Big Red Button

It was probably not all that smart for Harriet to press the big red button labeled “Body Swap,” but she was never the brightest bulb in the closet.

Once she pressed it, the helmets came down and the electrical energy began to swirl. Her eyes rolled back in her head. She didn’t even see Rich standing behind her and the same thing happening to him.

It took only seconds before they realized they were now in each other’s bodies. Harriet was absolutely horrified that she had become Rich, but Rich immediately saw an upside the whole situation.

Synthetic Brain

“I don’t think I understand,” Jeff said looking at the jar, “If that’s my brain in there, then whose brain is inside this woman’s head? Controlling her body?”

The mad scientist was getting tired of explaining this. He had done so several times now. But he sighed as he tried again, “There is no brain inside that woman’s head right now.”

“Then how am I thinking? And moving her fingers and muscles?”

“It’s a synthetic substitute brain of my own design. It does link nicely with organic parts. The greatest revolution in transplants since the artificial heart.”

“But how did I end up in this body?”

“As I said, there is really no part of ‘Jeff’ in that body. The only part of ‘Jeff’ is that brain on the table.”

“Okay, then why are my thoughts in this body?”

“A better question! And a bit of a mixup I’m afraid. Everything that made Jeff who he was ended up in that body’s synethetic brain. Even though, as I said, no part of you is Jeff at all.”

Punished (Part 4)

View Part 1 of Punished.
View Part 2 of Punished.
View Part 3 of Punished.

Chris just wanted the damned thing to work! Nothing he tried was getting him his body back. He was sure he was going to be stuck like this, and he was more convinced as he watched the strange man bleed out on the floor. He cried.

After a few hours, he wiped the tears. He’d have to figure out just who he was now. The man had said she had been a trespassing in this place before him. Maybe that was a few days; maybe that was years. Either way, there had to be a missing persons report, right?

Thinking about going to a police station after what he just did seemed weird though. He doubted anyway would come visit this spooky mansion soon. He could sit here and cry for a little while longer...and think...

Punished (Part 3)

View Part 1 of Punished.
View Part 2 of Punished.

What was nearby was apparently a wrench. Chris picked it up and swung with all his strength. It didn’t matter how unfamiliar he was with his new body, it was in flight or fight mode. The strange man was knocked out cold. Was he still breathing? Chris wasn’t even sure whether he cared enough to check.

He pried the ray gun out of the man’s bloody hand and looked at him. He wasn’t able to learn how this thing worked, but his body was still inside of it somehow. It couldn’t be as easy as point and shoot, could it?

Chris did a simple test as he aimed it at himself and pulled the trigger. Nothing. He tried aiming at the strange man. Also nothing. He even tried using the finger of the man’s unconscious body to shoot himself. It still didn’t work.

Punished (Part 2)

View Part 1 of Punished.

Despite the fact that it felt like forever, it only took moments for Chris to be transformed. Once it was over, he could move again -- or at least he could try. The changes to his body made it feel so strange. The heels on his feet made it difficult to stand; his hips swayed in odd ways. The man told Chris that he was free to go. Of course, Chris wasn’t about to leave looking like this!

Quickly deciding his new body offered his best hope, he shuffled as quickly as he could over to the doctor. He got real close, leaned in, and gently touched the man’s chest.

After a few minutes of flattery, Chris tried to get him to reveal how the ray worked. The man seemed annoyed, but Chris assured him, “Why would I want my body back already? I haven’t explored this one yet! I’m sure it’s a lot of fun. But I wouldn’t want to suddenly revert back in the middle of that fun.”

“There’s no chance,” The man began to crack a smile, “Your body’s pattern is safely stored in the ray gun. You actually have the body of the person who thought they could sneak in here before you did. Such is the cycle.”

Before the man finished explaining, he jumped on top of Chris. Chris never felt so much panic in his life. He felt weak and helpless, and completely afraid for what would happen next. He reached out for something...anything...

