#sneedly

   How did they expect him to make something like that in such a short amount of time? An invention of that much power would take weeks, months even! The fact they expected it to be done within the week was absolutely ludicrous. Why couldn't he of just graduated from Elitinati instead of needing to work here? Maybe he'd be more successful and he wouldn't need to have this stupid office job. One could dream.

   This job was absolute bullshit.

   With an exasperated sigh, he walked to his office, which was rather small considering how the budget for this company was incredibly low. He probably wouldn't have been hired if they weren't so desperate and he wasn't sure if he should be greatful or unimpressed. As long as the bills were paid, he supposed it didn't matter. He still hated it here though.

   As he rounded the corner to reach his office, he had accidentally ran into someone. Now who on earth was stupid enough to just blindly walk like that? He thought to himself in annoyance before realizing his glasses had fallen off. "Oh- Oh no, I'm so sorry!" He heard a voice speak up; it was rather high pitched. He quietly grumbled to himself as he attempted to find his glasses, "Just watch where you're going next time." He muttered, blindly moving his hand around the ground. "Here, let me help," The voice spoke again before he felt his glasses being put onto his face. He blinked a few times, adjusting to his clear sight again before turning to yell at the person. He stopped before saying anything, his mouth just hanging open.

   The person was scrambling around, attempting to grab all the papers they had dropped. They were wearing the company uniform, even wearing the pair of goggles with it; so that meant they were one of the inventors as well. They had (E/C) eyes which were oddly captivating, and their face was red from embarrassment (or at least he assumed so). "I'm genuinely so, so so sorry, sir-" They stated, quickly grouping up their papers and trying to neatly stack them together, "That was completely my fault, I'm new here, I've been so clumsy today-" They started to rant, their eyes darting around to probably avoid eye contact. "You don't need to apologize so much, it was an honest accident." He spoke up, his face practically void of emotion aside from an eyebrow raise. "Sor- Ah, right, force of habit, whoops-" The person lightly laughed before holding a hand out to help him stand up, "I'm (Y/N) by the way! I really wish we met under different circumstances," They gave a closed eyes smile. He simply huffed, grabbing their hand and standing up. Their hand was warm.

   "What's your name?" They asked, causing him to sigh. "Melvin. Melvin Sneedly." He stated, causing (Y/N)'s face to light up. "Wait really? I was told about you! Apparently we went to the same Elementary school! The boss brought it up during my background check, heh." They said, earning Melvin's attention. "Really?" He asked, staring at them curiously. "Yeah! I actually remember you a bit but it's blurry- the ol' brain isn't as clear as it used to be," They laughed nervously, "But I remember I tried to talk to you a few times! You seemed really cool! I remember some of your inventions actually!" They stated, their hands slightly flapping around in a stim.

   Melvin's attention was fully gained. "Name one." He requested. (Y/N) paused for a moment, "Uh, I think one of them was the Time Toad 2000! That one was really cool! There was also the Karaoke Kitty, I remember that one pretty fondly!" They stated, catching Melvin off guard. They actually remembered the names and everything? He was pleasantly surprised. "My favorite I think was the Raisetheroofitron 2000! It was really interesting to see it in use! I always wondered how you made those! I think you're what inspired me to start inventing, actually," They added, smiling nervously. Melvin blinked a few times in pure astonishment, "You actually remembered those?" He finally spoke again, causing (Y/N) to quickly look up at him, "Well, yeah, of course I do! They were so impressive!"

   Melvin paused for a moment, folding his arms. "Why are you saying this? What do you want?" He asked, earning a confused look from (Y/N). "I don't want anything. I just wanted to talk to you since, uh, you seemed cool," They explained, nervously rubbing the back of their neck, "I didn't mean to make it come off that way, honest." They added. Melvin stared at them for a moment, his eyes squinting slightly. "That's it?" He asked, earning a nod from them. "Yeah that's it. Maybe we could be friends but I didn't want to seem overbearing, y'know? Considering how you're one of the more famous people here, I didn't think you wanted to be bothered too much." They stated. Melvin went quiet again, examining them.

