If this had been Japan, the crowd of girls who had rushed to the 
store as soon as school had ended would have been wearing cute school 
uniforms and carrying school bags with lucky trinkets dangling 
cutely.  The store would have been a flower shop, and the four guys 
they were all there to see would have been of various types, but all 
attractive and cute bishounen.

However, as Anna could have told you, if she had been present and not 
dealing with an entirely different but no less bizarre situation, 
this was no Weiss Kruetz.  First of all, the girls were American 
preteens, and therefore wore charmingly indecent clothing for their 
age group.  They were not crowded around a flower shop, but the most 
all-American of stores, the Gap.  And instead of attractive 
bishounen... well...

"Are you kidding?  Shingo is SO the hottest one!"

"Yeah, but I heard Katsuhito was really sensitive... when his ex-
girlfriend tried to kill herself, he ACTUALLY called 911 so she 
wouldn't die!  EVEN after she cheated on him!"

"Ataru has the best body though... he must work out."

"Didn't Keichi get like a perfect score on the PSAT?"

Carl, aka Eugene, scowled as he organized a rack of pink halter-tops 
by size.  It was a sad world indeed where a few house lamps were 
considered more attractive then an all-powerful being intent on 
conquering the world.  True, he did have green skin, and the lamps 
were really shiny, but still, they were his minions, and he-

"Carl, *stop* ogling the female customers and get back to work.  I 
don't want to tell you again.  Why can't you pay attention to what 
you are doing, like your friends?"  Candice gave him an extra-sharp 
glare and stormed off to the back.

Eugene glanced at his lamp minions working diligently and sneaking 
bulb flashes at their crowd of admirers.  His scowl deepened.

At this rate, he would never get a girlfriend

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
PROJECT CHIBIFICATION

Created by Lady Brick

This Part Unearthed and Assembled for Display by Lady Brick

Part Sixteen - Wacky Wacky Hijinx!  Cecil's Transformation Troubles! 
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

"What the HELL did you do, Cecil?"  The walls practically shock with 
Anna's roar.  As she had been passing by Cecil's office on her way to 
confront Rosa, she had noticed some smoke drifting out of the door.  
When she went to investigate, she had found the newly-transformed 
Cecil.

The otaku shrugged in the face of Anna's fury, scratching his head 
with one finger and creating a horrific metal-on-metal screech.  "I 
thought it would be the best way to stop her.  I mean, we aren't very 
well equipped to deal with such a threat."

"You THOUGHT?  It doesn't LOOK like you did very much THINKING to 
me!"

"Please stop shouting... this thing amplifies sound," Cecil said, 
wincing a bit.

Anna shook her head.  "I really expected more from you, Cec.  Fine.  
Go stop Rosa.  We'll deal with this mess later."

Cecil sighed with relief, and headed off.  Still angry, Anna stalked 
back to the offices, wondering what on earth could have possessed the 
mecha fan.  And how they would be able to return him to normal. 

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

"Dear, can't you find some more matches?  This dynamite won't light 
itself, dear."

Josh swore to himself as her heard Eugene's parents scuttling about 
down below.  He tried once again to free himself, but he was wedged 
in tight as tight could be.  He heard the faint sound of a match 
flicking to life and began to panic.

"Ok, Super Saiyan, a puny firework can't harm a Super Saiyan," he 
muttered to himself.  Of course he knew he wasn't a real Super 
Saiyan, but hopefully the power the accident had given him would be 
enough to save him now.  He gritted his teeth and gathered his power, 
feeling it swell within him.  A yellow aura exploded around his 
figure, just in time to blow the fireworks out of the chimney and 
back into the house.  Luckily, the explosion didn't sound quite as 
bad as he was expecting.  Unfortunately, his expanded muscles had 
simply wedged him in even tighter.

Eugene's father gave a small, dusty-sounding cough.  "Hmm, that 
didn't seem to work very well.  Maybe we should try something else, 
dear."

Josh gave a small smile.  He could feel the energy coursing through 
him, and knew no matter what they hit him with, no matter what they 
tried to do, he would come out on top.  There was no way they could 
touch him now...

"What if we hosed them out?"

Josh eeped.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

When Rosa saw the strange male mecha enter the room, she stopped her 
random destruction, staring in open shock.  She had never *ever* 
thought she would see another like her, and yet, here he was standing 
right in front of her.  What had the A.E.I.O.U. done to this poor, 
possibly very attractive guy?  Her priorities immediately changed 
from revenge to helping whoever this guy was.  A male mecha... it was 
almost as if Fate had delivered him to her as some kind of gift for 
all the other crap he had put her through.

