“And make sure you mix our shakes right this time, shrimp!” Darren yelled as his entourage snickered and laughed. Cory felt his ears burn from the sound. He should have grown accustomed to it by now, what with its frequency. He did his best not to let the tears fall as they most often did. He didn’t need ‘cry baby’ added to the list of insults that he would endure today.
Cory carried the empty water bucket and the pile of used towels into the change room, the jeering laughter of the jocks and the cheerleaders ringing in his ears. He’d rather be doing a million other things than waiting on those assholes. But, for now, at least, he had no choice but to listen to their every whim.
Against his will, Cory was forced into this demeaning position by his overbearing father. His dad had been captain of the football team many years ago in the same school. He was adamant that no son of his would be allowed back into the house unless he, too, was on the football team. Cory’s dad was as much of a bully as the kids at school.
Cory hated listening to the obvious shame in his father’s voice each time Cory had to tell the older man that he did not make the team and was still the ‘waterboy’. In some respects, he figured his dad was more ashamed of him for that rather than his lack of interest in the sport at all. Cory preferred the shame to the directed ire that he knew his father could inflict.
Despite his protests, Cory was expected to try out every season for the team. Having no physical strength for the position, Cory was relegated to errand boy to the rest of the team. The coach, of course, didn’t bother giving him a second glance. As near as Cory could see it, all the man did was take credit for the team’s success, when he had no inkling of even showing up for their practices.
Naturally, Cory’s ‘teammates’ degraded him for his lack of ability to perform. He would never fit in among the jocks, and they made sure he knew it. Cory had no interest in their approval, except that a great deal of his spare time was devoted to being in their presence. The team’s captain, Darren, and co-captain, Adam, were by far the worst offenders. They took the point in most of Cory’s abuse. Name-calling, getting dumped on, and frequent disgusting messes for him to clean up were commonplace. Worse of all, no one else stood up for him. After all, no one else on the team would dare go against their word, lest they be benched and lose the perks to their academic scores that their team position afforded them.
The cheerleader squad was even worse if that was possible. Beth, Darren’s current girlfriend, along with her cronies Cassie and Darcy were obsessed with the team, or at least the popularity that came with being close to the squad captain. Being head cheerleaders had given them a certain sense of superiority over the rest of the school. Their cruelty knew no bounds as they spread all sorts of malicious rumors about Cory’s habits. He’d never be able to date within the school, or even within the neighboring county. How a group of people could be so obsessed with making his life a living hell, he had no idea.
So, three out of five days of the school week he was expected to bring the team their water, mix their protein shakes, carry their moist gross towels, and whatever other demeaning tasks they had for him. And if he were to protest, he knew he would be kicked from the team and have to contend with the wrath of his father. It was a depressing state of affairs, but one that Cory had at last finally found a way to escape.
The five of them were the only ones left on campus, planning a party for this weekend and waiting for Cory to bring them their post-practice drinks. It was the perfect chance for Cory to get his revenge. Cory went into the kitchenette, mixing their drinks, mindful of the camera in the room, lest he be caught and be kicked off the team to give them food poisoning. But, luckily, his additive was inconspicuous.
It had taken months of plotting and scheming before the perfect revenge presented itself to him. He had been taken on as a research assistant for his science teacher, Mr. MacDougall, who was working on some part-time project for a local university. His interests were in marine biology, studying mostly bottom feeders such as crayfish. Cory’s extra credit exploits were not lost on his peers, hence his nickname ‘Shrimp’ among his classmates. Cory hated the double entendre.
Mr. MacDougall had been trying to figure out why the numbers of his fish were declining, while the number of crayfish in the same tank continued to multiply without any signs of predation. They were marble crayfish, one of the only species that reproduce asexually. Yet it took many months for the eggs to hatch into perfect clones of their mothers. The fish were not being killed; they were too large for a crayfish to attack, and the crayfish fed entirely on detritus. Besides, there were no dead fish in the tank that either Mr. MacDougall or Cory could see at least.
