Evelyn has an uncanny skill at Inspiring further thinking. It was perhaps what made her seem so much like Sherlock Holmes, even more so than her actual powers. The right questions could generate deeper wondering, and this was something she had pride in. Hearing William consider something further was a positive thing. She had come to embrace her own change and was relieved she could assist him with the transition he faced.

”I would have a bit longer to wait to take advantage of some things. Like my apartment, which I have the deed for but does me no good right now. It’s cool that you are at least old enough a car could be useful! Although I do have credit cards. I don’t know how long those will last before someone wonders where the bill is coming from. My parents weren’t bright but they do catch on with time.” she admitted. At least knowing her parents would pay for it was better than stealing. She wasn’t quite so criminal yet.

”some of the other teens may be able to help more. I think word got out I shouldn’t be allowed on the Internet. Mirror must think I’ll buy something bad. I haven’t blown up the mansion yet!” the fact they were experimenting in the chem lab with high voltage electricity didn’t seem to phase her.

She listened as he explained the process, and agreed with his plans. ”I know where a better container is. Was there more sand where you found that from?” she was already guessing his thoughts by the way his eyes moved between objects. [Calculating, considering supplies. Eye movement suggestions planning next experiment. Number of notebook pages: 4. ] the echoes started counting beakers next. She tried to steer them away from sand at least.

William certainly was glad he was sixteen and not a child. As a teenager he could make much better use of what his past life had amassed than Evelyn. Though, if he was a child he would not know any better. Evelyn just happened to have the echoes to help her know what she was missing.

”Well you have more time to make use of the eighth wonder of the world. Compounding interest.”William shrugged. Being younger, Evelyn could leverage what she had to earn more with it over the long term. ”It is something the older me made use of. I only loosely understand it.” He admitted.

Evelyn was not supposed to get on the internet? William frowned at that. The kid was clearly very grown up. If that was due to her power than she should be treated like the way she acts even more. ”Maybe I can find a way to help you get more internet access.”

”I know where a better container is. Was there more sand where you found that from?”

”Excellent. There was plenty more sand. I will grab it.” William all but ran out of the room to retrieve a few bags of sand. It took a few trips. William was not some weakling but he was only just stronger than your average nerd at best.

In an art class a couple years prior the teacher had everyone draw pictures but they had to make use of one unbroken line to accomplish them. William was not particularly good at it, but the experience might translate. The ability to work in three dimensions only adding to it.

William dropped a fourth bad of sand into the room and asked, ”Okay… Where… Am I… Pouring… The sand?” He realized maybe he should do some kind of exercise.

William had smart ideas. While Evelyn did have the echoes, she was surprised she had not come up with the thought of investing anything while she was younger. If she was 7, that was a lot of time she could move cash around and get her own wealth. "That isn't a bad idea...It wouldn't be horrible to look at stocks as well. The echoes might have a thing or two to help with that. Do you think it's cheating to use your mutation to get rich?" Not that she would stop herself from trying, but it felt good to at least know the morality of it. Computer predicted things all the time, right? Her powers were just a bit like a machine, considering what information was offered to it.

"It would be cool if you could help," she grinned when he mentioned assisting with her internet problem. "You aren't an adult exactly, but if they knew someone was with me so I didn't blow up the mansion, they may be more open to the idea of letting me use google." She had many things to ask google. The limited opportunity so far had been maddening.

Evelyn let her attention return to their project, and she came back with a glass jar that was almost too big for her to carry. She almost vanished behind it, but the echoes were great at letting her get around without being able to see well. Setting it on the floor, she waited until he returned and helped guide the sand inside. Together, they managed not to spill more than a few stray grains.

"This was in a storage room, it looks like it's thick glass so it should be good." She commented. She didn't wonder why there was a giant jar. Heck, half the stuff in the mansion made little to no sense sometimes. Kids practicing their mutations made strange things. If someone found out they could make jars, why not create extra ones for practice?

”Yeah. Stocks would be great. Dividend stocks are supposed to compound nicely over time. It’s what Warren Buffet does… Did… Is Warren Buffett still alive? He was already fairly old last I remember.” William knew he needed to learn a lot about personal finance and building and maintaining wealth. He knew that his other self had used dividends, theta strategies, and weirdly coincidental lucky trades to make use of his free cash. Long term, patience, and then sudden seemingly arbitrary sells or shorts.

The question of whether it was cheating or not to use a mutation to get rich was an easy one for William. ”Why would it be? Everyone should be encouraged to use their gifts to make money. Like me selling fulgurites or other art made from my power.” William shrugged, ”And if it is cheating… Well, the rules need to change.”

”Worst case… We go to a library in the city. I can drive us. You can Google to your heart’s content.” He could use the chance to explore the nearby area. Large cities were not unusual to William. He grew up in the Metroplex. What was unusual was just how dense the city was. It felt like entire streets back home were compressed into entire buildings. Then those buildings had stores inside them.

