NMF: Ensorcelled 1

This story is sort of self-plagiarism. This takes the events of "Bewitchery" and sets them instead in the "No More Fakes" Universe, since "Bewitchery" was apparently, at least in part, the inspiration for the NMF universe.

I still intend to do sequels to "Bewitchery" which is in a universe of its own. Meanwhile, "Ensorcelled" is going to go off in its own direction. I hope this is not too confusing.

Oct 31, evening

Everything went quiet for a moment, the calm before the storm. Suddenly, a raucous cacophony erupted, as everyone took stock of their situation. Frenzied hysterics surged through the crowd as people became what they had costumed themselves as.

"What happened?" a voice behind Sean asked. Sean instinctively turned to see who it was, and then felt compelled to reply after looking deeply into the eyes of the tall vampire who stood there...

*********************

It was a day like any other day in mid-October; the weather was beginning to turn cold, and the leaves were beginning to change colors. Overcast grey skies loomed ominously overhead, and I felt a need to go out and do something, so I got in my car and drove to the mall. For a while, I wandered aimlessly, seeking what I knew not. I sighed as I saw Christmas decorations beginning to be displayed prominently. Can't they even wait till after Halloween? Then I noticed the Halloween Store. From outside, I could see hints of odd masks and costumes, and was drawn inside by my innate curiosity. However, as I picked through what little was there, I saw little out of the ordinary. I half expected a salesperson to beckon me to a back room, where might be found costumes of a more fantastic, possibly magical, nature, but such was not to be.

I felt a hand upon my shoulder and turned, not knowing what horrid sight might await my eyes, but no rugose monstrosity was there, no slavering demon or drooling monster. Instead of some repugnant terror, I beheld an attractive saleswoman who looked oddly familiar.

"Hi, can I help you?" she began, and then paused, staring at me. "I've seen you before, haven't I? At the University?"

"Uh, yeah, I think so. I'm Sean." I stared back at her lovely face, and was awe-struck by her beauty.

"Hi, I'm Jessica." As she spoke, I noticed her name tag supported her claim. "Are you just looking around?"

"Well, I was thinking of maybe getting this," I said, pulling a Superman costume off the racks, "but I don't have either the physique or the hair for it." I brushed aside my long blonde hair to emphasize this point.

"Hmmm, let's see what we've got," she replied, flipping through the racks of costumes. I wasn't sure what she was looking for; I had already examined all that was there. Perhaps she sought a Hercules costume; I had already seen the Hercules and Xena costumes based on the TV shows, but neither really suited me. "Ah, here we go," she commented, pulling out a costume, "How about this? Your hair would go well with this one."

I saw that she had pulled out a Supergirl costume. I wasn't quite sure what to say, and I didn't want to offend her. "Are you serious?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I don't see why not. Guys dress up as girls on Halloween all the time, and you're thin enough that you could probably pull it off."

I hesitated, thinking it over, but was still going to say no, when she asked, "Do you have any plans for Halloween?"

"Well, no, but..."

"Then, I tell you what. Why don't you meet me here on Halloween, about 5 o'clock; that's when I get off work. Then, I can help you with your costume, and we can go to this club I know where they're holding a costume contest. Okay?"

Once again, I hesitated, staring at the costume, wondering if I could bear to be seen in public wearing it. Jessica misinterpreted this pause, thinking I was looking at the price tag, and said, "I'll even buy your costume for you; well, how about it?"

Well, I couldn't fight it anymore; I realized that an attractive woman was effectively asking me out on a date while also offering to buy me this costume, which I might have wanted anyway (as a collectable, if not as a costume). "Sounds great," I answered truthfully, but wondered if I would really have the nerve to go along with it. Then we talked for a few minutes more, getting to know each other better, until finally I made some excuse and left.

I didn't see Jessica again during the days before Halloween. As the days passed, I began to anxiously anticipate this date, much as a child would do for Christmas, but I never stopped to think for very long about the costume that I would be wearing.

When the day of Halloween finally arrived, I drove to the mall around 1:00, not wanting to be late. I ended up roaming the mall with little to do, but I figured that was better than being late. I wasted a lot of time, browsing through the bookstores and playing games at the video arcade, but still began to grow restless. Finally, my watch read 4:30, so I headed over towards the Halloween Store. I waited pensively outside, out of sight, because I didn't want to seem too desperate by arriving too early. When my watch finally read 4:55, I could take it no more, and walked into the store. Jessica was there, waiting on customers; as she saw me, she waved and told me that she'd be a few minutes.

