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Chapter 2: The Hunt Begins

The man in the white and red suit shook out the paper a few times before holding it up to his face. "Rule one. No person who plays a game, or rides a ride, or enters a fun house, or does anything to interact with the property of the Park of Mirari may go unchanged."

Both David and Bailey turned their heads to look back at Ashley. Their friend's eyes were wide, and David knew that they were all thinking of her back at the Game Gallery, how she had been playing one of the games when they'd first met her. How many times had she played, David wondered? And would it be enough to cause her to change more than Bailey?

It didn't go unnoticed, either, as their tormentor looked over the parchment, his mustache-eyebrows lifting, and his hair horns wiggling in glee. "Heh, don't think I've forgotten you, girly; Mirari definitely hasn't. You'll get what's coming, you'll get what's coming. But first, more rules. More rules. Wouldn't be fair without the rules."

He hummed a few unknown bars before looking at the parchment again, reading aloud. "Rule two. There will be no communications with the outside world if you haven't been transformed yet. No phones, no beepers, no computers, no homing pidgeons, no magic spells -"

David blinked at that. Magic? There wasn't such a...

Oh who was he kidding? He looked back at the world around them, the screams of those being changed all over the park still echoing under the giant metal dome above them. There was no way to attribute all of this to some sort of technology; too many of it was unexplained, and too much of it was impossible for it to be solely some new form of technology, particularly when it came to this man in front of them.

If he was indeed a man. David had been watching him, and he'd seen things shifting around. The mustache leaping up and forming that absurd ring around his face was just one of the things he'd noticed. The stranger's skin had rippled, going from white to black and back again, passing through a rainbow of different colors as if it was unable to settle. No sooner had he started to pin down one color before it shifted again.

He realized that the rule was continuing, so he snapped himself out of his fascination and listened.

"-no smoke signals, no SOS messages, no morse code, no riders, no runners, and above all, no telepathy." His cane spun as he looked over the parchment again. "I'd say that covers all of your different communications, don't you think?

"Speaking of." The cane pointed again, and this time it pointed right at Adam. He only had time to go wide-eyed before it shot out another bolt of light at him, hitting him squarely in the chest.

Rather than transforming him like Bailey, though, the ray of light seemed to have a different effect. Three pockets were ripped to shreds as an equal number of machines were pulled free. David's eyes, already wide, nearly bugged out as Adam scrambled for others that were falling out of his pockets, desperately trying to keep them from hitting the hard cobblestone ground.

The ones that were pulled free bounced and danced, manipulated by the red light surrounding them. The cane bounced with them, and its owner chuckled. "La di da, dum dee dum...so much to talk with. Such a pity, such a pity; you won't need these anymore." Fingers started to tighten on the cane, but abruptly stopped as he paused, tilting his head. "Why, Mirari, such a good idea. Why waste these when we can use them?" He laughed, leaning forward and giving a thumbs up to the ground. "Such a good girl. This is why we're a good team."

"Give those back!" Adam shouted, one arm clasped to his chest to cradle his various machines, while the other was outstretched. He leaped up and down, trying to grab the three that had been taken from him. They bobbed just out of reach, but he kept trying, leaping as high as he could in the air, fingers scrabbling for them.

Once they just brushed the underside of a particular gadget that looked like a tablet, and Adam grinned. "Almost...got it-"

"Rule number three. No fighting the decisions of the Park owner." The cane twitched again, pointing directly at Adam threateningly. "Got one chance, boy; wanna test? Please test, I want to play."

Adam stared at the cane for a moment, then turned to look up at the gadgets bouncing and bobbing just over his head. The desire to get them back was written plain on his face, and for a moment, David thought that he would try and get them back, to hell with the consequences.

Thankfully, he backed down, though not without a furious set of grumbles on his part. He looked more the thug than the inventor for a moment before he calmed down, stepping back into the group.

"Good, good; better to obey, isn't it? Much better to obey and do what you're told. Course, that won't save you. Won't save you one bit." The park owner giggled to himself, looking back at the list. "Where was I, where was I?"

As he mumbled to himself, looking at the different rules on the piece of paper, David leaned a little closer to Bailey. Turning his head to the side, he whispered out of the side of his mouth, "Are you okay?"

"Y-"

David elbowed him as Bailey's voice came too close to bellowing, shaking his his head and hissing. "Quietly," he whispered.

Giving a slight nod of understanding, Bailey lowered his voice. "Yeah...just really weird. Hard to balance right." He grumbled, shifting his weight from one foot to another. "How'd he do that? This is-"

"HEY!"

Their eyes were drawn en masse to the park owner again. He was standing now, not sitting, and he was glaring at them. He pointed his cane to the list. "Rule number 3.5! No interrupting or ignoring the park owner! Got it!"

