sound pretty neat…”

“They are,” he nodded. “and hey, you don’t just have weapons. You can interface with computers, and have an advanced holographic projector.”

Jerrica’s eyes widened at that.

“Interface with computers? Is that true?” She immediately wanted to try “And a holographic projector…” She managed a hesitant smile “those sound like something I could use to force a confession…”

“I bet you could,” he agreed with a broad smile. “Oh and of course there’s one other major feature.”

She cocked her head “there’s more?” She asked

“I think you’ll like it,” he said. “It’s sort of an alternate setting for your body. Activating it will change your whole appearance.”

Jerrica blinked, and brushed a loose strand of hair over her ear “An alternate setting?” She thought about it for a moment. If it was different enough, perhaps nobody would know it was her while she wore it…

“How do I activate it, Eric?”

“Ah…..”

“Just let me know that you want to activate it, Jerrica,” Synergy answered inside her mind. “we can create a unique command if you like.”

Jerrica twirled a lock of her hair in her fingers.

“I think I would, Synergy” She responded out loud. “And I think I know just the thing”

Eric watched, leaning a little against one of the consoles.

“I’m listening, Jerrica,” Synergy said.

“I…I already said it once before. And if I’m going to be putting on a bit of a performance when I change….” She hesitated, before saying “S-Showtime. I want it to be Showtime.”

“Showtime, Jerrica,” Synergy repeated. And that’s when it happened. Jerrica’s body started to shift and change. It was the strangest feeling as she grew about an inch taller, her waist narrowing, breasts expanding, her skin taking on an almost shimmering shade of pale. Her eyes even changed their shade, along with her cheekbones heightening, and her lips puffing significantly. Her hair grew out, and fluffed into a cascade of pale around her shoulders and down her back.

Jerrica was stunned by the sensations. Her body. Her entire body had changed around her. What already felt foreign only felt more so as her body shifted around her. She swallowed “W-What do I look like, Eric?” She asked “I feel…” She looked down, and caught sight of her breasts and waist.

“Like a movie star,” Eric said with a grin. “I know how much you liked those old pictures of your mom when you were a kid.”

Jerrica was about to protest when the mention of her mother stifled the retort in her throat. She flushed, and bit her lip

“…I still do.” she admitted “I was hoping to get some of my magazines with her out of my room.”
She hesitated; “Can I see myself in a mirror?”

“Of course. Synergy if you would?”

“Certainly, Eric,” the lab’s Synergy said. Immediately all the large screens in the lab lit up with different angles of Jerrica’s new body. She was still as naked as the day she was born, but she looked like, well, a supermodel, or possibly a porn star.

Jerrica flushed, too out of sorts in her post-operation to have noticed she’d been naked . But her embarrassment was short lived. The image of the beautiful supermodel projected all around her took all her attention.

She looked…almost nothing like Jerrica Benton. If anything, the woman on the screens looked more like her mother…or an aunt she’d never met. Beautiful, with sensual curves and a maturity that just didn’t show in Jerrica’s usual sweet face.

A part of her mind couldn’t reconcile the image with herself. It was like looking at someone else. Her lips had parted in surprise. The supermodel’s lips parted with hers.

“What do you think, Jerrica?” Eric asked, pushing his glasses up. He glanced at her in the many reflections, subtly.

She didn’t answer. Not right away. Her hand trailed over her cheek, and though the long pale hair. Her other hand brushed over a breast, and down the supermodel’s narrow waist. Her eyes were fixated, watching the actions repeated on the screens.

He let her get acquainted with herself, hanging back. He certainly liked his handiwork. It wasn’t true that it looked nothing like her. He had just… adjusted some things. Played with a few knobs. Enhance a good quality here, decrease a bad one there. Like autotune, but for a body. But of course the change was so extreme, it was really like looking at two completely different people who happened to share a few features.

Jerrica , at least, seemed to think so too. She was utterly entranced with the simple exploration, watching it reflected around her. It took her a little while to finally speak.

“She…I…I’m beautiful” She said with a broad smile at her own reflection “I…I look like a movie star. I…” she giggled “nobody would ever know I was me!”

“It’s true,” Eric said, quite pleased with how much she liked it. “You wear it well.”

She flushed, and pulled her hand away from her stunned exploration of her trim stomach and hips, all too conscious of how naked she was all of a sudden. “I do…” she said, distantly. She did wear it well. It gave her a little thrill.

“Oh, ah, I have a robe for you,” he said, finally. “Let me find it…”

She hid her body with her arms, nodding.

“I’d appreciate that Eric. s-Sorry” she stammered.

