When Hunter opened the door, he was expecting maybe one or two of the guys to already be awake.

Instead, he was met with the entire group, including Natalie. They all stared at him expectantly.

“Sleeping beauty is up,” Natalie commented.

“Why are you still wearing that stupid costume?” Felix asked. He was lying on the sofa with his feet up, in his business casual attire. Simon was back to being dressed in his usual clothes too, for that matter.

Hunter felt his cheeks threatening to turn red. “My bags went missing,” he said, giving Natalie a pointed look. He hadn’t noticed the disappearance as he’d deliberately kept his costume on when going to bed. 

“I’ll…get someone on that,” Natalie said coolly, tilting her head with the faintest little smile. 

Ah, she was messing with him. Fantastic.

“Damn, Hunter lost their bags? Wow, am I SUPER relieved something like that hasn’t happened to me yet!” Dan said loudly, staring at Natalie expectantly.

“We have work to do,” Natalie pointed out, ignoring Dan once again, and motioned for the group to follow her. 

“Can’t I take a shower or something first?” Hunter pleaded.

“That’s a bit unnecessary,” Natalie said ominously before walking out into the hallway, forcing everyone else to quicken their pace to catch up.

***

Natalie stood between the two high-tech doors that supposedly led to the Research and Development section of the building. The same doors through which Hunter had previously seen a pink flash of light. According to Dan’s deduction, this was the place where the interns would be getting forcefemmed.

“You’re about to experience the biggest investment the NewU Corporation has ever made. However, we can only process two people at once. Felix, you’re up first. Then we’ll give it a half hour, and the next two will go.” 

“What do you mean by ‘process’?” Carter asked, giving Hunter and Dan a knowing glance.

“You’ll find out,” Natalie smirked. “Felix, get your ass in there.”

“Whatever.” Felix rolled his eyes and went through the door. The door closed behind him with an audible ‘click’.

“Make yourselves comfortable, it’ll be a little bit.” Natalie took a seat away from the group and started browsing her phone. Everyone else decided to sit side by side on the chairs as if it were a busy day at the doctor’s office.

Whatever was about to happen might very well involve a doctor, for all Hunter knew.

Simon broke the silence first. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Hunter, but I can’t look at you without remembering yesterday, and I’m not sure I want to.”

“I’m glad I can be a walking sideshow for you,” Hunter snarked.

“It’s not that,” Simon corrected. “It’s…it was fun, in a way. Being all domestic. And I wouldn’t be upset if it happened again. Is that weird?”

“Of course not,” Dan said with a dose of sarcasm. “It’s completely normal for a guy to put on a maid outfit unquestioningly and spend a little time as one every so often.”

Carter was studying Simon at this point, looking extremely confused. “Is it?” Carter asked, squinting at Dan.

“Of course it is, Carter,” Dan gave him an annoyed glance. “You can present however you want, and I think breaking norms can only be good for--”

“I’m not saying that!” Carter interrupted, raising his voice a little. “What do you mean by unquestioningly?”

Simon looked at Carter. “Seems obvious to me. That choosing to spend some time in a dress like Hunter’s doesn’t have to mean anything.”

“Don’t talk about my dress like that…” Hunter groaned, then buried his face in his hands while correcting, “Not that it’s my dress or anything.”

“Sure,” Carter said flatly. “Just to make sure I understand, there’s no need for any additional introspection or hard questions to confront. As long as you let your thoughts drift away, nothing can hurt you.”

“Now you’ve got it!” Dan said cheerfully at the same time as a 'ding' went off on Natalie’s phone.

“Carter, Simon, go through the doors,” Natalie ordered without looking up.

Hunter unburied his face and noticed two different stories going on at once. Simon, unsuspecting as ever, strode in without any hesitation. Carter, on the other hand, nervously opened the door, expecting something to jump out at him. He slowly walked through to the other side, which swiftly closed itself the moment he let his hand go with another ‘click’.

Silence fell.

Hunter, Dan, and Natalie all understood what was about to happen. Dan was practically vibrating in his chair in anticipation, while Hunter was almost as excited, but tried to conceal his reaction from the others. Natalie, not actually going through any of it, was only invested in what was about to happen from a business standpoint and presumably attempted to keep her reaction muted so as not to spoil the surprise.

