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. 3 SUBJECTS TO ALTER. COMMENCING TRANSFORMATION: SUBJECT 1 OF 3 ..
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!"
"I... I didn't tell it to do that. I don't think... Wait! I think I may have told it to do some 'recommended changes'..." Simon tugged at his relatively new scruffy chin hairs nervously.
"Like what?" grumbled Bryan, trying to push past Jay to get to the mirror without squashing him.
"I guess we'll find out," said Simon, craning his neck to get a better view of Bryan's changes as Jay climbed on top the bed.
At first, it didn't look like Bryan was changing. Then Simon noticed the thin wisps of hair still left on top of Bryan's head vanishing as the bald area slowly grew larger. A creaking sound was heard as Bryan's waistline also increased in size, stressing the already too-tight pants. Bryan hadn't been an enormous man before. Just hefty enough for his gut to start drooping over his belt line. Now his gut seemed to be stretching that limit, literally as Bryan attempted to pull the jeans off before they cut off his circulation.
"Give me a hand here," he grunted, sitting on the bed, pulling at the legs of the pants. The shirt was a lost cause as it was already splitting the seams up the sides.
As Simon walked over to assist Bryan, he noticed grey hairs beginning to appear in the hairs on Bryan's chin. The same for the hairs on his chest and a dusting on his temples.
Simon tugged and almost stumbled into the dresser behind him as the jeans finally came loose. Luckily, the boxers still seemed to be holding.
Bryan, now free of his confining clothing peered closer at the mirror, as his goatee grew a little scraggly and a bit longer as a few more greys appeared. Lines began to deepen on his forehead and around his eyes.
"Simon," he said, staring at his now middle-aged features, "just how old am I now?"
The grey spread, taking up most of the lower portion of Bryan's goatee and most of the hair on the sides of his head. He squinted as his vision began to blur.
Simon made his way to the computer as the Chronivac beeped and a new message popped up:
SUBJECT 1 TRANSFORMATION (AGE PROGRESSION: 18 YRS) COMPLETE.
"Uh, you were 30 before, right?" asked Simon.
"Yeah, if that's what you'd set it to," said Bryan.
"I guess that makes you... 48" said Simon, bracing himself.
However, Bryan didn't seem to be angry. Instead, his only reply was to say "Huh," and turn his head as to study his new face from all angles in the mirror.
COMMENCING TRANSFORMATION: SUBJECT 2 OF 3 - STAGE 1 ...
Simon felt the wave of warmth and tingliness as he was apparently chosen as 'Subject 2."
"What did you do, anyway?" asked Jay, looking up at Simon.
"I joined our genetic lines," replied Simon.
Jay merely gave him a quizzical look.
Simon could already feel the age progression stage of the transformation taking place. He could once again feel his limbs elongating and he could feel the tingling of his body hair growing.
"I made Bryan my genetic father," said Simon.
"... And...?" coaxed Jay, sensing there was more.
"... and made you my son," finished Simon, his voice cracking a little.
"WHAT?!" Jay practically yelled in a high-pitched little boy's voice.
Simon dug around in his nightstand drawer to find a hand-held survival mirror he had gotten last summer. He saw his chin scruff fill out into a decent chin goatee. His sideburns also filled out nicely as his face took on an adult appearance.
"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."
Jay glowered and grumbled, but said nothing more.
Simon's body hair had filled in to be somewhat sparse, but it was still noticeable. His muscles developed a little, but then his stomach pushed out a little, then a little more, until Simon had a good sized gut. Simon also noticed his hairline retreat ever so slightly. Then the changes stopped. Simon was now 28 years old.
Simon managed to prod Bryan away from the full length mirror to get a better look at himself. He didn't look too bad. In fact, he looked like a younger, lighter haired, somewhat slimmer version of his father.
"Not bad, pardner," rumbled Bryan. "But you've got a while yet to earn one of these," he said, patting his stomach."
The Chronivac bleeped again and Jay peered at the screen. "Says phase 2 is starting," he announced. "Must be the genetic changes"
Another wave spread through Simon as he felt something warm run through his veins. He felt as though his muscles were being inflated like balloons. They looked it, too. He could see his biceps, pecs, and just about every other muscles growing bigger. The hair on his body began to grow thicker and darker, until his pecs were completely covered by dark hair.
"Woah..." muttered Simon. "I know, right?" said Bryan.
Simon watch in the mirror as the hair on his head darkened to a shade similar to Bryan's. He then watch his hairline retreat backwards. He used his hand mirror with the full length mirror to get a view of the back of his head and watch a bald spot materialize, but not quite join with his receded hairline. His chin goatee grew thicker as a mustache appeared and joined with it. He also watched his gut grow somewhat larger as all his newly defined muscle become less so and rounder.
CRACK!
Simon jerked as a loud popping sound came from his nose as it shoved itself into his face. He suddenly realized it had taken the form of Bryan's nose. He felt a pulling sensation as his ears also reshaped themselves to be like Bryan's. As Simon studied his face further, he noticed that all the features that he had shared with his real father, had made themselves to be like Brayn's.
As the changes slowed to a stop, Simon felt one last sensation. A sense of pride welled up inside of him. He felt powerful. No. Invincible! He couldn't help admire himself a little bit. He knew that this was the testosterone increase he had now inherited from Bryan talking... but he like it.
"Man..." said Simon, studying himself. He knew he was physically 28, but he looked closer to a person in their 40s... "This is... awesome."
Bryan couldn't help but grin from ear-to-ear. Jay rolled his eyes. Now he knew what it felt to be like Simon, just as Simon knew what it felt to be like Bryan.
SUBJECT 2 TRANSFORMATION (AGE PROGRESSION: 12 YRS; GENETIC ALTERATION: [SON] OF SUBJECT [BRYAN]) COMPLETE. COMMENCING TRANSFORMATION: SUBJECT 3 OF 3
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 and Simon'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 Simon.
SUBJECT 3 TRANSFORMATION (GENETIC ALTERATION: [SON] OR SUBJECT [SIMON] 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 now family members. He thought it would turn out kind of awkward, but it actually felt natural. He felt comfortable calling Bryan his father and Jay his 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. But then he looked down at his new, larger, rounder form, and another part of him didn't want to give it up.
Oh... what to do...