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As the sun was rising in the early morning, it peaked through the window of the sleeping boy genius, known by the name of Jimmy Neutron. The sunlight hit his resting eyes, causing them to flutter open after a few seconds. He groaned in annoyance as he rolled over to his side, where the sun wouldn't hit his vision, still wanting to sleep. Though Goddard didn't allow it to continue for more than a few more seconds before tugging at the blanket covering him, growling as he did so. Jimmy lets out another tired groan before sitting up, rubbing his eye. "Alright, alright, I'm up boy. I'm up." He let out a small yawn as he looked at the clock on his side table, it reading 8:05 am. Thankfully for him, it was a Saturday without any plans, so there wasn't any need to rush. "Go downstairs, boy! I'll catch up to you after I'm all dressed!" Jimmy spoke in a tired tone, though he tried to make it seem a bit more excited so that Goddard would listen. Effectively, this worked as intended, as his robotic dog wagged his tail and let out a few excited barks before rushing out of his room.Jimmy sighed before getting out of the bed, stretching as he did so. Lately, it's been the same old, same old: He wakes up, goes to school despite him not technically needing to, fix the townspeople's problems that are honestly accidently his fault more times than not, gets back home, stays up later than he should be to continue working on his latest inventions, then goes to bed at around 4 am. It's tiring, but it is what it is, or at least in Jimmy's mind. Besides, at least he hasn't needed to fight against any villains for awhile now, so that's something for him. Once fully dressed, he met Goddard downstairs, who is sitting next to his mom, Judy, who's currently making breakfast. "Oh, hello Jimmy! I hope you were able sleep decently, since your father decided to have a one-man movie night again, and you and I both know how he likes his tv! Nice and loud!" She said with a slight chuckle, turning towards him as she held a pan in her hand. "Yep, I know exactly that! But yes, I slept quite well despite that." Jimmy lied through his teeth with what he tried to make look like a genuine smile, simply not wanting his mother to either worry about him or punish him. It's not like he meant to stay up until 5:34 am working on a power blaster, it just sorta happened! Judy, unaware of what really happened last night with Jimmy, smiles warmly back at him. "That's good! Now, what would you like for breakfast?" "Oh, no need for that, dear mother. I'm not hungry." He told her, walking past her to grab a drink for himself in the fridge. "Oh, come on, Jimmy! That's, what, the fifth time you didn't eat breakfast this week, correct, young man? C'mon, it doesn't have to be much, it can be simple , like some buttered toast!" She told him sternly, holding the pan in one hand and her hip in the other. Jimmy let out a soft and quiet groan before turning towards her with a drink in his hand, knowing that she's just simply worried for his health. "Fine, I guess I'll have some toast. Please and thank you." This caused Judy to smile at him before turning away and walk towards the toaster. " Alrighty then! Toast, coming right up!" After around 5 minutes, Jimmy exits the house after eating some toast, with Goddard quickly following behind him. Normally, Jimmy would head straight for the shed and into his lab on days like this, but sadly he needs overall more materials to continue on with his current projects and they had yet to arrive. So for now, he's just walking around town, seeing if there's anything he could do. "Jimmy!!" A familiar voice called out to him after a few moments of wondering and looking around. Jimmy turned to see where the voice was coming from, and gazed his eyes upon Sheen waving at him with Carl following behind him, playing with a couple of plush llama's. "Ah, hello Sheen! Hello Carl! How are you two doing this morning?" "We're doing good, Jimmy! Though we may need to be careful due to all the new rumors that's been going around." Carl said in his usual timid tone as Jimmy approached the two. "Rumors? What are these rumors that you are speaking of?" Jimmy said, not being able to recall any that would need anyone to be careful. "Oh, haven't you heard? There's a lot of strange things that have been happening since yesterday, though it hasn't been anything that bad yet." Carl responded, still playing with the llamas. "Yeah, like their shoelaces being tied together while they weren't looking, or their drink being moved further away from them! Nobody has been able to see who or what's been doing this, so for all we know it could be anyone, even multiple lizard people!!" Sheen added. "Hmmm... well, I'll believe it when I see it. Sounds like a lot of people are just being paranoid." Jimmy said in an unamused tone, as if he doesn't believe it to be anything of importance as of right now. "Sure you will, Jimmy! Say, wanna come to my place and watch a few movies with me and Carl? We have allll day to do it!" Sheen said in his usual loud and cheerful tone, pointing his thumb towards the direction of his house. "... Honestly, yes, I would like to, Sheen. I don't really have anything else to do anyways. That is, if nothing important comes up and interrupts it." Jimmy chuckled softly to himself after he said that. "Oh please, nothing bad ever happens to kids on Saturday! Anyways, we are doing this thing where we each bring two movies of our choice that we haven't seen, got that?" Sheen told Jimmy. "Yeah, I got it.. though it might take me a couple minutes to get them. Just set everything up at your place while I go grab my share of the movies, okay you two?" Jimmy stated to his friends. There's basically no movies in his house right now that he hadn't watched at some point in time, so he needed to go buy them himself to be able to do this with them. Sheen and Carl each gave him a thumbs up before walking towards Sheen's house as Jimmy also walked away from them and towards the center of the town, where all the stores primarily are. As he walked closer and closer to the nearest DVD store, he began to notice that more and more people look as if they have just been pranked, and yet don't know who exactly pranked them. Like this man who had silly strings everywhere on him, or this older woman that kept swearing that someone had switched her lemon water with a lemon-lime soda while she wasn't looking. Very minor and harmless things, but little by little, it became clear to the little genius that maybe the rumors that his friends told him about weren't as big of a hoax as he originally thought. "Goddard, is it just me who thinks that maybe Sheen and Carl were right about the rumors?" Jimmy asked his robotic dog friend as they passed by one of the many alleyways, who in response barked at him and nodded his head. "I thought so. Maybe we should be a little extra careful about our next moves while whoever is doing this is still-" Suddenly, in the dark alleyway he had just about passed by, Jimmy heard laughter. Quiet, hushed, and more importantly, familiar laughter. "There's no way that's who I think it is." Jimmy thought to himself, turning back around to look in the alleyway where the laughter came from. "There's no why that it's-" He silently stood in shock for a few seconds as he laid eyes on the source of the laughter. It was his clone that only went by the name Evil Jimmy. The very same clone that he had placed in what is known as the dark matter dimension, that of which he thought he would never escape from. And by the laws of science, he still hasn't changed how he looked one bit during that time. Evil Jimmy, who looked just as surprised to see Jimmy as Jimmy was to see him, proceeded to give him a smug grin as he leaned against the wall. "Heya there, Whippy-Dip. Missed me at all?"Jimmy let out a few