Mark and the Machine

Chapter 5

Part 5

Mark looked at Jade from across the table, and tried to think of what to do. His mom was a 95 year old "grandma", his dad was a one year old baby, Jade thought she was his mom, and who knew what had become of Wendy or his half-brother? What a mess!

"Jade, I'm so sorry I got you mixed up in all of this," he said. He pointed the device at her, and pressed down.

The device counted down, "39, 38, 37..." The slight wrinkles on Jade's face started to fade, and her stomach started to flatten. "... 30, 29, 28..." Jade's breasts started to sag less, and became nice and perky. "...21, 20, 19." Jade's face gained a youthful glow.

Mark felt weird, realizing how attractive Jade was. No wonder his dad had fallen for her.

Mark's hormones were raging out of control - for the last year he had had the libido of a 7 year old, and had gotten used to being oblivious to sexual temptation. But here Jade was, a total hottie even in her dowdy mom clothes, and Mark felt a temptation to keep her around, instead of letting her go back to the life she had been derailed from for the last year. He told himself that it was just to keep an eye on her, and make sure she hadn't made any other major changes, but that was a transparent lie. He pointed the device at her, and chose "Mental Adjust (Emotional Maturity)" and reduced her to "19." Then he went into the debug settings and chose, "de-emphasize extrapolated memories." She'd still remember everything - but it would be vague and cloudy, and she's act more like the 19 year old she had been before getting wrapped up in all of this.

"Jade, you know you're not my real mom, right?" Mark asked.

Jade rubbed her head, looking around confused. Everything felt so strange all of a sudden. "Of... course I'm not your mom? I'm just a college student, right?" Why could she remember spending the last year raising this kid? What had happened?

"I'm really sorry, but I need to know if you used the device on anyone else, besides my dad, me and my mom?" Mark asked.

"Your... mom?" Jade said, before her eyes widened in understanding. "Oh my god, was Elizabeth your real mom? I'm so, so sorry! I got so jealous, but-"

"It's okay, it's not your fault, Jade," Mark said. "I'm the one who accidentally got you wrapped up in all of this. I just need to know if there is anyone else we need to put back to normal?"

Jade frowned. "Oh, shit."

"What is it?" Mark said, his heart falling.

"Well, um... I might have used the device on a few coworkers, and a few bad dates," Jade said.

"Wait, you went on dates?" Mark asked.

Jade winked. "What did you think all that babysitting of your brother was for? Although, I suppose you were at a disadvantage for recognizing sexual behavior as it was."

Mark tried not to let the thought of Jade moaning as a man pleasured her distract him. He tried not to think about being that man. He had a girlfriend for crying out loud! Although, who knew if that would be true one everything was sorted out?

"How many, Jade?" he said.

"I think it was, uh, six people altogether?" she said, sounding a bit guilty.

"Okay, well..." Mark said, trying to think of what to do. "Tell you what, one of the things you confiscated from me was a partially completed prototype. I think with a few hours work I can get it working enough for you to go and fix all of the other issues you caused. While you're off doing that, I'll take care of my family and my girlfriend."

"Alright," Jade said. "I'm so sorry for making extra work for you!"

Mark shook his head. "Don't worry about that for now, the important thing is that we fix it."

They went back to the house, and Mark got to work.

"Should we change your dad and mom back first?" Jade whispered as they got back into the house.

Sure enough, Elizabeth was sitting on her rocking chair, a far away look in her eyes, and young Johnny was playing with toys on the floor. Maybe it hadn't been the best plan to have the demented old woman taking care of the young one, but Jade had wanted to celebrate with Mark.

"Not quite yet," Mark said. "I think it will require a lot of work to sort them out, and want to focus on one thing at a time."

Jade nodded, and the two of them went to his room.

Jade helped Mark find his confiscated stuff, and Mark was soon at working trying to get the second device working. Jade seemed fascinated by what Mark was doing, and was leaning over and watching intently.

"Um... can you please not get so close," Mark said, trying to control himself. He wasn't used to his newly returned sexuality, and his heart was beating faster and faster at the sight of a hot teenager leaning over, offering a peak of her impressive cleavage."