None of them could voice the truth. Hunter wasn’t entirely certain how Natalie would react. Dan couldn’t speak up because he was still desperately hoping he could live out his fantasy without breaking the illusion of helplessness. Natalie already knew Hunter was in on it, and surely had to have noticed Dan’s odd behavior, but wouldn’t be able to voice anything and give the game away prematurely.

The result was a silent half hour, with only a couple reassuring glances between Hunter and Dan to break up the boredom. 

Time passed.

“Hunter,” Natalie broke the silence and handed him a set of familiar clothes. “You’ve suffered enough, get some work-appropriate things on.”

“Really?” Hunter stared at his supervisor in shock. He decided to take the small victory and grabbed the clothes, running to the restroom.

He wasted no time in discarding the ridiculous costume, which had definitely overstayed its welcome despite being a rather enjoyable experience overall. He slipped into his masculine attire and ran out of the restroom, discarding the maid outfit on the ground as he made it back to the scary doors. If Natalie was giving him his clothes back, what was actually going to become of them when they passed through?

He looked at Dan, who obviously wondered the same thing. 

Then Natalie’s phone beeped.

It was time.

“Approach the doors,” Natalie instructed.

Wordlessly, Hunter went over to his door as Dan got up from the chair to join him.

“See you on the other side,” Natalie said with a faint grin.

Simultaneously, Hunter and Dan opened their doors, with Dan managing to sneak Hunter one last warm look before disappearing.

Without further delay, Hunter strode through the door, letting it close behind him with its fate-sealing ‘click’.

He took a moment to examine his surroundings. A small, cramped room that barely fit him. He had enough ceiling space, but would only be able to take a couple steps in either direction before hitting a wall. The room was also narrow to the point that if he stretched his arms all the way out, he would be pretty close to being able to touch both sides.

“‘Kay…it’s a tiny, empty room,” Hunter said to himself.

Then the room lit up, with a monitor above the doorway across from him lighting up with some pink lines. Strange shifting noises echoed through the walls. Unlike the rest of the NewU office, the aesthetics of the room screamed ‘sci-fi people-processing laboratory’.

Then the monitor started to speak.

“Welcome to the Lunaris Sequence 2.0,” a calm, feminine voice reverberated through the monitor. “You may call me Luna, and I’m like, so totally happy to have you with me right now!”

Hunter gasped, though they shouldn’t have been surprised. The ‘Lunaris’ device was actually a series of rooms? Run by a recording of someone calling herself ‘Luna’?

“Now, the first thing I’m gonna do is get you out of those worn and disgusting clothes you’ve been wearing all day. Won’t that be a relief?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Hunter spat out. Natalie had him put on his old clothes knowing full well he was going to have to take them off! She’d lulled him into a false sense of security just to toy with him! 

It made sense in a twisted way. It wouldn’t be fitting to start a forcefem process on someone already dressed up in a costume of their own. After all, Dan had made the deliberate choice to gender himself wrong so he could have the full experience. Getting forcefemmed a second time required undoing the first experience, at least if the second time was supposed to be its own complete experience.

He started to unbutton his shirt, only for the panels on the walls to slide open, revealing several mechanical arms. The arms looked very metallic, of course, and yet…they had a certain fluidity in motion evocative of what a real arm might do, which was both fascinating and unnerving. Fully formed mechanical hands were at the ends, and from the looks of it, the hands definitely worked. One of the hands gave Hunter a wave.

“This…is a bit outside context,” Hunter stared at the waving hand in disbelief. He’d been used to the idea of magic existing, so of course futuristic technology should be possible too. But how did this all exist perfectly stashed away within the mundanity of an office setting?

Suddenly, the arms extended around Hunter. some of them restraining him by his arms and legs, and others clamping on different pieces of clothing. Hunter, panicking a little, attempted to move his head, only for another arm to gently but firmly wrap itself around his neck.

