Sarah paused. "Okay, you have a point. I just wish we knew how everyone at school felt about all this."
"That's a good idea." Karyn said. She thought about the right way to word the wish, and then picked up the wishing stone. "I wish we knew how everyone at school felt about today's events."
The stone flashed.
Instantly, Jon, Karyn and Sarah sensed new knowledge flowing into their heads. They were now seeing things from several points of view, knowing what their fellow students, teachers, and faculty members at Lake Point High School felt about the day's events and their strange experiences.
They felt Nicole Tiller's frustration. She had been zapped with three different Transformation Guns herself, the last one (the Babe Gun) voluntarily, and wanted nothing more than for all the Transformation Guns to be stored together in one place where they wouldn't cause any more trouble. She had not taken the news that Transformation Guns were now widespread in the world at large very well, but she knew that Principal Davison was right in the sense that they could at least restore some semblance of order to their small part of the world.
They sensed Jay Duncan's sense of wonder about what the Transformation Guns were and where they came from. He still tended to believe that magic was usually sufficiently advanced science, but he had to admit that the effects of the Transformation Guns were beyond anything conventional Earth science could accomplish.
They sensed Kyla Leeson's worries about her cousin Ryan over at McMillan Tech Industries. She still didn't know the whole story about how the Transformation Guns came to be and why Ryan said he and his friends created them, but she trusted Ryan and Jay's mother were doing their best to control the situation over at MTI's Lake Point branch.
They felt the joy Leonard Drullers now felt at being fit and in shape for the first time in a long, long time. The Jock Gun had done wonders for him. He felt like he could run a few miles, or do just about anything.
They sensed the great happiness of Gladys Brewer and Becky Rodder, previously the two fattest girls in the school but who had now been transformed into slim and amazingly beautiful girls with the Babe Gun. No longer did their parents have to worry and spend lots of money on weight loss treatments that had so far failed them. No longer would they be subjected to fat shaming. Now they felt good about themselves for the first time in their lives.
They felt the anger and frustration of Biff Meadows, star player of the Lake Point High football team, now stuck in a body way too small and fragile to play football or any of the sports Biff was most interested in. He was hoping someone would find some way of undoing the Random Gun's effects and returning him to his normal self.
They felt the religiously-induced moral conflict of Nadine Ferguson, who wanted to use the Prude Gun to restore her friend Theodora Blakely to her normal self, but felt it was wrong to use what she believed was an instrument of black magic to do it. She believed she was trapped in a lose-lose situation.
They sensed the determination of Principal Davison, who was determined to be the leader the school needed in this time of crisis, even after being transformed into an attractive woman by the Babe Gun. Principal Davison had, with the help of the Geek Gun, taken charge of the situation and authorized Sarah, Nicole, Jay, and the others to find any Transformation Guns people had not turned in to the Principal's office, and confiscate them. The Principal was at the moment optimistic that the situation at Lake Point High School would settle down soon, and that they could worry about the changes in various students and faculty members later.
They sensed the conflict of Coach Felicia Barry, who was not sure what to make of the Jock Gun and how it could instantly make people into good athletes. She was determined to teach fair play and good sportsmanship to her gym students regardless.
They felt the annoyance of Rosemary Finch, the school librarian, who had locked the library door and was hiding from all the insanity. She had never liked the noise of the students on regular days, and the Transformation Guns had only made the school more noisy than before.
They sensed the calm and confidence of Chris Morgan, who had been transformed into an attractive girl by the Babe Gun, and was now feeling very radiant and confident in her new-found femininity. They sensed her feeling of kinship and sisterhood with Nicole and Melissa, and her feeling more at peace with herself than she had felt in a long time.
They sensed the joy of Melissa Smith, who had earlier been zapped with the Fat Gun, but since then had been zapped with the Babe Gun and was now lovelier than ever. She was determined to never take her good looks for granted again.
They felt the confusion of Reggie Deckman, the football player who had been transformed into a black girl cheerleader and who wasn't telling anyone who didn't already know of his/her real name. Despite that, Reggie had received offers from Allison Wright to join the cheerleading squad, and wasn't sure whether or not to accept them. It would depend on whether there was a way to be restored to normal.
They sensed the anger of Starla Stanfield, who was mostly angry at herself. How had she let herself get carried away like that? What made her think zapping Moose with the Goth Gun was a good idea, or zapping anyone else in the cafeteria for that matter? Unlike some other people, she didn't even have the excuse of being influenced by one Transformation Gun or another - it was a spur of the moment thing. Now she was stuck as a Goth, and while it wasn't all bad, she still felt embarrassed and ashamed.
