One more customer. Just one more, Lizzy told herself as a tall bulky man entered the store. The man glanced around, seemingly unimpressed at the few massage chairs on display.
Lizzy clasped her hands behind her back and babbled out a weak, “Hi, welcome to Massagr. How can I help you today?”
The man’s eyes moved to her form as she stood awkwardly in the middle of the store, donned in a long gothic skirt-dress with suspenders, a dark long-sleeve blouse, black hair, and gothic makeup. He began to make his way towards her.
“I’m looking for a massage chair for my wife,” he replied a bit uncertainly.
Lizzy took in a quick breath through her nose and prepared herself to sell to yet another customer. “Right, well, I’m sure we’ll find just the perfect one for you!”
Twenty minutes later and the man was leaving, appearing satisfied with his purchase. The gothic girl’s shoulders slumped in relief to be alone in the store once more. She stared out into the rest of the mall as people walked by, hoping no one else came in for the next couple of minutes when her shift would be over.
She was never quite sure where to place herself in the store. Standing around in the middle of it felt extremely awkward. The lack of customers that it received was both blessing and a curse to her. It meant not having to interact with people, but also nothing at all to do. And time went by dreadfully slowly. When she was brave enough to dare Manager Alvin’s ire, she would stand behind the register playing on her phone and pretending she was doing something important. She’d only managed to make the mistake of sitting down in one of the massage chairs once since she’d gotten the job a few months ago. She hadn’t done it again.
“Lizzy!” a voice yelled out as she was preparing to head to the back.
Lizzy looked up to find Charlie walking into the store and plopping down into one of the chairs, still wearing his Bleck uniform. He fiddled with the controls for a moment until the chair began its vibrations.
“Hey, Charlie.”
“It been busy here today?” he asked.
Lizzy shook her head. “Same as normal.”
“You heard from Scarlett yet?”
Lizzy shook her head again.
“No one has,” a new voice said. Around the corner came Heather, still bundled up in several layers of clothes. Her face was made up in a typical Heather artistic style. It reminded Lizzy of colorful wavy flowers and blue sunsets.
Charlie lazily saluted to her. “Yo, what’s up, Heather? You shopping today?”
“I’m here to see you two,” she said. “Anyone else working?”
“Alison gets off from Shoes at eight,” Lizzy said.
“Way too late,” Heather said with a headshake. “Food court?”
Charlie’s grin was all that needed to be said.
Thirty minutes later and the three of them sat around a food court table. Lizzy had the crumbled up plastic of an eaten cheeseburger on a tray in front of her. She was rolling around the last small french fry with her fingers.
“You see that new super that got taken down yesterday? I heard their name was Domino,” Charlie said.
Lizzy nodded excitedly. “Has anyone figured out what their powers are yet?” She’d been following the speculation about it online. Some believed they had something like luck-based powers, considering their name.
“Not that I saw,” Charlie replied.
“What are we gonna do about Scarlett?” Heather questioned.
“She’s probably broken her phone or something,” Lizzy said.
“No, that doesn’t explain why she hasn’t been to work as well. She’s missed two days now, hasn’t she?” Heather asked.
Charlie nodded. “Yeah, two shifts.”
“I can run by and check on her,” Lizzy offered.
“Lizzy,” Heather began somewhat sternly, though there was a tenderness beneath it. “Where have you been staying the past few nights?”
Lizzy looked up to meet her eyes, startled by the sudden change of topic. “Umm...”
Heather let out a sigh. “You gotta stop sleeping in your car, Lizzy. You’re staying at my place tonight if Scarlett doesn’t take you in at hers.”
“What about your clients?” she asked.
“I don’t have clients every night, and you can always hide in the guest room when I do if you prefer.”
The uncertainty in Lizzy’s face was blatant. She bit at her lip.
“Okay, but only if Scarlett won’t let me stay.”
Lizzy walked down the sidewalk towards her car as evening came. The entrance to the mall was as always full of advertisements flashing around her. Several private security officers passed by her, and she clutched at her phone, pretending to be busy on it until her car came into view. It was an old but sleek red SUV, full of her belongings. She gave a nod and smile to Steve the Skeleton in the passenger seat as she began her drive through the city to Scarlett’s apartment. Steve was always there to cheer her up after a stressful day. She’d had the fake plastic skeleton with her for nearly two years.
With the press of a button, the radio came on and Lizzy began humming to the songs, her eyes occasionally flicking over to Steve to make sure he wasn’t falling over too much. Several songs later and she was in front of an old apartment block.
“Don’t let anyone break in,” she told Steve before getting out and locking the door.
Walking up the steps to the complex, she had to give the door a hard shove with her elbow to get it to open. The entry and hallway were as rundown as she’d last seen them, the manager of the place not bothering to keep it cleaned up or looking nice. Lizzy made her way up to the fourth floor; the elevator lights flickered as it shambled up. The hall it opened onto was filled with more half-working lights and long stretches of cables and pipes. There was a perpetual grime to the place that made her keep well away from touching anything.
She made her way to Scarlett’s door and gave it a knock. She could hear… something happening on the other side, but it was unclear what. It was likely some noise from a movie playing, or perhaps something like a blowdryer? Lizzy knocked louder. The noise persisted and no one came to the door.
A weird feeling in her gut had her reaching out towards the doorknob. It clicked as she twisted it, and the door creaked open. The strange sound became louder.
“Scarlett?” Lizzy’s voice rang out as she entered the living room of the poorly lit apartment.
The room was different from how she last remembered it. Normally it was kept at least marginally tidy. Now it was full of disassembled appliances. What was once a toaster and toaster-oven was strung across the floor in numerous pieces. Several televisions and other unknown pieces of electronics were in much the same state.
