Ri2: Whose DNA indeed? Thank you for asking! This chapter will answer. ( though, if you've played Command Mission Axl does copy Rafflesian's DNA who is most definitely female… and the fact that he did that is going to be ignored for the purposes of this story )
Heh, yeah, most definitely a writer's block story. Short, pointless… and crappy. Yet fun to write.
"What!" Shrieking loudly, Axl slid off of the table and grabbed the smaller girl's shoulders, giving her a good shake. "I'm female and you don't know of any way to reverse it!"
"I'd be a bit more concerned as to how you suddenly turned female and didn't notice." Scowling, the boy-turned-girl glanced towards the doorway to see Marino standing there, grinning much like the Cheshire Cat. She sauntered into the female, green hair bouncing with every step. "I mean, you're not stacked, not like I am. Or like Cinnamon… or any of the female reploids for that matter." She paused and blinked.
"… your point?"
"That's right!" Snapping her fingers, Marino walked over to Axl and pressed her finger against his nose. "How could you not notice that you had breasts? And not notice that you shrunk a good six inches?"
It was true, Axl realized with much chagrin. Marino used to be slightly shorter than him and now the girl towered over him. And she was 'stacked', to use her own words. "S'not fair. I get turned into a girl and I don't even have big boobs."
"You should be glad you don't. You probably wouldn't know what to do with them." He made a face at Pallette as the girl moved out of his grip and walked over to a computer console. "Axl, like I said before, your DNA copy ability is highly unstable. Unless we can somehow manage to figure out how this happened we have no hope of ever reversing it."
"So can't you just figure out what happened?"
"Didn't you listen to what the girl just said, squirt?" Marino smacked the back of Axl's head none too gently. "Your copy ability is unstable, duh. It's not like there's a list of procedures she should just follow. Anything could have happened." She frowned suddenly and grabbed Axl's chin, twisting the boy-girl's head around and forcing him to look at her. "Say something. Anything."
"Something! Anything!"
"Your voice didn't change."
"Which makes sense." Both turned to look at Pallette, who was busy typing away at her computer. "This means that it was DNA that you had absorbed that mixed with your own DNA. It wasn't something completely alien. So, Axl… what females have you copied?"
The boy sputtered and blushed while Marino put him in a headlock. "I… I haven't! I would never copy a female! I swear!"
"Liar. Your body says you are." Digging her knuckles into the top of his head, Marino proceeded to give Axl the worst noogie of his life. "Spill it you runt! And if you dare say you've copied my DNA or Cinnamon's I'm going to make sure you never get your balls back!"
"I really haven't though!"
The navigator sighed and nodded. "I think he's telling the truth, Marino." The thief stared at her and opened her mouth to object; Pallette cut her off: "All the DNA that Axl absorbs gets… recycled after too long a perioid of time. If he uses it frequently then it stays but other than that it's gone. Female DNA breaks down almost immediately after being absorbed by him since he's male and that's too alien so that couldn't have been in his system long enough."
"Aww man." Letting Axl go, Marino put her hands on her hips and glared at Pallette's back. "Then what, did he copy a hermaphrodite or something?"
"… I believe so. Look, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to reexamine your blood and figure just who's DNA is in there. From there I should be able to work out how this happened and then maybe I can come up with some sort of cure. But this is going to take time Axl. Like probably over a month." Pallette looked over her shoulder at the dejected orange-haired boy. "So I think, at least for the time being, you need to be a girl. You need to not be Axl and be… your female counterpart."
"Oh so what, instead of being called Axl you're going to call me Alice?" The boy, er, girl snapped angrily. Marino grinned.
"That's a perfect name for you! Alice the Maverick Hunter. C'mon." Grabbing the girl's hand, the thief ignored the glare-of-death she was getting. "If you're a girl then you need girl clothing. Like bras and panties and ooh, let's go shopping!"
As if Ax- Alice's day could get any worse.