“Having fun, are we?” The CEO said neutrally, his eyes briefly running over Hunter, Simon, and Felix.

Natalie shrugged. “Believe it or not, they all jumped at the opportunity to put on the entire ensemble.”

Before Blake could respond, Dan butted in. “No way. Hunter would NEVER voluntarily put on a costume like this. You manipulated them!”

“Oh, how little you know, dear Dan.” Natalie positioned herself right in front of Hunter’s partner. Hunter looked away, unable to meet Dan in the eyes to tell him how wrong he was. “So you two have history…how curious. One of you chronically lashes out, and the other…strangely well behaved. I’m watching you.”

“Does that mean I get a punishment?” Dan eagerly asked, only to once again be disappointed as Natalie shook her head.

“Natalie,” Blake said, causing their enigmatic supervisor to spin to face the CEO. “Accelerate the timetable.”

“Wait, what?” Natalie blinked. “No, we’re not ready for that. Sure, the boys got into some trouble, but that doesn’t mean–”

Blake narrowed his eyes. “I don’t care. Get them ready.”

“Sir, I insist-”

“NO!” Blake bellowed, overpowering the natural ambience in the room and leaving the group with no sound except that of his voice. “My project needs more results, more data. We. Need. Them. Ready. Clear?”

“Clear,” Natalie said flatly, obviously dissatisfied.

Hunter studied the CEO’s face. He had a very stern look, of course. That was to be expected. Yet there were more emotions under the surface. The CEO intensely wanted… no, needed, Natalie to listen to him. 

What was the project Blake was referring to, anyway?

What a mystery. Hunter wasn’t equipped to figure it out yet, but he once again reminded himself to destroy this man and everything he stood for. Conflict between Natalie and Blake could only be good for the heist, though Hunter was no longer completely certain where on the enemy and ally scale Natalie would fall.

Blake moved to leave, and as soon as the CEO dropped out of sight, Dan sprinted towards Hunter’s side. Hunter’s partner covered so much ground in a short period of time he may as well have teleported. 

“Hunter?” Dan whispered.

“Mmm?”

“Are you okay? There’s no way you volunteered to put this on, right?”

“I…” Hunter hesitated, his first instinct being to lie. Instead, he sighed and forced out the rest of the sentence. “No, I did. It was a whole thing,” Hunter corrected him.

“Huh. They didn’t mess with your head, did they?”

“No,” Hunter said softly. “I wanted to try something new.”

“Here!?” Dan said a bit too loudly, which startled both Hunter and Carter, who had apparently been approaching them as well.

Carter slowly looked between Hunter and Dan before opening his mouth. “So, uh…congratulations on experimenting?”

Dan glared at Carter. “That’s not what this is.”

“No… it’s pretty much what this is,” Hunter said bluntly while looking off to the side, unable to make eye contact with anyone.

“Sorry, sorry,” Carter held his hands up. “That’s a bit of a relief, to be honest.” 

“How so?” both Hunter and Dan asked in unison.

“Well, I was starting to uh, suspect this was one of those places…” Carter nervously looked in Natalie’s direction for a moment, then continued while his cheeks went red. “That um…turns people into…girls. I’m getting weird vibes.”

Hunter and Dan both paused for a moment, sharing a silent glance. It was pretty impressive that Carter had figured it out on his own, unlike Simon and Felix who’d almost arrived at the idea, then gave up and threw it into a paper shredder.

“Oh, you sweet summer child,” Dan said while making a series of clicking noises.

“Wait, are there telltale signs of these kinds of places?” Hunter asked.

“Well…” Carter scratched the back of his head. “For one, why would they keep Halloween costumes on hand? It’s mid-July.”

Hunter self-consciously played with the bow on one of his sleeves. Grappling with his self-doubt in conjunction with the recent eggy shenanigans was making his head hurt. He desperately wanted to go curl up somewhere and hide.

Carter kept talking. “Also, the job description doesn’t make any sense. I’ve seen very few people, and getting room and board for a place you’re working at is really sketchy, right?” 

“And yet you're still here. Why would you take a job at a place you know is sketchy?” Dan pointed out.

“I-- w-well, um…” Carter stammered, looking away.

Hunter wanted to keep his damn mouth shut; however, his natural curiosity overrode his shyness. “Ugh, fine, I'll ask the question. Are organizations dedicated to turning people into girls common? I’m not talking about one-offs.”

