Rhia hit the dance floor and the crowd rippled like waves on a pond. Not only was Rhia someone who could dance, she had a sculpted body. One where, as she moved, you could watch the muscle ripple beneath the skin. Movement was what she was good at. Rhia had spent her life doing gymnastics, martial arts, and dancing. She had strength, range of motion, poise, and grace… And most importantly… She had rhythm.

It wasn’t long before Rhia had a young man offering to buy her a drink. Mission accomplished! She was there for two things. Dancing and drinking. She had no plans of leaving with someone, but they didn’t have to know that.

The man was in his mid twenties, a little over six feet tall, and fairly broad. He was not that great of a dancer. Had the man not offered to buy Rhia a drink she would have moved away to find someone else to dance with. Rhia also wasn’t super into men with longer hair. Especially when they had a long braid that reached down to between their shoulder blades.

Yet, he offered to buy her a drink. So she could dance with him for a time after.

Rhia left the dancefloor as the music blended from one track to another. She went with the man toward the bar in the lounge area. Easier to order, you didn’t have to yell at the bartender. ”Rum and coke.” Rhia told the man before letting him split off to go get the drinks. No sense in her hanging around the bar and risk the bartender doing their job and carding her even if the man was paying.

”Well you said Freaky Fridayed!” Carrick retorted quickly, ”That’s what they did but you were supposed to yell that with me.” Carrick held up his fingers to three and started to count down before he decided that the body imposter was right. They did need to swap back. His new body let out a low growl that sounded a hundred times different to express his frustration.

Carrick grabbed his throat and gave a sickened look. ”I can’t even growl?!? What’s wrong with this body!” he looked back to his old self and then shook his head lifting his fingers up again this time counting off his powers, ”Wings, tail, flight, Gryphon form, better vision, better hearing and finally a can do attitude.” he smirked at the last one then shook his head, ”Obviously that isn’t part of this body! What did you give me? A bum voice box!?!” Carrick tilted his head back and looked up to the ceiling wishing this was over. If this happened every time he went to a club he would not be coming back.

”A girl!” Carrick snapped his fingers like he was following along as long as he stayed within sight of his body everything would be fine right? ”What girl?” why was it always about a girl. If he had his tail it would be revealing how he was feeling. His shoulders couldn’t do it justice.

He snapped again, ”I saw a girl! She was in line!” he didn’t narrow it down but he recalled awkwardly waving to one when he walked up. New Carrick was making sense. ”You’re Carrick… well I’m Carrick.” he shook his head glad he never tried at high school again just like chemistry this was nothing more than a headache and this time he didn’t have Liz to give him notes. Or answers. School sucked why did he come back here? Oh right because this was better than home.

”I don’t even know who I am now.” Carrick said not realizing he was turning his head further than it should have been as he tried to look for the blonde he saw earlier.

Zek’s new jaw actually dropped open for a split second before he caught himself. Is this guy for real? he thought as Birdman continued to enact Freaky Friday. Before apparently trying to strangle himself. Did Birdman have an actual birdbrain, too? And there! He kept sticking his fingers up and counting off them and flipping Zek’s biological head all over the place.

Then Zek realized he wasn’t paying attention. Wait, a gryphon form? Oooh, that could be cool! And then Zek got an idea, an evil, dastardly idea. Would it really be so bad to not switch back? Think of all the stuff he could do with wings and enhanced senses and flight and--a can-do attitude?

Yeah, no. This ended tonight.

But Zek could still have a little fun. As sincerely and seriously as he could manage, he told Birdman his powers. “Yes, my voice got damaged in a slam poetry competition back in college,” he said, “It’s actually a very painful story. There are a bunch of sounds I can’t do anymore, but apparently I’m now fluent in Latin. Or at least that’s what people tell me, since I apparently only speak it when I’m unconscious and then only in a deep raspy voice.” Zek shrugged. What could you do?

“You also have a blue tongue, an owl’s neck, and you turn invisible if you shut your eyes for longer than a blink. Anyways, it has to be the girl. Pretty sure she’s majorly miffed at me and, I dunno, you got pulled into by virtue of being there,” Zek said quickly. He shrugged again. “And she has to be the cause of this because if she’s not then I have absolutely no idea what to do and we’re stuck like this forever!”