“Ah ah ah!” One of the arms wagged a finger in front of him. “Don’t worry, cutie, I’ve got this.” The monitor displayed pink waves moving on the screen as it, Luna, talked. “Lie back and relax, you’re in good hands.” The arm in front gave Hunter a thumbs-up as several points on his clothes simultaneously got warm.

Before he knew it, the shreds of all of his clothes were dropping to the ground. Then the arms moved to pick up each piece and bring them back behind the wall panel. 

Now Hunter was completely naked and exposed, and still restrained by the arms. He gulped, suddenly extremely self-conscious about being at the mercy of this improbably well-constructed feat of engineering.

Then the anticipation kicked in.

What was it going to do to him? How far was it willing to go? Why was he really excited?

“You’ve been, like, really good so far!” Luna said, an electronic increase in pitch making it seem like it was genuinely pleased with Hunter. That definitely wasn’t a mere recording.  “Now, take my hand, and we’ll get you cleaned up.”

The door opposite from him opened, with another arm snaking its way from the further room to him. It held out its palm, and Hunter shakily grabbed onto it. Then the restraints on his neck and the rest of his body released as the arm started pulling him into the next room, forcing Hunter to keep pace or be at risk of falling over.

The door he passed through shut and locked itself, and then more arms popped out of the walls. Some of them grabbed his arms and legs, though others appeared to have tools attached.

Then water hit Hunter from all sides. The nozzles attached to the arms were showerheads, letting out water at a pleasant temperature. The arms then rotated around him, making sure Hunter understood the meaning of ‘full coverage’. Soap started being dispensed, and then there was the scrubbing.

“Mmm…” Hunter closed his eyes. The unexpected power wash felt really good and he wanted more.

“Aw, aren’t you so well-behaved?” Luna said without any hint of sarcasm. Hunter spent a couple of his very few remaining brain cells to think about the relationship between the speaker and the sequence. Lunaris was supposedly a machine, and Luna… 

Luna interrupted his thoughts. “There’s one more step, we’re like, almost done with the shower, I promise!”

Then the nozzles started shooting out pink gel. Each glob stuck to Hunter’s body for only a moment, and then detached itself. The gel got everywhere. His legs, his arms, his face, and more. 

Hunter only realized what was happening when he noticed his skin felt especially smooth.

One last rinse and the arms retracted, giving Hunter an opportunity to run his hands over his body.

All of his body hair was gone. The only hair left besides his eyebrows was on the top of his head. His facial stubble was completely, impossibly smooth. The air on his exposed body felt so much more…intimate, than it ever had before.

“Let’s say a permanent goodbye to that annoying body hair! And hello, a new, luxurious upgrade to what you’ve got left!” As Luna talked, the robotic arms came back to restrain Hunter. A dome was placed on the top of his head, and began multiple cycles of rinsing. A couple arms Hunter couldn’t see ran through his hair at the same time, pulling it, twisting it…lengthening it?

A few more moments passed, and then the dome was brought back into the walls and the restraints were lifted again. Hunter grabbed a lock of his new hair and brought it into his field of vision, noting that if he wanted to, he could hide his entire face in a fluffy, slightly-curled blanket of…blonde?

Huh. Hair coloring too.

His body hair was (permanently?) gone, with the hair on his head all washed and colored. The hair coloring should have taken hours. And at least an intense session of pain for a temporary removal of body hair. Instead, his hair was redone in the span of a few minutes. 

It was glorious. 

Another arm snaked itself past the opposing door, which Hunter met as soon as it was in range. Without further delay, the arm led him to the next room, which was even smaller in size and had a small glass panel…with Dan on the other side.

“Eep,” Hunter said as he stared at his partner. Both were naked, but both their eyes only fixated on each other’s hair.

Dan had breezy black and shoulder-length hair, in a similar style to Hunter’s. It was beautiful and looked really good on him.

Then the shame kicked in. Hunter shouldn’t be enjoying this. He should be resisting, fighting off the arms and protesting as loudly and vocally as he could. If nothing else but to prove that he wasn’t…

Wasn’t what?

He didn’t want to finish that thought.

Dan pounded on the glass, and he refocused on his partner. Dan was smiling, almost as wide as when Hunter was the one in charge. An arm quickly grabbed the offending hand and pulled it back away from the glass.

