CmptrWz

Chapter 24
Biometal Matinee
Or is that the Curse Wars?

The old man reflected on the creation of his curse as he created a trap-filled building in his workshop.

FLASHBACK: Days earlier

The old man had picked up on a substance called biometal from Sonic and Rose when their defenses went down from the statue ordeal, and had looked into it. He found the idea intriguing, but thought it needed some personalizing.

Soon he had created his own strain of biometal. He hadn't figured out how he would power his strain, but he figured he would borrow a device from another world later on. He was sure that his strain would confuse Sonic and Rose, however. His units and buildings would look like the units and buildings that had existed in another world, but would have no pilots and would not fire ordinary weapons. No, he couldn't have enough damage capability to take out the entire town and everyone in it. Instead their weapons were curses, any living being hit by a weapon would be cursed instantly, who knows what the curse would be though. An exploding unit or building also gave off an area effect curse, affecting any living being entering the area.

The beauty of the setup was that since the units had no pilots they weren't living, and could not be affected by the curses. Sonic, Rose, DS, Jeremy, and Emily could, however, easily be affected by the curses they would normally shrug off due to a field that would be created by special structures in the bases, each of which would be protected by a special impenetrable shield. The field would also ensure that each blast of curse inflicted on a person, inner or outer worlder, would be exponentially stronger then the last. The only way to take out the shield, the structures, units, and all the curses would be to take out the power source for them.

That would, however, be easier said then done, when the man got around to choosing a power source.

Back in the present

The man had chosen a power source, and was in the process of creating a place to put it. For the power source he had created a power sphere, containing enough raw power to break through the barrier protecting his world. This raw power had been created with a mixture of the old man's energy and energy from the shard he possessed, allowing him to curse almost anything currently in the field's effect. Luckily the raw power couldn't be harnessed by anyone, only the biometal forces he created. Anyone else physically touching the power sphere would get hit with enough curses to drive them insane, assuming one of the curses wasn't to ensure they went insane. If someone did manage to make an attempt at wielding the power of the sphere after initial contact then they would be thrown from the building, unable to re-enter, their curses remaining until the sphere was destroyed.

The building would be indestructible, and the outer-worlders, not to mention his kids, wouldn't be able to enter or leave by passing through walls or windows. The top of the building, 8 stories up, held the power sphere. Every floor below that had 4 rooms, each room had to be passed through to move on. Each room also held a different trap, and the building was designed to remove a good portion of the powers of anyone who entered it. To top it all off the 8th floor was a massive grid of lasers, bombs, spikes, arrows, and other destructive implements protecting the sphere itself. With reduced powers the 29 rooms would have to be navigated on foot. The sphere itself would eventually be found to be destroyable by Akane's Mallet wielded only by Akane herself, and if Akane wasn't around the first time the sphere was reached then those that had reached the sphere would have to work their way back out through the traps again to get her, then work their way back through again.

Of course, there was one more trick up the old man's sleeve. The building was in place in the middle of town, but was locke d tight. The door had three locks, and he had the three keys hidden in the three bases that were being constructed at that very moment. The specialized jammers in the bases were shielding them from detection, besides, the old man wanted to see the look on the townspeople's faces when EDF, Scion, and Hadean forces stormed the town. Of course, for realism's sake there were also scavengers going through, but instead of picking up scrap they were scanning for shards. Each had a special receiver tuned to the exact frequency of the curse energy in order to pick up vibrations from the remaining, untainted shards, which would be affected by the field created by the three bases. Only someone looking for the vibrations would notice them, however, as the curse energy would otherwise block them out.

An hour later

The old man floated high above the town, a special shield up around him to prevent his own curses from affecting him. The three bases were fully functional, each had a small attack force ready, and the power sphere protection system was at full power. The old man just had to give the signal and the attack would begin, and was he prepared to give a signal. He raised his hand above his head, forming a giant disc of dark, yet currently invisible, energy. Seconds later the disc flew into the air, growing large enough to block out the sun in the area, before it suddenly turned pure black. A MM traced itself out in the disc, letting light through, before the disc faded out.

The attack forces wasted no time invading town after seeing the signal. They had been instructed to make it seem like they were attacking each other, yet were really trying to have as bad aim as possible to inflict as many curses as possible. It didn't take long for a few dozen people in town to receive curses from "missed" shots, and the number was steadily increasing. A small group of girls had all been hit by a mortar, while a large section of a street was hit by a Kamikaze unit exploding. The old man noticed people changing into various non-organic materials, robots, dolls, animals, as well as people who were unable to act or not act in certain ways, affected other people with their voice or eyes, and even a few body swaps.

