After scrolling through the app-store, “Bill” grins when he finds the Chronivac-app, and without a thought, he downloads and installs it. The 11-year-old opens the app and activates the scan function, scanning all the boys around the table: Henry, “Jaden”, himself, Tony, Cody, Marvin, Tom, Max, Ash and Lennon.
‘Now, I can simply erase the memory of the swap from both “Jaden’s” and Henry’s minds, but Henry still has the files of me, “Jaden” and our original bodies,’ he thinks to himself, ‘I need to find a way to persuade him to delete those files, which will cause our owners and us to be stuck in the “wrong” bodies. Since the originals are now animals, and since animals have no track of time, they’ll never realize that they are stuck’.
“Bill” thinks for a while, he then grins, ‘good thing I have my owner’s memories,’ he thinks to himself, as an image of a certain snake from a certain movie pops into his mind, his grin widens, ‘THAT will be perfect,’ he thinks to himself. The boy opens his file and gives himself hypnotic powers, he then opens the files of Henry and “Jaden” and simply deletes the swap-memory from their memories, with that done, he confirms the changes and smirks when both “Jaden” and Henry shiver as the tingling runs through their bodies.
For a split second, both Henry and “Jaden” get a confused expression on their faces, as if they realize tat they have forgotten something, but then both just shake their heads and shrug.
“Bill” smirks, ‘phase one is completed,’ he thinks to himself, ‘now for phase two’. The boy looks over at Henry, “Henry, can I talk to you for a minute in private?”
Henry looks up, “sure, Bill,” he says, getting to his feet, “we’ll be right back, guys,” he then says.
“What secret do you two have that you don’t want to share with the rest of us,” Tony asks.
“Bill” chuckles, “you don’t need to know everything,” he says.
Henry nods, “Bill is right,” he says, “who knows what secrets YOU, Tony, are not telling US!”
Tony opens his mouth, but then closes it, blushing red, “Bill” and Henry grin, “thought so,” they say, they then turn and walk away.
“So, Bill, what do you want to talk about,” Henry asks.
Bill activates his hypnotic gaze and turns to look Henry directly in the eyes, his blue eyes glowing and it doesn’t take long for Henry’s brown eyes to glow blue themselves, the boy’s body seeming to suddenly relax, slumping forward slightly.
“I’d like for you to delete the files of me, Jaden, Rex and Rocky,” the boy says, “I want you to forget that you shared the app with us”.
“Yes, master,” Henry drones.
“Then do it now,” “Bill” orders, a large grin on his face as he watches Henry taking out his phone and in a matter of a few seconds, the files of Rex, Rocky, Jaden and Bill have been deleted, canceling the programmed duration, which causes the swap to become permanent.
“It’s done, master,” Henry says, putting his phone back in his pocket.
“Bill” grins, “good boy,” he says, “now, when I awaken you, you have forgotten that you have shared the app with me and Jaden”.
Both the boys eyes stop glowing, Henry blinks a couple of times, “sorry, Bill, I kinda zoned out for a second,” he says, “um… what were you saying?”
“Bill” smiles, “no worries,” he says, “I was just telling you that I stumbled across this cool app”.
“What kind of app,” Henry asks.
“It’s called the “Chronivac”… have you heard of it,” Bill then asks.
“Yeah, I’ve got the same app,” Henry says, “I learned about it from my brother Jeff, who used it to transform himself into my pet king snake “Kain”!”
“Bill” acts surprised, “Kain is actually your brother Jeff,” he asks, “why would he do that? I thought you didn’t get along so well!”
Henry rubs the back of his neck, “yeah… though I wish we would be closer, he knows how much I love reptiles, and how much I want to have a pet snake, so he offered to become my pet snake for two weeks”.
“Bill” smiles, staying in character, “that is actually really cool of him to do that for you,” he says.
Henry smiles and nods, “yeah, I’ll never forget it,” he says, “I wanna thank him somehow”.
“What do you have in mind?”
“I… I was thinking maybe to use the app to transform myself into something for a while,” Henry says, “maybe a cool outfit for Jeff to wear, or something else useful”.
“Bill” smiles, “I think that would make things even,” he says, “but for now, why don’t we have some fun with our friends?”
Henry tilts his head, noticing the mischievous grin on his friend’s face, “what are you thinking about?”
“Bill’s” grin widens, “why don’t we use our apps to pull some pranks on the others,” he suggests, “like giving Tony a rodent’s tail? I think Jaden would look cute with fox ears! It would be hilarious to see Max act like a dog!”
Henry thinks about “Bill’s” suggestion, the boys look back at the group, then Henry turns back to look at “Bill” and smirks, “let’s have some fun,” he says.