Ripped Open (The Infected: Ripped to Shreds Book 2)

by P. S. Power

  “Lauren? This is amazing! I totally didn’t recognize you earlier. I should have, you have the same voice.” He didn’t let go for a long time, until Karen added herself to the mix, holding both the blue man and the new lady.

  That got him to back away, since Karen was kind of off limits. Her first mode made her too vulnerable to needy people, and if that wasn’t Dave, the man didn’t know who it would be.

  It was nearly oppressive, he was so down on himself.

  “Um… Anyway, we should…” The guy was about to say something about getting the others off to dinner, when Cin interjected.

  “You two should get together, later tonight. Call it nine, at Dave’s room? Right now, we need to raid your closet, if that’s all right Karen? Really, if you can get away, you should come with us. Lauren can stay here and hug Dave some more.” She really wanted to, and the man wasn’t averse to the idea himself.

  It hadn’t been a thing that he’d ever really considered too much, Level being armored and not able to do much with a normal man. Not before. Lauren, for her part, had daydreamed about the guy often enough that she simply smiled at him. There was no turning red either, and she at least, knew what Cindy was getting at.

  “That sounds fun. Tonight though? I… Should stick with Sara for now. At nine?” She looked hopeful enough that Cindy wasn’t shocked to read about the fact that she figured out that Dave might want her. For some reason.

  “That… I’d love to. See you then?” He figured that he was going to be stood up, but didn’t want to be the one to ruin things. After all, Lauren was his friend, and even if she was too good for him now, looking all normal, that had to mean something.

  Besides that, Cin had totally hooked him up once, and that had worked out really well. Doubting her at the moment sounded like a stupid thing to do.

  Karen, as if she’d been invited to do more than play dress up, clapped her hands, and moved them out of the room at a fast walk. As they covered ground, toward the nice apartments, since Lady Glory wasn’t put in gen-pop with the rest of the heathens, the redheaded ex-Olympian rubbed her hands a little and seemed suddenly very pleased with things.

  “So, Sara, what did you have in mind?” There was a sweetness and innocence to the words that carried from the popular and famous woman. Even if she hadn’t been doing well for a few months, after being shown to have a drinking problem, she was still mainly a good person.

  All of her words, inside and out, showed that to be the case. In the moment she clearly wanted to make the girl with them comfortable.

  Even if she wasn’t totally up on the idea that she was really seven years old. Oh, she’d been told all about it, and even knew that it was Sara that everyone had been talking about. That didn’t mean her mind was willing to fill in that the adult seeming orc was actually a child.

  Cindy half expected the shy girl to not be able to come up with anything, but a picture formed in the book above her, that was decently clear, to be honest. She was taking into account what Cin had said too, and realized that there was some use in it. Being older was safer in general. She kind of did that in her current form, but having a pretty one that was old would work too, a bunch of the time. Big enough to fight, but the kind of normal seeming person that others seemed to instantly like and respect.

  That meant big, powerful, and pretty.

  Large compared to her first form. Kids got beaten, but adults almost never did. Though there it was far more important to be powerful, rather than large. No one messed with Bridget after all, and she was little, for an adult. Cindy was too, really. So was Rachel.

  Lauren, who used to be all brown and about nine feet tall seemed to be about the right size though. Karen was that big as well. Neither of them seemed that tough in a fight though, the way they were at the moment. Karen could kind of change shape too, when she was Lady Glory. She was all glowy and blue then, which both scared some people and seemed really pretty to them.

  Cindy watched as the girl worked through what would be needed. Someone pretty, so that people would like her, but also really strong. Like Bridget, but bigger, and different looking, so that no one would confuse them. As she worked it out, a lot of things came together for her in an instant. Subconsciously. Basically she copied what the other girl had going on, as far as physical powers went, without knowing that it was happening. It was impressive, but got Cin to shake her head as they walked.

  “Don’t go too powerful on this one. Keep your strength and toughness about like it is now, so that you don’t scare anyone. I like the rest of it though. Maybe a blonde?” She was playing on that part, and waved at her own hair, and then as an afterthought, her eyes. “Go green instead of blue though? I always liked green eyes.” She grinned to show she was kidding about that, as the large green orc girl nodded.

  “S’okay. I thinksh I’s gots it.” She wanted to get inside first, since regardless of how neat her powers might be for shape changing, she didn’t do her own clothing.

  Karen patted her on the shoulder, and smiled at her hugely.

  “Don’t make yourself look too old, either. You aren’t trying to get a date, after all. Which… We should get you some friends around your own age…”

  They didn’t need a key to get into Karen’s room. Just her thumb print. That, or one of the other people that were set up to invade her space whenever they felt the need. That was Brian, Georgia, and Svetlana. The last one had put herself into the system for it so that she could walk in, day or night, and shake the famous woman down for booze if it came up. So far it hadn’t been needed, but it was a great threat to have hanging over her.

  The only people that could get into her little room were Marcia, and for some reason, Bridget. It kind of made sense, given that the girl lived right next door, and probably had to consider that she might have been needed to kill Cindy at one point.

