Rattlescale was frustrated. That watch, such power... Nearly out of his hands. He would have it, in the end- He could wait, he was patient, and he knew how Rolander worked. But he almost played his hand too early. Kobbsley wasn't particularly trusting of him right now. He would have to be... Careful in his future dealings. But, he could be very careful. He was a teacher, that was his first and primary duty, it was just that now he had an... Opportunity. Far too great to pass up. Soon, soon.

Click, click, turn, rattle. Ring, ring, ring. "Marcus! There you are. Our usual, discussions, are a bit derailed today- There's been a... Development, at the science fair." He said, sitting in his chair. He was at home, in his office, reading the newspaper as he talked.

"Good development? Or a bad one?" Marcus asked over the phone.

Rattlescale nodded to himself. "Good, or at least a good opportunity. One of the children presented a... Holy artifact, of sorts. One of great power. EXCEEDINGLY great power."

The storm was raging outside. The occasional crack of lightning went off. He might go for a flight later, honestly, between grading projects and reading papers, he needed some airtime. "It lets him change origins- Any origin, quick as a flash. If it could be replicated, then... Well, just an example, you're in a fight, so you turn into a lampade to get the high ground, then to construct for protection, or tao-tie to gain a stronger bite. Things get rough? Tengus can fly. I saw him changing that fast, no recovery time at all. Fascinating, isn't it?"

Marcus grumbled through the phone. He was always slow to consider things, but... "Just what are you thinking of, Rattlescale?" He asked, carefully.

"Well... Take it apart, reverse engineer it... Make a few *more*? A lot more? You could round up some friends, and the sheer diversity of abilities it grants would make us into an army. We could make some changes, big ones..." Rattlescale chuckled to himself. It'd always been an... In-joke, with his group of friends. 'Change the work, become king of the hill', so on and so forth. It'd never work, normally, but with this sort of unprecedented force multiplier? Well...

"... I doubt it. But I'm not calling bull just yet."

Argus nodded. "Your robots. Don't you run some robot manufacturing company? That. An army of robots with the power of any origin. We could challenge the gods and win." He chuckled to himself just at the thought...

"Argus... Show it to me. If you can get the originator to me and actually show me what it can do, and I am deeply impressed, then, maybe I'd be convinced to go from being disgruntled at the state of things to actually working to change it."

"Agreed." Ahh... The others had all, jumped at the chance for a new, fashionable source of revenue. But, it was a lesser one. If you really wanted to be on top of the world, nowadays you had to fight for it. He chuckled to himself, and walked over to the window. He looked into the stormy night, smiling to himself. "Yes, yes, this is going to go perfectly..." And then he looked down. And saw two little brats, with a recorder between them, looking for all the world like they'd been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.


EARLIER


Reggie was pacing, wandering around, fiddling with the originator. Beep, beep, whirr, spin. The noise kept him calm. He was at Claire's house, waiting for her phone call to finish. Claire finally hung up and turned to him. "I... You're not gonna like my answer, Reggie."

He growled, and toyed with the device a bit more roughly. "I'm not giving it up."

She sighed. "It wasn't a... Nice god, that gave you the idea. It was this chained mind guy? And he's- Not very sane! Kobbsley probably isn't gonna trust the guy, and- If he says to hand it over, what are you gonna do? Just, punt him?"

Reggie almost said yes, and Claire *caught that*, but he stopped himself. "... Why does Rattlescale want it so bad?" He asked, looking at Claire. "What?" She asked, staring at him.

"Why's he want it? At the science fair all these concerns were like, secondary? He just immediately WANTED this thing as soon as he saw it. Why?"

Claire sighed. "Maybe because he's concerned over it? Because he's our teacher?"

Reggie shook his head. "No, no- He- He wants it FOR something, I'm sure of it." Claire didn't even respond. Reggie had been getting... Like this. Weirdly defensive over the Originator, like the thing was his kid. It was worrying, badly worrying. Claire was half convinced it was whispering in his head. But... "... Say Rattlescale IS secretly an evil mastermind. How do we prove it? How do we know?"

