In his cold, dark lair made of magically-carved stone, a dimension-hopping demonic duck was rather bored. He leaned back in an enormous bean bag chair, surrounded by large rectangular openings into other dimensions, arranged in a circle that wrapped around him. He looked at the one directly in front of him, watching a massive space battle start to unfold. He sensed that that universe did not allow magic, so he pointed at it and flicked his finger to the side, causing the circle around him to turn one place to the left, bringing the next universe before him. The window into the next one suddenly rippled and faded out of existence, and he immediately moved on to the next one, knowing that that thing was in the process of destroying it. The next universe seemed somewhat more promising, simply because his mortal vixen friend was there, again in the seat of one of those “air plains” that she often talked about, which he never was too interested in, as he never had much interest at all in mortal technology - and his interest died when he saw that that this, too, was a non-magic universe. He switched windows again, and his dark, black eyes with white rings around where a mortal’s pupils would have been lit up. It was the universe he most often visited - and the vixen was there with her tigress wife, taking a casual stroll through their favorite town park. The demon snapped his fingers, closing all windows except this one, which he immediately jumped through, and it slammed shut behind him.

* * * * * *

	“I do see the appeal to having an outfit that got changed with you staying that way,” Catherine said. The vixen paused in her tracks for a moment, and her wife halted one step later. “Especially when the new outfit has a lingering enchantment on it.”
	The tigress, Ning, grinned. Her long, white hair was still fluttering slightly from her previous movements, plus the very light breeze that always came from the waterfront. “Don’t think I haven’t seen you eyeballing that ball gown, dear. Maybe just the two of us tonight?”
	A third voice, one quite high-pitched, cut in. “I smell a party in planning!” The horned duck with his black hair and dark-blue plumage appeared in a puff of thick, purple smoke, steadily floating away from the ground until he was at eye level with Catherine, and a little below Ning’s. As his ascent stopped, he crossed his legs, leaving himself sitting on the air itself.
	“Oh, hi Felgar,” Catherine said. “What shenanigans do you have in mind today?”
	“How does another contest sound? Not a game show this time, but just a little something between Karina and I! You two, plus Aileas, will judge!”
	“Uh,” Ning looked at her wife, and then at Felgar. “Sure, I guess.”
	“Excellent! And those two are off work today, are they not?”
	“Yes,” Catherine verified. “I could call them now if you want,” she patted the pocket on her skirt that held her phone.
	“Go right ahead! I’d love to cause havoc with Karina once again.”
Catherine immediately pulled her phone out, grinning. “And here I was thinking that this would be a boring day.”

