Part 6 - Mr. Wright

And she cried into her hands. Petra grit her teeth and shook her head as she scoffed, “It’s not my fault you don’t have any friends…”

Dana glared at Petra and said, “Leave your brother alone.”

Diana gave a wince, shook her head, and looked up. “That’s just it, mom. I don’t want him to just leave me alone. Or you either.”

Korri read through the product information as Dana clutched her hands. Dee leaned back and cracked his neck. He glanced at the box of tissues to the side of the counter then glanced at Diana, who was still crying.

As she blew a puff of air, Korri picked up and examined the portable. Dee pushed back a little but reached over to grab the tissue box. He coughed and passed it to Dana. With her mother crouching beside her, Diana took a few tissues and blew her nose.

Petra shook her head and declared, “If you wanted attention…you could’ve just said something.”

Korri turned the system over and opened it up. Dee winced but, before he could say anything, Korri gasped. Dana looked over and asked quickly, “What’s wrong?!”

Wordlessly, Korri turned the portable to face the three. Dee could tell immediately by the lack of colored light at the top. The system, through lack of battery power or a touch of a button, was off.

As she looked up, Petra whined. Her whole body seemed to quiver. She hugged herself and mimed like she was going to throw up. Instead, she expelled the word ‘Noooo’ with drained anguish. She began hitting her legs as she said expletive after expletive into them. When it seemed she had exhausted all her energy, she flopped down flat on the floor and stayed there with her arms out and announced, “It’s over. My life is so totally over. Just over…”

She didn’t even bother to brush away the mass of locks tangled around her face. Dee leaned over the documentation, scanned it, and ushered Korri over. They both read the passage. Korri tried turning on the system again. She shielded her face as the screen came back on. Quickly, she pressed the select, start, both left shoulder buttons, and then carefully peered at the screen. To her relief, it was at a status screen and not in the game.

With a sigh, she told everyone, “It turned out it was just put into sleep mode. The game is saved. Now, according to what I read, I can adjust the changes.”

Petra’s head bolted up. Her eyes widened as she pressed down on her lip. Korri’s expression showed a bit of melancholy, as she remarked, “But I’m going by the non-hacked instructions and even that only allows me to modify appearance…not gender. The instructions assume that gender will not be a variable in gameplay…just in minor, unlockable content. So, it’s hard to know.”

Dana frowned and asked, “Doesn’t it have any sort of…all changes off…option?”

Korri sighed and said, “Naturally, it’s totally unclear if I can do that.” Dee turned the page. Korri and Dee both skimmed through it, looking for something they could use. Korri found it first and grinned as she turned the page around for him to see. Dee smirked.

With confidence, Korri looked back. She said, putting on a serious face, “As it turns out, there is something of a kill-switch. It’s a form of game delete in the troubleshooting manual. Basically, it’s the only option because I don’t trust this thing to not mentally-wipe or rewrite all three of you. There’s just one drawback…if you can call it that…apparently because of program abuse by minors…only uhh two out of every three in a group can be completely restored in this way.” Dee raised an eyebrow and glanced at Korri.

All eyes turned to Diana, whose eyes were red but clear of tears. She took a deep breath and said, “Do it. Please. For my family.” Dana hugged her daughter. Cautiously, Petra scooted toward her mother, but out of the reach of her mother’s arm. Dana asked, “Do we need to do anything special?”

Korri shook her head, manipulated the portable, and pressed her finger to the screen. Instantly, there was a soft, barely-audible sizzling. Dee knew the sound well. It was the sound of nanites going through final operations before a mass die-off. A good sound.

Quickly, Dana’s face changed. Little wrinkles reasserted themselves. When the sizzle left her, she took out her compact and noted, with a smile, “Shame to see that face go.”

Diana bit her lip as the sizzle surrounded her. She remained the same. Then, Petra could hear the sizzling around her.

Immediately, her body shifted in her clothes. Her arms lengthened and broadened with muscles. Her feet pressed out of her shoes and her legs tensed her pants. Her brow lowered. Her lips thinned but remained soft. With a gasp, the sizzling ended.

Peter turned away and his hand immediately shot down to fix his waistband. After a moment of self-reflection, he breathed a long breath of relief and muttered, “It’s back…”

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But he had plenty of complaints as he peered into his mother’s compact. He noted, “Dang…my eyebrows still look girly. And I’m all smooth. My nose is smaller…but…” He jumped to his feet and ran in place. “I feel great. I feel like I can tear up the field!”

