TFOS: Freddy On The Loose

Part 27

by

Rodford Edmiston

Note: This story uses background and concepts from the Teenagers From Outer Space role-playing game, Copyrighted and Trademarked R. Talsorian Games, Inc. It also uses properties Copyrighted DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures. The original characters and story are Copyright 2022 Rodford Edmiston Smith.

Fall Happenings

Cheerleading practice over, Freddy headed to the showers with the other girls on the squad. This was, of course, at the end of one of the regular gym classes, so the locker room was full of noise from chatting young females, many of them human or near human. These were some of the fittest gals on Earth and much of the rest of the galaxy. Most of whom were at least partly unclothed. Freddy reached her locker and also began taking off her sweaty cheerleader outfit. She felt a bit proud that she actually belonged in with all these very fit young women. The whole process was normal and routine, completely unremarkable. Almost.

Should I be worried this doesn't turn me on much any more? wondered Freddy. She smirked. Well, right now.

Left unthought (some of those in here could read minds) was that this scenario would provide grist for male Freddy's mill later that evening.

Still, the perfunctory business of stripping and showering was not as routine as it would have been in other schools on Earth. Both humanity and the other species participating in the special project this school was a very important part of had sent their best and brightest to this new school. In many cases "best" meant the closest to what the sponsoring culture considered the physical ideal for their species. The presence of so much idealized femininity and masculinity had become almost routine, here. However, there was a new girl in school who attracted attention in spite of this. Though an alien, she appeared completely human. Except for one thing.

For whatever reason, she had three breasts.

Even the completely straight girls had stared the first few times they saw Adiadal, and that was when she was fully clothed. In the showers they tried not to, but some still couldn't help it.

Adiadal, of course, stared right back. Where she was from all the girls had three, and she found the appointments of the doubly-endowed girls here to be very strange.

Freddy managed not to stare when Adiadal entered the showers completely naked. She instead focused on finishing her own washing. That was just good manners. Besides, she had no idea which way the alien babe swung, if she did so at all. Freddy did note that like most of the females (and many of the males) at the school - including Freddy - Adiadal had no body hair. For some - mostly the extraterrestrials - this was their natural state. The others so not bedecked removed their body hair for various reasons, most of them aesthetic.

Freddy sighed, turned off the water and grabbed a couple of towels on the way out; one of them for her hair. Dealing with long hair was a part of feminine hygiene she found irritating, but only slightly. Especially compared to some of the other things. Soon she was dressed in boy clothes and ready for her next class. Well, except for one thing, and that had to wait until she was out of the locker room. In fact, as she passed through the door into the hall, Freddy had a specific destination in mind.

Finding a place to change gender without incident was becoming more and more difficult for Freddy. There were people - male, female and other - who wanted to watch. Some out of prurient interest, some out of relatively innocent curiosity, some simply because they knew doing so annoyed Freddy. Fortunately, the nurse's office was near the locker rooms. (The theory behind this placement had been that most injuries at the school would happen in gym class. Which was proving completely the opposite of the actual situation.) Through a standing agreement between Freddy and the Nurse, if there were no actual patients in the waiting area of the infirmary Freddy could use that to change. Unfortunately, several students had begun to develop recurring ailments at the precise times Freddy usually wanted to use the room.

Freddy ducked into the nurse's office. Nurse was busy with some normal-looking Earth guy in one of the treatment rooms, but the waiting room was thankfully empty. Freddy moved into a corner where she was out of sight, sighed, took a moment to concentrate, and changed to male.

Feeling relieved there were no complications this time, Freddy left and headed for his next class, whistling tunelessly as he walked. Winter was here, though the weather was still very warm, and there was a school-sponsored Hallowe'en party a week from the next Friday night. Freddy was supposed to meet with Karen that afternoon at her place to work on their costumes, as well as some other stuff. However, there was still a lot of school left for the day. It wasn't even lunchtime, yet.

