Eugene blinked at his mother's smiling face.  "My... girlfriend?"

	"It's all right Eugene, you don't have to hide from us anymore.  Josie explained
the entire situation to us.  I think you're lucky to have found such a nice
girl- and she's pretty, too!  Come on, she's waiting for you in the living room."

	Eugene shrugged and followed his mother down the hall.  After all, who was he to
argue with a girl who wanted him so badly that she would pretend they were
dating?  And his mother had said she was pretty, which was even better. 
Josie... he didn't think he knew any Josies, but then again he had never really
known many girls before, and most of the girls he met now weren't particularly
inclined to fall at his feet.

	As Eugene and his mother entered the living room, they could see a mop of blonde
hair rising over the back of the couch, which was all right with Eugene- he liked
blondes.  A wide grin slowly began to spread over his face as he waited to see
just who this girl was.

	"Josie dear, Eugene's home!"  Eugene's mother called cheerfully.

	"Josie" stiffened, then turned around slowly.

	Eugene's eyes widened.


****  ^_^  ****


Project Chibification

Thunked of by LadyBrick

This part by Sharyna Tran and Kenji Murasaki

Part 17: Precarious Positions! A Call to Weirdness.


****  ^_^  ****


	Anna wiped at her eyes with her hands, not completely believing what she was
seeing. Before her in the rubble was supposedly one of her best friends, and
a rogue not so nice girl. What was making it so unbelievable was the simple fact
that they were wearing Gap. A lot of Gap. Singed, true, but enough of the name-
brand clothing to almost be called normal.

	"Anna? What are you doing here? Did you do this?" Cecil looked at her with
disgust in his eyes. "Man, this place smells like too much cherry and vanilla."

	Anna opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Rosa, who had been quiet until
then, spoke up. "Well, this is fine and dandy, but I'm not sticking around. I've
better things to do." She dusted her cargo khakis off, and started to head away.
Anna stood shocked for a moment more before she grabbed the other girl by the
wrist.. "Hey!"

	"Uh uh. No way. You're both coming with me. We've got to figure out just what
you did to yourselves."

	"What do you mean we? You didn't do this?" Cecil asked, pointing out the blackened
shop and melted soaps around him. "What do you mean what we did to ourselves?"

	"Don't ask me that! I don't know what you did; I just know we need to get out of
here before authorities come around, and get back to Otaku Force to figure out
just what you did."

	"Otaku? More of that Japanimation stuff?" Cecil asked. "Are you okay Anna? You're
acting weird."

	"Hey, why should we go with you to watch some of that stuff anyway?" Rosa asked.
"It's not like there's anything wrong with us; you're the only oddball I see."

	Anna growled under her breath, losing her cool, but Rosa ignored it, favoring
walking away once more. She made it four steps before she slipped and fell on some
melted soap.

	Anna saw her land on the pink substance she had slipped on, and feared the worst.
Moments passed, Rosa rubbing her bum from her fall, Cecil going to help her, and
Anna standing stark still. "You... you didn't transform? You didn't change?"

	"No, I'm fine, thank you so much for being concerned." Rosa snapped back.

	Anna tried to put two and two together. If they were acting like this, and Rosa
Didn't change from pink contact, then Cecil must have found a cure or something.
but what did he do to turn them into... such bland, snippy people?

	"Look," She said, turning her attention to them. "Something bad has happened to
you two, and we've got to find out what. Just come on and follow me so we can
get back to the HQ."

	"HQ? What do you think this is, a spy game?" Rosa stood up with help from Cecil,
who was also looking at Anna warily. "I'm not going anywhere with a fruitcake
like you. You can do what you want, just don't count me in it." With that, she
turned on her heel again and walked off, leaving the two to stare at her exit.

	Alarms began to sound in the distance, and Cecil turned to Anna. "Look, Anna.
This has gone beyond the level of funny here. Could you just drop your silly games
and tell me what's going on?"

	"I... I'm not even sure I can explain Cecil." Anna said, truthfully. Her head
was starting to hurt even thinking about it. "But something bad did just happen
to you, and all I want to do is help. Will you at least let me do that?"

	Cecil looked annoyed, but nodded. "Fine. We'll do this your way."

	Anna nodded her head, and they both made their way out of the mall.


****  ^_^  ****


	Josh-chan gritted her teeth and tried her best to paste a welcoming and happy
smile on her face, one that said "Hi there!  You're my boyfriend and I'm glad to
see you!" rather than "Hi there!  You're a horrendous being who challenged my
honor and I'm glad to see you because this means I can defeat you thereby saving
the world!", which was what she *wanted* to say.

	Eugene's mouth gaped open in horror, but quickly reformed itself into a
cheerful, mostly evil, grin.  "Oh, helloooo... honey."

