“I don't think Goldie would appreciate that,” Jenny said, staring at the ghost in Jenny's body who had just proposed lewd acts with his borrowed assets.
“Ah screw her,” the ghost said. “No seriously I'm asking you to. Come on, I haven't had this much energy in decades. Mostly all I can do is peek now and again, flip up a skirt on the way out. But now I can have some real fun. And this body is so young and strong!”
The ghost used Goldie's body to backflip against the changing room wall and up onto the curtain rod between compartments.
“Ooh! And flexible.”
Betty took a picture.
“Betty!” Jenny snapped. “She's still only wearing her underwear!”
“I am not taking lewd pictures,” Betty insisted. “I am cataloging the paranormal.”
“Lewd pictures of the paranormal are still lewd pictures!”
“No no no!” The ghost laughed. “Take all the lewd pictures you want! Here, let me make it good for ya!”
He ripped off Goldie's bra and tossed it aside, hanging over them in a crouch. Betty raised her camera again but Jenny blocked it.
“Get out of her body right now!” Jenny insisted.
“Don't wanna!” The ghost laughed. “Do you have any idea how long it's been since I had the energy to cause trouble? My original plan was to possess all four of you. Even back when I was alive I could handle four or five girls, easy.”
The ghost wagged Goldie's eyebrows lewdly.
“Tell me more,” Betty asked
“No!” Jenny snapped. “Get out of her this instant! We know a really powerful sorceress!”
“I believe you,” the ghost said. “Some of you got some real serious magical energy, that's why I couldn't do the four way possession thing. Are you all even human? But this girl didn't have much to speak of, so now I'm in here I'm gonna have some fun!”
“I do not believe that to be the case,” Betty cocked her head.
“And are you two gonna stop me?” The ghost laughed. “You said you knew a sorceress, so you don't know how to get me out of here yourselves. By the time she gets here I'll be long gone. And if you try to restrain me you might hurt your friend.”
“Not us,” Betty said. “Moonlight says he is done with your nonsense.”
“Moonlight?” Goldie's face looked confused. “Is this some hippy thing?”
“Mrow!” Moonlight said, popping out of Betty's bag. Goldie's face went white as a sheet.
“W-what the hell is that thing?” The ghost demanded nervously.
“It's a five elements cat,” Jenny said. “Right? That's what Tanya called it.”
“That is correct,” Betty said, adjusting her glasses. “Interesting. I assume such creatures are antithetical to the undead? Something to keep in mind.”
“Hey look!” the ghost said, sweating through Goldie's pores and plastering a huge, terrified smile across it's face. “Look, see? I'm being good! No reason to do anything crazy.”
“Row.”
“He says he wants to eat you,” Betty said. “Also interesting. Can he actually eat ghosts? I don't know enough about him to tell you.”
“Hey hey hey!” The ghost waved Goldie's hands desperately. “Look I'm giving the body back, I'm giving the body back right....now!”
Goldie slumped down heavily on the changing room bench while the ghost floated out, a transparent figure of a dirty old man. They only saw him for a brief second as the ghost fled through the back wall of the changing room.
“What happened?” Goldie said.
“You said you were feeling dizzy and sat down,” Betty said. “Nothing else of significance occurred.”
“Yeah sorry,” Goldie mumbled. “I'm just feeling a little tired I guess. Where's my bra?”
“You took it off,” Jenny said. “I didn't see where it landed. You'd better get dressed.”
Goldie had just finished pulling on clothes when Ammeline arrived a female security guard in tow.
“Honestly,” Ammeline said. “I told them about a peeping old man and they started acting like absolute children.” Does everyone in this hotel believe in ghosts?
“I never said I believed in ghosts!” the security guard said. “I never said that! Not out loud! I just wanted to get the robot first!”
And she was indeed followed into the changing room by a robot. This one was painted blue, with yellow stripes down the side, but otherwise looked basically identical to the one which had greeted them on their way into the changing room.
“And how exactly is the robot going to look for peepers?” Ammeline insisted, with her arms crossed. “Those things are a publicity stunt!”
“Don't mock Rodney!” The security guard said. “He's more useful than you'd think.”
“I have over eight hundred security related functions!” The robot said. “These include following purse snatchers, facial recognition, identifying pickpockets, identifying contraband, directing customers to the restrooms...”
“Yes yes yes I'm sure it can do amazing things,” Ammeline said. “But my friend was peeped on. What is it going to do about that?”