* * *

"So, what's that new girl like?" said Talli, as Freddy joined the usual group at their lunch table.

"Which new girl?" said Freddy, innocently. "Brenda? She's not even new anymore."

"I meant Adiadal," said Talli, rolling her eyes. "I haven't met her, yet. But! I've heard some of the boys say she makes them wish they had three hands. Perverts. Of course, she's not helping, making full use of all that attention."

Talli was lean and athletic rather than curvaceous, which Freddy and many others definitely appreciated about the alien gal. However, most boys - being boys, whether from Earth or elsewhere - wanted to see breasts. The more the better, of both size and quantity. Especially if they were of high quality. Freddy, as a part-time well-endowed gal, was intimately familiar with this phenomenon. From both sides. Freddy had been flirted with - and, rarely, worse - by males and females, as a male and as a female. He had to smirk as he remembered some of the Terran reactions to the alien hermaphrodites - whether students, teachers, business folk, tourists and other - when the
Earth-born realized those individuals were not only well-endowed upstairs but were also packing downstairs. Even some of local females had been upset. However, some humans had the attitude "best of both worlds." Most herms - for some reason collectively referred to as Barr Guls or just guls - felt uneasy about both attitudes; by their standards "normal" humans were the freaks, whether terrestrial or alien. Of course, some of the guls were into freaks, as well.

"Is it true that all three are completely natural and exactly the same size?" said Bl'fff, whose spidery species had no breasts or even nipples, disrupting Freddy's speculations. Why the alien was asking was probably more a matter of academic interest or perhaps trying to fit in. Or pure perversion.

"Oh, yeah," said Freddy, nodding, and missing that Karen - also lean and athletic - was paying that kind of attention to what her boyfriend was saying. "I just don't get it, though. Nearly all the other non-Earth females with breasts normally only have two; even those who aren't all that close to human. The rest all have some other even number. Why does her species - which looks completely human otherwise - have three?!"

"There was an accident with a time machine and a vial of cosmetic-alteration viruses," said Argy, the sort-of armadillo guy, conspiratorially. He frowned. "Virii? Your language is so weird."

"Viruses," said Karen. "It's from Latin, not English."

"So do all the males of her species have three nipples?" said Freddy, frowning. "Vestigial, I think is the term."

"Uh, I guess," said Argy, uncertainly.

"I just hope she's not contagious," muttered Karen. "Bras are expensive enough as is."

"Tell me about it," Freddy muttered back. "Especially sports bras."

For some reason, both Karen and Talli snickered at that.

"I've heard some people refer to her endowments as the mother, the daughter and the 'Holy cow!'" said Talli, smirking.

"Why are you so interested?" muttered Karen, glaring at Ramet, due to noticing him paying rapt attention to the conversation. "You're a shapeshifter. You can be male or female, and as a woman have as many breasts as you want. Or even as a guy, for that matter."

"Yeah, but that takes all the fun out of it," said Ramet, with a dismissive wave of his hand. "You can change shape, too. Why not give Freddy a thrill on your next date?"

"Because that requires a dose of !tsooB, which is currently illegal on Earth," said Karen, with forced calm. "Also, if you suggest anything like that again you'll be wearing this tray around your head."

"Yes, ma'am," said Ramet, who had a very well-developed sense of self-preservation.

* * *

"Okay, it's on and on," sighed Freddy.

"It" was a "gift" from Karen's parents; a locking choker with special properties. Alien properties. Karen's mom had the key.

"Let me make sure," said Karen. She fiddled with the nape of the choker for a moment. "Yeah. It's locked in place and the switch is on and under the protective cover. Okay, try to change."

Freddy obliged, with the same sense of constipation she'd experienced previously when testing similar items.

"Nope."

Karen nodded, reached into her bag, then suddenly drew her Mark II Boy/Girl Gun and shot it at Freddy.

"Yagh!" Freddy exclaimed, feeling like she was being squeezed outward in all directions from the inside.