I watched her ring up some purchases until one of her coworkers took over for her. Then, she beckoned to me to follow her, which I did. We left out the rear of the store, passing through a small employee's lounge where she picked up a bag with a receipt stapled into its top, and we headed towards the parking lot.

She led me to her car, and I got in, while she tossed the package in the back. "I figured we'd go by my apartment first, get dressed, and then go out. You don't need to stop by your place for anything, do you?" she asked.

"No, that's fine."

As she drove, I couldn't help but stare at her. She was so beautiful, with her long black hair and her curvaceous body shown off by her tight minidress. After a few minutes, we had arrived. She grabbed the bag as we got out of the car and walked to her apartment. Once we were inside, she showed me my costume, which she pulled out of the bag, and asked me, "Well, do you still want to go through with this?"

One look in her deep, dark eyes left me without the power to say no. "Sure, let's do it."

She smiled. "Good. You'll need to shave first, face and legs. There's a razor and a bottle of Nair in the bathroom. You can handle that by yourself, yes?"

"Uh, yeah," I replied, not having realized all that might be entailed. She pointed her bathroom out to me, and I entered it, closing the door behind me. I stripped off my clothes and applied Nair self-consciously to my legs. The cold white substance chilled me, as I waited for it to do its job. Finally, time came to wash it off, and I was surprised at the difference. My legs felt completely different, smooth and silky. I had to shave a couple of locations where a few hairs were left, but the overall effect was quite impressive. After I shaved my face as well, I considered puttig my clothes back on, but chose instead to wear only a towel, as I would soon be putting on the Supergirl costume anyway.

Clad in only a pink towel which I wore around my waist, I opened the door, and found Jessica who had put her own costume on. She was wearing a black dress with sparkles in it, a belt consisting of metallic moons and stars, black fishnet hose, and black high-heeled shoes. She looked at me and grinned. "Good, now go into the bedroom," which she pointed out to me, "and put on the items I have laid out for you. You'll need them to look like a woman."

I followed her instructions and found waiting for me a tight panty-girdle, a pair of false breasts, a bra, and a pair of red high-heeled shoes. I took off the towel and put on the bra with only a little difficulty and put the false breasts in it; it seemed odd to look down and see them sticking out, but I had expected something of the sort. The panty-girdle, on the other hand, was a bit less comfortable. I could barely pull it up all the way up, and it constricted my body terribly, so that I became aware of every breath I took. My genitals, however, did not fit in at all, until I realized that I was supposed to tuck them between my legs; after doing so, I looked down and saw a very feminine contour.

Jessica walked in, looked me over, and said, "Good, you're ready to put on the costume." She handed me the Supergirl costume, and I examined it, trying to figure out how it was supposed to be worn. It came in several pieces: a tie-on red cape, two red "boots", a yellow tie-on belt, and a mini-dress with a built-in red panty. I noticed that the back of the minidress opened wide, but tied shut. I stepped in through the back of the costume, and pulled it up, sticking my arms through the blue sleeves. I pulled it as high as it would go (being limited by the red panty under the red miniskirt), and it just barely fit; as it was, it was quite tight, showing off every curve of my body. I tied it behind me, and looked again at the belt. It was really pretty cheap, being a piece of yellow plastic for the front and a piece of black cloth attached at each end, allowing it to be tied around the back; thus, only the yellow part would show. I tied it around my now much thinner waist, and tied the cape around my neck as well. Then, I looked at the costume's boots and understood why Jessica had also left me a pair of shoes; the boots were very large and had no bottom except a piece of elastic, allowing them to be worn over whatever shoes a person might choose to wear. I could understand that, as it would be difficult to mass-produce costumes, taking into account different shoe sizes.

I wondered how Jessica could have guessed my shoe size, but found the high-heeled shoes only a little too small. My feet were pinched terribly, but they did fit inside. Then I put the boots over them, and I was done, or so I thought.

