I left the bar feeling about as happy as I’d thought I would when I agreed to come here in the first place. Harry, Beth, Polly and the others were having a great time in there as usual, and they didn’t even notice when I slipped out. I mean, who would notice? It’s not like I actually said anything for most of the night. A question here and there demanded my attention for a moment, but otherwise I was free to sit back and watch my friends have fun.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy their company one on one, but there was only so much I could take being interrupted, talked over and ignored by the more extroverted members of our friend group before I stopped trying. To be honest, the whole atmosphere of a bar rubbed me the wrong way. Everyone talking over the top of one another causing an ever increasing conversational volume that led to hoarse throats and misunderstood words. How anyone had an interesting and meaningful conversation when like forty people were yelling over the top of each other was beyond me.

What finally had me leaving the bar was a sense of great unease. I couldn’t really describe it, but this sense of foreboding was what had finally made me feel too uncomfortable to stay. I had to get out of there and to my comfortable home.

Out on the street the night was warm, it was the middle of summer after all, despite the rain threatening to break not a few miles to our south. Miles. That was a thing. It seemed that this country was finally starting to rub off on me. When I first moved to Boston to go to MIT I’d been a little shell shocked at even getting into the prestigious institution. I had though, riding a scholarship across the oceans from my home of New Zealand to this strange land they called the United States of America. I’d known I was good, but I had figured my natural tendancy to fuck everything up would have leapt into the way of that metaphorical bullet landing home.

Moving through the streets I noticed they were pretty packed near the square where the bars and clubs were, which was no surprise regardless of the time. It was a night in a very student suburb after all. I moved past several groups of drunk students, making myself as small and uninteresting as possible. I really hoped they didn’t try and talk to me. Major source of anxiety there. Never make eye contact, just like with wild animals, otherwise they might take it as an excuse to engage you in conversation.

I took my phone out to avoid drawing their attention. A man on a phone was conversationally off limits after all. I scrolled aimlessly through the various social media I used. Reddit as usual was depressing and confrontational, user after user reading every little eccentricity of text as an attack. Time to swap to Twitter… to find more disappointment. What was with my fellow programmers and having a chip on their shoulder the size of the grand canyon?

So distracted was I by the drama of Twitter that I was more than a little surprised when my phone was suddenly gone from my grasp, and my ass was on the ground. What in the… oh. I’d walked into a pole. Nice job Evan you dingus. Watch out world! Certified mess coming through! Nearby a gaggle of girls tittered at my misfortune and I felt my pasty white cheeks heat. Damn cheeks, always betraying my emotions!

I was the weirdest looking introvert you’ll ever meet. At six and a half feet tall I’d been approached by so many coaches to play some sport or other that by now I had my negative response preloaded as soon as I saw one heading towards me. I was lanky, but not overly so with a shock of blond hair that just refused to grow in any sort of uniform order. Each lock of hair just struck off wildly into the unknown.

Wait, what was happening to the sky?

From my position on my butt, I witnessed the beginning of the end of the world. I gazed in awe as huge roiling clouds boiled up out of nothing above the city like god had left his smoke machine turned on. They very quickly choked out the sky above, leaving nothing but grey from horizon to horizon. Checking urgently to see if anyone else was seeing this, or if I was just crazy, I swivelled my head around. Nope… no one around me seemed to notice at first, but when the clouds began to flicker and flash with oddly coloured lights, the random people around me could no longer ignore it.

The group of girls who had laughed at my misfortune just moments earlier now stared up in wonder at the beautiful display above us. They pointed their phones into the sky to capture the freak event, and I was suddenly jealous that my phone was nowhere to be found. They were right to be awed by the majestic display above us, it certainly was very pretty. I had never heard of anything like this happening before, but nature was strange like that, surprising us mere mortals every day.

The hushed murmurs of the group turned to fear next when, in a stomach lurching instant, everything around us began to float. It was like gravity itself had forgotten how to do its job and was trying to fix things trial by error style. I felt my sense of balance complaining loudly as I jerked this way and that in the air. Everything was affected, the cars, the people… hell even the buildings were feeling it, I realised in alarm, as roofing seemed to come peeling off one building.

The coloured lights began to reach a crescendo above us when in the blink of an eye the clouds simply vanished. It was like they had never existed. Without their obscuring presence we were able to see violent flashes of coloured energy above us. Crackling orbs of the stuff were forming and bursting in the upper atmosphere. When the odd display changed next, it was to a juddering halt, then a flash of brilliant white.

Before that white light could do anything more than gasp a breath, it was viciously snuffed out like a baby bird in the jaws of a hungry predator. The stars… all the stars, every single one in the sky lit with a blackness that seemed deeper than the surrounding void. A small part of my mind wondered how it was happening simultaneously, given the speed of light and all that, but all thoughts of physics were suddenly shoved down the priority list of my mind.

The world went dark. I’m not talking about the type of dark where there’s a power outage but you can still kinda see. I’m talking literal, instant black. It was as though the concept of light itself had died. I still had a sense of self, my body existed, as far as I could tell. The girls from earlier certainly did, judging by their screams of terror.

When light came back to the world it was with a thump that I felt deep in my chest. Wait, no that was my back hitting the pavement as gravity decided to return to normal. I gasped as my chest tried to suck air back into my winded lungs and I grasped randomly about me as I tried to make sense of all that had just happened. Was the world under attack? Had aliens just tried to abduct us all and failed? What was going on?

Also, why did it feel like there was a torrent of energy surging into me. It was as though I’d spent my whole life failing to drink water, only to get my first taste as a firehose into my gullet. I writhed on the ground as something within me sated itself on an energy I couldn’t see. The world seemed to fade as my mind was occupied entirely by this energized feeling permeated my body like I’d reached some sort of transcendence.

I opened my eyes as the surge faded to find my body glowing. Every vein and artery pumped molten rivers of light. The light was white with a bluish tint, but I wasn’t able to inspect myself further before the image of a tangle of threads flashed unbidden into my mind. I stared in disbelief next as a riot of scorching hot flame lanced out in a pyre from my fingers. The torrent melted a hole straight through a parked car and into the pavement of the road.

“What the fuck?” I squeaked in surprise, my rumbling voice turning it strange. Grown men’s voices aren’t meant to squeak like that.

Before the universe could gift me with an answer another tangle of threads burst into being within my mind’s eye and there was suddenly one less street lamp lining the road. The thing had been liquified by a brilliant flash of lightning originating at my fingertips. What was going on? Please world, please stop. Go back to normal please. Normal was boring… but at least when things were boring I wasn’t blasting chunks of infrastructure into oblivion!

Another strange image in my mind, and I was rocketing a few meters into the sky before landing on my back atop the car I’d just blasted a hole in. The heat of the metal singed my back and I scrambled off it with a yelp. I nursed my injuries and spun wildly to see if there was some corporeal reason for the strangeness. My eyes landed on someone I didn’t expect to see.

She was a girl I knew dimly through my group of friends. She’d been at the bar, I knew that much. Had she followed me? Coming in at just under six feet if I had to guess, her thin athletic build lent itself to that height well. Staring at me with wide grey eyes she was taking hesitant steps towards me.

“Evan…? That’s your name right? What… what’s happening to you?” she asked, fear lacing her normally strong voice.

“I don’t know!” I cried, trying and failing to get a handle on my frantic emotions, “I can’t make it stop!”

A third image sprang into my mind, infinitely more complicated than any I had experienced thus far, and the world went white with pain. It was everywhere. Every limb, every organ, every follicle of hair, every bone in my body. They all cried out in a choir of misery that threatened to smash me from consciousness. Next was nausea as things shifted and changed within me. I tried to vomit, but that didn’t work. My body wasn’t listening to me right now, which was probably a good thing. I don’t know why money problems were my first thought at that moment, but hey, there I was thankful that I didn’t lose my dinner because then I wouldn’t have to buy more food.

I didn’t even have time to process what had just been done to me before yet more random acts of strangeness sprang forth unbidden from my writhing body. A bolt of shadow hit a wall and began eating away at the brick. The moisture in the air around me froze in a single moment and fell about me like snow. Wait, I think that actually was snow. Looking up into the night sky, floundering around on my back and destroying my surroundings, I wished there was some way to stop this.

There was something really odd about the moon right now actually. So odd that it took my mind off the catastrophe that I was becoming. Actually, who am I kidding? I was always a catastrophe, it just seemed that now instead of constantly smashing various body parts against solid objects and making ridiculous social faux pas I was now liquifying the pavement and shit. Could I consider this an upgrade? Maybe. We’ll call it fifty fifty for now.

Anyway, the moon seemed oddly… alive? It was strange, there was nothing physical about this intuition, but the moon seemed to be reaching out to me nevertheless. Then I heard a soft feminine voice in my mind.

Young One. You seem troubled.

“Uh, sorry what?” I mumbled back at the strange voice in my head. It was definitely not my voice in my head. I think.

You seem to be in distress. Am I using these words correctly? You mortals move far too quickly for me to keep up. Your languages are a mess, like ever changing rivers.

“Yup, the words seem to be all working just fine. A little on the formal side but hey the moon can use whatever flowery language she wants yeah?” I said back.

Yes... well mostly anyway. The Sun can get a bit touchy if I’m too long winded in my poetry.

“Wait what? The Sun? The Sun gets touchy about poetry?” What the fuck is going on in my mind!? This is whacked!

Oh blast this tempramental spell! Why is it always so frustrating talking to mortals? They keep firing my own words back at me like that simpering fool that orbits Jupiter. Whatever his name is. Sycophant! He should really realise that Jupiter has far more-

“No I can hear you, sorry. It’s just not every day the Moon ends up talking to me…”

Another image. Crack! A few meters away, a window was obliterated by what appears to have been some sort of glowing blue hockey puck that was launched from my hand. Did someone slip a hallucinogen into my drink back at the bar? Was I actually just laying on the pavement as a drooling mess?

Oh dear. That was violent. I assume that square chunk of molten and then cooled sand has done you grievous injury in the past?

“Noooo, nope. It’s… look I honestly have no idea what’s going on right now. I think this might be a fever dream or maybe my friends getting a little free with their odd cocktails to be honest.”

I had a fever once.

“You had… fever? How on Earth does the Moon get a fever?” What the actual fuck was going on right now? I was beyond confused.

Well for starters I’m not actually on the Earth. We ended our physical relationship a while back, she was a bit too… that’s not important. Neither is the fever thing. I’ll explain another time, but suffice to say it was awful! Now if you’re not damaging your surroundings on purpose, might I suggest a solution?

“Solution away girl. I could definitely use the help, also… side note… why is my voice so high pitched right now?”

It really was high pitched. I sounded like some sort kids voice, or maybe a young woman. I could never tell with voices. I once spent almost a year gaming with this woman who I thought was like a fourteen year old or something. She never corrected me and when I finally cottoned on, she laughed for like four hours straight. Oh wait, the moon was talking again.

I believe one of the spells you cast earlier turned you into a human woman.

“Wait wait what? What?? How? What? How? No… what?” I turned into a girl? That’s not cool! I’m a guy! I think? I mean you can never be sure, but I was pretty positive I was a guy.

Also not important right now. If you wish to stop your magical tantrum, I can help you by connecting our energies and fixing the problem in your core. It appears the sudden violent resurgence of the leylines on Earth has caused your core to overflow and become damaged. I’ll correct that if you allow me.

“Not important? What are you on about? I can’t just be turned into a girl!”

Young lady please concentrate. You are going to hurt someone and get in trouble with the… whatever you small ones call the authorities these days. Lawmen?

Young lady? Oh no. Nevermind that, she was right and I nodded, “Yeah, fix me please!”

I’ll take that as permission. Here we go! This may tickle.

I felt her reach down with her… mojo? Energy? What do you call the weird ethereal essence that a celestial body was made of? Oh right.. Essenc-

Oh my lord what the fuck. My whole body lit up like a christmas tree. Every nerve in my body pulsed with pleasure on a magnitude I had never experienced before. I felt a heat burning through my lower body as tsunami’s of ecstasy ran rampant within me. My body convulsed and thrashed until I felt someone hold me down, and then came the moans. Oh by every deity, real or fake or somewhere in between did my moans sound very feminine and very sexual. Definitely a girl’s voice then. It was as though a chorus of talented porn stars were singing out with one voice.

I vaguely heard the girl I’d seen earlier (the one I knew) mutter, “This is the weirdest night of my god damn life.”

As she said that my… tickling… eased, as did the random spells that I’d been accidentally destroying the surrounding environment with.

“You and me both,” I groaned, my voice hoarse from the… screaming I’d just been doing. Wow. It’s really odd how pain is something that doesn’t really register until after you come down from the orgasm.

I have fixed you!

Why did she sound so damn excited? When the personification of the Moon spoke to you, you’d expect a more calm and collected personality… but no, the Moon was a bit loony and liked to ramble. This had to be a dream.

“Yeah… thanks for that,” I grumbled.

You are most welcome! We are now intrinsically linked from now until eternity!

“What.”

I have bound my essence to your own in order to effect repairs that would have otherwise been impossible!

I could only sigh and flop back as this news hit me. Why oh why was this happening to me?

“Yo so… why are you talking to yourself?” the girl who’d kept me from being hurt in the throes of passion asked hesitantly.

“Because I’m crazy and I’m a damn mess,” I replied tiredly.

“Yeah I can tell,” she chuckled, not seeming all that put off by my weird behaviour.

You are not crazy Young One. Simply having to cope with the after effects of overwhelming physical pleasure.

“Oh screw you,” I said shaking a fist at the moon.

That’s a bit rude. I’m going to tell Venus about that in a few billion years when we’ve scheduled tea together.

“Gir- Dud- Shit.. Evan, you’re in no shape to be screwing anyone right now,” the girl said beside me.

“No not you! The Moon!” I said, pointing up.

“Yeah… Okay. Are you alright to stand? ‘Cos the city is kind of on fire and we need to get going before the cops get here and try to arrest you. As much as I’m not a fan of them, I don’t want to see any more of your craziness before the morning,” she told me.

I tested each of my limbs before responding, “Shit… I can try. Am I really a girl now?”

It certainly looked like it from what I could see through my now very baggy clothing. Oh geez that was a nipple.

“Uh… yes. Very much yes,” coughed my new companion.

“Shit.”

“I mean, being a girl isn’t that bad,” my friend, whose name I still could not remember huffed.

“I know, I know, it’s just… look at me!” I squeaked, my voice betraying my new feminine body.

Looking down at myself as I said it, my breath was again taken away. First off, I was like five feet tall if I was lucky. My friend was suddenly more than a head taller than me, and I was definitely feeling that right about now as I glared up at her. The rest of me would have to wait for a different time, but I could tell right off the bat that my boobs were kinda large. Not comically so, but they were already getting in the way as I gesticulated wildly. That was an interesting feeling.

“Yeah, you’re adorable,” she coughed.

“Yeah you’d think that wouldn’t you,” I grumbled, remembering the only thing I really knew about her was that she was super gay.

