The Gathering: Scott Pilgrim Girls (WIP Preview)

WARNING THIS STORY WILL CONTAIN: Kim Pine, Roxanne Richter, and Ramona Flowers (Scott Pilgrim) Various Transformations and Expansions

A strange video tape transports Kim, Ramona, and Roxanne to a strange temple to participate in a ritual known as the Gathering, where their bodies are transformed and morphed in various astoundingly, bizarre ways.

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            Staring out the window of No-Account Video, Kim Pine watched the rain as it poured onto the sidewalk. A brush of her hand through her short, red hair let her freckled face gaze upon the closed sign hanging on the front door. Leaning against the front counter ruffled her black and white, zipped up sweatshirt. Her blue skirt received the same treatment as she crossed her legs. The ritual was one of the many ways she had learned to make time pass during her job. She hoped that the method would also work for the extra hours she needed to put in watching over the store’s temporary help.

            Breaking her uneventful watch of the front door, Kim’s eyes drifted over to the person currently sweeping up the floor. The slightly chubby woman with her blonde hair tied up into pigtails seemed normal at first. That was until someone saw the purple outfit she was wearing, that kept her arms and legs bare to allow her to show what her ninja training could do. Roxanne Richter was the main person responsible for messing up the shop in the first place, making the grimace on her face and the bored look in her eyes seem fitting. That or she still hadl some leftover hang ups with her ex-girlfriend.

            Leaving the ninja to do battle with a family of dust bunnies, Kim lazily glanced over to Ramona Flowers. For the exhilarating activity of stocking the shelves with DVDs, she had settled on dying her hair pink for the day’s thrilling activities. The bright hue of her locks stood out against her relatively plain looking blue jeans and grey jacket. This clash of styles was something that Kim had grown somewhat used to ever since Ramona and Scott met. That was probably why she wasn’t so surprised when Ramona pulled out a strange looking VHS tape from a box.

            “What kind of movie is this?” Ramona asked, waving around the tape to show off the black and white eye printed on it.

            “Beats me,” Kim said with a shrug. “Think I would remember something like that though. Feels kind of creepy.”

            “Sounds interesting,” Roxanne commented, leaning up against her broom. “Put it on. It’ll give us something to pass the time with.”

            “Does it even still work?” Ramona asked.

            “Only one way to find out,” Kim replied, walking around the corner to take the tape from Ramona.

            Brushing aside a layer of dust, Kim got to work setting up a VCR to play the mystery tape. Taking a moment to hook up all the wires to a TV, she cleaned off her clothes and took a step back. With remote in hand and the other girls at her side, she aimed at the screen and hit the play button.

            A field of static on the television began to reshape itself into the eye seen on the tape. Blinking a few times, the pupil stretched out so that only its black iris could be seen. From the void came a force that reached out to drag the girls. One by one, each of them were pulled into the TV by the tape. As the last one able to hold out, Kim had the privilege of watching the empty video store disappear to be replaced with something ancient and unknown.

            Hitting the stone floor with a thud, Kim struggled to get back to her feet. The shrine-like chamber was made up of grey stone along the walls and floor that was lit by blue torches hanging from stone pillars at the side. Judging by the way Ramona and Roxanne looked around the room, she had to assume that they were equally mystified by the strange place.

            All at once, the group’s gazes fell upon the mysterious device located at what appeared to be an altar. The object looked like an oversized bingo machine with a collection of differently numbered balls inside of a see-through container. Located near the base of the object was an out of place monitor that showed the same eye as before.

            Upon stepping closer towards the altar, the women fell silent as cartoony images of their faces began to flash across the display. After a few seconds of spinning, the screen eventually stopped to show them in order with Kim in the front, Roxanne second, and Ramona in the last spot. As the faces shifted away, text appeared in its place.

            “Welcome to the Gathering Shrine,” Ramona read aloud. “In this temple, you will be put through a ritual that will alter your mind and body for the sake of appeasing the All Seeing One. Have no fear, once you have gone through five rounds, you will be returned to your former selves and sent back to your home dimension. Have fun?”

            “What does it mean by that?” Roxanne asked.

