Temperance woke up the next morning feeling different. It wasn't a hangover, she knew that much. She hadn't had quite enough sake for one. And she knew what a hangover felt like, despite what Booth may have thought. She had allowed herself to "cut loose" plenty of times...she just didn't do it with the reckless abandon that Booth and his friends seemed to have. Nevertheless, she felt odd, as if she had awoken to find herself in another skin, switched during the night and making her feel all topsy turvy.
'I sound like Alice in Wonderland.' Her muddled brain thought.
She tried to run a mental checklist, to see if she could figure out just what was out of place, but nothing came to mind, most likely because her mind was still half asleep. She twisted around, her bare feet hitting the cold floor. She made her way to the bathroom, still trying to shake the cobwebs from her gray matter. Only, when she pulled open the door, she found herself walking into a row of hanging skirts and shirts.
Apparently someone had, in the middle of the night, turned her bathroom into her closet.
Realizing just how silly that sounded, Temperance looked around. She opened her eyes fully for the first time to discover that she was not in her apartment to begin with.
She honestly wasn't sure where she was.
It was like a ritzy, futuristic hotel room. Like the Waldorf, but without the nutela-filled gold caramel apples. 'Because, let's face it, I'd get one if I could,' she thought. Everything was made of metal and plastic, though both looked nothing like they should have. The bed was spartan. However, the sheets were rumpled enough to prove that she had been sleeping in this place for more than a few minutes.
'Was I really that buzzed?' she wondered. Temperance tried to remember exactly what had happened the night before, but the
last memory she held onto featured her slapping Booth's hand away as he tried to steal her napkin.
Temperance realized that if she hoped to solve this new little mystery, she would have to prioritize. Pausing to make sure no one was watching, she gave her armpit a very un-Temperance-like sniff.
'Shower first,' she decided.
Letting the slip she was wearing fall to the ground, Temperance's nude form breezed through the room till she finally found the bathroom. She flicked on the light and shielded her eyes from their brightness. She leaned down, startled to find that the shower had no knobs, merely a computer screen. Coming to the conclusion that she was too sleepy to even figure that out, she went to the sink to splash some water on her face.
She never got a chance to do so, though, as she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.
The reflection that stared at her was not her own.
Her eyes were a deep steel gray, and huge, taking up most of her face. They were able to do so because her nose was almost nonexistent, barely even able to be called a 'button nose'. Her mouth was tiny, but what little there was to it was puffy and red, as if bee-stung. Her hair was drastically different as well. Dark brown, with electric blue bangs that covered her forehead, her ponytail now reached just below her tailbone.
Speaking of her butt, Temperance didn't remember it being so...round, nor so firm. Oh, Temperance knew she had a nice behind, plenty of men had said so, but looking at the globes that lay before her, or rather behind her, she wondered if she could truly bounce a quarter off their firm flesh.
The size of her waist should have been impossible. There was no way all of her internal organs could fit inside her torso with such a tiny waist. Unless, of course, they packed up and moved north, deciding to take up residence in her breasts. At least that would explain their immensely drastic increase in size. It was amazing she hadn't noticed them immediately, considering it was as if two bowling balls had suddenly grafted themselves to her chest. If they made size K bras, they still wouldn't be big enough.
It also occurred to her that she was further from the floor than before. Taking a moment to gauge herself, she realized that, apparently, she had grown eight inches overnight, making her roughly 6'4". Her long shapely legs ended in tiny feet that should be in no way able to help her balance. Long, graceful fingers that tapered into slim tips ran along her bare stomach, marveling at her skin. Not a single flaw could be found, be it blemish or mole. It looked as if her skin had been airbrushed, only in real life.
Temperance found herself hyperventilating, her mind working in overdrive to figure out just what had happened to her. How, in the span of a few hours, she had changed from her normal self into this...this...impossible vision. She looked more like the male fantasy of the female form than a true woman.
"Hey Bones, you in there?"
Booth. Temperance was not one to believe in God, but right now she felt like dropping to her perfectly sculpted knees and thanking him. That is, assuming she could clasp her hands around her mammoth breasts. It didn't matter to her that she looked like a cross between a porn star and Wonder Woman. Right now, she needed her partner's help, to have him figure out why she had suddenly experienced a second puberty that involved changing hair color and giant eyes.
Struggling to get her slip back on, she called out to him that she would be but a moment. She realized, much to her surprised, that she was managing this body quite well. By all accounts, she should be stumbling about, her center of gravity thrown into the trash due to her new longer legs, thin waist and monstrous melons. But instead, she glided through the room like a champion ice dancer, even the most modest of her movements both graceful and sexual.
