Piloting a Heroine (OC Mecha-fication TF / Droning TF) (Patreon)

Akemi was having a nice dream. She was saving the day, everyone was recognizing her heroism and skill, and she’d even done better than her eternal rival Hikari. It was the sort of dream where you recognize it is one fairly early but don’t feel like waking up or taking it off the rails because it’s nice.

Unfortunately, Akemi’s work ethic was stronger than the intense desire to stay asleep, so she had to get up. It was probably morning, right? So she had to get on top of her morning exercise, and training, and… well, all the other things a busy magical girl had to do in the morning.

This was about when she recognized she was not in fact in her bed. She was upright, and tied to something - spread eagle in the air. Her eyes shot open as she tried to transform in an instant, but as the magic whirled around her to try and generate her magical form, it was sucked away into something on the surface she was strapped to.

Akemi didn’t recognize the location she’d ended up in. It was silver and grey, with metallic floors and beeping machinery all about. The ceiling was several stories high to make room for some of the machines. Some of the walls seemed in worse repair than others, but overall, it seemed well maintained; an old factory retooled for some plot? Matsushita City was constantly growing, but the difficulty in getting resources to an island city had ended up killing attempts to start manufacturing, so there were a few abandoned facilities dotting the island.

The magical girl found herself strapped to a metal bed, spread eagle in the air. The villainess who had done it was evidently kinder than most - it was well padded, soft enough that she didn’t even feel that bad from hanging there for however long she’d been unconscious.

So, being an experienced heroine, she closed her eyes and analyzed the situation. Bound in goodness knows where. The thing she was bound to seemed to prevent her transformation and seemed to suck up the magic from it. Unknown whether anyone was aware of her disappearance; if nobody had seen her be taken, then help wouldn’t come for a bit; although, Hikari’s friendliness put a timer on how long it would be until she was missed, seeing as she would certainly notice if Akemi didn’t respond to her texts. Some dastardly villain had snatched her from her bed and brought her here. Or maybe from the street? Her memory was a touch fuzzy. Either way, she was hardly in an ideal situation.

“Oh gosh, oh gosh, she’s awake, finally…” A youthful feminine voice mumbled from somewhere to the side, distracting Akemi from her attempt to remember how she’d ended up in this situation.

Akemi looked to the side and saw a young woman - more of a teenager really - with wild pink hair, wearing a lab coat and goggles. Strapped across her body were several bits and bobs, gadgets and gizmos that made it clear the sort of villainess she was. Her face told a story of wildly raging emotions; she couldn’t quite seem to settle between expressing intense anxiety, awe, giddiness, or excitement, pacing and fidgeting as she vacillated between her different impulses.

“Release me at once, villain!” Akemi shouted, “It is cowardly to claim victory without offering a proper battle!” There were rules to this kind of thing, after all! This was why the magical girls came to the villain and not the other way around! That one time with Hikari and her parents notwithstanding. Or two times. It was a bit hard to keep up with her.

“Ooooh, you sounded so cool there!” The young lady practically squealed, “Gosh, I could just listen to your heroic speech all day!”

That was not the usual reaction. It tended to be either a response in kind or laughter, especially from villains. Certainly not… whatever that was. “Justice will be swift and strong! Free me, and meet it quicker!” Still, no reason for a heroine to stop with just that.

“Oooh, you still think I’m a villain, right. Well, I understand why, considering… well you know, the situation and all.” The young villainess shrugged. “I’m not, I promise! I’m your biggest fan, actually! I want to be a heroine like you! I just need a bit of help!”

“Kidnapping isn’t a very good means of convincing me you’re not a villain.” Akemi pointed out.

“As I said, a fair point,” The woman conceded. “Oh, introductions. Call me Yuna! I know who you are, Akemi, the world’s greatest magical girl! You inspire me each day to work harder!”

Akemi flushed red. Sure, she was not in a great situation, but it wasn’t every day that you got praise like that. “...Well, ahem, I’m certainly glad to hear that.” she conceded. “I fail to see how that leads to snatching me from my bed in the middle of the night...”