"Come on, we have to get out of here *now*," she said, trying to 
pitch her voice lower then normal.  She had read somewhere once that 
guys found women with lower voices incredibly sexy.

"Huh?" said the strange mecha.  Seeing that he was obviously confused 
and traumatized by the treatment these evil otaku had put him 
through, she reached out, snagged a solid grip on his arm plating, 
and activated her rocket boosters, blasting them out of the room and 
down the hall at very high speeds.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of this," she swore, sounding very 
much like the magical girls she had always despised so much.  "And 
hey, maybe we could, like, grab something to eat, or something."

"Uh..." said the other mecha, trying to avoid hitting too many walls 
as the rocketed down the hall.

"Great!  I know this place that has the most awesome burgers..."  She 
paused briefly to blow a giant hole in the side of the building, 
creating an instant if not very tidy exit.  "Let's blow this popsicle 
stand!"

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

"Carl, what was all that screaming?"

Eugene sighed.  Yet another customer had run screaming at the sight 
of him.  It was starting to become a strain to his self-esteem.  "I 
was just talking to them, I swear I didn't do anything."

The manager fixed him with a glare.  "Normal interaction with 
customers does not include chasing them out of the store.  I don't 
know what you said to them, but if you just smile and be polite and 
courteous, you won't have these people skills problems you seem to be 
plagued with.

Eugene fought and won against the urge to ask Candice if she was 
blind.

"One more disturbance like that, and you will be fired.  Am I clear?  
Now get back to work before I regret hiring you any more than I 
already do."

Eugene did so, grumbling to himself that when he took over the world, 
the Maplecrest Gap would be the first thing to go.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Josh strained his head upward, his eyes fixed nervously on the hose 
nozzle that was inching down towards him.  A sheen of water traced a 
lethal edge around the opening.  He swallowed heavily.

"Honey, I'm turning it on now."

Josh closed his eyes and cringed.

With a deafening roar, a wall of water sluiced down, instantly 
transforming him into a girl.  No longer wedged tight, Josh-chan 
plummeted down the chimney to crash in the now-soaked fireplace.

"Oh my," said Eugene's mother, blinking.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

"I'm going to go after them," Anna told Brett as she armed herself 
with a tazer from their large supply.  Hesitating, she also grabbed a 
katana.  She hadn't trained with the thing as much as Brett, but all 
the Weiss Kreutz, Utena, and Kenshin had certainly rubbed off on her.

Brett nodded.  "Why do you think she took him?"

Anna raised an eyebrow.  "I'm surprised you didn't have any... ideas 
on the subject."

"I've never been that interested in mecha hentai.  Although there 
have been some interesting things done with the Evangelion Units, but 
that doesn't really count, since those are mostly organic inside-"

"I don't know why I brought it up.  Look, just stay here and keep an 
eye on things.  And watch out for Deedee.  She's probably not going 
to be in the best state of mind this afternoon."

A small crease appeared in Brett's forehead.  "What happened to 
Deedee?"

Anna finished gathering her supplies and headed out.  "You'll figure 
it out when you see her.  Now I hope I can find Cecil before anything 
bad happens."

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Cecil wasn't sure exactly what had happened.  He had gone to fight 
Rosa, stop her from hurting anyone or destroying headquarters.  The 
next the he knew... he wasn't quite sure, but he thought that she may 
have asked him out.  Like many male otaku, he had never had the 
experience of being asked out by a girl, so he wasn't quite sure.  
Anyway, they had ended up at a little burger joint in the mall.  
Rosa, detransformed, munched on a burger and talked glibly about some 
band she seemed to like a lot.

Cecil wasn't positive, but he thought that maybe he liked the 
paranoid, revenge-seeking, conspiracy-obsessed Rosa better then 
whatever sat in front of him.  In a very odd way, she reminded him a 
bit of Deedee.

"And so I'm pretty sure they are really a bunch of government 
operatives.  I mean, how else would you explain the fact that all 
their concerts coincide with-  Hey, aren't you going to eat your 
burger?

