The night was starting to come alive.

Full darkness had descended upon the city and things were starting to come out to play. Gone were the straight-laced folks who worked their steady office jobs to pay off college loans or suffered through the rat race of life. Gone were the worries and stresses of the daily grind - those were fears for daylight.

Tonight, it was time to party.

And one such place that drew the crowds was a modestly sized stone-faced building on the corner of a street known for its restaurant land entertainments. The building resembled a hybrid of a church and a castle, both welcoming and imposing, complete with towers on the far corners and a steeple right on the true corner of the street, where the entrance was. Stained-glass windows, illuminated by neon lights from the inside completed the effect.

The club’s main areas were a softly lit area shortly inside the door, where one could sit down in intimate company and speak without shouting. It had a feeling of class, evoking the romance of kingdoms and royal favor.

And beyond that was where you could have fun!

There was a cathedral-like space with balconies all around and a stage at the far end, backed by massive screens. This was the room cloaked in darkness yet pierced by hundreds and thousands of lasers and spotlights, a technicolor acid trip, filled variously with house music, electronica, and live performances.

It was designed to entire and allure at every turn, promising rapture and thrills with every moment.

This was Nightshade.

This was also Zek’s “day” job.

Zek barely glanced at the guy’s ID before waving him through. The guy was a regular, here all the time and always chatty. Somehow Zek had even ended up as MyFace friends with him. ...He really needed to delete MyFace.

Zek turned his attention to the person, automatically giving them a look over, making sure they weren’t already drunk or violent or whatever. He checked their ID, yep, good to go. “You’re good,” he said, already turning to the next person.

As usual, the line had about thirty or so people waiting to get into the building. The night was still young, so the club wasn’t anywhere near capacity yet and as such, only a few other bouncers were on duty with Zek, another one vet people, a third to be on hand in case anything unusual came up or needed to deal with something Zek and the other bouncer couldn’t take care of, and a fourth to be present as a go-for and to relay communications. Of course, all the bouncers had their radios and earpieces, but having a dedicated comms person overseeing everything made it less likely that anything (or anyone) would slip by and allow Zek and the other guy to focus on the clientele.

Zek shot his arm out, nearly clotheslining a guy. “Sorry man, I’m going to ask you to leave.”

“Aw come on!” the guy slurred. “Whatsa matter? I’m over twenty-one!”

Zek snorted. “Probably. But you’re obviously clearly intoxicated.” He grinned. “Got started on the Friday partying early this evening, huh?”

The guy started to say something, but Zek just ignored him. “Please leave, sir,” he said. “Alright Miss, ID please,” he said, allowing the crowd and social pressure to keep the guy quelled. Zek still kept an eye on him, though, but otherwise made sure he exuded total confidence that the man would not enter. And if he tried, well, Zek hadn’t made anyone vanish yet that night. And they always left an impression on the crowd and made him happy.

But what did he know? The night was still young.

School was out. It was time. To. Party! Rhia had worked hard all semester, physically and mentally, and now was the time to let loose and enjoy herself. Sure, she had moments of fun during the school year, but those always came with the knowledge that she would have to go back to her dorm and study or wake up the next morning to lift.

Not tonight!

Tonight she was having fun. Tomorrow could be an off day for lifting and she had no tests to study for. That meant drinking and more importantly, dancing!

As night fell Rhia got ready. Heels, a short dress with a plunging neckline, and tactical application of makeup to make her look older. Rhia had a fake ID but she had to sell the being old enough. Between that and her outfit accentuating her assets, why would anyone look too hard at her ID?

After stashing her ID and credit card on her person, Rhia was out the door and in an Uber. While she owned a car and had a driver license… No one drives in New York. There’s too much traffic. That and a nice car dropping you off made you feel like a celebrity!

The Uber driver was funny. Rhia gave him five stars and told him he could be a comedian. He said that he was, Uber was how he paid the bills while he gave it his best shot. Rhia wished him luck as she stepped out of his car.

Rhia waited in the line to get into Nightshade. She could hear bass from the building and found herself moving her hips to the beat as she waited. The line was moving swiftly enough. The man who was checking IDs doing a good job. Rhia saw him deny a guy because he was already drunk.

That didn’t bode well for Rhia. Bouncers paying attention was the bane of her underage existence.

