Just then, Gambit heard an explosion followed by a loud crash coming from the backroom. He turned and ran in that direction, delayed only by his trying to figure out where the door to the backroom was. As he wondered, Gambit felt a strange tingle as his attention was drawn to a store map hanging on a nearby wall, that he could swear wasn't there a minute earlier. It clearly showed the door to the backroom area behind the sales counter, and he nodded silently and ran that direction. As he opened the door, there was a cloud of smoke and he could hear someone coughing and swearing in a large pile of apparently empty boxes. What caused the explosion wasn't clear, but what was clear was that someone was crawling out of the smoke and boxes towards him.
Gambit wondered who it was, and he felt the tingle again and his attention was again drawn to a framed roll of parchment nearby that had in bold handwriting at the top:
This week's customer contact information::
BEginner - Arrived 04/05/09: 11:21 AM
Old SRU Wizard - Departed 04/04/09: 10:48 AM - No purchases (Now tracked as customer)
Gambit - Arrived 04/04/09: 10:43 AM - Bought store (No longer tracked as customer)
Jim Russel - Arrived 04/03/09: 4:22 PM - Purchased Grimoire of Aloysius - Departed 04/03/09: 5:09 PM
Somehow Gambit knew that this chart was correct, and the thought worried him. He had laughed off the 'magic shop' part of the sale and assumed it was a 'junk shop', but somehow he knew the person that was crawling out of the boxes was his friend BE. He held his hand out and said, "Heya BE.", to help his friend to his feet.
BEginner looked up in shock and coughed one more time, then stammered, "Gambit? What the hell?" BE straightened up and looked his friend over, the tried to survey his surroundings. "Where the hell are we?" His face was covered in black soot and he looked like he had crawled out of a chimney.
"Welcome to my store!" Gambit said with a chuckle, gesturing around the mess of the backroom.
With a squint, BE looked around and then said, "Uh...what the hell man. I was driving, and then this weird energy vortex appeared in the middle of the road, my truck exploded and I landed in this conveniently placed pile of empty cardboard boxes."
"Yeah, I bought the store after the owner knocked me out with a baseball bat, then sold it to me for five bucks." Gambit said. "Now that you're here, you can help me. We've had all of one customer this week other than me. Waddya say? Want a job as my assistant?"
BE looked at Gambit's hand as he held it out. His addventure senses were tingling and yelling at him to run screaming from the building, but he never listened to his inner voice. He said, "Sure, why the hell not...I need to buy a new truck now anyway..." As their hands shook, a swirl of lights leapt from Gambit's hand and began to swirl around BE. "What the fuck?" BE said, jumping back and swatting at the swirling lights that danced around him.
Gambit pulled his hand away in confusion and surprise, realizing that real magic was at work, and he watched with surprise as the tall BE quickly began to shrink. Only a minute passed before BE stood in oversized, baggy clothes, a mere 5'4" tall. More distressingly, BE had become a gorgeous petite brunette girl with firm D-cup breasts and a shapely ass. "I guess the guy wasn't lying about this being a magic shop...what the hell happened!?"
BE stammered as her feminization slowly crept into her awareness, and looked up at Gambit with a confused and stunned expression. Her oversized and now ill-fitting pants and underpants chose that exact moment to fall down around her ankles. Fortunately, the shirt was loose and baggy and covered her new feminine private parts.
Gambit felt yet another tingle as he tried to figure out what was going on, and this time, he realized that the store was somehow answering his question...magically. He looked where his instinct told him to look and he saw a framed sign marked 'employee rules'
1. The store must have an employee present at all times during store hours
2. Employees are not allowed to use or test store merchandise, and said merchandise will not work on employees during store hours.
3. Theft of store merchandise by employees will be punished, employees will replace stolen merchandise as an item of equal or greater value.
4. All employees except the owner shall be attractive females to help promote sales.
Gambit stopped reading the rules after the fourth entry and he said, "Oh, crap...that explains it."
"Am...am I?", BE stammered, then she grabber her throat as she heard her sexy female voice and she let out a scream. After a minute's freak out, BE put her hands on her hips said with a cute frown, "What did you mean by 'that explains it'?"
"Uh...that sign over there...", Gambit said, pointing at the rules on the wall. "That's the employee rules. Look at number four."
BEginner stepped free of her discarded pants and walked over to the posted sign, then she shook her head, causing her long black hair to cascade off her shoulders. "This can't mean...", she said, looking back.
"I guess this really IS a magic ship." Gambit said.
"I think number three has a typo...it should read 'replace stolen merchandise with an item of equal or greater value, not 'as'" BE said
Gambit shook his head. and said, "You just turned into a hot chick...are you sure about that?:"
A chill went down BE's spine. "So you're saying when you asked me to be your assistant...I counted as an employee and rule number four kicked in? That's great...just great."
Sun Apr 05 01:41:15 2009