You take a bit longer to get back to the arena, in part because you're not following a scent trail like and actually have to check where to go a few times, but mostly because you actually take the time to interact with the other guests - by the end, you're pretty sure you're in at least twenty photos, and most of them not by accident.
After you enter, you spot Dave hanging around, scanning the crowd half-assed. Once he spots you, he gestures for you to come closer, then takes a second look at you and stops for a moment, but says nothing.
You look confused at him, but he just shakes his head and opens the door to the employee hallways.
"I didn't expect your new look, but Roy will probably talk your ears off with all the things he found out, so I'll just shut up - no shot he won't notice that too."
You make your way over to the same room you've been in before, but unlike the last few times, it seems like someone tidied up the workspace a bit - or at least the floor, the desks just had the random clutter replaced by a computer with several odd devices attached, random tools, and the same gun Roy was messing with previously.
Just like last time, he's completely engrossed with what he's doing, but this time, he seems to have noticed you, as he gestures for you to wait for a moment before returning his second hand back to the keyboard.
It takes him a bit more than just a moment to finish, but soon he turns and looks at you, nodding his head approvingly.
"Yes - seems like my hypothesis is correct, you aren't immune to transformations, just highly resistant. Interesting effects though, I don't think we have half of those on our blasters."
He stands up and takes a closer look at you, especially your new apparel, "Very interesting, obviously the absorption doesn't extend past your body - I wonder if the flawed barrier settings played a part there - more to look at for later research."
You make a questioning noise, but he just continues on, "It's very curious though, last I checked the sensors still were functional and sending data, but they're not recognizable at all here," he pokes and prods one of your bracelets before finally looking you in the face again, "Say, could you remove one of the bracelets? I don't see any way to do so, and I'd like to inspect them more thoroughly."
You try to remove them, but you don't see a clasp either, and they fit your wrists rather snugly, to the point that you'd probably have to cut them off, so you just shrug, "Sorry, those fit too well and I don't exactly see a clasp here."
"Oh, but couldn't you just widen them and slide them off? You should still have enough energy to do that, no?"
You have no clue what he's talking about, but hazard a guess, "No idea what you mean - does it have anything to do with that 'absorption' you mentioned earlier?"
You can practically see his train of thought changing tracks before he continues, finally explaining his findings: "Yes, you see, during your previous session we got lots of interesting data, but most importantly, the gun you used barely had half its charge remaining when you started, and you didn't exactly shy back from using it, yet when we received it back, it was almost fully charged - even after you used it more than enough to deplete a full battery. Thus, we hypothesized that you actually absorb morphogenic effects you're exposed to and convert them into energy, which would explain the gun's readings indicating a slowly rising charge level as well, especially since it was set to randomly react to incoming shots with either no barrier, the flawed version, or the one that actually covers all of you, and each time you actually interacted with energy saw a subsequent increase in regained charge per shot. Therefore, it stands to reason that each shot was actually powered by you instead of the gun's battery."
"So, wait, you're telling me I could just go 'Bang!' and-" you sloppily motion a finger gun in his direction, and the moment you say "Bang!", a ray shoots out of your hand, hitting the technician, and with a flash, he turns into an anthropomorphic, white-furred mouse in a lab coat - losing several inches in the process.
It's hard to say who between the three of you is more surprised by this - Dave straight-up cusses in surprise, you gasp and try to stammer out an apology, and Roy simply freezes for a second, slowly inspects himself, and then quickly pulls out a notepad and starts furiously scribbling away at it, completely ignoring you - in fact, he doesn't even mutter to himself this time, all you hear are some grunts and other noises of concentration.
You're still beside yourself and try to apologize to him, but then you feel a hand on your shoulder and see Dave wearing a relaxed smile.
"Calm down, he's just nerding out about this." Dave's smile turns into a knowing smirk, "In fact, you'd better prepare yourself to be his next research project for a while, he'll definitely ask you to repeat that stunt a few times so he can get all the data from it - he's always trying to improve our toys, and it's not exactly often you come across another source of transformations he hasn't researched to death yet - especially not one that's so similar to our guns, so give him some time and he'll be back with us soon enough."