"Um..." Cecil wasn't stupid.  He had realized fairly quickly that 
Rosa didn't know who he was while he was inside his mecha suit.  If 
he was going to eat, he would have to detransform, revealing his 
identity.  Of course, if he stayed in the suit for too long, there 
was the chance that she would become suspicious.  And he had already 
seen what Rosa could do when she was irked.  When she had been under 
the care of Otaku Force, he had had almost no contact with her, so 
maybe she wouldn't recognize him...

Cecil realized he had been staring off into space for several 
moments, and Rosa was looking at him oddly.  Taking a deep breath, he 
closed his eyes, said a brief prayer, and detransformed.  Opening his 
eyes, he gave a small, hopefully normal, non-suspicious smile, and 
took a bite of his burger.

When he looked up, Rosa was trembling with fury and pointing a very 
sharp fork at him.

Cecil swallowed.  Apparently, she did recognize him.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

"Now, who are you?"

Josh-chan was seated in the living room with Eugene's parents.  They 
had been kind enough to let her towel off before they began the 
interrogation, but since she had not been near any hot water, she had 
been unable to transform back to her normal male state.  She figured 
changing gender would probably disturb the couple just a bit.  She 
remained in her Super Saiyan state though, just in case things got 
ugly.  

"I'm a friend of Eugene's."  A brilliant idea popped into her head.  
"I'm his girlfriend actually."

Two seconds later, she was wondering why that had seemed like a 
brilliant idea.

"Eugene has a girlfriend?" asked the father, blinking.

"But my dear, why were you climbing down the chimney?"

Josh-chan gave a weak smile.  "I uh, wanted to surprise him.  And I 
thought the whole Santa type thing would be cute, since it's, uh, not 
near Christmas at all.  But then I got stuck..."  She gave a small 
sigh.

"Oh you poor thing.  You must have thought we were trying to kill 
you!"  Eugene's mother gave a small noise of sympathy.  "But 
certainly now you realize that what you did was a very dangerous 
thing, and you could have been seriously hurt.  I hope you know 
better than to try such a silly stunt again."

"Yes, ma'm."

"Eugene has a girlfriend?  You know what this means?"  A wide smile 
broke out across Eugene's father's face.  "He's not gay!  My son 
isn't gay!"

"Yes, honey!"

"But dear, she's even *blond*!"  A small tear ran down his face.  
"I've never been so proud of him.  I even forgive him for wreaking 
our house and forcing us to use our retirement fund to buy this new 
house when our insurance didn't cover the whole thing."

"Yes, honey."  Eugene's mother turned to Josh-chan.  "Would you like 
a snack while you wait for Eugene? He should be home from work in an 
hour or so."

"Um, sure," Josh-chan replied, wondering if he could find a way to 
leave before Eugene got back.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

"Now, you are going to help change back to a normal person."

Cecil blinked at the sharp prongs aimed at his throat.  "What makes 
you think I know how to do that?"

Rosa snorted.  "I know you Otaku Force members.  You wouldn't be 
stupid enough to go through the experiment unless you had a way out.  
Now tell me how to reverse it."

Cecil was about to reply when a thought struck him.  A thought so 
amazingly brilliant, he wondered why he had never thought of it 
before.  Perhaps the answer to fix the lives of all the people that 
had been affected by the chibification process.

"There is something, but it hasn't been tested yet," Cecil said 
slowly, adjusting his glasses.  "We'll need some supplies, but we can 
find them all here at the mall..."

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Deedee sat in her plushie-filled office, glumly staring at her 
reflection in the oversized, custom-made mirror talisman handing from 
the wall.  She wiped away a few tears that remained on her face.

He beautiful pink hair was no longer pink.

Anna had put her foot down when they had gotten back from the castle.  
She had said that Deedee's hair was too much of a danger with Rosa 
around.  She had pleaded with Anna, but the Otaku Force leader had 
been insistent.  Not to mention mean.  She made Deedee bleach her 
hair completely before dying it.  And wouldn't even let her do 
lavender, as it was apparently too close to pink.

Deedee was fingering her newly light-blue locks when Brett stepped 
through the door.  His eyes widened slightly when he saw her.  

"Go away," she mumbled, trying not to start crying again.  "You're 
just going to be mean and make fun of it."

"It doesn't look bad at all."  He paused a moment.  "Like cotton 
candy."

Deedee looked at him in surprise.  "You really think so?  I like 
cotton candy.  Maybe it isn't so bad after all."

"It looks nice."  Brett fished around in his pocket.  "Anyway, I came 
here to give you this... you dropped it back at the castle."  He 
handed her a Fushigi Yuugi pin she hadn't even noticed that she was 
missing.