"We got it! We got it!" they said all together, though their words stumbled over each other. Not a one of them felt calm, and all of them were at least shaking a little bit. "Sorry!"

"That's better. Least you can do is apologize. Rude, just rude!" He shook his head, sitting back down on his little patch of air. Grumbling under his breath, he looked back down at the list. "Let's see, let's see...Right right. Rule number 4. This is the one that you guys better pay attention to, if you ever want a chance to get out of here."

David perked up. Get out? Definitely something. He wasn't alone either, as the rest of the group did the same thing. He even saw Jeremiah stop panicking for a moment, glasses fixed on the crazy man.

Every word came out like a judge rendering sentence, serious, without the crazy, bouncing tones that had dominated their captor's voice from the start. "All attendees of the park are allowed a chance to escape without transformation, or failing that, without full transformation. This chance takes the form of a task set on them by the park manager - that's me, that's me - and may or may not be something completely fair, or even possible, set at the park owner's - that's me too, you know - discretion."

"So you can just-" Ashley spoke up, her eyes going wide as she suddenly jammed a hand over her mouth.

"VIOLATION!" His voice echoed all around them, the vibrations of the loud shout actually sufficient to bowl every one of them over, knocking them off their feet.

Ashley went further than the rest of them, actually rolling back and away from the group, until she slammed against the wooden stage with a harsh crack. She screamed in pain before slumping down, whimpering as she held her head.

The park owner floated along above the rest of the prone group. He didn't walk on air, no; he floated, his legs hanging limp below him, his body relaxed as it was carried by some strange power. His cane flashed brightly as he floated above David and the rest of the group, the flashing light warning enough to stay down and not do anything to slow the guy down.

He paused as he floated over Ashley, looking down at her with flashing eyes. "That's a violation after I explained the rules. Now you're owed TWO transformations, one for the game you played, and one for breaking one of my rules! You want to try for three, maybe lose your humanity completely?" There was no smile on his face, none of the strange, near joking craziness that he'd had before, or that he'd shown when he'd removed Bailey's arms, just pure, irrational anger.

Shaking her head rapidly while keeping her hands pressed against the back of her head, Ashley clenched her jaws so hard that her lips paled, the pressure of keeping her mouth shut showing itself.

He pointed the cane at her for nearly three seconds before he pulled it back, shaking his head. "Disgraceful, the young today," he muttered to himself as he floated back to where he'd been sitting. "Just disgraceful, not an ounce of respect for their betters, no sense, no anything. Just sad, isn't it Mirari?"

The ground rumbled beneath them again, little 'bubbles' rising and falling among the cobblestones, lifting and lowering like bubbles in slow boiling water. "Yes, just so, Mirari, just so," the park owner said as he sat down. "But the rules are the rules. Gotta give them a chance, even if it would be more fun to just teach them a lesson and transform them now. Ah, but for the rules to disappear; alas, nothing of the sort will ever happen."

David looked around the rest of the group, watching them as they stared at the man as if he would lash out at them next. At least Bailey was rolling back towards Ashley, his armless body making the rolling a little easier than someone with arms would have it. As he reached her, he adjusted himself, using his legs to help Ashley get to her feet, giving her handholds and helping her to her feet.

Looking away from the two of them as Bailey used the stage to help himself to his feet, David looked back at their captor. Not wanting to interrupt, he raised his hand, as if he were in class.

It took a few seconds for him to be noticed, but eventually the parchment was lowered again, and the cane - thankfully not glowing - was pointed at him. "Yes, you, with the brains to raise your hand."

David lowered his hand, clearing his throat. "Um...I wanted to ask. From what you said, this sounds like you can make what we have to do to get out impossible, if you want. Um. Are...are you going to do that to us?" He braced himself for being punished, but he had to know, had to ask. "I mean, if you're going to do that, couldn't you just zap us now and get it out of the way, instead of scaring us all the time."

Instead of a light blast to the face, he got a stare in return. The eyes of the park owner locked with his, holding his gaze. They were so...very...bright. Like headlights, except that they didn't make his eyes burn or make him want to look away. It was like they were lighting him up from the inside...and he couldn't...look....

Suddenly the staring contest broke as the other guy threw his head back, laughing. "HAHAHA! Ha...hahaha...." He literally rolled over in the air, rolling along around them. He rolled up, he rolled down, and even rolled down through the cobblestones at one point before surfacing again elsewhere, as though it was nothing more than water for him.

