Chapter One – New Forms

The Bliss was only supposed to be temporary, that's the way it always goes.

But this the vampire king decided to go a different route, he decided to play things a bit differently

"Ow, these things are hard ta get out…." Ralph cringed as he attempted to pull one of the hair-ties from his thick locks.

HE?

Not in this case.

Ralph and Felix were still under the spell of the Bliss, the HEROES now turned into HEROINES. It was bad enough that only hours before they had to deal with the Nicelanders who, in their own Blissed forms, had turned the arcade upside down but to deal with this?

This was stretching it a bit!

"It's not that bad…." Felix sighed, looking down at the name-tag on his shirt "I mean, at least we're still HUMAN so that's a plus!"

Felicia.

The now-turned repairwoman had to snicker, thinking to the OTHER Felicia who walked the arcade.

"I wonder what SHE would hafta say to this, eh Roxie?"

"ROXIE? Is that what you're gonna call me from now on?" snorted the wrecker, a cloud of steam coming from her nose. Felicia didn't move an inch; in fact she was smiling more than ever.

"Pfft! Oh heavens, tha look on your face!" she laughed "Of all the times NOT ta have a camera around!"

"Yeah, laugh it up smarty-pants…." The huge woman pouted "But what are we gonna do once the arcade opens?"

"What do ya mean?"

"What do I mean? It's not like we can hide this!" shouted Roxie "I mean look at us! Tha players are gonna know SOMETHIN' is up once we show up in skirts!"

"Uh, have ya ever considered that ya could just put on your normal clothes? That's what I'm gonna do." FELICIA said "Sides….I really don't look that much different do I?"

"Ya look like someone hyped up tha tint levels on all your colors…." Roxie grumbled "An' at least ya don't have PAINTED NAILS! I've ben tryin' ta scrape this gunk with everythin' I got an' it won't come off!"

"I think RUBY is a good color on ya." Felicia joked, enjoying the complains from the Wrecker "Or…would SALMON be a better shade?"

"Do ya wanna be thrown, MISS Fix-It?"

"I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS!"

An ear-shattering SHOUT blasted through the apartments followed by the sound of running feet. The two women looked about, searching for the source of such commotion.

"Who in tha world was-?!"

"Young lady, come back here!"

"Ms. Mary?" Roxie said, looking this way and that but as she turned her head down the hall that's when the wrecker saw it.

A small Nicelander in powder-blue tearing for her life with a few of the other Nicelanders gunning after her, Mary and Gene taking the lead of the bunch.

"No, no, no! I wanna find that vampire, kick his butt in an' THEN-!"

"This is not the time to behave in such a manner, missy!" Gene shouted as he tried to catch the escaping Nicelander "Get back here before-!"

"You'll have ta catch me first!" the unknown Nicelander said but Mary jumped forth, finally catching her.

"Got you!"

"Aurgh, lemme go!"

"Not until you settle down!" frowned Mary, the other Nicelander surprised by just how strong Mary was in this particular situation "You are in no condition to fight ANYONE, you hear?!"

"Just watch me!" the other Nicelander said, her cheeks puffed out and her squeaky voice doing their best to make the character look as non-threatening as possible "He thinks turning me into THIS is funny?! I'll-!"

"Tammy!"

Tammy?

As in TAMERA?

It couldn't be!

The Nicelander squeaked, turning to see the taller repairwoman running up to her.

"Ungh, not you too!" said the Nicelander as Felicia approached her "It's bad enough that EVERY Nicelander here is tryin' ta hold me back!"

"Hold you back?!" scoffed Gene, offended by the comment "Young lady, I just don't want you running into trouble that's all!"

"Trouble? TROUBLE?!" shouted the Nicelander, marching right up to Gene's face as she tapped her fingers hard on his chest "Ya wanna talk TROUBLE? Shall we go over tha things YA guys did when ya were Blissed?!"

The leader of the Nicelanders blushed furiously, Calhoun catching him in the act.

"W-Well, y-you can't say Mary and I didn't ATTEMPT to bring everyone back! I for one wanted everyone to stay here! Don't blame me for what happened to YOU!"

