Kickoff

Jake awoke to the sound of the telephone blaring on his bedpost.

That his hotel had a phone was something he took as a matter of course, and without much thought. Most hotel rooms did. But he hadn’t expected a call on it and it took him a minute both to wake up, and to understand what was going on.

“Hello?” He answered, head still fuzzy from sleep.

“Good morning, love!” Leah greeted cheerfully, “Bit late to be sleeping in, no? It’s almost 11.”

“Leah, who cares?” He asked, annoyed. “I’m on a fantasy vacation island, and for the moment, you’re not even letting me interact with the women who actually live here with me. You got anything better for me to do?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” She said. “You might notice that you have a television in your room. Most of the time you’ll find that it just shows you the regular channels you might get back home, as well as running our own network’s channels.”

“Lovely. I’m more of a streaming kinda guy than a cable watcher, so I don’t know why you’re telling me this.”

“Because today is different. Today, we have a challenge.” Leah said. “During challenges, your TV is programmed to exclusively show it as it takes place, if you are so inclined to watch it happen. Since this particular challenge splits up our contestants, you’ll be able to see how each of them is doing.”

“How does that work?” He asked. “Do you have cameras that follow them around, or something? That would make it a little hard to be discrete, no?”

“I guess you’ll just have to tune and see, won’t you?” Leah retorted, and he could almost hear the wink he was sure she’d just thrown him on the other end of the line.

“We’ll see. I don’t know if I want to watch this happen. What you’re asking them to do is pretty fucked up.”

“Oh, you will,” Leah said with irritating certainty, “And I think you’ll find that most of our contestants see this for the opportunity that it is. It should be quite fun! I’m very excited!”

“Lovely. Good for you,” Jake said. “When does it get going?”

“They’re supposed to be here at noon sharp,” She said, “Would you like some company while they’re out there performing? I can’t stay for the entire show, but I’d rather like to join you for the part that I can.”

Jake thought about telling her he’d rather watch the show with an agitated honey badger, but decided that getting on better terms with the woman holding his loved ones hostage might not be the worst idea.

“Sure. Come on up when you’re done with…whatever it is you have to do.” He said.

“Anything you want me to bring?” She asked.

He thought about it.

“I could use some pizza,” He said.

“I believe your preferred variety is…party sliced thin crust with pepperoni, garlic, extra cheese and green peppers. Is that correct?”

Jake blinked.

“How the fuck did you know that?”

“See you at noon!” Was her only reply.

*****

AJ swung out of bed that morning deeply confused.

“What the fuck?” She asked aloud.

“Everything okay?” Her roommate asked, stepping out of the bathroom.

She was wearing a bikini, and standing in the door that led out to their balcony.

“Yeah. Little surprised is all,” She said. “I should be in a world of pain, but I feel perfectly fine. Kind of awesome, even.”

“Pain? Are you hurt or something?” Rachel asked.

AJ was a little charmed by the genuine concern in her voice. She did usually have a lot of aches and pains. One didn’t do hardhat construction work for a year without them. And while those were silent as well, that wasn’t what she’d meant.

“Nah. I just got real goddamn drunk last night,” She said. “Stayed up after most folks went to bed to do it.”

She shook her head.

“I like drinking more than I care about avoiding hangovers, but I should have a real rager right now. I feel perfectly fine. Kinda awesome, actually. Like that was the best night’s rest I’ve had in years.”

Rachel shrugged.

“Probably more of them fucking with us,” She said. “They want us to perform well for them.”

AJ nodded.

“You’re probably right. Bet if we abused the privilege and made a mess of their show, they’d come right back again real quick, too.”

She stood and stretched. Rachel was intermittently running a blowdryer, teasing her long, silky black hair. She wasn’t exactly AJ’s type, particularly since her change, but she couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to run her fingers through it.

“Already decided to go for a swim?” AJ asked.

“Yeah. Swimming’s amazing for your core. One of the best workouts you can get,” Rachel explained. “They can demuscle me all the fuck they want, but they won’t stop me from getting my morning workout in.”

“Atta girl.” AJ said.

Her own morning workout consisted of getting coffee in her system as soon as humanly possible. She went over to the machine and soon, the room was filling with the pleasant, roasted aroma that only damn good coffee could produce.

“You gonna go through with the thing we talked about?” She asked.

“I don’t know…” Rachel said. “I’m definitely going to do another thing I had in mind, but I think I’ll make a judgment call with my second shot when the time comes.”

AJ nodded to that.

“How about you? Still got something in mind?” Rachel asked.

“More than something,” She said. “But I better not say. Best keep it close to the vest.”

Rachel seemed to accept that, which was good.

“We gotta be there at noon, you know. Some big kickoff ceremony at the pool lounge. Don’t forget to bring your ray gun.”

“Yep. I’ll catch up when the time comes,” Rachel said. “Think I’ll catch some breakfast in the meantime.”

But as they filed in near the appointed time, all they found was a sign directing them out toward the beach and reminding them again to retrieve their ray guns if they’d forgotten. When AJ arrived there, she found that overnight, the formerly pristine beach development had undergone something of a shotgun development. A long wooden path led out in the water, connecting to 11 different stilted huts. Leah stood at the path’s entrance, and the other contestants had formed into a loose huddle as they waited.

