As the next several days passed Alex and the girls worked to finish everything they came to Spira for, as they waited until the countdown before he could change worlds finished.
Anne spent her time working on the relocation of the Chocobos and Shoopuffs, both of which appeared to really enjoy their new home since there was a distinct lack of fiends, especially the Chocobo Eaters. And with her new helpers, a pair called Kalli and Clasko, she was able to make sure the new residents had everything they needed.
Lucy continued traveling around Spira to locate and tame any fiend she could find, regardless of how powerful they were. As far as Lucy was concerned there was no such thing as a fiend that was 'too weak', instead just ones that were suited for different things than others. One other thing Lucy learned was that, with the correct application of Alteration magic, she was able to help the fiends she tamed change into their stronger variants, as well as helping those who were already strong gain new abilities similar to those who had Oversouled.
Then there was the unexpected harvest they gained at the last minute, the Titans.
As Alex entered the Grigori research institute to check up on just that, he headed directly up towards the main lab where he found Azazel waiting for him, sorta.
"Oh come on!" Azazel cried out loudly as he glared at one of the large screens they had, which was depicting one of the Rating Games that were currently going on.
"Are they winning?" Alex asked teasingly, to which Azazel immediately pointed a finger at him and snarled,
"Do NOT start with me! AND DAMN IT BARAKIEL, I GOT MONEY ON THIS SO KICK HIS ASS!" Roaring at the screen suddenly, Azazel and Alex both watched as a certain pink haired pyromaniac began lasting his way through the entire defense of the Fallen Angels, right before landing some serious blows on their 'King', Barakiel.
"DAMN IT!" Azazel roared as he kicked a nearby chair, sending it skittering across the floor as Barakiel became enshrouded in the light that signaled resignation, ending the game.
Clapping a hand on Azazel's shoulder, Alex pulled the chair back over as he took a seat in it and said,
"Maybe you'll have better luck next time." Azazel just groaned at him before a new voice stated,
"Maybe, but not against my brats! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Looking at the source of the boisterous laughter, Alex saw the extremely short figure of Markarov Dreyer approaching them with a noticeable spring in his step, and a tag on his shirt that said in bold letters 'VISITOR'.
"Come to gloat old man?" Azazel grumbled at him, to which Markarov flashed one of his signature wide smiles as he drawled,
"Mayyyyyyybe. Hahahahahaha!" Despite the fact that Azazel was waaaaaaaaaaaay older than Markarov, the latter didn't seem to feel like pointing that out as his arm stretched far further than a normal arm should as he also grabbed a chair, before also taking a seat next to Alex and Azazel.
Despite their apparent rivalry, Alex knew that Azazel and Markarov had actually become quite the close friends ever since they met several months back. The last that he'd heard was that Azazel was taking Markarov on a tour of his favorite drinking locations on earth, which all just so happened to be some sort of strip club or titty bar.
As Markarov enjoyed Fairy Tail's victory over the Grigori, thanks mostly to Mavis' planning and Natsu eating some of Barakiel's holy lightning, Azazel reluctantly forked over a small bag that contained numerous priceless gems that he'd collected over the years.
"Double or nothing on the next match!" He stated as Markarov pocketed the bag, to which he said,
"Why not? Don't know who's fighting, but I'll bet on the B team this time."
"Alright, then I'll take the A team!" Azazel stated before the two shook on it, making Alex flash a wry smile before he finally asked,
"So what is it you wanted to show me Azazel?" Recalling the reason why Alex was there, Azazel said as he hit a few buttons on the main monitor,
"We made a breakthrough with the Titans you sent us." Azazel then leaned towards a microphone and said into it,
"Send in subjects one and two." The monitor then showed them a large room that was completely covered in white tiles, in which two transfer magic circles appeared for the afore mentioned subjects.
The two in question were ordinary enough people, young men that appeared identical in everything but hair color, one white while the other was black.
"They are?" Alex asked Azazel curiously, to which the Fallen Angel explained,
"They're a pair of twins that weren't born with any special abilities. They applied to be amongst the first we test the Dresspheres with, but when we mentioned the Titan trials they readily asked to try them instead." As Azazel explained the twin's identity to Alex, a group of the Fallen Angel researchers began to crowd around them as they too were excited to see the results of their latest experiments first-hand.