Eventually he came to a stop, standing right in front of David. Still chuckling, he tapped the top of the cane against David's chest, smirking. "You know, you actually got a little heart. Looking forward to breaking that a few times. Hope you got a little tape for fixing it up; just one break isn't fun enough." He turned around, taking a few steps away, the cane spinning behind his back. "Don't worry. I don't set anything impossible. That means I don't have to work for getting my fun, and if I don't work a little bit, I don't enjoy it.

"But don't think that I'm going to make it easy, either." He leaped up in the air, the pointed bottom of his cane stabbing down into the empty air. It stuck there, and the park owner balanced himself on top of it, using just one finger to hold himself in place. "It's going to be a little game, a little bit of fun for you and me."

David bit his tongue before he could ask anything, quickly turning to look at everyone else to warn them about speaking. Bailey got the look, quickly pinning Ashley as she started opening her mouth to the ground. There was a muffled grunt from under the big guy's wide chest, but nothing more than that.

He turned back to the park owner, standing quietly. He heard a few footsteps, and looked to the side as Jeremiah walked up to stand next to him. Despite his wrinkled suit, Jeremiah looked...focused. The panic was gone, which was good to see; he'd been a little worried that Jeremiah's obsessive need for order and control would have left the guy gibbering by this point.

Instead, he was laser focused. He looked up at the man balanced on his cane, and nodded. "What's the game? Rules? How do we play?"

"Good, good, we finally get to the point. Thanks, Time Lord!" the crazy man said. He laughed. "You like time so much, don't you? Careful you don't start wasting it, or you might become it."

Still laughing, he backflipped off of his cane, coming down on top of his hat, crossing his arms as he looked at them. David could hardly believe how much he was taking this in stride; this way of casually ignoring the laws of reality should have knocked him silly, mentally, yet he was just watching it occur without comment or anything. It just showed how the mind could really get used to anything, he thought to himself.

Despite apparently 'standing' on his hat upside down, the park owner managed to add a little more insanity to his position by starting to dance. His arms still crossed over his chest, he kicked out his legs as he moved from one spot to another in mid-air, kind of like how David had seen some Russians in cartoons dancing, and David couldn't help but feel that a 'HEY!' was coming, where the park owner would throw out his arms and cause even more chaos around them.

He danced around them, kicking his legs out as he talked. "Here's the game, boys and girls. Listen up, because I'm only going to say this once. And if you break rule 3.5 and interrupt, then I'll let Mirari have a little fun. She's been wanting to have a LOT of fun with you guys, and the only thing stopping her is me. Little old me, nice little me, silly little me. So don't make me regret it, eh?"

Everyone nodded, and he continued. "You're in luck, I'm feeling fine today. So let's make it a good game. A game I'm sure you know, a game you'll like. Or at least just know. So I don't have to explain much." He laughed, one of his kicks coming all too close to hitting Jeremiah in the face as he passed by. They did jostle his glasses, though, and Jeremiah's hand shook as he reached up and adjusted them again.

"So here's what it is. A scavenger hunt. You all know what those are, don't you?"

They nodded.

"Good, good, so I don't have to explain. Sure even the big guy back there knows?" he asked, kicking a leg out to point towards Bailey.

"I know what a scavenger hunt is, thanks," Bailey muttered.

"Good, hate to see muscles erase a mind." He paused, cocking his head to the side. Well, cocking his body to the side, as his head stayed firmly in place, but it had the same sort of neck angle. "Or is it that I love it? Ah well, I'll probably feel both at some point.

"Anyway. The scavenger hunt. Mirari, if you would?"

The ground growled at them, centering at a point between the six of them. David and Jeremiah rapidly stepped forward, while the others stepped back. All of them turned to face the source of vibrations, watching as the stone ground against itself, warping, shifting before their eyes.

In seconds, the shape of a four leaf clover emerged, as if it had been carved into the stone by a master artisan. The park owner floated over it, pointing at it. "See the shape? See it? See how good Mirari did?" he cooed. "Oooh, Mirari, you're so good at making things for me. Good girl, gooooood girl. Yes, you are, yes you are."

As the ground gave a contented rumbling in return, he turned his attention back to them. "This sign is etched on six objects all over the park. There's one on Main Street, one in the fun houses, one with the rides, one in the barns, one somewhere along the Looper's tracks...and one in my Golden Tower." He pointed back towards the tower behind them, a smirk covering his face. "If you can get all six of them without being totally transformed by all the things you see and bring them back to this stage, and if you still want to leave, then I'll let you out."

"And..." David gulped. "If we fail?"

