Jon was getting dressed. This coming day, he hoped to accomplish a final resolution to all this. It all came down to the uncertain prospect of finding someone with charge powers. Possibly that just meant electrical powers, but it could mean someone with the power to actually deconserve electric charge, which would be a taller order. But they had plenty of others who were breaking the laws of physics already, so why not?
He thought of his newfound power as he got dressed. "All I have to do," he said to himself. And he turned into Karyn. Just, a brief thought about Karyn, was all it took. "Oh noooo," she said. Having a fun power was one thing. But if he was going to turn into Mikey, Karyn, or Biff, just by having stray thoughts, that could be a big problem after all.
And then at that thought, Jon turned into Biff, ruining a perfectly good t-shirt as her wings tore holes through its back. Being Karyn wasn't a problem, at least aside from having a tail, she had approximately the same proportions as him, but either of the other two could so easily ruin good clothes.
He tried to maintain a clear mental image of himself, in his normal body, as he got dressed.
"Jon, Jon, Jon," he repeated in his head. And then the doorbell rang.
"Jon, Jon, Jon," Jon thought to himself as he opened the front door of his house. And there was Biff and Sarah. Biff was more clothed than usual, wearing the zipper shirt plus elastic sweatpants with a hole cut out for her tail.
"Good morning you two," Jon said, while he continued thinking Jon Jon Jon and tried to avert his eyes from Biff to avoid actively thinking about her appearance.
"We have a request," Sarah said.
"Um, ok," Jon said, while thinking Jon Jon Jon.
"We want you to kiss us," Biff said.
Jon sighed, and then suddenly the words he just heard hit him.
"Us as in both of you?" Jon said, thinking Jon Jon Jon.
"Yeah," Sarah said. "You said it would last for 7 minutes, right? We just want a few minutes together, as our normal selves. I hope it's not too weird, but we're probably going to be making this request a lot. We're, kind of more open, to, things, like this, but, it would still be nice, you know, here and there, just, you know."
"Jon Jon Jon," Jon mistakenly said out loud.
"What?" Biff asked.
"I mean, yeah, maybe, why Sarah too though, I mean, she's just got the ears and tail, right? She still looks like Sarah," Jon said, thinking Jon Jon Jon.
"It's more than that, I maybe want a few minutes of reprieve, there's this other entity that lives in my head, the wolf, changing my thinking, I just want a 7 minute vacation, with both Biff and me back the way we were."
"Um, I guess, but, um, you," Jon said, squinting in the direction of Biff, thinking Jon Jon Jon, "you don't really want me kissing your girlfriend, do you?" The last thing Jon wanted was to add Sarah to his repertoire, with every addition, it was just a needless complication.
"Oh, I'm fine with it, we're all close friends now, we're all going to be in the same pack, so to speak," Biff said. "You're a good guy, and it's just a kiss, I was thinking, maybe it wouldn't even be bad, if all 3 of us, got closer, it would be weird if I was kissing both of you and you weren't kissing each other anyway."
"Um," damn it, Jon Jon Jon, I can't argue like this, it's not really going to be harder with a fourth one anyway, "fine, just to, professional, just keep it professional, it's just to change you, Jon, I mean, with me, Jon."
Sarah and Biff shared an awkward look at the weird way Jon was behaving. But Jon kissed Biff, and then, more hesitantly kissed Sarah.
"Thanks!" they called out as they cuddled against each other.
"Ok, that's fine, that doesn't change anything, I just have to think of my normal self," Jon said quietly to himself.
He headed in the direction of the school on foot, maintaining a solid mental image of himself. But when he was about halfway there, some girl he'd never met approached him. A girl that was wearing clothes that were way too big for her.
"Jon, can you do me a favor?" the girl said.
"Um, maybe," Jon said, trying to place her. Nope, he had no idea. "What do you want?"
"Just stand there and close your eyes for a moment," she said.
"What?"
"I just need you to close your eyes for a moment," she said.
"All right," Jon said, playing along.
And then she kissed him.
"What the fuuu...." Jon said.
"It was true, this nightmare is finally over!" James said.
"Whhaaaaaaaaa...?!" Jon said. He had heard that James had changed into a freaky wolf girl in the middle of the locker room after the game, but this had been a rather ordinary looking girl with nothing wolf about her.
"I thought Sarah was screwing with me, but she was actually telling the truth, holy shit! Oh god, I thought I was going to be stuck like that forever! I'm so glad I didn't buy new clothes for that crappy body too. It's like it never even happened at all!"
James ran off with a big smile on his face.
"Ha ha ha, oh that was beautiful! He's going to be so crushed when he finds out it's temporary," Biff said, stepping around a corner, now back to a sphinx. Sarah stood next to her, looking ashamed.
"You two were behind that?" Jon said.
"He talked me into it, that it wouldn't really be going too far, as far as pranks go, I mean, it doesn't really change anything, and it's nowhere near as mean as what he did," Sarah said.
"I'm still hoping he's going to embarrass himself a little in the next 7 minutes though," Biff said.
"No, don't you see, this is going to make my life a living hell," Jon said. "If it gets out that me kissing a changed person changes them back for 7 minutes, they're still going to be coming to me all day long trying to kiss me. And a few attractive wolf and cat girls are one thing, but not all of the changed people are as kissable as you two."