stutters before being able to say anything, or rather yell anything, that made sense. "I- how- You! Were you the one who's been terrorizing everyone in the town since yesterday?!" The clone shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't know, despite his face saying otherwise. "Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. There's no real way to know." "Oh please! It definitely was you, and you can't even try to deny it!!" Jimmy shouted as his clone gave him a smirk. "B-besides, how'd you even escape that dimension in the first place?! I ran all the possiblies of you escaping and there were practically zero chances of it happening!! So explain yourself!" "How aboooout I don't? Yeah, let's go with no. I don't feel like telling ya how I did it, and it's not like you can make me tell ya!" Evil Jimmy said smugly as he walked closer to Jimmy, causing Goddard to start barking at him as he stood in front of Jimmy. Lately, Jimmy's patience has been in an all time low due to his lack of sleep and having to constantly fix problems in short periods of time, which meant that quickly his fear and confusion turned into pure annoyance, and it showed. "Tell. Me. Now." Jimmy told him sternly as he stepped forward, having the two of them now be face-to-face with one another. "I. Said. No." He said in a mocking tone while cockily grinning at Jimmy. Jimmy let out a soft sigh before suddenly grabbing his clones ear tightly and started dragging him by it back to his lab with a fast pace. His clone let out a yelp as he started getting dragged. "OW OW OW- HEY- LET GO!-" He cried out as he struggled to break free from his grip, trying to pry Jimmy's fingers off of his ear. "Quiet down, will you? You're only making an embarrassment out of yourself by being so loud." Jimmy told him harshly, still dragging him to the lab. In all honesty, he just doesn't want people to see the two of them, immediately recognize the clone, and start freaking out about it. That'll only mean that people would start putting even more pressure onto him as to get rid of him, as if the fact that he's back wasn't enough already.Thankfully, Evil Jimmy listened to the best of his abilities and try to keep quiet, still letting out sharp breathes and small exclamations of pain every once in a while. Quickly, or in Evil Jimmy's case, finally, they made it to the lab, thankfully without being spotted by anyone either. As they entered the lab, Jimmy pushed him to the ground as he closed the door behind them both. "Now are you willing to tell me how you managed to escape? Or do I need to do some more convincing?" Jimmy said as he looked down at him as Evil Jimmy rubbed his sore ear. "Fine, fine, I'll tell! I made a dimension traveling bike with a bunch of tiny scraps lying around, which is how I got out of that dimension and back into this one!" He hissed at his blueprint of a human being, being annoyed at the position that he was currently in. He was the evil one! He was supposed to scare Jimmy, not the other way around! "Hmmm... okay, okay, good to know.." Jimmy muttered softly, placing a hand on his chin as he started slowly pacing back and forth. Okay, he now knows that he can't just put him back because if he could build it once, he could definitely build it again. But what should he do with him now, since that was the case? After a few moments of silence between the two, Evil Jimmy stood back up and leaned against a nearby metal pillar. "Whatcha thinking, chief?" "Thinking about a way to get rid of you, obviously. It's not like I can get rid of you the same way that I'd usually get rid of other villainous people. You are a clone of me after all, so you have a much higher IQ than most of the foes that I have dealt with in the past." Evil Jimmy chuckled softly. "Oh really? What are a couple of your ideas of making me go away then?"Jimmy stopped pacing for a moment and looked him directly in the eyes. "Well, I could put you at the bottom of the ocean in a glass box with a limited amount of oxygen. Or I could shoot you up into space, maybe even send you to planet Zeenu, and you definitely wouldn't like that. Trust me on this, the residents there are more unintelligent than Sheen's shoe and their rulers are absolutely terrible at their jobs and their morals." He then started pacing back and forth again, as if those ideas still weren't good enough for him. I mean, he is a clone of him after all, and if Jimmy could easily and quickly get out of those situations, then of course he would as well. Evil Jimmy continued to watch Jimmy for a moment, listening to him mumble to himself as he tried to come up with a plan as to what to do with him. When he suddenly had an idea himself. "Hah, well, what's stopping you from doing any of those plans of yours?" "Two things. One, I'm very low on materials to be able to do that. Two, for some reason, those would now be considered 'immoral' of me to do to you, despite me having done way worse!" Jimmy told him with a frustrated look as he continued to pace, as if these things have been a problem for him for a few months now. "But they would still basically never let me off the hook if I were to effectively harm you to the point where you're immobile or dead. So I need to scrap most of my ideas if I want to not have to deal with anymore of that."Evil Jimmy mumbled in agreement with Jimmy's statement. He definitely has done worse than most of what he had just described. He did see him literally kill all of the other clones, with him being the sole survivor out of them. And to be completely honest, he's definitely the one who deserved to be killed despite that. "Well, chief, I myself have an idea as to what you could do with me." The clone said in a soft voice as he checked his nails. Jimmy stopped pacing again and raised an eyebrow at him. Though it would definitely be a bad idea if it was coming from Evil Jimmy of all people at the current moment, he couldn't help but be at least a little curious about what it could be. Evil Jimmy looked up at him and gave him a gentle yet sly grin before speaking. "Maybe you could try and reform me. Lead me away from my evil ways." Jimmy stood there shocked for a moment, I mean, this had to be some kind of trick, right? There was no way that he's genuinely wanting to be reformed. He was definitely just planning on using this as a way to trick the others into some kind of betrayal against Jimmy. ".. And why would I do that? You were literally terrorizing everyone in the town just moments earlier." "Oh please," Evil Jimmy flicked his wrist at Jimmy as he turned his head away, "I never harmed anyone with those pranks!.. At least, I don't believe I did. C'mooon, chief, just one crack at it?" Jimmy groaned as he put some thought onto it. It definitely wouldn't work, at least not very easily, especially if the villain was the one who had the idea in the first place. But Jimmy didn't have any other ideas that either had the physical parts to do it or without him being bashed by everyone. Besides.. he could just imagine the praise he would get if he even just simply tried to reform him. And if he just kept a close eye on him constantly, he just might actually be able to keep him out of trouble. Jimmy let out a sigh before speaking again. "Y-you know what? Fine, we can try to reform you. But you have to be compliant! Got it?""Cross my heart and hope to die, chief!" He said while making a cross motion on his chest and having a triumphant smile on his face, though had his fingers crossed behind his back as he did this. "You better hope to die if you ever decide to push your luck too far." Jimmy told him sternly, when he realized something. ".. If we were to start though, we would need to give you an actual name." "Hm? Why though? Wouldn't it just confuse everyone who already knows about me?" He asked, tilting his head in confusion. "... You're current name is literally 'Evil Jimmy'. It'll be kind of hard for anyone to even begin to think that you were a better person if evil is in your name, wouldn't it?" Jimmy told him, causing the clone to have a look on his face that's clear that he feels dumb about not realizing it right away. "Besides, I'm sure it would be nice for you if people wouldn't be able to tell that you're a clone of me right away because of your name." "... Alright, makes sense." He said, soon getting lost in thought. There was a lot of things he had thought about doing once he escaped the dark matter dimension, but an actual name for himself? Never even crossed his mind once."