  That, or she was working up to a late night booty call slash ambush. It would be a little awkward though, but she’d hinted at wanting to be friends, more than once. Some of those had indicated that being extra cuddly might just be in the cards. Mainly due to the girl’s first mode. Impulse was kind of prone to doing what seemed fun to her. Not that she didn’t have near total control of that portion of herself now.

  The room that Karen got, just for being herself, was nice. It was about five times larger than the space that she had, if they included Bridget’s room at the same time. The interior decorating was a lot less military, and more nice hotel than what they had, too. Interestingly Sara and Lauren were both impressed, but not upset about the difference in what they were given, compared to her. Cindy didn’t bother, knowing that there were actually plans in place to give them all a bit more that way.

  The kid just figured that children were lucky to get beds. She didn’t have to share her room either, and there were no mice or rats. That made it practically a palace to her.

  Lauren had a larger space, true, but it was in the basement of the main apartment building, had a special entrance and the bed was made of concrete. So was her sofa. It had made sleeping the night before difficult. Then, she was hard as heck on any kind of regular bed, or had been. So she didn’t have any grudges to bear that way. She’d been special needs, and those had been met about as well as anyone could have really. Now she was going to need a regular room.

  That night, probably. Well, she could sleep with Dave, and use him for a soft bed for the evening.

  Sara didn’t act all coy, simply removing her tan fatigues, which were sized for a small giant. Even the underwear came off, showing several things. One of them was that the girl, though young, was aware of what a real woman was supposed to look like under her clothing. She was muscular, but the rest of her green body just seemed powerful, and adult. Complete with hair in the right places.

  Which meant that she’d been either exposed to naked adult women, or her power had worked out what others had going on under their clothing at a level that involved grooming as well as biology. That part wasn’t
impossible, but didn’t seem all that likely, either. Thankfully Cindy didn’t have to see whatever that had been about. The girl was busily putting together her new look as they tried not to watch her too closely.

  Finally, she closed her eyes, hoping that no one was going to get mad at her over what came next. Not due to the fact that she could take other shapes, but that she actually knew how to do it. Big Sara had been built on purpose, to protect her. Now she needed another version, so that she could blend in.

  What happened next was interesting to watch. The woman shrank, in all respects, and became a light tan color. Darker than anyone else in the room, but she looked like a white person otherwise. The hair turned a rather nice golden blonde after a few moments, and shrank to a bit past shoulder length. The breasts didn’t shrink much however, which was probably a mistake all things considered.

  In the end they had what looked like an incredibly stacked, but otherwise thin girl that was curvy at the hips. A sex bomb, in short. One who looked to be about fifteen. Part of that was down to how tall she was. A near perfect five-seven or so.

  Cindy smiled at her.

  “Make the breasts a bit smaller? Say about what Karen has going on? Bring in the hips a bit as well. Then we can sell you as a tall thirteen-year-old. That should work, really. You set up the strength and speed to match Bridget?” There were no power blasts, or flight capability, but the pattern in her head matched that, and the other girl’s invulnerability.

  Sara looked down, a bit sheepishly. Her eyes were big, and popped rather dramatically, since it looked like she had makeup on already. In short, even looking that young, she was on dangerous ground. Still, no one would be doing anything with her she didn’t want. Even Bridget would be hard pressed to force her to do anything. The issue then would be making sure she knew what was allowed or not. It was clear that no one had talked to her about what was appropriate for an adult to do with her or not. Not there at the IPB.

  Rachel had been meaning to, but hadn’t wanted to admit to killing her friend, Mophrey.

  Karen clapped as the girl resized herself, and suddenly aged down a bit, if in a tall and thin way. That part was really down to her power, which could make her look like almost anything she wanted. It wasn’t designed, perhaps, to copy the exact looks of another person, but the general stuff was all right there. She could have grown armor for instance, or made herself both huge and strong on a level that few could beat. Which she was already aware of. No one else really was yet. Not even Marcia. Just her, and Sara.

  Lauren smiled hugely at the girl.

  “Darn, Sara! We’re going to have to get you a stick to fight the boys off, once you start school. I mean real school, in a few years, not what we’re starting tomorrow.” She did catch on that the little girl had gone from orc to tempting enough that they were going to have to remind all the guys how young she really was.

  Some of the women, too.

  Cindy nodded then, and looked at the girl directly.

  “All right, Sara. This is a good camouflage form, but when you go around the base without one of us, or Bridget, you need to either be your big form, or the little one. Also, no dating, until you turn at least thirteen. That means no sex. You get what I meant there? No extra adult cuddly games. If you do that kind of thing, I’ll know about it, and find the adult who broke the law and kill them. That isn’t negotiable, and you don’t get to be mad about it. Sad, but not angry. It’s your job from now on to tell them no. If they start doing anything, and run away if they won’t stop. It’s part of my job here to punish people that get that kind of thing wrong. I had to kill your friend Brent the other day, because of that. I would have let it slide, if it was just one person, but he’d been forcing other people to have sex with him against their will. You understand the difference? You’re young, so no one can do that with you right now, but it’s always wrong for people to make other people do that kind of thing. So I handled it. Legally, by the way.”

