"What... what is this?" Lacey mumbled from the bottom of the staircase.
Danny's de-evolved mother was looking at her hands in disbelief. She was too surprised and confused to let fear sink in, let alone start panicking or screaming. Lacey was also being assaulted by a plethora of new sensations brought by her improved sight, smell and ear.
Her big, flat nose allowed her to perceive all sorts of new smells: The remaining scent of her dinner still wafting from the kitchen, the pungent stench of manure and fertilizers coming from the neighbor's garden, and the musky odor coming both from Danny and herself.
These last ones freaked her out slightly, as they aroused her a little.
Lacey's sight also improved, as she could see perfectly in the barely-lit kitchen and living room. Probably a trait that allowed Neanderthals to live in caves.
"I told you it was an app!" Danny roared back from the top of the stairs.
"D-Danny?" Lacey's eyes opened wide under her thick brow. "How is this possible? What did you...? No, this can't be. It must be a dream!"
"Mom." Danny said, calmly as he lumbered down the stairs. "I don't know, the damn thing just showed up in my phone and changed me. Sorry, but i had to show you! You were going to call the cops!"
"Of course i was going to call the cops! You look, well, horrible!" Lacey looked at him from head to toes, and blushed intensely as she saw Danny's enormous, erect manhood.
"Well, mom... you don't exactly look like Scarlett Johansson either. "Danny was doing his best to take his eyes away from his mother's naked figure. Lacey yelped and covered herself by cupping her left hand over her crotch and placing her right arm across her massive, sagging breasts.
"Watch your mouth, young man!" Lacey snapped. "How long until this wears off?"
Danny glanced at the phone and smiled.
"Forty five minutes."
"God!" Lacey growled in frustration. "Forty five minutes stuck as... what the hell are we? Gorillas? Chewbacca?"
"Neanderthals." Danny showed her the phone, with the screen still displaying her profile and the current de-evolution stage as 'Homo Neanderthalensis'.
Lacey took the cellphone from Danny's hand and tapped at the screen, trying to make sense of the app even as her son attempted to explain.
At first sight, it resembled a videogame mixed with a social networking profile; as it showed things like her height, weight and age alongside a photograph of her current appearance. There were a lot of dials that made no sense to her, so she left them alone. Besides, they seemed to be blocked.
"So, let me see if i get this straight: This thing appeared by itself in your phone, you thought it was a videogame, but it turns out to be some sort of magic that has the ability to turn people into cavemen?"
"Basically, yes."
"Then show me how it works."
"Well, i'm going to select another objective. Let me see... First i have to introduce a name." He started typing clumsily, struggling with his massive fingers when Lacey interrupted him.
"A name?"
"Yes, i need a name. Someone to de-evolve."
"Riiiight. Well, in that case, try with Michaela Harper."
"As in Ms. Harper, your boss?" Danny would have raised an eyebrow in amusement if the thick browridge above his eyes allowed him.
"Yes. My boss." Lacey smiled mischievously.
Danny introduced the name and a new profile appeared on the screen.
It showed the photograph of Ms. Harper, a gorgeous redhead in her early fourties. New data sprung below the photograph.
SUBJECT: HARPER, MICHAELA.
GENDER: FEMALE.
AGE: 43.
SPECIES: HOMO SAPIENS.
PERIOD: MODERN AGE.
INTRODUCE DE-EVOLUTION SETTINGS.
Danny gave his mom the phone, and Lacey began playing with the dial under Ms. Harper's information. She gasped when the photograph changed as she moved the dial back.
Ms. Harper's visage seemed to be regressing in time... her usual imitation of Joan Holloway's look shifted into the spitting image of an upper-class victorian lady. Lacey kept scrolling, watching as the victorian Michaela Harper changed into a Renaissance-era noble woman and further into a medieval courtisan.
The courtisan in turn gave way to a rugged-looking celt warrior covered in blue war paint, a dull-looking stone age woman and finally stopped being human as the picture reached the Neanderthal stage and the woman's features de-evolved into something not too different from Lacey's current appearance.
"And what happens if i press 'De-evolve', Danny?" Lacey asked, lifting her gaze from the phone just as the dial was on Australopithecus and the thing appearing in Ms. Harper's picture lost all resemblance to a human being.
"Well, Ms. Harper would actually turn into an Australopithecus..." Danny knew her mom hated Ms. Harper. He wouldn't blame her if she deciced to turn Ms. Harper into a primitive ape. He would do the same to his bullies.
The timer on the screen still displayed thirty five minutes left.