Like much of the other alien technology recently made available on Earth, many human governments were trying to ban the gender changing devices. However, the main impediment to such actions was the often complete denial that such a thing was even possible on the part of many (mostly male) human politicians. That the UN had required members to pass laws ahead of time preventing the banning of specific examples of alien tech - mainly due to the medical benefits of some of it, but also due to demands from the Galactic Trade Union - was also helping.

Karen gingerly reached down and touched Freddy. She received a bit of an electrical jolt but nodded in satisfaction when she didn't change.

"Okay, I'm satisfied," said Karen, putting the Boy/Girl gun away. "Hey, are you all right?"

"Five more minutes, Ma," Freddy groaned from where she lay on the floor. "I'll get up then. I promise."

Fortunately, the side effects of the test were quite temporary and Freddy soon recovered. The operation of the collar was definitely different from the Gender Guard. For one thing, it didn't have charges, which could be filled. Instead, it actively countered the gender changing effect. Whether from a Boy/Girl Gun or Freddy's similar - and still unexplained - power. It was also a bit different from the previous collar Freddy had tried, which hadn't been used much, due to side-effects caused by that one. This appeared to operate as claimed, and only as claimed.

"Okay, strip and let's get you measured," said Karen.

"That has such a different meaning when I'm a girl," muttered Freddy. "Ow."

That last as Karen lightly smacked her on the arm.

"Now, come on. We don't just have to get your costume ready," said Karen, "you need some girl sleepwear. For our slumber party, if nothing else."

"I don't know why I can't just wear the panties and nightshirt I wear as a cheerleader rooming with the other girls for away games," said Freddy, muttering under her breath as she complied with Karen's direction.

"You want to wear something new - and nice - for a slumber party," said Karen. She smirked. "Especially one being hosted by your girlfriend!"

Freddy muttered some more, then caught her breath as the cold measuring tape went across her generous nipples. As it turned out, they weren't the only currently generous parts of Freddy.

"I don't believe it," Karen stated, a moment later, as she examined the tape measure. "You're bigger!"

"I'm not surprised," sighed Freddy. "I'm still in puberty, after all. I've told you before, the women on my dad's side are all pretty well-endowed and I tend to take after his side of the family."

"You keep this up and you'll be the biggest girl on the cheerleader team," Karen warned. "Say, why don't you use that gun of Hub's to make your chest smaller when you're female?"

"They found out it's not permanent," sighed Freddy. "Hub explained why the Boy/Girl effect is and the Buster effect isn't, but it made my eyes glaze over."

"Oh. Well, I guess you'll just have to live with being well endowed." She blushed. "Um, as a girl, I mean."

"Hey, after my visit to the Mamazons I'm not complaining!" Freddy exclaimed, with feeling. "Compared to those gals I'm almost flat-chested!"

"What did you do with that outfit, anyway?"

"Oh, I've still got it," Freddy replied, mysteriously. "Figure if nothing else, it might make a good Halloween costume."

"It might at that," snickered Karen. "If you ever work up the nerve to wear it again. Anyway, we need to get going if we're gonna get back in time to finish the preparations."

"Oh, joy," sighed Freddy. "Shopping for underwear with my girlfriend."

* * *

"I'm still smirking over you wanting a teddy," said Karen.

"I didn't know what you meant!" snapped Freddy, blushing. In part because Karen had made her try on and eventually buy one, after showing Freddy what they were. "I've been a girl off and on for less than two years. I'm still not an expert on female sleepwear!"

"A lot of boys your age are," Karen pointed out.

"Well, I'm not a boy at all right now," said Freddy, with a smirk, oomphing her chest out.

Karen snickered. Both of them ignored the gushing noses of several innocent bystanders. Most but not all of them male.

"Anyway, you won't be the most inexperienced girl at the slumber party. That would be Brenda."

"You invited Kuglewicze?!" exclaimed Freddy.

"Well, she needs some friends," said Karen, her tone a bit plaintive.

