I/O

They woke up in New Mexico, felt thier bodies to see what shape they had taken after the long rest. Gram was pleased to find he was still male as he reached to feel if he still had the nethers attached. "Oh good.  Females are just way too complicated."  He looked over at his counter part Max.

Max felt the ample boosom and size 14 hips. "I don't know, I've gotten used to it."
They found the nearest town and nicked some cloths before they made themselves visible to the life around them.

"How long did that take?"  Gram was looking around at the  changes that occured during thier time away from the world.

Max was looking into a store window front at a display of smart phones and pointed at the date. "Oh wow."

Gram was paying more attention to a gadget that displayed global location.
"Whatever that was, lets not do that again.  I mean, that meteor shower when we were the giant lizard birds, that gave us a nice change in the ocean."
the humans had popped up and taken that one away. Gram had been disappointed at first.   " I don't want to be another species.  I rather like being human."

Max agreed. "The ocean was so boring." She wasn't ready to tell him she sometimes regretted being separated from Gram.

Gram nodded and headed into the store.  Max sighed and followed him in.
After figuring out that money hadn't changed too much Gram ended up purchasing contract smart phones for Max and himself.

He wanted many gadgets, but something called a credit card was needed for a 'subscription', and to materialize it, they needed to know how it worked. Max was chomping at the bit to find out how all the new technology worked. Gram had to remind her many times not to start taking things apart in the store.

After a meal at the closest place serving meat... Max nor Gram had lost their taste for a nice chunk of animal muscle; they started figuring out what would be next.  They walked to a nearby park bench to watch the humans and talk.

"I don't know.  I'm not sure I want to find out what the humans have come up with now to kill each other with."  Max was staring at a couple with a baby in the distance.

Max was usually the voice of reason, but Gram knew how to persuade her.
"But the chainsaws!  You remember those... Oh it was glorious.  And we were back in a blink." Max giggled.  After millions of years, the only thing that made them happy anymore was to find rest.Rest meant killing off their forms, and coming back in new ones. The means by which they destroyed their bodies was just a test of how creative they could be, it had become a game to keep
them occupied."You got to admit, out of all the species, these humans have the best way to destroy things."

"I think they're the only ones that try to."  Max pushed on the phone's screen trying to see how it worked. Gram nodded in agreement. A couple walked by with a large shaggy mutt.  "It would be nice if we could come back as something
other then a predator.  I wouldn't mind trying out a peaceful existence."

Max looked at Gram in shock. "Really?" Max thought of the ocean.

Gram nodded. "Haven't you ever wondered why we always have to be the apex species?"

Max set the phone on her lap. "Well no."  She could tell Gram was having a moment.  They were rare.  This might be only
the twelfth in their whole existence.

"And why can't we interfere? We could change it... Why won't chaos let us do anything but observe and rest."

Max now started to feel very concerned.  "You know what will make you feel better Gram?"

Gram was feeling quite gloomy indeed. "A gun shop?"

Max smiled. "Let's go see what new toys they've made while we were gone."

Apparently the humans had made laws so buying the really fun toys involved official papers and documents. After realizing that to get the really destructive looking ones they'd need to pass some kind of government check, it had ruined the plan.

Max was angry after they left the shop. "Well we can't materialize it without seeing how it works! If he would have let me disassemble it!"

Gram looked down at his hands.  "Max?"

Max turned quickly and looked at him. "What!"
Gram's hands had a strange rash on them.
"What in the world is that?" Max pulled his hand to her and examined it.  "We don't get their illnesses..."

Gram felt human fear for the first time. "What is it!?"

Max felt the same thing. "We take you to a doctor."

Gram pulled his hand away. "We don't die, and we can't."

She placed her hand over her heart. "Chaos."  Then she made up her mind.
"I don't care, we're not breaking the rules just by getting a doctor to look at it.  We just won't let them do any tests. Tomorrow we go, I don't care."

That night as they lay in the motel room, another strange thing happened, they got tired. "I think I want to sleep Gram."  Gram looked at Max in disbelief.
"What the hell is happening to us?" She laid her head on the pillow and looked at Gram's hand again.