I mean, you could tell just by looking at her. She had short blonde hair with a fringe that was always pinned to the side by a cute little moon clip. Her whole build was like some sort of elfin warrior. Tall and toned but still with the soft graceful curves of a rather good looking woman. She moved with this sort of economy of motion that spoke of years spent in training at some sort of athletic pastime. Her face was all sharp angles and flat planes, and strangely I found that to be terribly interesting. Her shining grey eyes completed the look of a chick who could break me, before or after my strange transformation.

“Are you seriously going to be homophobic now?” she asked sharply, stepping back with a thunderous expression.

“What?! No! No way! I was just… shit. I’m sorry, my foot just kinda decided to move into my mouth. The rent must be better there or something,” I protested, frantically shaking my hands back and forth trying to calm her.

She tried to keep a straight face, but she failed pretty quickly, devolving into a snorting laugh that made her wheezing words sound really funny, “Oh my god. The others always said you were your own worst enemy, but I thought they were kidding.”

“I know alright geez, no need to rub it in!” I sighed, “I’m like a repeating gif of two toddlers running into each other.”

My joke landed home and she started coughing through her laughter as she held her stomach. I started to move forward to try and fix things before she coughed up something important, only to trip on my oversized pants and fall flat on the concrete. I managed to shield myself at the last minute with my arms, earning some scrapes but otherwise protecting my new face. I wonder what that face looked like. Whatever her name is was howling with laughter now, she even seemed on the brink of collapsing.

I rolled onto my back and looked up at her, my cheeks red with embarrassment, “What even is your name?”

She made a waving motion to indicate she wasn’t quite ready to speak, and instead leaned on a nearby parked car for support. It took her a while, and she actually had to start doing breathing exercises to get herself back under control.

“I’m sorry,” she finally grinned, “This whole thing has been just ridiculous and then here you are still stepping in shit by accident. It’s just too funny. You’re a disaster.”

I made a grumbling noise but otherwise didn’t reply. My mouth might betray me if I spoke.

“My name is Fiona by the way,” she smiled, “... and damn those are some nice legs you’ve got there.”

“What?” I blurted, sitting up to get a look at them.

She was totally right! Wow! They were like, perfect! I twisted them this way and that just admiring them for a moment. I was totally hot, at least from the hips down. That was new. Being attractive might be something I could get used to, assuming I didn’t horribly maim myself by falling down a hole or something.

“Oh geez yeah, look at them,” I finally agreed.

“Oh I am,” she breathed.

I snapped my gaze to her and saw that indeed admiring my legs… in a totally gay way. I quickly pulled them up to my chest and made a sound of protest.

“Right! Sorry… um, we should probably find you some clothes then hey? That polo shirt only covers so much, and your underwear is hella loose,” she said, stumbling a little over her words.

“Your underwear’s hella loose,” I shot back, shuffling my butt so that it wasn’t uncovered or anything.

“Yeah no it isn’t,” she shook her head, then offered me her hand, “Come on. Up you get. We have to get clothes and then find our friends.”

“Yeah… alright. Lead the way I guess,” I sighed, taking her hand.

She pulled me to my feet and then bent down to gather my discarded pants. My shoes seemed to have come off, and she also managed to find my phone. It seemed to be miraculously intact.

“Oh shit,” Fiona whispered when she stood back up.

I looked askance at her, but she was spinning in circles looking around our surroundings. The girls from before had run away, and in fact we were the only ones standing on the street now. There weren’t even any cars on the road, and perhaps even more telling as to the severity of what had occurred, the normal hum of distant traffic as missing and I couldn’t hear any sirens either. The night was dead silent apart from the occasional raised voice in the distance.

“What?” I asked in a hush.

“The power is out. Like, I can’t see a single light on anywhere. Only your friend the moon is lighting anything right now,” she said, waving her hand at our surroundings.

Actually I am merely reflecting the Sun’s light down on you all.

“Oh shut up,” I frowned up at the moon.

“What? Why?” Fiona asked, sounding a little hurt.

“No not you, the Moon. She corrected you about how she’s only reflecting light, not emitting it,” I explained.

My new friend seemed genuinely taken aback by my words, “Wait you’re not joking? The Moon is talking to you?”

“Yeah, she's a total ditz too. Can’t stay on topic to save her life,” I said wryly.

Oh that’s just rude.

“Why has the world gone to shit?” Fiona said, sighing theatrically and shoving her hands in her pockets.

I shrugged, then remembered how she’d handed my phone back to me. Time to check and see if anyone else had seen the crazy stuff that had just happened. I pressed the power button to wake the phone, but nothing happened. Hmm, I guess it must have shut off after it fell on the ground? I really hoped it wasn’t broken. These things were expensive, and my family was running out of old phones to send me. This isn’t my first time breaking or ruining a phone.

I groaned when it wouldn’t turn on and looked up at my new friend with hopeless eyes, “I’ve broken another phone. This sucks.”

She grinned back, “Oh you do that often huh? What’s your kill count?”

“What time period are we talking? All time or just this year?” I replied in defeat. Here comes more teasing.

She blinked a few times and then rolled her eyes, “Nevermind. Let’s see how the others are doing. Come on we’ll walk while I message them. Unlike someone I can avoid obstacles pretty well.”

“Meanie,” I grumbled, but followed her lead back down the street towards our friends.

We hadn’t gotten more than ten meters before she made a sound of confusion and stopped. I looked over to see her messing with her phone and tapping it a few times on a pole.

“You’re not going to fix it by bashing it on things,” I remarked.

“It’s called percussive maintenance, look it up,” she retorted absently, then looked up and grinned, “Oh wait, you can’t.”

“Neither can you by the sounds of things,” I teased.

“No no, I got this,” she mumbled, going back to concentrating on her phone and walking.

Her “getting this” didn’t last long. She stuffed her phone in her pocket with a huff and didn’t say anything.

“Not working too?” I asked.

“Yeah it’s fucked,” she said quietly.

I frowned and turned my eyes forward. Not having shoes was killing me. I casually noticed a car sitting dead in the middle of the road, someone grunting and complaining as they burrowed around under the hood.

“That’s kinda worrying, maybe I busted them with my magic display then?” I mused.

“Maybe, but for once I don’t think it was your fault. Look around us, there’s nothing electronic working at all,” she said, gesturing to the dark streets.

“Yeah… you’re right. Damn, do you think it was like, an EMP or something?” I asked.

“Uhhhh, maybe? There was a lot of explosions in the upper atmosphere so yeah I mean possibly. Those might have been the nukes going off that would cause it,” she shrugged, “I don’t really know much about that type of thing.”

“Neither. I hope the various shitty governments of the world aren’t ending life as we know it over something dumb like a twitter argument,” I said.

Fiona laughed, “Why do I feel like that’s the most realistic scenario these days?”

“Probably because it is,” I snorted.

We walked in silence after that for a few minutes, and things started to sink in for me. I was somehow, against the laws of the universe I had known since I was born, been turned into a girl. I was having trouble keeping up with my friend’s longer strides now, both because of my shorter legs but also because my hips were far wider and everything just moved differently. It was taking me some effort to walk around all of that.

On top of the whole leg and hip problem, I had two problems on my chest. I wanted to reach up and touch them, but I’d feel weird doing that around Fiona. Not touch in a weird way though! They were just moving all over the place and my new much larger nipples were brushing against the rough fabric of my shirt. At first it had felt nice, but now they were starting to chafe and it was getting painful. Damn, this was a lot more of a problem than I’d thought. Guess I’d need a bra…?

There was one thing that made walking easier than previously though. I no longer had a dick. It was a bit eye opening how much that had gotten in the way while I had it, even from my limited experience without it.

The strangest thing about this sudden transformation was my own reaction to it. I wasn’t wailing for my lost “friend” or “manhood” or whatever you wanted to call it like the gender bender isekai stories that had been my guilty pleasure. In those stories the characters had spent like fifty pages just writing breakup poems to their lost penis and it had started to drag on a bit. Here and now though? I fully could not care less about the disappearance. I’d need to examine that later that’s for sure. I felt like there was a whole mental can of worms going on there and if I took a peek under the lid I’d end up in a bad way.

I was dragged from my thoughts when Fiona stopped me with a hand and called out to someone on the other side of the street.

“Hey! Hello?” she called.

The man was wearing a suit and looked like he was in his late thirties and was rushing along going the other way. He looked worried, and I can’t say I blamed him. He looked up when she called out, and suddenly I was following my friend as we crossed the empty street.

“Is your phone working? Sorry our’s are both broken and we can’t figure out why,” she said as we got to the other footpath.

“No it’s not. Neither is my car, or anyone else’s phones and cars. Everything’s gone,” he said angrily, then continued onwards without another word.

We watched him walk out of earshot before Fiona muttered, “Dick.”

“The guy was right though, there’s no cars or anything… maybe we should find somewhere to hide till we know what’s going on?” I asked, suddenly worried about this whole thing.

Things had been rather funny and lighthearted after the Moon started talking to me, and Fiona was nice to talk to and had a great sense of humour, but now the reality of our situation was starting to settle in. I was getting scared. I felt vulnerable in this new smaller body, and that didn’t take into account the fact that I wasn’t wearing anything.

I looked up at the Moon and asked, "Moon... what's going on down here? Why is nothing working?"

I got no reply from her, just empty silence filled with my friend’s confused stare.

"Moon?"

Hmph

"Did you just Hmph at me?" I sputtered.

Yes

"...Why?" I almost whined. I could really do with some sort of divine knowledge right about now.

Because I'm not talking to you. You were rude to me.

"I was rude to you? Okay, look, I’m sorry… but please we’d like some guidance,” I pleaded.

Okay. Because I am kind and benevolent, I will tell you that I have no idea what is going on.

Oh that really wasn’t good.

“Thank you Moon,” I sighed, then leaned against an inert nearby car and told Fiona, “She doesn’t know what’s going on.”

“Well shit. That’s worrying. If the freaking Moon is stumped then there isn’t much hope for us is there?” she grimaced.

“Wait, there’s something she can tell us though!” I realised with a start, then looked up again, “Hey Moon, how much of the world is like this?”

Oh that one’s easy! All of it!

I stood there in silence for a few moments as I processed this, then turned to Fiona and gulped, “The whole world is like this.”

“Whoa… so that means there’s no help coming if things go wrong right? Oh god that’s… what about all the people who rely on all the broken tech to live? Oh no, if this continues… I won't have my meds...” she breathed, her face going white as she spoke the ramifications of what was happening.

“Wait what do you mean?” I asked already worried for her.

“I have Cystic fibrosis. I have an uh, an inhaler and… I take antibiotics like… like I’m always on them,” she said haltingly. I could see her starting to panic.

“Hey whoa, we don’t know if this is permanent,” I said, reaching out to hold her hand and comfort her.

It is. The other celestial bodies in this system have already determined that whatever has been done is prevalent throughout the system and will not reverse itself unless there is further outside intervention.

I cringed and looked up at Moon. That did not sound good… which meant if this was permanent…

“What did she say?” asked my grey eyed friend softly.

I let go of her hand and ran my hand through my hair, finding it a bit longer than I was used to, about half a foot long, but nothing I couldn’t deal with. I wondered idly what colour it was, but I wouldn’t really be able to see it in the dark.

“She said that… she said that it looks like this might be a permanent thing,” I breathed.

“Oh no,” she replied in a whisper.

“It’s okay… if this is… okay one step at a time,” I said, trying and failing to comfort her.

I wanted to give her a hug or something but that would probably be super awkward and I’d probably end up headbutting her somehow.

She took a few deep breaths, then nodded and straightened and nodded again, “Yeah, you’re right. I can’t fall apart now. I have a little swan here to protect after all.”

“What? A little swan?” I frowned. Please tell me she wasn’t…

“Yeah! You! You’re pretty, but you’re kinda awkward and stuff. Plus you’re a mess. Gotta protect the little swan,” she smiled. It was a bit forced, but it was there.

“Alright look, first off… wait pretty?” I started to protest, then I registered that she’d called me pretty. Wow, why did I feel so good about being called pretty?

“Yup, cute as hell,” she giggled, reaching out and ruffling my hair, “Come on, it’s time to go. If this is permanent, then I suggest we make a stop in that store over there. You need clothes.”

“I don’t think the store is open though,” I pointed out, a little confused by all this now.

“Somehow I doubt that will be a problem for much longer,” she laughed… no wait, cackled.

Oh no, what was she planning? I watched her walk over to a metal road works sign, pick it up and hefted it like a weapon, then march towards the closed shop window.

“Hey, hey, hey! Fiona! What are you doing?” I called after her, following along behind.

“Oh shush, it’s a GAP store. No one’s going to care! Not even them,” she grinned, then swung her makeshift weapon at the glass storefront.

Inside the store it was dark, but I had to wait until Fiona had cleared the broken glass somewhat before I could even enter. When she’d done so, I carefully tiptoed my way in behind her. I felt my heartbeat going through the roof with the adrenaline of breaking and entering, but the tall girl in front of me assuaged some of the fear with her presence. She seemed to know what she was doing.

I almost stumbled into a display of jeans when I heard a flicking sound and suddenly there was a little bit of light. Not much, but enough to avoid large obstacles. I looked up to see her holding a Zippo lighter up.

“You smoke? That sounds like a bad idea given the whole… lung destroying chronic illness thing,” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

She looked confused for a second, her gaze flicking to the lighter and back to me as if she couldn’t figure out how the two were related.

Making a sound of understanding, she shook her head, “No I don’t smoke, my dad is just a survival nut who always talked my head off about carrying a knife and a lighter at all times. Guess he was right in the end. Too bad his heart gave out, the cranky old fucker would have loved this situation.”

“He wasn’t fun?” I asked cautiously.

“Nope, he was a dickhead. Turfed me out on my ass at sixteen because I was gay and had the audacity to be caught making out with a very curious cheerleader,” she grinned, then threw a packet of underwear, then some jeans at me, “Put the underwear on. I won’t look I promise, then try the jeans on and see if they fit. I’m going to find something to throw all this crap into.”

I almost caught the underwear package, but it slipped through my fingers. Following straight after, the jeans landed on my face with a wump that made me stumble slightly. Luckily I managed to get myself righted and bent down to pick up the underwear.

“Wow… sorry I forgot. I’m used to people being able to catch things I throw at them,” Fiona said looking sheepish.

“It’s fine,” I smiled. I’d been living with my uncoordinated nature my whole life, and it seemed that not even a gender swap was going to take that away.

Turning her back as I put on the underwear, Fiona moved further into the store holding the lighter aloft like a beacon. The way the underwear cupped everything snugly was altogether a new feeling after a lifetime of wearing boxer shorts. I spent half a minute just wiggling around in them and marvelling at the strange but not altogether unwelcome feel of it.

The jeans were tougher, but I got them on in the end. I was pretty sure that she hadn’t gotten a good enough look at my new ass when she was checking me out because they had been sliding on just fine until then. My ass was pretty damn big I realised with a strange surge of pride and then annoyance as it took a lot of dancing to get them over the twin mounds of muscle and fat that comprised my butt.