"She needs some personality," said Freddy, emphatically. "Even after we figured out that her badly-fitting glasses were what were making her so sour and whiny, she's still got a lot to learn. I swear, she's like the mutant offspring of Ben Stein and a Vulcan."

"That's pretty good," said Karen, giggling. She suddenly shook her head, as if getting rid of the idea. "No, Freddy! That's terrible."

She tried to give the other a stern glare, but they quickly both broke out in a bad case of giggles.

* * *

Karen's home had a finished basement which her parents had agreed could be used for the purpose of a slumber party. Her father hadn't been too certain about this, but Karen's mother had agreed, with a knowing smile at her daughter. With one condition.

"Okay, it's on and it's on," said Karen. She handed the key to the choker to her mother. "See you in the morning."

"Now, be good," said her mother. Who then leaned in close to speak in a lower voice. "Though not too good. Got it?"

"Yes, ma'am," said Karen, rolling her eyes.

"What the what?" said F-Freddy, after the older woman had left.

"Mother expects lots of gossip, and maybe a bit of naughty behavior. She says that's what her slumber parties were like, and that such behavior is part of a girl's growing up."

"Naughty behavior?" said Freddy, hopefully.

"Don't count on it," said Karen, firmly.

* * *

Indeed, Freddy found the slumber party rather sedate, compared to what she had experienced on road trips with the cheerleaders. So did some of the other participants. At first.

"To quote the Great Groucho, 'You call this a party?! The beer is warm, the women are cold and I'm hot under the collar!'" said Talli.

"What do you suggest?" said Buffy, who - along some of the other attendees - seemed as unimpressed as the alien gal.

"Well, remember that I have Swap Shop," said Talli, with a smirk.

Talli turned and looked at Karen, who ducked behind Freddy. Talli rolled her eyes, and looked at Buffy. "Buffy" suddenly smirked while "Talli" looked confused. Then panicked. Then angry.

"That's not funny!" said "Talli."

Once the others caught up, they actually did think it was funny. Talli must have thought it was especially funny, because in a matter of minutes no-one was in their own body.

"Ow," said Karen, in Debbie's body, leaning forward and wiggling her shoulders. "Debbie, how do you stand hauling these things around all the time? I mean, sure, it's nice to have a rack the boys will stare at, but don't you get sore in the shoulders and back?"

"Huh?" asked Debbie, from inside Freddy's female body. Which was almost as buxom as her usual.

"Never mind," sighed Karen, barely resisting the urge to giggle.

"Okay, this was fun," said Louise, "but can you put us back now?"

"What's the rush?" asked Talli, lounging sexily in Bambi's filmy nightgown... and voluptuous body. "We should spend the night like this, get to know each other better."

"Oh, I know how you plan to get to know me," snapped Bambi, from Joyce's bod.

"I'm certainly not in any hurry," said Freddy, from Karen's bod. She snickered. "I feel like I've gotten a big load off my chest."

"That's another reason to change us back," snapped Karen. "It's just not right for my boyfriend to be in my body all night. I mean, that's too much temptation."

"Okay, okay," sighed Talli. She sat up and switched with Joyce. Then Karen.

She took more time and shifts than was really necessary to get everyone back in their own bodies, but eventually they were.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Joyce.

"We could give Freddy another makeover," giggled Dawn.

"No!" snapped Freddy. "No. Uh-uh. No way. The other cheerleaders do that every time we have an overnight trip. Give Brenda one."

That proved disappointingly quick and easy, as Brenda was eager to learn about such things. So, what next?

"Oh! I got this great game from the Alien Goods store," said Karen. "It's made just for parties. It's got a lot of weird special effects. Harmless, but very disconcerting. As well as entertaining."

"What's it called?" asked Debbie.

"You Bet On Your Consequences is the closest English translation I've seen."

"That sounds weird," said Freddy, cautiously.

"Which means it's just what this get-together needs," said Talli, firmly.

