The walk to Kyle's apartment above the antique shop was quiet, but the quiet ended as soon as they closed the door. Betty and Evan pelted him and Jenny with a billion questions. Eventually, pizza was ordered. By the time it arrived, things among the three of them were finally starting to calm down.

“So you didn't want me to feel bad if I didn't get a wish?” Evan said, drumming his fingers on the side of the couch. “Alright. Acceptable. I will accept that as a reason you didn't tell me what was going on. Friendship reinstated.”

“Well good,” Kyle said. For everything that made him uncomfortable about Evan...well, they'd been friends forever. Evan was practically a brother, really.

“But as I understand things there is no way to know if our wishes were granted,” Betty said, nuzzling her cheek against the head of her new familiar. It might have been an odd gesture, with her passive neutral face, to someone who didn't know her well enough to recognize the subtle signs of her contented expression. “My family has been discussing getting a cat. Possibly my wish was granted, allowing me to have the cat I wanted?”

“I don't know,” Kyle said. “Jenny, could that be it?”

They looked over at Jenny. Her eyes had glossed over.

“That expression is familiar,” Betty said.

“The nuggets,” Evan agreed.

“What is this?” She asked.

“Pizza,” Kyle said.

“Technically pizza napoli,” Betty cut in. “Pizza has dozens of different variations all across Italy, all various forms of round baked goods. But immigrants to the united states specifically from the area around Napoli were the ones who popularized their regional version of pizza internationally. There's actually a government department in Italy that makes sure all regions are capable of providing tourists with Napoli style...”

“Pizza,” Jenny said dreamily. Then she shoved the entire piece in her mouth.

“Wow!” Evan said. “Throat skills!”

The cat hissed at Evan, but everyone else was too busy watching Jenny fall on the pizza like a horde of ravening wolves. It's not easy for one not-too-tall woman to imitate a horde, but pizza makes it easier.

“Why don't we order another pie?” Kyle said. “Or a couple. She can try a few different toppings.”

“It comes with other toppings!?” Jenny said through a mouth full of food.

“And we should put on something to watch,” Betty said.

“Yeah!” Evan grinned. “Like our old anime marathon days!”

“Forgotten Garden!” Jenny said excitedly.

“Sure that's a good one,” Evan said.

Kyle smiled, reaching for the phone. Evan was right, it really was like old times. Somehow that was still true even though there was an extra girl, and she happened to be a genie. It was a reminder of the way things used to be.

All the more precious, because they knew things would never be the same again.

Eventually, of course, the others had to head home. But they agreed to meet up after school and head to Tanya's house for further explanations, so the next day Kyle and Jenny found themselves waiting behind the building for the others.

“So still no sign Ammeline has any magic?” Jenny asked.

“Not that I can tell,” Kyle said. “I think that makes it more likely it was my wish that gave everyone powers. I don't know Ammeline as well as you guys, right?”

“That still doesn't tell us what you wished for though,” Jenny said.

“No it doesn't,” Kyle sighed. “Or what other chaos I caused with my wish. Maybe Ammeline's the lucky one, this whole thing is a complicated mess.”

“Yeah,” Jenny said. “I suppose it is, huh?”

He was going to ask this time. He was going to ask what was bothering her. But before he could a familiar voice cut through the air.

“Hey there you are loser!” Danny O'Brien called out, walking across the sunlit parking lot with Benny in tow. Kyle's first reaction was primal fear, trained into him by years of torment at Danny's hands. His first urge was to run. But the small spark of irritation he felt at having his conversation with Jenny interrupted flickered and grew into a raging fire of pure, unadulterated fury, fueled by the memory of every time Danny had shown up and ruined his day.

Whatever else could go wrong in the future, whatever else his sudden discover of magic might mean, he was now absolutely certain that he did not need to take Danny O'Brien's bullshit anymore.

“Danny?” Kyle said. “Go the hell away.”

“One lucky punch and you got a pretty big set of balls,” Benny said.

“You go away too Benny,” Kyle said. “It's been a complicated couple of days, and I've got so much bigger shit to deal with right now...I just don't have time for you anymore.”

“Well you better make time!” Danny roared, running up to Kyle. “I still owe you for that punch the other day!”

His fist screamed through the air like a meteor.

Kyle caught it by the wrist.

“No,” Kyle said. “No. I'm just not doing this. There was never much to you, Danny. If I read you in a book I'd think you were the worst cliché in the entire world. You're small, pointless, unimportant, and I just don't feel like having you in my life anymore.”

