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"Sure!" Jill replied. "It makes sense. Your condition could be considered a magical malady or injury. With all the things they have to deal with there a simple gender change should be easy to undo."

"Hmm, she's got a point." Mike agreed. "You said you'd rather see a wizard or something instead of a god."

Sean groaned. "I'm not going to end up without any bones or something, am I?" He asked worriedly.

"Hey, that was someone who didn't know what they were doing. We should be dealing with experts. You'll be fixed up in no time!" Jill said with forced confidence.

"Alright, we'll give it a try." Sean replied with a sigh. "At least we won't need weapons for this trip. Not that we used them last time."

"Be glad of that, we would have been at a real disadvantage against anyone with experience or training." Mike pointed out. Sean nodded wearily and accepted the book.

"We ready to go?" he asked. They both nodded, so he started reading the section Jill pointed out and opened a portal.

The portal took them inside the hospital. Sean closed it as soon as they were all through so as not to attract any more attention than necessary. "Now what?" he asked.

Jill was just about to say something when a woman in a lime green robe walked up to them and said, "Hello, what can I do for you?"

"My friend here got transformed into a woman by Venus. We were hoping you could change him back." Jill replied, pointing at Sean.

"Really? Haven't heard that one before. Let's take a look at you." She said, looking closely at Sean. She waved a wand at him and mumbled something under her breath. She went on to perform various odd tests and fed Sean all kinds of potions.

"Well, I can find no trace of a curse on you, deary. All my spells say you have always been female. Are you sure your friend used to be male?" she asked, looking back at Jill.

"Absolutely sure. The three of us were visiting Venus, hoping she could help us with a problem Sean's been having, and she got really angry with us. She threw a curse at us, and Sean threw himself in front of Mike to save him." Jill replied.

"Hmm, very noble of you. Well, as there appears to be no curse or enchantment to revoke, I suppose I could cast a gender change spell on you." She suggested doubtfully.

"Yes, please!" Sean replied eagerly.

"Oh, very well." She replied. She waved her wand at Sean again and said something that sounded like Latin. Sean glowed for a moment, but when the glow faded Sean remained female. "Hm, that's odd. Something seems to be blocking my spell. Perhaps you are cursed, after all. I'm very sorry, but there doesn't seem to be anything we can do for you." She said sadly.

"Oh. Well, thanks for trying." Jill said disappointedly. Sean opened a new portal and the three of them returned to Sean's apartment.

"Well, that was a bust." Sean commented bitterly, throwing himself down on his couch.

"Maybe we need stronger magic to overcome a curse from a goddess." Mike suggested.

"Oh yeah, and where are we going to get that?" Sean asked. "Let me guess, another god?"

Mike shrugged. "It might be the only way. I don't like the idea, either, but surely we can find a god in one of these books that is friendly and helpful."

"No way! No more gods! Next time I'll end up a newt or something!" Sean yelled.

Mike sat down on the couch next to Sean. "Come on, Sean, we've got to try something. Unless you really want to spend the rest of your life like this."

"I do not want to be a girl for the rest of my life, and you know it!" Sean retorted angrily.

"Hey, calm down!" Mike retorted. "I'm just trying to help!"

"Yeah, you're real helpful. Like how you talked me into going to see Venus. That worked out real well!" Sean replied sarcastically.

Mike put his hand on Sean's shoulder and said, "Sean, this sucks, I know. You didn't ask for this, and you don't deserve it. But you've got to deal with it now. We'll help all we can but you need to calm down."

Sean grabbed Mike's wrist and tried to push his hand off of him. "Leave me alone, Mike!" he said without looking at him. Mike's hand suddenly left his shoulder and Sean stood and started walking to his room. A startled squeak from behind him caught his attention in spite of himself. But when he turned around, Mike wasn't there. Some stranger was sitting where Mike had been, and she was wearing clothes identical to Mike's!

"Who are you?" he asked, confused.

"Uh, Sean, I think that's Mike." Jill said softly. Sean turned to look at her and saw tears gathering in her eyes.

"Mike?" Sean repeated, looking at the girl on the couch. She nodded sadly. "How did that happen?!"

"It happened when you pushed me away." Mike replied.

"Wait, you mean I did that?!" Sean asked in shock. Mike just shrugged.

"Can…can you…fix it?" Jill stammered worriedly.

"I don't even know how I did it!" Sean exclaimed.

"Try recreating what you did." Mike suggested. He seemed to be handling this better than his friends.

Sean nodded numbly and sat back down. Mike put his hand on Sean's shoulder again and Sean grabbed his wrist and pushed him away. Then he stood and turned around. To his relief, Mike was back to his old self. "Whew! Thank gawd that worked! Are you okay Mike?" he asked.

Mike looked down at himself and smiled. "Yeah, I'm okay. Maybe you can do that for yourself?" he suggested. Sean smiled and grabbed his own wrist and pushed, but nothing happened. He tried slapping himself, pressing his hand against his chest, and anything else he could think of, to no effect.

"Maybe it only works on men." Jill said.

"Then it should work on me!" Sean growled in frustration. Then he got a gleam in his eye and strode over to Jill. He grabbed her by the wrist and pushed her backwards, nearly causing her to fall.

"Sean! Change her back!" Mike roared, as Jill had indeed become male. She was standing there, stunned, looking down to where her breasts used to be.

"Sean?" Jill stammered brokenly. Sean seemed to deflate and hurriedly grabbed Jill again and repeated the push, changing her back.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to know if it really didn't work on women." Sean mumbled apologetically. Tears were streaking down his face and he turned and ran into his bedroom and collapsed on his bed. He wasn't there for long before Jill came in and closed the door behind her.

"Sean? It's okay, I'm not mad at you." Jill said softly. "I think I understand how you feel a little better now, in fact." She walked over to his bed and sat down, putting a hand on his back and rubbing it. He slowly got his tears under control and turned to face Jill.

"I'm sorry, Jill. I was so mad that it didn't work on me that I took it out on you." He said, still unable to look her in the eye.

Jill grabbed him and hugged him hard. "It's okay, I understand. Mike does, too. Why don't we go back out and work on solving your problem?" she suggested.

Sean reluctantly agreed and followed Jill out to the living room. Mike was sitting on the floor in front of the bookcase looking at the titles. "You two okay?" he asked worriedly. Jill and Sean nodded. "Good! I was wondering, do you think this gender changing thing is related to the spell the witch at the hospital cast, or Venus' curse?"

"It could even be a combination of the two." Jill suggested.

"But if it is, then anything we do will get twisted by the curse!" Sean lamented.

"Not if we remove the curse. How about this one." Mike said, pulling a book off the shelf. "He's supposed to be a really powerful wizard, maybe he can help us."

Sean looked at the book Mike had pulled out. "Well, he is the disciple of a goddess of magic. That might work." Sean said hopefully.

"Why don't you pop open one of your portals and we can find out?" Mike suggested.

"No way! I'm studying this book first. A lot of bad stuff happens in there, I want to make sure we go to a time and place that is safe. There's no way we would last long there otherwise." Sean replied firmly. The others nodded and Sean sat down to read.

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 To Be Continued…