Original Stories Fan Fiction ❯ Zippy Zipperdale: Moderately Mad Scientist ❯ The Seventh Experiment ( Chapter 7 )

ZIPPY ZIPPERDALE:
MODERATELY MAD
SCIENTIST:
The Seventh Experiment

By Hardcover


The soft but intrusive sound of the alarm clock beeping woke up Krystal Bell from her fitful sleep. She had been dreaming of floating naked through a vast maze like cavern, inside a giant living machine, a massive biomechanical behemoth of endlessly intricate and ingenious design. Whoever built it and for what purpose, Krystal didn’t know, but it was enough to behold this massive wonder of science and engineering with her own eyes. Definitely a constructed machine made of living breathing tissue, the ultimate mesh of the organic and the artificial. Goose bumps rose on her arms in excitement as she gently floated through the endless caverns.

Needless to say, she was deliriously disappointed to suddenly be back in the land of the waking. Groaning with disappointment, she shoved herself out of bed. For a second she was confused as to where she was, but finally remembered that she was in one of the guest bedrooms in Zippy’s house. She looked to the side of the bed and found that her current bunk mate Lizzy was already awake and long gone. It had taken a little getting used to, sharing the large king sized bed with Lizzy; Krystal had always had a bed to herself. It was made a little more uncomfortable by Lizzy’s odd habit of mumbling in her sleep, babbling about all manner of fantasy creatures that Krystal couldn’t even begin to identify.

She slipped her feet over the edge of the bed and forced herself out, standing up in the medium sized room. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned with her mouth wide open. Scratching an irritating itch on her butt, she headed for the bathroom. Once inside she stripped off the old t-shirt and sweat pants that she had been sleeping in and made for the shower.

She stopped, in front of the mirror, turning to look at herself, letting her eyes roll over the reflection of her naked body. It seemed so strange, at that moment, looking at the body that had once been so unfamiliar to her. At one time she hadn’t been able to look in a mirror without blushing all over. Hell, when she’d first seen herself naked, she’d thought her blood was going to boil so much she’d get a nose bleed. Now, it was just her body, plain and simple. It had been weeks since she’d woken up and felt the uncomfortable unfamiliar bulge of her breasts. Now, they were as much a part of her as her arms and legs.

Not that she didn’t enjoy looking at herself; truth be told, although she’d probably never admit this to Zippy, her one time rival had done a spectacular job on her. She ran her hands over her curves, looking over the soft skin and beautiful figure. She had to admit, she did love her new body, and she did like the way she looked. She could never go back to being a guy, so she could only look forward. It occurred to her, that she had been dreaming of herself in this body, not her old one. That was probably a good sign; or a bad one, depending on how you looked at it.

She giggled to herself, time to clean up this nice body before doing anything else. She pulled the shower curtain open and stepped in, turning on the water and letting it run all over. Grabbing the liquid soap, she began to lather all over her body, feeling it clean and refresh her as it did. She was also grateful to Zippy for permanently removing all her body hair. Unlike Zippy or Lizzy; hell, unlike Stitchy for that matter, Krystal didn’t have to shave anything. It certainly made the morning ritual that much easier. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like for Stitchy to shave her legs around those lines of stitches.

Running the smooth liquid soap over herself, Krystal thought about some of what had happened the last few days. It wasn’t the kind of thing she would say out load, but she was excited just to be a part of this project. Sure, this had been Zippy’s baby all the way, and she had only assisted, but it was thrilled just to be a part of this, to be here to witness scientific history. Inwardly, she was so glad that Zippy had invited her along. She couldn’t help but feel a slight warm feeling of affection for her two room mates, despite what they had done to her. Except for Kevin, she had never had friends like them before.

As it had happened, despite their bitter rivalry, and despite everything she had done to them as Cristobel, they had taken her in and been there for her when she’d had absolutely no one to depend on. It was hard to hold a grudge for someone after that, and Krystal had begun to realize the value of real friends for the first time in her life.

There was also Zippy’s parents; Krystal hadn’t really told them this, but she adored them. They were everything her parents weren’t: supportive, encouraging, friendly and funny. Sometimes Krystal wondered playfully if they’d adopt her one day. She snickered at the thought of being Zippy’s sister. It was a ludicrous idea, but deep down, Krystal envied Zippy’s home environment. Even with Zach following her around like a love struck puppy.

She sighed thinking of Zippy’s brother: Not having much romantic experience, she hadn’t noticed it at first, but now she couldn’t deny it: The guy was not just interested in her, he was completely infatuated with her. It made her nervous, she still in many ways thought like a guy, and the attention instinctively made her retract, but another large part of her was responding to him a little bit. Hell, she’d been a guy only a month and a half or so ago. True, that didn’t seem to bother Zach all the much. He seemed as open minded as his sister. She felt flattered at how much he was taken with her that was for sure. And, truth be told, he wasn’t bad looking; the female hormones her artificial organs pumped her with saw to it that the attraction was not completely one sided.

She pursed her lips, she shouldn’t be rebelling against these feelings; she was now a girl after all. Zach was a nice guy, and although quite a bit nerdy, she did enjoy his company. In actuality, she’d actually found herself more attracted to Todd, surprised a little that she’d respond to the jock type, but all those chiseled features and well built frame had made her heart beat a little bit faster. But he had a girlfriend, so that wasn’t going anywhere.

She paused, smiling to herself; without realizing she was doing it, she had started to think about going out with guys. Well, she thought, maybe she should start? She was a woman now; she would remain one until the day she died. Her body was telling her what she wanted, why not explore this a little bit? Or was it too soon? It had barely been over a month since the surgery. But there it was; quite definite that she did want to explore these feelings, although she probably wouldn’t express this at all to the others.

But a large part of her was revolting at these thoughts: deep down, she was uncomfortable with her attraction to guys, frightened of it actually. She knew why; she had been one her whole life. Admitting to this new interest in them would mean accepting herself fully as a woman, and she just wasn’t ready to do that yet. She was, she knew, a largely different person from who she was a few months ago, but she just couldn’t cast off her previous life like it never happened. Part of her was still wondering if liking guys made her ‘gay’, as silly as that sounded.

She shut off the shower and toweled herself off, going back into the bedroom. She dressed casually in jeans and a slightly short t-shirt that exposed a little midriff. She then spent a large amount of time on her hair and make up. It was something she had picked up right away: girlishly fussing over her appearance. She worked carefully, until she thought she was pretty enough, and then headed down out and downstairs to meet the others.

As soon as she reach the top of the staircase, she found Lizzy standing there, dressed all in black as usual in a lacey “Goth Lolita” outfit that suited her personality to a T. She had serious look on her face, at least more serious then usual. As Krystal came up to her, she spoke.

“I believe there has been an unfortunate development with Stitchy.” Lizzy informed her.

Catching her breath, concern flowed through Krystal. She had been worried, like her partners, about something going wrong with their creation, either physically or mentally after her resurrection. After all, they were in uncharted territory here; there was no telling what could happen. Troubled, she followed Lizzy downstairs, a million nightmare scenarios filling her head.

What could be wrong with Stitchy? Krystal took a deep breath and thought about it: Their grades were riding on this project. If it failed, they’d have nothing else to do, certainly nothing as impressive. It was more then just that, however, Krystal realized; in the one day she had been alive, Stitchy had already endeared herself to everyone in the house, herself included. A few months ago, when she was Cristobel, she would never have seen her as anything other then a project, but now as Krystal, she had already begun to think of Stitchy as a friend, a member of their group as much as an experiment. She hoped she was alright, or that it was something they could fix.

Lizzy led her to the living room where Krystal found Stitchy seated in front of the television set along with Zach. They were watching some kind of Japanese cartoon; wide eyed anime characters flew across the screen engaged in all sorts of goofy antics. Stitchy was glued to the tube, her eyes wide and grinning like a Cheshire cat, giggling and laughing along with Zach.

“This so cute!” She declared, glancing back at Krystal.

Krystal looked at Lizzy questioningly.

Still looking serious, Lizzy replied, “It would seem Zippy’s brother has turn our creation into a hopeless otaku.”

Exhaling a breath of relief, Krystal punched Lizzy lightly on the arm, “Bitch! You had me all worked up!”

A rare smile crept across Lizzy’s face.

Wait a minute; had Lizzy just told an actual joke?