"That is bull-crap an' ya know it, Gene."

"Sides, can ya really blame us for bein' a lil curious?" smirked Lucy, putting her arms behind her head "I mean, ya give tha lotta us human bodies. What do ya expect us ta do, Calhoun? Sit down?"

"YES!" blasted Calhoun, stamping her feet on the ground in her fury but instead she ended up looking like a child throwing a tantrum "Ya guys are no better than CHILDREN! All ya had ta do was sit your squishy butts down an' none of this would have happened!"

"Squishy butts?" chortled the youngest Nicelander as she moved closer to Calhoun, tapping her little button nose "Heh, takes one ta know one now eh?"

Calhoun narrowed her eyes "I'm startin' ta see why Don throws ya in closets."

"THANK YOU!" Don cried from his apartment.

"Tammy, ya know better than ta behave like this…." Sighed Felicia, shaking her head "Sides, Lucy is just baitin' ya like she does with EVERYONE. Just calm down sweetie."

"Don't ya DARE tell me ta CALM DOWN, Fix-It! LOOK AT ME!"

"Yes, I am lookin'…."

"AN-!"

"An' what?"

Calhoun found she could say nothing, Felicia staring down at her.

It didn't matter what form her love took, Felix could still give her 'THE LOOK' and she found herself unable to respond and now that he had been made twenty percent more adorable his, rather HER, eyes cut through Calhoun like a red-hot knife through butter. Her heart had been stabbed by the cute and she could not recover!

"GAAAAAH!"

"Heheh, I could watch these two all day…." Giggled Lucy but Deanna took the girl by her shoulder, waving a finger towards her.

"Lucile, we talked about this before."

"Aw, but Dee-Dee!"

"B-But what about work?!" the marine-turned Nicelander protested "Ya guys are goin' out but not me?! Who's gonna cover!"

"We already called your game and' Mousie said she would cover for ya." The repairwoman said "But til all of this over, you're not steppin' an inch near HD ya hear? It's too dangerous!"

"Too dangerous?"

Calhoun could not have been any more embarrassed; if only everyone could see her now.

No, scratch that.

She didn't want ANYONE to see her!

She growled in anger taking a look at her form again.

Tiny hands, chubby arms.

CHUBBY EVERYTHING.

Demitri really knew how to hit his Bliss victims hard but even though Calhoun was not the only victim of his in the apartment, her reaction to her transformation was certainly the worst of the trio.

"I'mma kill that vampire…." The marine hissed through her teeth "Then I'm gonna wait till her respawns an' then I'mma kill him again!"

"Dear, I don't think ya have ta take things THAT far." Said Felicia.

"Yeah, ONE shot ta tha head should be good enough!" nodded Roxie, agreeing with Calhoun's sentiments for a change.

"Don't ya dare encourage her!"

"OUTTA MAH WAY!" blasted the Nicelander marine as she made her way towards her weapons "It won't take that long an' sides! Ol' Dimmy is used ta bein' dead, ain't he?!"

"Oh, don't even think about shootin' anyone, ma'am! This is an APARTMENT! Not a FIRING RANGE!" ordered Gene but he missed his chance to grab the tiny woman.

"Just watch me!" the Nicelander said as she ran over, or better yet TODDLED, over to her guns. Her tiny hands grabbed the holster but much to her dread she found they were not as LIGHT as she was used to.

"H-Hey!"

"Tammy, stop!"

"N-NO!" the Nicelander shouted again, trying with all her might to lift the massive gun but no matter how much she struggled, no matter how much power she used she couldn't balance the thing "S-See, I still have it! I STILL-!"

Barefoot on the wooden floors, Calhoun could feel her balance shifting but she didn't know why!

Wait.

Nicelander anatomy!

IT HAD STRUCK!

Calhoun felt her body lean one way but then go the next and before she knew it, she fell over backwards, her gun landing hard next to her only to SHOOT off a round as it did so.

"LOOK OUT!" shouted Meg, throwing herself and Pearl to the ground just as the blast shoot through the wall, going right through Norwood's apartment, a few of his cats yowling loudly as they seemingly POURED though the wall.

