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Instant Glassics Chapter 2: A Smashing Success

By TheSilverSeryn

Author's Note: After the success of my last Glassic story, I decided to take another whack at it with a familiar face. Enjoy!

Now that they had claimed their territory, the former college dormitory now known as "Instant Glassics" was now in full swing. The traps around their "Crystal Palace" were set for anyone foolish or desperate enough to try and approach them. It soon became common knowledge that no one ever walked within 300 feet of the palace unless they were willing to give up their lives as they saw fit. Any humans "unlucky" or "desperate" enough to try and approach the palace without clearance, innocent or otherwise, would be immediately captured and transported into the palace to await their fate.

The humans, depending on their behavior, were given different treatments from their captors, who happened to be the two Glassic dragons that started the business. The dragons might be secretive, but they weren't savages. Any humans they were able to capture were evaluated and given their own private "cells" within their palace. If they were willing to accept their fate, they were given a few last human comforts such as TV, books, food and a video game or two while they waited for their turn to become Glassics. However, if they were willing to fight their fate, the dragons tended to show a little less mercy while they were in their custody. I won't go into details, but let's just say that their hospitality was a little less considerate.

Fortunately for them, the dragons were never short of subjects to turn into Glassics. You'd be surprised how many people are more than willing to end their lives to start completely fresh. Hardly a week went by that they didn't have a new subject or two to try out. And of course, all of their research was funded by the being that brought the two together - the god of gods, Strato Incendus. And as well as getting funding for their work, Incendus provided them with anything else that they needed. He may have been half-Dark, but he was easily one of the most considerate characters that the world has ever known.

This chapter in the Instant Glassics series begins with a casual conversation between Sidian and Darlan Silverhawke about a new Glassic that they had developed.

Darlan and Sidian Silverhawke were two impressive Anthro Glassic dragons of the male and female variety and the proud owners, founders and managers of Instant Glassics. They loved each other very much and always did business together as mates. And today, Darlan was waiting patiently for his mate to report back on a Glassic that she had been working on in her own time. She had insisted that she tackle this one alone mainly because of a hint of a "woman's touch" that she had been going on about. So Darlan had to sit this one out while Sidian had been working on this particular Glassic.

Darlan looked out onto the college campus where the Crystal Palace was located with his arms crossed. It was a really nice day in the summer and it seemed highly unlikely that anyone would be inside on a day like today. But then again, the college was going through its summer semester, so there were a few faces here that were taking classes at a time like this. And since Darlan was made of glass, the heat of the sun did little more than warm up his body slightly. Like his mate, he did not feel heat nor cold nor pain like humans did. Since they were magic, they could choose what they felt at will, so if they wanted to change their body sensations, it was up to them to make those decisions.

But now was not a day for relaxing. Darlan had heard from Sidian that she was going to finish her project today, so he had to stay here until she was done. His exceptional hearing could detect his mate working downstairs in their kiln hard at work. He continued to look out onto the campus through the crystal-clear window, waiting patiently for Sidian to finish.

Just then, he heard a strange harmonic ringing rippling through the palace. A strange harmony of light and sound pulsed through the crystal walls of the building, meeting Darlan's ears as he stood waiting. His ears flickered and he smiled as he headed down to the basement to see Sidian.

"You called, love?" he said with a smile once he reached the basement.

Sidian was just finishing up her work as he arrived. "I did, dear. I just finished up our newest Instant Glassic, and I outdid myself this time. Come over here and take a look."

Darlan walked over to the finished product and ran a hand over its glassy surface with a smile. "Fur, huh? That's unique. How'd you do it?"

Sidian chuckled and entwined her tail in his. "I told you it needed a woman's touch. Look at what else I added." She indicated another part of the sculpture, allowing Darlan to get a feel for himself.

"I like it. I like it a lot. So... how much will this go for?"

Sidian looked up at the ceiling and did the math in her head. "Well, given its size, I don't think it can go for the usual price. You know, I was planning on sending it to Plush Paradise and have Aridos and Vega sell it from there. What do you say?"

Darlan thought about it as well. "I guess it could work. Very well. Let's shine it up and ship it out."

And with that, Darlan and Sidian began to polish it up together and then send it out to Plush Paradise where it would be dealt with further.

I was flipping through a catalog one day, looking for something to buy. I had just gotten through a graduation and had hundreds of dollars in gifts to spend as I saw fit. However, I wasn't finding anything that I found interesting. There was the usual decorative junk, technological crap and scrap clothing - not exactly things that a fresh adult like myself would want. Then again, LTD Commodities didn't usually have any brands that were commonplace in the stores.

But as I flipped through the pages, I noticed something rather odd. There was a page that was unusually thicker than the rest of them. It was like two pages had been stuck together by some kind of glue or sticky substance, although I didn't see any creases where the glue had gotten the pages wet. On a hunch, I grabbed a butter knife from my kitchen and stuck it in-between the pages and slid it along them. I seemed to break some kind of seal and the pages parted ways to show what was inside them.

The pages revealed a hidden item for sale that was a little different than what was in the rest of the catalog. The items in question were (quote) "Custom-made Instant Glassic Sculptures" (unquote) that covered both pages. They appeared to be giant glass sculptures of rare and exotic creatures that were much more unique than normal glass statues I had seen. Normally, you would see things like swans, dogs, roses, bells and the like, and even then, they were only miniatures. From the looks of these, they were much, much bigger and much more detailed than what you normally saw. Whoever created these kinds of sculptures obviously had a lot of resources and according to the price, they were very cheap. I had never seen glass sculptures as large and as cheap as the ones that were being shown.

There were a variety of models to choose from at relatively cheap prices such as "Flammie", "Lugia", "Skunk", "Dragoness" and the like. I had never seen such amazing models before at these prices, which made me wonder if this was even LTD's own stock.

I liked a lot of the models and figured that I could afford one of them. There was one that was a little smaller than the others, but the looks of it made me feel like it deserved a good home. It was, if anything, the most adorable out of all of them and I figured I could use its presence in my home.

But before I headed to place the order online, I spotted something different on the page that suggested that this wasn't LTD's stock at all. The web site was different as well as the phone number and mailing address. Apparently, it was for a place called "Plush Paradise", which sounded familiar somehow. I figured I could order it online, but the address told me that it was just down the street from my apartment. Well, ain't that a co-inky-dink?

So with a wild hunch, I gathered what money I could and took a walk for the store to see if I could browse their wares for myself. I was feeling rather lucky today and I figured I could look before I bought.

The store was rather colorful and I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen it before. It looked like a kind of "artist's" nightmare/dream. The colors that were splattered in no particular fashion all over the outside of the building, which had no windows or other utilities to speak of, maximizing the canvas area. There was only one door in the center of the side of the building with a single railing and patch of concrete, which I headed into to see what was inside.

The inside was just as, if not more colorful than the outside without the sun to dim the coloring. The design all over the walls and ceiling was along the same concept. But it was the items up for sale that caught my attention the most. It looked like a toy store of sorts, but the items that were the main theme of the store were a number of toy plushies. I was surprised at how many different models of toys there were. I saw a number of dragons, mammals, reptiles and whatnot that a normal toy store wouldn't even come close to replicating. These were obviously done by expert and private hands.

But what caught my attention the most was what was on display in the center of the store arranged in a circle. Just like in the catalog, there were a number of glass statues on display that seemed to glitter in the light of the store. They were easily multiple times as big as the normal miniatures that you normally saw in a collector's shop. And just like in the hidden pages, there were a number of different models up for sale according to the engravings on their stands.

There was a "Skunkess", a "Dragoness" and even a couple Pokémon that I recognized as "Lugia", "Blaziken" and even an anthropomorphic version of what I assumed was an "Electrike" and a "Suicune". Even better, the coloring of the glass was perfectly shaded, meaning that someone had taken a lot of trouble to color these statues.

But what caught my attention the most was a rather small statuette in the center of the main ones on a small stand. It was only about the size of one of the smaller plushies in the rest of the store. It was positioned in a stance that seemed to be as majestic as it was unusual... as adorable as it was curious... and as cute as it incredible. It caught my attention and even though it was only a fraction of the size of the others, it seemed to be calling out to me. I wanted it. I couldn't explain it, but it seemed just too innocent to leave sitting there on its own. I had to have it.

But the statuette had only begun to impress me. As I slid between the other statues to examine the smaller one, I placed my hand on it to feel it. But as I touched it, I recoiled in shock. It didn't feel like it should. It was like I was touching something soft and glossy at the same time. It was like I was touching some kind of glossy silk that had a watery effect to it. It was like the glass "fur" seemed to flow on its own under my touch. Each individual strand of fur seemed to be hand-crafted and made to flow under my touch yet still be its original shape and firmness. Even stranger was that its "wings" (yes, it had wings) had a kind of "feathered" effect to it, making it feel like I was touching soft, downy feathers molded into a glossy pattern that was smooth and liquid-like to the touch.

"Do you like it?"

I nearly jumped out of my skin and bumped into the glass statues around me! A voice had spoken to me and had sent my heart rate racing. As soon as I managed to calm down, I turned around to confront the speaker. But when I did, I had to stop and think for a moment.

I was looking at a tall, lean, lithe, female... vixen standing behind me as though it always did this. It was one thing to see furries on the Internet, but in real life?! That was just not possible! I had to be seeing things! Even more bizarre, the "vixen" was barely wearing anything!

The vixen was rather lovely and impressive despite the fact that it was an impossible sight. It stood well over six feet tall and had the shape and physique of a very lovely female supermodel. She was covered in rich, golden-brown fox over a majority of her body with patches of white on its torso, the tip of its tail, the undersides of all of her paws. Her footpaws were vulpine in nature and had three toes, claws and pads on each one while her forepaws were human-like with five "fingers" and claws but no pads. She also seemed to be wearing a pair of "bowler's gloves". They were leathery and fingerless with a "breathing hole" on the backs of them. All of her paws from below her elbows down to her claws were covered in dark-brown "socks" that were a little paler in color compared to a normal fox's black ones.

Remember what I said about her barely wearing anything? I meant it. The only kind of clothing she had on was a thin spaghetti-strap navy-blue bra and panties, which was suggestive on any level. She obviously felt very comfortable wearing them because she didn't appear to be embarrassed about me seeing her like this.

Her head was vulpine in shape and appearance. She had a pointed muzzle with a cold, round, black nose and white fur on her lower jaw. Her ears were at the top of her head on either side of a mane of amber-brown hair. Finally, her eyes were a soft, clear-blue color that were full of innocence and curiosity.

This vixen was a natural oddity, but she didn't seem to care. She stood behind me as though she worked here. And even though I was looking at her in amazement, she seemed curiously innocent about me standing there.

"What? Did I scare you?" Her voice was soft, kind and considerate.

"I... uh..." I couldn't spit it out.

For some reason, the vixen seemed to get a little nervous and chuckled innocently as she scratched the back of her head. "Sorry. I'm new here, so I don't know how everything works here. I'll go get my boyf--uh... my boss. Hold on."

She retreated towards the rear of the store where she disappeared behind a door for a moment. I had a sneaking suspicion that she wanted to say "boyfriend", but she caught herself at the last second. I turned my attention back to the statue that I had been examining. It was a pretty good work of art and I hoped to own it for myself soon enough.

Soon, I heard the door open and the vixen returned with her boss. But when I looked back around, I couldn't tell if I was even sane anymore. If the sight of one anthro vulpine was shocking enough, then the sight of two was clearly nuts. It seemed that her boss was also some kind of freak of nature. It seemed that this one was also void of any clothes at all! It wasn't even wearing pants or anything to conceal itself... but then again, it didn't exactly have anything to hide upon second glance. It was obviously male and was rather well-built for a male of any kind, although the fur mostly covered up anything noticeable. Even stranger, the "todd" appeared to be almost a carbon copy of the vixen that followed behind her. His features were almost exactly the same except for a couple key features. For one thing, it didn't have any breasts or clothes on it. Another thing was that its "socks" were black instead of brown. Finally, its form was obviously male, so there was no arguing there.