Lying on her stomach over her bed, Mandy felt miserable. She had hardly slept all night and she had the dark circles under her eyes to prove it. After Zippy had left her father had yelled at her for ten strait minutes before storming out of the room; her behavior towards Stitchy had really ticked him off. Small wonder, her father had been a civil rights activist for most of his life, and had spent a lot of effort to teach his daughter not to judge people by race or creed or simply how they looked. In her fear, Mandy had dreadfully disappointed him, and Zippy.

And for that matter, Stitchy.

When she had seen Stitchy’s creation, it had been the most frightening thing Mandy had ever beheld. Hell, she got scared during the resurrection scene in Frankenstein, and not the newer one with De Niro, the old one with that Karloff guy. What went on in Zippy’s basement had been like a nightmare come to life for her. Just the thought of seeing that dead body get up and walk still gave her the shivers. It had seemed all perfectly rational to her at the time: How could anything like that be anything other then evil?

Now she realized, she had been utterly and completely stupid. For all Stitchy’s massive size and frightening appearance, she had just wanted to return her cards to her. She had just wanted to be friends. And in her fear and paranoia, Mandy had thrown that back in her face, even making the huge Frankengirl cry. And now the fear was gone, but the guilt was eating Mandy up alive even worse. She felt miserable and horrible, crying every so often in shame, and even having a few thoughts of suicide flitter through her mind, which she had quickly dismissed.

Several times, Mandy had contemplated going over to Zippy’s house and apologizing to Stitchy. But she wasn’t sure Zippy would even let her in, and she didn’t know if Stitchy might be still pissed. Even with most of her fear gone, Mandy still found Stitchy’s size and power rather intimidating, and quickly decided it was best if she cooled down a little bit.

In the meantime, Mandy simply wallowed in her remorse and despondency.

After a while, she decided she had lay there in one spot long enough. She grabbed her shoes and decided to go for a walk.



As Lizzy carefully maneuvered down the hall of the vast, sprawling underground complex, she warily swung her rifle this way and that, checking all the corners. They could be hiding anywhere, the undead bastards, and they could spring out at any moment. For being brainless rotting corpses, they could be tricky sometimes. She kept going, cautiously, sweeping the barrel of her gun in front of her, she moved slowly.

It was quiet, much too quiet.

She slowed her pace, creeping forward inch by inch, and that was when they struck. Two of them up in front of her lurched out of the shadows and advanced, shambling quickly, their decayed arms reach out for her.

She fired, sending a bullet through the head of the closest one. The bullet hit right in the nasal cavity and exited the back, causing the zombie’s head to explode in shower of crimson and gore like an over ripe melon. The body continued to stagger forward a few feet before collapsing to the ground.

Lizzy had already taken aim at the second one when a third zombie attacked her from behind, she had no time to react before the creature sank it’s rotted teach into her flesh and took a huge bloody bite. The blood splashed over the screen which turned red. The words “You Are Dead” faded in with blood dripping letters followed up by “continue? Yes/No”.

Lizzy shook the Playstation 3 controller in frustration, “Damn, this game is hard.”

She sat in front of the wide screen TV in the Zipperdale’s living room, the cordless controller in her hands as the screen gradually turned darker and darker. Gritting her teeth in determination, she moved the cursor to “yes”, restarting Bio Zombie Gore Battle and began to play again.

Further back in the room, Zippy and Krystal sat around the coffee table, looking over several reports on Zippy’s laptop. So far as they could tell, everything about Stitchy went exactly according to plan. They were still at a loss to explain her peculiar speech patterns, however. As far as they could tell, Stitchy’s brain was working perfectly, although it retained no memories of its previous body, it retained all of its old skills. She was even able to solve a Rubix Cube in under a minute. Despite all this, Stitchy retained a certain amount of child like innocence, although based on her actions with Derek; her adult attractions were in full development.

Despite having created her from scratch, there were still so many things they simply didn’t know about Stitchy.

Their thoughts were interrupted by Zippy’s mother entering with the room from the stairs with Stitchy in tow, looming large behind her.

“Check it out, ladies.” Melody Zipperdale grinned, “Our Stitchy has a new look.”

Stitchy came out dressed in a large dark blue dress, looking a bit like something from the 1950s, which came down to her knees with sleeves that came down to her elbows. The dress fit her huge body a lot better then any of Zippy’s dresses had, and seemed to compliment her fairly well.

She was also wearing a light make up that hid her facial stitches a little bit, and pantyhose that did the same for her legs, although she was not particularly shy about her stitch work (for that matter, Stitchy wasn’t particularly shy at all.).

“Wow,” Zippy mused, “It’s perfect.”

Stitchy smiled and did a twirl, letting the skirt billow out a bit.

“See? Stitchy hottie now.” She declared, “Though Stitchy think Derek like smaller dress.”

“Melody, where in the world did you get a dress that size?” Krystal wondered.

“I was wondering the same thing?” Zippy admitted.

Melody smiled, “Well, I was up in the attic and I found a trunk full of your great Aunt Zelda’s old stuff. I’d almost forgotten that it was there.”

“I guess Aunt Zelda was pretty big?” Lizzy wondered pausing the zombie game.

Zippy answered, “Over six feet, as I understand it.”

Melody nodded, “Yes, but this dress was actually longer on her. I had to tailor it a bit to get it to fit right. A lot of the stuff in the trunk was way too outdated, but I found a few things I think might look good on her.”

Grabbing Melody and hugging her, Stitchy declared, “Mommy’s mommy so nice.”

When she let go, Melody had to catch her breath for a second before coming over to Zippy and handing something else to her; it was an old worn copy of a large hardcover book, the dust jacket tattered and frayed.

“Look what else I found in there.” Melody told her.

Zippy looked at the book. The title read, “Number Theory In The Hebrew Language: The Hidden Messages In The Torah And Talmud” by Zelda Zoe Zipperdale.” Zippy looked over the book, curiously.

“Didn’t you tell me Great Aunt Zelda was the crazy one?” Zippy asked her mother.

“That’s what I heard, but she was also a skilled mathematician and historian.” Melody replied, “She became convinced that there were hidden codes in the Torah And Talmud. You know, in Hebrew, letters are used for numbers, so she thought there was some kind of hidden message done with numeric ciphers in there somewhere. That book became her life’s work.”

Zippy examined the book, now interested. Stitchy came along beside her, looking at the book with distinct look of interest. Zippy flipped the book over on the back and found a picture of the author, the first picture of that Zippy had ever seen of her notorious great aunt. The picture depicted a woman in her mid forties with long wavy hair. The picture was in black and white, but Zippy could tell her ancestor had shared the same fiery red hair that she had. She was dressed in a plain grey dress that looked like the picture might have been taken in the thirties or forties. She wore large thick glasses on her face. She was standing in front of what looked like a college library carrying several reference books on Hebrew and mathematics in her arms. She was flanked by two assistants and Zippy could tell that she was, indeed, easily over six feet tall, though she didn’t approach Stitchy’s six foot seven mark.

Zippy grimaced as she noticed that even crazy old Great Aunt Zelda had bigger boobs then her. She shook off the unwelcome jealousy and continued to look at the book.

Zippy opened the book, glancing at the introduction while Melody headed off to the kitchen. Krystal leaned over glancing at the book with the others. This odd bit of family history was interesting enough, since it seemed Zippy wasn’t the only member of her family to have mad science aspirations; or at least eccentric science.

Krystal’s thought was interrupted as Zack entered the room with something in his arms. He made a bee line for Krystal but then stopped, a little flustered as opposed to his usual gushing enthusiasm. He stammered a little bit, turning red as he blushed. After a second of uncomfortable silence, Krystal finally broke it.

“What’s up, Zack?” She asked.

“Um . . . I was . . .” He stammered, “I was wondering if, maybe you’d like to try this dress on.”

He extended his arms revealing the black material in them. Krystal felt her heartbeat quicken as she realized he wanted her to model this dress for him. Conflicting emotions ran through her. She had just recently gotten used to Zach attraction to her, sort of, but she had never really worn an actual dress before. She was, however, used to wearing a skirt at school by now, but his was different: This outfit looked a little sexy.

Zippy looked at the scene bewildered: Why did her brother even have a dress?

Running her hand over the material, Krystal contemplated it: Did she really want to put this on for him. She knew he was asking just for fetishistic reasons, and part of her was cringing at the thought of him ogling her in this, but the other part of her was rising to the occasion again. She had begun to really enjoy the attention, and she had been curious about what it would be like to dress up more feminine. Besides, it couldn’t hurt to humor him.