	"Aw, that's so sweet!" Eugene's mother gushed, dabbing at her teary eyes with a
handkerchief.

	"I'm proud of you, son," his father beamed.  "Josie's a very nice girl; I wish
you had introduced her to us earlier.  In fact, I think that we should all have
dinner together tonight so that we can get to know her."

	"Ah.  Dinner.  Tonight.  How... nice," Eugene Shatnerized.  "Isn't that a nice
idea... sugar?"

	Josh-chan's smile thinned as her eyes narrowed in rage.  "Absolutely wonderful..."
she replied, visions of bloody revenge dancing happily through her head.

	"That's just fine, then," Eugene's mother smiled.  "We'll see you two at seven,
all right?  After all, we *do* want to give you time to go on your own date..."

	"Huh?" Eugene asked.

	"Silly child, how could you forget?  Josie here told us that you had planned to
take her on a date right after you got back from work!  We decided that since
she's your girlfriend, it's all right for you to take her on dates even if
you're grounded.  Isn't that right, Josie dear?"

	"Oh, yes," Josh-chan answered distractedly.  "How could you... silly."

	"Well, I'm sure you two are just raring to go now, so have fun!  And don't be
late!" Eugene's father smiled and watched the pair walk out of the house. 
"Ahh... young love."

	"They're so adorable!" Eugene's mother squealed.  "They remind me of us... only
I don't think you were that green and scaly when we were dating..."


****  ^_^  ****


	"Hello?"

	"Yes? Who is... Frank?"

	"Hey Thomas. Sorry I haven't contacted in a couple of days, but it's been
a bit of a mess over here."

	"Tell me about it. I saw the news. Cable blackout, and then that castle explosion
up north. Perry's been wondering where you were."

	"Like I said, it's been a rush. Everything should be getting a little quieter
though."

	A pause, then. "How's Katie?"

	Frank sighed. "Well, she's fine, If that's what you're asking. They gave her
some sort of treatment, and it's seemed to work. She's less bouncy and stuff."

	"That's good. So when are you going to date?"

	Frank almost blew it and shouted indignantly. Almost. But that wouldn't do with
Katie still in earshot. "Look Tom, even if it's amusing to you, it isn't to me.
There's nothing going on between us."

	"Really?" The voice on the other side said. "Then why spend a day and a half
going after her like that?"

	"Wouldn't you want someone to come after you if you were kidnapped and experimented
on, only to be kidnapped again?"

	"Well, yeah, but there is the fact that you haven't left yet. You're still over
there, and I bet she's right by you."

	Frank was about to reply when Katie tapped him on the shoulder. "Deedee said
she wanted to see you. Also, I kinda wanted to talk to you later, if it's okay?"

	Frank could only nod in reply.

	"Tell her I said hi." Tom said, chuckling.

	"Look, we'll be out of here in the next few hours, and then I'm dropping her
off. Her parents are probably worried silly. I'll call you from home."

	"Sure man. Take care."


****  ^_^  ****


	"Bastard," Josh-chan hissed as the door closed behind them.

	Eugene looked back from where he was spitting out the taste of the petnames he
had used into the bushes.  "Excuse me?  I'm not the one who stalked me to pose
as my girlfriend.  I knew there was something freaky about you right from the
start, and I'll tell you right now, I'm not that kind of guy.  I much prefer a
girl who was *born* that way, thanks all the same."

	"Hey!  It's not my fault I'm like this!"

	"Don't even try that, I don't believe the 'homosexuality is carried by a gene'
theory at all."

	Josh-chan turned red.  "I'm NOT GAY!  And it's NOT MY FAULT I turn into a girl! 
At least I'm not a creepy, ugly, green, scaly, bumpy... THING that can't get a
break, much less a girlfriend!"  And with that, she turned on her heel and began
to walk off.

	Eugene sat in anger for a moment, and then roared and charged the smaller girl.
He rammed into her, getting a satisfying gasp of shock of Josh-chan, and sending
them both tumbling to the ground.

	Josh-chan's Sayajin strength proved useless only for a moment against the hulking
mass of pissed off monster. Then with a grunt, she put Eugene in the air, and
scrambled away before he hit the surface again.

	Eugene growled, and stood up, glowing a sickly red aura. Josh merely assumed a
low fighter's stance, and stared in disbelief as Eugene disappeared. Then she was
rammed again, and they went tumbling into the front steps. Eugene pinned her to
the ground with one hand to the chest, ready to deliver a youma's righteous fury
to the little martial artist upstart...

	"Eugene?  Josie?  Is everything all- oh, my," Eugene's mother said, opening the
door.

	Eugene and Josh-chan looked up, for once thinking the exact same thing.  Their
eyes widened in fear.

	"It's not what it looks like, Mom!  I swear!" Eugene told her, raising his hands
defensively.