... Jack." "W-wha-?" The clone snapped out of his train of thought as he suddenly heard Jimmy speak. "What, is there someone named Jack around here that I didn't know about? Are they going to be a problem, or-" "No. I said Jack because you were clearly having troubles coming up with a name for yourself, so I threw it out there as a suggestion. Maybe have Jack as more of a nickname with Jackson being a full name for you. Does that sound good to you?"He sat in silence for a moment before responding. "Yeah, that sounds good to me." "Good, that's good. Now, Jack, what do you think we need to discuss next?"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
It has been around an hour since Jimmy Neutron and his evil clone, who has just been renamed Jack, have made the agreement that Jimmy would try and reform him, who has already proven to be a pain about the process, despite being the one to have originally thought of the idea in the first place. They have barely even started it, just discussing the rules that Jack would have to follow for, at the very least, the beginning of his reformation. "C'mon, you can't just take away all the fun stuff, Whippy-Dip! That isn't fair!" Jack whined after they had just finished going over his ruleset. "Is it fun, or is it dangerous? Because most of what we have discussed was mainly about the safety of you and others." Jimmy said to him, already getting tired of his behavior. He knew that it was a mistake to agree with this plan right from the start, but there really wasn't any other choice to choose from. "Pfft- Same thing!" Jack scoffed, as if Jimmy was being unreasonable with his statements.Jimmy sighed as he rubbed his furrowed eyebrows to try and soothe himself as Jack continued to be a pain. "Oooh, will I feel bad for whoever will end up living with you in the future, whether you've changed your ways or not." He mumbled to himself as he slowly shook his head. "Speaking of that, I feel compelled to ask about your living situation currently. Where are you currently staying and sleeping, since you have been here for at least a full 24 hours." "Huh? Um.. please specify what you mean by that." Jack said awkwardly, feeling stupid about not understanding what he meant."I mean, where have you stayed at ever since you got back? Where do you live?" "Oh, nowhere, really. I've only been here since yesterday, and last night I just slept on one of the roofs in the town." Jack said casually to him as he laid back on the couch in Jimmy's lab, holding his hands behind his head. "R-really??" Jimmy questioned him, as if he didn't hear him correctly. "Well, if that's true, then we need to change that. Can't just have you homeless at this time." Of course, he meant what he said. If they were as to attempt to give him better morals, they cannot risk him being in a situation where his mental health could lower at all. Not only that, but it's also easier to keep an eye on him if there was a general area that he lives in at and not constantly moving, like he would need to if he didn't have a real roof over his head. "Alright then, cool. How about I just build myself my own place?" Jack said, still laying down. "I would say that, buuuut you cannot be trusted to do things like that just yet. I know that you'll add a few rooms that you would yet shouldn't use if you were to make a house of your own." Jimmy said, turning his back from Jack as he looked at the lab. He really needs to clean this place soon, maybe he should make a cleaning robot once he gets the chance to. Jack groaned at his statement, yet can't argue against it, as that was his exact plan. "Fine. You make the house then." "I would have already suggested that if I was able to. I truly am low on all materials to make anything from scratch, so I cannot do that for you at the moment." He told him in an annoyed tone. His current annoyance wasn't necessarily because of Jack in this case, it was just in general. Jack groaned louder at this as he sat back up. "Then what should I do?! It's not like I have any money to buy one!.." He then got a sly grin on his face as he looked to the side. ".. Unless I rob someone who has a ton of mon-" Jimmy cut him off by smacking the back of his head. "Ow!" "No, you cannot rob people! That's one of the most simple laws that you know not to do! Besides, considering both your reputation and, more importantly, your age, no one would sell you a house anyways." "Alright, alright! But seriously, what am I meant to do then?" Jack huffed as he crossed his arms, frustrated that his plan of fooling everyone ended up being harder than he thought it would be. "I honestly don't know.. but I do have an idea." Jimmy told him, pulling out a flip phone from his pocket. "Maybe if I inform my mom about the current situation, she will be willing to give me the amount of money for me to be able to make you a place of your own!" Jack chuckled as he heard Jimmy mention his mom. "Awww, is someone calling their mommy for some help?" Jimmy rolled his eyes as he got belittled by Jack, dialing his home phone number into the phone. "Shut it, Jackson." *Riiing* *Riiing* *Riiing* As the home phone rang, Jack started getting closer to both Jimmy and the phone, as if to listen in on the conversation. "Jack, back away right now-" "No, I wanna hear what she's gonna say." "Still, no need to be so close to me. Back UP-" "NO-""It's taking a while for her to answer the phone.." Jimmy thought to himself as he tried to push Jack away from him. "I can only hope that it's not who I think it is that's going to end up answering the phone." After a few more rings on the phone, Jimmy heard the house phone being picked up. Instead of his mom though, he ended up hearing his dad's voice on the other end. "Hello? Helloooo? Who's there?" His father Hugh asked through the phone. "Fuck, not him-" Jimmy muttered quietly yet quickly away from the phone as he realized that it was his dad, not wanting his dad to hear him curse. Jack, taken aback by his sudden cursing, started laughing as Jimmy continued to try and push him away. "Heeeey dad! Say, is mom over there right now? If so, please hand the phone over to her for me!" Jimmy asked, trying to sound as normal as possible, though there's hints of nervousness in his voice as he gotten worried that Hugh might hear his clone in the background. "No can do, Jimbo! Your mother just went to go buy some groceries! Say, maybe I could call her and ask her to grab some pie while she's at the store.." His dad answered in his normal cheerful tone, seemingly not hearing anything that Jimmy doesn't want him to hear on their end. Jimmy sighed out of annoyance and frustration. Hugh usually comes up with a completely different and ridiculous plan then Jimmy's whenever he asks him for help, and it can get difficult to get him to listen at first. But considering that it's involving a villain this time, or rather a 'recovering' villain, it wouldn't hurt to just ask him this time instead of calling his mom's phone, right? "Whatever, you'll do for now then. To put it bluntly, I need a lot of money. Right now." Jimmy told him. "What? Why do you need a ton of money, Jimmy? Ohh wait, I think I know! You need money to buy some plastic blue flamingos, right?" Hugh said happily, as if his guess was correct. Jimmy