Evelyn had found a thick glass jar. She had found it in a storage room. Was there nothing the mansion did not have? ”Yeah. That should work.” William grabbed the first bag, then realizing he had no way to open it, searched around the room for a knife. He found one in the closet where the sand was.

Knife in hand he sliced open a bag of sand. Then he dumped the sand into the jar. He wanted it good and full before he started.

The jar filled he put his hand over it and focused. ”Okay. I’m thinking… the outline of a hand. Starting simple.”

William’s power flared to life. His personal equivalent of zero to sixty as his power flared back to life and electricity began arcing from him to anything nearby. He focused on the image and released his power into the sand. As much as he could output at once… And a small arc passed to the sand. It was long but had the sound and appearance of electricity arcing across the leads on a taser not a mini lightning strike.

”What?” William tried again. Another small current. ”I… I can’t. This is all I can release. Why?” He looked at his hand as if it had the answers.

Evelyn had never heard of Warren Buffet, so it must have been someone that hadn't been mentioned when she lived at home. That was just one more thing to google when she could.

She also felt it would be easier to understand the concepts of stocks by reading from a more recent source. The internet seemed to offer that, based on her limited experience. Plus, if she was going to invest money, she needed to make sure she was picking the correct targets to make use of. Getting to be young again was a once in a lifetime event, she was pretty certain of that. She could not waste it. Her mind was already making a list of things to do and she hadn't even gotten her hands on a computer.

Evelyn beamed when he said using her powers wouldn't be bad. Even if it was, rules should change. Evelyn liked his thinking. Maybe that's why she liked being around him. It was rare for a mutant around here to be willing to challenge a system if they felt it was not the best one in place. Evelyn chose her own path, and not everyone respected the instinct to push things that she felt were unfair.

"It would be so much fun to visit the library anyway. So many books..." She got starry-eyed just considering it. That mindset carried her as they finished setting up for the next experiment.

This time, something was off though. Evelyn was fanning out her notes, grabbing books and flipping through it even while he was questioning what was occurring. "It's been almost 9 minutes and 29 seconds since we did the last experiment. We already established your body can't seem to hold a charge, maybe it dissipated while we prepared? We could go back to baseline, build back up, and see if that is the case?" She was skimming through charts and comparing them with the books, as if looking for something to support a running theory.

Evelyn was onboard with the library idea. Once William had a better handle on his new life he would take the pair of them to whatever library seemed the best for them to go to. His New York City experience was still largely limited to a joyride in his electric car, a police station, and the mansion. His local knowledge was certainly lacking.

It came as no surprise that Evelyn knew exactly how long it had been since he last used his power. She even had a theory as to what had happened. ”I feel like… I can still generate electricity like before.” He held up a hand and looked at the arcs across his fingers as the electrical breakdown caused by his body’s poor insulation of his power. ”It is like… Like there is something constricting what I can let out.”

William stopped generating power when his power had not worked as he expected. The voltage while dropping was still incredibly high. The arcs from his body casting odd shadows around the room as he walked to grab an ammeter. ”Remember how my amperage kept going up? Maybe it starts low and goes up?” It was a shot in the dark, but he grabbed the leads and tried to run power through the machine. He showed the display to Evelyn. It was low again, under .2 amps but was climbing. At the rate it was moving it only needed another 35 seconds to reach .2.

Evelyn kept shuffling notes around even as he was talking, making a tick here, a mark there, and finally nodding to herself. "It would make sense it starts low and would need to grow with time...both times we tested it we started at a base mark, we never tried to jump straight into a higher output. We ran on the assumption that your body couldn't store anything at all, but what if it's just...a leaky bucket? While we were filling it it's easy to keep topping off how much you have ready, but if you turn off the faucet, whooooosh, it's all gone."

She watched him run power through the machine, adding new graphs to a separate paper. She noted the time since last power usage, and the gradual increase of power. It was gaining strength at a steady rate, and she noted the first .2 amps, until it jumped and they had to cut the power. There was enough to work with though. She started scrawling calculations on paper. "We actually started at .002, which increased to .2 amps in 60 seconds. We maxed out at 110.96 seconds, giving us a rate of increase at roughly 0.0767528364331. If that continues, I expect we could hit 20 amps in 2 minutes. Beyond that, I guess it depends where we hit the ceiling of your powers." She concluded, setting down her pencil.

Her eyes gradually shifted from grey back to blue as the numbers and echoes grew quieter. "I'm assuming at a certain point the electricity would escape as well...But at least that wouldn't be long to reach the level needed to create things."

Using the new information William was providing, Evelyn went to work in earnest. First she had formulated a theory on his power and then as new numbers were provided she created a testable model.