* * * * * *

	“Alright, I’m here,” Karina, the ebony-furred wolf said. She had arrived at roughly the same time as the arctic vixen Aileas. “So, a transformation contest? Wouldn’t you win through sheer power, Felgar?”
	“Nope! This is going to be based on creativity!” He crossed his legs as he floated in the air, and his eyes flicked ever so slightly to his right, looking over Karina’s shoulder. In the distance, a brown bear anthro quickly shifted his eyes away from the group. Further away, a human male was also studying the group, clearly having recognized Ning and Felgar from the transformation game show that they had hosted not too long ago. “We may have our first two subjects right now,” the demon said. “You two!” He raised his hand above his head and snapped his fingers, and the bear and human were instantly relocated before him, each accompanied by a puff of purple smoke. “Something tells me you two want to be transformed!”
	The bear was the first of the two to break the stunned silence with a shy “yes.”
	Following that, the human blurted out, “I saw you on Transformation Track, Felgar. I really wanted to be transformed into something - anything.”
	“I don’t got no problem with that,” Karina drawled, sizing up the human. “How ‘bout you get mister bear here, Felgar?”
	“My name is Steven.”
	“Alright, Steven.”
	“And let’s begin!” Felgar said, holding his hands above his head. The human froze in place upon the grass, and Karina bit her hands in front of her chest with her fingers curled and palms out, causing Steven to freeze as well, now partially blocking the path. Felgar went with the first idea that popped into his head, pointing at Steven with both index fingers. He snapped with his left hand, and then his right, and slapped his palms against each other, lacing his fingers. All of these gestures caused a large, round stone base - the base of a fountain - to appear around Steven as he was suddenly hoisted up into the air, with his feet connected to the center as his leg bones and spine were replaced by cast iron piping that also ran through the fountain and into the ground, magically connecting to the pipe network that fed the sprinklers distributed through the park. Next, Felgar made a pinching gesture with each hand that used the thumb, index, and middle fingers, and his very tiny tail suddenly thickened and stretched out in response to a pulling gesture, and then Felgar rubbed his hands together, greatly shrinking Steven’s claws and reducing his ears to small holes on the sides of his head, which became much rounder as his muzzle became broader and shorter. His skeleton rearranged into a mustelid form sitting upright, with his forearms out in front of him. He did not shrink as his body turned to granite as Felgar snapped his fingers again, but his head tilted back slightly and his mouth was forced open as water began to pour out.
	“Nice one!” Karina declared, looking over Felgar’s creation as it slid across the ground, off of the path.
	“And let’s see what you can do!” the demon replied, gesturing in an exaggerated, theatrical manner to the wolf.
	“Witness this:” Karina raised her hands above her head, touching her fingertips together. Immediately, the human was forced to copy the gesture, with his hands fusing together and turning into woven straw. The wolf then lowered her left hand while keeping the fight in place, turned her left palm up, and then slowly pressed her hands together. The human’s body shrank into a hollow cube made of woven straw, with his head flattening and turning into the lid connected to the basket’s body by a hinge that ran all along one edge. His shoes, which had been spared from Karina’s magic until now, merged into a single piece of fabric as the wolf put her fingertips together, and then spread her hands with her finger splayed, turning the shoes into one big blanket. She pointed at the basket and made a series of small, rapid gestures, causing it to fill up with various foods and drinks.
	“Well, I’d say Karina won this round,” Catherine said.
	“I agree,” Aileas said.
	“I can’t decide,” Ning added. “No vote.”
	Felgar crowed, “then the victory goes to Karina this round! Let’s move on to the next location!” As the demon duck pressed his middle finger and thumb together, about to snap them, he winked to the two transformed subjects and said, “no matter what, you two will turn back tomorrow for being so cooperative!” He snapped, and the group disappeared.