The old man finally snapped, and his laughter could be heard for miles as he slowly faded back to watch from his mirror, curious as to how long it would take before this game was over. When he got there he found the recording of the ice blast, and got a nasty idea. Soon a small attack force was on its way to Kalshion and Katarina, intending to curse them like they had never been cursed before. The force wasn't much, a mere fifteen Titans, ten Maulers, twenty Warriors, an Archer, and a few dozen Scouts. As the force left the Scion base the old man noticed Joe, who had just witnessed a young girl being hit by an arc cannon. The curse that affected her caused the attack to become all the more dangerous, as she turned into a Sabre that joined in the fight.

Leaving Joe for the moment, the old man noticed Happosai, wondering where he had come from. Of course, Happosai didn't like seeing girls cursed, and was fighting a Bulldog assault tank. He soon wished that he hadn't when he was hit by a mortar and cursed. No sooner had he been hit by the mortar, however, he was hit by a plasma shot from behind him, setting a second curse in motion when the first was just taking affect. The two curses combined, the first making Happosai a magnet for his deepest desires and the second making it so that his deepest desires would turn him into stone. The combination caused the first part of the curse to be nulled out when the second kicked in. As soon as he was far enough away from his desires he would return to flesh.

The interesting thing was that, on landing, Happosai crashed through the window of a clothing store, in the women's undergarment section, surrounded by women, and on top of Cologne who had been in the store, and didn't turn into stone. What is Happosai's deeper desire?

As soon as Cologne had thrown Happosai off of her she went outside to see what was going on. Unfortunately she didn't realize how many things were shooting and in dodging an Arc stream while a pulse blast flew past her head and chain gun bullets flew past her feet she was hit by a blast shot. The force of the blast combined with her dodging attempt caused her to be blown back to the Cat Cafe, where the curse that had hit her went into effect. She didn't notice at first, thinking she had been lucky when the shot hit her, but until the curse was lifted Cologne would find herself unable to bounce around on her stick. Each time she tried she would slip and fall for no apparent reason.

Meanwhile, Ryoga was just making it back into town on his way to the Tendo Dojo, having just crossed Japan twice on his way. Amazingly, Ryoga pulled off dodging three arc cannons, two blast shots, a half dozen chain gun rounds, and a few flash cannon shots before landing on a proximity mine. The mine cursed him to have his standard sense of direction when mildly peeved, an infinitely worse sense of direction when fully angry, and the ability to get wherever he wanted when he wasn't angry at all. Of course, being blown into the air by a mine wasn't good for his temper, and he assumed it was Ranma's fault right off the bat. As soon as he landed, quite a bit angry, he went off to find Ranma to fight him. Twenty minutes later he had somehow found his way to Colorado, and half an hour after that he was in Antarctica. He soon began to calm down though, and slowly started getting closer to Japan again.

In the meantime, Tommy had been battling a Sabre with his sword. Each time he got close he was forced back by shots fired by the Sabre, which he deflected with his sword each time. One time it would be SP-Stabbers, another Chain guns, and the reflective surface of the sword was great for deflecting lasers. After ten minutes of this a Warrior showed up and fired at the Sabre from behind, missing of course as it was really aiming for Tommy. Tommy reflexively brought his sword up to block, but he wasn't anticipating an Arc Cannon, which was picked up and channeled down Tommy's sword right into Tommy as it jumped off of the blade into his hand. The shock caused Tommy to drop his guard and he was therefore hit by a SP-Stabber, launching him backwards into a window. The tanks went off to find more prey, pretending to fight in the meantime, while Tommy tried to get up. He found that he couldn't stand without slipping and falling, so he crawled over to his sword to try and use it to steady himself as he stood. He soon discovered that he no longer had the strength to lift his sword, but it wasn't because he was weaker. The second curse had made him unable to lift any weapon other then his fists, and he couldn't do anything about it.

