Nobody was entirely sure where the guy had come from: He was babbling in a language not a single court translator could understand and given that he'd tried to knife a cop, nobody cared. He got clocked, cuffed and carted away and much later was killed in prison. That was all anyone knew about him.

Oh and he'd lost something. But nobody knew that except Aaron. That's the thing about playing too many video games: Finder's keepers is a more or less universal law. Or maybe you don't have to play games to think like that. Maybe you just have to be a little bit mean.

The bag hadn't contained much that Aaron could imagine would be worth stabbing an officer for, not at first. The multitool had seemed a bit odd: Four coloured blades, two pairs of tweezers, a pair of scissors could be rotated out like a Swiss army knife and a button on one side looked like it powered a laser pointer, but the battery must have been flat because there wasn't a light when he pressed it.

Then he looked at the instructions. Not in English, naturally but a series of pictures demonstrating how each tool could be used.

Oh, Fuck.

No way.

He hadn't spoken out loud and was glad, still standing in the busy subway as a ring of cops stood around a prone and screaming figure. One of the officers motioned for Aaron to be about his business and he got the hell out of there, his prize tucked under one arm.

The trip home was a blur. Aaron couldn't remember whether he caught a cab or bus or just walked, but there he was in the early afternoon daylight at his front door. He opened it, noting that it was unlocked and so somebody must be home, which wasn't strange for a Saturday.

His younger sister looked up at him from the living room floor before turning back to the cartoon blaring a foot away from her face.

"You'll get square eyes sitting that close," Aaron said.

Emily stuck her tongue out at him and turned back to watch.

"Mum and dad home?"

"Nope. They won't be home till late. They've got chicken and something in the fridge. Said for either you or Allie to heat it up for me."

Aaron's heart skipped. Having the parents out of the house for the night was more than he could have hoped for.

"Where's Natalie?"

"Upstairs on the phone with her boyfriend." Emily rolled her eyes.

Aaron hoped that meant she was about to go out for the night as well. That meant Emily was the only other person home, but she was easy to avoid. God, if she had a fridge, toilet and television in her room, she'd never leave.

He almost tripped over Tabitha on his way upstairs to his room, the tabby cat trying to rub itself against his legs and scampering away when he stumbled.

"Hey! Watch it!"

Tabitha meowed and approached him again, head-butting his leg. Aaron gave her a quick pat on the head and pushed her away.

"I'm busy, go eat Emily's gerbil or something."

He closed his door, flicking the light on and dropping the shutters. Speaking of neighbours, he pried open two slats to peer outside. That college girl from across the road - Alice - was just getting home with her two dogs, while her prissy little sister, Cindy sunbathed on the front lawn, the vain bitch. Alice was nice, though and her brother Jake wasn't a bad guy either.

Next door he could see Andrew mowing his lawn, his wife Lara probably making something in the kitchen. They were the stereotypical young couple: Only married for a year with a second kid already on the way. And on the opposite side of his house was old "aunty" Agatha's place, which didn't look too bad until you noticed the blacked-out windows, the overgrown lawn and the persistent smell of smoke that hung about. If you payed attention, Aggie had a lot of suspiciously young visitors that stayed for a really long time, usually walking a bit unsteadily when they left. Nobody minded - there was never any actual vandalism or violence around her place - but it was pretty obvious that they weren't dropping in for a cup of sugar. Not regular sugar, anyway.

"Most everyone's home then," Aaron muttered. "At least I've got the house more or less to myself."

He stripped down to his underwear, multitool in one hand and instructions laid out on his bed. He'd have to memorise them soon - it wasn't the kind of illustration you wanted people stumbling onto. Especially not your family.

Now, which one to test first. He didn't want to hurt himself if it turned out to be bullshit, but if it worked he didn't want to do anything he'd regret. Ultimately, Aaron held his hand out in front of him and swung the gold blade down on his pinky.

He was surprised at the complete lack of resistance as the blade passed through and his finger hovered in the air before falling to the floor. He felt it hit the carpet - felt the impact - and gasped, bending down the pick it up.

"This is weird." he breathed.

He could feel his fingers holding the detached flesh, but it felt strange like touching a surface with crossed fingers. The sensation seemed normal, but its location in relation to the rest of his body didn't. With shaking hands, he reattached the finger and flexed his palm, the hand opening and closing as though nothing had happened.

With a gulp, Aaron put the same blade against his wrist. Even though the blade was only two inches long, his whole hand fell to the floor as though cut with a sword. Aaron winced as the hand landed and watched in awe as his hand wriggled on the ground as he tried to make it crawl around. Evidently, hands weren't designed for that, so Aaron picked it up and - feeling adventurous - attached it to his chest. The fingers wiggled, and he could feel tendons that shouldn't exist flexing in his "wrist" before removing the hand and replacing it on his arm.

Time to go for broke. He dropped his underwear and looked down at his cock, almost embarrassingly hard from the excitement. With a silent prayer, he swept across with the gold edge and felt the groinal vertigo as his dick fell and landed in his palm. It twitched in time with his heartbeat as he looked at it from all angles, as though he were holding a living dildo that fed sensations directly into his body.

His girlfriend, Sasha was going to find this particular party trick very entertaining.

Shaking his head in amazement, he stuck it back on above his balls.

"That is too fucking cool," he said, unable to help himself.

He vaguely wondered how the device worked, where it had come from and exactly what physiological effect it had on its victims before shaking his curiosity off.

Wizards. That was all the explanation he needed - any more time spent puzzling over the details was time absolutely wasted.

Looking at the functions of the other tools, Aaron felt that the self-experimentation phase was well and truly over. He didn't fancy trying out a lot of the other features on himself. It was time to find someone else the try his new acquisition on...

Or someone to turn into a new acquisition.