pulled a face of confusion before shaking his head quickly as Jack snickered at Hugh's terrible guess. "Um- No, dad. I need it to build a house." "Oh? Jimmy, aren't you a bit young to be moving out? I'm not sure that your mother will be happy about you leaving so soon." "Well, you see... it's not for me. Let's see, how do I explain it.. do you remember the clones that I made? And how one of them was evil and tried to erase the entire world by making an evil version of it? Yeah. He's back." Jimmy told him in a professional manner. "Heeeeey!" Jack said into the phone smugly. "Quiet." Jimmy told him, shushing him with his finger. "Anyways, he ended up escaping the dark matter dimension, but I have a plan for him. I am going to be making an attempt to reform him from a villain. He is now going by the name Jack rather than Evil Jimmy so that it's not only easier to differentiate between us, it's also the start of the process of making him into a better person. Since, y'know, evil isn't in his first name anymore?" After a second of silence on Hugh's end, he spoke up, not having a single change in his tone of voice. "Aaah, I see, you need to build a house for the clone! Oh, Jack's his new name, you said?" Jimmy softly smiled, believing that the plan was going to work fully as intended, despite it being discussed with his father instead of his much more rational mother. "Mhm, that's correct! And since he doesn't really have a place to stay at in this current moment, I need to make one for him. So please, can you-" "Wait Jimbo! I think I have a better idea!" Hugh said, cutting Jimmy off. Jimmy only responded with a groan as he waited for his dad to continue speaking. "How about you just bring him over here, so that I can see for myself if my idea really is better than your current one, Jimbo?" This caused Jimmy and Jack to simultaneously raise an eyebrow in confusion and intrigue as they glanced at each other and then back at the phone. ".. Allllright then. Anything else, dad?" Jimmy said with a skeptical tone. "Nope, that'll be all that I need. Just bring him over quickly! I'll be in the living room waiting for you two! Bye bye!" Hugh told him before hanging up. "... Sooo.. do we just mindlessly go to him now?" Jack said while looking to Jimmy, still trying to figure out what his plan could possibly be. "Might as well. Besides, going to meet with him will most likely be the only way to further convince him to give us the money if we prove that whatever his idea is, it's worse than our original one." Jimmy responded as he grabbed Jacks wrist and started walking out of the lab. Honestly, he's just happy that his father is at least trying to test his idea out before doing it. Means that he's learning his place when it came to intelligence. "Do you really have to drag me to him though?? I do have a few of your memories as your clone, so I know how to get there-" Jack asked Jimmy once they exited the lab."It's not that I don't trust that you can't get there yourself, it's that I don't trust you to not run off." He responded, still dragging him towards his living room. Jack mumbled something under his breath about it, but other than that he didn't retaliate against it. "Dad, we're here!" Jimmy yelled out as he walked through the back door, with Jack in tow behind him. "Now can you please tell us what this 'plan' of yours is?" "Ah, Jimbo! You two got here quicker than I thought you would!" Hugh said, peaking his head around the corner. "Now, come here.. Jake?" "It's Jack. Or Jackson, if you prefer." He responded as he walked up to Hugh, still confused about what he was planning but more intrigued than anything. Gently, Hugh grabbed Jack's face and examined it, as if to check for any marks that he might have gotten from being in the dark matter dimension. Though Jack's face and body language didn't change from his usual prideful and smug look, Jimmy could tell that he strangely liked the way Hugh gently held his face due to his eyes slightly dilating when he grabbed it. "Hmm... good, good.. Now, tell me, how willing are you about the idea of becoming a better person, Jack?" Hugh asked him after a few seconds of silence. "How willing am I? Well, considering that I was the one who proposed the idea in the first place, it's safe for me to say that I am infact very willing to do this." Jack answered, glancing over at Jimmy to see if he had any ideas about what his dad was planning yet. "I can also reassure you that he isn't lying when he says that. He was, infact, the reason the idea was even brought up at all." Jimmy added, walking up to the both of them. "Oh really? Well, does that mean that you won't be breaking anything, stealing anything, and overall nothing harmful to anyone or anything?" Hugh asked him again, still having a cheerful tone. "I cannot guarantee that I wouldn't end up doing any of those things, but I definitely can say that I will try to the best of my abilities not to." Jack responded, basically trying to tell him that he probably would end up doing it often without actually saying it. This caused Jimmy to give him a stern and annoyed look, as he could tell what he meant by his words, yet didn't say anything. Hugh clapped his hands together, looking pleased with both himself and Jack. "Well, that settles it then!"The two young geniuses gave each other the exact same confused look before unintentionally looking up at Hugh in sync, which make him chuckle as he watched them mirror each other. "What settles it?" Jack asked, slightly tilting his head as he continued to look up at him. "Are you referring to whatever your idea is?" Jimmy also asked him. "You haven't even told either of us what it was in the first place." "Ah right, I didn't! Well, as you know, Jimbo, we recently did some spring cleaning and realized that we had just way too much space then we really needed!" Hugh started explaining to the two. "So, instead of just spending all that money on building an entire place for good ol' Jambo here.." He motioned towards Jack as he says this.Jimmy and Jack continued to look up at him, waiting for him to finish his sentence. Jimmy glanced over at Jack, who had an extremely confused look. He was just barely used to his new name, nonetheless having a nickname based on it. Didn't help that the one he decided to give him just sounded so, so dumb. This made Jimmy start audibly struggle not to laugh, eventually having to cover his mouth to try and avoid laughing loudly as Jack side-eyed him, even though he himself began to struggle on not laughing."I thought that we can just have him live with us!" Hugh said excitedly, clapping his hands together again. "What." They both collectively said immediately after, completely stopping their laughter. Jack's voice was filled with confusion while Jimmy's was filled with shock."Yeah! It'll help save a ton of money, and we have plenty of room for it to work for everyone involved!" Hugh told them, seemingly looking brightly into this supposed future. "D-Dad, I don't- I don't think that we should do something like that! You haven't even told mom about it to see if she agrees with it!