The supermodel on the screens…her reflection…followed her movement.

“No, I’m sorry I forgot about it,” he chuckled, he pulled it off a chair behind a piece of machinery. It was one of Jerrica’s robes from her room.

Jerrica gratefully took it, and shrugged it onto her shoulders. It didn’t…really fit her new body very well, but it covered enough to make her decent. She smiled at him.

“We were both pretty distracted by this miracle of science, I guess…”

“Absolutely,” he agreed, gaze flicking briefly to the ways the robe didn’t quite fit her in this form.

It was tight around her breasts, going from Jerrica’s modest fashion to something almost lewd. And her new height meant a decent bit of leg was showing. She gathered her long, long hair up, and looked for something to tie it back and out of the way but there wasn;t really anything on hand to do so at the moment.

“So…I just think about the things I want, and Synergy makes them happen?”

“That’s how it works,” he said. “I’m sure Synergy can acquaint you with the finer points.”

She let her hair fall down, in an elegant cascade down her back.

“Oh I’m sure,” she grinned. “I’m actually a bit excited to ‘interface’ with a computer”

“Well there are plenty around here,” Eric said with a smirk. “Though they’re pretty packed full.”

Jerrica stiffened.

“I…I’ll wait until we get back to your condo, Eric.I…don’t think I’m ready to go anywhere near Dad’s personal notes or files…”

She ran her fingers nervously through the curious, silky, pale strands of her new, elegantly long hair.

“I think that’s probably for the best,” Eric said. It seemed that wrapped things up here for now. Just one thing left to do. Test the small, subtle trigger he’d left for Jerrica. “In that case can I take you upstairs?”

Somewhere in Jerrica’s mind a thought surfaced. The desperate need to kiss her father’s best friend and former crush full on the mouth. Was it gratitude? Mental exhaustion? She didn’t know, but the thought was there.

“W-Wait ” She said, with pleading in her voice “h-Hold on” She took a few steps forward, towards him. Her heart began to pound in her chest. Even through Synergy’s attempts to calm her and relax her, she still heard her heartbeat in her ears. The unbidden thought…it must have been gratitude. Gratitude for how kind he’d been since this all started…and the traces of that lingering crush. She couldn’t help but look him over.

He cocked his head with a warm smile as she came near. “Yes, Jerrica?”

The idea wouldn’t go away.

She knew she shouldn’t…but…the thought played over and over in her head like a skipping record. She couldn’t shake the image of herself….like this, or like she usually looked…grabbing him and kissing him with all the passion 17 year old her would have wanted.

“I want to…to thank you. for everything, Eric…”

The handsome, older man pushed up his glasses with a smile. He was in his usual tailored suit, cut to his tall physique.

“Of course,” he purred. “It’s been terrible seeing you so miserable.”

The thought pounded away in her mind. Do it. Kiss him. Put your tongue in his mouth.

The words she’d been forming to reply died under the onslaught of her own thoughts. She couldn’t hold back. She grabbed the handsome man’s shoulders, and before he could protest or stop her, planted a passionate, sucking kiss on his lips.

Eric grunted a noise of mock protest as she kissed him, and refrained from kissing back for just a moment before he allowed his stiff posture to ease- or perhaps sag under the weight of his smug triumph. He parted his lips slightly, brushing them against hers, and putting a hand, quite delicately on her back.

As he relaxed and accepted the kiss, the statuesque beauty wrapped her arms around his shoulders in a tight hug. Her breasts , clad in their tight robe, pressed to his chest . Jerrica only hesitated a moment before taking advantage of his parting lips. She pressed her tongue into his mouth, wanting desperately to continue this feeling of her lips against his.

He made another low noise of ‘protest’ as her tongue pressed against his, but then he pressed it back, testing her tongue and feeling her large, sensual lips against his, her breasts pressing against his chest. Yes this was certainly going to prove to have been worth it.

She was still trying to get used to her thicker lips, but she made up for any inexperience in kissing with sheer eagerness. He lips tugged softly at his, in soft, sucking kisses. While she sucked his lips, her tongue explored his mouth, feeling and tasting him with a sensual thrill.
WHen she was younger, she’d dreamed of doing this….and here she was, somehow bold enough to make it a reality years after she gave her crush up as impossible

The longer the kiss went on the more Eric returned it, pressing his tongue against hers, and sucking at her lips for a long moment, his hand still on the small of her back.

As Jerrica kissed him, whatever was in her mind had that been so insistent she do so eased.

She leaned against him, letting the kiss carry her through that strange, nagging desire. Her tongue rubbed and pressed against his for another moment longer, her arms looped daintilly against his shoulders….before….what she’d done came crashing down.
Eric could feel her face start to flush against his.

