McMillan Tech Industries Lake Point Branch, Marketing and Accounting floor, waiting area near the meeting room
Ryann and Jeffries soon arrived at the waiting area near the meeting room where Rachel was assisting with the care of the transformed Board members. Richard McMillan (in the form of an eighteen year old girl dressed as a Forestville High School cheerleader), El Stallsworth (in the form of a twenty-nine year old male baseball player), and Nicholson Quarterson (in the form of a young woman dressed as a 1920's flapper) were still resting on the couches, all with troubled expressions on their faces.
Dr. Elaine had chosen to stay behind with Larry, Carrie, Arnie, and the others in the Marketing Department for now, but told Ryann and Jeffries she would be available when they needed her.
When Ryann arrived, Rachel gazed at her in wonder.
"Ryan? Is that you?" Rachel asked.
"It's me." Ryann said, with a dazzling smile. "But I'm calling myself Ryann now."
Rachel noted the new woman's poise and the confidence with which she spoke. Rachel had designed the Babe Gun to improve not just one's outer beauty, but their inner beauty as well, not knowing that the Babe Gun would become real and transform someone she knew.
"Rye-ann?" Rachel asked. "How are you spelling it?"
"With two ns." Ryann said. "But I'm thinking of adding an e to it. R-Y-A-N-N-E." She paused, and smiled. "That sounds good. It sounds right. Ryanne."
"How are you feeling?" Rachel asked.
"Never better." Ryanne said. "Before this, I was dying, but now, I feel light. I feel ... beautiful. I feel free."
Rachel continued to observe Ryanne. Ryanne exuded a very confident femininity, of a woman who was very comfortable in her skin and believed in her inner strengths. She showed a security, a self-belief that her former self Ryan often lacked.
"So, you were ... dying?" Rachel asked.
"Yes. And I mean literally dying, not metaphorically." Ryanne said. "If Carrie and Jeffries hadn't rushed in with the Transformation Guns, we would have died. But maybe I should start..."
At this point, Dr. Anissa Fairlane returned to the waiting area. "If you'll excuse me for interrupting, I've left the patient in the care of Dr. Andrews. She agreed to a sedative, and is now sleeping. We hope she will be more coherent when she awakes, but we may have to transfer her to a proper medical facility."
Ryanne turned to Dr. Fairlane. "This patient of yours wouldn't happen to be a young woman resembling a figure skater, would she?" Ryanne asked politely.
"She is, though we suspect that was not her appearance an hour ago." Dr. Fairlane replied. "And you are?"
"Sorry, I forgot for a moment that you probably don't recognize me." Ryanne said. "Ryanne Leeson. I was changed by the Babe Gun since you last saw me."
"Ryanne Leeson. Hmm." Dr. Fairlane said. "I'm glad to see you are safe. Are your friends safe as well?"
"They're fine." Ryanne replied. "They're staying behind and resting and chatting with the people from Marketing. Ms. Hitchens gave me this t-shirt to wear since my old shirt is kind of a mess right now."
Jeffries nodded. "It was a close call. If we hadn't had the right Transformation Guns, they'd have all been goners."
Ryanne nodded. "I think we should start the story at the beginning." She motioned to Dr. Fairlane and Rachel, to the nurse Jaclynn, and to McMillan, Stallsworth, and Quarterson. "And it'll go a lot faster if I tell it to all of you at once."
She sat in a chair and began her story. She told of how she (then Ryan), accompanied by Larry Eastbrook and Arnie Amspoker, was in Mr. Stragey's office with Roman Coakley, who was at that point stuck in the form of a female ninja. Their mission was to undo all twenty of the Random Gun's transformations one at a time using the Restoration Gun, following Dr. Fairlane's suggestion to pause at least five minutes between transformations to allow each of the forms and their personas room to breathe.
"The different personas we met were interesting." Ryanne said. "The carnival barker was a lot more honest than most. Arnie and I thought so, anyway. The princess was friendly - I think many of you would have liked her." She went on to describe each of Coakley's forms and personas, some more pleasant than others.
She went on to describe how, when Arnie zapped Coakley's kindly old woman form with the Restoration Gun, the kindly old woman changed into a tall menacing man with a hockey mask, who grabbed one of the mounted swords from the wall and mortally wounded Arnie, Larry, and Ryan. "I didn't see what happened next. I lost consciousness, with the slasher standing over me."
Jeffries spoke up, as Ryanne's glance in his direction clearly cued him to tell the part of the story that Ryanne didn't see because she was unconscious at the time. "Carrie and I heard the noises and screams, and we knew something was wrong. We rushed in with the security guard ... Mr. Kaplan, and saw the slasher with the sword. Mr. Kaplan disarmed the guy, but the slasher threw him out the window. I'm afraid Mr. Kaplan died right then, but Carrie took advantage of the distraction to zap the slasher with the Restoration Gun. The slasher turned into a female figure skater, screamed, and ran away."
Jeffries went on. "I then shouted at Carrie, telling her to grab the Transformation Guns. You see, I had this idea that some of the Transformation Guns -- the ones that cause physical transformations -- can have the side effect of healing injuries. I grabbed the Jock Gun, and Carrie grabbed the Babe Gun. I zapped Larry and Arnie with the Jock Gun, and Carrie zapped Ryan with the Babe Gun. And guess what? Their injuries healed without a trace, and they regained consciousness."
