(Will go from here since the other branch kinda fizzled for me, hopefully this will work nicer)
The next day while in a self-study period, Martin quickly opened his backpack, staring at the Mana Crystal. He had spent a few days researching magic.
It was true… magic didn’t work on Earth, it only worked in that strange magical world… a world which he had no right to enter at the moment. Not until he could prove himself anyway. Still, he would give anything… absolutely ‘anything’ to experience and perhaps even ‘do’ real magic.
“Weird… the crystal seems to have taken on a slightly red hue…” This was exciting! It had never done that before.
On the internet there were a lot of enthusiastic people who did all kinds of things with Mana Crystals… some performed religious ceremonies with them, others turned it into a soup (well- boiling it in water and drinking it… not that it did anything.) Others tried to smash it up, break it apart into tiny crystals and wove them into fabric… which also did very little but make it glitter.
He had his own experiment...
He took out the crystal and hooked it up to some wires on a small ‘egg’ chamber that was connected to a computer. There was a transformer and capacitor hooked up as well as a bunch of other electronics. The computer displayed the type of current it was detecting… as if he was performing a simple conductivity experiment. This wasn’t anything that nobody else had tried but… Martin was hopeful. He just hoped he could make some real magic from it…
It had become his school project, but his teachers felt it was a waste of time. Smarter people with more intricate machines were doing the same experiments. Still, he wanted to at least demonstrate some of the principles of magic working in their own world. Martin was smart and… he was going to figure this out. Even if it took his whole life. He was going to do real magic someday.
He had devoted all his free time to studying this thing until he could ‘use’ it just like in the magical world. He took out his smart phone and started recording his voice and thoughts. “The Mana Crystals have an unusually high capacitance when compared to diamond, the best analogue for the structure. The lattice has ions of sodium, potassium… chloride…. As detailed from previous experiments... Apparently the crystals are a natural phenomenon in the magical world… which means if we can duplicate the same phenomenon on Earth, we should be able to make artificial ones” he stopped recording and stared at the strange crystal.
“If I can’t do magic… I’ll science the hell out of it…” He grinned faintly.
If magic was a force, then it must have fundamental rules, right? Though he was reminded of the old joke of how a biologist, a chemist and a physicist reacted to a mechanical watch if it were an alien device… The biologist listened to it, the chemist put it in acid and the physicist hit it with a hammer… what could he do? What approach could he take… He had been as non-invasive as possible because he didn’t know what might break it. This thing cost about ten times as much as gold and was seen as more of an eccentric commodity then anything useful.
He also had a microscope to examine the strange light that was emitted, when an electric charge was passed over it. He had taken hundreds of measurements, throwing different volts and radiation waves at the crystal, to understand it.
… all this for nothing in the end. It was just a crystal, showing a few unique properties…
“Attempting… Quantum slit experiment.” He wasn’t sure if this would work, but he had a ‘weird’ idea where he could se up the crystal as an ‘observer’.. and see how it would alter the quantum slit experiment.
It wasn’t difficult to set the crystal up and begin the photon experiment… and at this point the crystal began to glow very brightly. Martin gasped. “Quantum experiment is showing… a reaction. Something happens when we try to use the crystal to make uncertainty certain…” Had anyone ever seen this effect? Iti glowed brighter and brighter. Martin had to shield his eyes as all the energy reading spiked, going off the scale!
The crystal seemed to just… explode in a dazzling display of light.
Terry didn’t tell anyone that his letter to his cousin seemed to just ‘vanish’… he thought it was a trick of his eyes. He didn’t want to really think about it. He was in his classroom when he saw a strange light again… it seemed to envelope the entire classroom. “What the-“
Nobody else reacted but… it was weird. The light seemed to make his skin look… red?
The transformation was so…subtle so… incredibly soft that almost nobody noticed it, not even Terry at first. He saw that his hands were red now. That strange light! What the- glancing down he also now had quite a large pair of breasts that were very ‘comfortably’ contained in what seemed to be a custom-made bra. Not for the size, but to allow for the large wings she had on her back. Demonic wings that looked very usable, and a tail behind her new black skirt. Though perhaps the most dramatic look were her feet which were now a set of cloven hooves. She realised her legs were bent awkwardly in a rather inhuman- ‘goat-like’ arrangement as she stumbled slightly trying to get up.
“What the hell?!” She cried out.
“Is something wrong Teressa?” The teacher asked. “Your tail hasn’t caught on the chair again, has it?”
This caused a fit of giggles through the classroom.
Terry stared in confusion; everyone was treating this so… normal but she was freaking out! She touched her horns and crossed her legs within her skirt, realising ‘nothing’ was normal…
…and she was a girl.
“C-Can I be excused?” She asked.
The teacher nodded. “Of course, dear.”
The light from the experiment didn’t simply ‘vanish’… it caused ‘little’ changes throughout the school… Subtle enough to not notice by most. Did that door ‘always’ have a gargoyle head at the top? Some areas became more ‘gothic’.. others almost futuristic as if the area was caught in a weird ‘mingling’ of different realities.
Josh Wendel was a star quarterback of the football team… he was a strong teenager of sixteen and very into body building, working out… he wasn’t what people might think though as he was a really nice guy to most. He never looked down on others as much as his fellow ‘jock’ types would. He would even help others if they were serious about trying to work out. Though sadly, this often meant he was a little ‘too’ trusting of people.
He was in love with a girl called Mary Sweets… (who indeed was very sweet.) She was fair skinned, with light blonde hair. A very beautiful girl who he was now kissing at a quiet area of an unused classroom.
“You were awesome at football…” she grinned. “Did my cheering help?”
“You know it did,” He replied. It was always felt good to know someone like her was around.
Their relationship was… well… not ‘serious’ yet, but he wanted it to get serious soon. Josh was working out how to get her to his house on a quiet day when his parents were not around… it was just ‘nice’ to be with her. Josh didn’t really know much about love but… he liked her. That was when the strange light suddenly flashed across the room. “Huh?”
Reality seemed to go ‘pop’ and ‘pop’ for a second time.
He was looking at his girlfriend… at least he thought he was- but instead he saw a guy! It could easily have been Mary’s brother. He looked a him in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” He asked with a concern look.
“Where’s Mary- Uh- my voice!?” Josh looked down and saw… breasts?! She- She was a girl now… a girl! Josh almost fainted as the panic of her new form took hold. There was no warning as she realised that she was now wearing a cheerleader uniform, with a cute white skirt- everything that Mary had been wearing earlier!
Marcus looked at his girlfriend Joana, a little confused himself. “What’s wrong Jo?” He said in concern. “Don’t worry… I know it’s a bit weird to be dating you but… I do love you. Even if people …” he smiled and touched something on Joana’s.. stomach? Wait what-
Joana felt a weird sensation as if.. as if her breasts were being touched. She looked down in quiet horror as she realised, she had extra breasts! Down here, there seemed to be two more sets, with the lowest being only a little smaller then the top two. They each seemed to have their own bra arrangement, with what she could tell as she felt two straps digging behind her back. “M-Marcus?” Joana whispered. “This- This isn’t right- uh-“
“Sure it is,” He said with utmost sincerity. He then touched her head- and Joana felt something twitch there... pointed ears at the top of her head?!
Joana needed to look at herself. “M-marcus uh- I need a minute sorry-“ She turned and felt a tug- “oh!”
Marcus had tugged on her tail and grinned. “I’ll see you later then…”
Joana silently left, utterly petrified as she walked around the school, her extra breasts slightly jiggling despite the bras she wore.
