Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Zippy Zipperdale: Moderately Mad Scientist ❯ The 12th Experiment ( Chapter 12 )

ZIPPY ZIPPERDALE:
MODERATELY MAD SCIENTIST–
THE 12TH EXPERIMENT

By Hardcover

Their feet echoed lightly down the long underground passageway deep underneath Madame Petri’s School For The Gifted And Eccentric as the group of weary partiers made their way down its lengthy turns and twist. Zippy slightly staggered, still feeling the effects of the alcohol, coupled by the effect of a long night of singing and dancing. She felt tired, but good. Behind her, Lizzy, Krystal, Stitchy, The Twins, Eve and Charity all trudged along the same path. They had all wanted to get back to their dorms and get to sleep, but they were hoping to catch up with Madoka (or Rina, whoever happened to be in the pilot seat at the moment) before hand. They’d spent the whole night having a karaoke party, but Madoka had been unable to attend because she’d promised to do the night’s feeding for Mr. Carcharias’ aquatic creatures. They all talked happily and animatedly as the moved, although they all looked fairly worn out from the night’s exertions.

All that is, except for Stitchy who hardly ever got tired, and Eve to whom it was basically mid afternoon (being that she was a pseudo vampire).

It had been a pretty good night, and Zippy had relished the chance to unwind for a bit. In fact, she had been tense lately for a number of reasons, the chief among them being the mounting evidence that something unusual, or rather, more unusual then usual, was going on at the school. This was compounded for Zippy as she had become more and more aware that she had somehow managed to become the agreed upon leader of the group, The Shark Tank Guild as they called themselves. While that might seem like a desirable position, Zippy had found that it involved a lot of responsibility with a crowd as eclectic as this, a group that was literally capable of making monsters.

Still, Zippy now realized that she wouldn’t trade this for anything. She glanced back at Stitchy who was happily chatting with the others. Pride swelled in her chest as it usually did when she thought of her creation. If she hadn’t come here, she never would have made her. She loved her gargantuan ‘daughter’ so to speak, and really couldn’t imagine what it would have been like without her. And without all of her odd but dedicated friends.

They turned down a hallway that led to the area where Megan’s tank was located. Still no sign of Madoka. Zippy thought a little about her odd split personality laced friend. Madoka had been the first student Zippy had met upon coming to Petri’s. And Zippy now realized that Madoka had been telling her the truth when she’d told her that you could do things here that you couldn’t do anywhere else. She smiled, as freaked out as she’d been, she now fit right in with the rest of these mad science misfits, and she wouldn’t want it any other way.

Up in front of them loomed one of the massive windows that looked out into the huge megalodon tank where Megan, Morgan and their two offspring Abby and Britney lived. No matter how many times she’s been here, zippy was still astonished at the sheer size of the massive tank that housed the two genetically engineered sharks and their two children. As she peered into the window, she couldn’t see them anywhere in the hazy salt water. She glanced back and forth, looking for the sharks.

“Megan?” She called, knowing the microphone would send her words into the tank to be picked up by the Meg’s implants.

Megan abruptly appeared seemingly out of no where slamming against the window with such force Zippy thought she might break it. Zippy jumped back in shock as Megan’s massive sixty foot body twitched in animated agitation.

“Rina’s in danger!” Megan cried in alarm, her implant flashing rapidly.

“What?” Zippy asked apprehensively.

“She’s down bellow!” Megan said in a near panic, “She’s trapped in a room, there’s . . . things out there trying to get her. You need to help her, Zippy; they’re going to kill her!”

Never had Zippy ever actually seen Megan look and sound scared. There was hardly anything in that huge tank that could scare a sixty foot megalodon. The closest she’d ever come was when she’d learned of Miss Piranha’s cancer. Zippy felt her blood turn to ice: This was no joke, Megan was really afraid for Rina. Her heart quickened as all the night’s fun faded away and she went into crisis mode.

Britney appeared in the window flanked by her sister Abby. The two baby megalodons looked just as freaked out as their mother, twitching in the water with agitation, their tails moving back and forth.

“It’s true!” Britney cried, her implant flashing rapidly, “The squidy lady said so!”

Before Zippy could even wonder what the hell ‘squidy lady’ meant, another massive shark head popped up in the window: Megan’s mate, Morgan. Like most male sharks, Morgan was slightly smaller then Megan at fifty feet long. This was common among sharks: The females had to be bigger and more intimidating to protect the young in the bellies, while the males could be smaller, faster, and more maneuverable for hunting.

“You have to save her, Zippy!” Morgan announced, “She’s in . . .”

As soon as Morgan told her where Rina was, Zippy turned to the others. Her heart sank a bit as she realized with dismay that they were all looking to her for what to do. Why did everyone keep putting her in charge of things? Whatever the cause, she had little choice here but to step up and spring into action like a half assed super hero. She did a quick mental calculation and separated the group into runners and brawlers. She then took a deep breath to steady her nerves and started issuing what amounted to orders.

“Lizzy, Krystal, Katjia and Nadjia: Run and get help. If you can’t find a teacher get the Werx.” Zippy yelled, “Stichty, Eve, Charity: Come with me!”

Before Zippy even finished the Farrell twins had dropped down on all fours and taken off down the hallway running canine style towards where they’d come from, Krystal and Lizzy following after. Zippy turned on her heels sprinting down the hallway in the direction of Rina. She heard the pounding of feet behind as the others fell in racing to rescue their friend. Zippy ran, pushing herself as hard as she could, hoping Miss Anvil’s class on physical augmentation would start paying off here. As she ran, Stitchy’s huge form had already come up next to her and passed her, the huge Franken girl propelling herself forward on her long powerful legs.

With Stitchy now in the lead, Zippy’s heart still hammered in her chest and she felt sweat breaking out all over her body. She ran on a treadmill every morning, but she was pushing herself faster then usual. She thought of Rina, shy little Rina cornered by who knew what kind of horrors and shuddered. She pushed herself harder, her feet hitting the floor and echoing through the hall. She glanced behind her and saw Eve’s pale form behind her, huffing and puffing with exertion the same as her. But she couldn’t seem to see where Charity was. She didn’t think Charity would abandon Rina, but where was she.

Suddenly Zippy spotted her: Above them on the ceiling running across it like some kind of cross between the Farrell twins and SpiderHer eyes were narrow and her face a hard mask of determination. Zippy felt a brief flutter of pride: Her ‘troops’, so to speak, would not abandon Rina in her time of need. As bizarre as they were, Zippy realized she had made very good friends.

And they all seemed to have confidence in her, confidence she didn’t always share. Even now she was second guessing her decision to send the twins for help. She had done that because of their speed: Down on all fours they out could almost out pace Usain Bolt and would likely find help fast. But they were also good in a fight, having been raised amongst wild wolves and could tear into foes with a savage fury that was actually quite frightening to see. Had she made a mistake sending them for help? Perhaps she should have sent Charity and taken the twins to rescue Rina? Well, there was nothing to do about it now.

Hang on, Rina, she thought, we’re coming for you. She could only hope that they got there in time.



The hinges on the door snapped and twisted with an ear splitting whine. The door bulged inward and spaces created on the side gave Rina glimpse of the grotesque horrors on the other side. The door would not hold long. Outside she could hear the obscene sounds of gross slurping and moaning. Webbed fingers tried to force their way through the spaces, the tips of tentacles oozing though, coated with a repellant slime. The awful choking stench penetrated the door and filled the room, making her gag a little even through the improvised mask she’d made from the bottom of her skirt.

Her hands gripped on the mop handle she’d turned into a primitive spear until they turned white. One of her feet was pressed against the janitors cart on which sat the jugs of chemicals that she had mixed. Threads pulled from her skirt were tied to Ziploc bags of other household chemicals that floated inside the jugs, the other ends tied to her wrists. Her heart hammered like a drum in her chest until she feared she would die of a heart attack before the monsters even got in here. Sweat bathed her body and raw almost unbearable and uncontrollable fear gnawed in her belly. The fear ripped at her and clawed at her chest, but a strong sense of anger, uncharacteristic and powerful, flowed in her was well. These things meant to do . . . well who knew what to her. She would not allow that. Be strong, Rina, the words of her other half echoed in her mind. She would be strong, she would try. It wasn’t just her on the line here, but Madoka as well.

What would Zippy do, that was the question: Zippy always seemed to have a plan. If Rina cold just emulate that she might be able to get out of this one.

The door had bent almost into a complete U shape; through it Rina could clearly see the revolting monstrosities as they slithered and oozed through the cracks, filling the air with their noxious odor. Round lidless eyes regarded her with cold emotionless malice as the webbed hands and tentacles pushed through the opening, reaching out to her like one of those scary movies that Zippy and Lizzy liked so much. Icy fingers of terror prickled up and down Rina’s spine along with nausea gripping her stomach.

There was a loud cracking sound that jolted Rina even though she’d been expecting it and the bolt gave way with an explosive tear that sent it flying across the room to bang on the wall and clatter loudly to the floor. The door slammed open, creating a loud crack as it smacked so hard into the wall that the knob would have punctured it had the wall not been made of metal. The things rushed the door all at once shoving against each other in a furious attempt to get at Rina. They fell, tumbled, slithered and . . . oozed through the door in a wet revolting pile looking like nothing short of a game of Twister played in Hell.

With her foot, Rina shoved the cart forward and yanked on the threads. With a series of high pitched squeaks of the wheels the cart barreled towards the fish men. The threads pulled the bags against the plastic and tore them open, mixing the chemicals. Rina crouched down on the floor, covering her face with her arms as the cart hit the crowd of bubbling fish men and seemed to be swallowed up in a mass of writhing tentacles. It only took a second for the bubbling liquid to build up pressure and cause the plastic containers to explode with a loud bang.

The contents sprayed over the monsters in a sizzling arc, filling the room with the chemical smell that was still not enough to mask the scent of the revolting fish creatures. As soon as the liquid hit the skin of the fish men it began to boil and hiss. The fish men spasmed and screamed in a weird bubbling sound that resembled nothing so much as the sound of vomit. Their skin boiling, the monsters jerked backwards from the door, scrambling to get away from the caustic fluid.

Rina was on her feet and rushing them in a second. Mustering as much strength as her thin arms could give her, she jabbed at them repeatedly with the spear, impaling one of them through the eye. The fish man jerked back covering the ruined orb as milky juice oozed through the wound. Rina spared him no pity and drove at the monsters with the spear. In short order she had cleared the door and was able to escape the closet into the room beyond.

