“Welcome to the NewU Corporation! We are, like, proud to continually add new staff to our family of talented individuals. Through our AI-Powered design principles, we use the synergy between our different and varied backgrounds to create a streamlined and engaging experience for our staff. Our benefits package is unparalleled, putting the New into U!” a smooth, feminine voice said over the background speakers.

“How would anybody listen to this and not get immediately concerned?” Hunter questioned.

“Thirty-second Rule of Feminization,” Dan said, holding up a finger. “People about to be transformed NEVER see it coming until it’s too late.”

“I saw it coming,” Hunter pointed out.

“Yeah, that’s ‘cause you had me,” Dan pointed his finger at himself. “And that still didn’t save you. Artemis had you in her clutches from the very beginning.”

“Point. You don’t have to keep rubbing it in,” Hunter snarked, then turned to admire the lobby they were in. “So do we just wait around at reception until they call our names, or will a trapdoor open up from underneath us and ferry us to whatever fresh hell awaits?’

“No idea,” Dan admitted. “Usually by now, they would have escorted us somewhere. I dunno, I was expecting a little more structure and fanfare. Or at least an unrealistically high security presence. I haven’t even seen ONE armed guard or any hidden cameras!”

“That’s the point of them being hidden.” Hunter groaned.

“Nah, I know a hidden camera when I see one.”

“Then it’s not hidden,” Hunter said with finality and gave the room a more detailed once-over.

It looked normal, if a bit unnaturally clean. A bored receptionist with aqua-colored hair played on her phone while a cleaning robot patrolled the ground. There were a few decorative plaques adorning the walls, and a larger-than-necessary assortment of chairs even though Hunter and Dan were the only two people waiting. 

Was the receptionist someone who’d gone through the mysterious process to be turned into a woman? She seemed pretty normal, and definitely confident enough to play with her appearance. What was the whole deal there?

Then the receptionist noticed Hunter and Dan were present, and stood up. The mere act of her standing up instantly had an effect, making Hunter shiver as if the room temperature had suddenly dropped twenty degrees.

This receptionist wore an elaborate deep blue suit, with turquoise accents throughout. Her eyes matched the accents, taking their time to fully examine both Hunter and Dan before matching their gazes with a cold, piercing stare. Hunter imagined that all of their features were being run through a processor within this woman’s skull. What would their nose look like? How would they react when she tipped her hand and threw them into Lunaris? What approach would she take when locking the door and forcing them to dress up for the first time? 

Ugh, Dan had really rubbed off on Hunter. They would never admit it, but they wouldn’t have it any other way.

The woman quickened her pace to close the distance between them…then her heel smashed right through the cleaning robot, sending a few reddish sparks flying. It would have been quite an intimidating sight…if the woman hadn’t subsequently fallen down on her butt, letting out a small cry as she splayed out on the floor in a very undignified fashion.

Hunter moved immediately to help her up, grabbing her hand and pulling her upright. Dan wasn’t as fast as Hunter was, arriving just as Hunter had helped her steady her posture. The woman’s whimpers gradually turned into snarls and growls that she was fine, and Hunter realized they may have made a big mistake as this woman focused her wrath on them. 

“Get off of me, you brute! I will not be pawed on by an inadequate and ill-mannered BOY!” She straightened out her icy blue hair ineffectively, attempting to recover her initial air of authority. “I am Natalie Wheeler, Director of Processing, and I decide who gets the privilege of laying their hands on my body!”

Apparently she was not a receptionist, after all.

Hunter raised their hands up defensively. “Alright, alright. I’m sorry. Are you okay, though? That looked like a hard fall.”

“I’m fine, thanks–” Natalie reflexively responded before biting her tongue. “That is none of your concern.” She motioned for Hunter and Dan to follow her. “Now come. We are already late, and you don’t want to earn a demerit on your first day, no?” She quickened her pace, walking with a slight limp but plowing ahead as if it didn’t bother her.

Hunter looked over at Dan, who instead of moving, just stood there with an expression of utter despair.

“What’s wrong?” Hunter whispered.

“We’re off to an awful start,” Dan said somberly. “She was supposed to command the situation and make me fear for my life by being intimidating, and now all I can think of her was that it was very funny to see her on the ground in a position I’d like you to put me in.”

Hunter grabbed Dan’s shoulder and walked the two of them in Natalie’s direction. “Oh, come off it. That can happen to anyone. Or were you expecting that her sole purpose in life is to fulfill your deepest, darkest fantasy without any sense of individuality beyond that?”

Dan sniffled a little bit, but was able to harden his resolve. “Fine, you’re right.”

***

Natalie took the two of them on a tour of the office, which for the most part was an otherwise unremarkable office space with plenty of unused desks and cubicles. What struck Hunter the most was there were no other staff in the building. It was like the NewU Corporation was solely focused on their internship program, with no signs of them offering other products, services, or support.

