Lucy, a feral-in-appearance wolf, was hard at work with a seemingly normal desk chair. She was wearing a welding mask, just in case. At last the final component was in place. She flicked her head back, raising the mask.
``Come on, Oliver, where are you?'' she asked both impatiently and concerned.
At that moment, there was a knock at the front door and Lucy went to answer it. Waiting for her was a Labrador standing on four legs.
``Jake,'' she asked, ``how did you knock on the door while feral?''
``How did you answer the door?'' asked the Labrador.
The pair smiled at their little in-joke. ``Come on,'' said Lucy, gesturing inside. ``So what brings you here?''
``I was hungry and I was hoping to raid your fridge,'' replied Jake.
``Go ahead, just don't eat everything.''
``No promises.''
The door to The Archive was open and Jake could see signs of activity on the nearest workbench. ``Hold on. You're working on something, aren't you?''
``Yes, I am. I'm trying to improve upon the DVD chair design and I just got it operational. Theoretically, anyway.''
``And you didn't ask me to test it?''
``Oh, Oliver was going to do it when he got back from his latest expedition.'' Lucy looked at the wall clock. ``He should've been back by now. I don't know what's keeping him.''
***
Meanwhile, Oliver had transformed into a mer-dog and was trying to escape the grasp of a giant squid by punching it. ``STUPID FISH!''
***
``But I'm not worried,'' Lucy continued, ``I haven't gotten an emergency signal yet.''
``So you're just going to wait until he gets back? That makes sense. I mean, it's not like you have a Lab Lab to test this sort of thing.''
There was a brief pause. ``Jake,'' Lucy asked, ``would you like to help me test it?''
``Well, since you asked, sure,'' replied Jake, ``Just let me get something to eat, first.''
Lucy chuckled. ``Okay. I should tell Oliver about this, anyway.'' So she got out a tablet and using voice commands, sent Oliver a message.
Hey Oliver. Jake's here. Would you mind if he tested the DVD chair while you're away?
Almost immediately, she got a message back.
Still haven't come up with a better name for it yet? Heheheh. Sure that's fine. :) This expedition will take longer than I thought
After a quick confirmation that she received the message, Lucy turned her attention back to Jake. ``Alright, Jake, it's all set up.''
``Great!'' came the muffled reply. Jake appeared from behind the open refrigerator door. A whole pizza was hanging from his mouth. ``You didn't want any of this, did you?''
``That's okay, you can have it.''
Once Jake finished the pizza, he and Lucy made their way to the chair. The wolf explained how it worked. ``There's a DVD slot in the spinning part of the chair. You spin in it and the spin transforms you based on the movie that's `playing'.''
``OOH!'' Jake was excited. ``I can be Mufasa again?!''
``That's what I'd like to know. Before I started to tinker with it, the transformations were random.''
Jake stopped. ``Random? What does that mean?''
``Exactly as it sounds,'' replied Lucy as she activated a panel on the back of the chair, ``No mind change, mind you, you could become a carbon copy of Nala, the same species as a random background bird or maybe you'll just get Timon's hair style. Completely random.'' She spun the chair. ``Until now, hopefully.''
Jake's eyes widened with anticipation. ``YAAAY! Let's do it!'' And he hopped excitedly onto the chair.
``Now the Lion King DVD is already in the slot. Just to clarify, is that okay?'' The pair burst into laughter. ``Okay, okay. Now since this is the DVD chair's maiden voyage like this,'' said Lucy as she imputed commands through the panel's screen, ``we'll take it slow and start off with the general category `lions'.''
Jake's face fell. ``You mean I might not get to be Mufasa?''
``Jake, you know my inventions have to be broken in slowly. We can try specific transformations later.'' The soon-to-be-former Labrador gave in then. ``Alright, Jake,'' finished Lucy as she finalized the settings, ``start spinning!''
Being feral, Jake was sitting with all four paws on the chair itself. It was hard to build spinning momentum without touching the floor so Lucy gave him a push to help start. The chair spun on its own, faster and faster until Jake was merely a blur. Then suddenly, Jake flew off the chair and slid across the floor!
``Oh no!'' cried Lucy and forgetting the experiment, rushed over. ``Jake, are you okay?!''
