Today...

  I retired to my room with Messa after the movie with Dad and was about to flop onto my bed when I remembered I was still in my girl form. I felt that weird sinking feeling again at the thought of going back to the old me. I looked down at my arm, all smooth and soft.

  Maybe...maybe I could keep something...

  I transformed back, and I hesitantly opened my eyes. I looked down and saw my boy self, but with one small change. My skin on my arms was now smooth and hairless. I smiled as I ran my hands over it.

  "It's...it's not weird." I muttered to myself. "I wear hoodies anyway, doubt anyone will notice."

  With that affirmation I got changed into my pajamas and crawled into bed.

  The next day went by slowly. Dad was healing up well, and we ended up watching more movies and stuff together. It was nice to get closer to him, surprisingly enough. I thought that opening myself up like this would have been a lot harder, but when you confess to your dad that you transform into a magical girl at night in order to fight crime and monsters, hanging out with him gets a lot less awkward, because, like, what else could you be hiding from him?

  Still, as we rexed, I couldn't help but wonder about Matt. Dad offered to call around, but I thought it'd look way too suspicious if a police officer suddenly started looking for him. I messaged him over Discord throughout the day, but didn't get a response.

  "If his parents call the department then I'll let you know," Dad said, "But I would like to point out that you'd probably find him faster then us."

  "What do you mean?" I said.

  Dad looked at me over his gsses.

  "Right. Magic. Got ya."

  With that settled, I waited for the sun to set so I could go do a little wellness check.

  ***

  Yesterday...

  "So what exactly can you do, Mr.Stone?" Dorothy asked.

  "Well, I can store electricity, but not like I could when this thing was in one piece." Matt said, tapping the remains of the crystal in his chest. "I also figured out that I can do this."

  Matt held out his hand towards Dorothy's ptop, and an arc of electricity jumped between him and the computer. A surge of information rushed into his head, giving him a momentary headache before it cleared. He had the impression of being in a small space but knowing that there was a much rger space just beyond it, but there was no way he could find to leave where he was currently stuck. There were a few bits of information lying around, though.

  "It's a Tempest Windstorm 11, manufactured October 11th, 2023." Matt said. "The password is...well, too complicated to bother reading out loud, but all the files on it are locked behind yers of encryption. Your personal computer, I assume."

  "How did you do that?" Dorothy asked.

  "Well, way I see it, a computer's just a bunch of electrical signals inside of a box that lets us do all sorts of things." Matt said. "My brain just interpreted a bunch of those signals to get an idea of what was in there."

  'Remarkable," Dorothy said, looking at him like he was a chimp who had just figured out sign nguage, "do you think you'd be able to do more with this ability if you refined it? Manipute computer systems maybe?"

  Matt shrugged. "I suppose at this point anything is possible." Matt ughed. "Well, except getting out of my parents going nuclear on me when I go back home."

  Dorothy cocked her head.

  "They must've noticed I'm gone by now." Matt said. "Frankly I'm not sure if I can--"

  Dorothy held up a finger and walked over to her desk. She opened a drawer and pulled out what looked like a sketchpad. She took out a pen and began to draw on a bnk page while muttering to herself in a nguage that Matt did not recognize. When she was done she tore off the page and handed it to Matt. It was a circle that enclosed a complicated network of lines that formed the rough shape of an eight-pointed star.

  "Let your parents see that while picturing the events you want them to forget." Dorothy said. "It'll repce their memories with something that will...pacify them, so to speak."

  Matt opened his mouth to talk, but Dorothy held up a hand to silence him. "It will only work once," she expined, "so you must be careful."

  Matt folded up the paper and stuffed it into his pocket.

  "Now," Dorothy said, taking a seat, "since I've done something for you, you need to do something for me."

  Matt gestured for her to continue.

  "The spell I used to create that crystal in you, to draw out your inner power, is one that I did not have the chance to use before." Dorothy said. "I'd thought about it, of course, but it requires very specific conditions to be useful. It requires desire, strong desire, and it taps into the part of the mind that Freud would have called the Id. However, I see the spell more as the Ego, giving someone the power to act on those desires, to satisfy them."

  Matt found himself nodding along as she spoke. Yes, that's exactly what it had felt like. Like he could do whatever he wanted.

  "I obviously can't go gallivanting around town forcing myself into people's faces and doing to them what I did to you," Dorothy continued, "but you, you're one of them, someone ordinary, at least on the outside. So what I'm proposing is this: find someone like you, who could be transformed, changed, and to do to them what I did to you."

  "Um, how can I--"

  Dorothy suddenly crossed the room faster than she should have been able to and pnted her finger into Matt's forehead. She started whispering again, and to Matt it sounded like rushing rapids. Matt felt more information rush into his head, but it didn't feel organized like it did when he checked the computer. Then Dorothy pulled back, and Matt took a deep breath.