The todd came up to me with the vixen following behind him. He looked from me to the glass statuette that I had been examining and smiled. "I take it you like what you see?" His voice was deep, dark and strangely mysterious.

I nodded and looked back at the statue. "That's what your friend said. I saw it in a catalog with a couple of hidden pages. Strange, huh?"

The todd didn't seem to mind. "Maybe, but if that's how you came here, then who am I to argue with that? Did you want to buy that?"

I blinked for a moment. "Uh... sure. How much did you want for it?"

The todd walked over to look at the statue from another perspective. "Well, it's smaller than the others and I got this one specially-made from our supplier, so... how about $50 even?"

That was insanely cheaper than I expected, but I couldn't argue with a price like that. "Okay. Is cash okay?"

The todd nodded and lifted the statue off the podium before carrying it over to the counter in the back. Meanwhile, I fished out fifty dollars from the wad of graduation money in my pocket before following him over to the counter and laid it out on the counter. The todd took the money from me and placed it within an ancient cash register. As soon as the transaction was complete, he took the statue and lowered it under the counter before reemerging with it packed away in a large box the same size and dimensions as the statue itself. It looked a little big to be lugging around by myself, but this didn't seem to bother him at all. He then placed one of his forepaws on the top of the box and muttered something under his breath. And before I could blink, the box shrunk from its full size down to the size of a ring box, which he handed to me.

"Here you go. When you're ready to take it out, just open the box and it'll return to normal size. Have a nice day."

It seemed that I was dealing with some kind of magic that I didn't understand, so I didn't argue with it and left without a word. I wasn't sure if what I had just witnessed was real, but I was now one glass statuette richer, so I headed home without arguing it.

Meanwhile, Vega Firetail and the newly-hired apprentice Summer Vixen were finishing the transaction in private. With the recent death of Vega's partner, Karmen Aridos, Vega was automatically given the rank of "Master". Shortly after Aridos died, Vega had met Summer at his funeral. She had been a long-time admirer of Aridos and Vega's works but had been too inexperienced with magic to become a decent magician, which should have been natural for a furry like herself.

It must have been Fate that the two of them were to meet because Vega's heart went out to the young vixen and he took her under his wing to become his apprentice. Summer was naturally more than grateful for this chance to prove herself because she had grown up in the world as a freak of nature. She had been born by freak circumstances that were too graphic to explain now. (Author's Note: Don't worry; I'll tell you what it is at another point in time.) As a freak, she had been abandoned by her parents and left to fend for herself in the world. Thankfully, she had been discovered by the god of gods, Strato Incendus, and raised in the wild as an inspiring magician. Unfortunately, because of her bloodline, she was rather inexperienced when it came to magic and it seemed that she was doomed to live life without being able to study magic.

Fortunately, however, Summer was still only a teenager and was still young enough to study magic and still be capable enough to use it. However, she would be put at a natural disadvantage, but given Vega's skill level, she was not outside his range of abilities.

So now that she was the new apprentice of Plush Paradise, Vega had begun teaching her all about the concept of Synthetics and all of their glories. Soon, she would be able to run the store by herself, but for now, she still had a lot of studying to do.

When I got back to my apartment, I went to the living room and set the tiny box in the middle of the room. And after offloading my things, I went to look at the box in question. It seemed highly unlikely that this tiny box contained a much larger statue within it. The male fox had said that all I needed to do was open the box and it would return to its original size and shape, but it was hard to believe.

Regardless, I sat down on the couch and undid the top flap of the box. And if you had blinked, you would have missed it. As soon as the flap came free of the top slot, the box instantly returned to its original size and weight. The box was now sitting on my lap with its top flap open.

Smiling, I lowered my hands into the box and gently lifted the glass statue out of it before setting it on the couch cushion next to me. It was truly a work of art and I admired every square inch of it. It seemed like it was destined to come to me and I was only too glad to accept it.

The statue in question was called "Flammie" and resembled a kind of multi-way cross between a bear, a cat, a dragon and a gryphon. It was colored a clear, crystal-white except for other key parts of it. Like I mentioned before, it was covered in soft, smooth, glassy "fur" and "feathers" on a majority of its body as though each of them had been specially-constructed for this particular statue. The fur and the feathers were completely stationary, but as I ran my hand over them, they seemed to flow like they were real.

There were other colored parts of it that included the series of rugged golden-orange "plates" that ran from under its throat, down its front, between all four of its legs and down to the end of its thick, "flexible" tail. There was also a king of "edge" on all four (yes, four) of its large, feathery wings that was colored a mix of green and blue as well as the tips of its ears. The coloring was clear in a way that when the light hit it, the colored parts seemed to "glitter" with radiance.

Its body was bear-like and it had a set of four large, bear/leonine paws. Each of them had a set of three digits and glossy pink pads as well as a large, pointed, pearl-white talon on each one. However, on its forepaws, there was a fourth "thumb claw" on their respective sides just like a human.

Finally, its head could be described in just one word - cute. It had an adorable face with a short curved muzzle. There was a single pointed fang sticking out of the sides of the roof of its muzzle, giving it a slightly vampiric look. On top of its head was a large mane of bizarre goldenrod-yellow "head fur" that would have put the characters in Dragonball Z to shame in terms of size and style. And each and every lock of head fur was like solid gold constructed in on its head. Finally, its ears were pointed and slightly "floppy" like a deer's, which made me wonder if they could flex the same way as a deer's as well.

But it was its eyes that caught my attention the most. Even though they were nothing more than colored glass within a larger mass of glass, they seemed to glitter with their own natural radiance. They were two shining, baby-blue-colored orbs embedded in its head as though they had been sculpted completely separate from the rest of its body. It looked like they were two tiny glass galaxies embedded in its head as though someone had sculpted them uniquely for this one purpose. They were, if anything, the most beautiful part of the entire sculpture.

But the most bizarre part of the whole glass Flammie wasn't what was on it but what was under it... or more precisely, what wasn't under it. The whole statue had been sculpted to make it appear like it was swooping down out of the air with its wings and paws spread, but there was about an inch of clearance between its belly and the podium where there wasn't any kind of connective glass that fused it to the stand. It was very odd that there was nothing holding it in place and even odder that when I moved the base, the entire statue moved with it as though it was attached anyway. Huh.

I looked over the glass Flammie statue for a while while trying to figure out what made it tick. It seemed to be just as interesting as it was mysterious and I wanted to know how it worked. It seemed so lifelike that I didn't doubt that it could just climb down from its stand and walk away. Go figure.

As I continued to pet the statue, I felt as though part of my being was being siphoned into it. It was hard to explain, but it was like it could just come alive without warning.

I took its paw lightly in my own when something happened that forever changed my "relationship" with it. As my hand slid neatly into its grip, I was unaware of one of the glass talons parting the skin on my hand until it was too late and I yelled in pain. I had slit my palm open and was now bleeding profusely, splattering the glass statue with blood before I had the sense to stuff it into my shirt to try and stem the blood flow. What had just happened?! I had been stroking it all this time and I hadn't even cut myself at all and now, I was going to need stitches to close this. It was like I had "angered" it and it had "lashed out" at me. It was almost like it "knew" what it was doing.

But I would worry about that later. I was bleeding and I needed to get this treated before I bled to death! I ran to get my first-aid kit and tried to work with only one hand. However, my motor skills were somewhat lacking since I was right-handed, so I was forced to use my hand for a brief moment.

But when I removed it from my shirt, I witnessed an impossible sight. Not only had the blood stopped flowing, but it had sealed shut with little more than a thin silver scar in the place where it had been. All that was left of the blood was a dried smear of it on my hand and a wet stain on my shirt. What had just happened... again?! One moment, I was bleeding in a life-threatening way. The next, I was just as good as new. It didn't make any sense.

Figuring that there was nothing more I could understand (again), I slid my shirt off and tossed it in my laundry hamper to deal with later before heading back to check on the statue that had started all of this. Its glassy fur was covered in drops of blood - my blood - meaning that it was completely ruined. I could probably wash it out, but something told me that it was ruined anyway. The follicles of its fur and feathers were embedded with so much blood that it seemed highly unlikely for me to get it out no matter how hard I tried to clean it.

With a sigh, I looked at the clock. It was already 6:15 and I had already ruined my most prize possession after owning it for less than two hours. What else could go wrong? I picked the statue up and set it on top of the entertainment center. It may have been ruined, but I might as well learn to deal with it.

I watched TV for a while, trying to come to terms with what I had done. It was a crying shame that I had paid $50 for a work of art and now it was completely ruined. But that didn't seem to bother the statue because it didn't know any better. It remained in its elegant pose with that sweet, curious smile forever molded into its face. It had no idea that its owner had literally just bled for it and it never would.

A little past 7:00, I got up to go the bathroom, trying to forget what I had done. I just couldn't get the incident out of my head and it seemed that I was going to live with it forever.

But while I was on the throne, I heard something that made my heart skip a beat. A sharp, heart-stopping crash!!! sounded from out in the apartment, telling me that something had fallen and shattered. And judging from the intensity of the sound, it was something glass or close to it. Finishing up, I headed out to check on the source of the noise. There couldn't be anyone in her because I would have heard the door being broken open. And since I was in a used apartment in the corner of the third floor, it seemed highly unlikely that anyone was in here.

I first headed for the living room where the glass statue had been standing only to find that there was nothing that looked broken on the floor. Then again, it was a carpeted floor, so even if it fell, it would have been cushioned by the carpet. And when I looked at the statue, I had to blink and rub my eyes before looking again.

It was gone. The stand was still there, but the statue was missing in action. It was like it had literally gotten up and walked right off of its podium. And since it wasn't attached to the base in the first place, it could have easily disconnected from it. But that didn't explain how it had gotten off of its stand in the first place. Glass didn't exactly have a mind of its own, you know.

But just then, I heard a second heart-pounding crystalline crash!!! sound out in the apartment, but this one seemed to come from the kitchen around the corner. Turning around, I headed to the kitchen and found a mess of broken glass scattered everywhere. Even stranger, one of my cupboards that held my drinking glasses was wide open, meaning that something was in there knocking glasses from there and shattering them on the floor.

As I approached the open cupboard, I heard a dull crunching sound meet my ears. It was almost like something was feeding on the glass shards that were strewn all over the kitchen. Now that I looked again, I only saw a few fragments of glass strewn about the floor and cupboard. That meant that the rest of it was still in the cupboard. Taking special care not to step on the shards, I reached a position where I could look into the cupboard without stepping on anything...

...

...

...I had to be seeing things. This just wasn't possible on any level.

The glass Flammie that had been on the podium just minutes earlier was inside the cupboard, feasting on a couple of drinking glasses that it had somehow destroyed. At least it explained where those sounds came from. One of the glasses was already nothing more than a few shining crumbs and a second one was already partially demolished by the creature feeding upon it. It didn't seem to have noticed me yet as it continued its meal like a cat feeding on a succulent fish in privacy. All four of its wings were folded at its sides, which was good since the total wing span of all of them at once was easily five times its body's width. It also appeared to me making a soft, cooing sound as it helped itself to the feast within the cupboard.

After watching it devour the second glass and set its sights on a third, I realized that it was going to eat me out of house and home if I allowed it to. I had to say something.

"Hey there."