When she was left facing the man, who she stood a few inches taller than in her heels, she played it cool. ”Howdy.” She said as she produced her ID and handed it over. She looked away, not wanting to stare at the brown haired man or her ID in his hand. Only the guilty looked guiltily at such things.

It had been a week since he got back to the states from across the pond and other than flying Carrick had absolutely nothing to do. Not that he needed one quite yet, he hadn’t tried to get involved again in school (he realllllly needed to) and he hadn’t really tracked down anyone he knew yet. Granted he didn’t try avoiding them. Most of the familiar faces were older or gone. Everyone else he knew got greeted with a ‘busy, talk to you soon’. It was all in all awkward for him he did owe some people an apology for leaving and if he was good at anything other than flying it was procrastinating.

Carrick had no needed to blow off steam. Worried one of his other forms decided to take over he chose to take the initiative and do just that. Carrick wasn’t a runner, he never got anything from the runners high and he didn’t like being in cars in the city. There was always too much traffic so he decided to fly and check out the nightlife. Maybe an open mic night or karaoke bar was calling his name. His wings adjusted to keep himself from being blinded when he turned down the street he lowered himself and stared at the building and smirked. ”Me o’my. Think I found a new home.” Carrick said as he eagerly hopped into line.

Sure he could have flew in one of the cathedral windows but decided if he was going to go into this interesting looking building with it’s long line and interesting lighting ambiance he decided he’d play along he was after all a stranger to the area. When in city get distracted with the lights. Who knows maybe the interior was pub set up where he could attempt to make a quick buck.

Carrick was eighteen, his current identification on the other hand said otherwise his original age twenty-three there wasn’t much of a difference in facial features or height. Thankfully, Carrick always had a baby face and it had a tendency to keep him out of trouble even though he often sought it out. So when it was time to hand over the ID he wasn’t all too concerned.

However his short attention span got the better of him the lights were bright and they were calling. ”How bout these lines? Great right?” Carrick said even though he was only a few spots from the front of the line. He only got a raised eyebrow from a few people behind him and then rolled his multicolored eyes. ”Eejit.” he said to himself more than anyone else.

“Hey, hey,” Zek said in response as he took the ID and started to give it a look over, glancing at all the right spots. But then he frowned. You know, something didn’t seem right. Zek glanced up and purposely kept his eyes moving up. He was starting to get a feeling. Not quite a sense and too small to be a hunch. Just a feeling.

He looked the girl over again. She fit the vibe of the club, for sure. Very attractive, great physique, seemed comfortable showing it off and was even dancing a bit in line. Nothing immediately jumped out at him. He stared at the card again. The picture was good, she matched it well enough.

So what was it?

He glanced up again. Oh, that was it.

Somebody was looking a little too cool for school. Avoiding eye contact. Trying too hard to not look at the ID, which she’d probably want to take back if she was like anyone else. She wasn’t with anyone, so nothing else to pay attention to. She didn’t even seem that impatient. She seemed...like she was genuinely trying to not show anything at all.

Zek stared at the card again. Now he had an idea of what he was looking for, he started finding some small imperfections. He smirked. “Hold your horses,” he said. “Gotta say, ma’am, this is some good work.” His smirk turned to a full on grin. “This from Stanislav? Or Rousseau? Too good to be Donny’s. Anyways, I’ll be adding this to my collection. Just need six more and I’ll have all fifty states!” His smile was know full on mocking.

“So I’m going to need to see an actually valid form of ID or else you’re gonna have to dance your little heart out somewhere else, m’kay?” Zek smiled sickeningly sweetly. His eyes never left her face though. “Best be quick, I got a long line and the night’s passing quick.”

Could the bouncer take any longer? It was a super real looking Texas ID and the picture was from one of her cousins who was just old enough to be legal and looked a lot like she did. Hair color was a little different but the sun and some product could explain that change.

Rhia looked back down at the bouncer and the naway and at the crowd. Her attention was brought back to the bouncer when he called her out on having a fake. How did he know! It wasn’t obvious the “Banksy of England” money where there was an obvious giveaway.

”I… Uh…. I don’t know what you mean.” Rhia said. No one had called her on a fake ID before. She tried to play it off and stay cool, but was failing miserably.

The bouncer asked for some valid ID.

”Y-yeah. Sure. Give me just a minute.” Rhia stepped back from the line and motioned to the person who had been behind her, ”You go ahead.” Rhia stuck a hand into her chest where she had stashed her ID and card. She smiled uncomfortably for a moment as she pulled out the real ID.