   "Well if that's it, I suppose we could be acquaintances." Melvin stated, earning a happy smile from (Y/N). "Awesome!" They nearly shouted, their arms moving fast in a stim. "I might need assistance with a project anyhow. I could do it myself no doubt, but it might help with your work hours." He added, causing (Y/N) to quietly squeal in excitement. "That's great! I don't have anything on my workload anyway! Les'go!" They stated, running in the,, wrong direction. They quickly realized though and turned around. "I,, forgot I have no idea where I'm going." They stated, causing Melvin to let out a quick laugh before he cleared his throat. "Yes, I need to show you where my office is. Come on," He stated, gently grabbing their hand and walking to his office.

Nine months came, and nine months left. The infant gems were finally “born”. The experiment can properly begin.

And a new chaos began in its wake.

Despite Citrine and all of the other scientist gems providing everyone with the necessary information for caring for the infants, nobody was prepared. Especially when they were crying.

With all the noise in the colony, Red Agate was thankful he had a place just outside.

Another unfortunate side effect of the experiment was that Citrine was constantly bragging about her raising of her orange peridot. That was something Red Agate especially hated about the experiment. At least now he wasn’t the only one.

But with the birth of the infant gems, it meant Red Agate actually had to start getting to work on the school.

Him and the other teachers at long last entered the building. And set out to clean everything up. The day started out simple enough.

The building used to be a hospital of sorts where gems could tend to whatever cracks in their gems and damages to their forms that were too much to handle. The outdated equipment was salvaged, upgraded, and relocated. Walls had to be knocked down to make a few classrooms bigger.

Lining the walls were lockers made for the gems to store extra supplies they may need. A lone peridot was programming all of them each with a unique code for the gem that it would belong to.

Red Agate stopped at one door. It had a hand scanner above a small console. Either put in the access code, or put your hand up. He put his left hand on the scanner. Nothing happened. He took it off and wiped the old pad clean and repeated the process. Nothing happened. He growled and kicked the door a few times before someone cleared their throat behind him. A bismuth. Red Agate watched the gem walk towards him, put her hand on the pad, and the door unlocked and slid open. Red Agate grumbled as he entered the room.

It was an office of sorts. Everything needed to be dusted, but everything he would need was already there. 

There was something familiar about the room. Red Agate was certain he had never been to Earth before. But after the time he had spent there already, he was not sure anymore. He walked to the large window taking up the far wall. It gave him a view of the courtyard in the center of the school. He imagined watching the young gems running around.

He imagined gem soldiers in their spots.

“Look at them down there.” Said Onyx, “Pathetic. I know you can sort them out.”

“Yes sir.” Red Agate said. He noticed an agate like him. His gem was in a similar shape in the the same spot as his. But he was different. He smiled and greeted every gem he passed by.

He was different...

“Do we need to make it bigger?”

“Huh?” Red Agate asked

“The room. Do we need to make it bigger?” The bismuth asked

“Don’t touch this room.” Red Agate snapped “It’ll be my office.”

“Sure thing.” The bismuth said, realizing she wasn’t needed.

Onyx. Red Agate remembered Onyx. The gem was his superior. One of the toughest gems ever made.

He told him to keep gems in line. And he did. But then, there was another Red Agate. He was like him, but different. He wore a cape...

Another...

Red Agate shook his head, hoping to clear his mind. It worked for the time being. He joined the other gems walking through the hall. A couple peridots were handling the wires and tech around the school, two bismuths were knocking down walls and building new ones. Red Agate made his way downstairs and found a large space with tables and in the far corner was Blue Agate. 

He felt his spots glow as his face heated up.

She was hauling giant canisters into a space in the far corner of the room. When she started struggling Red Agate ran to her rescue. 

“Uh hey! Hi!” He said as she dropped the canister in its rightful spot.

“Oh! Hi there. You’re the red agate from the ship, right?” Blue Agate asked

“Ye-yeah, eh ah. Um, I was wondering do, uh, do you need any help?” He asked

“I think I’ve got a handle on this.” Blue Agate walked in the back. “But... if you want... I know I could use help with-oh.” When she came back with a drum under each arm. Red Agate was gone.

He was panting just outside of the room. Stars, she was beautiful. How was he going to talk to her? How? HOW?!

He groaned as he walked away from the school and out of the colony. The entire way. He stopped before the spot of fusion.

They were breaking the law, whoever fused here. He growled and stomped over to the dusty ground. No gems needed to get any big ideas. He made to kick away the and, but found himself stopping.

No... please....

“You are not real!” He yelled to the ceiling. “Whoever you are, or were, or whatever, I am the agate in charge!” 

