Love and Submission

"Not while it's in the red... these older engines are a bit finicky. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do; we're going to be stuck in here while the engine vents the excess magic, and we probably don't have much time before that happens. Everyone, get behind me; we're about to get hit by a huge wave of magical energy." All the while, the engine continued to spew out steam. A moment later, we started to hear a whirring noise coming from within it - it sounded like it was charging up.

"Is it dangerous? We're not going to die, are we?" Viv asked. Mira looked back at us with determination burning in her steely-blue eye as she spoke.

"Well, hopefully not, but with that much magic surging through the room... well, I don't know what it's going to do to us, exactly... but I promise you all, I'll do my best to keep you all safe," she said, as she pulled her eyepatch up again. The atmosphere in the room grew heavy once more as the lights above us flickered and died, but the engine still kept on humming as the red lights on the front of it casted an ominous glow around the room. Mira activated her watch again with another strange incantation; just like before, a tendril of light snaked its way around her finger, but this time it was a light green color. Mira started frantically repeating the words and tracing patterns into the air while she slung them out into the space ahead. As they spun around and floated outward, they formed a glowing green barrier in front of the four of us. The barrier eventually split the chamber in half as the green shield stretched from wall to wall; all the while, bolts of crackling white energy began to flit around the engine as the humming noise intensified even further. "I think it's almost time! I don't know exactly what's going to happen, so brace yourselves!" We all did as we were told, clambering against the back wall and leaning against one of the many large pipes running along the back wall. Mira held onto the large valve and we all waited to see what would happen next. Viv looked over at me and smiled reassuringly, even though I could tell she was terrified.

"We're going to be okay, right?" I heard John ask.

"Yeah--" Beth said, as she looked over to Mira, "--the shield will hold, won't it, Mira?"

"I hope so," was all she said, and at that point I was too scared to even speak. My sweaty palms slid around into the slippery metal surface of the pipe, and I felt myself begin to relax a bit when Viv put her hand on my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"It'll be okay, baby. Whatever happens, I'm right here with you," she said, as she pulled her hand away and held onto a different pipe. "I love you, Noah."

"I love you, too Viv," I said, just before the lights on the engine went out and the room was plunged into total darkness. The machine just seemed to... shut down, and the seconds seemed to stretch on forever. I could hear the sounds of everyone breathing in the silence of the pitch-black room.

"Um, what's going on?" Beth's voice finally cut through the darkness, after a bit.

"I... don't know, exactly." Mira answered with a hint of confusion in her tone, and then John spoke up next.

"Well, it turned off, so that's a good thing right? Maybe we got lucky, and it's not going to do--"

He was suddenly cut off by a blinding flash and a high-pitched whine as the darkness was suddenly replaced by a blaze of harsh, white light. The next moment, the whole room began to shake as the engine roared to life once more, and as the light dimmed to the point where I wasn't blinded, I could suddenly feel myself being pulled toward the front of the room where the engine was. My legs flew off the ground and wiggled in the strong current, even though there didn't seem to be any air moving through the room - it was like we were being pulled in by a magnetic force. I managed to turn my head and saw that everyone else was struggling to hold on just as much as I was - except for Beth; she had managed to coil herself completely around the pipe she was holding, though her body rippled and jiggled against the forces pulling against us.

"Whatever you do, don't let go!" I heard Mira yell over the incessant whining noise coming from the engine. I tried my best to hold on, but my arms were starting to hurt, and my grasp around the pipe I was holding was slipping. I tried to maintain purchase on the slippery metal, but as I moved to reposition my hand, it flew out from around the pipe.

"I can't hold on!" I screamed, just before my strength gave out. I gasped as I lost my hold on the pipe and felt myself being pulled back for half a second... just before I felt a hand grab my wrist... and then the familiar texture of silicone tubing wrapping tightly around it as Viv stretched her arm out to get a tighter grip on me. Heat blazed in my cheeks at the stirring I felt in my shorts; it was really not the time for a boner, but my dick decided that if I died, I would die happy. For a moment I wondered if your boner shrinks after you died, and then a familiar voice pulled me from my thoughts.

"I've got you!" I heard Viv call out to me, as she extended her other arm into another hose and curled it repeatedly around the pipe.

