"So what do you think?" I asked nervously, while my tail flicked back and forth behind me. "Does it look ok?"

  Talia had a wide smile on her face and her tail was wagging happily as she stated, "Rachel it looks amazing! Honestly I can hardly believe it!"

  "But what about you?" she added as she turned to look at me. "This isn't about me cutie, it's your thing. Are you happy with it?"

  I stared at the sign in the window for a few more seconds, then finally nodded. "Yeah. It's a big step, but it's necessary. And in my opinion, it's overdue."

  "I've done all I can in secret," I added quietly. "Now it's time to take things public. I invented the GAMA ray to help all trans people, not just the select few we could reach by word of mouth."

  My girlfriend slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me into a side-hug as we stood in front of my new office ssh public practice. Then she pnted a kiss on my cheek and grinned, "I always said your inventions would make you rich and famous someday. And here I am by your side, as your loyal and loving assistant."

  "I'm hardly rich," I pointed out. "And I still don't want any fame. I just want to help folks like you and me, and like your sister."

  As if on cue Hannah's little red sports car pulled into the lot then parked across from where my girlfriend and I were standing. She and her enbyfriend both emerged, then headed over to join the two of us.

  Neither of them looked anything like they did when I first met them, and in Hannah's case she didn't look like her post-slutification form either. Her most noticeable feature nowadays was her fiery orange-red hair, which hung in waves down past her shoulders. Her eyes were dark but with red flecks, reminiscent of embers and charcoal. She stood about a hundred and eighty-five centimetres tall, with a striking athletic yet feminine figure. Her bust, hips, and behind were all ample without being huge, and she usually dressed in tight stretchy clothes that showed off her assets.

  As for Athene, when I first met them they presented as masc and had an appearance that reminded me of my own original self. They were a meta like Hannah, but their enhanced abilities were mental rather than physical. They were stereotypically nerdy, and in a tall nky awkward body that clearly didn't fit them any more than my original form did for me.

  Now they were a much more petite hundred and fifty centimetres in height, their body was soft and curvy rather than skinny and nky. Their new shape leaned more towards the femme side of the scale, but their aesthetic was very much their own. They wore their straight brown hair in a short pixie cut, while their eyes were a very light brown that looked almost amber in the right light. They tended to dress in a mix of casual and formal-wear, like a button-up shirt and bowtie along with tight leggings sneakers and an oversized hoodie. It was an unique look, but they absolutely rocked it as far as I was concerned.

  Hannah had been the first one to benefit from the GAMA ray, which was only fair since she'd been the original inspiration for me to create the thing in the first pce. Although to be fair that honour could have gone to my girlfriend.

  Talia's foxification had been an accident after all, so I offered to use the GAMA ray to defoxificate her if she wanted. Needless to say she declined, she insisted she was as happy being a small sexy foxgirl as I was.

  So her sister got the honours of going first. And Athene was the second, since they were Hannah's best friend. They'd both been guinnea pigs -- not literally mind you -- during some of the testing and they'd endured some minor quirks and growing pains as I ironed out one or two minor bugs in the GAMA ray's hardware and software.

  It was a very complicated project after all, much more so than my original foxification ray. Fortunately it didn't take me three whole years to make it, since I was able to build on a lot of the stuff I learned while working on that first invention.

  On the other hand it wasn't the sort of thing I could do in a few hours one evening, or even over a long weekend. It ended up taking me over three months in fact, mostly because there were just so many parameters and variables I needed to account for. And the finished device wasn't the sort of thing you could slip into a pocket or purse, it was basically the size of a small closet. And that wasn't counting the computer workstation it needed to configure the various customization details, since the point was to give each client their own unique individualized transformation.

  "Hey sis!" my girlfriend smiled when Hannah and Athene joined us in front of my new workpce.

  "Hi Talia, Rachel," the taller meta replied. Then she gestured at the sign as she asked me, "You're calling yourself Doctor Fawkes? I guess that's a pun or something, since you're a foxgirl?"