Whatever voice he heard didn’t talk back. Good! He showed it! Whatever the voice was, it was giving him a headache. His hands heated up and he ground his teeth together. He continue doing his walk and groan out to the beach. His groaning stopped when he finally made it to the coral reef. Perhaps this would brighten up his day.

He had read a few of the human books on ichthyology. He looked at all the fish.

“Damselfish,” he said noticing one, “Yellow tang. Oh, a seahorse.” He knelt down and noticed an ugly fish on the ocean floor. He struggled with the name, but remembered it eventually.

“Toadfish.” He said, giving the bottomdweller a poke. It opened its mouth and let out a sound. It was like a cross between a hum and a whistle, but it was LOUD. 

Red Agate stood up and covered his ears, ready to stomp the fish. A high pitched squeal made him look up. Dolphins. A pod of them. They swam gracefully above him. Occasionally they dipped down to get a fish snack.

Interesting creatures.

Having calmed down, he returned to the land. He looked back at the water. At his reflection. He cracked a smile.

What?

He chased the retreating water to get a better look. He opened his mouth. He ran over them with his tongue. He knew he had sharp teeth, but they weren’t that sharp before!

He retreated back to the colony, to the gem hospital. It wasn’t ready yet. So he went to the science district. Hopefully a gem(not Citrine) would have a reason for why this happened to him.

“Fascinating,” the tanzanite said, for the seventh time. Red Agate sighed with his mouth open, taping his fingers on the table he sat on. “Really. It’s just... fascinating.”

“I get it! I’m fascinating! But why!” Red Agate yelled, jumping off the table.

“... I don’t know.” Tanzanite said bluntly

“Have you tried changing forms to make them change back?” Another voice cut in.

Across the lab, a hunk of machinery was being carried by a short watermelon tourmaline. His gem looked like a magenta green spike in place of his right eye. A monocle in a similar shape and shade covered his left eye.

“You think I would not have tried that first?” Red Agate asked, running a hand through his hair.

“Ha! You’re an agate! Sometimes I’m not sure how smart you guys are!” Said the tourmaline, dropping his tech to approach the two gems.

“Hey! Hey,” Tanzanite held her hands up, standing in between. “Calm down, the both of you. P, don’t you have something better to do? Anywhere else?” The tourmaline crossed his arms. He scoffed and finally left.

“P?” Red Agate asked, taking a seat on the table again.

“An unfortunate designation caused him to reduce it to P.” Tanzanite explained with a sigh. “Now. If your form is not giving you any trouble, other than your teeth, then we need to go to the core of the problem.” Tanzanite pulled up a chair and stared at the unshapely gem. “I have never seen a gem like that before. A very strange shape.” She looked up at Red Agate, expecting some kind of explanation. Begrudgingly, she finally got it.

“It was an accident. I can’t remember anything before it.” He said, looking away.

“Are you sure about that?” Tanzanite questioned, tapping the gem.

“I get flashes of... something. Memories, hallucinations, something, but nothing makes sense.” Red Agate added quickly, waving his left hand to swat hers away.

“Do you remember... any gems?” Tanzanite asked

“I’m not doing this.” Red Agate said, sliding off the table.

“So, I would take that as a no? Or do you remember, but it was bad memories?” Tanzanite called after him. Red Agate froze at the door.  His shoulders slumped with a sigh. This was going to be painful. As if the day couldn’t get any worse.

“Don’t tell anyone about this. Or I’ll shatter you with my bare hands.” Red Agate growled.

“Got it.” Came Tanzanites fearful response

“An onyx.” He said. “Not just any onyx. He was my leader. Taught me everything I know for teaching gems everything they know. There were training gems, and one stood out. I also remember a peridot when I woke up. I remember Citrine when she...” he paused

He was on the ground. Mechanics were sparking. She knelt by him.

Everything hurt. His gem hurt. Something was missing. Everything felt hot. Too hot.

“They appear stable.” She said

What was missing? It was important.

I’m here! I’m here!

I... I can’t...

I’m right here!!!

“Sneedly. That clumping clod!” Red Agate yelled

“Eat everything up.” Citrine said, holding a spoon in front of her peridots mouth. He opened up to eat it all. “I know how much you like your supplements, but I have had to hold back. Just to make sure the other infant gems catch up.”

“CITRIIIIINE!” Came a bellow that shook her home.

Citrine sighed and stood. 

