Curiously, Amanda, Hailee, and Rachel sat around the posh living space of Amanda’s family social room, looking through a pad filled with images of nightmarish beasts. Normally this would not be of interest to any of them, but Amanda was desperate to win them over to her wild ideas by exposing them to images of such creatures. She was insisting that each girl pick one of the monsters to transform themselves into for an entire night!
They’d been invited to the now annual Halloween party thrown by the Ayres family, and the three 18-year-olds were given free access to nanite transformation technology to become whatever they wanted for that one night. Though it should have opened up a myriad of possibilities for them, Amanda had only one thing on her mind and among her friend group. Amanda was adamant that the trio each pick something unique for the party and choose from this special pad she’d brought. She argued it would be lame going as something like a mermaid or fairy when there were so many other creatures to change into! Besides, the theme this year was monstrous forms, and there was a prize for the best transformation choice. Amanda was determined to win!
Goal in mind, she had dragged her best friends over to look through her catalog of horrors. It was a series of potential transformation bodies that the creators had based on fictional beasts or artist renditions of hybrid monsters. They were obviously geared towards fans of D&D or other such games, knowing there was a market for people wanting to become monsters from their nightmares.
For her part, Hailee had no desire to risk her looks on one of the horrifying beings that Amanda was having them look at. She prided herself on her luxurious blond hair, large breasts, and feminine curves and wanted to keep them in the hope to tease some of the large male beasts that were sure to show up. She had an image to keep, and the forms Amanda wanted them to become were disgusting! Still, she had allowed herself to look at the creatures from Amanda’s shortlist, but none of them were even remotely beautiful. She’d rather be dead than be caught seen as some sort of giant insect, multi-limbed eldritch horror, or freaky hybrid abomination.
Rachel on the other hand found some of the forms interesting. She recalled daydreaming about similar monsters from her hours reading any kind of fantasy novel she could get her hands on. But, in the end, she had to agree with Hailee. She would much rather be a magnificent dragon, a unicorn, or the like, rather than the monstrosities that Amanda had shortlisted for them!
Both girls found themselves wondering how eager Amanda herself actually was to change into one of the forms she’d given them. On a whim, they chose a form and dared Amanda to order it. Amanda had flatly refused without reason. Amanda responded by picking a form at random to dare Hailee to become, one worse than that, and so the taunting turned into a game of sorts. They took turns daring each other to become randomly picked forms from the list, each more disgusting than the last.
Rachel was somewhat into the game, while Hailee wanted no part of it. There was nothing in that catalog that she would ever consider being, much less watching any of her friends turning into! As the game wore on, it seemed as though Amanda was just as uninterested in any of the forms as the others. Still, she could be stubborn, and she had it in her head that they were all going to turn themselves into one of these horrifying monsters for this event!
As the hours wore on, Amanda realized she was getting nowhere. It seemed impossible to convince her friends to choose one of the forms, and she had less and less desire to be any of the forms herself the more she reflected on it. Her dreams of the horrifying Halloween show she wanted to put on for all the other guests were slowly fading away.
Eventually, she decided to declare a compromise. They would select an equal number of forms from the shortlist and from another list that all three girls could agree on. The second list included dragons, unicorns, centaurs, merfolk, and other more desirable forms for the girls. But the other half contained the worst monstrosities that Amanda could find in her shortlist. She pitied the girl who got one of the monstrosities as opposed to the more beautiful, and frankly, mundane choices they had added to the list. Though, deep down, she found herself hoping that she would not have to be something gross and horrifying while her friends got to live out their fantasies.
The forms were placed in a random selection program, and an automatic purchase for that creature’s nanite program would be made right away. That way, there was no backing out. All they had to do was click a button, and the form they were to be would flash on the screen.
Hailee went first, holding her breath. It was almost like a terrifying game of Russian roulette. She opened her eyes, which went wide at the sight of the combination snake/spider creature on her screen. At the sight of it, she screamed and threw the pad to the ground. But it was too late. The order for the program had already been placed, and she would have no choice but to become this thing if she still wanted to attend the party. To her horror, she would be stuck being this eldritch monstrosity for an entire night! She nearly threw up at the thought; she hated both snakes and spiders, and didn’t want to be a combination of the two!
Nervous now, Rachel drew next, opening her eyes slowly at the sight of a massive centipede awaiting her. She too felt apprehension. Not only would she be giant, far larger than such a creature should ever be, but each of its legs was equipped with a series of blades, a murderous look to the form that terrified her. She could barely see where its mouth was, a horrifying combination of parts whose function she could only guess at. And where were its eyes? She wouldn’t be able to see!