To everyone’s surprise, Krystal said, “Okay.”

She took the dress and promptly went up stairs to go put it on, flirtatiously shooting a smile at the beaming Zach on her way up. She kicked herself as soon as she did it; why was she acting like this. She couldn’t really be interested in Zach could she? After all, she was really a guy. Then again, not anymore . . .

She came down feeling awkward and embarrassed; the black dress clung to her form, revealing all the curves that Zippy and Lizzy had given her. The front hung down in ruffles, revealing plenty of cleavage and while the bottom was lower then her school skirt, it still seemed to be somehow more revealing of her legs.

She blushed and grinned sheepishly as she came out to the stunned silence of all. Everyone stared at her in amazement. Zach grinned from ear to ear, his face flushed and red. At first, Krystal couldn’t tell if they were staring because she looked good or because she looked stupid. The dress was a black number that hung down just above her knees. It was sleeveless, held over her shoulders with thin straps that dipped to a v-neck just at her cleavage.

“Er . . . waddaya think?” She mumbled lamely.

It was Zippy who broke the silence, “That’s my dress.”

At least now she knew where Zach had gotten it.

Krystal ignored her and turned to Zach, “H-how do I look?”

In an almost awed whisper, Zach said, “You’re beautiful.”

Krystal felt her face flush as blood rushed to it. Part of her was eating up all of this attention. She smiled but cast her gaze down at the floor sheepishly, muttering a thanks.

“Eeee!” Stitchy squealed, “Krystal so pretty!”

From his perch, Jetson piped up, waving his tentacles excitedly.

“Krystal, the critics all agree: You look fabulous tonight.” He chirped.

“That’s my dress.” Zippy repeated, staring at it.

Krystal raised an eyebrow, “Yes, we have established that I am wearing your dress.”

“It . . . it looks better on you then it does on me.” Zippy grumbled, “Look at the way it hangs down from your shoulders and billows around your legs.”

Krystal tossed her hair back, “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”

Jumping off his perch, Jetson quickly scrambled over to the couch where Zippy sat and hopped up the coffee table right next to her laptop.

“I think that dress would look better on you, Zippy.” He declared hopefully.

Zippy gave him a slight smile, “Thank you, Jetson.”

Everyone chuckled, but Zippy still looked livid. Zach looked so happy he seemed like he was going to pass out any second now. Krystal did a twirl, imitating Stitchy, and then struck a few poses that she’d seen runway models do. She was, genuinely, starting to have a little bit of fun. The dress certainly looked good on her, and she was beginning to understand why girls spent so much time on their clothes.

Melody entered and smiled when she saw Krystal, “My, don’t you look lovely.”

Krystal blushed and muttered a thanks.

Melody then turned to the rest of them, “Hey, could one of you run down to the store and pick up a few things for me? I’m out of some stuff I need for dinner.”

“Guess I could go.” Zippy said, standing up, and eager to get away from Krystal and how good she looked in Zippy’s dress.

Lizzy turned around to look at her, “Maybe Stitchy should go. It would be good practice to see how well she can handle something like picking up groceries.”

Stitchy shot to her feet, eager to please as always, “Yah! Stitchy help.”

Zippy pursed her lips, “I don’t know, Stitchy’s never been out of the house by herself.”

Melody offered, “Well, the store is three blocks away right down the street in a strait line, she could hardly get lost.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know if she’s ready.” Zippy replied cautiously.

Stitchy rolled her eyes, “Stitchy be fine, Mommy.”

Zippy looked at her, “But it’s a dangerous world out there.”

“Awe come on,” Krystal said, striking another pose, “Stitchy’s scarier and more intimidating then anyone she’s likely to meet in this town. No offense, Stitchy.”

Stitchy grinned and flexed her muscles, “None taken; Stitchy strong!”

“I don’t know about this.” Zippy grumbled.

After a lot of debate, it was decided that it would be okay to let Stitchy go get the groceries. Melody took her back to the kitchen to show her what to get. And Zippy gave her a cell phone, a GPS locater, and printed up a Google map just to be sure, eliciting another roll of the eyes from her creation. After everything was set, and Zippy warned her for the tenth time to be careful, Stitchy went out the door and towards the store.

Zippy flipped on her laptop and watched Stitchy’s GPS signal, worried. She still didn’t like this.



The walk was not helping Mandy at all. She wandered around the neighborhood aimlessly, trying to shake the aching feelings of guilt without much success. She had walked past Zippy’s house four times, each time considering knocking on the door. Each time she had chickened out. She was still kicking herself for not having the courage to make things right. She was now down the street walking away from the house. She’d left the residential area and was now in the business block.

Her eyes cast down at the sidewalk, as she lumbered forward dejectedly. She had probably lost one of her best friends, and lost the respect of her father. Not to mention a six foot seven Frankengirl who could probably crush her like a bug. Though truth be told, she now serious doubted Stitchy would do anything like that, as frightening as she was.

And that was the problem: No matter how nice Stitchy apparently was, Mandy cold help but be afraid of her massive form. Her inability to shake this irrational fear shamed her, and made her feel worse. Her father had been right when he’d said that he had raised her to not judge people by the way they looked, and here she was doing just that and unable to stop. Maybe it was naive of her father to assume that was completely possible. Even Stitchy’s face, although she was very pretty with a doll like appearance, tended to creep Mandy out, especially with those odd mismatched eyes.

Mandy continued to walk, her head down, lost in thought. So lost in dejected thinking was she that she didn’t notice the three men in the alley she was passing. She didn’t realize they were there until they grabbed her and pulled her in.

Mandy screamed, but a hand went over her mouth and muffled her cries. She struggled, terrified, but the arms held her firmly and dragged her deeper into the alley. It was a small, narrow alley between two rather large buildings that rose up above them at least four stories.

The three men surrounded Mandy and then her holder violently threw her to the ground. She screamed in searing pain as her ankle twisted completely around the wrong way. Agony shot up her whole leg as she grabbed it, moaning and sobbing. From the sheer amount of pain, she knew it was sprained.

She lay on the filthy ground of the alley, her elbow in something disgusting that she didn’t want to think about. She looked up at her attackers with tearful eyes. They were the kind of men you usually walked on the other side of the street to avoid, gang bangers of some kind, but they seemed to be an ethnic mix; two of them were white while the other was Hispanic. They were dressed mostly in denim outfits with gang signs scrawled all over them. They were heavily tattooed and pierced.

One of them, a tall Asian man with fake red hair that had caused Mandy to initially mistake him for white, growled at her, “Hey, slut, this is the part where you give us all your money, understand?”

With sudden horror, Mandy realized that she had left her purse at home; the only thing she had taken with her had been the house keys. She cringed as the three ruffians leaned in.

“I . . . I don’t have any m-money.” She sobbed.

She shrieked as she heard the sounds of several switch blades clicking open.

“Oh, tryin ta cheat us, huh, Bitch?” One of them, a black haired man, demanded, “Well, we’re gonna have to take it out of yer hide then, slut.”

The Hispanic one leapt forward and grabbed her by the hair, pulling it hard and making the timid girl scream. Horror swept through Mandy: She was going to die, she realized, she was going to be raped and then killed, and her life would end here. She moaned and cried in despair, tears flowing down her face in fear and misery.



Stitchy’s head swung back and forth, her keen eyes trying to take in everything she could with her usual infectious curiosity. A few blocks after Mommy’s house, the residential area ended at a main street and after crossing it Stitchy had found herself in the business district. She had Mommy’s mommy’s hand drawn map and the cell phone and printed up Google map that Mommy had given her, as well as the GPS locator. She strolled forward, glancing at all the things to see and all the different people she passed.

She was drawing quite a bit of stares; people looked up and stopped in the middle of whatever they were doing to gape at her. Stitchy didn’t let it bother her too much anymore; she kept what Mommy had told her last night after Handsome Boy Derek had left in mind: She was unique, and people feared what was unfamiliar. So she smiled politely and waved to the people she passed.

Not all of the waved back and one ran away screaming. It was disheartening that so many people reacted that way to her. After all, most people who knew her seemed to like her. Derek really really really liked her. It made her sad that some people couldn’t see her as anything else but scary.

Stitchy perked up: She would just have to change their minds then.

She stopped as a black teenage girl with a shaggy sheepdog on a leash came towards her. The girl was eating an ice cream cone and looking in the shop window next to her and didn’t really see Stitchy. The dog, however, pulled forward on his leash, sniffed in Stitchy’s direction apprehensively.

