Try tinkering with the batons' voltage a little bit!

You kind of want to see what you can do about the batons' voltage. It's 300 volts right now, right? That's plenty, but it would be nice to have a dial, instead of just an on or an off. And for stuff like dragons, having more than 300 volts would definitely be good! .....Are dragons real? You're not sure.{if Time == 7} Anyway, you figure Lexi'd be a good person to go to about it, because fiddling with stuff like this could get dangerous.

"Sorry, dude." Lexi says, bent over her desk with a paint kit out, slowly and steadily-handed painting something onto her leather armour. "This is gonna take up most of my attention. Next time, though, for sure!"

So, no luck there.{endif}{if CameronStory == True} Hey, Cameron's sister was an electrician, right? Maybe he can help you out somehow? Or at least give you tips? Or maybe not, since he didn't really help out with that part..... you might be better off trying to get some help from Rhys, then.{else} Well, you should probably go to Rhys for some help then, huh?{endif}

"Hey, umm.... Rhysmeister?" You ask, awkwardly bringing your two batons up to his desk at the front of the classroom. He didn't actually ever tell you to call him Rhysmeister, but it feels right. He nods his head forward, to get a look at you over the top of his reflective sunglasses, as you hold out your two batons to him. "Can I.... can these zap better?"

Kicking out of his leaning position, Rhys spins the chair over to face you and takes one of the batons. He adjusts his sunglasses with one hand as he looks it over.

"Doesn't look like it's got much in the way of power changes, little dude." He says, handing it back to you. "Can't get much more conductive than that lil' silver core sphereroonie you've got at the top there, and making a power dial's hella complicated. Best I can think of is if we getcha a stronger power source, not that they're running on just any double-A batteries right now, if you catch my drift."

You nod, to confirm that you catch his drift. "S-so.... how can we do that?"

Rhys leans back in his chair and clicks his tongue, slowly swaying it from side to side as he considers. "Odds are we don't brah. That's a trick and a half, 'specially if you want to still be able to carry 'em in just one hand each. These things aren't just made by any old frube, dudes know what they're doing."

Oh... that's disappointing to hear. Your shoulders sag a little bit, which Rhys notices, so he leans forward in his chair with his elbows on his knees.

"Tell you what, brah. Hate to see a chirpy grommet like yourself looking all down. 'Stead of replacing the power source, what if we found some way to put both batons' power into just one of 'em? Make it so you can click those rad truncheons together at their bases, put both electric packages into just one of those silver core dealios. Sound good?"

Well, that sounds pretty good to you, actually! You waddle back over to your desk while Rhys goes off to get some supplies, and when he comes back he helps you put it together. He has to bring his wheely teacher chair over to your desk, and it's kinda funny because he has to lean down so much and it keeps wheeling away from the desk and he has to scoot it back into place.

Essentially, the two of you spend the rest of the lesson together working on some metal caps that you weld onto the bottom end of each baton. The ends of the caps can be pushed together by a sort of one-way dovetail joint, which makes your two batons into a single staff, and through the middle of the caps there's some wiring which means that when a button is pressed to turn on the electricity, all of the power goes to one side of the now-staff that you have. Sweet! The cool part is, after testing it successfully after about an hour, you pull the batons apart again and there isn't even any exposed wiring in those joints. Locking them together actually slides a little panel or something, so you don't need to worry about it getting all ruined! You're not sure exactly how the wires link when it's joined, because you were more just helping Rhys to follow your instructions of the desired outcome than you were helping Rhys through the steps to reach that outcome, but you don't really care either, because it works and now you've got a cool electric staff thingy! Lexi's probably gonna be so jealous....

"Haha!" You shout, clicking them back together and activating the electric side. You jab it at the air a few times as Rhys watches with a proud smile and crossed arms. "Take 600 Volts, monsters!"

"Actually, dude, it's still 300 Volts, you've just doubled the amperage." Rhys corrects with one finger raised in the air.

"O-oh...." You say, letting the staff-holding arms dangle. "What's am-"

Before you can ask that question, the bell rings, signalling the end of class. Rhys tries to initiate a secret handshake with you, but forgot to tell you the secret, so it's kind of a flop. Regardless, he does finger guns at you as you pack your batons back into your metal gear suitcase and prepare to leave for the courtyard with the rest of your class.

{if Time == 7}On your way out, you get a look at what Lexi spent the class working on -- it looks like she's painted a pink heart onto the middle of the chest of her leather armour. It's got a proper gradient and cartoony shine to it too, so from a certain angle it actually looks sort of 3D. It's pretty cool that she personalised it like that!{endif}