By the end of his rant, he was practically dripping with over the top optimism and sickly sweet assurance. And if that happens, well, I guess I won’t need to take the bus or an Uber again. His new tail waggled a bit at that.

Zek momentarily stared as...Carrick?...turned Zek’s original head around. And kept going. And for once, Zek got to see firsthand how unnerving that could be.

He definitely needed to remember to do that to folks more often. “Well, Mr. Carrick, I’d say you’re a guy who’s about to enjoy getting back in his own skin because we are definitely going to find this girl and get her to undo this,” he said confidently. He didn’t think the chances were extremely high, actually, but no point letting Birdman know that. For all Zek knew, the guy would probably try to fly away and break Zek’s real neck by tripping over a table or something. And since his neck was so flexible, that was a real feat to accomplish, too!

“So we’re looking for a broad a little bit taller than meee-yoou are right now,” Zek drawled. “‘Short dress, heels, kinda skimpy but not too trashy, enough to accentuate her assets without putting all the goods completely on display, if you catch my drift. Long blonde hair, great shape. Like, really great shape.” He rattled off the description almost offhandedly with just a bit of surprise. He was now pretty glad he’d taken the extra time to keep looking her over!

“In fact, she looks a lot like the girl at the bar over…” Zek was starting to point. Then his mouth dropped open, and this time he didn't put it back. He was full-on pointing, too."Gadzooks, it's her! Let's get her!"

Rhia moved to the beat as she waited. Not so much dancing as just swaying and turning herself with the music. While there was a bit of a line at the bar, her drink gopher was doing a well enough job of cutting through the crowd and bullying his way to the bar.

’That’s useful…’ Rhia thought to herself. With how many people were at the bar having someone willing to muscle their way in was useful. It was a shame he wasn’t very good at dancing. She would have to ditch him when she made her way back to the dance floor.

Or… Sooner!

As her eyes looked across the lounge area she saw someone pointing at her. Someone she recognized from earlier. The pointing hand was attached to the winged boy that she had swapped the bouncer with. The bouncer who happened to be right next to the winged boy!

Rhia looked to the bar. The guy was still waiting on drinks. She frowned. No drinks.

Trying to look casual, Rhia turned and started walking casually back toward the dance floor. If she made it there before they caught up with her maybe she could lose them in the crowd and lights.

”Really?” Carrick said sticking his tongue out checking to see if it was blue… maybe he just had a blue drink before hand? Carrick smirked. Nope that was blue. His head stopped swiveling before he realized he was looking backwards at his reflection in a glass before it snapped back and he heard the rest what the his body was saying.

His eyes locked onto his tail and he noticed it was a happy movement. His stomach knotted. Carrick was hoping he wasn’t happy he had wings and a tail. That would make things more difficult. However he seemed interested in finding the girl. Though due to the rest of the description he heard it was sounding like he was looking for her for other reasons. ”Like every other woman in here, taller than us and blonde.” Carrick summed up before adding ”Better shape than us as well.” he smirked trying not to laugh. Maybe he did matain a can-do attitude.

”On it!” the former wing shifter said as he stared her down. She either got tired of waiting for a drink or was on to them because she started to head back to the dance floor.

”I like my eyes.” Carrick said to his body, ”Don’t look into any lights, not me. There are sunglasses in the pocket.” he said heading towards the dance floor. His body still leaned forward like he was fighting a bit of wind.

”Hey! Blondie!” Carrick yelled causing a few people to look towards them. Only two of them were blondes. ”Holy ****” Carrick said, ”Really great shape!”

Zek decided that in hindsight, it was not a good idea to point at the person you want to get. All it did was alert them that they wanted. Like in this case. Turns out Zek really could see better since he could clearly make out the girl’s expression at the exact moment her gaze landed on him and Birdman.

He could also clearly make out her leaving.

And then Birdman started after her, but Zek didn’t really have any better ideas.

