Announcementcontent warning: mention of death, non-consensual transformation"Hi Lisa," Chels greeted me as I stepped into her room. "I know there's still left-over pizza, but me and Gwen were talking about maybe ordering Chinese for dinner..."

  Her voice trailed off as she frowned at me, "Are you ok?"

  Gwen added, "You look upset."

  The two of them were still naked, sitting together on Chelsea's bed. They'd been watching something on the TV while they cuddled, but now both of them were looking at me with concern.

  I was trying to keep my emotions under control but it wasn't working. My hands were clenched into fists and I was equal parts sad and angry and shocked. I took a deep breath to try and steady myself then shook my head, "I'm not ok, and I'm not upset. I'm numb but I'm also angry."

  "Why, what happened?" my best friend asked.

  "He killed her," I stated quietly as I clenched my fists a little tighter. "He killed both of them."

  From the look on Chelsea's face I could tell she already knew what I was saying. She sounded nervous as asked anyways, "Who? What are you talking about?"

  This time my voice faltered, "Our... Our moms. Mine and yours. Edward killed both of them, and he got away with it."

  The cute blonde's eyes widened and her face started to go splotchy, like she was on the verge of tears. After a second or two she shook her head, "That's not possible. My mom died in a car accident. It was te, she fell asleep at the wheel and..."

  When her voice trailed off Gwen spoke up. Her eyes were wide and her voice sounded almost haunted as she looked at me, "Your mom died in a car accident too. But how do you know that's not just a coincidence?"

  "I saw it in Edward's character sheet," I stated quietly.

  I was still trying to keep it together but my voice wavered some more while I expined, "He worked at an auto repair shop while he was studying architecture. He knew how to mess with their brakes. Chelsea your mom didn't fall asleep, your dad fucked with the brakes on her car. He knew the route she took to get home, he knew about the hill and the bridge. And he did the same thing with my mom..."

  My voice almost broke at that point and I needed to stop and breathe for a couple seconds before I could continue.

  "He knew she'd be on that winding road," I mumbled. "And he knew she'd be in a hurry that day, that she'd probably be speeding. He didn't know about the truck coming the other way, but as far as he was concerned it just made things even easier."

  By that point Chelsea was trying her best to hold back the tears, and for that matter I felt the same. She half-whispered, "But why? Why would he do that?"

  "And how do you know?" Gwen asked quietly. "Like how can you be sure?"

  I finally moved to join them on the bed. I sat down next to Chels and pulled her into a hug, to try and comfort her. And honestly I needed it just as much as she did.

  It took me another couple seconds to answer, "I know because it was in his character sheet, in the list of his memories and experiences. Two of the biggest moments in his life were the times he got away with murder."

  "It's because your mom refused to have another child," I added softly. "Your dad wanted a son and he wanted to keep trying until he got one, but your mom said no. I just have your dad's side of it, but it looked like your mom wanted to focus on her career?"

  The tears started running down Chelsea's face as she nodded, "Mom was a nurse. She took a few years off to have me, but she worked hard to get back into it again. I... I remember them arguing about it when I was little. Mom said they agreed on just one child from the start, but dad wanted another."

  I sighed as I held her a little closer, "That makes sense."

  By that point Gwen was hugging Chels from the other side. At the same time she gave me a sad worried look and asked, "What about your mom? Why'd he..."

  "It's -" I tried to say, but I couldn't get the words out.

  My vision blurred as my own tears began to flow, and once it started I couldn't stop. It was the first time I'd cried since my mom died, and reading that stuff in Edward's character sheet pulled all those painful memories from five years ago back out like it happened yesterday. It was probably the same for Chelsea too. She and I ended up holding each other as we both cried for the next couple minutes, until it felt like we both ran out of tears.

  I sniffed a few times as I wiped my eyes, before finally answering Gwen's question. "It was because of an argument. Because of me. Mom didn't like how Ed treated me. She kept standing up for me, and he finally decided he'd had enough of it. He got away with murder once so he did it again."