"Oh my gosh!" Jade giggled. "Don't tell me you've got a mom complex or something."

"N-no, it's not like that!" Mark said. "It's just that your, uh, body isn't exactly motherly right now, if you know what I mean."

Jade rolled her eyes. "What, do you want me to cover my shoulders, and stop exposing my tantalizing thighs?"

Mark frowned, "Ha ha, no please just... take care of my dad for a bit or something, please?"

Jade nodded and left the room. Mark breathed a sigh of relief.

Jade went down and joined Elizabeth and Johnny. Jade had always hated the idea of having kids, but somehow after having done it for the last year, she couldn't help but smile and offer to play with Johnny. Maybe she would have a little litter of her own?

* * *

It had gotten dark by the time Mark finally finished the second device. He was feeling mentally and physically exhausted, but he knew he needed to press on.

"Alright, Jade," Mark said. "Here you go, take this device and fix everyone else you altered. I'll start with my parents, and then find out what happened with my girlfriend."

Jade nodded. "Goodbye, son," she said, winking and giving him a peck on the cheek.

Mark blushed, and tried to hide his arousal, but Jade was already out the door.

Okay, hopefully, Jade would be up to the task of dealing with all of the other people she had changed. That just left him to deal with his mom and dad.

He pointed the remote at his dad, and physically aged him up. "2, 3, 4..." The clothes he was wearing strained and stretched. "5, 6, 7..." The clothes burst at the seams. "...8, 9, 10..." The naked youth was starting to approach his teenage years, and as he did, hair was starting to appear on his body, and he was quickly growing in strength and stature. "...17, 18, 19, 20..." Mark was surprised to see his dad looking fairly fit, he wasn't used to that. It was like the man had become a body builder or an athlete - nothing like the nerdy, physically unimpressive young man that appeared in photos from around this time. "..30, 31, 32..." Mark's dad continued to be a hung, aging gracefully as he approached middle age. "...36, 37, 38."

John looked around confused. He was stark naked, sitting on his butt, and had the body of an Adonis. Mark was confused as to what caused this change? The only think he could think of was Jade's strict parenting style being extrapolated by the device to a very different physical lifestyle from before. He didn't think that was worth worrying about for now. No, Mark still needed to turn his dad back mentally - as evidenced by the happy gurgling and "mama's" coming from his mouth.

Mark pointed the device, and picked "Mental Adjust", before realizing with horror that his dad supposedly already had his 38-year old mind. Jade had never actually given him the mind of a baby - and there was no way a baby had the mental capacity to keep the memories of an adult man in its head!

"Dad?" Mark asked.

The man looked unfocused over at him. The words seemed to awaken something in him. He moved his arms less randomly, and stretched mouth open and shut experimentally.

"Me no baby?" he said.

"No, you're not a baby anymore!" Mark said. "You're back to normal. You're a 38 year old man, and hopefully everything will come back to you soon." Mark didn't know for sure if that would happen - the device only saved a person's memories if it reduced them in mental age. Otherwise, the person's own brain was what stored their memories, and he had never bothered to research what would happen if you left a person with the brain of a baby for a year.

"Big brother help me up?" he said.

Mark frowned. "Uh, okay." He extended a hand, and helped his dad to his wobbly legs. "But I'm not your big brother, I'm your son, remember?"

The man looked curiously at Mark. "Son? Me daddy?"

Mark felt a chill. He really hoped the effects wouldn't be permanent - he might be able to copy capabilities over from other people's memories, or extrapolate new memories, but he'd want to be very careful before he did anything like that - the risk of losing what was left of his dad was too high.

"Dad, I'm your son, Mark. But don't worry about that for now, I need you to go and get yourself dressed while I turn mom back to normal?" Mark said.

"Jade?" the man said happily. His brain was swirling with a strange maelstrom of barely connected memories.

"No, Jade isn't your mommy and she isn't mine either. I accidentally made you think she was your wife and she made you think she was your mommy, but Elizabeth is the woman you really love?" Mark explained.

"Lizzy? She sexy secretary!" John said. "Me leave Jade for Lizzy! Lizzy so pretty and nice!"