”Well… Let us test it!” William moved the ammeter to where Evelyn could easily see it without William having to hold it up to show her. He clicked the dial on it over to where it would be able to show up to twenty amps. ”I will keep the wattage down on it. I think I can do that. Keep from running as much power through it as I did the other machine I fried.” As the amperage went up, William tried to keep the voltage low. That resulted in his corona reappearing as the breakdown ended. The corona slowly faded to where it was almost imperceptible to the naked eye in the lit room.

William continued to run current. The ammeter continued to move up at a predictable rate. ”It looks like your math checks out… Less than a minute to twenty amps.” The numbers continued to climb.

Evelyn tried not to get overly excited when he brought the new ammeter over, but her eyes lit up anyway. Thank goodness this school had so much technology! Within the given time-frame, they hit twenty and Evelyn grinned.

"A solid result! Do you want to try the sand again? What level do you think we have to get you up to for it to work?"

Evelyn asked questions while the echoes tried to help answer them. Numbers were one thing though, his own personal control and intuition was more important. If he felt he could control and focus his powers in a particular direction to get the results then that was important. If he wanted to go for it, she would put a pair of the glasses back on and make sure she wasn't too close to the jar just in case. She wasn't going to miss things because of an accident.

”This feels like what it felt like when I made the fulgurites the first time. I am going to try it again.” The amperage he was at felt like his bucket had grown a fire engine hose out the side and could unleash it at will.

William moved over to the sand and readied himself. His power erupted in generation, electricity arcing from him to everything nearby. He focused on an image in his mind. ”Get ready… I am going to try again. Three. Two. One.” William closed his eyes and in a flash of lightning and thunder his power flowed out of his hand into the sand and followed the design he held in his mind. William could somehow tell how long the current needed to last to complete the design. It was a fraction of a second longer than his previous attempts.

After he opened his eyes again, William sifted through the sand and pulled out a fulgurite in the shape of a lion’s head. ”This is… Amazing. I can… I cannot believe I can do this.” He set the fulgurite down on the table. ”What should I make next?” William asked Evelyn, overly excited by his own ability to create.

Evelyn made sure she had her ears covered and the glasses on before William acted this time. As a result, she was able to see just fine when he brought the sculpture out. Her mouth fell open without being able to stop it. "That's amazing! How...how did you, I just....that's so cool." Even the echoes were having a hard time understanding. It was, a bit beyond the world of science as she had figured out now. Was he telling the electricity to turn? Was it moving through the glass as it formed? She wanted to know more, but figured even he might not know how to say what he was doing.

"I, I don't really know. Maybe a flower? Like a rose? Something commercial like that would be good practice. Like those little glass ornaments you see at stores all the time people eat up." Evelyn wasn't sure if he knew what she was talking about. She wished she had a phone to show him.

"Or try to write something? Just not your name. Unless you want a sculpture of your name." Evelyn said, considering.

To William, Evelyn seemed just as impressed if not more so than he was. He had to imagine her echoes were carrying on trying to explain or decipher how he had done it. William wasn’t sure how he had done it, but he did have an idea.

Evelyn made suggestions. A flower like a rose, or maybe a word. He went back over to the sand, ”I think… That… Well, okay. Voltage is electrical potential, right? Maybe because my voltage is so astronomical I am able manipulate the path the electricity takes. How I control it… I just thought about the path it should take and it did.”

William released his power into the sand again. This time when he fished out the glass it was an almost calligraphy-esque writing of the word ‘Voltage’/ The loop on the bottom of the ‘g’ and the crossing of the ‘t’ coming from the end of the ‘e’ being large, fanciful, and sweeping. ”I guess cursive is still useful for something.”

Evelyn wasn’t surprised by much. There were very few situations she came across that just stumped her brain. Usually, she was smart to the point it was a bit frightening to people. Even if she didn’t know an answer right away, she always felt finding one was possible.

But watching William pull cursive glass letters from the sand was one of the most bizarre scientific tricks she had ever seen. ”I think this is the point where I have to admit I....I don’t understand this anymore. Wow. This is...” this was the strangest experience she had faced so far.

The echoes weren’t even trying. As if accepting she was facing something beyond their current knowledge let the echoes call it quits. Their understanding and hers just had to run on simplicity now. Imagine image, control path, and when he stopped, there it was.

”I used to think knowing everything is fun but, not knowing how this works...is nice, this time. It feels like magic. Like, how people feel when they see magic.” she admitted quietly.

William’s use of his power had finally reached the point where Evelyn was no longer able to categorize, chart, and explain it. He took the glass word and set it on the table Evelyn was at. ”I… do not really understand it either. I am just filling in gaps of what I know of electricity with what I am feeling when I use the power.”

Evelyn said that she liked not knowing how it works, that it was like magic. William thought about that for a moment. For someone like her who has a power that tries to explain everything, leaving nothing left to wonder about or feel in awe of… Life must be just a little more drab. ”It is … Mutant magic. It should not work, but it does. It is unexplainable and wonderous.” William arced electricity in a constant current between his hands. The immediate area bathed in the semi purple light of his electricity.