I quickly snatch a note pad and pencil off of my desk and start with the Q&A portion of the test.

“Did that hurt?”

Myla answers with a death glare.

A slight shiver runs down my spine as I jot down that response.

[Subject A: Reacted to shock with understandable frustration. Definite pain felt.]

I clear my throat “Sorry, I didn’t think it would hurt that much. Were there any muscle spasms?”

“Kinda, it felt like my arm jolted slightly.”

“Mm-hmm,” I write that down too.

“Any sort of burning or tingling sensation?”

“A slight burning at the spot where it hit.”

A long beep sounds off from the Discharger indicating that it had finished recording and quantifying the results.

Now, for the second half of the test. A small, ancient black and green display is loosely mounted to the frame of the static generator. It does have a few unprotected wires, but I grab it anyway, avoiding the more dangerously exposed ones, and squint at the display.

Myla’s data flashes on the readout. Minor losses and no out-of-place readings, an excellent basis.

Beginning to feel a little giddy, I quickly usher Myla off of the plate and Bee onto it.

“Okay, your turn!”

Glancing at Myla and I, Bee puts out a finger and pokes the electrode like it’s a wild animal, jumping slightly as the charge overcomes her skin’s resistance and runs through her body.

I quickly take note. [Subject B: Surprised by discharge, but displayed no open signs of pain.]

Bee shakes her hand a bit and steps down.

“Well? Any pain?”

She makes a large X with her arms. I note a negative.

“Muscle spasms?”

She shakes her head.

“Huh… Um, any kind of burning or tingling sensations afterwards?”

[A buzzing.]

The results are just as basic as last time, but a lot more interesting. The pad makes a long beep again. Then it makes a series of short beeps, an abnormal results alert. Curious, I grab the screen, and freeze.

I’m… not sure I believe what the readout is showing me. According to the voltage reader, the discharge basically never occurred. The electrode’s charge indicator is off, so it definitely dumped it’s charge like it’s supposed to, but the plate received only a fraction of what was put out.

I look up at Bee’s electric blue eyes under her cloud of storm black hair. She and Myla take a quick glance at each other.

“These results, this is.” I go quiet as my brain unsuccessfully attempts to run multiple trains of thought simultaneously. I rub my eyes with my free hand, an odd feeling of exhaustion beginning to take hold of my mind.

Clearly beginning to panic, Bee grabs the screen and snaps her fingers in front of my face, allowing me to stop thinking for a second and focus.

“Oh! Don’t worry, I just need to run a few more trials.”

Just to be sure, I run Bee through the test again. Same results.

“Ok then,” I scratch the back of my head “the machine is definitely working.”

“So? What is it telling you?”

“Um, I’m not sure how to put this.” I hold out the pad towards them, its screen showing a blank, pre-test reading. “So, see this graph? This records how much charge the plate receives from the electrode and what current it was at.”

“Uh-huh…”

I press a couple of buttons and turn the pad to them again.

“This is Myla’s data.” The graph shows a jump in both charge and current that almost reaches a line halfway up the screen.

“The graph is calibrated so that the middle line is a benchmark, representing a perfect transfer of energy with no charge or current losses.”

I pause for a second “The fact that Myla’s line doesn’t quite reach it is the expected result, as the body naturally absorbs and loses some the charge and resists the current. However!”

I switch over to Bee. Her data shows a tiny jump in charge with almost no current.

Turning the pad back to the others raises some eyebrows.

Bee’s signage is slow and slightly off [Not much charge. Where did it go?]

“Well I guess the best way to put it is that your body simply ate the negative charge.”

[Ate???] Going off of Bee’s expression, I automatically add in the questioning tone in my head.

“More specifically, somehow your body has adapted to resist or even ignore electrical shocks that would put other people in serious pain. Looking at this graph, it almost seems like your body absorbs and holds the charge to be safely discharged over time.”

After everything that has happened recently, I’m weirdly passive about yet another biological anomaly; still excited, but a muffled sort of excitement. Unfortunately, I forgot that my friends are not nearly as acclimated.