The memories were coming back, mostly. She’d woken up to a strange noise in her bedroom, and upon investigating, been knocked unconscious by something poking her back - a tingly feeling could still be felt down there, in fact. A taser was Akemi’s guess.

“Well, I want to be a hero too!” Yuna cheered. Akemi was skeptical, but Yuna took her befuddled expression as an invitation to continue. “I don’t have any powers myself, but I’m kind of smart! I’ve dedicated myself to your example ever since that day when you saved me from a dastardly villain in the most heroic way imaginable!”

“I… I see…?” Akemi said. So this was one of the people she had saved once… and it had apparently driven her nuts?

“You left the scene too fast for me to properly thank you, of course, but you left behind the very tools I’d need to become a heroine! The villain’s magitech gear! I’ve dedicated myself to studying it and learning to use it, and to create new marvels for heroic purposes.” She spread out the labcoat, showing that underneath she was clad in a metal suit glowing with magic. What Akemi had mistaken for gloves were in fact metallic gauntlets with several different tools in their fingers; Akemi could remember the villain who’d worn that suit.

“For all my technology though, I realized that I simply can’t be a heroine alone; after all, you defeated the villain so easily, surely this suit isn’t enough on it’s own. I need you with me, at all times, if I am truly to be a heroine! A true dynamic duo! But without any powers of my own, and with a suit mostly built for building things, I needed to find a way to combine our strengths! A flash of inspiration!” As she dramatically ranted and gushed, Yuna’s goggles glowed softly. They must have been what drove her to this, compromising her earnest desires to help and twisting them to villainy…

“What do you mean to do? Why would you not simply ask for my aid?” Akemi asked, trying to keep her talking and not acting.

“Well, to put it simply, I didn’t think you’d understand! You’d think I was a villainess, and doing your duty, dispatch me. Thus, I have been forced to dramatic measures! You’ll go free once I’ve used my device and made you able to properly protect me!”

Akemi could appreciate someone who took the whole hero/villain thing as seriously as she did. But she did not appreciate her self-proclaimed biggest fan pressing a button on her gauntlet and causing one of the beeping machines in front of the table Akemi was strapped to to whir to life, and the table she was on began glowing. “If you truly see yourself as a hero-” Akemi started, trying to distract her.

“Mechanization device! Activate!” Yuna declared, and the machine’s glow increased dramatically in brightness, blinding Akemi completely as she felt her magic sucked away and used to power her conversion.

The bindings on the table felt suddenly tight, as Akemi began to grow, straining the bindings and her clothes both. They released, but she remained stuck to the table by magic as she grew inch by inch, increasing in size until she was seven, nearly eight feet tall. “You won’t get away with this…” Akemi groaned, as her clothes burst at the seams, never meant to contain someone of her newfound mass.

“Get away with what? This will make you stronger than ever, it’s a good thing. You’ll just need my help to use it!” Yuna said cheerfully. “Next stage!”

Once she’d grown to what seemed the target height, Akemi felt a strangeness in her core. She felt hollow all of a sudden, empty of anything. Not in the sense of emotion, but physically, she wasn’t sure there was anything inside of her torso anymore. Looking down, under the shreds of her clothes she could see a seam had formed running down her torso, and from that seam a silver texture was spreading across her body.

It wasn’t unexpected - it was called outright a mechanization device, after all. But Akemi certainly didn’t like how powerless she felt as her chest turned to metal - and her bosom swelled up a cup size. “...Must you embarrass me even as you violate my humanity?” she asked.

Yuna blushed bright red - moreso than she’d already been blushing when she realized that Akemi’s clothes had suffered a critical failure. “...Huh, I don’t know why it did that.” she said, scratching at her neck and coughing as she looked away for some level of politeness. “Apologies, some of the designs are inherited from their previous owner… I think that the villainess had a type. I assure you I think you look just perfect with your normal proportions!”

The hollowness spread with the metal, even as far as Akemi’s arms and legs. Her hips thickened a bit as they metallicized, while there was a small mercy that when the remains of her skirt fell away it was revealed that the vital parts had vanished into steel. Along with the spreading metal and emptiness, came a spreading desire to fill that emptiness. It wasn’t quite right, and certainly not a natural desire - Akemi recognized that well enough, but it didn’t stop her from wanting to stop feeling so empty.

