As Alyssa drove to Tara's house—with Kat in the driver's seat—she and Kat thought together about this strange new ability she somehow possessed. She couldn't get over just how amazing this was—the way things seemed, she could literally turn anything into anything else with nothing more than a touch and a desire to change it. She even created a working smartphone from...something nothing like a phone, she remembered that much. And she had no idea how a phone would even work. What else could she create? What more could she do? Just the ability to create seemingly whatever she wanted from anything—she could hardly believe she could actually do that, even though it was quite clear—was already enough to let her do pretty much anything she might want to do, but Alyssa still couldn't help but wonder what other things she might discover. Even if she didn't discover anything else, she knew this ability alone would change her entire life more than she could possibly imagine, and she'd constantly be finding new ways to use it for a long time to come. This was a really big deal, to say the least.

And why did she suddenly have this amazing power? Did some cosmic force grant it to her to help her help people adapt to the negative effects of the situation Tara created or something? That didn't seem very likely for many reasons, not least among them being that similar things surely would have happened in the past in more serious situations. But, for better or worse, it clearly wasn't something a large number of people would soon find themselves able to do; after all, Tara couldn't have revealed anything that wasn't already common knowledge in the universe Kat came from, and nobody there, not even pros like Stacy, could do anything close to what Alyssa was now able to do. And while that was another dimension where people could have evolved with any number of differences that weren't immediately obvious—come to think of it, it was more than a little interesting that Kat happened to be transported to another universe where the chaotic process of evolution produced such a similar if not identical species—Kat did have a very good point about why that wouldn't make a difference. Those differences could only possibly affect people as far as their physical bodies are concerned, and these abilities clearly came from something separate from that. Neither of them could explain what made these types of abilities possible—not even Kat, who came from a universe where some of them were an everyday part of life—but there was no way any part of her physical body could be what made it possible. Something about Kat's body (and the bodies of other people from her dimension) could probably prevent her from making use of her natural extra-physical abilities, the two of them reasoned, but that couldn't happen unless there was a part of her body with the specific purpose of blocking it, and there was no way natural selection could possibly work in favor of such a disabling characteristic, so that was out of the question.

Whatever it was that gave Alyssa this power, however, she loved having it. Who wouldn't?

When they arrived at Tara's house, Alyssa knocked on the door. "Coming!" sang Tara, before opening the door and greeting them. And, of course, there were two of her at the door. One of them with shorter hair, and glasses. "Come on in!" she said. "You've got to see this," said the other.

"What are those?" asked Kat, pointing to Tara's glasses.

"You mean my glasses?" asked Tara as she took them off slightly and put them back on, confused.

"Yeah, I never heard of those; I've seen a few people in this world with them and I've been curious," she said as they walked in.

"You don't have glasses where you're from?" asked Alyssa.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were from another world!" said Tara, the one with the glasses. "That's interesting you've never seen them. Most of the time people wear them to fix problems with their vision; there's normally lenses here." She pointed where the lenses would go. "But my vision's fine; I just like the way they look."

"You've got a nice place," said Alyssa, as she sat down on the couch with Kat. "And a nice haircut," she added, for the one with shorter hair.

"Thanks! We've been experimenting with the decor, redecorating a bit," said the longer-haired Tara. "Also I wouldn't exactly call it a haircut," said the other one with a smile. She raised her eyebrows a couple times, her hair spontaneously growing longer and shorter with the movement before going back to the length it was before.

"Nice!" said Kat. "You learn fast!" She looked at the other Tara. "Can you do it too, uhh...other Tara?" She laughed a bit.

"Call me Rachel," she said. "It's my middle name; I've been going by it to make things less confusing." Rachel tossed her head, and as soon as her ponytail flew up, it came loose, her hair suddenly increasing in volume as it fell behind her in waves, all the way down to her ankles. "And yes, I can." Rachel smiled, and suddenly her hair rapidly retracted until it stopped just at her waist. "Oh, and we got this down too." She closed her eyes and her dress morphed, becoming a crop top and a mid-length skirt, with dark blue stockings, and a blue bow appeared in her hair. "You know, I like this look; I think I'm gonna keep it for a while."

"Is that what you wanted to show us?" asked Alyssa.

"Actually, that reminds me, she's got something really cool to show you too," said Kat, pointing at Alyssa.

"Oh really?" said Tara.

"Well, I bet it's not as cool as...this!" said Rachel, lifting her foot in the air and placing it firmly down on the floor in front of her. As soon as her foot hit the ground, a spot of blue, matching her dress, appeared on the hardwood floor underneath her foot with the appearance of marble, a spot which quickly grew larger, spreading across and changing the entire floor.

