A 31-year-old Cleats ran to the basement after hearing a strange noise.

"Merryl, what the heck is going on down here?!"

Merryl, his twin, played with a miniature version of the drive.

"This thing could change reality. All of our dreams could come true with this thing!"

Cleats huffed.

"Listen, We shouldn't do that." He began, "We can't run the risk of our fifth-grade science project changing reality. If you mess up at any time-"

"I've been modifying it. You put on the helmet and think of… anything! Look, watch!" Merryl put on the helmet and held out his hand. A bag of chips spawned in. "See?!"

Cleats stifled a chuckle.

"Alright, it's kinda cool… but we've already got the detective ruling us as a suspect for the outages that thing causes…"

Merryl gave Cleats a sly glare.

"That old coot ain't even close to finding it out."

"Your point?"

Merryl beamed, proudly.

"What if we shaped reality the way we wanted? What if we made ourselves the kings of the universe? It's a revolutionary idea!"

Cleats shook his head.

"No. We can't do that."

"We could be gods. What's so wrong about that?"

Cleats shut the drive off and glared at Merryl.

"No. It's 75 percent mine, and I say NO."

"75?"

"Because you provided one piece, helped with one component, and stalled the completion. Would you like me to make it 90?"

Merryl huffed.

"Fine. At least think about it?"

"I said NO, now clean up the mess you made from the hot pocket you ate earlier, it's all over the microwave."

Merryl begrudgingly trotted up the stairs.

A few hours later…

Another noise interrupted Cleats' routine Smash Brothers game.

"Ugh… if Merryl's on that damn drive again, I'm gonna-" He stopped at the top of the stairs.

"This is it?" Merryl's wife asked, "What is it?"

"It's a reactor capable of changing reality. Since you're carrying literal human life, I thought I'd try and make this world only the best." Merryl began, "And our little kid will grow up in the best possible environment."

"You'd really change reality for me? That's… is this even yours?"

Merryl glanced at the wall, before looking back at his wife.

"Hey, it's as much mine as yours." He lied, "What would you want in your ideal world?"

"I wonder… could we bring anything to life? Like in movies, we could bring something fake to life… Can we do that?"

Merryl nodded.

"Which one?"

"...I don't know. What if we picked somebody from Nintendo, we both like that stuff, right?"

Merryl smirked. "What if we made all of them?"

Cleats found him stepping out and speaking up.

"Nobody's doing anything." He snapped, "Merryl. We need to talk."

Merryl followed Cleats to the corner.

"No. No. You're trying to create… alive video games. That's insane."

"But it's possible! We could make whatever we want and you're flunking this opportunity? Besides, you probably heard what I said, Martha's pregnant and I want the kid to grow up in a nice world."

"Listen, that's cute, but we can't risk losing this world. Besides, you guys made Michael, I thought you didn't want another kid?"

"Michael asked us for a sister."

Cleats gave Merryl a strange stare.

"So you… made him one?"

"I think so. If it isn't… oops."

Cleats sighed.

"Can you at least wait until we finalize the thing? I have one more renovation, okay?"

Merryl huffed.

"Fine. But this is the last time you make me wait for something."

The following night…

Cleats strolled up to his house, not catching sight of the man standing nearby. As Cleats began to unlock it, he felt the presence of somebody behind him. He whirled back and saw a strange character with green hair and wearing a green tux.

"Good evening, you are Mr. Epsilon, I presume?"

Cleats slowly nodded.

"Yeah… that's me."

"Good." The man stuck out his hand. "Then I'll introduce myself. My name is Travis Timothy Squaller."

"Cleaton." Cleats began, hesitantly, "What are you doing at my house?"

"Rumor has it you've been making a device capable of changing reality. Is that correct?"

"Where did you hear that?" Cleats asked.

"That's where I stop acting." Travis sighed, before snapping his fingers.

A bulky figure grabbed Cleats and trapped him into a headlock,

"Thank you, Roxy, you really are a dear sometimes." Travis beamed, before taking Cleats' keys and opening the door himself.

Travis dragged Cleats to the basement and gasped when he saw the drive.

"Holy mother… It's beautiful. What should I do first, Roxy? Make myself the president? Make myself the king of the world?"

Cleats' eyes went wide as he saw the helmet that controlled the drive gone. Behind the table, Merryl wore the helmet.