She was putting on a show. She only had her real ID in case she needed to show a cop. She wasn’t about to show the bouncer. She would get into the club and he would regret not letting her. Had he just not noticed she could be in there having fun and the club would not be liable because they tried.

They shouldn’t try so hard.

Rhia’s smile turned mischievous as she decided on how she was going to get in.

There was an issue not with him, very rarely is there an issue with him. Carrick was good at knowing when to stop pressing buttons and when was a good time to leave. Thankfully, the issue wasn’t with him. It was with someone else, a blonde. She stepped out of line and then it seemed the line was moving again. Which was great his attention span was starting to show by his tail behind him.

Carrick turned and grabbed his tail and held it to his side. Maybe this place wasn’t such a great idea. Sure the lights were cool reminded him of a few places back home he frequented when he wasn’t worried about his mother but with a line like this he started to imagine a large crowd inside. ”Sorry love. Mind of it’s own sometimes.” Carrick said instinctively after hearing a girl talking to one of her friends. They didn’t find him funnier but the situation was now apparently funny. Good. Laughter was the best medicine, right?

The winged shifter released his tail as he thought it was time to reach for his ID. His tail swished behind him again brushing up against the woman behind him again. More laughter. Carrick smirked and then looked away from the building to the blonde who was denied earlier. Then Carrick realized he was doing more than looking it would have looked like he was smiling at her. He shot up his hand and gave a slight wave and awkwardly looked forward towards the bouncer.

Carrick’s tail flicked when he handed the bouncer his ID. ”Evening gents. Crowded in’ere?” Carrick asked instead of asking what he was thinking ‘tall ceilings?’ When he asked what he was thinking he usually didn’t get the answer he wanted. Usually was paired with more things not to do. Hopefully this wasn’t a anti-mutant establishment because well… his tail swayed behind him following the beat that could be heard from the evening and he did have his large wings.

Thought so.

Zek permitted himself a small smile as the girl started to crack. He kept the smile even as he took the next ID and passed the person. And the person after that. Most folks who came could get in, no problem. Underaged people or already soused people were usually the only times he stopped someone. The other bouncer in charge of letting folks in, Jim, usually stopped more people than Zek, but Zek just blamed it on Jim’s personality.

Next up was a sight to see, that’s for sure. “Awesome wings, dude! Not too crowded though, we got another hour or so before it gets real busy,” Zek said as he accepted the ID. The guy looked young, but the ID looked right. Somehow Zek doubted that it was commonplace to fake an ID for someone with wings and... differently colored eyes? He glanced up. Yep, the guy had two eye colors.

Pretty cool.

“Alright, man, you’re good to go,” Zek said as he handed the ID back. “I recommend you to not fly inside. Lots of lasers, hate for you to go blind.” He grinned again and let Birdman through.

He held up a hand to the gaggle of girls who were up next. “One moment, ladies,” he said suavely. He turned to Ms. Young-and-restless. “Sooo,” he drawled. “You figure out who you are yet? I don’t have all night.” His smile vanished. “If you can’t provide a valid ID, I’m officially asking you to leave.”

And he just stared at her, his arms loose at the sides. He couldn’t just have someone hanging out at the line. Too distracting. And annoying.

Rhia knew what she was going to do. The right moment just needed to present itself. The right person who would leave the bouncer the most distracted… THERE!

A winged man—with a lovely accent… Wow—strolled up.

The bouncer checked the winged—AND TAILED!—man and let him pass before turning to Rhia. It was perfect. Rhia bit down on her smile so that the bouncer wouldn’t suspect any shenanery. The winged man looked over at her and gave her a wave. She smiled and gave a small wave back at him and felt a little bad about what she was about to do, ”Yes. I know who I am... “ Rhia put on a pitying face, ”But I’m afraid you don’t know who you are.”

Rhia focused on the bouncer and the winged man, and with a small effort of will used her power. She silently counted the two seconds down to herself. And then her power took effect.

Under normal circumstances Rhia loved to stick around and watch the reaction of those whom she swapped. This time though, she wanted to slip away into the club before other bouncers came over to see what the commotion was all about.

”I’ll just slip on in while y’all figure y’allselves out.” Rhia said before blowing a kiss and making her way past the bouncer and the winged man into the club.

