Pressing the button to start the hologram projection, Frank watched as the world around him seemed to shift.
----
"Um," Jeff said, trying to find some words to fix things, "I'm... sorry?" At that moment, Jeff saw something appear in the room next to his sister, causing him to seemingly lose focus on that last word. He watched as the fuzzy image coalesced into a man, who looked about 30. Seeing his sudden change of focus, Jamie looked around next to her, trying to see what he was looking at, but saw nothing.
"Jeff, I presume? I'm Frank," the semi-invisible man said, "and I'm from TransDem Labs."
"Jeff," Jamie said, anger rising again in her voice, "you've been a bad little boy. Look at me when I'm talking to you."
Jeff ignored his sister and focused on Frank. "The guys who made the Chronivac? You've got to help me!"
"Don't try that bit on me, Jeff, it won't work." Jamie wasn't happy, but Jeff still ignored her.
"That's right. A surge caused a number of glitches in the system, which alerted us to your problem. Before anything else, I must ask; do you wish to have your changes reverted?"
"Of course I do! Please, do it now! Please!" Jeff started crying as he saw Jamie start to approach him, her face a thunderhead. Meanwhile, Frank quickly coded a long-distance Chronivac device to restore Jamie to her first recorded state, that of a 10 year old girl with the body of a 20 year old woman. It was, after all, the earliest state, and Frank couldn't know which part was the true original.
Even as Jamie reached Jeff, intending to spank him, Frank pressed the button to start the change. Jeff watched with relief as Jamie's head started to return to looking the way he remembered. Jamie's body, on the other hand, remained the hot form that he had given her. Looking to Frank, Jeff realised that they didn't have enough data to undo all the way.
Jamie, having now reverted to her 10 year old mind, had a very rapid change in attitude... but remained upset anyway.
"Jeffy, you can't lock yourself away like that, Mummy will get mad at both of us!" Jamie's little face, on her shapely body, pouted and glared.
Jeff looked back at Jamie for a moment, before turning back to Frank. Frank was quickly keying in the changes needed to be made to Jeff. Jeff watched as Frank pressed the button, and felt the changes start.
At first, Jeff's head and body grew simultaneously. However, once his body returned to the 8 year old stage, it stopped, and Jeff realised that the system must have really gotten screwed up. He looked back at Jamie again, and saw her attitude change further, although she remained angry. Now, though, her problem was different.
"Jeffy, I want to play with your computer! Let me play with your computer!"
Jeff was somewhat surprised, and looked across at his desk... the first thing he was shocked at was that he had a desk again! And on that desk, there was a computer. And attached to that computer was... nothing. The Chronivac hadn't returned.
"Frank, this isn't how things were."
"Oh, I know, Jeff," Frank seemed genuinely annoyed, "but it's the best I can do with this system right now. Unfortunately, our long-distance Chronivac can't create new information, it can only undo and adjust older information. And because we don't have your original stats on file, we can't undo it from here."
Jeff sighed. Looked like he'd be stuck with an 8 year old body.
"We'll be sending a new Chronivac out to you in four to six weeks, though, once we've finished the bug fixes. In the meantime, this is the best we can do, unless you have a better idea." Frank waited patiently, expecting Jeff to give the OK.
Jeff thought for a few moments, before saying...