"And so is this!" he added bounding over to the chronivac and laughing hysterically. They all tried to lunge forward and grab it away from him, but all five were in the process of turning, almost instantaneously into statues of themselves. Five naked forms all reaching forward were frozen in white marble just inches short of the desk. Inside their statue bodies, their minds were still alert and they could see, hear smell and feel. But they couldn't move to save themselves.
"Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Richie doubled over laughing at the predicament of his brother his brother's friends. He stopped in front of Mark. "You didn't know that Jeff talks in his sleep? Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha! He hasn't done it since he was about your age, but, man, you mumbled up a storm. I didn't know what the hell you were babbling about at first, but you gave me half the story including where to find it. I tricked little bitch Cindy to let me in and there's no way a pack of goody two shoes types like you guys could hide anything and not have me find it"
He walked back and forth across them now, barely containing his excitement at the power he now had. "Oh man! Is there anything I *can't* do with this thing? I could turn all of you into flies and swat you! Or I could just leave you like that forever! Or I could make you all like super gay and my slaves! Oh man, what should I do? What should I do?"
After frantically tapping at the desk and on his statue victims, he hit upon the answer. He decided to change each of them into what they wanted least to be. First, he tipped the Mark St. Martin statue over onto its back on the floor and then pulled some plastic ties from his pocket that didn't seem like anything more than what might be used in a store to tie heavy items together but after he tied one set to Mark's marble wrists and another to his ankles and unfroze Mark, flesh and blood Mark found, to his humiliation, that he couldn't budge his plastic restraints. Richie laughed at his incapacity and typed away at the computer, fumbling with the keys and taking much longer to make a simple profile change than the five of them watching knew was necessary. At last, he hit 'enter'.
Mark felt the electric wave pass through his body but didn't feel any different. However, when Richie asked him "What do you least want to be?", Mark found himself replying against his will "A-a fly. I hated that!" Richie laughed hysterically. "Oh man! This is gonna be great!" Richie fumbled around trying to get to a fly profile and finally located the profile of Mark when he'd been a fly. He typed some more and pointed the emitter at Mark. "Come on, man! No!" But Richie seemed to relish Mark's desperation. He hit 'enter' and Mark felt the electric wave pass through him followed instantly by his senses going haywire as he became an insect. He shrank immediately. He grew two more legs and wings. His eyes seemed as though they had fractured and there above him was tall, skinny Richie a hysterically laughing skyscraper of a boy. Mark resisted the impulse to fly into Richie's eye and flew off to the top of a bookcase in the far corner of the room where righteous anger mixed with despair and humiliation in his still human mind.
"Okay, how 'bout the other St. Martin?" giggled Richie and he tipped over the statue of Tony then fastened the plastic restraints that had dropped off fly Mark to his older brother. He went back to the chronivac and in one step this time, made Tony his human self but unable to give anything but truthful answers to Richie's questions. He could still say other things, though. "Why are you doing this, Richie? Nobody tried to hurt you even though we could have. Why do this to us?" Richie giggled "Uh, duh. Because I can! Now what do you most fear being turned into?" Tony grunted and groaned. "A-a jackass" Richie laughed. "Wow, another one right there in the hopper, ready to go. Okay donkey boy! Here goes!"
He pointed the emitter at Tony and hit 'enter'. "No! Don't -HAW- HEEHAW! HEEEEHAAAW! HEEEEHAAAW!". In an instant, Tony's body reshaped to the equine symbol of stupidity and lust. He was sitting awkwardly on his jackass rear struggling against his plastic restraints, all four hooves on the floor in front of him and almost seemed to be making progress when Richie bounded over and added another set each to his back and front hooves. Tired of Tony's loud braying, he fished a roll of duct tape out of Tony's desk and ran the tape around Tony's muzzle five times, shutting his mouth tight and just for fun, tied Tony's long ears in knot.
Richie turned Jack into a turtle. The sight of Emma Chase stuck that way and unable to defend herself had stuck with him. Richie rolled Jack over onto his back and laughed at Jack's stubby green limbs flailing away trying to right himself.
It was Eric's turn. He revealed to Richie his fear of being turned into a mouse. It took Richie a long time to create a new profile of Eric as a mouse, but five minutes later, Eric's body was shrinking to just three inches long and covering in fur. He let out a furious squeal of discontent before Richie caged him in a glass serving bowl that had been used for popcorn and placed a book on top of it for good measure.
"You're last big bro" said Richie turning his attention to the statue of Jeff. "And I've gotta tell you that I don't care what you fear being. I'm sick of looking around on this computer for eye of newt and wing of fucking bat. You're gonna be something you've already been. And that would be . . eagle, no, no way . . hmmm. Dachsund! Yeah, that's about right." A few moments of keystrokes more and Jeff felt his marble body becoming flexible but simultaneously shrinking and covering with fur. His laughing brother picked him up by the back of his collar. "Oh man", he giggled uncontrollably "This is fucking priceless! I've gotta get film of this! I've gotta!"
He tossed his dachsund brother aside and went downstairs in the empty St. Martin house to look for a camcorder. His dachsund brother was already formulating a plan.