* * * * * *

	The five appeared soundlessly and with another round of purple smoke in front of a large retail store, the one that the mortals frequented. “This shall be the site of round two!” Felgar declared. He leaned forward ever so slightly, floating towards the front door as his mortal companions followed. Their next two “volunteers” were spotted immediately: two human women, both of the kind that would be described as a “Karen,” were arguing so loudly and vigorously that their shrill voices could be heard from across the store. None of the five anthros had any trouble homing in.
	“I saw you just yesterday, you DO work here!” one of the women shrieked.
	“YOU work here, so stop lying!” the other screamed back, red in the face.
	“I will get the manager and have you fired!” they screeched simultaneously.
	“Just what is happening here?” Ning asked them with a smirk, knowing exactly what would come next.
Both humans snapped to look at her and, without checking for a uniform or a nametag, pointed at each other. “I want this lazy, useless worker fired at once!” None of them noticed that Felgar had created a bubble around them through which no sound could pass, mostly so no actual staff could interfere.
	“I suppose you could say I’m in charge now,” Felgar stated, his and Karina’s eyes glowing with mischief. He knew how they’d respond, but he said it anyway: “if you two would be kind enough to simply leave the store…”
	“I will not be pushed around!” the one on the left yelled. “I want her and her alone fired at once and removed from the-” Karina closed her hands and pulled them to her shoulders as if she were lifting a dumbbell, and the woman suddenly doubled down onto the floor, her hands turned into black, plastic wheels, with her wrists and ankles turned into the jointed mounts for them. The wolf suddenly opened her hands and then clapped them, causing the woman’s skeleton to turn to a series of hollow steel tubes, and as Karina spread her still-open hands and pushed them towards the floor, her target’s head and torso turned into the basket of a large shopping cart, while her limbs shifted and contorted into the frame of one, clothing and flesh disappearing into her hollow steel “bones,” with a hard synthetic rubber cover of a black coloration materializing over the handle.
	“Oh, but you will be pushed around,” the wolf said, looking over her handiwork and grinning at herself over her wordplay. “In fact, that’s all you will do for some time.”
	“I just wanted you to scan some items!” the other woman screamed, almost as if she was aware that the former human was still conscious - but not aware of what had just happened. “Why can’t you just scan-” She froze mid-tantrum as Felgar pointed at her with both hands.
	“How about you do the scanning? And don’t worry, when I’m done, you will be working here, in a way!” He pointed a thumb towards the floor, causing the woman to shrink rapidly, followed by a pinching gesture that turned her body to plastic and metal, and then it was sculpted into a tag scanner by the demon rubbing his hands together, her face becoming the laser emitter, her brain the computer components, and various buttons appearing on what had been the back of her neck and the part of her back that was between the shoulders. “I hope a few weeks like this will teach you two a lesson!” he said, snapping his fingers once again, sending the newly-made shopping cart to the part of the store where they were put when not in use, and the scanner to an employee supply closet. “So, how did we do?” the demon asked, turning to the ad hoc judge panel.
	“I vote Felgar wins this round,” Aileas said.
	“I agree,” said Ning.
	“I cast my vote for Karina,” Catherine chimed in.
	“Then the win for this round goes to me!” the demon said as he obliterated the anti-sound bubble.
	“I already have the memory of a lifetime from this,” Catherine stated, closing her eyes. “The duel of the Karens.” Her eyes opened. “Where to next?”
	Again, Felgar’s fingers snapped.