Yet, as she handed the pad to Amanda she found herself daydreaming a little, her writer’s spirit piped up despite the horrific reality that she would spend the night as a gigantic centipede. What would its senses be like? How would it interact with the world? Would it compare to a real centipede at all? She could do it, for one night, just for the experience. More excited than nervous now, she made plans to research real-world centipedes as best she could beforehand.
Finally, Amanda took her turn, pressing the button before staring in horror at the grotesque creature she was to become. It was something out of D&D fiction, or perhaps Hollywood, reminding her a little of the ‘Graboid’ monsters she’d seen from an old horror movie growing up. She stared at the gaping mouth, the massive slimy body, the tendrils, and the rows of teeth. She couldn’t let herself become this, could she? Yet, she knew there was no going back if she wanted to attend the party, not if they had already ordered the expensive programs.
In some ways, Amanda did feel a little relieved. At least they had all selected forms that would fulfill her desire to be the most frightening beasts at the party. And she had to admit, her form would be the most disturbing of all. Nothing on this planet even remotely resembled the thing she was to be.
Still, they each slept fitfully that night, having nightmares about the beasts on the pad that they were to become. It was terrifying to think they’d transform into such horrors, just to get a rise out of some rich party goers. What had they been thinking to agree to this? Each harbored doubts in their own minds about what it would be like to change into their selected creatures. It was either become the horrible forms or forfeit all the money they’d been given and the chance to attend the party.
Finally, the day arrived. Amanda had received the doses of nanites and had them prepared for each of her friends. They stood in a field close to the Ayres’ home so that they would not have to travel far to get to their destination. No transportation would get them to where they needed to go after they’d changed. Many of the other party-goers were doing the same, and it was difficult to secure a spot in the Ayres’s expansive property, but they finally managed to find their seclusion.
They each stripped down to a bra and undies, things that would not go missed but would allow them to preserve their modesty until the changes were completed. Hailee was to go first. She shuddered, tears rolling down her face at the realization of what she was to become. Yet, she was determined not to be judged by her friends, and hit the button on her trigger, allowing her changes to begin.
The first change was that her beautiful, well-tended skin began to dry and flake. She yelled in horror as her perfect face was quickly adorned with grotesque scales. They ran blue down her back while her chest and stomach acquired thick yellowed plates. Her hair fell out and dissolved away, leaving her bald as millions of tiny blue hairs began to erupt all over her. A shudder ran through her the realization of how sensitive they were, feeling vibrations in the very air.
Next, her eyes became yellowed reptilian slits, and in horror, she felt something popping all over the sides of his face like zits. To her disgust, they burst open, and Hailee’s head was overloaded from all the sensory input of having so many eyes! Some were compound, allowing her to see the world in a mirrored wall of millions of images, while others could simply only detect the presence of light. She looked around, fascinated rather than frightened at the way she could now perceive the world, all the ways her body was now designed to detect prey.
A tingling soon emanated from her ass as something burst from her spine, the beginnings of a long tail that lengthened and thickened and grew the same pattern of scales. It was growing massive, a serpentine protrusion that thickened to encompass the width of her steadily cylindrical body. All over she could feel her neck and truck lengthening, her spine growing longer as her stomach swelled up into a perfectly serpentine trunk.
Arms and legs began to prickle as a prelude to something unexpected bursting out of the sides of her trunk, two more pairs of arachnoid legs. Their terrifying visage made Hailee try to scream, but her human vocal cords no longer worked that way. The limbs were long, multi-jointed, and adorned with powerful black claws at the ends. Her arms and legs felt weak as the bones inside dissolved away, then filled out with new muscles and joints that snapped them in several places until she sported the same multi-jointed limbs as the four new ones she’d acquired. Two fingers and a thumb from each hand dwindled away, as did three toes on each foot. Massive black claws burst forth from the remaining digits as they themselves dissolved into her former hands and feet.
Finally, her face began to extend out into a lengthy snout, most teeth dissolving away while her two canines grew long and thick and hollowed out, a venomous fluid filling each. Though, she knew from the information pamphlet that they would not actually be toxic, that it was simply an aesthetic feature. Lips became adorned with rows of sharp flesh, different from her teeth and far more dangerous. She had many angles of view to see the grotesque protrusions poking out at the side of her jaws, an arachnid’s pedipalps, adorned with impressive fangs and poison all on their own.