As soon as she was there, her heart sank: The room was filled with fish men, over fifty of them at least. There were two other doors in the room, to her right and her left, but she was surrounded and couldn’t reach them. The confused fish men began to slither forward, and Rina knew she could not fight them all. Despair clutched at her belly as all hope seemed to flee the room. Rina gripped the pole and got ready to swing: At least she could take some of them with her.

A bitter smile flitted across her face: Madoka would be so proud of her.

As the first few approached, Rina swung and batted them away, moving quickly to strike at the next few. As they surged forward Rina furiously beat and struck at them, sending them back beaten and bloodied, only to have each one replaced by a new one. It was working for now, but she couldn’t keep up this pace much longer. Like most of the students here, the physical augmentation class had left her in reasonably good shape, but not enough to be considered a Bruce Lee. Her moves were clumsy and uncoordinated, not like the stylized martial arts that Zippy always practiced (allegedly to watch her figure, but Rina had suspected Zippy simply liked being bad assed).

Even now as she beat back and forth her arms were getting tired and she knew she couldn’t last much longer. She tried to prepare herself for the worst.

It was then that the door to her right hand side blew off its hinges with an incredible screeching sound and flew into the room, twisted and distended as it hurled through the fish men, cutting a large swath in the crowd, knocking them left and right, crushing a few with its force until it slammed into the opposite wall, turning one of the monsters to jelly with its impact and filling the room with a loud clank of metal on metal as well as a sickening squish of the pulverized fish man behind it.

Six foot seven inches of raw Franken girl barreled through the doorway.

Stitchy’s face was a mask of rage and anger as she hurled her massive form at the fish men. Her huge fists began to pound left and right, sending the revolting creatures sprawling to the ground. One fish man leapt at her, trying to wrap it’s tentacles around Stitchy’s head. With a grimace of disgust, she pulled it off of her, gripping its tentacles and slamming the thing into ground hard. As more fish men attempted to attack, Stitchy began using the unconscious one in her hand like a club, beating at the other fish men with one of their own. She was furious and destructive, true mad science unleashed against the hapless fish men.

“No hurt Rina, ugly fishy men!” Stitchy screamed in wrath.

It was only a second later that Zippy burst through the door, pausing for a moment as she stared at the contents of the room, her stomach retching a bit from the foul smell. She quickly got her head together and rushed for where she saw Rina, swinging a long pole left and right at the things that were trying to attack. Her teeth were gritted and eyes narrow slits and she violently batted them left and right, swinging her home made spear and bashing the weird fish men with painful hits. Sweat stood out on her brow, and she looked fierce and determined to defend herself.

“Rina! We’re here to help!” Zippy cried.

No, actually, that’s gotta be Madoka, Zippy thought.

Until Rina cried, “Get away from me, you big meanies!”

No that was definitely Rina.

Too many of the fish men were in between her and Rina, there was no way to get to her. Zippy simply attacked the nearest ones to her, using her martial arts training and delivering savage blows and kicks to them. Every time her fist hit the soft, slimy flesh, Zippy wanted to vomit. She spun around, letting her fists and feet fly, trying to out pace the revolting monsters as she fought. Truth be told, Zippy mainly practiced her marital arts as a way to stay in shape and she’d hardly ever had to use it in a real actual fight, but she’d used them a lot in Miss Anvil’s class, and they were serving her well now.

Crawling in over the top of the door, still on the ceiling, Charity entered the fray. Looking down at the mass of fish things, she grimaced in disgust.

“Oh guh-ross!” She complained.

Revulsion aside, Charity targeted the first one she saw and leapt at it from the ceiling, clawing at it like a cat, her long tail twitching as the fought with it. The fish man tried to claw her back and smack at her with its tentacles but she held on stubbornly, attacking its eyes and mouth with her finger nails before balling up her fists and pummeling the fish man’s head as hard as she could. Here was a girl who had once attempted suicide after her unexpected transformation, but Zippy was now noticing a lot of strength in Charity that hadn’t been there before.

As the fish man went down, the others surged to get at Charity, but she simply leapt back up to the ceiling and clung there out of reach. It wouldn’t last long, however, as several of the fish men had begun slithering up the walls.

Zippy wailed on the fish men, punching and kicking left and right as they attacked her. She was feeling anger, and that anger was getting stronger and stronger. She tried to will it down: I was no use giving into the anger. She had to control it. Above all else she could ever afford to loose control of her rage. Never, not ever. Not since the first time . . . no, she shoved that painful memory to the side. Even as she did so a tentacle got through and smacked her face, the teeth lined suckers drawing blood. Again the anger surged in her as she batted away the tentacle and delivered a powerful kick to what she assumed was the creature’s stomach. It made a grotesque gurgling sounds and it doubled over and vomited a milk like substance all over the ground. Zippy blanched in disgust, which only served to inflame her anger more.

Eve had already entered the door. With a running start she threw herself into the air, theatrically spreading out her arms like a raven’s wings as she did so. Hissing, the pseudo vampire bared her fangs at the fish men.

“Fear the wrath of the goddess of the night!” Eve cried sounding pretentious and quite clichéd.

If she hadn’t been busy, Zippy would have rolled her eyes at that.

A tentacle snaked out and grabbed Eve by the ankle. With a powerful whip like movement, Eve was hurled across the room into the wall on the opposite side. She smashed head first into the metal barrior with a painful crack and a loud metallic clang. The ‘goddess of the night’ slumped to floor, unconscious, muttering “Last call already?”

The teaming mass of the fish men seemed to ebb and flow almost like the sea itself, their jiggling jelly like bodies in constant movement almost like waves. They gurgled and made other sick noises as they mindlessly threw themselves at the intruders. Charity dropped off the ceiling and attacked another of the fish men, still cat like as she clawed at the creature’s face. The ones that had crawled up the wall after her quickly changed directions and moved down and back to the floor, the idea that Charity might leap back to the ceiling had not seeming to occur to them. These things were stupid, that was for sure, and clumsy but like a zombie movie it was their sheer numbers that made them dangerous and difficult.

Stitchy flung her fists left and right, delivering powerful crushing blows to the fish men with her strong top grade muscles, but they were starting to over power her. Creatures flung themselves at her and wrapped their tentacles around her so she had to struggle mightily to pull them off. As they swarmed her she was starting to loose her footing and was in real danger of being pulled down. Still she fought on, the bolts in her neck sparking slightly as she brought up every bit of her power. Like a true descendant of the legendary Frankenstein Monster, Stitchy refused to give up and die. She tore and pulverized at the fish men, but she was loosing and she knew it.

Not faring so well herself, Rina was jabbing and swinging at the fish men, but she was starting to get tired. She knew she couldn’t keep this pace up much longer, but she was damned if a bunch of ugly guppy people were going to take her down without a fight. Again she thought of how proud Madoka would be of her. She wasn’t just fighting for her own life, she reminded herself, but for Madoka’s as well. She was glad that her friends had come to her rescue, and it had given her a measure of hope, but she wasn’t sure that it would be enough. Still she pushed on, trying not to be the weakest one of the bunch. Even Charity was giving it her all, so Rina would too.

Zippy saw Stitchy’s precarious position and roared in rage at the fish men’s attacks on her gargantuan ‘daughter’. This was not good, she was loosing control and she knew it. Red veins danced around the sides of her vision and she could feel on pulse in her head as her heart thumped away. Pissed off and enraged, she took it out on the fish men near her, pounding at them and kicking with savage, almost murderous intent. She tried to calm herself, but it wasn’t working.

Charity jumped back up to the ceiling and scurried along a bit before dropping off of it and dive bombing a different fish man (although they all pretty much looked the same to her). She pounded at it and scratched and clawed it with furious motions. Another fish man leapt at her from behind, but Charity batted it away with an alligator like swipe of her long tail. For the first time she was feeling a bit grateful for her bizarre new body.

A fish man lunged at Stitchy, wrapping it’s tentacles around her head. Stitchy cried out and grabbed at the slimy mass with her enormous hands, ripping at its scaly flesh. The deceptively strong appendages pulled around her head, and Stitchy realized with a jolt of fear that the thing was trying to strangle her. She pulled at it, thrashing her body back and forth as the tentacles gripped harder and harder, like a gaggle of pythons around her face. As she fought with the assailant, her keen eyes noticed something.

There was a slight bulge in the underside of the fish man where the beak would be on a squid or octopus. It was bulbous rise in the flesh fronted by a small slit. With a sudden epiphany, Stitchy realized she might have been looking at its genitals. Having no desire to perform fellatio on the disgusting creature, she thrust her arm up under the fish man and sent her fist flying in a powerful blow to what she hoped was the thing’s testicles, hoping that this thing was male, since there wasn’t really any way to tell for sure. She felt her bolts spark at her neck as she punched with all the power over her scientifically created limbs and delivered the hit right on target.

“Stitchy!” Stitchy heard Zippy yell in a shrill, shrieking voice that she’d never heard her use before.

Whether or not it was the thing’s balls, it had the desired effect: The fish man let out hissing gurgle and released its hold on her. Seizing the opportunity, Stitchy grabbed the creatures and once again used it as a club, spinning around and slamming it down hard on the rest of the advancing fish men, her bolts sparking in anger. Still, the monsters surged at her.

Upon seeing the fish man try to suffocate Stitchy, Zippy exploded in rage, her vision blurring into a red haze. Screaming, she threw herself at the nearest monster and began pummeling it with her fists. The fish man threw its arms up in defense and Zippy attacked them, hitting them until she felt the small thin bones inside break and the thing howled in pain. She barely heard it as she assaulted the thing in a blind fury. Her thoughts were consumed by a fiery hate for the things that had assaulted her ‘daughter’ and friends.

Still smacking the pole at the fish men, Rina felt her chest heaving and her heart thumping painfully. She could barely cat a breath and she knew she was close to exhaustion. She was going to loose it fast if something else didn’t happen; her four saviors (one already out cold) were not enough to protect her from the room full of abominations. Every breath she took felt like knives in her throat and her arms ached horribly as she swung them. This was it, she knew she was going to die.

It was then that the other door on the far exploded inward like something out of a bad comic book. With a blast of smoke and flame that burned Rina’s skin slightly, the door ripped of its hinges and crashed to the floor, crushing a few of fish men in the process. Smoke billowed inward from beyond the twisted metal and filled some of the room, making everything slightly hazy.