They couldn't sense Athena DeVries' thoughts and feelings, or read her mind or see things from her point of view. But according to what they learned from Jay Duncan and Sabrina Johnson, Athena had chosen that day to wear her anti-magic pendant, which she liked to call the Blackhearts Pendant. It shielded her from magical transformations and curses, and also protected her privacy from people who might try to know what she was thinking or feeling. From them, and from other witnesses in the cafeteria such as Zelda Whitefield, Carl James, and the Taylor twins (to name a few), they learned the pendant had proven very useful in protecting Athena from the Transformation Guns.
These thoughts and feelings, and more, were known to Jon, Karyn, and Sarah within an instant. After the wish's effects were complete and they were no longer experiencing those thoughts and feelings, they sat in silence for a moment or two, thinking about what they had learned.
"I think it's clear now." Karyn said, breaking the silence. "Things can't go back to the way they were. Some people want to be changed back. Others are happy with who and what they are now and don't want to go back. And some don't even know yet."
Sarah was feeling a bit overwhelmed. She had just experienced the thoughts and feelings of everyone at the school. Friends, teachers, classmates, people she hung out with, people she actively avoided and many that she didn't get along with at all. Some of them she had rudely snubbed for not being more like the Preps and Jocks she usually hung out with, and the Goth crowd she just didn't get at all.
Now, she felt she understood everyone better. She decided that maybe it was best to be nicer to these people from now on. They were all human beings, with feelings and hopes and dreams.
"You're right." Sarah said after a pause. "It wouldn't be right for us to decide for them. Only they can decide it."
"The problem is, we can't let them know about the wishing stone." Jon said. "This wishing stone is potentially more dangerous than all the Transformation Guns put together. If people like Zach and Clyde and Starla could get carried away just from having Transformation Guns, then it's best that as few people know about the stone as possible."
"Nicole already knows." Sarah said. "I told her on the phone."
"And if Athena knows as much about magical artifacts as Zoe and her friends think she does, she'll probably know about the stone sooner or later, too." Jon said. "But we can't let anyone else know about the stone. We have to swear to keep it a secret, and we need to tell Nicole, and Athena, and maybe Zoe to keep the stone's existence a secret too. Beyond them, we tell no one. Got it?"
Karyn and Sarah nodded.
"Okay, but how do we change Biff and the others back? The others who want to be changed back, I mean." Sarah said.
"Jay's thoughts said something about Restoration Guns." Karyn said. "But he didn't know much about them."
"Just that they were locked up somewhere." Sarah added. "Which doesn't help us much."
"True." Jon said. "But we can find out more about them."
Jon picked up the wishing stone, and said "I wish we knew more about the Restoration Guns."
And immediately, the knowledge filled their heads and they knew, as if someone had told them or they had read about the Restoration Guns online or in some manual.
The Restoration Guns were imagined by Ryan Leeson, and, like every other kind of Transformation Gun, made real by Jon's wish that 'something interesting would happen'. They were intended as a counter to the transformations the other Transformation Guns caused, but they worked one zap at a time. If, for example, someone was zapped with the Mime Gun, then the Steampunk Gun, and then the Prude Gun, then it would take three zaps to return them to their 'default' appearance. If, however, someone was in a Transformation Gun created state for more than thirty days, the effect would become permanent and the Restoration Gun would treat that effect as the 'default' form from that point on.
Currently, there were eleven Restoration Guns placed in Randall Jeffries' storage locker at McMillan Tech Industries, but even now Jeffries' friends Ryan Leeson and Samantha Duncan were unlocking the locker to access them. Beyond that, there were a few Restoration Guns out there in the rest of the world thanks to the wave that transformed all guns into one type of Transformation Gun or another, but due to the fact that only one Restoration Gun had been teleported by the overloading Teleportation Chamber (as opposed to the four of most other types and the two Random Guns), the Restoration Gun was now the rarest of all the Transformation Guns. For every five dozen Restoration Guns, there were 5000 of most other types (aside from the Random Gun, the second rarest type).
Jon, Karyn, and Sarah paused to take in this new information. "Thirty days." Karyn said. "That means those who are undecided have about a month to make up their minds."
"Sounds fair enough." Jon said.
The three of them paused, as they pondered their next move. How were they going to keep the stone safe, and how would they deal with the overall situation moving forward?
