"Beta Team, status?" Came a voice through a gunman's earpiece.
"We are at the target site, confirm."
"You are a go, no walkers, repeat no walkers."
The SUV doors opened, the three masked gunmen primed their weapons and entered.
Sellers sat by his desk, despondent. A messy pile of cigarette butts overflowed the ashtray nearby him, next to a few empty two-liter bottles of Mountain Dew and Jolt cola. His eyes ached with heat as he entered into his third week of frantic research. The Board had been pushing on him since Day One wanting their weapon. It was all a ruse; if the energy released from previous reactions had been destructive then the whole research site should've been destroyed back then. He wanted to know what Gonzalez was capable of doing. He flipped a power switch on and took a long last drag from his cigarette. He knew by now the bugs The Board had planted throughout the complex and computer system were raising flags to some monitor team by now. A low powerful sub-harmonic warble pulsed through the room as the reactor fired up. The power indicator needled its way upward. He spoke into a recorder as he applied medical data sensors on himself. "All of the medical and research data from the other subject has proven totally useless. Unless a new means of detection becomes possible, there are no indications of any change in the test subject, either genetic, chromosomal, metabolic, or molecular. Therefore the only way to measure any means of change will be to expose a subject to the reaction's energy." He stopped for a moment, looking at the power readings. "Plus I believe this is my only means of survival and revenge."
The reactor was slightly modified. Sellers decreased the size of the reactor to fine tune the energy pulse but he increased the shielding thickness around the reactor and added a shielded conduit from the reactor core to a man-sized capsule. So that any escaped particle from the reaction would take the path of least resistance and flow through the conduit, exposing the occupant to its properties. Sellers flipped the final sequence switch giving him thirty seconds to enter.
The warble pulsed around the gun team.
"What the hell is that?!"
"Beta two quiet, the reactors been fired up. Go, go!"
The three masked gunmen moved quickly through the corridor. The leader stopped by a large lead lined door. The other two each slapped some play-dough on the door hinges. The leader flipped a switch, the play-dough smoked and the door blew off its hinges.
"Stop!!" Yelled the leader as Sellers slammed the capsule closed on him.
A computer voice echoed outward. "Two, One. Sequence executed." The reactor fired.
The walls bent like a wet noodle. The gunmen screamed as their senses fought one another; each one screaming conflicting information into their minds which way was up, down and sideways. And then it was over, like nothing had happened.
Slowly they all recovered. The leader was the first to open the capsule door. With his MP5 at the ready, he yanked the door open. Sellers' heart leapt into his throat as the gunman shoved the machine gun�s muzzle into his face and squeezed the trigger. Without hesitation, Sellers leapt down and grabbed the gunman�s boot knife. It was then that he realized that he was the only one moving. The leader was the first to drop to the floor dead with his throat slashed open from his own serrated knife in Sellers� hands.
"What the fuck?!" A gunman beaded his weapon on Sellers as he stood over the body. He pulled the trigger, squeezing off three rounds. Then the gunman�s vision blurred red as the three bullets went through the back of his skull. It was only then he realized with his last thought, that he was standing were Sellers was just standing.
"SHIT!!" The last gunman fired his weapon blindly as he backed out of the room. He flipped his magazine around quickly, smacking the fresh magazine into his weapon. He squeezed off another ten rounds when he felt a hand from behind on his shoulder.
"Boo!" Sellers drove the knife into the man's throat twisting it viscously against the neck bones.
Sellers stood there laughing hysterically among the three bodies He patted down the warm corpses and found some money and car keys. He took those along with a knife and pistol with ammo.
"Morning Agent Byrne, how can I be of assistance to you today," Joel said as Madeline and Beth stopped by the storefront building Janice bought for her budding private practice.
"Nothing, just checking up to see if you had remembered anything else? Where's your wife?" Madeline said admiring the color scheme picked out for the children's play area.
"She's at the hospital. You know doctors, heal the sick and stuff like that."
"How is she doing?"
"She still has nightmares but they're slowly going away. As for me, I don't remember anything else. I was just a guinea pig to them."
"I know that�s why I'm here. Do you have a minute?"
"Yeah sure." Joel put down the wallpaper and went into Janice�s new office. "Coffee?"
"No thanks." Beth also declined. "Look, some strange things have happened all over New Mexico since your incident."
"I know, I've heard the reports on TV but you didn't come out here to tell me this."
Madeline looked at her partner for a moment. Beth nodded back to her. "Look we haven't found anything on this Sellers guy. We don't know who he is or what he does."