“We’re in the final stretch! I’ll get ready for the programming part…” Yuna said, turning to a computer behind her.

Akemi wondered if she should use the opportunity to get up and stop her - she was confident she could stand now. But as she moved to do it, her head was covered in metal as well. Her thoughts froze, and so did her action.

The metal statue’s eyes blinked to an active green as she regained consciousness, Akemi instinctively recognizing she was no longer human. She looked like a larger, silver version of herself, and her thoughts were fast and precise. She was a machine, her consciousness simply the robot’s AI. “Revert me this instant.” She said, her voice still distinctly hers but with a synthetic ring to it as it played out of integrated speakers rather than her motionless mouth.

“Nope! This is perfect! Don’t worry, you’ll see why in a second!” she said, pressing a few buttons on the laptop.

“Knight protocol uploaded,” Akemi found herself saying, “Designating owner: Yuna. Purpose: Protect Yuna.”

As she spoke, her emotions shut down one by one as unessential for a machine. She was not a human, so she didn’t need them. She was no longer an independent being - her ideals and goals deleted from her memory banks. Her Owner was her overriding priority. “Magitech Knight-01: Akemi Unit, ready for service.” the mecha said, kneeling down.

“It worked! It worked!” Yuna squealed with happiness, jumping up and down in excitement. “Oh gosh, you’re perfect! I’ll be a real heroine, with my very own mecha! Knight 01! Initiate Pilot Certification Protocol!”

“Pilot Certification Protocol initiating.” Akemi reported. The seam down her center split open, revealing the flashing lights and computer interfaces of a mecha’s cockpit, along with a bit of padding for comfort. A short step deployed from the mecha’s knees to assist climbing inside.

Yuna walked up to climb inside, but when she was just stepping inside, the building shook and she stumbled backwards. Looking to the side, she saw the source of the quake - a new hole in her hideout, and a young woman whirling a staff inside of it.

-----

“I think I went a bit overboard…” Hikari said, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head. To punctuate the point, more rubble broke free from the edges of the hole and clattered down to the ground beside her.

“That did lack a certain finesse, I agree.” Izanami commented in her head. “But then, you tend to treat your magic as a hammer. Not every problem is a nail.”

“I know, I know…”

Akemi hadn’t shown up for a training session she had scheduled that morning, and Hikari had gotten worried. Her friend was a punctual kind of person, and for training especially she took it super seriously. So if she didn’t show up to train (and then have fun and goof around afterwards as Hikari always added), then something was seriously wrong.

She hadn’t been at her house, and she hadn’t been at the Magical Girl Association. It was her day off so she hadn’t been sent out to fight a villainess, which meant something had definitely happened to her - so Hikari promptly went and tracked her down with the assistance of some of Natsuki’s magitech tools, leading to the abandoned factory.

“...Oh no, I was a bit late… she’s never going to let me hear the end of this…” Hikari sighed, before raising her staff. “Alright, one chance to just surrender, and then you get blasted.” she said to the villainess. “If she starts moving then you’re getting blasted first.”

“Come now, Hikari. Where’s the drama? Your annoying but amusing friend got turned into a machine.”

“Got that out of my system years ago!” Hikari said cheerfully. “I can only be shocked and dismayed by my friends being transformed so many times, you know.”

The villainess blinked. “...Uh, who are you talking to?”

“Nobody. Surrendering?”

“No! I’m a heroine, not a villainess! So I have no reason to surrender!” The labcoated woman said indignantly.

“...Ok I like trusting people and all, but Akemi’s right there. I’m a bit optimistic, but I’m not blind.” Hikari sighed.

“She’s more powerful than ever like this! With my help she’ll do so many heroic things! She just didn’t understand that, and neither do you!” The villainess snapped, before yelping with fear as Hikari flew right up to her with her staff glowing.

“...Oh, I see how it is, the goggles.” Hikari nodded to herself. She’d seen that before. “This will hurt a bit, but you’ll go back to normal soon!”

“No! Knight 01, designate pilot as the girl in front of you!”

“Acknowledged.”