"Wait!" A certain voice called out from a set of stairs leading to the level above them, which Alex knew belonged to Tearju Lunatique.
As a scientist specializing in biotechnology she had been the one working the most on studying the Titan serums, along with the samples they had taken from the Warrior Titans. Though, a lot of the work was already done for her due to the fact that they also acquired that guy's research notes and records when they stole his house/lab.
Pushing off lightly so that his chaired rolled towards the stairs, Alex playfully called up to her,
"You better hurry Tear, or we'll start without you!" His playing was replied with a frantic cry,
"No! I'm almost- KYAAA!" Whatever she was going to say was cut off as Tearju suddenly flew down the stairs after she tripped at the top, right down onto Alex.
The next thing Alex knew he too was sent flying back as the chair toppled over, and he was suddenly being smothered as something soft and fragrant covered his face.
"This skill is going to be the death of me..." Alex muttered into whatever part of Tearju that was smothering him, making her entire body twitch as her meaty thighs squeezed his head.
"Hyan! You can't talk!" She exclaimed with a red face while unconsciously grinding Alex's face deeper into her crotch. 'Why did Mikado have to hide all my underwear TODAY?!' Tearju wondered frantically as Alex's nose was dug deeper into her, but thankfully for her he wasn't in the mood to tease her too much in front of the entire research institute.
So, once she finally managed to compose herself, Tearju finally got to her feet while straightening her skirt to prevent anyone else from seeing its contents. And, though he was tempted to ask, Alex decided to help Tearju out by snapping his fingers and equipping a thong on her lower body, something that embarrassed her even further despite the obvious relief she also felt.
Of course, Alex wasn't going to let a chance like this go just like that, as he immediately pulled Tearju into his lap once he had reseated himself in his chair, and rolled back over to the monitor that everyone was gathered around. As he did so, Alex noticed numerous dirty looks being sent his way due to the fact that the Grigori had been waiting for Tear to make one of her trademark falls for several days, only to be blue-balled.
"We ready now?" Alex asked Azazel, who was giving him a pointed look, and Tearju as she fidgeted on his lap. With no one else having anything else to do, Azazel then said in a flat voice into the microphone,
"Began testing." At his command the two brothers, who had been waiting patiently, both held up a knife before slicing open their palms. Almost immediately as the blood began to flow there were two flashes of lightning that accompanied an explosion of steam, while the camera began to shake suddenly from the sudden impact of two massive and heavy bodies instantly appearing in the room.
As the steam began to dissipate though, Alex's brows rose when he beheld two Armored titans standing there staring at each other. immediately Azazel began explaining,
"Going off of the research that guy already started to mass produce them, we managed to successfully duplicate the serums that would give us more of these Warrior Titans at one time." Picking up from there, Tearju continued,
"Though Hajime told us that there couldn't be more than one of each type of Warrior Titan at one time, because these serums were obtained through the system we were able to successfully replicate them. On top of that I also looked into modifying each of the serums to make them more viable for use against a wider variety of opponents."
Tearju then gave Alex a brief listing of the modifications she made to each of the Warrior Titan types, such as making their bodies heavier with more muscle mass so they wouldn't be destroyed so easily. She also explained how she had begun research into making entirely new Warrior Titan types to expand on the seven they already had.
When she finished her explanation Azazel decided to move their demonstration forward as he input a series of commands on the monitor.
Immediately the white room with large tiles began to change as it instead became a large forest with trees that were as big around as the thick Armored Titans. Before they could adapt to the sudden shift in their surroundings though, the two Titans, one with its original black hair while the other retained its black, found themselves swarmed by numerous standard Titans.
Instead of panicking though, the two brothers began to systematically smash apart the dozens of Titan enemies as they attacked them. Even as they fought though the brothers were obviously still adapting to their new forms, but as the minutes passed they were obviously becoming more and more accustomed to their increase in size and strength.