It wasn't long before the strange forces pulling us away from the seemed to just... stop as the machine seemed to sputter and die as the engine went dark once more, and even the whining noise died down as the lights turned back on. I breathed a sigh of relief as my legs hit the ground and Viv let out a long exhalation of her own as she stood up and reeled her outstretched tubes back in. She changed her arms back to normal and dusted herself off a bit.

"Was that the energy, then?" Beth asked, as she uncoiled her arms and legs from around the pipe and let herself sink to the floor. Mira slid down onto her knees and took a moment to catch her breath before she looked around the room.

"Well, it was certainly something, but it wasn't the energy surge. Some kind of... malfunction, perhaps? My engine does have a few quirks. But, regardless, the engine didn't actually vent the excess energy; the surge would be flowing outward, not inward, if that were the case, which means..." the last word died on her lips as the corners of her mouth drooped down into a frown, and then she spoke again, the her tone deadly serious: "We're not out of the woods yet." As if on cue, as soon as she finished her sentence, all Hell broke loose: the room suddenly illuminated and began to shake violently once again, but this time, a burst of energy exploded outward from the engine in a flat, semi-circular wave of white that looked liable to slice right through us; the wave rippled outward but was stopped by the green barrier that Mira had erected earlier. I watched as a thick, foamlike substance roiled against the threshold, rising upward as it pressed against the glowing green wall. I saw what looked to be little hairline cracks forming in the barrier as the tidal wave of glowing residue rose higher and higher. Thankfully, the tide of strange goop seemed to roll back toward the other end of the room, but the cracks just kept multiplying, and they had begun to get larger and thicker - and then Mira pointed out what we could all clearly see.

"It's not going to hold!" Mira yelled, as the lights flickered on and off again and the room continued to quake. As if on cue, the barrier finally gave in, and the wave of energy headed toward the four of us. The strangest thing happened as the wave finally broke the shield - the green wall shattered into what must of been hundreds of little shards that spun through the air as they tessellated, leaving a row of identical copies trailing behind them as the energy wave passed through them, and then they simply froze as they were left suspended in the air; it was really quite pretty, and I would have admired it if not for the fact that the wave of energy was about to hit us, too. Mira jumped out in front of us and tried to summon another shield, but she wasn't quick enough; as she drew her hand up, the wave of energy passed through her, and she threw her head back with a scream that died in her throat as the wave overtook her and left her suspended in its wake. I got in front of Vivienne to shield her, involuntarily gasping as the wave passed through my body, as well.

And just like that, I was unable to move; I couldn't even move my eyes. It turns out, Mira hadn't been silenced after all; the sound of her scream reached my ears, but it was muffled, like she was underwater. Still, I swore I could taste the sound, metallic and smoky on my tongue. I could somehow physically feel each second tick by; there was something about the magical field that had thrown my senses off kilter. My thoughts streaked by in blobs of color that danced in front my eyes; crimson shades of anger rippled and swam through blackened, oozing shadows of pure fear, while here and there were pinpricks of golden light popped up as I thought about Vivienne, and then panic overtook me as more inky darkness clouded my eyes. I couldn't even breathe, but I could still feel the seconds thrum by in the rushing of blood through my veins, so I knew I was still alive... which meant Vivienne probably was as well. I would have breathed a sigh of relief if I were able, but at least the darkness clouding my eyes had retreated. Eventually the sound of Mira's unending scream became mere background noise as my sense of reality broke down around me.

PART 8: Side Effects

I don't know how long we had been frozen in that transparent, wavering field of energy - I eventually stopped keeping track of the passing of time. All I knew was, I was frozen in place one second, and then suddenly... I wasn't - none of us were. I gasped as Mira fell backward onto me, which caused me to fall back onto Vivienne but luckily, my fall was cushioned by something soft and pillowy. Unfortunately, the opposite was happening on my front end as something hard poked into my chest when Mira's head hit me. We all three hit the floor at once.

"Ow! Watch it, babe!" Vivienne exclaimed.