-" Jimmy objected, trying to convince his dad otherwise about his plan. Jack was already a giant pain in his backside just from this small amount of interaction alone, he doesn't think that he would be able to handle it if he had to deal with it 24/7. Not only that, it also means that he could more easily sabotage Jimmy if they lived in the same house. "Oh please! I'm sure she will agree with me on this! Besides, I can tell that she's been wanting something new to take care of, recently!" Hugh told Jimmy, patting Jack's head gently, who looks extremely confused and shocked. He had a plan for himself when he talked about 'reforming', but nothing like this was any part of it, especially without any of his own involvement."Dad, please-" "Oooooh, wait! Maybe I should go grab some pie from the nearby bakery as a way to welcome you here!" Hugh cut Jimmy off unintentionally, talking to Jack now as he started walking towards the front door. "You two stay here and behave, okay? Bye!" As he closed the door behind him as he left, Jimmy and Jack sat in silence for a moment, still processing what had just happened. After a full minute of dead silence between the two, Jack started to silently laugh due to sheer confusion. "U-um, what just-" "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-" Jimmy had just started screaming at the top of his lungs out of anger, confusion and a hint of fear. This couldn't be actually happening, it just couldn't be! It had to be a dream, a hallucination, maybe even psychedelics, just anything besides reality. The sudden scream from Jimmy made Jack lose any composure he had left and burst out laughing, to the point where he started to hold his stomach as he laid on the floor because his laughter began hurting his abs so much. Jimmy's screaming lasted for around three minutes until he eventually lost his breath and fell backwards on the floor next to Jack, who is currently coughing because of how hard he laughed. After a moment of catching his breath, Jack looked over at Jimmy, who's face is in his hands as he let out a soft and quiet groan. "Y-you alright there?""No, because he really is going to try and have you live here. I mean, I know that he's below average intelligence, but I didn't think that he'd be stupid enough to try to do this." Jimmy whispered, still hiding his face. Jack chuckled as he started getting back up on his feet. "Awwww, why so gloomy about it? Do you not wanna be around me?" "With you being the way you are, no." "Hmm, shame for you if he ends up succeeding then." Jack said as he gave him a smug grin. "But luckily for you, I recall that your mother has quite a bit more brains in her skull, so there's a very good chance that it won't end up happening."Jack looked up towards the living room tv and something on it caught his attention. It was playing a movie that looked familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. Not really having anything else to do right, he decided to go to the couch but not to sit on it, but he sit down on the floor with his back against the front of the couch. Jimmy looked over at him as he finally got up and saw him watching the first Jet Fusion movie, one of Jimmy's favorite movies... "Oh shit, Sheen and Carl have probably been waiting on me for over an hour because of the movie marathon thing we planned." He thought to himself before going over to the phone and dialing Sheen's house number. They've been waiting this long for him and had heard nothing from him, so they definitely needee an explanation for his absence. Besides, it'll be the perfect opportunity to also tell them about Jackson and the current situation with him."Y'ello?" Sheen answered almost immediately. "Sheen, hello! You're probably wondering where I've been right now." "Jimmy!!! Yeah, where are you?! We've been waiting forever on you!!" ".. It's a long story, so prepare yourself."*5 minutes later* "Wait wait wait," Sheen told Jimmy, "So you're telling me that the evil clone guy is back, but since you couldn't do anything because you didn't have anything to use to trap him like you did last time, you've decided to try and reform him?" "Mhm, that's what I said." Jimmy responded to his question, looking over at Jack, who is currently glued to the tv. He doesn't even seem to be aware that Jimmy was on the phone. "And his new name is Jack?" Sheen asked him, with the sound of a chip bag crinkling on his end of the phone line. "That is correct, Sheen!" "... And as of right now, he may or may not living with you, and you don't know which one is going to happen until both your mom and your dad get back?" Sheen asked another question, eating a chip. "Yes, that is also true. Now, until the living situation is covered and I can do this myself, I would like you to go around telling people about this so that they may prepare themselves for any chaos that may happen soon. Especially our friends, since they will probably be heavily involved in the process. Got that, Sheen?" Jimmy instructed him. "Alright! Got it!" Sheen respond, before turning away from the phone and yelling out, "Hey Carl! Jimmy just got a new brother!" "Wha- Sheen! That is not-" Jimmy tried to retaliate against his claim, but is unable to before Sheen hangs up the phone. He let out a soft groan before mumbling, "I knew I should have called Carl instead..." As he sat in silence for a moment, he heard voices. His parents voices, right outside the front door. Jimmy once again checked on Jack, who is still not paying attention to anything else other than the movie, before getting closer to the slightly cracked open door and listening in on their conversation while also peaking through the crack. "I mean.. I don't know Hugh, I just don't see how it's a good idea." Judy told her husband, holding her head in her hand as she had a worried expression on her face. "C'mon, honey! What's the worse the boy could do anyways?" Hugh said as he lovingly wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Hah, weeeell, considering that he's the evil clone of our super genius son, who we both know is a handful already, there's a lot of things he could do!" Judy exclaimed, crossing her arms. "I understand your thought process on why you would think that's a good idea, considering our financial situation at the moment, but it also could be very dangerous if we do! In this case, I'm going to need a little more of a reason than just that, Hugh!" Hugh chuckled softly before speaking again. "Well, if you say so!" He gently grabbed her chin and had her look up at him. "I feel like you're forgetting something very important about the situation as well though; even though he is a just clone, he's still a boy. He's still just a kiddo, honey buns! What would make you think that if the same laws about school, jobs and childcare still applies to our boy despite his incredible intelligence, that they suddenly just wouldn't apply to that boy right there?" He nodded towards Jack in the living room, still watching the tv and unaware of the two adults infront of the outside window.Jimmy looked towards the ground at their feet as he slightly nodded his head. His dad does have a valid point with the fact that it'll probably be illegal for them to have Jack live alone. But goddamn it, please don't let him live with them. "... Well, you aren't wrong there." Judy admitted to him, though she still had a worried expression on her face. "Mhm." Hugh said, nodding his head. "Besides, you wanna know what I personally believe to be true?" "What, Hugh?" Judy asked him."I believe that with a mother's love, anyone can go from their worst versions of themselves to their best!!" He said cheerfully, clearly referring to her. She looked around for a moment before looking back towards Jack through the window, who started to remind her of when Jimmy was younger. As soon as her gazed softened and a small smile made its way on her lips, Jimmy knew that he was done for.He let out a loud and dramatic groan before flopping face down onto the couch, startling Jack out of his trance. "Woah, what happened to you? You're acting as if your life is a living hell." Jimmy looked at him with an tired and frustrated look before saying, "Because it's about to be." He then rolled over onto his back, still groaning.Before Jack could question him further on what he meant by that, Hugh opened the front door fully and stepped inside. "I'm back, you two! And I have both the answer to where Jack will be staying and pie!" As the statement is being said, Judy also stepped inside the house. Jack got up from the floor and mumbled to himself, with only Jimmy being able to hear him due to their close proximity. "I'm guessing that me living with you all is