“Pearl? Please be ready in case I need you.” She said

Citrine stood in front of her door. She adjusted her visor and waited. Stomping footsteps slowly made their way here. The door was pulled out of its jamb. A hot fist was wrapped around Citrines neck. She felt her feet lift off the ground.

“You have some explaining to do, bub.” Red Agate growled

“It seems I do. Before that,” Citrine started, pushing something into Red Agates gut. He looked down at the inactive destabilizer in her hands. “You might want to cool down first.” Citrine was put down on the floor, but his hand was still wrapped around her neck.

“What am I to you? Am I just another experiment?!” Red Agate asked. “Answer me!” Citrine stared up at him. Unafraid and unyielding.

“Yes.” She said, her voice steady. “It was an experiment and a punishment for you. I was part of it, but not the leader.”

“What did you do to me?!” Red Agate asked, his voice laced with desperation. His eyes burned, his fists burned, everything burned. And he wanted Citrine to do the same. Everything felt hotter than fire and he wanted the gem in front of him to melt in it. But her firm expression slowly morphed into one of confusion.

“You... don’t know. You don’t remember.” She said, “Fascinating.”

“Say fascinating one more time!” Red Agate yelled

“Let go of Citrine.” Came anothers voice. Red Agate looked to his right. An orange tinted pearl pushed another inactive destabilizer into his side.

“A Pearl? You don’t deserve him.” Red Agate said, finally letting go.

“He is brilliant and helpful. More than I can say about you.” Citrine commented. Pearl moved to her side, taking her hand.

“Pearl, listen to me. Do as I say.” Citrine said, despite not looking away from Red Agate. She stepped closer and activated the destabilizer.

“I would advise against this.” Pearl commented

“Pearl.” She said, “I need you to take my gem and bubble it. Do not release me until Red Agate returns to apologize for his actions. That should give you more than enough time to figure things out for yourself.” 

She turned the destabilizer around and jammed it into her own chest. The yellow grid lines climbed up and around her body. She didn’t scream, but instead looked into Red Agates eyes.