Much to their surprise, one day they observed one fish feeding from a plant that had been added to the tank from the crayfish’s home country. Mr. MacDougall hadn’t identified the species but it seemed like a safe specimen to add to the habitat. However, as the fish began to nibble, something began to happen as it convulsed and shook. Both watched in horror and fascination as the fish began growing claws, legs, and antennae, effectively changing from a vertebrate into a crustacean. Further examination revealed the new crayfish acted more like the former fish, trying to swim around the tank and looking unruly with its new limbs, unlike their more natural brethren that crawled around the bottom as crayfish typically did.
Naturally, Mr. MacDougall devoted all of his efforts to analyzing the unnatural phenomena. He swore Cory to secrecy, which Cory willingly agreed to if it meant being able to continue on the project. They had discovered the effects on humans quite by accident. Mr. MacDougall had taken out a sample of the plant, not realizing he got a little bit of his skin. Cory heard a yelp as his professor started to slowly, disgustingly turn into a crayfish himself. Cory had no idea what to do; it was impossible for a human to change like that, yet he was witnessing it with his own eyes.
From what he observed in the proceeding days his former teacher showed signs of retaining his human mind. He explored the desk, approaching Cory as if asking to be allowed back in the tank. Fortunately, the effects had been reversed when Mr.MacDougall walked across more of the plant that was left on his desk. He was none the worse for wear, confirmed by a brief hospital visit and a check of all his vitals.
It was inconceivable how a plant could have developed a mechanism to turn another organism into a crayfish. Mr. MacDougall had several theories on the subject. Perhaps it had something to do with the asexual nature of the marbled subspecies. Something that evolved in symbiosis to promote genetic diversity. He made his plans to relay the experiment to his colleagues at the university, thinking he’d win a Nobel prize for his bizarre and impossible discovery.
It was then that Cory came up with his plan. It wasn’t too hard to smuggle the plant out of storage with his access. And Mr. MacDougall was out at the university for the week attending conferences. He surely wouldn’t notice a new tank of five new crayfish with all he had going on!
Cory brought the drinks to his classmates, trying to keep the excitement off his face. Any semblance of excitement would tip them off to what he had planned. And he couldn’t have that. He had to be sure all of them had consumed at least some of the drink before he gave away his hand.
“Thanks, Shrimp!” Darren said, grabbing his own drink, sniffing it cautiously. The girls did the same, still not entirely convinced that Cory hadn’t tainted them. Cory waited with bated breath. He was confident his trick would work, but he couldn’t wait to see the results himself.
Beth was the first to chug down her drink, finding the flavor a little off as she did. Still, she finished it quickly, not wanting to waste any more time at school. The other girls followed suit, feeling reassured since their captain had consumed it just fine. Adam, who had stopped to pick up his phone and reply to a quick text, also took a large sip of his drink. Darren started to drink his own as well but stopped when he caught Cory watching them with a gleam in his eye. What had the little shrimp been up to?
Beth was contending with an awful aftertaste, something that reminded her of fish. It was disgusting! She knew that a healthy protein shake would have some non-ideal ingredients, but she preferred hers on the sweet side, and the little shrimp knew it! She was going to get him kicked off the team for this! Such a waste of space had no business being in her presence in the first place!
Beth sat the empty glass back down, looking pissed off at the team’s waterboy. “What the fuck did you mess up this time, you little shrimp?!” She screamed at him, prompting glares from her boyfriend and the rest of the gathered teens. Yet, a gurgling in her stomach suddenly started to become more insistent, however. Beth moaned a little bit, feeling like she was going to throw up. She leaned over heaving and clenching her stomach as though something was trying to claw its way through.
An acre in her hand made her moan as she clenched it, trying to relieve the numbness. Yet, instead of relief, her flexibility became further reduced as the entire surface started to stiffen. Her skin felt as though something hard and cool was crawling over it as her hands lost their sensation. What was going on? Was it some sort of heart attack?