Mark wanted to explain everything wrong with that, but he realized it would waste too much time. He just hoped his dad's memory would be jogged by walking around the house as an adult, with a physically adult brain. He guided his dad to the bedroom to get dressed, and went back to his mom.

She was asleep on the rocking chair - she always seemed to sleep these days. Mark hoped he'd be able to fix her back to normal. He knew his mom's memories were already partially mixed with his dad's mistress, Jennifer, but unlike his dad, most of her memories were hopefully still stored on the device.

Mark pointed the device at her. "95, 94, 93..." Not much change visible, maybe she was a little less hunched? "...87, 86, 85..." She straightened up, and seemed to put on some healthy weight - she had been skin and bones before. "...70, 69, 68..." She seemed a lot more functional and alert now. "...50, 49, 48..." Her hair now had a salt and pepper look to it, instead of being all grey. "...42, 41, 40..." She was now much more youthful, her wrinkles having mostly cleared up, and a middle-age vitality returning to her. "38." Her hair had no grey, and her body was firm and vital, compared to what it had been at least. She was again the woman he knew and loved - at least physically.

Now for her mind. Jade had extrapolated fake memories for her life from 22 to 95, so he needed to erase her back to then, and then see what he could do with the tangled memories from Jennifer. He regressed her mentally to 22, and then went through the debug menus to see all of the data for memories stored on the device. (He double checked for his dad's memories - but found them to be non-existent. How had he not seen that when he copied the memories over to Jade's device?) Then he looked at the files from last year, and saw exactly what had happened.

When his mom had gotten pregnant, it must have altered the biosignatures the device used to tell one person from another. Confused by the new biosignature, the device had dumped Jennifer's entire 22-years of memory into her head instead - not just the last few years of her memory as he had expected. Fuck.

Mark wasn't sure if there was any way to split them out at this point. The best he could do would be to reassociate the files with his mom's memories from 22 to 38 with her new biosignature, and hope that with 38 years of her own memories, and only 22 of Jennifer's, she'd be mostly the back to normal. There was only one way to find out.

He edited the necessary settings, and pointed the device at his mom, who blinked and looked around.

"Oh, hi Mark!" she said in a breathy voice. "How's my favorite step-son, uh, son doing?" Her brow furrowed when she tried to figure out which label was more correct.

"Do you remember going to my third grade choir recital?" Mark asked.

Elizabeth giggled a bit thinking back to it. "Of course I do, silly! You were so nervous, you, like, buckled your knees the whole time, and after the third song you stepped forward, and I thought you were going to grab the mic or something, but you just fainted. I was super scared for you."

Mark breathed a sigh of relief. Her speech patterns were different, but she at least seemed to remember everything.

"And how do you feel about dad?" Mark asked.

Elizabeth started twirling her hair and blushing. "Sometimes, he can make me so angry... but well, he's just the most kind, generous man ever. I get butterflies in my stomach thinking about him, and he's amazing in bed. Oops, I totally shouldn't have said something like that with you around!"

Mark frowned. It would take some getting used to this new version of his mom, but she had probably gotten the better deal out of his parents.

"Well, I have some bad news mom. I was an idiot, and used this age-changing device on you two, and messed with your minds. You're... pretty much back to normal," he said. "But dad is having trouble adjusting back to who he was. He might never get back to 100%, but I think having you around would help jog his memory. Would you be okay with doing that?"

Elizabeth's eyes widened. "Why, of course I'll stay and help him! It's the least I could do after all he's done for me."

She ran upstairs, and found John struggling to get clothes on.

Mark decided to step out and try and find Wendy. He didn't want to have to watch his parents in their current state. He tried to bury his misgivings with the state of his mom and dad. He had done as much as he could for them for now, and he needed to get his head in the game for his girlfriend.

* * *

Jade's first stop was the office where she worked. She had done quite well for herself over the last year, and it had only taken some minor adjustments...

She walked through the front door, and the secretary smiled at her boss, then her smile faltered. The secretary thought she had been greeting Jade Wong, the CEO of the company, but this girl was young enough to be Jade's daughter.

"I'm sorry, your mother isn't in at the moment," the secretary said.

Jade looked down, and realized her mistake. She pointed the device at herself, and clicked "Global Aware."

