McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, Marketing Department, cubicle center hall
Ryann gave a warm smile as Larry Eastbrook and Arnie Amspoker nodded. She was sure both of them would be on board with the idea.
"I think I'm ready." Larry said. "What do we have to do again?"
"Okay." Ryann said in a bright tone. "The first thing we do is, we zap ourselves multiple times with the Transformation Gun we were already changed with. In your case, that's the Jock Gun, and in my case, it's the Babe Gun. Since we're already changed by them, they likely won't create any further changes, but if our theory is correct, the Restoration Guns will still count the zaps, meaning that if someone zaps us with a Restoration Gun accidentally or otherwise, we won't change back to our original forms."
"Meaning we won't end up bleeding to death on the floor when we change back?" Arnie said.
"Exactly." Ryann replied. "Our original forms are probably damaged beyond repair. Maybe if the Restoration Gun zap happened at a fully equipped hospital, the doctors might have a chance of saving us, but that's a huge 'might', and that's not a risk I want to take. I'm sure that's not a risk you want to take either."
"And besides," Ryann added. "I think we're all happy with the new forms we've got, right? You two are basically more physically fit versions of your old selves, and me ... well, there are worse things to be than a more than reasonably attractive woman who's feeling a lot more sure of herself than she did before."
Jeffries observed carefully, noting not only Ryann's words (including her use of personal pronouns), but also her tone and her body language. She sat straight and did not slouch, and looked relaxed and comfortable. She looked the people she spoke with in the eye, and had an assertiveness that her former self Ryan often lacked. Jeffries knew at this moment that even if the mortal injuries her previous body sustained weren't an issue, she probably would still choose to stay as she was now.
Ms. Hitchens, Peggy Pegany, and Darby Adaway just observed without making any comment. Dr. Elaine gave an approving smile.
"So, it's all decided then?" Jeffries asked. "Which of you will go first?"
"I think I will." Ryann said. "Can you pass me the Babe Gun?"
"I've got it." Carrie Brierton said, handing Ryann the Babe Gun.
"Okay, let's do this!" Ryann said. Without any further word, she zapped herself with the Babe Gun. She then zapped herself a second time, and a third time, and a fourth time, and a fifth time, and a sixth time. Though she did not appear to change, she seemed to be enjoying herself more with each zap.
Ryann, meanwhile, felt right doing this. All other things considered, this felt right. This felt good. She continued zapping herself with the Babe Gun, feeling more sure that even though she didn't change, she was now making it much harder for one to change her back to her pre-Babe Gun self.
After her twenty-fourth zap (she decided that was a good place to stop - one zap for each hour of the day), she set the Babe Gun aside and gave a contented sigh. "Okay, I think that's good enough. Now, who's going to give it a go?"
"I think I'll go next." Larry said.
Jeffries handed the Jock Gun over to Larry, who then zapped himself with it repeatedly. As he already had the enhanced physique given by the Jock Gun, there was no further change, but he continued to zap himself several times. After twenty-six zaps, he paused.
"I hope this works." Larry said. "I don't want to go through what I went through in there again." He briefly motioned to the now taped off door to the office where his recent traumatic experience occurred.
"And now it's my turn." Arnie said, taking the Jock Gun and zapping himself multiple times with it. Again, there was no noticeable change, but he continued to zap himself, clearly feeling a little ridiculous at first but then getting behind it more and more. After about twenty-three zaps, he stopped. "Is this enough?"
"Probably." Ryann replied. "I don't think anyone's going to zap you twenty-three times within the next thirty days unless they're doing it deliberately. Now, the question is, does this work? One of us is going to have to take the risk."
Ryann then handed the Babe Gun back to Carrie. She nodded to Arnie, who handed the Jock Gun back to Jeffries.
"Okay, one of us is going to have to volunteer to be zapped by a Restoration Gun at least once." Ryann said. "If anything goes wrong, Carrie and Jeffries will be there to save us again."
"I'll have a go of it." Arnie said. "I see that Larry's really nervous about it, and I don't think you want to take the risk, either."
With that, Arnie picked up his Restoration Gun once again, and zapped himself with it.
Nothing happened. He was unchanged, still in the form that made him a more athletic-looking version of his previous self.
"Okay, let's try again, just to be sure." Arnie said, zapping himself a second time with the Restoration Gun. Again, there was no change.
"Well, what do you know?" Jeffries said. "It works after all."
"At least as far as the Restoration Gun's concerned, all those zaps count as separate zaps whether they changed us or not." Ryann said. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Larry had an even bigger sigh of relief. "Good." he said simply. He turned to Arnie. "You took a big chance there. You've got a family to think about. How would your daughter have felt if something had gone wrong?"
"Don't worry." Arnie said. "I'm done being the daredevil for tonight."
"This night's not over yet." Jeffries said. "We've still got a lot of things that need to get done."
"You have to find Mr. Stragey." Peggy reminded them.
"There's also McMillan and the others." Dr. Elaine said. "Though Stallsworth ... Mr. Stallsworth now, I suppose, has chosen to stay in his current form and Quarterson is probably going to make a decision soon."
"And we need to hear from Samantha and the others. I hope they're doing fine over in the Legal and PR departments." Ryann said.
Ryann decided to take a look at her cell phone, for the first time since before her transformation. She noted a few messages mostly about sightings of various Transformation Guns elsewhere in the world. But she also saw a text update from Samantha, stating that she and her group had seen evidence of a number of Transformation Guns being used on the floor housing the Legal and PR Departments.
Including one or two that they hadn't really talked about in the last few hours.
There was also a message from the head of security, indicating that representatives of the police had arrived, and were down on the ground floor.
As were certain family members of certain important people at MTI, who security was not letting in due to the building being on lockdown.
Ryann, knowing what she knew of Mr. McMillan's wife Susan and their daughter Sarah, knew that they most likely would not be easily deterred.
Though things had calmed down in the Marketing department, there was still much going on elsewhere in the building.