Stitchy leaned over with her hands on her knees, “Oh, he so cute. Can Stitchy pet him?”

“Yeah sure . . . Whoa!” The teenager said as she turned and caught sight of Stitchy fully.

Kneeling down, Stitchy put one massive hand out palm down for the dog. He moved forward hesitantly, and took several sniffs of her hand. After a while, he relaxed and let Stitchy pet him. She ran her hand over his head and along his back, feeling the soft fur that he was covered with. Charming the dog seemed to charm the girl, who relaxed a little as well.

“What his name?” Stitchy asked her, rubbing the dog behind his ears as his tail wagged back and forth.

“Chester.” The girl replied, “And I’m Vanessa.”

“I Stitchy.” Stitchy told her proudly.

“’Stitchy’? You’re serious.” She asked her, raising an eyebrow.

Stitchy nodded, still petting now excited and friendly Chester. Vanessa eyed her with a little bit of trepidation before asked what was on her mind.

“Uh, do you mind if I ask what happened to you?” She asked, indicating the stitches with her finger on her own face.

Stitchy grinned sinisterly and leaned over to whisper conspiratorially, telling Vanessa the truth but making it seem like a joke.

“Stitchy a Frankenstein.” She said in mock seriousness.

They both laughed and then said their ‘nice meeting yous’ and both went their separate ways, Vanessa quietly assuming that Stitchy was some foreign immigrant because of the way she talked. She was a couple blocks before she realized that Stitchy had, in fact, had bolts in her neck. She then decided the huge woman must be on her way to a costume party. She laughed at falling for Stitchy’s joke.

Continuing towards the store, which she now could see up ahead, Stitchy felt giddy and happy: She had just made a new acquaintance, and after meeting her, Vanessa hadn’t been scared of her at all; that was something. She felt a swell of confidence in her breast; she could do this, she could win people over and show them that she wasn’t a monster. She giggled at little and stopped where she was.

She was right in front of a narrow alleyway, and she had spotted a very pretty black alley cat covered in fluffy dark fur, its wide green eye regarding her out of that sea of charcoal. It was so cute! Crouching down, Stitchy waved a hand gently at it.

“Here kitty, here kitty.” She said softly.

Instead of coming over, the cat arched its back and hissed menacingly at her, before turning and darting down the alley away from her. Stitchy sighed, maybe not everyone she met was going to warm up to her the way Vanessa and had. She pouted a little watching the cat run down the alley.

As he did, she suddenly noticed the commotion in there: Three guys all standing around and threatening a hurt and terrified young girl on the ground, waving knives at her. Suddenly, Stitchy realized that she knew the girl they were attacking.

It was Mandy.


Searing pain burned in Mandy’s ankle and naked fear crawled in her belly. The Hispanic man grabbed her face with his hand and yanked her forward, her body protesting the violent movement. Her lips trembled as tears streamed down her cheeks, her wide eyes stared up at her attackers, pleading helplessly as she desperately hoped she would wake up from this nightmare. She blubbered pathetically, unable to speak.

The fake red head stepped forward and grabbed the front of Mandy’s shirt. For a split horrible second, Mandy thought he was going to rip it off her. But instead he smacked her hard across the face. Mandy cried out at the stinging pain on her cheek. Her teeth clacked together agonizingly, just short of biting her tongue. Her attackers laughed viciously as she sobbed in misery.

Fake Red balled up his hand into a fist and threw his arm back to punch her. Mandy braced herself to receive the blow.

It never came as Red’s elbow hit something soft but massive right behind him.

He turned to find his elbow poking right in the top part of the stomach of a huge girl standing directly behind him. Stitchy stood, glaring down at him with furious eyes, her massive hands planted on her hips and her lips curled up in a snarl. Red seemed to lose some of his arrogance as his eyes traveled up the large female form in the outdated dress.

“No hurt Mandy.” Stitchy told him angrily.

After a brief pause, the tough guy façade came back up and Red straitened up. The switchblade came out again and he brandished it threateningly.

“You should learn to mind your own business, bitch.” He hissed.

“Put down knife, you leave now.” Stitchy said levelly, unfazed.

“What do you think you’re gonna do, gigantress? You look like you been in an accident already.” Red taunted, “What you gonna do?”

In a lightening fast movement, Stitchy’s arm flew out and one massive hand grabbed Red around the face, her palm covering it entirely. In a split second, he suddenly found himself yanked off the ground and flying out of the alley at a rapid speed. He screamed in terror, his arms flailing as he was tossed as easily and a Nerf football. His flight ended as he slammed painfully into a line of newspaper stands by the curb. He crashed into them with such force that the metal heaved and bent ripping off the concrete as Red’s bruised and hurt body slid down to the ground unconscious.

Hispanic and Black Hair both lunged at Stitchy, striking at her with their blades. Despite her huge size, Stitchy’s grade A body parts and accentuated nerve endings allowed her to move lithely and rapidly; easily dodging out of the way of the blades. The thugs cut only air as they struck at her, the large girl effortlessly dodging each and every thrust and jab.

With a hand moving speedily, Stitchy caught Hispanic by the neck and with a coiling thrust of her arm, threw him upward with all the strength of her super strong muscles. The man suddenly found himself rocketing upward at an accelerated rate, flying upwards towards the top of the building.

To his utter surprise, he cleared the top of the four story buildings and continued flying upward, screaming like a little girl before he finally lost momentum and began fall back down. Looking down, he realized he was falling from a height of about seven stories and his screams got more frantic. Tears streamed from his face and he futilely tired to find something to grab onto.

Below, Black Hair was still trying to get a hit on the deceptively nimble Stitchy, not understanding how someone so big could movie as fast as Bruce Lee. Stitchy caught his hand and twisted it around with just a little force of her muscles, spraining and tearing his ligaments and casing the man the scream in agony and drop the knife.

From above, Hispanic’s screams got closer and closer until Stitchy threw her hand out in an arc, connecting hard with Hispanic’s chest as soon as he was close enough. Suddenly, he went instantaneously from falling downwards to flying sideways, smacking noisily into the alley wall with an agonizing slap before sliding to the ground out of commission.

Stitchy whipped her hand around and grabbed Black Hair by the neck, lifting him up off the ground. The man struggled mightily, his feet dangling a few inches off the ground, but could not break her grip. As Stitchy pushed the much smaller man up against the wall, she glanced at Mandy to make sure she was alright.

Mandy sat on the ground, both hands around one of her ankles, looking up at Stitchy. But instead of a look of relief or gratitude; she wore a look of shock and abject fear. Confused, Stitchy turned back to the man she held and suddenly understood way.

The man looked at her, eyes wide with horror and pleading.

“Don’t kill me.” He choked through her fingers, “Please don’t kill me.”

She could kill him, it would be so simple. With a simple twist of her hand, she could simply snap his neck, crush all the vertebrae in his spine and flatten his wind pipe so he couldn’t breath. With one move, she could end this man’s life, wipe out everything he was, and everything he ever would be. A horrific feeling crawled in Stitchy’s gut, as she realized the amount of damage she could be capable of inflicting. It was frightening, scaring her to no end. She understood right away why Mandy was scared; she thought Stitchy really was going to kill this guy. And for a split second, Stitchy thought she would.

No, Stitchy would not be the monster Mandy was afraid of.

She slammed her captive hard against the wall, “Of course Stitchy no kill you. You think Stitchy stoopid, like you? But Stitchy hurt you even more if you hurt Stitchy’s friends again.”

Taking him, she flung him down the alley. He hit the ground and skidded several paces before struggling to his feet. The other two had started to wake up and stand as well. Stitchy loomed over them, ominously. She stared at them firmly; her hands once more on her hips.

“You run away now.” Stitchy seethed, “And if Stitchy hear you do this again, Stitchy come back and hurt you worse.”

When the thugs didn’t move, she stepped forward hissed, “Get lost! Stitchy not just another pretty face!”

In a frantic, chaotic stampede, the three men ran like crazy, darting out the alley and putting as much distance between themselves and the gigantic girl as possible.

“There go the three stooges.” Stitchy muttered as she slapped her hands clean.

Quickly, Stitchy turned and moved over to Mandy, who had not moved at all where she lay, her hands still wrapped around her ankle. She looked up at Stitchy, not saying a word as the huge stitch covered girl approached her.