"What about the woman you found?"
"She's been put in protective custody in Los Alamos. We can't question her and we've been taken off the case. I came out here to just give you a heads up. Something is going on here and that scares me."
"Thanks."
Sellers drove down the highway in the assassin's SUV. His mind screaming with possibilities of what he could do now. He pulled into a Stuckey's truck stop and pumped some gas. He paid for the fuel and went in for a bite to eat. He casually looked over the menu but looked more intensely at his redheaded waitress Jamie and ordered a cheeseburger platter with a coke. Sellers sat there amusing the viscous and lustful thoughts going through his head. He looked around the restaurant, laughing in his mind, watching everyone go through life like a mindless cow. He felt alive, if for the first time. The lab, with the three bodies, was burnt down to the ground by now. The fuel rods, key reactor components, plus all the important equipment needed were safely loaded into the SUV. Not to mention all the gunmen�s weapons and explosive equipment already loaded in the SUV. Jamie brought his cheeseburger platter. She bent over slightly and slid the platter in front of him. Sellers just sat there with a big smile, which she returned, and thought.
The world screeched to a halt. The country music from the jukebox stopped blaring, the couple sitting nearby stopped screaming at each other and Jamie was bent over in front of him showing just enough cleavage to ensure a nice tip. Sellers ate his burger and fries admiring Jamie's cleavage. Every now and then he reached inside her top and fondled her tits a bit, smearing ketchup and mustard on them. When he finished, he reached into Jamie�s apron and pulled out his tab.
"Hmm, $8.39."
He opened her blouse admiring the lacy bra that was holding her nice firm tits in place. The bra was quickly discarded. Jamie stood there, slightly bent over with her practiced smile, completely frozen and topless now. Seller got up and stood behind her. He lifted up her skirt, noticing her matching panties. Jamie's uniform and panties were discarded as fast as her bra. He laughed at the sight of her nakedness. He went about the rest of the truckstop testing his new abilities. He covered his fist in a dishtowel and punched it right through a couple of the store�s front glass.
�Amazing!� he said.
His fist went through the glass but only the section of glass his fist touched broke up. The rest of the pane was unaffected by the punch. He lifted various item, a glass of water, a cash register, Jamie�s long red hair after pulling off the scrunchie, and other items and marveled as they hung frozen in mid-air. His watch was still working. So he monitored the items for some time and finally discovered that they were in fact moving.
�So time isn�t frozen, just slowed down. That would explain a lot.� He touched his chin. �Hmm.�
Sellers went to the pastry display case and got all the pies and cakes. He grabbed a Dutch apple pie and threw it hard at a burly trucker�s face. The pie froze in mid-flight just inches after leaving Seller�s hand. He stared at the pie until he confirmed that the pie was moving towards the face. Sellers went about throwing every pie and cake into everybody�s face in the restaurant. The sight of all those pies and cakes suspended just inches away from their frozen and unaware targets inspired him with ideas and experiments to do. He spotted an open register on the other end. He pushed aside Debby, after stripping her of her jeans and T-shirt, and took all the money inside. He went back over to Jamie admiring her rather nice body. His hand slid up her backside before he spread her butt cheeks apart. Taking his time, Sellers got out a roll of quarters and opened one end of the paper wrapper. He placed the open end up in her ass and then opened the other end. It took a little effort, but with his thumb, he slid all the quarters up inside her ass making sure the last one was barely visible.
�That should take care of the bill and tip.� He laughed then slapped Jamie on the ass.
Sellers went on to prank on some of the other patrons, stripping just about everyone so that they would match Jamie and Debby in their nakedness and dumped everyone�s clothing into the incinerator by the garage. Sellers then went on and looked around for any security cameras. He found the ones used at the gas pumps and found the VCR�s. He smashed them all to bits. Standing in the middle of the restaurant, taking one last look at his handiwork, Sellers thought once more.
�Here�s your� AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!� Jamie felt something cold up her ass. She bolted upright and screamed. The sounds of two quarters were heard plinking off the floor just before the splooshing sound of over twenty pies and cakes slammed into everyone�s faces. The large storefront windows shattered outward with a loud crash and the sounds of everything that was suspended in mid-air crashing to the floor added to the confusion.
