The Old Transformation Zone

There is a rumor among the businessmen of 756 Orchard Road, an anecdote well established execs like to tell rookies. They say that no matter what you are wearing as you step in the elevator, by the time you reached the offices in the top floors your clothes will be transformed into an exquisite looking, full business suit.

Some are cynical and think that it’s just a metaphor for climbing up the business ladder; by the time you had reached a high enough rank to have any business even being in the top floors you would be in a position to afford expensive suits and would even be expect to dress well to come to work.

Recently however someone put a security video online that, indeed, showed one of the security guards taking the lift to the topmost floor to investigate a disturbance. The cameras clearly showed him stepping into the elevator cabin at exactly 4:00 am, dressed in his guard uniform...and stepping out of it on the top floor dressed in what appeared to be an exquisite, and expensive, looking navy business suit at 4:25.

Since then there was a lot of talk about the rumor among the rookies and lower offices. Was it true, had the elevator really transformed the guard’s clothes? Had he just doctored the video? Had he just hidden the suit in the elevator and changed quickly while riding it in order to play a prank? The security guard himself remained smugly silent when questioned about the video.

But today four aspiring, young office workers from lower management have decided to find out for themselves. They each agreed to come to work dressed casually and ride the lift together, this way they had each other as witnesses and none of them could cheat by bringing along spare clothes and changes in the elevator.

First of them to arrive was Hernandez, wearing an unbuttoned suit jacket over simple shirt, black jeans and sneakers. A couple of moments later Roberts and Stohl joined him in front of the elevator; Robert’s, tall and broad shouldered similarly Hernandez, but Stohl didn’t even wear a suit jacket, sporting nothing but a buttoned shirt and jeans.

“Hey, I thought we’d agree we’d dress casually?” Stohl complained as he saw the other two, “now, once we find out the magic dress up elevator doesn’t work I’ll be the only one embarrassing himself by coming to work under dressed…”

Hernandez was about to reply something, but just as he opened his mouth his eyes grew wide and his jaw hung open as he saw who was walking up to them behind Stohl.

“No, you won’t” Robert’s added with a similar befuddled look on his face.

Confused Stohl turned around to see the source of his colleagues’ reaction and there he was…Wilson, the fourth man in their circle, dressed in nothing but a pair of slack, riding dangerously low on his hips, low enough to make it clear that he wasn’t wearing underwear either. His toned, hairless, gold skinned upper body was completely exposed, only a leather bag causally swung over one of his shoulders and a big grin on his lips.

“Morning!”

The three others just stared at Wilson, none of them, as of yet able to return his greetings.

Finally, Stohl spoke “You want to go to work…dressed like that?” he asked unbelieving, the button of his shirt not sufficient to hide his hardening junk.

Wilson shrugged his shoulders “This thing is supposed to transform whatever we wear into a full business suit, right?” he nodded at the elevator “So it shouldn’t matter how much I have on going in, and if the clothes get transformed, there’s no point in wasting any good ones, clothes cost money.”

Hernandez didn’t quite buy Wilson’s excuse about not wanting to waste clothes, he was sure the man just wanted to show off his body. He had to admit Wilson had the best body out of them all, though, he was even better toned than Roberts.

“Well, should we?” Roberts asked and the four men entered the elevator. Wilson stood in the centre of the group each of the men able to feel the warmth radiating from his naked, golden torso.

“Top floor?” Stohl asked, trying not to stare at Wilson.

“That’s what the legend says, ain’t it?” asked Wilson cocking an eyebrow, then he looked at Hernandez “you got your phone ready to record the whole thing?”

Hernandez nodded, getting his smartphone out of his pocket and started the camera app “Ready.” To be honest he felt a bit silly, did any of them really believe that this elevator somehow possessed the magical ability to change their clothes?

The doors closed and their elevator ride began, all the way up to the highest floor. For a while Hernandez just started at the number above the door as it slowly increased, indicating their ascension to the top floor. They had arrived before most people, so there was little chance for their experiment to be interrupted by additional passengers. Bored with that he started to film the others with his camera; Roberts had gotten his own phone out and was replaying to messages, Stohl still did his best to avoid staring at Wilson, while Wilson used the time to seduce his own reflection in the elevator doors by letting his rock hard muscles dance under his golden skin.

Then something usual happened; halfway up the building between floors 25 and 26 the elevator just stopped.

“What the fuck?” Wilson asked, “why did we stop?”

“Maybe the elevator broke?” Roberts suggested.

Before anybody could properly react to the sudden stop the elevator’s intercom sprang to live with a loud, mechanic sound “Error! Subroutine: Dress for Success cannot be executed! Too many valid targets detected! Reduction of targets initiated!”

Hernandez wondered what it was that spoke to them, it sounded like a robot or an AI, and what it meant by those words…

Stohl meanwhile cursed under his breath; trying to shrink into a corner. Hernandez felt sorry for his colleague, as he had learned after one too many drinks at the last office party Stohl was not only gay, but madly in love with Wilson who was a very proud heterosexual, and now he was stuck in an elevator with an half naked Wilson just inches away from him, for an undetermined amount of time. There was sweat in Stohl’s face, his breathing grew heavy. And then, Stohl did something Hernandez never had thought possible; like moved by some external force, and seemingly just as surprised as Hernandez, Stohl sprung up and took a few stepped closer to Wilson, who still stood with his back to the rest of the group. Pushing Roberts aside Stohl positioned himself directly behind Wilson.