  That brought more tears to my eyes but I wiped them away as I stated bitterly, "Half the reason he moved in with her in the first pce was to get a son. I was only nine, he thought he could push me into sports and stuff too? Then I turned out to be a geek with zero sports ability, and his dreams were ruined again."

  "He probably would have tried to kill me too if I had a car," I added softly. "He can't kick me out of the house because of a condition in my mom's will, so he's been making my life hell hoping I'd just leave or run away on my own. He hated me for being a weak useless loser nerd, he hates me even more for sticking around so long. He thinks I'm a coward and an idiot for not getting the message that I'm not welcome here."

  That's when Gwen moved closer so she could hug me too. In fact all three of us were hugging as we all tried to comfort each other. It was probably five or ten minutes that we all sat there in each other's arms, until Chelsea finally broke the silence.

  "We have to do something," she stated quietly. "If you don't want to do it Lisa then I will. Just give me ten minutes with the ptop and I'll -"

  "No," I shook my head.

  Chels frowned, "I know it makes you uncomfortable Lisa, but we can't let him get away with this! It's not just about revenge either. If he's done it twice he could do it again!"

  I shook my head again, "I know Chels. You're right. I wasn't saying no to that, just no to you doing it on your own."

  "We'll do it together," I added softly. "I've already got some ideas."

  Both Chels and Gwen stared at me for a few seconds, then Chelsea nodded. "Ok Lisa."

  "What kind of ideas?" my friend asked quietly.

  My expression and tone were both harder as I replied, "He took away the most important person in my life. And he did the same to Chelsea. I'm going to take away everything important to him."

  "We're also taking the house," I added. "So we don't have to worry about moving or finding somewhere else to live."

  They both looked relieved to hear that. We still had some other issues to sort out, especially Gwen's folks, but having a safe pce to live made all those other things easier to cope with.

  Then Chels asked, "Can we go do this now?"

  "Yeah," I nodded. "The sooner the better."

  Our group hug finally came to an end, and the two of them followed me back downstairs to my room. I sat at my desk again while they stood to either side of me so they could watch, then I opened up the ptop once again.

  "Do you want to see the proof first?" I asked Chelsea. "So you know I'm not making this stuff up?"

  She sighed and shook her head, "I believe you Lisa. And I don't think I could handle seeing that stuff. It was hard enough hearing about it."

  "Ok Chels. I understand," I told her as I reached out and gave her a reassuring hug, before turning my attention back to the ptop again.

  Then Gwen asked, "So what's the pn? What are you going to do to the guy?"

  I opened up the inventory editor as I replied, "Step one, seize the house first so it's not affected by anything else that happens."

  With the two of them watching I navigated through Ed's inventory to the correct entry, then transferred it out of his list and onto my own. That gave me another idea, so while I was still in there I located the entries for his bank account and an investment account, and transferred them into Chelsea's inventory instead.

  When that was finished I left that app and moved on to Edward's character sheet. Then with Chelsea's input and Gwyneth watching, I started taking away the stuff Ed valued most.

  "He's all about strength and muscles and size," I stated quietly as I navigated through the fields to his physical stats. "He's basically just a bully, he uses his size and strength to intimidate or hurt people because it makes him feel better about himself. So..."

  I started adjusting sliders and changing data, until the character sheet indicated that Ed was a small soft-spoken man. His body would be about twenty centimetres shorter than before, shrinking from his original a hundred and eighty-eight centimetres down to one-sixty-eight. He'd be skinny, losing almost half his mass. And he'd be weak, with a lot of that lost weight coming from muscle.

  "Can you get rid of that stupid moustache of his?" Chelsea asked as she stared at the screen. "I'm pretty sure he only wears it because he thinks it makes him look tough."

  "Sure," I nodded.