“It’s okay to like it!” Dan said faintly, the sound barely managing to carry over through the wall. Robotic arms grabbed Dan and forced him into the next room.

Not too far behind, Hunter felt the arms in his room guide him into the next, which was back to the usual size of the individual chambers so far. Restraints once again closed around him. 

Dan said it was okay. Was it okay? Was he okay?

“Every girl needs a full complement of sexy lingerie to get her through each day. Like, isn’t that the best?” Luna giggled. 

No more pretenses, then.

An arm held up red, lacy underwear. Or should he start thinking of them as ‘panties’?

Dan would claim the cool kids were doing it. Fine, ‘panties’ for now.

The arms helped him slip the panties on, and while it wasn’t the most comfortable fit, it was definitely a fit that would continually remind him of what he was wearing underneath. He secretly enjoyed the sensation.

“Good girl,” Luna said.

“Nnnn…” Hunter involuntarily let a noise escape through his teeth, and within an instant he felt flush. He’d used that phrase before on Dan to great effect. It wasn’t allowed to be used back on him!

That tiny, two-word phrase had fried Hunter’s brain.

Could he think of himself as a girl? Could she think of herself as a girl?

N-no…not yet. Maybe. Shut up, internal monologue.

Hunter could barely focus as black stockings rolled up his legs, a set of straps wrapped at his waist and connected themselves to the stockings, and a black collar clicked into place around his neck. Each piece was briefly shown to him in full view by the arms, to make sure he got the full idea of how much he would be encased in a beautiful collection of lace.

Then another garment appeared. A gorgeous red-and-white piece with a built-in bra, with laces running up the back, intended to help shape the bodies of the people who could wear them.

“I thought people had stopped wearing those,” he choked out, a little intimidated by the corset.

“Nope!” Luna said cheerfully, making Hunter jump.

At Luna's unexpected interruption, Hunter remembered something. Wasn’t there an announcement when they entered the NewU building? It was using the same voice that ‘Luna’ was using. About NewU having AI-Powered design principles. Hunter had written that statement off as corporate nonsense to attract irresponsible investors at the time.

They were being more literal than Hunter would have believed. Luna had to be an artificial intelligence. Maybe even sentient. It would make sense with the sci-fi setup here.

Hunter didn’t get much time to process this revelation, because the corset had been wrapped around his body. The arms worked on the laces, steadily putting the pressure on, notch by notch.

“Woah,” Hunter squeaked out. He could still breathe, thankfully, but it wasn’t as easy as it was before. It hurt a little bit…but not too much.

“There, now you have a lovely figure that’s SURE to turn heads!”

Turning heads!? 

“And now for the main course!” An arm brought out a cute red dress and started slipping it on him.

“T-this is…” Hunter was not going to cry, damnit! 

“Pretty?” Luna asked with a slight amount of ‘tease’ in its voice. Hunter couldn’t nod as his neck was held securely, and shamefully spoke.

“Yes…”

The dress was on now. It seemed to fit alright, though Hunter could feel the air a bit higher on his legs than he would have liked, and it seemed to leave quite a bit of chest room open, which was a mystery to him.

Then he felt himself being lifted. He panicked for a moment, only to see an arm bringing a pair of red heels.

The same red heels that Hunter had been forced to practice walking in.

Wait. They’d thrown Hunter into all this red because he chose the red heels instead of the pink or black ones?

Well played.

His body was gently lowered onto the heels with a perfect fit. The restraints loosened up just enough to allow Hunter to get a sense of balance, and then all of the arms retracted into the walls.

“You look so gorgeous, you make me want to drop dead in shock!” Luna chirped, making Hunter’s cheeks match the rest of his ensemble. 

Was he beautiful?

Hunter thought back to Simon’s comment about if he had to be a girl, he’d rather be a hot girl.

No matter where you were on the spectrum of gender, and how you were presenting, you can be beautiful. Hunter knew this. Everyone was beautiful, no matter the gender, body type, or any other factors.

He also knew that beauty standards demanded that people conform to what society expected. Those standards were currently being weaponized to push him into what society considered model-like beauty.