“You alright buddy?” Wilson asked seeing the whole thing in the mirrored elevator doors.  

Stohl didn’t answer, instead he just stared down at Wilson’s strong, muscled back and placed one hand on each of Wilson’s shoulder blades.

Hernandez switched his camera off, fearing that whatever Stohl was doing would lead to an ugly meltdown better left unrecorded; but what happened instead made him wish he hadn’t done so, for it was too crazy to be believed without video evidence.

With a loud slurping sound Stohl was…sucked into  Wilson’s body, clothes, shoes and all, disappearing under the other man’s naked skin.

Wilson cried out in surprise, though the cry also had an undertone of ecstasy Hernandez thought, and curled his body as if some projectile had hit him in the back.

Then as just as quickly as this happened it was over; Wilson straightened himself up again and it was as if nothing had happened, as if Stohl had never stood there and had never been absorbed into the gold skinned hunk.

Wilson, of course, looked completely freaked out, he touched his chest, turned his back to the mirrored walls to see if any trace of Stohl remained, but that was not the case.

“What just happened?” Roberts blurted out, shrinking up against the wall behind him, away to even brush against Wilson, “What happened do to Stohl?”

Wilson looked at him “How should I know?”

“Well, you just….” Robert’s twisted his mouth “…ate him…”

Wilson scoffed “I did no such thing he jumped into me! Anyways how….” Wilson’s words trailed off into a strained moan as he curled up again. Sweat built on his naked, golden skin as a…a bump emerged on his chest…Hernandez and Roberts watched in horror as this bump grew and developed, forming into something like a screaming face–yes, a face! Stohl’s face, his mouth wide open in a silent scream, the whole thing tightly wrapped into Wilson’s golden skin, like covered in shrink-wrap. A similarly “shrink-wrapped” hand and arm emerged from Wilson’s abs. It was a grotesque sight; two men, two bodies forced together under one skin, fighting, struggling to get apart but unable to do so.

As this strange Wilson-Stohl fusion thrashed and cringed about it threw itself into Robert’s direction by accident. Too much in shock about what was happening in front of his eyes the man was unable to dodge and the fusion hit him with full force, square in the chest, pinning him between the fusion’s grotesque body and the wall. There was another slurping sound and Robert’s was added to the Wilson-Stohl creature.  

Before Hernandez’ unbelieving eyes this creature, which was also three men wrapped into one skin, reeled and cringed. It almost looked like the three men it was formed off where mud-wrestling against each other as slowly, very slowly their bodies seemed to lose consistency, to lose their distinctive shapes, seemingly melding into a heap of clay. But it didn’t stay with the clay, just as the shapes of the three men had dissolved into it, the clay now sculpted itself into a new shape, but it wasn’t the three men form before that emerged, but one man, one single, huge hunk. Slowly it took shape…mighty pecs and abs emerging from the shapeless clay, muscular arms and legs formed themselves from the moist material like veins of marble in the ground, only the head remained featureless, for now. The clay golem seemed to stabilize, looking at his reflection with his featureless head, exploring his wet, mannequin-like body with his large hands.

Hernandez, pressed tightly against the wall gulped, “Wilson?” he finally asked carefully “Roberts? Stohl? Are you guys in there? Are you alright?”

The golem regarded him with his blank, featureless head.  Then he reached out his arms and placed his large, wet hands next on each side of Hernandez, drawing closer to him. As Hernandez looked at the large, wet torso infront of him, the liquid, moist sheen on its bulbous pecks and perfect abs he knew what would come next…and he was not sure if he was frightened or excited.

But that didn’t matter anyway as the golem thrust his mighty body at the man. Hernandez felt the golem’s liquid flesh oozing around his body and face. There was a sensation of being sucked in deeper and finally a sensation like being thrown into a bowl of white hot, liquid iron as Hernandez mind met what was left of those of Wilson, Stohl and Roberts and was assimilated into it, the minds and souls and bodies of four men forming into a single new one.

The new man moaned as his body finished; clay blending over into golden skin, adding up four men worth of musculature the new body was not just toned as Wilson had been, it was ripped. But its skin was not baby smooth like Wilson’s had been, Robert’s and Stohl supplied plenty of body hair to cover the new man into a virile carpet. He was also no longer blonde like Wilson had been, Hernandez and Stohl darkened the hair and made it fuller. Their added testosterone also caused the new man to grow a handsome, manly beard, almost like an added bonus. The new man opened his dark eyes and looked at himself in the mirror, exploring and enjoying his muscular, hairy arms and chest with his large hands. He had no idea what had happened, he had no idea if he was Wilson or Hernandez or Roberts or Stohl or all of them together or none of them. The only thing he knew was that he was hot as hell. Finding Hernandez’ smartphone on the floor he picked it up and made a picture of himself in the elevator wall mirror. Just as he did that the elevator sprang alive again, continuing the journey four men had started and one man would now finish. Still enjoying his new body the fusion wondered what would happen now, if there was a way to split him back up, if he even wanted to go back to be four average men instead of one hot hunk when he felt the grubby blue pants he was wearing melt and cover his body. Confused he looked down at himself, watching as the colourless, shiny liquid his pants and shoes had become encased him completely up to his chin. The liquid started glowing and changed from, covering him into a hot, sharp, full business suit, just like the legend told.