  Since reading the manual I knew the best way to do that, and quickly navigated to the appropriate section of the editor. A few quick adjustments ter and I announced, "There. Not only will he lose the moustache, he won't be able to grow another one. Maybe just a few scraggly whiskers here and there."

  Chels smiled grimly, "Good."

  The next thing I had in mind for him had to do with his job. I changed his primary css from a level-four architect to a level-two janitor, and his secondary css went from a level-two auto mechanic to a level-one fast food cook.

  As I did so I expined, "This will fix it so instead of being there on a temporary assignment as an architect, he'll be there to clean the floors and empty the trash. And he won't be able to mess with people's cars anymore."

  The final change I had in store was one I didn't particurly want to do, but I felt it was necessary in the interest of public safety. I navigated to the part of his character sheet that covered his mind and personality, and made a single modification.

  "If he ever thinks of hurting or killing someone he'll be hit with overwhelming guilt and anxiety," I stated.

  "Good," Chelsea responded quietly. Then she admitted, "As much as I never want to see him again, part of me is curious to see what he looks like after all this."

  "We can actually see a rendering on here," I replied. Neither of them knew about that hidden feature, but I tapped the function key and sure enough the image came up a few seconds ter.

  It depicted a forty-nine year old man, with the same greying brown hair. Except rather than a broad-shouldered tough guy with the bushy moustache we were now looking at a small slim anxious-looking man with skinny shoulders and sunken cheeks, with some darker circles under his eyes.

  Despite the changes he was still recognizable as Edward, although people might think he was Ed's brother, or a cousin maybe. But anyone who'd actually met him would have a lot of trouble believing it was the same guy.

  "That's perfect," Chels commented quietly.

  Then Gwen asked, "How can you be sure he won't come straight back home when all this happens to him?"

  I replied, "After we've finished with his character I have a couple more little inventory adjustments in mind."

  "Like what?" Chelsea asked.

  "If you're satisfied with this then we can exit out of here and I'll show you," I told her.

  She nodded, so I quit the character editor. And when it asked if I wanted to save the changes I let Chels do the honours, since Edward was her father after all. Needless to say, Chels didn't hesitate to tap the Y key.

  We watched as the blue LED came on and the status bar slowly filled up. And fifteen seconds ter it was done. Edward may have been thousands of kilometres away, but he'd finally paid the price for killing my and Chelsea's moms.

  When it was finished I opened the inventory editor again, and sure enough I got that mismatch warning when I tried to load Ed's list. I hit the Y key then we waited as it updated all his belongings to fit his new character. And we all knew that meant more than just smaller clothes.

  I wasn't actually sure how drastic the changes would be, but that's why I wanted to get the house and the bank accounts out of his inventory first. That meant they wouldn't be affected by whatever else happened as the system updated reality.

  When it was over I went into his inventory then scrolled through the long list of Ed's stuff until I found what I was looking for.

  "This probably won't make it impossible for him to get back," I said, "But it'll make it pretty damn hard."

  Then with Chels and Gwen watching, I deleted Edward's passport, drivers license, credit cards, and pretty much everything else that could count as ID or proof of citizenship.

  "Maybe you should get rid of his phone too?" Chelsea suggested. "There'll be identifying stuff in there. And maybe his ptop as well."

  "Alright," I agreed, and a moment ter his phone and ptop were purged from Ed's inventory.

  Neither Chels or Gwen had any other suggestions or comments, so I finally exited the editor, then we watched as the blue light came on one st time to make those final changes.

  When it was done I closed the ptop and sighed, "That's it. We've taken everything away everything he cares about, and left him stranded in another country without any ID."

  "Goodbye dad," Chelsea stated quietly. "And good riddance."

  There wasn't any regret or remorse in her tone or expression, and she didn't sound angry. She wasn't happy though, none of us felt like celebrating what we'd just done. It was more a grim sense of satisfaction, knowing the man could never abuse or torment us again. And there was maybe a bit of relief in the knowledge that he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone else either.

  PurpleCatGirl