Tony pushed Mark aside and quickly navigated the menus till he could review the recent history of the use of the chronivac. He scrolled past Eric being turned into a hippo and Jack being made into an ass.
There it was, just a brief line, "Claire Heath, simian profile #32(modified) chosen" with a date of the day before yesterday. Tony double clicked on "simian profile #32(modified)" and the screen showed how Claire looked now. Tony could barely control himself. He cursed a blue streak vowing to make Rudy pay. Mark had to urge him to calm down. Coming down the hallway toward them was Rudy. Tony rose, with fists clenched.
"Hold on a sec, bro. We need answers, first" Mark urged. As Tony stood up to face approaching Rudy, Mark took the laptop and started typing away. Rudy was just a few steps from them and starting to look apprehensive at Tony's expression when a zombie like calm fell over him.
"Hold it!" said Mark pulling at Tony's fist. "Let's get the answers, first"
"Where's Claire?" asked Mark.
"I-I don't know. I think she was taken to the zoo in the city" replied Rudy in an emotionless monotone.
"How about Eric and Jack?" asked an extremely agitated Tony.
"I don't know about either of them. I haven't heard anything"
"Why did you do this to them?" demanded Tony.
"Be-because I wanted to fuck you and they were all in the way"
Tony drew his fist back to smack Rudy but stopped.
"Wait! How did you get hold of the chronivac?" asked Mark.
"When Tony was a gorilla at the costume party, he was hypnotized or something by my organ grinder music. I wanted to pull off his costume and get up his ass but he told me the truth about his appearance, that he really was a gorilla and how he'd gotten that way. It was easy to get the chronivac after that"
Again, Tony drew back his fist to punch Rudy but Mark pulled on his fist again.
"Dude. Let's get Claire and Jack and Eric. We can take care of him any time"
Reluctantly, Tony agreed. With a long slow sigh he stepped back from Rudy. "Just zap him into amnesia about all this" commanded Tony.
Mark did and a minute later, he and Tony were cutting class. They drove north to the city to visit the zoo. Tony was a bundle of nerves the whole way, intermittently slapping the steering wheel in anger and remarking out loud, to no one about his fears of what may have happened to her. Mark was clever enough to not say anything so that Tony didn't dwell on any of the possibilities for too long.
At last, they arrived at the zoo. Tony put Jeff's laptop with the chronivac 4.0 and the emitter in his backpack and raced for the entrance with Mark trailing behind. They quickly bought tickets and a guide pamphlet. They frantically looked for where the gorillas would be kept and found it on the map. Tony ran for that part of the complex. He sprinted to a paved viewing area overlooking the "Ape cage". When Mark caught up to him, Tony had the laptop and emitter out of his bag and had just started booting up.
Tony pressed against the black bars and looked frantically inside. "When it comes up, set it for scan mode. We've got to find out which one is her" said Tony. There were a dozen or so gorillas visible. There might be others out of sight.
"Claire!" Tony shouted. "Claire! Are you here?"
In the back of the area, some hundred feet from Tony, he saw one smaller gorilla, probably a female, suddenly sit up and look around. That gorilla was in a sort of dead end made by a tree and boulders, but two much larger male gorillas were just a few steps away from it, eyeing the female hungrily.
Mark trained the 4.0 on that gorilla .
"It's her!" he muttered to Tony. "Turn her back, now?"
"What?! She's trapped by two huge gorillas. You can't turn her back now. I've got a better idea" said Tony and he took off his shirt.
He looked around the spectator overlook. There were only a couple other people there and they were slowly drifting on to the next exhibit.
"Listen. The second those other people are out of here, I want you to turn me into the biggest, Mighty Joe Young, King fucking Kong of a gorilla that you can. I'll get Claire out of there and then you can change both of us back out here."
Mark nodded. As a morbidly obese couple slowly waddled away, arguing over something, Tony pulled off his shoes and socks. The moment they were out of sight, he pushed his pants and shorts down to his ankles.
"Okay, zap me!" he commanded.
But it was taking Mark some time to navigate the menus. In the distance, gorilla Claire could be heard grunting fiercely at an approaching gorilla.
"Dammit! Now, Mark!" snorted naked Tony climbing up to the top of the bars.
"Christ! I'm trying! Give me a second!"
"Now, Mark! She's in trouble in there!"
Mark barely read the menu choices as they whizzed past.
"Now!"
"Okay" said Mark and he hit 'enter' for the final time.
Tony immediately felt thick black hair covering over his body. His arms grew longer and his legs shorter. The shape of his head changed. His nose flattened and his mouth widened. He grew much much larger, zooming past 200, then 300, 400, and even 500 pounds. He was ready to rescue Claire.