"The Bovino famiglia have come up with the idea for time travel," Verde explains. "I wish to crush their hopes and dreams by making a device first."

The machine rumbles ominously where they stand around it, the large cylinder currently open, metallic grey and with exposed wires clustered around the back. The sliding door on the front, half curved to even fold along the side of the tank, has very sharp teeth as a locking mechanism.

"Does it work?" Skull asks.

"I don't know, maybe you should touch it," Verde says.

Skull knows he's being set up here but thanks to his negative awareness of self-protection, he's happy to comply. Skull takes a few steps forwards and then straight up launches himself inside the large cylinder.

The door snaps shut with a loud band and there's the sound of a thunderclap before the door slams open again and light green fog gushes out.

A smol!Skull is launched out of the machine into the gathered observers and Fon manages to catch him.

He looks like Skull, a bit shorter and with less piercings but otherwise not much different.

"Hey," smol!Skull chirps up at Fon with his normal jagged grin.

"Hey," Colonnello automatically responds back.

smol!Skull turns to reply and double-takes when he sees Reborn, eyes going wide. "God damn." He looks Reborn up and down. "Nice."

"Yeah, I know," the hitman says frankly. "What else have you got?"

"Have everything," smol!Skull offers. "Take my heart, I don't need it anyway."

The original Skull staggers out of the machine and flops to the ground, dizzy. "No," he wheezes, weakly reaching out to his younger self. "It's the devil, come to tempt you."

"Devil looking like a snack!" smol!Skull admits.

"Alright," Verde mutters. "At least we know it works. Who wants to go next?" He shoves smol!Skull in and the transporter clanks shut and open again - automatically shoving the aberrant back to his timeline

"I might try," Fon muses. "I would like to spar with my younger self."

There's a loud bang, a poof, and two Fons step out.

Baby!Fon locks onto Reborn. He doesn't say anything but it's pretty obvious what's happening.

"Not so bad yourself." Reborn winks.

Baby!Fon covers the lower half of his face with a sleeve. Bigger!Fon shoves him into machine before anyone can comment.

Lal purses her lips. "I think we need to destroy this machine."

"Seconded," Fon votes.

"Wait, let me try," Reborn complains and quickly moves towards the machine.

Lal grabs him by the back of his suit jacket. "I don't need two of you running around, let's not."

"Friction would actually fall under the domain of gravity."

Reborn tilts his head and Verde can almost see his curls perk up. Really, it's best not to touch upon mathematics or physics when there's someone like Reborn who can and will tear into you for not being an expert.

"May I?" Verde asks, gesturing to the table behind him where this proclamation came from. Verde also feels the superior need to correct people though a lot less frequently than Reborn because Verde cares a lot less about other people.

"Be my guest," Reborn offers easily because he wants to promote this side of Verde.

Verde leans back and turns halfway so he can see who he's talking to. "Excuse me, I just happened to hear something, and you said it with such confidence that I feel it's my duty to explain how you're wrong."

A woman sits up straighter as her table looks back at Verde. "Go ahead," she says like she knows Verde's fighting a losing battle.

"Friction is the influence of particles on the object in question," Verde says.

"Gravity gives the particles mass," she lectures. "No gravity would mean the particles phase through each other, thus no friction."

Verde raises his eyebrows. "Mass is confined energy and that bends space and time to create gravity, not the other way around."

The woman shakes her head in disappointment. "Where did you learn this, high school?"

"It's the theory of general relativity," Verde deadpans. "Yes, most people would learn it in high school."

A blonde friend smiles smugly at the woman. "So I was right. Maybe a chemist shouldn't talk about physics."

"Hold on," the woman begins. "I'm going to look this up." She takes out her phone to try and get Wikipedia on her side.

Verde just turns back to Reborn. "I think we're done here."

"But I want to see her make excuses when she knows she's wrong," Reborn insists. Someone with a personality like they have all the answers is especially fun to beat down.

Verde frowns and stands up anyway. "Science is about education, not mocking people."

"I'm about mocking people," Reborn informs Verde seriously.

Verde moves around the table and pulls Reborn up. "Let's find Skull then."

Viper floats angrily through a wall and then right up to Verde, hovering higher so they'll the same eye-level. "What the hell did you put in the fridge that's making that smell? And don't say it's not you – you literally labelled it."

Verde tenses up and winces. "Um, yes, about that..."

Viper stares.

Verde shrinks back even more.

"Who are you?" Viper demands.

"I-I'm Verde."

"I will gut you-"

"I'm Colonnello!" Verde admits quickly, holding his hands up. "I touched a thing and he says I have to stay here because he doesn't trust me in his body alone while he's fixing the problem."