"Wow, thanks, that's really nice of you."  She was completely shocked 
by his behavior.  She hadn't known he was capable of being so nice.

Brett's eyes fixed on her face.  "Would you like me to put it on for 
you?"  His hands moved towards her chest.

And then again, maybe not.  "Get out, you hentai!"

Brett shrugged, handed her the pin, and walked out as smoothly as 
ever.

Deedee scowled after him, but when she looked at the pin, she 
couldn't help but give a small smile.  Maybe he wasn't quite as bad 
as he always made himself out to be.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Eugene was returning some merchandise to the floor when a strange guy 
and girl walked in, their arms already laden with bags.  It took him 
a second to realize what bothered him about them.  The guy was one of 
the ones who had held him prisoner at that anime club place.

"Hey, you!" he growled, stalking over.  The chubby guy eeped, and 
suddenly changed into a little robot thing.  Eugene paused, a bit 
startled.  He didn't remember the guy ever doing that.  He was 
apparently more startled than he thought, as he didn't react when the 
mecha raised a cannon-type thing and fired a large blast of energy, 
sending him crashing through five clothing racks and a good half a 
foot into the far wall.

Through his now blurry vision, he saw them grab a few items of 
clothing and race off.  His head was just starting to clear when 
Candice appeared, a scowl embedded on her face and a finger pointed 
angrily at the door.

"It's not my fault!" he protested.  "These people came in and stole 
things.  And they *shot* me."

The finger didn't waver.

Angrily, Eugene got to his feet.  He motioned for his lamp minions to 
follow, but they flashed a reminder to him in Morse code that they 
were, in fact, still employed.  Now fuming, he stalked off.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

They had commandeered two large decorative wash bins from the 
stockroom of Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  Already full of mysteriously 
bubbling and putrid masses, Cecil continues to add the last few 
ingredients.

"Gladiator DVD for me, Shakespeare In Love for you.  Sports 
Illustrated for me, Cosmopolitan for you.  Gap men's clothes for me, 
women's for you.  Did I forget anything?"

"No.  This 'normality' formula of yours had better work, or else."  
She poked him with the fork, which she had been carrying since they 
left the resturant.  For a moment, Cecil considered going mecha and 
blasting her, but he had already decided he wanted to try to reverse 
the experiment, if only to escape Anna's wrath later.

"Ready?" he asked, holding a Nokia cel phone over each container.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Anna pulled into a parking space just in time to see Bed, Bath, and 
Beyond explode.  Fearing the worst, she raced over toward the ruins.

Two people slowly extracted themselves from the wreckage around them 
as she approached.  They were rather nondescript, wearing singed Gap 
khakis and shirts, average height, average weight.  She would have 
passed them without a thought, except the guy had the remains of a 
familiar Gundum Wing watch on his wrist, as well as some now even 
more battered scotch-taped glasses.

"Cecil?" she asked slowly, afraid of the answer.

The guy looked up and nodded.  He then looked at his wrist and 
frowned.  "Isn't this one of those Japanimation things?  How did I 
get this one?" he asked, slightly puzzled.  He shrugged, dropped it 
in the rubble, and began fiddling with his cel phone.

A strangled cry escaped Anna's throat.  "Kami-sama in heaven, what 
have you done?"

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

"Hello, dear," Eugene's mother greeted him as he stalked through the 
door.  "Your home from work early.  Oh, by the way, your girlfriend 
is here waiting for you.

Eugene looked up slowly to stare at her.  "Huh?"

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

Amidst all the panic, Frank had gone back to find Katie had 
disappeared from the bed.  Panicking, he had been scouring the 
building for her, ignoring whatever the other commotion going on was.  
He had just been ready to give up when a cheerful voice greeted him 
from behind.

"There you are, Frank.  I found a huge stash of pocky in the 
kitchen... would you like some?"

Frank turned to see chibi-Katie, her arms piled high with boxes of 
pocky.  An irritated cat sat next to her.

"Could you please teach this stupid girl how to use a manual can 
opener?  I'm bloody starved."

Frank sweatdropped.

^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^

First part in many months, and already back to old procrastinating 
habits.  Thanks to those who said they would preread, sorry I didn't 
get it to you in time.  Anyway, glad to be back, even with a less 
than stellar part ^^;;  Sign up for PC, people, and show me the right 
way to write ^^  Comments appreciated as always.

LB