Janet offers an opportunity, but will Susan take it?

“You want me to be the lead in your fashion line?” Asked Susan with a hint of blush on her cheeks, holding herself defensively while her friend Janet continued to circle her, appraising her new physique.

“Girl, you were BORN for the runway!” Smiled the brunette, liking the idea more and more the longer she looked over her friend. I mean look at you; you’re hot as hell and you’ve got legs for days!”

Turning her attention to her husband, Susan shook her head. “Reed! Aren’t you going to say something?”

“Well…” Reed Richards answered, rolling his eyes to the side over to the window to try and find something else to catch his attention but failing to do so. “You’ve put a lot of work into making yourself look even more beautiful, why not show it off to the world?”

“Not helping Reed…” Whispered Susan, pursing her lips in frustration and crossing her arms a bit more tightly.

“WELL then, if Reed’s all for it too then it’s a done deal.”

“I don’t know…” Worried Susan, sitting heavily back on the couch. “We’ve gone through some pretty harrowing things lately, and I’m not sure I’m ready for all that attention.”

Raising her hands defensively, Janet reached into her purse and plucked out a card. “Okay, I get it, we all heard about Doom last week too.” Sitting back down to join her friend, The Wasp offered the business card to her. “Here, in case you change your mind, here’s my studio’s number.”

Slowly but eventually accepting the card, the trio continued, sipping tea offered by Reed and catching up with past events. Sharing stories and a few laughs, Janet eventually had to leave to keep searching for prospects for her line, giving the taller woman and her husband a hug, Janet Van Dyne waved goodbye and left the apartment. After the visit, the couple went about their daily routine; with Reed returning to the lab to study the rock samples while Susan called out that she was going to the cellar floor to put away a few things. Once she stepped into the elevator, Susan sighed, and her skin turned green.

*

“What am I going to do?” Susan asked out loud, pacing back and forth in her lair while her adult children watched her fret. Despite transforming into her alien form, Susan continued to wear her sweater and jeans; unzipping her fly to give her tail room to swish behind her and pulling up her sweater to give her extra arms space to be exposed, turning the V-cut garment into a make-shift tube top. Her upper arms crossed under her bust while her lower arms rested their palms at her generous hips, the woman idly scratching her tentacles in frustration as Janet’s invitation swam through her head. “What am I going to do?”

“I don’t know what you’re worrying about Susan…” Piped in Alicia, playing a board game with 5 of her adult sons at a fold out table in the lair. Each of them with sizeable winnings at their seat while they waited for the next turn. “I mean Janet has a point, after you went all… THIS.” She gestured with her hand in front of Susan’s figure. “You’ve never looked more beautiful, I mean hell, look at me!” Getting up from her seat and making a small turn to show off her human figure. Alicia herself had become tall, statuesque, curvaceous and in a word ‘Flawless’. Creamy smooth skin with short red hair, the woman looked barely into her 20’s with a figure that would have made other women envious.

“I mean heck, if you won’t take the job then maybe I should.”

Apart from the more subtle changes to her appearance, the more obvious were her now green piercing eyes, a contrast to the glassy silver they once were before her transformation. Now the entire world was open to her. Susan had to admit that the formally blind artist had become an entirely different woman after her infection. She hated to use that analogy but what else was appropriate? She and the others were a walking plague just barely contained thanks to a **** she created to curb their worse urges.

“I don’t know…”

Looking up at the ceiling, almost all the cocoons had been hatched, leaving the ceiling riddled with withered empty husks like the dried skins of onions hanging and flaking over head… Save one. Her daughter was taking the longest to mature, her cocoon a brown leathery organ still beating like a heart overhead.

“I still can’t guarantee if the **** will keep working, what if it fails? And what about my daughter?”

“Oh, come off it Susan, this is your chance to take back your life!” Stepping up to stand in front of the alien she-creature, Alicia grasped the woman’s lower pair of hands into her own. “This could be a first step for you to live a normal life and look what the **** has done for your kids already.” Gesturing to the rest of the hive, Alicia pointed to the ones at the table, another group exchanged books and magazines their mothers had brought down to absorb and learn from. Several others had even just returned from outside, using their newfound knowledge to see and interact with the city.

Greg had returned from the lobby wearing a newly tailored suit with several bags in hand and a coffee in the other. Steve and Carl had returned earlier from a Giant’s game, the two brothers wearing matching jerseys and commenting on the game. Living proof that thanks to the anaphrodisiac she had brewed, she and her children could live normal lives.

“I don’t know… I need to think it over…” Plucking a vial of the liquid from the table were her children sat, Susan pulled the cork free and drank deep from her anaphrodisiac and returning to her human form, pulling down her sweater after her spines and arms retracted back into her. “I’m heading to bed, maybe I’ll make a decision in the morning.” Turning to the elevator, Susan stepped inside and returned to the upper floors.

“What was that about?” Asked Steve to Alicia, having missed everything.

“Your mother was asked to attend a fashion show.”

“A fashion show? What’s that?”

Plucking a fashion magazine off the table, Alicia offered it to the tall man, his eyes fluttering when the magazine’s contents flowed into his mind. “Ten new ways to trim your waistline… the Fuck?!”

*

Heading back to the apartment and shifting into her human form, Susan still mulled over the offer Janet gave her earlier that day, her card still in her jeans pocket, plucking the thing out for her to read again. Still heavy in thought, she pocketed the card and decided to make her decision in the morning, heading towards her bedroom to call it a night. When she stepped into her bedroom, she found Reed asleep on his side, curled up in blankets and quietly snoring. Smiling warmly, Susan pecked him a kiss on the forehead before she striped down and joined him under the sheets.