Gortcha emerged from the door, some kind of double barreled weapons having come out of open slots on the housing of both his arms. He stomped in menacingly and arrogantly as usual, his gun up and poised for action.

“Alright,” He snarled, “Who’s messing with my students?”

When he saw the fish men, he jumped back, his metal eyes going wide. He froze in fear for a minute and then turned and ran back through the door.

“Ahhhhh! I don’t wanna die!” He cried shrilly.

Rina’s heart sank. If Gortcha was the cavalry, they were so screwed. But then something else came through the door. Two somethings, actually; two four legged animals.

Specifically, it was Katjia and Nadjia: Down on all fours their lips curled up, baring their teeth as they both growled from deep in their throats. Had they canine ears they surely would have been pressed back against their head. They stalked forward growling and barking menacingly at the fish men. Once again that veneer of civilization was stripped away and the twins were now primal and feral and of the wild. Rina was once again reminded of the savage beasts that lurked just beneath her friends’ eyes. The two wolf girls lurched at fish men, snarling savagely as they bit down on the first tentacles they came to, twisting their heads and ripping flesh.

In that moment they were all animal, all beasts, and it drove the fish men back in confusion.

Which took their attention off the two other figures who entered the door right behind the Twins: Vixen and Posey! Like Gortcha, both Werx had deployed large double barreled weapons of some kind out of their arms, but Posey also had some single barreled guns out of her shoulders. They glided into the room quickly, armed and ready, red police siren like lights having come out of their heads bathing the room in flashing red lights.

“Jeepers!” Vixen exclaimed, “How ugly!”

“Blork.” Said Posey.

Both Werx began targeting the fish men and opened fire, blasting away with loud bangs and sending barrages of bullets into their ranks with surgical precision. Bullets struck and tore at fish men, their flesh exploding in showers of their foul stinking blood. Alarmed and confused, the fish men tried to run to escape the hail of gun fire but found themselves being cut down by the others.

Running in behind the Werx, Krystal entered the room. Despite being a student in a mad scientist school, Krystal had gone low tech, and simply grabbed a fire man’s axe out of one of the emergency stations, which she swung hard at the nearest fish man, catching it on the side of the head and burring the blade in its small unsophisticated brain. The fish man shuddered and convulsed as clear fluid and black blood spurted out of the gaping wound that had nearly cleaved its head in half.

As Posey blasted away at the monsters, she screamed, “Blork! Blork-blork! Blork! Blork-blork! Blork!”

The fish men began to scurry in all directions, oozing greasily across the floor and up the walls. Disappearing rapidly through the other door, or squeezing like jelly through air vents. The room quickly emptied as the two Werx hammered away at them. In almost the blink of an eye, the only fish men left behind were the dead, and the rest had scattered to the wind, faster then their bulky malformed bodies would have seemed to facilitate. In a few seconds the battle seemed to be over.

For everyone but Zippy that was: Zippy’s rage had reached a boiling point, her world looked like a red haze to her as she continued to hit and kick the one remaining fish man in front of her. Her fists pulverized the flesh and bone she screamed like an animal, kicking her feet into the thing’s mid section savagely. She thought she heard someone calling her name but she still beat down on the fish man, hate swelling through her and driving her like a out of control car. She kept on beating it as the irritating voice seemed to get louder.

Suddenly, she was grabbed by the shoulders and spun around. On pure instinct she threw a punch at whatever had grabbed her but missed. Suddenly, she realized she was looking at her room mate Lizzy. As consciousness flooded back to her, Lizzy shook her shoulders urgently.

“Zippy! Zippy!” She said, “Enough! It’s dead!”

Zippy stared at her friend’s frightened eyes, only barely comprehending what she’d said. Breathing hard as the rage ebbed away, she turned her head to the fish man and saw that it was true: the creature lay crumpled on the floor against the wall, its neck clearly broken along with many of it’s other bones, its head twisted at an unnatural angle and it skin covered in large welts and bruises, its foul blood dripping from countless cuts and lacerations. It wasn’t just dead; she’d pulverized it into jelly. With shock she realized it must have been dead long before she’d stopped beating it.

As she got herself under control, shame welled up her. She’d promised herself she’d never loose control like that again, and now all her friends had seen a side of her that she’d hoped had been buried long ago. Ever since that time . . .

She shook her head, pushing the thoughts away. Don’t think about that, don’t ever think about that. That way lay madness. She took a deep breath and nodded to Lizzy.

“Let’s get out of here before they come back.” She replied.

Turning left and right, her breaths heaving deeply and her skin covered in sweat, Rina aimed the point of her home made spear around the room, looking for any more attackers. Stitchy cocked her head at her quizzically, more then a little confused by the uncharacteristic behavior.

“That Rina?” She wondered.

Krystal ran to where Eve still lay on the floor, out cold. She grabbed her shoulders and shook her, trying to wake her up.

“Come on, Eve, wake up. It’s time to go.” She urged.

Eve mumbled, “Aw just another five more minutes, mom.”

Hauling Eve to her feet, Krystal dragged her forward towards the door as the group made a hasty retreat. As they ran down the hall, Zippy could feel everyone’s eyes on her back. She felt thoroughly ashamed of herself: She had lost control in a way she’d never done before. And worse she’d done it in front of all her friends, people who looked to her as the leader, and she’d shown them a side of her that she hoped they’d never see. Loosing control like that, it wasn’t good. She threw it from her mind to go over other concerns. Like what the hell were those things, and why they had attacked Rina? What had they wanted with her? Did they think she was food? Or was it something else? Were they simply murderous? For that matter had they wanted to mate with her?

In any even, she was a little proud of Rina, stepping up and fighting back the way she had. She’d never seen her get that physical, even in Miss Anvil’s class. It was good to know that she just might be good in a fight after.

A smile appeared on Zippy’s face, but the guilt and shame still stabbed her in the back of her mind.



“Hallucinations?” Zippy exclaimed incredulously.

They were standing in Mr. Innsmouth’s oval office, placed directly in front of his desk. Behind it, the vice principle sat slightly reclined in his chair, his hands placed together in front of him with the long pale fingers touching, forming a pyramid shape. Despite what was being reported to him, his pallid face was calm and impassive, betraying not a smidgeon of concern. Zippy also thought she detected a hint of annoyance in his cold gaze. Present were all the students who had been in the fight, minus the three Werx. Rina had changed back into Madoka who breathed an almost comic sigh of relief that she was still alive. As usual the room was dark and slightly too cold for everyone’s comfort, leaving them shifting uneasily under Innsmouth’s penetrating, almost sinister glare.

Zippy was out in front, staring at the vice principle unbelieving of what she had just heard. Much as it made her skin crawl, she held his gaze levelly, willing herself not to glance at that grotesque statue on his desk.

“Why yes,” Innsmouth replied smoothly, “I’m afraid an experiment in Mr. Leary’s Advanced Chemical Research class was improperly secured by the students and leaked down into the lower levels. When you all went down there you were exposed, thus the creatures you saw. For that I am sorry, it must have been all so very frightening to you, but I assure you, you ladies were in no danger. It was all in your mind.”

“But how could we all see the same thing?” Lizzy spoke up, meeting Innsmouth’s low deep voice with her own monotone that was almost as creepy.

Innsmouth shrugged, “Mass hysteria, group consciousness. It’s all not without precedent. People under the influence of psychotropic drugs are often severely susceptible to suggestion.”

Characteristically bold, Madoka spoke up, “I’ve got bruises all over my body. We all do. Are we hallucinating those?”

“The mind can frequently cause physical symptoms of imagined ills or injuries. It is not uncommon, for example, for people suffering from severe hypochondria, or other psychosomatic maladies, to exhibit welts, bruises or even cuts on their skin brought about by their mental state and their firm belief that their delusions are real.” Innsmouth countered, undeterred.

“What about Vixen, Posey and Gortcha?” Zippy insisted, “How could they have been hallucinating?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Innsmouth replied with a dismissive wave of his hands, “No Werx has reported any incident such as the one you described.”

Mr. Innsmouth stood up and Zippy realized that they were being dismissed. She narrowed her eyes at the vice principle. A million objections were swirling through her head, she wanted to remind him that he was responsible for the students at this school, that it was his job to investigate and take care of this. But looking at his face, she realized any further arguments would be useless, and pressing the issue might not be a very good idea. Biting her lip in frustration, she turned and walked out of the office her hands balled into fists. There was a small pause, and then the others followed her out.

At first they all walked in silence. After an uncomfortable pause, Stitchy broke the ice.

“What we do now?” She asked.

Before anyone could answer, Zippy suddenly found herself confronted by Miss Hydra. The assistant vice principle had glided up to them silently, flowing across the floor, as always it seemed like she was not walking. It was hard to tell as the long silver cloak she wore around her body concealed everything, even the very shape of her body, the only thing visible being her head. Standing exceptionally tall, she looked down at everyone except Stitchy. She smiled at them politely, but it was a practiced, humorless grin that seemed more chilling the reassuring.

“Why hello there.” She said, “I heard about your little mishap down below.”

“’Mishap’?” Lizzy commented dryly.

“You should be very careful when you wander down to those lower levels. Who knows what might be lurking down there?” She told, almost condescendingly, “And I would advise you not to go exploring too deeply. It is always possible you mind find something that you really shouldn’t. The consequences of that might be most unpleasant. And I’d hate for something like that to happen to you.”

The statement was a thinly veiled threat and Zippy knew it. She felt her anger bubbling up again but she relaxed and fought it down. Instead, she simply nodded.

Miss Hydra inclined her head, “It’s so nice to see you girls.”

And with that, she turned and glided off down the hallway towards her office, moving across the floor in a most unnatural way, her gliding motions seeming all wrong. Zippy was almost certain that she didn’t have feet under that long cloak. Shivers ran up and down her spine as she watched her go. After a second, they all continued along their way.

“So, what do we do?” Lizzy asked her.

Zippy sighed, “I don’t know, but let’s keep our heads down and keep a low profile. No point in bringing them all down on us. If we’re gonna find out about these fish things, we’ll have to do it quietly.”

The other’s nodded in agreement.

Madoka spoke up quietly, “We also need to find out what happened to Felicia.”

“And me, for that matter.” Charity replied.

