Stepping out of your car, you wish you could go invisible at will. Walking around back, you stare in wonderment as you flicker yourself in, and out of visibility at will. Refocusing to the task at hand, you reach your hand into the hole where Lindsey's parents keep the spare key and find nothing. Stumped, you look inside but there's nothing there. Backing up, you wonder how you're supposed to get inside without that. Then you facepalm. Waving the wand, you wish you could walk through walls like a ghost at will, then you cautiously reach out a hand and pass it through the door. Stepping inside, you smile to yourself at how easy it was. Invisibly creeping around, you don't see anyone, and you're beginning to think that no one's home until you hear a shout from the living room.
Ghosting into the room, you see Lindsey on the couch, controller in hand, focused intently on the game she's playing. Watching her play, you're reminded why you fell for her. Sitting there with her tongue poking out of her mouth, she's not beautiful, rather she's cute, the sort of cute that makes you like a person. You snap yourself out of it, you were with her and she cast you out like a piece of junk, but maybe you can change that. Pointing the wand at her, you execute the plan you'd thought up while riding here.
You knew she hated dependency, she hated to have to rely on someone else, and most of all, she hated helplessness, she hated not being in control. So you were going to take that away from her, force her to have someone watching for her at all times. You didn't hate her though, she wasn't a bad person, just, misguided. You were going to give her something she hates, but at the same time, a gift. You watch as her skin slowly takes on a metallic sheen. It's very slight at first, but getting stronger. Lindsey though is oblivious, too focused on her game. A matte silvery color begins to emerge and spreads across her body in waves, flowing twisting into shapes. You stare in fascination at the patterns as the swirl across her body. Your reverie is interrupted by a load shout, "Yes! Take that!" Lindsey shouts, jumping up, "Still can't beat me J...." She trails off as she sees her arm. Through her TV comes a male voice, Jim, her cousin, if you remember correctly, "Yea, yea, yea. I get it Lindsey, your better, no need to rub it in." Lindsey though just stares at her arm in shock. "Jim.." She says quietly, almost whispering, "Get over here now, I don't care how, get over here." You silently swear at her, you'll have to do something about him later. Jim's protests come through the speakers, "Lindsey? Lindsey! What's wrong? Lindsey!!" She doesn't answer, but rather grabs the remote and turns off the TV, then she drops it and stares at her arms. Moving on, she inspects the rest of her body in shock, watching the shades of metal streak across her legs. Then, suddenly, the movement stops. For a tense few seconds, she stares at the pattern, unmoving, then the metal explodes outwards, covering her entire body in one go, as she falls to the couch, attacking the metal that is now her arms. After a few seconds she calms down and runs her hands across her smooth matte finish.
You watch in preparation for the next part, and you're not disappointed when the center of her chest, just below her breasts, begins to glow a bright yellow. Spreading outwards, the yellow carves channels across her body, leaving the trail of light behind it. The source of this light is beginning to pulse now, between the startling yellow, an amazing color, somewhere between sea blue and purple, and a dark, frightened green. The colors flow across the channels in pulses as the channels stop moving. Her entire body is a light show, and the yellow and green are drowned out by the wondrous periwinkle dancing across her skin as she holds her and up to her eyes, studying it. Suddenly, the light extends out of her body, and she jerks back, a muddy purple pulsing. She quickly relaxes though as the light begins to coalesce into a ball of light. She cautiously extends a finger towards the ball, then laughs when she finds a solid surface. She tosses it into the air where it disperses into tiny particles. She stares in amazement at her hands and smiles, a brilliant smile, a smile you hadn't known how much you missed.
Executing the next part of your plan, you will a floating light in the shape of a diamond into being. This light is pure, the most pure you could make it, and as Lindsey stares at it, it begins to speak. "Lindsey." A deep, melodious voice hums, "You have been given a gift. Your body is now far more capable, and adaptable than ever before." Shielding her eyes from the light, Lindsey stutters, "Who... Who are you?" The voice laughs, a deep throated, caring laugh. "That, my dear, is irrelevant. Just know that you've been given this gift, and with it, the burden." Squinting into the light, Lindsey squeaks, "Burden?" Her core flashes a worried blue, but you quickly assuage her worries through the light, "Not the kind you're thinking of dear. This is no responsibility, no quest, rather, it's a disadvantage to your new form, or rather a requirement, something that most exist for you to be this way. You see, you have great power flowing through you, but that power is not limitless. It must be recharged often, and the only way to do that, is through what we call, a key. Your key is an artifact which was created when you transformed, evolved if you will, and within it is the ability to recharge yourself. The catch, as all good things must come with one, is that the key is very particular. When a key comes into being, it chooses a keymaster, usually the person you harbor the most attachment towards. The keymaster is unique and irreplaceable. They, and they alone can channel the power of the key in the ways necessary. No one else can even touch the key for more than a minute, not even you will be able to, lest the power overwhelm them and render them unconscious. The keymaster is so tightly tuned to the key, that they can transport it to their person from anywhere, through any sort of barrier. Using the key, the keymaster will be able to, among other things, recharge you. You'll need to have them do this about every 24 hours in your time in your current formation, otherwise you'll run out of energy." Sitting down on the couch, Lindsey asked the voice worriedly, "What happens then." The voice hummed in amusement before responding, "Why then, you sleep! Or at least it's equivalent. Without energy from the key to run on, you'll be immobile