Junk

Frank was hired to clean up this old place. There were rumors it had belonged to some eccentric old inventor who had died. His next of kin didn’t know what to do with the place -- hence the hiring of Frank.

Most of the house hadn’t been that bad; he just tossed it all into a dumpster outside. But the basement was a whole other mess. He wasn’t sure how the equipment on the work table even powered on, as it seemed to be unplugged, but the sparks soon came flying at him.

He seemed unharmed at first, but he also felt strange and weak. He could only watch as the sparks slowly receded back into the device on the work table. And as he began to continue the clean up job, the effects of the device slowly occurred to him; he had been transformed into a woman -- and one that was rather scrawny and diminutive at that! He was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be able to haul the rest of this stuff out with a body like this, but he also thought it might be the basis of some sort of lawsuit against the estate.

A Bad Movie Cliche

It was like a bad movie cliche. My car had broken down in a remote area with no cell phone service and the only house for miles was a creepy castle on a hill. The warning signs were all there, and I probably should’ve turned around the other way, but who would’ve thought any of those cliches were real? The omens got worse when it started to rain. All of this should’ve caused red alerts in my brain -- which it sort of did. But then I noticed another car that had gotten into a small fender bender just a little up the road; I figured this driver had also come up to the castle on the hill. I told myself it would be safer with someone else; I was wrong.

I was somewhat relieved that the man answering the door was young and not some creepy old man. Yet he did seem unnaturally pleased by the fact that he now had a second visitor. He brought me to a room he told me was for gaming with two odd-looking chairs. He introduced me to the woman named Linzi sitting in one of the chairs, and told me he’d bring his cordless phone to call a tow truck.

I sat down in the chair next to her. She wore red heels on her feet and a short silver dress with a good figure and legs I found it hard not to stare at. As a bit of a dork, I rarely talked to women s beautiful as Linzi. I asked her if she had been driving the car that had driven into the tree. She nodded. It seemed beautiful women like Linzi weren’t all that used to talking to dorks like me either.

We sat in silence for a moment, waiting for the man to return, but before he did, the chairs began to electrocute us with painful shocks. Neither Linzi nor I could seemingly move. The voltage became visible and started zapping between the two chairs. The man returned to the room wearing a lab coat; he mumbled something about how fortunate he was to have two guests and not have to postpone his experiment. The voice had a weird echo and I briefly had blurry double vision.

The first thing I was able to move was my fingers, but they weren’t MY fingers. They were thinner and manicured. There were red heels on my feet and I was wearing a short silver dress. Those legs I had couldn’t take my eyes off earlier were now MY legs. Linzi and I had swapped bodies! In my body, Linzi was understandably shouting and freaking out. The man in the background just laughed, with clearly no intention of swapping us back. I should’ve seen it all coming. The red flags were obvious, and I just walked right passed then. And, as a result, I was going to be stuck as Linzi for the rest of my life...

Attacked!

“Whatever the hell just happened, it happened to everyone in the stadium, I think,” Trayvon said as he fell to his knees, realizing he was in the body of a reporter on the sidelines instead of playing on the field.

“What are you talking about, Janet?” He heard a voice coming from an earpiece in his ear say.

“That’s what I’m talking about. I’m NOT Janet. I was a linebacker, but now I’m in her body. I’m not the only one. I’m telling you that it’s EVERYONE; at least everyone in the stadium. I’m not sure how...or why...”

The voice continued in his earpiece. It now seemed to just be reporting and ignoring what Trayvon had to say completely. “We just received word of a person claiming responsibility for the attack on the stadium. It seems to be some sort of mad scientist taking credit for the body swapping attack. And he seems to have a list of demands. We’re going to play the video now, but we should warn the viewers that these are the words of a terrorist that we are playing unedited, as we feel doing so is in the public interest...”

Invasive Procedure

“This sucks,” Marisa said with a frown, “I don’t want to be in your body! I like wearing cute clothes and painting my nails! Do you think this is permanent? Or do you think that weirdo old guy is going to come back and put our brains back in the right bodies?”