Reggie smiled, and pulled out a tape recorder. "We, maybe spy on him, just a little bit?"

"No." She said, firm and harsh.

"Yeah we can just- What?" He said, looking to Claire.

"I said- NO! You're worrying ME now! I'm not sure I trust you with it! You're getting all weird over it and I KNOW you were about to say you'd punt vice principal Kobbsley over it! That's- Don't you understand that's worrying?! It really really is! It's scaring me Reggie, YOU are scaring me!"

Reggie just... Backed away from her. "I'll- No, shut up- SHUT UP! I'm not going crazy, I am GOING to show you!" He said, as he grabbed his hoodie and ran into the storm, heading to Rattlescales house. "Reggie!" Claire yelled, grabbing an umbrella as she chased after him- It was so dark, Reggie could probably barely SEE, oh gods she was going to get her best friend killed. The storm was terrible, there was lightning everywhere- Eventually she just TACKLED Reggie, holding him. "ARE YOU INSANE?! YOU ARE GOING TO LITERALLY DIE!" She yelled shaking him. Reggie slammed down on the Originator, turning into- Was he a KELPIE now? He grabbed Claire and just ran, unbothered by the rain, while Claire could only hold on for dear life.

"YOU'RE SCARING ME REGGIE- PLEASE CALM DOWN, WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS, YOU DON'T NEED TO MURDER RATTLESCALE!"

Reggie huffed, running and running through the storm. "I'm not PLANNING to kill him- I just need PROOF that he's up to no good!" He slowed, and skidded to a stop, outside the window, holding his hand up for silence as he took out the recorder.

"I- Reggie, this isn't like you-" Claire said, trying to get a word in edgewise. "Shushsushusuhhhh listen!" He said, and Claire was about to THROTTLE the stupid kid, when she actually did hear Rattlescale.

"Well... Take it apart, reverse engineer it... Make a few *more*? A lot more? You could round up some friends, and the sheer diversity of abilities it grants would make us into an army. We could make some changes, big ones..."

It was hard to hear him over the storm. Frustratingly so, even with her ears. But she heard THAT. And she shut up. "What..." Rattlescale was on the phone with someone, she couldn't hear who. But she was getting scared, even more than before, even as Reggie just lit up with fiery vindication. "Your robots. Don't you run some robot manufacturing company? That. An army of robots with the power of any origin. We could challenge the gods and win." That was terrifying. That was HORRIFYING. She could see it, see the possibility in her mind of just- So many people DYING because of this guy. She shuddered.

"We should, we should go- Now, before he sees us. You have the recording, right?" Reggie nodded. "Right, then-" The window opened. And Rattlescale looked down.

"... How much did you two brats hear?"

"I- Uh- Nothing, Mr. Rattlescale-" But Reggie didn't know when to shut up, that kid never did. "YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS, RATTLESCALE, WE'LL STOP YOU!" He howled into the night, holding up the recording. And Rattlescales eyes widened, before he just... Grabbed it, a struggling Reggie being lifted as well.

"You know not what you hear. You are mere children, meddling in the affairs of adults. I was having a PRIVATE conversation with a CLOSE friend, and your preconcieved notions of- Of WHATEVER this is, has warped that into some, what do you think it is, some VILLAINS PLOT?! I am confiscating this tape recorder, and you are to leave, NOW!" He roared, shaking the tape player until Reggie let go and fell to the ground, before slamming the windows shut. Claire just stared. She was soaking wet, miserable, but most of all she was terrified.

"... We could've died there. Mr. Rattlescale could've just- Killed us and taken the Originator, and left. What were- What were you THINKING, Reggie?!" Reggie was just staring, at the window, at Claire. "I knew it. I- I knew something had to be up, and now we DO know. This is a bad start, a horrible start, but- But we can fix it! Claire, we can fix this, and save Geode valley!"

Claire just sighed. "You'd better, Reggie. We need that recording at least, that's what's gonna help save this town." She had a sort of determination now, ready to fight. Good. She would need it.