As they fought though Azazel was busy issuing new commands to the monitors around them, two of which showed scans of one brother while two more showed the other. As he worked Azazel told Alex,
"This virtual reality tech we got from Lala is amazing! Not only can we create almost any environment that we want, but we can also create an avatar of anything we have data on to act as opponents for our test subjects to fight. Currently I'm scanning the twins so we can keep an eye on their vitals during the demonstration, while also reconstructing their current selves in the scenario as well!"
As he finished speaking Azazel hit on last button, and Alex watched as two Titans that appeared identical in every way to the twins appeared as well. As they appeared though the rest of the standard Titans vanished, and Azazel said to them through the intercom,
"Now initiating the Promotion!" Both brothers steadied themselves as Azazel hit another button, forcing each Titanized brother to suddenly gain even more power as they underwent a change similar to a 'Pawn's' Promotion.
According to the monitors one was Promoted into a 'Rook', while the other was elevated to a 'Knight'.
"Interesting." Alex muttered as he became even more interested in what he was about to see, as obviously the reason for creating copies of the two brothers was so they could make a comparison to before and after the Promotion.
Immediately there was a noticeable change as the Titan that was elevated to a 'Knight' began to charge towards his doppelgänger, his massive armored body moving faster than it should have as he built up momentum. Soon he was like a runaway freight train as even the massive trees around him were destroyed if they were in the way of his charge, sending massive splinters of wood flying as they came tumbling down.
As he closed in on his opponent, the copy put its arms up in the same exact stance the brother had used earlier, showing just how well these copies were to even imitate their originals. However, right as the two were about to meet, the original disappeared with a sudden burst of speed.
There was suddenly great explosion as the massive Titan body, which wasn't usually supposed to move as such speeds, appeared behind the copy. With the sudden and violent movement though their surroundings suffered as more trees were destroyed and even uprooted in the wake of the sudden increase in speed, before the brother planted one of his massive fists in the back of the copy's head.
With the speed at which his fist moved, the copy's heavily armored head exploded in a shower of gore, grey matter, and shattered Titan armor as the massive body began to collapse with its defeat. But before any of it could hit the ground it vanished as the program that created it ended.
On the other side, the brother that had become a 'Rook' slowly marched towards his doppelgänger, which had taken a more defensive stance as it awaited his approach. Once he was close enough though, the copy suddenly swung as it planted a giant fist right into his face, only for the brother to not even flinch at the sudden impact.
Instead, he pulled back one of his own fists before launching it into a powerful punch right into his doppelgänger's abdomen.
The copy let out a realistic groan as the simple punch shattered it's armor, and buried itself into its belly. However the brother wasn't done there, as he pulled his fist out of the copy's guts and wrapped both hands around the back of its head, before bringing it down while his knee flew up.
Again, the battle ended in a decisive victory as the two brothers rejoined one another, before linking their arms and posing in a way that spelled out the letter W, for winner. On their end though, Alex smiled widely at the results of Tearju and the Grigori's work for the last several days.
"So?" Azazel asked with his own shit-eating grin, while even Tearju puffed out her already massive bust in pride.
"Definitely an unexpected, but much appreciated haul." Alex said happily. Though one of the reasons he'd gone to Spira was for the Dresspheres, Alex never would've expected that they'd also be able to get the Warrior Titan transformations along with the serums to make more types at the same time. Both were definitely going to add to their collective strength, while also giving the people of Asora completely new avenues to grow and become stronger.
With the demonstration over and some of the people dispersing back to their work, Alex then asked Azazel,
"So how about Shinra? How's he settling in?" Azazel smiled wryly and punched a few more keys on the monitor while Alex and Markarov watched, until they beheld the sight of a young Al Bhed kid, his entire body completely covered in his usual suit. Except that kid, Shinra, was currently taking apart and examining some of the machines they typically used in their day to day activities, much to the amazement of the other Al Bhed around him.
"He's settling in well, but before he actually starts working on stuff he needs to catch up on the technology we have." Alex slowly nodded in affirmation as he watched Shinra work, his earlier progress marked by the numerous machines around him that had obviously already been dissected.
Shortly after the discussions in Zanarkand had taken place, Alex had invited Shinra to move to Asora and work in the Grigori institute with their other scientists. The kid had readily agreed, and was packed and ready to go within minutes despite Brother and Buddy bemoaning his departure.