“Mandy, you okay?” Stitchy asked her, concerned.

“Uh, yeah,” Mandy said, shaking, “Thanks to you.”

As Stitchy knelt down to her, all the trauma of the event seemed to catch up to Mandy, with a gulping choke, tears began to pour from her eyes and she shook violently, falling over into Stitchy’s arm and sobbing loudly.

Stitchy maternally stroked her back and hair gently, letting Mandy cry on her shoulder.

“It okay, it okay, they no hurt you now.” Stitchy soothed, “Just let it out.”

For a long few minutes, Mandy couldn’t do anything other then cry on Stitchy’s should, shaking with sobs that racked her whole body. The large girl made no move to push her away, or stop her crying. She simply cradled Mandy in her arms and let her have her cry; ever so often cooing with gentle words the belied her massive, frightening appearance.

When the tears finally stopped, Mandy attempted to stand but instantly felt a sharp jolt of pain and fell back to the ground, gripping her ankle once again and crying out, a little embarrassed that fresh tears now sprung from her eyes. Stitchy was going to the think she did nothing but cry.

It occurred to her that she was suddenly concerned about what Stitchy thought of her.

“You hurt?” Stitchy asked her.

“My ankle.” Mandy said through gritted teeth.

Pushing her hands away, Stitchy looked it over; it was bruised and swollen grotesquely. She lightly touched the area with her thick finger, causing Mandy to wince. Information began to flood to her mind, information she had no memory of learning, but which sprang to her brain none the less.

Pursing her lips, Stitchy opinioned, “Bruising and swelling around ankle, slight looseness of joint; look like minor tearing of ligaments. Mandy have grade two sprain; you no walk on this.”

“There’s a hospital down the street a few blocks from here.” Mandy winced, “I just have to find a way to get there.”

Stitchy just looked at her with a wide grin creeping across her face.



Back at the Zipperdale house, Jason had dropped by to see Lizzy again and the two of them were busy playing through Bio Zombie Gore Battle’s two player mode. Undead moans, bullets shots and sickeningly realistic wet sounds flowed endlessly from the TV set, along with the steady clicking of thumbs on game controllers. Engrossed in horrific violence and gore, Jason and Lizzy looked like they were right at home.

In the same room, Zach had somehow talked Krystal into modeling a much skimpier dress for him. This one was a strapless blue mini dress with an exceedingly short skirt that should every bit leg, curves and cleavage that Zippy and Lizzy had given her. The dress itself didn’t belong to Zippy, and it was something of a mystery why Zach had it at all.

Not only had Krystal agreed to wear the dress, but she was letting Zach take pictures of her, eagerly striking poses that were getting sexier and sexier as she obviously began to relish in all the attention, blushing a little bit but without a doubt having a blast. And, truth be told, she did look really good in the outfit.

Zippy was hardly noticing any of that stuff. She kept her eyes firmly glued to the computer screen where a window monitored Stitchy’s GPS’s location. She was still moving in a strait line towards the store, but Zippy couldn’t help but worry, worry some more, and then worry again. She bit her lip, trying to calm herself down, but the thought of her creation all alone out there in the world was driving her nuts.

This was a mistake, she thought bitterly. She should never have let Stitchy go, who knows what could happen to her out there.

She yelped as an unexpected hand dropped on her shoulder. She turned to find her father leaning down looking at her sympathetically.

“You seem a little tense.” Jasper Zipperdale commented, making an understatement as usual.

“Yeah.” Zippy admitted.

“You’re worried about Stitchy, right?” He said sitting down next to her.

“Yeah, I just think it was too soon for her to be out on her own.” Zippy said, not taking her eyes off the screen.

“Well, I don’t think you have too much to worry about. I’ll admit, I have no idea how you did this, or what you even did. And I’ll admit it all scared the hell out of me yesterday, but you seem to have done some good work here. I know she comes off as naive, but you said yourself that she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”

“I hope so; I put it on there myself.”

“So I think Stitchy can handle a run to the market.”

“Yeah, but what if she runs into a mugger or something?”

“A mugger? What mugger in his right mind would try to roll Stitchy? Didn’t you say she can probably lift a Buick with her bare hands?”

There was a slight silence, and then they both burst out laughing. Despite that, Zippy kept a wary eye on the computers screen.

She yelped again when her cell phone rang.



Once again, people on the street stopped in the middle of whatever they were doing to stare and gawp at the sight of a mammoth six foot seven girl carrying a much smaller girl on her back piggy back. Stitchy simply ignored them and continued down the street towards the hospital. She could have cared less, she was perfectly happy to simply have proven herself a friend to Mandy. At least, she hoped she had, there was a lingering doubt in her mind that Mandy might still be afraid of her. But, she decided to hope for the best.

Clinging to her large back, Mandy looked at the strange profile of her savior; her mind still somewhat conflicted about her. True, on second glance, Stitchy was not all that scary looking. It was her gargantuan size and the network of stitches that made her look so intimidating, but looking at her now, Mandy realized that she was, in fact, quite pretty. And there was something undeniably charming about her gleefully optimistic view of the world, and enthusiastic curiosity about it.

“A hope I’m not too heavy for you?” Mandy worried; her arms around Stitchy’s neck.

“Naw, Stitchy strong.” Stitchy assured her, giggling at the suggestion.

After a long pause, Mandy took a deep breath and finally said, “Stitchy, I’m sorry.”

“Hmm?” Stitchy asked.

“For treating you like that yesterday.” Mandy clarified, “You were just trying to be nice; hell, you’re always trying to be nice, and I couldn’t get passed the way you look. I treated you like a monster instead of a person, and the guilt’s been eating me up ever since. I’m so sorry, Stitchy. I . . . I hope you can forgive me.”

Immediately, Stitchy replied, “Sure, Mandy forgiven.”

Mandy blinked, “Uh . . . just like that?”

Stitchy nodded, “Mommy explain it to Stitchy: Stitchy different. Stitchy unique; and people scared of things they don’t understand.”

Mandy was quiet for a second and then said, “Thank you, Stitchy. I . . . I didn’t mean to call you ugly; you’re definitely not ugly.”

Stitchy giggled, “Handsome boy Derek Simpleton no think Stitchy ugly.”

“Derek Simpleton?” Mandy asked confused, “You know him?”

Stitchy lowered her voice and whispered to Mandy conspiratorially, a naughty expression on her face, “Stitchy make out with Derek for three hours last night.”

“Seriously?” Mandy exclaimed.

“Yep, Derek adore Stitchy.” Stitchy proclaimed.

Mandy blushed, giggling, “Omigod, he’s gorgeous.”

“Yeah, Derek hot.” Stitchy agreed and then grimaced, “But he kinda stoopid too.”

“Yeah, I noticed that, too.”

They continued for a while in silence, and Mandy watched her gargantuan carrier as her head darted this way and that, curiously taking in everything that she saw. The situation was so strange. For all intents and purposes, Stitchy was only one day old. It boggled the mind what had happened in Zippy’s basement, how this odd girl was brought to life.

After a bit of time, Mandy asked, “Stitchy . . . what’s it like?”

“What what like?” Stitchy asked, “Kissing Handsome Boy Derek?”

Mandy blushed, “No. What’s it like . . . being you?”

“What Mandy mean?” Stitchy wondered.

Mandy bit her lip, “You’ve only been alive for a little over a day. What’s it like . . . being new like that? I mean, you’re a complete person, not an infant. You have a fully developed brain and body. Obviously I don’t remember anything from a day after my birth. What’s it like to be completely new to the world, but completely aware and understanding?”

Stitchy pursed her lips, thinking about it before she answered, “It . . . more like waking up with amnesia then being born. Stitchy recognizes everything, but Stitchy have no memory of from where. It like Stitchy read about the world in book, and now she out in it for real for the first time. Stitchy know about it, but experiencing it is different: Everything new, and everything waiting to be experienced. Every object is new lesson, every person is new element, and around every corner is new adventure.”

“That sounds scary.” Mandy admitted.

“Yeah, it scary.” Stitchy nodded, “But it also exciting.”

They arrived at the hospital and Stitchy carried Mandy into the emergency ward, setting her down and letting her stand on one foot, leaning against her as they approached the sign in desk. As soon as they were spotted, a doctor and several nurses ran over to them immediately.

It took Stitchy a good ten minutes to convince them that it was Mandy and not her that needed help.