“Hey babe, what’s wrong?” Darren asked as he rushed over to her side. Beth didn’t reply. She shakily removed her hand and brought it out for everyone to view, screaming from the inhuman sight. The fingers on her hand began to fuse, melting together to form a single mass as a thick brown carapace steadily covered the surface. The thick claws that remained were massive compared to her arms. Beth moaned as she realized that she could move the claw-like structure if she tried. What the fuck was happening to her?
Her other hand quickly followed suit, the four fingers fusing into the beginnings of a claw. Beth tried desperately to wench them open but it was as though glue was stuck to the melting flesh. She screamed as her bones cracked in her hand as new muscles took form in between the thicker outside claw and the smaller inner one where her thumb once sat.
Beth cried out as the bones in her arms dissolved away and new joints snapped into place, greatly extending her range of articulation. New carapace-like skin formed over them, covering her arms in a thick carapace. Her shoulders popped forward as a new joint burrowed into her skin and connected her arm to her writhing torso.
Darren could only stare in shock as his girlfriend’s fair hair began to fall out and a hardened shell began to form over her head. Two thin rows of flesh burrowed their way out of her forehead, waving and wriggling in the air. Her neck was absorbed into the thickening carapace on top of her head, and her nose began to push out, forming a crustacean rostem.
Terrified, Beth could feel something else growing out of her face, like several miniature arms, some out of her mouth and some on her chin just below. She rolled her eyes down in terror at the arm-like appendages protruding out of her face. She screamed and screamed, the appendages crawling out like something inside her trying to burst free. She could feel five sets of the limbs burrowing out of her flesh like snakes writhing from the ground. In horror, she realized they all moved in different ways as they rubbed against the still human parts of her flesh.
Her eyes suddenly went dark and she tried to scream, but no sound came out. It was perhaps more merciful this way, preventing Beth from seeing her grotesque changing flesh. She could, however, feel her lips popping out of her face as her mouth froze into an O shape. Her face was stuck like that!
A scream came from both Cassie and Dacy, distracting the stunned boys from their trance. Each girl fell to the ground as something started swelling against their shirts. Their screams were cut short as their mouths pointed outward and paired antennae burst forth from the flesh underneath their falling hair.
Cory watched in rapt attention as the other two girl’s changes began. He had no idea that the changes took different amounts of time to occur. Maybe it was due to the amount of the drink they had consumed. Beth had finished hers, after all. Regardless, having some of them watch while their friends transformed first was an unexpected pleasure. The slow changes were the perfect retribution for all that had been done to him!
Meanwhile, Beth’s face, almost entirely decapod by now, began to shrink along with the rest of her. Beth felt something pushing against the billowing skirt she wore that was gradually growing too large for her shrinking body. Three pairs of appendages forced their way out of the sides of her compressing chest. She could feel each gross limb slide out of her, the two claws at each end getting stuck against the fabric of her skirt.
In disgust, she could feel her heart, her lungs, and her stomach all dissolve away inside her as her organs simplified. Her heart became a series of channels that now pumped a clear fluid instead of the blood that fueled her former humanity. Her stomach was in a similar state as her digestive tract became simplified, forming a single tiny tube from mouth to anus. She could feel something soft and numerous billowing out from under her arms. She felt them straining against the air, trying to take in oxygen. With a deep sense of sadness, she realized they were gills, and that she needed to breathe water soon, though she would remain alive for a while without it.
Something began to push its way out of her ass as her hips and entire posterior stretched outwards. Ass and genitals rotated underneath her, relocating themselves under her new arthropod legs. A changing backside began to thicken as the hard carapace segmented over the range of her growing abdomen. She could feel the end being forced flat, the final segment growing bristles as it formed the beginnings of her crustacean uropods.
The other girl’s screams were cut short as their vocal cords dissolved away and their mouths were frozen open, faces covered by those numerous multi-segmented appendages. They wriggled their fingers in desperation but were unable to keep them from fusing as they formed the beginnings of crustacean claws. New arthropod limbs were tearing out of their skirts now as their hips and asses formed decapod carapaces.
Darren and Adam, meanwhile, were stunned and speechless at the developments unfolding before them. Three beautiful women, all growing limbs and shells and horrific body parts that made them look like monsters from the most disgusting of horror flicks. As Darren watched his girlfriend’s morphing body he began to see a shape that seemed familiar. It was almost like she was becoming something like a lobster or crayfish!