gonna be a no-""You are officially going to be staying with us, Jambo!" Hugh said excitedly while Judy chuckled softly at the strange nickname that he already had gave Jack. Jack had a look of shock and surprise on his face as he looked up at them. He glaced over to Jimmy, who had his face in his hands as he sighed in defeat, and realized what he meant by what he said moments earlier. "Oh! Why, thank you!" Jack said with a smile, not knowing how else to respond to their choice."Oh no, no need to thank us, Jackson!" Judy told him sweetly as she walked up to him. "Now, my question is.. do you really like these hair horns thingys that you have? Or would you like to change it to something different?" She asked him, gently holding his cheek with one hand as she twirled the tip of one of his horn-like hair pieces. When she held his face, his eyes immediately dilated and he looked to have gotten soft for a second before he snapped out of it and answered her question. "Uh, yeah, I prefer this hair style still." "Alrighty then! But considering that you still look so much like Jimmy, we need to get you into some new clothes to help tell you two apart!" Judy said this to him as she grabbed his hand and started walking upstairs, with Jack obediently following behind her. "Besides, it's been around a year since you probably were last able to change your clothes! At this point they're probably very uncomfortable and are in a desperate need of washing!" As they both went upstairs, Jimmy sat up on the couch, still looking as if he was told that he was going to die by next week and there wasn't anything the doctors could do about it. By the time they reached the top of the stairs, Hugh noticed his son's displeasure of the situation. "Oh, don't be so sour, Jimbo!" He told Jimmy, patting his back as he spoke in his happy tone. "We just got a new member of the family! You should be happy! You have said that you wanted a brother before, after all!"Jimmy slowly turned his head up at his father and then spoke in a monotone voice. "Father, though I naturally love you deeply and dearly, I despise you with every cell in my body right now." *15 minutes later*Hugh was sitting next to Jimmy on the couch, trying to calm him down and see the bright side of it, as Jimmy continued to sulk about the fact that out of all people that his parents could have thought of Jack to live with, it had to be with them. It had to be with him. Once Jack realizes that he could mess with Jimmy even more because of this given position and maybe even get away with it and have zero real repercussions for it, which he most likely already has realized this, he will definitely use it to his full advantage."Alright you two, we managed to get Jack into some clothes he likes!" Judy called down to them as she walked down from the top of the stairs. "C'mon Jackson, let them see your new outfit!" Jack started walking downstairs, now wearing something that's new freshly washed, and more comfortable in his eyes. He's now wearing a maroon turtle neck, a black hoodie that has a large DNA strand branded on the front of it, a pair of loose black jeans, and a pair of dark grey tennis shoes. "Oh, you look great, Jambo!" Hugh said cheerfully, getting up from the couch. "It suits you well!" Jack chuckled as he nodded his head at Hugh, as if to nonverbally tell him thanks. "Now, how about some pie?" Hugh asked, though not waiting for an answer as he walked to the kitchen, with Judy following behind him giggling. As they entered the kitchen, Jack leaned against the back of the couch, looking down at Jimmy with a smug grin. "Heya there, chief. Like the new look?" Jimmy glared at him with a giant look of annoyance with it. "Yeah yeah, sure." He then sighed as he held his head in his hands again. Jack chuckled as he leaned on the back of the couch on his back, looking at Jimmy while he's upside down. "C'mooooon, don't give me that attitude! I didn't do anything to cause this, it just happened!"After a few seconds of silence between them, Jack ended up flopping onto the couch, holding the back of his head with both hands, smugly grinning up at Jimmy. "But hey, I'm not gonna complain~!""You're already planning on making this an even bigger living nightmare for me, aren't you?" Jimmy asked him, taking his hands off his face, but still isn't looking at him and instead looked up at the ceiling. "Yeeeeep." "Knew it. And you're not gonna give up on it easily, correct." "Correct, chief!" "I hated you before this process started, and I have already begun to hate you more." "And I'm planning on making you hate me even more~!"Jimmy finally looked over at Jack and whisper-yelled at him, "... Fuck you, Jack." "Fuck you too, Jimmy."
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Despite Jack being confused as to why Judy and Hugh had decided to take him in with only a measly promise that can easily be broken, he still uses this to his full advantage, even going so far as to get himself comfortable with calling them Mom and Dad (as much as he can get comfortable, at least). He even gets to bother Jimmy every chance he gets with little consequences for it, as it just gets deemed by most adults and even some peers as 'brothers being brothers'! Like, for example, 'borrowing' Jimmy's things despite not needing to, going into his room randomly without bothering to ask first, mess with his friends whenever they decide to hang out at Jimmy's place, try to blow up the school with a nuclear hand grenade that was made out of scraped inventions and then blame Jimmy for it because he had left out uranium unattended, just the usual things that a sibling would do.You would be extremely wrong and also incredibly stupid for even thinking that Jimmy hasn't wanted to kill Jack since day one of this new and unwanted chaos. Today, the chaos will mostly stay the same.. mostly._________________________________________________Jimmy sat at the kitchen room table doing his homework, sighing occasionally as he stared down at the paper. Here he is, a super genius who has by himself made inventions that are more powerful than the government's, having to do understimulating work for something that he doesn't even need instead of doing anything that he actually wants to do. Jack walked into the kitchen as he quietly hummed to himself, holding an Ultra-Lord comic book that Sheen had gifted him when he first came back. "Still doing your homework, Whippy-Dip?" "At least I actually do my homework when I first get it and not wait until the very last second, unlike you." Jimmy responded, not loosing focus on his work. "Hey, at least I'm not wasting my time on something useless like that when I can be doing what I want instead. Besides, I don't break under pressure, so it doesn't affect anything when just I wait to do it." Jack sat next to Jimmy, putting his feet up on the table. "Waiting? Like you have been waiting when it comes to reading the very comic book that's in your hand right now?" Jimmy responded, still not looking away from the homework. ".. Oh shut up, we both know that the comic has so many things that just aren't accurate when it comes to simple science, and it's irritating to read knowing that they could have done simple research to realize this." Jack threw the comic down on the table as he leaned back, hands behind his head. "That's understandable, but you shouldn't continue to give Sheen false hope about you reading it sooner or later. He can be quite sensitive when it comes to all things involving Ultra-Lord." "Ooooh, okay! Got it!" Jack pointed a finger gun at Jimmy as he chuckled, making Jimmy roll his eyes. They both sat in silence for a moment before Jack lifted his hand and pointed his finger at Jimmy, slowly inching his finger closer and closer to Jimmy's cheek. "Jack, don't touch me." Jimmy said, still not looking up from the paper, now having an even more annoyed look on his face."But