When questioned on how lonely the place felt, Natalie shrugged and said that most of the workforce had moved to working from home, but they were probably going to force the company back into the office, because the CEO was tired of not being able to personally shake the hands of every employee.

Hunter wasn’t certain if they completely believed that claim, as when they previously were enrolled in NewU’s internship program, there were a lot more staff present around the office. Here, Hunter, Dan, and Natalie practically had the entire space to themselves.

At one point, Natalie showed the two of them a small lobby with a couple doors that didn’t match the aesthetic of the rest of the office space. The doors looked unusually high-tech, with some sort of advanced locking mechanism and small panes of reinforced glass to give them a faint glimpse into the darkness of the other side.

“These doors lead to the Research and Development section of the building, which is generally closed off to most staff. However, since our internship program is…special,” Natalie’s face flickered between a smile fit for a tour guide to a smile fit for a dastardly evil forcefemmer as she talked, “you may find yourself…stuck in there at some point. Let’s move on.” Natalie started walking in the direction of the rest of the office.
Hunter stared at the doors for a moment. They swore they saw a small, pink flash of light past the glass pane, but it could have been their eyes playing tricks on them. They looked over at Dan, confused.

“She’s clumsily foreshadowing how we’re getting forcefemmed, Hunter,” Dan filled them in.

“Oh. Well, if that’s where the Lunaris device is, we should probably break in there and grab it.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Dan shrugged. “She’s going to throw us in there at some point anyway. We might as well get more information first before tipping them off.”

“I…” Hunter hesitated. “The goal of the heist is literally right there, Lori…Dan. Sorry.”

“Don’t reverse deadname me,” Dan winked while smiling.

“Oops.”

Dan tilted his head. “Come on Hunter, get into the spirit of things! We’re actually in a devious place that’s about to process us! Put yourself in the moment, dude! I’ve put out all my masculine energy just for this special occasion!”

Before Hunter could give a snarky response, Natalie called after them with annoyance.

“What are you two yammering about? Stop wasting time and get over here.” 

The two of them just shrugged at each other and followed Natalie. Despite all the talk about breaking and entering, Hunter was encountering a sinister force preventing them from going for it: the fear of being impolite.

Natalie brought out her ‘tour guide’ voice again. “Now, I’m going to take you to your rooms and you can take a half hour break to unpack and get ready for the next part of your first day. Good?”

They both nodded.

With that, Hunter and Dan were escorted to the intern quarters. This area looked a bit fancier than the rest of the office, considering all of the fancy paintings and other ornate, golden accents. Hunter supposed it was designed like that for a reason, as the new, optimistic interns needed something to be impressed by, especially if it was in the space they were going to be living in for quite a while.

The common area looked pretty normal at a glance, but when Hunter scanned the kitchen, their eyes popped out of their head.

There was an entire suite of kitchen appliances to cook practically anything they wanted. In fact, there were redundant ovens and microwaves, as if it was expected that the interns would be doing a lot of cooking together. Not to mention that all the appliances and utensils had pink in their color palettes.

Dan muttered a phrase under his breath which included some profanities and the word ‘stereotypes’.

“This is the intern lounge where you can spend your downtime cooking, cleaning, and gossiping about whatever has been going on in your days. We also have a prime selection of soap operas and romance films available on the TV, for those who need a little bit of external entertainment,” Natalie droned on. “Now, I will show you to your rooms.” She guided Hunter and Dan through the common area, leading Dan into his bedroom first, and then closing and locking the door from the outside.

Before Hunter could really react to that, they were pushed through a different door, with it also being locked from the outside. Hunter put down their bags and groaned, knowing there was no going back now.

Once Hunter actually took the time to examine their room, their jaw dropped.

The entire room was coated in a disgusting, vibrant pink; it was so over-the-top that it could only satisfy people who wanted to be a parody of femininity, like Dan. Stuffed animals and dolls littered the entire room, which were enough to completely cover whoever slept in the bed with both pink blankets and plushies. 

Gag.

Against their better judgment, Hunter decided to investigate the rest of the room  There was a complete makeup kit and elaborate mirror prominently displayed as the centerpiece of the bedroom, implying that whoever was housed in this room was expected to spend a lot of time prettying themselves up. A rather prominent closet featured at the end, and when Hunter peered inside, they gasped as they looked at all the frilly clothing housed inside. Obviously, none of the options were masculine to any degree. Dresses, skirts, even a maid outfit were among the articles of clothing, with not a single pair of pants in sight. Multiple sets of very lacy and daring underwear completed the available selection.

‘Plain’ was not on the menu.

Hunter closed the closet in disgust and paced around the room, running their hands through their hair as they fought to keep themselves together. They had certainly worn their own selections of feminine outfits, especially considering that their identity and what they felt like wearing tended to shift over time.

