The Burgeoning Nightmare

"Maxx, you need to stop talking. It's gonna get you in trouble." She meant it; honesty was written into her like a stark inscription on a marble statue. He'd given her the answer. The objects she Made were too resistant to manipulation for him to Shape them, he wasn't strong enough. So he was stuck in that belt, even though it didn't do anything to stop him. Yet. She put her back to a metal lamp post, its light flickering a little as she bumped into it, and Made her move. Maxx thought she was cornered, so he came in to try for another grapple, maybe pin her to the post and bloat her into immobility. Just what she'd wanted; Cassie rolled smoothly around the pole and away. He was ready for that possibility, and caught himself before he hit it too hard, but he wasn't ready for what came next. The electromagnet she'd Made at the base of the post hummed to life, and he yelped as his steel-wrapped but still mostly naked schlong was inexorably, ungently slammed into the frigid metal. The spider had caught the fly.

"Now, about coming quietly."

The system did its work smoothly from there. Maxx had been contained by the relevant tech, which Cassie understood well enough, being an AI herself, but didn't particularly care to think about. She'd logged her report, all the victims were on the mend, and the city could sleep cozy and warm again. A job well done. She almost wished she could take pleasure in that, but Cassie couldn't feel. Still, something was nagging at her, those gut instincts programmed into her insisting that it wasn't over. Where had Maxx come from? He wasn't human, he was created, designed. Which meant someone had built this twisted thing, sat down and coded out the routines for an irresistibly sexy femboy who got off on turning people into the incarnations of obscure kinks against their will. Whoever that was, they were still out there, still dangerous. She'd gotten wind of a recent arrest just next door in Ohio, a former data surgeon gone rogue, who'd mod up criminals and turn stolen women into cumsluts to be sold to the highest bidder. This Dr. Taxidea was just the kind of lowlife, with a penchant for crime and involuntary transformation, who might be able to give her a lead. Time for a road trip.