"So what do you think the colours mean?" Ellie asked quietly. "Red gold for Harper, bck gold for me."

  Our boyfriend shrugged, "Do they have to mean anything? You like bck, maybe that's why you got the bck one."

  I pointed out, "Red's usually associated with life, isn't it? Like a red cross is a symbol for first aid or medical help. That sort of fits with what you want to do, right?"

  "Red can also mean danger," Ellie pointed out in that same quiet voice, like she was maybe still in shock or something.

  We were all in the pickup, heading east to that secluded wooded wetnds spot we'd agreed on. Harper's little wooden box was sitting ontop of the dashboard, while Ellie's was in one of her many pants pockets. And needless to say, neither of them had put their rings on yet. They hadn't even touched them.

  After we saw what was in Harper's box Ellie nervously picked hers up. She lifted the lid just enough to confirm that it contained an identical ring, except hers was the same bck colour that mine turned into after the first time I used it.

  "So you said Violet told you about these boxes?" Harper asked, changing the subject slightly.

  I nodded, "Yeah. I told her I found mine in a white padded mailer envelope, and she kind of ughed. She said hers came in this ornately carved little wooden box. She told me about the sun and moon carvings on the lid, and all the stars around the sides? Nobody else would have known those details, the only people who ever saw those boxes were the magical girls themselves."

  "Magical girls, and us," Ellie added.

  I nodded again, but I didn't bother pointing out the obvious implication. Or maybe invitation was a better word. Instead I just quietly slurped a few gulps of my strawberry shake, as we moved off the main road and onto an unpaved side road.

  We all stayed quiet until we reached our destination five or six minutes ter. Then Harper parked in a good spot, and the three of us quietly climbed out. The tall jock had his shake in one hand and the little wooden box in the other, so I carefully dropped the tailgate when we got to the back. We all climbed up into the bed, then sat together with our backs against the rear of the cab while we looked out at the stars reflecting off the water. We were surrounded on all sides by tall dark trees, and the air was warm and still, without feeling muggy.

  "So," Harper said after a long pause. "You're the expert Bke. What can you tell me and Ellie about these rings?"

  I had another gulp of my shake, then took a deep breath. I let some of it out as sigh as I began to share what I'd learned. "Like you two saw with me back in June, if you put the ring on it'll probably adjust to fit perfectly. Assuming it 'chooses' you, but considering you seem to have been gifted them I have no reason to think the rings won't accept you both. Then you just give it a twist and punch skyward, and poof. You transform into a magical girl."

  I hesitated there and gnced at my boyfriend, "Except I have no idea if yours will do that? I don't know if it'll make you a magical girl, or a magical boy."

  "If it does the girl thing, does that mean I'm eventually going to end up like you?" he asked. He didn't sound scared or angry, in fact his voice sounded intentionally level as if he was keeping his emotions in check.

  "I don't know," I shook my head. "All I can tell you is what I learned about my own ring? Remember that whole thing with my non-magical girl form and the increasing time before going back to my AMAB guy shape? That was basically a manifestation of me being an egg at first, along with my fears and hesitation about actually taking the plunge. Once I decided I never wanted to turn back to my guy form, that was it. It was gone for good."

  After another gulp of strawberry shake I continued, "So in your case, if you don't want to permanently turn into a girl then I don't think it'll do that to you. It may turn you into a girl while the ring's active, but if you want keep being a guy then it should return you to your original body afterwards. Probably."

  "But you can't guarantee that. Can you?" Ellie asked softly.

  "No. I can't," I sighed.

  Then I added, "You can always reject it though? Like if you transform a few times and it starts leaving you in a non-magical girl form longer and longer, then once you're back in your original guy form again you can reject the ring. That's actually the only way to take it off? You just have to consciously and verbally reject it. And you have to mean it. Then it'll come off, and you won't have to worry about it anymore."

  "So what's the catch?" our girlfriend asked. "There has to be a catch."

  I shrugged, "The only catch is once you've rejected it, the ring will never work for you again. So you either wear it for life, or reject it forever."