"Oh, there'll be nothing if you fail. Failing is fun, fun for everyone!" The park owner laughed out loud, bouncing around a few times, cartwheeling through the air. "Fun fun fun fun fun! Oh, the fun I'll have as you fail! Failing fun, fun for fails! Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

The laughter set David's teeth on edge, but he couldn't bring himself to say anything, or ask the maniac to stop. He had too much power, too many things he could do, and he had a bad feeling that the park owner would be all too happy to deliver a transformation for any violation - true or implied - of the rules, and he had an even worse feeling that there might be rules that they didn't know about.

He heard a soft footstep behind him, and turned to see that Ashley, Bailey, and Cari had joined him. Ashley was hugging Bailey around the waist, and Cari was looking up at the mad-man above them, her eyes surprisingly hard as she followed his cartwheels around the six of them. Her lips twitched as she stared, and as David looked down, he saw that her fingers were dancing lightly.

All of a sudden, the park owner stopped his cartwheels, looking down at them again with his cane planted in front of him, his hands clasped around the jeweled top. "Ah, one more thing. As the park owner and manager and sole authority over all that happens here, I reserve the right to add whatever I want to the park at any time. Just a little 'so you know' thing; perk of authority." He giggled again. "Any questions?"

"Details. Need details," Jeremiah muttered from David's left. He looked up. "What happened to all the people? Are there any left...normal?"

"Normal? Normal? No such thing as normal. But are there humans? Do you mean humans?" he asked. At Jeremiah's nod, he smiled. "Oh, there are humans. Couple ones that didn't see the illusion Mirari was putting up; nice little crop of players this year, nice little group. But you're the only pure - well, mostly pure - group that's left here. They all got a few changes since they did a few things around the park.

"Which reminds me. Girl!" He pointed the cane towards Ashley, who jerked at Bailey's side. "Stop hiding! You'll get your change when all the questions are done. And you! Muscle Mountain!" The cane shifted to point to Bailey. "Don't worry about your arms, you'll get them back in a few hours...if you haven't completely changed by then. The fur you got is your real change, the arms were just a punishment for defying me, trying to touch. No touchies, no touchies." He shuddered a bit at that, shaking his head. "Nobody touches without permission. Ever."

"Um..." David held up his hand again. "I have a question."

"Good, good, questions are good." Darting off of his little podium in mid-air, the park owner zipped down to the ground again, standing right in front of David, holding his cane in front of him like a microphone. "Ask the question, get an answer. Maybe it'll even make sense, or be helpful; you can always hope!"

"With...rule one. Are the things in the park still going to -"

"Hey, you never finished answering my question!" Jeremiah interrupted. He leaned forward, pushing David out of the way. "What about the other part of my question? What happened to all of the people?!"

The park owner looked at him with a bored, slightly annoyed expression. "You are rude. I don't like rude. I don't like rude people. Mirari? Swallow him for a few minutes."

"Swallow me? What's that supposed to - YAAA!"

No sooner had Jeremiah asked his question than his feet dropped out of view, a hole opening under him. He disappeared into it, dropped out of sight in the space of a blinking of an eye, the hole gone barely a second later. The scream was cut off just as quickly, and the park owner smiled. "Ah, much better. No rude interruptions. I hate interruptions."

Disappeared...David couldn't believe Jeremiah had just disappeared, swallowed up by the ground so fast, so suddenly. He slowly turned his attention back to the park owner, watching as he whistled, walking past the spot where the hole was.

He circled the spot several times, spinning the cane around his fingers, before suddenly whirling around again. "YOU!" he shouted, poking the cane's gem against David's chest again. He leaned in close, the ring of facial hair almost jumping off of him as he loomed over David. His eyes went fiery, steely-

-until he leaned back again with a charming smile. "You are a smarter guy than I thought. Let me guess, hmm? Wondering if rule one still applies? If just going around the park gets you in trouble, gets you changed, gets you different?"

David nodded very slowly, shuddering at the random movements of this crazy man, watching as he started to pace again, gesturing with his cane as he spoke. "Simple answer, simple answer. OF COURSE IT APPLIES!" he shouted, throwing his arms out above his head and waving them around. Bringing his arms back behind his back, he went back to walking around, cane tucked under his arm. "All the rules always apply...except when they don't. And when I get bored with them." He turned his head, winking at the group. "And I get bored often.

"But that's enough of that." Tossing his cane on the ground, the point somehow balancing perfectly on the cobblestones, he leaped on top of it and turned to look at them, almost like an officer might address his troops, David thought. "There are two more things you need to know, and then I'll transform that girl of yours and let you be on your way.

"First. If you break any rule, then you're going to be targeted by me and Mirari. If you're VERY lucky, you can avoid getting hit, or maybe it'll hit another one of you and change them. But I wouldn't count on luck. It'll get you, all things considered.

