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It started small, with Guy staying out later every night because the villains were more active. Going out to look for monsters and the like. Kelly dismissed it at first, thinking he was just getting ahead on his superheroine duties to play video games with Maz or something like that.
But it kept going. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months. Guy stopped sleeping as much, eating only when necessary, not turning back into Shezow until he was on the brink of collapse. Something was really wrong here.
It was another night like this. Guy stumbled in, costume ripped slightly, eyes tired and unfocused. “Wow, you look terrible,” Kelly remarked, snark in her voice. Guy didn't argue, just mumbled something before detransforming and going to bed. She frowned, writing down the interaction in her notebook before heading out as well.
Maz was kind of freaking out at this point. His best friend had been weird for weeks at this point, always running into danger and getting himself hurt. He'd been talking to Kelly a lot because of it, telling her his concerns as she showed him her observations in a notebook she'd been keeping. Either way, they both knew Guy was not the same person they knew. The sass and laid-back attitude they were used to was now a sullen, drawn-in replacement.
“What is going on with him?!” Kelly exclaimed one day while in the shecret lair. Maz shrugged as he was playing a game on his phone, sharing her frustrations. “It's as if wants to get himself killed!” She kept pacing around the room, Sheila showing the battle on one of her many cameras. Maz paused his game and looked up at her.
“Maybe he's just feeling adventurous this summer, it is before we go back to school, after all.” Kelly stopped pacing, letting out a deep sigh as she headed back to her chair. “I'm just worried, Maz. He keeps throwing himself into danger, as if being Shezow is the only thing helping him with-” She suddenly stood up, grabbing her notebook, flipping through the pages. “How did I not see it sooner?” Maz walked up, confused. “See what?”
She turned around, grabbing his shoulders with a crazed look on her face. “Maybe he's turning into Shezow so much because he wants to be her.” Maz tilted his head. “But he's already Shezow-oh. Oh, I get it.” They sat back in their chairs, thinking about what to do next. “Maybe we just tell him we know?” “No, he'd just avoid it.” “Intervention?” “Deny it.” “Confront him after the mission and make it so he can't deny or hide from it?” She nodded, a plan already forming in her head.
Guy stumbled back into the shecret lair after another victory against Coldfinger, thoughts clouded and costume feeling tighter than usual. “Hey,” Kelly called over her shoulder, typing a story on her computer. “Hey,” he said back, his words slurring slightly due to lack of sleep. Maz went up next to Kelly, both of them looking at him with stern but concerned expressions.
“Why're you guys looking at me like that?” Guy asked, although he knew the answer all too well. “Guy, me and Kelly have been talking, and we've been kinda worried about your health,” Maz started, pulling up a chair for his friend to sit in.
“You've been throwing yourself into danger for weeks now, being Shezow until you literally pass out from exhaustion. Maz had to carry you inside on more than one occasion. So what's going on with you?” Kelly asked, her eyes never breaking contact.
Guy sat there in shock at his friend and sister's remarks. Not because they were mean-spirited, but because they were right. He was fighting more, often trudging inside and passing out on the floor. And they knew. He knew they knew. And that's why the tears started flowing.
Kelly immediately pulled her twin into a hug, not caring that her sweater vest was getting ruined by tears and snot. Maz was there at his side, his arm around his friend as they all sat in the lair, while Guy told them everything through tears.
How he started feeling bad about himself a few months back. Finding out that being Shezow made the bad thoughts go away, only for them to return upon his detransformation. Why he was fighting so much, because it was an opportunity to stay Shezow for a longer period of time. And they just held him through it, letting her get out all those ugly thoughts that had been building up.
It was another typical day in Megadale. Coldfinger was trying to turn the city into his own ice rink, but Shezow put a stop to it in no time. But when she got back to the lair, there was no one wearing the signature hoodie and cargo pants. Instead stood someone with a small ponytail, a hooded jacket paired with an athletic skirt, with a smile more natural than Maz and Kelly had seen in months.