I'm not touching you." Jack said calmly, now not moving a muscle. It's true, he wasn't touching Jimmy. He just held his finger veeeery close to him, yet not touching him still."Jack, stop that." Jimmy now demanded him, finally looking up from the paper but not directly at Jack still, instead just staring at what was infront of him instead. "Stop what? I'm not doing anything." "You know exactly what you are doing." Jimmy told him through gritted teeth, his eye twitching. "Actually, You are correct! I do know what I'm doing! And that would be nothing!" Jack spoke in a smug tone as he continued to not move his finger away from or closer to Jimmy. "DAD! JACK WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE WHILE I'M DOING HOMEWORK!!" Jimmy yelled out, turning himself towards the living room where Hugh is watching tv. "I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING TO HIM, HE'S LYING!!!" Jack yelled out as well, finally moving his finger and hand away from him as to try and avoid getting in trouble for the third time this week."Settle down, boys! Jack, stop messing with Jimmy, and Jimmy, stop being so hard on Jack!" Hugh called out from the couch, not taking his eyes off the tv. Jack crossed his arms and huffed as he turned his back towards Jimmy, who rolled his eyes when his dad told him to stop being so harsh with Jack. They once again sat in silence as Jimmy focused on his homework and Jack looked out the window. Suddenly, Jack's face had lit up as he noticed something, tilting his head slightly as he got more intrigued. "What is Sheen doing now?.." He spoke quietly to himself, watching him through the window intensely. "Probably nothing, Jack. How come you always watch him when you have nothing better to do anyway?" Jimmy asked, glancing up at Jack for a moment. "His stupidity is entertaining to me. His thought process is so simple that it's also so hard to tell what it is that's going through his head." He responded as he rested his head in his hand, still watching Sheen. "Eh.. makes sense." Jimmy shrugged as he spoke. Wanting to see just how far his idiotism went was originally how they became friends when they were young children, after all. Jack continued to watch Sheen through the window, beginning to snicker. "Um, J-Jimmy?" "What now?""Why does Sheen have the Freeze Ray 3.2 that you're still currently working on?" Jimmy's heart dropped when he heard Jack's words, immediately looking past him to look out the window himself. Sheen was outside, carelessly and dangerously waving Jimmy's latest version of his freeze ray around in the air as Cindy and Libby are trying to physically stop him while Carl was seemingly pleading with them all to calm down as he tried to stay out of their way. Quickly, Jimmy scrambled to get out of his seat, no longer caring about doing his homework as he sprinted towards the front door. "No no no nO NO-" Jack, now laughing loudly and manically, quickly follows Jimmy out the door. "Oh, I gotta see this!" "SHEEN!! PUT THE RAY DOWN!!!" Jimmy yelled and demanded at Sheen once he was outside and had him in his sights, causing Sheen to jump due to his sudden and booming voice, but immediately relaxes again as he saw that it was just Jimmy. "Heya Jimmy! Heya Jack!" Sheen called out, waving at them with the ray still in hand, which Cindy was still trying to get out of his hands. "Give me that, you dolt!" Jimmy quickly and surprisingly easily snatched the freeze ray from Sheen. "How did you even manage to get this in the first place?!" "Well, your lab door was unlocked, and when I went inside I saw that your freeze thingy was out, so I thought I should show it off for ya!" Sheen says gleefully, as if he didn't do anything wrong. "Without my permission?? Without even informing me?! Sheen, I swear, you could just simply stand still and it would still leave me bumfuzzled, that's how confusing your stupidity is!" Jimmy then sighed as he rubbed his furrowed eyebrows in frustration. "Well, when you say words that aren't even real, it's hard to tell what your answer is half the time! So I didn't bother asking!" Sheen replied, crossing his arms as if he had a right to be annoyed with Jimny. "It's a yes or no question, Sheen! If you hear either "Yes" or "No" in the sentence, then that's your answer!!" Jimmy yelled out as he turned away from Sheen and began walking towards his lab to put the freeze ray back. In turn, Jack stepped closer to Sheen as he struggled to stop snickering. "A-and about that statement with him saying words that are supposedly 'not real', they are in fact real words, it's just that most simpletons like yourself don't know them." Cindy then spoke out as she stepped in front of Jack. "Well, you can't blame Sheen for that one, because most people don't use the words that Jimmy always use!""Yeah, because most people are stupid and only use the words that everyone else use." Jack said casually, putting his hands in the pocket of his hoodie. "At least he's able to get creative with his words, even if only a few can fully understand him because of it." ".. Well, he's not wrong on that one." Libby admitted to Cindy as she put her hand on her shoulder, which caused Cindy to roll her eyes in annoyance. Jimmy quickly made it back to the group once he put the freeze ray back in it's rightful place, mainly to make sure that Jack wasn't provoking anyone too much or running out of anyone's sight as to cause havock. He let out a small and quiet sigh of relief as he saw that Jack was being civil for now. Jimmy walked over to Cindy's side, noticing his girlfriends annoyance and was about to ask what was wrong before he noticed that Sheen's face suddenly light up as he remembered something before he turned his focus to Jack and spoke up, his voice filled with his usual excitement. "Hey, did you finally end up reading that Ultra-Lord comic I got ya?! It's his first ever comic, so it should be easy for you to follow the story right now!!" "Oh, no, no I didn't. Infact, I'm not gonna read it at all. I just can't stomach it's scientific inaccuracies for more than a few pages at a time." Jack shrugged his shoulders as he casually spoke his truth. Everyones besides Jimmy's breath hitched in their throats as the words escaped Jack's mouth, knowing how Sheen can be when it came to people insulting things that he's interested in. Jimmy shot Jack with an intense glare as his eyes dart between Sheen's and Jack's face, waiting for Sheen's reaction before doing anything about the situation. Sheen's face dropped as he got a disappointed and betrayed look on his face before it suddenly lit up again as he got another idea. "Does that mean that you'll preserve it instead??" Jack raised an eyebrow at the ecstatic boy before answering him, "Huh?.. Oh. Yeah, yeah, sure, why not-"Suddenly, out of pure excitement of Jack essentially starting a comic book collection in Sheen's eyes, he picked Jack up in a tight hug, Jack's feet no longer touching the ground. Everyone else let out a collective sigh of relief, as for them, it's common knowledge that Sheen does this with anyone who's shorter than him as a way of showing affection. Jack, however, was not at all aware of this, as he didn't even know that Sheen's strength had increased enough to so easily lift people off the ground since he got put in the dark matter dimension. Jack let out a small yelp of surprise as he got lifted so suddenly, a small blush of embarrassment appearing on his cheeks. After a second, he began to try and get out of Sheen's grasp, as he hadn't gotten physical affection that lasted for more than a few seconds for over a year and this sudden and tight hug overwhelmed him quickly. "HEY!! LET ME GO, YOU DAMN HEATHEN!!" Jack screamed out as he kicked his feet in the air as a futile attempt of escaping. Being the clone of a super genius really did come at a cost: being short. Sheen raised an eyebrow at Jack in slight