“I think that brain transplantation is likely very invasive,” Dave replied, “Whatever damage was done to our nervous systems is probably going to exponential if we undergo a second procedure.”

“You sound way too calm about this. Aren’t you freaking about being a woman?”

“I should be, shouldn’t I? And yet I’m not. Maybe it’s the a neural pathway that wasn’t reconnected. Or maybe the mad scientist just removed the part of my brain responsible for that.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Why would he switch our brains in the first place? The guy was absolutely crazy! Do you know he showed me a man that he tried to graft gills onto? Maybe we should be thankful that this was the worst thing that happened to us.”

“I’d rather have gills.”

“The guy with gills was dead, Marisa.”

Not in Trouble

The agents approached the park bench slowly, not wanting to spook their mark.

The bald headed man spoke first with a slow southern accent. “We’re from the FBI, and we’d very much like to speak with you for a minute, Mr. Reingold.”

The woman appeared nervous and seemed ready to dash off; the only thing keeping her there was likely the heels on her feet which she wasn’t used to walking in, let alone running.

“No need to panic; you’re not in trouble,” The other agent said with a refreshingly crisp voice, “We’re fully aware of your experiments and we’ve been following you. In fact, we’re very interested in the technology you’ve created.”

“We don’t mind the fun little routs you’ve gone on in various women’s bodies. Our biggest concern is bad actors,” The bald agent resumed without skipping a beat, “North Korea, Russia, Iran -- if they got a hold of this technology, it’d be bad news for everyone.”

“So we’d like to work with you, Mr. Reingold. We’ll set you up with a proper lab down in Stafford. Officially, you’ll be listed as an adjunct professor, but in reality, you’ll be able to do just about anything you want -- as long as it’s on Uncle Sam’s side, of course.”

“Of course,” The woman (who was actually Herman Reingold) said, realizing there wasn’t much of an actual choice here...

New Monster

In the event of Victor’s death, Ygor was to follow a set of explicit instructions to revive his master. First he was to remove Victor’s brain and place it in statis. Next, he was to find a new body to place the brain in. Finally, he had to connect the brain to the new body, patch it up, and flip the switch.

Ygor had quite a difficult time with the body he had found. It’s head was so small and Victor’s brain was so large. He was squishing and pushing to try to get it to fit. He should’ve known better; at one time he probably did. Ygor had been a brilliant doctor in his own right before joining with Victor in his work. Despite all his own achievements, Victor was a petty and jealous man. Utilizing his research, he had turned Ygor into a mindless lab assistant, only able to follow his orders and not think for himself. This strict adherence to the rules was causing Ygor to continue to mush Victor’s brain into this new body before it finally popped into place. The connections and cosmetic patching were easy after that.

Ygor hit the switch and Victor awakened, alive once more. But with the damage done to his brain, his mind was mangled and he was much more id than ego at this point. He looked down at his new body, not remembering what his old body was like and not able to realize how truly different this female body was from his former male one. He looked at Ygor and his id soared. Who was this man before him? It didn’t matter; it was a man, and Victor yearned for it. And as Victor instructed, Ygor had to obey. And what Victor instructed was nonstop fulfillment of his id passion from the silver fox before him.

Zapped!

Ludwig Von Braun cackled with glee as he roamed the streets testing out his new invention. All he had to do was point and shoot to swap the brains of any two subjects. The first pair included a businessman and a homeless person. Another pair included a woman and her dog. And then an Asian couple holding hands.

Niether Jin nor Mei had seen the man. It also took a few minutes to recover after being zapped, so Von Braun was long gone by the time they noticed their new bodies. But what did remain was a long line of body swapped victims. With a few questions, Jin and Mei learned they weren’t the only ones. A few more and they found out about the zapping ray. Along with several others, they set off to find the crazy man swapping everyone’s bodies.

They finally found him sitting ona a curb and crying. It didn’t seem right. The woman now inside of Van Braun’s body explained she was a college student who had been swapped by Van Braun before he snatched the ray and ran off. Tracking this guy down and getting everyone back to normal was going to be tough.