"Second, the transformed customers and the people who work here can transform you if they get their hands on you. I won't spoil how, heh, but they can." The park owner grinned at them, then kicked his cane out from under him, catching it on his way down to the ground again. "Now, push that girl out here so that she can get the proper punishment for everything that she did. Not gonna wait; will blast you if you don't move."

"Blast - " Adam started to ask.

"VIOLATION!" The cane came up again, pointing at the black gadgeteer. Red light streamed out as he glared over the cane, and knocked Adam back and against the stage. "Stop interrupting! Stop interrupting! Listen to me and do what I say!"

As the park owner slowly shifted from shouting to grumbling, the rest of the group moved out of the way, none of them brave enough to stand between him and Ashley.

Except for Bailey.

The unarmed man - literally - stepped between his friend and the park owner. Even as he was glared at, Bailey didn't step out of the way. "I'm not going to let you hurt my friend, crazy man."

"Why is everybody here so annoying?" Twirling the cane around, the park owner pressed his hand to his forehead. "Mirari, the Catapult, please?"

"The -"

Bailey was interrupted as the ground suddenly wrapped around him, encapsulating him in a big ball of stone. It completely surrounded him as fast as it had swallowed Jeremiah, silencing him before he could say anything. As soon as it was formed into the shape of a ball, the red light from the cane surrounded it, and it was floated along, the cane's owner humming to himself again.

The ground shook, and the cobblestone suddenly split, almost like the stage had, and the sound of a great grinding set of gears filled the air.

"Oh, you can't be serious," Ashley whispered.

But it was clear that he was. From beneath the ground was lifted a great catapult, with a cat's head at the front, and a twitching, furry tail leading to the pod at the back. It was a much more literal catapult than David had ever seen, or even thought of, but it was in the same shape, with the tail obviously meant to go shooting through the twitching ears of the cat creature, and the legs underneath it capable of adjusting it around.

It purred as the park owner approached, and submitted its head for scratches, which the park owner gave with a smile. "Yes, such a good Catapult, aren't you? Such a good little thing," he muttered just loud enough for the four of them to be able to hear.

He dropped the ball holding Bailey into the back of the Catapult, looking back at them. "Now, am I going to need to fire every one of you out somewhere, or are you going to be content to stop with this one?"

Nobody said anything, so the park owner nodded. "Good; the Catapult gets cranky after having to do stuff more than once. SHOOT!"

On command, the Catapult swung its tail up, and the rocky ball that held Bailey captive went flying through the air. David followed its trajectory, turning to watch it go flying towards the north-west side of the park. He could just catch the silhouettes of a tower and a few other things that looked like rides in that direction, and could slightly make out the debris that went flying when the stone ball landed. He marked it in his memory; if they were going to have to search the park for different things for the owner, then the rides would be as good a place to start as any, and they'd be able to get Bailey back.

The cane lit up the square as the madman pulled himself off of the ground again, shaking his head as he floated over to Ashley. The young woman scurried back, backpedaling as fast as she could, the red light of the cane reflecting harshly off of her black skin as he got closer and closer. She held one hand up, as if that was something that might ward him off, sliding further and further back until she was pressed against the side of the stage again.

He floated over her, tapping the gem of his cane against his hand. "You did two things, so you will get two changes. Heh, but I don't think you'll stop with that," he said with a smirk. "Let's see, let's see...what to get you with first...what to change..."

It didn't take him long to decide. With two sweeps of his cane, the park owner blasted Ashley with the transformative energy of the cane, once at her feet and once at her fingers. Chuckling as she started hyperventilating, he turned to the rest of the group still standing, to David and Cari. "This won't be the last time that I'll see you. Get ready for your friend to come back. He'll be freaking, he'll be shrieking; he'll be mauling, he'll be bawling. Hahahahaha!"

His laughter echoing over the park, the maniac span in place, turning into a miniature white tornado. He lifted off of the ground in seconds, blowing across the sky in the direction of the Golden Tower, his laughter still filling the air.

David ignored it, hurrying over to Ashley's side as she still panted, rubbing her hands together, her face twisted up. "What's wrong? What did he do to you?" David whispered as he sat down at her side.

"Don't know...but something's...really wrong," she grunted, gritting her teeth. Suddenly, she arched her back, kicking her legs out. "Shoes! Shoes! Get 'em off, get 'em off!" she shouted at the top of her lungs.

He didn't have a clue what was going on, but if taking off her shoes would help her, David would do that. He turned to look down at her shoes -

• and stared at the tight black shoes she was wearing. They were getting tighter and tighter, and he could see that there were parts where the material was bulging outwards. The toes were getting pointed, like there were tacks or nails pushing through from the other side, and were trying to shove their way through. At the sides they were trying to shove outwards, and at the heel - he only barely saw that as Ashley kicked her legs in discomfort - he could see the hint of something shoving its way out.