Zippy didn’t respond, and she was very quiet. Everything seemed to come back to the ocean: fish, cephalopods, all from the sea. Even Charity, although she was definitely still a mammal, Mr. DeSade had said that whatever had changed her had originally been intended for fish DNA. Could the change in Charity and the changes Madoka had told them about in Felicia be related? It couldn’t be coincidence, Zippy didn’t trust coincidence. There had to be some relation, but what? And how was it related to the fish things? That Mr. Innsmouth and his cronies were somehow in on this or at least knew about it went without saying. But in exactly which way she wasn’t sure.

There was one other thing that was bothering her. Although it was considerably different, she couldn’t help but notice that the ugly statue on the vice principles desk bore a slight resemblance to the fish men they’d seen down below.



Exhausted, and her feet feeling like lead, Zippy pushed the door to her dorm room open and entered followed by Lizzy. Stitchy and Krystal had stopped off at the library to put some books in the overnight drop. Zippy kicked off her shoes and let them bounce across the floor to land haphazardly next to her bed. That done, she sat down on the bed, feeling the relief flood through her strained muscles and she began to slide her stockings off. She felt completely drained and sore. Suffice to say, it had been one hell of a night: hard partying followed by brutal combat. Zippy had no idea what time it was, but she was sure she wouldn’t get much sleep tonight anyway. And her brain still crackled from the events of the evening.

Lizzy pulled her dress off and tossed it in her hamper. Not surprisingly, her bra was black with red monster hands on the cups, and her panties matched, a single monster claw on the front, two larger ones across her butt in the back. Like Elvira had done her shopping for her.

She turned to Zippy, “Alright, Zippy, out with it. What the hell was that?”

Zippy tossed her stockings into the hamper and then pulled her top off, wincing as the material rubbed against the many bruises on her skin. Her own bra was rather standard lazy white, cute but not quite as eye catching as what Lizzy was wearing.

She shrugged, “You’re guess is as good as mine.”

Pulling her own stockings down, Lizzy shook her head, “No, I mean what the hell was that with you? We lost you there for a while, Zippy. You went completely mad for a second.”

Zippy stood, unzipping her skirt and dropping it to the floor, stripping herself to nothing but her underwear, “Look, I really don’t want to talk about it.”

“I do. What’s going on with you, Zippy?” Lizzy prodded.

Zippy undid the hook in the back of her bra, “I’ve got some anger issues, okay?”

“Anger issues?” Lizzy said disbelievingly as she unhooked her own bra in the front, “You beat that thing to death with your bare hands!”

Zippy sighed; she didn’t want to have this conversation. She let her bra fall down her arms, releasing her small breasts from their confinement. Getting them out of the tight confines of her brassiere felt good and a little liberating. She had a couple of bruises even on them, one of them irritatingly right next to the nipple. She should have stopped at Dr. Cavorkian’s clinic to get them looked at, but she was too beat and wanted to get to bed. Lizzy had pulled her own bra off and Zippy felt the old self consciousness flow up at the sight of Lizzy’s larger boobs: Large, soft but firm and perky, they were everything Zippy’s weren’t. She shoved the thought aside as she realized Lizzy was still looking at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

She turned her head, not wanting to look Lizzy in the eye, “I’ve got this . . . rage inside of me. It’s always there deep inside. It’s like it’s waiting for the chance to get out; like some kind of cage monster plotting its escape. I’m . . . I’m afraid of it. Afraid of what I might do to somebody if it gets out.”

“Has it ever gotten out before?” Lizzy asked, what passed for a worried expression crossing her face.

Don’t talk about that! Don’t think about that! Forget about that time, don’t remember! Forget it! Zippy’s mind cried to her. But before she knew it, it was flooding out of her.

“When I was in junior high, a private school, and I had an argument with this other girl.” She started, “It turned into a fight when she smacked me. I’d always been aware of my anger, but it went completely out of control at that point. I . . . I hurt her real bad.”

“Did you kill her?” Lizzy asked, frozen in place.

No but I could have, Zippy thought but didn’t say.

Instead she said, “No, I just hurt her. Hurt her bad.”

“What exactly do you mean buy ‘bad’?”

“A broken nose, two teeth broken out, a shattered knee cap, a broken shin, a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder, multiple contusions, a concussion . . .”

“Holy shit, Zippy.”

“She ended up in the hospital. She still walks with a limp. I was expelled, and that’s why I went to public school after that.”

Lizzy said nothing, just staring at her. Zippy felt devastated revealing this to her. It was the single biggest regret and shame of her life. The one thing she had buried the deepest inside of her.

A small tear rolled down one of Zippy’s cheeks, “Listen, don’t tell the other’s about this, okay?”

“Tell them?” Lizzy rolled her eyes, “Everyone saw you get medieval on its ass.”

“I know, I know,” Boy did she ever know it, “But . . . don’t tell them about my past incident. I’d rather they think it’s a one time aberration. I don’t want them to know about this . . . monster inside me. I can’t have the group thinking I’m crazy.”

“’ Oh, you can't help that. We're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad.’”Lizzy quoted In Wonderland as she slipped her panties off and let them fall to the floor.

Smiling weakly, Zippy replied, “Does that make you the Cheshire Cat?”

Lizzy made a face, “No, he smiles too much.”

Zippy slid her own underwear off, stripping herself naked. For a second she considered just crawling into bed nude, but abandoned the idea. Bruises covered her legs and hips as well from the fight. Lizzy, on the other hand, had no bruises at all since she hadn’t done any actual fighting. Her roommate bent over reaching into her drawers for some pajamas, her round bare behind thrust in Zippy’s direction. Zippy thought that her own butt probably didn’t look that good right now, since she had bruises all over her body, she assumed she had them there too.

Whatever else there was to say, it was interrupted as Stitchy and Krystal entered the room. Despite everything that had happened, Stitchy had still fallen back to her joyful optimism.

“Oh, it naked time.” Stitchy clapped her hands, “Yay! Naked fun!”

With in a few seconds the giant girl had pulled all her clothes off, shamelessly displaying her stitch covered gigantic form with an exhibitionist relish. Zippy chuckled, wondering if her creation had a single shy bone in her body. It only took her a few seconds to rid herself of her clothes, revealing the dizzying criss-crosses of stitches all over her large form. She wadded up her clothes and shot them basketball style into her hamper.

Having entered behind her Krystal smiled weekly and then wearily began to pull her own clothes off. As her bra came off and her near perfect breasts fell out, Zippy again felt that tug of insecurity about her own breast size.

Oh, for Pete’s sake, Zippy, she chided herself; you gave both of them those boobs yourself!

Running a hand through her hair, Krystal said, “So, what the hell was all that?”

“I don’t know,” Zippy said, rummaging in her drawer for a nightgown, “But I’m just wondering if it might have been related to Charity’s change. Mr. DeSade did say that whatever turned her was based on fish DNA.”

Krystal nodded, “I had that thought too. And if what Madoka told us about Felicia is true then . . . well, there’s a lot more going on here then meets the eye.”

Stitchy had sat on the bed, but she suddenly looked up, with a slight gasp, “You think it possible all those fishy people be students?”

Zippy shook her head, “No, there were too many of them. Not enough students have gone missing, even counting Madame Petri’s ‘volunteers’, there weren’t enough disappearances to create a horde like that.”

“If not students, maybe still human?” Stitchy suggested; flopping back on the bed and playing with a lock of her hair.

Lizzy had put on a long flowing black nightgown that looked like something out of a Mario Bava film.

“That’s possible.” Lizzy agreed, “Maybe a lot more people have gone missing in the surrounding area.”

Krystal rummaged in her dresser, “That was still a lot of fish things. You’d think someone would have noticed if that many people went missing.”

“So they always fishy,” Stitchy rolled over on her side and reached into her own dresser, “So where they come from?”

Zippy had selected a plain simple blue flannel nightgown which she now pulled over her head and down her body. Feeling a bit relieved to get her tiny breasts out of sight in a room full of big ones. Again she chided herself for her insecurity. She was smart, she was supposed to be above such childish concerns, but it still bothered her.

“I don’t know, but the school is deeper then anyone knows.” Zippy admitted, “Even the teachers haven’t explored every part of it, and no one is sure how deep into the ground the lower levels of the school goes. They could have been down there the whole time. And just now something had drawn them back up. But I still can’t shake the feeling that they’re related to Charity’s situation somehow.”

She paused, thinking for a second, “I think you guys should know: Eve overheard a conversation in Mr. Innsmouth’s office. She thinks Innsmouth might have been involved in Charity’s change somehow.”

“I’ve been thinking that myself,” Krystal said, “And if that’s true then it’s a good bet he’s also involved with those fish creatures.”

Stitchy pulled on some pajama bottoms covered with pictures of some cutesy anime character that Zippy didn’t recognize. Man, her brother had really gotten her hooked on that stuff. She smiled a little at that as Stitchy reached over for the matching top.

“If that true then that explain why he blow us off.” Stitchy scoffed, slipping the top on and beginning to button the buttons with her huge but surprisingly nimble fingers, “Hallucinations my big stitched up ass.”

Krystal had dressed in a lacy pink nightgown. Zippy had noticed her evening wear had gotten more and more feminine lately. Before, she had slept mainly in fleece shorts and an old t-shirt. But recently, Zippy had noticed a more girlish attire when sleeping. It seemed another bit of her acceptance of her gender, but it was hard not to think that maybe, just maybe, she was trying to be more girly for someone in particular.

“If Innsmouth is in on this,” Krystal speculated, “then what if Madame Petri herself is part of it? Maybe this is connected to all those experiments she needs volunteers for. Everyone who’s been volunteered has shown up with weird alterations also. Not that there’s anything odd about that here.”

“Actually, I had a different thought about that,” Zippy rubbed the bridge of her nose, “No one has seen Madame Petri for a long time. Most of the newer students don’t even know what she looks like. I think the experiments are all Innsmouth’s doing, and Madame Petri is out of the picture somehow.”

“You think she dead?” Stitchy asked her.

“I don’t know. Maybe. Probably. Or held somewhere, who knows?” Zippy admitted.

There was a long silent pause in the room as everyone digested this. After a long, very uncomfortable moment, finally Lizzy spoke up.

“So what do we do?”

