...okay.

You know what? You do you, pink-haired girl.

He grabs the scanner again and, in a minute, finally makes it out the door.

The pink haired girl descends from the sky and alights in front of him. She lays a hand on his scanner, and picks it up with two fingers. It seems completely natural: gentle touch, one smooth motion, and now the scanner is the size of a coin and sitting neatly in her palm. 

She offers it back to Kai-zi. 

This will last about an hour before I need to refresh it. 

He takes it and holds it out in front of him in awe.

"It's so cute!"

Whoops, that was probably "rude", huh. He tries to think at her, the same way he did before.

how'd you do that?

She giggles. 

I'm a Doctor of Metaptropi: material and form are mine to play with. Want another demonstration?

shit, yes. fire away.

She picks up a rock from the street, then puts it into his hand, clasping his fingers around it. It's cold against his skin. 

Ready?

so ready.

She moves her hand away. 

The pebble is a lot heavier than it was before, and also a lot shinier. 

In the sea without lees,

stands the bird of Hermes, 

Eating her wings variable, 

And she makes herself yet stable. 

When all her feathers are from her gone, 

She standeth still here as a stone.

We are the new alchemists of this age, you and I. 

She smiles slightly.

Holy shit, okay, that's definitely gold.

He stares at the nugget in his palm.

this is unreal.

if you can do this, and she could make the grasshopper...

What can he do?

It costs to fix it, make it stay. But that is real gold. I can teach you if you're willing to learn.

...i want to know everything.

He is probably being entirely literal about that.

Staunen, are you? 

She tilts her head, and offers her hand.

Well then, come with me. 

i have no idea what that means!

He grabs her hand.

She leads him down a nearby alleyway, stepping lightly over discarded bottles. 

Every Genius has a catalyst. An emotion that colours their work, threaded into every nerve and circuit. People like you and her, who are all wrapped up in the wonder of it, we call Staunen. 

I have a different Catalyst. 

She stops at a nearby wall, passes her hand over it, and something shimmers, shifts, aging bricks replaced by marble archway. Beyond, a garden rests in silence, lavender flowers lit by moon.

A different reason for it all. 

He walks forward towards the arch without thinking about it.

what's your reason?

She looks up at the moon. 

I want the world to stop being so terrible.

...sounds pretty good to me.

If circumstances had been different, he might have had a very different catalyst.

Trouble is it's so very big.

well...good thing there are a lot of us. it looked like, anyway.

yes and no

genii and their creations aren't generally the most stable. We're called mad scientists for a reason. 

Incidentally, under no circumstances should you ever let a non-genius witness you using your Wonders in an obvious way, and you should really especially never let any of them touch or, ugh, fiddle with them.

Huh.

but...she had to show me her stuff for me to realize...

He sends a few images of his meeting with Jinx.

can anybody be like us? 

No. They can't. The thing behind our eyes - the thing that lets us make wonders - it can't live in most people's heads. When it tries, it burns away their ability to... have goals or opinions or desires of their own, to want things. They become echoes of whoever the strongest Genius nearby is, utterly beholden to them.

You were very lucky.

...oh.

On the one hand, he does feel sort of...special, being one of the few. On the other hand...

it's...dangerous, then. to everyone else.

Yes. Our devices... go wrong in the hands of those untouched by the lightning. They seem to lack the instinct for how to make a wonder function; within five minutes it will be badly broken. If you're very lucky, it won't break in a way that endangers everyone around you. 

He nods.

...i would've tried to show people if you hadn't told me.