"How about the Tolliver's party next week?" suggested Mark.
Tony considered that. The Tollivers lived several streets over in a house that was nearly a mansion. Their son, Wayne, was a year younger than Tony and friendly with both him and Mark. The Tollivers always had the greatest, most elaborate Halloween decorations around and they had a costume party every spring. Everyone vied to come up with the best costume. There would be scores of people there all trying to come up with the best one.
"Sooooo, you want to use the chronivac to try to win the hundred dollar first prize for best costume?"
"Not for the hundred dollars so much as to win the contest. Think of what we can do with the chronivac."
Tony and his friends all agreed that it could be a lot of fun. In the week remaining before the party, all five put some thought into what they would become.
At 6:45, they gathered in the park halfway from the St. Martin house to the Tolliver house.
"Well, what's it gonna be Tony?" chirped Mark from over Jeff's shoulder while Jeff typed away at the program, completing Tony's setup.
"You'll see Pee Wee Herman" Tony quipped and the others all laughed because, while Mark wasn't wearing a suit, he could barely squeeze into the clothes he was wearing.
While Jeff typed, Tony stripped off his clothes. He took a look around even though they were in a secluded part of the park and couldn't be seen. With a flourish, Jeff hit the 'enter' key.
Tony felt the electric wave pass through him and instantly, his belly ballooned outward. He felt his muscles rippling and burgeoning outward all over him and at the same time, his skeleton reshaping. His legs became shorter. His arms became longer and his hips and torso much wider. As his muscles kept growing, Tony's weight zoomed past 200 pounds, past 300 and then past 400 pounds. His skull reshaped as his nose flattened and his mouth became more prominent. Finally, he felt what seemed like thousands of tiny pinpricks all over his huge new body as thick black hair covered every square inch of Tony except his slick black face, palms and the soles of his feet. Tony had become a gorilla.
"Well, what do you think?" said Tony. He was a gorilla with Tony's unusual light gray eyes, his mind and still his voice. Before the others could respond, Tony leaped up onto a tree branch and swung a full circle on it. He landed and playfully pushed around Eric, no match for him at 250 human pounds, more than 200 less than gorilla Tony. Though he was still completely Tony mentally, in just a minute's time he had completely adopted gorilla postures and habits, walking about on all fours with his weight primarily on his fisted hands and scratching the top of his simian shaped head in a stereotypically monkey gesture.
Next was Jack. He wore all his normal clothes and kept them on, but when Jeff hit the 'enter' key, they stopped fitting right. As his friends watched, Jack's already freckle specked face became even more so and almost at once all sagged. Eyelids, cheeks, chin, they all sagged and then Jack's hair turned white. But in another few seconds, most of it fell out, till Jack was almost completely bald. His shoulders dwindled from lost muscle and his arms became similarly weaker. His rear end slumped and sagged and then his hips widened just as he grew a big convex belly. Jack was about to say something but the others saw him stop and work his mouth oddly. When he opened it again, most of his teeth were gone.
"I've got you beat, monkey boy" declared Jack, his voice still that of 16 year old Jack.
Tony laughed. "So, you made your body about 10% more pathetic. So what? I'm a whole nother species for crying out loud. The judges will give me the nod."
"Wait till they touch my bald head and feel how skinlike my skin feels"
"Oh yeah? Wait till they touch my gorilla body and-"
"Guys. Guys. We've got three more to go"
Next was Eric. "Watch" said septuagenarian Jack to gorilla Tony "any money says he goes body builder"
Jeff hit the enter key and Eric, stripped down to his briefs, started muscling up. He went from Eric's 6'2" 250 pound 25% fat body to 6'2" 275 pounds and 2% fat body in just a few seconds, all of Eric's fat melting away, his skin becoming perfect and his muscles bulging outward in the almost comical way that those of bodybuilders do. Eric immediately changed from his briefs to a pair of speedo posing briefs he'd brought along and started flexing as though there was a camera right there. Jack and Tony shared a smile.
After that was Jeff. Like Tony, he stripped before the emitter. When the electric wave passed through him, Jeff's boddy started rounding out and his face grew into a pointed muzzle. He quickly fell down to all fours and sharp claws grew out of his hands and feet. His body covered with dark brown fur. Jeff became a grizzly bear cub. The problem was that Jeff hadn't quite gotten the voice settings right. "Werrrrrrr wrrrrhat ourrrrrrrr rrrroooouuuu rrrinnkk" he growled almost unintelligibly. He cursed completely unintelligibly at his mistake. He couldn't be recognized as anyone in particular the way he was now.
Mark stepped forward shaking his head at these amateurs and hit the last few key strokes of his transformation, Jeff having already typed much of it for him. Mark stepped in front of the emitter and asked old man Jack to hit 'enter'.
Mark felt the electric wave pass through him and immediately, his already too tight clothes felt even tighter. He felt his shirt ripping and then the seam at the seat of his pants popping as his 118 pound body added some muscle. But the biggest change to Mark wasn't his size. He only added just enough muscle to tear his too tight clothes. As his brother and friends looked on, Mark's face and the exposed skin of his torso all started to darken. His nose flatted a little bit, turned black and became moist. In Mark's mouth, his canine teeth grew into large constantly exposed fangs. His fingernails grew and sharped into claws and the shape of his face changed just a but as short fur finished growing over Mark's new anthropo-werewolf body. Mark let out one long bay at the moon.