Travis smirked.

"You're gonna use this thing. Once you do, we'll let you leave, scot free! Got that?"

"I'd rather die than let you use my device."

Travis sighed.

"Damn… didn't think you'd say that. Roxy, fulfill his desire."

Merryl flinched at the sickening crack and glared at the Gamecube controller nearby.

A world… perfect for us…

He thought as hard as he could to get the drive to work. And something happened. The world faded away, before coming back again. Chrome flooring sat beneath Merryl as he stood up. The drive behind him was scaled up ten times.

"Holy…"

Merryl took a step forward and tripped over Cleats' body. Cleats flinched and woke up.

"Ow! Merryl-"

He saw the chrome flooring and gasped.

"HOLY- What did you do?!"

"Listen, you died. Whoever that was, they literally murdered you for this drive!"

Cleats stood and sighed.

"Fine. If we use the drive, we could educate ourselves on… wherever we are."

Merryl had already done that. He put the helmet on and quickly took it off.

"C-Cleats, I did it. T-the video game people…"

"You didn't…"

"O-open the portal."

"Portal?!"

"Y-yes, there's portals."

Cleats pressed the nearest button on the wall and a swirly blue hole opened up.

"Dear god… Merryl, what the hell have you done?"

"I-I didn't mean to!"

Cleats slowly stepped through the portal and into a strange place, Merryl following closely behind.

They stood on a cliff that overlooked a town of short mushroom people.

Cleats' jaw dropped.

"This is so weird…" He breathed.

Merryl stopped himself from fainting to go back into the portal.

"What do we do now…?"

"We're going to have to put everything back to normal." Cleats sighed.

"We can't do that." Merryl replied, "You're dead in our… dimension?"

"Yeah, it's dimensions now…" Cleats confirmed. "And I'm dead in it. Should we bring everyone here?"

Merryl smiled as an idea came into his head.

"What if we lived here from now on? In the video game world?"

"...fine. But we're going to have to recreate our normal dimension."

"Why?"

"Because I still have a job-"

Merryl smirked, coyly. "We have a drive capable of anything, we don't need jobs!"

They returned to the strange drive place, thinking about the new life.

"Tell you what," Cleats began, "we're gonna sleep on it."

Cleats turned to see that Merryl had already spawned beds.

"Fine. We'll sleep on it."

"Good night."

? years later…

Merryl kicked open Cleats' room, a blueprint in his hand.

"Wake up, I've been formulating something you'd wanna see!"

Cleats yanked the blueprint out of Merryl's grasp and gave it a stern look.

"Ships made for Multiversal travel, eh?" He chuckled, "Cool. One question, though. Why does it show cannons and prisoner cells on the interior?"

Merryl blanched.

"Ah, that's… enclosed info."

Cleats rose from his seat.

"We aren't doing anything but travelling, right? I'd understand the cannons, but why the prisoner cells?"

Merryl sighed.

"It's a part of my plan, Cleaton. We have immeasurable power here that we only use to survive with, but nothing else. That's why I'm creating an army. I've been recreating people from the old world to join my cause in the new one."

"Army. You're creating an army?"

"I want these universes to know my name."

Cleats squinted.

"You mean 'our names?'"

"Y-yeah. That's what I meant." Merryl stuttered.

"No, that wasn't what you meant. You were going to do this without me, weren't you?"

Merryl smiled.

"Listen, I can explain. I was gonna surprise you. We'll have so many multiverses that'll serve us, it's gonna be awesome."

"Merryl. These universes are independent, have their own rulers, and do not need a dictator to rule them." Cleats fussed, "Don't do that."

Merryl frowned, but nodded.

"Fine." He replied with a pout.

A few minutes later, Cleats left the room to check on Merryl. He checked Merryl's room, Martha's room, Michael and Amber's room, the bathroom, but he was nowhere to be found. Cleats reluctantly stepped into the drive room. Merryl stood in front of the drive, a vacant smile on his face.

"I knew you'd find me eventually." He sighed, "And I'm sorry this has to happen this way."

Cleats tilted his head.

"What?"

Merryl whistled.

"New recruit, restrain him."

Cleats flinched as the door slammed behind him. He turned and locked eyes with an emerald inkling, who pinned Cleats to the wall and put a knife to his neck.