Danny's face went white, his expression a mixture of fury and confusion. It looked like his brain was backfiring, completely incapable of finding a response to what was going on. Danny settled for the tried and true strategy of punching things he didn't like, and Kyle decided to test a theory. The test was stupid, but he remembered something he'd read once. “If it's stupid and it works, it isn't stupid.” And his test worked exactly like he'd pictured.

Danny's free hand slammed into Kyle's face, mashing the flesh of Kyle's cheek. But it didn't hurt. He didn't even cut his lip on his teeth. Kyle's head didn't move back in the slightest. Kyle had been right. Physical enhancement gave you durability, as well as making you stronger. He'd bene pretty sure about that with the trees, but trees were just...trees. Danny's fist was something he'd been afraid of his entire life.

Only now, Danny O'Brien literally couldn't hurt him anymore.

“Are you done?” Kyle asked. “No. No that wasn't a question. You're done.”

He let go of Danny's fist and faced a decision. Part of him wanted, deeply and truly wanted, to put his fist through Danny's chest. He could picture it, and he was sure if he put enough effort behind it something like a human body wouldn't actually offer him much resistance. He could see Danny fall to the ground, the sky visible through a bloody hole in his torso. Kyle even clenched his fist to do it.

Later, a lot of people would insist that Danny O'Brien lived through that afternoon because Kyle was a good person. He didn't think they were right. In that moment it wasn't the realization that he was contemplating murder, real actual murder, that kept him from killing Danny. He was too angry to care, his conscience waited down in changed forged through close to two decades of bullying.

No, the reason he didn't kill Danny O'Brien was because Jenny was there.

And with the image of the expression Jenny would have if he killed someone in front of her who couldn't even fight back floating in front of his eyes, Kyle opened his fist and instead of the lethal haymaker he'd been about to throw he reached out and shoved Danny in the chest. Danny flew backwards four feet and landed on the asphalt, hard.

“What the hell did you just do?” Benny asked, his eyes wide.

“Less than I'd planned,” Kyle sighed. “Do you want to fight too?”

“No,” Benny shook his head. “Nah, I'm good.”

“Then take him and get out here,” Kyle gestured to where Denny was lying on the ground. He was conscious, his eyes clear, but he was staring up at the sky and not moving. Benny walked over and grabbed Danny's arm to help him up.

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Kyle actually didn't see the transition between Danny lying on the ground and Danny lunging for him. He brought his hands up to defend himself but Benny was already holding Danny back, dragging him away. Danny had become a snarling animal. He hurled curses and threats and insults, his face so red it was almost glowing, flecks of spittle spraying from his mouth.

“You're dead Anderman! You're so fucking dead! I'm gonna gut you like a goddam fish you hear me? Who the hell do you think I am? You think you can get away with this? You think...”

Kyle turned his back on him and walked over to Jenny.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“Don't be!” Jenny said. “I'm really proud of you! A lot of people would have hurt him really badly for everything he did.”

“I almost did,” Kyle told her. “But I knew you were watching. You saved me.”

“Don't you mean him?” Jenny cocked her head.

“I meant what I said,” Kyle smiled.

“Sorry to interrupt a lovebird moment,” Evan said as he walked out the back of the school, “but am I hearing Danny O'Brien losing his mind like a snarling animal?”

“Evan!” Kyle said. “There you are. Yeah you know, no big deal, just working out some childhood trauma on the neighborhood jerk.”

“How many bones did you break?” Evan asked eagerly.

“None,” Kyle said. “He's not worth it.”

“Not sure I can agree with you there old buddy,” Evan said. “Did you at least hit Benny a couple of times too?”

“Who's hitting Benny?” Trevor asked, coming out of the school along with Betty. “I'll hit Benny, if someone needs to.”

“I didn't hit Benny,” Kyle said. “He was too smart to butt in.”

“Figures,” Evan sighed. “The first time that big asshole was too smart for everything...”

It was an even shorter walk to Tanya's house from the school than from the antique shop, and Kyle already knew the way. He allowed himself a moment to smirk at their reactions to the teleporter, but Tanya's glare when they arrived in the catacombs below her house dampened his mood. This time she led them past the room the three of them met in before and into a large open space.

“This looks my dojo,” Trevor said. “Except for the stuff on the walls. We still have stuff on the walls, it's just...different.”

