"Let's not give chase." Doug Sallow said. "Stragey is the least of our problems now. If he, or she, or whichever pronoun they are using now causes trouble, someone will handle it. For now, let's stay on task."
Samantha nodded. "He's right. Right now, Stragey's on the run, and will probably be in hiding for a while. We'll deal with Stragey later. We can't keep the Legal and PR departments waiting any longer."
"What about the rest of us?" Larry asked.
"You stay here and take care of things." Samantha said. "Ryan and Rachel are going to be in charge when we're gone. Tell Dr. Fairlane about the situation with Stragey. Oh, and make sure Peggy's looked after."
She nodded in the direction of Peggy Pegany, who was still taped to a chair nearby. Ms. Hitchens the secretary nodded.
"Okay, let's do this." Doug Sallow said. And with that, Sallow, followed by Samantha Duncan, Teresa Talton, and Milt Smukmeyer, headed off in the direction of the elevators.
This left Larry Eastbrook, Carrie Brierton, and Arnie Amspoker there in the cubicle hall with Ms. Hitchens and Peggy Pegany. Larry and Carrie headed to the office that Dr. Anissa Fairlane was using to inform her of this latest turn of events.
McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, the waiting area near the meeting room
After Dr. Anissa Fairlane had been told of Stragey's escape, she followed Larry, Carrie, and Arnie Amspoker to the waiting area to meet with those assembled there. This included Ryan Leeson, Randall Jeffries, Rachel McLewis, Dr. Elaine the Random Gun-created physician, and the actual doctors Dr. Bryant and Dr. Andrews. And, of course, the four remaining transformees from the meeting: Richard McMillan, Nicholson Quarterson, Elinor Stallsworth, and Roman Coakley.
Dr. Fairlane spoke up. "It would appear that my meeting with Mr. Stragey will have to be postponed for the immediate future. But I believe I have heard enough now to give an informed opinion on this matter."
She continued. "All four of you have been through a traumatic experience unlike any that most of us have heard of before. It's clear that you are still feeling the effects of transformation-related PTSD, brought about by twenty transformations both physical and mental, within under three minutes. None of the individual transformations, aside from the ones first produced by Stragey and the end results, lasted more than twenty seconds at the most, giving you no time to come to terms with one transformation before the next occurred. At least one of you has wished they had a chance to get to know some of the people they briefly became better."
Quarterson nodded a bit.
"Now, Rachel McLewis' friend Ryan Leeson has offered to use these devices called Restoration Guns to help transform you back." Anissa continued. "From what I am told, they have proven effective on people who've been transformed once, but there are certain stipulations. Mr. Leeson, can you explain further?"
"Gladly." Ryan Leeson said, hoping he sounded more confidant than he actually felt. But as the one who came up with the concept of the Restoration Guns in the first place, he was the one who could best explain them.
"The Restoration Guns can undo any Transformation Gun transformation that has occurred in the previous thirty days." Ryan stated. "However, it can only undo one Transformation at a time - it can't instantly turn you back to your original form if you've been changed multiple times without a Restoration in between. You've all been changed at least twenty times, so it will take twenty zaps with a Restoration Gun to change you back to the forms you had before Stragey barged in on you in the meeting room. And furthermore, since the Random Gun gave you several different forms with different mental or personality effects to go with them, you'll probably be experiencing those personas again should you decide to go through with this. You're going to have to decide if it's worth possible additional psychological trauma to get back to your original bodies eventually."
Dr. Fairlane spoke up. "However, it seems to me that at least part of the trauma was caused by the fact that, as almost all of you have stated, the transformations came and went so quickly. Had they not happened so fast -- if each form and its effects were given time to settle and room to breathe -- perhaps it would have been easier for you to cope. My suggestion, Mr. Leeson, is that if you are going to use the Restoration Guns, you allow each of the other forms at least five minutes, maybe more, before moving on to the next one. Perhaps you could actually ask the subject if they are ready before the next restoration?"
"That sounds like a good idea." Ryan said. "I think that's how we'll handle it. At least five minutes between restorations, and we'll ask if you're ready before moving on to the next one. Now, does anyone want to volunteer to be the first?"
There was a pause. Each of the four transformees looked at each other. Quarterson spoke up.
"To be honest, if it weren't for my wife and children, I think I'd stay in this form. Yes, I'm a woman now. Yes, I get all these 1920s thoughts sometimes, but I'm younger now. I'm a young woman in my twenties when I used to be a man in my late 50s. And I'm healthier, too. My old body had bad knees and back pain, and I had a heart attack two years ago."
The Chief Finance Officer in the form of a Roaring 20's flapper continued. "But I'm not sure how my wife and children would react. I have one son and one daughter, and while they're both adults now in their twenties, it'd still be hard to adjust. But I'm also not sure if it's worth going through all these transformations again, even at a slower pace, just to get back a body that's seen better days. So I think maybe I'll wait, see what the others say, and see if it works for them before making up my mind."