Sellers laughed out loud as Jamie shoved a finger to feel what was inside her and then realized that she was naked. Just then everyone else joined Jamie�s screams with his or her own. The couple arguing in the next booth sounded a little funny. The man had a face full of carrot cake and his wife, he guessed, had a mouth full of tube steak. A burly trucker felt a sharp pain down under and found a pair of tiny panties stretched to the brink on him. Debby ducked behind the counter but slipped on some motor oil and got covered from head to toe with caramel popcorn as she tried to stand up. A woman by the payphone screamed into the receiver when she felt something squish between her butt cheeks. She looked down and saw a banana peel plop to the floor.
Sellers stammered out of the chaotic restaurant, got into his SUV and drove away with a laugh and some ideas for his next move.
Joel was tinkering with some florescent lighting when he heard the door open.
�Not a bad job. Who knows, maybe I�ll pay you for this.� Janice giggled.
�Yeah, yeah. I think, I�m already paying for this. How was work?"
Janice shedded her white labcoat and sat in her new leather office chair. "Terrible, we had a bunch of NR's today."
"NR's?"
"Near rapes, some joggers said they were attacked. Mostly women."
"What happened?"
"They say they don't remember what happened to them. They were jogging then all of a sudden they were naked and compromised. Just like what happened at the mall, but they're increasing." She said with concern.
Sensing her despondent mood. "How about Chinese tonight?"
"No, I don't feel like wearing the teddy and high heels." She said absently.
"Earth to Dr. Cheng, I meant dinner, not you silly."
Janice blushed and smiled. "Sure, but only my patients call me Dr. Cheng."
�And what do I call you?� He asked playfully.
�I�ll tell you tonight. How much work is left?�
�I�m done.�
�No, you just started wallpapering this morning.�
�Yeah, got the painting done too with the trims.� Then he thought to himself. �Course, stopping time to hang wallpaper made the job a helluva lot easier.�
Janice smiled after looking over the rest of the office rooms. �Wow, I guess you�ve earned your dinner tonight. Chinese it is.�
�Cool, I was thinking of some sizzling rice soup.�
Janice smiled again. �Actually I was thinking about tonight.�
As a clear night fell across Santa Fe, Sellers had already come up with possible abilities as he passed by the airport. He figured out that since time was slowed down to such an extreme, from his perspective, items mechanical in nature would function normally. "Now if there was a way to expose an item to the microburst, it would be conceivable to make it function in a hyper-accelerated reality. He pulled into a Crowne Plaza Hotel and parked. He sat there for some time then he thought.
He felt a rush of power flow through him and he now commanded the world. Looking out of the windshield, he saw a Delta 767 hang in mid-air just after it had taken off like a fly stuck in amber. The hotel lobby was crowded with convention guest. They all had on nametags. Sellers headed into the hotel�s business center. The place was deserted except for the two female clerks in the hotel�s uniform. He got a microcassette recorder off from the shelf, popped in a short repeater tape, held it tight in his hand and thought. He pressed the play button and it whirred to life. �Well, that proves one theory.� He looked at both clerks, Barbara and Tammy. �Time to prove another.� He spoke into the recorder then played it by both their ears as he timed it for five minutes. He retrieved the recorder and went into a PC cubicle and thought.
The two clerks went about their business; Barbara went to the door and locked it flipping the sign to �Closed�. She started to shiver when she went back to the counter. Tammy�s skin started to look flush as she broke out in a sweat. Her breathing became labored as she continued to fan herself to no avail.
�Aren�t you f.f.f.freezing?�
Tammy had loosened her emerald blazer. Her blouse was saturated with sweat. �Are you kidding?� She fanned herself with her hand. �I�m burning up.� She panted.
Barbara took Tammy�s jacket and wrapped herself with it. �Damn, it�s cold in here.� Her teeth chattered as she went into a semi-crouch rubbing her hands and legs together for warmth.
Sellers took mental notes of the results and thought to himself. �This is remarkable, somehow the suggestions, if done with some reinforcement, bypasses the person�s consciousness. I expected a slight discomfort but not this extreme.�
Tammy was on the floor now. She threw off all her clothing including her pantyhose trying to cool herself off by the A/C vent. She was practically on top of the floor vent drenched in sweat, panting in anguish. Barbara was balled up beside Tammy. She had grabbed all of Tammy�s clothing and put them on herself trying to get warm.
Sellers left the cubicle to the front of the counter. �Is they�re anyone here?� He asked out loud.
Barbara and Tammy got up from the floor as if nothing happened. Tammy went back to her usual duties despite being naked. Barbara stood in front of Sellers unaware of anything unusual or the extra clothing she was wearing now. �Can I help you Sir?� She asked.