	Eugene's mother raised an eyebrow.  "Whatever you say, dear.  At any rate, I
really think you two should get going on that date.  Save your energy for
tonight, eh?"  She winked and closed the door again.

	"... You know, your mom scares me," Josh-chan remarked in the silence that
followed.

	Eugene glared at her, getting up.  "Shut up.  The only reason you're not beaten
to a pulp right now is because I haven't had any Sauce for a while."

	"Yeah, uh-huh.  Right," Josh rolled her eyes.  "Look, we might as well
declare a truce until after tonight, all right?  It'll make things easier for
both of us."

	Eugene sighed.  "Fine.  But after tonight, you're going down, you do realize
that."

	"In your dreams!"  Josh called cheerfully as she walked off.

	Eugene stuck his tongue out at Josh-chan's retreating form.  The DBZ otaku had
gotten one thing right, though... sometimes his mom scared him too.


****  ^_^  ****


	"Okay Deedee, what is it?"

	"Well, I was actually wondering if you might be interested in a proposition,
Frank." They were in her office near the experiment facilities. Frank stared at
the usually-bubbly girl, who's demeanor was reminiscent of a CEO making massive
company cut-backs. If it wasn't for her blue hair, Frank would almost be nervous.

	"Things have seemed to snowballed a bit within the past few days, and we've
been scrambling to handle what we can. We managed to succeed with Katie," She gave
a nod to the small girl sitting opposite of Frank. "But there are still some
loose ends that need to be tied up. I was wondering if you would be willing to
help?"

	Frank looked at Katie, who seemed to be mirroring his thoughts, looking at Deedee
with paranoia. "That depends on what it is."

	Deedee merely nodded, idly playing with a Pretty Sammy paperweight. "The first
thing concerns Katie. I think she's stabilized, but her current form would make
it really difficult for her to fit back in with people she knows. I noted that
eventually, you were able to at least gain a control for your conversion from
chibi to normal."

	"Um, yeah. You want me to try and help figure one out for her?" He looked at
Katie, once again mirroring each other with the worry in their faces. "I don't
think I could really be any help in that."

	"No. Actually, I was wondering if you could house her for a couple of days until
we could come up with a likely trigger?"

	Katie stared at Deedee with wide eyes, while Frank hid a blush. "Why couldn't
she just stay here for the research? Or with you?"

	Katie's look turned annoyed. "You don't want me around?"

	"It's not that Katie." He said hastily. "I'm just sure you'd be more comfortable
with someone else. My place is pretty dull, and I wouldn't want you to be
uneasy or anything."

	"Well," She sniffled, looking sad and discarded. "If that's the way you want
it, I won't bother you. Maybe someone else will let me stick around until I can
face my mom and dad again..."

	Frank started to feel bad, and oddly manipulated. "Allright, Katie. You can stick
around for a while."

	"Wai! Thanks Frank-kun! I promise you won't regret it!" The girl bounced around
the room, humming happily to herself. Frank and Deedee looked at her skeptically.

	"She tricked me, didn't she?"

	Deedee nodded solemnly. "Yeah. Her aura of command is getting a bit stronger."
She flipped the papers in her hand, trying to ignore the bouncing ball of happiness
in her office. "I'll work on that with her. About the other favor though..."

	"Which is?" Frank asked.

	"There's been a lot of trouble because of that formula being released. We didn't
expect someone to really use it, but it was, and you've seen the results first
hand. What we want you to try and do is see if you can use your connections to
keep an eye out for any other odd activity. Not act or anything, but just let
us know if there's some trouble somewhere?"

	"You realize that you guys are the reason that people got a hold of that formula?"
Frank thought about that for a moment. "I do see your point though. It doesn't
paint a pretty picture to see oddballs like Eugene and Josh running around with
that kind of power."

	Deedee smiled. "Then you'll do it?"

	"Yeah, sure. I'll give you guys a call if I see or hear about something." He
turned to Katie, who had finally calmed down, though she had a huge silly grin
on her face. "Ready to go?"

	"Sure." Katie watched Frank get up, and nod to Deedee. Then they were out the
door.


****  ^_^  ****


	"Hey Anna, glad to see you're back... Cecil?"

	Anna rubbed at her temples. "Don't ask Deedee, it's a long story. We'll wait
until everyone's around to tell it, cause I really don't wanna repeat something
so... uugh."

	Deedee only nodded idly at Anna, her gaze more fixed on Cecil, who was eyeing
her precariously as well.

	"Deedee? What'd you do to your hair?" He asked finally.

	"I dyed it; you know that. What happened to you?"

	"I'm not sure, and Anna won't say. I think she set up a bomb in the local mall
or something. All I really remember is being out with Rosa, and then waking up
in rubble." Cecil shook his head. "Look, could you point me to the bathroom? I
really gotta go, and she won't even talk to me." He pointed at Anna, who looked
like she was about to bang her head against the wall.