((You can play the swap how you like. Rhia experiences it as a weird out of body experience as if she is experiencing her mind moving to the other body over an elongated period of time. It is actually instantaneous but the mind does funny things sometimes, yo))

Carrick gave a surprised look and quickly looked over his shoulder as if the wings weren’t always there. He then smirked and gave a thumbs up, ”Right? Blessin n’ a curse.” he laughed, as he walked past pulling out a pair of sunglasses he knew at least helped himself from going blind. ”Never, man.” he chirped and slashed his tail before humming the song where someone wears their sunglasses inside.

Walking past the bouncers into the building he pocket his passport and suddenly felt dizzy. Carrick blinked then felt like he was looking at the back of his head. His wings. His glorious wings. Carrick blinked again and shook his head. His back itched. So he scratched it. Carrick looked over and saw the blond walk past him confused. Weird Déjà vu? Did his Gryphon form consume a pigeon that ate something funny… again? No this was different of last time. The walls weren’t moving.

Carrick had to check. He touched the wall it didn’t move. His hand wasn’t folding into it. Thank god. The shifter wasn’t ready for that after the de-age he wasn’t sure what the bad times he’d see now. There was something on his suit. He held the wall for a second then shook his head again. Carrick didn’t wear suits usually cost waaaay too much to tailor. Movement for wings and the tail hole? No sir. Too much, even with the occasional pickpocket.

Looking at his hand he looked back to see the girl again walking past his… back. ******” he said as he looked at his back. His wings. They were great… was he on a ‘bad pigeon’ again?

“Yeah, um, I know exactly who I am,” Zek said. “And if I forget, I’ve got a little card that says who I am. It’s called an ID. Which you’re apparently unfamil--er--” Suddenly his mouth stopped working. His eyes widened as he looked at the girl and then everything went black.

Something was odd.

Little points of light began to appear and suddenly Zek was amidst a sea of stars and a strange creature was floating by. And then everything changed. Suddenly he was seeing himself as if in a gym. Then he was seeing flashes of more strange creatures flying left and right, appearing and vanishing. Over and over this happened, occasionally with glimpse of himself, out-of-body style, throwing his orbs and catching and unleashing the creatures. And there was music, too.

It was a pretty trippy minute or so.

After a final vision of throwing an orb right at himself, he saw a flash of light. And then everything looked normal again.

Except he was now in front of the club’s doors, instead of in front of the line. “What on Earth was..” Zek trailed off. He sounded funny. He coughed and cleared his throat. “I say, I’m a--”

He caught a glimpse of himself in the windows of the door. “--birdman?”

Zek whirled around, his wings snapping out and flailing around. And that wasn’t all that was flailing. “I have a ’tail?!” His eyes widened. “Wait a second…”

He looked down at himself. Jeans, black sneakers, a recently familiar shirt…

“I’m the birdman,” he groaned, his eyes finally looking up. And seeing himself looking every bit as confused as he felt.

“Hey!” he said to himself, or at least the version of himself he could see. “Dude, what’s going on here?”

The problem about having made it into the club how she had,was that Rhia no longer had her fake ID. The benefit of getting into a 21 and up club without her ID is that they were less likely to card her at the actual bars. Still, it might be best to see if she could get any men to buy her drinks. She could figure that out after she hit the dance floor.

Rhia had come to dance after all! Alcohol was just a lovely bonus.

The lights shone over Rhia in the way only club lights could and the bass pounded. The combination was a siren call to her. She was swept along by the rhythm toward the roiling mass of bodies all expressing themselves to the music. They were her people.

”Aye yourself man.” Carrick said as he looked at his hands then looked back to his face that was no longer his and the wings. His identity it was being sported by someone else. Worse yet, he knew this body didn’t have them. He had been trying to move them since he was looking at what was supposed to be his reflection. ”Been clipped.” he looked at his tail. His tail wouldn’t know what to do without him in his body it’d get stuck everywhere.

”Better question, how do we switch back?” Carrick asked looking down at his current body. ”Think I need to take a leak.” he did not want to do that in another body. Nope. Carrick shook his hands and then pointed at his own body. ”Boyo, switch back! Not a grounder and I don’t want to be one!” he said listening to the lack of thoughts in the back of his mind.

Carrick looked at the butt in his current form and tried to wiggle his tail hoping this was indeed just a bad delayed trip. He turned in circles his neck starting to turn more than it probably should have. The former shifter was too upset to notice. Carrick stopped turning and then looked back to himself now adding dizziness to the list of things currently wrong. He slapped himself in the face trying to wake himself up. It hurt. Add that to the list as well. Things just kept getting worse.

