In early 1925 the Casper High and Casper Colegiate boys hockey

teams were playing on the old millpond.The roads were icy that day

and the Louvers car skidded off the road and plunged through the ice

to the bottom of the pond seven feet below.

A few seconds later Mr Louvers struggled to the surface and

the boys all eagerly rushed to save him.They did so and when his wife

and five flapper daughters popped to the surface he screamed to the

boys to save his family.

As his wife and daughters started thrashing and drowning,he watched

in horror as his rescuers lifted not a finger to rescue the rest of his family.

That was the talk of Canada in 1925 and it was obvious that

kids needed some serious attitude adjustments when it came to

how they viewed the other sex.In 1928 legislation was passed which made

it mandatory for high school and collegiate students to take at least

one course normally tailored for members of the opposite gender

in order to graduate.

I managed to get through high school by taking a course on auto

mechanics retooled for girls and women.I then proceeded to enroll at

Casper Womens University and forgot all about the Louvers gender

Education Act till the fall of 1935.

i was due to graduate in the spring of 36,but foolish me,forgot to

enroll in time.Hence by the time I started looking for courses meeting the

requirements of the LGEA they were all filled.Period.And they were all

fall courses.Which meant I'd have to take them in the fall of 36 which

meant a graduation date of 37.

I'd already been offered a position at Casper Motors,but I had

to have that University degree by the spring of 36.And in those days

decent job offers for women students were far and few between.

I'd heard tales of the female owner of Cm,the Lady in White.She'd taken a

rundown buggy whip factory and turned it into a powerhouse that had

nearly driven Henry Ford bankrupt.Her friends called her Maserischetta,her

enemies respectfully called her the Dragon Princess.

And when I'd gotten that Invitation Letter from her secretary I'd

nearly died from sheer joy.The thought that one day I'd be wielding

power like hers made me drool in anticipation.

I was seeing 6 years of careful planning going down in flames

because of one stupid half semester course.My ship had sunk

after coming in.I was desperate.So I looked for less legal means to

fufill the Louvers Gender Education Act requirement.

I talked to other students at the CWU pub about other methods of

getting that credit.There were other means available,but your parents had to

be filthy rich like Samantha Manson or politically connected like

Pauline Starks dad.That wasn't a realistic option for me yet.

I racked my brain for names of people I'd known over the years

who I knew hadn't got a LGEA course yet had still got a CWU dipoma.

There was Amanda Spectre,Marcy Spectre ,Valerie Spectre,Rose Spectre

and Gina Spectre.Five sisters .And I'd attended Marcy's graduation

two years earlier.She's got a job at Casper Motors.

I had nothing to lose so I called her up and after the usual

washroom talk laid out my desperate she help me?

Perhaps extend my job offer for another year.The line went silent

for several seconds and I thought she'd hung up.My hands were

shakng.

Then she replied

" Hmmmm,so Masery,your grandmums last name was Gers.Was she

German by any chance?"

" Why yes she was,as was my granddad.Though what has this to

do with anything?"

" Well Masery,haven't you noticed that you and the Lady in White have

a similar first name.Casper is a germanic word by the way.The

Lady in White has a soft spot for German stuff.I'll see what I can do.I

wouldn't go away from that phone for the next few hours if I were you"

I didn't and three hours later the phone rang.The voice sounded foreign,

sounded Russian.He asked if he was speaking to Maserischetta Gers,and

for a second I was about to say " No,this is Masery Gerdes"

I quickly realized this was the contact Marcy Spectre had arranged

and instead said " Yes,this is she"

" Be at the south corner of 10th and Cosmo Way at 9 sharp."

It was the meeting I needed.I rushed to the corner

I'd been directed to.On 9 sharp I heard the deep rumble of a

engine and watched in awe as a 1916 Czar Cruiser glided down the

street towards me.Czar cruisers are rare rare rare.15 cylinder ,chain drive

and a passenger compartment big enough to hold three wedding in.it had

to be the Lady in White.I doubted anyone else in all of Canada,let alone

Lucan could afford one.

The Cruiser came to a quiet stop beside me and a looked as the big tall

Russian driver got out ,openned a passenger door and motioned me to

get inside.I just stood there with my mouth open for a few seconds.

But then I remembered I was a lady,courtsied to him and got in.

In the seat facing me sat the Lady in White,Maserischetta,the

Dragon Princess.

I didn't know whether to kiss her slippers,address her or what.She must

have noticed my tied up tongue and offered me her petite hand.

" Hi,my names Masery" she said

" Wow,my names Masery as well"

That broke the ice and after she'd gotten me to open up a little on

my problems and family history,she handed me a old fashioned

looking document written in fancy looking letters.I noticed on the

bottom was a spot with my name printed

on it and the words "Societia Schlagen jungfrau"

Before we went further she asked me to sign it.She was about to

reveal some corporate secrets to me.Along with other things the document

contained a clause allowing her recourse if I repeated our conversation to

anyone else.

I signed the document .Though I didn't know it at that time,I'd just

put my name down in the middle of a very complex incantation.

