Becoming Monsters: Stay In Vegas 01

This is a story of the Becoming Monsters Universe by AiLoves, setting used with permission.

The idea for this story and these characters comes from Moonwing.

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Chapter 1: Take A Chance

The shoddy grocery store speakers cracked with static. "Cleanup, aisle three," announced a cheery voice.

Heath Martin, already on the way after hearing a glass jar shatter, shook his head as he crawled under the shelves. This was something he was uniquely suited for, being quite slight and flexible, and it often saved him significant amounts of time rather than trying to get to the ends of the often-crowded aisles. Especially towards the beginning of the summer tourist season. Especially now. The Change had struck three years before. That first year was a bust, too many people were too busy not dying to even pretend to enjoy themselves on the Vegas Strip. Second year, similarly, was stuck in recovery mode. Now, though? Year three? The crowds were back, with an absolute vengeance.

Delvers blowing off steam. Families feeling safe enough to travel. College students on break (especially from that new university at Yellowstone). A wide selection of other folks with more money than morals and even less sense than either. With them, the performers and salesmen to prey on their wallets, assorted other scum to prey on their bodies and sensibilities, and a thousand types of people who needed the City of Sin's infamous "look the other way" attitude about their pasts.

All of which, in turn, led to him running into a puddle of pickle juice as he emerged from under the shelves, a sheepish-looking humanoid with a couple of largish claws that the store wasn't designed to accommodate looking at him as he reformed himself. The yellow fluids stained his clear flesh the color of urine, which was not pleasant but was infinitely better than having this happen with actual piss. Heath Martin, Gooey as his friends called him, was a Slime. One as transparent as crystal, called a Glass Slime by the people trying to categorize such things. He wore a brown apron with a name tag on it as his concession to needing a uniform, along with a matching store baseball cap to give people an idea of where his head was when they weren't used to dealing with him, but a certain lack of differentiation made other clothes pointless.

His managers appreciated the fact that he could soak up spilled food without worry, and that he could carry a dustpan around to brush broken glass into. All that the people behind him would need to do is lightly mop up and the aisle was good to go. Some people online claimed that he wouldn't even need the dustpan once he got skilled enough, but after cutting himself and spilling clear goop everywhere a couple of times Heath decided against experimenting further for a while.

Dump the glass in the trash, take a moment to eject some dust bunnies that got soaked up with the pickles, have a metaphorical breather (since he no longer had lungs to do so more literally), and turn once more to the job of stocking shelves. Which, of course, is when the yelling started.

Being more curious than was at all safe had been a theme throughout Heath's life. When he took off running, it was towards the yelling instead of away from it. You know, like his manager, whom he passed on the way. Rounding the corner into produce, the source was obvious. Two men stood between the carrots and the garlic, lit with flickering magic that spilled into the visible spectrum. One, streaked with jagged white lines and smelling of ozone, seemed to have a seizure and explode into a giant ball of electricity. The aisle was wrecked immediately, a lash of lightning nearly struck the Glass Slime. He thankfully had another trick up his sleeve, a shield of Null power that soaked the Lightning up like his body had the pickle juice earlier.

Curiosity assuaged, Heath leapt over to aisle two as the alarms began to blare. Police didn't take long to respond. The store now mostly empty, Heath found his boss wanting him to clean it up. Alone, so that the rest of the store would stay staffed.

The apron and baseball cap made an extremely satisfying thunk hitting the trash can when he quit.

***

"You know why you're back here, Hush. Tell me why. It's not like you ever stop talking unless someone makes you." The Human woman behind the desk was in a dark business suit, a frown on her face and fingers steepled.

In rather direct contrast, the shapely woman standing in front of the desk was covered in dark red fur, had cat ears, and was wearing a skimpy maid costume. The kiss-shaped black marks around her body only emphasized points where lecherous onlookers could leer. "Probably that skeezeball from the beginning of lunch rush." There was an uncomfortable span of about five seconds. This, unfortunately, was about the limit of what Sienna "Hush" Usher could tolerate before continuing. "Seriously! We get creeps all day every day, kinda knew that coming in and I don't mind being ogled. I work in a Catgirl Maid Cafe on the Strip! Heck, been propositioned a time or two, heck of a compliment if you ask me, but you gotta take a few steps before reaching out and groping my butt! No matter how nice a butt it is, and I work hard for it."

