Not on day one.

Alex and John got into hiss kinda shitty car (it was a hand-me-down from his older sister Jennifer, who got as a hand-me-down from their dad) and drove over to the mall. John wasn't completely sure this was where the store was, but they both figured it was their best first place to look.

"Wait, How much was the gun?" Alex asked as they approached the mall.

John paused for a second, "Twenty bucks, why?"

Alex was pondering something out loud, "Lets hit the bank real quick, I've only got ten bucks on me in cash and I don't know if mysterious McGuffin stores take debit or credit."

John paused for just a moment before starting to drive back out of the parking lot. "That's honestly a fair point, I've only got five on me so let's go. Which bank do you use?"

It ends up taking a quick forty-five minutes to get through both of their banks and withdraw some cash. Neither were fully sure how much it would take to buy potential modifiers for a Bimbo Ray, so they both had seventy on them, each. Better safe than sorry.

After they finally got back to the mall, Alex was just vibrating with energy. John had never seen his friend like this in public but he kept that to himself.

"I think we should split up!" Alex said before starting to walk in one direction.

John had a feeling that would be a terrible idea, "Hold on there. What happens if one of us finds it and can't reach out to the other while we're in there? We only might find half of the things we can together. The fact that I can't remember where the store is means they might have some sort of memory altering security system. Just splitting up and hoping we can contact each other before going in isn't going to work. Also, what's the one D&D rule we've learned?"

Alex groaned for a moment, "Never split the party. I know, I know. I just want to hurry up and see this place! I was just hoping by splitting up we'd cover more ground. You're right though, We're dealing with something that doesn't want to be easily found. Otherwise you'd remember exactly where it is."

The two of them then walked off to start sweeping the mall together. As they went, John still seemed perplexed at how interested Alex was in finding this place. He just couldn't put his finger on why.

------------------- Four hours later -------------------------

At 5:30, John finally said what was on his mind. "Alex. We need a break."

Somehow, Alex had remained chipper for all four hours. "What are you talking about John? The secret store could be literally around the corner! We need to go!"

John grimaced, "Alex, We've already been around that corner. And the next corner. We've been around every single corner and in every store in here. Twice. We even did laps around the mall in both directions, in case that was how you find it. Let me take a break."

Alex gave him an understanding smile, "You're right. This is all just so exciting, an actual artifact that breaks all of our known laws of physics and reality. A gun that has made me feel so much better and can possibly do more once we find the store! This is amazing! But, you're right. We have been at this for awhile and this was just our first place to look." Her phone started vibrating and beeping just like a certain Possible's Kimmunicator. "My folks are getting ready for dinner too. Why don't we pick this up again tomorrow, we'll check out some of the shopping districts nearby, maybe that's where the shop is."

Taking a break for the day sounded good to John, he drove back to his house so Alex could pick up her car and then they called it a night.

Throughout the night John had to wrestle with the idea of turning the gun on his own family. If two level 1s could make Alex all happy and bright like that... What would some of the higher levels do to a person?

John was still passed out when he felt himself getting shaken awake. "Whuz goin on?" He managed to mumble as he woke up.

"Dork, Wake up. Your nerdy girlfriend is here." Chloe said as she kept shaking him anyways.

John definitely wasn't a morning person and was a little slow waking up. "Chloe, Stop shaking me, I'm up, I'm up. Wait, Girlfriend?"

Chloe leaned back and Alex was there in the doorway to his room. John's brain took a moment to catch up. "Alex? What time is it?"

Alex stepped into his room now, "It's 10am and we're burning daylight. Get up, we have some shopping to do. "

John took a moment to fully register what was going on. Super shy Alex was now here in his room to keep up the hunt from yesterday. Alex seemed REALLY into finding more things for the gun, and he was going to find out why. Later, anyways. Right now, he did need to get dressed.

After getting some clothes on and grabbing some quick pop tarts to snack on for breakfast, Alex and John headed back out. This time to some of the shopping districts around town. Just in case the shop wouldn't be recognizable from driving past it, they parked every so often and walked around to make sure they had the best chance to find the shop. As an extra precaution, they wrote down in a notebook everyplace they searched, in case their memories were edited without their knowing.

It was when they reached the shopping center around the old abandoned movie theater that they found it.

John recognized it immediately and grabbed Alex's hand. She felt the change in his mood immediately and started vibrating with excitement. Before heading in, they both quickly pulled out their notebook and wrote down where they found the place, just as a precaution of a memory wipe before they head in.

As they both walked towards the shop, their minds felt hazier and hazier. While they both knew they were looking at a shop, the closer they got to it, the less they could remember about where they were going or why they were there.

Once they were both in the shop, they both were just excited to be there, even if neither could fully remember why.

The lady behind the counter took pity on the two and helped nudge the two towards what they were looking for. At least to their memory, the only thing they could agree on later was that it was a woman from behind the counter that pointed them in the right direction, but neither could give any specifics about her.

After that, they both wandered the store a bit, but as they perused the shelves and racks, neither could really register what they were looking at. John, thankfully had a vague idea of what the things that would fit inside the Bimbo Ray would look like from the shape of the holes, and never let go of Alex's hand in case they both got lost in the store. That seemed like a terrible thing to happen.

It took them... few minutes? Hours? Time, along with everything else felt a bit... hazy... in the store. Eventually they both ended up near a display that looked like it had packaged printer ink cartridges like those toy car collections of five. All brightly wrapped with little themed titles on the top of each pack of five. Neither could fully register what anything said, but they were able to at least make sure they didn't grab any that were the same before heading for the counter with their arms stuffed with pack after pack of cartridges, even a few standalone cartridges that weren't a part of a collection.

The lady behind the counter chatted away at them while they were wrung up. The two couldn't make out the words, but they knew she was telling them how cute they were together, how nice it was to have a couple come in. Neither were really dating, but couldn't bring themselves to really deny the lady.

Before either of them knew it, they both found themselves back in John's car, in the drive-thru line for the local McDonalds. Scrambling for their backpacks, they both unzipped them to find them crammed to the brim with a rainbow cornucopia of cartridges in packs of five, or just sticking out on their own. They both checked their wallets and noticed they'd spent $120 on the packs. Thankfully they both still had twenty bucks left in cash. Whatever the store is, it didn't seem to **** the memory modifying powers of their security system.

Both of their hearts were hammering in their chests as they ordered. Neither could wait to get home and start looking into what sort of insanity these cartridges would do with the Bimbo Ray.