TFOS: Freddy On The Loose, Part 19

by

Rodford Edmiston

Note: This story uses background and concepts from the Teenagers From Outer Space role-playing game, Copyright and Trademarked R. Talsorian Games, Inc. The characters and story are Copyright 2002 Rodford Edmiston Smith.

Freddy entered homeroom with an unaccustomed nervousness. Not only was he very sleepy from an unsettling night, but what had made him unsettled was still operating. He barely nodded to Karen and his other friends, looking for the subject of his unsettlement. Freddy was actually relieved when he realized Huron was not there, and dropped into his desk. That relief fled when the alien boy arrived just before role-call.

There was no opportunity to confront him during class, but when the bell rang Freddy hurried to the door and managed to catch Huron as he left the room. He stepped with Huron into the hall and guided him to one side before the knot of students heading for first class flooded out. The alien boy frowned a bit at this impertinence.

"Hi, uh, I'm Freddy," was Freddy's nervous introduction.

Huron looked confused for a moment, then got an "Aha!" expression and smiled warmly, offering his hand.

"Of course. You are Fuh-Freddy's twin brother!" he said, grabbing Freddy's hand and shaking it firmly.

"Huh?" was all Freddy could say, before they were broken apart by the swarm.

Freddy tried to get back to the other, but when he saw Huron leaving down the hall in the other direction from where he had to go, he gave up and joined Karen on the way to their lockers.

"What happened?" she asked.

"He thinks I'm my own sister," groused Freddy.

"Oh," said Karen, startled. She suddenly burst out laughing. "You do realize that you're one of the few people on this planet for whom that sentence makes sense."

* * *

"This is most puzzling," said the Nurse, frowning as she read the instruments.

"That's not the word I'd use," muttered Freddy, sitting uncomfortably on the edge of the examination table.

"You say that in your female form you are attracted to him... are you sure of this?"

"Well, yeah!" Freddy snapped. He shuddered. "I kept dreaming about him - nothing really erotic, but... warm, cozy, affectionate dreams. Every time I woke from one of those dreams I was female. Couldn't change back on my own, either, had to use my Boy/Girl Gun. Finally just gave up and stayed female. It was after that when I had the one about having his baby."

Freddy shuddered in an odd mixture of disgust and remembered satisfaction.

"You should not be feeling this way about males, whether you are female or not," said the Nurse.

"You're telling me..." Freddy muttered.

"You don't understand. Our evaluations showed that your sexual identity was already set. Oh, if you stayed female for a few years you might change, but switching back and forth like this should reinforce your existing sexual identity, even as you adjust to a new gender identity."

"So what's happening to me?" was Freddy's desperate plea.

The Nurse hesitated.

"I don't know. I'm sorry. My training includes helping adolescents - including shapeshifters - learn to deal with sex and its complications, and according to my training this should not be happening to you."

She sighed, looking as tired and worried as Freddy felt.

"I'll forward your case to some specialists and see if they can help."

* * *

There was no cheerleader practice today, and no feminine hygiene class, either. Freddy was looking forward to being a guy, with no interruptions, the whole day. He was actually feeling cheerful by lunch time. He sat at his usual guy table, greeting the usual other guys.

"Hey, Hub! How's it going?"

"Well, Dr. Sumt'ang finalized the process to imprint you on our - ah - experiment," the big, rhino-whale type guy responded.

Freddy nodded, only half listening.

"Don't say 'period' around Freddy," snickered Bl'fff.

"So if you can stop by the lab during your afternoon break, we can do it then," Hub continued, ignoring the spider.

"Uh, wait a minute," said Freddy, suddenly focusing completely on the topic. "How long will this take?"

"We don't need you for the testing - in fact, it's better if you're not there when she comes online." He shrugged. "Say, five minutes to set up, a few seconds for the imprinting, then you can go."

"That's not too bad," Freddy decided. "Sure. I'll be there."

"Great!"

* * *

"Hey, Freddy," said Hub, as she entered the lab. "You're a little... Why are you a boy?"

"Well, when the sperm and the egg unite to form the zygote, the..."

"That's not what I mean! You know you have to be in female form for this to work."

"I do?" said Freddy, startled. "I thought that with this new thing..."

"Pattern for the in android to be the formed neural net properly same prepared that gender emulate android you must be in state we as have the to," said Dr. Sumt'ang.

"Ah... yeah," said Freddy, mildly boggled.

"He's right," sighed Hub. "Well, flip over and we'll get started."

"I can't do it just like that!" said Freddy. "I need a Boy/Girl Gun, a charged Gender Guard or some time to... concentrate."

"Hold on," muttered Hub, turning to open a cabinet. "Oh, take your Gender Guard off."

"Hey, make sure you get the right one," Freddy urged, putting his protective device aside.

"It is," Hub assured him, making a show of checking it.

Seconds later f-Freddy sat demurely in a piece of furniture which looked like a cross between an electric chair on LSD and the worst nightmares of an orthodontophobe.

"This isn't going to hurt, is it?" she asked, a bit timidly.

"Sensation stinging slight feel might you," Dr. Sumt'ang assured her.

"It's going to hurt," sighed Freddy.

"Okay, all circuits check," said Hub. "Three, two, one, on!"

"Gleep!" said Freddy, as her fine, blond hair stood on end and sparks shot from the tips.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Dr. Sumt'ang.

Hub shut off the device and joined the teacher in examining the android.

