Hodge opened his eyes to find himself in the endless white expanse of his subconscious. He gazed down at his nakedness and felt a mixture of joy and pain as he saw himself untransformed. Events and genetics had transformed him first into the hulking giant, and then sent him into the body of Agent Symco.

“Hi, Ben.” The voice of agent Symco rang out behind him. He turned to see her standing in the void, fully clothed.

“Ugh, I hate my name. Please just call me Hodge.” he said.

“Sorry. I just thought since we now know each other so intimately, that we might as well be on a first name basis. I overstepped.” She apologized.

“You didn't overstep.” he said “It's just that even my mom called me Hodge before I came to live at the compound.”

“Oh,” Symco stopped, “I never thought to ask you about your family.”

“It's just me and my mom basically.” he said, “Up until my condition kicked in. Now it's just me.”

“She doesn't visit you?”

“She tries.” he said. “But I don't want her to see me like this. Or, like that, I guess. I'd be fine with her seeing this. Maybe ditch the skirt first... How about you, got any family?”

“My parents died when I was small.” she said “I have a sister named Casey, but I haven't seen her in a while. She fell in with kind of a rough crowd and disappeared. I can still feel her though, somewhere in the world.”

“I'm sorry to hear that.” Said Hodge.

“Yes...” Said Symco awkwardly. “Uh, Pledgestone and Ridgewater want us to report to the training room. They have some new maneuvers that they want us to go over.”

“Right.” said Hodge “I'll be right there.” Hodge opened his eyes, finding himself in Symco's body. She was too short for his liking. Her 5'7” frame paled in comparison to his monstrous 7'11” regular self, now inhabited by Symco's consciousness. Symco's body was slim but not fit and so Hodge found himself being winded more often that he was used too. Even though this body was smaller than his own he still found himself to be clumsy in it. He would often under reach for things, or would try to over compensate for his size with more dramatic and larger gestures which would often compromise his balance or footing. In short, it was a long way to go before this body was combat ready. As a 17 year old boy Hodge had often thought about what it might be like to have a girls body, and now that he was in one he hated it. He felt uncomfortable with the way it felt and the way people, particularly men, would look at him. People who didn't know he was really a gigantic 17 year old trapped in a gorgeous 22 year old's body would often make comments at him that made him feel self conscious or vulnerable. This caused him to double down on his social disengagement. He had not liked the stares and glares he got as a misshapen giant, he liked the objectification of women now even less. As he walked down the hall a member of the security staff looked him up and down, Hodge burned with rage and pinned the guard against the wall.

“Didja get a good look? Or should I walk by you again?” He growled, more high pitched than he had intended or would have liked.

“I...I...I'm sorry?” the guard stammered. Hodge let him go.

“Keep your eyes on the road, bub. I'm watching you...” Hodge walked away holding two fingers up and motioning back and forth between the guards eyes and his own. “I need to send an apology letter to every girl I've ever met...” he grumbled under his breath. Hodge was wearing a long black trench coat, he popped the collar up and pulled out a cigarette that he lit as he walked down the hall. He marched towards the training room and threw the door open. He swaggered over to a counter in the corner and announced his presence.

“What's up, ladies? The Hodge-man has arrived!”

“What the hell, Hodge? I told you not to smoke in my body!” Symco shouted.

“Oh, yeah? What about you? What are those things you got around my neck?” He asked.

“These are meditation beads. I'm a Buddhist.” She said.

“Of course you are.” He said dryly. “Well take them off you're going to ruin my image!” Symco stood open mouthed at the cheek with which he was speaking to her; not that you could see her mouth, she had adopted Hodge's custom of wearing different masks. Today she wore a bright yellow smiley face with X's for eyes.

“You little punk!” She started, but was interrupted by Pledgestone entering the room.

“Quiet down, boys and girls, it's time to get started!” He said. Symco was furious that she had been caught lashing out at Hodge in front of the director again, but she held her composure. The Director continued: “From what we can tell from your physical examinations, both of your bodies may have latent psychic and physical abilities that you didn't have before; this could prove to be an asset in the field. Hodge, we have a theory that you may be able to locate targets using your mind instead of your eyes. We are going to test that theory today. Symco, we believe you can still tap into Hodge's muscle memory in regards to target accuracy; we'll be testing that theory today as well.” The director threw Hodge a blindfold and told him to put it on, and then handed the both of them a series of side arms.

“These are paintball guns.” He stated. “Hodge, your mission is to tag Symco while blindfolded using the psychic abilities dormant in her brain. Symco, you are to use distance as an advantage and tag Hodge from a very far distance. If our theories are correct you should both be formidable opponents to each other.” He instructed another agent to escort Hodge to the middle of the training ground, and another to lead Symco to her beginning point and explain the boundaries. Pledgestone kept speaking: “As an incentive to this activity, I am authorizing that the victor will get a hall pass.” Hall passes were rare in the PPD, and it meant you could go out into the world uninhibited by Department regulations. Since most of the agents and assets were entrenched in the world of the occult and the paranormal they weren't allowed out too often without supervision. The passes were even more rare given the fact that some of the agents and assets weren't even human and so could not go out into the world without inciting some kind of panic. Both Symco and Hodge perked up at the promise of a hall pass. Hodge put a cigarette in his mouth and started walking with his guide to the center of the training ground. He turned briefly to quip something obnoxious at Symco but before he could, a paintball from Symco's gun whizzed past him, knocking the cigarette out of his mouth.

“I said no smoking!” She yelled.

“Oh, it's on!” he said to himself as he was lead to the center of the training area.

Next time: War Games