Lucas looks back, and sees no sign of Drew.
He sighs, "Well, looks like I'm on my own..."
I wonder if this place has any rides...
Lucas explores around, seeing all sorts of dress shops, games, and stages set up, but no sign of roller coasters or merry-go-rounds.
He sighs.
"Man, I wish Emma or Drew were here..."
...THEN, almost like magic, an enormous pink roller coaster appears at the end of the park, surrounded by lights and excited children.
However, it isn't magic, Lucas just has terrible observation skills.
The coaster towers over him in pure beauty, and Lucas examines it with pride, like how a teenager looks at a cleaned room.
"It's... it's beautiful!" Lucas said, as a tear of joy shed down his cheek.
He sprints toward the ride, fantasizing all the amazing times he'll have, all the loopty-loops, spins, and drops.
When suddenly...
"Stop right there, ma'am!"
He turns around.
Ma'am?!
"Oh shoot, sorry! I mean sir. I didn't realize guys came here— pretty neat, though. I mean it is 2024 now, so I shouldn't be surprised, but—"
"Thanks...?"
"No problem. I'm Sammy. Sammy Jonah," she says, and shakes his hand fast.
"Nice to meet you, Sammy. I'm Lucas" he smiles brightly.
She's about his age, wearing a worker's uniform that says "Pink Princess" in bold white letters.
She probably works here.
"Are you off duty?"
"Yeah, sorta. But I still gotta remind folks like you of the rules..." Sammy sighed.
"Rules? I wasn't doing anything wron—"
"Yeaaah, unfortunately you're not allowed to hop on the roller coaster without a special "Fairy" pass." she said.
Lucas checked both of his pockets and groaned, "You've gotta be kidding me... Emma has them."
"Damn, I've been there before."
"Crud, maybe I oughta call her," he said, trailing off elsewhere.
"Oh, no need to do that—!" Sammy exclaimed.
"Huh?"
"Well y'see, there's still plenty to do here besides ride rides!" the worker chimed in.
"Really...? 😒 Like— besides makeovers..?"
"Yep! In fact, I can show you around! I'm actually off duty until twelve."
A cute girl is asking to show me around..? Without an ultimatime?!
"Twelve... Twelve, Twelve Twelve, lemme check my schedule here..." he stammers
He begins rapidly flipping through his phone.
"Twelve! That's perfect! That's when I'll meet back up with my friends!"
"Wow! It's like fate wanted this to happen!" Sam giggles.
Lucas giggles back.
(Editor's note: Nope, it isn't fate. Just very convenient writing.)
"Where to first?"
"Have you ever seen the dressing machine?" Sam says, smirking.
"Dressing machine..? No, I don't think so..."
"Oh it's awesome, basically you enter this machine, and these robots will dress you up after you select which option you'd like: there's a princess option, fairy option, a barbie option, a superhero option, a—"
"SUPERHERO OPTION? YES!" Lucas shouts.
(In case you couldn't tell, Lucas is a massive dork.)
"So you wanna go??"
"Uhh... YEAH!" he exclaims.
Sammy grabs Lucas's hand and runs all across the park, teasing him about making such a pretty girl whenever they'd pass a dress shop, laughing at each other's awkward jokes, and lots of smiles.
"Okay, here we are!" says Sam.
"That was fast!"
The building is no different than any of the others. It's bright, enormous, and very pink, but one thing certainly stands out: there are three metal doors and a conveyor leading inside.
"I'll go in this one," the girl says, pointing at the second door, "you can take that one if you want! See you at the end!"
Lucas hesitantly steps on the conveyor, and just as he does, the metal door in front of him opens in a cloud of steam.
The conveyor starts moving faster as the door closes behind him and a small screen appears.
On it is seven pictures:
a princess holding a wand
a fairy flying over a castle
a pirate waving her sword up high
barbie at a pool party
a superhero fighting crime
a baby girl playing with dolls
a goddess holding a staff
He eagerly chooses the 5th option, and waits for the conveyor to do its thing.
Wow! This is all so futuristic!
Suddenly, seven robot arms scan his body, up and down.
"Uhh what's the scan for?" he asks the screen.
"We will be scanning your clothes, so when they are taken off, you will have an extra pair when you return home."
"Oh okay, that's pretty cool!"
"We will now be ripping off your current clothes."
"Huh?—RIPPPPP!
He is now completely naked as six more robot arms bring out the copy of his old clothes, and fold them neatly in a box, before tape covers it.
"You will receive these clothes in the following week."
He blushes, covering his privates as ten more arms pop out of the walls with new clothing, and a sleeping mask.
"We advise you to put this on so you will feel the full effect of the, what humans call, 'surprise' later."
He puts them on, and feels a silky fabric lift up his legs. Then he feels a leotard snap snug and into place, feeling a little tight in his bottom area, as fingerless gloves made of the same fabric slide into his arms. Then two puffy balls of padding are stuck to the inside of the bathing-suit, and tight stockings come up to his thighs, while a cape gets strapped on his neck. Finally, he feels all sorts of powder and brushes touch his face, and hair.
"We ask you now to take your sleeping mask off but leave your eyes closed so we can add some finishing touches."
He nods, and before long, the robot arms finish their work.
"Congratulations! You are now Raven from Teen Titans, you may take the sleeping mask off now, miss!"
Lucas blushes in horror as the robot door opens up, and the conveyor ends.
On the other side is Sam, dressed as Athena now, trying not to laugh.
"...!!"
(Well it certainly doesn't seem that Raven will be getting her old clothes back, but on the bright side, she'll look super cute for the rest of the trip!
Unless of course Lucas wants to risk going in the Dressing Machine again...
In the meantime, let's move on to Emma. Certainly nothing too embarrassing can happen to her, right?
Looks like you'll have to find out in the next chapter: Baffled and Babied!)