He reached out, grabbing hold of one shoe. "Stop...kicking, Ashley," David grunted, holding her leg as she squirmed around. "I can't get it off if you keep kicking!"

"Trying...but...it hurts!" she said through gritted teeth.

Shaking his head, David eventually just shoved the leg he held onto the ground, turning around to sit on it. It was an awkward angle to work with, but it was the only one that seemed to work. He saw a point pushing through the top of her shoe, but ignored it, unlacing it as fast as he could. Thankfully, Ashley hadn't double-knotted, and it came free. Two quick tugs later, he had it off of her foot, throwing it to the side as she gasped a sigh of relief.

He was about to reach for her other shoe, but he stopped himself, staring at her foot, at what the rays of light had done to her.

Her toes had pushed through the sock, not just through their new, greater length, but due to the long and still growing talons on the ends of them. The nails had turned black, and grown inches long, pushing out from the tips of her toes. They continued to grow, he noticed, pushing out of her toes. The little scratches that were just visible along the dark surface pushed further away from the tip of her toe as more of it flowed out. The toes themselves had changed as well, the toes melding into three distinct shapes, flexing as though they were fingers as Ashley squirmed beneath him, trying to get some relief from the shifting shape.

The skin itself had changed as well, turned from smooth black skin to a gray, pebbled texture, almost scaly to the sight and the touch. David stared at the new shift, watched as she squeezed her toes down, her foot looking like it was trying to grab something, anything.

"David! David! The other one! The other-"

RIIIIIP!

David's eyes were drawn to her other foot, watching as the toes pushed their way free of the front of the shoe. It ripped apart as the talons overcame the strength of the materials that it was made of, the black talons pushing their way out of the opening, followed by the toes themselves. The heel split a second later as the back talon of her foot shredded it apart, poking through. A thought occurred of how sharp those must be to do that, and David shuddered; he was glad that Ashley wasn't the kicking sort when she got angry.

As the shoe fell off of her foot, he heard her sigh in relief behind him, and her legs stopped kicking. However, he realized, with him in the way, she wouldn't be able to see what her feet looked like yet.

And there was still the matter of her hands, for that matter.

Still straddling her legs, David turned around to face her, the sound of footsteps walking over distracting him before he could look. He turned, looking to see whether Jeremiah had popped back out like the park owner had said.

He hadn't, but Cari and Adam were walking his way, the latter more shakily than the former. Cari knelt down on Ashley's left, and Adam stood at her right.

His face had turned a little pale, but not from a transformation, or at least not directly, as far as David could tell. A quick look down-

David blinked, staring at the way that Adam's pants had ripped below the knee, and for good reason; the knee was pointing the wrong way for a human. They were reversed, the knees pointing behind him instead of facing forward, and as he looked further down, he could see that the changes weren't just restricted to the way that his knees were pointed.

The tennis shoes that Adam had been wearing were shredded, not from his feet getting longer, but because they'd gotten wider. The gadget man walked on four toes, each one thicker than three toes on a human's foot, and each one tipped with a blunt black claw. They were thick, and padded, and consisted of much of Adam's feet now, as he walked on tip toe instead of on a flat foot anymore.

Shaking his head in shock, unable to believe what he was seeing, David missed what Adam said. It took him clearing his throat to get David's attention, and make him look away from his transformed feet. "I'm...I'm sorry for staring," David said, looking up at Adam's face. "What...what did you say?"

"I said, that guy's crazier than anybody I've ever seen in my life, and I've seen some pretty whacked out people," Adam repeated.

"Yeah..." David muttered, his eyes dropping back down again. He couldn't help but stare at those changed feet, how they were covered in fur, mostly black towards the toes, but with some light brown fur with black spots further up the legs. "Yeah, really...really crazy."

"Hey, man, stop staring at my feet; it's embarrassing enough that they're like...this, don't need you staring at them more."

"Sorry, sorry." He shook his head a few times, turning back to Ashley.

Cari was stroking her arm gently, her pale white fingers standing out in the dark against Ashley's skin. The pale girl was whispering something, something right on the verge of David's hearing. He thought about asking what Cari was saying, but as he looked down at Ashley's hands, that thought disappeared, replaced by further shock.

Her fingers had changed drastically, and they weren't done yet, either. Short brown fingers had been replaced with longer, vibrant green ones, and they were stretching further and further out from her hand. They thickened slowly as they lengthened, and as David watched, more lengths of green sprouted from the backs of her hands, extending slowly downwards towards her fingers.