I almost whooped in triumph when I got them over, but I was interrupted by giggling from nearby. Fiona was back holding a satchel and had seen my struggle.

“Wow that was the funniest shit I’ve seen in a while,” she laughed.

“Oh leave me alone you perv,” I grumbled.

“Nope, you need to put on some of these sports bras, then a shirt and a jacket,” she told me, making a beckoning motion to follow her further into the store, “Oh and grab like five pairs of jeans of the same size.”

“But I didn’t look at the size before I put them on!” I cried in dismay.

“Your problem not mine!” came the laughing reply.

Lucky for me I was able to match the size she’d given me by measuring a few pairs against myself. I had a few pairs under my arm when I went in search of wherever Fiona had gotten to. I found her throwing random sport’s bras from the limited range they carried in the shop onto the ground.

“Damn these people have never heard of… oh here we go!” she mumbled, apparently finding a size she was looking for. She turned to me and took the jeans from me, swapping them for the sports bra, “Alright put that on and see if it works.”

I watched her expectantly until she realised that she needed to give me privacy so I could take my top off. I was entirely new to having boobs, but I wasn’t going to just flash them around the place.

Taking my top off, I was immediately struck by the strange new view I had staring down at myself. The next thing I registered was a strange warmth in my stomach that seemed to lazily coil there. Oh no, please tell me I wasn’t turning myself on with the sight of my own boobs! I quickly pulled the sports bra on, only to have the adjustment process make things worse. Wow this was odd. At least the bra seemed to be working, and it wasn’t uncomfortable.

“Uh yeah… I think you have a good eye for sizes I guess,” I said at last.

“Thanks! I guess we’ll throw a bunch of these into the bag as well then,” Fiona smiled, then ransacked the rack for more.

Once she was done we wandered into the women’s shirts area, only for my guide to throw her hands up in disgust, “Fuck. It’s still summer! None of these are useful or practical. Guess we’re going to the men’s section.”

“Alrighty then,” I laughed.

She was totally right though. Everything was all frilly and had no sleeves and shit. I couldn’t see myself surviving whatever was to come in a flowery summer shirt. I kinda wanted one though… without really thinking I swiped a black shirt that had these pleated shoulders. I liked it. I don’t know. I had the body for it now so I may as well give it a try.

“Typical. Guys get all the shit that might actually hold up under more than a light breeze,” my friend huffed when we got there.

She started going through all the different shirts, randomly throwing smalls and mediums into the bag, then threw one at me to put on. It had this sort of red and black tartan pattern on it, but was otherwise a normal shirt. I put it on and didn’t think much more about it. It seemed sturdy, and that was what we were probably going to need.

Fiona had somehow materialised another bag and was shoving more clothing into it seemingly at random.

“How come you’re filling an extra bag?” I asked as I followed her.

“Just in case we can’t make it back to my place tonight. I have this nagging feeling that things might go to shit for the next few weeks and I want us to be prepared,” she explained as she filled the two satchels with clothing.

“So we should stick together then?” I asked, trying to keep my tone free of the apprehension I felt.

This one got her to stop and look at me. She appraised me for a moment then said, “If you’d like to go your own way, that’s okay. Sorry… I just assumed what you wanted to do I guess.”

Shaking my head vigorously I said, “No definitely not. Without anything working, not even cars, it might be hard for just a few cops to keep order. They’ll bring the army in pretty quickly to keep order, but it will still be pretty shit for us civilians. I will be so much safer with you.”

“Good, then it’s settled. We stick together!” she smiled, then turned back to what she had been doing.

We ended our search in the shoe section, where she directed me to grab two pairs of shoes, one to wear now and one to wear later. Fiona gave me the bag with all my newly acquired clothing, and then it was time to continue our mission to find our friends.

The night was still eerily quiet outside the store, except if you focused you could hear shouting faintly in the distance. We didn’t even get time to start walking before there was a tremor that rolled through the ground. It felt like an earthquake, and one close to the surface too. I stumbled as the rolling continued for a few moments, and my new friend reached out a hand to steady me.

“What was that? Was that an earthquake? What’s going on?” she asked with worry lacing her voice.

“I think it was, but it felt really close to the surface. I’d say like a hundred meters meters deep at most, and about a four or five,” I guessed.

You didn’t grow up in an earthquake prone country like New Zealand and not gain at least a passing knowledge of how to guess those things.

“How do you know?” she asked, puzzled.

“You can’t tell by the accent? New Zealand has a lot of earthquakes,” I explained.

“Oh I just thought it was really cute, I didn’t really focus on where it might be from,” she said sheepishly.

“O-oh,” I blushed. Oh no… cheeks why? Thank gosh there wasn’t much light so she couldn’t see it.

“Forward?” she asked awkwardly.

“Yeah lets.”

So we did. We kept moving further into the city towards the bar where our friends had been. There were more and more people wandering around, many of them confused looking students due to the area of town we were in. We passed a crashed pair of cars that seemed to have been unable to stop, but no one was around anymore who looked like they owned either vehicle. Then we saw a group of people raid an electronics store. Unlike the GAP store that we had broken into, this one was guarded by a scared looking man in underwear carrying a shotgun.

“Get back! I’ll shoot!” he yelled at the crowd as they readied bricks to bust the windows in.

Someone in the back of the small crowd of rough looking dudes hefted a brick through the shop window, and the tired store keeper fired randomly. Or at least… that’s what should have happened. Instead we all heard an echoing click as nothing happened. We all stared for a moment, until he readied the gun again and fired once more. Again a click. The mob didn’t wait for him to try again, they rushed him, pushed him to the ground and kicked him until he stopped moving.

I couldn’t help but want to move forward and help the man, but Fiona held me back. She was eyeing the people around us warily, then she looked down at me. She pulled out a knife from somewhere, flashed it where everyone could see, then walked forward towards the guy on the ground. I rushed forward with her, and quickly knelt to check if the guy was alive. I had no idea how this stuff worked, but he was breathing and there wasn’t too much blood around so I figured he was at least alive.

Fiona watched me for a moment, then nodded and moved over to the gun that was laying forgotten on the ground. She picked it up gingerly, pointing the barrel away from anyone, then pointed it into an alleyway and pulled the trigger again. Nothing happened but the click. She took out the shell and chambered a new one, then tried again. Still nothing. She did that until there were no more shells left in the gun, then placed it on the ground with a deep frown. She picked up one of the unfired shells and inspected it. She pocketed two shells, wary of the rough looking people around us, and indicated I should follow her further down the street.

“What was that about?” I asked when we were out of earshot of the people behind us.

“His gun didn’t just misfire. Every one of those shells looked fine. I don’t know… It just seems fucked that they all broke you know? We’ll test these shells later, but we have our friends to find,” she explained, a frown still creasing her brow.

“Should I ask Moon?” I offered.

“Sure go ahead. She’s probably the one who has the best idea on the subject,” she shrugged.

I nodded, then looked up at my other new friend hanging there in the sky, “Okay… um Moon? Why didn’t that guy’s gun work?”

I do not know. It’s probably related to all the other strange phenomena that have been occuring. Might I suggest setting those capsules of gunpowder on fire to see if that still works?

“That sounds… dangerous, and I think Fiona already had that idea,” I replied.

Well in that case, I do not think I can be of assistance at this time. If you have any questions related to magic on a celestial scale however, I would be of far greater help.

“Right… I’ll keep that in mind when I want to terraform Mars,” I said dryly.

Mars has been working on that already for a while now. He was jealous of the Earth and her interesting humans and wished to seem appealing. He is rather upset about the implications of the changes that have happened.

“Okay then. That’s some damn interesting information,” I replied diplomatically.

Were all the celestial bodies as odd as the Moon? What a wild idea.

“Any luck?” Fiona asked hopefully.

“No… although I did learn that Mars was terraforming himself for us,” I said.

“That’s… kinda crazy but okay. Whatever floats Mars’ boat I guess,” she replied, confusion and disbelief apparent in her expression.

“Yeah that’s what I thought,” I laughed.

Mars has never been in a boat. I would very much like to see a boat big enough to hold Mars though. It would be terribly entertaining.

I ignored the oblivious hunk of rock in the sky and continued walking. We were almost at the bar when I spoke again.

"I didn’t like leaving that man on the ground," I said quietly.

"Yeah I know. I was worried about what would happen if we tried to help though. He was alive… he might be fine," she shrugged, "And he did fire on those people, even if his gun didn't work. Best to just stay out of the whole affair."

“You’re right. Still, people being hurt isn’t something I like seeing,” I sighed.

Fiona nodded and was silent for a while before she finally spoke in a defeated tone, “I hope you don’t have to.”

I didn’t really have an answer to her words, nor the words between what she’d said, so I stayed silent and walked next to her. I was pretty happy to at least be wearing something that wasn’t just my old ratty oversized polo shirt. Funny how my companion had dressed me in the same style that she herself wore.

I wonder what I looked like? Fiona had said I was pretty, which had felt oddly nice. I hadn’t gotten many compliments about my looks for most of my life. Most of the time people would say something along the lines of, “My god boy! You’re so tall!” which I wasn’t really a fan of. Sure being tall was good for some people, but I just felt… awkward. It didn’t match some internal standards bureau in my brain. I was fairly sure it was because being tall had just meant I had more of myself to smash on things by accident.

I wish I was home right now as well. As entertaining and... if I’m totally honest, exciting as all of this was, I wanted the comfort of my room and my bed. Oh, or my computer! I wish I could play… oh no. If this continued, I might never be able to play games again? That was a genuinely depressing thought. Gaming had been my escape and my solace when life had been hard, or just when I’d been bored. How was I going to entertain myself now? It’s not like I had any useful skills that would work in the world as it stood now. Who needs a bloody programmer when all the computers are busted?

“Um… Fiona… are you sure you want to group up with me? I’m a nerdy programmer with no practical skills at all,” I said tentatively, already fearing her answer.

My new friend stopped and turned to me with a surprised expression, “What do you mean? You just exploded a few cars and buildings with magic and you can talk to the fucking Moon. She might be a little odd but that’s still a positive. Don’t be dumb Evan.”

“I… I’m… hmmm. I guess you’re right. I was only really thinking about all the stuff I knew from before. I guess I might be useful if I can figure it out,” I said, not really all that convinced.

“You don’t need to be good at anything to be worth helping and having around ya silly goose. Honestly… come on let’s keep walking, we’re almost at the bar,” she smiled, gesturing slightly that we continue.

We had only taken a few steps before she spoke again, “Do you want me to call you like… Eva or something? I mean I can still call you dude pronouns and stuff, and use Evan if you want… but yeah, offer’s out there.”

“I haven’t actually thought about tha-” I started, before being interrupted by friend above.

I should get to name you!

"Wait what? Why should you get to name me?" I asked with consternation, looking up so that Fiona knew who I was talking to.

Because I fixed you.

"But-"

I always wanted a friend named Delphira, so that will be your name.

"Delphira? Really?"

Yes.

"Fine... I guess it's as good a name as any other. Makes me sound like some forest nymph from greek mythology."

No, it is better, because I am the one that made it up. I remember the greeks though, I had this very good friend named Sappho. She was-

I snorted, damned if she wasn’t funny in her own way, “But why Delphira?”

I don’t know. Hmmm… why don’t I know?

“No idea,” I said, then turned to a thoroughly amused Fiona, “The Moon just named me. Apparently I’m going to be called Delphira.”

“That’s a damn mouthful, so I’m calling you Elph,” she declared.

“Wow everyone’s just throwing names at me now. Why Elph? How does that work?” I laughed.

“Delph. Elph. You know… and plus it sounds like Elf and elves are good at magic. You’re going to be good at magic, so it fits,” she grinned.

“Right. I appreciate the enthusiasm I guess. Elph it is. Or Delphira…” I smiled.

Once again starting to walk forward, I thought about my new name. Delphira huh? I could make it work. It actually sounded kinda nice in my head, although if I’d picked for myself, I probably would have chosen something more normal. It was nice though. I liked it. Evan was so boring anyway. Evan. Blech. Evan was a boring antisocial programmer who bumbled around breaking himself on things… Delphira might be someone worth being though…

I had no idea what time it was by now, but it seemed like there should be less people wandering around on a wednesday night. Nevermind, what am I talking about? This area is a fairly popular student hang out area, and as we all know… students drink every night. They don’t stick to the common friday and saturday night like normal people.

The square that had been our destination was old. The flagstones were worn smooth along the common routes people took to make their way across its thirty or so yards of width. Some statue to a long dead man on horseback stood in the center, tarnished green and white where time and the elements had taken their toll. Boston was full of little places like this, where you turned a corner and walked briefly back in time.

To me it seemed like the type of place that should be quiet and peaceful, with an atmosphere of bittersweet memory. Instead, it was teeming with people. Capitalism had encroached on the old place, lining it with bars and clubs to cater the the nearby student population. The lights and noise of those establishments jarred with the time worn stone and its weathered green centerpiece.

As we approached, I noticed the atmosphere was tense and the police were doing their best to calm people down and get them moving home. The cops seemed to be few in number though, and it looked like a rather futile attempt that was doomed to fail.

The bar we wanted was on the other side of the square from where we’d entered, and I was dreading getting through it to find our friends. Crowds like this were scary. There was nothing worse than a group of scared and confused human beings.

“We have to go through that?” I asked uneasily.

“Yeah I’m afraid so. We’ll try and skirt around the edges for now though,” Fiona replied, then began to move in, “Alright stay close okay?”

I did so, following her into the bowels of hell. Am I being dramatic? Definitely, but whatever… I am who I am. Plus I’m like five feet tall now so crowds are suddenly a lot more dangerous than when I was six foot plus. Damn though shrinking was actually more jarring right now than having my gender changed on me out of the blue. The whole world looked different from down here. Also door handles were now at an appropriate height. I wasn’t really upset about that part.

I was so distracted thinking about my new height that I didn’t see a curb that my friend had just navigated. Just like that I was off balance and doing a windmill impression with my arms. I was teetering on the edge of falling over when a warm, strong hand gripped mine and steadied me.

I looked up into amused grey eyes, the owner of which said, “Wow. Nice job Elph. I think I’ll keep hold of this hand and make sure you stay upright for more than a few seconds at a time.”

I blushed deeply again, something that had apparently followed me from my old body. Damn it, why was I like this?

“Um, sure,” I shrugged, trying to act nonchalant.

“Good girl,” she laughed, and pulled me along.

I tried not to think about how nice her hand felt, soft skin contrasting with a few calluses. The crowd was all callus at the moment though, and police were trying to break up a fight between two very drunk looking men. A few people were laughing and chanting some phrase about having the two people beat each other further. No one seemed to want to leave the safety of the crowd and venture into the dark streets though.

We were almost to the bar when a shout when up from somewhere in the crowd. Fiona and I both turned to look as someone began pointing out over the rooftops. When I followed the direction indicated, I gasped. There was light coming from somewhere other than above. It took a few moments before I realised that there was also smoke pouring up into the sky. A building was on fire somewhere close.