Zachery Zipperdale’s powers of persuasion must have been considerable, because he had talked Krystal into modeling a skimpy candy apple red bikini for him. Although Zippy owned plenty of revealing bathing suits (as sensitive as she was about the size of her breasts, Zippy was not really shy about her body), but this wasn’t anything from her wardrobe.

Krystal struck sexy pose after sexy pose while Zach snapped away with his camera. She was clearly eating up all the attention, and it was also obvious that she loved the way she looked in the bathing suit. As she moved and twisted, showing off her surgically altered form, Zippy’s father had joined his son in ogling her; which caused her mother to roll her eyes in amusement.

Jason and Lizzy now sat together on the couch, Jason’s arm around Lizzy’s shoulders and Lizzy’s hand on his knee. The watched the show, joking with each other a little in ways Zippy hardly ever saw Lizzy do.

“I believe Krystal is now in touch with her inner attention whore.” Lizzy quipped dryly.

“Do you have a bikini like that?” Jason asked her.

“No, mine is black.” Lizzy replied.

To anyone in the room, it was obvious that Zippy was dreadfully worried. She stared at the computer screen, nervously drumming her fingers on the table.

“Something’s wrong.” She said, “This is taking too long.”

Krystal leaned over, placing her hands on her knees and putting her cleavage forward, “Oh, for crissakes, Zippy. Stitchy called and told us she was taking Mandy to the hospital. Look at the GPS, she’s there right now.”

“I know, but . . .” Zippy let the words trail off.

What Krystal said made sense, but she couldn’t help but think about what Stitchy might encounter out there. Maybe she’d run into people who were drinking, or maybe people who were doing drugs and got her to try it. Then she might become and addict and overdose. Or maybe some guys would jump her and before she knew what was happening they were ravaging her.

After a moment, she realized that someone trying to rape Stitchy would be as illogical as the mugger scenario, but the nightmare image continued to play in her head, even though she knew intellectually that any potential rapist could easily be pounded into mincemeat by one sweep of Stitchy’s massive arm.

Turning her back to them, Krystal looked back over her shoulder and winked at Zach and Jasper, pushing her butt out a little and giving a slight giggle. Not only was she starting to enjoy this, but it seemed she was getting good at this. On their couch, Lizzy and Jason began giving scores to each of her poses.

Oblivious to it all, Zippy stared at the screen, franticly anxious.

“Oh, what if I made a mistake?” Zippy moaned, “What if it was too early for her to be on her own? What if she’s not ready for the outside world? What if something happens to her?”

Zippy stopped when she noticed her mother looking at her with a bemused and satisfied grin on her face.

“Maddening isn’t it?”



Behind a curtain sitting on white hospital gurney, Mandy watched as the young incredibly animated Dr. War Jueng Nueyin bandaged up her ankle. It was the most time she’s seen the guy sit still since she’d come in. With a name like that, Mandy would be forgiven for expecting an old man with an accent, but Dr. Neuyin was young, spoke perfect English, and had more energy then a hummingbird on crack. After examining her, he hadn’t so much described the problem as he’d sort of acted it out.

Mandy had called home, but found her father out and left a message on the answering machine.

As the doctor finished up his bandaging, Mandy squeezed Stitchy’s enormous hand, “I hate hospitals, they always scare me.”

“Sound like Mandy get scared lots.” Stitchy observed wryly.

“I guess so,” Mandy admitted, “You’ll stay with me the whole time, right?”

Stitchy nodded, “Sure. Girl Scout’s honor.”

“When were you ever a girl scout?” Mandy chuckled.

Stitchy shrugged, “Parts of Stitchy probably were.”

Running her fingers over Stitchy’s wrist, Mandy frowned, looking down at the circle of stitches she was touching. They didn’t feel the way she thought they would.

“You’re stitches, they’re so soft.” Mandy observed, “It’s like touching velvet.”

Stitchy nodded, “Yes, but they strong as steel. You can’t cut these with chainsaw. Don’t worry, Stitchy all in one piece.”

Before they could both laugh at that, a huge commotion distracted them as a crowd of doctors and nurses hurriedly wheeled a gurney into the cubicle next to them. From the sound of things, it looked like there had been a horrible accident.



The next costume Krystal came out with was a sexy maid outfit. She posed and posed some more, really giggling and enjoying herself some more. It was the most laughing and smiling Zippy had ever seen her do. Jason and Lizzy continued to be absorbed in the task of rating her poses.

Her father had gotten into the whole fashion show, cheering and clapping for Krystal, and ignoring the exasperated looks he was getting from his wife. Krystal continued to eat up all the attention, hiking her skirt striking every sexy pose she could think of.

As Zippy kept her vigil at the laptop, wondering all the while why her brother has all these outfits to begin with; a disturbing image of Zach wearing the maid outfit himself flitted across Zippy’s mind.



The patient was a young Hispanic girl of maybe twelve or thirteen. She was barely conscious, her lips blue and her body rigid. Thermal heating packs were being applied to her body. Stitchy recognized the symptoms as that hypothermia immediately, more information flowing into her mind with no memories attached to them. She watched as the doctors worked frantically.

“Her parents run a store.” One of the nurses explained, “She locked herself in a freezer by accident.”

“This isn’t working; we need to warm her blood.” One doctor, Dr. Johnson said, “If we don’t get her temperature down, there could be irreversible brain damage.”

The other doctor, Dr. Rodriguez replied, “I know we were supposed to get a machine to do that, did it arrive yet?”

Dr. Johnson nodded grimly, “It arrived, but it’s not put together yet. It’s sitting on the loading dock. The technician doesn’t arrive till Tuesday.”

“Goddamn it.” Dr. Rodriguez swore, “We have the device to save her, but we can’t use it!”

Suddenly, the curtain pulled back and all the assembled gasped as the saw the huge odd form of Stitchy looming over them.

“Kidney dialysis.” Stitchy said simply.

“What?” Dr. Johnson asked, not getting it.

“Miss, you can’t be here.” One of the nurses said attempting, and failing, to push Stitchy back.

“A hemodialysis machine.” Stitchy told them, “It have function to warm blood.”

Dr. Neuyin looked up from Mandy’s ankle, “She’s right, it does.”

“But it’s not enough; it couldn’t warm her blood up in time.” Dr. Rodriguez said, skeptically.

“You can make it enough.” Stitchy insisted, “Where you keep hemodialysis machine?”

“Uh, third floor, in the dialysis ward.” Dr. Johnson said uncertainly.

Before anyone could stop her, Stitchy took off running, down the hall. Bypassing the elevators, she threw open the staircase doors and began running up the stairs taking five at a time. Bursting out of the third story door and scaring the beejeezus out of some poor unsuspecting nurse, she quickly looked at the signs and then took off for the dialysis ward as fast as her super strong legs would carry her.

She found the ward empty when she entered, and made a beeline for the nearest room with a machine in it. The rooms had wide rectangular windows looking in on them, so she had no problem locating one. She also found an orderly in there in green scrubs; he looked up when she entered.

“Can I help . . . holy shit!” The orderly exclaimed as he saw her.

Stitchy ran to the hemodialysis machine, “Emergency! Stitchy need this!”

“Hey, wait, you can’t just . . .” The orderly began.

His sentence was cut off when Stitchy gripped the machine and effortlessly lifted the 128 lb 5ft tall apparatus off the ground and then hurried out with it and down the hall as if she were simply picking up a bag of laundry. The orderly was about to yell something about not breaking it, but simply fell silent, stunned at what he had just witnessed.



While Stitchy was running frantically, Krystal was dressed in a sexy cat girl outfit, similar to a playboy bunny’s outfit, but with cat ears and a tail instead of a bunny ones. Even Melody was joining in on the fun now, clapping her hands and cheering for Krystal, who blushed but reveled in the attention.

“Oh, she’s so cute!” Melody squealed.



To a series of astonished stares, Stitchy brought the dialysis machine into the cubicle and set it down gently as if it were no more then a pillow. She then dropped something else in front of it, a large thermal space heater she’d taken from one of the maintenance rooms. With all the effort of tearing a sheet of paper, she pulled housing open and began pulling out wires. Not wanting to get distracted, the doctors continued work on the little girl while casting apprehensive sidelong glances at Stitchy before Dr. Rodriguez, who had studied to be an electrician before entering med school, realized what she was doing.

Stitchy’s huge fingers moved with a delicate dexterity that belied their large size as she skillfully began attaching and rewiring the guts of the dialysis machine. Lessons on electronics that she didn’t remember flooded her brain; she knew exactly what to do.