"Sorry, couldn't help it" he chuckled to his brother and friends in his normal voice. Mark had become a perfect Lon Chaney jr, pre cgi special effects werewolf. The choice of clothes had been perfect. With rips at his calves, thighs and buns, a fine coat of fur could be recognized over the length of Mark's body. With the rip at the seat of his pants, a small tail could be seen happily wagging. His half shredded shirt showed his extra muscular and fur covered torso just right and the shredding of his clothes was perfect for the hollywood effect of a transformation having taken place.
Mark found that his delight at his transformation coupled with the natural aggressiveness and hyperactivity of his half werewolf body made it very hard for him to keep himself under control even though his mind was unchanged. He mock fought with Jeff the bear and lifted alarmed 75 year old Jack by the back of his pants and carried him along with little effort. He jumped and climbed trees and ran along much faster than his gorilla older brother could, and made fun of Tony all the way, for it.
When they got near the Tollivers' house, music could be heard from a block away. They got in line at the front door behind two girls dressed as prostitutes and two cheesy looking draculas. When they finally got to the door, Mark was the first to be greeted by Wayne Tolliver and his parents. Wayne looked quizzically at him.
"Mark? Mark St. Martin?"
"Yup"
"Wow! Mom, Dad, look at Mark's costume!"
To Mark's delight, they oooooed and ahhhhhhed at his 'costume' and had him turn circles in front of them so they could inspect him. Mrs. Tolliver ran her hand over Mark's half canine face and gasped. "That's amazing". She inspected him head to toe and held his now clawed hand for special inspection.
"Oh my god, what fantastic attention to detail. If you didn't know better, you'd think this boy actually was a werewolf"
She asked Mark to reveal how he'd gotten his nose so black and moist, how he'd gotten a lifelike tail, how he'd attached fur to his whole body but Mark demurred. He went inside tremendously satisfied with their response and joined the party.
Tony was next. He stood before a perplexed Wayne and announced himself. "It's me, Tony" he said before Wayne could even stutter out the question.
"Tony? You look exactly like a gorilla"
"I'd better" laughed Tony. "This suit's a bit uncomfortable and it cost me a ton"
Again, Wayne Tolliver and his parents ooooed and ahhhhed. They made Tony circle for them to inspect him and hesitantly touched his gorilla body.
"Go ahead and touch me. It's okay" said Tony "Doesn't it feel as though you're actually touching the body of a live gorilla?" The Tollivers all agreed and stared in amazement at inexplicably simian Tony. He decided to take a different tack than Mark. He lauched into a long explanation of how the suit was glued to him, including at the eyelids and lips and how it used his body heat to create natural feeling warmth. He made up names for special fluids circulating through the suit giving the feel and shape of a real gorilla to him. Wayne laughed "It's so like you, Tony, to be more interested in the intellectual stuff about it. Just look at you. You're a gorilla. If we put you in the zoo, nobody could tell you apart from the real gorillas. Nobody"
As he said this, Mr. Tolliver took hold of Tony's thick gorilla arm and gave it a squeeze. "Amazing." he muttered and stepped back. "If you weren't speaking to us and we didn't know it was you, I'd swear on a stack of bibles that you were a gorilla, Tony"
"That's how good the suit is. In fact, it's almost too good"
"How's that?"
"Well, a lot of gorilla suits look bad because the wearer never adopts any gorilla gestures"
"Oh, that's so right" agreed Mrs. Tolliver "They stand up and walk around like nothing and it's just a body suit with black hair"
"Well, this one has wiring in it across my lower back and rear and thighs that almost forces me into this posture" said Tony and looking down at himself leaning forward onto his fists.
The Tollivers shook their heads in amazement at the quality of Tony's 'costume'. Next would have been Jeff, but he could barely speak, so Tony hustled him past the Tolliver's after introducing him as his friend Jeff and telling them that Jeff hadn't got the gluing at his mouth quite right and was having a hard time speaking at all. Jeff half growled out agreement to that and they went inside to the party.
Next was Eric. He stepped before the Tollivers and, to his dismay, they were completely unimpressed. It wasn't that Eric wasn't impressively muscular. But they didn't know Eric and so it simply seemed as though a weightlifter had donned a speedo. What was so great about that? Eric went inside to the party.
Last was Jack. He'd met the Tollivers along with Tony a few times. They were very impressed at his 'simulated' old man.
"Go on" Jack challenged them. "Try to find the seams or the rubber cap to my bald head"
Mrs. Tolliver tried, tapping around on Jack's bald pate with its few whisps of white hair to no avail. She also marvelled at the detail on his creased and wrinkled face. It was all rubber, she knew, but it felt so lifelike, just like skin. And the detail of the body.
"I love the way you even made your tight little rear look pancake flat" she said inspecting him as he turned around.
Hmmm. Jack wondered how much she'd inspected him before, but forgot it and decided to go the same route as Tony. He wove a tale of an intricate sort of corset binding him tightly and forcing his rear flat and wide while a special harness squeezed his shoulders to a new narrow and weak look. He opened his mouth and showed them an apparent paucity of teeth. Not so, he told them. All his teeth were there but hidden in such a way as to appear to look like hte back of his mouth. He finished by demanding that each, in turn, pat his embarassingly large belly.
"Feels real, doesn't it?"
They all agreed and Jack told them that it was the same non-existent special fluid that filled Tony's gorilla body. They were very impressed.
At last, Jack went inside.