The items on the walls were a wide range of odd items. A spear with feathers tufted at the tip, a carving of a leering face with a fang filled mouth, a pair of marracas that shifted restlessly in the hooks they hung from.

“Alright,” Tanya said. “This room has been enchanted to contain magic. So if there are any accidents while training, there won't be too much collateral damage.”

“So it is a dojo,” Trevor nodded appreciatively.

“Before we start I need to know,” Tanya said. “Has anyone been experiencing odd side effects from their magic?”

“No I'm fine!” Evan said. “I can't believe how much better my brain works now!”

“The real surprise being it now works at all,” Kyle said.

“I'll let that go because I'm so much more intelligent than you.”

“Ah yes,” Tanya sighed, rubbing her temples. “I almost forgot. You decided that the intelligent thing to do was hook up magic you've only known existed for a few days directly to your brain without even asking about the dangers or how to do it. Are you experiencing headaches? Blurred vision? Bleeding from the ears? Hallucinations?”

“Nope the big purple lobster says I'm fine,” Evan said. “And that dancing hippo over there agrees.”

That got a laugh from everyone. Even Tanya's mouth curved up at one side.

“Mental enhancement doesn't actually make you smarter,” Tanya said flatly. “It's like...like adding a small computer to your brain. It improves memorization, it can make you think faster, or it can make your senses sharper. It doesn't have anything to do with your decision making or your ability to apply that information. Perfectly memorizing a science textbook doesn't make you an astrophysicist. Which you would know, if you had talked to me before pumping uncontrolled magic into your brain.”

“I kind of figured it out pretty quick after,” Evan said. “But you know what it is good for? Games like chess which are all about recognizing patterns. I'm gonna buy everyone dinner tonight, by the way. But the point is once I had the mental enhancement, and I got to play around with it for a while...it was fun. So what if I'm not any smarter? I memorized every textbook I owned in an hour. And you wouldn't believe what I can do with a video game now. Of course so far, the real money has been in chess.”

Evan pulled out a wad of bills.

“Where did you get that?” Kyle demanded.

“The chess club,” Evan grinned. “Along with a few other fringe benefits.”

“So you cheated,” Trevor said with a disapproving grimmace.

“He would hardly be the first,” Tanya sighed. “Well if you really aren't experiencing side effects no harm done. And I was going to recommend mental enhancement for any of you with several nodes anyway. Guided mental enhancement. One of the things it does is increase learning speed.”

“See? It worked out great!” Evan laughed. “And think about it, now if I catch the tiiinyest glimpse of a woman I can hold the image in my head forever. Or replay the image over and over and...”

“Alright then,” Tanya cut him off. “First things first. Checking nodes. Kyle and Trevor already did this, but the rest of you please.”

She gestured to a crystal set into the wall.

“There's one in this room too?” Jenny said.

“Some training can alter the nature of nodes,” Tanya explained. “It's useful to be able to check.”

“Oh yeah,” Evan said. “Kyle told me about this.”

He walked up to the wall and put his hand on the crystal. In the air above him an outline of his shape, with three glowing stars inside of it.

“Three massive nodes,” Tanya said.

“That's one more than usual!” Evan grinned. “Sounds fun!”

“I will kill you,” Tanya said casually. “In case you were wondering, and to clarify, the sizes go tiny, small, average, large, massive, colossal, titanic.”

“Cup sizes?” Evan giggled.

“Evan,” Kyle said.

“Alright alright,” Evan whined.

“I suppose I will go next,” Betty said. Her cat walked up with her. Her constellation was made of six stars.

“One massive and five large nodes,” Tanya said. “You had to have at least one massive node to summon the five elements cat. That's actually a perfect arrangement for you.”

“Why would that be?” Betty asked.

“I'll explain later,” Tanya said, stepping up to touch the crystal. “First, let me show you mine.”

Evan opened his mouth to say something, but everyone's glares made him quiet down as the image appeared on the ceiling.

“It looks a lot more complicated than ours,” Kyle pointed out.

Her nodes had little lights all around them, like orbiting planets. Or maybe like flower buds sprouting from her nodes.

“That's because she has sub nodes!” Jenny said. “I spent last night trying to remember everything I could about magic. I've had a lot of masters who were sorcerers you know!”

“Jenny's right,” Tanya nodded. “I have one colossal node, two large nodes, and two small nodes. As you can see, the colossal node has the most sub nodes. That's because I've dedicated my colossal node to energy projection.”