	"Um, sure. It's the third door to you left, down the hall." Deedee pointed
it out, and watched him go. She then turned to Anna, looking rather troubled. "I
take it that things didn't go too well?"

	"No, they didn't. He... he and Rosa transformed themselves somehow. Now he's
acting like that. Every single thing in the van, *his* van, he turned his nose
up at. And..." Anna rubbed her temples. "Look, I don't wanna really go into it
right now. Where's Katie?"

	"Oh, well, I let them go earlier."

	"Allright then, you- WHAT?!" Anna grabbed at the smaller girl's collar, shacking
her. "You let them leave? Why?"

	"Well, Katie's mental condition stabilized mostly, but I'm having her come back
for further observations. In the meantime she's staying with Frank." The blue-haired
scientist handed Anna a slip of paper, with a number and address on it. "I got
him to agree to keep an eye on her, and keep an ear out for any odd reports of
other oddness that he might hear about. Isn't that a good plan?"

	Anna stared at the girl for a long moment, then just let her go. "Fine. Just
Make sure that they don't get out of our sight. We've still got the other two
Nutballs out there, and one of them is still after Katie."

	Anna started to walk off. "Tell everyone to gather for a meeting, and make sure
that Cecil doesn't disappear. We've got a lot of work to do."

	Deedee nodded. "Where are you going?"

	"To my office to get some aspirin. I think I'll kill the next person I see if
I don't do something about this headache."

	"O... kay." Deedee turned to head back to her own office, her thoughts swirling.
Another transformation? Did Cecil possibly find a cure to the chibification? If so,
then a lot of their problems just might be solved. But the way he was acting...

	"Hey Anna, you look like you're head hurts. I've got some techniques that might
just be of use to yo- AAAAAAAUGHHH!"

	Deedee winced at Brett's cry of pain, and continued for her office. No need to
get *two* people injured, afterall.


****  ^_^  ****


	The perfect ending to a perfect day.

	Eugene had spent his 'date time' wondering the local Waffle Houses, pilfering
Sauce, and pondering things. First, the firing, and then the unexpected and just
plain evil attempt by Josh to get to his parents, and spy on him further. It was
getting to where a SUPERYOUMAGENERAL couldn't even have a moment's peace. He
didn't want to even think about the time he had to spend under the spotlight of
his parents, explaining just why "Josie" had to leave for the evening.

	Thing were bound to change, if he had hit this low. He had a small, but significant
amount of Sauce to tide him over until he made a raid somewhere, and then there
was his vast network of minions that he could summon at will. In due time, he could
lick his wounds, and then he'd show those upstart otaku. He'd show the world, as
he drank from gobblets of pure gold, and had cute women wait on him hand and foot.

	He looked down at his feet, and frowned. Maybe not foot.

	Regardless, he would be back on top soon, and then the world would tremble at
his name. But first thing's first...

	Keiichi and the others were just around the corner, a tizzy of activity. In their
random clippings and switches were long envelopes; no doubt their first earnings.
They all clicked about and jumped excitedly, until they turned and look at the
hulking mass at the front door with a decidedly evil grin on his face.

	"Just in time gentlemen. Pay up."

	Chichiri clicked in confusion.

	"Yes, of course you all worked hard for it. But don't forget you work for me,
and if we're going to rule the world, we have to start at a basis, now don't we?"

	Chichiri clicked again, more aggravated this time. Eugene growled, and slapped
The lamp to the floor, shocking the others. "Don't you backtalk me! I made you,
and I can break you!"

	Chichiri clicked weakly.

	"General Electric has nothing to do with this! Now pay up, or else."

	One by one, the lamps handed their earnings over to the grinning Eugene. Indeed,
it was a perfect ending to a perfect evening.


****  ^_^  ****


Sharyna:

My part of this part was written on several hours of sleep deprivation and big
scary amounts of time on chat.  ^^;  It would probably also have been longer had
I not had to leave for vay-cay the day before it was due.  :P

Mad shinyfluffy props to Kenji, without whom this part would literally be
nothing, since I wasn't considering signing up until he asked me to co-write.
^^;  Thank you.  ^-^

Kenji:

Oh wow. Another one away. Whee. Most of what I wanted to get accomplished got
accomplished, so yay, I suppose. Much thanks to Sharyna, for agreeing to sketch
this little diddy with me. Goes to show I *am* capable of actually cooperating
with someone in the name of Great Fiction. Yosh!

Many, many thanks to LadyBrick, for letting us bounce ideas off of her, and much
thanks to those I asked to preread (Didn't get 'em all in, but hey, stuff happens).
For now, I will go find myself a nice cup of juice until that SC part is up. Back
to the hack I go.

6/15/01