The clothes that NewU would likely force them into? Exclusively fetishy, over-the-top, and skimpy as fuck. Hunter wouldn’t be caught dead in those. 

They sighed in exasperation.

If they didn’t find the Lunaris machine and get out quickly, they were probably going to have to put up with quite a few indignities like this. What helped soften the blow was the realization they didn’t have to put up with any of this if they chose not to. Their ability to shapeshift themself and others meant they had an escape button they could press at any time to instantly end the charade.

It was like some of the more uncomfortable gender bending stories Dan had shown Hunter -- if it ever got too much for them at any point, all they had to do was stop reading and move on to something else.

The door suddenly swung open, with Natalie quickly making her way in, grabbing Hunter’s arm, and escorting them out. 

“Oh, so it’s okay when you grab me?” Hunter snarked, and Natalie just stared at them. No, not at them. Through them.

“Congratulations!” A sinister smile formed on her face. “You’ve earned yourself your first demerit from that comment. We’ll have a private chat to discuss that more later. The moment I laid my eyes on you, Hunter, I knew you were going to be trouble. I’m pleased to have confirmation that I am correct.”

“Uh, sure?” Hunter had no idea what the hell she was talking about. “What’s with the room?” They pointed back at the door.

Natalie clenched her fists. “The result of a VERY unfortunate misfile by our admin staff. You will be getting a new room, separate from the others, which works well because it’s close to my office, where I can keep an eye on you. Even with this little mishap, there is ZERO reason for you to mouth off like you just did. Now, apologize to me.”

Hunter, confused, decided it would be best to get this over with. “Uh, I’m sorry?”

Natalie took a step towards Hunter. “Like you mean it.”

“Okaaaay.” Hunter’s blood ran hot at the violation of their personal space and snapped back. “I’m so sorry that I DARED to ever so much as breathe the beginnings of a sarcastic statement in your vicinity, and I should have done a better job worshiping the very ground you walk on and showering you with praise for being so good at putting me in line.”

“Oh. Huh.” Natalie seemed taken aback. “Okay, I know you were being sarcastic again, but in a few days try to remember some of those phrases you just used, they might come in handy later. As a gesture of goodwill, I’ll allow that. Now, I’m going to unlock your fellow intern and go grab a few…friends. I will be back in a moment.”

Natalie unlocked the door to Dan’s room, and then walked off. Shortly after, Dan opened the door and stepped outside, looking at Hunter with a confused expression.

Through the open door, Hunter got a quick look at Dan’s room. It looked entirely normal with what would be expected from a drop-in bedroom. What the fuck was going on with Hunter’s room, then? They turned back and realized their bag was still in there, which didn’t really matter as they expected their stuff to be stolen, anyway. Hunter didn’t want to be anywhere NEAR that explosion of pink, as the sheer tackiness alone would cause them to never live it down as far as Dan was concerned.

“You look like you’re traumatized,” Dan commented. “But you haven’t even been forced into makeup or something yet. Sheesh, I know a new bedroom is a big adjustment, but this is peanuts compared to everything else—”

“No, just thinking,” Hunter corrected him. “Oh yeah, I got a demerit, whatever those are.”

“What!?” Dan gasped, then his shoulders sank. “Damnit, I wanted to get the first punishment. It’s not fair.”

“Punishment? Oh, alright, I see where you’re going with this.” Hunter let out another groan. Wonderful, now they had MORE to look forward to.

“You know, you’re a natural at getting forcefemmed. Between Artemis and now here, it’s almost as if you want this!”

“No, I really just don’t care.” Hunter could see the humor in it but wasn’t going to give Dan the satisfaction of a smile.

Dan giggled. “I get it, I get it. Tell you what, let’s have a competition. Let’s see how many punishments we get by the end of the day!”

“NO!”

“Oh come on, you’re no fun. Better idea. Let’s go find a doctor and tell them we’ve been naughty and need our hormone regimen adjusted–-”

“DAN!” Hunter shouted before finally cracking up into laughter.

It took Hunter a little bit to notice four sets of feet behind them. Natalie and three other guys they hadn’t met before were watching the two of them argue with mild interest. Dan waved at them all enthusiastically as Natalie moved to speak.

“And here we are, the intern lounge. Each of the three of you have rooms which I will open to you all later; for now, place your bags in here,” Natalie addressed the three guys before gesturing to Dan and Hunter. “And these two are your fellow interns, also starting the exact same day as you. Please, take some time to get to know each other before we begin our first day properly.” With that, Natalie walked out.

Hunter stared at the three guys, each with varying degrees of excitement on their faces. Compared to Hunter and Dan, these people looked to be genuinely happy that they were hired and definitely had no idea what was actually in store for them.

Crap, now they had other people about to get forcefemmed with them. This was going to complicate the heist.