It wasn't until her fingers started to flatten that David realized that Ashley's fingers weren't growing, but changing, and it wasn't that her skin was changing color, but that it was being covered by another layer. A layer, of all things, of feathers.

He took her changing hand in his, feeling as the fingers flattened down into feathers. The finger feathers were each longer than any two of his fingers put end to end, and the others were scarcely shorter, completely covering her hands with the smoothness of wing feathers. They rubbed against David's fingers with the softness of feather pillows, and without the pointy quills at the base to ruin the feeling.

He watched as they sprouted further and further up her arms, spreading past the wrist, and popping out along her forearm. The little strands of hair that were normally invisible thickened, growing hard before slowly sprouting the feathery sides of them. They grew like grass in a fast-forwarded video, spreading further and further along Ashley's arm.

They stopped popping up once they reached her elbow, but continued to lengthen until they were all uniform, even. Through it all, Ashley kept her eyes closed, clenched tight...but her face looked strange. David couldn't say how...but she didn't look like she was in pain, didn't look like she was freaking out. It almost...almost looked like she was trying not to enjoy it.

Eventually, the feathers stopped growing in, and she opened her eyes, panting softly. Cari pulled her hands away as Ashley looked down at her hands, or what had been her hands. There were no fingers left, no thumbs, no way for her to grip anything with her hands. Her forearms had become the tips of wings, while the rest of her arms had stayed human. It was a mix that was at once disturbing and oddly beautiful, at least to him.

Cari reached around her, gently tugging Ashley to her feet. Grunting softly, shaking, Ashley wobbled on her new feet, shifting from side to side before she found her balance. She looked down, and everyone else followed her gaze, staring down at her three toed feet, watching as she curled one toe after the other, each one moving with the flexibility of fingers and able to curl just as tightly against the narrower but longer main body of her foot.

She took a few steps in silence, testing her balance, and the only thing that stopped David from walking beside her was Cari taking his arm. He looked back at her, but only got a shake of her head in return. Despite the willowy appearance of the goth girl, she was able to hold his arm tightly, her snow white skin clenching his arm tightly.

Sighing in resignation, he turned back to watch Ashley as she walked forward about a dozen steps, then back. It didn't take her long to find her balance, didn't take her long to be able to get her footing again, and by the time she was back to them, she was walking as though her feet had been this way from the very beginning.

However, she looked almost disappointed. Not scared, not worried, not even freaked out; merely disappointed. She stopped in front of them, looking down at her feet again, then looking up at him. She was silent for a few seconds, then sighed. "As if I wasn't short enough already."

The statement was so out of nowhere, so strange, so silly...and it was enough to make everyone break out in laughter. David slumped against Cari, and she leaned against him. Even Adam leaned against the nearby stage, and with nothing to lean on, Ashley just leaned forward, hugging her stomach as she started laughing at her own statement. There was an element of hysteria to all of their laughter, but it was laughter, laughter that was badly needed after everything that they had just seen.

It was even true, for that matter; Ashley had lost at least an inch of height with the loss of her shoes and the way that her feet had flattened to some degree, bringing her even closer to only five feet in height. It was utterly bizarre, and shouldn't have been so funny, but it was.

Gradually the laughter died away as the tension that filled the park started to press in on them again, the moment of absurdity not enough to keep it at bay for long. Soon, they were silent again, save for a few little scratch-scratch sounds as Adam and Ashley shifted from side to side, their new toe claws scratching on the cobblestones below them.

David slowly turned towards the direction Bailey had been launched. The northwest, towards the rides over in that direction. It would take a while to reach them, particularly if they were having to make their way through the different streets and alleys between here and there.

His eyes shifted over to the Looper, the great roller coaster that the lady at the entrance had mentioned. The cars for the coaster were back in the loading docks, and it might be something that they could use to get there quickly. But considering rule one, that any use of the park rides and any interaction with the different features of the park would result in a change, he wasn't sure if they could really risk it; he didn't know how much it would change them, or even if it would, but it seemed too much of a risk to take.

There was so much that he didn't know. The only person that he knew well at all in the group was Ashley, and she had already been changed a lot. Cari he recognized, but didn't know much about; Adam was new, and didn't seem too willing to talk about much; Bailey was all the way on the other side of the park, out of reach; and Jeremiah -

"LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

They turned as one to the hole that opened in the ground, and watched as flailing arms stuck out of it. Hands grabbed the edge of the hole, and out came Jeremiah, shaking and quivering, his glasses askew and his suit covered in dust. His eyes were wild and wide, and darted this way and that as he crawled away from the hole, shaking his head. It closed behind him, and the ground rumbled three times, each brief, almost like three chuffs of laughter.

