Chapter 1

"That's no good -- I look like a little kid!"

Elena was pissed. She had a Halloween party to go to and anything she found seemed to subtract rather than add years to her appearance.

Just shy of 18, Elena looked more like 15 with her spindly limbs and double-A cup chest. She insisted on hair that trailed down between her shoulder blades to stop people calling her a boy but still couldn't avoid the occasional "little girl".

It was bad enough that strangers made the mistake but the males around her age seemed just as unaware of her femininity or her desires.

It wasn't that puberty hadn't hit Elena but rather that it had unfairly lapped at her toes like an ebbing tide while someone like her voluptuous classmate Desirée had been struck by a 10 metre tsunami that left her with a D cup and a head-turning butt.

Now Elena was stuck standing, contemplating costumes that still fit after probably 5 years though admittedly only two had been used for Trick or Treating while the others had been for family parties. She didn't mind the ghost costume as much as the others; under the sheet she would be anonymous which wouldn't be the case with Wendy the Good Witch which had been converted to Little Red Riding Hood the following year.

Two years ago had been the white gown and frizzed and frosted hair that let her be the Bride of Frankenstein or at least the monster's bride. Unfortunately it had meant she had spent the evening avoiding the attentions of her "husband" -- a boy she didn't know well who smelled like he was made from decomposing corpses.

That experience had made her go to last year's party in mufti and, if she had ended up a wallflower, Elena had felt then and later that that had been the lesser of two evils.

She looked at the bits and pieces from her wardrobe, seeing if there wasn't something that would spark an idea.

If she could buy some stuff from the second-hand store and add a few trinkets from one of the discount or department stores, Elena felt she could get by on the tight budget her limited allowance provided. Since Dad had moved out there hadn't been any extra for fancy costumes. It was make do or do without!

Elena wouldn't have minded going as some bulimic emo chick but, though she could come up with some suitable holey hose and a torn t-shirt, nothing she had was black -- including her hair and what makeup she had gathered when times were better if not quite good.

It would have simply been for show though. Elena liked how some of the other girls looked but she certainly didn't feel comfortable with them or interested in what she knew of their likes and dislikes.

A vampire, maybe, but again the costume would be tricky -- and a popular choice. It would be better than plaiting her hair and going as Pippi Longstocking or Pollyanna -- Malice in Wonderland though... ! Nah, nobody would recognise who she was. There were scarves, a belt made of golden disks and two wide leather belts. Perhaps she could organise a pirate outfit; no! a pirate queen!

Elena looked at what she had and visualised what she would need.

A white blouse. No, she should have her shoulders bare (provided that the belt draped across didn't rub.)

"Okay", Elena decided, talking to herself in the privacy of her room. "I'll see if I can find something like that at the Opportunity Shop. She'd allow time to launder anything a couple of times since, although the clothing was clean, it seemed to pick up its own special sort of mustiness which would not go down well at the party.

Unfortunately, she wasn't really equipped to fill such a top. Elena put one of her normal blouses on to see whether the effort was worthwhile or if she should think of something else.

One leather belt around her waist, the other over her shoulder and between the slight dit that on Desirée could be considered the Grand Canyon.

Elena tied a scarf around her head and draped the golden belt around her neck before deciding it was better around her waist. Maybe a longer scarf around there as well?

The second belt didn't look right running over her other shoulder so she discarded it for now. She would need a sword, a cutlass! Bit harder to get; maybe a couple of daggers instead.

Boots would be necessary and then she needed to consider whether knee-length pants would be better than a skirt. Either would match the outfit but the skirt might stop people calling her the Pirate King!

Elena turned back and forth in front of her mirror.

"If only I was bigger. I could go topless and would probably still pass for a king!"

Still she didn't look quite as bad as she had imagined. Maybe the belt broke up the view of her chest so it appeared that she had cleavage?

No! Elena pressed her hands to the fabric and looked closer at her reflection. She was bigger!

It had to be an illusion! Elena knew how big her tits were each time she wrapped them in a bra that was really quite pointless. Rather than pointless now, it seemed to be tighter than normal.

Elena removed the belt; her chest stayed proudly prominent.

"I'm going to open my blouse and see everything just as I left them!"

There was no-one there to hear the prediction and no-one to witness Elena's disappointment when it came true. Her tit flesh could barely be seen behind the bra instead of overflowing it as Elena had felt was indeed the case.

"Oh well. Easy come,..."

The boots looked a little worn, but a bit of polish helped. The bodice matched the peasant skirt though Elena had to stitch some elastic into both. An eye-patch from the drugstore and a black marker pen worked out cheaper than the pirate kit from the Costume Shop -- especially pre-Halloween -- and helped distinguish Pirate from Gypsy.

Some large hoop earrings (which could have taken the costume in either direction) finished off the outfit and once again Elena stood in front of the mirror.

Since none of her bras could be worn strapless, Elena was trying out the costume bra-less. It wasn't as if it would be uncomfortable or particularly revealing though Elena did worry that a mischievous finger could drag the top of her bodice down to her navel before she had a chance to defend herself. Perhaps some ties to make it harder to sabotage? Pity that there wasn't a tougher barrier to cross.

As Elena turned from side to side she watched in amazement as the mounds grew. Two minutes passed and Elena felt sure she was now a B cup or possibly a C. It was she had hoped for but was she just imagining it or was it real but liable to vanish as easily as it came?

Elena's top was now too tight to pull down but the base, not having to stay in place, quite easily lifted to show her there was nothing imaginary about the change -- unless she was insane.