  Melvin sat alone in his bedroom, the room dim save for the light of the sunset coming through the window and a single lamp that illuminated his cluttered, but neatly organized desk. He held his head in one hand, while the other was tapping a pencil against the table as he contemplated a collection of blueprints for a new invention of his. Thanks to the school being temporarily shut down due to… recent events having left the entire elementary school building tipped on its side; for once he was without homework to do, and could spend all his time working on some new inventions. Which of course deeply upset the school obsessed nerd, who as you could see when he walked over to his science-themed wall calendar and longingly looked at a marked off date further down, was literally counting down the days until school would resume, with the calendar also showing that the word ‘Poopageddon’ had been marked on the calendar, but had been crossed out aggressively in comparison to the clean red x’s he used to mark the passing of a day. And picking up the red pen hanging on a string from the wall, he made another red x on the paper, marking this as the third day since Professor Poopypants’s failed attempt to rid the world of laughter, before he returned to his desk to continue working. He started adding a few notes to the blueprint, when he heard a small tapping sound. Startled slightly, he looks back and forth for the source, and hearing it again, he’s able to zero in on the sound, finding that it was coming from his window. Intrigued, he slides out of his chair and heads over to investigate, where he sees a bumble bee repeatedly head-butting the window, which stops and hovers in place as it sees Melvin approach the window, giving Melvin a chance to lean in and squint at it, getting a good look at its passenger, a tiny man wearing a purple suit and a villainous smile, who waved at the boy and said a dubiously cheerful “Helloo Melvin” “Professor P?” He replies in bewilderment, opening his window and allowing the bug and tiny man riding it to fly in, making a crooked looping path around the room before coming in for a landing on the desk, and Melvin, with an expression of childlike wonder on his face, watching them go before trotting over and crouching at the edge of the table so he could watch the tiny man gracefully dismount his bumble bee at eye level, his smile getting wider as the tiny Poopypants walked up to him. “You’re so tiny professor!” “Yes yes, thank you for pointing out zhe obvious Melvin” he says sarcastically, brushing pollen off his sleeves before standing up straight with a clap of his hands and a click of his heels “Now, vhere can we find your laboratory?” “Well… I mostly just use the garage, but mom and dad have some more advanced stuff in the basement.” “Good! The more advanced the better, we need..” He’s interrupted as he sees the incoming giant hand from the grinning Melvin, clearly looking to poke the tiny professor, and freaked out a little bit with a “Vhat? What are you doing! Don’t poke me!” Arms flailing angrily to try and smack away the finger, which recoiled away, but the shouting, noise, and giant hand had spooked the Bumble bee, which took off to the shout of “NO NO NO NO NOOO!!” From Poopypants, as the bee looped around a few times before flying right back out the open window, warning a facepalm from the tiny professor, his face turning red and teeth clenching before he snapps at Melvin “UrrrggggGGGG, NOW LOOK WHAT YOU DID!” though his anger is short lived as his tone quickly changes  to one more of misery and defeat “It’ll take me forever to catch another one of those to fly around on.” His sighs, letting out a short “Fine, fine, didn’t need it now anyway.” To calm himself down before his attention shoots up again as he looks up at Melvin, who was nervously rubbing the hand he had tried to poke Professor Poopypants with, and aggressively walks towards him, rubbing his hands together and saying. “Alright Melvin, There is no time to lose,” Coming to a stop at the edge of the table and pointing up at Melvin “Now show me around your house so I can get a feeling of what we’re working with here.” There’s a pause as Melvin collects his thoughts, before his face turns from an expression of nervousness to a judgmental look of skepticism as he leans back and crosses his arms. “Why should I?” “What?” Poopypants responds, taken aback with surprise “Why are you suddenly asking why? I thought we had a good thing going here. I talk about extra credit.. you do whatever I sayyyy… And besides! I let you tag along for the poopageddon! You think just any adult would let a fourth grader participate in that? We brainwashed a school into having no sense of humor and fought a superhero in a giant fighting robo-toilet for sciences sake! How is zhat not the coolest thing you have ever done in your adolescent life! You should owe me for at least zhis one last thing.” “Ummmm, in case you hadn’t noticed?...You aren’t a teacher anymore, so you can’t exactly give extra credit.” Melvin replies before he starts to pace back and forth a bit, still keeping his arrogant tone. “And not only that, but it turns out the extra credit you were supposed to give me for helping with your plan never went through. Believe me, I checked multiple times. So if anything, it is you, who owes me.” “Oh right, I forgot I can’t bribe the little suck up with extra credit anymore.” Poopypants angrily muttered to himself under his breath before responding to Melvin with “Fine, so I can’t give any extra credit, but you at least had to admit you had fun helping me out with my Villainous schemes right? ” “Yeah about that. You know this whole supervillain thing you’ve been doing? Having had some time to think about it…” He starts counting on his fingers as he lists his gripes, “We did kind of wreck the school, you had me skip over half a day of class without making up for it with my grades, we disrupted the other classes that day,  we got the police involved who are still out there looking for the perpetrators, and we… ” but he’s interrupted by Poopypants shout of “Uuuuuggh, Melvin get a life outside of school why don’t you!” He replies as he sits down sassily on the edge of the table, thoroughly unimpressed with Melvin’s whining. And honestly, JUST WHAT did you EXPECT to happen with my whole ‘Supervillain thing’” (doing finger quotes for supervillain thing) “We literally made a giant robot attack toilet to fight people with! And I explained to you many times about my plans to bring about a new world order! I mean, the whole thing was literally spelled out for you in a comic book even! Which I know for a fact you read multiple times!!  