* * * * * *

	It was an aquarium before which the group now found itself. “Hey, I know this one!” Ning said, looking up at its sign then at her wife. “You said we’d take a look around here sometime soon.”
	“Oh, you’re right!”
	“No time for that!” Felgar said, “We have some transformations to carry out!”
	“In we go!” Karina said, leading them inside. The first thing they did was, of course, get in line for tickets, mostly out of courtesy - aquariums aren’t cheap to run, after all!
	“Couldn’t we just turn some mortals who really deserve it into money to fund this place?” Felgar whispered as they continued inward.
	“Nah,” Karina answered. “Later, maybe, but we’re focused on being creative here.”
	“Heads up,” Aileas said, nodding to an unkempt young man slapping his open hand against the glass to the manta ray exhibit, right next to a “Do not touch the glass” sign - which he occasionally glanced at and smirked.
	Before the group could get to him, and before Karina or Felgar could call dibs and turn him into something, an employee came up to him. “Sir, would you kindly stop touching the glass? You are disturbing-”
	“No, go away lady!” he barked. He looked around, grinning like a child in the candy shop at the attention this was getting him. “They’re just stupid fish!”
	The corners of Felgar’s beak twisted into an impish grin. He whispered to Karina, “I got something, do you want me to get him?”
	“Be my guest,” the wolf grinned back.
	The duck giggled as he pointed at the man with his index and middle finger. He tensed up as if stricken by an electric discharge, and then Felgar curled his two extended fingers, pressing his thumb against him. The man’s body made a muffled cracking sound as his bodily proportions - and some internal components - abruptly rearranged to turn him, or rather her, into a woman! Felgar allowed her no time to take stock of what just happened, and instead closed his hands and put his knuckles together with the palms facing his latest subject, and then splayed his fingers and spread his arms out, causing the human’s body to flatten as her legs merged into a thin, needlelike tail and her arms turned into flaps. A pair of lobes grew out from her face as gills developed beneath them over her chest, and her eyes were moved to the sides of her head. Her front side turned white and her back a very deep gray, and her nose disappeared as her mouth expanded into a large aperture that spanned the entire gap between the lobes on her face. A small dorsal fin appeared just forward of the tail as she shrank somewhat and her clothes disappeared in dark-blue flames, and the newly-made manta ray, as Felgar pointed to her and then the tank, suddenly found herself inside the tank, now a part of the exhibit! “Now you’ll get all the attention you could ever want - without disrupting everyone! A win-win if you ask me!”
	“Nice one, Felgar,” Ning whispered, looking around. The staff person looked around as if confused as to why exactly she was there. “I take it nobody but us will remember what just happened?”
	“Nope! Now, Karina,” Felgar turned to face her, “let’s see what you’ll do for this round!” The wolf nodded and led the five around the aquarium, carefully observing for anyone deserving or willing. On this day, the aquarium seemed to attract mostly civilized people, and she thought she wouldn’t get anyone who deserved it, until they came upon the gift shop. There, she spotted a particularly bitter-looking old man, sneering at everything before him.
Her sensitive ears picked up on some of his comments: “Why should these kids feel joy when I got none of my own?” He turned his nose up at a section of shelving that held various plushies. “Vibrant colors and soft toys, disgusting.”
“Watch this,” Karina said to her group. She held her hands level with the bottom of her ribcage, facing the old man, with her fingers pressed together. She moved her right hand in a counterclockwise circle, and the left clockwise, and then curled her fingers. The man’s body suddenly went limp and collapsed to the ground, shrinking rapidly as he turned to fabric and cotton stuffing, his eyes turned to round plastic beads. Karina wasn’t done yet, of course. She made a pinching gesture with one hand, causing the man’s clothes and skin to merge together and take on a light tan coloration, and his legs merged together into a tail, curled into a spiral at the end. A series of bumps and ridges formed all over him as Karina pointed both thumbs at the wall (and at Chester) behind herself. His eyes moved to the side of his head as his body narrowed overall from Karina extending her arms to point in either direction, and then she put her hands together, fingers still pointed, and the man’s face thinned, his nose disappeared, and his mouth was stretched out into a bottle-like shape. Finally, Karina fully closed her hands and brought them to her chest, causing the man’s arms to shrink and contort into small fins. “Done!” she said, letting her arms fall to her sides as she went to pick the plushie up and then put it on the shelf.
“And who won?” Felgar asked, turning to the tigress and two vixens.
Ning answered first: “Draw.”
Catherine shrugged. “Felgar.”
	Aileas looked between the other two and said, “Draw.”
	“Boy, are we close,” Felgar said to Karina with a smirk. “Let’s see what comes of the next round! Round four, here we go!” Yet again, demonic fingers were snapped.