The game turned out to be long and involved but quite entertaining. Especially with some of the hijinks it encouraged the girls to engage in. Freddy was left rather overheated, and she wasn't the only one. Finally, though, they called it a night (or, rather, an early morning) and got to sleep.

"Well, I'm ready to hit the sack," said Freddy, not bothering to stifle a yawn. Hers was one of the last comments before lights out. "Freddy and her teddy are going beddy."

Which at least earned her some snickers.

* * *

"Wow," said Freddy, once again male, to Karen as they rode their bikes to school the next morning. "I've never been to a slumber party like that before."

"I have to admit, things got a lot more daring than I was expecting," said Karen, as they peddled casually along. She suddenly did a double-take, and smirked at Freddy. "Wait a minute. Wasn't that your first slumber party?!"

"Well, I think the overnight trips with the other cheerleaders count," said Freddy airily. "Some of the other gals sure thought they were.

"Maybe," said Karen, her tone dubious. "Having never been on one of theirs - but having heard you talk about them - I think they might."

They soon reached the school, locked their bikes in the rack and went inside. The day proceeded fairly normally from there.

Which meant that Freddy got a lot of kidding about attending a function "for girls." (Who spread the word about the slumber part was something Freddy never learned.) When Freddy responded with a sly smile and noted that the previous night "he" had slept with 10 girls in one evening the kidders looked confused and found an excuse to leave. Quickly.

Freddy sighed and continued on his way to the next class.

* * *

"Okay, this is weird," said Horth, as he joined the usual suspects for lunch in the school cafeteria.

"Even for this school?" said Karen, mildly.

"Yes. Even for this school. They're putting up a circus tent. In the big field they made from the battle site where Yubi and the Mercotan faced off."

"Which battle still did not officially happen," said Ramet, pointedly.

"Why would they put up a big tent?" said Karen, looking confused.

"No idea," said Freddy, with a shrug, between bites of something both alien and pleasantly spicy.

"You realize that stuff is worse coming out than going in, right?" said Ramet, dryly.

"Oh..." said Freddy. "Uhm, it's not all that bad. I should be okay."

"Anyway," said Karen, to Freddy, "getting back to what you were complaining about, I've had similar accusations - or compliments - from girls who weren't there about having a boy at my slumber party. They're asking all kinds of leading questions."

"I'm not surprised, actually," said the part-time girl. "One of the things which I was most surprised to learn after all this gender-switching started was that girls could be as bad at bullying and intimidation as boys. As well as that they weren't really any worse at gossiping than boys, despite the reputation."

* * *

Even the week of the Hallowe'en party the weather was still unusually warm. In fact, it was warm enough that the staff of the school paper decided to squeeze in one more pool party/planning session at the home of Hub and his parents and "little" sister. Though this time they had an added guest.

Doctor Sumt'ang, as usual, was at the bottom of the pool. The water of which, fortunately for him, was not chlorinated.

"I still don't understand why you invited the new gal," said Hub, in a mutter, after his mother and sister had delivered enough snacks for a swarm of hungry teenagers.

"Oh, I understand why," said Karen, archly, glaring at Ramet. "Why do you think I insisted Freddy be a girl for this school paper meeting/pool party?"

"I thought it was still because there aren't enough girls working on the paper," said Jim, confused.

"I don't think you're being fair," said Ramet, the image of offended dignity. "Adiadal's society does not have a free press. This is our opportunity to show her some of the benefits."

"I'm just curious about what she'll do with that third boob in a swimsuit," said Freddy, who was currently wearing a bikini supplied by Karen. She had already suspected that her girlfriend might have an ulterior motive. Especially given how risqué the swimsuit she had provided for Freddy was. However what several people besides Freddy were currently wondering was whether the alien gal could even find a top with three cups. As well as speculating on what she would do with the middle breast if she couldn't.

"I am definitely not complaining," said Tali, who wasn't bothering to hide her admiration for f-Freddy's shapely form.

