But the ravaging of Eric's face and back did present an opportunity, now that Jeff considered it. While wheelchair bound Jack tried to talk to hyper-shy Eric, Jeff dialed information. He knew the name of Trevor Hilts's father and mother. He got the number and looked to Jack. "You know him better than me" he said then dialed then held the phone by Jack's face. Trevor picked up the phone.
"Hello"
"Um, Trevor?"
"Yeah, this is Trevor. Who is this?"
"Trevor, this is Jack Sullivan" there was an uncomfortable pause on the other end of the line, Trevor recognizing that he was speaking to his quadriplegic acquaintance.
"Oh, hi Jack. What's up?"
"Not much. I was just wondering. My mom's planning my birthday party next month and I was wondering if you'd like to come"
"Oh, uh, I-I'll have to see. I'm not sure what I'll be doing in a month so, um, give me a call in a couple weeks and we'll see. I-I'd like to but I just don't know my schedule. You know, ballet recitals and all"
"I know" said Jack and he could hear Trevor sigh.
"Oh, hell. You were one of the few people who never gave me flack over that or any of the-the . . other team stuff. Sure. I'll be there just tell me when and I'll show"
"Thanks Trev. Bye"
That ruled out Trevor. He lived a mile away from where they were standing. He couldn't have gotten home that fast and sure didn't seem to have it out for Jack or the others. Next, Jeff tried the numbers for Patty and Olivia, but neither of them was home nor were their parents. Still, some progress had been made. Jeff called and told Tony and Mark about what had happened to Eric and how they had ruled out Trevor Hilts. Tony agreed that, seeing as Mark wasn't even there, whoever had zapped Eric with mega-acne was simply going after every one of the group now. He suggested that Jeff download chronivac program to Jack's wheelchair computer so that they group would have another copy in case someone got Jeff next. Jeff agreed with the plan and immediately after hanging up with Tony connected to a port on Jack's computer and gave him a copy of the 4.0. He also gave Jack his emitter. He had a spare at home in his desk that he could use, too, so they'd both be able to use the 4.0 if necessary.
The first order of business was showing Eric his real self. They wheeled over to a side street and, using his voice activated computer, Jack showed Eric his real self and in a minute, Eric had recovered his memories. He let out a few curses looking at his reflection in the windows of an SUV. Giant zit nearly connected to giant zit all across his face. He reached down the back of his shirt and felt another bumper crop and down his pants to find another score across his ass. He spewed expletives but Jeff and Jack reminded him. He was supposed to be super shy now, his self confidence completely destroyed by what had happened to his appearance since the age of 12. Eric calmed down and resumed the head down, hands in his pockets posture he'd had right after being zapped. He walked that way as he and Jeff brought Jack back home and then to his house.
Jeff considered breaking into their houses, but by the time he drove by the Kapler house, her parents and brother were home. The same thing happened at Patty Hughes' house. What's more, she seemed to have just gotten home with her parents and sister after some kind of family outing he could hear them talking about it as they went in and out of the house carrying items.
The next morning, Jeff told the others about how it seemed to be narrowed down to Olivia Kapler. Jeff, Jack, Eric and Tony went to high school, while Mark had to waddle into the same classes as her. He eyed her all day long and by the end of the day, she seemed uncomfortable under his gaze. Mark endured a fresh round of taunting in phys ed class at his fat assed awkwardness and his ugly body in the showers but easily bore it. The end of being super fat seemed to be in sight.
At the end of the day, as agreed, Mark got on her bus. A teacher tried to stop him but Mark just parked his 300 pound ass in the seat behind her and wouldn't move. She looked surprised and annoyed to see him there and kept turning around to look at him.
When she got off the bus at the stop next to her house, Mark did too. He ran as well as he could, to the front door to block her escape. Tony was waiting next to where the bus stopped and stepped forward. Jeff, Jack and Eric were hiding on the side of a house just down the street. Tony reached for her bag as the bus pulled away.
"I'll take that" he said, but she started to wrestle with him and discovered, to his humiliation, that she was as strong as he was. He grappled with her, but she got in close to him and Tony had no leverage at all. She pushed him to the ground and stomped her heel down onto his pancake flat rear. "Not quite, rubber band boy" she said and gave Tony a swift kick in the ass for his troubles.