She slid open a door in the cars interior and put the document in the

small safe I saw there.Then she took out a reel of movie film and told

me if I wanted to back out now was the time to do so.So far all I

knew was that she went about at night in a fancy car.Not something

she considered a top corporate secret.

However once I watched the movie she was putting on the

little in car projector,I was one of hers,and backing out would be

impossible to do.She told me to think it over while she threaded

the film through the projector.

I swallowed nervously,but when my minute of thinking was up,I

agreed to stay and she flipped on the projectors bulb.While the moving

images flickered along the back of the car she narrated the slent film.

" You just signed a document admitting the signatory into the

Society of Snake Virgins.You've probably read about us here and

there,but generally we're a scretive sisterhood.

Though the notion that women are a seperate race from men is now

generally accepted in society,that was not always the case.However

there are plenty of myths and tales that suggest women are descended

from some common snaky super protowoman ancestor.

There is the tale of Adam,Eva and Eve for example.God created

Adam and Eva.A snake came along,gobbled up Eva and introduced

herself to Adam as Eve.His classic responsr was" You're not a local

girl,are you?"

Then when Charles Darwin studied the rash of paternity suits in Europe

in the mid 19th century he discovered the number of women bearing daughters

with no resemblance to their supposed fathers was too great to be ignored.His

conclusion was that the women were reproducing themselves,with no

contribution from the menfolk.

That led to his theory of parallel evolution.Bascally around the

time the dinosaurs died out a new reptillian creature came along and

evolved into the race of women while the apes evolved into the race

of man.

So all women are descended from some reptillian ancestor.That was

all fine and good,and was a great incentive to create secret societies such

as Societia Schlagen jungfrau.

The major breakthrough happenned about 30 years ago when German and

Scottish scientists found traces of a asteroid that had come to Earth

around the same time the dinosaurs died out.In its fragments they found green

glowing crystals they called Eragonite.And in one huge fragment they found the

bones of a huge 6 limbed reptillian creature that looked an awful lot like

the dragons described in childrens fairy tales.

The Societia was very interested in these discoveries and we

realized those bones could very well be those of our ancestor: the snake

turned woman named Eve.

So we collected,bought and stole al the asteroid fragments as they

surfaces.As you can imagine other parties were also interested in these

relics and at present there are three groups conducting experiments with

Eragonite and other materials from the mother asteroid.Naturally the

asteroid was nicknamed Eve.

Close as we can tell there's no genetic similarity between female

homo sapiens and Eve the reptile.However in this next part of the

film you can see some early experiments conducted by a Dr Moriarty,who

used to work for Casper Motors.

Giving injections of powdered Eragonite to men and women worker

test subjects had no effect.So Moriarty decided to see if the phrase

" Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" had any practical applications.

He got all the women mad as Hades,then gave half of them a shot of Eragonite

and asked them all to perform a variety of tasks.

As you can see,the control subjects simply glower at the camera.

Wheras the treated subjects suddenly became more agile,more sinuous

in their movement,better able to manipulate all four limbs as well as their

neck .

The Societia immediately recognized the possibilities Moriarty

had shown us.Workers on a assembly line who could use their entire

body to handle tools.Just as long as they were angry women of course."

At that point the film ran off the empty reel and the lady in White left me

to my own thoughts while she rewound the film.

I considered the ramifications of what she'd shown me.A labourer

who could double the number of tools they could handle due to Eragonite.

A compound which allowed a worker to continue performing the job even through

a haze of angry emotions.Anger which pumped adrenaline and other strength

enhancing hormones into their bloodstream.A superwoman worker!

Suddenly the car pulled over beside a foggy curbside.The door swung

open and a little spectacled man in a lab coat got in beside me.I recognized

him from the film.It was Dr Moriarty.He greeted the Lady in White and she

introduced me to him

" Henry,I want you to meet Masery Gerdes.She just joined our organization

but has the family background you'd be interested in"she purred" And don't

worry,Bartholamew Stark doesn't know you and I are meeting.Boris shook off

that Fenton snitch he sent to spy on us.

They chatted and I slowly pieced together what was going on.The Lady in

White was the head of the first group working on the Eve asteroid relics.Dr

Henry Moriarty WAS the second group,and Bartholomew Stark,mayor of

Casperville,was the leader of the third group.

The two of them kept muttering to each another

" How is Starks Elektrowomen project going"

" I hear he has 33 robots built,but needs more Eragonite and skeletal

residue to power the positronic chest units"

" Our supplies are secure.However if he sends Elektrowomen to raid

your lab,think they can break in?"

" Hmmm,maybe.Got any guards you can lend me?"

" Sorry,not at the moment.How about using your Eragonite genetic enhancer?

Wasn.t it ready for its first trial?"

" Its ready,but my assistant walked out when I suggested she might want to

donate her body for the benefit of womankind.I doubt I could find another

lady with the right family history on such short notice"

" What family line were you looking for"

" An old German line from the north country by the surname Gers!"

" Hmmm,ohhhhhhh!"

And so I ended up stretched out naked under a metallic sheet

on a 20 foot diameter platform ,

shackled and with a 10 ton Eragonite chronotron sitting 10 feet above me

and pointing at my belly all because granny was a Gers.