The statue's adjustable ears perked up and it turned its head to look at me, apparently having heard me. Now that I was looking into its "living" eyes, I could see that there was a special spark of life twinkling inside those baby-blue globes. It was very much alive, but just how that could be remained to be determined.

Man and beast looked at each other for a while. The beast seemed to find me rather interesting because it turned the rest of its body to look at me. It had its head between its forepaws like a curious cat and cooed cutely as it waited for me to speak again.

I finally summoned the courage to speak to it again. "I think you've eaten enough. Glasses aren't exactly cheap anymore around here, so I think you should take a break." Then, feeling adventurous, I held out my hands to take it. "Here. Why don't you come out of there before you give yourself a stomachache?"

The statue seemed more than willing to and I was afraid that I was going to cut myself again when I picked it up, but as I slid my hands around its sides, it trilled pleasantly and allowed me to pick it up without it retaliating. It was surprisingly light and airy, which was boosted further by the softness and glossiness of its fur coat. I removed the statue from the cupboard and closed the door while tucking it into the crook of my arm.

Once I could use both limbs again, I held the furry thing up so that we were eye-to-eye and looked at it. I wasn't sure what to make of it and that innocent smile of its. It seemed perfectly harmless despite the fact that it was probably razor-sharp at different parts of its body.

"Look at you," I said for no reason. "You're incredible. You're literally a living work of art. You're the most amazing thing I've ever seen and I don't even know what you are or what to call you. I've never had a pet before yet you seem to be just what I need."

I immediately choked on my words when I realized that I had called it a "pet". This creature was obviously intelligent enough to respond to me and understand every word that I spoke to it. It certainly deserved to be called more than just a "pet".

But this didn't seem to bother it. It smiled and started purring as it rubbed its head up against my hands. It really didn't seem to care what I called it as long as it could be with me. And judging from the pleasant lick that it gave me with a very real glass tongue, it liked me very much even though we had just "met".

Smiling, I transferred the statue to my shoulder where it made itself right at home. Its claws didn't bite into my skin the way I expected them to and its glossy fur coat was rather soft as it rubbed its head against my cheek. It was really cute and seemed even more loyal than the most well-behaved of dogs.

"Well, little guy, I guess the first thing I should find out just who and/or what you are. You wouldn't happen to know, would you?"

At this, the statue suddenly leaped off of my shoulder and spread all four of its wings. I was afraid that it was going to drop like a rock and break, but somehow, it was able to stay in the air and "fly" over to the top of the entertainment center where it landed next to the podium it had started on. Incredibly impressed, I followed after it and stood in front of the entertainment center as it looked at the podium.

It looked at me and then back at the base and extended a single talon as if to "point" to something engraved into the glass base. I followed its gesture and saw that there was something engraved in there that I had overlooked before. The words "Flammie - Seryn" were molded into the glass even better than if someone had carved them there. It was like whoever had created it had manipulated the glass when it had been hot to create these indented letters.

This answered two of my questions. The glass statue was a "Flammie" named "Seryn". Now the only problem was if "it" was a he or a she or possibly both or neither. And when I asked it this, it made a rather odd gesture. It assumed a rather curious pose where it was standing on its hind legs and tail, tilted its head and batted its eyelids sheepishly. It was a curious gesture, but this seemed to suggest that it had a feminine personality. And when I asked, "I take it you're a lady?", it gave me a quizzical look before nodding politely.

That settled it. I had a female glass Flammie and "her" name was Seryn.

"Okay, "Seryn", do you think you have what it takes to be my pet?" At this statement, Seryn dropped to all fours and wagged her tail playfully before letting out a harmonic trill that suggested that she knew what she was doing. I chuckled and held out my arm as though beckoning to a bird. "Very well. Come and claim your property." Why I used the word "property" instead of "master" I would never know, but I had no idea that it would come back to haunt me in the near future.

Seryn trilled happily and jumped from the entertainment center before gliding over to me and landing perfectly on my arm and climbing up to my shoulder. She nuzzled my cheek affectionately, purring up a storm. She obviously liked me and I liked her as well. This was the beginning of a very special relationship between two differently-animate objects.

To start with, I carried Seryn over to the kitchen and looked down at the glass shards still strewn all over the floor and the counter.

"I guess I should get this cleaned up. What do you say, girl?"

Seryn nodded and jumped from my shoulder to the counter to wait for me to clean up the remains of the glasses she had shattered. I went to the closet in the entryway and grabbed a broom and dustpan before beginning to clean up. Seryn watched curiously as I swept up the broken glass and had her head in-between her paws and her tail wagging in the air as she watched me tend to the mess. She couldn't help chirping and mewling pleasantly as I cleaned up as though this was all a game to her. And when I began cleaning up the mess on the counter she was on, she began trilling incessantly and started pawing at the brush that I was using. She was becoming kind of a nuisance, but I didn't scold her because she didn't know any better. She was just a young Flammie that found interest in the most innocent of circumstances.

"You like that, don't ya?" I said, taking a swat at her with the hand broom. She snapped at the bristles as I pulled them out of her reach with a sharp clink of glass on glass and then blew a squeaky raspberry at me when I turned my back on her.

"Oh, you're just cruisin' for a bruisin', aren't ya?" I said to Seryn as she feigned innocence when I turned back around. "You just keep a grip on that tongue of yours if you don't want me to break it off."

Seryn merely turned around and raised her tail and butt in the air as though she was being a snobbish cat. I rolled my eyes at her and then made to throw the glass away. But before I could do so, she suddenly started whimpering like a dog begging for attention.

"Now what?" I said, looking at her with an annoyed look.

Seryn's galaxy-like eyes glittered as though she was putting and she pointed to the dustpan full of glass. She then made a sound like a strangled cat and rolled over on her back and wings playfully and looked at me upside-down.

Not sure what to make of this little act, I looked at the dustpan full of glass that I had picked up and put two and two together. With a smile, I offered the dustpan to the Flammie.

"You want this? Is that what you want? Do you want a little snack?" Seryn rolled back over and yipped excitedly. I chuckled at her antics. "Alright. Just watch out for the little crumbs of dirt in there."

Seryn nodded, sat back on her back paws and opened her mouth for me to dump the crumbs down her throat, which I was only too glad to do. As the dustpan was emptied, Seryn licked her muzzle and chewed the glass fragments for a moment before swallowing. But she wasn't done yet. She suddenly pulled a face and started gagging and coughing.

Worried that I had choked her, I patted her on the back, telling her what I thought. "I warned you. Now you're gonna choke if you keep this up."

But Seryn didn't seem to be choking. She merely hawked up and vomited out a small clump of dirt that had gone down with her snack before looking at me with a pleasant smile.

I sighed and shook my head as I swept the crud into the dustpan. "You're nuts, you know that? I just don't know what I'm going to do with you."

After disposing of the filth, I put the stuff away and came back over to pick her up again. This time, I carried her into my room because it was getting late and I was ready to turn in for the night. I set Seryn on my dresser while I got undressed for the night. Seryn watched me curiously and then jumped onto the bed while I had my back turned.

When I looked back around, I saw her making like a cat and making herself comfortable on my spare pillow. I shook my head at her and went over to confront her. "Oh, no, you don't. My bed's only a twin and I barely have enough room for myself. If you're going to sleep with me, you're going to sleep on the dresser like a statue should sleep."

Seryn looked hurt. She hung her head and wings as she jumped off of the bed before curling up at the foot of the bed, whimpering hurtfully.

I really didn't want to do this to her, but rules were rules in my house. "Sorry, Seryn, but I just don't have the room in here. If I had a bigger place, I would certainly bend the rules, but it just won't work for you to sleep here with me."

Seryn, however, didn't look at me as I looked down at her over the foot of the bed. I had a feeling that I had really hurt her feelings and there was no way to fix them. I might have really hurt the only friend that I had made in my life and she might hold this against me. But it was late and I was too tired to argue my point. With a sigh, I wished Seryn good night and went to bed myself.

During the night, I woke up out of habit from a break in my dreaming state. I was about to head back to sleep when I heard something in the darkness of my room. It was soft, but I could pick up sounds much easier when I was half-asleep. It sounded like someone was... shivering. It wasn't quite crying and it wasn't out of fear, but somehow, it sounded like someone was shuddering from discomfort. And since the only other being in the room was Seryn, I assumed that it was her.

It was curious that Seryn was shivering even with a "fur coat" and my heart went out to her. Summoning up a sudden burst of energy, I rolled out of bed and walked over to the base of the bed where Seryn was curled up. She seemed to be cold and I felt around in the dimly-lit room until I placed a hand on her soft, glassy fur.

"Seryn?" I whispered in the darkness. "Are you okay?"

Seryn didn't seem to respond to me and continued to shiver as though she was cold. Feeling my heart go out to her, I scooped her up in my arms and listened close to her shuddering breaths.

"Seryn? Wake up. You're scaring me."

But just then, Seryn seemed to stop moving completely and freeze up. Worried that she was freezing or something, I listened close. However, what happened next seemed to change everything. One second, I was holding a mass of solid glass. The next, I was holding nothing because Seryn's body suddenly liquefied and flowed through my hands and arms and splattered on the floor.

Worried that something had happened to her, I went to go flick the lights on. After getting over the initial glare, I looked down and confirmed that Seryn had somehow turned into some kind of liquid and had pooled on the carpeted floor. Now very scared for my friend's life, I knelt down and tried speaking to Seryn, unsure if she could hear me.

"Seryn? What's going on? What happened to you? Please speak to me."

I got no response from this. All Seryn did was have her liquids pool into a large circular puddle on the floor. I was scared that something had happened or was happening to her. She was my only friend and I cared greatly about what happened to her. She had only been alive for such a short time and yet she had already changed my life for the better. I didn't want anything to happen to her now that she was here, but I wasn't even sure if she would be around much longer.

But then I realized something. If Seryn was glass and she was now liquid, shouldn't her temperature be in the thousands of degrees? Molten glass was extremely hot and yet it was like she was nothing more than a puddle of crystal-clear liquid. What was going on?

But just then, I found that out. The puddle that was Seryn suddenly lit up in a column of white light that was so solid and intense that it was like a pillar of white was reaching from the floor up to the ceiling. It was so intense that when I tried to stick my hand through it, I couldn't get close enough without a strange force pushing me back.

As I watched, the column seemed to get wider, pushing me back a little more up against the wall with little room to spare. If it came any closer, I was worried that it was going to hurt me in some way or another. But as I watched, I saw something rising up out of the puddle in the floor. It seemed to be taking some kind of shape or something, making me wonder just what was going on. Finally, the column of light started to dissipate and I soon saw what was inside...

...

...

...no... it couldn't be... it just wasn't possible.

"Seryn...?" I said, completely awestruck.

It looked like Seryn, but she was easily much, much larger than I remembered her. She had "hulked out" to an incredible size that easily outgrew my own. It just wasn't possible that she had gotten this big in such a short time.

"Seryn...?" I said shakily. "Wha... what happened to you?"

The gargantuan glass Flammie uncurled itself and confronted me. She was just so incredible and so beautiful that I couldn't believe it was the same creature. She looked at me with those amazing eyes of hers and smiled ever so sweetly like she always did. And what she did next made me wonder if I wasn't still dreaming.

"Hello, my dear Alex. How do you like me now?"

She spoke! She actually spoke! Not only that, but her voice radiated music, harmony and kindness all at once. She was speaking using her muzzled mouth using perfect lip synch.

"Seryn... what... what happened to you? You... you're... incredible!" I wasn't sure what else to say. "But... is it really you?"

Seryn smiled sweetly and lifted her paw up to touch the side of my cheek with a light touch. "Of course it's me. Look into my eyes and try and tell me otherwise."