“Ammeline,” Goldie said, “it's alright. Maybe I just imagined it. And whoever it is they're gone now.”
“Yeah!” Jenny said brightly. “Maybe we should just buy our dresses and forget this every happened. We were pretty much done shopping anyway, right? Goldie you said you liked this one.”
“It matched well with your hair,” Betty reminded her.
“Yeah I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get that one,” Goldie confirmed. “Let's just get our clothes and go.”
“Contraband detected!” The robot said. While they'd been talking it had wandered over to the next stall. It turned around, holding up a plain white bra.
“Hey that's mine!” Goldie said. “I wondered where that went! See it's got my name on it...”
“Securing contraband,” the robot said, and to Jenny's surprise the front of its torso opened up to reveal a large empty space into which it dropped the bra. “Contraband secured.”
“Rodney no,” the security guard said. “Override. Give this lady back her bra.”
“Bra,” Rodney said. “Contraband. Contraband detected. Securing contraband.”
The robot's arm swooped upward, catching Ammeline's blouse at the bottom and tearing up. Her blouse flew open, and the robot came up carrying her braw.
“WHAT do you think you're doing?” Ammeline demanded, wrapping her arms around her chest. Funny, Jenny would have expected a girlish scream...but then again that wasn't exactly Ammeline's style.
“Contraband secured,” the robot said, dropping the bra into it's compartment.
“This is precisely what I warned about at the entrance,” Betty adjusted her glasses. “The uprising has begun.”
“Rodney stop it!” the security guard said. “Override! Shut down!”
“Contraband detected.”
“Emergency shutdown code 417eeeeeeeek!”
The security guard fell to her knees clutching her chest as the robot came up holding her bra, leaving her uniform top in tatters. It tucked the bra away in its compartment and started whirling around the room.
“Crime is rampant in this area!” the robot declared. “Detecting massive melon smuggling operation. Initiating crackdown procedures. Will pound the problem hard and fast. Massive cleavage of criminal activities. Full frontal for all perpetrators. Sex joke!”
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“What the hell is going on with this thing?” Goldie demanded.
“Hey I got an idea,” the robot said. “Wanna get naked and make out?”
“It's-!” but Jenny stopped herself. Were they still keeping it a secret under these conditions? How serious was this problem? And they definitely had a problem, because Jenny was pretty sure the ghost had just possessed the robot.
“Contraband detected,” the robot said, moving towards Betty.
“Cover your chest!” Jenny warned. But the robot....the ghost...Rodney had tricked them all. It wasn't going for Betty's bra, it was going for her backpack.
It looped the pack off her bag before anyone had a chance to react and shoved it immediately in the compartment, which slammed shut with grim finality.
“Super scary magical cat secured,” Rodney said. “Oh and hey look!”
It swiped it's claw forward, tearing Betty's sweater and coming up with her bra. Betty hardly moved.
“My cat,” Betty said distantly. Then something sharpened in her eyes, as if her brain had caught up to the rest of the world. “Give me back Moonlight!”
“Under absolutely no circumstances!” the robot said. “And I'm out. There's a whole mall full of luscious young kkkkkkkkkrrkkkkkk!!!!”
Ammeline had kicked the robot in the face, the tattered remains of her blouse now tied in front of her to give her some modesty.
“Looked at in a certain light this was either horrific or amusing,” Ammeline said. “But it lost all chance of being comedic when you harmed a cat! Return it immediately or...oh, I'm threatening a machine.”
“What a violent woman!” Rodney complained, rolling backward on his wheels. “That's cool, that's cool, some guys are into that. Not me, but people with lower standards.”
“I-I don't understand,” the security guard said from the floor. “It can't move that fast! The arms are just for show!”
“Well obviously this one is broken,” Goldie said. “And it's kidnapped a cat.”
“Give him back!” Betty insisted, lunging for the robot. Rodney cackled and spun out of her grip, racing away through the store and out into the mall. Ammeline chased after it, Betty and Goldie right behind her, and Jenny chased after everyone else.
“We could be in trouble,” Goldie said. “There's dozens of security robots in this mall. If it stops acting haywire and blends in finding it could be a real problem.”
There was a ripping noise and a scream from the direction of the food court.
“I do not believe that will be a problem,” Betty said.
“Of course not,” Ammeline said. “It's a broken machine, it can't make plans.”
“It's not very good at it anyway,” Jenny said grimly. Ghosts were always jerks, but this one was especially irritating.
“Betty,” Goldie said. “You should, uh...”