* * * * * *

	The group looked around, finding themselves on a narrow, rocky beach, typical of the region. Beachgoers were scattered about, mostly in groups of two or three, but there were some who were alone. One such lonely beachgoer, a rabbit anthro, spotted the group and approached it, having recognized at least one of its members. “Uh, hi?” she said nervously. “Are you Ning?”
	“I am,” the tigress said, nodding slightly. “I take it you wish to be transformed?”
	“Yes, yes, sure!” she blurted. “Anything you want!”
	“I shall provide,” Karina drawled, examining her for a moment. “Oh, I have just the thing!” She pointed at the rabbit’s face and then made a pulling gesture. The rabbit grabbed her own face with both hands as her mouth was forced into a wide, sharp-toothed grin as her muzzle became significantly larger, more pointed, gray in coloration, and made of rubber. Karine then moved each hand in a half-circle, moving them apart and then rejoining them, causing the rabbit’s head to turn into an inflated rubber form that retained the deep brown of her fur, similar in appearance to the head of a shark. The wolf then began patting the air, causing the conversion to rapidly spread down her subject’s body, her torso rounding and smoothing out with a dorsal fin forming at the back as her swimsuit was subsumed into the rubber, and her arms flattened and shrank into sleek, thin fins. The changes continued downwards, her small tuft of fur at her waist disappearing as her legs merged together, feet turning outwards and merging into another fin, and then Karina made another, vertical pulling gesture that caused a pair of handles to form on the pooltoy’s back. “Done!” she chimed as the rubber shark flopped onto its belly.
	“Very well done,” Felgar said, grinning as he scanned the beach for a target of his own. His eyes came to rest on a human male, with his head turned slightly up and arms spread out in a Y-pose. He extended his senses and-
	“Oh great ones of the sea, awaken and show us your might! Great ones of the sea, rise and claim the-” A piece of duct tape magically appeared over his mouth as Felgar suddenly relocated to be directly behind him.
	“Sorry, sir, but I’m not quite done with this world!” Felgar then raised his arms directly upwards and started to move his toes about, and the man’s legs contorted and twisted around so that they could point upwards from the knees down, at which point his arms slid down the sides of his body and merged with his legs. As the demon’s toes curled up, the human’s body suddenly turned to a solid piece of steel, with his mouth extending all the way through the back of his head, which shrank into a loop around which a chain could be attached to secure him to a small boat. His limbs reshaped again to gain a gradual upwards curve as his bottom edge became somewhat less blunt - but not quite sharp - and he shrank to about a third of his size. “No summoning ritual for you, dear mortal.”

* * * * * *

	Deep in the ocean, inside of a small seamount, an ancient creature of vast and horrific power began to stir in response to the human’s incantations. It opened one eye and looked around the darkened chamber within the seamount, wondering if now was the time to rouse its brethren and return to the surface world to wreak the havoc that only a giant monster could.
	Instead, it closed its eye, rolled over, and went back to sleep.

* * * * * *

	After a bit of deliberation, looking back and forth between the two most recently transformed subjects, Catherine made her decision. “I’m giving Karina the victory here.”
	“I say Karina won this round,” Ning stated.
“No vote,” Aileas said next.
	“I won!” Karina drawled excitedly, throwing her hands into the air. “So, what do I get for winning, Felgar?”
	“Why this, of course!” The demon pointed to the wolf with both index fingers, and her fur suddenly stood up as if she had been electrified. She could tell that Felgar was doing something to her magical abilities, almost like they were being amplified somehow! The duck snapped with both hands and folded his arms over his chest after a few moments. “How do you feel?”
	“Energized,” the wolf replied, looking at her hands. “What, exactly, did you do?”
	“Oh, nothing much, just a little power-up! I noticed how you could only transform one person at a time, so I figured, if you won this, which you have, why not let you transform multiple people all at the same time?”
	A big smile came to Karina’s face as she turned to face the two vixens and tigress.”Can I try it out now?”
	“Knock yourself out!”
	“Alright, I will!”
Catherine saw what was about to happen. “Hey, Karina, Ning and I were planning on-” Karina pointed with one hand to the sky, freezing the judge panel where they stood. She clapped her hands together with a loud smack, and Catherine and Ning flew into and merged with each other in a pink, translucent rubber torus, their faces and tails combining and rearranging into those of a flamingo while Ning’s left hand and Catherine’s right each formed a tiny rubber wing. Aileas, meanwhile, found her body flattened out with her head, tail, and limbs erased as her body turned into a one-piece swimsuit in response to a few movements of Karina’s fingers while her palms were being used to transform the couple.
“Nothing can go wrong with turning your friends into swimming-related stuff,” she said, picking up both the shark and flamingo pooltoys and the new swimsuit. “And I’m sure Ning won’t mind us borrowing her pool for a day or two.”
“And that’s where we’ll go next!” Felgar, yet again, snapped his fingers. Karina suddenly found herself sitting in the flamingo pooltoy, wearing the white swimsuit that had been Aileas mere moments ago, floating in the midst of Ning’s enormous pool. The demon was near her, laying on the back of the shark pooltoy.
“What a day this has been,” Karina sighed, putting her hands behind her head and closing her eyes.