Zippy took a deep breath, “Like I said before: We lay low. We let Innsmouth think we’ve swallowed his bullshit. No sense in putting bigger targets on our backs then we already probably have. And we investigate, quietly, when we can, and learn as much as we can. But for the most part, let’s focus on our usual routine, and not give then any reason to move on us. We stay alert, and we stay vigilant, but let’s not grab this bull by its ugly horns until we know what we’re dealing with.”

Again, there was uncomfortable silence. One by one, the others nodded.

Lizzy shook her head, “Let’s just get some sleep.”

“Yeah, it been long day.” Stitchy agreed, crawling under the covers.

“That’s an understatement.” Krystal yawned.

Soon the lights were extinguished, the room was dark, and everyone slipped under the covers. The only noises were the deep sound of everyone’s breathing. But no sleep came to Zippy. She lay on her side under the sheets, her eyes open and her mind agitated and restless. Something was going on, something bigger then all those fish things and all the evidence seemed to point towards Mr. Innsmouth: The man entrusted with the running and well being of their school and its students. They’d have to be very careful in following days.

But what was he up to? She’d been asking herself that question over and over, and was no where closer to an answer then she had been before. And if Innsmouth really was behind Charity and Felicia’s transformations, what was the purpose? It could be experimentation of some kind. Since students in this place experimented on each other, it wasn’t unbelievable that the teachers did.

All at once she thought of Miss Piranha’s cancer. Yet another thing that filled her with doubts and anxiety. She was not confident at all of their ability to find a cure for her. Even if they eventually did, would they find it in time to save Miss Piranha? She clutched the sheets closer to her as fear and uncertainty bit deep in her belly. It was then that a horrible thought occurred to her.

Cancer was a form of mutation: Cells mutating and multiplying out of control. If Mr. Innsmouth was indeed behind Charity’s mutation, was he also behind Miss Piranha’s cancer? She gritted her teeth thinking about it. If he was, then the same question popped up: Why? Why kill Miss Piranha? And why do it in such a slow and drawn out manner? What possible benefit could there be in that?

So many questions; so many questions and almost no answers.

It was a long time before Zippy was able to fall asleep.



The next morning before classes, Madoka had gone back to the room where they had fought the fish men. She came back and reported to Zippy that the place was clean, no bodies, no blood, not a single reminder of what had gone on there, as if the whole place had been meticulously cleaned. There was nothing to indicate that the incident had occurred at all, and no reason for anything to doubt Innsmouth’s contention that it was all a hallucination.

So now Zippy had sought out the Werx that had been there that night. She found Vixen tending to the fountain out front of the school. With no one around, she approached her.

“Hey, Vixen.” Zippy said.

Vixen turned with a whir of her mechanical gears, “Jeepers! Hello, Zippy.”

“Vixen, I need to talk to you about last night.” Zippy got right down to business, looking around to make sure no one heard them.

Vixen was quiet for a second and actually scratched her metal head, “Jeepers, Zippy, I’m sorry. But I have no memory engrams of last night. I most have been shut down for some reason.”

Zippy stared at her, feeling deflated. It was not unexpected that her memory was erased, but she had hoped maybe that she might get something out of her.

“That’s okay, don’t worry about it.” Zippy told.

As she left, Zippy felt frustrated: Innsmouth had really covered his tracks. She had no doubt that Posey and Gortcha’s memories had also been erased. Since no teachers had seen the incident, and no evidence of their existence remained, it was like the whole thing had never happened. But she knew Innsmouth was lying, they had NOT been hallucinations. That had been real, and she knew the truth.

She and the rest would continue to lie low. Let Mr. Innsmouth think they believed him. They would have to keep their heads down and be very careful so as not to incur his wrath.

It was not going to be easy or pleasant.



The weeks passed little by little with no further incidents to speak of. No reprisals on any more threats came form Innsmouth or his cronies and it seemed to be that he had accepted that Zippy and her gang had swallowed his lies. They went about their usual routine and tried not to make any waves. Of course, they continued to try to find out what they could, but with the constant watching eyes of the new assistant vice principles.

Madoka routinely searched the tanks but was unable to find Felicia again. However, Megan insisted she was still there, and that there were others. She didn’t know who the other ones were. Zippy quietly tried to investigate who these other might be, but could only come up with a vague list of possibilities. All in all, they had no luck in discovering anything, and found themselves frustrated and dejected.

As time went by, and it seemed no further incidents were happening, they began to relax a little bit. With no new information coming in, they began to focus on more immediate concerns like their school work. Down in the shark tank, Abbey and Britney had become more social with the group. Unsurprisingly the two twin megalodon’s struck up a particular friendship with the Farrell twins, who quickly developed and affection for them.

Zippy and Kyle continued dating, and his presence was a constant rock for her to rely on. Fortunately, it seemed no one had told him of her meltdown during the fish men fight, although he did know about the general incident. Like them, he didn’t buy the hallucination story one damn bit, and neither did any of the other guys in the Shark Tank Guild. They spent a lot of time together, playing around, doing work, or simply making out.

Life went on at the school, more or less like it had before.



Under the towel she was lying on, Zippy could feel the soft sand under the heels of her feet. She was leaning back on small lounge chair; in front of her she could see the vast ocean as the waves rolled into the beach in endless motion. The wind gently caressed her face and she could smell the salty spay of the sea in her nostrils, along with the tangy sent of her sun tan lotion. The sun’s rays warmed her body gently, relaxing her muscles and making her slip partially into a dreamy state of bliss.

She could almost forget that it wasn’t real.

They weren’t actually laid out on any beach. In fact, they were up on the roof of one of the higher towers in the school, the sand having been generated in one of the classrooms, and the ocean was simply a 3d holographic projection on a large curved screen in front of them. They were all laid out on lounge chairs in bikini’s soaking up the rays, slathered in a special sun screen that had been developed right there in the schools.

Zippy was on the right side, two her left were all the girls from the Shark Tank Guild. Behind them was Zippy’s recent invention: the Beach Bum. It was a long device that resembled a patio heater with a large umbrella shading them all. The Beach Bum doubled as a shower with a fine mist that removed sand and salt water better then a conventional shower. It also dispensed drinks, sun block, and had an air hose to refill beach balls. The base was a wide round affair that could be opened up to double as a cooler. The large dome spread out on top like beach umbrella and released small timed releases of mist to simulate ocean spray as the girls lounged lazily in the sun.

Laid back on her lounge chair, Zippy wore peach colored bikini and a pair of sunglasses. The glasses themselves projected a head up display on the interior of the lenses, on which she was going over and essay that she had written for Mr. Gorgonzola’s Doomsday Theory class, hands down one of the most depressing assignments she’d ever gotten here at the school, which was on of the reasons the girls had set up this artificial retreat.

It was Madoka, dressed into the skimpiest bikini possible, which would have really freaked out Rina had she known, who broke the languid silence.

“So, is everyone going to the Atom Smasher’s Ball?” She inquired.

There were a few nods of assent.

“So?” Madoka pressed impishly, “Who’s everyone going with?”

Lizzy elbowed Zippy lightly, “Come on, you know you want to say it.”

Zippy smiled lightly, she did want to say it, “I’m going with Kyle, my boyfriend.”

Of course, adding the ‘boyfriend’ after it was unnecessary, everyone knew that Kyle and Zippy were an item, but Zippy still felt like she wanted to boast about it a little. After all this time, she had finally landed the boy she wanted. And amongst all this chaos, that was something to be proud of. She grinned a little bit in self satisfaction.

“Yeah, I’m going with Rick.” Charity spoke up.

She was lying on her stomach, her head rested on her folded arms. Her tail swished back and forth lazily as she soaked up the rays.

She turned her head towards the other side, “It’s gonna be kinda of awkward, though. It’ll be the first time my parents see me like . . . this.”

She twitched her tail for emphasis, “I mean, I’ve sent them pictures, so they know what to expect, but still . . .”

She let the words trail off. So far, unlike Krystal’s parents, Charity’s had offered nothing but support. But it still was a very conservative family. There were still times when Zippy worried a little about the relationship as well as Charity’s mental state. Charity had, of course, tried to commit suicide when she first changed. Rick was her rock now, but there was still room for Zippy to be concerned.

She grimaced: She worried about all her friends. Her role as de facto leader of The Shark Tank Guild had made her into sort of a den mother. Ugh! She was way too young for that.

“Wait a minute.” Zippy realized, “Rina tells me you’ve been video chatting with them a lot.”

“Yeah, I have.” Charity nodded lazily, “But seeing it for real . . .”

“Video don’t do justice to all that fuzzy hotness.” Stitchy declared enthusiastically.

Charity giggled, “Oh . . . thanks, Stitchy.”

The giant Franken-girl was laid out in an aqua blue bikini, the criss crosses of stitches all over her body mostly fully exposed. Although the lounges the girls were sitting on all came from the rec room, the large metal one Stitchy was sprawled out on she had made herself by hand to support her own massive size. Madoka continued to fish for juicy tidbits of information.

“So, Krystal?” She asked, “Are you going?”

Zippy thought she noticed Krystal stiffening up a bit at the question.

“No.” Krystal waved her off, “My parents won’t even show. I mean, yeah, my Mom stopped my Dad from kicking me out of the family permanently, but I doubt he’ll ever want to look at me again. So it’s a waste of time.”

She hid it, but Zippy thought she detected a pained expression on Krystal’s face. Zippy knew all to well that her father’s callous treatment of her since her gender switch still cut her deep. She was strong, and moving forward, more or less fully embracing her femininity now, but there were still things that hurt, and some that hurt bad.

“You don’t have to have your parents there.” Zippy told her, “You can still go.”

“What, by myself?” Krystal groaned.

“No, not by yourself, silly.” Madoka declared, “Ask someone out. Come on, I’ve seen you looking at guys, I know you’re interested in them now.”

Krystal said nothing, biting her lip.

“Come on, admit it.” Madoka pressed, “You like boys now. Come on, answer the question, inquiring minds want to know.”

“Inquiring minds should mind their own damn business.” Krystal grumbled.

“I’m not gonna stop till you admit it.” Madoka teased.

“Fine, fine!” Krystal threw up her hands in exaggerated surrender, “Yes, I’m interested in boys now. I’ve submitted to my estrogen levels.”

There was a round of light applause, which only made Krystal role her eyes. It wasn’t like it was really any big secret. She’d all but admitted it many times in the past anyways, and truth be told, it was a little obvious. Krystal lay back, hoping that this would be the end of it. But Madoka wasn’t finished.