Partial

“Stop! Please stop!” Trevor shouted, but he wasn’t quite sure what voice he was shouting with. He had woken up in the middle of some sort of experiment that he was being subjected to, and it seemed to be exchanging his mind with a young woman named Hayley. He wasn’t even sure how that name popped into his head as he had no ideawho this woman was!

“I suggest you both sit still,” The mad scientist conducting the experiment said flatly.

“No! I won’t let you do this!” Trevor protested, this sure he was pretty sure he was speaking out of Hayley’s mouth with her voice.

“Trust me, it’s worse if you don’t let me finish. Once I am done, yes, your brain will be in the wrong body, but at least you will be sure of who you are. But if I stop now? Or if you try to cut things off early? Well, your minds will be a mess of confusion. Your head will be filled with contradictory thoughts, memories, and emotions. At the same time, there’s no telling what things you might be missing completely. You aren’t my first test subjects. The ones who weren’t fully transferred all went totally insane.”

“But I don’t want to be Trevor...I mean, Hayley!” Trevor shouted. He knew what was going on was wrong, but for the moment he was (perhaps fortunately) unable to feel anger or panic. It was as if those emotions had be taken from him. It was also a moment of clarity. As much as he hated that this was happening to him, being stuck in a state like this would be far worse. And so he settled in to prepare himself to fully become Hayley. Or maybe he was Hayley and had to prepare to become Trevor?

Until Then

Dylan rushed into the room when he saw Brittany in the chair hooked up into the weird machine. He hasn’t sure how any of this stuff worked, but he had his mind set on being her hero. After all, he still felt bad about the argument he had with her when they decided to split up to explore this strange so-called “haunted” mansion.

He put his hand on the controls on the panel in hopes of turning the thing off. “I’m gonna get you out of there, Brit,” He said, “Just hang tight.”

“I think it’s safe, but I’m not Brittany,” The woman in the chair said, “I’m Neil! These chairs...they can swap brains!”

“Neil? Like my dorky friend Neil? Inside of THAT body?” Dylan wanted to throw up at this thought, “Does that mean Brittany is inside of your body?” Dylan REALLY wanted to throw up at that thought.

“I don’t know! It seems probable. But there could be numerous chairs. She could be anyone, technically.”

“Well, you’re a dork. Can’t you like operate this thing and swap people back to normal?”

“I’m smart, but I’m not a mind reader! I didn’t see the guy operating the controls that swapped up. And there’s no guarantee that everyone is even still sitting down to be swapped. We need to find the crazy guy that did this!”

“And until then?”

“Until then, your dorky friend is going to be inside the body of your girlfriend.”

Stuck

It was weird for Mia to look into the chamber and see her own face with Doctor Herbert Kelvin’s scowling expression on it. The chambers had apparently been some sort of body swapping machine, and Doctor Kelvin had tricked Mia to step inside. He locked her in and stole her body.

“You made one very obvious miscalculation,” She teased, “By locking my body inside and then swapping bodies with me, you ended up locked up locking in yourself.”

“Let me out of here,” He hissed.

“No, not while you still have my body. Though, it is a problem. If I use this machine to swap back, then I’ll be stuck in there, and we go through this whole loop all over again. But there must be some way to outsmart this whole problem...”

The Prison

I wasn’t quite sure exactly how they snuck up on me to kidnap me and place me in a prison. I figured I was lucky that they hadn’t locked it, and I began to explore around in order to find a way out.

I came across a woman sitting in a cell. She looked extremely beautiful but also skinny enough that I was worried she was malnourished. I opened the door to her cell; it had been unlocked as well, but she didn’t seem anxious to escape.

“You’re new? So I guess he’s not dead,” She mumbled before speaking more clearly, “There’s this mad scientist, and he does weird things to people. I used to be a guy like you until he transformed me into...this! Yeah, I look like a woman, but I’m not sure. Part of what he did to me makes me unable to take off this outfit. Maybe it’s my skin? I’m not sure. I don’t seem to need to use the bathroom anymore; I haven’t in months. Or at least it seems like months. He stopped feeding me shortly after he did this as well; that’s why I thought he was dead. But if he has taken you and placed you here...well, I’m sure he had plans for you. You’re probably in the stage where you think there is escape from this place. There is no escape. He will only release you when he is done with you. And maybe now that you’re here, he will be done with me soon.”