She directed my head so that I looked into her sparkling baby-blue eyes. I stared into those twinkling globes, looking for any sign of the Flammie I had known just hours ago. Amazingly, I didn't see anything that suggested that it wasn't her. Everything that was in the small glass statuette that I knew and loved was all here in this impressive new form. There was no way that this could not be her.

"Seryn... it is you," I said, loving the touch of her smooth, glassy touch. "How could I have missed this? You're just so... amazing."

Seryn chuckled lightly and brought her face forward to kiss me lightly on the forehead. "I knew I'd get through to you. Now... come to me, my human. I'm going to help you sleep for the rest of the night in nothing short of pure comfort. You'll never want to go back to that stiff old bed again."

She then reached forward with her paws and pulled me gently towards her and then directed me into a position where I was on the floor next under her. Finally, she climbed over on top of me so that she was sprawled out on top of me and then spread all of her wings before wrapping them around me as though covering me like a giant blanket. She was unusually warm and soft that I didn't even bother fighting her as she made herself comfortable on top of me.

"Are you comfortable, my love?" she said, whispering gently in my ear as lightly as she dared. I was so comfortable that I didn't dare say anything for spoiling the moment, so all I did was nod.

"Good. Well... good-night... my sweet little human." She then flicked her tail in the direction of the light switch and the lights went out before I smiled and allowed her to lull me off to sleep with a gentle, soothing melody that seemed to vibrate from her throat area directly into my mind. She really cared. Even after I thought I had offended her, she still cared. I must be the luckiest guy in the world.

(Author's Note: What happens from here on will forever rewrite the rules on Synthetics. Enjoy!)

Strato Incendus was dreaming that night. He couldn't explain it, but he couldn't shake the feeling that something was not right. It was like an ancient evil was sleeping within the world that he had missed all this time. It gnawed at his mind in a way that he couldn't shake. No matter what he tried to do, he couldn't ignore the feeling that something even darker and more malevolent than his Dark side was returning to the world. When he woke up, he would make it his personal task to find out just what this malevolence was.

But that wasn't the end of his dream by a long shot. As soon as he made his promise to root out this unknown evil, he was visited by a vision that started in the depths of outer space. At first, there didn't seem to be anything that he could see, but then a large structure drifted into his view. It appeared to be a giant space colony that the humans had long since abandoned for countless years. However, there appeared to be something... recent about it. It was almost as if it had been visited within the last year but was now abandoned again.

Now that he thought about it, it made some kind of sense. This was a human space colony that had been dubbed the "Omega III" but had been taken over by a dark force recently and had been renamed the "Rubber Revolution". Sure... it was all coming back to him now, but for some reason, his memory was flawed. Key elements of the colony's real purpose were missing as though they had been deliberately removed.

But as he observed the colony, he was suddenly aware of eight shining lights coming into focus around the colony as though they had appeared out of nowhere. They were all different colors, but they all radiated equal amounts of incredible power. As he watched, the lights began to spin around the outside of the colony in a rapid pace, creating a ring of rainbow-colored energy until they stopped all of a sudden as though they had been halted somehow.

And as he watched, all eight lights separated in different directions, bound for the earth where they would be discovered later. Incendus watched as the lights vanished as they entered the earth's atmosphere. He wasn't so sure what those lights were, but he knew that he needed to track them all down before they fell into the wrong hands. One of them was powerful enough, but if someone found all eight, there was going to be trouble that even he wouldn't be able to stop.

I slept even better than a baby under Seryn's soft and gentle presence. She had had the state of mind to give me a good night's sleep that I had only read about. The sheer softness and glossiness of her glass fur and feathers had been second to none in the world. She was without a doubt the most amazing "inanimate" object I had ever seen or owned before and I hoped that she would never leave me anytime soon. I had only had her for several hours and yet she had changed my life forever. And judging from her behavior towards me and this loving embrace she had me in, it was highly unlikely that she was going to leave in the near future.

I opened my eyes and found my vision distorted by the clear glass Flammie covering a majority of my body. Actually, I was in a position that my vision was mostly clear-orange from the rugged armor running along her underside. Still, it confirmed that I was not crazy. Last night had been real and I had the state of mind to confirm it.

Seryn was still asleep, her arms, legs and wings still wrapped lovingly around me. She appeared to be breathing, but I had to wonder what use a "living" glass statue had for oxygen. I smiled and inhaled deeply, pausing for a moment as a smooth, creamy, vanilla-like smell met my nostrils. If she was glass, then how could she give off her own body odor? But then again, I wasn't complaining. It was much more enjoyable than other animals that I knew.

The feel of my chest inflating seemed to tell Seryn that I was awake or waking. She slowly opened her eyes, which I realized seemed perfectly normal even though she was partially see-through, and turned her attention to the human she was embracing.

With a smile, she cooed lightly and gave my hair a little lick with a pink glass tongue. "Good morning, Alex. Did you sleep well?"

I was too close to her to look into her eyes, so I improvised by looking up through her chin. "Like a log I did."

Seryn chuckled and continued to groom me with her tongue, which I realized was giving off some kind of liquid like saliva. "Mmm... I thought you would. No human can resist sleeping in the presence of a loving Flammie. Now, would you like me to make you breakfast or would you like to fend for yourself?"

Make breakfast? Could she really do that since she had no mortal sense of taste? I decided to take her up on that offer. "If it's not too much trouble. Can you handle it?"

Seryn chuckled politely and gave me another lick. "It's nothing, really. You just get ready for the day and I'll whip you up a meal to put others to shame."

She then began to extract herself from me so that I could move again. My body wasn't even stiff from being in one position for most of the night. This led me to believe that Seryn had only begun to amaze me. She climbed up off of me and stood up in a position that suggested that she had become bipedal dafter her transformation. Her figure wasn't humanoid, but her stance was. She was able to stand on her footpaws digitigrade-like and move in a way that she didn't appear to be quadrupedal at all. I was even amazed that she now reached up to well over seven feet tall at the tips of her ears, meaning that she had done some serious growing after her "conversion" last night.

Seryn looked down at me and lightly placed her right footpaw on my chest so that she was just barely putting her weight on me, which wasn't much at all anyway. "If you think this is something, just wait until I really get going. Now, go take your shower and get dressed and I'll have a delicious breakfast ready for you when you get out."

She pressed her footpaw lightly into my chest before removing it and leaving the room to go make breakfast. Still in awe over the size of my newest friend, I got up to get ready for the day like she said. I wasn't quite sure what I had gotten myself into, but something told me that it was for the better.

When I got out of the shower, I immediately detected the smell of breakfast in the air. It smelled like there was bacon and eggs involved but also something faintly potato-based. And when I rounded the corner and entered the kitchen, I found Seryn putting the finishing touches on a meal over in the dining room. But what I saw as a finishing touch made me question Seryn's abilities even more.

Seryn was finishing up with her back to me as she lifted a drinking glass that she had not yet consumed up to her mouth. I was worried that she was going to eat it, but what she did made me wonder just what she really was. She opened her mouth and appeared to "vomit" something orange and liquid-like into the glass, filling it to just below the brim. She then set the glass down behind the plate of food and then walked over to the trash can, spotting me in the process.

"Oh, hi, Alex. Breakfast is ready if you're hungry."

I blinked and confronted her with the obvious. "Did you just throw up in my glass and expect me to drink it."

Seryn looked offended. "Alex! I would never do that! I was just making you some orange juice the old-fashioned way."

"Say what?" I was confused.

Seryn blinked, shook her head and beckoned to me with a talon. "Come here and I'll show you."

I walked over to her and she positioned herself over the trash can. She then gagged on something before throwing it up into the can. From the looks of it, she had just thrown up a giant mass of orange pulp. Even stranger, it appeared to have had all of its liquids squeezed bone-dry. It suddenly made sense. She had "processed" a number of whole oranges that I had had in my fridge and had "vomited" the juice of said oranges into a glass, which was ready for drinking. And since her "insides" were sterile, there was not threat of any cross-contamination. She really did care.

"See, love? Three oranges make a full glass of freshly-squeezed sunshine from my belly to yours. You should try it; it's even nice and cold."

Seryn didn't have any reason to harm me, so a glass of "processed" orange juice seemed to be more of a treat than a threat.

"Oh... okay. Sorry I accused you."

Seryn's smile returned and she patted me on the back with her bear-like paw. "It's okay. No harm, no foul. Now enjoy your meal. I made it just the way you like it." She tapped me lightly with one of her four wings before heading into the living room to watch some TV while I ate.

The meal looked like she had gotten pretty technical with the stove. I counted three broken egg yolks arranged in one perfectly-circular mass, four strips of bacon that were soft enough yet crispy enough for me to enjoy them the most and a large mass of evenly-toasted hash browns covered in salt and ketchup just the way I liked it but could never replicate like sit-down restaurants could do.

But looks were only half of a meal. How did it taste? I cut the eggs and sampled them...

...

...

...say... that was not bad! In fact, it was better than anything I could ever do. Seryn seemed to be a natural as a cook and had proven just how good she was by making this exceptional meal. I helped myself to her amazing cooking and admired every bite and crumb of it. With a cook like her, I would probably never botch a meal again.

"Seryn... this is amazing! Was this your first time cooking?"

Seryn smiled as she looked over towards me. "Yep. You could say that we Synthetics are naturals at cooking just what our owners want. Do you like it?"

I nodded and spoke with my mouth full of hash browns. "I love it! I've never been able to cook this well. How do you do this so well?"

She merely shrugged. "I guess it's in my blood."

I swallowed and shot a sly look towards her. "What blood?"

Seryn looked blankly at me before cracking a wide grin and trilling pleasantly. "That's really funny, Alex. Almost all Synthetics get asked that at one point or another, so I guess I should've seen that coming."

I chuckled and returned to my meal. She really was a hoot, I had to give her that. I wasn't sure how I managed to survive all my life without her, but at least I wouldn't have to worry about that any longer.

After I finished my meal, I put my stuff away and went to go to the living room to sit next to Seryn. She smiled and wrapped both of her left wings around my shoulder before pulling me close to her. She seemed keen to never let me out of her sight, I could give her that. "Well, Alex... it looks like I've claimed my very own human. What do you say we... have a little fun?"

I looked up towards her with raised eyebrows. "And by "fun", you mean...?"

Seryn chuckled and placed her paw on my head. "How about "Master and Pet"? I'm sure you'll like that a lot."

I blinked, trying to figure out what she was talking about. "You want me to be your pet??? Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Of course. It's different with Synthetics, but apart from a little power shift, you won't even know we're playing."

I still didn't get it. "You're still not making any sense."

"It's simple. You could think of me as your mother and I could pamper and care for you the way that a mother would. And to start with, you and I could go for a walk around the mall that's on the other side of the street so I can take in the sights."

This was a little odd for me to take on the role of a "son" to a glass Flammie, but I had a feeling that it would make her very happy if I did. "Um... okay. Wherever you want to go, I'll go with you."

Seryn nodded. "Very well. And I know just the place we can go first. I can't explain it, but I've always wanted to take a look at a jewelry shop."

I sat up and looked at her curiously. "Why is that? You are jewelry... in a way."

Seryn trilled humorously and pulled me close to her with her upper-left wing again. "That's a good one, love! I don't think any Glassic has ever been called "jewelry" before. I gotta remember that one."

I seemed to have given her a compliment, so I felt safe that I hadn't offended her like before. "So how about it? I bet a creature of your... finesse could rat out fake jewelry in an instant."

Seryn blinked and then smirked. "That's a good idea. Come on, love. Let's go root out some fakes!"