"And I became what you see now." Ryanne said. "A woman, inside and out. I awoke, feeling alive, better than I've felt in my life. A strong, capable, and feminine woman."
Rachel noted Ryanne's body language as she told her story. Indeed, Ryanne was as she herself described: A strong, and very feminine woman. She looked everyone in the eye, and did not slouch but kept her back straight and her shoulders relaxed. Her tone was amazingly confident.
Ryanne went on to describe how Ms. Hitchens discovered them, and how Dr. Elaine arrived, and the meeting with Darby Adaway, Ms. Hitchens, Peggy Pegany, and the rest from Marketing. She talked of how she zapped herself over twenty-four times with the Babe Gun, and how Larry and Arnie zapped themselves with the Jock Gun over twenty-two times (in Larry's case, it was twenty-six), to keep themselves from being changed back accidentally with a Restoration Gun.
"So now, we don't have anything to worry about. We don't have to worry about being returned to our old forms, which are damaged beyond repair." Ryanne said. "It'd take over twenty-four zaps now to do that, and it's VERY unlikely to happen by accident, and I don't think anyone's likely to do it deliberately either. And thirty days from now, our new forms become our 'normal' base forms. We're stuck in our new forms, but there are plenty of worse things to be stuck as."
"And so that's my story." Ryanne concluded. "Things worked out for us, but not for Mr. Coakley, I'm afraid."
Anissa Fairlane nodded. "It is too soon to tell. When Coakley awakens, we might have a better idea of Coakley's psychological state and where to go from there."
Rachel glanced at McMillan, and then at Quarterson, and Stallsworth. McMillan was subdued and silent, looking a bit fearful and uncertain. The transformed CEO was looking at everyone in turn. Stallsworth looked grim, and Quarterson gave a sigh.
Quarterson spoke. "After hearing all that, and seeing what happened, I've come to my decision."
The Chief Financial Officer in the form of a young woman dressed as a 1920s flapper continued. "I"m staying as I am now. Yes, I'm a woman now, but I'm now in my twenties, and a lot healthier than I used to be. As I said, my old body's seen better days anyway, and now that I see what happened to Mr. Coakley, I think it's clear that it's not worth the risk. I know I said I wished I could have gotten to know some of those other people I briefly became better, but if this is any indication, maybe there are some we're all better off not knowing better."
"I honestly can't remember if any of my personas were evil, or dangerous, or likely to cause trouble. But we all got lucky somehow. Sure, I have these 1920's thoughts sometimes, but I can live with them. I'm sure my wife and my family will understand, once they know the whole story. They wouldn't want me to risk my sanity and well-being trying to get my old body back."
She paused for a bit. "Besides, I've got my own personality in charge ... mostly. I still have all the skills I need to be Chief Financial Officer of the company. And I think I can dance a lot better now than I ever could before. There's some old 1920's dances I think I could teach people."
She smiled. "So, say hello to Nicolette Quarterson. As soon as I'm cleared by the doctors, I'll be back to my duties, only in a younger and more energetic body."
Stallsworth smiled. "Good." he said. "I'm staying with the company, too. And I'm still staying in my current form. What happened to Mr. Coakley only proves I made the right choice. You can call me Elliot Stallsworth from now on."
Rachel then turned to McMillan. As, she noted, almost everyone present. Now that two of the transformed Board members had voluntarily chosen to remain in their new forms, everyone was looking to see what the CEO would decide.
McMillan had the look of a trapped animal, desperately looking for some way out of the current situation. The fact that everyone was now staring in McMillan's direction at this time clearly was not helping.
"I ... I ... there's got to be some way out of this." McMillan said, in a pleading tone. "I can't stay like this! I can't!"
McMillan was still in the form of a young woman dressed in a Forestville High cheerleader outfit. "This can't be happening!" McMillan said. The CEO in the body of a cheerleader then stared in the direction of Ryanne, Jeffries, and Rachel.
"You've got to find some trick! Something that will turn me back to myself without driving me crazy!" McMillan said. "You say you know how these ray guns work! DO SOMETHING!"
It was then that the secretary Gloria Galinsky arrived. "Ms. Brewster is on her way here via helicopter. Her ETA is 5 minutes from now."
McMillan groaned. "No, not Denise! You can't let her see me like this! She wasn't even supposed to be here till two days from now! Why's she coming now? It's not fair!"
Gloria Galinsky then turned to her phone. "Oh, and your wife and daughter are on the way, too. Along with detectives Alec Bartlett and Maura Dunbar of the Lake Point Police Department."
McMillan groaned even louder. "Please! DO SOMETHING! You can't let them see me like this! You can't!"
Ryanne shook her head. "If there was something we could do, we'd be doing it. Even if we could come up with something, it's too late now. It'd take longer than a few minutes to make it work, and we just don't have that much time anymore. They'll be here any minute now."
"She's right." Jeffries said. "There's no time to do something that'll fix this for you. Anything we try in a hurry is likely to make things worse."
"You'll have to see Ms. Brewster, and your wife and daughter." Rachel said. "I don't think you'll be able to hide your current state from them for much longer."
McMillan was silent, but remained looking alternately at everyone else in the room, as if begging them to come up with something at the literal last minute.
Rachel knew, however, that her friends were right. All they could do now was await the arrival of Ms. Brewster, the detectives, and Susan McMillan and Sarah McMillan.