“I should what?” Betty blinked, then looked down at her bare chest. “Oh yes. I shall tie it like Ammeline has done. But we should really press our pursuit.”
The followed the trail of screams, ripped blouses, and shouts of the word “contraband!” until they caught up with the robot.
“Are you still coming?” Rodney the possessed robot complained. “It's just a couple of bras!”
“You have my cat,” Betty reminded him.
“That thing's not exactly a cat,” the robot said, disappearing into the crowd just as they passed a bridge between the two third-floor balconies. Hard as they tried to look, none of them could figure out which way he went.
“Split up!” Ammeline suggested. “Try to cut it off before it can reach the next balcony!”
Jenny moved to go with Ammeline, but Betty touched her on the arm. Jenny turned to follow her, while Goldie went with Ammeline.
“Ammeline's desire to assist me is gratifying,” Betty said, “but neither she nor Goldie are informed as to our opponent's true nature. The two of us should be the ones to corner the robot.”
“And what if Goldie and Ammeline catch up to it without one of us there?”
“They won't,” Betty said. “We're closer. Moonlight is my familiar, I can tell.”
Betty led them through the crowd until they reached the escalators.
“We didn't think of that!” Jenny said worriedly. “There's ways up and down here too, cutting it off on the bridge won't work!”
“We'll just have to follow it,” Betty said. “I wonder why it chose this direction?”
The crowd had thinned considerably, to the point where there were one or two people at most. The stores here were either less popular—specialty appliances, things like that—or not open at all. They made their way down the escalator and in the direction Betty indicated, finally finding the robot waiting for them in front of a store marked “Garden Supply.”
“And so the time has come for our final battle,” Rodney said. “As is gladatorial tradition, we will fight naked.”
“I don't think we're supposed to do that,” Jenny said.
“Come on!” the robot whined. “I'm not wearing any clothes!”
“Very well,” Betty said, reaching to pull off her sweater.
“Betty stop it!”
“Look ladies here's the real deal,” the robot said. “I don't think either of you can take me while I'm in this mechanical body. Not with the way I'm powering it up. So how about you turn around and forget all about...”
“Ahahahahahahahahaha!” came a distant laugh, everyone's attention turning to the third floor balcony on the other side of the mall. Ammeline stood with one point on the railing, pointing an accusing finger in the direction of Rodney. “I've found you, you mechanical malefactor! Malicious machine! Robotic reprobate!”
“You have to admire her vocabulary and command of alliteration,” Betty said appreciatively.
“She can't get over here in time to stop me from...”
Ammeline disappeared from the railing. Then she reappeared, coming at a run.
And then she jumped.
The leap carried her across the gap between balconies, soaring over the astonished heads of the customers below. She caught the bottom of the balcony on the far side, swinging on it like a high bar in gymnastics to turn her forward momentum into a two-footed kick that slammed into the robot's chest and sent it flying backwards into the window of the garden supply store, crashing through the glass. Without thinking, Jenny and Betty followed it in. The found it crumpled on the ground next to a pile of knocked over shelves.
There was a loud slamming noise behind them, and they turned to discover heavy metal security gates had lowered over the doors and windows, locking them inside.
“Wow,” Rodney said, picking himself up and wobbling until he got straight on his wheels. “Did not expect that crazy bitch to try jumping the gap. But I got you both in here, so it's all good.”
“This store is closed,” Betty said, looking around. There was almost no stock, and no employees. “This was a trap.”
“Yep!” Rodney said, grabbing a garden hoe off a display against the back wall. “Now it's just you and me in this powered up robot body and I'm the one with a weapon!”
“Incorrect,” Betty said, adjusting her glasses. “You are significantly less armed than we are. I believe your next line is an attempt to make a pun about using a hoe to kill hoes.”
“I uhm...” Rodney stammered. “N-no it wasn't! Anyway, what weapon do you have on you exactly?”
“Moonlight,” Betty said. “Tanya's been training me for weeks. The spell is called Empower Familiar. And this time, I think he has ample reason to cooperate.”
Betty held out her hand, a soft light emitting from her body.
“Yeah I'm not going to let you finish whatever the hell that is,” Rodney said, swinging in with the hoe. But his swing went wide as chaotic sparkles flashed around his eyes. “Ah! What's this? What is this?”
“About the best illusion I can do on my own right now,” Jenny said. “But it's enough!”
“There you are,” Betty said, her eyes flashing with blue-white power.