            “I think it means we’re trapped here,” Kim answered. “At least until we play along with this ritual. Who is this All Seeing One anyway?”

            Though neither Ramona nor Roxanne was able to answer, Kim was replied to by the sound of the device whirring to life. As the balls shook around their enclosure, her face appeared dead center on the screen. Preparing for some kind of attack, she waited for whatever trapdoor or arrows would be thrown her way. Peeking past her crossed arms to see what was coming her way, she watched as a ball with the digits 119 etched into it roll out of the machine.

            Kim’s attempt to try and figure out what the number meant was ruined by a light, airy feeling going through her head. Dropping her arms to her side, she stood there slack jawed while her head began to swell at a rapid pace. Becoming larger than her body in a matter of seconds, her enlarged cranium revealed itself to be filled with helium as she was lifted off the ground. Despite her expanded head and recently acquired buoyancy, she was filled with a sense of pleasant calmness.

            “Kim!” Ramona shouted out, rushing over to grab the redhead’s leg. “Are you okay?”

            “Me…okay,” Kim replied, showing off an idiotic smile as her head bobbed up and down, ruffling the hair stretched across her inflated scalp.

            “Dammit, she’s become a literal air head,” Roxanne commented, taking on the task of holding on to Kim’s other leg. “Hold her still. Maybe I can delate her with one of my knives.”

            “No, she’ll pop,” Ramona shouted back, nearly getting lifted off of the ground herself.

            “Then what else are we supposed to do?”

            Roxanne’s question went unanswered as the device started to move again. Glancing over to see her face show up on the screen, her eyes kept focus on the different balls. When the machine stopped moving again to produce an orb with the number 80 on it, her attention soon drew to the shivers going across her body.

            The shudders forced Roxanne to let go of the air head as her arms were pushed into her body. When her legs did the same, her figure began to thicken up with added mass that stretched her clothes to their limits. Rather than a bulged out form, she maintained a plump, cylindrical shape as she continued to grow. Doubling her original height, her added thickness tore at the seams of her outfit to leave her flesh on display. With her limbs sunken into her figure, all she could manage to do was roll back and forth with her sausage-like body.

            “Roxanne, what happened?” Ramona called out, having to struggle even harder to keep Kim on the ground.

            “I don’t know!” Roxanne replied, turning herself over and over again in an attempt to fix herself. “Ugh, as if I wasn’t chubby enough. Hey, you got to do something here.”

            “Heheh, sausage,” Kim chuckled, only adding to the ninja’s torment.

            “Don’t worry Roxanne, I’ll think of something,” Ramona said, switching her attention back and forth between the strange bodies. “I just need time to-“

            Ramona let out a gasp as she spotted her face appear on the screen. Watching the device start to pick a number again, she tried to find some way to stop her fate. Too busy focusing on keeping her legs on the ground, she nearly missed the moment when an orb appeared to show off the number 54.

            Concerned with keeping a grip on Kim, Ramona had to fight again every inkling to react to the sight of pink fur covering her hands and going up her arms. The follicles matched her dyed hair; allowing them to blend in with the strands as he developed a set of triangular ears atop her scalp in replacement of her original ones. Too focused on the sight of her face stretching out into a vulpine muzzle, she didn’t have time to address the feeling of something slipping out from beneath the hem of her jacket. That was until a few bats against her back forced her to look over her shoulder to see the bushy, fox tail that was attached to her lower body.

            “What is this?” Ramona said, pulling her hand away for a second to stare at her new self, only to lurch forward to catch Kim again.

            “Unfair is what it is,” Roxanne, shouted out. “Airhead and I get stuck with these weirdo bodies, while you become a sexy fox lady.”

            “Hehehe, fluffy tail,” Kim giggled out.

            “It wasn’t my choice, okay,” Ramona called out. “It’s all because of that-dammit, not again.”

            “What are you…oh shit!”

            “Yay!”

            Kim’s cheer coincided with her face appearing on the screen again. Her lightened mood made her feel like a kid in a candy store as the machine decided her fate. Bobbling her head forward, she managed to get a look at the number 5 from her high vantage point.