"You do realize she can hear us in that changing booth?" said Karen, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, I don't mind," said Adiadal, exiting said cabana.

"Blobble yobble yobble!" said Ramet.

"Blobble yobble yobble!" said Jim.

"Blobble yobble yobble!" said Talli.

"Blobble yobble yobble!" said Bl'fff, possibly copying those three just to try and fit in with the mammals.

"Holy cow!" said Freddy, her voice a squeak as she quickly sat up.

Freddy had thought she'd be resistant, due to exposure in the girls' shower and currently being a girl, herself. However, the shower was a non-salacious situation, involving washing after athletics. This was a deliberate enticement, and Adiadal was working it.

It would be inaccurate to describe Adiadal's top as having three cups. It had three triangles, which actually didn't cup much. Though there was much there which by some standards of morality should have been cupped. The middle triangular section of her top had its own set of two strands, attached together at the top corner and Veeing up to join the usual ones just before the combination went around her neck.

"Holy cow!" said Karen, also staring.

Adiadal just smiled.

"I've never been... exotic before," said the alien gal, modestly. "I'm enjoying it while I can."

"Oh, you aren't the only one enjoying this," said Tali, passionately.

"All right, people," said Hub, whose own, very large and rugged species considered all the others present to be fragile and undesirable, "let's get the work done first. Then we can party."

"All right," said Karen, in agreement. "For Adiadal's benefit, let's review how all this started."

"In the beginning..." said Ramet, pompously.

"Not that far back," said Karen, rolling her eyes. "I mean, contact between Earth and the rest of the universe."

"Well, a giant robot appeared in the..." began Freddy.

"I thought that was a hoax," said Jim, suspiciously.

"You think everything is a hoax," said Karen tiredly. "Including that world-wide broadcast which accompanied the appearance of the giant robot. Both of which were well beyond the technology of Earth at that time."

"Anyway," said Freddy, firmly and loudly, "the robot started a rampage, which for reasons unknown took it straight into San Francisco. There it had a fight with a giant alien girl, and it then chased her out to the bay, where it destroyed the Golden Gate bridge."

"There was some sort of near-human and a not-very-near-human with her, but given her size she got all the attention," said Karen. "Even though the giant grub which soon arrived was much larger."

"Probably because the grub didn't also have enormous..." began Ramet.

"Wait," said Talli, holding up a deceptively delicate hand. "Only the robot probe and Gallaxhar were actually alien. The giant woman, the fish man, the blob and the grub were all local. In fact, it was their unexpected appearance which caused the Grand Highest Council of the Galaxy to decide to contact your planet."

"Not possible," said Ramet, sternly. "They had to be from off planet."

"Well, I've never heard of or seen any non-Earthers like them!" said Talli.

"There are thousands of starfaring species in galaxy," said Ramet. "You surely aren't claiming to be familiar with all of them! You didn't even know about Adiadal's species until after she showed up, here at school."

"Well... no, but..."

"There you go. Besides, have you heard of any Earthers like that, anyway?"

"Surely, though, with five such... striking species, I'd have heard of one of them if they were actually from off Earth and representative of entire planet!"

Karen decided to get everyone back to working on the paper by changing the topic.

"One persistent rumor is that we're going to have a special guest at the school, and that this is somehow connected to that circus tent."

Ramet and Talli ignored this attempt, and kept arguing. With a tired sigh, Karen gave up. While the pair of aliens continued their heated discussion, the others swam and intermittently worked on the school paper. Adiadal later stated she learned a great deal about the free press that afternoon. Whether what she learned was actually appropriate for the institution was a matter of dispute.

* * *

The official school Hallowe'en party was hosted in the gym, starting on a Friday evening a couple of hours after class. Since only students were invited there weren't any problems with outsiders - including parents - trying to enter the wrong locker rooms and being caught by the security systems. Something which had repeatedly happened at functions where outsiders were present. Apparently, some people in the greater population - including many from off-planet - could neither read the multilingual signs nor understand the universal symbols. Both of which contained warmings of dire consequences if someone tried to enter the wrong locker room.