Amanda and Rachel looked in horror at the monstrosity that had become of their friend. She was twenty feet long, thick tail and massive legs moving around the yard, as though trying to make sense of the new body she had. It seemed as though she didn’t know whether to move with her tail, her eight legs, or some combination of the two.
“H-how is it?” Amanda wanted to ask, scared to know how her friend was actually doing in that terrifying body.
To her surprise, Hailee found she wasn’t disgusted with herself as she thought she’d be. Rather, she was overloaded with the complex sensory information she was perceiving. The little hairs all over her body could detect the tiniest movements, air currents, the breathing of her friends, or the subtle differences from the creatures that others were becoming all over the expansive yard. Her tongue was huge and forked, and she could almost taste the air, drifting scent molecules that would allow her to find prey. To her surprise and interest, Hailee was able to sense heat as well and see various areas of the spectrum with the variety of eyes she had. It was an intense adjustment, to say the least!
At last, she calmed down enough to let her changed mind guide her progress. Despite being a hybrid creature, she realized that the neural connections in her body could in fact properly operate the bizarre physiology she had been given. She started using her eight legs in tandem, scurrying around and using her tail as a sort of propelling mechanism that greatly increased her speed.
<It’s…not so bad! I’m fucking gross but…wow…> Hailee’s voice echoed in their heads. It was a new feature of next-generation nanites that allowed thoughts to be directed into sound that one could hear in their heads, provided they also had nanites in their systems. <It’s…wow… it’s amazing!> Hailee exclaimed, slithering back and forth more stably now, finally able to orient herself.
Rachel and Amanda starred in fascination and horror, watching Hailee seemingly… enjoy being a half-snake/half tarantula. The former cheerleader, deprived of her looks, her hair, and her breasts, was…happy.
“Guess it’s my turn,” Rachel replied, less afraid to undergo her change after seeing how her friend had taken to it.
Rachel, too, felt the beginnings of the nanites at work, in her case all of her bones dissolving and her arms and legs feeling weak. She let out a yelp as she fell to the ground, legs suddenly unable to support her. Her body swelled up with bloat as her shapely womanhood became overtaken by the mass that made up her cylindrical body. She moaned as she felt her anus move behind her as her hips lost definition, melding into her changing form.
Next, her skin began to harden and turn brown as it thickened into a chitinous material that covered her flesh like armor. Internal organs melted away into a simple arthropod digestive tract, a single tube and fluid-filled sack protected by her brown chitin. She felt her body begin to the segment before hardening, each section getting longer as her body grew. It was impossible to make sense of what she was becoming, so far removed from her mammalian physiology. She was only thankful to the nanites for keeping her alive while she changed in such a bizarre way!
All of a sudden her vision went dark, as though her eyes had closed. She began screaming in panic from the sudden blindness but was cut off as her throat closed and her vocal cords disappeared. She didn’t want to be blind! Deep down, she had known the form she was taking on would lack eyes but to experience it was something else.
As Rachel calmed her changing body, she realized she could see, but not nearly as well as a human. She recalled her research into centipede physiology, that most lacked complex eyes, as she now did, but as she focused she realized she could see some vague shapes. Mostly she could simply tell the difference between light and dark and could make out some degree of movement. Anything else was of little use to the creature she was quickly becoming, especially one that lived primarily underground.
Though she could no longer see, in some ways that heightened her perception of the changes happening to her body. In some ways, she was thankful for that and pitied Amanda and Hailee for having to view the grotesque changes she was undergoing while she was gleefully spared. It was obvious that she was getting larger, much larger, her body splitting into fifteen distinct segments including her relatively small head. Most of her anatomy had already altered toward the arthropod-inspired body she was soon to own.
Yet, the most complex changes were happening to her face. Jaws began to extend, upper lips growing out into a pair of arthropod mandibles while her lower lips stretched out into what she knew to be maxilla. She felt her teeth, her tongue, her hair, her nose, her ears, all of that dissolve away, unneeded for the thing she was becoming. Something strange burst forth from her neck, something that felt similar to the mandibles that she had grown already, but thicker, fatter. Forcipules, she recalled from her readings. A pair of pincer-like limbs that could be used to grasp prey and had one other purpose. From each burst a thick claw, which Rachel could feel filled with a poisonous fluid that centipedes would use to stun prey before consuming. Like Hailee’s, however, it was merely for show.