“Shit that’s not far away,” Fiona swore, “About a quarter mile, if that. We need to get out of here as soon as we find the others.”

“Yeah let’s move while everyone is staring at the fire. At least people won’t be moving around as much and we can walk faster,” I nodded.

“Right, let’s go,” she agreed.

We made it to the bar soon after, able to move more freely now that people were congregating where they could goggle at the fire. Even in the minute or so it took us to reach the bar the blaze seemed to be getting larger. A few wisps of flame could be seen above the two or so storey tall buildings in the way.

Inside the bar was relatively calm compared to outside. A few patrons of the place had decided to stay indoors with the staff, who were currently crowded around the small windows trying to see what the fuss was about. The bar itself was the kind of place that had been built to look old while keeping the open plan design of a more modern place. Old dark wood had been used for many of the tables and bar, and cheap landscape paintings hung around the place. Someone had thought to put a bunch of candles out and lit them, allowing those inside to see somewhat.

A few moments after we entered, a worried looking woman in the staff uniform approached us, “Hey there, you’re free to take shelter in here but we’re not serving drinks anymore sorry. At least not until they get the power back on.”

Fiona and I exchanged looks before she replied, “Right. We’re not going to stay, we’re just looking for our friends who were at that table over there. We’ll be out of your hair in a moment.”

“Oh that group! They left pretty quickly. I can’t tell you any more than that though I’m sorry,” the woman replied.

“Ah damn. Thanks anyway,” Fiona sighed.

I was about to suggest we take a look at the crowd outside a bit more to see if they were in there, when a guy about our age spoke up from a chair nearby, “Hey you looking for Polly and Harry and all them?”

“Yeah!” I said quickly, and my friend nodded her agreement.

“They left as soon as this all started,” he told us.

“Did they say where they might have gone?” I asked eagerly.

He tried to remember for a moment, then shook his head, “Nah when they left all I heard was that Beth chick joking about her… Pepa cake tin plan? Something like that. I don’t know what that means.”

“Oh shit,” Fiona whispered.

“What?” I asked her.

“Nothing,” she said, then turned to the helpful dude, “Thanks for your help man.”

We left the bar and I felt a bit defeated to be honest. We’d walked all the way back and found that our friends had left. What were we going to do now? My apartment had a lot of useless shit in it now. None of my clothes would work, none of my tech worked… I mean there wasn’t anything there for me anymore.

When I looked over at the fire that had been relatively small before i was taken aback by the change. The wisps of flame from before had turned into skyward reaching geysers of fire.

“Shit that’s not good. Where do you think they went?” I commented.

“I know where they might go… you know, when they realise that things are going to be more permanent,” Fiona told me as she led me away.

“Where?”

“Pepacton Reservoir, or Pepa cake tin as that guy said it. Beth’s family owns a cabin over there and it’s really out of the way. Beth has this crazy apocalypse plan to hole up there if things go south because she’s a daydreamer like that. It’s a long way off though… like two hundred miles as the crow flies. I don’t know what to do to be honest,” she said, running her free hand through her short hair anxiously.

“Um. I guess we should go to… your place? I don’t have anything at home, not even food, so there’s no reason to go back there and… yeah we’re sticking together so…” I said, uncertain if it was okay for me to invite myself to her place.

“Yeah that’s a plan. I think we should check their houses and see what’s going on tomorrow, collect some shit, then get the hell out of this city before things turn really sour,” Fiona said thoughtfully.

Leaving the square we took a route close but not through the blaze that seemed to be getting larger and larger by the minute. The streets were dark and eerie with the dim orange glow being the main source of light now. People moved through the shadows and the dark with watchful eyes. It was clear the city had a general air of fear already as people tried to figure out what was going on. It was hard not to realise something momentous had occurred when everyone had experienced the same strange loss of gravity and light as something broke reality.

When I’d originally left the bar I’d taken some quieter streets, but now we were travelling along one of the more well used ones. The effect of the catastrophe could not be understated here. Cars lay strewn across the street like they’d been lifted and thrown. Several looked like they’d collided with each other. The worst part was the bodies. There weren’t a whole lot of them, but occasionally you’d find someone crying and holding a body, or worse, just the body lying where they had been crushed or in an accident. I did my best to block it out, but I don’t think I would be forgetting those scenes any time soon.

It was a nervous trip to Fiona’s house, but we made it to the place she rented fairly easily. Her place was a fairly standard two storey wooden affair, where the top was one apartment while the bottom was another. Her’s was on the top floor, and we ascended the stairs and entered. Inside it was actually fairly nice, clean carpet and walls devoid of holes. I was jealous, my place had a few holes in the kitchen, and the carpet was a threadbare mess.

Following Fiona’s lighter into what turned out to be the kitchen, she passed it to me and said, “Hold the lighter while I get some candles out so we can see.”

“Why do you even have candles?” I asked, glancing curiously around. The place seemed to be just her, which was easier as far as explaining who the hell I was. Shit I didn’t know the answer to that question, other than “me”.

“Cos I’m a hopeless romantic and I wanted to have them ready in case I was going to cook for someone,” she said with a sigh.

“Cute. I take it that there wasn’t much luck with the whole romance thing though?” I smiled.

“For a time there was,” she sighed, getting up with two long candles and taking the lighter back, “But turns out she was a waste of time. I’ve been avoiding getting my heart broken again since then.”

“Yeah… I’ve had issues on that front as well. Never make it past three months. It sucks,” I smiled, patting her awkwardly on the arm as she tried to light the candle.

“Yup. Now quit trying to burn my house down and let me light this thing,” she said, frowning at me.

“Oh right, my bad,” I said sheepishly, turning to get another look at the kitchen.

It was clean, but in a way where you think that it’s more likely that the place just isn’t used rather than kept that way. She had the bare minimum of utensils and that was about it.

Raising the candle she’d finished lighting, she motioned me ahead of her. I went where she directed, opening the door to what she told me was her bedroom. Inside it was clean, but messy. Clothes hung on a chair and lay on the ground, but I couldn’t see any dirty clothing or used plates like in my room.

I turned to see the rest of the room and got the fright of my life. A person was just lurking in the corner like nothing was happening, and I gave a girlish scream and fell over. My butt hit the carpet about the same time I realised that I had not in fact seen a person, but just a suit of armour.

I mean a real honest to god suit of armour, gleaming silver and looking terribly deadly and functional. If I had to guess based on my bored wikipedia nerdiness sprees, I’d say it was late medieval, just before that type of protection became obsolete. The cuirass was two or three interlocking plates, while the joints had more than that. It was damn impressive looking and I looked over at Fiona to ask why she had a damn suit of armour in her room. I found her laughing hard and struggling to keep the candle from falling out of her grasp.

“Why do you have a suit of armour?” I squeaked.

She pulled herself together, and looked a little embarrassed when she replied, “I’m into HEMA… I um. Yeah. Not the crazy authentic kind where everyone is super anal about using ancient techniques to forge weapons or whatever. That suit is made using way better materials than they ever had back in the medieval times and… shit I’m rambling sorry.”

It was my turn to laugh, but it sounded way too close to a giggle for my own comfort. It was just that her rambling was kinda cute, and I wanted to chuckle and… gah.

“Cool, uh but what is HEMA?” I asked.

“Oh uh, Historical European Martial Arts,” she told me, blushing a little now. I’m guessing she’d gotten shit for it in the past.

“That’s pretty cool! Do you have a sword? Can I see it?” I asked eagerly, the nerd within me lighting up.

“Whoa, phrasing,” she laughed, “And yeah I have a few. Most are blunt but I have two that are really nice and sharp. Those are just for display though.”

“Can I see them?” I pleaded.

“Um yeah sure, they’re in the closet hold on,” she nodded, turning around to open the closet and retrieve two swords from a little rack in there.

There was a lot of them, I think I counted eight in total before she closet the closet again with the two sharp ones she’d mentioned.

“Now, I’m not letting you hold them cos you’ll just cut yourself or stab yourself or something, but I’ll hold it out for you to see,” she teased.

“Aw that’s no fair… but… yeah I see your point,” I sighed, then went right back to being excited when she drew the first one.

It looked fairly functional in design. There were no bells and whistles on it, just sleek steel and dark leather on the hilt. She held it reverently, like it was precious and irreplaceable, and I realised that it actually was just that. It was a sword made using technology that as a race we might never possess again, using materials we would never be able to create again. Sure it was still steel, but it was steel that had been carefully mixed using hyper sensitive equipment. None of that was possible anymore.

“You realise that this is probably worth a hundred times its weight in gold now?” I asked quietly, awestruck as I realised how much we were going to lose as a civilisation.

“Why?” she asked, a little crease appearing between her brows as she tried to follow my thought process.

“Because this was made using all sorts of techniques or machines that we might never have access to again. There will be no more swords like these,” I explained reverently, reaching out to put a finger on the flat of the blade.

“Oh… wow yeah…” she blinked, staring down at the sword with even more care now, “And it’s going to be even more useful when people realise their guns aren’t working.”

“Oh! You still have those shells? Maybe we should test them?” I asked with obvious excitement. I liked setting things on fire. In controlled environments of course. I wouldn’t want to start a fire like the one back at the bar.

“Oh snap you’re right,” she said, her eyes lighting up, “Yeah let’s go put them in the bathtub!”

She dug around in her pocket for the shells, found them and grinned at me. I followed her eagerly into her small but clean bathroom. The tub would never be able to fit her laying down, but it doubled as a shower in the same way you often found in older houses.

Fiona produced a knife from somewhere again and leaned down to the tub. Carefully she used the tip of her knife to pry open the shells one after another. She collected the buckshot and placed it aside along with the wad. Next came the powder, which she poured out into two separate piles well away from each other.

“Alright, I’m going to light it with the candle,” Fiona said.

“Wait just like that? But won’t it blow up or something? I asked, stopping her hand.

“Hmm? No, a lot of people think that gunpowder explodes violently or something, but out in the open like this without being compressed into a cartridge it's just going to make a big candle basically,” she shook her head.

“Oh… right carry on then,” I said sheepishly.

She winked at me, then leaned down and used the candle to light it. To my untrained eyes, I didn’t know what to expect, but I was sure that at least a pillar of flame should have been rising up out of that tub. Instead however we got a flame not even an inch high that burned lethargically. There was no explosion, as I’d thought there was, nor a large candle like Fiona had described.

“Um, is that what you meant or…?” I asked in confusion.

Shaking her head with a touch of concern she said, “Nah I was expecting a flame like four inches tall or something. Also it should have burned damn fast too. That’s really odd. I’m going to light the second pile.”

She did so, and it reacted in much the same way as the first, maybe a little slower to burn even. We stared at each other as both piles still burned in the tub. Guns were out too. No more guns, no more electricity.

“Your sword and your skills with it are suddenly way more impressive,” I said seriously.

She frowned and squinted at me, “Wait so they weren’t before?”

Oh no! Foot in mouth!

“No no I mean… I just… shit…” I said, stammering over my words.

Her serious and slightly hurt expression cracked and opened into one of teasing amusement at my words, “Oh wow you are just the easiest person in the world to tease. It’s okay, I know what you meant.”

I made a grumbling sound and frowned at her in reply.

“Awww and now she pouts! So cute!” laughed Fiona.

I couldn’t hold the so called pout, and broke into a smile, “So where am I sleeping tonight?”

“My bed? I’ll sleep on the floor or something,” she said, her joviality replaced by an awkward shuffle of her feet.

“You sure?” I asked, feeling bad about sending her onto the floor.

“Yup. I’ll be fine. Practice for sleeping on the ground later on,” she smiled.

“Oh. Damn…” I mumbled, realising she was right.

We were going to be roughing it for a long time as we left the city, that was for sure. My city boy… girl… my city person ass was going to be sore as hell.

The next morning when we set out to make visits to as many of our friend’s houses as we could, the city was changed. In some places it was glaringly obvious, in others it was less obvious. In the suburb where the bar had been you could still see the fires burning, a huge plume of smoke billowing up above the city like some titanic creature being born. Small fires added to the dark cloud of soot and smoke, their smaller fires raging just as unchecked as the larger ones. Every now and then little flakes of ash would fall on us as we walked through the thankfully safe area we’d stayed.

People stood outside their doors and spoke in hushed tones, as though the oppressive black cloud above us would take notice and lash out. It wasn’t just the cloud though, it was the silence. The empty void of sound where there should have been the hum of distant traffic made all the more poignant by the daylight. A quiet city in daylight hours was an eerie experience, one that scared me more even than the smoke creature above us. Fiona and I walked through the silence without a word.

That is, we walked in silence until someone interrupted us.

Hello Delphira! Did you sleep well? I would like to know because I do not sleep and the idea that humans voluntarily lose consciousness for around eight hours every day is slightly terrifying. How do you do it? It’s always fascinated me. Oh! I’ve been studying our connection and I think I’ve-

“Moon! Hi, please… one word at a time please it’s hard to understand you when you run them together like that,” I blurted, interrupting her. She’d surprised me and that had sent all my tact out the window.

Oh. I am sorry. Yes, I am just getting used to having my speed of thought matching that of you mortals and it’s very hard to get the hang of.

“Moon’s awake huh?” Fiona grinned.

“Yeah she is… well, apparently she doesn’t sleep but… anyway… Moon what did you figure out?” I asked.

I am able to imbue your skin with protection!

“What kind of protection…?”

Protection from physical harm! It’s a bit finicky, but I’m sure I can stop many blows before I will have to imbue you again. It’s quite fascinating to watch our distinctly different magical auras interacting you know. I’ve been watching it the entire time you were asleep!

I was genuinely happy to hear this news, and it showed in my voice, “That’s so cool! Can you do it now?”

Indeed I can, as I am still in the sky! I will be unable to imbue you when I am not in the sky however, so do be careful during those times. Wait… I may be able to shift my orbit, although it has been a very long time since I was any good at orbital mechanics.

“Yeah I’d rather you didn’t do that and end up deorbiting yourself Moon. One apocalypse at a time please,” I laughed. This was absolutely wild. I was asking the moon to please not end all life on earth by accident.

Ah you are correct. Shifting myself might have adverse effects on those of you running around on Earth. I will keep myself stationary. Now, on to the imbuement. Hold still!

“Wait, hold still? Is this going to be like last ti-” I protested, before I felt an almost violent tingling across my skin.

There wasn’t any overwhelming sensations of pleasure, which I was both thankful for and a little disappointed about. It wasn’t dissimilar to the way all the hairs on your body stand on end when something excites or surprises you.

“Whoa, what did the Moon just do to you?” Fiona asked sharply, her eyes flicking wildly across my body.

“Uh, I think it’s an energy shield, although she didn’t call it that,” I said, holding my up arm and pulling the sleeve to get a look.

The skin seemed normal at first, until I noticed the strange glow it had. It was as though little waves of silver light were shifting and swirling across my skin. Along with the waves was a strange aura of the same colour that made it look as though my skin was taking ambient light from an invisible bluish white light. The effect was subtle, but still definitely noticeable.

“Huh, I glow funny,” I said matter of factly.