He broke the kiss slowly, and pushed up his glasses.

“Why, Jerrica, I’m not sure what to say…”

Jerrica stared up at him with eyes as wide as saucers. That deer-in-the headlights look of Jerrica’s he’d seen a few times before seemed out of place on her current face. She swallowed.

“I…I’m sorry Eric” She said with a hesitant smile “I couldn’t…help myself. I’m just so…..so thankful”

Eric favored her with a warm smile and brushed his fingers through her soft, pale hair. “There’s no need to be sorry. I’m just glad I can help.”

She looked away, leaning her head against his fingers “You’ve been there all along, Eric” She said with a shy smile “There to help me when I needed someone most. And now you’ve done… ” she gestured to her new body “This. This so I can bring Dad’s killers to justice”

He rested his hand gently on the side of her face, and nodded. “You can count on me to keep watching over you, Jerrica.”

Jerrica smiled at him with open trust in her eyes. She smiled “thank you Eric.And…And I’m sorry. About the kiss” she murmured “i know you said not to be sorry, but…well..”

“How could I be mad at getting a kiss?” he said with a smirk. “Really, I’m flattered.”

Jerrica rubbed her neck, her thicker lips in a soft pout “Well, I mean, it’s a kiss from me,” she said shyly, “you may not have wanted it.”

“Jerrica, really,” he purred. “You’re always so down on yourself. You need better self esteem.”

He put his hand on her back gently as he started to move for the stairs.She followed him, and it was clear from her gait that she was still getting used to her new body and the strange feeling of Synergy’s changes.

“I…I think that’s a little harder to do than you’d think. But don’t worry, Eric. My self esteem is just fine,” she lied.

“I’ll believe you for now,” he lied back with a smirk. Jerrica’s self esteem was terrible, and had been since she was a little girl.

She walked up the stairs, getting used to the new center of gravity with each timid step “Thanks, Eric. D-Do you think we can grab a few things from my room before we leave?”

“Of course,” he purred. “anything you need. I hope you haven’t been roughing it too badly at my place.” He should hope not, he’d gone to ridiculous lengths to make her comfortable, buying her all new shower supplies, pillows, sleepwear and the like.

That made Jerrica laugh, a high and sweet giggle that made her shoulders gently shake.

“Roughing it, he says.” She brushed her hair over her ear, briefly startled by how long it was. “As if. No Eric, your place is very comfortable. I was thinking more some personal effects an…and things I’ve been missing”

“Of course,” he purred as they got back up to the main floor. “do you want me to wait in the living room, or hang around and be a pair of arms?”

“Come with me,” she said with a small smile. “I’ll probably be too busy to talk, but…”

“It’s not trouble,” he purred, following her to her room.

Jerrica pushed the door open, and hesitantly walked inside.

Her room was a study in pastels and white. Soft pink walls and a white carpet, a large and luxurious bed with a pink and white striped bedspread. A pale yellow writing desk in the corner, over which hung the chore wheel for the family, alongside a poster of a famous pop singer from 15 years ago.

More such posters adorned the walls, including one or two of her mother, framed magazine covers and photoshoots. Two such pictures framed a large yellow bookcase and dresser.
A black and pink guitar sat like an inkblot on a bright canvas in the corner, alongside a Very expensive sound system, with a deluxe mic beside it.

Everything in Jerrica’s room was pin-neat, precise and kept in proper order. Just like the girl herself.

Eric glanced over the room with amusement. He’d been in it a few times before over the years, and it had changed very little, much like Jerrica had changed very little– despite her current appearance. He hung back and leaned on the doorframe, watching her, to see if she’d be alright.

She’d hesitated for a moment by the bed, before she carefully began moving around the room, gathering items she couldn’t bear to leave behind.

A pair of earrings, done up as six pointed stars in ruby red. A framed photo of her mother and father…a pink haired doll on her bed. She opened her wardrobe and stared at the outfits inside with tight lips and a look of mild concern.

“Do you need a bag for your clothes?” Eric asked.

She nodded over her shoulder “and…” she hesitated “I should put something on. ” she pulled out a blue and white striped dress in an archaic style of wide cut shoulders and a modest neckline. “But I don’t know if any of my things will fit…’

“I suppose you could shift back.” he said, grabbing a bag for her and bringing it to her. “Or you could wear something for now and we’ll get you new clothes. or hmmmm……”

She took the bag, and began packing her favorite outfits. The dress…a salmon pink suit, a yellow and blue blouse and jeans…

“What is it Eric?” She cocked her head.