Jessica returned again, this time she was wearing black lipstick, dark eyeshadow, and long, black false fingernails. "Oh, good, you're almost ready. Come." She beckoned me over to her makeup table, where she had me sit. This was uncomfortable, as I was basically sitting on my testicles, but I endured. She explained what she was doing as she did each step, but I paid little attention, as I did not plan to ever do this again. Eventually, she had applied foundation, blush, blue eyeshadow, eyeliner, mascara, and bright red lipstick as I daydreamed about other things. My daydreams ended as I felt her painfully plucking my eyebrows. "Hey!" I commented.

"Hush, they'll grow back," she replied. I wasn't sure about that, but I figured she knew what she was doing. Several painful minutes later, she proclaimed that she was done. I looked in the mirror, expecting to see a beautiful woman, but only saw myself in makeup. I couldn't possibly fool anyone, I imagined. I pondered what people's reactions to me might be, as Jessica grabbed my right hand and began working on it; I looked down, and realized that she was gluing long red false fingernails over my own fingernails. Oh well, in for a penny...

I figured she was done after she finished my nails, but she told me that I still needed earrings. "We'll have to get your ears pierced first," she commented, with a wry grin.

"What?"

She smiled. "Just kidding. Here." She handed me a pair of red clip-on earrings, which I put on with some help from her.

"Now, I think, we're ready to go," she told me. I stood up, and she grabbed her purse and a witch hat before leading me back to her car. It took me several tries to open the car door with these long fingernails. "How do women put up with these things?" I asked. Jessica shrugged. She drove us to the club she had mentioned before, and I noticed a sign proclaiming it to be the "Raucous Chicken Club".

We got out and, as we walked to the door, I felt a cool breeze blowing against my bare legs. While we milled around, we talked about the costumes that other people were wearing. Most people were rather unimaginative, and I recognized many of the costumes as ones that I had chosen not to buy. The most unusal wasa probably the woman who was dressed as an M&M. The others were more standard fare: a skeleton, a pumpkin, a cow, two people dressed as a horse, a devil lady, a pair of gypsies, a Roman Centurion, and a guy dressed as a table. There certainly didn't seem to be much competition, but I still didn't think I had a chance of winning. When I told this to Jessica, she replied that it might help if she told the judges that I was really male.

I was surprised. "You mean, you think they won't be able to tell?"

"Of course not. Look," she replied, pointing at the club's window which was reflective due to the darkness. I saw a woman dressed as a witch standing next to a woman dressed as Supergirl, and... Oh. I realized that while I might not be as beautiful as she, I still looked like a woman, unless you looked carefully.

"One thing that's been bugging me, though," she continued, "is, if Superman's home planet of Krypton exploded, where did Supergirl come from?"

A smile crossed my lips as I began to organize the information in my mind in such a way as to explain to a non-comics reader all the pertinent knowledge. I told her of how Argo City survived due to the foresight of Superman's father's brother, how the inhabitants of the domed city of Argo had to deal with the ground beneath them turning into Anti-Kryptonite, how Superman's father's brother had a child named Kara Zor-El who was rocketed to Earth from Argo, how Kara had patterned a costume after Superman whose adventures she had watched from Argo City, how she met Superman for the first time, how she became his "secret weapon", how she revealed herself to the public for the first time, and how she died, sacrificing herself for the multiverse.

"She's dead?"

"Yeah. In fact, they decided that she never existed, and so they created a new version of Supergirl who's not Kryptonian, but that's a whole 'nuther story."

I didn't have time to tell this other story, though, as we were now entering the club. Soon, we found one of the few remaining tables and sat down. I was amazed at the large number of people packed into such a small space, but it was made more unusual by the vast array of costumes. Harlequins, cavemen, mice-women, zombies, and all the other costume varieties surrounded us.

I asked Jessica when the contest was going to begin, but she didn't know, so I asked a guy dressed as a Roman Centurion as he passed by our table.

"Contest? What contest?" He replied then turned and walked away.

Jessica gave me an innocent look before confessing that she knew there was no contest. Just as I was about to question her further, we were interrupted by a loud voice, proclaiming, "I have had it with this roomful of FAKES!"

And then the chaos began.

**************

After this lengthy reply, Sean looked down and realized that he, too, had been transformed...

If this is a story, it's copyrighted to Sean MacDonald <mcdonald@vorteb.math.uab.edu> . If you want to post this anywhere else, please talk to the author and get permission first. Thank you

"Adventures Of Supergirl" 4

No More Fakes Index

"Ensorcelled" 2