Quickie 10: Eyes on the Prize (Patreon)

The day had been going horrible enough without that bastard showing up. A four-hour-long project crunch earned the reward of two more projects desperately needing outside help. Nothing like having to do five peoples worth of work for a single persons pay rate. Xilimyth was halfway through today's shift and already done with it all. He could hardly care how much progress he was making on the current projects code. It was the failed work of someone else in the office. He was just tinkering with it to look busy until clock-out time.

A task that was incredibly difficult when an annoying red glow teased at Xilimyth's peripheral. He tried to ignore it, but of course, it would not go away on its own so easily. After typing a few more painstaking lines, he risked a glance to confirm what instincts already told him. A small red dot the size of a pencil eraser was dancing along the upper right corner of his monitor.

The obvious light from some childish coworkers laser pointer. Xilimyth was hardly in a mood for this, especially with everything on his plate today. Yet, the longer his eyes watched the little speck jostle about the more intrigued he became. Racing thoughts about the encyclopedia of code to be programed slowed to a gradual slog. Had anyone peeked into the cubicle to check they might have noticed his irises brightened into a bright gold coloration. One hand slowly lifted off the keyboard towards the dots baiting call, only to recoil after only a few inches.

It did not stop the hairs along Xilimyth's knuckles from thickening into an orange rug. He bit back a growl focusing again on the task at hand. No way was he going into this. Everyone paid the price last time someone's idea of a joke disrupted his productive work. Long as he just stayed calm and focused, the prankster was bound to get bored soon.

"Nya!?" The red dot raced across Xilimyth's screen, making his head whip around to follow it. Ear's shot up through growing hair to rest closer at the top of his head. Their rounded tips became coated in the same orange fur, with a few black spots for good measure.

Having just uttered an animal-style gasp did not distract Xilimyth from his real focus. His eyes narrowed, watching that accursed dot duck and weave about along the wall of his cubical. Suddenly it made a quick dash as if to cross the monitor again, only to bow back towards the cubicle's entrance. The trick worked, and Xilimyth's other hand shot out to grasp the monitor's edge before he could stop it. His gaze continued to follow the dot a little longer, watching it mock him with its dances.

"Aw crap," he said quietly when a tingle passed through his arm. Prying the hand off his monitor, he watched helplessly as it narrowed and fingers thinned. Orange fur with the black spots sprouted all the way to his shoulder in a luxurious coat, with snowy white covering under his feminine fingers and palm.

Xilimyth could change it back, but not when some jerk was working him up like this. Very carefully not to glance towards the dot again, he slowly rose from his chair to avoid grabbing anyone's attention. Feline ears twitched in the shaggy forest of his growing brown hair while his slimmer eyes scanned the office for a culprit.

Absolutely no one seemed up to anything. All heads were down focused on work, or pretending to work. The only sound Xilimyth's improved hearing picked up beside his hammering heart was the clicking of keyboards. A risky glance around the walls showed no sign of the offending red menace either. With any luck, they might give up now before things got totally out of control.

Xilimyth paused with one male and female hand drumming on the plaster of his cubical wall. This could be a prime excuse to take a bathroom break for security purposes. After a bit of consideration, though, he flopped back into his chair. Nothing would bore his inner cat back into slumber faster than correcting some idiots programming.

"Mmph!" Xilimyth had barely touched the keyboard before the damn thing flashed into existence on the screen. It danced in figure eights with his head bobbing to the motions. This time he was prepared for it. Even as his hair grew out into luxurious brown locks that draped the back of his chair, the man's will would not yield to basic hunting instincts so easily again.

BWIP!

"Oh, come on!" Xilimyth snarled after his male hand lashed out trying to catch the devils period. That corrected itself within seconds as orange hairs thickened out into a full coat. At least he had some symmetry when two female cheetah arms resumed typing on his keyboard.

Itching under his work clothes made Xilimyth shuffle with disgruntled discomfort. Fur was breaking off from the shoulders to encompass much of his remaining skin. Wrinkles formed over his work clothes as things got slimmer in some places, and thicker in others.

Ugh! No! It was getting harder by the second to get back on the lines of code. Trying to remember formulas became an increasing trial with each one completed. Dang cat instincts wanted out of this stuffy programers box. Cheetahs were the living embodiment of lightning in a bottle.

Xilimyth closed his eyes, taking several deep breaths. Granted said eyes were shrunk slightly and developed longer lashes in the process. That was not as important as long as he could keep control. Even the tip of his nose turning a bright shade of pink was a minuscule change.

His gaze dipped to the keyboard. The red dot flicked back and forth across its many lettered keys.

"Nice...try...but I can handle this," Xilimyth muttered, an itching in his throat caused his voice to shift into a higher pitch mid-sentence.

The dot started flicking faster stopping just shy of his furry thumbs. They began to twitch after it against Xilimyth's will.

"I...I'm not...this is fine." The creases in Xilimyth's pants smoothed out as his hips and thighs swelled with a mix of muscles and fat. Anatomy inverted itself under cover of light fabric, making her breaths come out in heated blasts. A gap formed between waistband and shirt hem exposing the spotted orange fur of her lower back.

