The item of clothing that had so horrified Clark was a bright pink toddler dress. For some reason, all the clearance items had been in Clark and Nick’s size, but for girls. Clark knew that the dress was in his future, he just didn’t know exactly what Wes meant by “making sure it’s just right”.
“Aw, you two look scawed!” Wes said, still using the mocking faux-concerned tone from inside the store. The ride back home had been far from silent, with the kids’ music blaring and Wes cheerfully singing along, but Nick and Clark had nothing to say. They were only filled with dread. “Don’t worry, I’ve got just the thing.” Wes rifled through the shopping bags and took out two sparkly pacifiers, one pink and one purple. He popped the pink one into Clark’s mouth and the purple one into Nick’s.
With that, he brought the toddlers inside and deposited them on the couch.
“Don’t wander off, or Daddy will be angry!” Wes chirped. He went back outside to grab the bags of supplies. Clark turned to Nick.
“Nick. Can he make uth giwth?” Nick shook his head.
“No. Not unleth…” Horror colored Nick’s face. “I hid it, though!”
“Hid what?”
“An ekthpewiment. How did he know where it wath?” Nick whispered. Clark stared at Nick. Nick took a deep breath. “He might be abew to make uth giwth.” Dread filled Clark.
“What can we do?”
“Nothing,” Nick said, defeated. As if on cue, Wes came back inside. He dropped the bags next to Nick and Clark.
“Daddy will be right back! He found a new toy he’s very excited to use on his darling children,” Wes gushed. He disappeared down the hall, only to promptly reappear, holding something that looked very similar to the age regression gun. “That’s right, Daddy found the thing you tried to hide, Nicky! And there was a note next to it that explained exactly how it worked, too!”
Wes pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and began to read from it.
“To reverse the gender of someone. Male to female, female to male. Will completely alter DNA and thus features.” Wes tucked the paper back into his pocket. He smiled at the toddlers. “Sounds great to me! Boys can be so difficult to deal with. But girls? They’re just cute little angels!”
Wes aimed the gun at Nick and Clark.
“Say cheese!”
He pulled the trigger.