The Hadeans hadn't been doing much fighting, however, due to a lack of "enemy" forces in the section of town they were in. Akane, however, was running through that section of town at the wrong time, almost tripping over a flame mine. She dodged the fireballs for a few minutes before a Xypos showed up and used it's shell gun to distract her long enough for a fireball to hit her. She jumped quite high as the heat hit her, and was soon running for her life again, ending up with clothes that made her look like she had been tortured. The curse didn't take long to settle into place, causing Akane to become blind to most inanimate objects. The only things she could see were animals, including humans, the units running around town, her hammer, and the power orb. She saw through anything that wasn't visible to her, making things even harder. Due to these limitations she no longer had any way to navigate, and was very embarrassed whenever she DID see someone as clothes were inanimate objects she couldn't see. Soon she was hit by another shot, having attempted to dodge it by jumping into a wall she couldn't see. She didn't notice, but the laser that hit her cut a hole in her dress while altering her mi nd with a curse. The curse was somewhat simple, but twice as strong as the first, bringing on the effects of the reversal Jewel worn right side up without the jewel itself. She was, however, much too freaked out to take action on this as a group of guys walked by on the other side of the wall she had jumped into. She screamed very loudly, turning and running into another wall that had some girls walking on the other side of it. Screaming again she ran into another wall, but a cat fell onto her head. At this point she kept on screaming and running into various walls, eventually knocking herself out, while trying to claw the cat off.

Ryoga had, however, been close to town and had heard her screams. All of his anger left him as he ran, worried, knowing it was Akane who had been screaming. Ranma had also heard her screams and had gotten to her first, finding her clothes with burn marks on them, a hole in them, and her knocked out. He didn't have much time to do anything with her, however, before Ryoga showed up. Ryoga took one look at Akane, assumed that Ranma had done it to her(as Ranma was the only one there at the time), and his anger skyrocketed to a point where it actually registered on Radar. Ranma knew what this meant, and for once didn't bother trying to explain himself before bolting, taking note of where Akane was as he took off. Ryoga followed him to the corner and promptly turned the wrong direction, leaving Ranma relieved as he went, picked up Akane, and brought her home. No one else was at the Dojo, Ranma knew it wasn't safe to try and go anywhere else, and Akane's wounds needed attention. He figured getting smashed a few times was worth taking care of Akane's wounds right away to avoid infection, so he cleaned her up. Amazingly she didn't wake up through him undressing her, cleaning her up, putting bandages on her wounds, and dressing her again(blushing through most of the process). At some point he had gotten splashed with some cold water, and was currently a girl. He hadn't changed back because he felt a little better around Akane as he worked that way. Akane did, however, wake up as he put her in bed, but too weak to do more then look over as he left the room. She saw Ranma-chan leaving the room, apparently naked, walking down the hall. Enough blood rushed to her head as she blushed to knock her out again, but the idea that her love Ranma had helped her made her dreams pleasant.

Meanwhile, Ryoga had somehow ended up in the world of the Dragons. The old man wasn't even sure HOW, but Ryoga hadn't been noticed yet, even though he was confused as all get-out as to where he was. He wandered around, not quite as angry as he had been but nowhere near calm enough to find his way anywhere. As he had gone from searching for Ranma to finding anything that looked familiar he wasn't going to be visiting earth again anytime that day. Hopefully his curse wouldn't be lifted before he returned to earth, otherwise it would be a while before he returned.

Back in town Ranma was having issues of his own. He had gone to get Doctor Toufuu so he could double-check on Akane when a battle came around the corner. Ranma pulled of dodging every shot from every ship in the battle, and then drew several fireballs into a Hiryu Shotenha. Of course, Ranma wasn't counting on the ships being able to withstand the winds created, let alone target in them. A mag cannon was heard charging as Ranma lost his footing, then before Ranma could react in the air he was hit by a massive ball of energy, blowing him across town. He landed in the Kuno Bathroom, cold water falling on his head as he lay there recovering. The curse wrapped around his currently female body, making it irresistible to the opposite sex. However, the curse had started taking affect when Ranma was still male, causing his male or female body to be irresistible to any female. Of course, Kodachi chose this moment to walk in, causing Ranma to jump back in defense. He was taken by surprise, however, as Kodachi didn't attack his female form, instead stari ng at it as if it were his male form, before lunging to hug him. Ranma bolted, not wanting that either, to find a place to hide.

Elsewhere in town Shampoo was looking for Ranma when she ran into Ukyo. The two started yelling at each other when a mortar landed between them. The mortar was a MDM, and as the two started to react to it the trigger fired, but the explosion didn't push them aside. Instead it pulled them together, causing them to pass through one another. When they got up after the shock they turned around, and promptly fainted. They didn't realize it yet, but they had swapped bodies, Shampoo was in Ukyo's body and Ukyo was in Shampoo's body.