“You could always just project a hologram of whatever you’d like to be wearing,” he chuckled. What an amusing idea. A nearly naked Jerrica with the illusion of clothes.

She blinked “That sounds useful,” she said, “b-but…it’s just a hologram…right?”

He nodded. “yes?”

She flushed deeply, and crossed her arms under her larger breasts “That means anyone who got close enough might figure out…that….that…”

“Only if they touched you,” he purred.

She squeezed herself, “Or if it didn’t rustle right in the wind or something…”

“Oh the hologram will take care of that,” he said. “It’s very advanced.”

She paced from foot to foot for a moment, her fingers fidgeting with a lock of her hair. Finally she whispered something softly to Synergy “G-Give me something….something flashy, like my m-mom would have worn…”

“Sure thing, Jerrica,” Synergy replied internally. There was a shimmer of light all around her,and when it dissipated she was wearing- or appeared to be wearing a flashy pink spandex dress with a pattern like piano keys along one side, and a feather ruff around the daring neckline, with high heeled pink thigh boots, and long matching gloves.

Jerrica gasped, and held her hands up to watch them flex in the illusion of gloves. She did a little spin, as she turned and looked herself over with a brightening grin.

“You look lovely,” Eric said.

Jerrica grinned at him “i…I l-look like I should be up on stage or in the movies!” she gushed “And nobody will know it’s not real?”

“No one will know,” Eric affirmed. “Not unless they touch you.”

She flushed again “And nobody’s going to do that” she said, with a firm nod “so…So I could get away with this on a regular basis”

“You could,” he nodded, amused with the idea of her running around in imaginary outfits.

“O-only sometimes though. W-when I need to wear something like this” she gestured to her outfit , and attempted to change the subject “can you have someone g-get my music stuff, Eric?”

“Sure, I’ll send someone up for it,” he nodded. “All of it?”

She looked back at her guitar and mic “Well.. I don’t want to take up too much room in your house…”

He waved his hand magnanimously. “Please, I hardly use all the space I have.”

“then all of it. Once i”m….I’m done forcing that confession, I’d like to get back to songwriting in my spare time between corporation stuff. T-To help me relax and…get some feelings out.” She fidgeted , fussing with a long lock of hair.

He put his hand on her back gently. “I think that;s a great idea, Jerrica.”

She leaned on him slightly “You know how much I love m-music. And It’s something Kimber and I can do together”

“It is,” he purred. “You could form a little band if you wanted.”

Jerrica nervously tucked a strand of hair over her ear “well….only insofar as playing together. You know as well as anyone that if I go in front of a crowd I…I j-just freeze up” She said, and sat on the edge of her bed, her long and elegant legs crossing at the knee.

“It’s a pity,” he said. “You have a lovely singing voice.”

She hid her face, a smile peeking out from around her fingers.

“I s-still can’t …the thought of all those people up there, w-watching me. I choke. Like I did at my school’s pageant”

He came and sat down on the bed next to her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I remember, Jerrica,” he sighed. It really was a shame. especially with the body she had now. She’d be a hell of a sensation. “Although…”

She looked down at her knees, gently sucking her lip through her teeth. She didn’t reply. She just listened, her fingers flexing against her kneecap.

“You know, like this, no one would know it was you,” he mused thoughtfully.

Jerrica stiffened and her eyes widened slightly. Her lips parted, and out came a soft ‘huh’ .
“I…I suppose that’s true. I hardly recognize myself…”

“You should think about that,” he said with a smile..

“I…I will,” Jerrica nodded with a thoughtful smile on her lips. “B-but it’s really not the time to be thinking about that…”

“No, I guess it’s not.”

‘Synergy’ she thought ‘show me this….this taser of mine’ She looked down at the palm of her hand, flexing her fingers thoughtfully.

Jerrica watched as a small circular depression formed in the center on her palm, a silver circle ringing it and a blue glow in the center.

It didn’t hurt at all, in fact whatever happened barely had a sensation to it. It was like flexing a muscle she didn’t know she had.

Jerrica flexed that muscle again, making the strange depression in her hand spark

“I did this for….for revenge, Eric,” She said, as casually as if discussing any one of her many responsibilities. “I can’t start thinking about things like bands or the inheritance until the job is done”

“Then let’s get back,” he said. “I can brief you on the details that Starlight Security has uncovered.”

Jerrica stood, looking strangely distant as she hooked the blocky star-shaped earrings into her ears.

“A-After you , Eric” She said softly after unflexing that strange new muscle and making the sparking taser vanish back into smooth flesh.