A hard flick and the dot was quaking atop the fur of her right hand. Another blink and it was on her left. Xilimyth brought all her willpower forward to finish his current code. Instead, the right hand slammed atop her left. It did nothing to catch her red target, although it did fill her computer screen with a bundle of random letters.

"Y-you can't grrret me..." Xilimyth huffed still too focused on the dot to care about her shirt getting tight. The top buttons pulled taut fighting against a sizable pair of mounds swelling out of her pecs. "I am in...complete...contrrRRRROL! NYAH!"

The dot raced back across Xilimyths screen. This time she swiped at it with a force that sent it flying over the wall of her cubical. It landed with a crash somewhere against the office wall, sending the whole room into a confused panic.

The cheetah woman was beyond caring about that. When the dot circled back around on Xilimyth's desk, she was ready. Hands slapped rapidly at the counter in a frantic bid to catch it. In the process, a thick fluffy tail rich in spots snaked its way out the back of her pants. Each swat of her paws caused it to surge several inches, becoming incredibly long by the time the dot escaped onto the cubicles wall.

Unfortunately for it, Xilimyth was done being nice. She pounced off her chair with a mewing battle cry. Too bad cubicle walls were not meant to handle the force of lithe cheetah muscles. The whole panel snapped under her weight flopping to the floor with another loud crash. Using the balance of a wiggling feline tail, however, Xilimyth smoothly rolled into a crouch on all fours. Slitted gold eyes darted frantically around the open hallway trying to relocate that accursed red devil.

Instead of prey, the hall was quickly filling up with the stunned faces of coworkers. Whether out of concern or morbid curiosity, a lot of them were poking their head out entrances or over cubical walls to see what the commotion was about.

Of course, seeing a transforming cheetah woman in ill-fitting clothes, butt arched high in the air poised to jump, convinced a lot of them to slink back behind their plywood barriers. To Xilimyth, it was also a bit of a wake-up call. All those scared faces looking down at her brought back the slightest glimmer of embarrassment. Just enough for the human side to gain control of those feisty instincts. Tail wags slowed as more and more power was wrestled away. There might have been some hope to salvage what she could get out of this mess.

That lingered right up until Xilimyth spotted the red dot whisking along the outer office wall beside her. Arms stretched out, lowering Xilimyth further towards the ground until her breasts were squished against it. To the office's horror, she let out a loud meow, so everyone sees her teeth smooth out into sharp fangs. With a loud pop, the bridge of her nose extended into a proper cat snout complete with twitching whiskers.

It just so happened Xilimyth pushed her thighs for all their worth at the same time her boss stepped out to check the noise himself. His gaze momentarily followed the red dot whisking past his door, and then yelled as a cheetah bowled him over in pursuit of it. A moment later, he let out a grunt as a heavy shoe landed upon his stomach. Xilimyth's pawed-feet had shrunken too dainty to keep the office attire on them.

The man got to his feet, straightening out the dirty tread print on his white shirt. Xilimyth quickly rounded a bend out of his view, but a rapid series of crashes and flying office equipment let everyone know she was in hot pursuit of a dangerous culprit.

"All right," the boss said, turning to a gathered crowd of concerned employees. Of course, they were staring at him like he wanted to get in the way of a hyper cheetah. "Who's the dead man that brought a laser pointer into the office...AGAIN."

Everyone started looking at each other but saw no signs of such a tool even being used. Truth be told they were never going to find the source anyway. Sorsha was not in the office, much less the same building.

No one thought to look out a front window at the McDonald's across the street. The white and pink cat witch sat lazily on a stool, laser pointer in one hand while the other held up her bemused head. She usually loved making furries shift to their sexy true selves, but the feline in her also wished they were chasing that delicious red dot.

"Sorsha? What are you doing?" Before she could get too depressed over the thought, Desmond returned, putting a try of Big Mac's and fries on the table for their lunch.

Sorsha blushed as she straightened up, presenting the little gold pen. "Just playing with this laser pointer you dropped outside. I got bored waiting for the grub."

Desmond nodded, but then seemed to register something. The blue squirrel-foxes smile dropped into a horrified stupor. "That...that's not a laser pointer. That's a gamma energy dispenser."

"Oh...sorry?" Sorsha stared at the device with faux appreciation. There was no chance in hell she understood what any of those words meant. She gave a cheerful shrug unware the beam was swiping across the parking lot outside. "What's the worst it can do?"

BWOOOSH!!

The pair jerked their heads towards the window watching a building across the street suddenly explode in a shower of plaster and wood. From the hole leaped a cheetah woman the size of an elephant in hot pursuit of a red dot dancing across the asphalt. Xilimyth's office clothes had been shredded to tatters, with what remained to cling in thin loops around endless ripples of muscle and sinew. Large amounts of fat ballooned out her breasts and butt to the point that jiggled violently with her slightest movements.

"Oh! Gamma radiation! I get it!" Sorsha perked up happily but lost her joy when Xilimyth casually brushed aside a jeep in search of her beloved red dot. "Do you think I did that?"

"No," Desmond said, the distance in his voice making Sorsha glance back curiously. The blue critter was already heading towards the far exit, still holding their tray of junk food. "I think we should take this order to go before the police arrive."