Huddled in the fetal position, Jeremiah rocked back and forth as he stared at the hole. "Impossible...impossible...not right...so much wrong...so much out...out of order...out of order...not right..." he muttered as he rocked forward and back, back and forth, shaking his head rapidly.

"The park's not the only thing out of order here," Adam muttered under his breath. He turned to David, pointing at Jeremiah with a thumb. "He gonna snap out of this any time soon?"

"I have no idea," David said, shaking his head. "I have never seen him go this crazy; I mean, yeah, I've seen him have fits before if something went off, or if there was a big sudden mess, but I've never seen him go this nuts."

"Probably because he's never seen something as wacko as this park," Adam said. He reached into one of his pockets. "I knew that this place was putting out a ton of energy, but I never thought it'd be enough to do something like this," he muttered as he pulled device after device out of his pocket, beeps and boops and whorls of sound following each one as Adam briefly examined them before putting them back.

"What are you talking about?" David asked.

Adam didn't bother looking up from the devices. "Something I saw on one of the computers I made -"

"Wait, you make computers?"

"Yeah; what, can't believe a black man knows what he's doing?"

"Just saying you didn't look like the sort, is all," David said, holding his hands up defensively. "Didn't mean anything by it."

"Guy's gotta live somehow," Adam said. His mouth was clenched, but he continued anyway. "Look. I know my computers, I know my electronics; and when I was making some new...stuff...I started picking up a hell of a lot of energy from something. Bigger than anything I'd ever seen before, bigger than any power plant or anything else. Just a flash of it, but I saw it.

"Course, since it was just for a second, I let it slide; just computers being buggy, ya know." He finally pulled out the scanner that he'd been holding when they'd first met, pressing a few buttons on it. "But then I saw it again, yesterday. Coming from right here. This place is...fucked up. Just fucked up." Adam started swinging the scanner around slowly, pointing it at different locations.

He paused as he pointed it in different directions, though, his eyebrows going up. "Huh...weird. Six different readings..."

"Six?" David jumped as Ashley walked up behind them, looking over at the device. "Six different ones?"

"Yeah...In six different places," Adam muttered.

David and Ashley turned to look at each other, and he was sure that they were both thinking the same thing. The six different things that they needed for their scavenger hunt...if that was what Adam was picking up with his device, this could have just gotten a lot easier.

First, though, they needed to get Jeremiah up, and they needed to figure out how to get there.

Something told David that was going to be easier said than done, and as Jeremiah kept shaking when he walked over to him, trying to pick him up, it was clear that he was a little lost to reality.

"Okay...is anyone here strong enough to just carry him?" David asked. "I really don't want to leave him behind."

"Bailey would have been strong enough, but -"

"But he's not here," David finished for Ashley. He sighed to himself, putting a finger to his chin. "How are we going to do this..."

As he thought, Cari walked around him, moving like a ghost in the night over to Jeremiah. She laid a hand on his shoulder, and she started whispering again, her lips moving rapidly as her fingers drew little circles along his dusty suit jacket. Her lips were near his ear, almost brushing it as she continued to whisper something, her lips moving rapidly in unheard words.

He watched in shock as her fingers actually lit up, and Jeremiah slowly stopped rocking back and forth, sitting still after about a minute of whatever Cari was doing. Slowly letting go of his legs, he looked up, adjusting his glasses as he looked from side to side. "What...what happened?" Jeremiah asked.

"More important, what'd you just do to him?" Ashley said, her feathers brushing David's arm as she walked by. "We all saw that; what was that light?"

"It..." Cari shook her head. "It'll take too long to explain -"

"But we need to know!" David insisted.

"Then...then I'll explain on the way...but please, we must get moving. It's too dangerous to stay still." She slowly lifted an arm, pointing towards a northern path that led between several buildings. "I think it's that way. Come on, we have to hurry."

"Why?" David asked.

"Because -"

A great grinding filled the air, coming from the direction of Main Street. They whipped their heads around, turning to face the great metal slab that had blocked off those transformed from the main square.

Or, the slab that had been blocking it off. It was lowering now, and behind it, the sound of all those transformed could be heard. Sounds, stomping feet, hands clanging off the lowering metal; all coming from eager creatures that wanted to chase them down.

David remembered what the park owner had said, that those transformed would be eager to share the 'joy' of transformation with them. Nothing was said about how, but he didn't want to find out.

Jeremiah spoke up first, gesturing to the path that Cari had pointed out. "Everybody run!" he shouted, off like a shot, and David and the rest followed after. The stomps and thuds of footsteps and the shouts of the transformed announced that they were in hot pursuit.

Nobody looked back. Nobody dared. They only ran.