"Oooof"
But before she could celebrate any further, she saw 300 pound Mark charging down the driveway toward her. She took off down the street in the direction away from where Jeff, Jack and Eric were in hiding. She was now out of range of their chronivacs. Mark tried to change direction and go after her but couldn't redirect his 300 pounds fast enough and ended up tumbling through the hedges of the house across the street from the Kaplers.
Tony was up by now and he pulled Mark off out of the hedge and ran after her. Actually, he just sort of shuffled quickly after her. His pancake flat glutteals and scrawny thighs were insufficient to pick his legs up either high or quickly. But he chased after Olivia Kapler as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, the 5'7" tall, 120 pound girl proved to be much faster than Tony and she got further and further ahead of him. Butterball Mark was falling even further behind than Tony. Until, that is, Tony tripped over an uneven piece of sidewalk and went flying forward onto his belly with a groan. But then Mark caught up to him. 312 pound Mark St. Martin tried to avoid his fallen brother but ended up tripping over Tony's flailing legs and flying through the air only to land with all his weight on the middle of Tony's narrow back.
"Ugh!" Tony let out a groan of pain. His stretched body was too fragile for this sort of treatment. Mark rolled off him and apologized profusely. He pulled his swizzle stick of an older brother to his feet, still shocked at how slender Tony was, just several inches wide at the chest where he grasped him and only a couple inches deep. But Tony quickly recovered and started after Olivia again. She was running into the park and in the distance, Tony could see her pulling her laptop out of her bag.
Ugh. He realized he would be a big easy target, but he and Mark had to do it. If they could occupy her, Jack and Jeff could get her in a chronivac crossfire and take care of her. If he and Mark had to absorb a transformation, well, Jeff and Jack would restore them afterwards.
He pushed Mark to go toward her from the right side while he advanced from the left.
"You're not going to get away with this!"
"Why not? He heard a voice from behind some topiary just ahead of him. "Look at yourself. You're a complete freak" she said with a laugh. "I just wanted to take care of Mark but you made noises like you were going to butt in on things. Now look at you"
Tony could tell pretty well where she was and didn't want to give her any more time to type. He ran straight for the hedge behind which she was hiding and tried to jump for her, but in mid air felt a tingle up his spine. He could hear her laughing at him as he felt incomprehensible change washing over him. His body was shrinking almost instantaneously and his senses were a hopeless jumble. he felt another set of limbs growing out of his torso and his legs and arms shortening and becoming the same length. He felt two antennae growing out of his head and his eyes becoming multi-lensed as his body grew a hard exoskeleton. Tony landed on the ground as a dung beetle just two feet from Olivia Kapler. Just a couple feet away, in the other direction, was a recently deposited pile of dog shit. The dung beetle part of Tony's brain found it irresistable. Tony scurried to it and happily burrowed into the warm excrement.
Olivia laughed "What a perfect fate for a boy"
So perfect, that when Mark rushed at her as fast as he could haul his huge ass, she had the same profile ready for him. Mark was as perplexed as Tony at his body's change to insect form but once changed to a dung beetle, he immediately followed Tony straight into the warm, soft dog shit pile. He somehow knew that the slightly larger, hard beetle body he was rubbing against in the scat was Tony's and though he wished Tony had gotten to her, he was mildly relieved that Tony was safe, even if as humiliated as he was. After each had eaten a dung beetle's meal's worth of the dog shit, both St. Martin brothers found themselves able to overcome their beetle instincts and crawl out of the excrement to the edge of the grass from where they could see Olivia.
She seemed to be certain of having done everything she needed to do by taking care of Tony and Mark and was casually putting her other things back into her backpack as she must have just tossed them out in her haste to remove the chronivac and emitter.
"I really thought it was plenty to make you a fatso deluxe, Mark. I mean, you were a valedictorian threat but not too horrible of a person. But since I found this thing near an accident scene along the highway, I've realized that I don't have to take competitors lightly. I'll put some obstacles in your way and if you keep trying to compete with me, I'll put some more obstacles in your way. It's going to be pretty tough for you to study for that geometry test now that you're an insect, isn't it, Mark?" she laughed. "Believe me. I really do feel a bit of remorse about changing boys into super fatties or super stringbeans or zitmasters, but I probably laugh at them more than I feel remorse. You didn't want to go out with me. You wanted to partner Zoe in the ballet and you laughed when I told you I was planning on becoming valedictorian. Well, how bout you pretty boy? You and your pretty boy brother are shit eating insects. That date must look pretty good about now, huh?"