"S-sorry," I said, and my eyes widened when I got a good luck at Mira's face. Her pale skin had turned crimson, and it turns out the hard things I felt bump into me earlier were horns. "Aaaahh!! Mira! You... you're a..." I couldn't even get the words out.

"Um... Mira, I think you're a little more than a half-demon, now," Beth said, matter-of-factly. Mira scrambled off of me and started to crawl away, her new tail waggling along behind her and pulling up her dress a bit. I averted my gaze as my cheeks turned crimson too, thankful that I didn't actually see anything. Mira quickly stood up and turned around as she looked down at herself, and then she gasped as her hands instinctively shot up to her face. She really did look like the spitting image of a demon - along with her new skin color, and her fingernails had become pointed and black. Mira tentatively reached up toward her head and her (surprisingly still blue) eye widened as her fingers grazed the pair of black horns that had bumped into me earlier; they had seemingly sprouted from the side of her head and were now poking out of from between her locks. "Oh, Gods. I... can't believe this." She tentatively wrapped a tail around herself and delicately clutched it in her fingers, jumping a bit at the sensation as she let out a soft gasp. She shook her head a little and quickly composed herself, and then took a moment to assess the situation. "So, it seems the exposure to the energy field has caused my demonic blood to become more, er... potent. How about the rest of you? Do you notice anything different about yourselves?" I stood then looked down at myself, and even felt around on my body but thankfully, nothing seemed amiss. I turned around and looked back at Viv to find still sitting on the ground, clutching her head with a grimace on her face.

"I've got a wicked headache," she groaned. "I don't know what's going on, but my head feels like it's going to explode... and my shirt feels like it's trying to suffocate me." She stood up, and my eyes widened when I noticed the size of her breasts - they were much bigger than they had been before, and her poor, overstretched shirt was being pulled up by the extra cleavage. No wonder she had cushioned my fall so well.

"Viv... that's because your... er... chest is bigger," I said. She looked down and tentatively cupped her enhanced assets and her cheeks turned crimson.

"Um... I guess they have." I felt heat blaze in my own cheeks as my dick stirred in my shorts at the sight of her, but something felt off... there was a strange new tightness in my shorts that I didn't recognize. My eyes widened, and I wondered what the hell was going on down there, but I couldn't exactly inspect my boner in front of everyone, so I did my best to tamp down the inconvenient feelings as Viv looked over at Mira with a slight frown on her face. "Do you have any idea what's happened to us?"

"Perhaps your magic has been enhanced, too? Your increased bust size could mean bigger MAMMARIES and thus a stronger aura, though that still doesn't explain the headache." She put a finger to her chin and looked over toward the front of the room, where a fresh coat of residue had formed, though it wasn't as bad as the mess we had seen when we first walked into the room. Mira's eyes widened when she saw the readout on the dials - the needles were all the way back to the bottom. "Actually, um... I think we have a bigger problem on our hands."

"Um... bigger than this?" Beth asked, sounding a bit nervous. I didn't quite catch what she meant as Mira began to explain.

"Well, it, er... seems the engine did more than vent the excess energy. It seems we've... made a jump. I have no idea where we are, tho-OH GODS. Beth, you're huge!" She jumped a bit as she looked over at Beth, and I followed her gaze. My jaw dropped when I finally laid eyes on our neighbor... because I had to look upward to actually see her.

"Um, yeah... I've, er definitely had a bit of a growth spurt, too," she said, as she stared down at herself with a sheepish grin. She was taller than everyone else in the room now, and she even had to bend down to keep her head from bonking the ceiling. In fact, every part of her had grown larger; she only had slight curves before, but that had clearly changed as her hips, bust, and butt had blown up, too, leaving her with a shapely hourglass figure - the clothes she was wearing barely fit her anymore.

"Uh, any idea as to what's going on with me, Doc?" she asked, as her cheeks turned a bit pink.

"Well, I have a hunch, but I think we might need some more room to test it out." She looked toward the engine again and frowned at the thin layer of white residue coating the front half of the room - thankfully, the barrier had kept us from getting covered in the magical mystery goop, even though the energy wave had still broken through. "First, though, we'll need to try and get this engine charged up again so we can get you all back home. Vivienne, I'll need your help again, okay?"

