Billy looked at his friend over his can of Jolt Cola.

"You want to know how I became the way I am now? Well, it really begins with an old friend of mine. You remember how I told you once that I was in the Accelerated Baby Genius Program? That was back when I was three. It was the first place I could really be with people my age who understood me. I made a lot of friends there, but the only one who lasted was Steve. He's even smarter than me, and gets picked on more than I ever did. Of course, part of that is because he isn't into Martial Arts... but I digress.

"Anyway, once, a couple of months after I first became a ranger, we were hanging at his house, talking and showing each other our latest inventions--not the ones I built to deal with monsters--just my normal ones. He'd come up with a voice-controllable VCR, so anyone could use it. You wouldn't believe the amount of programming you need to put into that just to cope with different accents. Anyway, after I showed him my new laptop, he told me that he had something better down in his basement. That's where his lab is.

"It looked like a portapotty with flashing lights. Not many of those though. He's never been much for flashing lights. He told me that it was a personality changer. Not like my personality exchanger--you know about the trouble that one caused, way back when--but one that would actually change the thinking patterns of a person while leaving all memories intact. You wouldn't believe the amount of theory that would go into something like that. I don't believe it myself. The molecular synapse codifiers alone... but I told you that he was always smarter than me.

"He demonstrated it himself. It took less than a minute for the total process, and it changed even more than his thought patterns. He came out dressed differently, and I _know_ there were no clothes in there, his glasses were gone, even his voice had changed. He told me that like that, his name was Stephan. You know, like in French. He had once stayed in that mode for a week. The girl he liked had finally admitted that he was alive and was very disappointed when he decided to go back to normal. The thing was, he had never felt comfortable as Stephan.

"I asked him if I could give it a try. I had always wondered what it felt like to be cool. Not that I was careless. I only took a small charge. I can't describe how it felt. You know how hard it is to describe how morphing feels, well this was nothing like it, but just as hard to describe. When I came out, my clothes had changed, but I still had my glasses. It felt kind of funny not to be wearing overalls." He laughed.

"Do you know why I first started wearing overalls? One word: wedgies. People can't yank on what they can't get at. By the time most of the class was too mature to do that, I was just too used to wearing them to give them up.

"I also found that my vocabulary had shrunk a lot. That was a side-effect he had had too; he wasn't quite as smart as before. He was still way above average, but not as much so.

"I decided to go home like that. I really wanted to see what it was like. Hanging out with the school jocks was something like it, but I had always felt kind of on the outside. It wasn't anyone's fault, just that I knew I would never have been part of the group if I wasn't a Ranger. On my way home, there was an emergency call, I don't remember what monster it was. Everyone on the team saw me, and I got more compliments than I had in my whole life before that. It just felt so good being liked, that I decided to go all the way. I did it over a period of months, to try to make it look more natural. I kept my name all the way through for the same reason.

"For the first time, I really felt like I belonged. I understood what people were saying. They understood what I was saying. There was much understanding and rejoicing. Sorry. That was from a cartoon. See how much I really have changed? Once I would have used some Plato.

"I've been going to his house for booster treatments ever since. Those times I left mysteriously that made everyone think I was the Gold Ranger, that's where I was going. I'm sure you understand why I didn't tell anyone; it's kind of embarrasing to have all your friends know that you are what you are because of a machine. I don't mind telling you, because you asked about it, but I don't want to tell everyone at once.

"And here's something you might enjoy: Now he's updated his machine so that it not only changes a personality to a given type, but also to a given person. His favorite is to change himself to a bad parody of Bruce Lee. I laughed at him when I first saw that, but he understood. The scary bit is that when he does that, he's really good at Martial Arts. And he uses even more gratuitous sound effects than we do. We sparred some, and he beat me easily. I have a feeling that he could even handle Tommy when he's like that. I know that he once stopped Shaun's gang from taking over a playground. There was someone named Skull in that gang too; Steve mentioned it because of all the trouble I had with Skull. It couldn't have been our Skull, though: he was a martial artist. Anyway, he's really good. Why don't you come with me next time I go, and see for yourself?"

The End