Again, many thanks to CMQ for creating the team and allowing others to contribute!

The Menace of Mindy?

The team arranged to have the computer equipment from the warehouse shipped over to their HQ. Painfully, the move took an entire day. Once moved, it did not take Artie and Tiffany long to get the system up and running again. Exhausted, the team turned in for the night.

As she slept, Darlene dreamt of the experience at the warehouse. This time, she was alone, fumbling in the darkness. She came upon the office and flicked on the lights. Nothing. Darkness would be her only companion. Darkness… and whispers? Yes, she did hear someone whispering quietly in the night. She made her way to the computer’s console. As she sat in the chair, the 3 dimensional scanner suddenly lit up. Darlene jumped to her feet, barely stifling a scream. The light dimmed and a ghostly apparition formed in the scanner. As the form became more refined, more focused, Darlene saw the image of a lovely woman, roughly 5’10, 165lbs, steel gray eyes and long, flowing blonde hair. The whispers returned, only this time they were a bit louder, more intelligible. It was the image speaking.

"My name is Mindy Menacer. Two weeks ago, I found a gemstone hidden in a forgotten storage room in this place. I decided to analyze it with a portable laser imager. As soon as I turned on the unit, it overloaded and disintegrated before my eyes. The gemstone, however remained. It shattered and a whisp of smoke issued from it. The smoke expanded and took on the form of a man, the man of my dreams. He expressed gratitude for releasing him and said that he would grant me my greatest wish. I didn’t know what to do. I was in shock. I wanted to laugh, to cry, to… I didn’t know what to do. He walked around, looking at my computer equipment, admiring it. He asked all sorts of questions that I couldn’t answer. I told him that I did not know the equipment well enough. I also told him that I wished I did understand all of it. He turned and smiled. The last thing I heard was ‘as you wish’ and everything went black. Moments later, I found myself looking up to him. He was looking down at me, smiling. He explained that I was not embodied in my own computer equipment and would fully understand it when someone fully activated it/me. I saw him reach to the side and heard him flick a switch. Everything went black again. I’ve been floating in blackness ever since, waiting for someone to fully activate the equipment."

The faded away. The lights dimmed, blending in with the surrounding blackness. Darlene’s senses were again assaulted by darkness and still silence. She awoke with a start and was greeted by the morning.

Showdown

Instinctively, Darlene knew that she had to act fast. She rushed to the lab where Mindy’s computer system had been reassembled. She knew that something had been overlooked. She called for Artie and the others to join her. When the rest of the team assembled, the found Darlene frantically pulling panels apart, looking for something.

"What’s going on here?" Wanda demanded to know.

"I don’t have time to explain. I can only tell you that this computer is not fully operational. We overlooked something."

Tiffany looked at her with disbelief, "Artie and I went over every piece of equipment. All of it seems to be working just fine!"

"No, I can’t explain it all now. I had a dream. Do you remember what I said to you when we left the warehouse? I wished to know what role this computer played in all of this. My dream answered that question, and more. It told me…" Darlene’s eyes opened wide and stared through her friend and lover. Tiffany, Wanda and Stacie whirled around to see what Darlene was looking at. Before them stood Dream Weaver.

"Now, then ladies, let’s finish this once and for all." He raised his arms and a gust of wind pushed Darlene and Tiffany into the 3 dimensional scanner. The unit lit up and began taking images of them. With each pass of the scanner, their bodies became more and more exposed. Their clothing was dissolving away! Finally, they stood naked in the unit.

"Now what was it you wished for, young Tiffany? Oh yes, I remember." With another wave of his hand, the console monitor flicked to life, showing the image of the naked women in the scanner. A snap of the fingers later, and the image changed, showing two nude sculpted females standing in the scanner. "What do you think of my work?" He asked, the evil dripping from his words.