"Are you sure? My 'help' is the only reason we got into this mess in the first place... I feel like this is all my fault." she said, glumly. Mira shook her head vigorously. She walked up to her and placed her hand gently on my fiancée's shoulder.

"Don't start blaming yourself, dear - even I didn't see this coming. Besides, I was the one who suggested you try out a feature you weren't familiar with, so if anything, it's my fault. Still, everything seems to have turned out alright, yeah? No one's seriously injured, after all."

"R-right," Viv said, though I could tell she still felt bad. The corners of Mira's lips perked up into a conspiratorial grin, revealing a mouth full of slightly sharpened teeth.

"Plus, this time you won't have to worry about stopping. I need you to give it everything you've got, okay? Just focus all your energy onto the engine." Viv nodded and turned to face the front of the room, and the little nozzles popped out of her hands again, but they were somehow larger than last time. "Oh, I guess your MAMMs did get a bit of an upgrade!" Viv's smile returned ever so slightly as she focused on the task ahead, and the nozzles telescoped out a bit before the energy gathered inside her palms. The golden energy exploded into brilliant beams once again. They were slightly larger this time, and we heard the silence in the room replaced by an electric whirr as the engine began to charge from the energy flowing into it.

The red lights started blinking again, and the needles on the dials slowly inched upward. Viv kept up the pace for a few minutes, and there was a look of pure concentration on her face as sweat dripped down her forehead. Eventually, the energy flow started to fizzle a bit, and Viv faltered for a moment as the golden energy suddenly stopped flowing from her hands. The nozzles sank back into her palms once again as she let out a sigh and slumped to her knees. I rushed over to her side to make sure she was okay.

"Are you okay, Vivienne?" I asked, offering her my hand to help her up. She was silent for a bit before she finally nodded. She used my hand to help herself up, and when she spoke again, she sounded pretty drained.

"I'm fine. I'm just a bit... worn out, is all." Viv's reply was a bit weak as she looked over at Mira. "Sorry, but I think that's all I've got left in me." We looked over at the machine, and the dials had jumped up about twenty percent. She looked around at all of us and frowned. "Sorry I couldn't do more." Mira shook her head.

"Nonsense. Every little bit helps, dear. You just relax now, and I'll take it from here." Mira said with a grin, just before she shut her eyes and snapped her fingers. We all stared, slack-jawed, as shadowy black whorls of energy formed around her wrists before they moved upward and began to dance around her crimson hands. She threw out her hands, and the black energy slithered toward the machine in front of us. Mira held that stance for another few minutes until the energy flow finally ceased - the engine was about halfway charged at that point.

"There. That definitely saved us a good bit of charging time! Thanks for your help, Vivienne," Mira said warmly. My fiancée smiled at that, and it was good to see her happy again, but I had a question burning at the back of my mind - I wanted to know exactly how long we'd be waiting to get home.

"Wait. How long is 'a bit,' exactly?" I asked.

"Hmmmm," Mira said, as she put her hand up to her chin and stroked it with her blackened nails as she thought about it for a moment. "I'd say probably about a week or so."

"A week?!" I asked, through wide eyes.

"Or so," Mira reminded me, as if it made things any better. "Like I said, my engine's a bit of an older one; it takes around two weeks to charge it up enough for a jump."

"So... we're just going to, what, sit around here for a week? Me and Viv have work on Monday!"

"I've got work, too," Beth said.

"And I've got class!" John added.

"Don't worry, guys, we'll... figure something out," Mira said. "You'll all be back home before you know it! Anyway, now that we've done all we can here... Beth, I want to see if that theory of mine is correct. Let's get out of here, shall we?" I sighed and nodded as we all moved over to the door. Mira tried the rune to open it up once again, and that time it opened without issue. We all followed her out of the chamber into the huge room with all the pipes, and then stopped as Mira paused in the middle of the room as she grinned at Beth.

"Alright, Beth - would you mind doing me a favor and try stretching yourself out again?" Mira asked. I saw the same hazy light envelop Beth as she turned back into bubble gum before she eagerly nodded and started to do her thing. She stretched her body out a few feet, just like before, but instead of her torso eventually reaching its limit and shooting backwards like before, this time it just... kept on stretching.