“Hello? Scarlett? You here?” Lizzy stammered out, trailing off near the end.
She nervously stepped over the clutter along the floor, ready to bolt out the moment anything weird happened. Flashing lights were coming from the kitchen, and she made her way towards them.
Her voice was just a bare whisper. “Scarlett?”
As she came around the corner, her friend came into view. Scarlett had a welder’s helmet on, along with a thick sooty coat that covered most of her. She was on her knees, a flaming blowtorch in hand. Sparks flew as she slowly swept it across something along the inside of her metallic refrigerator, or at least what used to be a refrigerator. The door and insides were missing. Instead, it was filled with numerous wires, gears, and electronics lining the walls. Somehow drilled into the back of the fridge was a large egg-shaped metal orb with a hole in the middle that glowed a bright red. A pipe stuck out of the top and bottom, going out through the back. Even the outside of the fridge was heavily modified, making it much bulkier than its original shape. As though the whole thing wasn’t strange enough, Scarlett seemed to be welding a chair into the refrigerator floor.
Lizzy flicked the kitchen light on, and Scarlett fumbled, nearly dropping the blowtorch. She turned around to find Lizzy standing in front of her with a look of concern on her face.
“Lizzy! You’re just in time! Did you get my text?” Scarlett hopped to her feet, pulling up her welding helmet. Lizzy blinked in surprise as two large white rabbit ears pulled up on top of Scarlett’s head from out of her coat.
“W-what? What’s going on? You haven’t sent me any texts. Why -- Why do you have bunny ears?”
Scarlett brushed a gloved hand along one of her ears, leaving a smear of black grease. “You didn’t get my text?” She reached into her pocket and pulled out half of a phone, the back of it missing, along with various other parts within it. “Oh, right.” She slipped it back into her pocket with a shrug.
Lizzy stared at her, stupefied.
“I’ve designed this baby just for you.” Scarlett gave the fridge a loving tap.
“Me?”
Scarlett nodded. “It was a stroke of genius, really. The refrigerator I had was perfect as an insulator, once I made a few modifications. When I get this door on, it’ll be ready.” A hand pulled Lizzy towards the chair seat. “Just sit right here while I finish it.”
Lizzy nodded and sat down. She trusted Scarlett; they were close friends, so she knew that whatever this was, it wouldn’t be dangerous. That didn’t mean the insides of the strange franken-fridge didn’t make her nervous.
“Umm, Scarlett, what’s this thing do exactly?”
“Well, I know you’ve been saving up for surgery for years now, and so when I had the idea to make this, I knew I had to try. No more searching for trans-approving doctors or saving up thousands of dollars. This, Lizzy, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get the girly-parts of your dreams!” Scarlett gave her a nervous look. “If you want to, of course.”
“Umm, sure, if you think it will really work?”
The bunny-eared girl grinned and shoved a vial of orange liquid in front of her. “Here, drink this.” It bubbled.
Lizzy gave the substance a hesitant sip, finding that it tasted like a strange and fizzy sour-honey flavor. Her friend tilted the vial to make sure she drank all of it, causing Lizzy to cough slightly after she’d swallowed it down. It left a strange fizzy taste in her mouth.
“So this machine will… do the surgery for me?” Lizzy asked as Scarlett began to strap her arms and legs into the chair.
Scarlett looked at her. “What? No, that solution you just drank was full of nanobots that will change you from the inside. This hunk of genius is to make sure you don’t explode.” She patted the fridge.
Lizzy was suddenly feeling a bit sick as Scarlett closed the door and locked her into the strange machine. From the circular window, her friend gave her a thumbs-up as it began to power up. Lights within it began to flicker to life, several fans turned on, and three glowing rings circled down around her spinning. The girl closed her eyes as dizziness began to overcome her. She would have fallen forward had she not been tied to the chair. As the machine continued to gain power, it began to rock and shake, jiggling her about and making her more nauseous. Her eyes squeezed tighter and she gritted her teeth, swallowing down bile.
A loud metallic clang and rip echoed throughout the small space. Lizzy opened her eyes to see the lights in the kitchen blinking in and out before going out completely. Several lights around her went out, and the machine’s rocking stopped as it seemed to power down.
“Oh no,” Scarlett's muffled voice said.
‘Oh no?’ What did she mean, ‘oh no,’ Lizzy thought with wide eyes, staring out the small window.
Scarlett began kicking against something alongside the fridge and then frantically pulled open the door. She quickly began untying Lizzy’s bindings.
“Sca-ret, wha’s --“ Lizzy slurred out before being pulled out of the chair and into the kitchen.
Her friend slammed the door closed and pressed her back against it as a small explosion flashed through its window, shaking the apartment.
“I don’t feel so great,” the gothic girl mumbled before throwing up across the kitchen floor. Her bunny-eared friend came up beside her with another strange drink in her hand.
“This’ll make you feel better...” she said with a mumbled, “and not explode.”
Lizzy scrunched her face up in disgust as the bitterness of it filled her mouth, but somehow managed to get it all down.
“Did it work?” she asked and bit her tongue. She was doing her best not to spit the whole thing back up.
“Err, no. It had a… minor malfunction and ran out of power. That was a neutralizing agent.” Her hand gestured to the glass. “Don’t worry, give me a few days, and I can fix it back up… Probably.”
Lizzy looked over to the window, blackened from the explosion. A minor malfunction, “Right.”
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Dang, Lizzy just goes for it, no hesitation!
What could possibly go wrong?
Well... She’s a mad scientist and a half for sure.
Nah, perfectly normal!
Okobe rintarou reincarnation lol
@LimitBound Hououin Kyouma!
This was an interesting intro. Definitely gonna be reading more of this as it comes out!