"You ready to start?" asked Ozai after everyone enjoyed a dinner of Ben's new chicken chop recipe (just like the last 'fusion' dinner that included ribs & sweet & sour sauce, Azula whipped up a scrumptious onion-filled gravy for this meal).

"Yes, let's get to the basement lab," said Reed.

"You wouldn't believe what a day it has been for us," said Sue to Azula. "C'mon to my room; I'll tell you about it all." Sue was more or less the primary reason behind the FF's really good PR – she made a social butterfly indeed.

In the corridor lined with lovely bonsai trees & rocks, Reed & Ozai entered the elevator that was to take them downstairs. "I should tell you too," began Reed as the platform started to descend, "about our day with the Impossible Man."

"Actually, I met him too."

"What? How? You were downstairs - "

"Azula saw Ben falling from your floor. He knows that fall that far can't kill him, let alone do him much harm." Ozai's chuckles were frequent but warmed the atmosphere well. "She looked down & saw him with the little morphing green man. He looked harmless."

"But have you seen what he can do? It's – impossible!"

"Possibly. But not impossible for him," joked Ozai.

"Never mind."

"We both did come down to see what was going on, but you guys had taken off. We can't follow you in high-speed chases, so we laid off."

"Oh, don't worry. We took care of him." Reed let out a deep breath expressing relief at the memory of shooing the silly alien away. He wasn't prepared for what was next.

The elevator stopped. Jolly Ozai suppressed a laugh before he spoke. "Did I mention I'm getting him to help in here too?"

"You what?!" Reed was caught off guard.

"I haven't explained how I met him, remember?"

There stood the Impossible Man, in the form of a large screwdriver, turning a bolt on a robotic claw of the prototype Reed & Ozai were assembling. He transformed back to his original self, & turned to meet the scientists. "Hi!!! You're back, Dr. O!!!" he yelled like a kindergarten kid. "Hello, Impy," smiled Ozai. Reed was dumbstruck but could contain his panic. "H.E.R.B.I.E. & L.Y., status report, please," Ozai requested, looking up. "No signs of exceeding danger limit. Probability of data overload: 20%," replied the computers almost in sync.

"This is fun! What next?" the alien said. He was bursting with exuberance. He was then instructed by Ozai to begin work on the robot's head. L.Y. had a hologram of the robot blueprints displayed. She rotated the hologram & zoomed in on the head blueprints. Impy had actually transformed into H.E.R.B.I.E.'s interface when he explored the main lab upstairs until the poor computer was overloaded; this made him a potent hacker. Ozai utilized that ability by allowing Impy to enter L.Y.'s system & duplicate the blueprint data. He would then revert to a normal state & morph into tools such as a blowtorch or solder iron to work on the real prototype.

"Doesn't the fact that he has nothing to worry about bother you? Mind my 'philosopher' tone, but the joy of another can be a great strength."

"& you're saying that his nature is not at all an annoyance? It's a good thing?" questioned Reed, knitting his eyebrows together, hoping this question could be made rhetoric.

"Maybe you took the wrong approach toward his attitude."

"I..I never thought about it." Sheepishly, the 'smartest man in the world' scratched his head.

"That's right. You're too absorbed in your work, my friend. Sue told me about your "49% of attention on lab, 51% enjoying quality time". She's looking out for you." He grinned.

"Back to Impy. What happened after he left us?"

"I used L.Y. to get his attention. Azula helped me trace the source of the incoming data when he ticked you off by asking you if he could come back earlier. I admit; we had introductions. I contacted him. I'd thought it could speed things up. Sorry we did it in secret."

"That's okay. How'd you get him to be so..quiet?" asked Reed with wide-eyed look.

"That was the fun of it. I told him I'd let him be here as long as he didn't disrupt the city life. He would correspond only with me or Azula as we said how people don't adapt so well to..big changes. He could understand the difference between our kind & his. By the time the prototype's refined, he would have to ask all his questions about earth & leave. & we'd let him come back if we needed him next."

"Tell me you banned him from bringing his planet's population over," Reed then said on a note of anxiety.

"Took care of it."

"I guess that leaves little room for me. You sure about this?"

"Go save your city without a disorientated schedule." Honesty rang clear in his voice. "Besides, Impy reduces stress. If the whole Earth was like him, problems would be zilch."

"Thank you. We owe you a lot. Impy?" he called. "I apologize for what happened. For not being nice."

The alien morphed back & turned, ears perked up. "Ah, that's okay! Dr. O said you all try surviving in a different way than me. I understand." His mouth was a childish curve bridging the gap between his ears. But then he got to the core of it, "He said you don't have that long till you stop existing, too. & that's why you concentrate so hard on everything you do. My people are around much longer." It was a rarity that his voice lost its squeakiness in this way. His new discovery was how much each second mattered to a human. Because of that, his thoughts for earthlings were sympathetic. He now had a strange reverence & appreciation for his new friends; this quieted part of his wacky mind.

"Why..yes. It's hard for you to imagine, but it's true," Reed's eyes lit up.

"I got in real deep in explaining," said Ozai dryly.

All that talk ended on a pretty solemn note, so Impy broke the silent pause, "But you guys still have fun, right?"

Quickly, Ozai reminded him, "Not too much fun."

"Aw, I love you guys! I'll miss you!"

Reed could fluidly & meaningfully utter the words, "We will, Impy."