Dr Moriarty was polite enough to look away from my bust as he explained

what he was about to do to me.

" Over here I have a X ray unit scanning this platform.The platform

is all lead and a Picture cathode up there can record your skeletal

image as well as a faint outline of your insides.I doubt much will happen

to you physically but the X rays should tip us off if something does.Your

skeleton is being compared to a scan taken 15 seconds earlier and will

buzz if something starts to alter"

" I've taken off your clothes because they are organic and might

contain contaminats.The light metallic sheet covering you is inorganic,

hence genetically sterile.We wouldn't want you sprouting leaves or

a beard now,would we."

" As Maserischetta already told you there is no genetic similarity

between you and the Eve skeleton.Thats good or right now you'd be a

rather toothy reptile rather than a lovely young woman."

" Thats bad because the Eragonite was designed to be its most effective

in such a creatures metabolism.Hence the superwoman workers we've

created so far are only unlocking a small fraction of the potential the

Eragonite offers them."

"What I've discovered is that after the asteroid landed the local plants

absorbed some of the genetics from the lifeforms aboard the alien rock.

However after 60 million years most of the plants perished.All except for

one lowly plant grown in northern Germany and Britain,the Kale plant.

Which was a staple in the diet of your German ancestors.Which means you're

a bit more like Eve than most women.I'd guess a shot of Eragonite which

doubles the strength of a normal woman would probably increase your

speed ,strength,stamina and agility ten fold."

" Which if Bartholomew's Elektrowomen decide to pay us a visit,could

come in handy"

The original Eve was fossilized after 60 million years.Just inorganic rock.

So the only genetic remnants of the original Eve were in Kale plants and

woman like me with Oma's named Gers.However just in case I needed a boost

Dr Moriarty planned to give me small controlled shots of a Kale serum till

results were obtained.Being ever the scientist he took the 100 ml

syringe and gave me a 5ml shot.

He didn't expect anything to happen and nothing did.

So he switched the Eragonite chronotron onto low power and slowly

the Eragonite flowed into me.

We could both hear some banging and crashing outside and the doctor

hesitated for a few seconds before giving me another 5ml injection.

He'd put 20 ml into me when the

CLANK

CLANK

CLANK

could be heard in the distance.He told me to stay quiet while he

checked things.He came back a few minutes later and assured me nothing

was wrong.However he switched the Eragonite chronotron's settings and the feelings of my belly being pushed down while the

machines greenish light beam warbled and shook the air suggested

I was thoroughly overdosing on eragonite.

Then HE came in at the head of a army of 33 eight foot tall

robots vaguely hourglass shaped.On the raised chest of each glowed a

eragonite crystal.The white haired kid in the black jumpsuit barked orders

to the robowomen and half of them clanked off and out of my sight.

Moriatiary screamed

" Fenton,you know not what you do"

The kid raised a rifle and with a

ppft

I saw the dart plunge into Moriarty's neck

He slumped over me unconcious and I felt all the rest of the

syringes contents gush into my heart at the same time the needle

hit a nerve in a heart muscle.

Pain and fire burned in my chest just before it exploded outwards into its

much bigger scaly shape.

I barely had time for the thought

" I'm turning into Eve"

before the X ray alarm started announcing with its alarm

siren that the subjects skeleton had altered.

That got a

" Ohhhhhhh nooooogrrrraaaoooooaaaaarrr"

before my thoughts ceased to be human and my dangling forked

tongue caught my attention as it squelched longer out

of my creaking elongating jaws.

My spine stretched out

and I could feel my tail begin to twitch as my reforming brain told it

to flick off the switch for the manacles holding my enlarging

legs in place.

A few seconds later I no longer knew what a " switch" was

and merely sucked in my breath and flew a whitish fire onto the

offending thing.

The platform creacked under my rapidly increasing weight and

I barely noticed Moriarty rising on my rapidly mutating

torso.

Then it was done and I swatted away the annoying glowing green

tube only a foot or four from my belly.

I roared,grunted and unfurled my lovely wings.I grabbed the doctor

as I rolled onto my feet and paws off the platform.I could see the

crystals of eragonite forming under my blue scaly hide,and they looked

pretty.

I was dimly aware that now not only was I thoroughly saturated by

eragonite,but as new glowing crystals appeared in my skin

that my alien reptillian body was now metabolizing the stuff into

existence.

Which made me a very desirable comodity.Probably even more so

than the hairless ape I was clutching in my paws.

I became aware of other things too with my alien thoughts.A compound

which could allow action in a raging beast

with a brain smaller then my previously human one

would also allow a thoughtless

mechanical robot to have a semblance of intelligence.

The Fenton kid was directing his army of Elektrowomen towards me.

It seems the ant had figured out I was a prize worth taking.

I roared,got my vocal cords sorted out and in a deep drum beat

grunted

" Not yet apeboy"

and sprang through the roof of the lab with Moriarty in my claws into the

night.

And that the story of how I went from worrying about

graduating from CWU to worrying about whether my

talons and teeth were sharp enough

all in one night.