And with that, Seryn and I stood up and left the apartment to go for a walk to the mall across from the apartment complex. It was amazing that, given her wingspan, Seryn was able to fit through doors without much trouble, but she soon revealed another one of her abilities. She was able to seamlessly fuse all four of her wings into her back so that she didn't appear as "exotic" as she did before. It was impressive and it gave her a bit more of a "humanoid" look, allowing her to walk out in public without attracting too much attention. However, she flatly refused to "remove" her tail when I asked her.

"I just wouldn't be "me" without it. After all, how often do you get to have a girlfriend with a tail, hmm?"

I choked on one of those words. "Uh... girlfriend? I didn't think that..."

Seryn merely wrapped her arm around me and pulled me closed to her before resuming her grooming of my hair. "You can't deny it, Alex. Remember: I've got your blood in my system, so I know exactly what makes you tick. But that can be between us if you want."

I nodded. If word got out that I had fallen for an "inanimate" object, I would probably never live it down. And with that, the two of us continued walking to the mall across the street from my apartment.

Ironically, one of the first stores inside the central entrance of the mall was a jewelry store right on the corner of the first intersection. It was one of two in the entire mall and Seryn seemed too be drawn right to it, which made her move even faster than I walked when I was on the move for something. It was hard to believe that glass could move that fast and I had to hold onto her paw to prevent her from getting away from me.

"Jeez, Seryn!" I said as she finally stopped in front of one of the display case. "A little faster and I wouldn't've had an arm left!"

"Sorry, Alex," she said, using her digits to massage my arm joint, which was aching from how strong she was. "I guess I don't know my own strength. It's just that jewelry is like glue to the path of least resistance."

I had no idea what she was talking about, but I decided to give her a hard time just for the heck of it. "Wanna wrestle, huh?"

I launched myself at her, but somehow, she saw me coming and ducked my grapple attempt, spun around to the back and put me in an armlock before ramming me up against the wall a few inches from a large glass display case. Her strength shocked me and I realized that she could do some pretty hefty damage if I let her.

"Okay! Uncle! I give up! Don't hurt me!"

Seryn chuckled pleasantly and leaned in close to whisper in my ear while still keeping my in the armlock. "I thought so. No human can outpower a Glassic and you are no exception."

She finally released me and I was able to turn around to look at her while massaging my arm. "I'll keep that in mind. And don't you mean "classic", by the way?"

Seryn shook her head. "No. I mean "Glassic". I'm not one to botch up my grammar."

I blinked. "What's a "Glassic"?"

She walked over to me and held her arms out as though she was displaying a new shirt or wardrobe. "Take a look at me. What do you see?"

I wasn't sure what she was getting at, but I decided to answer as best as I could. "A lovely giant glass Flammie?"

Seryn snorted humorously. "Exactly. And do you remember what I was saying about "Synthetics" earlier?"

I had to think for a moment. "I... think so. You mentioned it when you were referring to your cooking, right?"

She nodded. "Yes. Now put them together and tell me what you come up with."

I thought about it as she said. Seryn was a Synthetic but she also called herself a "Glassic". And if she was both a Glassic and a Synthetic, then that means...

"A Glassic is a type of Synthetic, right?"

Seryn nodded and clapped her paws with a sound that reminded me of crystals clinking together. "Very good. Now let me spell it out for you. There are seven known types of Synthetics in the world, which are all made up of different materials - Balloonies, Toys, Plushies, Gooeys, Rubbers, Metallies and of course, Glassics like myself. Each Synthetic has their own chemical properties and they all control their bodies in different ways. Likewise, each of them have different methods of feeding themselves and the abilities they all contain are mostly unique to their type. And since Glassics are the most recent in the entire line, there's still a lot that we don't know about them. Even I don't know everything about me, but I'm willing to learn if you are. Deal?"

At this, she made a face that suggested she was buttering me up. The way her eyes glittered told me she was trying to appeal to my better half, and unfortunately, I bought into it.

"Alright, Seryn. I'll start learning as long you're willing to return the favor."

With that being said, Seryn's face returned to normal and she patted me on the back. "Thank you. Now let's go see that jewelry store. I smell sweet somethings just around the corner."

We did so and I started browsing the wares of the jewelry store. The jeweler was rendered speechless as he watched something close to a giant glass jewel walking around and examining his wares. Seryn drummed her talons on the glass case as she looked at all of the jewelry, gems and whatnot underneath the glass counter.

Finally, he seemed to get up the courage to ask Seryn a question. "Does the lovely miss see anything she likes?" It was a surprise that he didn't have a heart attack from the shock to his old age.

Seryn looked up at him with those eyes and the jeweler had to take a step backward from seeing those incredible globes looking at him. And if that wasn't enough to short-circuit his ticker, the sound of her speaking surely came close. "No... I'm just looking. I'd like to offer my services as a gem appraiser."

The old man looked at me and adjusted his glasses. "She's very sweet. Is she yours?"

I nodded. "Like a diamond, she's forever. I love her with all my heart. And yes, she's made of glass, so she knows what she's doing."

The jeweler nodded shakily and returned his attention to Seryn, who was looking at some diamond engagement rings. However, she didn't seem to like what she saw or smelled because she frowned and wrinkled her muzzle. "$2000 for these?!" she said, appalled. "I've seen shot glasses cut better than these!"

The old man looked shocked. "You have an eye for fakes, I see."

Seryn looked up at him and smiled. "Of course. I can weed out fakes in an instant since I'm made of glass and can tell what's glass and what is not. And from the looks of these, you're charging an outrageous price for shoddy-cut glass and 14-karat gold."

The jeweler looked down at the rings in question and then up at her. "You seem to know all about stuff like this. Would you like to appraise a pair of special gems we got in last night?"

Seryn blinked and looked at me. I merely shrugged and said, "Fine with me."

She then nodded and looked back at the jeweler. "Very well. What do you got?"

The man nodded and walked behind a door at the back of the shop. He probably went to get a special gem in a safe somewhere. He was gone for about two minutes before he came back with two large items obscured by white sheets. They appeared to be much, much larger than your average gems or jewelry, which made me wonder just what Seryn had gotten us both into.

He then set them both on red-velvet cushions on the glass and spoke to us. "I'd cover your eyes, because these beauties catch light like no one else's business."

Unsure of what we were dealing with, I covered my eyes as best as I could as he removed the veils from the gems...

...

...

...WOW!!! That was bright! The gems were not only much bigger than anything I had ever seen, but they seemed to radiate their own supernatural light. One of them glowed a blinding white while the other gave off an unusual... black light??? Huh. The gems were about the size of my fist and were perfectly cut into the most flawless diamonds that I had ever seen before.

Seryn stared at the two gems in awe, not bothering to cover her eyes. She had obviously never seen gems as amazing as these before. She extended her paw forward as if to take the black one but hesitated.

"They're... incredible. May I... hold one?"

The jeweler looked at Seryn curiously and then nodded. "Go ahead. Just don't go anywhere with it."

Seryn looked like a kid in a candy store as she reached out and picked up the black gem. As she did, the gem's light dimmed but it did not lose its natural radiance. She lifted the gem up to her eye level and turned it slowly, her eyes glittering impressively. And as she did so, she closed her eyes and seemed to be basking in the gem's "power".

As she did this, the light of the black gem finally went out and she began to glow a bright black as though she was absorbing its energy. I was worried that she was tarnishing it and called out to her to bring her back. "Seryn! Wake up!"

Thankfully, she came to her senses and the glow returned to its original owner. She didn't seem to have realized what she was doing and looked around blankly. "Wha... what happened? I think I blacked out."

Worried about her safety, I reached out to take the gem from the Glassic. "Here... give it back and we'll figure it out later."

I removed the gem from her grip and gave it back to the jeweler. Interestingly enough, the gem didn't react to my touch the way it did to Seryn's. And speaking of Seryn, she looked at the jeweler with a curious expression.

"I don't think these are "gems" at all. They're very inexpensive and constructed out of a kind of material that is uncommon but not unheard of. I don't think they would work in the hands of someone else since you could probably replicate these gems very easily if you had the right materials."

I looked at Seryn in shock. What was she talking about? Jewels this size must be priceless and the glow that they gave was unnatural in its own way. How could she say that???

But amazingly, Seryn's expression told me that she had just lied through her teeth. She really seemed to be taking what she said very personally and was fighting with her self-control to keep herself together. But I guess I was just used to her by now because the jeweler didn't seem to notice.

"Well... if you put it that way... would you like them? If they're really just glass copies, then I guess I have no use for them."

Seryn looked apprehensive and nodded. "If that's what you want to do, then I'll gladly take them off your hands... but not for free. I'll give you something to exchange for it and you can sell it how you see fit."

The jeweler looked blank. "Um... very well."

Seryn nodded and held her paw in front of her belly area before doing something that proved further just how amazing she was. She stuck her hand through her torso and made a grabbing motion before pulling out what appeared to be a long chain of colored glass beads arranged in a rainbow with far more colors than what were there in a normal one. I lost count at 20 beads before she separated the chain from her torso and then linking them together at to ends. She then handed it to the jeweler as though she was presenting the crown jewels themselves.

"There you go. One custom-made Glassic piece from my heart to the heart of someone very special."

The jeweler looked as though all of his dreams had come true. He took the chain from Seryn and traded the two "worthless" gems for it. Seryn quickly passed both gems to me before she could start acting weird again and covered them with the veils again, muttering to me, "Don't let me touch these again until we get back home."

Unsure of what she was getting at, I took the gems and was going to put them in my pockets. But then the jeweler offered me a plastic shopping bag for me to carry them more efficiently and the two of us left the mall. Seryn seemed genuinely distressed about something and didn't say anything as she shuffled ahead of me until we returned to the apartment.

"Would you mind telling me what's got your tail in a knot?" I asked Seryn once we were safely within our own home once again.

Seryn sighed and sat down on the couch for a moment to think about it. She was so troubled that she hadn't even reformed her wings yet. It seemed that deliberately lying and merely touching those mysterious gems had really bothered her.

"Alex... I need some love. Come over here and help me calm down, please, and then I'll tell you."

I was willing to do anything for her, so I set the bag down on the floor and then went to go sit down by her side. She was taking deep breaths, but as I leaned over onto her lap, she sighed with relief and then began stroking me like a favorite pet as she purred comfortably.

"Mmm... thank you, love... Everything feels so much better when you're with me. I'm able to calm down and get back to basics when I'm with you."

I smiled and sighed myself as she continued to stroke me. Even though she was glass, she was still as soft and as amazing as she ever was.

"I'm glad you feel that way. Now, would you like to tell me what went on in that jewelry store earlier?"

Seryn made a sound like a purr and a sigh together as she started to tell me as I remained leaned over in her lap. "Very well, but don't think of me any different when I tell you this.

"I admit that I lied about those two gems being "worthless" back at the shop. As much as it tore me up inside to do so, I knew I had to. If any humans found out what those "gems" were capable of, the world could be in dire jeopardy. You see... those gems contain powers unlike anything I had ever felt before. They're full of so much energy that I thought it was going to detonate me from the force. The magical powers that they contain could power half of the nation by themselves."

"But... what are they? You seem to know a lot about these gems."

Seryn closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again and continuing. "I've only heard of them in legends, but I never thought that they were real. They're the legendary "Synthetic Emeralds"."

I had to stop her right there because the term she used had sparked something in my memory. "Are you talking about something like the Chaos Emeralds from the Sonic the Hedgehog video game series?"

She nodded. "They're similar but not identical. You see, the Synthetic Emeralds were created after the infamous "Rubber Revolution" a few years back. They function similar to the Chaos Emeralds, but unlike them, there are eight of them and they all contain their own individual unique powers that are related to Synthetics."

I was confused. "But didn't you tell me that there were only seven types of Synthetics?"

