"You can't keep doing that!" Jim yelled.
"Doing what? I'm not doing anything wrong." Rick rolled her eyes.
"Doing what? Seriously? You're kidding. Controlling the cheer team! Reading their minds! Reading my mind! It's wrong! They're real people! This is going to backfire and it's going to be huge!" Jim's face grew red as he yelled.
"Okay, so first off... Calm down." Rick pointed at Jim. Suddenly Jim's outrage vanished and her breathing slowed. Her fists loosened and opened.
"I'm sorry" Jim apologized, fully meaning it. "You're right, you're our hive mind. You do as you want."
"That's what I thought. I was going to give you a pretty big gift, but now I'm reconsider--- wait. You didn't...? This wasn't intentional?" Rick's mouth hung open and her arm swung down to her side.
Jim felt her mind return to her. It had been so surreal being directly controlled by Rick. It felt like she was still in control, but looking back she knew she wasn't. It terrified her to know that Rick had that much power over her.
"What the fuck, dude? That was uncalled for. Not cool." Jim crossed her arms over her huge boobs, careful to not get angry enough to make Rick take over her mind again.
"Nevermind that. Answer me truthfully - did you mean to make me the cheerleader hive mind?" The blood had mostly drained from Rick's face, and her eyes were open as wide as humanly possible.
"No. I tried to tell you but you never let me. The wand did that on its own. I think it's broken."
"Oh."
Silence hung in the air while Rick thought about the implications, and Jim waited.
"What's the saying? 'Don't look a gift horse in the mouth?' Yep, I'm good." Rick shrugged and turned to her locker. She quickly spun in the combination and pulled off her shirt to change.
Jim was dumbfounded. Even after finally sharing the truth with Rick, she seemed indifferent to it.
"What, that's it? You think this is fine?!?" Jim felt the anger rising in her again.
"Yep, this is pretty good." Rick turned around, showing her bare breasts to Jim. She leaned back into an overconfident stance and crossed her arms below her breasts, lifting them up even higher and accentuating her cleavage.
"We have to undo this! We can't keep living like this. It's not just us, it's everyone the wand has affected, the entire cheer squad!" Jim was again quickly becoming outraged. He didn't care about the consequences, he wanted this fixed.
"You're thinking about this only from your point of view. Did you ever stop to consider mine? Or the girls?"
Jim paused. What was Rick talking about? "What?"
"I, and the cheer squad, who at this point are really extensions of me, are doing great. I'm absolutely loving being a hive mind. And the girls can't tell anything is different - the only things they can sense is that they're more coordinated, more organized, and they can communicate far better than they used to. To them, today was just another cheer practice - actually it was the best cheer practice yet. And even Robin liked our little after-shower escapade. It was her first time with a girl and she genuinely enjoyed it.
Now imagine if we use the wand to change that. We're risking making things worse. Really, the only person who doesn't think things are better this way is... YOU." Rick pointed straight at Jim, and she scowled. Jim felt a sudden rush of fear and was acutely reminded of the power Rick had over her.
"So you're saying you want to keep controlling these girls? With absolutely no chance at fixing things?" Jim reigned in her tone, afraid of what retaliation she might spur.
"You still don't get it. I AM these girls. And I'm happy. You're the only one who isn't."
Jim heard the locker room door slam shut and glanced over. She was surprised to see 2 Robin Fosters standing shoulder to shoulder blocking the exit. And behind them were 2 Kathys and even more girls on the squad. A second slam attracted Jim's attention to the other locker room door. There stood 2 Melindas, 2 Lauries, and many more blocking the other exit.
Jim turned back to Rick, who was still topless. "What... what are you doing?"
Suddenly a hand touched Jim on the shoulder, and she spun around to find herself facing... a second Rick, with the wand in hand. "I'm fixing the problem."
Thu Sep 27 01:57:54 2018