“Sunglasses in the pocket, got it,” he said. He didn’t know which pocket, but if it came to that, it looks like he would be going exploring. Right after he caught his balance.

Zek tried to launch himself from his chair into an immediate swift and purposeful stride, but his new wings got excited and splayed open behind him. The expected weight nearly dragged him down and back. “Ack!” he said before he could catch himself. The tail was surprisingly helpful there, but still! How did Birdman deal with these fifty-leven extra appendages?

Birdman was already well ahead of him by the time Zek got used to the wings and managed to fold them in so they didn’t create drag or lift. Then he, too, entered the dance floor section.

And immediately clapped his hands to his far more sensitive ears. “How do you live like this!” he nearly yelled. “Who cares about sunglasses! I need earplugs!” The pounding of the EDM made him feel like he’d just caught an elephant in an orb and oh please makeitstop!

Trying to avoid people while at the club really sucked. Half the fun was in just forgetting your worries. Why couldn’t the bouncer and the bird not realize it was her or at least be such a mess that the other bouncers send the bird boy packing and bouncer boy home?

Not to mention they were making her walk away from a drink. Rude.

One of the two guys was yelling at her. He was yelling what was likely the least descriptive descriptor of all possible descriptions in a club to get her attention. Blondie. Some people turned to look at who was yelling, Rhia kept on making her way away.

The dance floor was doing its best to make Rhia truly lament having left to get a drink. The music was great to dance to and it seemed all the best and most attractive dancers were on the dance floor now. And she was left slipping between people attempting to get lost in the crowd.

Why couldn’t they just be distracted by their situation and leave her alone? It wasn’t like she could just swap them back. Bouncer boy would then just have her thrown out.

As she was making her way off to one side in an attempt to find somewhere to wait and then slip back out to get her drink… Someone started dancing on her. Not with her. On her.

They were not good. They were trying to bump and grind in the worst way. Poorly.

”Uh… I’m flattered but please don’t.”

“Aw, come on. You know you like this.”

”Nope. Not even a little bit.” Rhia turned and backed away from the horrible dancer who not only couldn’t take a hint, they wouldn’t know what a clue was if it smacked them in the face and said, ‘Hey! I’m a clue!’

The man reached for Rhia’s hand. Mistake.

Not in any mood for dealing with some asshole who couldn’t take no for an answer, Rhia turned, grabbed the man’s arm, and threw him to the ground. Her little training in judo was paying off. It also was causing a nice, big scene.

The music was louder than expected and if he wasn’t currently having a life crisis he probably would have enjoyed the scene. Too many people for sure with his wings but any other night he’d have a blast even if he didn’t know anyone. The former shifter looked back and shrugged, he knew he had better hearing than most but he never thought it was a burden like that. ”Get’s really easy to not listen!” he yelled over the music then pushed his way through the crowd. Occasionally jumping trying not to dance and look for the woman. Typical, always following after a blonde. His mother would have made a joke. If she was still alive…

”Blondie!” Carrick grabbed her shoulder and looked disappointed when it wasn’t the blondie he was looking for. ”****.” Carrick yelled as he turned his head unnaturally further than should be allowed. He was looking at his body. ”Is there other exits!?” he yelled then turned his body to right his neck not hearing what everyone was saying around them.

Still panicked he jumped up and down again till he spotted a crowd forming on the dance floor. ”Dance off?” he jumped again, ”Holy ****” he landed, ”She flipped him!” What a woman. His new body pointed in the direction of the crowd and started to maneuver as quickly as he could while not losing his balance. He just wanted his wings back.

Zek tried forcing himself through the extremely unsettling loudness and attempted to follow the guy currently inside his body.

Yeah, he lost him quick.

It didn’t help that the floor was decently crowded, that neither he nor the other guy were extremely tall, nor the fact that he now had giant flippin’ wings and a tail, throwing him off balance and smacking into folks as he walked. And the music was distracting, too, but that didn’t actually change anything.

So now he just had to find Lady IDless, in a dark club, while being blinding by lasers and flashes of light. A regular Friday night, actually.