“So,” She prodded, “Who’re ya’ gonna ask out?”

“None of your business.” Krystal repeated, “I besides I . . . I wouldn’t know how to ask somebody out.”

Charity chimed in, “It’s not that hard: You just go up and ask them out. You can do it.”

“You could do it, I can’t.” Krystal grumbled.

“Sure you can.” Charity insisted, “What’s the worst that could happen. He could say ‘no’.”

“He could say ‘no’ and start making gagging noises or laughing hysterically.” Said Krystal, “They all know I used to be a guy, I can’t imagine them wanting to go out with me.”

“That totally not true.” Stitchy chimed in, “Stitchy see guys checking you out all the time.”

Krystal was quiet for a second, “Really?”

“Really.” Lizzy nodded, “Some of them practically drool.”

For a split second, Krystal seemed to be excited by the prospect. Her face sank just as fast.

“I still don’t think I could ask one out.” She pouted.

“No,” Zippy insisted, “She’s right; it’s easy you just go up to someone and . . .”

“. . . and babble like a drunken idiot?” Krystal interrupted her, chuckling.

Zippy grimaced; they all still made fun of her for her initial inability to even talk to Kyle in the beginning. Perhaps Lizzy was right: They’d be old ladies in a retirement community and they’d all still be harping on her for that. She sighed, it was true: She really had no business giving Krystal dating advice after that one. Instead she rolled on her side.

“Who would you go with, anyways? You know, if you could have your pick?” She asked her.

“I . . . erm . . . that is . . .” Krystal started to blush and stammer.

Quickly, Madoka picked up on it and leaped at the chance, “Ooo! Ooo! Do you have a crush on anyone right now?”

“I . . . yes.” Krystal finally admitted.

It sounded like the words came out before Krystal could stop them, and as soon as she said them, she sank lower in her seat, mortified.

Almost exploding with enthusiasm, Madoka sat up, “Oh! Oh! Who is it? Who is it?”

Krystal shook her head, “I’m not telling you.”

“Come on; tell me, I’ll keep it a secret.”

“You can’t keep a secret.”

“Sure I can!”

Lizzy interjected, “No, truer words were never spoken. You can’t keep anything from coming right out of your mouth.”

Madoka grumbled and rolled back on her chair. This was followed by an enormous amount of prodding and inquiring from the other girls, most of it quite loud, but Krystal remained firm and would not reveal the name of whomever it was that she liked. When the girls simply began to speculate themselves on who she might be smitten with, Krystal didn’t take the bait and remained tight lipped. Zippy smiled to herself as the others chattered on: She was pretty sure she knew exactly who Krystal was taken with. In fact, she was sure it was pretty obvious.

Finally, Krystal deflected the subject, “So, I want to know who Stitchy’s taking?”

Making a heavy sigh, Stitchy answered, “Oh, so hard to choose. So many boy ask Stitchy, Stitchy no know who to pick.”

Zippy raised her head, feeling protective all of a sudden, “How many?”

Stitchy shrugged, “Who know? Stitchy stop counting after fifteen.”

Everyone turned to look at her in surprise.

“Wait, over fifteen boys have asked you to the Atom Smasher’s Ball?” Charity asked astonished.

“Um hmm.” Stitchy nodded and then flexed her muscles, “Bigger is better! Size do matter!”

There was a shocked silence and then everyone burst out laughing.

Playing with her arm rest, Madoka said wistfully, “I know what you mean, Stitchy. It’s so hard to pick just one. Mmmmm, so many eligible bachelors to choose from.”

“But what about Rina?” Zippy looked at her over her sunglasses, “You can’t just pick for you, who does Rina want to go with?”

Snorting and giggling, Madoka laughed, “Trust me, ha ha! Rina is not going to be inviting any boys to this thing. Ha ha!”

Sitting up, Madoka looked over at the Farrell Twins, “So how about you guys? Anyone ask you?”

The twins both shook their heads.

Nadjia answered, “No, not yet.”

“Awe come on,” Madoka pouted, “You’re both so cute! Who wouldn’t want to go with a hottie like you girls?”

Katjia grimaced, “It’s the wolf girl thing. It throws guys off. I think some of them might be a little scared of us?”

“That’s stupid,” Charity said lazily, “Everyone knows guys fantasize about the wild girls.”

This brought another round of laughter. Zippy smiled lazily, this was nice. It was such a relief to be able to talk about mundane things like dating and dances for a change. She knew they’d have more stuff to worry about, but for right now, she could bask in the sun with all her friends, and take it easy for just once. She stretched her legs out and let the sun’s rays and the fine sea spray sooth her body into a light relaxation.

She could almost forget she wasn’t at the beach.



Later that day Zippy and Lizzy sat hidden away in the ‘miracle room’ as they now called the place where they worked on curing Miss Piranha’s cancer. So far, the results had been something less then miraculous, but Zippy was not about to give up any time soon. As they continued working in the small, dark, room, they chatted with each other little by little. The work was slow and tedious and very difficult, but they had their sample in the computer and were waiting for the results. While they waited they talked a bit.

As the computer compiled and analyzed, the lights from the screen flickered across their faces and reflected off Zippy’s glasses. Rubbing her chin, Zippy turned to her friend.

“Lizzy,” She began, “I’ve been thinking.”

“That’s what you’re here for.” Lizzy replied in her usual dead pan.

Zippy rolled her eyes and continued, “I think you should do something with Krystal on the day of the Atom Smasher’s Ball.”

Lizzy cocked an eyebrow at her quizzically, “What?”

“Look, I’m pretty sure Krystal isn’t going to go.” Zippy explained, “She’s probably still afraid her parents won’t be there. Hell, she’s probably also afraid that her parents WILL be there. And while Charity’s right, boys are interested in her, I’m not sure she’s really ready to go on a date like that. I still feel responsible for her, and I don’t really want her to be alone that night. I know we’ve got a long way to go until the ball, but maybe you and she could do something that night? So she won’t feel so lonely?”

Lizzy turned around deliberately and furrowed her brow at her friend.

“So,” She said, “You just assumed that I wasn’t going to the ball?”

Oh crap! Zippy thought, she could see a bit of anger and annoyance in Lizzy’s eyes. Out of all people, she hadn’t thought this would be an issue for Lizzy, but clearly it was. Now she had to try to diffuse this.

“I . . . I’m sorry.” Zippy stammered, “I . . . just . . . well, you never talked about it at all. You never even talk about your parents, or about boys for that matter. I just thought . . . “

Pursing her lips, Lizzy stared at her levelly, “You just thought I couldn’t get a date?”

In fact, Zippy realized, that had been exactly what she’d been thinking. Zippy kicked herself for being so stupid. She’d seen Lizzy hook up with her emo neighbor Jason when they were at Zippy’s house for break. She shouldn’t have assumed that Lizzy wasn’t interested in taking someone to the ball. She let herself open a huge can of worms here.

“I . . . mean, that is . . .” Zippy tried to find some way to make this right, “You never talked about going to the ball . . . or about any particular boy you liked.”

“So you right away assumed I wasn’t going?” Lizzy countered.

“I . . . Lizzy . . .” Zippy protested.

Fixing her gaze, Lizzy said, “Then you should know that someone has already asked me. And I said yes.”

“Really?” Zippy tried not sound too astonished, “Who?”

“I’m not telling you.” Lizzy replied,

“Awe, come on, don’t be that way.” Zippy protested, “Who asked you?”

Lizzy shook her head, “No. You’ll have to wait till the ball.”

No amount of coaxing could make her give up the name, although she did relax and begin to treat it as sort of a game. At least, Zippy thought, she wasn’t mad anymore, but jeeze, her friends and their secret romances. It was starting to sound like one of her little brother Zach’s Japanese comics; magma or whatever it was that they were called. That or it was starting to feel a bit like being inside a soap opera.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the computer chimed, signaling the end of its analysis. Both girls leaned forward as the numbers began to display, the light from the screen scrolling across the faces of the two students as they leaned in expectantly.

“I’ve got a good feeling about this one.” Zippy whispered hopefully.

After what seemed like forever, the screen lit up with the final results.

It was another failure.



With a heavy heart, Zippy put down the report on their latest failure on Miss Piranha’s desk. She was flanked on either side by Lizzy on her right and Krystal, whom they’d met up with on the way back, on her left. As with every one of these failures, she felt a little hollowed out inside. She continued to remind herself that it was just one more set back, that they hadn’t been licked yet. Thomas Edison had once been asked if her felt like a failure after his “ten thousandth” attempt to create a working electric light. Edison had replied, “Why? I haven’t failed. I just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” Still, each new failure blunted her optimism. But that was nothing to the sinking feeling in her stomach she felt as she looked at Miss Piranha.

Physically, she didn’t seem all that much different, although there was a slight pallor to her skin now that wasn’t there before, and dark circles under her eyes that made it look like she hadn’t been sleeping at all. No, it was all in her demeanor: Not so much in evidence was the bubbly enthusiasm that had accompanied her every move. Her excitement and zest felt muted and grey, replaced in part by a tired resignation and defeated look about her that was truly depressing to see. Her motions seemed labored and almost somnambulist in their workings, and her face had a blank feel to it. She took the report and gave them a forced, humorless smile.

“Thank you, Zippy, I know you all tried.” She said quietly.

Miss Piranha then got up and then hugged each of them as she usually did. But the hugs were not the crushing embraces they used to be, but simply week squeezes of a very formal sort. She then turned and without a word disappeared into her office, leaving the three students standing there by themselves. For a second, no one spoke.

“She’s given up.” Lizzy observed.

“Yeah, well, we haven’t.” Zippy said firmly.

They walked out of the classroom, Zippy’s depression ever so slowly giving way to more determination. She began to think about the latest test, and what had gone wrong, what else they could try. Ideas came and went, some bad, some promising. Again she began to think of the cancer cells themselves, imagining them as a malevolent adversary. They weren’t done by a long shot, not all. And they certainly had not tried everything yet. Just you wait, you bastards, we’re coming for you and we’re gonna find a way to kill you. More possibilities swirled in her head of things to try. The other two were silent as well, and Zippy could tell they were thinking too. She would not give up hope while there was still a chance of saving Miss Piranha. If there was an answer, they were determined to find it.