“That could work!” Dr. Rodriguez exclaimed, “She rewiring the machine’s heating device. If she’d doing what I think she is, that’ll make it put out five times the amount of heat.”

“We’re loosing her.” Dr. Johnson grunted, “At this point I’ll try anything.”

It took the giant Frankengirl only a few seconds to finish up and put the housing back on the machine, it was ready to go.

“It ready!” Stitchy declared, “Quick, insert catheters.”

Dr. Johnson looked over at Dr. Rodriguez, “You’re sure she knows what she’s doing.”

Dr. Rodriguez, “Absolutely, this is the best option we have. This could work.”

Quickly finding a vein in her leg, Dr. Johnson took the catheter and inserted it with a slight sucking noise. He then took the second one and inserted it in a different vein. Jumping across to the dialysis machine, he turned it on and adjusted the controls. With a whirring hum, the machine began to suck blood out of the little girl and pass it through the filtration systems, cleaning in a way usually reserved for people with bad kidneys who couldn’t filter the waste out of their blood on their own.

As the blood passed through the reconfigured heating system, it was warmed speedily before running out of the second catheter and back into the little girl’s body.

Dr. Johnson put his hand on the second tube, raising his eyebrows: The tube felt warm and hot. He nodded to Stitchy who stood back, looking over the girl as she lay there unconscious. The doctors continued to work on her, massing her limps and injecting adrenaline. But color was already beginning to flow back into her face.

Mandy had hopped off her bed and was watching; supported by one crutch she had been given. She looked at Stitchy with a proud, reverential expression on her face, which made Stitchy’s heart feel warm. Certainly, Mandy was no longer afraid of her. Stitchy crossed over to her and put an affectionate arm around her shoulders.

A nurse crossed over to them, “Her name’s by the way. And I think you might have just saved her life. That dialysis thing you came up with is working, her blood is warming.”

“She be okay?” Stitchy asked, tapping her head to indicate she was worried about brain damage.

“All we can do now is wait.” The nurse said.


While this was going on, Zachery Zipperdale’s blood was heating up, but in a totally natural way. Krystal was now modeling a sexy space girl outfit he’d given her, mostly made out of leather. It was skimpy with wide open holes that showed plenty of Krystal’s skin. It looked like something out of a late sixties or early seventies sci fi flick, corny as all hell, but Krystal was making it look good. Her poses were getting bolder and more erotic.

“This is so much fun!” Krystal giggled.

She began striking poses like she was firing a laser gun, and then swinging an imaginary light saber.

Zippy rolled her eyes; they were deep in the realm of otaku nerdism here. She glanced back at the computer; Stitchy was still at the hospital. What was taking her so long?



Making her way out of the ER and into the waiting room, Stitchy was flanked by Mandy who hobbled beside her on a crutch, her ankle firmly bandaged and held off the floor as she moved. Stitchy could have easily just picked her up with one hand and carried her out, but she thought it might be better for Mandy to get used to the crutch.

As they walked, Stitchy was feeling in a pretty good mood. Mandy would be fine after a little while, and the doctors were confident that little Sonora would come out of this fine as well, although the specter of possible brain damage still loomed, Stitchy’s actions had helped keep the threat to a minimum. Stitchy had pestered the doctors until they’d agreed to call her an update her on ’s condition.

And best of all, Mandy wasn’t afraid of her, anymore. That was a good start.

As they went, Stitchy spotted Dr. Johnson talking to a small Hispanic family, which looked like a mother, a father, a young daughter and a older son. As they got closer, she could hear the conversation, and quickly realized that it was little ’s family.

“Only time will tell if there’s any permanent damage, but it should be minimal. It all depends on how long she was in that freezer.” Dr. Johnson told them, “But it looks now like we got to her in time.”

“Thank you, doctor,” The sobbing mother cried, “Oh, thank you so much.”

Dr. Johnson noticed Stitchy approaching and said, “Well, you actually owe most of your thanks to this young woman here, she was the one who improvised the treatment.”

All eyes turned to Stitchy and bulged when then saw her giant stitched together form. Stitchy herself let her jaw drop open when she saw with surprise that the son was the very same Hispanic man who had attacked Mandy in the alley! Mandy saw him and hastily moved behind Stitchy, trembling a little as fear shot back into her. His face was seriously bruised and swollen from the pounding Stitchy had given him. She glared at him, still furious, and he jumped back his eyes widening in fear.

“Ah!” He cried, “Muchacha gigante diablo!”

His parents shot him nasty glances.

“Just be quiet, Ricardo!” His father snapped, “Where the hell were you when this happened anyway? You were supposed to be watching Maybe you should be more like her.”

Dr. Johnson explained what had happened and how Stitchy had improvised the treatment that saved her. This was followed by so many tearful thank yous and hugs and crying that Stitchy blushed and started getting embarrassed. She just smiled and let them gush; telling them she just did what she thought she had too. Very quickly whatever trepidations the family might have had about Stitchy’s huge odd appearance was replaced by gratitude.

Not everyone was that way, Stitchy noticed. A lot of the other people in the room still eyed her with a little bit of apprehension. She sighed inwardly; her quest to get everyone to accept her was going to take a long time. She also noticed that Ricardo stayed away from the family and didn’t approach her. Small wonder, Stitchy reminded herself, after the clobbering she had given him.

After a while, they finally let Stitchy go after she gave them the cell number she had and promised she’d let them do something for her in return. She walked out of the ER with Mandy slowly hobbling along, new patients entering the hospital gasping and staring at her. For the most part, a pleasant smile changed their attitudes, but many of them continued to stare at Stitchy like she was a monster. It was disheartening, but Stitchy had made a friend out of Mandy, and saved a life, so she decided to focus on that.

As the walked out, they suddenly heard footsteps behind them. Stitchy turned and saw Ricardo hurrying over. As soon as she turned, he halted, unsure of whether to continue or not. Mandy hid behind Stitchy once more grasping her waist with both hands, a little moan of fear escaping her mouth. After an awkward silence, he held his arms up in a lame gesture, and then looked down on the ground.

“Uh, thanks . . . for . . . ya know, saving my sister.” He mumbled.

Before there was any chance to react to that, there was a loud crash. They all jumped as a small car suddenly and stupidly pulled in front of one of the oncoming ambulances. The ambulance driver had no time to react, and although he tried to swerve, the car collided with him. There was a deafening impact crash and the screaming, grinding sound of metal crumpling as the force of the two vehicles spun them, twisting around with the force of the impact.

The car skidded sideways, directly for the curb. Stitchy’s keen, if mismatched, eyes picked it up immediately. On full impulse, she shoved Ricardo out of the way, sending him flying across the sidewalk with one powerful shove of her arm a few seconds before the car jumped the curb. With no time to get out of the way herself, the grill of the Toyota Corolla filled her vision just before there was a screeching deafening crash.

Mandy screamed in horror and shut her eyes and the sparse crowd around her joined her. She squeezed her eyes shut afraid to open then until the crushing crinkling sound of the crash was over. Screams filled her ears on all sides of her, and abruptly stopped. Her heart pounded and ice filled her veins, timidly, she opened her eyes, horrified at what she might see, her stomach a pit of despair. She had just managed to mend her relationship with Stitchy, only to have this happen. She opened her eyes and first noticed a few people standing around staring with their mouths open. With all her willpower, she turned her head and cast her eyes towards the curb.

She soon adopted and expression that was similar: Stitchy stood exactly where she had been before, one arm stretched out in front of her, grasping the front of the Corolla with a gripped hand, the metal of the hood and grill twisted in a spider web pattern around her large fingers. The car was not moving and its elderly driver gripped the wheel with a shocked expression on his face as his car was raised a little in the front, its front two wheels lifted off of the ground.

Stitchy had stopped the car with one hand.

Releasing the grill, Stitchy let the car fall to the ground with a metallic groan, its stunned driver so shaken he hardly noticed. Stitchy stepped back and turned to Ricardo, who still lay on the ground where Stitchy had shoved him. He stared at the huge strange girl who had just saved his life with wide, almost reverential eyes; eyes that viewed the monster girl in a whole new light. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the rest of the crowd who had come to their senses and began to applaud, which had the effect of making Stitchy blush sheepishly.

Mandy ran to her and threw her arms around her neck, “Stitchy, I’m glad you’re okay! You scared the life out of me!”