Seryn shrugged. "I thought so, too, but when I held that black emerald up today, I realized that it contained properties of the other seven combined. If I had to give it a specific type, I would call it an "Omni-Synthetic" type." She read my mind and explained. "Omni-Synthetics are exceptionally-rare types of Synthetics that contain traits and abilities of all seven other known types. Even to date, there has only been one "natural" Omni-Synthetic, which was modeled in the likeness of yours truly." And before I could ask, she added, "Please don't ask me how I know that. It's just common Synthetic knowledge.

"And even though the Synthetic Emeralds appear to be jewels, they're all uniquely constructed so that they match their type's chemical makeup."

I was curious. "What colors and kinds are there?"

Seryn looked up at the ceiling for a minute before reciting them one after another. "Let's see... the black emerald is obviously Omni-Synthetic, the white one is of the Glassic type, the purple one has traits of Balloonies, the light-blue one is based on Metallies, the blue one is indicative of Gooeys, the green one goes with Plushies, the red one belongs to the Toys and finally, the yellow one has Rubber traits."

I still found this hard to believe. "Are you absolutely sure about that? The gems that I held felt like ordinary jewels to me."

Seryn purr-sighed again and patted me on the side. "If you don't believe me, pick up the black one again and see for yourself."

As much as I didn't want to leave the comfort of Seryn's lap, I knew I had to if I wanted to figure this out. I picked myself up and went to go remove the black Synthetic Emerald from the bag. As soon as I touched it, I knew immediately that it was different. It seemed to be cycling through a number of different phases even as I held it. One moment, I was sure I was holding a glass gem, the next, it became incredibly heavy, meaning that it was now metal and the next, it became soft and plush-like to the touch. It was like it couldn't decide which form to take since it had seven different chemical structures in side of it.

I brought the emerald over to the couch and sat next to Seryn as I looked it over. "It's really... strange, to say the least. It's like it doesn't know what to be."

Seryn nodded. "That's the nature of the Black Emerald. It mimics the desires of the Synthetic that touches it, but for humans, it's always shuffling. However, whenever the desires of the Synthetic that holds it are stable, it gives them the ability to become Omni-Synthetics."

I was catching on, but I still had a couple of nagging questions to ask. "But if it only affects Synthetics, then do the other seven react likewise?"

She nodded. "Yes. For instance, if a Rubber holds the Green Plushie Emerald, they become a plushie in body and ability. The same could be said of a Metaly owning the Red Toy Emerald and so on. Off the top of my head, there are more than 50 different combinations of Synthetic/Emerald combinations." (Author's Note: 56 to be exact (7x8... do the math).)

"But what about if, say, a Glassic like you held the White Glassic Emerald? Won't they cancel each other out?"

At this, Seryn drew a blank. "You know, I'm not sure. You know, we have the White Emerald with us and a Glassic to test it on, so why don't we try it out?"

Unsure of what I was getting myself into, I set the Black Emerald down and went to retrieve the white one from the bag. Sure enough, it felt just like the Synthetic it was based on - glass - and glowed an impressive clear-white color similar to Seryn's body color. I sat back down and passed it to her, which she carefully took from me.

Seryn looked at the white gem with an indecisive look for a long while before her eyes suddenly slid out of focus (???) and her body seized up as she clutched the gem firmly in her paw. She suddenly started hyperventilating and her fur suddenly stood on end.

"Seryn...? What's going on...?"

She couldn't move her head to look at me, but she was able to tell me what was on her mind. "Alex...! Run! I... don't want you... to get... hurt!"

"But..."

"GO!!!" She let out a strangled yowl that told me to book it right now! And without thinking about it, I leaped off the couch and ran to my room to take cover before a resonating bang!!! could be heard from the living room, shortly followed by a sound of crystal shattering.

I was scared of what I was going to find when I went back out there. From the sound of it, something glass had broken again, but this time, the only thing that was glass that had a reason to break was... oh no... it couldn't be... anything but that. I whimpered and got carefully to my feet before slowly walking out to the living room.

Unfortunately, I saw the results long before I reached there. The room was littered with supposedly billions of glass shards. It was true - the Glassic Emerald had destroyed Seryn with the conflict of energy, who was also glass. She was not only destroyed; she had been obliterated! There wasn't enough of any part of her body left for me to recognize her. All that was there was an incredible mess of various-colored glass. The emerald in question, though, was still on the couch, completely unscathed.

I couldn't believe that she was gone as I walked through the room (with socks on, of course). The only creature who had ever shown me any kind of affection was gone and the only remains that I had of her were too tiny to resemble anything. It just wasn't fair. She was too important to me to just leave me like this.

As I brushed some of the crumbs off of the couch to sit on it, I was ready to start taking out my frustration on the emerald that had caused this when I noticed an inconsistency. Seryn's remains were everywhere, but if she had exploded like I first thought, then there shouldn't be anything left of my living room. Everything would have been totaled from the force of the glass shrapnel flying everywhere. And yet... it all looked like it was as harmless as pixie dust. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but things had only begun to confuse me.

Just then, the White Emerald suddenly lit up and began levitating by itself up off the couch, glowing brilliantly. As it did this, Seryn's remains lit up likewise and became nothing more than billions of tiny lights, which was like looking at the sun but without the harmful rays. It was still bright enough for me to squint, though. I watched as billions of these lights started to fly together back into a large central form in the middle of the room. I didn't dare believe what I was seeing in case it was all a trick, but it was happening right before my eyes, so I couldn't be sure if this was even feasible.

As the glass lights reassembled into their original places and every last one was accounted for, the central form suddenly increased in the intensity of its light, which dazed me for a moment before it finally went out and I saw an impossible sight standing before me.

Seryn the Glassic Flammie was standing in front of me with her back to me and her body completely reformed and her wings spread wide. She was holding a serene pose as her mind slowly came back into focus. She seemed to be collecting the energy of the Synthetic Emerald, which was hovering in front of her before it gently lowered itself into her paw, which she held out in front of her. I wasn't even sure if what I was seeing was possible, but it was. Seryn was back to her old self, but there was something vaguely... different about her. It was like her body makeup had been polished and buffed to become even more brilliant than before.

Finally, Seryn dropped her arm and opened her eyes before turning her head to look at me with a satisfied smile. Still unsure about what had just happened, I watched as she chuckled and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Wow... that was nuts!" she said with a proud trill. "I never realized that breaking into a billion pieces was so... satisfying."

"Seryn...?" I said uncertainly. "Are you feeling okay?"

The glass Flammie turned around so that she was facing me and nodded. "I feel great, Alex. In fact, I feel even better than ever! I guess the power of the White Emerald seemed to give me a kind of power than I never knew existed within me. I now feel more powerful and amazing than ever before. And I have you to thank for it," she added with a smile in my direction.

I blinked and pointed to myself. "Me? But... I gave you the emerald that destroyed you! How can you thank me for that?!"

Seryn chuckled and stepped forward to sit on the couch before wrapping her wings around my back and placing the emerald in my lap. "You gave me the emerald in the first place. And with that, I was able to understand what happens when a Synthetic is given an emerald with the same composition as itself."

I was curious. "What is it?"

Seryn sighed and leaned back on the couch. "It all makes sense to me now. Normally, when a Synthetic is given the same emerald as their type, nothing tends to happen. But when they are given it out of love and concern from their owners, it awakens a power within them that normally does not reside within them or the emeralds in question. You could say that I've been "reborn" in a way. Not only did it destroy me (which is supposed to happen to Glassics at some point), but it awakened my mind to a whole new range of possibilities. And with these new powers, I feel that there is something that I want to do, but I can't explain it."

I wasn't sure if what she was saying was registering. "You mean... you don't know what it is?"

Seryn sighed and closed her eyes. "I'm afraid so. I've got these all-new powers, but I don't know what to do with them. It's right on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite explain it." She then looked at me with a sad look. "I'm sorry I can't tell you more, Alex, but this is something I must come to terms with in time. But I promise that when I know something, you'll know something as well. Okay?"

I didn't want her to strain herself while trying to figure out her "purpose", so I accepted her situation reluctantly. "Okay, Seryn. I'll wait for you to realize it as best as I can. But can you promise me something, too?"

Seryn nodded. "Anything, my love."

"Whenever it happens, will you take me along with you? I don't want to lose you again, even for a moment."

Seryn purr-sighed and placed her paw on the side of my face. "I promise, Alex. After everything we've been through, I wouldn't dream of leaving you. You... you complete me, Alex... and I'm forever in your debt for that."

I smiled and nodded as I looked into those amazing eyes of hers. I could smell the faint odor of creamy-vanilla wafting through her glass nostrils in place of her "breath" and loved every bit of it and her.

But then Seryn did something that bound us together forever in a way that no human or animal had ever done before. She closed her eyes, leaned closer and kissed me gently and lovingly with her beak-like muzzle. Cold, crystal glass met my lips, but I didn't care. This kiss not only proved how loyal she was to me, but it also confirmed our eternal love for each other. This went against every human and animal law in the book, but right now, we could care less about what was right. The fact was that we loved each other and this one satisfying kiss proved that we were made for each other, emphasis on "made".

After a few moments locked in a loving embrace, Seryn and I separated and the two of us merely looked at each other with vague smiles on our faces. I couldn't explain it, but right then and there, my relationship with Seryn reached a whole new level. She and I were now closer than ever before and we didn't care what the world thought as long as we were together.

"Didja feel it, love?" said Seryn pleasantly.

I nodded. "I did. I don't know what it was, but I certainly felt it."

And with that, Seryn stood up and went into the kitchen before starting to go to work on making lunch for me. She really did care if she was willing to go through all this trouble for me. I also realized that she had placed the White Emerald back in my lap when she had gotten up. I looked down at the powerful gem and sighed. This little beauty had already worked wonders and it would continue to do so for a long time afterwards.

While Seryn made lunch, I flicked on the TV to see what was on at this time. TruTV was playing a marathon of Forensic Files, which was my favorite show on this network, so I watched it for a while while Seryn cooked away. Judging from the sounds of frying, she was making something to the effect of hamburgers and tater tots from the smell of cooking oil in the air. I chuckled to myself. She knew exactly what I liked, but I wondered if she knew how to season my burgers just the right way from countless mixes with the spices in my cabinets.

It took about a half-hour for her to finish up, but soon, Seryn called out to me in a musical voice, "Alex! Slop's on!"

I loved her sense of humor. So I got up and went to the table where she had set up two impressive... bacon cheeseburgers??? Impressive! There were also a number of decently-deep-fried tater rounds on the plate with a light shroud of seasoned salt, which was just how I liked them.

But when I looked in the glass, I had to think for a moment. It looked like blue Kool-Aid, but there was something vaguely... different about it. I grabbed the glass and tilted it from side-to-side, but the liquid inside barely budged. It was like it was a glass of pancake syrup with a distinct clear-blue color.

"Seryn? What is this?" I said, presenting the substance to her.

Seryn looked over from cleaning up in the kitchen. "It's my own concoction of Synthetic Oil, love. All Synthetics make it at some point or another for their owners. Try it; you'll love it." She then returned to cleaning up.

I swirled the sluggish "oil" in my glass for a moment, smelling it to get a scent from it. It smelled sweet, but I couldn't relate it to anything I'd ever smelled before. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I cut my losses and went bottom's up...

...

...

...you know... it wasn't so bad. Its taste was unique and I couldn't relate it to any other substance I had ever eaten. In fact, as I drank more of it, the taste seemed to get better and before I knew it, the entire glass was drunk. It had been really delicious, but that was nothing compared to what I felt soon after that.