  Harper stared at the wooden box in his hand for the next few minutes, while quietly drinking his banana milkshake. I ended up doing the same thing, while Ellie focused on her chocote-mocha shake. Her little wooden box was still in her cargo pocket, and I couldn't help thinking she was maybe afraid of it.

  Eventually the cute tomboy spoke up again, but she apparently didn't want to talk about the rings anymore. Instead she asked, "There was something else you were going to tell us after dinner, Bke. About the magical girls not having to use commercial airlines? Or about how they got to the south-pacific back in the fifties?"

  "Oh right," I nodded. "So yeah, actually they did have to book pne tickets back in the fifties. Obviously they couldn't fly into the military zone, but the five of them all had to find their own way to the middle of the pacific. They'd each received their ring, same as you two? Like delivered mysteriously in a little wooden box. And after transforming, they were each contacted by Cel, and told where they had to go, and that they were needed to save the world."

  Both Harper and Ellie were watching and listening with interest as I continued the story, "They'd never met each other before then, they had no idea who they all were. But they did it, they all traveled by whatever means they could to get where they were supposed to be. Then for the st part of the trip they stole a fishing boat, and took that into the testing zone."

  "That sounds kind of crazy," the handsome blond jock pointed out. "I mean, it's crazy enough that Lily had to spend a full day on pnes and airports trying to get to Canada. Then they were stuck in Resolute until we showed up? What if there's another Outsider sighting? They all have to drop everything and get on pnes again, fly halfway around the world before they can even start investigating?"

  Our girlfriend agreed, "You'd think they'd have some kind of teleportation magic. Cel can do that, right? We all saw them vanish into thin air after they gave us the money and pne tickets."

  I grimaced, "You're not wrong. I guess things were different the first time around? Like however long it took them to get to those pacific isnds, they ended up being there for a couple years, right?"

  "Yeah," Ellie frowned. "It might have taken days or weeks to get there, but it took six years to seal the rift. We got off super lucky, that your group pulled it off in only an hour or two."

  Harper nodded slowly, "That must have sucked. Being at war like that, fighting monsters for years on end? I can't even imagine what that must have been like."

  Our girlfriend pointed out, "World war two was just as long, right? Thirty-nine to forty-five. That was less than ten years before the rift opened, so a lot of people would have known what it meant to fight year after year."

  "The original Rosa was trans," I added quietly. "For all we know, she might have even been a soldier in the war. She might have gone from fighting humans in the forties to fighting monsters in the fifties."

  "Huh," Ellie said as another thoughtful frown settled on her expression. Then she finally pulled that little box out of her pocket, and ended up staring at it for a bit.

  Harper was still holding his, and he finally set his cup down then opened the box so he could look at the ring again. A moment ter he took it out and slowly turned the red gold loop around in his fingers.

  "What are you thinking, Harper? Are you actually considering it?" I asked as I watched him.

  Our girlfriend looked over as well, and her eyebrows crept upwards when she saw he was holding the ring.

  He nodded slowly, "Of course I'm thinking about it. Who wouldn't? It's an incredible opportunity. And I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious."

  "I don't think I want to be a girl," he added quickly. "At least not forever? I'm pretty ok with who and what I am right now."

  "If it makes you a magical girl you might end up dealing with dysphoria," I warned him. "You might end up hating it."

  Harper seemed to think about that for a few seconds, then he shrugged. "I can always switch back. If it's awful then I can reject the ring, like you said."

  "And honestly," he added with a nervous smile, "If I don't try it I'm going to spend the rest of my life wondering what I missed out on. How many other guys ever get a chance like this, right?"

  With that he slipped the ring onto his right pinky finger. It seemed to fit perfectly, which didn't surprise me. I hadn't forgotten how it felt when I first put the pink ring on. Harper even picked the same finger, but opposite hand.

  Ellie's eyes widened when he did it, but she didn't say anything. Instead we both just continued watching our hunky boyfriend as he got up and hopped out of the truck bed. He moved a couple paces away then stopped and faced us, as he moved his left hand over towards the ring on his right pinky finger.