"'OI!" shouted the man, poking his head through the massive hole "I know this place gets wrecked often but do ya guys hafta shoot at us too?!"

"Nnn, I can't get up!" Calhoun cried, stuck helplessly on her back as her arms and legs flailed in the air "S-Someone HELP ME!"

Yeah, this was DEFINITELY something she didn't want her crew to see.

"Here, I got you." Mary said as she walked over to the downed Nicelander, taking her by the hand and lifting her back onto her feet but Calhoun still found she could not balance. She weebled and wobbled even as she was set right-side up, her egg-like body feeling as if it were moving on its own.

"A-a-ai!" she whimpered, hands held out and waving to find some sort of balance "D-Don't let me f-fall again!"

"I won't!" said Felicia catching her love before she fell on her bottom again. The repairwoman set the Nicelander back up, letting out a breath "See? THIS is why I didn't want ya carryin' your guns around…."

The little blond woman could say nothing, feeling as if her soul were drifting from her. How things had changed on her during the night. She had gone from one of the strongest, one of the toughest characters in the arcade to….

To….

To one of the weakest?

Her gun still lay on the floor next to her, the barrel still hot but it lay there as if it were taunting her, reminding her that she could no longer carry it, no longer use it. She was no longer a marine.

Now she was a Nicelander.

"Nicelander….CALHOUN?" the little blond whimpered, her big fat cheeks going red at the thought "N-Nicelander Calhoun?!"

Nicelander Calhoun indeed.

"Th-this is a DISASTER!"

"Tammy?"

"I-I gotta do somethin'!" the little woman stammered "G-Guns or no guns! I just can't sit here!"

"Cool it, cool it!" said Felicia "Look, I know this is worrying but you're gonna send yourself in a tizzy!"

"Worryin' was five minutes AFTER we turned into this, FELIX!" Calhoun said, addressing her husband by his proper name "Member what happened when we sat on the whole Genezilla issue?! 'MEMBER THAT?!"

Gene's head turned to the side, a forced smile on his face "YES. YES, let's bring THAT glorious situation up, shall we?"

"Oh, yeah! We thought things were gonna be fine with that but what happened?! HE GETS TO FIFTY FEET TALL AND THEN MEH-MEH-MEH-MEH-BLEEB-BLEEP!"

"Tammy?"

Gene rolled his eyes, his hands slipping into his pocket "It begins…"

"MEH MEH MEH MEH HEBLEE BLEE BLEE!"

"Tamera, button it!" shouted the repairwoman, taking the Nicelander by the sides.

Calhoun slammed her hands on her mouth as the long string of high-pitch babbling escaped her mouth, the woman not even realizing what was going on.

"What….was THAT?!"

"Say hello ta your first look into the Nicelander language." said Deanna "It usually happens when we get panicked."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAURGH!"

"She's takin' ta this about as well I would have thought…." Said Gene, huffing but Mary reached over and pinched his cheek.

"Dear, this is not the time! Give the girl some sympathy, she can't help any of this!"

"Oh, don't act as if I'm antagonizing her because I am NOT! I just wish she wouldn't act as if being a Nicelander were the worst thing to be in the arcade" the Mayor sniffed, adjusting his tie. He then took another look at Calhoun, her expression speaking more than words.

"Then again….."

Exhausted, Calhoun could do nothing more than take the fate that she had been dealt. She was a marine, she could stand up to it.

Well, she WAS a marine.

"Tammy…."

The woman looked up, Felicia showing such concern on her face "H-Honey?"

"Look, I know ya wanna get back ta your normal form…" the repairwoman began "But can it wait until AFTER the arcade closes?"

"WHY?!"

"Because I wanna be there with ya when we have a chat with Mr.I-Feel-Like-Blissin'-Everythin'-That-Moves!" Felicia replied with surprisingly forceful tone "Ya know how busy tha arcade can get an' with ya in this condition-!"

After everything that had transpired, the group saw the worry forming on the woman's face.

"I just don't want anythin' ta happen ta ya, Honey-Babe."

Calhoun crossed her arms against her chest, her cheeks blushing deeply "A-Are ya tryin' ta imply I can't take care of myself in this form?"

