It had been a few days since Steven attempted that ‘demon’ summoning spell. Obviously, he knew his friend wasn’t an actual demon but… it would seem her transformation made her bound by certain rules. Changing her name to protect her made the most sense but even then, he felt a little warry. Mosly he wasn’t sure how he fit into all this. Steven was not transformed…
“…and maybe I kind of… wished…”
Well apparently, he had magic. Real actual magic… Not that he knew ‘how’ it even worked… but he also had some very odd and rather unsettling events happen around him. Things around him seemed to break rather easily, if he wasn’t careful. Though sometimes he would find something broken ‘after’ he touched it, making him wonder if someone was doing this to mess with him.
He was also extremely concerned of anyone noticing his strange abilities. The way things were, suspicion would fall on him… that he had somehow ‘done’ this to those students.
‘It has to be someone else… some ‘thing’ else.’
Maybe someone was making it look like the magic came from him when in reality it was an outside agent… but why do that? To make people suspect he was the cause… He felt a little sick to his stomach at that thought.
Steven wasn’t entirely sure if the ‘spell’ was the actual cause of the transformation… it was something more subtle then that. He was sure of it… but didn’t expect class to actually help him in regards to this. He was in chemistry class and the teacher was now talking about combustion and the reaction that took place. With his thoughts on magic he was starting to look at the two as mirror images.
“This is called the ‘ignition point’.” The teacher, Mr Drue explained pointing to a graph on the blackboard. “When a chemical reaction has a certain amount of energy, the reaction will cascade on its own… and thus you have combustion. Energy is released, far more than the initial amount a person has added. This causes reactants to reach a more ‘stable’ configuration.”
Steven gasped. “Wait-”
“Hm?” The teacher glanced to Steven. “Do you have a question?”
Steven stared at the graph… what if… what if magic was like that? A small amount… a spark, that caused the entire transformation. It made sense! The transformation of his friend Luke did ‘not’ result in something that fundamentally changed the laws of physics… she had no wings like a normal sphinx would. She was a lioness… which meant the magic might have a limit?
“Steven?” The teacher asked again.
“I- um- I was just thinking… you run a reaction to the end and get a new product… in combustion that’s Carbon dioxide and Water… is it possible to get anything else?”
“By reducing the amount of oxygen you can get carbon monoxide-“ he started to show the equation.
“No I mean- like a completely different element… something you didn’t start with at all.”
There was laughter in the class. Such a silly idea! However, the teacher quickly silenced them. “An interesting question… well, when considering the transmutation of elements… you need to change the number of protons. That is Nuclear Physics… this is chemistry. You can’t generally change them, though some elements will spontaneously change.”
“But- energy is still energy,” Steven quickly said.
“Yes… but to change an element you need to achieve energy states far higher then can be gained by simple combustion… specifically you need to use the other forces. Such as Gravity with the sun, converting Hydrogen to Helium. The process is similar to combustion however, in that you have a sustained reaction… but the fundamental nature… the forces are completely different.”
“The sun…” The image of the sun came to his mind. Inside forces… tightly packed atoms forced into configurations they would not normally be under. Physics was different based on the amount of energy around… almost like it was another universe. The rules do change if one looked at it a certain way. What if there was a world of magic… “Different… and yet… still…” Steven wasn’t sure ‘what’ he was thinking again but he felt like he was starting to understand something. “…is it possible to change the laws of physics.”
Again there was laughter. Even the teacher had a chuckle at that one. “Well if you find a way, you’ll become very rich.”
Suddenly Steven’s brain lit up. The change… some of them do break the rules!
While class continued Steven quickly brought out a map of the changed in the classroom. He had gone through it so many times before. People accepted there was absolutely no pattern to the actual changes… they were all wild as they could be. Body swaps, age changes, species, but now he had a different way to look at it. “How much does each change break the laws of physics…”
He decided to grade each area by a score. The simple body swaps he gave a single point to. In theory, there were no changes to physical reality in that group. The next he gave two points to… people who had gained certain traits but were still fundamentally themselves. Those who had now various animal parts… animals that still existed in nature and it wasn’t ‘inconceivable’ that such people could evolve as a natural part of Earth’s world. The most serious anthro changed he assigned a four… such as the teacher.
Things got a little trickier from there. The Fairy changed for one… how many points was that? Fairies were tiny creatures but they ‘did’ break the laws of physics given they had such small heads and were as sentient as a human. Though physically they were light and didn’t break any other rules that he could see. There ‘were’ small flying insects in the world but they generally didn’t have a lot of intelligence. How did a fairy pack a sentient brain inside their heads? If it could have happened in nature… it would have. “Five points.” He decided. That would have to be the ‘mid’ point.