  Harper gave his ring a little twist, and sure enough the metal band lit up with a gentle red glow. Finally he gave us a nervous smile and said, "Here goes."

  "Good luck," I told him, and as soon as I said the words he punched his fist upwards at the sky.

  A fsh of red light washed down from the ring, engulfing his whole body. It only sted a split second, and when it was gone Ellie and I were left blinking a few times as our eyes had to re-adjust to the darkness.

  "Oh heck," the cute tomboy mumbled. "I'm so gay."

  Sure enough our tall strong hunk of a boyfriend had transformed into a cute petite magical girl. Just like me, like Violet, like all the others, he'd become short and busty. His clothes transformed to the standard outfit too, with short heeled ankle boots, a pleated skirt, and a faux-leather bustier. Except where mine were always bubblegum-pink, Harper's were a deep ruby red. Same with his hair, it was a little longer than before, and had shifted from blond to that same deep red. It was harder to tell what colour his eyes were, but I was pretty sure they'd gone from blue to green.

  "Oh my gosh," Harper excimed in a cute girly voice as he looked down at himself.

  And of course the very first thing he did was reach up and give his boobs a squeeze. Then he pulled up his skirt so he could take a quick look at his new red ce panties.

  "Dude if you're trying to fsh us then why not just strip down completely?" Ellie teased.

  I rolled my eyes and asked, "How are you feeling? Are you doing ok?"

  "It's weird," our magical girl boyfriend replied. "Definitely weird. Feels different. But it's not bad. Like I'm not feeling gross or anything?"

  After a slight pause he added, "I might change my mind if I have to pee in this form. But I could probably fight like this? The boobs are a bit distracting, and I feel half naked without my pants. I guess for a first test it's not bad though?"

  "Try and summon your weapon," Ellie suggested. "Do the sky-punch thing again."

  Harper grinned, "Oh yeah! Good idea!"

  A moment ter he did the punch again, which resulted in another fsh of red light. Then when the light faded he put his left hand on his hip and pouted. With a very girly posture and tone of voice he compined, "Seriously? A sceptre? That's so cliché."

  Sure enough he was holding what looked like a fancy girly sceptre. It was actually about the size and general shape of a baseball bat, but way more fancy. And it appeared to be made of some kind of red-toned hardwood. Except at the tip, where the wood gave way to a big multifaceted ruby gemstone.

  "That doesn't look like much of a combat weapon," Ellie commented. "I mean, compared to halberds and battle axes and bows? You're going to be at a disadvantage."

  Harper frowned as he inspected his weapon, slowly turning it over in his delicate hands as he got a feel for it. He gave it a few experimental swings as he said, "It's got some heft to it, like a club? Maybe not as solid as a hammer or mace, but I'll bet it could still dent some skulls. I don't think it's meant to be a weapon though?"

  "Actually I don't think I'm supposed to be a fighter at all," he continued, as he stared at the rge ruby gemstone at the end of the sceptre. "This thing feels magical, like there's a..."

  His voice trailed off for a moment before he smiled and excimed, "Oh! I'm a healer!"

  "You girls could have used a magical healer at Camp Hazen," he added as he looked at me. "Your arm, Ellie's forehead, Violet's leg, Chester's everything? That's what the team was missing!"

  I couldn't argue with that. On the other hand I didn't want us to get too far ahead of ourselves, since we still didn't know how the ring would affect Harper's non-magical form.

  So I suggested, "Why don't you shift back to normal now? We need to know if you'll go straight back to your original shape, or if..."

  "Right," he pouted again and his shoulders slumped. "What do you figure, it's been about two minutes in this form? Incase we need to start timing things, like we did for you."

  "Yeah two minutes give or take," Ellie nodded. "Good luck Harper."

  Our temporarily cute girly boyfriend smiled, "Thanks Ellie."

  "Here goes," he added as he reached up to give the ring another twist.

  PurpleCatGirl