  I gave her a bnk look then shook my head, "Huh? No, I'm calling myself Doctor Fawkes because it's my name. Rachel Fawkes. Didn't you know that?"

  "And the honorific is because I got my doctorate over the winter," I added. "After I finished building the GAMA ray I finally applied myself at school so I could get that out of the way."

  Hannah stared at me for a second then facepalmed, "Of course. The trans girl who wanted to be a fox so bad she invented a device to turn herself into a foxgirl is actually named Rachel Fawkes."

  Athene raised an eyebrow and calmly observed, "You know that follows the origin story pattern for seven out of ten supervilins, right?"

  "It does?" I asked as I frowned back at them.

  "Mmm," they nodded. "And giving your invention a name that's a homophone for 'gamma rays' brings the corretion with 'evil supervilin' up to ninety percent. Ninety-five percent when we factor in the fact that you're going with 'Doctor Fawkes' as your public persona."

  Thanks to their perpetual calm chill demeanour I could never tell if they were joking or not, but in this case I was pretty sure they were just teasing. And either way I had no pns of going evil or becoming a vilin. I wasn't too worried about any suspicious or queermisic superheroes coming down on me either, thanks to all the queer capes I'd become friends with over the past six months.

  That was almost funny in a way. There was a whole air of secrecy around dealing with the heroic metas, but once you got to know them it almost felt silly in a way. Like to this day neither Hannah or Athene had ever once admitted to their superhero status. Yet they had to know that I knew their secret cape identities. In Hannah's case it was practically public knowledge, as far as I was concerned.

  The day after I used the GAMA ray to permanently transform her into the body she wanted, the Fming Fist posted a pre-recorded video online announcing that 'he' was retiring for personal reasons and would be moving away from the city. Then less than a week ter a 'new' superhero turned up in town calling herself the Fiery Femme Fatale. Her mask may have hid part of her face, but her bright fiery orange-red hair was still visible. And ontop of that she demonstrated the same exact power-set that the Fming Fist used.

  Athene was a lot more subtle, mostly because they'd never been in the public spotlight the way some capes were. They weren't fshy and didn't go around bursting into fme or punching trucks or anything like that. They didn't even change their cape name, which was Little Owl.

  In their case the obvious connection was partially their new petite body, but mostly their new name. They changed both first and st, and became Athene Noctua. Which was the scientific name of a bird more commonly known as, you guessed it, the Little Owl.

  Those experiences with Hannah and Athene pretty much set the pattern for the rest of them too. Like the gal who was short stocky muscur and built like a tank when I first met her, and became the tall sexy blonde bombshell Briana after her consultation and treatment with the GAMA ray. That was right around the same time that Ptinum Pugilist seemed to vanish and Ptinum Blondie appeared on the scene.

  Then there was Logan, the attractive girl-next-door tomboy type who asked me to make him a tall dark and handsome rogue-looking guy. Not long after that people began asking what ever became of Ael, the cute tomboy speedster heroine. Meanwhile another new cape turned up in the city, coincidentally he was another speedster who went by the name Hermes.

  And all those were just the 'normal' ones. I'd never forget the shy quiet 'sexy librarian' looking meta who left the GAMA ray as a small sleek effeminate ferret-boy named Dave. I was pretty sure he hadn't actually been a cape before since there weren't any retirement videos or talk of another missing superhero. My help must have given him the courage to start though, because it wasn't long before people were talking about the mysterious new cape on the streets, who went by the absolutely adorable name NoodleCat-Boi.

  And perhaps my favourite was the venerable old-school superhero known only as The Masked Man, who'd been keeping the city safe for nearly thirty years. I saw the retirement announcement before I'd even met the person behind the mask. After her time with the GAMA ray Luna looked a couple decades younger and was more than half a meter shorter. All the bulky metahuman muscles were gone, repced with soft round jiggly curves. And her salt-and-pepper crewcut had grown out into long jet-bck hair that reached her well-padded behind. Plus it matched the fur on her new feline ears and tail.