“Your eyes are doing the same thing, but more intense. It’s actually really pretty,” Fiona told me, her eyes gazing into mine.

I blinked, again she’d called me pretty, and again it sent a little spark of happiness through me. Who knew I’d like being called pretty? It wasn’t the same as being called handsome. A sparse few girls had called me handsome, but even those few times had not elicited this same reaction from me. I liked being pretty more than handsome I guess. I was pretty!

Oh yes, you will glow a bit. Never fear, that’s the… shield, as you called it.

“Thanks Moon, I hope it doesn’t end up being necessary, but somehow that doesn’t seem realistic anymore,” I said, genuinely thankful for her help, “You’re totally my favourite moon now.”

Who was your favourite moon before?

“Uh… let’s not talk about that. It’s time to keep moving anyway!” I said, avoiding the subject. She’d probably tell me about how annoyed that other moon made her.

Ah, yes well… good luck on your walking then. With your legs and the like. I would like to have limbs one day. I wonder how that feels… to have limbs…

I ignored her idle musings and Fiona and I continued walking.

“I’m pretty jealous right now, not gonna lie. I want cool shimmering skin,” Fiona said with a smile.

I grinned back, “You do! It’s just back in your apartment. Should have suited up, then you’d be ten times cooler than me and my shimmery skin.”

“Really? You actually think my armor is cool?” she said, getting a little shy.

“Damn straight your armour is cool! You’re like an actual knight! That’s so so so cool!” I exclaimed, confused by her bashfulness on the subject.

She shrugged and looked away, “I guess. I haven’t really met anyone outside my group that thinks that. Even the others that we’re going to go find still made fun of me a bit for it.”

“Wow that’s like all kinds of rude! I’ll tell them to bugger off or I’ll… blast them with magic or something!” I said sincerely.

“Thanks,” she said, a lopsided grin appearing on her face as she turned back to look at me.

“No problem!”

****

The first place we called on was Harry’s house. He was also in a safer neighbourhood free of fires or looting… or so we thought. The house was a fairly standard looking inner suburban home with two storeys and a US flag out the front. Harry was lucky enough to have his parents live close to the city, and so he lived with them.

When we walked up to the door with the intention of knocking, Fiona stopped me and pointed to it. She’d seen what I hadn’t, that the door had been kicked in. The door was ever so slightly ajar, and as a breeze picked up it moved slightly.

“Fuck,” she whispered, “Why didn’t I bring my sword?”

“Should we go in?” I asked softly.

She seemed to be of split mind for a moment before she nodded, “I’ll go first, stay behind me okay?”

I started to protest, wanting to argue that because I had my shield she shouldn’t be the one going first, but she shushed me with a finger to her lips.

I felt a spike of fear for her as she pushed the door open, but nothing came out of the shadows to hurt her. The entrance hall was empty. I crept along as quietly as I could behind Fiona, but she was far more nimble on her feet that I was. The interior was the same as most other houses of this type, drywall painted eggshell with a few pictures hanging on the wall. Where things differed from the norm was the way the place had been torn apart. Where the paintings should have been on the wall as I’d described, instead they lay on the ground with their glass in shattered pieces.

I don’t know what it was about this place, but something felt off. It was like the air was excited or high strung. I felt a sense of creeping unease enter my heart, and I moved myself closer to my friend. She might be wildly better at fighting than I was, but I was damn well going to be a shield for her if something happened.

We followed the hallway to its end, where the combined living room and kitchen were. The door was open just a crack, and Fiona turned to me to again signal that I should stay quiet. I obliged, positioning myself so I wouldn’t be a hindrance if there was someone waiting on the other side. Carefully she edged the door open, and when no threat came she moved into the room.

It happened before I could process it, that’s how fast they were. A flash of dark clothing and deep red was all I saw before Fiona was leaping further into the room. She had dodged a knife thrust, the blade coming within a breath of catching her. I watched in shocked fear as the person or thing who had tried to kill her turned.

He was clad in a dark brown cloak and wore a bronze mask depicting a man with strong features and a grim smile. Beneath his cloak his body was wrapped in alternating dark brown and dark red ribbons. The loose ends shifted and moved about his body in a way that distracted the eye and made it much harder to judge what his next move would be.

His move was to make for Fiona again with his twin foot and a half long daggers. She twisted and turned with a grace that I had only seen hinted at before. The man however, was far more mechanical and deadly with his movements, each action coming as a sort of incredibly fast twitch of motion. Every slash and stab he attempted sent the trailing ends of the ribbons flashing, further adding to his terrible alien nature.

Fiona was going to get hurt, and there was shit all I could do to help her. Except get in the creepy guy’s way. I ran clumsily into the room with the intention of helping, only to trip on some random object that had been carelessly thrown from a drawer. I went down with a cry onto my knees, watching as I distracted Fiona from the deadly dance she was performing and earning her the spiked pommel of one blade to the arm.

She cried out in pain, shying away from the man as blood welled from the wound. He made no sound but the shifting of his clothing and the shuffle of his feet as he moved in for the kill.

“No!” I screamed, trying to get up and rush him again.

He turned his head to me and cocked it, as though confused by my actions, then made a dismissive motion with one of his daggers. As soon as his motion was made, I was restrained, the arm of another as yet unseen attacker reaching around behind me. The other arm held a similar sharp jagged dagger to the first guy, and it plunged with vicious speed towards my stomach.

The blade pierced my shirt, but then skittered off my skin like it was made of stone, causing it to flash brightly with silver light as my shield deflected the blow. Behind me, I finally heard a sound from one of our attackers, a grunt of surprise. He didn’t waste time though, immediately making another stab.

Fiona saw this happening and tried to make a lunge for me, but she was kicked to the ground by the first creep. He moved fast, aiming a jab at her chest with a motion that looked as though she were a sacrifice upon an altar. Both hands raised, the twin daggers plunged toward her.

“No!” I cried again, reaching out with my hand in a vain attempt to stop him.

Despite how fast he was, lightning is faster. The image of knots bloomed forth in my mind at my mental scream for my friend, and the crack of energy unleashed shook the room. Briefly the space between us became an homage to the glory of Luna, the single moon of Earth. The air tore apart as the heat of the bolt set it alight, and my foe was torn apart in a flash of brilliant argent light.

Burning chunks of his body sprayed the room in a grim shower that seemed almost to be applause in the face of the terrible display of power that had just occurred. The room was still as the quiet splatter of body parts faded, and I was left staring at my outstretched hand in utter shock.

The arm holding me vanished, and frantic footsteps could be heard dashing through the hallway. The other attacker had left. No sound or cry at his friends’ sudden grisly death, just an emotionless retreat.

“Holy fuck,” Fiona said, her voice coming out strangled and scared.

She sat up and looked at me where I sat unmoving, my hand wavering in the air where it was still pointing towards the remains of the man I had blown up. She stared at me for a long moment, then realised she had a few chunks of the man on her. She twitched and staggered to her feet, brushing them off and making gagging noises.

“That’s fucking disgusting!” she exclaimed, shuddering and grimacing.

I couldn’t think, I was sitting there with one thing in my mind. I’d just killed someone. Sure, he’d been a creepy guy with almost alien movements, but he was still a person and I’d ended him. It was a chilling feeling. I looked down at some unidentifiable chunk of him on the floor nearby and felt my gorge rise. Unlike Fiona, I wasn’t able to hold it down. The cold breakfast we’d eaten came up in a rush.

Fiona was at my side in a heartbeat, pulling my hair out of my face and rubbing my back soothingly.

Distantly I heard myself sob, “I killed him.”

“Hey… he was going to kill me you know. Those weren’t blunted blades or toys. That was the real fucking deal. So uh, thank you I guess. You just saved my life!” she soothed, like she wasn’t the one who’d almost died.

There wasn’t much to throw up, and my friend’s soothing helped me gather myself and try to make sense of what had just happened. I’d always hated the idea of killing someone. Sure in games it was fine, and I’d enjoyed that, but this was different. Killing a real living breathing person, with a history and a life of their own was plain disturbing. They were gone, never to be seen in the universe again. I couldn’t help but think of someone I cared about in their place, their body in pieces and their precious mind lost forever.

I turned and pulled myself against Fiona. I wasn’t crying, I was too shocked to cry, but I needed comfort and the feeling of another person holding me. She obliged without a word, wrapping her arms tightly around me and leaning her head against mine. I felt myself begin to shake in her embrace as the adrenaline of the fight wore off and I found myself wondering what kind of world we now found ourselves in.

Who were those people? They had been tearing this house apart like they were looking for something, and I hoped they hadn’t found it. Why had they been at my friend Harry’s house of all places. His family was so mind numbingly normal and middle class it was hard to think of any reason these strange masked people had been here.

“Elphie, we need to move okay? That lightning of yours wasn’t very quiet, and people are going to come and investigate,” Fiona said, giving me a gentle squeeze.

I nodded, but found my voice had gone on strike and only managed a hushed rasp for a reply.

She helped me to my feet and guided me out of the house with a hand to my back. I really needed to snap out of this. I couldn’t dwell on what had just happened, because as much as I hated it, I might have to do that again to someone else who meant us harm. This new world was going to be a cruel one.

We didn’t go any further into the city to find our friends that day. Neither of us felt up to it. Fiona had almost been killed, and I had killed the person who had been trying to kill her. Fiona was dealing with it better than I was, despite being the one who had almost died. She just seemed to be hardier than I was, both in body and in mind.

I walked in a daze as my brain tried to parse what had happened in Harry’s house. We’d been attacked by two strange people who seemed to be… well I don’t know what they seemed to be. I couldn’t wrap my mind around them or their strange behaviour. I couldn’t figure out why they would attack the pair of us out of the blue.

The biggest thing on my mind however, was the death I had caused. Was it murder? Had I murdered someone? I think in the end it was the permanency of it that was hitting me the most. It was how that person was gone from the world forever and whatever small contributions, present or future that they made to the world would be gone now. Snuffed out. That was a lot of power to hold crackling at one’s fingertips.

Every time I read or watch or consume any type of media where someone is in a similar situation, that first life that the hero has to take. It’s always the same thing, “You never forget their face. You’ll have nightmares about it for the rest of your life”. Would I be dealing with the same thing? Would I wake up in the middle of the night, a bronze mask staring at me in my mind’s eye?

That sounded less than ideal.

Moon tried to talk to me for a bit too, her mind wandering from topic to topic like a bored puppy. She would seem almost cute if it wasn’t for the connection we held. I could feel the raw untamed strength coming from her. You know when you’re standing on a beach, and you can see a storm rolling in? You can smell the energy on the wind as it pulls at your clothing and hair. A thin spray of water hits your face as salt water is pulled up off the sea to mix with the beginnings of the rain starts up. You see the raw power advancing towards you, your sight is becoming more and more limited as the wall of rain cuts off your view, but because it’s the sea you’re looking at, it’s hard to gauge the actual distance.

That’s what it’s like to feel connected to the Moon like this. All I had to do was ask the right words, form the right picture in my mind, and the fury of a goddess would tear apart whatever I pointed my finger at. The fury of a goddess who didn’t seem capable of staying on topic to save her life.

This one time, I greeted Mars as we flew by, and he had the audacity to propose the notion that I should attempt to terraform myself as he was doing. Why would I ruin myself like that? Earth and her blue and green works for her, but I much prefer my clean grey silver skin.

“Sounds great Moon,” I mumbled.

Oh speaking of that, did you know that when the… What is the word for them? Ah yes! Scientists! When the human scientists all decided that Pluto wasn’t a planet anymore, he was so angry! It was so amusing to watch, I was giddy with the excitement of it all. He was going to throw Nix at the Earth! It wasn’t until Jupiter got involved that everything settled down. What a mess that whole debacle was. Great entertainment though!

“Pluto… right. I remember that,” I said, and I even felt a small smile shyly introduce itself to my face after her tale. I wasn’t sure if her stories were true, but they were certainly entertaining.

Jupiter has Neptune keeping an eye on Pluto over that. Such a lovely boy that Neptune. Did I tell you about-

It continued like that almost the whole way home. At some point she went silent, but I couldn’t tell you when that was, I’d started zoning her out. She was just too much at the moment.

I was so lost in my melancholy thoughts that I didn’t even notice us cross the threshold into Fiona’s house again. It wasn’t even midday and we were already back. I stared numbly about myself like a lost puppy, trying to figure out what happens now. I didn’t even mean the bigger picture at this point. I meant like, do I go and sit down on the couch, or do I go and curl up on her bed?

“What do we do now?” I asked the apartment at large.

Of course, Fiona did indeed think I meant the bigger picture, “I don’t… I guess we need to leave town. That fire is still spreading, and those… people… I don’t like it. I want to get our asses out of here.”

“But we don’t have like… anything. We don’t have food, at least not the kind we can carry with us. We don’t have… I don’t even know what we need for camping and shit. We have none of the required gear,” I said anxiously.

“I actually have a tent… so there’s that. I only have a month left of my meds too… and no food yeah… shit. I hate to say this but I think we need to do more breaking and entering,” she grimaced, fear etching her face as she spoke about her meds. Meds that we both knew in the backs of our minds would eventually run out. There was now a finite amount in the world. A time limit on her life.

“More… but what if we get attacked again?” I said in a small, scared voice.

Fiona winced and looked down at her hands, “Then we win. Again. I’ll be the first person to say that violence isn’t good… but if it’s us or them… shit. I sound like one of those people online. You know the ones who debate situations like this? Still, I’m going to defend us. I will kick the shit out of anyone who tries anything against us.”

“Oh… okay. I think… I mean… that’s fine. Like, I think it would be okay, I just don’t like it and… crap I don’t know,” I sighed, then felt my expression slump as tension threatened to unravel me, “I’m just so weak! I’ve always been so weak. I get emotional and upset when I have to go to a fucking party for too long. What kind of guy gets upset over a party? I’ve always been nothing you know? A fuckup. I fuck up constantly. I’m the guy that everyone points to when they are talking about how our generation isn’t manly enough. They’re right too! I’m a wim-”

Fiona cut my self loathing off with a shove. It wasn’t hard, but it knocked me out of the downward emotional spiral I’d been starting for like a bucket of cold water to the face.

“That’s all a load of horse shit Delphie. For starters, all those wankstains who say that shit are evil. They’re all so caught up in this masculinity bullshit of theirs to see how weak they really are. They shit on you because they are weak. They see the existence of someone who doesn’t conform to their bullshit way of thinking as an attack, because if a man can exist and not be the pinnacle of asshole toxic masculinity, then they might have to confront the fact that they are wrong,” she growled, her voice getting downright scary as she spoke.

“I um…” I mumbled, unable to find a way to respond.

She took a few deep breaths, winced and apologised, “Sorry. I feel pretty strongly about that type of thing. My dad was all about that bullshit. Men must be men! He was so caught up in making sure men were being men that he had no idea how to comprehend women. I guess that’s why I was brought up on Men must be Men Lite. He didn’t know how to deal with raising a girl after raising five boys, so he just went a little lighter on me and called it a day.”