  "What was that?" He asked.

  "You know the spell I used now." Dorothy said. "But I would like to make something clear to you, Mr.Stone. I have given you great gifts, but I can just as easily take them away. Do not disobey me, do not be reckless, and you will find yourself living a very good life."

  Matt had one st question. "What do you get out of this? Why do you need me to do this for you?"

  Dorothy stood up straight and looked down at Matt. "That is none of your concern at this moment." She held an arm out to the door. "I suppose you can show yourself out."

  Matt got up off the bed and walked out the door, stepping over the unconscious bodies of Dorothy's bodyguards. He was tempted to look back as he walked down the hallway, but he felt like it'd be the wrong thing to do. He just kept walking, his head swarming with a million thoughts.

  He has just struck a deal with Dorothy Beauregard. She said that she could restore his power, give him back the strength he'd lost. But would she? Matt wasn't stupid, obviously; no one got to be a billionaire by being everyone's friend and doing favors, you got to be one by making sure people owed you favors, and he could see that she had all the leverage in this situation. But the potential reward far outweighed the risks. He'd need to be careful, py his cards just right, but if he could pull this off, then it'd all be worth it.

  Using the memory spell Dorothy gave him was a cinch, and soon his parents were convinced that while he had in fact gotten in trouble at school, he'd been in his room all night, which gave him a very convenient alibi in case someone came around asking questions about his rampage. And then there was the question of who exactly he'd use to carry out Dorothy's request. He'd be turning someone else into something like him. A part of him loathed the idea of competition in the magical super-being market, but it was a necessary evil if he wanted to accomplish his real goals. He paced around his room, thinking about who would make for a good target. Then he realized something. If someone got transformed like him and that stupid magical girl swept in and revealed their true identity, then that person's life would be ruined.

  He id back in his bed and smiled.

  He knew just the person for that...

  ***

  Today...

  I hovered on my wand as I watched Matt through his window. He looked like nothing had happened to him. I could see him pying some video games through the window, totally rexed. Which did beg the question of why exactly his parents weren't freaking out or anything. I figured that there would be time to figure that kind of thing out now that I didn't have to worry about tracking him down.

  I sighed and flew back towards my house.

  School with him was gonna be so weird.

  ***

  Earlier...

  Scott Winter woke up to the sound of his father yelling at the TV. He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes as his father berated some poor college football team for their poor performance. He checked his closet for some clean clothes. He'd done the undry for himself and his dad st night, because apparently his father was perfectly content to just wallow in his own filth if Scott didn't do something about it.

  Scott put on a white undershirt and then threw an old Nirvana shirt over that. Then he put on his letterman jacket, grabbed his phone from it's charger and walked out into the living room. He found his father id out in his recliner, eating out of a box of donuts and drinking milk straight out of the carton. Why does he have to be so gross? Scott thought.

  Scott reached over and plucked a gzed donut out of the box as he walked by. That got his dad to notice him.

  "Hey, boy." Dad said. "Watch what you eat, don't want to fatten up before the season starts."

  "It's just one donut, Dad," Scott said, "it's no big deal."

  Dad grunted and turned to look at the TV again. This is what most of their interactions boiled down to. His father saw him as a hunk of muscle that could catch a ball, and not much else. That's how a lot of people saw him, actually.

  Whatever.

  Scott took the chance to look out the front window. He saw the smoking husk of Dad's car sitting in the driveway, right where that freaky electric thing had zapped it. Dad had made sure to let Scott know that that...thing was asking where he was. Scott rubbed the bruise on his shoulder, hidden by his clothes.

  Scott knew he didn't have very many friends, but there are even fewer people who'd be willing to try and barbecue him. He had his own list of suspects though. That Matt guy, for one; the literal and metaphorical wounds from their fight would have been pretty fresh, and it's not like him turning into Electro was out of the realm of possibility when there was a magical girl flying around town. That did leave him with the question of how and why, though. There was that Dorothy dy, but what would she want with a kid like Matt?

  As if on cue, he saw a car come down the street and park on the curb in front of his house. Matt and two people that Scott assumed were his parents stepped out and started walking towards the door.

  "Oh boy, here we go." Scott said.

  The doorbell rang and Scott opened the door to find Matt with his parents standing right behind him as if they were posing for a family portrait. His dad was a tall and nky guy, with big square gsses. His mom was about as tall as her son, with bck hair cut into a bob. Matt, for his part, still had a few band-aids on his face and was wearing his white hoodie with the oni mask on the breast.

  "You must be Scott." Matt's dad said. "I'm Mark, Matt's father." He held out his hand for Scott to shake. Scott did so begrudging.