Just outside of town Kasumi had set up a picnic. Soun and Genma were there, trying to cheat each other as usual on a portable board, Nabiki was checking who would owe her money this week while waiting for Kasumi to finish getting out the food, and Doctor Toufuu was talking to a tree. Nabiki was the only one to notice the weird plane approaching, but paid no further heed to it as it approached, but freaked as it dropped a bomb before it turned around and headed back the way it came. The bomb exploded right in the middle of the picnic before anyone could get anywhere. The explosion pulled each person's current most prominent trait and dropped it in another of the group. This resulted in Kasumi becoming light-headed around Doctor Toufuu, Nabiki taking on a nice housewife persona, Soun taking on Nabiki's money management skills, Genma taking on Soun's expertise in cheating, while Doctor Toufuu ended up with Genma's distractibility.

Mousse had been out searching for Shampoo for a while when he mistook Tatewaki for her. Running for her yelling about his beloved he was knocked to the ground by a wooden sword, just before a rocket tank blasted both him and Tatewaki through a building with a couple of rockets. The two rockets affected both Mousse and Tatewaki, first turning them into girls both physically and mentally, then re-focusing their love onto Ryoga. They were both unconscious, but now they were both dreaming of marrying Ryoga instead of Mousse dreaming of Shampoo and Tatewaki dreaming of Akane and Ranma-chan. The change did have one good side effect for Mousse, at least, as her eyesight was 20/20 so she wouldn't need to wear glasses. When they woke up they would most likely both express their need to find Ryoga, then start fighting for him. Maybe by then Ryoga would be back in town.

Back at the Kuno residence, Kodachi had stopped searching for Ranma in the house, and had called Sasuke to help her find her in town. Sasuke was confused, but paid it no heed as he ran off into the fray to find either form of Ranma. Kodachi decided she couldn't wait for that bungler to fail, and ran out to find them herself as well a few minutes later. Sasuke hadn't gotten far, however, as there was a massive battle between all three races waging outside the gates, and he was currently making an amazing display of his dodging abilities. Kodachi started to fight back, which was a bad idea as some of the units stopped firing at the other units and made a valid attempt at actually hitting Kodachi instead. Soon Kodachi was on the run across town, dodging shots coming at her from behind, while Sasuke was jumping among the battle trying to get through it. Kodachi was hit a few minutes later as she mistakenly zigged when she should have zagged, and the units felt that was enough and starting fighting each other again. Sasuke made the mistake of standing still too long and ended up with a Comet on his tail, it didn't take long before he was also hit. As he landed next to Kodachi, still smoking from the explosion, their curses hit. When they came to their senses they would be in for a shock as Kodachi shrunk down to a toddler and Sasuke turned invisible. The interesting thing with Sasuke would be that Akane's curse would allow her to see him, while Kodachi would have a hard time doing anything she couldn't do as a toddler the first time around.

Bac k at the school a Jackal was attacking the Headmaster, who had stupidly attacked the Jackal with an exploding pineapple. He wasn't doing half bad as the mortars were easy to dodge, but he was getting tired. He soon renewed his efforts of dodging, however, when an Atilla showed up and started shooting at him as well. The Atilla was closely followed by a couple of Sabres and a Thunderbolt, and eventually a mortar knocked out the Headmaster. Soon the curse took hold and the Headmaster found that he couldn't stop himself from saying whatever he was planning on doing out loud, giving people plenty of warning.

It was about this time that two Scavengers, one Hadean and one ISDF, both sent out a powerful signal on a special frequency. Both of them had run across Shards. One of them was in the school, hiding in an old book that had been sitting in a closet unopened for years, and would probably remain so. The old man soon had that book sitting on his desk, he would examine it later. The other was trapped in a puzzle box. This gave the old man an idea, he soon had the shard, leaving the puzzle where it had been, and was creating his own puzzle. This would be a great way to cause his trail to go cold while retaining a barrier of protection. He soon recalled all the scavengers, as they were no longer needed.