“Right… I’m sorry? I don’t know what to say,” I said quietly, a little intimidated by her right now.

“Ah shit sorry Delphie,” she said with remorse, “You were all upset and I turned this around and made it about me. We’ll make a plan yeah? Get out of the city, make our way to that lodge maybe, but mainly just get safe. Just remember though, you’re worth far more than you think you are alright? Shit you don’t need to be a man at all. Never needed to actually, but that’s besides the point. You’re a damn cool person alright?”

“Thanks,” I smiled, suddenly feeling rather shy.

“No problem!” she smiled back.

“Um, question though… why aren’t you calling me Elph or whatever it was?” I asked.

She laughed, and I felt a little tension leave my body when I heard it. She had a nice Laugh, “Because Elph sounds dumb now that I think about it, and Delphie sounds cute.”

“Cute…?”

“Yeah, because you’re cute, so you need a cute nickname,” she winked.

I blinked at her, once again at a loss for words. I was… cute? Me. Evan… now Delphira, was cute? She’d been telling me things like that this whole time, and it was eliciting some truly odd feelings within me. I think I might… like being called cute? Why? Was it because I’d always sucked at being a manly man? Fiona had more traditional male values in her than I ever would even if I tried, and she was a girl. This was all really fucking confusing to be honest, unwrapping all the different layers of this whole thing was going to give me a headache.

I’d been staring at her in silence for like thirty seconds before she awkwardly looked away and brushed a finger under her nose, “Right so um. I guess we need to go through the apartment and figure out what we can carry with us then? I only have one hiking pack, so we’ll probably have to raid an outdoor sports store or something. If other people haven’t already had the same idea.”

“Oh uh, yeah that makes sense. I guess I can like, carry stuff in the normal bags till we find one for me?” I asked.

“Bingo! Don’t want to use those things for too long of a distance. They aren’t made for the kind of distances we’ll be walking,” she nodded, seeming happy that I’d caught on.

“So time to tear your apartment apart then?” I said. I was ready to get out of Boston, that was for sure.

“Yup. Let’s do this!”

****

Fiona actually had quite a lot of stuff that would be useful, or rather it would have been before all of this happened. She had a gps, a little headlamp, a gas camping stove, and a lot of other things that relied on the way things used to work. We’d seen it around the place, the way even petrol didn’t want to do it’s thing anymore, but we hadn’t realised it would extend to gas as well. You just didn’t get the same flame anymore. It seemed fine with her little lighter, but when we tried the camping stove it couldn’t get to a reasonable heat. The thing was useless for cooking.

Speaking of fire… matches didn’t work unless you really rubbed them against the strike pad. Like I mean for a minute or so, if the match didn’t disintegrate before then. Realising that her Zippo was now our only reliable source of fire, she made extra sure it was on her person.

She had one sleeping bag, a small two person tent, canteens for water, a first aid kit and the list went on. It was impressive how much she had prepared. Apparently she had liked to go camping with some of her more outdoorsy HEMA friends, and I was more than happy to leech off her hobby. She even had a few pots and pans that were lightweight, as well as little plastic plates and some cheap cutlery. How we were supposed to carry all of this was beyond me, but I didn’t argue.

When it came time to leave, I found out I would be carrying a bunch more than she would be. I would have the big pack filled with as much as I could comfortably carry, while Fiona would have less.

“Why am I carrying more?” I asked, genuinely curious but also a little miffed.

“Wait out here,” she told me, indicating the living room.

She went into her room and closed the door. I was left idle, again missing the convenience that had been a phone full of entertainment. It was odd to actually miss sites like reddit and twitter, but here I was in a situation where I normally would have pulled the thing out and started scrolling.

When Fiona came back out, the sight took my breath away. She wore the suit of armour that had been sitting in her room, and my god did it fit her well. The thing was sleek and deadly looking, a far cry from the bulky crap you see in video games most of the time. It had obviously been made specifically for her body, and I could tell it had been done well. She moved towards me through the room with almost as much ease as if she’d been wearing normal clothing.

“Wow,” I breathed before I could stop myself.

Fiona grinned and her grey eyes sparkled with knowing mischief, “You like?”

“Yeah! I mean… like the armour is so cool I mean. Wow. How come you can move so well? Isn’t that heavy?” I blurted, trying to take my eyes off her but finding that a difficult task.

“Nah, armour like this, especially stuff made with modern methods, is really good. Sure it’s heavy, but the weight doesn’t feel so bad when it’s evenly distributed you know? Good armour is also made so you can move easily. You’d be too easy to pin down by lighter opponents otherwise. Everyone always expects plate to make you this lumbering tank, but you can run and jump almost as well as someone who isn’t wearing it, so long as you’re used to it,” she explained, stretching and showing off her range of motion.

“Wow… I always figured that because in games they like nerfed you for it that… yeah well you get me,” I said.

“Nope, my nerdy little friend, I’m afraid that video games were wrong on that one,” she laughed.

I smiled back at her, she was totally right. I was her nerdy little friend now. Emphasis on the little! I liked being smaller already, it had just been easier so far. I also liked being her friend actually. Having a friend as reliable as Fiona was always a win. I looked at the rest of what she was carrying, and saw she was bringing all of her swords, as well as a little mace and a buckler. She was loaded for bear, but medieval style.

“So um, if we’re all ready to leave…” I said, nodding towards the door.

“Yeah… we should get going hey. We need to find a pharmacy so I can… get more meds, plus an outdoor sports store. Probably ones close to the fire where they will lose everything anyway? I don’t know, a megacorp clothing store is one thing, but a pharmacy and a little sports store are another,” she grimaced.

“I know of some places we can go to. I lived around there. Shit my house is probably a blazing inferno by now actually,” I said, realising that I had seen the fire advancing into my suburb while we were out this morning.

“Okay, let's go then Delphie my little witch companion!” she joked, walking to the door and holding it open.

“I prefer the term mage I think. We start throwing the word witch around right now and I’ll be burning at the stake in no time,” I said, hiking the pack up further onto my shoulders and walking out of the house.

“Oh shit… I didn’t think of that. Let’s keep your magic on the down low then until we’re away from angry mobs,” she said thoughtfully.

Fiona took a moment as she closed her front door, staring at the place she’d called home for a while now. She seemed pensive, but not overly sentimental about it.

“Probably the last time I’ll see this place,” she mentioned as she turned back.

“Yeah… Boston is going to look very different the next time we see it,” I agreed.

“Well, let’s get moving. I hope you wore the thick socks because we have a lot of walking to do,” she said, patting me on the shoulder.

Setting off towards the blaze further into town, I noticed that my new friend the Moon was nowhere in sight above us. She must have dipped below the horizon.

The ash fell like snow through the dim light of what was meant to be an early afternoon. It fell in drifts that continued to grow, already beginning to fill the gutters and nooks of the city. The ash was not nearly as bad as the smell. Even from a few blocks away you could smell the smoke, but it wasn’t the type of smoke you’d think of when you hear the word. It was a choking, chemical smell as plastic and petrol and everything else burned and released its poison into the air.

The streets themselves were both deserted… and not. People moved furtively from place to place, keeping a wary eye on those around us. Families huddled past carrying everything they could as they fled the blaze, looking at the changing world around them with fear. It was a strange mixture of fear and silence. People were quiet, as though the silence where the sound of the city should have been was something not to be trodden on or disturbed.

“This is really creepy,” I whispered to Fiona, moving a little closer to her.

“Yeah it’s weird right? I drove down this street like a week ago. Seeing Boston like this now is just weird,” she agreed quietly.

“It’s only been a day,” I said looking around, there was no one trying to prepare the area for the fires by tearing down buildings to create a firebreak.

“Less than a day actually. Not even twenty four hours. But I guess that’s what happens when half the city is burning and the fire department doesn’t have any of their toys anymore,” she replied.

“Yeah. This is only going to get worse,” I agreed, then whipped out a hand to stop Fiona.

Coming around the corner in front of us were four cops dressed in riot gear and carrying shields and batons. They seemed to be on edge, which honestly made sense given the circumstances. People watched them warily, many backing off as they came near. What had been happening in this area that made people afraid of the cops?

“Oh shit,” Fiona muttered.

“What?” I asked quickly.

“It’s illegal to carry a blade longer than two and a half inches in Boston. I’m carrying eight of them,” she almost laughed.

As the police saw us, Fiona took her helmet off the clip at her waist and placed it on her head. If that wasn’t a clear sign that she wasn’t going to be giving up her swords, I didn’t know what would be.

The cops eyed us as they approached from behind their riot helmet visors, and I saw one of the rear ones lean over and whisper to his colleague. They fingered their batons nervously as Fiona placed her hand on the hilt of her sword. If the instant tension between our two groups had been something physical, it would have been a metal cable tightened past its breaking point. The sound of broken whipping steel would be sure to follow.

“What do you think you’re carrying there?” the foremost officer asked.

“Swords… and a mace actually. A shield too,” Fiona replied calmly, although I could hear her breathing rapidly.

“Those look like they are a lot longer than two point five inches miss. I’m going to have to ask you to lay them on the ground,” he said menacingly, placing his own hand on the handle of his baton.

Fiona looked back at me, then carefully lifted the straps of the ones she was carrying on her back, as well as the bags she was carrying. I noted idly that she was strong, being able to carry that much steel on her person. Damn girl!

She placed it all on the ground, except her buckler, which stayed strapped to her arm. The sword at her hip? She drew it swiftly, her arm whipping the blade out before anyone could move.

“Yeah, looks quite a lot longer than that to me officer. Would you mind if I carried them till we left the city?” she asked innocently, admiring the gleaming length of steel she carried.

One of the rear cops shuffled uneasily, staring at the drawn blade with a wariness he might not have displayed a day ago. His friends didn’t seem to share his fear. They stood straighter and puffed up like birds ready to fight.

“Ma’am, please put the sword on the ground,” the lead cop frowned, drawing his baton slowly.

“I’d rather not actually. I’m going to keep all my swords. The mace too,” she told them.

“We’re just trying to do our jobs ma’am,” he said with a hiss. He eyed the swords on the ground, and I saw… a flash of greed? Surely not?

Fiona took a quick look at me, motioning me back with a quick wave of her hand. Right, didn’t want to get in her way if these guys didn’t back down. I stepped a few feet further back and felt around in my mind for the single spell I knew I could cast, the lightning one. I felt the weave of it, the twists and turns of the strands and the knots that made up its structure. For a moment I felt like I could understand some of the pattern, the purpose of some of the knots.

As the magic within me reacted to my thoughts, so too did my shield. It rose up in wisps of silver light that seemed to stop a quarter inch off my skin like it had hit glass. The veins beneath my skin also lit up in the same silvery colour of the moon, and I stared at them in wonder. Shit, this is definitely not hiding my magic. Why is it reacting like this?

“What the fuck?” one of the cops blurted, staring at me with wide eyes, “Ma’am, why is your friend here glowing?”

Fiona turned back and raised an eyebrow at me, but responded to the cop, “Cos she can throw lightning dude.”

“Uh,” he frowned, trying to figure out if she was being serious.

“Look my dudes, we just want to get the fuck out of this city. We’ll be out of your jurisdiction and no longer your problem in no time alright?” she continued.

“Terry… I think we should let em go man. This is like the thing in the fire,” the scared one in the back said urgently.

“Do your job officer,” the lead cop snapped back at him.

The lead cop should have been paying attention in front of him, or his friends should have been paying better attention, because Fiona took three quick strides forward, yanked the lead cops shield out of the way and drove her helmeted head into his. There was a crack as the plastic of the face plate took the impact. He staggered into his friends, but wasn’t able to recover his balance enough to stop the sharp chop of her buckler following her headbutt.

The guy went down in a clatter of riot gear, his baton bouncing down the ash strewn pavement. The other cops reacted quickly, pulling their batons from the loops at their waists. They swung at Fiona with practiced chops, but she was out of reach again, deflecting their attacks with her sword.

I didn’t want to see more killing. Not today. I knew more was coming, but I didn’t want to see any more today. Especially not Fiona doing the one killing, or dying.

I lifted my hand, and it felt like an eternity before it was pointed and in position. The cop who had wanted to back out saw me raise my arm. He cried out a warning to his friends, but they ignored him. With fear filling his eyes, he dove to the ground.

I didn’t want the lightning to arc down, I needed this to be a lot more precise than normal lightning, I didn’t want to chance hitting Fiona. Could I do that? I reached again for that strange understanding… and found it. This knot here, and this one here… if I changed how they twisted, I could turn the energy into something akin to a beam. It was rough… I’d have to fine tune it later.

I felt the power within my core take the revised spell and flow through it, I saw it run along the lines of the weave, hitting the knots and changing with each one. The power was twisted and formed into the final product as it ran down the lines of the spell.

And then it discharged. A beam of violent silver energy blasted out from my hand like a hunting hound released. It tore through the air with the sound of an anvil cracking, slamming into a building far down the street with enough force to throw chunks of masonry almost as far as the beam had travelled originally. When the beam let up a moment later, the air burned in a line following its path. It was only for a moment, but it highlighted how terrifying this new power I had was. Overwhelming force could probably be defined as lighting the air on fire as an after effect.

“Let us pass,” I said tiredly, lifting my finger to point it directly at them again. That had taken a lot out of me, but I could feel the ambient magic around us already flowing into my source and refilling the spent power.

“Let her pass,” the correctly scared cop said, backing to the side and letting his baton drop to the ground.

The others followed suit, and the one on the ground glared up at us both with anger flowing out of his pores like acid.

Fiona sheathed her sword again, and turned back to pick up her stuff. She casually got everything arranged on her shoulders, then nodded for us to continue. We stepped past them slowly at first, but as we kept going we sped up a little.

“Whoa… chick you are fucking badass. I felt that shit in my fucking bones!” Fiona exclaimed when we were out of earshot.

I smiled sidelong at her and whispered, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for!”

Fiona blinked once, then twice, then she shook as surprised laughter bubbled up. I couldn’t help but give her a full grin now. I’d gotten us out of that situation, no one had died… and I’d made a pretty girl laugh. Maybe I wasn’t a complete fuck up. Maybe.

****

We made it to the pharmacy first, and it had already been broken into. The place was trashed, and a lot of things that we might have wanted were already missing, such as bandages and disinfectant. Shelves had been thrown to the side, packaging was strewn randomly across the floor. The till was in multiple pieces on the ground, the money long gone.

As we made it into the back, we found a man sitting in the wreckage of the dim storage area, staring around himself in a daze. He cringed when we entered, looking up at us with unrestrained fear. I noticed now the terrible bruises beginning to swell his face and I had no doubt there were more beneath his torn clothing.

“Whoa… Uh hey man, sorry… we’re not going to hurt you,” Fiona said soothingly.

“You’re carrying weapons! You’ve come into my store! What else are you here for?” he cried accusingly.

Poor guy was shaking, he looked terrified with his glasses dangling from his nose and one ear.

I knelt down in front of him and asked gently, “What happened? I mean, I can see there was looting but this looks… excessive?”