“That’s ten of you…” Leah said, “I’m impressed, Ms. Brandt. I was expecting you to be the last one in.”

AJ snorted, and gave the assembled players a cursory look. To her complete lack of astonishment, she did not see any vibrant teal hair waving around.

“Sorry!” Lindsey’s voice called out a short time later.

The 20 something weirdo, who AJ nonetheless decided she quite liked, came running up in a swimsuit bottom, a stretchy t-shirt, and flip flops.

“Uhm…wow,” Hanna exclaimed. She pointed at her own chest and made a circular gesture, “You uh…grew.”

AJ’s eyes went wide when she saw for herself. Lindsey’s breasts, already pretty substantial, were now enormous. Not inhumanly so, but large enough that they strained even a top designed for flexibility. That strain revealed that they were now pierced as well. AJ didn’t know whether they had been prior to her sudden participation in the show (though wouldn’t have been surprised either way), but she suspected the tight chain connecting the two piercings was new.

“Uh, yeah,” She agreed, panting. “It’s because of this challenge I took.”

“What did you take?” Megan asked, examining them a little uncomfortably.

“Well, I had five options. One would have made me flirt with all of you, one made my tits bigger the hornier I got, one gave me these barbell nipple piercings and chained them together real tight, and one made every part of my body really really sensitive.”

“And you took all of them?” Julie asked. “Are you fucking crazy?”

“I think we’ve pretty clearly established that I am by now,” She said. “It was pretty stupid, though. I was so big earlier I couldn’t move right.”

“Sexually sensitive, I’m guessing? For the skin thing?” Hannah asked in a tone that was a bit more than casually interested.

“I can barely wear clothes,” Lindsey said a bit desperately. “Definitely gonna yeet these things when I get back to the hotel.”

Even Leah looked impressed.

“Much as I admire your enthusiasm, love, I hope it doesn’t get in the way of you performing your part in the contest.”

“I’ll be fine,” Lindsey assured her with the wave of her hand.

The gesture caused her chain to pull, and Lindsey gave out a soft moan. Her breasts swelled just enough that AJ could visibly see it. She saw something else too; a hungry flash in Hannah’s eyes that was extremely disconcerting. She averted her eyes, but not before Hannah caught them.

“Okay, well…now that the gang's all here, let’s explain how this works,” Leah said.

She pointed back to the neatly arranged huts behind her.

“I’m going to call you out in pairs,” She said. “You’ll go down to the two huts marked with your names. Inside you’ll find a bed, and a terminal. If you have a specific person in mind as your target, you’ll be transported to their location. If you would rather go to a location instead, you can input either the exact address or the name of where you’d like to go. Either way, there will be a flash, and then you’ll be gone.”

“Getting there sounds pretty straightforward,” Emily said, “But how do we get back?”

“Just imagine yourself back in the hut again,” Leah said. “You’ll be transported right back there, to the bed again. And if you’re not back there in four hours, we’ll bloody well transport you back there anyway. So make sure you’ve done at least something with that pistol by then.”

“Speaking of which,” She added. “You DO all have your pistols, right?”

“Fuck me,” Emily groaned. “I totally forgot mine…”

“Me too,” Added Ryan.

“Alright, I’ll just transport you two last,” Leah said with a sigh. “Go get them. Now please. If you don’t have them by the time you get back, I’m going to consider it a forfeit.”

That got them going quickly. As they departed, Leah turned back to them.

“Alright, girls,” She said, “Since Emily departed our company, that means the first two of you on our list are Hannah and AJ.”

The two stepped forward, side by side like a couple of school children.

“Go on,” Leah said, and they started walking down the newly erected pier.

“You ready for this?” Hannah asked.

“Oh yeah. Got a plan and everything.” AJ said. “How bout you?”

“Not exactly, but I’ll figure out what I don’t have.”

“Hannah,” AJ said, stopping her. “Are you…alright? Like with your head and all.”

Hannah looked confused for a quick moment, then seemed to take her meaning.

“Yeah. I’m fine. Little more aroused than usual, but that’s about it.”

AJ wanted to believe that, but not sure she could. The way she’d looked at Farra and Julie last night, or at Lindsey just now was unsettling. It was a hungry look. That the transformation inflicted on Hannah made her attracted to the others and the changes they were going for, that hunger still troubled her.

She opened her mouth to say so, but Leah called out to them.

“Get a move on, girls,” She shouted. “Only two at a time can pass on the pier, so we need to do this quickly.”

The huts were placed in order of their introductions, and AJ’s was the second on the left side. Hannah’s was the first. Before she stepped into the hut, she found Hannah staring at her. AJ gave her a worried glance, and Hannah responded with a firm thumbs up.

“I’m okay. Really.” That gesture said.

When AJ stepped inside, she’d expected to see some fancy science fiction setup beneath the thatched hut facade of the exterior. Instead, she found a hastily constructed, open floored little room with a path to a doctor’s office bed with an extension arm that bore a bolted on Laptop. The only thing on its screen was a search bar.

AJ typed what she wanted; an address out in the Bronx on Crosby. For the second time in as many days, she felt the drifting sensation that came with the passage between worlds. This time, it was accompanied by a flash, and in a moment, she was standing alert and erect in a neighborhood she used to call home.