1Story Three: Night of a Thousand Eds

Forte growled in annoyance. The studio was done, the beings living in dorm-like rooms inside, and everything was SUPPOSED to be peaceful, but right now, for anyone with senses beyond human, it was anything BUT. He currently had his pillow pulled on top of his head, grumbling, trying to sleep with the bickering going on in the hall.

"Wish those damn idiots would shut up already...no one CARES what color the halls are."

It was true, the bickering was over little more than what color to paint the halls. They'd been painted white, but some, like Yolei, thought there was problems with it. BM said he'd work on painting them red, before getting socked in the head by Tifa.

Forte really just wanted them to be quiet and let him sleep.

Divide

Elsewhere in the studio, a stealthy figure was hiding in one of the many large potted plants in the halls, watching people go by. They had an agenda with one of them, and knew they'd be along soon. In the meantime, he took out a cigarette, and smoked to wait. Maybe it wasn't good practice for an ambush, but he'd been here awhile. Snake grumbled.

'Where is he?' He thought.

Shortly, he saw someone pass, but rather than his intended target, it was Ed, giggling, shambling along.

"Hi-Hi!" She said to him.

Snake sweatdropped. He then gave up his ambush post, sighing.

"If YOU could see me, then I did something wrong.."

Ed went by, heading north, prancing a bit. Snake then went to go to his ambush again, when once again, Ed passed by, going north, but crab-walking this time.

"Heeheehee!"

Snake sighed, ignoring it, until he realized Ed had just passed him.

'Hey wait a minute, that isn't-'

Before he knew it, no less than five different Eds had swarmed him.

"Yaaay, we find Faye-Faye!"

"Helloooooo!"

"What'cha doing?"

"Hi-Hi!"

Snake's left eye twitched, and he sweatdropped again, before looking to his cigarette and the pack it came from.

"That's the last time I smoke out of date..."

Divide

Currently, Auto and Eddie were busy fixing up the soon to be Café of the studio, placing the tables inside.

"All right. Dr. Light's getting settled into his room here, but Mega Man DID say he could handle it..you think we should've remained, Eddie?"

Eddie beeped twice.

"Well, right. We can do more help if we help others too."

Eddie beeped again, before they resumed setting up. Auto jumped in surprise, however, at Ed suddenly being in front of them.

"Gah! Don't DO that!"

"Whoooaahoooaahoaaa! Coooool!" She giggled, touching his robot body.

"Eh! Now wait a minute..."

Before he knew it, 9 other Eds came out of the woodwork, poking, touching, and giggling at the robot.

"Woooow!"

"Heeheehee!"

Auto yelped, before being buried in a pile of Ed.

Divide

Bowser had taken quite awhile figuring out which room Peach was in, but in his eyes, it was more than worth it. No plumber or dimensional screw-up was stopping THIS determined Koopa...

Knock knock knock!

Bowser waited outside her door, waiting patiently for her to answer. His plan needed it. She shortly opened the door, and sweatdropped. Distantly, a rumbling was heard, slowly getting louder.

"What do YOU want?" She asked, a bit disdainful.

"Hey, cool it, I'm just trying to tell you WHY I've been trying to kidnap you. I was trying to tell you...or...the Peach from...argh! Now I'm getting confused! Look, the point is-"

"Do you hear a loud rumbling?" Peach interrupted.

Bowser stumbled in anime fashion at the interruption, before turning to the sound, growling.

"WHO WANTS TO GET STOMPED FOR..."

He trailed off, seeing a massive stampede of Eds, all giggling, laughing, or otherwise acting happy. Bowser's eyes went wide, before he turned tail and fled as the stampede continued after him...

Divide

In light of the recent epidemic, a meeting had been called, concerning CD, Forte, Lucca, and others in charge at the studio. Forte, however, didn't know why he was invited, since he doesn't know he was one selected for being in charge.

"So why am I here, then?" He asked.

He got ignored, however...

"Well, to put this simply, Ed used a proto-type duplicate machine of mine. It makes a double of what's put in it, but the problem I couldn't solve, was whatever the original did, the duplicates were forced to do simultaneously."

"But then how are the Eds all acting differently?" CD asked.

"I'm guessing Ed must have fixed the programming.." Lucca muttered.

"Or she's just too nutty for the duplicates to mimic her exactly." Forte joked.

"Well, whatever it is, we have to lure the Eds to the machine to get rid of them."

"I could just stab 'em all." BM butted in, suddenly next to their table.

They stared at him. Forte picked him up to throw out.

"How'd the nerd get in here?" He muttered before throwing BM out.

Lucca sighed.

"The only way to be sure we get rid of ONLY the duplicates is to get them back to the machine to be 'turned off'. The real Ed won't be harmed."

"How do we get them back there, though?" CD asked.

"Oh for...I'll do it!" Forte growled, heading off.

The others feared what methods he'd take.

Divide

We then see Eds everywhere, causing all kinds of chaos, some dog-walking, some hanging from various structures or beings, some just being silly, such as running about playing plane. The intercom then crackled, before Forte came on.

"Attention, Eds! Ein is waiting by the cool computer thing you were goofing off on earlier in Lucca's lab."

Those not Ed sweatdropped, not expecting a NON-violent tactic from Forte. Those that ARE Ed cheered, giggled, laughed, and otherwise were delighted, stampeding to the lab. Inside, Ein was contributing by napping on the other side of an energy field being projected by the duplicate machine. As the stampede ran into it, none came out again, except the one and only original, who picked up Ein.

"A-haha! Hey Ein!"

Ein yawned doggishly, then yipped. Ed grinned, then ran off.

Divide

"I have to admit, I'm surprised you did it." Lucca told Forte.

"I expected you to shove them all in or something.." CD muttered.

"Hey, it was the fastest way to solve it without getting people bugging me. Now can I PLEASE get a soundproofed room so I can SLEEP?"

CD sweatdropped, then began typing in a laptop, concerning ideas to revise the studio.

Divide

Meanwhile, far out in space, a massive spacecraft hovered along in space, with a large knight in violet armor standing at the bridge, silent. The crew, however, is nothing less than Zebesian Space Pirates, busy all over. One headed to the knight.

"Sir. We've finally pinpointed a probable source of the anomaly that caused our faction to cross over to this universe."

"That's good. Where is it?"

"Earth, sir. It seems this universe doesn't naturally have Terran colonies away from it. Any we find are as confused and misplaced as we are."

"Right...set a course. With luck, we might at least learn what caused this."