“It was a gang. I don’t know which one. They covered their faces with bandanas and they trashed my store! They took all the… all the opiates and codeine from the safes. They… they beat me until I told them the codes,” he told us, breaking into sobs at the last sentence.

“Ah. That explains it then,” I winced, “I’m sorry man. That’s not fun.”

I stood back up and looked over at Fiona. She had a conflicted look on her face, and I felt pretty bad too. We had come here to take shit after all.

“Do you have a family?” Fiona asked eventually.

“I do… we have a house north of the.. Of the fire. I can’t get to them so I’m staying here,” she explained sadly.

“You can’t really stay here much longer,” Fiona said, her armour clanking lightly as she moved to peek at a shelf, “That fire is almost here. Only a block or two away now.”

“No! It was so far away! It’s not coming here! It was walking the other way!” he exclaimed, looking even more terrified than he had about the thugs who had taken his drugs.

“Wait… walking?” I interjected.

“Yes… I couldn’t get to my family because it was walking to cut the bridges off!” he said, really shaking now.

“Well… it’s stopped and it’s coming this way now friend,” Fiona told him.

He scrambled up off the floor and looked at us both, “I might be able to… the bridge! Did it burn?”

“We don’t know sorry,” I shrugged.

“Oh… but still! There might be a way if it’s not standing in front of it! I can try… I can… Wait why did you come here?” he asked, some lucidity returning to his eyes.

“Uhhh. I need some more of this,” Fiona said, pulling out a bottle of her meds and showing him.

He looked from the bottle to her face and back again, holding his glasses to his face so he could see. He frowned, muttered something, then turned back and went about his shelves, rifling through the debris. It wasn’t long before he found a box that rattled as he hefted it, taking it over to a countertop. From a drawer he produced a small knife, using it to open the box and peer inside.

“Ah yes I knew we’d just had a shipment in. Here, take the whole box… it’s not like I can carry most of this out anyway if it’s just going to burn. I pity those who end up downwind of the chemicals released,” he said, indicating that Fiona take the meds.

“Wow… thank you!” she said, relief flooding her expression, “Are you sure we can’t… is there anything you want?”

He looked confused for a moment, then looked pensive as he looked at what we were carrying.

“What about information?” I asked.

He looked dubious, but took the bait, “What information?”

“Information about what’s going on, advice on what your plans should be,” I smiled.

“Okay. If you know something I don’t, that will be acceptable,” he nodded.

I took a deep breath and prepared to shatter this man’s sense of safety in the world even more than it already had been.

“This is permanent. What’s happening around us. The guns not working, the cars not working, electricity not working, all of that stuff. It’s here to stay, if not forever, then hundreds or thousands of years,” I explained, “If I were you, I’d carry as much information as you can. I’m talking about how to make the stuff you sold here, anything medical related especially. As much scientific info as you have still in print form. It will be worth its weight in… well probably food.”

“Oh… yeah. And if you need a place to go when things hit the fan, come to Pepacton Reservoir in the Big Indian Wilderness roughly forty miles east of Binghamton. My name is Fiona by the way,” she added.

“Thank you… Oh my god… it’s permanent? How do you know?” he breathed, “And you say I should… right! Yes! Of course if this continues, we may lose so much knowledge. I must… thank you!”

“No problem. You would have figured it out dude,” I shrugged, “I know for reasons probably similar to that… walking fire you were talking about.”

“Ah but you have given me a head start!” he grinned, then rushed further into the store, stopping to look back and blurt, “My name is Wilkes Weelock! Thank you again!”

“Right,” Fiona and I said at the same time, glancing at each other.

He left into the back of the store, and Fiona took that as a sign to grab her meds and leave. I watched her pack the bottles into her bag in silence, then we left without saying goodbye. It we saw Mr Weelock again, I’d be surprised.

Our next stop was the sporting goods store, which was even closer to the so called “walking fire” that the pharmacist had mentioned. The heat was a physical thing in the air now, and I felt like I should be basking in midsummer sun instead of cowering beneath a titanic column of smoke and flame.

We were hoping to grab pretty much anything that would be useful, but the items that were high on our list included a sleeping bag for myself, some more lighters, and possibly a pair of foam camping mats. We were going to be sleeping on the ground with only the tent fabric for comfort, so anything that made it more bearable would be more than welcome.

We found the sporting shop relatively intact and abandoned, its proximity to the fire must have scared all but the ballsy and desperate. Did that include us? Probably. It was too close to the fire for me too, the beginning of the inferno just half a block away. I could almost feel my skin starting to burn even from this distance, like I had been in the sun too long.

The store was one of those ones that also held a large selection of guns, and that was the section that had been hit the most. The cases and locked racks had been smashed and broken. Fiona and I went straight for the sections we needed instead. A sleeping bag was easy to find, as were two foam mats. The lighters took a while to locate, we found them behind a store counter along with some bottles of lighter fluid.

We wanted to get out of there as fast as we could, so we rushed things a bit. We didn’t stop to consider if most of the miscellaneous things around us would be useful, which they probably would be. It’s hard to think about the pros and cons of lugging a felling axe across the country side when the room you were standing in was starting to resemble the inside of an oven with every passing minute.

We did however grab two prepacked first aid kits, as well as some harnesses that would give us more places to carry things. I was starting to feel a little too weighed down now, although Fiona looked to be having an easier time when she swapped to a new larger backpack.

We were about to leave when Fiona stopped and pointed at a stand that had been toppled, “Think we should take some of those MREs?”

“I mean I guess so… we aren’t exactly carrying much food. Just what was in your apartment,” I nodded.

“Alright, let’s load up. We’re probably going to have to haggle with people to get food anyway though,” she said.

I thought about that for a moment, then turned back to the store, “Should we look for stuff people might want to buy from us then?”

“Like what? There isn’t anything here that would be worth much later down the line that we can also carry easily,” she said, sounding dubious.

“Let me think…” I mumbled, staring around the store.

“Don’t take too long… that fire is going to be here soon,” she urged.

“Wait! I know!” I blurted happily, then rushed back into the store towards a section near the guns.

I rushed straight to an undamaged display case and grabbed the weapon I wanted, then the ammunition I’d need for it. Along with that I also grabbed as many packets of the related items as I could, stuffing them into my back, but keeping one out to show Fiona.

“Here! You think people will want these? Maybe not right away, but in a month or two they will be really sought after!” I grinned.

“Arrow heads…” she blinked, then returned my grin, “Shit that is smart! Fuck yeah. Was there any more? I could probably carry some too… and is that a crossbow you’re carrying?”

“Yup! I figure it might be good to have so that I don’t need to announce my magic to people to get them to fuck off. I think pointing a crossbow at someone’s face will be a good deterrent. Ranged weapons are rare drops now,” I laughed.

“No shit. Good thinking! I’m going to go and get one as well, then some more arrow heads. Be right back,” she smiled, rushing off to where I had just been.

I watched her grab the items from where I had just been, still smiling at her praise. Impressing her felt good. I wanted to do it more! Wait… what’s that noise?

I tilted my head to listen better, and heard a strange rhythmic hissing sound. Hiss… Hiss… Hiss. What an odd sound.

“Hey Fiona! There’s a weird sound outside! Maybe we should get going!” I called.

“Right! Coming!” she called back, rushing over and motioning for us to leave the store.

We stepped out together, and I turned my head to look up at her, smiling at our success in the store. She was so pretty, in the light of the fire. The glow of the fire catching her skin and hair and setting her skin alight with a reddish orange that took my breath away.

The fire. The thought crashed through my mind in a searing instant, and I realised that the fire was close. I turned my eyes down towards the street behind her, my smile fading as I laid eyes on the fire. The fire that walked. It stepped slowly, almost methodically towards us. It didn’t… he didn’t look at us. He just put one foot forward, then the other, like a robot.

His skin was magma, every step he took cracked the rough black surface to reveal molten insides that quickly dripped from his body for a few moments, only to solidify soon after. Around him the road boiled as the heat coming off his body then set it alight, causing the tar to burn happily. What surprised me the most though were the tears. They fell from his molten eyes in dark rivulets that sizzled as they ran across his face. A face that was bent in a mask of sorrow and pain so raw and real that it pulled at my gut.

“Fiona… look…” I breathed. I didn’t say it urgently, we had time. The molten walking flame didn’t care about us.

She turned, and I saw her eyes widen when she laid eyes on the molten man. She didn’t say anything, but she reached out and took my hand to slowly usher me backwards. We should have run.

I don’t know what changed, but with a slow turn of his head he brought his burning eyes to bear on my own. His mouth cracked open and I could feel the heat from the furnace that was his body come pouring out.

“She chose you. She chose you over me,” he rasped, a fury building in his voice.

“Oh fuck,” Fiona said with more than a note of fear.

“Run! Run run run!” I squeaked, tugging on Fiona’s hand.

We turned and ran, and I heard the molten man behind us do the same, his footfalls hitting the ground like dropped anchors. He began howling with a crashing rage that caused my teeth to vibrate in a wholly unpleasant way and I felt my heart shudder in my chest as the fear blew through me.

We reached the end of the block at a sprint and dove around the corner, not stopping to rest before we took this street at a run too. I was beginning to flag as my unfit new body tried to pull me to my knees, but the fear of what lay behind us overpowered my physical limits and I ran on. Problem was, it didn’t sound like it would be enough. Behind us, I could hear the terrible thudding of those footfalls coming ever closer.

I began to fall behind as we reached the end of the next street, and Fiona’s hand flew out to grasp mine, pulling me along like I was a kite in the wind. Gosh she was strong! How the hell was she running like this?

The next street was harder, I was just carrying too much. I wasn’t used to exercise like this, before or after my sudden shift in body shape. My heart hammered in my chest, threatening to burst under the unwelcome pressure, but unable to stop as adrenaline forced my whole body onwards. The heat on my back began to signal what I knew would be the end. He was gaining and there was nothing we’d be able to do.

Fiona could live though. She might be able to outrun this terrifying weeping man with his molten body. Her grip was iron, but I managed to extract my hand from her grip, causing me to plunge to the ground in a heap.

“Go! I’m slowing you down! I can’t keep up! Just run!” I cried to her as she turned back with terror writ large across her face.

“No! Oh my god you stupid girl! Get up, get up, get up!” She yelled in panic.

Neither of us had time to argue the point before there was a ribcage bending boom behind us. The heat decreased instantly, and I flopped onto my back to get a look at what had just happened. Had we been saved?

It took my mind a few seconds to parse what I was looking at, but when I was able to make sense of it, I recoiled in horror and disgust. What the fuck was that?

The thing was far more otherworldly and terrifying than the molten man had been. It looked to be constructed of fluorescent blue bones held together by writhing tentacles of a similar nature. The whole thing dripped a sizzling blue liquid that glowed with the same light. The tentacles thrust out of the creature from random points, seeking to ensnare the molten man within their embrace. As one tentacle sizzled and popped under the blistering head, it retreated into the whole, allowing another to take its place in the struggle.

The molten man was not helpless either, he screamed in elemental fury, tearing at the sizzling blue tentacles with a ferocity that did not bode well if he caught Fiona and I. With a roar, the molten man pushed up at the thing attacking it, trying to take up the chase once again.

I was so busy staring, I didn’t see Fiona reach down and haul me to my feet until I was already wobbling on unsteady legs.

“No heroics! No noble sacrifice! Move!” she ordered, pushing me away from the disturbing struggle behind us.

Our strange luck did not hold out. A cry of fire and victory from behind turned my head and I saw the molten man throw the thing made of bone and tentacle off himself. As soon as he was free, he ignored it, making a beeline for us with the same terrible speed as before. His footfalls once again shook the street with terrifying force that seemed wholly disproportionate to his size. Was he made of molten metal?

Turning blindly down another street we pushed forward, fuelled by utter terror. This was something out of a fever inspired nightmare. What was the blue thing? Who was the molten man? Who had chosen me over him? Moon maybe? Did that mean that if she hadn’t intervened, I’d have turned into whatever he was now?

My wild thoughts were interrupted when the blue thing crashed into a building in front of us, sending debris high into the air. I expected even a strange horror like that to have to shake the dust off and get its bearings, but it was right back out of the collapsing building like a bolt from a blaster. It didn’t bother using the warped skeleton feet it hadn, choosing instead to hold itself aloft with a multitude of those blue tentacles. It was fast when it moved like that, the strange limbs propelling it back down the street with blurring speed.

It flew past us fast, and I felt myself thrown to the side by a strange force. It wasn’t the wind or its speed that send me flying… it felt like gravity had suddenly gotten confused. I was up and running again without Fiona’s help this time, and we rounded yet another corner while the battle raged behind us.

We kept running through the streets with the molten man hot on our heels and the blue thing constantly attempting to kill him. I don’t know how many times I almost died. Burning debris flew in all directions like some sort of action movie. Occasionally Fiona would stumble as some piece of rogue masonry dinged off her armour, and once or twice I was thrown to the ground as the same happened to me.

Each time this happened I felt my shield grow just a bit weaker. I could see it ebbing as I took hits, and it didn’t recharge. I hoped it held out longer than my legs, because those were about to give in. When I was almost certain I had one block or less in me, Fiona wrapped a gentle hand around my forearm and pulled me to a stop.

We’d lost them. Somehow during the chaos of our flight we’d lost them. In the near distance you could hear them going toe to toe like two titans of myth. Around us were scared people moving away from the supernatural chaos unfolding several blocks back. When had other people joined our terrified sprint out of the city?

My legs felt like jelly, and with the pause they had decided that enough was enough. I fell to the ground in a heap, unable to move more than an inch. Looking down at myself, I was greeted with a rather jarring view. I was not used to seeing a pair of boobs heaving up and down under my own laboured breathing. The world had gone mental. I was just chased through the streets of Boston by monsters and now I was on the ground marvelling once more at the fact I had tits.

“Fiona?” I gasped, trying to fill my lungs enough to speak.

“Yeah?” she asked, her own breathing sounding worse than mine, with a little added whistling sound to it.

“I... have... boobs,” I stated between gulps of air.

I must have caught her by surprise with that one, because she cracked up laughing. She struggled with her laughter for a long while, shaking her head and hitting her breastplate with a fist. I think she coughed something up because she had to spit it out at one point. When she finished laughing, she struggled with something in her pocket, pulling it out to reveal an inhaler that she fumbled into her mouth and took a gulp of air through.

A few more gulps later and she was ready to speak again, doing so with a wide grin, “Girl we just got hunted through the streets of Boston by two fucked up monsters and you’re talking about your boobs? You’re something.”

I smiled back, letting out a sound that might have been a giggle, “I know right? Why are we not more freaked out over what just happened?”

“I don’t know maybe there’s so much crazy shit that’s happened that we can’t process any more of it?” she said, her eyes sparkling with mirth.

“Yeah probably. Fuck I can’t move! Everything hurts!” I groaned, trying to stretch and only succeeding in hurting myself.

“Uh huh. You’re going to be hurting a whole lot as we walk our butts out of this city and off into the distance,” she replied, nudging me with a toe, “Maybe you should have done some stretches?”