Korri smiled and folded her arms. She closed out the game then popped it out. She passed the portable to Dana who put it in her purse then asked, “Is the game machine clear of any problems?”

Korri affirmed, “Yeah, the problem was just with the hacked game card, as far as we can assume, but you’re welcome to get it scanned for trace nanites at the door before you leave. Would you like a full refund or trade-in on the product?”

Dana looked over at her son and daughter. Peter vigorously waved his hands and proclaimed, “Mom!…I will buy you a game…any game…anywhere else!”

Dana gave a nervous smile and responded, “I suppose we’ll just take the cash refund.”

Dee did all the paperwork. Diana slowly got up but gave her brother a wide berth. Despite that, Peter approached and looked at her. Diana leaned back. With a deep breath, Peter gently put his hand on her shoulder. He snorted. “Dumb D. When we get home, I’m totally bugging you all the time in your room.”

Dee glanced up and passed the money to Dana, who tucked it away in her purse. Dana added, “But first, we need to get poor D some clothes.”

Peter flicked his tongue out and said, “Bleh…Girl clothes…I am so glad I was spared that. I don’t envy you, D.”

Diana bowed her head a little and gave a faint smile. The three left together.

Dee leaned over the counter and stated the obvious, “There’s no two-out-of-three rule...”

Korri nodded and admitted, “Yeah, I know. All I had to do was edit them automatically from the screen. But I think it worked out well.”

Dee snorted. “Despite the fact you lied to the customer, never a good idea, I also think it worked out very well.

Korri leaned against the counter and said, “I think I figured out your secret, Dee.”

Dee smiled and leaned back like a town sheriff behind his desk in the Old West. Without a hint of concern in his voice, he asked, “Oh? And what’s that?”

Korri kept her head high as she answered, “This store has a sense about who wants and doesn’t want to be transformed. And it sifts out those who don’t want it. Max…who is absolutely the coolest guy in the universe no matter what people say about him…only transformed once. You didn’t work that day. It was epic.”

Dee nodded. “I know…you told me.”

Korri held up a finger. “I may love being a woma…err man. A man. I love being a woman. GAH! A man!....Are you suuuure there’s no mental change?”

“Absolutely certain. That was just a….Freudian slip?”

“It was nothing!”

“Sure…”

Korri took a turn to snort. “I may love being…what I am when I’m not at work with nanites jumping on me. But that doesn’t mean I feel any less of a…man.”

Dee held his hands up and smiled. “You don’t need to defend or explain anything. I don’t mind…anything. So long as you don’t try to make the nanites jump on me.”

Korri leaned down. “Truly…you don’t want that to happen…even unconsciously?”

They looked into each other’s eyes. Calmly and clearly, without a moment of wavering, Dee said, “I don’t want that to happen. Ever. Even once. That is exactly why I am always on watch and always careful. Truuuuuly.” He held his gaze with Korri’s until she blinked. At which point, she scratched at the tight curls of her blond hair and shrugged out the words, “Okay then…”

Dee said the same back and rested against the counter. Korri did the same from the other side. Fatefully, Korri remarked, “Well, hopefully, all the excitement is done for tonight…”

Knowingly, Dee said, “You’d think so…”

The sound that followed a minute later was awkward scuffing and shuffling across the floor. With a mutual sigh, both turned their eyes towards the hallway opening.

Through it appeared a man in jeans and a blue shirt with a pink blanket over his stomach. Korri’s first thought was ‘pregnant’ until she noticed it was lumpy.

Looking left and right, the man dropped the blanket to reveal…a blue and black canister vacuum. Korri’s eyes followed the hose and widened.

[https://i.imgur.com/x6shlWg.jpg]

The end of the hose was stuck to the man’s crotch.

Dee lowered his head and pressed his forehead as he muttered, “Not another one…” He stared right at the canister.

Setting the canister down as best he could, the man brushed back his close-cropped brown hair and nervously said, “They…told me to come here. I umm…”

Dee finished for him, “You’re stuck. And, until recently…you used to be a woman…”

The man put a hand in front of the area where the vacuum was attached but he nodded.

Dee narrowed his eyes at the canister, like the inanimate object was sneering at him, as he said, “Unfortunately, we get this a lot…”