�Actually you can help me. Why don�t you go out for a jog.�
�Yes sir.� Barbara went outside the office and ended up streaking in the hotel lobby amid the laughing conventioneers.
�Excuse me Miss?�
Tammy looked up at Sellers. �Yes sir?�
�Why don�t you go crap on yourself.�
Tammy�s eyes went wide as she stood there feeling something unsettling build up in her. She stood there in horror as she felt a warm gush flow down her legs, pooling on the floor and felt herself defecating uncontrollably.
Sellers laughed out loud and thought. Tammy�s frozen confused face delighted Sellers to no end. He stayed there admiring the new technique until he heard someone yelling outside in the lobby. Cautiously he went to the door and was surprised to see two ragged young men moving about the lobby. They were moving around among the frozen people. One was in a worn gray suit, the pants didn�t match with the jacket, with a filthy white shirt and tie and a dirty baseball cap on. The other looked just as dirty with a ragged varsity sweater and bare thread jeans. The two went about knocking some of the conventioneers down while they scarfed some of the buffet food. Sellers kept in the shadows watching the two young men, moving closer until he stood by a doorway and spoke.
�I take it you�re trapped here.�
Like animals, the two men froze were they were, looking at Sellers standing there. Shocked at seeing another person moving.
�You can move? We haven�t spoken with anyone since... I don�t remember how long ago.�
�Who have you spoken with before?� asked Sellers.
They looked at each other then the ball-capped man said. �That old guy Red, then there was that crazy woman.
Surprised at hearing Dr. Barton�s name. �You�ve met Dr. Barton? Gentlemen, we have to talk.�
Sellers and the two men introduced each other. Andrew was the one in the varsity sweater and Chester was wearing the ballcap. The explained to Sellers everything that had happened since their accident outside Paradise, plus what they did after they found out they were stuck in time.
Noting a slight case of dementia from their conversation, Sellers gave them a similar story to theirs. How he was working nearby, surveying the area, and how a colleague exposed him to the wave but that he had somehow survived and was able to shift back and forth in time. He got out some of his equipment from the SUV. Sellers soon found out that they weren�t able to timeshift items to work, so Sellers did so. After a while of measuring data from his battery powered equipment. �It seems your natural state is now in this realm. I may be able to transition you back but I figure its only temporary at best, for how long I couldn�t tell you.�
�You can bring us back?� Chester said with joy, then looked at Andrew.
�What do you want?� asked Andrew.
�I�ll need your cooperation. I know who is responsible for what happened to us and I would need you two to deal with him. In exchange, I�ll try to find a way of changing you back. First, we�ll need lodgings for the night. Now if you wish, let me show you something you may be able to do if you can transition back and forth. After placing the equipment back in the SUV, the trio went through the lobby.
�What are you going to show us?�
�How to influence.� Sellers spotted a group of flight attendants with their rollaways entering an elevator. �Gentlemen if this works, you�ll have reason to celebrate tonight. Are we in agreement then?�
�Hell yeah!� shouted Chester.
�I haven�t had a bath since, I don�t know when. Yeah, I�m in.� said Andrew
Sellers went about the five flight attendants, speaking into their ears, slowly and evenly, making sure the message would go straight through to their subconscious. �Gentlemen, choose.�
Chester went for Susan, who was 5'10 with long blonde hair, hazel eyes, a slender body, and long legs, and Tammy, who was 5'5 with short red hair, blue eyes, small breasts and a great ass. Andrew took dibs on Brittainy, who was about 5'9 with short dark brown hair, brown eyes, C cup breasts and large hips and Alisson, who was about 5'4 with shoulder length blonde hair, green eyes, and large breasts. Which left Nadjia, who was about 6'1 with long, light brown hair, brown eyes, full lips, a long straight nose, and long legs for Sellers. Susan, Alisson, and Nadjia were wearing the new corporate blue skirt uniforms, while Brittainy and Tammy were wearing the blue corporate pantsuits.
Sellers placed his hands on both men, on their shoulders and thought. His mind felt the energy release. Somehow he felt an additional surge of power and noted. �Maybe to compensate for the added mass. This will require further study.� All three men felt the shift then heard the elevator bell ding. Nadjia, Tammy, Brittainy, Susan and Alisson paused for a second. For an instant they felt a minor twinge, a headache, but it passed as fast as it came. Then they looked at Sellers and his new lackeys waiting in the elevator and they all smiled warmly to each other as the elevator doors closed.