Meanies TG

Meanies

Mona hummed to herself as she locked the front door of the video game store and pulled the metal chain cover in place. Most of the clerks hated closing, the loneliness and staying late after everyone had left to take care of accounting and setup for the next day. Not Mona. She loved it.

Turning from the storefront, she drank in the muddy gray sky. The perpetual tide of the harsh parking lot lights mixing with the amber trickle of street lights made sure any and all stars were washed away by the glow of the city. Mona had seen stars in the sky once as a kid, on a family vacation in the desert. She cried the whole time about the strange lights which filled the usually-blank heavens.

No, for Mona, it was only the moon and the colorless sea. She lingered a moment with the slender crescent of the moon and brushed back her hair, a detailed weave of blond and mint-gum colors which was densest at her shoulder.

After she'd had her moment with the dull-gray abyss, Mona walked slowly across the parking lot. Her gray boots crunched through the loose gravel of the fissured cement like stepping on loud snow. She worked her way around an area of pavement which was eternally unfinished, and aimed herself for her car, the last vehicle in the area aside from the occasional rumble and blur of light from the street.

As she approached her car, an echoing scuff sounded behind her. She didn't flinch. Scattered, brown hares frequented the parking lot from the nearby vacant lot. She'd made a few videos of the coolest ones on her cell phone during a lunch break.

Mona didn't stop till a sudden voice, rough and low, hissed by her ear, "Turn around!"

She complied. A man's face which greeted her was curled into a snarl. A glimmering knife, long and narrow, angled forward from his clenched fist. He barked, "All you've got! Now!"

While some inkling of animal fear surged through Mona at first, her general reaction was one of amusement. She considered the man. He wasn't terribly tall. He made her think of a thinner version of the detective from Who Framed Roger Rabbit. She couldn't remember that actor's name though. She reminded herself to look it up later.

Her calm reaction made the knife-wielding man press his knife forth a little more. "I'm not fucking kidding!"

With a sigh, Mona looked to her purse and store uniform under her arm. The clothes were worth about thirty bucks. Her purse mostly had little mementos, some makeup, her cell phone, keys, and a little cash left over from lunch. In total, she figured she wasn't worth more than sixty bucks.     

She tried to relay this to the man but he bent his knife up and interrupted, "No talk! Or I'll slice your pretty face."

Mona gave a sigh. She was gonna let him go without any trouble. But she told herself that he'd forced her hand.

Calmly and clearly, she said, "Help."

The man snorted. "Won't do much good now..."

Mona folded her arms and gave a smile to the man as she remarked, "You clearly aren't from around here…are you?"

The man with the knife didn't have time to get in another threat before the nearest light pole opened up with a massive, silvery ball and blasted forth a stream of energy which contained a special strain of nanites.

Once the energy touched his skin, the man's skin almost glowed. He yelled in a voice which rose slowly from a rough depth to a soft height. His clothes, dark and leathery, turned gentle with pink and yellow. The buzz cut on his head flowed out into long, silken brown locks. He shrunk with each moment till Mona was the taller one.

When his quaking body was released from the assault, he staggered back, revealed in his new form. A teenage girl. As the new girl came to her senses, she exclaimed, "What the hey…hey?"

Mona gestured with her hand as she explained, "Profanity filter. But yeah, our area has Nuhaizi Corporation security systems all over. They activate to prevent crime. I'd recommend giving it up."

The new girl snarled and yelled, "Fudge you, buddy!" She lunged forth with her knife, not yet realizing it had been turned to soft plastic.

Another "Help" resulted in a second blast from the security system.

The girl dwindled, her clothes shrinking with her. When the energy was done, she looked like a third-grader and the knife had been turned into a pink flower. Her brown hair was even longer, down her back and with little pink ribbons in it. Mona found her face adorable. She had on a pretty dress with nice little adornments.

The little girl looked in horror and yelled, "Meanie-funner! You're gonna get snuggled up the elephant for that!" Mona grimaced. She felt kinda sorry for the robber as she said "Help" once more.

This time, the little girl could barely stand. Her dress had flowers all over it and her knife was now a fluffy bunny with over-sized ears.

Still, the thief had spunk. She cried out, "I heawt you. What the fiddles! I'm gonna wob you. Jus you see. I gots something elwse."

From her right dress pocket, she pulled out a candy bar, holding it like a gun for a second until she looked at it in surprise.

Glaring, Mona bent over and said, "So what are you gonna do now…Miss Big Meanie?"

The girl staggered from the looming sight of Mona's face and burst into sobbing tears. Mona's gaze softened. After setting her stuff down, she reached over, picked up the little girl, and rubbed her on the back. The little girl wanted to fight back but the nanites were draining all feelings towards violence. She leaned into Mona's shoulder as she dried her tears.

When her good cry was done, Mona set her down and smiled.

The little girl looked warily up at Mona and asked, "What hawpins now?"

Mona told her, "Well, you can persist and you'll probably be firmly in diapers. Or, I can give you a ride over to the Nuhaizi security office next to the police station."

The little girl's eyes widened. "Will they tuwn me back?"

Mona didn't have the heart to tell her that the changes were permanent. She only said, "They'll take care of things. But first…I have a hankering for some ice cream over at a 24-hour place. If you're good from now on, I'll treat you to some ice cream before I drop you off at the big baaad criminals place."

With a blush, the little girl held her hands and said, "I'd wike some ice cream. And…I'm so sowwy...about wobbing you…."

Mona smirked. "That's good. I know you're not a meanie robber at all. You're a very nice girl. You're a very cute girl."

A shy smile on her face, the little girl nodded and said, "Tank you. I wanna be a nice lady wike you when I gow up." If the little girl realized the enormity of what she was saying, the nanites swirling in her brain certainly didn't let her know it.

Mona knew the converted criminals were very suggestible in this state. Her mind flew with all sorts of delightful things she could say to make her into the perfect little girl. The little girl echoed her happy smile as Mona took her by the hand and said, "Come on, let's go have some tasty ice cream."