“Like Kyle's enormous beam of lightning that defeated the monster,” Betty said.

“Exactly. That's what would happen if I used the main node, because all it's dedicated to is projecting energy. No control, no limits, like stabbing a hole in the side of a can of soda. Control is what the sub nodes are for. Each of those is a specific spell. So for example, I can project energy like this...”

Tanya waved her hand, and one of the small bulbs growing from the huge node in her image flickered. Green light glowed from the palm of Tanya's hand and a flour sprouted up from the floor below.

“And I make the flower grow. Nature magic is my specialty.”

“So the main nodes are like a generator,” Betty suggested. “And the sub nodes are like appliances, that turn that power into something useful.”

“That analogy works,” Tanya nodded. “But it isn't perfect. Nodes dedicated to physical and mental enhancement supply power to the body and mind directly. There the sub nodes are more like...optional features. And you'll notice my two small nodes don't have any sub nodes at all. That's because I've dedicated each of them to a specific spell. That's good for basic abilities you plan on using all the time.”

“This is kind of long,” Evan complained.

“Well we've got to nail the rules down sometime,” Kyle told him. “Better to get a general explanation out of the way now than bog everything down later when things are getting exciting.”

“That's basically how things work,” Tanya shrugged. “It's good to know, but the point I'm trying to make is that a lot is possible. Especially with all the powerful nodes you all have between you. So start by telling me what you want to do, and I'll tell you if it's something you can do”

“Physical enhancement,” Trevor said instantly. “I've got a question about physical enhancement. Is it permanent? Like can I turn it on and off?”

“Not exactly,” Tanya said. “Your node is connected to your strength now. It will enhance you a little just by existing. And if you get emotional...you'll probably call on that extra strength subconsciously.”

“That's going to be a problem,” Trevor said. That got a few wide eyed stares. “Judo. Jiu-Jitsu. Shaolin Kung Fu. I practice all three competitively. I just feel like adding magic onto that would be...I don't know, cheating. And even if you could all convince me it wasn't...a titanic node sounds like a lot of power. Am I right?”

“More power than all my nodes combined,” Tanya confirmed.

“So let's say it isn't cheating,” Trevor said. “So I'm up there, and this guy is tougher than I thought he was. I'm holding back, but I need more strength than I'm using to land my next move. So I use it, but I use too much and...” Trevor shuddered at the image. “I could really hurt somebody that way. And I don't think any of the other ways to use magic are likely to suit me.”

“You won't be entirely free of that effect,” Tanya warned him. “There's no way to close an active node without harming your body. You can train to suppress it, but you'll still be a little stronger and faster than you would have been otherwise.”

“I can live with that,” Trevor shrugged. “A little stronger and faster is fine. I'm just worried about hurting somebody. That being said, I think I might be able to help all of you.”

“In what way?” Betty asked.

“As an instructor,” Trevor said. “The whole point is that now we're in deep with the magic stuff we need to protect ourselves, right? So powers. Great, good. You're all gonna be Harry Potter plus Doctor Strange multiplied by Rincewind the Wizard. But do any of you—not you Tanya, I assume you know what you're doing, but the rest of you—actually know how to fight? Not just swing your new special super strength around. Fight? I know for a fact Kyle and Evan don't. Betty? Jenny?”

“I have never been very athletic,” Betty adjusted her glasses.

“They don't really encourage genies to fight,” Jenny said.

“See?” Trevor looked at Tanya. “If you're better at hand to hand than I am, I'll leave right now. It's not like I've ever really fought much outside a tournament.”

“No,” Tanya shook her head. “It would be extremely useful. I mostly use my physical enhancement node to avoid direct combat, and focus on my spells.”

“Sounds like everyone is really sure they're going to be fighting huh?” Jenny said sadly.

“She has a point,” Kyle said. “There are things we can do with magic besides fight right? You grew a pretty flower.”

“Yes,” Tanya said. “A part of the reason I'm teaching all of you is so you can defend yourselves. But of course magic can do other things. And if that's what you want to do with magic, we can pursue that.”

“When I was out of the lamp before people used magic for everything,” Jenny said. “Cooking and cleaning and all kinds of things. If you don't want to use it in competitions you don't have to.”

“You don't all have to decide today,” Tanya said. “It's important you learn how to protect yourselves, yes, but I was mostly planning on teaching everyone the basics anyway. That will be good for everyone, even Trevor.”

That's something we can discuss later on. For now, those basic exercises.”