"Oops. Sorry about that," Biff said.
"And I have another even better reason, Jon Jon Jon," Jon thought. "I really don't want to be able to turn into one of the really bad cases just by thinking about it Jon Jon Jon."
Jon met up with Mikey after an hour. Mikey thought it was strange how Jon was clearly avoiding looking directly at her. What was the deal?
"No, Miss Stella is no good, she doesn't have electricity powers, just light powers," Mikey reported. "No one in my class has electricity based tricks either."
"Urgh," Jon groaned in reply. "We're so close, and yet we're not getting anywhere."
"Is this your brother Jon?" A black-furred cat boy who had just walked up asked Mikey.
"Oh no, you told them? You didn't tell your whole class did you?" Jon asked in horror. He was afraid that James would spill the beans, but he never considered it would be Mikey.
"I didn't tell them," Mikey said.
"Alice told me," the cat boy said.
"Darn it Alice," Mikey said. "Jesse, my brother doesn't want to suffer through people coming up to him all day and kissing him, right Jon?"
"Yeah," Jon said, almost moved to tears with how much consideration Mikey was showing. She knew, without it even needing to be explained to her.
"It only lasts for 7 minutes anyway. I don't suppose you could, ask your friends, not to spread it around? Maybe it's not too late to stop it," Jon said.
"I, can understand. But, if it's not too much to ask, could, you just this once, I'd just like to see, my old face, one more time, to be me, even if for 7 minutes," Jesse the cat boy said.
Ah damn it Jon Jon Jon, Jon thought. How can I say no to that. He looked at the cat person. Eh, he didn't look bad. Oh hell, why not.
"All right, not right in front of everyone here though, ok?" Jon asked.
"Ok," Jesse agreed. They found an empty classroom and Jon give Jesse a quick kiss.
"Oh, no," Jon said.
"What's wrong, Jesse said.
"You were a girl," Jon said.
"For the next 7 minutes, I am again," Jesse said. "My name used to be Jessica by the way. Or Jessie for short, but Jessie with an i in it, as opposed to Jesse like Jesse Ventura."
"I'm so sorry, kiddo," Jon said. He didn't realize the amount of reason Jesse had for revisiting his, or her, old body, and he felt pretty bad about his reluctance to kiss her. Just a kiss to give her a 7 minute life-changing hope-giving experience, and he didn't want to do it. But it wasn't just Jesse, it was so many others. And Jon certainly didn't have any problem with having the ability to turn into a cat boy, or eventually a cat man, along with all the others, but he definitely didn't want to be able to turn into a giant spider, or a tree.
"It's not your fault," she said to Jon.
"Well, try to contain this anyway, if you can, it's probably too late. I don't know how to make everyone happy. This shitty mist. I'm sorry for what you must have gone through."
"It's no worse than what your own brother went through I'm sure," Jessica said. “Actually I’m sure it wasn’t nearly as bad. I’m a cat, but it didn’t really change much for me. I can still write, and type, and play the piano. It hasn’t been so hard on me, I just wanted to be me again.”
"Well, you just be a good friend for my Mikey. Actually, you know, you two might be a good match for each other. Kind of. Maybe not really."
"You mean because both our original forms and the changed ones are opposite sex of each other?"
"Yeah, I didn't want to put it so bluntly though, and that's not a very good reason, probably, but just be his friend. Or her friend. Shit, I can't keep this straight, this is all so ridiculous. If you need a second 7 minutes at some point, let me know, maybe." But maybe I'll be able to fix this whole goddamn thing, I just need someone with charge powers Jon Jon Jon, Jon thought.
At the end of the school day, they were no closer to finding someone with the needed trick, and Jon's pool of forms had expanded to Mikey the harpy, Biff the sphinx girl, Karyn the cat girl, Sarah the werewolf girl, James the low profile werewolf girl, Jesse the cat boy, another non-were wolf girl from Mikey's class, and of course his normal male self. All in all not nearly as bad as Jon was fearing. He just had to keep concentrating on staying himself in front of others. And what was he going to do even when alone, just constantly shift forms to the extent that he couldn't even wear clothes because he would tear them all to shreds? Oh who was he kidding, that alone was a major pain. He now had an even more very personal stake in fixing this whole mist thing than fixing his own brother and close friends. And unfortunately now it looked like they weren't going to resolve this any time soon after all.
That is, until Biff came up to him.
"Jon, did you find anyone with the last power?"
"No," Jon said.
"I have, a possibility, but it's dangerous."
"What do you mean?" Jon asked.
"When I was missing," Biff said, in her feminine voice, "I had a certain, experience, involving, well, there's no other way of saying it but just saying it, a very powerful dragon from an alternate realm of reality."
"Oh. Ok."
"A dragon who said he was desire and power itself. Or, she, I guess. Or it. I don't know. But I don't even know the full extent of this dragon's power. It might have had all sorts of powers. And I wouldn't be one bit surprised if charge was one of them. The person who offered me a million dollars to predict the outcome of the next game, he was a leader of a criminal organization, you see..." Biff then told Jon the story.
"Of course things would have to be difficult," Jon said.