The secretary blinked. "Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. Wong! I don't know why I didn't recognize you."

Jade nodded, and buzzed in. She went to the elevator, clicked the button for the 6th floor and waited. Soon, she stepped out onto the floor where her underlings worked. She was looking for one person in particular.

Soon enough, she found them.

"Hello, Liam," Jade said. "How are you doing?"

Liam looked up. He was fresh out of college, and still had acne all over his face. His voice still cracked when he spoke sometimes.

"Hello Mrs. Wong," he said. "I'm hard at work crunching those numbers you asked me to, just like you said!"

Jade looked down at the man in pity. He had once been the CEO of this company, before Jade had stolen it from him. Jade pointed the device at him, and increased his age. Soon, she was looking at a handsome 45 year old man, with broad shoulders and a charming smile. She reset his mind, and turned his "Awareness" off, and then went around to find the other coworkers that had been necessary to change the direction of this company. Six had been a bit of an understatement - a little white lie - the whole company now remembered Jade as the CEO. Jade felt guilty for stealing their memories, but she had needed to make money for her family...

"Who are you?" the man asked, seeing Jade. "Why am I here instead of at my desk?"

"Don't worry about that sir, everything will soon be back to normal," Jade said.

She walked down the aisles, restoring everyone's memories. When she was done, she walked away from the company and never looked back. Her life as a teenager and a college student could soon start again. At least, as soon as she fixed the men she had dated during the last year.

* * *

Elizabeth felt for her struggling... husband? lover? What exactly was he to her? She could remember him cheating on her, but she could also remember being the one he cheated with. It was a confusing mixture, but none of that mattered in face of the clear difficulty he was having. All of her memories from either perspective were of loving him, and she wasn't going to let the way he hurt her get in the way of helping him through this difficult time.

"Let me help you with that," she said softly, pulling his shirt on over his head. He had been trying to clumsily put it on when she had come into the bedroom.

John's head popped out, and he smiled when he saw her. "Lizzy!" he said, clapping his hands clumsily together.

"That's right, I'm Lizzy!" she said, smiling at him. "What do you remember?"

"Boobies," John said, smiling and reaching out a hand and groping her breast. "Sexy!"

"Oh, honey, please don't do that. Not while you're in this sad state," she said, removing his hand gently.

John was only wearing a t-shirt, and his growing boner was clear for all to see.

"Me fuck Lizzy?" John said greedily.

"No," Elizabeth said. "Not unless you say it properly. Mark said I need to jog your memory - well, ask me that properly!"

John looked deep in thought for a while. His lust was making it hard to concentrate, but he knew the deal she was proposing.

"Lizzy..." he said slowly. "You look, uh, very pretty," he said. It was clear it was taking all of his concentration to form sentences. "Can I suck your boobies?"

Elizabeth titled her head. That was a new one. John and her had had an active sex life, but sucking her breasts wasn't usually a notable enough activity to focus on.

"Tell you what, John," she said. "If you can undress me, you can do whatever you want to my boobies."

John nodded enthusiastically, and tried to unbutton her top. She was still dressed like a grandmother, but that didn't make a difference to John, not in his current state.

"Too hard!" he said, looking like he was about to throw a tantrum. "Can't do it."

"Well, then I guess that's all for today, goodbye," Elizabeth said, walking away.

"Stop!" John said. "I'l do. I'll do. Come back."

Elizabeth cocked her head. In spite of herself, she felt herself getting turned on. It was like a game, almost.

"Ah, ah, ah," she said. "Johnny, full sentences. What do you want me to do?"

"Me... I, I want you to come back, Lizzy," he said, with great effort.

"And what's the magic word?" she said.

"Please," he said. "I want to fuck you Lizzy, please come back."

"That's more like it," Elizabeth said. "Now, let's see if you can back up your words. Try unbuttoning my shirt again?"

John screwed up his face in concentration, and started fiddling with her top button. She could see his hands getting more steady, and soon he had the first one done.

"Very good!" Elizabeth said enthusiastically, like she was talking to a grade schooler. "Now the rest."

John could feel memories starting to reconnect, something about Elizabeth made things make sense. Or maybe he was just really horny, and willing to do anything to get fucked.