The oil seemed to not only be delicious but very nutritious as well. I could practically feel countless vitamins and minerals flowing through me and giving my body the nutrition it deserved. I was pretty sure that it had every vitamin and supplement under the sun and even a few that no one knew about. This stuff was not only great-tasting, but it was also beneficial to your health!

"This stuff is great!" I told Seryn, setting the glass down. "How did you make something so amazingly good?"

Seryn chuckled and patted her belly harmoniously. "It's all in the bod, Alex. My body can process things that this world has never seen before. Just consider it a little "taste" of what I can do for you."

"Well, if it's a lot like this Synthetic Oil stuff, then keep 'em coming!" I said, turning to the food to help myself.

I took a bite of the closest hamburger and paused, relishing the flavor. Words failed me. Seryn had not only gotten the right combination of spices cooked into these burgers, but there seemed to be something in there that made them taste unusually better than before. I didn't even need to tell her and Seryn read me like a book from across the room.

"You don't need to say anything, love. Just eat and enjoy."

I did and enjoyed every morsel of it. Seryn had not only perfected another meal, but I was beginning to think that there was nothing that she couldn't do. I bet she wasn't even trying to be this good and yet it was perfection every time.

Once I was finally done, I cleaned up my things and put them in the dishwasher for later. Seryn, however, seemed to be eyeing a large porcelain plate that she was turning over and over in one paw. I didn't need to be psychic to know what she wanted to ask me.

"Go ahead and eat. I've got plenty to spare."

Seryn smiled and wrapped her tail around my right ankle lovingly. "Thanks, love. I'm starving after last night."

She then bit into the plate like a doughnut with a sound not unlike a plate smashing on the floor. She chewed away at it as though she did this all the time and winked in my direction as I watched her. Soon, she had eaten the whole thing and sucked on each of her talons as though they had a bit of flavor left on them.

Seryn then looked at me with a sly grin that told me she was up to something.

"What are you up to?"

She smiled pleasantly. "How about we go for a swim?"

I wasn't sure if she was serious. "But... we'll get cramps."

Seryn suddenly trilled humorously as though I had said something hysterical. "Oh, Alex! Don't you know that you're in the presence of a Synthetic? I can work any kind of medical miracle under the sun, including a cure for cramps after eating. Watch this."

And before I could stop her, She suddenly jabbed at me with a glass talon, punching a hole in my shirt and piercing my skin. She kept it in there for a moment as a cold, numbing liquid was injected into my system. And as quickly as she had hit me, she pulled her paw out of me and held it up to her face, licking the blood off of her talon.

It was over before I could even register what had happened. Just then, the sharp pain of her actions hit me like a pinch. "Ow! What did you do to me?"

Seryn smiled and cooed pleasantly. "I just injected you with a little fluid that'll soothe any ache, cramp or pinch that you might have while we're in the pool. Now..." she added, gesturing to the door. "Shall we go?"

I couldn't figure out any other reason to stall, so I went to grab my swimming trunks and accompanied Seryn down to the new pool in the basement that had been installed rather recently.

We were the only ones in here at the moment and since there was no lifeguard, it was swim at your own risk. The pool went down to about seven feet at one end and shallowed out at just over three on the other end. The water was kept at a rather cool temperature year-round and there was a smaller hot tub off to the side.

And as I climbed in the shallow end, I noticed that Seryn remained on the edge, looking down at the water for some reason. She seemed to be deciding whether or not she should get in.

"What's wrong, Seryn? This isn't hydrofluoric acid, you know; it won't dissolve you or anything."

Seryn, however, seemed to be thinking about something else. "No, that's not it. Besides, after breaking once, Glassics are indestructible, period. No, I was thinking about something else."

I was confused. "Well, then what's stopping you?"

Seryn looked blankly down at the water. "I'm not sure. I can't explain it, but there's something missing here." The two of us remained silent for a few moments before Seryn's eyes suddenly lit up. "I've got it! Watch this, Alex, and be amazed!"

She took two giant steps backwards and took a deep breath before breathing out a cool, gentle stream of sparkling blue... fire? The "flames" quickly surrounded her like a shroud and soon, I was looking at a large mass of blue smoke. There was a sound like glass cracking, which concerned me, and then the smoke went out, revealing a similar but slightly different Seryn the Glassic Flammie.

Seryn's body appeared to have transformed from a bear/beast-like form to a... a... oh boy... Her form was now much slimmer, more slender and much more (gulp) feminine shape. Her torso had slimmed out and had taken on some loose but still impressive curves that were partially concealed by her smooth glass fur. Her orange plating was still there, but up at her chest area was a (mommy!) pair of rather impressive glass breasts that did not disguise her impressive form. They were just the right size that they could put other women to shame but still be small enough to not seem overly dramatic. Even stranger, there didn't appear to be any (*need I say it?*) on them like one would expect, giving her an attractive yet "censored" look. Impressive.

But what alarmed me the most was that she was completely... (uncle!) naked! She wore no clothes whatsoever... but then again... there wasn't really anything for her to hide. There were no features on her that suggested that she was one of those "adult" statues. Impressive. It was just like she knew just how to make herself decent for a general (and sensitive) audience. Even her arms and legs were significantly slimmer yet still lean and furry enough to classify as a "furry" except for what I noticed were five taloned digits on her forepaws and four on her footpaws. Wow...

"Seryn... I... You..." After everything that she had done to the both of us so far, this took the cake. To date, there was nothing that even came close to topping this! I was so stunned that I felt the feeling go out of my legs and I collapsed, semi-unconscious in the pool.

Sensing my shock, Seryn immediately jumped into the water and caught me before my head disappeared under the water. She managed to keep me above the water so I wouldn't drown. She sighed and held onto me so that I didn't collapse again.

"Alex! Are you okay?!"

I felt a little woozy from shock. "You're just... amazing." That was all I could say.

Seryn chuckled and answered plainly. "I'm glad you think so. But we just got here. We still have to enjoy ourselves, so let me help you with that."

She lifted her free paw up and gently poked at a vein in my forehead, injecting another strange liquid into my bloodstream. It took a moment, but it was enough to get me back on my feet of my own accord, completely recovered.

"Oy, Seryn... Thank you."

She nodded with a chirp. "You're welcome. Now let's go swimming."

And with that, she let me go and started swimming away towards the deep end of the pool. She seemed to be daring me to come swimming after her, which I did with satisfaction. If she wanted to play, then I figured I might as well give her what she wanted.

Seryn swam over to the deep end and disappeared underwater as if goading me into following her. I knew that she didn't have to breathe, so she could stay underwater for as long as she wanted to, but I had no such luxury, so this was a little awkward. However, she seemed to be one step ahead of me because I suddenly felt her latch onto my ankle with her cold glass paw and yank me underwater into a position where we were perfectly level. The action had caught me off-guard and I found myself exhaling more breath than I should have. However, Seryn seemed to remedy this by pulling me close to her and pressing her glassy muzzle to my lips before inhaling what breath was left in my lungs and then somehow blowing fresh, clean oxygen into my lungs. And when we separated, she looked at me with a smile and her eyes wide open.

"There you go," she said vocally in a way that I could hear her. "You can stay underwater for as long as you want as long as I'm here to give you some fresh, clean oxygen."

I managed to keep my eyes open as I looked her over. This seemed to be perfectly normal to her as she smiled as I tried to speak to her. "Why are you doing this?" I tried to say but all that came out was a stream of bubbles. I suddenly realized that I was out of air once again.

Fortunately, she detected this and drifted forward to give me another breath of air. But this time, she remained connected to me and she spoke to me though some kind of mental link.

Because I can, my love. I am an Instant Glassic and you are little more than my human playtoy. And as far as I'm concerned, you answer to me.

Since she didn't break the connection but continued to pump air in and out of my system, I decided to think of what I wanted to say. But Seryn... I thought we were better than that. You said you and I would be equals!

Seryn's mind seemed to "wink" at me. I did, didn't I? Well, let's say that from now on, you and I are more than just friends. You need me to survive, Alex and I'm laying the ground rules here. And to start with, I'm going to give you a little... upgrade.

Seryn seemed to be going through some kind of power shift. She was letting her own power blind her to what was really more important to her - me. I was scared that she would never treat me the same way ever again once she got going.

Seryn seemed to pick up on this and sighed. It's really okay, Alex. The upgrade I'm going to give you will not only make you and I equal on a whole new level, but it'll mark a whole new level in Synthetic history. I finally understand what that Synthetic Emerald was trying to tell me. My true purpose is to... She broke off.

I blinked. What is it? Please tell me. I must know.

Seryn trilled mentally and finally brought me up to the surface where I could get some decent oxygen for the first time. The two of us treaded water just a foot from each other.

"Alex... you and I are going to change the world."

I gulped. Was she serious??? Did she really want to rule the world? It was one thing to rule me, but the world?!?! This was just insane! I knew of a lot of people who dreamed of world domination, but it never seemed to pan out for those willing to go all the way. I mean, she was powerful and all, but did she really think that she could rule the world... even with me???

"Seryn... how could you?" I said with a shudder. "I thought you were better than trying to rule the world."

Seryn looked hurt for a moment but then looked blank quickly after. "No, my love, you misunderstand me. I didn't say I wanted to rule the world; I just want to change it."

She then swam over to the shallow area and sat down on the steps leading into the pool with me following after her. "I... I don't understand. What's the difference?"

Seryn sighed and placed her arm around my shoulders. "Alex... it's like this. I have a desire for power, but not in the way you think. There's no fun in ruling the world. You have to deal with people fighting against you, you need to keep an eye on everything in the world and everything tends to get boring after a while with everything going your way. Believe it or not, but ruling the world is not it's all cracked up to be. No, my love, I do not wish to rule the world; I wish to change it."

I was still lost. "I still don't see the difference."

"It's like this. I had a vision of the future when I was nothing more than glass shards. It predicted that you and I would take the Synthetic Emeralds into space and implant them in the infamous Rubber Revolution Cannon. Once we have all eight, we can awaken the world to the presence of Synthetics by creating new and unique "Wild Synthetics" from the overpopulation of certain animals. We can start a whole new age of Synthetics and all I need is your loyalty to me to do it. I cannot do this alone, Alex, so I need your loyalty and commitment to me to help me change the world. Please do this for me, my love. This is what I must do with my life and I need a friend who I can share my vision with."

I should have said no. This Flammie was clearly out of her mind. What possible chance did Seryn have against the world? What possible chance did she have to create a world full of Synthetics? It was wrong and went against all of the natural ways of the world. There was no way that this should be allowed to happen and I knew it.

But on the other hand, Seryn's "vision" didn't sound as farfetched as I first thought. I had obviously found love and had started a partnership with a Synthetic and if the world could find the companionship in these "Wild Synthetics" that I did with a regular one, then what harm was there?

I had to make a choice. Did I go along with this insane plan for changing the world or did I refuse and possibly destroy the love of the only creature who had shown me any? It would ultimately decide the fate of both my life and the world and I had to make it now.

"Seryn... I... must..."

"Yes?" Seryn said, waiting for my decision.

I knew I couldn't ignore it any longer. I had to make a choice here and now or else things would get ugly...

...

...

...

...

...and so I did.

"Yes, Seryn! I'll help change the world with you! I'll do anything to stay with you as long as you and I are on the same page. Whatever you want to do, I will do for and with you."

Seryn stared long and hard into my eyes to detect any kind of deception that I might be showing. She needed to know if I meant every word since this decision would decide the fate of the rest of the world.

But when she detected no deception in my eyes, she smiled pleasantly and wrapped her arms and wings around me in a loving embrace. "Thank you, Alex! You don't know how much this means to me! I promise you will never regret this and to prove how much I appreciate your sacrifice for me, allow me to begin the next step."