"Urk?" said Freddy, eyes glazed and hair-ends smoking just a bit.

"Okay, thanks, Freddy," said Hub, absently, as he ran a scanner over the vaguely female shape.

Freddy struggled weakly against the restraints.

"Eelb."

"Oh, sorry," said Hub, touching a control.

Freddy staggered to her feet, looked around confusedly for a moment. Then she heard the bell ring. Shaking her head, she pulled herself together, reflexively grabbed her books and started for the next class. She was halfway there when she realized she was still female.

* * *

"Do I smell smoke?" asked one of the girls, as she paused while putting her gym shorts on.

"It's a conspiracy!" snapped Freddy, as she yanked her bra into place. "There's a plot to keep turning me into a girl!"

The other girls in the locker room snickered as Freddy frantically dressed in her emergency stash of female school clothes.

"You better quit complaining and get to class," one of them noted. "You're already late."

"Oh, I stopped by the class, dropped my books off and got permission from the teacher," sighed Freddy, reaching for a fetching peach blouse.

"I think you did it deliberately," one of them teased. "We're in a different gym class from you and you haven't seen us naked before this."

"None of you are naked," Freddy pointed out, as she hurriedly fastened her pleated skirt around her waist and reached for her brush. "You're just changing into gym clothes. If I'd wanted to see you naked I'd've come in at the end of the period, when you were showering. I'm the one who had to get naked, to grab a quick shower and get into my girl clothes!"

A few quick strokes put her hair in order and got rid of the singed ends, though the obnoxious burnt hair odor was still hanging around from before her shower. Freddy's nose was overloaded and she couldn't really tell.

"Oh, so you did it because you wanted to expose yourself to us," the same girl snickered.

There was a round of giggles. Freddy growled in a most unladylike manner and stomped out. Her skirt swirled around her calves as she turned left down the hall, reminding her to move in a more ladylike fashion. Paradoxically, the more girly she dressed and acted when female the less notice people took, a lesson hard-learned and reluctantly applied. Also, skirts were cooler than long pants in warm weather. Freddy wondered if she could get away with wearing a kilt as a guy in warm situations where shorts weren't allowed.

* * *

"So that's why I'm taking gym class as a girl," Freddy explained to Coach and Miz Klupper.

"No-one had a Boy/Girl Gun or a Gender Guard?" said the latter, dubiously.

"Well, private Boy-Girl Guns aren't allowed in school," whined Freddy. "The school's one is in the science lab, but the door's locked and nobody answers. Sniping's 'way down, so nobody's Gender Guard is charged. Wish I'd thought to charge mine, earlier. Of course, if I'd been that aware after the scan I'd have just had Hub change me back, but..."

"All right, all right," sighed Coach, raising his hands in a warding gesture. "Try to cut down on this, son..."

"I am trying," was Freddy's exasperated reply.

Gym class actually went pretty well. By now most of the boys had learned not to hit on Freddy, even as a joke, and the girls were used to someone being with them who was only a part-time member. Besides, there were some things the girls did the boys didn't, and Freddy liked variety. Though the stares generated by her escapades on the trampoline brought a reality check and some advice.

"A girl as well endowed as you shouldn't jump on a trampoline in public," said Suzie, firmly. "Not unless you strap your chest down with an elastic bandage first, and then put on a sport bra."

"Yeah, I am kinda sore," sighed Freddy, resisting the urge to rub where it hurt.

That brought a chorus of giggles.

"That's another reason."

Freddy was walking towards a recently-acquired piece of alien training equipment useable only by girls, eagerly anticipating being able to try it out for the first time, when someone stepped in front of her. Someone Freddy really didn't want to see just then.

"Good day," said Huron, his smooth baritone voice making her shiver, and in a really good way. "Did you receive my invitation?"

"I... uh... yes?" squeaked Freddy, confused and embarrassed by her reaction to the alien boy's presence.

"And...?"

"'And?'? said Freddy, dazed by his presence.

"Would you allow me the honor of accompanying you to the dance?"

"Sure!" Freddy blurted.

While she was still registering that she'd just agreed to a date with a boy, before she could even begin to start wondering why she had done that, Huron smoothly lifted her hand to his lips and genteelly kissed its back.

"I will be at your home by six," he told her, holding her hand in both of his. "I am very much looking forward to this."

With a final smile, he released her hand and walked off, leaving Freddy staring after him in open-mouthed fascination.

"Girl, you got it bad," said one of the other gals in the class, from behind Freddy.

* * *

"Spontaneous movement!" cried Hub.

"Is alive it!" Dr. Sumt'ang confirmed.

Hub leaned over the android, speaking into its ear in a low, clear voice.

"Your identifying label is 'Yubi,'" he stated. "Respond 'yes' if you can hear me."

"Yes."

"Yes!" yelled Hub, straightening and trying to give Dr. Sumt'ang a high five.

His hand whipped through empty air, since A) Dr. Sumt'ang was much shorter than him, B) was too preoccupied to notice the celebratory motion and C) had tentacles, not hands.

"Acceptable neural within activity is parameters," said Dr. Sumt'ang. "A is imprinting the success."

"So, Freddy has a sister," laughed Hub.

"Freddy?" asked the android, startling and confusing her builders.

It sat up unexpectedly, startling and confusing them even more.

"That conniving bitch! How dare she court my one true love!"

End Part Nineteen

It's contagious. :-)