McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, upper floors, hallway near board room
Dr. Rachel McLewis struggled a bit against Martin Stragey's grip, but she knew it was best not to try to make a break for it. She doubted she would be able to get very far before Stragey zapped her with the Random Gun.
This whole day was insane and nonsensical. How had the fantasies she and her friends and coworkers come up with during their breaks turned into reality? As much as she loved sharing silly ideas with the rest of the group, she knew they were just that - silly ideas that most likely couldn't happen in the real world. But now they were real, and some people were going crazy with them.
Rachel had seen several people changed. The sexy secretary Gloria Galinsky has been zapped with the Prude Gun, and was now scolding others for wearing short skirts or using foul language. Mycroft Brewer, previously fat and out of shape, had been zapped with the Jock Gun and had the body of an athlete the last time Rachel saw him. And in the halls and cubicles, there were now a greater number of Goths, Nerds, and Clowns than there had been before.
Rachel even saw two very attractive women who she recognized as more beautiful versions of women who worked in Marketing or Accounting. She didn't know them personally, but she had passed them in the halls several times many days when she arrived at work. The women she was used to seeing were average-looking, but now ... they must have been zapped with the Babe Gun. The product of Rachel's own imagination was now real, and people were using it, on themselves or others. Rachel was not sure how to feel about this.
She did know how to feel about some of the other Transformation Guns, though. Especially the Random Gun. After Jeffries had suggested it and they added it to the written down catalog of Transformation Guns, they all laughed and were glad it wasn't real. For if it really existed, it would be truly terrifying. Someone could become a different race, age, gender, or skin color in an instant, and even their personality could be altered drastically.
But now it was all too real. Rachel had seen two members of their group changed by it in terrifying ways. Dr. Chance had turned into Jerri, the blonde mohawk punk rock woman who had almost nothing in common with her former self. While Jerri's new personality was in many ways an improvement over Dr. Chance's disturbingly misogynistic old personality, it was still terrifying to see how different she was from her previous self, and how quick she was to smash and vandalize things in the name of sticking it to Mr. McMillan.
And then there was Jeffries. He was a nice guy, a kid who got the job straight out of Lake Point University. A geek who was into gaming of all sorts, he had a very active imagination and was friendly and likeable. But because he had been accidentally zapped with the Random Gun, he had been turned into a crazed, mad scientist caricature of his former self whose issues with the higher-ups motivated him to extreme tactics.
And now she was being held at 'gunpoint' by Martin Stragey, an angry marketing executive who also had issues with Mr. McMillan. Not long after Mycroft Brewer had left MTI with his daughter Gladys (who had stolen the Fat Gun) and presumably driven her home, the MTI building had been placed on lockdown. No one went in or out without the approval of security. It was not long after seeing Mycroft leave that Stragey grabbed Rachel, and dragged her through the halls of McMillan Tech Industries.
And Stragey was armed with the Random Gun. The same one Jeffries had teleported to the upper floors from downstairs.
"Why are you doing this?" Rachel demanded. "Where are you taking me?"
She had asked this several times, but got no real answer. Only vague hints about showing Mr. McMillan who the real boss was.
Soon, they were outside one of the largest meeting rooms in the building. It was where Mr. McMillan and the Board of Directors usually met. And now the doors were all locked with a special high-tech keypad lock.
"Here!" Stragey said. "I need you to help me break into the meeting room! You're a tech geek, so you should be able to figure a way to bypass the locks!"
"But why?" Rachel asked.
"I'll tell you why! Mr. McMillan turned me down for a promotion, and gave it to that loser Darby Adaway instead!" Stragey growled. "Now he and the rest of the Board are hiding in the board room from all these weird guns, thinking they can just stay in there and wait it out till we're too tired to change them! But once you break these locks for me, I can charge in and teach them all a lesson they won't forget!"
Rachel gasped. This man intended to use the Random Gun on Mr. McMillan and the other executives on the board. And he was forcing her to help him do it.
"Look, what do you think you're going to accomplish in there?" Rachel said. "You'll probably get fired, and arrested!"
"Depends on what the Random Gun changes them into." Stragey said. "I saw a few people get zapped by this in the past hour. Some changed so much in personality they might as well be different people. All I have to do is zap Mr. McMillan and the rest enough times until they become people willing to give me the big promotions and the big money. Hey, they could make ME the CEO of this place! Stragey Tech Industries has a good ring to it!"
"And what's in this for me?" Rachel asked.
"Aside from me letting you walk away unchanged?" Stragey said, indicating the Random Gun. "Come on, I know you tech geeks aren't getting your fair share of the profits from the sales of the stuff you help create. You're getting screwed over even worse than I am. I shouldn't have to threaten you to get you to help me."
Rachel shuddered. The point Stragey was making was similar to the changed Jeffries' stated motivation, but unlike Jeffries, Stragey did not appear to be affected by the Random Gun or any other Transformation Gun. His extreme behavior was entirely his own.
She didn't want to help him. But what choice did she have?
Outside Lake Point High School
"I'm sorry, sir." said the security guard. "No one goes in or out until the lockdown has been lifted."
Mycroft Brewer sighed. "My daughter's in there."
"I'm sorry, but we can't allow you in there. If you have means of contacting your daughter, I suggest you do so."
Mycroft then texted Gladys with his phone. He asked if she was all right.
He was thankful that he did not have to wait very long for a reply.
Gladys: We're fine. Becky Rodder and I are staying in a classroom till this blows over.
Mycroft had driven Gladys home once the situation at MTI became too chaotic for her to stay there. But since she had stolen the Fat Gun, he suspected she would return to her school, and she had. But now she wasn't allowed to leave until security said it was okay. At least she and her friend Becky Rodder were safe.
Inside Lake Point High School, Jay Duncan and Athena DeVries were still with Leonard Drullers in the classroom Leonard and others had chosen to stay in. They were plotting their next course of action when suddenly cheerleader Jessica Davis rushed into the room.
Jessica turned to Jay and Athena. "You're Jay Duncan, right?" she said. "We don't talk to each other much, I know. But Amber told me to find you."
Leonard laughed. "Not talking to each other is an understatement. They're almost never in the same place together."
"This is serious!" Jessica said, and indeed she looked more serious than Jay, Athena, or Leonard had ever seen Jessica Davis look. "Amber told me you're still looking for the Transformation Guns. I think there are at least three of them in the cafeteria. Things are totally crazy there!"
"What?" Jay asked.
"And I think one of them's the Goth Gun you're looking for!" Jessica added.
"The Goth Gun. I'd like to see that." Athena said. "We have to take it from whoever has it, because if too many people become Goths, then Goths won't be special anymore."
"Yeah, there's that." Leonard said. "And it can make people act really weird. No offense."
Jessica turned to them. "So, are we going to go get these things or what? Moose and the others are going crazy!"