Her thoughts scattered at the sound of loud angry voices in the hallway across from them. It sounded like Amber Tiffendorf and her long suffering boyfriend Adam Fission, but surprisingly enough, they were having some kind of fight. And it sounded like a big one from what she could tell. She’d never heard Adam even raise his voice to Amber at all, let alone like this. She stopped and glanced at Lizzy and Krystal who both looked as puzzled as her. From where they were, they couldn’t see either one of them, but they could definitely hear them.

“Oh, come off it!” Amber was screaming, “Man up and grow a pair, I don’t know what your problem is?”

“No, I guess you wouldn’t!” Adam yelled back at her, “That would mean thinking of someone else besides yourself! Well, I’m sick of it, Amber, sick of it! I’m sick of doing your dirty work for you! I’m sick of getting involved in your petty little schemes and I’m sick of they way you treat everyone!

“You’re my boyfriend, get used to it!” Amber shot back, “What are you gonna do about it?!”

“Jesus, Amber! Do you even know what you sound like? If you’re not careful you’re gonna end up this bitter lonely old hag! If you’re not careful, you’re gonna loose me!”

“Hah! That’s rich! You’re gonna leave me? YOU’RE gonna leave ME? I don’t think so! You? YOU’RE gonna leave ME!?”

There was a slight pause and then Amber spoke again, softer then before, “H-hey! Are you really gonna leave me? Y-you’re walking away! A-are you . . .”

The voice continued further down the hall, but Zippy couldn’t make out what they were saying. All she could tell was they were still screaming at each other. She’d never seen them fight before; Adam had always been so devoted to his bitchy foul tempered girlfriend in a way that was pretty pathetic most of the time. She wondered what exactly had changed to get him fighting with her like this. She glanced at Krystal, who pursed her lips and rolled her eyes.

Lizzy was in agreement, “That was awkward.”



Deciding that they needed to unwind, the three of them met after classes for a dip in the sauna. Zippy approached the long oval pool that they were using, her bare feet feeling the wet tiles against her skin. The room was warm and humid and was filled with the bubbling sounds of the hot tub as the jets of bubbles burbled across the top of the warm water. Tossing the towel she had been wearing to the side, Zippy approached the tub where Lizzy and Krystal sat on the edges without clothes, their feet dangling in the frothy water. Both of them had their hair tied up in buns on their heads, and Zippy had tied hers in two buns on either side. She’d seen Miss Gojira do that a few times, and figured it looked cue.

Zippy sat down on the edge as well and dunked her feet into the tub. In unison, they all slipped into the water with a collective “Ahhhh.”, the sound of their enjoyment being the only word that was spoken. Zippy felt the warm bubbly water sooth her naked skin as she submerged up to her neck, closing her eyes and feeling the stress melt away and swirling mass of warm liquid. This had been exactly what she needed.

At first, no one said anything; they just soaked happily in the hot water, letting the bubbles wash away all the tension. After a time, they began to talk, the conversation floating between the usual topics, before finally resting on the one subject that had been on their minds almost constantly for months. The loud jovial talk quickly turned into hushed whispers as the leaned in close to each other and the mood turned much more serious. As the bubbles swirled around them, they began to talk about the situation with Mr. Innsmouth.

“Well, I don’t think there’s any one of us who doesn’t think that Innsmouth is in on this somehow, or that he at least knows what those fish things were.” Zippy was saying to the nodding of her friends.

“So the big question is,” Krystal replied, “How much does he know, and how much is he involved?”

“If he knows about the fishmen, then he must know about Felicia.” Lizzy said, “And for that matter, Charity; although she still seems to be a mammal, Mr. DeSade said that her mutation began with fish DNA.”

Zippy took a deep breath before saying the next thing on her mind. “I’ve been thinking also about Miss Piranha’s cancer. Cancer is a mutation . . .”

She let the word trail off as the unspoken implication set in. All three girls looked at each other uncomfortably.

“But why?” Krystal wondered, “What would Innsmouth gain by giving Miss Piranha cancer? It doesn’t seem like she’s be some kind of threat to him.”
Zippy pursed her lips, thinking, “Maybe it was part of an experiment? Something that didn’t go right?”

“Or maybe it’s a distraction from what really going on?” Lizzy suggested darkly, “Something to keep our attention focused on her instead the fishmen?”

The conversation continued, but they were really treading the same topics they had before with no new information or conclusions being gleaned. After a while, it all just petered out, and the three girls sat there amongst the bubbles in frustrated silence. They sat that way as Zippy’s mind went over and over everything they knew in an endless spiral that led nowhere. She felt almost defeated by the endless questions that they had no answers to no matter how many times she asked them.

And then, there was a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Zippy asked, “Madame Petri’s office is the one at the end of the hall, right?”

Lizzy nodded, “Yes, past the ones the vice principals use, it’s at the very end.”

Zippy rubbed her chin, “Have either of you ever seen anyone going into it? Or coming out of it?”

Krystal and Lizzy glanced at each other and then shook their heads.

Zippy’s brow knit in determination, she looked at her two friends, her eyes tight with resolve.

“Then I say we get in there tonight and take a look.”



In early morning hours, while the school was a quiet as it ever got, the three girls slipped down the hallway past the Vice Principals offices as quiet as they could. They were all dressed in dark clothes and wearing slippers on their feet to make as little noise as possible. Zippy peaked around the corner of the hallway, which seemed deserted. She took a close look at the doors that led into the vice principals’ offices, looking for any light coming from the crack at the base. She saw none and motioned the others to follow her. Of course, she couldn’t be sure there wasn’t one of them in there anyways, maybe sleeping or whatever. She certainly wouldn’t put it past them. Hell maybe they were just in there sitting in the dark for all she knew.

Quietly, but quickly, the three girls crept down the hallway towards the end, where the door to Madame Petri’s office was. It was a large oak door with intricately carved trim. It surprised Zippy quite a bit that all the door here had ordinary key locks. At Madam Petri’s she would have expected something more high tech like a finger print reader or something. They all crept up to the door, and Krystal produced her phone, punching an app on the front. She plugged a small device into the phone, which shimmered a little.

Lizzy stood facing the hallway, keeping a lookout.

The screen began to shift and change as the device began to scan for electronic alarms or surveillance. Krystal had been working on the app for months and this was its first real life test, but it had always worked in the lab. The scan completed quickly and showed no alarms or cameras on the other side of the door.

Pulling out a small cylindrical device, Zippy placed it on the lock. She was honestly surprised there wasn’t some kind of key card or other electronic lock on the door. Small metal tentacles slid out of the tip of the device and pushed into the keyhole. They automatically began pushing into he tumbles and trying to pick the lock. Zippy had made this thing months ago, but this was the first chance she’d had to use it on something other than the lock on her dorm room.

“Hurry up.” Lizzy whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

The device continued to feel its way inside the lock mechanism. Each tiny scrape sounded like explosion in the silent hallway to Zippy, who eyed it intently. If this didn’t work their whole mission was going to be scrubbed. Maybe that was for the best, this was one of the most insane things they’d tried to do under the noses of the vice principals. If any of them came down that hall . . .

The lock clicked and turned, and Zippy heard the satisfying sound of the door opening. Zippy let out the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding as the tendrils retracted back into the cylinder with a slight scraping sound. She put the device back in her pocket and tried the handle. The door opened a fraction. They quickly swung the door open and slipped inside, closing it behind them.

Once inside, they used the lights on their phones to look around them, hoping they wouldn’t create any obvious glows of illumination under the door that someone might notice if they passed by. For that matter, however, they were hoping nobody walked past that door period. As they looked around, they became aware that no one had been in this room for a long time. It was covered with dust, over every square centimeter, and small cobwebs had sprung up in the corners. Where ever Madam Petri had been, it certainly hadn’t been in here. The office looked completely abandoned. As they moved, they kicked up small clouds of dust, and Zippy could only hope that it was abandoned as it looked because there was no way to hide the fact that someone had been in here. But it looked like not even the Werx had been in this room for a while.

It was an oval shaped room, lined on three sides with racks and rack of books. Like Mr. Innsmouth’s office, there was a large window looking out from the forth wall, but this one was covered up with thick curtains that seemed to be taped to the walls around it. As if someone was trying to obscure the inside without the suspiciousness of boarding up the window. An old fashioned curved desk sat in front of the window, as well various pieces of furniture that was probably quite nice when it wasn’t covered in dust. From top to bottom, the office was done up in an old fashioned style, very old world with lots of wood and delicately hand carved figures and corners. It was like the room in and of itself was an antique.

Zippy headed for the desk while the others scanned the book shelves. The desk looked like it was a whirlwind of chaos, books and papers stacked haphazardly on the desk in no particular order, a sharp contrast to the way Innsmouth’s desk was neatly organized. Madam Petri was definitely no neat freak. There were a few pictures in what looked like hand carved wooden frames on the top, and Zippy took a moment to look them over. In one of them there was a tall red headed woman posing with a Mr. DeSade and Miss Piranha, and Zippy knew right away that this had to be Madam Petri.

Zippy frowned, studying the lines of the woman in the picture. It was the first time Zippy had seen what Petri looked like. There was something slightly familiar about her, something that tugged at the very bottom of Zippy’s memory, but she couldn’t place why. The woman in the picture seemed as far from Mr. Innsmouth as you could get. She was smiling broadly and looked very happy and approachable. In her way, she seemed to have Miss Piranha’s joy for joy attitude, though more subdued. She certainly didn’t seem like someone who would perform horrible experiments on her students, but you never knew. Not much one could glean from a single photograph.

Looking through the drawers, she found more of the same: An avalanche of clutter in each and every one of them. How this woman ever knew where anything was was a complete mystery to Zippy. But it was when she reached to bottom drawer on the right hand side that Zippy began to notice something odd. The drawer had nothing but reams of paper in it, but looking at the bottom, she thought she noticed something strange.

She looked at the front of the drawer and then back inside, mentally calculating the size. After a few tries, she was sure that the bottom of the drawer was higher than it should have been. She pulled the drawer open and lifted the paper out, trying not to cough with all the dust she was disturbing, and set them aside. She then began feeling around inside the bottom of the drawer until she found a small notch in one corner. Pressing it, she felt a slight click and the bottom came free.

She smiled smugly: A false bottom.