  Unlike the others, there was no mysterious new catgirl hero this time. After all her years of service, Luna actually retired for real. She still had all her metahuman powers, but rather than flying around the city fighting super-powered criminals she got a job as a barista in a cafe that overlooked a nearby park.

  There were others, in the many months since I perfected the GAMA ray I'd secretly helped over a dozen more trans metahumans by granting them bodies that made them all extremely happy. And every single one of them vowed to help me if I ever needed it.

  "Hey why are we all standing around out here in the parking lot?" my girlfriend suddenly asked, snapping me out of that little reverie. "Let's go inside cutie. You can show Hannah and Athene the GAMA ray in its new home."

  I smiled, "Sorry, I got lost in thought admiring my new sign and everything. You're right though, let's go inside."

  The others followed as I led the way up to the front door. I unlocked it then tapped in the security code to disable the arm and the other defences. The door opened onto a nice professional reception and waiting area. It was furnished with white leather chairs and a sofa pced around a coffee table, which was already home to a dozen outdated periodicals. It turns out you can actually buy months-old magazines specifically for waiting rooms, who knew?

  Beyond the receptionist's desk was a door that opened onto a short hallway. To the left was my office where I pnned to meet with patients and do all my consultations. And across from that on the right was the treatment area. It was subdivided into three sections. In the middle was the heavily-shielded GAMA ray chamber, where the emitter was positioned above a medical-style examination table. On one side of that was a small change-room, where patients would leave their clothes and put on a hospital-type gown prior to their treatment. And on the other side was the control room, where I could observe the patient while operating the ray.

  And finally, at the end of the hallway were three more doors. One led to the washroom, across from that was the staff break room, and at the back was our small storage and facilities area, with the emergency exit at the very back.

  In short, the pce was small, simple, efficient, and it was mine. In about half an hour a few dozen more guests would arrive for tours and celebrations. I'd invited everyone who'd already benefited from the GAMA ray, and asked them to invite their partners or families or whomever else they thought might be interested or would appreciate what I was doing for people. Talia and Hannah's parents were coming for sure, and Athene said their younger sibling would drop in as well.

  And tomorrow my doors would be open to the public. Needless to say, I was very excited. In fact -

  "Considering you're about to go public with all this," Athene suddenly commented, "There's one thing I'm still curious about. Will you ever tell us what GAMA actually stands for? You said it was an acronym, but as far as I know you've never defined it."

  My cheeks coloured slightly as I grimaced, "Ah. Yes, I suppose that little detail will have to come out sooner or ter. Not that there's anything wrong with it of course, I just prefer to call it the GAMA ray. Its full name is kind of a mouthful, doesn't really roll off the tongue as nicely as GAMA ray does."

  "So what's it mean, cutie? What does GAMA stand for?" Talia asked me.

  I turned and gestured towards the GAMA chamber as I announced in a slightly dramatic theatrical way, "This dies and enbies is my greatest invention. It call it... the Gender Affirmification Metamorphic Augmentation Ray."

  There was no appuse, no cheering, no response at all in fact.

  Then after a few long quiet seconds Athene stated in their usual level tone, "You came up with the acronym first, didn't you?"

  "Nonsense," I stated, and I even managed to keep a straight face as I said it. And the enby was polite enough not to mention the way my ears had folded back or how my tail was down between my legs. I coughed then added, "Anyways, like I said the full name is a bit of a mouthful. GAMA ray sounds much nicer."

  Athene raised an eyebrow as they responded with an enigmatic, "Mmm."

  Then Hannah smiled, "Whatever. Who cares what it's called, the point is you're saving lives here. Both me and Athene are grateful for what you've done for us, and I know Talia's happy. And Logan, Briana, Luna, and the others. We all owe so much, Rachel. We're all here for you, any time you need us all you have to do is ask."

  "Well I certainly can't argue with my partner," the owlish enby agreed.

  "Damn right!" Talia stated firmly. "You're the best, Rachel."

  All that left me with a serious case of feelings. I had a wide happy grin on my face as I replied, "Thank you. I'm just happy I'm able to help folks like us."

  ~ The End (of Book One) ~

  PurpleCatGirl