Alyssa gasped. "What the—"

"I'm pretty sure it is," smiled Kat. "Show her, Lyss!" She nudged Alyssa.

"Y-yeah, I can do that too," said Alyssa, stammering a little as she took in the new development. She lightly tapped her foot on the floor to demonstrate, changing the color much as Tara had.

"You really love that shade of blue, don't you?" commented Kat.

"Wow, that's awesome!" said Tara.

"How about you, Kat?" asked Rachel. "Have you tried yet?"

Kat sighed. "I just can't do it. I know exactly how, it's easy, but nothing happens when I do it by myself."

"What do you mean?" asked Tara, a bit confused.

"She can do it when she's merged with me," clarified Alyssa.

"Ooh, you've merged with each other?" asked Rachel, her hands clasped together in excitement. "Show us what you look like!" insisted Tara.

Kat looked at Alyssa and smiled. "Wanna?"

"Sure, let's do it!"

The two of them stood up, and Kat started walking over to Alyssa, already holding out her arm. Tara and Rachel sat down to watch, snuggling close together.

"Actually, this time can I try imprinting on you? Instead of the other way around?"

Kat lowered her arm. "Okay, go ahead!" she invited, as she turned to the side.

Alyssa walked over to Kat and placed her hand on her shoulder. It wasn't long until Alyssa's hand passed through Kat's skin, which was her cue to step inside of Kat and merge with her completely. As soon as she did, they were a single person. Well, two people sharing a body with characteristics of both of them, anyway.

"Aww, you look cute!" said Tara.

"Wow, that felt real natural," commented Alyssa. "I was expecting it to feel kind of awkward."

"Of course it's natural," said Kat, though from outside it looked and sounded like it was the exact same person saying it, aside from subtle differences in intonation. One might think it was someone with multiple personalities, which it was in a sense. "You're used to being in a human body, right? Certainly more so than being...a car, or a bed or something, right?"

"Hey, I just thought of a name for you," giggled Tara. "Mind if we call you Aly-Kat?"

"Ha, I like that," said Kat. "Clever."

"It is pretty clever," agreed Alyssa, talking from the same body again.

"Ooh, I just got an idea!" Kat again. "Let me try something!" Grinning, Kat looked around the room for a moment, then walked over to a wall. She placed her finger on the wall with a change in mind, then started to walk parallel to the wall as she dragged her finger across it in a waving motion, before noticing nothing was happening under her finger. "Hey, what gives?" she complained.

What are you doing? asked Alyssa.

"What are you doing?" asked Rachel coincidentally around the same time.

"I thought this place would look cool with some neon lights going around the walls," said Kat, a little irritated. "But I still can't get the changing thing to work even though I'm merged with her! It worked before!" She groaned.

"Neon lights?" questioned Tara. "That sounds a little too...complex, I mean it's really just colors and patterns and materials and.....actually wait, did I even try anything more than that?" With an excited smile, she stood up.

Holding out her index finger pointing at the wall, she tilted her finger up and down in a waving motion, moving her hand in a swift motion toward the other side of the wall. As she did, a tube of bright blue light appeared from the wall, extending along with the motion of Tara's finger, glowing brightly despite not being connected to any kind of power source. Both Taras gasped simultaneously. "No way!" said the one who had just created the light with excitement.

"Whoa, you just—" shouted Aly-Kat, coming from both personalities at once. "You don't even need to touch it?!?" added Alyssa. "Let me try!"

Alyssa held out her finger (which was also Kat's finger) toward another wall, and thought about creating swirling colors as she moved her finger in a circular motion. And...nothing.

A little disappointed, Alyssa bent over and brushed her hand across the floor, with the intention of changing it back to the shade of blue Tara had made it before. Nothing. "Now I can't do it either?" said Alyssa, more than a little worried.

"Maybe it's cause you imprinted on Kat this time?" suggested Tara. "Didn't Kat say she could do it when she imprinted on you?"

"Oh, probably!" said Alyssa, relieved at the promising solution. She stepped out of Kat, regaining her own independent body as Kat's simultaneously changed back to her usual appearance.

"But that wouldn't—" started Kat.

Alyssa pointed at the wall and tried her first experiment again, twirling her finger toward the wall and thinking about swirling colors. To her elation, the colors appeared on the wall just as she imagined them.

"Wait, but...what would my body have to do with it?" Kat thought out loud. "Why would my body...she imprinted on me, and then she couldn't...but when I imprinted on her..." Kat paced around the room. It didn't make sense that some characteristic of her own body existed seemingly for the specific purpose of limiting her power—why would people's bodies develop that way?—but that was the only explanation she could think of for why imprinting affected her ability, or lack thereof, the way it did. Not to mention, it would explain quite well how two people in Alyssa's dimension independently developed that ability within a couple days after learning imprinting, while no one from her dimension, where imprinting had been common knowledge among everyone for a long time, was known to be able to do anything like that. Of course, while that possibility, if true, would answer that one question, it would only replace it with its own unanswered question, of why Kat's body would develop that way in the first place—and, of course, what she should do to fix that problem.

