The blast from the Transformation Gun hit Jerri, but she felt no different. Darby looked at Jerri, and then at the Transformation Gun he was holding.
Jerri laughed. Even before she saw the label on the Transformation Gun, she knew what had happened. It was like the time she had used the Geek Gun on Ryan in the basement lab hall, only this time she was the one being zapped with a Transformation Gun that was redundant in her case.
"Didn't you get a good look at me, loser?" Jerri laughed. "I'm already a punk!"
Darby shuddered. "Back off! Please, just go away, whoever you are!"
Jerri reached forward, and snatched the Punk Gun from the trembling marketing executive. "I'll take this!" she said triumphantly. "Now go!"
With that, Darby Adaway rushed off down the hall. Jerri was tempted to zap him with the Punk Gun, but decided to just let him go. He most likely would not make a good accomplice in teaching Mr. McMillan a lesson.
Instead, Jerri had an idea. She took the Punk Gun, and zapped herself with it. Then she zapped herself again. And again. And again. And again.
Jerri liked who she was now. There was no way in hell she was ever going to go back to being that creepy Dr. Chance. She wanted to be Jerri, the punk rock anti-establishment woman who didn't take crap from anyone, especially not rich corporate assholes.
But she knew that the Restoration Guns might not stay locked up in Jeffries' locker forever. And though Ryan had implied he was okay with her staying as she was, she knew others might not be. So she was determined to make things a hell of a lot harder for those who would try to use the Restoration Gun on her, by zapping herself with the Punk Gun multiple times.
It was her hope that even though she didn't change physically or mentally with these zaps, they would still count as Transformation Gun zaps. She knew how the Restoration Gun worked. People zapped with different Transformation Guns could be restored, but only one zap at a time.
If, for example, someone was zapped with a Fat Gun, then a Goth Gun, then a Clown Gun, then a Nerd Gun, it would take four zaps of the Restoration Gun to return them to their default state. One to undo the Nerd Gun, the second to undo the Clown Gun, the third to undo the Goth Gun, and the fourth to undo the Fat Gun.
It was Jerri's hope that if she zapped herself with the Punk Gun as many times as possible, someone using a Restoration Gun on her would end up giving up after a few zaps. If they didn't know who and what she was before, they'd jump to the conclusion that this was her default form.
And it would be her default form if she stayed in it for 30 days after her transformation. The Restoration Gun would only undo transformations that were less than 30 days old. However, Jerri wanted some extra insurance.
Just as she had reached her 50th zap, the Punk Gun started getting warmer in her hand. At zap 60, she abruptly stopped and dropped the Punk Gun. She remembered something about the Transformation Guns, something very important.
Ryan and Jeffries both thought there had to be some sort of limitations as to how often a Transformation Gun could be used in a short period of time. Otherwise, people could just get away with all sorts of mayhem without limits. Samantha Duncan, Rachel McLewis, and Mycroft Brewer all thought a cooldown period sounded reasonable, and even Dr. Chance agreed it was a good idea.
Jeffries came up with the specifics. If a Transformation Gun was used more than 50 times within a five-minute period, it would start to get warmer and overheat. If it was used more than 100 times within a five-minute period, then it would explode, likely killing the person holding it and sending a wave that would enact transformations on anyone within ten feet of it. But this was extremely unlikely to happen, since by the 90th zap within the five-minute period, the affected gun would be so hot only an extremely insane person wouldn't drop it like a hot potato and wait for it to cool off before using it again. Once the Transformation Gun cooled down, it would be safe to use again.
Jerri decided it didn't matter. She had already zapped herself sixty times, which was good enough for her purposes. She could afford to wait for the Punk Gun to cool off. At the moment, there wasn't anyone else she was truly desperate to turn into a Punk.
But she could still cause plenty of trouble anyway. She went back to work, knocking down signs and spraypainting motivational posters in the cubicles she passed.
McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, basement lab complex, main lab
Ryan and Samantha turned to Jeffries, to see his reaction to their threats. There was an uncomfortable silence.
Then Jeffries smiled, and spoke. "You won't do it."
"What do you mean I won't do it?" Ryan said.
"First off, even if you could bring yourself to rob your best friend of his intelligence, you still wouldn't do it." Jeffries said. "The Bimbo Gun could make me forget the combination to my storage locker. And without the Restoration Guns, you wouldn't be able to restore my intelligence. Sure, maybe the Geek Gun could do it, but would it completely undo the effects of the Bimbo Gun? Do you really want to risk the Restoration Guns being locked up forever?"
Ryan stopped. He had no counter.
Jeffries then turned to Samantha. "And you, Samantha. Don't threaten me with the Random Gun, either. The Random Gun is a huge gamble and you know it."
He continued. "Sure, I might turn back into the Jeffries you knew, or I might be given a new personality that's more inclined to give you the combination. But I might end up as something you'd find far worse, and I might end up forgetting the combination. That's not a risk I'd be willing to take, and I know neither of you would want to risk it either."
Ryan and Samantha turned to each other, neither knowing just what to do or say.
After a few seconds, Ryan sighed. "Fine. So what should we do? Blow the storage locker open?"
"I wouldn't try that." Jeffries said. "Even if you found explosives, you know the storage lockers are built to withstand a lot of force. And even if you found something that could damage the storage locker, you'd run the risk of damaging the Restoration Guns as well. And you need them intact if you want to go around restoring people for free."
Ryan and Samantha looked at each other. They were likely to be here for a while, until they either found the right argument to get Jeffries to cooperate, or they found some other way of opening the locker.
Samantha sighed. She hoped their friends would be okay in the meantime. And she hoped Jay and his friends and classmates would be able to calm the situation at Lake Point High School. But for now, there wasn't much she or Ryan could do to help anyone.