“Aw, Stitchy tough.” Stitchy patted her back, “Mandy no worry ‘bout Stitchy.”

“I thought . . . I thought . . .” Mandy stammered, but was interrupted by a familiar voice.

Mandy’s father came running over to them, an alarmed look on his face. His chest rose and fell; he had probably run all the way from wherever he parked as soon as he heard the crash.

“Mandy! Mandy! Oh my god! Are you alright?” He grabbed his daughter hugging her tightly.

“I’m fine, Dad.” Mandy told him, slightly muffled in his chest, “Stitchy protected me.”

Stitchy looked around at the still applauding crowd, and the appreciative smile Mr. Manson was giving her, not to mention the surprised look of gratitude on Ricardo’s face and his family’s who had come out now and where helping him up. She grinned, still blushing a bit from all the adulation. True, people were still seeing her as monster at first.

But this was a very good start.



After a lot of questions and answers, Mr. Manson drove Stitchy and Mandy back from the hospital, with one quick stop so that Stitchy could finally pick up the groceries that Zippy’s mother had wanted, drawing stares from the other shoppers as she cheerfully found each item and brought it to the quivering, cowering teenage girl at the counter. A little bit of pleasant talk, and Stitchy managed to get her to relax a little bit, but the girl still eyed her giant customer with a lot of uneasiness.

As soon as Mr. Manson’s car pulled up sin front of the house, the door to Zippy’s house burst open and Zippy came running out to them, followed by the somewhat less agitated others. Stitchy had to smile when she saw that Krystal was dressed in the tiger stripe strapless bikini worn by that Lum character from that anime show that Zach had told her about. Zippy came running over to her, her face anxious; grabbing the embarrassed Stitchy and hugging her with all her might.

“Oh my god, Stitchy!” Zippy wailed, “Are you alright? Are you hurt? Don’t ever do that to me again.”

Stitchy rolled her mismatched eyes, “Stitchy fine, Mommy.”

“What took you guys so long?” Lizzy asked; her arm around Jason’s waist.

Mandy cut in, gushing with enthusiasm, talking a mile a minute, “Oh, you should have seen it! Stitchy was so cool and badassed and there were these guys that jumped me in an alley, and Stitchy came and kicked their asses then she carried me all the way to the hospital and there was this girl, and Stitchy saved her life by fixing a kidney dialysis machine so it would warm her blood and then there was a car accident and she stopped the car with her bare hands. She was so cool! Did I mention she was cool? Because she was cool!”

Once Mandy finally closed her motor mouth, causing Stitchy to giggle and blush a little with embarrassment, Zippy shook her with alarm.

“There was a car wreck?” Zippy exclaimed, “You didn’t tell me about that? Why didn’t you call me about that?”

“Well,” Stitchy shrugged, “Stitchy no want Mommy to worry more.”

“Oh, Stitchy.” Zippy moaned, shaking her again, “What if something had happened to you? What if you’d been hurt? What if you’d been killed?”

“Oh, jeeze, Zippy.” Her mother cut in, “You sound like you’re forty.”

Now it was Zippy’s turn to blush as the whole group laughed at her unintentional overprotective mother act. Stitchy reached over and pulled her too her, giving her a hug.

The next few days went on without any other incidents, spent mostly running tests and documenting Stitchy’s physical and mental abilities. Stitchy spent a lot of time alone with Derek, and when Zippy got suspicious and tried to spy on them, she was thwarted by her mother her pulled her away. While that was going on, Lizzy spent a lot of time with Jason, knowing it was just a fling and making the most of it, and Zach spent all his time still fawning over the increasingly appreciative Krystal. Leaving Zippy to wish she had someone with her as well, her thoughts naturally going back to Kyle.

Soon, the vacation was over, and everyone gathered to say their good byes as the large SUV taxi showed up to take them all back to Madame Petri’s, surprisingly driven by Posey the Werx. It was, all in all, a typical good bye session. Melody and Jasper hugged their daughter excessively and told her over and over how proud they were of her. Both Derek and Mandy had turned up to see them off.

Krystal was dressed in the black dress she had first worn for Zach, finding herself rather pleased with the way she looked in it, and finding herself just a little bit more comfortable in her new form. Certainly she adored all the attention Zach gave her, and she was finding she couldn’t help but look at her refection when she was dressed like this. A lot of the old resentment had started to fade over this vacation, and Krystal was feeling more and more secure in who she was now.

Lizzy and Jason kissed each other goodbye, so much so they looked like they were going to swallow each other. After a few minutes, the whole group was a little embarrassed.

Inspired a little bit, Stitchy reached down and lifted Derek up off the ground and planted a large deep kiss on his lips, his feet dangling above the sidewalk as they made out. She dropped him to the ground and grinned happily. After that, she gave Mandy a hug and then kissed her for good measure, making everyone turn even redder then they had before.

It wasn’t just Stitchy who got inspired, however, and quickly Zack grabbed Krystal and planted a deep passionate kiss on the surprised girl’s lips. She made a loud gasp of shock that was smothered by his lips. Krystal struggled a bit at first, trying to pull away, but the kiss woke up something new insider her. It was suddenly like her whole body came alive and began acting on its own. Before she was even aware of what she was doing, she was kissing him back, melting into his arms. When Zack broke the kiss, all Krystal could do was say nothing and flush a deep crimson color. There were a lot of chuckles and Zippy patted her brother on his back, giving his a hug for good measure.

Posey leaned out of the taxi, “Blork.”

“Guess it’s time to go.” Zippy said.

“That’s a robot.” Mandy said amazed, “There . . . there’s a robot driving the taxi.”

“You get used to it.” Lizzy comment dryly.

“Wicked.” Jason said grinning, “She’s pretty cool.”

“Blork.” Posey said appreciatively.

After taking one last group picture together, Stitchy in the back slightly crouching to get in the frame, they all piled into the taxi and began the drive back to Madame Petri’s. They all waved out the car at the others as they drove away until they were finally out of site.

Stitchy was excited, babbling away and asking question after question about the school and what it was going to be like. To her, it seemed like a brand new adventure, and she couldn’t wait to experience it.

As they made their way, Krystal leaned over and said, “Hey, Zippy. Thanks for giving me the dress. I really do like it.”

“No problem,” Zippy replied, “It really does look better on you.”

Stitchy grinned, “So Stitchy guess that dress had intended effect? How was that kiss Zach gave you?”

Zippy and Lizzy laughed while Krystal blushed and giggled a little her self. For a long time she said nothing, simply turned red and clutched her hands together. It was a bit a of battle with herself, she still couldn’t quite make the full acceptance of herself as female.

Finally, she admitted with a smile, “It was pretty nice.”

“I am impressed with how far you’ve come.” Lizzy said, as usual betraying no hint of that.

Stitchy grinned wickedly, “Since Krystal smooching boys now, is there someone Krystal like at school?”

Krystal flushed at the question; the fact was, she had been thinking of someone a lot lately, and in ways she never had when she was a guy. But she had no intention, hell felt totally unprepared to tell anyone else about that. Now on the spot, she didn’t know how to answer Stitchy’s typically brazen question.

She deflected, “What about you, Lizzy? You said yourself this was just a fling with Jason; got anyone at school you’re interested in?”

The corners of Lizzy’s mouth turned up a little, which nobody but Zippy would recognize as a grin.

“Maybe.” She said cryptically.

Zippy didn’t pay the intriguing comment any mind. She was too busy, scribbling notes in a large notebook, gathering together all her data in her mind, and trying to decide on the best way to present Stitchy, the holy grail of mad science experiments, to the class.



It would be two weeks later that Jasper Zipperdale would read an interesting article in the morning paper. The story was about a local small time street gang that had seemed to suddenly reform themselves; abandoning their previous gang banging and taking up various community service projects and the like, even working to keep other gangs out of town. It was a bit of mystery, what caused these youth’s to turn over a new leaf so rapidly, but it had seemed to happen.

What made the article so interesting was that the group now called themselves “Stitchy’s Soldiers”.

Well hello, my little Frankensteins! It’s your favorite loveable teacher Miss Piranha, and in the next story, Zippy is finally back at school and has her hands full presenting Stitchy, and dodging Amber’s wrath. But she just might be working up the courage for a feat that’s a little more personal but just as daunting in the next chapter of Zippy Zipperdale: Moderately Mad Scientist, “The Eighth Experiment”.

EurekaI’ve Got it!