Gram had an idea.  "I want to try something."  He went to the bathroom and smashed the mirror. Walking back in with a large blade of glass he held it to Max's throte.
"Well, we haven't done this one in a while."  She smiled at Gram.  "I'll be back in a blink."

Gram smiled down at her.  And sliced her open.  Once her body stopped working, it's particles split apart and began to re-establish into the new form. The old blood that had left her joined the particles as they reformed. 
She hadn't changed much.  Her hair was slightly curlier, her skin slightly more speckled.

Her eyes popped open. "Gram?"

He put his hand on her shoulder. "What?"

"I always liked that one." She smiled, then coughed.

Gram looked at her throat,  there was a slight discolor where he had sliced her other body. "That thing...  That nuclear test,  it did something."  Gram stood up and walked to the window. Gram tapped on the window as he said, " We need to talk to chaos."

Max rubbed her throat feeling for what Gram had seen, "Oh I hate talking to chaos... It's so uncomfortable."

Gram agreed whole heartedly, but saw no choice. "This is what we do. We observe and if something is going truly off course, we report."

Max still felt sleepy. "Well maybe chaos will fix what's wrong with us."  She yawned. "But I doubt it. Chaos wouldn't help when the meteor was coming, why would it do anything now?"

Gram felt another new human piece seep in. "I'm starting to think chaos doesn't have the power."

Max beckoned Gram to the bed.  "Let's try sleep.  A lot of these humans talk about dreams. I'd love to see what those are like."

Gram looked at his hand, then at Max.  She was, what was she.... he wanted to memorize her face... this face... Which was crazy,  they had changed so many times, it wouldn't stay, but it hadn't changed hardly at all when he blinked her.

Gram climbed under the covers and found himself throwing his arm around Max in an embrace after she had fallen asleep. Then he too felt the slip away, it was like the blink, but he was still there, and peaceful.  So peaceful.

Max shook Gram awake. The look on her face was panic.  He had seen humans panic.  Never Max, this was panic. He looked up to where Max was looking.

Chaos had chosen a very splendid female form, an elegant 1920's ball gown and a crown of fire.  Chaos did love appearances.

"So you two wanted to report something?"  She looked at the two of them impatiently.
Max got out of bed and sat on the floor.  "Something is really deviant.  Our bodies are becoming prone to the world, prone to the human variance." 
Gram walked over and presented his hand,  the rash now was spread and looked redder then it had the day before.

Chaos examined it a moment turning it over again and again, a look of perplextion across the human face she had chosen.
"How did you two, what do you call it when you kill your bodies?" Chaos grinned wickedly. "Blink the last time?"

Gram and Max looked at each other nervously. 
Max coughed, then spoke timidly, "Something called 'the Manhattan project'."

Chaos raised her eyebrows. "How long did it take to re-form?"

Gram spoke this time. "Seventy five years."

Chaos was angry.  The crown of flames spittered and grew. "I thought I had more time."  She looked at the two of them.

Her crown of flames extinguished and she drew them in like children.
"You did the right thing Gram.  Max you two have been my loyal and faithful servants. I will miss you."
Gram and Max looked at each other, the fear that they recently aquired spiking inside. "What do you mean?"

Chaos patted them on the head. "I'm afraid I've known for a while the humans are too dangerous to our world. But they are just so much fun.  I didn't want to lose them."

Gram and Max could see where this was going.  They had seen it before, with a species that hadn't lasted long before chaos led them down a path that wiped the planet clear for a long while.  They had come back as the teethy meat eaters then.

"Can't we do something?" Max was pleading.  She had grown too fond of the humans. Gram was looking at his hand, the red sores starting to itch. He had never felt an itch.  Pain and illness was never a part of the experience.

Chaos thought on it.  "I don't think there is time my two darlings. There are things in process that these humans are not willing to reverse, or are not capable of.  We can not force them to do anything."
Chaos paced for a bit, calculating. "We don't have the time, it has to be reset."

Max sighed.  Gram nodded.

Chaos smiled.  "So what do you think? Shall we ask her for a massive continental shift again, or see if she has any new tools up her sleeves since these humans have altered things so much?"

Gram hoped the next species still got to eat meat. If they even ate.

Max started to cry, but she couldn't understand what the tears meant.