Upon his arrival Shinra immediately began sharing the notes on the majority of his work, which all of course involved the use of spheres since that was what most modern technology in Spira revolved around. One of the designs he'd shared also included the basics of Dresspheres, which were already being mass produced and shared throughout Asora via the Academy and Seekvaira's training facilities.
Shinra of course was more than pleased that one of his inventions was already being widely adapted throughout all of Asora, as one of his biggest priorities of being an inventor was having people use and praise his inventions. He was also pleased that he was technically known as Asora's authority on sphere tech, a position that he would fight tooth and nail to defend.
Even just a few short days after their introduction though, Alex was pleased to see numerous people in the rating games already using the Dresspheres, which in turn only increased their popularity. The reason that numerous teams were trying to acquire Dresspheres was of course due to the fact that anyone could use them, and several of them granted abilities that would be hard pressed, if not impossible, to acquire otherwise.
And as Azazel went over all of this with him, Alex couldn't help the large smile he had from how pleased he was, while Azazel also told him there was a fair amount of people who wanted to acquire one of the Warrior Titan serums once they were available as well. Of course, their discussions came to an end when Markarov told them that the next Rating Game was about to start, at which point the trio retired to the Grigori lounge to watch it on their tv.
***
"I still can't believe this!" Rikku cried out in joy as she flew alongside Yuna as they both had their Devils wings spread wide.
A few days prior she had been scouted by Ingvild to join her peerage as her 'Queen', which Rikku had eventually accepted since it seemed interesting. Of course the main reason Ingvild invited Rikku was due to the numerous Dresspheres she used similarly to Yuna, one of which was the Songstress Dressphere that involve singing and dancing.
Ingvild in particular was happy to see that one being made as well, and insisted that everyone already in her peerage use it from the moment they were available.
Back to the present though, currently Yuna and Rikku were flying to the floating islands within the space-time orb where Lala had made her own lab/home. The reason was because she asked to borrow Yuna's Dresspheres the night before to study, and was now apparently finished with whatever she needed them for.
As for why Rikku went along with her, they both knew Lala was apparently quite the inventor. So, Rikku was very excited to finally to go see Lala's lab for herself and see the different kinds of inventions she'd made.
As Rikku celebrated her newfound wings though, Yuna cracked a wry smile as her attitude since they were technically already able to fly if they had the Telekinesis Dressphere active. She didn't say anything though even as Rikku soared up high into the clouds, only to reappear a moment later sputtering and drenched from the condensation.
"Blech, it's so wet up there!" Rikku exclaimed indignantly as she tried to shake out the water, making Yuna giggle before replying,
"You don't have an airship to take shelter in up here Rikku." Rikku's only response was to give Yuna a pointed look, as if to say she already knew that. But seeing her current expression while still dripping wet, Yuna could only giggle once again as Rikku rolled her eyes.
Thankfully though it was fairly warm out under the artificial sun, so by the time they reach Lala's island a few minutes later she was mostly dry. What they found waiting for them though was almost the exact opposite of what the duo expected, though in hindsight it made sense when they considered that Lala shared the island with her mother and sisters.
Everywhere the two girls looked they saw lush vegetation with numerous small and cute animals frolicking around them, almost all of which were completely alien to them. Though what was really surprising was when Yuna noticed some of the small animals and plants they had on Spira, like some of the monkeys that one would typically see around Zanarkand when it was still ruins, or even the lilies found on the Moonflow.
"It's so pretty here!" Rikku exclaimed while looking around excitedly, as even the animals around them began to approach them curiously. Soon they were both petting and holding several of the animals that were living on the island, more and more of which were approaching them with each passing minute.
"Look at this little cutie." Yuna said as she picked up one particular little animal, one that was mostly black with a white back, along with several other white tufts and stripes, and a fluffy tail.
"He's so soft!" Yuna said happily as she patted it and scratched its chin, making the animal squint its eyes in pleasure. A second later however, the small animal let out a sound like a fart, and they were both enveloped in a greenish gas.