Deciding that dwelling on this new piece of information would overload her already taxed brain, Temperance moved towards the door and threw it open. "Ok Booth, I know I look different-"
That was as far as she got.
Booth was standing before her. She would know him anywhere.
But, apparently, whatever had made her change into this new form was contagious, as Booth had caught it as well.
His deep brown hair didn't have the streaks like she had, other than some darker slashes, but it was now much longer, almost 5 inches high and sticking up 3 inches past his forehead. His eyes, a stunning shade that could only be called 'electric' were not as big as hers, but were still huge, though they were half lidded. His nose, though, had also shrunk, while his lips had all but disappeared, replaced by at best a thin line.
His shoulders were broad, much broader than she remembered, and his body rippled with muscles. She could see the veins popped out through his skin even as he breathed, the flesh of his 6 foot 9 frame just as perfect as hers. His left hand alone looked strong enough to twist her bed into a pretzel, if he so chose.
He still had on his normal dress shirt and tie, though his 'Cocky' belt buckle was now in Japanese. Her eyes wandered from his left side to his right, and she could not stop the horrified gasp that burst from her bee-stung lips.
Booth's right arm was gone.
Oh, there was something there, all right. But it wasn't flesh and blood. Starting at his shoulder, where his dress shirt's sleeve had been ripped away, was a robotic arm, just as massive as his left, real arm, only covered in glowing blue lines that were a mockery of veins. Panels and switches lined his limb, and she could detect a small servo whining slightly as he reached up with the cool metal to brush a lock from her face.
"You look the same to me," He said, before leaning down and giving her a toe curling kiss. After a minute they pulled apart, and he said, "Get dressed, Bones, we've got a case. The High Commander and Lieutenant want to see us in ten minutes." He closed the door, leaving her alone to get dressed, still befuddled from the kiss and everything else that had just happened.
'High Commander and Lieutenant?' she thought, confused. Then she remembered, and she wasn't sure how she remembered this, as she had never known this to begin with, that they were not in the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington D.C., or her apartment, or even a hotel. They were, in fact, on an airship; The CS Jeffersonian. She had no idea how she knew that, only that she did. A thought came to her, unbidden, and with it hope that she wasn't crazy. 'This is too much like my dream in which I was Wonder Woman.' Her mind played over that little adventure, and shuddered slightly. 'Let's just hope I do not run into the Joker again.'
Still confused, but at least glad she now had a hypothesis for what was happening, she opened the closet she had thought was her bathroom, and discovered that all of her clothes had been replaced. Instead of the sensible and comfortable pants suits, there was a veritable rainbow of plaid micro mini-skirts, black knee high boots with 4 inch stiletto heels, tiny white blouses with hardly any buttons, and a few black jackets of differing styles.
She grabbed a shirt and a blue skirt and went to the dresser, only to discover...no bras. 'In what kind of world would I not have a bra?' she thought, opening the next drawer. 'The same kind of world where Booth has a robotic arm, I have huge breasts and blue hair and, apparently, wear thongs with skirts.' She rummaged through the drawer some more, trying to find a pair of underwear that was more appropriate, and failing miserably. All thongs, no bras, big butt, giant breasts. 'Definitely a man's fantasy, rather than real life.' She sighed resignedly and dressed in the skimpy outfit. She chose a shiny leather coat that reached the floor, but only zipped from the waist to about halfway up her chest. 'Just perfect,' she thought, staring down at the massive flesh pillows that were preventing her from seeing her own feet.
After she dressed, she ran a brush through her hair (which should've taken longer than it did, considering it's increase in length) and left. Booth was still waiting for her in the hall, and considering that the memories that seemed to be popping into her head were being quiet for the moment, she decided to just follow him, and hope he would not notice her wide, startled eyes. Thus, she left the safety of the room and journeyed onto the ship's bridge, pressed like some pervert's wet dream and following her best-friend-turned-cyborg.
Mr Chaos' Note: Well, Temperance has gone down the rabbit hole, and it looks like she got a few "Upgrades" before she found the bottom. Sarah and I are both hoping that a fan who has some skill at drawing will do some pictures for the story, showcasing Manga-Temperance, Manga-Booth and the others that are too come.
Next time, we meet the rest of the crew of the CS Jeffersonian...as well as the High Commander and his Lt.