Darren’s eyes swept over the area, finally falling onto the other body still in the gym. Cory was standing there, not in shock or horror as he and Adam were. Instead, he had an excited gleam in his eyes. The little shrimp was enjoying this! Or, more accurately, he was expecting this, like he had something to do with it.
“What did you do to them, you little shrimp!” Darren yelled as he lifted the much smaller boy up in the air. Yet Cory, for the first time in his life, was not afraid. He knew that the term ‘shrimp’ would soon be much more applicable to the former jock.
Darren was about to give the boy a beating that would get him to cough up whatever he knew was the cause of this. But just then, Darren felt a hand touch his wrist, trembling from exertion or pain.
“Man, I don’t feel so good…” Adam moaned as he looked up at Darren with pleading eyes, feeling the three new pairs of extra arms popping out of his abdomen. Darren stared at his best friend in shock and disgust as his eyes began to bulge out of his sockets. The veins and connections formed hardened sticks that extended his blackening eyes out of his skull.
Adam tried to scream but his mouth was frozen open in the now-familiar O shape, limiting the force of his shrinking vocal cords. Adam could only moan as his fingers began fusing into claws. Six new limbs tore through his shirt as they began waving back and forth, his developing gill filaments making it hard to breathe the air. The poor young man could feel his ass start to extend as his cock and balls retreated inside of his body and his anus moved closer to the new squirming legs.
Tears ran down Darren’s eyes as his best friend started to shrink and grotesque appendages burst forth out of his face and neck. He watched as Adam’s legs began to crack into new shapes. His toes withered away as his legs snapped into formation with the other wriggling appendages on his body. Hair fell away as three pairs of antennae wriggled forth from his former forehead. His nose pressed out into a rostrum as a thick carapace spread down his shrinking back towards the abdomen that was pressing out of his ass.
The most terrifying aspect of watching the changes, however, was their implication. Darren, too, had consumed the tainted drink. He shuddered in horror at the thought of changing in the same way. It was maddening, knowing every twitch could be the start of his own terrifying transformation.
Beth, meanwhile, was undergoing the last of her own horrific changes. Her pleuron grew longer, extending with increasing segments as several pairs of smaller legs grew underneath. They started moving of their own accord as her human legs began to give out and crack into segmented joints that mirrored her other sets of flailing limbs. Slowly, she lowered her shrinking body to the ground, her many new pairs of limbs more than sufficient to support her weight. She could feel multiple pairs of swimmerets finish extending from her pleuron segments as her transformation came to an end.
Although she was aware of the changes, Beth’s mind had gone numb. It was like she was feeling the changes happening to someone else. She still couldn’t see, and her changing mind was trying to make sense of the strange sensory inputs that her body was receiving. Of most urgency was the lack of water, though her shrinking body still contained enough oxygen to function for the time being. The strong biological drive to survive was steadily creeping in, shoving Beth’s depression to the side as her limbs started scrambling to find a safer haven.
Beth felt something tingling around the area of her last pair of legs, a vent opening and closing that sent strange contractions rolling through her body. It was enough to bring her out of her reverie, an almost sensual sensation like something was happening inside of her. Muscles throbbed deep inside and she relished the feeling of something pushing against her walls. Letting her muscles relax, Beth was aware of a squelching feeling as something oozed from the vent. It was only then that Beth realized what was happening. She was laying eggs!
Despite the horror of her situation, Beth could not stop the process. Her new body had drives and instincts all of its own. And it felt too good, too amazing to release eggs like that. She felt her vent open and release more eggs onto the ground, her insides squirming with pleasures unknown to the human girl. It was beyond bizarre to find even a sliver of enjoyment in her situation, yet the sensations in her body were too strong to ignore
Darren eyed the small crayfish that had been his former girlfriend, watching as small orange orbs leaked behind her and her changes finally stopped. The other two girls were well on their way to completing their own transformations, and his best friend was waving his claws and limbs in the air as he struggled to maintain his balance.
