The PET Lab

"What's in there?" you ask, pointing to a metal door with a keypad beside it.

"Oh, that? That's our Prototype Experimental Technology, or PET Lab. It's a bit of a departure from the rest of the shop, because most of the reasearch centers on creating electronic or mechanical pets, rather than raising flesh-and-blood animorphs."

"You mean robot pets? Like AIBO?"

The clerk gives you a wry grin. "Well, not exactly...."

He keys in a security code, and the door slides open. Inside, the PET lab is a pristine, white space with banks of computers lining the walls, multicolored lights blinking on and off. A few worktables are located in various parts of the room, with tools and parts scattered around. The clerk walks over to one of these and picks up a small, pink plastic oval and hand it to you. The device has a key ring on one end and a small lens at the other, along with a small LCD screen and five buttons: four arrow keys, with a round button in the middle. "This is one of our more popular products," the clerk says. "Quite portable, and relatively inexpensive to care for."

You stare incredulously at the little gadget. "With a store full of beautiful animal-girls, people take THIS little thing? I could buy this Tomagatchi at a toy store!"

"Hey!" a small, tinny voice exclaims from your hand. "My name's not Tomagatchi, it's Rienna!"

Wide-eyed, you look back at the plastic device, and discover that its screen is now displaying a pixelatd animal-girl face with a slightly vulpine appearance. She seems to notice your shocked expression. "Ha! Bet you weren't expecting me to talk, were you?"

"Er ... um, sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

"Nah, it's all right," she says. "I know I don't look like much in this mode, but hold the up arrow key for five seconds and I promise you'll like what happens."

You do as she says, and suddenly, the lens on the side facing away from you lights up and emits a bright circle of light. After a few moments, the light resolves into some sort of fantasy creature, like the characters in those Saturday morning cartoon shows. She looks somewhat like a blue-furred vixen, with a long, bushy tail, erect ears, and big, beautiful violet eyes. Her body flickers every now and again, and she appears semi-transparent in the bright laboratory lighting. Your gaze travels upward from her long, supermodel legs to her bright pink sex. Rienna crosses her arms over a pair of gravity-defying DD's, and she smiles seductively at you. "Well? Still think you can find this at a toy store?" Then she walks over to you, passing ghost-like through a lab table, and leans in to give you an electrifying kiss. Despite having a holographic body, her lips certainly feel real enough! You even feel warm breath as she pulls away. She winks playfully at you, then disappears back into her tiny plastic projector.

While you're still standing speechless, the clerk gently plucks Rienna out of your hand and places her back on the work table. "Quite impressive, isn't she? Of course, the projector's battery life is rather brief, but she can operate for longer periods if you use her A/C adapter."

You follow him over to a long metal table with a display console beside it. Lying on the table is what looks like a dog-girl, but this animorph is made entirely of shining silver metal and plastic, with silver synthetic hair on her head and tail. Her soft plastic body seems to be built over a full-figured frame, with huge silver tits, and you notice that only a small, detachable plastic cover conceals her crotch area. Where her eyes would be, there's a heavily tinted strip of plastic that seems to cover an LED display. As you approach, her eye-screen is dark, but then the clerk types something into the console, and the robot girl's screen lights up with a bright blue pair of animated, cartoon-style "eyes", and she springs to life. "Hi, I'm Cassie!" she says cheerfully. "Will you take me home ... take me home ... take me home with you?"

The clerk turns to you and shrugs. "Sorry about the stuttering," he says. "Cassie is a first-generation robo-girl, so her processor often has difficulty when she's experiencing strong emotions or intense sensor input. She's quite safe, though, and she's programmed with a very sweet and loving personality. If you decide to adopt her, she comes with a free lifetime warranty and tech support."

Finally, you reach a table at the back of the lab. On it lies what seems to be a robotic tiger, life-sized and covered in bright orange-and-black synthetic fur, bits of metal gleaming at its joints and along its spine. The clerk touches a button, and the artificial animal's glowing green optics snap open. It raises its head, looking directly at you. Cautiously, you reach over and pet it gently on the head. The tiger-bot's eyes close, and it leans into your caress, obviously enjoying your touch. A soft, metallic purr emanates from somewhere inside.

Then, suddenly, the robot sits up, and its entire body changes shape. Paws transform into human-like hands, hind legs become long, shapely limbs complete with integrated high heels, and the tiger's head slides back to reveal a lovely female face, green optics glowing warmly at you, a smile on her silver lips. Somehow, you notice that she now also possesses a pair of large breasts, covered in tiger-striped fur except for their shining, metallic pink nipples. You can only gape at her as she reaches over and pulls you into a tight embrace, rubbing her surprisingly warm, soft silver cheek against your flesh-and-blood one.

The clerk smiles proudly. "And this lovely creature is Tamara. As you can guess, our designers based her off of a very popular action figure line. She's actually a second-generation robo-girl, and as I mentioned, we offer a lifetime warranty and free tech support whenever you need it."

After a long hug and a delicious, sensual kiss, Tamara mode-shifts back to animal form, and you step back to ponder what you'll do next.