Dan closed the box and quickly ran to his room, hoping his parents wouldn't notice. He wanted to keep this a secret. Shutting his bedroom door slowly, he set the box down on his desk next to his computer, examining its contents. Inside was a small device with a touch screen, similar to a smartphone. He pushed the power button, but nothing happened. He set it down on his desk. The box also contained a USB cord and an installation CD. He plugged the device into his computer with the cord. It powered up with its battery symbol showing almost no power left. "I guess it has to charge," thought Dan. "The least they could have done is given me a full battery." Hitting one of the buttons on it, a text box popped up. "Install CHRONIVAC PRO software on PC and format CHRONIVAC PDA." Following its instructions, Dan began to install the Chronivac software on his computer as the PDA charged.
After the software finished installing, it immediately began formatting the PDA. Once that was completed, the Chronivac program began to give Dan a short blurb about the software. "The CHRONIVAC PRO is TransDem Labs' latest in reality manipulation technology. This model is being given to only a select few and is not at this time available to the public. Included with the CHRONIVAC PRO software is the CHRONIVAC PDA, a portable device that allows CHRONIVAC PRO users to alter reality on the go. While not as powerful as a computer using CHRONIVAC PRO, the CHRONIVAC PDA is able to perform short-range, small-scale reality alteration." Below that was a legal disclaimer stating that "Any and all alterations are the user's responsibility. Our tech support staff is willing to help any user, but TransDem Labs is not legally responsible for any mishaps with the CHRONIVAC PRO software."
Dan clicked through the message and reached the main Chronivac screen. It was a pretty simple interface, with only a few options shown: "Edit Existing Subjects", "Scan For Subjects", and "Global Settings". Edit Existing Subjects was grayed out and he couldn't click on it, so he assumed he had to scan first. Hitting Scan For Subjects, the Chronivac brought up a loading bar. After about 2 minutes, a list popped up with 5 names: "Daniel Jenkins", "Mary Jenkins" (Dan's mother), "Greg Jenkins" (Dan's father), "Catherine Jenkins" (Dan's older sister), and "Casey Jenkins" (Dan's pet iguana). Clicking on his name, a screen was brought up with a 3D model of himself and a list of statistics such as age, height, weight, etc. There was a variety of settings to change. Dan opted to try the program out by doing something small-scale. He clicked on "Hairstyle" and started flipping through. He picked a long-haired style semi-randomly. He checked other settings before he submitted, taking care to hit "Alter Reality" for everyone but him, so that no one would think it strange that he has long hair.
Turning toward a small mirror he had on his wall, Dan began to watch as his hair began to grow. His short brown locks became lustrous, growing longer and smoother until it reached his shoulders and stopped. He ran his hands through his new haircut. He was stunned, yet extremely pleased. It was only after about a minute of playing with his hair that he realized he had picked a woman's hairstyle. Shrugging, he went back to his computer and hit Revert Changes. His long hair receded into his scalp, returning to normal. The Chronivac worked. Now Dan just needed something to do with it.
Dan checked under "Global Settings" and found an option to save the current world instance, allowing him to reload the current moment as if no changes had taken place. He did so and prepared to experiment further with the Chronivac.