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// Night 3: Autumn vs the Forces of Space 
// Story: 6 Universal Nights 
// by The Blue EM2 
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Dawn came once more, and the sun opened its weary eye upon the world, bathing it in beams sublime and golden. In another of the rooms, the individual whom had once been Smoulder stirred from her sleep and climbed out of bed. Of course, this being the way of things, she was Steph once more. She even had her full length hair back, which was an interesting devopment. As she climbed out of bed and looked around her, she could hear a quiet voice in the corridor. Although only in her night attire and not yet dressed (upon a casual glance, her clothing had changed back to normal), she decided to exit the room to see who was out there.

Tom was leaning against the wall, now fully changed back and no longer Ocellus. He had a look of sadness on his face.

"What's wrong?" Steph asked him, looking worried. Tom suddenly looked up in a start.

"Is it wrong that after yesterday I didn't want to change back?" he asked. "True, getting over the initial shock and the fact my family now know the truth was tough at first. But with Sandbar, I was... happy. Content."

"That could never be forever," Steph replied, then stopped when she realised how insensitive that sounded.

"Thanks. That really helped," Tom replied, in a tone of voice which indicated the opposite state. "Why can't it be forever? Why does this keep happening to us and messing our lives up? You've got it easy, as you never change genders!"

"You may need to get over it," Steph replied. "Don't weep because it is gone, smile because it happened."

"Dr. Seuss," Tom noted. "I suppose I do need to be happy with what I got." He pushed himself off the wall, and ran his hand along his chin. "Stubble. May need to get that sorted. Still, at least I got the experience, not only of love, but of seeing things from the perspective of the, erm... fairer sex."

Another few doors slid open. "Are you OK?" Jimmy asked, his hair in his eyes, making him look like a yak.

"I am now," Tom replied. "Because of my friends. Because of all of us. Because we were all united by a love of pastel coloured ponies. Now, seeing as we are all up, shall we get showered and eat some breakfast?"





One scene transition later, Tom and Steph were walking to the park entrances, where they would part ways. "Have you ever got the impression these days and nights are taking longer?" Steph asked Tom.

"Sorry, what?" Tom asked in return. "I know it's not normal to answer a question with a question, but I'm not entirely sure what you're referring to."

"These days just seem to go by really slowly, that's all," Steph answered. "I know that time flies when you're having fun, but sometimes it feels like one of these days lasts for six. And the time between today and yesterday felt like a whole week had passed!"

"I have no idea what you're referring to," Tom replied in return. "I know how long these days are, and I want to make the most before the next inevitable change." Before them loomed the split in the path that would take them to their destinations. "Well, here we must part ways. See you later, Steph, or whomever you become today."

"See ya!" Steph replied, and then set off towards Universal Studios Florida.





Of the many classic films that could have appeared at Universal Studios, the first one that comes to mind is probably not the 1997 Sony release Men in Black, based on the old urban legend of the Men in Black, a shadowy government body devoted to fighting alien threats. This had been a critical and commercial success, and as a result Sony agreed to license the property and its characters for use in a ride based on the franchise. The result was Men in Black: Alien Attack, a laser gun shoot em' up that worked very similarly to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, which those of you who have read 8 Magic Nights will remember was a source of bemusement for Juniper Montage. Steph chose to join the queue for the ride, as this was her allocated ride for the day, before being very confused. This didn't look like a ride queue. This was an exhibition called The Universe & You - Are We Alone?

"Am I in the wrong place?" Steph asked. A film suddenly began to play, but was abruptly cut off when a man dressed in black started to speak and directed them into an elevator. The elevator took a few moments to travel, but it wasn't long before Steph started feeling weird.

"Oh boy, here we go again," she said, glancing down at her shorts (given the weather, she had decided to wear shorts). As she looked, they turned green and began to grow longer, stopping near the bottom of her thighs. The elevator door opened, and the crowd were ushered forward, Steph doing her best to keep going despite her rapidly changing body.

As she proceeded along, she felt something start to brush against her legs. Realising it was her shorts, which had by now metamorphosed into a skirt, she was equally surprised when she felt something like fur brushing against her legs. There was an orange fur lining in the hem of the skirt, which felt really odd. A chevron pattern appeared in the sides of the skirt, and the front pulled up slightly.

As per the previous nights, her shirt suddenly shrank onto her body, with the sleeves growing longer to reach her elbows. Otherwise, the only changes were that it turned green, just a lighter shade of green than the skirt, and a fur collar grew around the back and shoulders. What looked like a grey waistcoat then appeared, which Steph kept unbuttoned. Her socks vanished, and her shoes morphed into a pair of light green heels with more of that fur attached to the back of the strap (which was around her ankle, oddly enough. You wouldn't want to trip whilst wearing that!). Not long after, a dark red and lighter red headband appeared in her hair, threading across the top, soon joined by a green one on her forehead.

On the topic of her hair, as she rushed along the corridor alongside everybody else, she suddenly saw orange appear in it, and start to displace the usual blonde tones. It dramatically increased in volume and went everywhere. It hung all over the place in curls, and looked a bit messy.

"Wow!" Steph exclaimed, before noticing her voice had changed, becoming deeper. She sounded exactly like...

"Autumn Blaze!"

Her skin turned a lighter shade of tan, and her eyes went an amber shade. But apart from all of that, it seemed to be over.

And it was fortuitous, as they had reached the loading bay. Autumn hopped into her ride vehicle and strapped herself in, remembering to put her phone in the front pouch.

"You look familiar," said the boy next to her. "I think I've seen you somewhere."

"Oh!" Autumn exclaimed. "So, so sorry, I've been so busy, lots of things to see and do, haven't had a chance to stop and chat in a while- am I pronouncing that right?- Oh, I just love that word, chat, it says so much about human conversation and-"

"Listen up, recruits!" called the voice of an unseen agent. "Time to see what you've got!"

The vehicle rumbled forward onto a training range filled with paper targets. Autumn soon clicked that gripping her gun with both hands would make her more accurate, and so began to hit targets.

Suddenly; "Training aborted."

"Seriously?" Autumn asked. "That ride was, like so quick and-"

"Hold your fire! We've got an alien threat on the streets of New York. Now get out there and blast those bugs!"

"Full power engaged."

"Bugs?" Autumn said, nervously. "I hope Chrysalis isn't in there!"

The machines somehow rolled onto the streets of New York (which miraculously happened to back onto the training grounds), and before anybody knew what was happening they were barraged by aliens all over the place. Autumn remembered the briefing. Aim for the eyes.

But then, they were informed that the other vehicle was full of aliens, and told to open fire to stop them! And that was exactly what they did, firing upon it with the intent of hitting the exhaust port to make it spin out of control. Some expert shooting from Autumn disabled the enemy vehicle, and they were on their way to shooting more bugs.

But then, a truly massive alien towered over them. "Hit the red button!" called an unknown voice. Autumn slammed down on it and suddenly got a massive points boost.

And with that, the ride was suddenly over. They stopped in the unload bay, and were back in the exhibition.





Autumn went and stood on the waterfront, soaking up the breeze. "This place is amazing!" she exclaimed. "Universal Studios! Wow! It makes us feel like we are all part of one great something, and a place of fun too!"

Just then, a woman with dark blue hair walked up to Autumn. "What happened to you?" she asked, in a tone that sounded utterly bored.

"I'D RATHER... SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!"

The woman shook her head. "This is so not a musical."