  Then she waited to die.

  If the kid decided to slap at her weakly, Cindy wasn’t going to make it. She was both taller and heavier than Cin was at the moment, and so strong and fast that if a fight broke out, no one would be saving her. Luckily, she didn’t really feel fear. That didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of what would probably happen then.

  Except that Sara didn’t fight her, or even seem upset. Just sad.

  “He died? I didn’t know. He hasn’t been here. You killed him? Because of your firs mode?” She sounded incredibly youthful in that moment, even if the voice itself had transformed along with the rest of her form. Also, she was obviously trying to give Cindy a way out. An excuse for being bad.

  “No, Sara. My first mode is gone. I got a Death Warrant for him, and executed it. I know that you thought he was your friend, because he paid attention to you, but he wasn’t a good person. You have real friends here, even if you don’t know it yet. People willing to lose everything to protect you. I know it won’t mean much to you for a long time, but there are people looking out for you here that you’ve never even met. If you have to be upset with anyone about this though, Mophrey dying, the person that you need to be angry at is me. Do you understand?”

  She nodded, but nothing in her head spoke of rage over it. Then, on some level she knew that it had been wrong. That something about her had made the man do those things with her. That part was written in crayon, but clear enough for Cindy to make out.

  “Nope. As a child you aren’t responsible for that part. Or, well, you weren’t. Now, if you walk around looking like that, you have to be ready to say no, and explain the situation to people. You look pretty, and some people won’t see that you’re as young as you are. Most won’t. Luckily the vast majority of them getting it wrong will be thirteen right now, but you still have to tell them no. Like I said, no dating until you get older. Really, that’s up to Rachel to decide, and she’ll probably be nicer about it than I will, but you need to discuss that with her, all right?”

  Another nod came, and then everyone was silent, until Karen pointed out some clothing that would fit. Undermining what Cindy was trying to do, by dressing the little girl, who didn’t look all that little compared to her age, like she was getting ready to pick up a guy at a bar.

  Lauren, thankfully, managed to get a more modest outfit put together, out of clothing that Karen had for work. It all fit fairly well. Sara was, currently, a good bit thinner than the other woman, but the height and bust size were close enough. Even the shoes fit, which was interesting.

  She got running shoes however, even with the grown up black skirt and blue top. Cindy winked and explained that part.

  “Super speed. If you have to run, we can’t have you falling down. Now, food? We can all go and show off the new looks. It will be fun!” She didn’t know that was the case, but seeming happy and enthused worked with kids, or so she’d heard.

  Karen took her hand, and led her to the door, as Lauren smiled like she was the one that had gotten the makeover. Right until the other two were outside, out of easy earshot. Then she actually hissed, if softly.

  “I can’t believe you told her that! What if she gets upset?” Her tone was entreating, instead of worried. Like she really wanted Cin to think about the consequences. As if she might not have.

  “My name is on the Warrant. I served it, and she has a right to know what will happen if she makes a mistake like that. She’s young, but a good kid, L. She needs to know that just making herself look like she’s twenty won’t make having sex okay. Since she could do that, and fool people into doing things with her, she has to realize what the punishment for them would be. It’s a lot to put on her, but she’s smart and strong enough to do the right thing.” Also listening, even if she were over a hundred feet in front of them.

  The words over her head were really clear that way. She also had a better sense of smell, and could see in the dark better, having picked those up from Bridget as well.

  The power level was so high that Cindy was
nearly certain they needed to hide it. Not just from Sara, either. If the world hated Bridget for being too powerful, they’d really be upset with a seven-year-old that could do all the same things and look like anyone she wanted. More, if she were clever about it all, it was clear that she’d be able to copy any power, eventually. Even the mental ones.

  That probably meant the little orc girl was one of the most powerful, if not the most impressive being on the planet. If Rigs was a scary class eight, then she was probably a class ten.

  Which meant that good parenting was going to be a must. That, or killing her before she got old enough to understand what being her really meant. For the moment though, she just sighed a bit, and kept talking, winking at Lauren.

  “Sara is a good kid. Inside? A lot of bad things have happened to her, but she’s choosing to be both good and strong in response. A hero. The kind of person that protects others. Nothing will break her. Nothing will change that now. Keep that in mind while you teach her. She has a lot to learn, but needs to hold to high standards, so that she can be what she’s already becoming.” It was a strange speech and got the other woman to look at her funny, but she worked out that the kid was listening to them, and was also smart enough not to turn around and stare.

  Instead, the woman who used to be a glum armored walking tank, nodded, moving toward the dining hall, which was closer to the nice apartments than the ghetto they lived in.

  “I know. We’re lucky she came here.” The thing there, was that now that the woman thought about it, she actually meant it.

  It was, after all, more or less true. If she hadn’t been there, she’d have been being abused and beaten, instead of seeing that other people weren’t all evil, all the time. After that part of things was settled for a while, the next trick would be to keep people around her long enough for attachments to form. Then they just had to guide her into being the best Sara possible.