Jeff rode his bike into town and visited some local areas of interest, people watching and enjoying his day. Most people out and about at this time were parents trying to get shopping taken care of or kids trying to enjoy the nice weather. Obviously there were other adults around like the man lugging supplies into one of the stores, and the young guy working fast food playing on his phone, having a cigarette, squeezing a break between lunch and dinner rushes.
Jeff stopped by the ice cream shop wondering about what he could do to make use of his new device. He could make someone give him stuff for free, but that would be stealing, wouldn't it? He could give himself cash or a credit card but that felt wrong too. He could just conjure what he wants directly but would run the risk of getting kicked out for bringing outside food into a food shop...
Flummoxed, Jeff left the shop reevaluating his moral code and what he was willing to do with his new device and its capabilities. As he got back on his bike someone called "Hodges!" and he was startled from his thoughts. As he looked up he saw Snake, the most prominent school bully and two of his friends.
His school didn't have any bullies outside of Snake and his group. Sure, there were always chance encounters with people in bad moods, and the occasional rivalry blew up into something, but people who hunted someone down to make their life miserable for fun? That was only Snake, aka Brent Reynolds.
Snake was close to, if not already, 18, but was still taking sophomore classes with Jeff. His friends were other delinquents from Junior and senior class, probably from his time before being held back. Jeff tried to hide his surprise as he stammered out, "Oh hi guys. Nice day we're having."
The small talk that followed was an assessment of Jeff's ability to protect himself, though he didn't realize it until it was too late.
"Whatcha doin Hodges?"
"Just enjoying the day."
Snake smiled, "Oh, so you aren't here with your parents?"
"No, I rode my bike here." Jeff said, thinking that should be obvious.
"Say, that is a nice bike, mind if I take it for a spin?"
And thus the trap sprung. He admitted his parents weren't around. His friends, even if he was with them, weren't a match for Snake and his crew, and Snake wanted to steal his bike. Possibly to sell it somewhere, more likely to ditch it somewhere so he couldn't get caught red handed, and gets to be mean.
"No, I have to get going."
"Surely you can spare a few minutes." Snake said slowly but forcefully pushing Jeff off his bike.
Snake got on and spent several minutes riding through the parking lot, he stopped back at the group. Just as Jeff thought maybe he really did just want to test Jeff's bike out, Snake got off and passed the bike to his friend insisting he try it. This lasted for over 10 minutes and Jeff's patience was fully depleted. Several requests to have his bike back had fallen on deaf ears, he wasn't a match for them physically, and had nobody to fall back on for enforcement.
Pulling out his phone, Jeff quietly asked the AI if it can do anything to stop the bullies, who were busy goading each other on to be rougher and rougher with Jeff's property in the name of trying tricks. "Of course," came the whispered reply, "But you must be within WiFi range."
Jeff looked around and noticed they had shifted to the middle of an empty parking lot, which wasn't a good place to get WiFi. Thinking quick Jeff activated his mobile hotspot, and whispered, "Do it when you can!" Slipping his phone back into his pocket not wanting that stolen as well.
The next 20 seconds seemed to last minutes. This was his first phone, was over a year old, and wasn't the quickest when it was doing normal phone things, so Jeff expected editing reality to take a hot minute. Jeff felt his pocket heat up and then he felt tingly... Next thing he knew...