"What was that?" demanded Richie suddenly not giggling in the middle of the room.
"Ruff! Ruff! Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!" Jeff barked into the phone. He didn't really expect to be understood. He just wanted the line to stay open long enough that their caller ID would tell them it was from him and that they would send someone to check on things.
Jeff barked a couple more times. "Is there someone there?" came the voice at TransDem. Jeff barked. "Are you the person to in whose name this phone is listed? Three barks yes-" She continued to explain that two barks was 'no' but Jeff immediately launched into three enthusiastic barks.
And just as he finished, Richie reached under the bed and shut the phone. He grabbed Jeff by the collar and tossed him across the room so that Jeff struck the wall on the far side of the room hard enough to knock the wind out of him.
"What do you think you're doing, lapdog bro? I think I've been too nice to all of you, WAY too fucking nice! Who were you calling anyway? You're a fucking dog, Jeff!"
But not much longer. A furious Richie went back to the chronivac and changed Jeff, Jack, Eric and Tony into flies just like Mark. They flew erratically around the room, freaked out at being turned into insects and not good at flying anyway. All five had he same thought. That guy from TransDem can't get here soon enough.
Over at the chronivac, Richie was laughing and rolling up a magazine. He almost swatted Tony in midair with his own copy of The Atlantic when a car could be heard pulling up outside. Richie didn't notice, though, he swung the rolled up magazine at fly Jack, on the wall next to the desk, and just missed him. He swung three more times, just flailing angrily but swearing under his breath at his fly prey. This was what he was doing when he heard the car door open.
He stepped over to the window and saw a red haired guy in what looked like a maroon bellhop outfit get out of a small white car and look up toward him at the window. The way that he had immediately looked right at Richie had spooked him. Richie backpedaled to the desk and the chronivac. He frantically typed away at the laptop and pointed the emitter toward the door. All five flies wnet to one side or the other of the room to stay out of the path of it. From their positions on the wall, they could hear the guy outside calmly knock at the front door and then let himself in. His steps up the stairs were steady but deliberate. When he finally got to the room's door, Richie looked to their insect eyes to be frantic. The second the door was opened, Richie pressed the enter key.
The same TransDem Labs guy Tony and Jack had met walked in the room with a mini notebook computer. He was unaffected.
"What's the matter with this thing?" complained Richie first tapping then almost punching the 'enter' button.
"There's nothing wrong with it, Richie. It's working just fine."
"But-!"
"But you're a turtle, Richie" said the TransDem guy and Richie first turned green then started to shrink. "Hey!" he called out as he became only a few inches tall. From there he developed a shell and all the attributes of a turtle. He was a much smaller one than Jack or Eric had been.
"Now for you guys" he said and one by one, they seemed to almost jump naked out of the wall as the speed of their transformation from flies to their normal selves was set at maximum. They thanked the TransDem guy profusely but he demurred. He typed away at his mini notebook reviewing all that had transpired.
"You guys really didn't make any mistakes" he declared. "That was an excellent random change, too. We love to see groups of friends do that and experience how things are for their friends. You wouldn't even think of making fun of Tony's interest in books, now, would you Jeff?"
"No, no sir"
"You don't have to call me sir. Anyway. There was really no way to see that one coming. Talking in your sleep? Ugh. Probably 99% of people talking in their sleep is complete gibberish. This is why we have registered profiles. Richie wasn't too clever about using the machine, but given a day or two he might have erased you guys after he got tired of playing with you. So, that leaves the big question. What do you want to do with him?" he said picking up the turtle on the desk.
"He's-he's still sort of my brother" Jeff offered sheepishly.
"He's also a psychopath. He tried to kill all of you after you were flies. He's at least an attempted murderer and he's clearly a danger to anyone around him in his normal state, though not like this" he added holding up the turtle.
"Hey man. I don't want my brother to remain a turtle. I-I still remember when he was an innocent kid"
"Your brother started torturing animals . . " he paused as he typed and then read the screen, " . . at the age of 5. I'd give him 'innocent' no later than that"
"What *can* we do?" asked Tony. "Can we just make some minor changes to him and make him a reasonably sympathetic, empathetic person?"
The TransDem guy slowly nodded. "That's what I was hoping you'd say, but I wanted to see if you'd go for vengeance first"
He typed away for a minute and then the turtle disappeared. The TransDem guy turned to Mark. "You'll have another student in your ballet class Monday". With that, he said goodbyes and was off.