Finally, almost mercifully, Darren fell onto his knees as his insides began to burn, crying from the implication. He looked out through the world one last time as his eyes started to extend from their sockets and his vision blurred. Yet, Darren was thankful for that. He didn’t want to see what was happening. Still, he could feel the sensations of extra limbs growing with their clawed appendages, of his shoulders withering away and more joints snapped in place over his limbs. The level of articulation was far too much for his brain to process!
His hands were the next to go as his fingers cracked and fused while a hard brown carapace formed over his wrists. He tried in vain to pull his fingers apart but he knew from experience that it was pointless. Each of his schoolmates before him had tried the same and failed, each now sporting crustacean claws. The merged flesh began to form points, ridges, and bumps along the edges. Former finger joints withered away while new joints continue to form over the thick chitinous carapace that had replaced his skin. Yet, Darren could only click helplessly as his entire body started to shrink.
Next, he felt his ass stretching behind him, the thick carapace forming many separate segments, each one twitching with feathery swimmerets. His genitals and anus moved forward on his body, moving between the twitching mass of his new legs. A new tail ridge formed uropods to move and filter water and debris to help him feed, should he be condemned to his form for any period of time.
As he shrank, Darren could feel the final vestiges of change wash over him. Several pairs of antennae grew out between the falling hair of his head, sensing the vibrations of his soon-to-be fellow crayfish, as well as something large and massive nearby. He could feel more appendages bursting out of his mouth and former neck, twitching and writhing as though they were moving food towards his open mouthparts.
Beth, meanwhile, had laid sufficient eggs for the time being and had come back into the reality of her situation. It was easier to try and view her body from outside herself, as though she had not turned into a crayfish herself. She couldn’t see like a human could, only blurry images and vague shapes that made no sense. Yet, her antennae could detect minute vibrations and tell her what was around her, though even her changed mind had difficulty interpreting the sensory inputs in a way that was meaningful to the human girl.
The other two girls had finished their monstrous changes and were evidently reflexively trying to move around and find water or shelter. Yet the same pangs of lust in their loins began to build and they, too, felt the sensations of eggs starting to push out of their insides. Even Darren felt the squelching deep within that signaled the development of female sex hormones and eggs that were preparing to be expelled from his developing vent. Darren lamented his lost sex organs, now only having female ovaries that were starting to expel orange orbs onto the ground as the disgusting pleasurable sensations washed over him.
Cory stood over the five newly changed crustaceans, watching each lay a pile of eggs behind them. He was certain they couldn’t hear or see him, given Mr. MacDougall’s reports from his own change. Smiling, he picked them up and placed them in the water tub that he often used to carry their sweaty towels and other gross clothes.
Cory brought the tub carefully into the science lab, not wanting to injure his captives. He had no desire to kill them, despite how they had treated him. He set them on the side counter as he made the final preparations. The tank was empty, of course; he didn’t know how his changed ‘teammates’ would handle living with natural crayfish. And he had no intention of letting them come into contact with the plant that might change them back. Not until he was done with them, that was. Still grinning, he emptied his former classmates into the larger tank, watching them flail as they landed on the sandy bottom. It was obvious that their minds were still in there as they struggled to get out, something no normal crayfish would do.
Cory regarded the calendar he’d placed on the wall and made one mark on the current date. It would end when he’d made his last mark, one for each day of their prison as crayfish. One for each time they had called him ‘Shrimp’, what he’d conceived of would be the perfect revenge.
Finally, he made sure the tank was properly set up and that its newest residents had sufficient food. Much to his delight, crayfish were bottom feeders, as was appropriate for the school’s former elite. He watched them for a few more moments, ecstatic that all of them seemed to be laying eggs at this point. The species he’d been able to turn them into was exclusively female. Marble shrimp laid unfertilized eggs to become the next generation. He hoped some part of them would enjoy the experience, making his vengeance all the sweeter. At last, he decided it was time to leave, to await the announcement that so many of the school’s ‘promising’ students were for the time being missing…