Mark reflexively shouted something back at her but only heard a high pitched sound like a combination of X's and F's emerge from his mouth. He heard the same sort of a sound from Tony. "Xfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfx! Xfxfxfxfxfxfxfxfx!" Tony seemed to shout. But Olivia couldn't even hear them. She could hear the wheels of Jack's quadriplegic wheelchair, though, and Tony and Mark saw her quickly go to the chronivac keyboard.
"Don't even bother to try it" said Jack.
"Oh, so you know too? Big deal broken boy. There's no way a gimp like you is going to take this thing out of my hands"
"I don't need to" said Jack while wheeling closer before stopping. "I've got my own. Would you rather be a statue of youself or something else?"
Olivia laughed "Eat shit carrot top. Or get ready to, along with your two friends."
But Olivia reached for the keyboard and stopped. From behind her, Jeff stepped out from behind a hedge with his open laptop and emitter in hand.
Jack looked at absolutely still Olivia Kapler. "Suspended animation?" he asked Jeff.
"Sort of, yeah. Did you hear the part she said about finding the chronivac at an accident. No wonder they didn't think there was another one around. They'd probably written this one off as destroyed in the accident."
Jeff went on examining her chronivac while Jack looked for Tony and Mark. He set the chronivac for wide field scan for registered profiles and saw that it picked up five in the surrounding 40 feet. He clicked for it to drop out Eric, then Jeff then himself and saw that the scanner was picking up Tony and Mark, almost as one blip just eight feet away. He started the recognition sequence and the chronivac locked onto them and then their new profiles came up on the screen. Dung beetles. The display showed slowly rotating views of six legged insect Tony and six legged insect Mark. Jack quickly spoke into the microphone to navigate the process of restoring them to their registered profiles.
A moment later, Tony felt an electric wave pass through his hard black body. He immediately started growing and shedding a pair of limbs and his exoskeleton. Tony returned to his normal size at the same rate as he became human, so that at 3 feet tall, he still had antennae projecting out of his head, but by 6'1" tall and 167 pounds, he was back to his chosen self. Tony let out a sigh of relief.
"I can't tell you how good this feels" he said to Jeff. "Thanks"
"Don't thank me. Thank Jack. He got you back"
Tony, oblivious to the fact that he was stark naked in a public park, calmly walked over to still quadriplegic Jack and patted his head. He did so just as Jack was finishing the sequence to change Mark back. Tony watched as the dung beetle that had been beside him started to grow explosively but also to shed insect characteristics for human ones at a similar rate. In less than a minute, 5'8" 118 pound Mark, also naked, stood by his side. Tony gave his little bro a hug and turned to Jack.
"Why didn't you change yourself back by now?"
"I only have this computer as long as I'm a quadriplegic in a wheelchair. In order to have two chronivacs to go at her, I had to stay a gimp."
"Oh, well how about now?"
Jack nodded. "How 'bout it Jeff? I'd like to have my body back"
Jeff smiled and his fingers flew across the keyboard. In a moment, Jack felt the electric wave pass across his scalp. Then he started to feel the rest of his body. And he watched his pants and shirt seem to almost inflate as his 5'11" body returned from 111 pounds to 161 pounds. When the process was almost done, the wheelchair seemed to disappear like a wisp of smoke into thin air and Jack fell to the ground.
"Ow" he laughed as he rubbed his buns. "It's still good to feel that, though" he said.
Jeff finished downloading all the information from Olivia's chronivac. She had transformed 15 boys and one girl against their wills. Anyone who had disappointed her or stood in her way had gotten zapped. Jeff and the others went around to each and every hugely fat, shockingly thin or acne ravaged boy and to the single fat girl and changed them all back to their former selves, leaving them with no knowledge of having been that way.
They wiped Olivia Kapler's memory clear of having found the Chronivac and having done any of it. They called TransDem Labs and reported the existence of her chronivac. 20 seconds later, the young orange haired guy in the bellhop style uniform was at the door of the St. Martin house to pick up the stray chronivac disk, emitter and the laptop. He was very complimentary toward the boys for their work and help.
Mark had a question for him. "How do I look at her in school or in ballet class again? I mean, she turned me into a dung beetle and screwed everyone she even imagined was in her way. How do I sit next to someone like that or carry her across the ballet studio?"
"Warily" was all the guy said and then he left.