Before Tiffany could respond, Dream Weaver punched a series of commands into the keyboard. "I think that I should save my work, don’t you?" Tiffany started to scream, "Noooooooo…" The word stuck in her throat, becoming slower and slower, lower and lower until finally, she was silent. Wanda and Stacie looked on as the scanner fired up again. With each pass, Darlene and Tiffany grew darker and darker. Their eyes became opaque, featureless. Their bodies stiffened, crackled and froze into rigidity. All color vanished from their bodies, becoming uniformly gray. Moments later, two stone nude females stood in the scanning chamber, resembling the image presented on the console’s monitor.

Wanda stared at the petrified forms of her friends for a moment and then reached out a hand and touched Darlene. She was cold and hard to the touch, yet strangely smooth. She repeated the process with Tiffany. Again, cold hard stone. She stared into the rounded surfaces of their stone eyes. A noise erupted from behind her. Artie! He attempted to hit Dream Weaver with a stasis ray. Dream Weaver ducked Artie’s attempt and waved his hand. An invisible force grabbed Artie and slammed him against a wall. Sparks flew from his damaged components and her fell to the floor, deactivated.

"Don’t you wish you could help your two friends here?" Dream Weaver chuckled evilly.

"You know I want to help them." She replied in a fit of rage.

"As you wish!" Dream Weaver waved his hand in front of Wanda and her clothing vanished. The pupils of her eyes faded to white. Her facial expression became blank. With a finger he made a twirling motion. Wanda responded by turning to face her friends in the scanning chamber. She walked up to her friends and stood against them, pressing her body against theirs. Her hands found the stony mounds of their sexes where she felt their juices. Instinctively she understood what they felt as they were turning to stone. She drew a deep breath and pressed herself harder against them. She felt herself fuse to the stone bodies and become rigid herself. She felt her flesh start to change. As the change raced up her legs, she felt what her friends felt. She wanted to move herself against them, but her body betrayed her. She heard the crackling of transforming flesh approach her ears. Her eyesight went black and then all was silent.

Stacie Saves the Day

Stacie’s mind was racing. She watched her friends’ fate. Part of her actually wanted to be joined with the erotic tableaux, but another part was wrestling with the problem of what to do next. 'Darlene said that we have to fully activate this system,' she thought to herself. 'If I can ignore Dream Weaver for a few moments and refrain from speaking, I may be able to pull this off. If not, we’re goners this time.' Her eyes darted about frantically. Darlene had managed to open every panel on the complex system. Every unit was switched on. 'Something must be missing,' she kept repeating to herself. 'Something obvious. Something that’s staring right at us. If only there was some sort of printout I could… that’s it!' Ignored and forgotten, no one bothered to switch on the system’s printer. It was not seen as necessary.

As Stacie reached for the switch, Dream Weaver made it a point to physically intervene. "My dear, dear, Stacie. I know how much you must want to help you friends. All you have to do is wish it!" Stacie lunged at the printer and managed to hit the power switch. The printer roared to life and began printing page after page. Dream Weaver waved his hand and Stacie rose off the floor, dangling overhead by an unseen force.

"No!" She yelled. Dream Weaver waved his hand to the side, throwing Stacie against the wall. She slumped to the ground behind the computer equipment. Dream Weaver continued his rampage. With every gesture, a piece of equipment arced and smoked. Moments later, the computer system that held the key to the team’s dilemma lay in ruin.

"And now, Stacie, your final thoughts of the day?" Slowly, she stood up, brushing electrical debris and shattered circuits from her tattered clothing.

"Let’s end this, as you asked, Dream Weaver." She held up a page that had been ejected from the printer.

Dream Weaver’s eyes grew wide as he read the contents, "No! You can’t! This isn’t possible!"

Stacie read the page:  "Dream Weaver, I wish Mindy Menacer had never placed that gemstone in her portable laser scanner!"

Dream Weaver screamed. It seemed to echo forever as his body twisted, as he was being pulled back in time. A brilliant flash engulfed the room.

Later that morning, Susan decided to go shopping for a new dress…
 
 

The END