"Gah gah! What was that?!" Rikku coughed and exclaimed in a higher tone of voice than usual, before the cloud of gas began to disperse and she and Yuna began to gape at each other.
Both of them had shrunken noticeably while they also seemed to become more childlike in appearance, but most unfortunately was that their clothes no longer seemed to fit.
"What happened!?" Yuna cried out in alarm as she tried to keep her now too large shorts and panties from falling down her legs, while Rikku's were now pooled around her ankles due to both of her hands being full of now smaller animals.
"Did we...turn back into children!?" Rikku asked as she set the animals down, and tried to fix her own clothing as her bikini top and ribbon sleeves also tried to fall off.
Leaving the animals behind in the wake of their sudden change, the duo quickly located and made their way to the only building on the floating island. After ringing the doorbell though, they then had to wait a couple minutes before they heard Lala cry out on the other side,
"Coming!" Relief filled the duo at the thought of being able to remedy their current predicament, until the door opened to reveal Lala completely naked, the only thing on her being the towel wrapped around her head.
"Good morning- wait, why are you guys so small?" Lala asked curiously as she greeted them, earning her a deadpan as Rikku exclaimed,
"Something out there sprayed us and now we're kids again!" When she heard that Lala made an expression of realization as she also smack her fist against her palm, and said,
"Ah! That must've been the Skunk of Youth!"
"Skunk of Youth?" Yuna asked curiously, to which someone else behind Lala explained,
"It's a skunk that sprays a cloud of gas that makes those enveloped in it young again, instead of stinking like a normal skunk. Don't worry though, the effects are temporary and will wear off in about an hour or so." From behind Lala appeared a petite figure that shared her vibrant pink hair, but not her proportions as she looked just as flat as Yuna and Rikku were at the moment. Nana.
Similarly to her sister she too looked as if she had just gotten out of the bath, but unlike Lala she at least had a towel wrapped around her body. Looking at her own sister though, Nana said in an exasperated voice,
"Big sis you should really stop waking around naked like that after we take a bath, you'll catch a cold. Or even worst, that beast will show up and take advantage of you again." Lala however waved away her little sister's concerns as she said,
"It's fine Nana, PEKE!" Yuna and Rikku followed Lala as she turned back around into the house, both of them trying very hard not to look at Lala's exposed and bouncing butt. That was a task made all the harder due to Lala's tail moving behind her and drawing attention to it.
They were distracted though when a small doll-like machine drifted into the room on its own pair of devil-like wings, and asked,
"Did you need me Lala-sama?" As Yuna and Rikku gaped at the thing, Lala quickly explained to it,
"They accidentally got sprayed by the Skunk of Youth, so can you fix their clothes?" As a machine she built to act as her own clothes, and could change into almost any outfit on a whim, Peke was more than capable of modifying Yuna and Rikku's clothes so they would fit them again.
And a second later they were both standing there in their newly adjusted clothes as Nana apologized,
"Sorry about that, Momo and I usually keep our friends in a virtual space that big sis made, but we let some of the more harmless ones run around and live on the island." As the Skunk of Youth's spray wasn't at all actually threatening or deadly, it too had been allowed to run loose with the others, though it could be considered a small annoyance if someone didn't know what it was and got sprayed.
"It's ok, we were mostly just surprised." Yuna assured Nana as Lala also got dressed, now equipped in her usual alien-wear jumpsuit with a large hat. She then retrieved Yuna's Dresspheres and returned them while saying,
"Here you go Yuna, thanks for letting me look at them!" Yuna accepted the spheres and reequipped them into her Garment Grid while replying,
"It's no problem, did you get everything you needed?" Lala beamed at the question as she excitedly replied,
"Yep! I managed to make my very own Dressphere!" Her answer caught both Yuna and Rikku by surprise, as neither expected that Lala would've made her own Dressphere just by looking at Yuna's overnight. Lala then produced a wand-like object topped with a pink heart that had bat-like wings spreading from the sides, and continued,
"I tried making one before, but couldn't make it with just regular clothes." She then closed her eyes and focused, before crying out,
"MECHA MAGICAL GIRL, TRANSFORM!" Yuna and Rikku watched in amazement as the wand lit up their surroundings and enveloped Lala, hiding her from view as she made a transformation within. Once it died down though, she was wearing something they never expected.