  "And I'm Amelia, Matt's mother." the woman with the bob said. Scott shook her hand too.

  "Are your parents home?" Mark said.

  "I'm Scott's dad." Dad said. Scott jumped a little as his father seemed to appear right behind him. He shook the hands of Matt's parents.

  "Sorry that we couldn't meet at the school." Mark said. "Who knew that a monster attack would throw off a schedule, huh?"

  Scott's dad grunted.

  "Now, while we don't condone what your boy did to our son," Mark said, " Matt here felt like he should come over and apologize for insulting you."

  Scott looked at Matt. He didn't look that hung up over what had happened; realistically his parents had made him come over and were making it seem like it was all his idea. But whatever, Scott would py along.

  "I'm sorry, Scott." Matt said, his voice sounding pretty close to convincingly apologetic, "I shouldn't have insulted you like that. It was wrong of me, and I hope we can just call this water under the bridge."

  Matt held out his hand for Scott to shake. Scott felt his father nudge him in the back. Scott shook the kid's hand.

  He felt a shock pass through his whole body, and he could hear the crackle of electricity in the air. He jerked his hand back from Matt reflexively.

  "Whoa, sorry." Matt said.

  "It's, uh, it's no big deal." Scott said. "Just static I guess." Scott shook out his hand. "That hurt, though."

  "So, we good?" Matt asked.

  "Yeah, just peachy." Scott said. "See ya at school."

  "See ya." Matt said. With that, the Stone family turned around and walked back to their car. Scott's dad closed the door.

  "What the heck was that?" He asked.

  "I dunno, felt like he had one of those old joy buzzers or something." Scott said. He could feel pins and needles throughout his arm. How could static shock someone that bad?

  "Well walk it off." Scott's dad said. "You're a man, you gotta be tougher than that."

  "Sorry, Dad." Scott said.

  "Least that kid apologized to you instead of the other way around." Dad said. "School shouldn't have come down so hard on ya for defending your honor like that."

  "Yeah." Scott said, the pain fading from his arm. "I'm gonna go back to my room."

  "Suit yourself." Scott's dad said as he sat back in front of the TV.

  Scott walked back to his room and closed the door behind him. He fell onto his bed and stared up at the stucco ceiling.

  Why was his dad so weird? He was proud of Scott for standing up for himself when someone insulted him, mad at him for doing something that could get him kicked off the team, and thought it was his fault when some maniac blew up their car. His behavior was totally random, it was like he had a bunch of different dads that all looked the same and they just switched pces when he wasn't looking. And all of it came back to Dad's stupid ideas about being a man. That's all anyone seemed to want to boil him down to, and it was the part he felt like he had to py so that people would just leave him alone. They saw him and they saw a jock, and then they went about their way. No asking tough questions.

  Not like she had...

  Scott shook his head. No point getting tangled up in stuff like that. He basically had the day off, so he was going to enjoy it.

  He pulled out his phone only to find that it had somehow gone from a 95% charge to 10% charge.

  "Lousy piece of junk..." he said. Just then, he got an email from the school. He groaned as he opened the email.

  Dear Bckbriar High Student,

  In light of recent events, Bckbriar High School has decided to nullify your suspension in order to minimize potential disruptions to your learning experience. However, you may be subject to alternative disciplinary measures to address your infractions against the school. Please report to css at the appropriate time tomorrow. Thank you.

  Scott groaned again. So much for his three day vacation.

  ***

  As soon as Matt got home he went to his room and started scrolling through his phone for something he could use.

  The pn had gone off without a hitch. His parents had been so proud of him for wanting to apologize to Scott, and though he had doubted the extent of his abilities, he was able to accomplish his goal. When he and Scott shook hands, they had created a circuit between his own phone in his own pocket and Scott's phone. Matt had sent a a charge through their bodies, and when he was connected to Scott's phone he was able to perceive all the information inside as though they were boxes in a warehouse, each one beled something like "Videos" or "Games" or "Notes".

  Matt had managed to download most of Scott's text messages and photos to his own phone using the body circuit, but then the pain had gotten to be too much for Scott and he'd yanked his hand back, breaking the circuit.

  No matter though. There had to be something in here incriminating enough to drive Scott to the kind of psychological edge that the spell required.

  And that's when Matt found it. The exact sort of thing he needed.

  And best of all, he got an email just then that made the whole situation even better.

  Dear Bckbriar High Student,

  In light of recent events, Bckbriar High School has decided to nullify your suspension in order to minimize potential disruptions to your learning experience. However, you may be subject to alternative disciplinary measures to address your infractions against the school. Please report to css at the appropriate time tomorrow. Thank you.

  Not only had he hit the motherlode, he wouldn't even have to wait that long before he could blow up Scott Winter's precious little life.

  Tomorrow was gonna be fun.