Bee looks like she’s about to faint, and Myla isn’t looking much better.

“How…?!”

“Don’t ask me, you’re the biologist here.”

“I’m not sure a B.A.S degree qualifies me as a biologist or allows me to understand how a human can work like a battery.”

“You still know a lot more than me.”

Myla grunts and thinks for a second “Don’t most batteries use chemicals to store energy.”

[Chemicals not found much in humans. Most batteries use lithium.]

“Which is extremely toxic.”

I remember an article I read recently on new age batteries “You know, some manufactures these days use graphite and phosphate in their batteries. Those seem a little more probable.”

Myla nods to herself, than violently shakes her head “Wait, that doesn’t clear up anything! How is this possible, what caused this!? Complex life simply doesn’t just, change all of the sudden like this.”

“You have a point. Developing bio-electricity is the kind of ability that usually takes millions of years of evolution to develop. Bee gained it in a single afternoon.”

[Maybe not. Shocks have never hurt.]

The three of us take a moment to think and I can practically hear the cooling fans in my head revving.

“Well in either case, I’m gonna do some research into batteries made from biological compounds. Should give some insight into what’s going on chemically and internally.”

Myla quickly picks up her phone and rushes out the door, her voice trailing behind her “I’ll hit the books too!”

I stare at the open door as her footsteps fade *In a hurry as always…*

I feel a tap on my shoulder, prompting me to turn around. While Myla wasted no time heading home, Bee hasn’t moved an inch.

[Hey.]

“What’s up?”

[I’m-] Her hands freeze mid-motion as her face scrunches up, clearly deep in thought.

[I’m feeling many things right now…]

“That’s fair, I would be t-“

Bee holds a finger up to my face, her expression more serious than I’ve seen it in a very long time. [You are not.]

“H-Huh!?” I stutter, a little taken aback by her sudden boldness.

Bee points to the door Myla left through. [I understand her, she was focused on helping. You I don’t understand. You are more like me, always excited to learn more, you need to. Except this time, you weren’t surprised or excited. You seemed tired.]

“…” I avoid eye contact, not that Bee can really tell.

[There is something, isn’t there. Something weighing on you.]

I consider denying her, but instead nod slightly “You’re… not the only one experiencing physiological changes.”

Bee reaches up and taps my sunglasses, a curious expression on her face.

“Y-yeah, I suppose I haven’t been doing the best job being discreet about that.”

We both stay silent for a moment before Bee lightly grabs the wire rim, she hesitates for a moment and seems to want to remove them, but doesn’t. She lets go and raises her hands in a surrendering gesture, turning to the door.

“Thank you, I promise to tell you all everything I know soon.” I let out a nervous chuckle “Though that isn’t saying much, I barely know anything.”

Bee shoots me a quick smile before finally leaving.

Breathing a sigh, I turn back to the machine.

*Alright, this thing served its purpose. Time for the old reduce, reuse, recycle treatment.*

I hop up onto the plate and reach out to unscrew the electrode, only at the last second noticing the green charge indicator. Before I can tell my arm to reverse, my finger makes contact. A bright flash emanates from the contact point and my fingertip immediately burns worse than any static shock I’ve ever felt.

As I try to shake off the pain, the pad gives a long beep, indicating a finished test. Then a few short ones, causing me to freeze.

An anomalous reading. Hesitantly, I pick up the data pad and my blood runs cold. I rush to charge the machine up for another run and hop on.

After another painful shock, I quickly pick up the pad, only to smack it against my forehead. The same result. The charge is the same as the control, but the current is massive, causing the graph to spike clear off of the screen.

I can only think of one thing that supercharges electrical currents like that; powerful electro-magnetic fields.

Defeated and thoroughly confused, I sit on the ground in front of the Discharger. It’s so much, so fast. In less than a month, I have gone from a totally physiologically normal human to a bizarre biological anomaly.

I hang my head, my voice barely audible now “What’s happening to me…”