“Oh, all of the time, of course!” Dan grinned. “Let's see, you've got all sorts of government conspiracies, strange middle-of-nowhere towns whose entire business revolves around transforming people, superhero schools that sequester their trans students together…also IKEA. Carter, help me out here.”

“Uh, torture basements, gotta look out for those.” 

“Don't you mean ‘run away from those?’” Hunter asked with some amusement.

“Of course, of course. Run away from anything that starts with ‘torture’.”

“Good talk,” Dan said.

By that time, Natalie had made her way over to them, with an uncharacteristic look of concern on her face, especially when she met Hunter’s gaze. “Well, Simon and Felix are catatonic, so your little show of bravado finally flamed out. You don't look so good, either.”

“Damn, I was hoping I looked cute,” Hunter said, trying and failing to inject enough sarcasm into his voice.

The concerned looks on Dan, Carter, and even Natalie's faces confirmed they weren't buying it.

“I’ll go take care of Simon and Felix,” Natalie said as she gestured to the two maids staring at the wall. “Carter and Dan, take care of Hunter, okay? Get some rest, because tomorrow is going to be big.”

***

With the help of Dan and Carter, Hunter was able to navigate himself back to the intern’s shared area, sitting down on the recliner and scrunching himself up on it. The cool, bare feeling of the fishnets against the leather chair certainly added to the feeling of complete bewilderment.

Dan, ever so helpful, set a glass of water on the end table while Carter placed a few crackers before excusing himself.

“It's not like I'm going to burst out crying at any moment,” Hunter protested, fully aware he was lying.

“It’s okay if you do.” Dan knelt at the base of the chair and gently leaned in. “Take your time.”

Hunter attempted to steady himself by taking a couple deep breaths, but all that accomplished was to give him time to ruminate on everything swimming through his head. The ridiculous costume he was wearing and feeling exposed, the fact he genuinely wanted to give someone else control over him for a bit, and then of course, Natalie calling him out for being stuck-up.

Then he realized something.

“I haven’t worn anything like this when my body is…shaped more like a guy’s.” 

“Oh. Right.” Dan cocked his head. “Yeah, you’ve only worn dresses and feminine-coded stuff when you’ve been able to change your body and face to match them. This is…definitely a trans experience you haven’t been through yet.”

“It’s terrifying,” Hunter whispered. “If I could get away with changing my proportions and clean up my face a bit, I would right now.”

“And that’s a common conflict that comes with being trans. I want my body to match my own internal perception of my identity, but unless I’ve been handed some shapeshifting abilities, I have to take the slow route and maybe even make compromises there.”

“No wonder you obsess over those stories. If only you could have access to an instant solution like…like I had and then gave you…then a lifelong problem would instantly be solved.”

“Not completely,” Dan corrected. “As you’ve just been reminded, getting an instant, magical change doesn’t remove the fact that you’re trans. You still have a history and a unique perspective that will never be the experience of almost the entire population.”

“For better or worse.”

“Yup,” Dan said. “And for the small taste you’re getting of it, the slow path is the harder path, obviously. Not that gender is in any way binary, I mean, you’re genderfluid. You already know this.”

“Well, now I’m feeling just as desperate for someone to turn me into a djinn and waste their first wish on having me take on the appearance of a girl.”

Dan beamed. “Love the reference. You know how lonely it was making those all by myself?” Then he paused, with his facial features morphing into shock. “You want to be a girl, right now? 

“No!” Hunter crossed his arms defensively and pushed himself further into the chair, hoping it would swallow him up entirely so he wouldn’t have to face this conversation.

“Hunter.”

He sighed. “Fine. What's...what's so wrong if I have a little bit of fun, too? Like you do when I’m the one transforming you. I can play with gender however I want, right? Maybe right now I want to be in your role.”

“What the…I never conceived of this. Ever.” Dan started pacing around the room, fighting to keep his expression from getting too bewildered. “We have three eggs around us and somehow, you’ve managed to out-egg them all.”

“I’m not being dense.” Hunter glared at Dan.

“No, no, I’m not saying you are. It’s easy to get caught up in defining eggs as dense, but to take it in another direction, it’s a journey, right? You’re figuring yourself out. Who says all trans people only get one egg stage? Transition and genderfluidity and living under the nonbinary umbrella is a series of progressive eggery.”

Hunter stood up from the chair. “It’s terrifying when you’re the voice of reason.”

“I’m pretty sure it means a lot of things have gone wrong in a very convoluted mess of spaghetti,” Dan joked.

