Jay's last comment suddenly gave Simon an idea. His fingers poised over the keyboard, he briefly considered if it would be a good one.
"Hey, Simon," said the eight-year-old Jay, attempting to arrange his clothes on himself so they wouldn't fall off. "It's your turn. What are you gonna do?"
"I... dunno yet," Simon replied.
"Knowing him, probably going to be something boring," said Bryan scratching the stubble on his cheeks.
"Oh, really?" Simon said, irritated. "Well, how about this?" His fingers dashed across the keys, entering commands and altering statistics with wild abandon. He was tired of being considered boring by his friends. Time to stop being the 'buzz kill'. Time to be spontaneous!
He pressed enter, applying the changes.
RECOMMENDED CHANGES AVAILABLE. APPLY?
Simon hastily accepted and hopped out of the chair to the center of the room.
INITIALIZING SYSTEM. 2 SUBJECTS TO ALTER. COMMENCING TRANSFORMATION: SUBJECT 1 OF 2 ...
The emitter beam shot out and immediately struck Bryan.
"Oh, hey!" he said in surprise. "What are you doing? I thought you were changing yourself!"
Bryan did not change much physically, except looking a little more worse for wear, as though he had been working harder and longer--crow's feet appearing around his eyes, and a touch more gray appearing in his beard and around his temples. However the biggest change came when Bryan locked eyes with Jay--suddenly looking confused.
"Actually, I joined your genetic lines," replied Simon.
Jay merely gave him a quizzical look, while Bryan remained silent--the mental changes obviously having taken effect.
"I made Bryan your genetic father," said Simon.
"WHAT?!" Jay practically yelled in a high-pitched little boy's voice.
"Hey, you gave me the idea," said Simon. "Besides, it's all temporary. I can just fix it later. Besides, I thought you guys wanted me to do something interesting."
"To yourself--not to us!" exclaimed Jay who glowered and grumbled, but said nothing more.
COMMENCING TRANSFORMATION: SUBJECT 2 OF 2
Simon watched as Jay nervously watched the emitter beam as it spread over him. Nothing much happened at first. Then he shot up in height. It was only a little, but a little is a lot when you're eight years old. Jay's hair turned darker, matching Bryan's. Simon could see Jay suddenly look a lot tougher. Not muscular, but more like the kid you knew was going to grow up into a football champ. Jay's features subtly melted and molded to resemble himself and little bit of Bryan.
SUBJECT 2 TRANSFORMATION (GENETIC ALTERATION: [SON] OR SUBJECT [BRYAN] COMPLETE. ALL TRANSFORMATIONS COMPLETED. THANK YOU FOR USING CHRONIVAC 4.0!
"Huh," said Jay, looking himself over. "I feel kinda... different."
Simon looked over his friends who were now family members. He thought it would turn out kind of awkward, but seeing the way they were reacting actually felt natural. He felt comfortable thinking of Bryan and Jay as father and son, even though he had no reason to. However another part of him was supremely disturbed by this. He looked over at the Chronivac, wanting to change things back to normal.
Oh... what to do...