Very quickly Zek found himself caught up in a current of people as they seemed to migrate toward a particular spot of the dance floor. And he was starting to hear some whistles, catcalls, applause, laughter and more. Not all of those were normal in a place like this.

And then the press of people started getting to him. His new wings started unfolding a bit and refolding back. His tail started waving, swatting ankles all over the place. And there were a lot of ankles. He was surrounded, people smooshing up close to him on all sides as they started moving. And the music didn’t stop pounding.

“Aaargh!” he grumbled as he planted himself. He couldn’t keep going. Starting to feel like he couldn’t breath. Too many people tightly packed together by their own volition and in the music. And with eyes and ears much better than he was used to and with big ol’ wings!

He got jostled again as folks tried to move forward even as he tried staying still. Without thinking he shoved back, and then shoved another person. “Watch it!” he snapped. He needed to get out of there.

But I can’t. Gotta find that girl!

A crowd formed as mister bump and grind pushed himself back up off the dancefloor. There were some cheers from women who had previously had mister bump and grind ply his trade upon them. Several in the crowd were pointing and laughing at mister bump and grind. Some were talking about how hot the woman who did that to him was, because a show of power was incredibly attractive.

Rhia, who normally would have loved the attention, smiled and nervously brushed some hair back behind an ear. Attention from a crowd was the last thing she wanted while evading people. In fact, she could see one of them through the crowd pointing at her.

Eyes wide, Rhia turned and walked toward the edge of the crowd. People wanted to talk to her, hug her, dance with her, offer her drinks—terrible timing!—, and one was angrily demanding to know why she would do that to his best friend.

”Excuse me, comin’ through. No, thank you. Hey! Hands off my ass!” The last one was punctuated by a loud smack as she swatted the offending hand.

Carrick’s ability to maneuver the crowd seemed to increase in his new body. Less air resistance, then again it was more like he was falling through people or around them. If he stopped in his new body he might have face planted. When Blondie got a glimpse of him he turned his head briefly. He cursed loudly practically yelling. His body was nowhere to be seen or at least not within sight. His wings would have slowed him down o got attention. Carrick missed the gazes and glances, he was proud of his wings.

The former shifter didn’t realize it but in his panic his eyes were starting to well up. This wasn’t supposed to happen. For years he was mad at the world for being the freak with the wings. Now all he wanted was to have them back, he liked being that freak.

Carrick turned back to the task at hand. Grab the girl, get her to change him back. The guy in his body said he wanted to change back. Carrick didn’t want to give him the time to figure out how to fly or even a scarier thought shift.

The crowd slowed her long enough for Carrick to get within earshot not having his awesome hearing he however still appreciated the slap. He heard and saw the culprit snap his hand back clearly upset and about to say something else. He had to get in line, Carrick was on a mission. Before the offender could react Carrick barreled into him then apologized, ”Hands off dude. I got priority.” without thinking about it Carrick reached out and grabbed her hand.

There was more jostling and shoving and Zek stopped making headway. And he started feeling like a sardine stuck in a little can. No, no, no, no. His new tail started lashing about, basically beating on people’s legs like drumsticks. He couldn’t breath. Yes he could No he couldn’t. He needed air!

His wings snapped out, right into several faces. “Watch it, man!” “%$^# you!” “What the--” and several other expressions and expletives emerged from the crowds.

Zek whirled and tried to fight the press. His wings whapped several more people and he tripped. How did you move with these things? But Zek didn’t want to spend any time processing that. He just wanted to get away. He had to get the girl, but the other guy was already doing that. Zek could just, uh, go for a vantage point. Block off exits. Run and hide and cover his head.

And the music kept pounding and the lights strobing, flashing, and raking.

He didn’t realize he had his head down until he crashed into someone. He stumbled back and nearly fell. And now his skin was starting to feel itchy. He started scratching at his chest. But the itching wasn’t just there. And then it started becoming pain.

He hissed and stumbled again. He really had to make it off the dance floor. He didn’t remember it taking so long before! He was disoriented, confused, half-blind and partially deafened and dead gods now in pain. Then his legs started working funny and he fell forward. On scaly, feathery, changing hands.