"Lizzy," he said. "My head... feels funny. Remembering.... *I'm* remembering a bunch of stuff, but it's all a jumble."

"That's okay, honey," she said. "It will all come back to you, but first why don't you undo the rest of my buttons?"

He sat up straighter, and his movements became less clumsy. He started undoing buttons, and by the last one he was pro.

"Now, your reward," Elizabeth said, she slipped the dress off, revealing her granny underwear underneath, straining against her breast and ass.

John laughed. "Oh my, you're dressed just like an old woman."

"That's because I was an old woman! Do you remember grandma Elizabeth," she said.

John looked at her in surprise. "Wait, when I was baby, ahem, *a* baby, you were my grandma?"

Elizabeth nodded. "Our son really did a number on us, though I'm at least back to normal. Now, why don't we stop talking and give you your reward?"

John didn't think Lizzy seemed to be acting like she usually did. She was different somehow. Like, there was a spark in her that hadn't been there before - it reminded him so much of... what was her name? The girl who was his secretary? Or maybe he was misremembering and Lizzy had been his secretary. But no, he could clearly picture a young woman - and her name was... Jade? No, Jennifer!

John liked this new Lizzy. She seemed to combine the best features of Jennifer and Lizzy. The way she moved, he could tell that she was a lot more free-spirited and comfortable in her sexuality, and yet she seemed to still have enough of the old serious professional that had made her such a good mother. John really liked this fusion of traits.

John kissed his wife, his mistress, it felt like it was both at once. There was passion, a sense of familiarity, but also a spontaneity, an energy that he loved. His memories were coming back more and more. His adult body didn't feel quite so foreign anymore - it was a bit like hopping back on a bicycle.

John unclasped Lizzy's bra, and admired her breasts. He crouched down, and started sucking. It felt so familiar, so comforting. It also confused his jumbled mind for just a second. He was surprised when he looked up and he didn't see Jade there. Lizzy was his mommy?

No, John closed his eyes, and concentrated. Lizzy was better than his mommy, she was his wife (ex-wife?) and lover, and he could tell that she was being turned on by his sucking. Her moans were getting his engine running.

John picked Lizzy up, almost surprised by his own strength. But why should he be surprised? He was a grown man. Then he lowed her to the bed, and got on top of her.

Elizabeth loved her new, fit husband. She didn't mind at all that the device had swapped his doughy older form, for something a lot easier on the eyes. Her strange mix of memories had already been attracted to him, but seeing him like this was making her feel giddy like a school girl with her first crush.

John slid into Lizzy, and she moaned over the top. This was definitely reminding him more of Jennifer than of Lizzy. Jennifer had been adventurous and insatiable in the bedroom, while Lizzy had stuck strictly to missionary and never liked to use toys. But Lizzy instinctively reached to the nightstand, and pulled out some of the sex toys that John and Jennifer had enjoyed playing with.

"Why don't we make things a little more fun?" she said, pulling out the rope.

John was all too happy to comply. He tied Lizzy up, and the fucking seemed to become more intense and enjoyable to her. She struggled, and begged him to release her, but he refused pinning her down and taking what he wanted. He knew she was loving it, because she never said the safe word they had agreed to. He was no longer confused - he was in his element, fucking his mistress. It was all coming back to him.

Elizabeth had never felt her body worked over quite this well. She could remember being Jennifer as John fucked her brains out, but this was even better than that. The closeness of 15 years, the intensity of a work fling - it was all coming together in that moment in a sublime and crazy hot experience. She had never been fucked like this before.

It wasn't long before the two of them both had the most mind-blowing orgasms of their lives, and were panting sweating messes on the bed.

John knew how important aftercare was, and cuddled with Elizabeth for several minutes making her feel safe and loved, before offering to get her ice cream. She smiled at him, and happily accepted. The intensity of the experience had given way to a crash of hormones, but she was happy at the tenderness of her lover.

Ice cream in hand, the two of them cuddled up with one another, and knew that they were back. Not to what they had once been, but something better. There would need to be talk, working things out, getting to know their new, changed partners, but in that moment they were both sure they could make things work.