Stallsworth spoke up next. "I've already decided. I'm not going to go through with it. I'm staying as I am now."
A number of people in the room stared at the former female Department Head of Accounting turned male baseball player in surprise. He went on.
"Yes, I'm a man now, but I'm nearly twenty years younger. I'm also divorced, no children. I have two brothers and a sister, and my mother, but I'm sure they'll be able to cope. And all my Accounting skills are intact. I can still do my duties as Department Head of Accounting."
"But why?" Rachel McLewis asked. "I thought you were fine with being a woman."
"I was." Stallsworth said. "But I'm okay with being a man now. I can handle it, I can deal with it. What I can't deal with is the possibility of all those other personalities coming back, and maybe taking over."
There was a haunted look on Stallsworth's face as he continued. "We don't know what happened to bring our original selves back in control, and we don't know how or why it happened. And we don't know if it'll happen again. I'm afraid I might lose myself in one of those other personalities, and think of myself as a Tudor nobleman or a female 70's rock star instead of anything resembling Elinor Stallsworth. There's a lot worse forms to be stuck in, and I think I got pretty lucky".
"Are you sure about this?" Quarterson, perhaps Stallsworth's closest friend on the Board, asked.
"I'm sure. I'll have to change my first name, but I can live with this. Plus, I'm going to be a great pick for the company softball team." Stallsworth added with a smile.
Dr. Elaine smiled. "Another beneficial side effect." she commented.
"Yeah." Stallsworth said. "Anyway, I've made my decision. Now, what about the rest of you?" He turned to Richard McMillan, transformed into a cheerleader, and Roman Coakley, transformed into a female ninja.
"I'm not a cheerleader." McMillan said. "I don't really want to be a cheerleader. It's fine for my daughter, and it was fine for my wife when she was in high school, but I'm the CEO of McMillan Tech Industries. I don't have time for this nonsense."
"So you wish to be changed back?" Dr. Anissa Fairlane asked.
"Well, yes..." McMillan said, after a pause.
"But?" Rachel added, supplying the word she felt was implied by the pause.
"Are you sure you can't just zap me straight back to my normal self without having to go through all those others first?" McMillan said, looking directly at Ryan Leeson. "Are you sure you know what you're talking about?"
"Pretty sure." Ryan said without hesitation. "The Restoration Gun can only undo one Transformation at a time. It can't take you all the way back with one zap. I know it can't."
"And how do you know? None of us knew these things existed until today!" McMillan exclaimed.
"I know!" Ryan shouted back. "I've known them longer than any of you!"
Ryan barely held himself back from blurting out the fact that the Transformation Guns were the products of his and his friends' imaginations mysteriously made real. He wasn't sure whether McMillan would believe him, and knew that telling McMillan this now wouldn't make things any better for anyone at this point. Now just wasn't the time to be talking about where the Transformation Guns came from.
"You'll just have to take my word for it for now, okay? We can talk about where we first encountered them some other time." Ryan said, trying his best to calm down.
"Wait. I believe I should be the one to go first." Coakley said, calmly.
"You? Why you?" McMillan asked.
"Several reasons." Coakley said. "First off, while my position as president of the Lake Point Mutual Bank chain is important, there are already people prepared to step up should something happen to me. Second, I'm greatly concerned about the occasional urges from the ninja personality that might cause me to do things that are rash or even criminal. Such as tossing a shuriken into someone's face, for example. Compared to that, your occasional cheerleader urges are tame."
"I'm prepared to take the risks involved with reliving all those other personalities, with greater 'breathing room' this time." Coakley continued. "If it rids me of these disturbing thoughts, then the risk will be worth it. You, meanwhile, are still CEO of the company. It'll be in turmoil if something happens to you."
"Fine. You go first." McMillan said, grudgingly, before turning to Ryan Leeson. "But I expect to go next after you're through with Mr. Coakley. I'd prefer that no one outside this building know about this. I'm not leaving this building till I'm changed back."
Ryan then turned to the psychiatrist, Dr. Anissa Fairlane. "Okay, so we've got one missing, one who's decided to stay in their current form, one who's undecided, and two who want to change back. Mr. Coakley is going to go first. Can we use the same office you've been using?"
"It's not really my office, so you might as well." Anissa replied. "Just be careful. I'd advise you have one or two other people with you as backup in case something goes wrong."
"Understood." Ryan said. He had it worked out in his head what the best course of action would be, and hopefully everything would go well. But he could not shake this strange feeling of dread that he'd been having the past hour. As if something terrible still loomed ahead.
He did his best to try to not think about it. It'd already been a long day. Perhaps that's all it was - just the craziness of the past several hours getting to him.
He needed to stay focused. What lay ahead of him was his most important mission of the day since recovering the Restoration Guns. With this in mind, he turned to Coakley, and to his friends and coworkers, mentally preparing himself for the task ahead.