"Presenting, Iron-Lala!" Lala proudly declared while taking a pose, adding to the strangeness of the current scene.
Currently Lala was completely encased in a black robotic armor with pink hearts all over it, many of which were illuminated along with the two points where her eyes were. Even her tail was encased in its own suit as it swayed excitedly behind her, while her long and pink hair was the only part of Lala's body that wasn't covered.
After posing for a second, Lala then explained with a slightly more robotic voice,
"I tried making this to better channel and control my powers, because if we use too much energy then we'll shrink like you are now." As she spoke Lala recalled the time she fought Yami when she first transformed into Darkness, as well as her father who had also been reverted into a child-like state after the Galactic War. Thankfully though her reversion had only been temporary, while her father's had been permanent.
Thinking about him though, Lala became slightly downcast as she recalled both him and her first love, Rito.
For a moment Lala didn't say anything as her expression became somewhat melancholic under her suit's mask, before she forced herself to pep up as she continued,
"Anyways, what I really wanted to make was a certain other type of outfit, but I wasn't sure how until now!" As she said that Lala dismissed her robotic armor, making everyone's brows twitch as she was once again naked. With Peke reappearing next to Lala in her doll-like form, she said,
"Sorry Lala-sama, it's really hard for me to maintain my button form when you transform like that." Lala however waved away Peke's apologies and said,
"It's ok Peke! I'll try and figure something out for you later!"
"Thank you Lala-sama." Peke said respectfully at that, while Yuna and Rikku were both sure they heard tones of happiness within Peke's robotic voice. The longer they were around her, the more the two girls were fascinated by Peke due to never having seen such a Machina before.
However Lala soon commanded their attention once more as she retrieved a second wand that was identical to the first, except the heart on this one was clear crystal.
"TRANSFORM!" Lala cried out for the second time, triggering a second light show. Unlike the first one though, this time ribbons of light shot out of the crystal at the tip of the wand, spreading out through Lala's surroundings before they began wrapping around her naked body.
Once Lala's entire body was wrapped within the ribbons of light, it began to flash piece by piece to reveal one area of Lala's transformed body at a time. Starting from her legs and feet, the light flashed before vanishing to reveal a pair of pink boots that went up to her knees over her bare legs.
Then what was revealed was a short pink skirt with black ascents that only went about halfway down her thighs, with a matching belt hanging loosely on her hips. Then on her hands and arms was a pair of white gloves that went up past her elbows with pink ruffles on the edges, as well as several jeweled rings on her fingers.
On Lala's abdomen was a white button up top that, like her gloves, had pink ruffles on the edges, while the collar flared out around her neck. Then, on Lala's head was a golden tiara that held her hair in place, while a single Ruby-red teardrop gem dangled from it in the middle.
Opening her eyes, Lala smiled widely before twirling the wand around, which produced a series of shining sparkles and did so, and struck a pose as if she was about to fight evil in the name of the moon before declaring,
"Introducing a defender of friendship and justice, magical girl LA-TAN!!!" Even as Lala introduced herself to them though, all Nana was able to do was deadpan at her sister, while Rikku and Yuna clapped politely for her. Neither one had ever heard of magical girls before, so they just thought that Lala's new getup was just like any of their other Dresspheres with it own unique set of abilities.
"Big sis...." Nana uttered in disbelief, which Lala apparently took the wrong way as she excitedly said,
"Don't worry Nana, I made a transformation wand for you, Momo, Yue, and Serafall as well!" When she heard that Nana turned deathly pale as she also became somewhat unsteady on her feet. Meanwhile, elsewhere in Asora, Yue suddenly shuddered as her dreaded 'black history' reared its ugly head for some reason.
Not understanding her sister's reaction though, Lala readily brought, Yuna, and Rikku into her own virtual training room to show off the abilities of her transformation. Of course her actions were more impactful than even she expected, as Lala proceeded to eliminate any enemies that spawned before her and even destroy entire landscapes with whip-like ribbons of light, and heart shaped blasts of magical power.