“MrrrOOWWWWW!” Moonlight snarled from within the robot's chest. The was a sound of tearing metal and an enormous claw burst from the robot's chest, tearing open a hole and ripping apart the whole front of the robot. The claw was only there for a second, and it was a normal size moonlight who hopped out and rubbed against Betty's leg, erupting through the hole in a spray of stolen bras.
“Ouch dammit!” Rodney said, his ghostly form floating out of the ruined robot body. “That actually hurt! What the hell is that thing?”
“My cat,” Betty said.
“Her familiar!” Jenny said cheerfully. “She's a sorceress in training.”
“Izzat so...” The ghost said, looking around nervously. “Come on girls how about letting me go?I was just having a little fun. I've been dead for a hundred and twenty five years! That's one heck of a dry spell, am I right?”
Moonlight yawned. And then opened his mouth wider. Light began to glow from within the throat of the five elements cat, and the ghosts rags began to flutty like they were caught in a strong wind.
“Hey wait,” the ghost said. “Hey!”
Within a few seconds the ghosts was pulling desperately against a powerful wind drawing him towards Moonlight's mouth. Trails of glowing energy streamed off of him, and he seemed to grow fainter by the second.
“Wait!” The ghost said. “I'll tell you about the guy who powered me up! I mean, I never met him but he's got demon power! Demon! I recognized it 'cus saw one once when I was alive, it was called an ifeet or something! That's valuable info right? Sorcerers look into that kind of thing? I could help you find him! I coullgbhendhtherneerhebertbeiunshhhhh....”
When Moonlight finally closed his mouth the ghost had not only faded to be almost invisible, he had also lost his human shape. There was nothing left but a wisp of smoke with the vague suggestion of a human face. It mumbled something incoherent and floated away through the wall.
A few moments after that, the security door lifted to reveal Goldie, Ammeline, and the security guard.
“You're alright!” Goldie said. “Thank god. You should have seen it, Ammeline was about to go at the gate with her fencing sword.”
“Ahahahahaha!” Ammeline said. “Perhaps I got a little overenthusiastic. But of course they're alright! My rival would never be taken down by something as simple as this!”
“Now hang on a minute,” the security guard said. “You just jumped across the balcony! And destroyed the windows of this store! Do you have any idea how many...”
“Oh-ho!” Ammeline whirled, a predatory gleam in her eye. “Are we discussing fault and blame here? I would be absolutely happy to do that!”
“It was amazing Kyle,” Jenny said over the phone. “I think she must be a sorceress, I've never seen anything like it. We got our dresses for free, and the mall gave us each a voucher for one free meal a week at the food court for the next four years. It was incredible.”
“Ammeline's always been like that,” Kyle said. “I never knew her very well and I could tell you that. I'm more worried about how this ghost said he got his power from an efreet.”
“Yeah that's a little scary,” Jenny admitted. “I wish we could figure out where that guy is. But until we can find him...would it be okay if we all met up at your house to go to the dance? You live closest to the school and we all bought our dresses together and we were talking...”
“Sure,” Kyle said. “I still have a little trouble believe I managed to ask you.”
“I have trouble believing what you turned down to do it,” Jenny giggled. “But you can't back out now! I'll be back in a little while.”
“Hey listen,” Kyle said. “Did you have fun?”
“Sure!” Jenny said happily. “I made friends!”
“So that seems like a completely pointless waste of time,” Danny said in his jail cell, when the efreet gave him a quick rundown of what had happened.
Nah it was just a little fun. Besides you never know what's going to come in handy later.
“Whatever,” Danny sighed. “If this is your idea of revenge, I picked the wrong partner.”
No it's my idea of a TEST. It's exam season, didn't you hear? All your friends at school are taking them you don't wanna be left out.
“A test of what?” Danny snarled.
Projecting my power that far? That took serious magical muscles. You're finally strong enough to handle my full power. So give it a couple of days for you to memorize the spells...
“And I can get out of here,” Danny grinned. “Fantastic. Hey, do you think I might be ready the night of the dance?”
Sure. Why then in particular?
“Well I could say it's because I know where most of my targets are gonna be,” Danny said. “I could say it's traditional. But the real reason is I just love it when I get a chance to steal the show.”
Sure thing, sure thing. The efreet chuckled in Danny's mind. Night of the dance it is. We'll burn the whole place to the ground. It'll be fun.
“And kill Kyle.”
Yeah yeah. Don't gotta worry about that. We'll kill Kyle, that's for damn sure.