The signals from the scavengers attracted the attention of Joe and Emeral, however. They went to investigate the nearer one, but were too late to do anything. They did, however, fall into a small trap that had been set by the ISDF forces. The Sabres were using Red Field devices modified to prevent detection by Joe and Emeral, and DS if he was around, and therefore they didn't see any reason to avoid the area. They still approached very cautiously, trying to expect the unexpected. They didn't see the Sabres behind them in a couple of large boxes, however, and were initially caught off-guard. Each of them took a shot before they vacated the area, not realizing that they had just been cursed.

A few minutes later Joe and Emeral were discussing what to do when Joe suddenly lost his voice. Talking to Emeral this wasn't an issue, but otherwise it could pose a problem. Emeral, on the other hand, got a nasty pimple on her left cheek. She didn't notice it until Joe mentioned it to her, however, and she soon found it wouldn't go away when she willed it to. They realized at this point that MM had found a way to get his curses to stick to them, and that they would have to do something about it.

Meanwhile, at the ice rink Azusa and Mikado had troubles of their own. They had been practicing when an APC had landed outside the rink and deployed a bunch of guns on legs, literally, and they had been fighting them off for an hour. One of them finally blew the ice apart with its gun, which was immediately followed by a grenade blowing up next to Azuza and Mikado. The guns on legs fled the building right after, leaving Azuza and Mikado to deal with the curse. It took a few minutes, but Azuza and Mikado were slowly pulled together into one freakish being. They each had their head, arms, and legs, but shared a body. The result was a complete lack of coordination that left them there half-stranded while they each tried to do their own thing.

It was about this time that the town got a visitor, Bakeneko, who was alive enough to be affected by curses. Since he wasn't expecting what was going on he appeared in the middle of town, and was promptly blown back by a blast cannon. He tried to flee right away, having a very low tolerance for pain and all, but was hit by the curse before he could get anywhere. Now, instead of being a ghost-cat, he was a ghost-boy. He was partially put off by this, but soon realized that as a boy he could get a girl to wear one of his little bells! Soon he was off looking for a girl to give one of his bells to, not realizing that he no longer had his big one.

Of course, Bakeneko wasn't the only one visiting town. Nodoka was just arriving as well, to check up on Ranm a and Genma. She had figured out their curses by now, but they still acted too much like their normal selves when cursed so she let them be. She knew that they would eventually tell her, they would have to after all. Of course, thinking of these things while entering a town full of curse-firing armies isn't the best idea, and soon Nodoka was trying to stop herself from becoming a Mauler's pincushion. As soon as she was away from the Mauler an Archer started attacking, and while the Archer attacked a Sentry Squad entered the area. Soon Nodoka was surrounded, and before she could react the Archer got her. She was confused as everything just left her, but then her mind went fuzzy as the curse took hold. Nodoka wouldn't realize it was strange, but she now thought that Ranma should act like a proper Japanese housewife when he was a girl. That was why she was going to see him, right? To teach him how to be a girl? Why else would she go visit Ranma....

Elsewhere in town Hinako was, however, out looking for Delinquents. She hadn't gotten her fix of dishing out her own kind of Justice, so she was looking for anyone that had any kind of Aura. She soon proved that she had what it took to take out the attacking forces when she drained a Xares of its battle aura, which was essentially its power source at the time. However, she didn't anticipate the effects of one of the other Xares in the squad hitting her in retaliation, and soon she was unconscious. It didn't take long for her to return to her child form, and it would probably take her a while before she discovered that instead of growing older when she absorbed an aura she would grow even younger, regressing to a newborn.

Out behind the Tendo Dojo Hikaro was planning on controlling Akane with a new Voodoo doll, not realizing that a Sabre had been by with some prox mines. He swore at himself when his new doll fell in the Tendo's pond, ruining it, but didn't realize that he had more to worry about. He was now the Voodoo Target of every doll in town, and pretty soon someone would start taking something out on a doll. Of course, had he been paying attention he would have noticed that he was soaking wet for no apparent reason.

As Hikaro sulked away from the Tendo Dojo the attack force finished surrounding Kalshion, Katarina, the cat, and by chance DS. DS had noticed the attack force, but paid it no heed as he figured it couldn't harm him, it was apparently after the others anyway. He had even used his powers to keep the attack force hidden, waiting for it to strike those he wanted to kill down. He figured that if this attack force killed them then he couldn't be blamed, but he didn't realize what was going to happen. All of his minions had been cast out, one by one, into the void, so there was no one left to warn him of the power the units held. He, Kalshion, Katarina, and the cat were all hit at the same time, none of them being able to dodge the electrical might of the Titans armed with Arc. DS's curse was the first to manifest, causing him to gain weight. Within moments he weighed over five hundred pounds, and he couldn't force it down like he should have been able to. Kalshion was also showing signs of trouble, however, as he found himself unable to see anyone. He could see their clothes, but not them, essentially the opposite of what had happened to Akane. Katarina found herself lifting off the ground, unable to stop herself. She stopped a foot off the ground, but couldn't control herself until a light breeze blew her close enough to a tree for her to grab onto it. The cat soon looked like cousin It, however, as its hair grew to the point where it couldn't even see.