He slowly assigned each change a number. Giantess... six points… The Harpy… shouldn’t be able to fly and yet she does? Seven points… Sphinx… absolutely shouldn’t fly at all… Eight points… The dragon-girl…
“The dragon-girl…” Dragons didn’t exist in their world. She broke the rules of physics often by flying, or just ‘breaking’ out whenever they tried to restrain her. She had become a ‘criminal’ skirting justice… and nobody could do anything about her. She was about as close as a ‘super villain’ at this point could be. Her body was durable, enhanced, breaking many rules… “Nine points…”
Then came Age regression… converting someone to a state they were in ‘before’… going ‘back’ in time. Steven stared at the combustion equation again on the board. It was the equivalent of making a fire go backwards. There was no way to do anything like this on ‘any’ conceivable way. “…ten points.” The most subtle of changes seemed to be the one that broke the laws of physics the most.
The pattern… The pattern had been staring at him the whole time. He slowly drew circles where the numbers were the same… and now he found a pattern. An actual pattern! The more concentrated changes were on the upper right corner… Steven quickly dug out pictures of the classroom. What was around that area? He didn’t see anything interesting though except… “…The light bulb?”
…The light bulb.
Suddenly he fell out of his chair… the chair itself breaking. He tried to hold onto his desk.
“Steven are you okay?” The teacher asked.
“Uh- y-yeah-“ He glanced awkwardly around. The chair was completely broken… but strangely the desk now had these… claw marks? Wait- wasn’t that always there? Yeah he had to be imagining things. He also felt a little unwell too. It had been bugging him all day… his stomach just felt off. “C-Can I be excused?” He asked.
The teacher gave a nod. “Yeah, you seem a little pale. Why not take today off. Let me know how you feel tomorrow.”
Luke enjoyed being a lion-girl. Naturally the first thing she decided for her new life, was to acquire a boyfriend. There was someone she had always rather liked… Nick Semore. He had rather intense eyes and was always laughing and joking with people. She couldn’t approach him before but… now it felt ‘right’. She may have the body of a lion, but she was female… and she could work with this.
Nick was talking to his friend in the corridor near his locker. Laughing as always about something silly. He was such a ‘frat boy’ but she knew deep down he had a heart of gold. He was kind… and surly they could … he knees started to wobble- one set of them. “Um- Nick?” She said as she walked over with her four legs. Honestly it was a good thing she had four of them now, otherwise she was sure she might have fallen over just approaching him.
The other teenager Nick was with looked immediately disgusted. “Urgh- who escaped from the zoo?”
Nick gave a rolled eyed look. “Hey come on Will, be nice to her.” He shook his head. “What’s up Luke?”
Luke stared at him… and smelled his scent. It felt so nice… so strong to her. She found his presence even more alluring. As for Will she shot an annoyed look, but she knew this would be something she had to deal with from now on. “Well… after my transformation I- I thought it might be nice to go out some places. I was hoping I could join you in stuff. Maybe we could… go to the cinema together?”
“Heh the lion’s asking you out for a date!” Will laughed.
Nick was taken rather aback by this. “Well- uh…” He looked at a loss for words. “I don’t… well- maybe as friends?” he offered quickly.
Luke felt suddenly shot down hard. Why! It was because of that stupid Will making this more awkward. She should have talked to him alone! “W-Well- yeah…” She said. “Sure… um- can I give you my number?”
Will smirked at that thought. “Can you even use a phone?”
The lioness gave a slight growl. “My claws are razor sharp… I can push buttons.” She slowly gave her number having memorised it. “Call me?”
“…Dude she’s into you.” Will said to his friend.
Nick stared at the phone number. A lioness… wanted him? How would that even work! She was attractive from the… neck up but…
“… are you gonna really go out with her?!” Will gasped.
“I- I mean- she could be a fun friend.”
Will shook his head. “Honestly dude you are ‘too nice’.”
“You didn’t have to be so rude to her.” Nick sighed. “She didn’t expect that to happen to her. The changes are still happening…”
Will shook his head. He knew how the game was played. Everyone was talking about Luke and he freak she had become… and he didn’t want to be associated with her. He was concerned that Nick was being ‘nice’ to her and what that could do to their own social standing in the school. “Come on, we all know she wanted to be changed. That’s what she got. Besides if you go out with her, you’ll lose your cred.”
Nick gave a bemused shrug. “Cred isn’t what it used to be,” He sighed.
“Well think about it. She’s gonna try and kiss you and then she’ll.. well I guess I could only say you’ll have to ‘mount up’.” Will laughed at his friend uncomfortable look at that. “Ha ha- I bet you’re imagining it now. Oh, Please Nick, take me from behind!”
“Dude-“ Nick groaned. “She’s- well- I ‘know’ it can’t really work out… Of course I know that. But- she’s not a bad person… maybe I can be friends with her. I just had no idea…” how was he to even notice?
“…do you think she was into you when she was a guy too?”
Nick frowned a bit in thought. He honestly never really noticed Luke as a guy. If there was any indication of attraction he would have had to explain he was into girls… but now she was a girl? But she ‘had’ been a guy… so… this confused Nick a lot. “I barely knew him… I did invite him to my birthday party once. I invited a lot of people though. He didn’t seem comfortable though so I … didn’t invite him anymore.”
“Well now’s your chance. You go dude! You might have a little Simba in your future.” Will continued to laugh at the absurdity of it.