and unaware of the world. Now, most other things, I'll let you and your keymaster figure out, but there is one other, important aspect. You've probably noticed that, with the exception of the pure energy streaming through you, you're made out of an inanimate material correct?" The voice continued without waiting for her nod, "Now the material is called flow, and it's a unique material. It can take on any property that the energy inhabiting it is directed at. Right now, your energy is mostly directed towards being you. It's the same shape as you, and it moves like you. For all intensive purposes, it is you. It will even operate the same, you can eat, drink, taste, not that you need to, and everything else. In fact, the only things not the same are your appearance, which you could even configure your energy to morph to, and your ability to project your energy, which I'd avoid, as it drains a fair amount. Now the thing to keep in mind is that this is your natural form, at this moment, you have no additional energy cost, this is the lowest energy cost it can get. However, you can allocate energy to different things, allowing you to essentially redesign your body at will. There are two catches to it. The first is that allocating energy means it will be used up faster. Some things aren't significant, for example, disguising yourself to look like you were before the change would only reduce the time you could operate by about an hour. Other things would be dramatic, doubling your size would reduce you to 6 hours of time. The other catch should be expected, the keymaster is the one who makes these changes. A warning, though it's shouldn't be needed, be sure to keep your keymaster your friend, as you will need to let them recharge you, and when they do, they can make changes, regardless of whether you want them." Seeing Lindsey's worried face and the pulses of blue, you decide to bring the conversation back on track, "Anyway, that shouldn't be needed. Your key is attuned to your feelings, and it should have gone to someone you care deeply about. Anyway, I've just given this same speech to your keymaster and taught him his first trick, how to use the energy of the key to transport to you. He'll tell you all about the details of the key and how that works, that's his business. Lastly though, I want to say, good luck. You'll probably never see me again."
With that, you cause the light to suddenly wink out. Lindsey sits there in a daze and you get to work. You made yourself the keymaster, so you should be able to summon it. Concentrating, a ball of light appears to you only, as you're still invisible. The wisp swirls around you, matching it's colors to Lindsey's core. Reaching out, you grab, the wispy texture streaming through your fingers, and wrap it around your hand. Deciding to do this right, you use the wand to teleport home, then remove your ability to ghost, and turn invisible, you won't need them any more. You quickly wish for the wand to be in a storage dimension, but still fully usable by you, then you turn towards your new power. Concentrating on the power within the key, you reach out for the thread, connecting it to the host. Feeling the thread, you give a sharp tug. The other end of the thread doesn't budge, it's anchored hard. Your end though travels through the space in between in an instant.
Stumbling, you fall to your hands, then look around the room, disoriented. You're back in Lindsey's living room, and Lindsey herself is alternating a startling yellow and cautious orange from her core beneath her shirt. Knowing you need to act this part to sell it, you add a cautious tone to your voice, "Lindsey? Is that you?" Creeping forward slowly, she asks, "David? Are you ok?" Pushing yourself up, you give a half-hearted laugh, "Yea, teleporting was disorienting, I'm fine." You let the silence permeate the room for a few seconds before you try to revive conversation, "So... The host is you.." "Host?" She asks. "Yea," You reply, "That's what the weird voice in the light called you. He said he explained it." You scratch the back of your neck awkwardly. "Ah, yea" She replies. This was not going how you wanted, it was extremely awkward, it's like she didn't know what to say, or really if she should say anything. You decide to take a shot in the dark as the silence lengthens again. "You know, I'm over it right, I don't blame you. You chose him over me, and it was a sucky time to do it, but I enjoy spending time with you, and it looks like were kind of stuck now, so can we at least be friends?" She looks at you for a second, and she visibly melts with relief, "You don't know how glad I am to hear that." She says. "I ended it because I just didn't feel romantic, but I didn't mean to push you away, I, I just made a bad decision. I still don't feel romantically attracted to you, but I missed you, we've been friends for, like, forever, and I was lonely, especially when Tim stormed off because I told him I was done with the romantics with him too." That's news to you, "Wait, you two separated?" She sighs, "Yea, at the start of the summer." Huh, you hadn't even known, anyway, while your still attracted to her, you did miss her as your friend, "So friends again then?" You ask. "Definitely!" she responds.
Funnily enough, with all of the cool stuff we had to mess around with, Lindsey just wanted to play video games, and I couldn't blame her. She just had her life radically changed, and this was something familiar to her. She called Jim and told him she was fine and that she had a panic attack. He was dubious, but he let her go when she said I was here, we've been friends so long, her family knows me, they trust that I'd help her. As it gets later, I propose a sleep over, she readily agrees, as it turns out her parents are out of town, and my step-mom didn't even care. She was more worried about the stomach ache my step-sister had developed (snicker). Before we went to bed, I pinned Lindsey down and made her promise to deal with her powers tomorrow. She's in shock right now, but at some point she'll have to adapt, also, I'm a bit like a kid with a new toy being told they can't play with it right now. I mean, seriously, I give her super-powers and she wants to ignore them? Anyway, as we lay in bed, I just sat and reflected on how what started as a vindictive act actually got me my friend back, and one that I can share at least a portion of the power of the wand with. I made the rules pretty lose though, we can do practically anything when combined, we just need to learn how.