“Well then, I love you, my beautiful mess of spaghetti.” Hunter smiled and blew his partner a kiss.

“Love you too.”

Hunter made a show of looking around the room dramatically. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I don't want to think anymore. I’m going to bed.” He started walking toward his room.

“Hunter?” Dan asked softly, causing him to turn back around.

“Yes?”

“I’m giving you permission to get your cute ass all prettied up tomorrow when we get faced with whatever their mysterious big plan is. By the way, you do look hella cute in that dress.”

Hunter blushed. ”Mmm…I needed that,” he mumbled as he rushed back into the bedroom before the compliment could take him off his feet. 

So far, so good.

***

“You’ve been enjoying yourself.”

Hunter bolted upright, his vision quickly focusing on the woman sitting on the edge of the bed.

“Artemis?” Hunter gasped, then realized he was still in the maid costume. Self-consciously, he pulled the blankets closer to him as he adjusted his position to be more upright.

“I decided to stop by and check on my champion.” The goddess smiled.

“I thought you wouldn't interfere?” Hunter didn't mean to sound accusatory, but in the moment he felt a bit weirded out by her presence. 

“I'm merely observing. I apologize for once again intruding on your privacy, though I do not have many options to catch you without alerting the others. Especially as you do not have your phone on you.”

“Right…” Hunter reluctantly admitted she had a point. “What’s the occasion?”

“I’m worried about you,” Artemis said bluntly.

“Really?” Hunter couldn’t help but feel warm from that. “I thought you would be upset at me for not doing a good job getting the device.”

“I do care about the mission,” Artemis admitted. “Though I care about you more.”

Hunter tried to speak up and thank her, but only managed to make out a small noise.

“I’ve given you a lot of responsibility, and multiple demands. I’m asking you to transform others, as well as retrieve Lunaris. Once we are done here, I am treating you to a reward. And giving you a well-deserved break.”

Hunter leaned forward a bit, the covers dropping off of him. “I don’t NEED a break,” he protested in a harsh whisper. “I have people that need me, and I have to get my head back in the game so I can give them my support.”

“In addition to giving yourself the support you deserve?” Artemis asked pointedly.

“I already had this talk with Dan,” Hunter grumbled.

“Good, then I’ll cut to the chase.” Artemis stood up. “Remember, I told you that your journey hadn’t ended, even after you figured out significant parts of your identity. You’ve encountered an unexpected complication, with multiple other people that do not understand themselves. Alongside your attempts to understand yourself better. You’ve been given no small task.”

"I'm not sure what's wrong with me, I mean, you see what I'm wearing." He gestured to the maid outfit. "Am I being influenced by--"

"No." Artemis rolled her eyes. "Sure, you're being pressured by a bunch of incompetents, but no. You're your own person, your own man, even your own woman, if you want. You have your full freedom to be as ridiculous as you want. Your partner is certainly taking advantage of that. Don't be so harsh on yourself."

Hunter gave a couple shaky nods. As much as he wanted to avoid it, he needed those affirmations. He didn’t feel quite as confident or comfortable as he used to, and wished he could revel in the force femme energy like Dan did.

One step at a time. He was technically immortal, so time was on his side for figuring himself out, at least in the long run.

“That helps, it really does,” Hunter said, then decided to change the subject. “May I ask why taking Lunaris is so important to you?”

Artemis paused for a moment, with a brief but significant glance downward. “I view the NewU Corporation’s entire operation as an insult to my craft, and it reminds me too much of what I do not want to be associated with anymore.” The goddess’s face remained still, though the implicit anger in her tone was obvious.

“You know they’re also throwing out noise about how subservient women should be.”

“An intimidation tactic imposed by a coward,” Artemis said, obviously referring to the CEO. Hunter idly wondered if Artemis knew Blake, and if so, how much information the goddess held onto that wasn’t being shared. “Another reason to destroy it. Because the people here should be getting assistance from you, not being paraded around and processed like cattle.”

“Agreed.”

Artemis made a show of moving to the bedroom door. Hunter figured she would teleport away, though there wasn’t really a universal body language code for teleportation. “I have used enough of your time. Get some sleep, and you’re doing better than you think.”

With that cryptic remark, Artemis vanished.

“So many mysteries…” Hunter mused as he pulled the covers over himself, getting comfortable again. “And yet, I really just want to be feminized right now.”

Hunter shuddered a little bit in anticipation of tomorrow, feeling vaguely guilty, but less guilty than before.