Ranma had almost made it back to the Dojo, finding that he had to avoid any and all females along the way, when he accidentally triggered a proximity mine that had been set behind a trashcan. He was in his cursed form at the time, having yet to find hot water, and was shocked when his clothing changed on him. Instead of his normal attire he was now wearing a dress, and even had a flower in his hair. This freaked him out, especially when he realized he even had on a bra, so he ran back to the Dojo to change, finding that all of his clothes were now feminine in nature. Having spent, in his opinion, too much time as a girl, Ranma quickly hit the furo for a nice, hot bath. After he got out he noticed that the dress had turned back into his standard outfit, and he quickly went to check the rest of his wardrobe. He found that all of it was masculine in nature, right down to the normally female clothing he kept around for when he was planning on staying a girl, such as when his mother was around.

Throughout all of this Emily and Jeremy had been hiding in various places. They had found that their keycards no longer let them through anything but the front door of the house they shared with Joe and Emeral, and were currently trying to avoid the battles raging. This had the stink of their father all over it, and they figured he was mean enough to make it so that they could be affected as well. The fact that they lost their footing while running over some rooftops caused that to be confirmed, as they landed in the middle of a raging battle. Each of them was hit by a single chain gun round as they escaped, but that was enough to curse them both. A few minutes later they still hadn't noticed any changes, but they would soon enough. Jeremy had gotten off easily enough, all he was doing was growing a tail, but Emily had a potential problem on her hands. She was going to start laying chicken eggs, a dozen or so a day at random times.

Happosai had finally gotten back on his feet by this time and was going for revenge. Soon he was attacking the ISDF base, having somehow found it. He figured out how to ride the shockwave from explosions without being hit by them, so as to avoid whatever affect they might have, and was planning on creating a shockwave by getting all the weapons in the base to hit the same spot at the same time. He succeeded in getting all the weapons to hit the same spot at once, but his plan backfired. Instead of forming a giant shockwave destroying the base a massive beam erupted from the point, heading off into space.

From the perspective of American Scientists

"You know Joe," said one scientist. "It wasn't a bad idea aiming the Hubble at Japan, modifying it to watch things at that range.

"I agree Frank," responded another scientist. "This one area seems to have a lot of activity."

"What in the world is THAT?" yelled a third scientist as a pinprick of light appeared, growing quickly. Suddenly the screen went bright white as the beam hit the lens of the Hubble, collected into a ball, and then fired back down at the town.

"You know Joe," said the first scientist again. "The next time you get the crazy idea to aim the Hubble at Earth I am going to personally kick your ass."

"And I will join him," responded the second, looking at the third who hurriedly prepared to turn the Hubble back towards space and re-focus it for that use.

Back to town(and italics )

Happosai was now on the run, having given up on the whole shockwave idea. It didn't take him long to notice the bright light quickly approaching from the sky as night approached, but not even he could avoid the beam that hit. Everything in a fifty mile radius was hit at once, every nook and cranny of every building was flooded with the energy, and every living thing was cursed by it. Within minutes everyone that was hit by the beam no longer had the ability to move faster then a brisk walk, making it much harder to avoid being hit by the forces attacking the town.

Luckily, as the sun vanished over the horizon all the units pulled out of town to their respective bases, waiting for sunrise before they resumed their attack.

The old man also finished making his puzzle at the same time, having created a three dimensional holographic puzzle . Once assembled it would animate itself, a small chest in the puzzle opening up to reveal one of the shards he had gotten today as a book opened up to reveal the now-classic MM. The puzzle was put on a game shelf present in the house that Joe, Emeral, Emily, and Jeremy were sharing, possibly unnoticed for days.

With that done the old man called a team of doctors. He figured better safe then sorry, as he would probably laugh himself to death with this monstrosity of a plan if he wasn't careful.