“What the fuLUGHRRR--”*

*At that moment Zek’s new mouth became an even newer beak.

Rhia had only just dealt with one man who was a little too handsy when she heard someone say they “had priority” and grabbed her hand. Turning, Rhia say that it was the bouncer boi with wing boy driving. Instead of breaking free of the grip, Rhia grabbed hold of his arm as well. She then used her other hand to grab the guy’s collar as she shifted one foot into place so when she pulled she could take the guy’s legs out from below him and flip him onto the dance floor.

Where he landed with a less meaty sounding thud than she expected. She grimaced. Normally when she swapped people it was all fun, these two just didn’t want to leave her alone and now she had hurt one. That was not cool. She should totally apologize. Some other time. If she saw them again.

For now Rhia wanted to just leave. She turned to make her way through the crowd only to see with winged bou piloted by bouncer boi turning even more into a bird! ”I just wanted to dance and drink! Why is this so hard?” Rhia wailed to herself.

Carrick regretted not listening to his mother more, maybe he did before she died? However, one thing decided to ring out as soon as he grabbed her. He ignored it until he was thrown into the air. ‘My sweet boy, if I find out you ever lay hands on a woman I’ll make ya wish it was your father I send after you. Now, you look so thin. Eat more, and sit up straight, like you were raised by the birds.’ He should have listened more, now he was flying in the air, almost like he wanted to.

Without even getting a chance to say anything he landed stomach down. His face however was pointing up. Was he broken? The former shifter hurt, he just wanted to get back into his own body. He fought back tears again while he thought about just leaving this dumb club he’d have to take a cab. A cab! No, he was going to get the woman to change them back. If she was the one who put them in this situation, unfortunately that was all he had to go on.

”Owww…” he let out a slow exhale as a guy helped him up by the arm trying poorly to not stare at his new neck’s flexibility. Carrick righted his neck and pushed himself free. ”Woman who threw me. Where?” he got a general direction and that was good enough for him.

When he glimpsed a blonde head he made a b-line for her then stopped horrified at what he was seeing. It was his body shifting. ”Oh **** Oh **** Oh **** Oh ****” Carrick started repeating nervously and grabbing at the top of his head. The first one was scary each one after that was painful like his skin being torn apart, for the first time Carrick was glad it wasn’t happening to him. Even if he had to get his body back.

”Get away from him!” Carrick called out to the people closest to his shifting body. There was no telling what kind of control his body had now without a stable mind like himself at the wheel. One vehicle was waaaaaay more destructive than the other. Carrick pushed his way towards his body. ”Don’t freak out man!” Carrick said frantically and clearly freaking out, hoping this wouldn’t be the reason he didn’t get his body back.

Lines of agony raced over Zek’s body as it continued to warp and twist. Aaaagh! he screamed in his head. The sound that came out of his mouth sounded like a dying cat mixed with a rock grinder and louder than even the music.

Zek didn’t know what was happening other than everything freaking hurt! Were those bones shifting?! What was that squelching sound?! He slapped a hand to his head and narrowly missed gouging an eye out. “SCREEE!” he shrieked.

For years he stayed there on the floor and the pain slowly lessened, at least enough to do something. And the gryphon slowly picked itself off the floor. He called out again, but he sound like an angry eagle. He took a step and nearly tripped - four legs were new to him and all the feet were different. He hissed in displeasure. And the music kept playing!

The gryphon roared to the heavens and flung its wings wide open. It was going to fly somewhere, to chase down this enemy and rend it limb from limb! It finished its roar by lowering its heading and shaking it from side to side. And then, as it slowly became away of other things lurking around it, a new sound cut through the electronic noise.

It sounded strange and familiar. Like...him! Wha--? No-- ARRGH! The gryphon lashed its tailed and stalked sideways, keeping its laser-focused eyes on the figure shouting at him. It practically exuded fear. But then something else registered to the gryphon. Another shape, another one familiar, one that looked exactly as he remembered.

ENEMY! The gryphon froze and its gaze snapped to the blond haired girl he knew he hated. The gryphon pulled its wings in most of the way and crouched.

Then it lunged at her with a roar of pain and rage.