Instead of texting, Jay decided to just call Kyla on the phone. It would be faster to do a recap of what happened in the cafeteria that way.
After setting the phone to face time, Kyla's image appeared on the screen of Jay's cell phone. "Jay, how are things at the cafeteria? Nicole heard from Allison. She said Athena and her friends settled things there."
"Yeah." Jay said. "You should have seen it. Athena went in there and she was incredible! She charged at all three of the Transformation Gun users here, and beat them all."
Sabrina Johnson, who was still in the vicinity, overheard, and walked up to Jay's phone. "Yeah. She kicked serious ass." Sabrina said, smiling. "With a little help."
"Sabrina joined in, and they got all three of them. The Hillbilly Gun, the Punk Gun, and the Goth Gun." Jay said. "Those two girls who were with Randy Goodman are just leaving now. They'll be bringing the Punk Gun and the Hillbilly Gun to the Principal's office. Athena wants to hold on to the Goth Gun a little while longer."
"She's using it to change some of our friends back who got zapped." Sabrina explained.
Jay decided not to mention the Restoration Guns his mother had hinted at. He didn't want to get anyone's hopes up until he knew more about the Restoration Guns.
"You mean Athena took on three people armed with Transformation Guns, and won?" Kyla asked, surprised. "Did she get zapped?"
"She did, more than once." Jay said. "But she has this special pendant that protected her from being changed. I asked her about it. She says it's an anti-magic pendant, and it's very hard to come by. So she doesn't have enough to share with the rest of us."
"That's a shame." Kyla said. "It would have made things a lot easier."
"Oh, and I talked to Erika Weber." Jay said. "She zapped herself with the Jock Gun, but then Coach Barry took the Jock Gun and locked it up in her locker."
Erika, who was still nearby, spoke to Kyla. "Coach Barry's not sure if it's right to use the Jock Gun this way. I suppose she should talk to the Principal about it."
"Oh, about that..." Kyla said. "I think next time any of you see the Principal, you may be in for a surprise."
"So the Principal DID get changed?" Jay asked. "Was that the Principal we heard on the intercom a while ago?"
"Yes." Kyla said. "It's a long story."
Kyla turned away from the phone, and spoke to someone offscreen. "Chris, are you okay with me telling everything that happened?"
"Sure, go right ahead. They're going to find out soon anyway." an unfamiliar female voice said.
Jay, Sabrina, and Erika listened as Kyla began telling the story of how Steve Farber arrived at the office, and the fight between Steve and Nicole that resulted in Chris Morgan, Steve Farber, and Principal Davison being zapped with the Babe Gun. "All of them became girls." Kyla said. "And very attractive girls, too. And they seem okay with it. Well, Steve fainted and then acted a little weird, but..."
"Put me on screen." the female voice said. Kyla turned the phone, and Jay, Erika, and Sabrina saw Nicole Tiller and Melissa Smith, both looking more beautiful and radiant than before, sitting near another attractive girl they didn't recognize.
"It's me. Chris Morgan." the girl said, with a smile. " Hi, Erika."
Erika gasped. "Are ... are you all right?"
"Sure. Never better." Chris said. "It might be another effect, but I'm feeling fine. Don't worry about me."
Jay noted the confidence with which the girl spoke and expressed herself. He hadn't really known the previous Chris Morgan very well, but Chris generally was one of the nicer jocks and had a sense of decency and good sportsmanship. The girl they were now speaking to looked like she could be the previous Chris Morgan's amazingly beautiful sister.
"It had to be a little weird, at first." Jay said.
"Sure." Chris said. "Anyone would feel a bit strange being changed like that. But I'm fine. I'm hanging out with Nicole and Melissa. They've been very kind and supportive. Tell everyone I said hello."
Nicole spoke. "Allison texted me a bit ago. I'm glad you're all okay. I still haven't heard back from Sarah."
"Yeah, there's a lot we need to talk to Sarah about." Erika said. "I've got to go. Jessica and Allison need me. Talk to you later." Erika then walked off to where Jessica Davis, Allison Wright, and Coach Barry were tending to Moose Matthews.
Kyla then turned the phone back to herself so her image once again dominated the screen. "Anyway, Nadine showed up to turn in the Prude Gun and the Bimbo Gun, and then Yuki found both Nurse Carrington and the Steampunk Gun. So we've got three more Transformation Guns now."
Jay nodded. "That's good. We found three, and know where a fourth one is. So between us, that's seven more of them accounted for. Do you think we're close to wrapping things up?"