When she lifted it away and shined her light around in it, she found only two things: A small piece of paper, and a small old fashioned key tapped in place. Zippy pulled the key out and looked it over. It was small, squat, and made of iron it seemed. The top had an emblem of some kind on it and Zippy was sure she had seen it somewhere before, but couldn’t quite recall where. She pocketed the key, sure it would come back to her.

Looking over the paper, she saw that there were only two words hastily scribbled on it in a neat, elegant script. The words, however, made no sense to Zippy: “Xolii” and “Aq’Sha’Qua”. The writing was very prober and flowed in a sophisticated and graceful manner. If this was Madam Petri’s writing, it was a bit at odds with her sloppy desk. Frowning, she pocketed the note as well, and replaced the false bottom and the reams of paper. She noticed that Krystal was waving her over.

Closing the drawer, Zippy headed over to her, finding the others crowded around a large book. To Zippy’s surprise, the book turned out to be the book her great aunt Zelda had written: The rather overly long titled Number Theory in the Hebrew Language: The Hidden Messages in the Torah and Talmud. She raised an eyebrow at Krystal quizzically.

“This book was upside down.” Krystal whispered, “All the rest are right side up. But that’s not all.”

She opened the book to towards the last page. Zippy leaned in and noticed that there was a crinkled and yellowed clipping from a newspaper article inside. To her astonishment, she saw that the photo above it was of herself receiving the Hawking award. The rest of the clipping had a brief article explaining the competition and how Zippy had won it. A very terse, simple article written by someone who had obviously wanted to be writing something more important, but the wear on the paper would have indicated that someone had found the subject far more interesting than the writer had. She also noticed that someone had circled her in red ink.

Under the circle, in the same stylish hand as the note she’d found in the desk were the words “She’s the one”.

Zippy blinked. At first, this didn’t make any sense. Why would Madam Petri have an article about her? There was no logical reason for it. But the more she pondered it, the more it did begin to make a certain sense, and it did explain a few things while simultaneously opening up more questions.

If Madam Petri had wanted her for something, then that went a long way to explain Zippy’s presence in the school. The whole scenario, where Zippy found herself legally enrolled at the school without ever applying or even knowing the school existed had been a puzzle for her since her arrival. Even when she’d accepted it and fit into the bizarre world here at Petri’s, she’d wondered over and over again how she’d gotten signed up in the first place. Now, it seemed that Madam Petri had picked her out for something and had put plans in place to make sure Zippy was enrolled. As well as making sure that she couldn’t un-enroll. Petri had wanted her to be a student here, and had gone to great lengths to make sure she stayed here.

The question was: why? What exactly did Madam Petri want from her? Why in the world would she be so keen for enrolling Zippy in the school? It couldn’t just be because of the Hawking award. But what was it? What did Petri want with her? More questions she didn’t have the answers to, which seemed to be the slogan of her time at this school. Why was she here? For what purpose? And what did it all have to do with those fish things? And what was Inssmouth’s connection?

Zippy bit her lip: Just what she needed, more pressure. Not only had she become the leader of their little band, a responsibility she really didn’t want and one that was becoming more and more heavy as time went by, but now Madam Petri had gone and pinned some kind of hope on her as well. Living up to everyone’s expectations of her was becoming an exhausting full time job.

The girls searched the rest of the room but came up with nothing of interest. Certainly nothing that connected Madam Petri to the fish things, nor anything to explain her sudden disappearance. Wherever she was, Zippy was becoming more and more sure that it wasn’t conducting her own experiments, like Innsmouth said. But if that was the case, what had become of her?

As they began to move back towards the door, they all froze. They could hear a distinct slithering and scraping sound in the hallway. They all recognized it immediately: the very recognizable sound that Miss Hydra made when she moved. She was coming down the hallway towards them, moving slowly but surely in their direction. They all instantly shut off the lights on their phones, and backede up, sinking behind the desk. Frozen in the pitch black room, all they could do now was wait and hope.

Zippy held her breath: If Miss Hydra discovered them, there was no way to explain away what they were doing here. It would probably mean being “volunteered” for “Madam Petri’s Experiments” (which she was now more sure the ever were fiction), and suffering whatever fate befell the students. Anxiety flooded her and she felt her breath getting deep and ragged. She could hear Missy Hydra coming closer and closer, moving further down the hall.

Her office was right near Mr. Innsmouth’s, which also put it right near Madam Petri’s. She’s just going to her office, Zippy told herself, we’ll be fine. In the dark, with no vision, all she could do was listen, and picture the strange woman, gliding down the hall in her long silver robes, the slithering sound getting closer and closer. That weird sound that always made Zippy wonder what exactly was going on under those robes that allowed Miss Hydra to move as if she wasn’t even touching the ground.

The sounds grew closer as Miss Hydra approached her office. There was a pause, and they could hear her right in front of her office. They waited for the click of the door, but none came. Zippy gritted her teeth, waiting to hear the assistant vice principle go into her door, but instead the sounds began to get slowly louder.

She was coming down the hall.

Zippy gripped the edge of the desk, trying to think of what they could do if she came into the room and found them. Nothing good came to mind. Could the knock her unconscious and run hoping she didn’t see them? Too risky. The slithering sounds of Miss Hydra were getting closer and closer. There was nothing they could do, they were trapped in here. The sounds stopped, except for a slight rasping noise. Zippy could see a shadow from the crack under the door.

She was right outside the room.

You could have cut the tension with the proverbial knife. The girls hunched down in the darkness behind the desk, amongst the thick layers of dust. Their mere presence after so many years was causing the dust to rise and swirl around them, and Zippy wondered apprehensively whether the dust was billowing out under the door and alerting Miss Hydra to their presence. They stared at the door, seeing the shadow of Hydra’s robes under the door. Zippy expected the knob to start moving slowly any minute. No one moved, no one made a sound. At least they hoped they didn’t. Zippy could feel her right outside the door, hovering there, maddeningly still and silent.

For an agonizingly long time, the shadow remained where it was. When she suddenly moved, Zippy had stop herself from gasping. Miss Hydra seemed to shuffle there for a little bit, but then, to their relief, she moved off back towards her office. Again, Zippy found herself holding her breath as the assistant vice principle moved to her office. For one frightening moment, Zippy thought the strange woman was going to come back as she paused outside her door. But then they heard the telltale sound of the locks moving and the door swinging open. After what Zippy thought was probably one last look at the door to Madam Petri’s office, Miss Hydra moved into her office, letting the door close slowly behind her.

Still, the girls remained where they were. Zippy’s legs had begun to ache from remaining there crouched like that. But still they didn’t move. Going out in the hall while Miss Hydra was right there in her office was a bad idea, they had no idea when she was going to come out. Silently, Zippy hoped the vice principals didn’t sleep in their offices. She was aware they did have rooms somewhere in the school, although where they were was something of a mystery. One more mystery on top of the hundreds of other mysteries that populated Zippy’s school.

A full hour and a half went by before they heard Miss Hydra open her door and exit her office, moving down the hall. After waiting a while, the girls stood and quickly moved to the door, kicking up more dust as they went. After opening the door they took off their shoes and stepped out into the hall one foot at a time. With no other alternative, they stripped to their underwear, rolling up their dust covered clothes to minimize the amount of dust flying around. They left and moved down the hall, cleaning up the dust behind them as best they were able. Zippy hoped that the Werx would clean up whatever they left behind before anyone noticed it.

There was a certain advantage to going to school in a place so bizarre as Madam Peri’s: Walking around in your bra and panties wasn’t really an issue. In a school where sudden blasts of air and or loss of gravity could flip your skirt up over your head or locker room or shower room walls could suddenly disintegrate or turn invisible, modestly was a luxury that simply wasn’t practical. No one that they encountered on their way back made any comment about their fact that they were all dressed in only their bras and panties other than some cat calls and other comments along the lines of “Sexy” or “Hot”. Zippy couldn’t really deny that she was a little turned on by the attention. Although her lack of confidence in her bust size reared its empty head from time to time.

As they approached their dorm room, Krystal spoke up.

“Well, we found a bit, but we still don’t know much.” She said.

Zippy pursed her lips, “Yeah, and until we know more, I suggest we keep this to ourselves. Don’t tell anyone else, not even Stitchy, know about what we found until we know what it all means. No sense in sending up a bunch of red flags.”

“Agreed.” Lizzy nodded, “In any event, it wouldn’t do to alert the vice principals that Madam Petri was checking up on you even before you got here.”

Krystal nodded, “Yeah, best not to make him turn his attention on you.”

The girls carefully opened the door and slipped in, being cautious not to wake their gargantuan roommate. Stitchy’s large form lay sprawled out on the bed, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. Wordlessly they all headed to their respective beds. Zippy tossed her clothes to the side, put the note and key on the nightstand next to her bed and reached back to undo her bra. She slipped it off and also tossed it in the hamper.

When she reached over to pull a shirt out of her drawers to sleep in, she realized with a start that Stitchy was not asleep; her eyes were wide open and she was looking at Zippy inquisitively.

“Where you go?” Stitchy asked.

“We . . . we couldn’t sleep so we went for a walk.” Zippy said, groaning inwardly as she realized how lame that sounded.

“In middle of night?” Stitchy raised an eyebrow, “In underwear?”

“Yes,” Zippy nodded, “It’s very refreshing. You should try it.”

Genius level IQ and that was the best Zippy could come up with on short notice? She wanted to kick herself even more. Stitchy narrowed her eyes at her, clearly not believing a word Zippy said. And why would she? Stitchy had an IQ equal to any of theirs, it was silly to think she’d fall for such a lame excuse.

After a pause, Stitchy said, “Alright, keep secrets.”

The frankengirl then rolled over and went back to sleep. Zippy sighed and pulled the shirt on over her body, crawling under the covers. Another long day in a whole series of long days. She lay awake, her mind drifting over all the questions to which she had no answers, all the mysteries she had yet to solve and the uncertain future that awaited her and the other students. She rolled the small key in her fingers, looking it over and examining the strangely familiar emblem on the top as best she could in the low light. She contemplated it, examining it from every angle. It was important, she was sure, but what did it open up?

With a start, she suddenly realized where she had seen this symbol before: In the very back wall of the hidden library.

Blork! Blork blork. Blork blork blork, blork blork-blork blork blork blork-blork. Blork blork blork-blork, blork. Blork blork blork blork blork blork-blork blork Blork Blork-blork: Blork-blork Blork Blork-blork, “Blork Blork Blork-blork”.

Blork! Blork blork-blork!