Who Am I?

It had been three weeks since Eileen and her husband had been captured by the mad scientist and locked in cells. And last week, Eileen’s husband was taken out for some sort of experiment and he never came back. Things got quiet for a while until the mad scientist took her for a bit of a tour where he opened doors remotely while guiding her around with his voice.

The tour was mostly empty cells, but there was a few failed experiments with mostly disfigured bodies. It was horrifying. As she neared the end, a cell door slid open and Eileen was shocked to see what seemed to be her own body.

“Did you clone me?” She asked with disgust.

“It’s more like a copy,” The voice of the scientist said, “You see, inside that body is the mind of your husband. I was able to transform him by copying your DNA. What may be most remarkable is that he thinks he is you. I have made it so he is not able to see you right now, but don’t worry, I already gave him a tour earlier and he asked quite similar questions when he saw you.”

“But if he doesn’t know who he really is...” Eileen thought about this carefully, “How do I know that’s not really Eileen? How do I know I’m not her husband trapped in a copy of her body?”

“You don’t,” Laughed the scientist.

“I might not really be Eileen,” She whispsered, “I might really be a man? Oh, god!”

A Choice

Eddie had estimated it had been about two weeks since he was locked in this glass cage. He didn’t know for sure; there were no windows to see the sun and no clocks. And who knows how long he had been passed out after all the weird experiments he had been put through -- the latest resulted in him being in the body of a woman. He’d often yell at the people who brought him food or brought him to the various experiments. They never responded.

Except for today.

“Haven’t you done enough?” He shouted, “Let me go!”

The figure looked at him for a moment, “Is that what you really want at this point? The world would never believe you, and we will never be found. Your brain is presently Miss Cortez’s body. You know nothing of her life. It might be fine, or it might be more difficult than you could ever imagine. We will keep you safe here, and ensure your safety when we are done. If you left now, you’d be on your own in a life you are not at all prepared for. Is that what you truly want? Perhaps I should grant your request for freedom, but I might give you one more opportunity to change your mind.”

Eddie took a deep breath before giving his answer...

Long Process

‘Oh, thank goodness,’ Ivan thought to himself as he managed to get power running through the main conductor again. It was the first step in a long process to get his body swapping machine up-and-running again. If he didn’t get it working soon, he was pretty sure Clara’s husband would kill him. But things were at least starting to look promising, but he worried that the various parts were all too fragile and worn from the first test that had accidentally swapped him into Clara’s body in the first place. It was going to be a long night.

Miss Ember

Miss Ember crashed through the ceiling of evil Dr. Robotron’s lair. It was at this point, he was usually cowering in fear, but he seemed strangely confident as he looked at the heroine. As quickly as he could, he pulled out a ray gun, but he didn’t have time to fire. With her super speed, Miss Ember rushed over and crushed the ray.

The evil doctor feigned worry, “Oh, no, my ray gun.”

“You’re going away. You’re--” Miss Ember suddenly felt uncharacteristically weak, “Not going...” She soon passed out.

She awoke some time later to see a figure towering over her that looked remarkably like herself. But she soon realized her movements made robotic sounds, she had a metal arm, wires and circuits replaced body parts. She was in Dr. Robotron’s body, and that meant the person towering over her was...“Robotron,” she whispered.

“That’s right!” He crackled with Miss Ember’s voice, “You had no idea that breaking my body swapping ray is EXACTLY what would activate it! And now I’m in your powerful body, and your in my digitally enhanced one! I believe I’ll be taking you to the authorities, just as you had planned to do to me! Oh, who knows the troubles I will get into now? Who knows what fun I will have? You probably should’ve thought twice before rushing into my lair, hmmm?”