Lake Point High School, Principal's Office Lobby
Prior to Principal Davison returning to her office and making the announcement over the intercom, Randy Goodman and the transformed Chris Morgan made small talk. They talked about recent sports events and movies, and celebrities, the way they sometimes did at lunchtime or after school. Chris was hoping that by doing this, she could assure Randy that though Chris was a girl now, she was still his friend. However, Chris sensed discomfort on Randy's part.
Their conversation was interrupted when Ms. Davison returned to her office and made the announcement over the intercom urging people to turn in their Transformation Guns, and paging the vice principal and the school nurse (both of whom had been missing since the Transformation Guns first showed up). Afterward, Randy stood up from his chair.
"You know what?" Randy said. "I'm tired of waiting around. There are still some Transformation Guns out there and not everyone's going to go and turn them in. We need to find Moose and the others. Who's with me?"
"I am." the hockey captain transformed into an Asian girl Brad Stephens said.
"So am I." Reggie the black girl cheerleader said. "We're already changed. What do we have to lose?"
"I'm staying here." Biff said. "It's just too embarrassing."
Randy turned to Chris Morgan. "What about you?"
Chris paused. "No, I'm okay. I need to stay here, work things out. Be careful out there, okay?"
Randy nodded. "Got it. We're going to the cafeteria first. We'll be back with those Guns."
With that, Randy Goodman headed out, followed by Reggie and Brad.
Nicole noted the troubled expression on Chris' face. "You all right, Chris?"
"I'm okay." Chris said. "Never felt better. Seriously, I'm not just saying that. But ... it's Randy I'm worried about."
"He knows what he's getting himself into." Nicole said.
"No, it's not that." Chris replied. "I think he's freaking out about my ... change. And how I'm okay with it."
Nicole paused. "How do you feel about your change?"
Chris took a look at herself, and took a breath. She looked Nicole in the eye, as Nicole sat in the chair next to her.
"I feel ... comfortable. Relaxed." Chris said. "Tell me, what was it like when you were zapped with the Babe Gun?"
"Well, I didn't change as dramatically as you, since I've always been a girl." Nicole said. "But when I zapped myself with it, I felt calm, at peace with myself. Comfortable in my skin. Confident and feeling like..."
"A confident, capable, and feminine woman." Melissa Smith chimed in.
"Yeah." Chris said. "That's exactly how I felt. How I feel. This feels good, it feels right. It's just that I'm worried about Randy, and what my family's going to think."
Melissa looked at the changed Steve Farber, who was still passed out on the couch. "But what about Steve? He's he going to take it? She?"
Chris laughed a bit. "Yeah, I think this is why Steve fainted. He was always trying to be a real ladies' man. And then he got turned into a really attractive girl, and also had these new ideas and new feelings to go with it. No wonder he fainted."
Kyla Leeson chimed in. "It's like Steve went into 'safe mode'. Or had to reboot himself, or herself. Or whatever pronoun is appropriate."
Nicole laughed. "I was thinking the same thing. I've still got all the knowledge given me by the Geek Gun. So sometimes I catch myself thinking of things in those terms."
"What's Steve going to be like when he wakes up?" Amber Levine asked.
"We'll just have to wait and see." Nicole said. "I hope it'll be an improvement."
"It probably will be." Kyla said. "It sounds like the Babe Gun affects inner beauty as well as outer beauty. I bet if we talked to the person at MTI who created it, they'd say the same thing."
Nicole turned to Kyla. "Your cousin said he and his friends over there created these things. Did he say how?"
"No." Kyla said. "And it doesn't seem to make sense. I mean, McMillan Tech Industries is a great tech company and all that, and the people Ryan works with are geniuses, but this still seems beyond what they're normally capable of."
McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, basement lab complex, main lab
Samantha Duncan paused after she finished the conversation with her son. "It sounds like Rachel's Babe Gun changed a few people over there." she told Ryan. "One of them being the Principal."
Ryan nodded. "I wonder where Rachel is. How would she feel about seeing her creation in action?"
They remembered the conversation they had with Rachel during one of their Transformation Guns brainstorming sessions, back when the whole thing was just a shared fantasy like a tabletop RPG.
McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, basement lab complex break room, two weeks ago
That day's session of imagining new Transformation Guns had been an interesting one. Early on, Mycroft Brewer had come up with the Fat Gun, largely because he was tired of himself and his daughter Gladys being fat-shamed, and felt fat shamers wouldn't like it so much if they were on the receiving end.
Dr. Rachel McLewis offered to brighten things up with what she felt was a far more beneficial Transformation Gun. Rachel was a mousy young woman who frequently read self-help books and went to women's conferences to help boost her confidence and self esteem. Samantha Duncan had asked about the idea of a Transformation Gun that made people more attractive, and Rachel seized on the idea and came up with a concept of her own.
"This idea is inspired by the last women's conference I attended two months ago. They had seminars on not just outer beauty tips, but inner beauty. Let me introduce you to the Babe Gun." Rachel began.
"The Babe Gun can transform anyone into a very attractive person. A girl could become, on the outside, the type of girl that straight guys and lesbians would find to be, well, a babe. She might have been an ugly duckling before, but this would make her truly beautiful, and the sort you'd see on glamour magazine covers and in movies. But it wouldn't just make her attractive on the outside, it'd also boost her inner confidence. It'd make her comfortable with her femininity, while remaining strong mentally."
"Wow." Samantha Duncan said, approvingly. "I like this. Sounds like a nice idea."
Mycroft Brewer nodded. "I'm sure Gladys would love for this to be real."
Ryan nodded. "Sounds good. But what if males got zapped with it? Would they turn into females?"
Rachel chuckled. "Sure, why not?" she replied with a smile.
Everyone laughed, and the information on the Babe Gun was written down and added to their catalog.
McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, basement lab complex, main lab, present day
"It all seemed so funny back then." Samantha said. "And we STILL don't know how all our fantasies became real."
"It's crazy." Ryan said. "I didn't know how to explain it to Kyla. How can we explain any of this when we don't know what happened ourselves?"
"Of course right now the whole world knows magic is definitely real." Samantha said. "They know less about this than we do, so they're probably freaking out trying to make sense of this."
There was a faint moan. They turned to Jeffries. Jeffries appeared to be on the verge of waking up from the sedative Samantha had administered when she tied him up with duct tape. Hopefully, he would wake soon and Samantha and Ryan would be able to get him to cooperate with them. They needed to get that storage locker with the Restoration Guns open, and only Jeffries knew the combination.
Samantha hoped everyone else would be all right in the meantime. She wondered where Rachel was. She hoped Mycroft was okay upstairs in the main office area of MTI. And she wondered if that punk rock woman Jerri was causing people headaches up there.
And of course she hoped Jay and his classmates would be all right over at Lake Point High School.
But right now, she and Ryan had to concern themselves with Jeffries.