After what had happened with the gun?

"No. I'm not sayin' ya can't but I still wanna make sure you're safe, okay?"

"But babe-!"

Before Calhoun could reply, Felicia stooped down and swept the tiny woman into her arms, holding her so tight and close.

"Tammy, listen ta me!"

"Ah-!" cried the woman but as she struggled to fight back she stopped. She could feel Felicia's heartbeat, hear it racing with fear and concern.

Concern over her.

"F-Felix?"

"I-I know ya do a lotta things for me, but please. Just this once can ya stay put? Maybe relax a bit?"

Calhoun looked at the ground, feeling the crushing wall of guilt coming down upon her. Had it been anyone else, Calhoun would have found a way to escape but this was her HUSBAND. He knew the risk he was in going out in such a form but he was far more concerned with HER wellbeing at the moment, Calhoun only imagining how panicked the repairman actually was on the inside.

She knew she couldn't do it.

She couldn't upset the person she loved.

"Oooh…..fine." Calhoun huffed, pushing Felicia's face away "B-But what am I supposed ta do while I 'relax'?"

Roxie blinked "Uh, were ya bein' SERIOUS with that question?"

"No, I really mean it!" said the former marine "I know ya want me ta relax but-! But I don't wanna feel USELESS!"

Gene felt the hair on the back of his neck rise "DEAR. I can assure you we are not USE-!"

"Young lady, its fine!" said Mary as she jumped in, preventing the Mayor from speaking out of term "This is your HOME so-!"

"No, I mean it, ma'am! I'll go NUTS if I don't do somethin'!"

Mary and Felicia exchanged looks, Calhoun peering over at both.

"Well…."

"Well, what?"

"Do you think…." Mary said as she looked at the gender-swapped heroes "Do you think, just this once, that Calhoun can hand out pies?"

Gene blanched "Really?!"

Felicia looked over at her wife "Wait, ya want Tammy ta hand out pies?"

"My thoughts EXACTLY!"

The little blond Nicelander nodded her head, a determined look on her face "Yes! Yes, if it'll help!"

"Okay….but remember, you're tha one who agreed on this." Said Felix "I know it might look easy, but-!"

"Felix-! Felicia…Honey, don't worry about it! I think handin' out pies will be pretty easy!"

The other Nicelander said nothing, turning their heads and folding their hands together.

If only Calhoun had noticed the looks on their faces.

"Gene, don't you DARE say anything to that!"

"Why would you assume I'd say a word, DEAR MARY?"

"Good." Smiled Felicia "An' once this is over, I promise ya'll we'll go see Demitri! Cross my hammer!"

"Fine…" said the little Nicelander "But…."

"Yeah?"

Calhoun looked down at herself again, shaking her head.

"If I'm gonna work here can ya at least get me inta somethin' that looks….DECENT? This dress looks AWFUL!"

"'Bout time someone agreed with that sentiment!" said Nel, Calhoun jumping back a bit "What does that vampire think we are? We have much better fashion sense than THIS!"

Nel took a hold of the skirt, frowning.

"Urgh, just like people here! They think just because we're OLD-SCHOOL we have NO TASTE! Maybe I should join ya in kickin' his butt for makin' ya prance around in this!"

"Um, Nel?"

"C'mon, Tammy!" the little Nicelander said as she took Calhoun by her hand and lead her away "I'll get ya somethin' decent that'll even make your boys turn their heads!"

"Hey, SHE'S MARRIED NEL!" cried Felicia "D-Don't go too far with her now!"

Nel turned and stuck her tongue out "Oh, repairman of lil faith! You'll be singin' a different tune once I'm done!"

Calhoun turned back towards Felicia, having never shown a look of fear on her face before "Deeear?"

And then the lot were gone, leaving only the hero and bad-girl in the hall. Roxie said nothing, her hands behind her back as a small tune was whistled.

"So…."

Felicia looked up "Yes?"

"Hmph…" The wrecker said, rolling her eyes "How long till the fireworks begin?"

Felicia looked at her watch "Hmmmm….first quarter drop. Five minutes in. I betcha."