Not that the event was entirely free of problems...

"That's not someone dressed as a Metaltron!" hissed Argy, at one point, to several of the Usual Suspects. "It's an actual Metaltron!"

He was costumed as an actual aardvark, to take advantage of his natural resemblance. So maybe Argy was projecting.

"Are you sure?" muttered Freddy, who was definitely not sure. She was also looking especially cute. "That guy barely looks sharp enough to point and click."

"And how is it whistling?!" said Karen, his voice a pleasant, if oddly timbered, baritone.

"It's all right," said Miss Furrpect, who happened to overhear them. Like all the teachers, she was not in costume but dressed normally. Of course, for her this meant she was wearing very little on top of her natural coat. "That's a special guest, checking out the school and after-class activities. It's a pacifist."

"I never heard of a pacifist Metaltron!" said Argy.

"They're a disciple of the Lama Rama-Ding-Dong."

"Buh?!" said Freddy, Karen and Argy.

"The whistling is from a modification of its sound emission modulator. That's how you can tell. Now, please, explain your costumes. I am still not completely familiar with Earth culture."

"Earth has a lot of cultures," muttered M-Karen.

"I came as Futaba-chan, and Karen came as Ranma-Kun," said Freddy. "Originally, she - uh, he - was going to be Indiana Jones and I was going to be the leader of the Mamazons, complete with authentic Mamazon battle garb, but we found out that skimpy costumes aren't allowed."

"That will be a shock to Ramet," said Horth, who was dressed as a Wookie, stopping as he walked to the snack table. "He's doing the werewolf queen from that movie. Wearing only fur."

"If there's enough fur that might pass," said Freddy, with a shrug.

She looked around the large room, mostly with an eye for the costumes. Hub was actually dressed as a large, craggy boulder. He would stand unmoving in one place until some incautious person leaned on him or otherwise indicated they thought there was an actual rock on the gymnasium floor. Then Hub would make some appropriate snide comment and move away. This worked a surprising number of times.

With some costumes the identity of the wearer was obvious. With some Freddy could only guess. A few were complete mysteries. Since there were no awards or ritual unmasking at a designated time, who was in some costumes remained unknown.

Of course, there were many people there who were far less perspicacious than Freddy. A human guy in a cowboy outfit sidled up to her. She immediately recognized him as Calvin Ormsby, one of the human males who enjoyed "kidding" Freddy.

"I have an idea I want to run by Freddy," said Cal.

"Shoot," said Freddy.

"No, I want to talk to Freddy not you."

"I am Freddy," said Freddy, puzzled.

"Listen," said Cal, his tone incredibly condescending and belittling as he smirked at Freddy, "just change. Freddy will know what I mean."

Slowly, it dawned on Freddy that this guy couldn't wrap his head around the fact that she was the same person as her male self. Or that a female could possibly understand what he wanted to talk about.

"Yeah, if you want to talk to the male me you'll have to wait 'till I'm dressed in boy clothes," said Freddy, patiently. Then she turned her back on him.

Eventually, the party reached the scheduled end time. Surprisingly, it actually ended not long after that. To the relief of those who had noticed its nature, the suspected Metaltron left without causing trouble.

* * *

At lunch the next Monday there was a lot of buzz about events of the previous few days. However, none of them were connected with the school Hallowe'en party!

"Did you hear?" said Argy. "The giant girl, the giant moth, the cockroach guy, the fish guy and the blob were all seen in a town near San Francisco over the Hallowe'en weekend! Fighting giant, mutant vegetables! The news is saying they're all from Earth! Even the vegetables!"

"Not possible," said Ramet, firmly. "They have to be non-Terrestrial."

"I guess the truth will come out," said Freddy, "eventually."

End Part Twenty-Seven