His balance was off he leaned forward and found himself moving quickly to his body. Why was his body so different? Without his wings and tail he felt like he kept falling forward. Carrick managed to stop in front of his old body and locked eyes with his former mismatched ones that were apart of who he was. The freak with wings and a tail was just part of who he was.

Reaching up and slapping himself in the face he yelled, ”Wake up ya Eejit!” he closed his eyes hoping to wake up in a tree somewhere or in his bed back at the mansion.

By now they were attracting attention, and not just because the line was starting to stall. On one hand, you had an idiot who didn’t know how to use his suddenly extra body parts, making his wings and tail fan out and move every which way. And they were big wings, too. Like an eagle’s. If the eagle was the size of a lion.

On the other hand, you had a guy in a suit looking like he was possessed as he twisted his neck impossibly far and danced in circles to...check out his butt?

Zek couldn’t blame him - he had a pretty nice butt.

His body started moving toward him in a very gangly manner and right as he approached himself, he (in the Birdman’s body) started to open his mouth but he (in his original recipe body) slapped himself across the beak kisser.

“Oi!” he said. “Cut that out! I am awake, you twit!” he spat. Then he registered movement out of the corners of his eyes. Oh yeah, the other bouncers were starting to react to what looked like one of their own just smacking a guy for no reason.

He felt something moving. Oh, his tail! It was whipping around. He quickly threw his hands up and raised his voice, “It’s okay everyone, I’m fine!” he said. “Zek and I are old pals! No harm, no...fowl!” He couldn’t resist.

But then Zek quickly lowered his voice. “Dude, I think we just got Freaky Fridayed. Real quick, say there’s an emergency and you have to go on break. Ask Jerry to cover for you. We need to talk and out here probably isn’t the best place.”

He stared into his eyes (which were very attractive, if he had to say so himself). “Got it?”

The body snatcher had jokes. He was also awake apparently so this wasn’t a bad dream or a bad trip… Carrick still didn’t rule the last one out. The former shifter noticed the everyone watching. Carrick turned towards his older body nodded then looked to the bouncers who he was supposed to be working with. He wasn’t in his best form seeing as he didn’t have control of his body so he winked to himself (former body) he yelled. ”I have to ****” then gave the other bouncers an awkward thumbs up.

”Jerry! I need coverage!” he added quickly before leaning forward awkwardly to walk into the club. Carrick reached out and grabbed his old bodies arm for balance. ”I might have to… nope… false alarm.” Carrick said thankfully as he finally righted himself and stood up straight now that he wasn’t walking.

”Try not to damage the wings? I want them back.” Carrick practically whined as he looked at them. He could see they were in danger without them. ”Tail too. Has a mind of it’s own…” Carrick finally looked around into the lounge part of the club. It was nice. ”Totally could have flown in ‘ere.” Carrick said.

”Like the movie?” Carrick asked? ”I wish I had my body back!” he practically yelled.

“Oh, dead gods!” Zek said, already making a mental list of the damage control he’d need. Like that laaame excuse Birdman gave for his (Zek’s!) sudden departure. Amateur! I’m working with an amateur here! Ugh! But Zek couldn’t really do anything about it right then. For all they knew, he was just some random bird guy and honestly, he didn’t feel like explaining everything to them right now.

Also, he needed to figure out what was happening first, so he’d be able to explain it to them. And for that, he needed Birdy.

Zek tried pulling the wings back in as they headed inside and they...somewhat...complied. “‘Fraid I can’t make promises about that,” he muttered sheepishly. Also, now he understood the gangliness because he kept wanting to pitch over backward! Fortunately the tail was there to maintain some semblance of balance.

But they finally hit the lounge area. And the guy was yelling. Zek hissed, “Dude! Keep it down! Yelling isn’t going to help!” And now Zek really needed to get switched back just to shut the guy up! “Here, come this way,” he said, beckoning with a hand and wobbling over to a table.

“Yeah, so now we need to figure out how to switch back,” he said. “You wouldn’t happen to have brainswitching powers as well as animal bits, huh?” he asked. He’d never heard of someone having such disparate mutations, but he didn’t know everything.

Then a thought struck him. “The girl!” he said, snapping the fingers. “The last thing I saw was the girl, Miss I-Don’t-Have-A-Real-ID! And she said something about not knowing who I was...”