"I hope so." Kyla said.
Lake Point High School, Principal's Office Lobby
"Anyway, things are okay over here now. Talk to you later." Kyla said. The phone conversation ended there. Kyla then checked her phone, to see if it needed recharging.
"I'm glad everyone's okay." Amber Levine said. "I was worried."
"Allison's text said Moose is getting better." Nicole replied. "He's still a Goth, but he's coming out of that daze he was in."
It was then that Reggie the cheerleader and Asian Goth girl Brad Stephens arrived, carrying the Punk Gun and the Hillbilly Gun. "Okay, we've got them. We're ready to turn these over to the Principal." Brad said.
"The Principal's been talking to Nadine." Nicole said. "Nadine needed someone to talk to. She's not taking this whole mess very well."
"That's putting it mildly." Kyla said.
"Where's Randy?" Chris asked.
"He stayed behind." Reggie said. "He got zapped with the Punk Gun. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, or if he had other reasons."
Chris looked a bit disappointed. "Well, if you go back and see him, tell him I said hi."
Melissa turned to Chris. "Don't worry. He'll come around. Some people need more time to adjust."
"I guess so. Thank you." Chris replied.
Nicole, meanwhile, was thinking about what Erika said. Indeed, the cheerleader squad would need to talk with Sarah McMillan about everything that happened, once things settled down.
Nicole thought back to the origin of the Transformation Guns. She recalled what Kyla Leeson had said a while ago.
Flashback, Principal's Office lobby, a while ago
Nicole turned to Kyla. "Your cousin said he and his friends over there created these things. Did he say how?"
"No." Kyla said. "And it doesn't seem to make sense. I mean, McMillan Tech Industries is a great tech company and all that, and the people Ryan works with are geniuses, but this still seems beyond what they're normally capable of."
Principal's Office Lobby, present time
However, Nicole knew that wasn't the full story. It couldn't be. She didn't know as much about what went on at MTI's Research and Development department as Kyla did, but she knew Kyla was right. McMillan Tech Industries most likely wasn't normally capable of creating devices that could transform people the way the Transformation Guns did, or devices that could teleport a whole batch of them to the school.
Such things were common in sci-fi and fantasy movies, television shows, and comic books, as Nicole's knowledge of geeky properties (expanded by being zapped by the Geek Gun) told her. But they were still well beyond the abilities of your usual tech company. Either McMillan Tech Industries was keeping some huge secrets this whole time, or something else was going on.
And that something else could have something to do with what Sarah had told Nicole in their last phone conversation.
Flashback, Nicole and Sarah's phone conversation, right after Nicole retrieved the Babe Gun from Becky Rodder
"How should I know?" Sarah said. "For all we know, it has nothing to do with me or my dad. Karyn told me these guns turned up because her friend Jon made a wish."
"A wish?" Nicole asked.
"Yes, his grandfather left him some wishing rock, and he messed up. Big time. Last night, he wished for something interesting to happen, and now look what's happened." Sarah said in a bitter tone.
Nicole normally would have been more skeptical of this claim, but after everything she had seen and experienced, a magical wishing stone didn't seem so unbelievable.
"So what are you going to do?" Nicole asked Sarah.
"Jon wished himself home." Sarah said. "Karyn and I are going to find the scared girl Jon's become and try to get that wishing stone. Maybe then we can turn Biff and the others back to normal."
Principal's Office Lobby, the present
That conversation, unlike the one Kyla just had with Jay Duncan, Erika Weber, and Sabrina Johnson, had been kept private. Nicole had not put the phone on speaker, nor had she gone to face time. So no one else in the room heard Sarah's end of the conversation.
Nicole had not told anyone else specifically about the magic wishing stone that Sarah had mentioned. She wasn't sure they'd believe her, even after everything they'd seen and everything they'd been through. And she also didn't want to get their hopes up, in case the stone wasn't real or turned out to be a dud or something.
But if what she had heard was true, it would explain a lot of things. Such as how McMillan Tech Industries was suddenly capable of creating things it showed no signs of being able to create before. It could all be because of someone's careless wish that 'something interesting would happen'.
As far as Nicole knew, Sarah was still with Karyn trying to reach Jon and this wishing stone. Nicole had not heard back from them since Chris Morgan and Randy Goodman had found and confiscated the Emo Gun, the Clown Gun, and the Mime Gun.
She wondered where Sarah was, and what was taking her so long.