Hikari whirled around in time to see that the mecha-Akemi was moving, it’s arms lunging down. She didn’t have time to move before she was snatched up and dragged into the hollow center of the robot.

The moment she hit the seat, her magical form dissipated, her staff returning to a necklace as she felt her magic drained. “Pilot candidate secured,” the synthesized voice of Akemi reported, “Beginning induction procedure.”

Hikari tried to break free, but the cockpit was tight and she hardly had room to move her arms and legs, let alone struggle. Something slid over her head, and after a moment of darkness she could see again as the helmet activated. Numbers and words she didn’t understand scrolled across her vision, as the robot analyzed her.

“...Well, have fun with this one, Hikari,” Izanami sighed. “I’ll have no part in it. Wake me up when you come to your senses.”

With that, Hikari felt Izanami fade from the forefront of her mind, leaving her alone against the machine’s assault. “Hey, Akemi, you wouldn’t happen to still be awake in here…?” she asked, although she frankly already knew how this was going to go.

“Analysis of pilot candidate completed. Adjustments required.” Akemi’s voice droned on, ignoring Hikari completely. “Stand by.”

Light blinded Hikari momentarily, as magitech lasers got to work, beaming away Hikari’s clothes and replacing it. The loose skirt, shirt, and hoodie ensemble would never do for a pilot - too many moving pieces to get clothes caught in. The replacement was to be tight, dark, and much more practical for a mecha pilot.

Fabric turned to latex and greys and whites darkened to black as the clothes changed, tightening against Hikari’s body and emphasizing her figure. By the time she could see again, her clothes had been replaced with a tight latex bodysuit, clinging to her every curve and covering her from the neck down.

Hikari struggled, having a suspicion for what would come next, but to no avail. Akemi had her locked in tight, completely uncaring as to her efforts. “Uploading skill package to pilot candidate.” The robotic voice intoned.

The magical girl had no time to shut her eyes before the visor of the helmet blanked, going completely pink with a spiral filling her view. Hikari tried to close her eyes, but she couldn’t bear to look away from the spiral. Her mouth slackened, as the hypnotic vision left her open to reprogramming.

She would be a good Pilot. Her job was to supply energy for the mecha. Her job was to see that justice was done. She didn’t have to think. Her Commander did the thinking for her. A good pilot didn’t have a single stray thought in her head - they would just get in the way of following orders. Her Commander would tell her what to do so she didn’t have to waste any energy on thinking about it.

She loved being a pilot. It was the best thing she could imagine. The opportunity to serve was intoxicating, and Hikari couldn’t think of refusing it anymore. Being a Magical Girl was completely unimportant in comparison.

“Pilot Orientation complete.” Knight-01 said, and the hatch popped open again.

Hikari stepped out, now clad in her skintight bodysuit and with her face completely concealed by the spiraling faceplate of her helmet. She snapped an eager salute upon stepping out. “Pilot 01, eager to serve, Commander!” she declared.

“Oooh, it worked great~!” Yuna giggled. “Hm, I was gonna pilot, but I suppose you can… I’ll be the commander!” She nodded in agreement with herself. “Honestly this is perfect, it’s for the best to get Akemi’s rival under control too. Your job from now on is supporting Akemi, got it? You’re not going to steal her victories anymore!”

“Of course, Commander! I’m just a glorified battery, Commander!” Hikari agreed fervently.

“Requesting orders, Owner.” Knight-01 stated neutrally. It didn’t much care one way or the other, so long as it was capable of fulfilling it’s orders.

Yuna nodded. “Hmm… well, I suppose we should get to work! We have a city to protect. Knight-01, Pilot 01, Combat Mode!”

Hikari saluted, and hopped back into Akemi. She slumped over as her magic began to be drained, while Akemi closed up. From hidden slots across Knight-01’s mechanized body, new components appeared - armor plates, jets, wings, and a fully face concealing helmet. Yuna was proud of how cool she’d made her idol-turned-servant. “Combat mode engaged,” Akemi and Hikari said in unison.

Yuna hopped onto Akemi’s shoulder, wrapping an arm around a wing and holding tight. “Onwards! Find any magical signatures and engage!” she declared. The mecha blasted off, jetting out of the hole Hikari had made.