Something new unexpectedly burst forth from the flesh of her head segment, and Rachel was startled to realize that she now had a pair of waving antennae. It was as though her world had opened up once more with scent and the vibrations of sounds. Many things her old body lacked awareness of were made up for with this most impactful of sensory organs. She would have smiled if she had a mouth. She was disgusting as hell, but Rachel still delighted in the wide array of sensations her constantly waving antenna afforded her!
By now, her vermiform body was almost complete. Something tingling in each side of her segments, like something wriggling under the surface, ready to burst free. She would have moaned if she could. The sensation was not painful, though it was uncomfortable. Fourteen pairs of legs ripped out of the sides of her body, sticking into the ground and nearly throwing Rachel off balance as she struggled to get her limbs under her. They were multisegmented, like Hailee’s, maintaining a wide range of motion. Instead of being pointed at the tip, however, each leg had sharpened into a deadly blade, tipped with poison, likely some creator’s sick fantasy when designing the beast. However, she could not kill even if she wanted to; special nanites were programmed at the ends of the bladed appendages that would infect and heal the most deadly of wounds she might accidentally inflict on any unfortunate human. A safety feature necessary for anyone crazy enough to purchase a transformation package for this particular beast, she was sure.
Finally, a pair of bladed cerci bust forth from just above her ass, and her changes into the bladed centipede beast were complete. The beast that had been Rachel stood there, still trying to make sense of the complex sensory inputs her antennas were receiving. There were a multitude of pheromones wafting in from all directions, stimulating her attention. She could detect location, direction, and source for both potential predators and prey, though there was very little that could hurt her in this body. Still, she felt somewhat nervous, the light her various eyes could detect making her wary. She should be covered, protected, she should be…underground?
As much as it made her uncomfortable, Rachel found she wanted to try it. Her body was meant for digging, for burrowing, and her natural curiosity combined with instincts demanded that she give it a try. With a swift motion, she began digging into the earth, her bladed appendages far more adept for burrowing than even a regular centipede’s would be. All of her legs were slightly different lengths, so as to not get caught up against each other as she moved. It felt amazing, almost like she was swimming through the earth itself!
<This is great! It feels like swimming!> She exclaimed, surfacing several dozen meters away only to borrow back down into the earth. She knew she should feel guilty for tearing up someone else’s lawn, but that was a problem for another day. Besides, this particular household frequently indulged in nanite transformation technology. Property damage from themselves or guests was bound to be commonplace!
At last, it was Amanda’s turn to change. Though, in truth felt a little frightened by her friends’ reactions to their changes. All three had been apprehensive about their transformations, but to actually hear they enjoyed them? It was a new level of horror on its own. Part of her was excited though, she couldn’t deny. If the forms were as enjoyable as they seemed to be, their trio could certainly terrorize all the other guests at the party!
She, too, felt a tingling sensation, beginning her change into what she thought was the worst of the three creatures. Immediately, her legs started to dissolve, the muscles, bones, and tendons all withered away to mush. Amanda reflexively tried to lower herself to the ground but she couldn’t work her legs the way she was used to and with a surprised yelp she fell onto her ass. Amanda wanted to scream, but all she could do was cry as the bones in her spine began to dissolve and her posterior turned into a massive fleshy sack. She had been the one who wanted this, yet she couldn’t help but regret the horrific transformation she was undergoing.
Next, something began oozing out of her growing fleshy mass, and looking down she could see her backside was leaking a trail of slime. She looked like a fucking slug from the waist down! Moaning in disgust, Amanda watched the skin turn translucent, a thin layer of flesh that let her see the outline of her internal organs. Massive welts grew all over her trunk-like body in a repeating pattern, thick massive fluid-filled sacs marching up her skin. The fleshy mass quickly encompassed her stomach, her shapely womanhood dissolving into a grotesque slug.
A sickening squelch was proceeded by something growing out from her shoulders, under her arms like a pair of extra limbs. They looked like tendrils of some kind, fleshy whips of muscle that grew out of a hard mass of thick skin that kept them attached. The ends began to flatten, almost like a triangular paddle, opening up from the underside as a massive claw-like appendage burst through. Amanda moaned as she felt her shoulders harden into that same carapace-like material before the bones in her arms, hands, and fingers began to dissolve away. Her hands flattened and widened, those same disgusting claws tore through her former palms. She flailed them around, the muscle giving them a wide range of flexibility, likely to be used in the capture of prey.