The woman in the business suit sighed. Sienna worked hard, looked incredible, and brought lots of tips to the waitress pool. There were just two issues. Her mouth, and... "and how did you respond to this?"

"Oh! That. I just used what the Status gave me to discourage him from repeating himself! It worked, he didn't bug me at all for the rest of the time he was there."

"Sienna, you clawed him." Sienna's claws emerged from her surprisingly-dexterous paw-like hands, bright silver in contrast to the black fur there. Over half an inch of razor sharp terror apiece. "You clawed him across his right wrist, severing his tendons and arteries. The man will require extensive surgery and magical healing to be able to use his dominant hand again, and only the presence of a paramedic at the bar kept him from bleeding out."

"He shouldn't have groped a Nekomata!"

"You are missing the point. The cafe will survive the insurance payments. However, your continued employment with us has been severed as a part of the terms of the payment, due to your response being deemed disproportional. Your final paycheck is on the desk. It is up to the waitress pool whether they will share tips. Leave the uniform when you get changed."

The shocked silence lasted for six seconds this time, a feat that emphasized how badly Sienna's world just got shaken. Sobbing and with tears in her eyes, she took her meager pay for the last time.

***

Two kindred souls left their jobs to step into the noonday desert sun. Two people a few blocks away from each other, unknowingly echoing one another as they trudged home. Both found the fliers within moments of each other.

"Try the life of a Dungeon Delver risk-free*! Five gold per person per trip, you keep the experience and a share of the loot!"

Both took a deep look inside themselves. Both of them decided the same thing. "I'll take a chance on that."

***

A couple of days later, and the bored voice of the man at the counter droned on. "Each team is going to be escorted by professionals. In order for them to do their jobs, you need to input your Ten Attributes, Class, Race, subcategories of the above, and Level. By signing at the bottom of the page, you grant indemnity to the Vegas Dungeon Community for all injuries caused by Dungeon hazards, to include monsters, and that all statements made in this form are true..."

Sienna was not the only one yawning in the group. Geomancer, Binding school, Level four, Nekomata... can't they just Scan us or something?

Off to the left, a couple of staffers faced a conundrum. "Please tell me you're a spellcaster of some kind, uh... you said your name is Martin?"

"Heath. Martin is my last name. Call me Gooey, it's easier to remember. And yeah, I'm a Null."

"Ah. Here I thought the system glitched on something. Okay, makes it easier. Please take this robe and wand, at least. Remember to turn them back in when you get back."

"Do you have a hat to go with it?" As it turned out, they did. A pointy black cloth wizard's hat, to be precise. Gooey smiled. Whether this worked out or not, he was going to have fun with it.

The Las Vegas Dungeon was close to town. At the end of the Strip, keep going two miles and you find it. A broad circle of stone in the desert, which irises open to reveal a stone stairway for up to twenty people at a time. Attempts to sneak more in were hazardous at best, between the circle closing on them and the monsters within going rabid. It wasn't the size of the Harvard or Seattle dungeons, but then again what was? Three or four levels, looking like a classical stone dungeon that tabletop nerds had played in for decades, a highly random variety of things to encounter, and a challenging boss monster at the end. A full team of expert Delvers could clear it out in four hours, which would cause it to close the moment they left and not reopen for two days.

Instead, someone decided to buy the acre of otherwise-empty desert next to it once the State laid claim to the Dungeon itself as a public resource. They built a place for tourists to rent gear and group up with experienced Delvers for a bit of fun (and make a killing off of it). The professionals got loot and gold for their time, the tourists got a thrill and a way to try out their Classes, and the local crafters got a place to set up shop. Everyone won.

Especially the owner of the establishment, but business is business.

***

"Alright everyone! Stay close and stay in a group! If we meet anything, then do what the professionals told you and we all walk away winners!" The man in front was clad in full plate armor, carrying a shield and sword. Gooey had thought he would be miserable in the desert heat, but once the group of fifteen (five professionals guiding ten tourists) got down the steps the air took on a pleasant coolness. It was nice, really. Even though the sun passed right through him, the air was always unpleasantly hot and dry for a Slime.