Like anyone, it was impossible for Elena to really believe she was mad, though not impossible to wonder if that was the case. Fortunately there was another possibility but it carried with it the price of being more terrifying -- Elena lived in a time when mutants were appearing across the world.

The humour of the situation meant Elena's laughter was anything but maniacal though. It was a relief to find the ridiculous in the situation. Across the globe people were being persecuted, even martyred, for displaying wondrous powers that struck fear into the hearts of their fellows.

And what awesome ability had Elena been blessed with, hmm? She could make her bra tight!

Cupping breasts far larger than she had ever held before made them feel like they belonged to another; likewise the touch of her hands felt smaller and therefore not hers.

Watching fingers arouse nipples in the mirror, Elena wished she could keep her new form. The overall look was much healthier, though in actuality she was neither anorexic nor bulimic.

The pirate outfit made her think of Geena Davis and a minute later a stranger's face looked back at her from the mirror. Not an unknown stranger -- Elena had grabbed a copy of Cutthroat Island to see what a Pirate Queen looked like and now it was Geena's character who looked back.

Elena didn't try to understand how her body was rearranging itself. Insects did it all the time while pupating so perhaps a similar mechanism was involved.

Except...

Elena had inserted two large gold hoop earrings. Geena in the movie hadn't been so gaudy. Elena put the movie into the player and moved to get a good view of the pirate.

Then she returned to look in the mirror to compare her impressions and found that somehow her earrings had changed to those in the movies. So much for pupae!

Okay. It was scary but it was also fun -- and wasn't that always the Halloween spirit?

Elena was young enough at heart to enjoy dress up and wishful enough to want to look as good as she could. If she could fill out one part of her body then she should be able to flesh out the rest. Slender limbs became more pleasing to her eye and, since she could apparently manipulate her local environment...

Elena looked down at her boots. Pretty standard and they would look nicer with fold down tops to give them a much more piratical look.

This time Elena watched them change, lifting her skirts so the result was visible. When she looked up though her face looked back and her original earrings dangled from her lobes.

Patting her still ample chest, Elena realised the reversion wasn't due to some time limit though there might be some constraints that either meant she snapped back to her original form (Cinderella style) or else retained the change permanently (when the wind changed) or, at least, permanently until she made some other change.

Perhaps it was like juggling though and she had reached the limit of how many balls she could keep in the air at once. Always assuming of course that it wasn't just some elaborate form of self-hypnosis.

Elena looked down at her boots again and thought of the left one as it had been. Twenty seconds later it was and she imagined it a pristine white instead.

Now to test whether she was losing her marbles.

"Mum?"

"Yes dear?" Elena tracked her mother down.

"What do you think of these boots with the costume?"

"Oh! You look lovely dear. The boots?"

Elena lifted the hem of her skirt.

"Oh the black ones, definitely dear. Where on Earth did you find them though? They look authentic."

"Not this one?"

"White? Not for a pirate, though it is a nice boot."

"They were out cheap at the second-hand shop. I played around with them a bit to make them look right."

"Can I say something about the rest of your costume without upsetting you dear?"

"I guess."

"It's just, you might want to rethink the padding." Elena's mother waved her hand in front of her own chest.

"You've done an excellent job but if it's just loose padding you're going to feel silly if it shifts around at the party."

"It's pretty secure." Elena wasn't going to deny the difference nor insist it was all her. Her mother had just proven she wasn't unobservant and also that Elena hadn't imagined any of the changes. She wasn't sure about owning up to how she came to be the way she was yet. Padding was a convenient excuse.

Elena practised -- often. Without any really close friends, she had plenty of time. Her father had moved out and economic necessity meant they had had to move as well, leaving her old friends behind. There were people she sat with and spoke to at school but no-one that she had bonded with.

Elena was interested in reliability and limits.

Reliability because if she went out in public she didn't want to suddenly find her persona melting away.

Limits because she wanted to know what she could and couldn't do in an emergency as well as for entertainment.

Elena found she could alter her attributes but not their function. She could also change adjacent objects but not their substance. Her gold earrings had become smaller gold earring but no mass had been lost -- she had simply ended up with a lump of gold behind her ears where they weren't so noticeable.

She couldn't for instance change silver to gold, though if she had an amount of base metal she could coat it with the gold or silver to make a bigger object without reducing the original density until it was unbelievably light.

Except for elemental objects like gold and silver, the colour of something wasn't too much of a problem. Her powers seemed to cause a sample of the organic material to combine in various ways, ranging through the spectrum until her subconscious was happy with the result. Otherwise, leather remained leather; cloth, cloth at least at a broad molecular level.

Experimenting with her body was both scarier and more satisfying. Skin remained skin but she could increase the melanin to produce freckles, a tan, or a darker brown, or even to match the darkest "black" to be found in human history.

Reducing it, she became whiter then the fairest English or French flower when exposure to the sun was frowned upon in high society. With her own imaginary colour chart, Elena passed "Dracula Paleness" and "Albino Pink" until she almost reached "Michael J Caucasian" before restoring her original healthy hue.

Her hair changed too from her off white to a peroxide blonde then back through ash, golden straw and honey; amber, auburn and orange; darkening through fiery reds, hennas and browns until she reached blue-black.

Then she really had fun!

Clown blues, greens and yellows -- firstly as single colours and then mixed in patches and finally a rainbow rising from her shoulders in red to the deepest indigo and violet at her scalp.