I could not have been more clear of my intentions.” Melvins confidence faltering, he looks at his shoe’s and fidgets. “Yeah, but I didn’t think it would get the police involved… although that does seem pretty obvious in retrospect….” “Yeah, and who’s fault is it for not picking up on the obvious?” the professors tone still dismissive and sarcastic “Mine I guess…but that still means…..It means I broke the rules! I was complicit in criminal activities for personal gain!!! I’m no better than those troublemakers George and Harold!!! I’m gonna be in so much trouble!!” Panic rising in Melvins voice as he starts clutching his head and hyperventilating, prompting Poopypants to hop up from his sitting position, waving his arms to get his attention “Whoah, whooah there Melvin”   Moving closer and leaning out to reach him from the table, the tiny professor pats Melvin on the elbow awkwardly “Hey, nobody’s getting in trouble.” The attempt at comforting having turned his panic more into holding back tears “But,*sniff* we have to turn ourselves in don’t we?” “No we don’t.” Poopypants says with a cheerful smile “*sniff*We don’t?” “Pfft, nooooo. I mean sure, maybe if we’d been a bit more successful with zha poopageddon, Maybe I’d be fine taking more credit for it. Although considering the plan was foiled by 2 fourth graders and a giant baby man in a cape…” “You mean Captain Underpants?” “Yhah Yhah. That was just embarrassing,” A bit of a chuckle in his voice, before his tone turned deadly serious “An embarrassment they’ll pay for…” Before returning to his lighthearted tone with an awkward laugh of “Who in their right mind would want to take credit for that? Really, vee should probably just cut our losses for now and call it a test run of de humor disabling technology. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t go telling the whole world every time something goes wrong while I’m testing out one of my inventions, do you?” Poopypants quickly looks at the table around him, and picks up one of the blueprints, waving it around “Like this one, vhat if it blew up in your face while you vere testing it? Would you stop everything? Go and whine to mommy and daddy that you made a mistake and then give up on it?” “No?” He responds questioningly, though looking away and fidgeting with the hem of his sweater vest, he continues glumly “...No, mother and father made it clear I shouldn’t bother them with stuff like that…” “Exactly! Because that’s what us vengeful science types do! You don’t give up and turn yourself in, you just suck it up, clean up the mess, and keep going! Because stopping everything to go tell people about it would just waste time better spent making amazing world changing inventions! ” “*sniff*I guess that’s true.” Melvin replies, wiping tears from his eyes with a bit of a smile returning to his face. “Hahhh, see? You aren’t some wimpy quitter who lets one setback get them down! So no more of that sniveling,” His tone going from comforting to mildly threatening as he continues with “And no more talk of turning anyone in.” He puts down the blueprint and trots back to more the middle of the table, putting on a more cheerful tone with a bit of spin and jazz hands. “And heyyyy, I haven’t even told you vhy I came here looking for your help yet! Cus I’ve got something pretty cool plaaaaannned.” “Are we gonna rebuild the Turbo Toilet 2000 and try to wipe out laughter again?” “No! Welllll…. Maybe later.” “But… if you don’t need my unique brain to help run the haha-guffaw-chucklomatus disabler ray, what do you need my help for?” Poopypants looks back and forth at the contents of the table, before running to grab a blank blueprint paper and a small pencil that had been sharpened almost down to the nub, which even then still seemed large in Poopypants hand. “Here, vhy don’t I just show you” Moving quickly, he smoothed out the blank blueprint and started drawing, Melvin leaning over top of him to watch. Intrigued, but still a little sniffly. “I just need your help… building a few things… so I can get back to normal, and then, I’ll be out of your hair like it never happened.” Words sinking in, a big smile grows on Melvins face with an excited shout of “*Gasp* OH MY GOSH! YOU WANT ME TO HELP YOU BUILD A NEW SIZEARATOR 2000!!!!!” He shouts, bouncing on the ball of his feet in excitement. “What! Are you crazy?” he snaps back, turning to Melvin in surprise, pausing his drawing for a moment to pace back and forth a few times “The sizearator 2000 was a masterpiece of science! It’s far too complex and delicate a machine for us to just go and build in some suburban fourth graders house! No, when I built that ray I was a scientific rockstar in my country, with a tricked out lab, the biggest scientific research grants New Swissland could provide, and like, 3 interns to help me out! Not to mention… I ALSO WASN’T STUCK BEING 3 INCHES TALL!!” Face red and steaming at that last bit, he turns away from Melvin, his anger fading about as quickly as it appeared, and his tone instead  becoming more thoughtful, taping the pencil against his chin twice in thought  before he continues drawing. “No, what you’re going to help me do is try and replicate some of my very earliest working prototypes,  vhich should give us juuuuuust enough to get me back to my normal size……. there.” With a smile, he stands up, and turns back to Melvin with a dignified pose, revealing