"Bring him here." Merryl demanded, to which the inkling agreed and dragged Cleats over. "Listen, brother, we've come so far, you and I. We created this drive in fifth grade and powered the whole school on it for the entire school day. But this isn't a fifth grade project anymore, this is unlimited power. And you're the only one who says we shouldn't at least try and use it."

"I didn't say we couldn't try, I said we shouldn't become the dictators of the multiverse because you just "want to," that's insane!"

Merryl sighed.

"You see, that's why I have to do this."

"Merryl, we're brothers, you can't just dispose of me like I'm a piece of trash!"

"Before I do dispose of you like a piece of trash, I'll just tell you something Mr. Travis back there already knows. It's not Merryl, not anymore. You can call me Omega now."

"What?!"

Merryl walked past Cleats. "Greenie, work your magic and make sure you leave no residue. I don't want my kids finding blood on the floor."

Cleats turned to Travis, terrified for his life.

"Listen, we can talk about this."

In barely understandable English, Travis replied back.

"Sorry, I have orders." He growled as he brandished his knife.

Cleats backed up as Travis got closer.

"Listen, you don't have to do this, I know he's forcing you to obey him!"

Travis stopped and smiled.

"I work for myself, gramps. The only reason I picked this stupid-ass part-time job is because I get to work my passion freely. Now, hold still."

Cleats' back hit the drive's control panel. He realized that it was remote controlled and something snapped. "Fine, come and get me!" Cleats ran forward.

Cleats swung a fist, to which Travis didn't expect and caught the entirety of. Travis stumbled back, saw his reflection off the wall, and smiled. He took the drop of blood from his face and wiped it on his sweater, before lunging for Cleats. Cleats jumped out of the way and hit the ground. Travis rolled to his feet and grasped Cleats by the neck, before dragging him to the drive.

"Omega said to leave no residue… So that's what I'm gonna do. Any last words?!"

Cleats laughed.

"Just deliver these words to Merryl, if you may… Shoulda killed me yourself, you dirty prick."

Travis smirked.

"Nice." He mumbled, before thrusting Cleats into the drive's core and watching it devour his body and spit out ash.

Travis pulled out his comms system.

"I killed the man."

Merryl didn't reply for a minute.

"Good. You can go home now."

"Yes, sir."

Creator Zone…

Cleats jumped to his feet.

"Where the hell am I…?"

"Technically, you should be in hell." A voice replied. "But the drive accidentally teleported you to me. Don't worry, I can fix that issue."

Cleats turned and saw a figure standing about six feet away.

"Who are you?!"

"That doesn't matter. What does matter is that you contribute to the story. So get back in there and win this war." The figure said, before materializing a gun and firing it into Cleats' skull.

?

Cleats awoke to somebody poking his face.

"Huh…" Another strange voice mumbled, "you're not dead."

Cleats leaned up and saw two bright red lights.

"Hey, gramps, wake up!"

Cleats got to his feet and examined the character. A purple samurai suit, red goggles and face mask, and a bunch of weapons on his belt.

"Who are you?" Cleats asked.

The character ignored Cleats' question.

"You're… a strange one. Anyway, you're now in Gamma corp's custody. You're going to have to come with me." The character continued, to himself. "Gonna have to run you by Omega…"

Cleats gasped.

"Omega?!"

"Yeah, my superior. You got beef with him? Cuz' if ya do, I'ma decapitate you."

Cleats grasped his head, before turning back to the character.

"When was Gamma corp invented?"

"Maybe three years ago? I don't know."

"I've been gone for three years…" Cleats then got a brilliant idea. "Take me with you. I'd like to join your Gamma corp."

"Really? L-like, right now?"

"Yup."

The character shrugged.

"Guess I could transition over to teams. Well, in that case, welcome, new member. My name is Mick. Enjoy your time at Gamma corp."

As they left the strange cave they stood in, Cleats beamed.

I'm coming for you, Merryl...

Next chapter, just because of how dirty Merryl did him, Cleats gets a little time to pay Travis back for that moment...

I just hope you guys remember who Merryl is. Because season one and this chapter of season 3 isn't the last we see of his face, sadly. But that's for another season. Next chapter, we finish the drive drama once and for all... See you then.