To have that beauty provided on a silver platter, even though he knew he was in the middle of a transformation sequence setting him up to conform to those standards, a part of him wanted to be the beautiful woman getting all the attention. A part of him craved being that beautiful woman.

The Hunter of a couple months ago would have fainted at such a thorough transformation, being the embodiment of his fears over being forced back when he was running away from every insidious plot to feminize him. 

This time, with an ace up his sleeve as an 'eject' button…was it okay to want to try being a woman, for a change?

“Oh, one more thing!” Luna interrupted Hunter’s existential crisis.

Arms shot out and a few clips were attached to his nails, humming for a few moments before retracting. Hunter was unsurprised to find his nails were painted a brilliant red, and somehow were longer than they were before.

There had been no changes to the actual shape of his body besides the subtle adjustments of the corset. Hunter fought off a couple stray thoughts about his looks.

At the end of the day, he reluctantly admitted to himself that he hoped that he looked…good.

The next door opened, and Hunter strode through before the mechanical arms could start pushing him.

“There’s more…” This room was a little different than the rest, as it seemed to be a dead end. There was another glass panel, though Hunter didn’t see Dan, though he did see a mechanical arm scrubbing the floor. Maybe Dan had already made it through?

Most important was the object attached to the wall.

A capsule, fit for placing a person inside. Many unidentifiable instruments adorned it, wires, tubes…all running up the wall. The pod was on a conveyor belt of some sort, so it was capable of being moved along with the wires. 

“And now, the grand finale!” Luna announced with the monitors showing a pixelated shower of confetti. “Please step right up and enjoy the ride!”

As Hunter was escorted up by the mechanical arms, he suddenly remembered a couple important things.

When he had initially applied for the NewU internship, back when Artemis was toying with him, he’d passed up the opportunity to try out their latest device. Instead, Artemis, disguised as a member of staff here, gave the choice to him to select someone else. He’d selected one of the members of his group, Elise. She’d gone through this process, and later confided in him about it.

Elise directly named this device as Lunaris, and told him it was a device that would change someone into someone resembling themself, but with the benefit of years of hormones. If that’s the case, then Hunter knew exactly what was coming up…

…and he eagerly looked forward to it.

Hunter climbed in the pod, resting at an angle that let them appreciate his nails…his dress…the stockings and heels as well. Luna had done quite a number on him, within such a short period of time…he’d gone from the appearance of a guy to being enveloped in red. There was no way he could even escape, and he was about to be remodeled into someone else at the mercy of this strange AI.

“You’re going to be taking a little bit of a nap, but rest assured, I’ll be taking really good care of you!” Luna babbled as the mechanical arms adjusted things around the room.

“Mm,” Hunter let out a sigh as he relaxed his posture, ready for what came next.

“I really enjoyed your company,” Luna said softly.

Hunter couldn’t manage to make any more noise, as he felt the knockout-whatever entering his system. Though he had just enough brain capacity to remember one final detail as he drifted off.

This place wasn’t called Lunaris. It was called the Lunaris Sequence…2.0.

***

Lights came on.

Hunter’s eyes opened. He was still in the pod…but in a different room entirely. Natalie and Dan were there.

Natalie was looking at Hunter with an amused grin, certainly pleased with herself for messing with him right before he was ‘processed’. Then there was Dan, looking at Hunter with a worried expression. He looked beautiful…though there was one key detail Hunter couldn’t take his eyes off of.

The top of Dan’s little black dress looked like it was about to burst. Comically so. So much more than anything Hunter had ever done while transforming him for fun. Hunter had even transformed Dan into ‘Dan with years and years of hormones’ several times, and Dan’s current appearance was definitely NOT that.

There was no way the interns were transformed with a single, simple rule. Something, or someone, directly interfered and changed them to different specifications.

The pod door opened, and Natalie gently helped Hunter down. As he made his first steps out, the jiggling was enough for Hunter to immediately understand what had happened to his body, too.

Hunter looked down, and confirmed in dismay that he too, had been given a body that was outrageously, ridiculously feminine.

“And there’s the humiliation,” Hunter sighed.