confusion. Then, he smirked mischievously as he quickly saw an opportunity to get back at him a little for being an annoyance to him. He then began to swing Jack around in his arms as he laughed. "Awwww, but you're so light and soft! I don't think I ever wanna let go!" Jack's kicking got even worse as he continued to try and get Sheen to let go, his face now red with embarrassment and anger as he yelled out, "I SAID LET GO, YOU IMBECILE!!" Everyone besides Jimmy began to snicker at the seem, finding Jack's anger about the situation hilarious. Jimmy though wasn't laughing at all as he watched Jack struggle against Sheen. Dare he say, he actually felt sympathy for him at this moment. It wasn't uncommon for Sheen to do something like this to him too, and considering that he absolutely hated it even after getting used to it, he could only imagine how it felt for the one who was unaware of it in the first place. Jimmy let out a small sigh before he spoke up, "Okay, put Jack down, Sheen, you had your fun." "Aww, but why?""Because he clearly dislikes it, and will probably punch you in the next moment if you don't."Sheen rolled his eyes as he dropped Jack on the grass. "Fiiiine, fine." Jack groaned as he sat himself back up and rubbed his head, muttering under his breath, "Asshole.."Jimmy went over and helped Jack off the ground, talking as he helped to brush off some dry dirt off of Jack. "Anyways, I need to go back inside and finish up my homework. See you guys later.. Oh, and Jack, try not to be a bother today, okay?"Jack rolled his eyes as he nodded his head, clearly not going to actually listen to him. Jimmy glared at him, also know that he wasn't going to listen, but currently too tired to bother dealing with him. He waved his friends and Jack goodbye before heading back inside his house as to finish up his work.A few hours later, Jimmy had finished all his homework, now watching Tv as he gave Goddard a quick check up on his joints. Jimmy glanced over at the clock on the wall, it reading 5:15 pm. It was.. strange. Jack hadn't come back to bother him or disrupt the house again yet, and his their mom was just about to start dinner! Not only that, but no one had called either of his their parents of him directly to complain about something that Jack did. It was.. strange, to say the least. Suddenly, Jack busted through the front door and quickly slammed it behind himself, his back pressed against the door and using his body as to baracade it, panting heavily as he let out nervous laughter. Jimmy's eyes widened at his sudden appearance and look of panic. "Wha- Jack?! What happened?!" Jack let out more nervous laughter as he put up his hood and pulled the hoodie's strings as to hide his face, his hair horns poking out. "Weeeeeeell-"Suddenly, there was loud banging on the other side of the front door as Jack yell out a small squeak, Cindy's voice booming through from the other side."JAAACK!! GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW SO THAT I CAN KICK YOUR ASS!!!"Cindy then began to attempt to break the door down entirely, prompting Jack to.. hide behind Jimmy??"J-Jack?! What are you doing?!?""Hiding, what else does it look like?!""Why behind me?! She may be my girlfriend, but that doesn't mean that I'm able to physically stop her when she's this mad!!""I don't know, I'm panicking!-"Then, Cindy was able to kick down the door, currently wearing a mint green sundress that had been drenched in a dark colored soda. Upon hearing the door slam into the ground, the two boy's jumped a little at the noise, Jack quickly hiding himself behind Jimmy more as Jimmy instinctively threw out his arms in a protective position. Cindy's pissed off and raging expression quickly shifted into a more surprised and slightly confused look at the sight of this, as she didn't expect Jimmy to have a protective instinct for Jack yet, though there was still obvious anger on her face as she panted slightly from chasing after Jack. Jimmy then raised his hands in the air as he spoke in a calm voice. "N-now now, what just happened here? Why were you chasing after Jack??" Cindy glared at Jack, who was peaking over Jimmy's shoulder as he tried to remain hidden from her sights, as she spoke. "He not only threw a full soda can at me, but he also slightly opened the can before throwing it, making all the soda pour all over me and ruining my new dress!!" "Girl!! F-for, like, the fourth time, I didn't mean for that to happen!!"Jimmy's eyes widened as he looked over his shoulder at Jack. For the first time ever.. he didn't mean to cause any trouble?? And it wasn't like he was just lying to get himself out of trouble again, as Jimmy had quickly learned all of his tells. This time, he was being genuine, even if it's being expressed in a more harsh way. "Well.. what did you mean to happen, then?""S-Sheen asked me to pass him a soda, so instead of just walking towards him and handing it to him, I tried throwing it at him since he's such an annoyance!! But Cindy ended up walking into the cans line of sight at the wrong time! I-I'm not sure why or how it was opened though.."Carl, Libby and Sheen quickly ran behind Cindy, all panting heavily from trying to keep up with the two. Sheen then raised his hand as he was still panting heavily. "I-It was me! I was the one who opened the can enough to where soda would pour everywhere! But it was meant to go all over Jack as he was grabbing it!" Carl took a few puffs from his inhaler before he began speaking as well, still panting heavily as he spoke. "B-Both Jack's and Sheen's stories are true, I-I was a witness to both incidents!" Libby then raised her hand and held up two fingers as she continued panting heavily, silently saying that she seconded Carls statement. Cindy's and Jimmy's eyes widened in surprise. Jack was.. innocent? He was genuinely innocent and he wasn't trying to cause any trouble?.. well, not for Cindy, at least. Cindy cleared her throat as she tried to appear more calm and collected before looking back at Jack, who was still hiding behind Jimmy, though now looked less panicked and nervous due to the others vouching for him, even Sheen. "Well then.. I'm sorry about the misunderstanding, Jack." God, did that feel weird for her to say to him of all people. "I-it's fine, I guess.. but giiirl, you need to learn to chill." Jack said this as he stepped out from behind Jimmy. Cindy rolled her eyes as she mumbled under her breath, though didn't say anything about it, as she didn't want to end up proving Jack's point. "Whatever, I'm going back home, it's almost about time for dinner anyways."The other three, still slightly being out of breath, followed suite, going back to their individual houses. Jimmy and Jack looked down at the broken down door for a few moments before Jack attempted to pick it up to put it in place, only to immediately struggle due to not having a lot of strength. Even if he's different personality wise, he still is a clone of a weak and short boy, after all. After a few attempts, Jack then gave up as he began walking towards his room as to be alone for the next 15 minutes before dinner was supposed to be ready. "... You know.. I think that, albeit very slowly.. this reformation thing is actually working." Jimmy spoke up as he looked up at Jack, who was halfway up the stairs. Jack froze for a moment before looking down at Jimmy, raising an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really? And how so?""If that very incident happened when you were first made, or hell, when we first started this reformation attempt, you would've taken all the credit for it happening, despite it being unintentional." Jimmy then walked towards the bathroom as to wash his hands, seeing that Judy was about to pull dinner out of the oven.Jack stood there, frozen and in shock. Jimmy.. wasn't wrong. Unintentionally and unironically, he was very, very slowly being reformed..."... Fuck..."