It didn't take long, either. A group of feral Goblins came into sight as they rounded a corner, and as they approached the escorts started shouting directions at the tourists to use their abilities. Some fired bolts of magic, some got to the front and clashed with monsters that got close. Hush called her Geomancer powers to cause the stone of the hallway to grab a couple of the Goblins near the front, in turn to let the Aelf with the sword get his strikes in... then dashed forward to claw another to save Mana for later. Beside her, Gooey used the cheap wand to good effect, sniping at the weak enemies to soften them up.

The fight could hardly be called such, over in moments. Some Copper coins hit the ground, one or two Silvers, and a few shards of teeth and bone were quickly picked up by the tourists. They'd dump it all out onto a table and take turns selecting their loot like real Dungeon Delvers later, once back at camp.

A couple more monster packs were easily dispatched, the tourists clearly having fun, the escorts clearly bored stiff. To the professionals, this bunch was a combination of everything that made a trip safe and boring. Too low level to go down where the good stuff was, too cooperative to require attention, too on the ball to need intervention.

And that's when someone did something dumb. Someone who really should have known better. The veteran Ice Magus looked around and saw a stairway down to the next dungeon level. "Hey, y'all, this is going smoothly. How about we kick it up a notch and go on down a level?"

His boss would later fire him for saying that out loud without consulting him. The group immediately got excited and started going there before the escorts could rein them in. There was nothing for it, the expedition leader started mentally plotting the route to the nearest stair back up and got them organized. It would only take five minutes of luck to finish this bit of thrill.

The venture into the second level went well. Or, say rather, it went well for exactly one minute and twenty-seven seconds. The first pack of enemies was nearly dispatched when a Summoner among them managed to call an Air Elemental, which did what Air Elementals do and blasted the party with howling winds, so forceful that the fifteen people there were scattered down four separate hallways. By the time the escorts got things back under control, they could only find eight of the tourists. A couple of locals were missing.

***

The floor was freaking hard. And cold, and uncomfortable. The Nekomata groaned as she stirred, reflexively checking her Status and finding out she was a bit over 70% Health. Looking around, the dim torchlight didn't show much, but one of the others from the tour was examining a wall. The clear Slime, with the robes and wizard hat. "What was that?"

He looked over at her. "Whatever that thing was, it blew us down a side corridor, then this wall slammed behind us. I don't know how to get out. Um, I'm Heath."

"My name is Sienna." The red and black catgirl stretched out and slowly stood. She felt banged up a bit, but really it wasn't too bad. "I guess if that wall is closed, we just gotta go the other way. Looks like it's the only hall we can get to, anyway, so I guess the choice is an easy one. I'm a Nekomata, by the way, I can see in the darkness like this. How about you?"

"Glass Slime. My night sight is better than Human, but you probably have me beat by a mile for that and hearing. What I've got is a full-body sense of smell and taste, though." He... she really didn't want to be Racist, but he flowed over to her. "I think we're both back-line people?"

"Maybe by Class, but that's not all I got. You gotta think with both halves of yourself." She looked around, ears pricked up. "Rumor has it this place likes to expect twenty people. Well, we're two. We both are going to have to be the whole package if we want to make it out of here. Don't know about you, but I'm not waiting for a search party!"

Heath Martin, called Gooey by his friends and the people who couldn't keep his first and last names apart alike, was nonplussed as she started confidently walking down the corridor. Nothing for it, he decided that following her was better than keeping his transparent behind waiting at a dead end.

***

Sienna's certainty at her decision lasted for another four minutes. Long enough to find another monster pack, this one three lizards approximately the size of draft horses. Hungry ones. With fangs. Give her some credit, she managed to bind one in a prison of stone and claw a second one halfway to death and put it down with the help of several wand blasts from Heath. You will notice, however, that two is less than three.

As Gooey and Hush sprinted as fast as they could, they wildly launched attacks back at the creature still chasing them. These were largely wasted, but made them feel better. If the pursuer had been intelligent, the attacks might have even made it hesitate.

"Sienna! My main attack's charged! Need you to slow it down so I can aim!" The Glass Slime was glowing a bit oddly. Not so much like he was emanating light, more like what light there was in the area couldn't stand to touch him and was warping away.