“How the hell was I supposed to know that was going to happen? I can’t prepare for that!” I complained, scowling up at her.

“Oh don’t pout. You should have been in better shape!” she teased.

“I’m not pouting! Also, this body is like brand new! How was I meant to get it into better shape?” I grumbled, wobbling my way to my feet.

“Time travel. It’s probably something you can do now anyway,” she winked. Wow that was a powerful wink. How was a wink powerful? What was happening? Oh right, I’m talking to Fiona.

“I don’t think I can do that Fiona,” I said while rolling my eyes.

“Yup, sure you can’t. You’re totally not just holding out on me,” she teased sarcastically.

“No! I’m actually not. I don’t understand any of this,” I protested, poking her in her metal plated arm.

“Maybe, but I’m watching you,” she said, doing the gesture to go with her words.

“Yeah, watching my ass,” I said, and it was my turn to wink.

“Only a little,” she said loftily, then moved forward, “Come on, let’s get out of this city before something else tries to stab, burn or eat us.”

“Yes ma’am,” I said with a purposefully sloppy salute.

“You’re a little shit you know that?” she said with a snort.

“I’m a tired little shit. I want to rest soon,” I grumbled under my breath. She didn’t hear me.

We made our way through the darkening streets, away from the carnage behind us. It was strange, the further we got away from the center of the city, the more it seemed like things were normal. People milled around talking to each other, and someone was selling food at a stall on the side of the road. Some cops with far better manners were busy addressing some people about the local authorities current plan to deal with all of this. We didn’t stop for any of it however, we just wanted to get the hell out of dodge before people realised the true gravity of what had been done to the universe.

We found our way onto highway 90 as we left the city, following it west out of Boston. The trees on either side of the road hid the outskirts of the city as we walked, but they failed to hide all evidence of what had happened. Cars had been travelling a lot faster out here on the highway than they had in the city, and it looked like many had lost control when everything stopped. One car in particular caught my eye. I winced and looked away from the sedan, but not before I saw the body of a young man in the driver’s seat. It had lost control and plowed into the center barrier and pieces of it were all over the road.

I sidled closer to Fiona as we walked after that, feeling vulnerable as the sun dropped below the horizon. Fiona was so damn strong and reliable, it was hard not to think of her as a rock to hide behind. Sure, she had a lot of cracks, but maybe I could shore those up just as she shielded me from the shitty world around us. All of this assuming we would stay friends in the future. Things were early days yet.

When the sun was finally gone, she sighed and stopped, looking down at me, “I think that’s enough for me. I can’t keep going, need to let my lungs rest, they’re being bastards today.”

“What do you mean?” I asked quizzically. She’d been much better than I had with her endurance.

“My disability. Gunk keeps building up in my lungs, I have to use my inhaler to break it apart and the antibiotics stop it from becoming infected. It’s just what I have to deal with. Sucks too because I like to be active, I’ve been struggling against it my whole life and I mean I can deal with it now but…” she said, then stopped, her expression becoming withdrawn, “Whatevs, it’s not that important. Don’t want my whole tragic backstory right?”

Shrugging, I smiled and dinged a knuckle off her armour, “I mean I don’t mind. Friends right?”

She gave a little smile and nodded, “Yeah. Friends… um I guess we should try and find somewhere hidden to camp out. I’d normally suggest we like set watches and stuff but we’re both tired as fuck so it’s not going to work. You gotta learn how to set wards already.”

“Wards? Yeah I mean it might be a thing. I’ll ask Moon when she’s back in range,” I said thoughtfully, summoning and holding the lightning spell again and taking another look at the weave that brought it into being. The magic I had was fascinating. I almost recognised its form, like I’d seen something similar.

“Whoa!” Fiona squeaked, leaping back a bit.

I looked up in confusion at her, “What’s wrong?”

“You’re doing the lightning glowy thing! Is there danger? What are you going to blast?” she said gesturing wildly up and down my body.

“O-oh,” I said sheepishly, dismissing the spell and feeling my magic simmer back down, “I was just looking at the weave of the spell to see if I could change it somehow.”

“Right… well you light up like Thor from the Avengers when you do, so like warn me okay?” she frowned.

“Um… yeah I will.. Sorry,” I said, shrinking a bit under her gaze.

“Oh come on, no need to look like a whipped puppy. Let’s go find a place to sleep cutie,” she said rolling her eyes and gesturing into the trees at the side of the road.

There she goes again with the casual compliments! Cutie? Really? I should be offended right? I should tell her that she is mistaken and I am in fact a big scary man. Look at these muscles! Except obviously when I look down I have my slender little girl arms that end in a girlish and delicate hand. Dang. Who am I kidding, I was never very strong anyway. Fiona could have probably bench pressed me even before my strange transformation.

I almost bumped into her when she turned around to speak again, “I think this will work, I’ll set up the tent while you gather… why are you staring at your hand?”

“My hand is really girly,” I told her seriously, frowning up into her grey eyes.

“Yeah.. your everything is girly Delphie…” Fiona nodded, tilting her head to the side like she could get a better angle into my thought process right now.

I shuffled on the spot for a moment, trying to put my thoughts in order, “I feel weird about being a girl.”

“Yeah that makes sense that you’d be uncomfortable. We can get you some guyish clothing, if you’d like. Bind your boobs. I can go back to calling you Evan,” she offered sympathetically.

“Why does it make sense?” I asked.

“Because you’re no longer the gender you are inside, your soul or your mind or whatever name you’d like to place on it. I dated a trans girl once who did a pretty good job explaining it to me. You’re probably experiencing some sort of gender dysphoria because you got swapped into a body that doesn’t match who you are,” she explained kindly, reaching out with a gauntleted hand and placing it on my shoulder.

I mulled her words over for a moment, looking back down at my girly hands. Did that fit what I was feeling? How did I know what this gender dysphoria would feel like?

“I don’t feel… uncomfortable per se… more like just odd. It doesn’t feel wrong to be called Delphira. I mean I actually kinda like it? But I still feel wrong… or this should be wrong? I know my mother would freak out about it. I get sick just thinking about her reaction…” I said, tripping over my thoughts as they tried to all bubble up at once, “Shit she’d start into hysterics right away. I’m the only son, the family line would end with me, she’d say. My dad would probably just get confused by the whole thing.”

“Oh Delphie…” Fiona said gently, her hand rising to run a finger down my cheek briefly, “Just let everything settle in that little head of yours okay? You have time. We’ve had almost zero downtime since this all started, but we have like a week or more before we get to where we’re going. Lot of time to think things through.”

My mood wavered and threatened to dive into tears of confusion, panic and oddly, happiness, when she called me “Delphie” and “Little”. Why did those two words reverberate through me like a gong had been struck? I gulped once, nodded, and tried to get myself under control, then gulped again because it felt like something was stuck in my throat. Alright Delphira, deep breaths. Calm down. You can’t have a meltdown right now, the world is ending around us.

When I looked up again, my friend squeezed my shoulder gently, “You good?”

“Um, I think so?” I lied. I was not at all good.

Fiona didn’t seem all that convinced either, but she just squeezed my shoulder again and pointed me to the fallen branches around us, “Grab some wood okay? Just dry stuff if you can find it. I’ll clear the ground and set up the tent.”

“Alright. I can do that,” I nodded.

Looking around at the spot she had chosen I saw that it was a little hollow with a ledge on one side that shielded us from view of the road. The trees had obviously been planted a while back and left to grow after they could fend for themselves. Amongst the usual detritus of a woodlot like this one, there was the added refuse from the road. A lovely assortment of old McDonalds, cigarette butts and anything else that might be thrown from a car window was laying on the ground.

I was able to find some reasonably dry fallen branches around the place, but I was quickly confronted with my new small and weak stature. Fiona might be a strong woman, but I was not. I mean, I don’t think I was either of those things but I was definitely not strong. I did my best to haul the pieces I could lift, but I was exhausted. Fiona watched me with a mixture of amusement and something else I couldn’t discern. I wish she’d been the one to gather the firewood. I’m sure I could figure out how to pitch that tent.

When both of our chores were done and she was out of her armour, she set to building a small fire to cook our food on. It took her a while, she was used to a flame that cooperated apparently. Our dinner consisted of some chicken that she’d had in the fridge that would have gone off either way, and some vegetables we fried along with it in the pan. I had to push her away from the fire and take over when she tried to cook it all without any seasoning. She hadn’t wanted to bring any seasoning, but I’d snuck it into my pack anyway.

“I don’t get why you thought to bring herbs and spices and stuff,” she grumbled from her cross legged position nearby.

I looked up at her, “If you’re into HEMA, you must be some sort of history nerd. The ancient fortunes were built on this shit! It’s also just another thing that won’t last long without the global market.”

“Oh… yeah. You have the long term in mind eh?” she said, her frown easing into thoughtfulness.

“I mean I hope we get to live that long,” I said shrugging pessimistically.

“You will probably get to,” she smiled sadly.

“Hey we’ll figure something out for you Fi! There’s got to be a spell that will help,” I told her, trying to project a confidence I didn’t have.

She looked down at her feet and shrugged, but I wasn’t going to have any of that. I left the food to simmer and walked over to sit down with her.

“Don’t give up just yet Fi, I’m sure I can get Moon to help figure this out. She might be a scatterbrain but she’s also a giant sentient ball of rock and dust. She must have some idea of what we can do,” I said, gently leaning over to bump her shoulder.

“I’m not giving up. I have to get you somewhere safe after all. It just sucks. This shit has always been a pain in the ass. My whole life you know? But now it’s put this timer on my life-” she said, reaching out to shush me with a hand when I started to protest, “No no let me finish. I always knew there was a non-zero chance I’d end up dying because of it, but living in modern society you kinda have every expectation that it will take a while. Well, not anymore.”

I didn’t really have anything I could say to that, so I turned and stared at the food cooking on our small fire. I was still leaning on her shoulder with mine, and I left it that way. It felt nice to have a tiny bit of human contact. Really nice. Actual physical contact was a rare thing to a guy like me these days.

The food ended up being pretty bland anyway. I wasn’t the best cook even when I was in a real kitchen, but at least it wasn’t completely tasteless.

Halfway through eating, my friend’s head snapped up and she looked at me quizzically, “You called me Fi.”

“Yeah…? You have a nickname for me, so I made one for you!” I smiled.

She stared into my eyes with a funny little smile on her face, then nodded and returned to her food without a word. I guess she didn’t hate it then.

Once our dinner was finished and the fire was out, it was time for bed. I took off my outer layers, wearing just a singlet and underwear. Fiona got changed into her own sleepwear behind the tent, which turned out to be much the same as my own. Then we laid out our foam mats and got into our sleeping bags. As soon as my back was to the ground I realised how hard it was even with the mats. Wow this was going to suck. Sleeping on the ground for a week and change? Never again would I complain about a mattress, no matter how bad it was.

“What a rollercoaster of a day. Let’s just be normal and shit tomorrow yeah? Emotional conversations and running for your life are draining,” she whispered into the dark of the tent.

“Yeah. I’m almost looking forward to mindless walking,” I whispered back.

She chuckled in reply, “Yup… goodnight Delphie.”

“Goodnight Fi.”

It was odd, but despite the hard ground and unfamiliar sleeping conditions in general, I still felt safe. Fiona definitely had a calming effect on me. So calming in fact that the calm worked together with my exhaustion to put me straight to sleep. Out like the lights that would never turn on again.

****

You look very comfortable! What is it like to be intimate with such warm squishy bodies?

Having Moon interrupt my sleep from inside my own mind was possibly the least ideal thing in the world. I am including the angry fire man and the hentai monster in that. Honestly, couldn’t she have just let me sleep? I guess if you don’t actually need to sleep you don’t understand the whole sleep thing but still. Grr.

I see that you are awake! I missed you so much! I didn’t think overly much about what would happen when I passed below your horizon but now I really do not like it. Having friends is great! How are you this morning Delphira? You seemed content before I woke you, but now that seems to have changed, is something wrong?

“Moon please,” I groaned, “Let me wake up before you start asking questions.”

Fiona groaned from near me, and I felt her shift behind me. Wait… she was very close, and why could I feel her moving? Were those her boobs pressed into my back? Her arm was definitely around me. She felt nice. I felt odd though, there was a kind of sparking fluttery warmth in my chest that seemed to hurt, but in a good way.

“Um, Fi…” I asked hesitantly.

“Mmm? What?” she mumbled into my neck.

I wiggled a bit, trying to physically tell her what the problem was as I said, “We’re spooning.”

“I know. It’s nice,” she murmured sleepily, then suddenly with much more alacrity she said, "Oh crap! I'm sorry!"

She shimmied away from me across the ground and I missed her warmth immediately. Turning over, I found her trying and failing to maintain eye contact while her whole face flamed a bright pink. I couldn’t help a little girlish giggle escaping my throat. Her reaction was endearing as hell.

"I'm sorry!" she blurted again, "I'm used to having a second pillow to hug and I guess you became that in the night. I seriously didn't mean it. I mean you’re cute but you're so confused and I don't want to take advantage or anything and I don't even know how you swing anyway and-" her blabbering apology was cut short by a coughing fit that sounded horrendous.

I rushed across the ground as fast as one can rush when they are horizontal and pulled her to my chest to hold her. Her whole body was shaking violently and I felt myself descending into worried anxiety. She’s so athletic, why is her illness fucking her up so badly now?

Your friend appears to be ill. I believe it may kill her soon.

"Why? Why now?" I asked, my voice ringing with worry.

The device she uses to help with her symptoms is just as non-functional as most other technology the human race has relied on.

"Why though Moon? What can I do to fix this?" I practically cried to my ditzy patron.

Myself and the other celestial bodies of the Sol system are working to understand why. A very specific part of what you would call the laws of physics has been broken, but we are unsure as to the exact nature of the damage. As to what you can do now… I am afraid I cannot help you at this time. The magic I work with is at a fundamentally different scale to that which you work at. I can do no more than offer advice on the general building of a spell. Specific parts of the weave you must discover for yourself.

"Fuck. Fuckitty fuck fuck fuck. Okay. Will she live through this coughing fit?" I asked desperately.

I believe so. Unless… no the chances of an impact from orbital debris in your region is low.

"Orbital debris…?" I asked, dreading the answer and clutching my friend tight to my chest. She’d stopped coughing now and was doing her best to breathe.

Yes! It is fascinating watching all those little machines your species launched space slowly drift out of their orbits. They used to correct themselves, but now they cannot.

Oh right the fucking satellites. Each one needed to occasionally correct its orbit, and now one by one they were going to fall out of the sky. I didn’t think they were big enough to do anything but burn up in the atmosphere though.

"Won't they just burn up?" I asked.

Due to the changes I mentioned earlier, there is a good chance they will not.

I gaped for a moment, squeaking a confused question, "I… how…? Fuck it don't answer that. I'm not a physicist. Fi are you okay?"

She nodded against my chest slowly, still clutching at my singlet, "Yeah. I'll be good in a moment. Then… then we should get moving."

"Only when you're feeling up to it," I said a little sternly.

"Yes ma'am.”