I blinked and continued to embrace her as she gently rubbed my neck. "And what is that?"

Seryn purred and moved her head in a position where her muzzle was touching my neck. What happened next changed my life forever. She bared her huge vampiric fangs and sank them deep into my jugular, piercing the flesh and injecting me with a kind of burning fluid that bit and burned every nerve in my body as it spread.

She finally separated from me and watched me seize up in pain from the burning fluid flowing through my veins. I yelled and screamed for it to stop, but she did nothing to help me. All she did was hold onto my hand with her paw and grip it tight as though trying to lend me strength through touch.

"I'm very sorry you have to endure this, my sweet little human," she said, failing to keep a straight face with tears streaming from her eyes. "But this is the only way I can give you what you need."

I continued to convulse and yell in fits and starts as I began to lose feeling in my body. My nerves were being destroyed and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

But as I watched, I saw that that wasn't the end of it by a long shot. As I lost feeling in different parts of my body, I watched in horror as the affected parts began hardening and turning both clear and semi-transparent. I was losing the ability to move and even worse, I realized what Seryn had done to me - she was turning my body into glass like her! But... how could this be? Seryn cared about me, so why would she destroy me if she wanted me to be at her side? But as I watched, my torso and arms and the like were being "glassified" until I was becoming little more than how Seryn had started - a "lifeless" glass statue.

However, Seryn seemed to come to her senses and she leaned forward so that we were face-to-face again before whispering gently and lovingly to me. "Here, my love. Let me spare you any more suffering by drawing you into my body until you are how I need you. Just close your eyes and try to forget the pain. I love you, Alex, and no matter what form you take, that will never change in the slightest. Now... good-bye (but not really)."

And with that, she pressed her muzzle up against my mouth in what I assumed was a kiss. But as she locked lips with me, she sucked in a deep breath, pulling more into her than just air. She pulled my heart, mind and soul directly out of my body and into hers.

At that moment, everything that was my life went out as I legally "died" I became nothing more than a spirit in the ether that was being pulled out of its host body and being stored in a kind of "glass jar" for the time being. I lost the ability to think, feel, hear, see, taste and smell among others and was put into a deep, sedated sleep for as long as I was inside Seryn's body. The only thing that I could do was "exist", but somehow, I "knew" that she would never let anything happen to me or my body. All I could do was wait until I had a body to call my own once again. Seryn loved me and nothing would ever change that no matter what happened to either of us.

As Seryn pulled Alex's being into her body, she remained locked in the kiss out of respect for him. Tears leaked out of her eyes as she realized that she had officially "killed" him, but she knew better. Everything that was, is or ever will be Alex now took up residence inside her body. In fact, she stored him in a glass pocket inside her navel area, which caused it to glow a bright blue for a moment before it dimmed to little more than a ball of white light stored inside her.

Seryn licked her muzzle at the taste of Alex's spirit entering through her mouth. It was an odd taste that she would taste only once, but at the same time, she would always remember it as the "Kiss of Death" that she had given her one and only lover. And as she pulled away from Alex's soulless body, she watched as his head was engulfed by the increasing "glassification" that she had started.

And with that, Seryn stood up and lifted Alex's glass body out of the pool with incredible strength. It pained her to see him in such a painful pose, but she knew that she had given him some kind of closure by relieving him of his pain for the time being. She knew she couldn't lug the statue back up to their apartment without arousing suspicion, so she was forced to put Alex though another difficult trial even though he wasn't aware of it. She was going to have to eat him.

It pained her to destroy the only form that Alex had ever had to fill her belly, but she knew that there was no choice. Alex's body was too large to carry anywhere safely and the only other choice was to merge him with her body so she could ferry him up the three flights of stairs to his apartment where they would have a little more privacy.

But as she fought with herself to sink her teeth into his glass body, she suddenly had a brainstorm. At the moment, both of them were made of the same kind of glass, so she figured there was an alternative way. She was going to absorb him so that they were sharing the same body.

However, that was a lot of glass to absorb. She had no idea how much bigger she was going to get when it was all done. At worst, she would be far too large to fit though the doors and/or hallways in the building. But it was a chance she had to take. It was either that or she was going to have to eat him. And even then, she was still going to end up the same way from the amount of glass in her body.

With a sigh, Seryn embraced the glassified human as though she was hugging him again and began to pull him into her body. For a moment, the two of them lost their natural forms as they assimilated each other by liquefying around each other. Seryn, meanwhile, was gaining some distinctive size and mass as she obtained more glass inside her body.

And then, it was over. Seryn had absorbed the human and was now at a much larger size than she had started out as. But when she looked herself over, she sighed when she realized that she hadn't gotten as big as she had expected. True, she was now back to her original shape at an increase height of nine feet instead of the original seven, but it wasn't as bad as she had expected. If she molded her wings into her back and crawled around on all fours, she knew she could get back upstairs without causing too much damage.

And when she did, she felt relieved that no one had heard her tail knocking against the walls repeatedly as she headed upstairs. She couldn't really control that thing since most tails had minds of their own no matter what species they belonged to.

Seryn parked herself in the middle of the living room and looked around for the Synthetic Emeralds that she needed to start what she called the "Synthetic Revolution". Sure enough, they were both still on the couch from before, so she didn't need to look far. She would deal with the black one later, but right now, she needed the white one to do what she had planned. The tiny emerald was like a pebble in her incredibly larger paw, but she knew that she wouldn't be able to crush the incredibly-powerful gem.

To start with, Seryn opened her mouth and popped the White Emerald before swallowing it whole. As a Synthetic, she could direct anything she ate to any part of her body that she wanted. She could feel the emerald's incredible power radiating through her body, threatening to explode her, but since she had already broken once, she was indestructible forever, so the emerald did little more than make her fur tingle.

Once the emerald was in its correct place, she started to channel the energy within her into replicating herself using the glass human that she had absorbed earlier. The process was strange as she felt her body siphoning off part of itself to create a "lifeless" replica of herself, but she knew that if Alex could take the pain of being turned to glass, then she could handle this relatively painless procedure.

Soon, Seryn opened her eyes and found that she was looking at a carbon copy of herself standing next to her. It was an incredible glass replica of herself, but to the expert eye, it just didn't have the spark of life inside it that she had. It was devoid of a life, a mind and/or a soul that were needed for it to become animated. In fact, its color was completely gone, leaving a completely transparent shell standing next to her. Now all it needed was a little nudge.

Seryn chirped happily as she stepped forward to look into the statue's clear, empty eyes. But they would not remain empty for much longer. She gently pressed her muzzle up against the statue's own and blew the stored spirit of Alex that she had been keeping safe inside her since she had "killed" him. This filled the statue with both new color and honed its fine details to match the soul that now possessed it. Its eyes filled with life as the spirit within it began to awaken and allow Alex to be reborn. Seryn then broke the liplock and stepped back to admire her work and wait for her lover to reawaken.

I slowly came to, feeling a little strange since I had just had my soul sucked out of my body before being placed back into another one. I instinctively knew that this new body was not mine and my being would never be the same ever again. Seryn had forever changed my life and I was eternally grateful for it.

And as I finally had the sense to focus my sight to my surroundings, the first thing I saw in my new life was none other than my eternal love, Seryn the Glassic Flammie. I purred pleasantly and smiled with satisfaction.

"Seryn... I knew you could do it. You gave me a new life and I am eternally grateful for it."

Seryn cooed and stepped forward to take me in her arms, our tails entwining. "I told you that I would give you an upgrade and I never go back on my word. Welcome to your new life, my dear, sweet Flammie."

"Flammie, huh?"

I looked down at my new form and realized that she was right. I now had a brand-new Glassic Flammie form to call my own. However, there were key differences between the two of us. For one thing, Seryn was a medley of clear-white, blue, green and orange coloring. However, almost every single detail about me was a shining, "transparent" black. My mane, my wings, my fur and even my armor plating was all a brilliant, deep, dark, shining black. And since I was made of glass, there was a slight natural transparency about me, but given the deepness of my coloring, it was hard to tell just by looking at me.

In fact, the only parts of me that weren't black were my eyes, which mimicked Seryn's but were distinctly ruby-red (don't ask) and my fangs, which I realized were a little differently-positioned than hers. For one thing, they were white like Seryn's, but another thing was that I had three fangs instead of her two. There were actually two fangs on my right side while my left side merely had one. It was a nice trait that kind of illustrated my desire to be different.

"Well, Alex?" said Seryn when I had finished examining myself. "Do you like it or what? Is it not a form fit only for a creature of the gods?"

I nodded. "You did a very good job, my love. I will never forget your kindness towards me." I hesitated for a moment. "But don't call me "Alex" anymore. That name no longer has any meaning to me. That belonged to the human whose life you changed forever."

Seryn chuckled. "Then what would you like to be called?"

I thought this over for a moment before a name came to me as though it was meant for me. "Call me... "Variant". It is a name that means more to me than "Alex" ever will again."

Seryn nodded. ""Variant" it is, then. So... shall we begin our journey to bring change to the world?"

I smiled and the two of us finally separated. "I guess so. But first..." I hit my chest with my fist and coughed a few times before finally sending something up my throat and vomiting it up into my outstretched paws. "I think we're going to need this to do it."

I presented the White Synthetic Emerald that Seryn had used to create me in the first place. Seryn nodded and reached for the black one that was still sitting on the couch before holding it in the same position.

"We've got two emeralds with us now, but the other six are still out there. However, I believe that we will be joined by those that also wish to join us in our quest to change the world. I still think that these will be enough to sent a message out to the others, wherever they are in the world."

I nodded. "Then shall we get going? Do you want to lead the way since you dreamt all of this up?"

Seryn smiled and patted me on the shoulder. "I guess so. Let's leave this shoddy apartment and never look back."

And with that, Seryn and I each made a snack of the emeralds once again and got ready to leave for the space colony orbiting the earth. My emerald went down without much trouble, but when Seryn swallowed hers, we were witness to a strange turn of events. Seryn's body suddenly changed from clear-white and colored glass to a more "realistic" version of herself. Her fur and feathers became more distinctive and there was no longer a single part of her that was transparent or glass. In fact, I could have sworn that she had become...

"An Omni-Synthetic, huh?" said Seryn, looking herself over and feeling her fur with her paws. "Well, would you look at that? Those emeralds really do affect Synthetics according to their properties. I guess we should let the Synthetics who find the other six know about this as well, huh?"

The two of us looked at each other for a moment before we both smiled mischievously and said at once, "NAH!!!"

"I agree. Where would the fun be in telling them ahead of time?" I said to Seryn.

"Good point. It'll be more fun for them and us if they figured it out on their own. Besides, we're going to be busy getting the colony ready, so where's the fun in spoiling the unexpected?"

And with that, Seryn and I walked out onto the balcony before spreading all eight of our wings and taking our first flight together. It was an enjoyable experience for the both off us as we soared higher and higher into the air, soon reaching uninhabitable altitudes as we headed straight for the abandoned Rubber Revolution in orbit around the world. We were two Flammies on a mission and nothing was ever going to stand the way of our ultimate goal.

It was just a matter of time...

As the two Flammies flew into the heavens, the light of the setting sun glinted off of Variant's body and caught the attention of two different beings back down on earth. One of them was one of the beings who had created Seryn in the first place, the Instant Glassic, Darlan Silverhawke, who was looking out of his Crystal Palace window yet again. The other was the young magician-in-training, Summer Vixen, who was sitting on the roof of Plush Paradise as the sun set on the horizon. Both of them instinctively knew that as the Flammies left the earth together, the world would never be the same again. They couldn't explain how they knew it, but their instincts told them that the world was in for a rare "treat" once the Flammies set their plans in motion.

To be continued...