"This had better be worth it. If this thing hits me more than once or twice you're carrying me out of here!" Sienna turned and called more of her power, targeting the legs of the rampaging carnivore. She succeeded in making it stumble, her claws across its face making it draw back.

The beam of void energy that pierced its side a moment later blew it to dust, dropping coins and scales onto the ground where it once stood.

She whipped around to look at Heath, the shimmer gone, panting despite the fact that he no longer had lungs to do that with. "What. Was. THAT?"

"Picked it up at level 3. Zero Ray, kind of inverts all the energies the target has and results in catastrophic damage."

She looked back at the spot, then walked over to start grabbing what the thing dropped and shove the loot into her bag. "Well, that's one heck of a blast. I mean, bit of an overkill, but if you're toting that around there shouldn't be anything around here you can't blow up as long as we don't go any deeper." She heard a plopping sound, as though someone had dropped a sack full of wet laundry onto the ground. "What was that?"

It took a second for her to realize what she was looking at when she glanced behind her. The transparent Slime wasn't where her eyes expected him to be, and the only evidence of his location was the fact that his robe and hat weren't transparent. He'd collapsed into a blob on the ground, moaning.

"Heath! Are you okay?"

"No... I don't think so... I'm about out of Mana..."

"Come on, you big baby, I've had Mana Drain headaches before. They're rough, sure, but they're not THAT bad!" Hush's face was irritated. This was not the time for hysterics, and coming from her you could take that to the bank.

"No... Racial feature. Purple Bar, my health and mana are the same meter... need to eat some magic..."

Oh. That was MUCH worse than a headache. "Tell me how you do that in a sec! We're next to a door, let me get you out of the hallway." Let it be known that dragging 135 pounds of Slime is not nearly as easy as it looks. Hush managed it, though, the door thankfully opening into a small room. "Okay, you need to regen. How do you 'eat some magic,' as you called it?"

"Uhm. Gotta get into magical substances, mana potion, or just really cling to someone who's magical..."

"I fit two of those three!" It was true enough. Nekomata had a lot going on. "You need to... what, hold me close for a while?"

"The closer the better. Same with... uh... it's kind of embarrassing..." If he had blood vessels to blush, he would have gone from clear to pink.

"Let me guess. The closest you could possibly hold me, along with getting into my 'magical substances,' is going to be for you to screw me right here?" The clear blob wiggled in a way that vaguely resembled a nod. "You know, I've had worse ways for people to proposition me. Most of them didn't just nuke a giant lizard in front of me, either." She started taking off her clothes. "Might be fun, and I'm on birth control. Let's go!"

Hush was used to provoking some dramatic reactions from men she got nude around. There was a reason she always got so many tips at the Cafe, her core was firm and muscled but flared out into impressive breasts and hips that could be a weapon almost as much as her claws. The black kiss marks on her red fur drew the eye to admire every inch of her, and the pure grace granted by her Race meant that once the eyes were there they tended to stay there.

What she wasn't used to was being tackled by a nearly-invisible glob of horny.

Hitting the floor didn't hurt that much... and he's warm... was the thought that briefly crossed her mind as Heath's clear flesh practically enveloped her, leaving barely enough room for her to breathe. She was embraced, trapped and at his mercy. And, she could admit to herself, unbelievably turned on by this turn of events. Every inch of her was being stroked and held, she could feel suckling pressure at both of her breasts and her clit, and in moments her body was already showing its approval. Before the pressure even began at her pussy, her eyes were already threatening to roll back into her head as the first small orgasm took her. As she gushed, Heath perked up even more.

Suddenly, she felt it. An oh-so-thin tendril of him worked its way into her sex, another into her mouth like a tongue in a deep kiss. She felt him wriggle within her, deeper and deeper, until the tip of him found her cervix. It stopped there, but the motion changed. Instead of working deeper, it was getting thicker and thicker, stretching her out until she couldn't any more then backing off only slightly. The tendril at her tongue did the same, shaping itself to avoid her canines until it filled her mouth completely. Even knowing what was coming next, the sensations of thrusting from both directions while still being enveloped and caressed nearly broke her. Wave after wave of rolling orgasm took her to ecstasy and kept her there for a blurred time, neither knowing nor caring what the outside world was doing.