``Oogh, my head's spinning but I'm okay,'' replied Jake.
``Oh good! I was worried you got...'' Lucy trailed off as she noticed something.
``What? What is it?''
``You know how this was an experiment involving a transformation?''
``Yes, of course. Why?''
``Well...'' Lucy gestured to a nearby mirror.
``Always a mystery with you, isn't it?'' asked Jake as he went to look in the mirror. The first thing that caught his attention was the red lion mane. ``Whoa! I guess it worked, then.''
``Well yes and no.''
``What do you mean?''
``Keep looking,'' Lucy insisted.
So Jake turned back to the mirror and tried to pay attention to everything but his mane. He saw that his nose was different too and that he had a lion tail and what looked to be lion hindlegs. ``What did you mean by `yes and no'? It seems to have worked, to me.''
```Yes' because it did indeed transform you. `No' because this shouldn't have happened,'' Lucy explained, ``It's only meant to transform just one part or all of you at once. At least, that's how it was when Oliver tested it.''
``Maybe it's because of your modifications,'' ventured Jake.
Lucy sighed. ``Yes, that is a variable and it's not the only one. Oliver was never feral during these tests either. Though, that really shouldn't make a difference...'' She trailed off as she went to look at the chair. ``Unless...''
``Unless, what?''
``Unless the chair wasn't designed for that!'' Lucy was in her element. ``Don't you see? This chair was designed with the body structure of walking on two legs in mind. Sure, it's easy for you to sit in it but when it started spinning too fast, there wasn't enough sticking power for you to stay on. You were turning into a lion character, I dare say, Mufasa but you were flung off the chair before the transformation could finish.''
``Really? I suppose that makes sense but how can you say for sure?''
``I can't. There's really only one way to be certain.'' Lucy paused. ``We're going to need a lot of pillows.''
It took some time. Fortunately, Jake had stayed on all-fours which meant he kept his easy mobility. At last, Jake and Lucy had surrounded the DVD chair with throw pillows, couch cushions, bed pillows, anything that would soften a landing.
``Okay,'' said Lucy, ``I think that should be enough.''
``So what are we going to do next?'' asked Jake.
``Well we have to get you back to a single species before we can test it properly. We can use the sandalwood candle or we can test a new method to keep you in the spinning chair. Your choice.''
Jake groaned to himself. Lucy brought up the sandalwood candle so many times that it wasn't funny. Then he smirked. ``I think you know what I want to do.''
``You're right. It's just polite to ask,'' Lucy smiled. She tilted the seat of the chair back then braced it in that position with a strong beam. ``Okay, Jake, ready to turn into Mufasa properly?''
Jake was so excited he could only say one word. ``YAAAY!'' He hopped on to the chair so quickly that it nearly flipped over.
``Whoa, hey!'' Fortunately, Lucy was able to catch it and put it back upright.
``Oops. Sorry.''
``That's okay. I should've seen that coming when I came up with this solution. Anyway, let's do this!'' With that, the wolf inputted the final settings and started spinning the chair. Like before, the chair took up speed. This time, gravity held Jake against the back of the seat, keeping him from being flung off. At last, the chair slowed down until it came to a stop. Where there once was a Labrador/lion was now a carbon copy of Mufasa from the Lion King.
``It worked! My modifications worked!'' exclaimed Lucy.
``It did?'' Jake looked down at his new body and found that Lucy was right. He jumped down from the chair and went over to the mirror to look over his new form properly. He posed proudly and smirked at his reflection.
``You're not Simba, you know,'' Lucy joked.
``I know. I just couldn't resist, it's just so cool!'' Jake paused and tapped his throat. ``Huh? It doesn't change my voice?''
``That's the one glitch I can't figure out.''
``Oh.'' Jake turned back to his reflection. ``Well, it's still really cool!'' He smirked again. ``You know what's even cooler than being Mufasa?''
``What?''
``Transforming as Mufasa.''
Lucy chuckled. ``I like the way you think. Care to make it a double feature?''