the two blueprint drawings showing the boxy looking shrink ray and enlarging ray from the original captain underpants books, which he points to one at a time with the eraser of his nubby pencil. “One is for shrinking, the other one is for enlarging. Any questions?” Melvin leaned in, inspecting the drawings, which were a bit on the small side despite Poopypants having drawn them as large as he comfortably could, and he pointed to the image labeled as shrinking ray. “…Yeah, ummm, why should we build another shrink ray if we only need to get you back to your original size? Shouldn’t we just build the enlarging ray?” “I’ll tell you why Melvin. Because dhere is no way am I making that mistake twice!! If we vhere to only build an enlarging ray machinine, then before you know it, something would go wrong and den I’d be stuck as a giant man instead of a tiny man, which would make it even harder to build such a complex machine because I vould have giant sausage fingers. No, we are building both before we even attempt to try to resize me.” Turning back around, The Professor started expanding on the blueprints, deconstructing the ray’s and listing parts they’d need, with Melvin continuing to watch him work. “Ok Professor P…. although, I still don’t see why you need my help to build them. I mean, I’ve never even attempted anything this advanced before, and you were the one who made most of those impressive modifications to the turbo toilet 2000.” “Oh believe me Melvin.” He replies with an eye roll, but not looking up from his blueprinting. “Coming to a fourth grader for help building my signature scientific invention isn’t exactly what I’d call zhe proudest moment of my life. But being 3 inches tall makes finding anything better a real pain in the hiney!” He puts down the pencil for a moment to complain more thoroughly. “Not only do you have to constantly worry about being stepped on, or hit by a windshield, or attacked by a bird, but every little bit of distance you have to travel is like ten times as long! Like, do you have any idea how hard it is to get anywhere on a bee? You can never get them to fly in a straight line! I was getting queasy from all zhe loop-de-loops in the first 10 minutes! And zhey keep wanting to stop at every, flower, they see, it’s so annoying! And everything is so spread out. I can’t find any one place with all the materials I would need to build anything useful, and on top of that, everything is so big and heavy, even if I find what I need, I can’t transport it where it needs to go. So zhen I figure, Oh, I’ll just catch a ride to a store downtown where I can find everything I’d need for a basic robotic mech suit to even out the playing field for a while. And then, after I FINALLY managed to flag down a taxi to try give me a lift to the city, I find out, OH, apparently I can’t afford to hire a taxi, ” His face turning red  and steaming again as he takes out his wallet, grabbing a handful of cash from it “Because Cab drivers WONT ACCEPT MONEY ZHE SIZE OF CUPCAKE SPRINKES!! Furiously throwing the handful of paper money and coins, as well as his wallet, on the ground in front of him, the wallet bouncing and further spilling its contents of credit cards and coupons while the paper money fluttered softly to the ground. “In fact, NOBODY WILL!!” The tiny Poopypants was literally vibrating with anger, his hands balled into fists and his heavy breathing was through clenched teeth. Catching his breath a bit he turns to Melvin and continues to yell, though with less intensity in effort to not blame his frustrations on the boy. “For three days now I have been trapped in a 6 block radius of suburbia surrounding zhat accursed elementary school!” His head turning towards the window and pointing with one hand “Look! Look at it!” He runs across the desk, climbing a stack of books on the edge of it that’s close as he can get to the window, gesturing at it with one hand, his voice breaking and eyes turning sad as he says “This is as far as I managed to get in a full day of non-stop travel.” Before falling to his knees dramatically, clutching his face in his hands and his voice taking on a defeated tone. “And you can still see it from here.” And indeed you could. Thanks to the school having been placed on its side, it was nearly six stories tall, easily dwarfing the surrounding 2-3 story residential homes that would have normally hidden it from view in the distance. Melvins gaze turned from Professor P. to the window and back again, feeling sympathetic to the tiny man and a little bit upset with himself for having underestimated just how tough Poopypants had had it these past few days in comparison after the failure that was Poopageddon. Hesitantly, he reached a hand out to gently pat Poopypants on the back, which was very jarring for the mini man, almost knocking the glasses off his face. Spooked and quickly scrambling away and to his feet to avoid the giant hand touching him again, Poopypants tried to regain some if his composure, standing up straight with his heels together and pushing his glasses back onto his face with a finger, before saying. “Well…*ahem*” The professor clearing his throat to try and dispel some of the awkwardness. “So, vhat do you say Melvin, are we on the same page now? Can we get to work returning me to my normal size now?” “Umm, sure Professor, I mean I think so.” “EXCELENT!” With considerable speed, the energetic miniature professor quickly rolled up the blueprint he had made like it were a giant carpet and offered it to Melvin, taking the opportunity of Melvin leaning over the desk to accept the blueprint to hop onto Melvin and quickly scurry up him, startling the boy a bit though it was short lived as he quickly calmed down when The tiny professor sat down on his shoulder and said with enthusiasm. “Now, let’s go check out those laboratory’s, I wanna see what we’ve got to work with!” A somewhat evil looking grin on his face and rubbing his hands together. “Oh, I’m not supposed to leave my room during homework time.” “…….What.”