Amanda felt nothing short of pure terror. The nanites were working their way up her form, making her view every grotesque change before taking her head as the oozing translucent flesh crawled up her neck. Her back stiffened and hardened, a row of spines erupting out of the skin as the hard carapace-like structure covered her back completely. Hair disappeared as the thick-shelled caparace ran up the length of her squishy neck, covering her bare scalp as the last of her horrific changes began.
Finally, her face pushed out, nose closing and losing the ability to breathe, though she felt no ill effects. Had she not been in the throes of a horrific transformation, she may have realized that her translucent skin now took care of her respiratory needs. Her eyes migrated lower over her face, losing their depth of view as they sank closer to her expanding maw. Then…four, eight, twelve, sixteen! New sets of eyes opened and closed all around the ring of her jaw, each weaker than her main eyes but giving her a field of view of the entire yard that was both horrific and fascinating. She shuddered in horror as she realized she could move each individual eye independently, increasing her range of vision beyond human fathoming.
Against her wishes, her jaw slowly opened as though in a scream. But then, it grew wider, massive, taking up the rest of the space on her head as her whole body expanded into a massive behemoth. Her human teeth grew circular, her mouth condensing into a powerful ring of sharpened fangs, designed to rend any flesh off her prey. And out of that mouth, her tongue began to expand with what was perhaps the most bizarre change of all. It was growing longer, thicker, nearly matching the size of her tendrils. Something tingled at the end, an opening that felt exactly like her mouth opening. She couldn’t see well even with her new vision, though she could perceive it had its own separate mouth lined with terrible fangs, adorned with miniature bladed tendrils around the ring, a deadly weapon in its own right.
At last, her changes were complete. Amanda stood there, taking stock of her massive body. She moved her tendrils and tongue a bit but otherwise had no desire to move. She felt content to sit, to wait, her oozing trunk only moving a few inches at a time, enough for her to relocate somewhere to remain stationary.
Her friends, who had been running around and enjoying their new forms, stopped at the sight of the latest addition to their nightmare menagerie. <Are you ok>? Hailee asked, noticing that the creature Amanda had become wasn’t moving. Was her friend in some kind of shock?
<Yeah…it’s…wow,> was all Amanda could respond with. The sensory inputs were like nothing she could have imagined. Like the two creatures Rachel and Hailee had become, the design of this creature was meant to kill, though, unlike the others, she was very slow. But she didn’t need speed. Her slime was a powerful deterrent to anything that might attack. And although her body was stationary, her tendrils were not. She was an ambush predator, content to wait in a hole or cave for her prey to scamper by.
Like Rachel, she could detect vibrations in the earth, the information far more useful than her hearing had been. Anything moving on the ground for hundreds of meters was well within her sensory range. Her sense of taste was like a serpent’s in how her new tongue could taste molecules in the air, sense the presence of any potential prey. Although as with the other nanite transformations, the form came with no murderous instincts or the ability to inflict any actual damage on another human.
It was getting dark in the sky, as all three girls could detect with their various new senses. A chill in the air signaled the oncoming all Hallow’s eve. The trio prepared their monstrous march towards the party, each secretly excited to see how their presence would be received. Would anything at the party even come close to matching how terrifying they were?
******
It was the third annual Halloween party at the Ayres’ home, and the courtyard was abuzz with transformed individuals. There were movie monsters of all kinds, xenomorphs, demons, apes, aliens, and even a mini Godzilla (the full-sized version would be far too large for even the Ayres yard!). Still, others chose forms from other sources, dragons, dryders, lycanthropes, and a host of other bizarre creatures that made up an insane menagerie!
Still, all heads turned when three large creatures slithered towards the congregation. One was a horrific mix between a spider and a serpent, another was a gigantic centipede that burst from the earth. The third was perhaps the most terrifying as the behemoth oozed up the path, its tendrils waving back and forth, mouth open in an eternal hungry grin as its tongue lashed fiercely. Everyone gave these creatures a wide berth, wondering how they had obtained such horrific forms from nanite catalogs. They were nanite transformees, right?
Amanda had failed to mention that the shortlist of patterns she’d acquired was from a test group of sorts, secured from a cousin who worked on the project. They were a collection of nanite forms not yet available to the public, creatures who would allow the users to explore their darkest fantasies. It wasn’t technically cheating, right? And what did it matter, if the frightened looks from all in attendance made it clear who the prize for most horrifying transformation would go to?