``What do you mean?'' Jake turned around to face Lucy and saw that she had a number of DVDs to choose from. ``Oh, I get it. Hm, let's see...'' He looked over his options. ``I know a certain shibe will be happy,'' said the Mufasa look-alike as he pointed to the DVD of Bambi.
***
Meanwhile, out in the middle of the ocean, a certain mer-dog was suddenly smiling as he swam away from a collapsing corridor behind him inside an underwater temple.
***
Lucy smiled too. ``Alright, Bambi it is.'' She swapped out the DVDs and gestured for Jake to get back on the chair.
``Right but before I do...'' Jake trailed off ominously. He went up to the chair and with one fell swoop, knocked away the bracing beam. The chair seat fell back to its original level position.
``What'd you do that for?'' asked Lucy, ``Sure, you're bigger but you could still fall off.''
``Exactly.'' Lucy didn't reply so Jake continued. ``I want to fall off the chair if it means a crazier, more fun result. Besides, we laid out ALL these pillows. I don't want to waste that effort.''
Lucy looked at the pillows on the floor. ``You have a good point. Two good points. Alright, suit yourself.'' She went to adjust the settings while Jake hopped up onto the chair. ``Is the simple `deer' category okay?''
``Yeah, sure.'' Jake's mind was elsewhere. ``Lucy, what would happen if two people were on the chair at the same time?''
Lucy paused for a second. ``I don't know, Jake. There's not enough room for two people.''
``But what if we tried it anyway?''
``How? Oliver's not here.''
``We still have two people.''
It took a moment for Lucy to realize what Jake was talking about. ``Oh, no! Not me! Count me out!''
``Come on, please? Think of the data you'll discover.''
Lucy couldn't resist Jake's puppy dog eyes, even if he was a lion. ``Oh... alright. It's not like we'll get the chair spinning, anyway.''
Jake was excited. Like Lucy had said, there wasn't room for her with Jake sitting in the chair, especially since he was a carbon copy of Mufasa so she had to climb on top of Jake,
Jake tried to get the chair to spin. ``Come on, Lucy. A little help please.''
``I don't think it'll do anything,'' replied Licy but she still helped. Much to the surprise of both of them, they were eventually able to gain enough momentum for the chair to start spinning on its own. Of course, it began to spin faster. Lucy held on for dear life while Jake enjoyed the ride.
Despite being bigger, Jake was flung from the chair again, taking Lucy with him. They landed with a soft thud on the pillows.
``Phew, those pillows were a good idea,'' said Lucy, woozily. She rubbed her head. Oddly enough, she didn't feel her head with her paw. She quickly got to her feet, using her tail to help balance. Her tail definitely wasn't as long as it should have been. She looked down and saw that her forepaws had been replaced with deer hooves. ``Well, I guess it worked.''
``It did for you, at least,'' said Jake, ``If your tail transformed does that mean mine was left alone?''
Lucy checked her own tail. It was indeed a deer tail now. She looked back at Jake. ``Well... I think your tail might've been transformed, after all.''
``What do you mean?'' asked Jake. Lucy gestured to the mirror again and both went to look in it. Jake had deer antlers and a deer muzzle. His lion hindlegs were replaced with deer hindlegs and at the end of his lion tail, instead of a normal tuft, there was a deer tail. ``Ooh, I like this.''
Lucy had come out less transformed than Jake. She had deer ears, deer forelegs and a deer tail. ``Fascinating,'' she said, ``You were transformed pretty much the same way the first time you flew off the chair. Almost all parts that weren't transformed on you were transformed on me. This has major implications for the chair's transformation sequence. I must write this down while it's still fresh.'' She looked at her hooves. ``Maybe a session with the sandalwood-''
*BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!*
Lucy was suddenly interrupted by the tablet in the kitchen. ``That's the emergency signal!'' Forgetting her transformation, she rushed to read the message.
707! STUPID FISH won't leave me alone!
Lucy wasted no time.
Understood. We're on our way!
She ran for the door. ``Oliver's in trouble!'' she called to Jake, ``We need to go now!''
``But what about the sandalwood candle?'' asked Jake.
``IT CAN WAIT!''
Jake just shrugged and the partially deer-transformed Mufasa look-alike followed the wolf-deer hybrid to go rescue their friend.