Kat's thinking was interrupted by Rachel's voice. "Hey, let me try something!" Rachel giggled as she held out her hand in Kat's direction, wiggling her fingers playfully as she moved her hand downward. At the same time, Kat started to feel a "formless" sensation not unlike imprinting on air or water, though she wasn't doing either at the moment. She felt her legs give way as she collapsed to the ground, and she shrieked as she noticed her entire lower body was melted into a goo-like material!

"Kat?" started Alyssa, before shrieking herself as she saw what happened to Kat.

"Oh god, are you okay?" asked Rachel, putting her hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp. "I wasn't thinking, I didn't hurt you did I?"

"I'm fine, just...whoa, you really took me by surprise there!"

Alyssa breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh good!" said Rachel. "...Want me to finish the job?" asked Tara with a smirk as she held out her hand and wiggled her fingers some more in a taunting way.

"Sure, go for it," said Kat.

"Wait, I want to try!" Alyssa held out her hand toward Kat and tentatively repeated Rachel's motion to make Kat's entire body liquid. Once it was, noticing Kat's colors were just flowing and mixing together without any rhyme or reason which looked somewhat unattractive, Alyssa casually flicked her hand in Kat's direction, giving her an appearance more fitting of her personality: swirls of black and pink constantly flowing around each other but never mixing. the pink even appearing to glow very faintly.

Alyssa paused for a moment to reflect on what exactly she just did. She literally turned another human being into living goo—with nothing more than a simple gesture and a desire to do so. This other person was already partially goo, so it wasn't entirely her doing, but she had no doubt whatsoever that she easily could have.

In fact, she wanted to try. She looked at Tara and Rachel, and saw that they were both busy looking at Kat, so, holding out both her hands, one toward each, she flicked her fingers toward them, simultaneously and instantly turning each of them into shiny, cobalt blue liquid that promptly collapsed onto the floor with a splash. "Whoa," said Alyssa, as she looked at her hands, then back at Tara and Rachel.

"Hey!" came the voice of one of them—it was impossible to tell them apart—with a slight reverberation. "Alyssa!" the other scolded playfully. They both rose up and took on the shape of their normal selves, while maintaining their gooey texture and consistency.

"I almost didn't let you do that, but being goo seems like fun!" said Rachel.

"Wait, you—" started Kat, before she was interrupted.

"Seems like it? Watch this!" said Tara, who instantly collapsed back onto the floor and sped across the room, crawling up the walls and onto the ceiling. "Wheeeeeee!" she squealed in ecstasy as she continued flowing all over the place, before finally dropping down from the ceiling with a splash, and becoming human-shaped once more. "You've got to try this!"

Rachel instantly took the suggestion, zooming around the room much faster than they could move around as regular humans, enjoying it just as much. Tara just sat down on the couch and watched from her Tara-shaped goo body, hesitating for a minute as she didn't want to get the couch dirty, before realizing the floor still seemed clean and she could probably clean it with just a wave of her hand anyway. Alyssa, wanting to try as well, instantly melted into sky blue liquid herself, less viscous than Tara, Rachel, and Kat, with what looked like white clouds flowing through it. Thrilled but not surprised that she was able to do so, Alyssa followed Rachel's lead. Kat, on the other hand, stayed on the floor as a puddle, still having a question for Tara.

"You don't want to try, Kat?" asked Tara, as the other girls took to bouncing around the room as liquid spheres.

"I do, just what did you mean before? How could you stop Alyssa from melting you?" asked Kat, as the other girls started splashing themselves all over the room, turning into all sorts of shapes in the air as they tossed themselves through the air.

"Actually, that was Rachel, but I can answer your question. It's just instinct or something. I felt the change starting and I could have just stopped it if I wanted. I can turn back right now if I want," said Tara, regaining her completely human appearance to demonstrate without even a gesture. "See?"

Kat tried to do the same. She could make herself almost solid, and she could become any shape and color she wanted including a close approximation of her normal human form, but she couldn't completely regain her form. "I sort of can, but not really."

"Aww, sorry," said Tara. "Want me to turn you back for you?" She held out her hand.

"Not yet," said Kat. "Might as well have some fun with it...thanks though," she said as she joined in the fun, speeding and bouncing across the room herself.

This world is about to get very interesting, thought Alyssa. She couldn't wait to see what else she could do.