Doug Sallow paused, turning to look at the others. "I think we should listen." he said. "They've got no love for Dankworth either. So let's give them a chance."
He turned back to Samantha, Ryan, and the rest of their group. "Okay, tell us everything. I have this feeling you really do know more about what's going on than we do."
"Now, as some of you know, during our break hours, a few of us got together and came up with ideas for things we don't really have the capability to create at MTI." Samantha began. "Some of the things we came up with would be completely impractical in the real world, at best, but we were having fun."
Jeffries and Ryan both nodded, and signaled for Samantha to continue.
"Now, this is the part that'll sound crazy to you, even after all you've seen and experienced." Samantha began. "Somehow ... we don't know how ... some of our most recent imaginings came to life. Some unknown force made them real. This includes the sophisticated helpful worker robots you've seen all over the basement. And it includes the Transformation Guns."
Samantha turned to Ryan and Jeffries. There were plenty of things she didn't see or experience that they could add perspective on.
So the three of them told the story of how the six of them (Samantha Duncan, Ryan Leeson, Randall Jeffries, Rachel McLewis, Mycroft Brewer, and Dr. Jerry Chance) had discovered the Transformation Guns made real. How accidental zaps with the Random Gun had turned Jeffries into a crazed mad scientist, and Dr. Chance into the punk rock woman calling herself Jerri. The latter of whom had disowned her former identity and headed upstairs.
"So that's who she was." Sallow said.
"She talked as if she knew who we were, but we didn't know who she was." Arnie Amspoker said.
"I like her a lot better than that creep she used to be." Teresa Talton said.
"I think most of us do." Ryan said. "But we're only just getting started."
Samantha continued the story, telling how Jeffries had used the Cargo Teleportation Chamber (another product of their imagination made real) to send whole batches of Transformation Guns to Lake Point High School and to the upper floors of McMillan Tech Industries. Samantha had attempted to stop Jeffries from transporting two more batches to MTI's Pittsburgh branch (even going so far as to deliberately zap herself with the Jock Gun to give her more speed, strength, and skill), but then the Teleportation Chamber overloaded from trying to transport too many things at once and...
"We don't really know why this happened." Jeffries said. "We think both the Transformation Guns and the Teleport Chamber are powered by magic, or at least some force our current science doesn't understand. And when they mixed together, they sent this wave out all over the world and..."
"It's not just here anymore." Samantha said. "It's out there in the world now."
"What are you talking about?" Milt Smukmeyer said. Sallow, Teresa, Amspoker, and the rest of their group had a similar confused look.
Larry and Carrie turned to Samantha, Ryan, and Jeffries. This was the first they'd heard of this.
"I think it's easier if we show you." Samantha said. "Some of you have laptops. Open them up and get them to stream the news channels."
And so they did. They gasped at what the news reports were saying.
"What?" "How?" "Why?" were all questions repeated from the crowd.
"It's the wave that got sent out over the world when the Chamber overloaded." Samantha said. "Somehow, it turned all regular guns in the world into Transformation Guns. They're everywhere now. All of them."
They stared at the news reports of people all over the world being zapped into Nerds, Clowns, Punks, Goths, Mimes, or other such transformations. As Larry, Carrie, Sallow, Teresa, Milt, Arnie, and the others attempted to take in this bizarre situation, the news then turned to talking about McMillan Tech Industries. Specifically the events at the headquarters of MTI's Lake Point branch.
"There is still no word on the condition of CEO Richard McMillan and the four others involved in the explosion in the board room." the news anchor was saying. "But varying reports as to what caused the explosion have surfaced online. According to some, it was caused by a disgruntled marketing executive whose name has not been released to the public. According to another, the explosion was caused by COO Clay Dankworth, who is the only confirmed fatality. His family has been notified."
"I ... I think I believe you now." Sallow said. "So Mr. Dankworth is dead?"
"Yes." Samantha said. "That's what Rachel told us. She was there when it happened."
"I"d like to talk to her. Now where'd I put my cell phone?" Sallow said, mostly to himself.
Samantha turned to Ryan and Jeffries. She hoped this meant things were going to calm down here. If the entire Research and Development department was now at peace, they could then more easily help everyone else at MTI.
She also hoped her son Jay Duncan and his friends were all right, and that some semblance of peace was being restored at Lake Point High School. But she was waiting to see how the rest of Sallow's group behaved before turning her cell phone back on.
