As Clay fired the Random Gun for the 100th time, he kept on laughing like the madman he had become. The overheating Random Gun glowed red hot and white hot and smoke issued forth from its power source as the high-pitched whine increased. The heat burned the flesh from his hands, but he did not care. He had to cause a few more transformations.
"CHA--"
BOOM!
The Random Gun exploded in the maniac's hands. The former Clay Dankworth was transformed into a bunch of red bloody pieces of flesh, bone, and entrails that flew all over the place and landed on the walls, ceiling, and floor. A flash of white energy burst forth, transforming everyone else in the room.
Roman Coakley (head of the Lake Point Mutual Bank) was now a female ninja dressed in dark attire meant to blend into shadows.
Martin Stragey (the Marketing department employee whose grievances caused the Random Gun to fall into Clay's hands in the first place) was now an attractive young Asian woman dressed as a nurse.
Elinor Stallsworth (the head of Accounting) was now a twenty-nine year old young man dressed as a baseball player.
Nicholson Quarterson was now a young woman dressed as a Roaring 20's flapper.
But the biggest surprise of all was the transformation of Richard McMillan. He had been transformed into an 18 year old young lady dressed in a cheerleader's outfit. Ironically enough, the cheerleader's outfit was an outfit supporting the Forestville High Jaguars, the team that was scheduled to play against his daughter Sarah's high school in just a week or so.
All five of them stood there motionless, almost paralyzed with shock. They had been transformed so many times in both body and mind that they couldn't process it.
The fact that some of Mr. Dankworth's blood and guts splattered on them did not help matters any.
Almost in unison, they fainted.
Outside in the waiting area near the meeting room, Rachel McLewis and Jerri hid behind a couch as they heard the crazed screams and maniacal laughter, accompanied by the distinct sound of Transformation Gun zaps. Then one last maniacal scream was cut off by an explosion, and the sound of something splattering on the walls. And then there was silence.
"Is it over? Is it safe?" Rachel asked.
"I think so." Jerri said. "In fact, I'm sure of it."
Jerri and Rachel emerged from the safety of the couch. The hall had a few people in it, but they seemed hesitant to move in the direction of the meeting room. Jerri could not blame them one bit.
Cautiously, Jerri and Rachel headed to the door of the meeting room, and stepped inside.
The meeting room was a shambles. There was smoke in the air, and blood and entrails were splattered on the walls, ceiling, and floor, as well as the main meeting room table. And lying unconscious on the ground were five unfamiliar people.
Rachel breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that the five people were alive. She knew who they were, but she had not seen all the transformations. She had no way of knowing right now which person was which, and would not know until they regained consciousness.
"Transformation shock." Rachel said. "Too many transformations in too short a time period. That has to mess with them a lot. They might recover physically, but mentally ... I don't know. We never thought this was going to happen in real life."
"They'll probably live, not that I care that much." Jerri said.
"Which is more than we can say for Mr. Dankworth." Rachel said.
"He used the Random Gun too many times in less than five minutes." Jerri said. "I was thinking about the whole 'cooldown period' thing just a little while ago. I thought to myself 'It'd take an extremely crazy person to NOT drop an overheating Transformation Gun like a hot potato when it's about to burn your hands off.' And we got one right here!"
Rachel shuddered. "The idea that the Random Gun could make someone THAT crazy ... it's just ... "
"A one in a billion chance." Jerri said, finishing Rachel's sentence. "He just happened to win the crazy grand prize drawing."
"You don't seem too worried." Rachel said. "It could have easily happened to you."
"Well, it didn't, and I'm glad what it DID do." Jerri said. She then walked up to Rachel and stared at her directly in the eye.
"Let me make one thing perfectly clear." Jerri said. "As far as I'm concerned, Dr. Jerry Chance is dead. And he can stay dead. You can take those Restoration Guns and shove them up your ass, because there's no way I'm going to go back to being that creep."
"My name is Jerri. Jerri Blazestorm. I don't take shit from anyone. Not creepy sexist scum like Dr. Chance, and not rich assholes like Mr. McMillan and Mr. Dankworth, either. I'm going to go out and make a new life for myself."
"But what about our friends? What about Mr. McMillan?" Rachel asked.
"You can say goodbye to them for me. If they keep my cell number, tell them to change my name. Remember, it's Jerri Blazestorm. That's Jerri with an i." Jerri said.
She paused, and turned to acknowledge the unconscious transformed people lying on the floor.
"And as for Mr. McMillan, when he wakes up ... tell him I quit."
With that, Jerri turned and headed out the door.
Rachel decided not to stop her or even ask where she was going. Rachel had more important things to do.
Some of the people in the hall were now approaching. They looked in shock at the scene in the meeting room.
"I'll explain all this later." Rachel told the approaching onlookers. "We have people in need of medical assistance."
McMIllan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, basement lab complex, main lab
Ryan Leeson sighed. So far, he and Samantha Duncan were getting nowhere in their efforts to persuade Jeffries to give them the combination to the storage locker containing the Restoration Guns. He was starting to run out of arguments.
He needed a break. He decided to text his cousin Kyla again, just to get an update on the situation at Lake Point High School.
Ryan: We're still working things out here at MTI. How are you?
Kyla: Things seem to be getting better. Slowly. We just got two more Transformation Guns, and some more may be on the way.
Ryan: Good. Let me know when things settle down over there.
Kyla: Will do. Let me know what's going on there too, okay?
Ryan: Okay.
Ryan ended the text messaging for now.
At the moment, he and Samantha were still at an impasse. But he knew they still had to keep trying.
He hoped other people elsewhere were making more progress in their efforts to calm this situation.
