Jon decided he needed to make a wish. There was no telling what Leonard might try to do with this Reality Altering Machine - and if his careless wish had created it, there had to be a way to get rid of it! Somehow. He quickly reached into his pocket... but the stone wasn't there! Maybe the other pocket. He fished around for a second. Empty! What was going on?
"Looking for this?" Leonard said, holding up the wishing stone.
"What?? How?" Jon was dumbfounded.
"Well, I built a whole reality altering machine. Don't you think I'd use it to identify and neutralize any threats to that power, before they pop up? And it seems that this thing has plenty of power on its own!" He placed it on the workbench behind him. "I'll definitely have to study it further. But first it's time to deal with you!"
"Deal with me? Leonard, you're sounding like a B-Movie villain right now."
"Oh Jon, calm down! I'm not plotting anything sinister here. Just having a little fun. If you had total control over reality wouldn't you play around with it too?"
The question did hit a little close to home, but Jon decided not to respond. Leonard continued.
"You were ready to try and undo all my hard work, without even hearing me out! I was ready to ask for your input on my next few tests, but now I think you'll make a great test subject!" He pulled out a small tablet computer and started tapping away at it. "Ah, this'll be fun!"
Jon had to do something. If he couldn't get the stone, maybe getting that control tablet away from Leonard was the right move. Then he could just take control of this weird machine. He stepped forward, preparing to lunge at Leonard, and stopped immediately when he felt the cold hard basement floor against his bare feet. He looked down wondering why his shoes and socks had suddenly vanished, only to see that everything else had as well. He was totally naked!
"What the hell Leonard!" Jon yelled, quickly throwing his hands over his crotch.
Leonard burst out laughing so hard he was about to fall over, but even though his guard was down Jon found that he couldn't lift his feet off the ground or move any closer. Leonard finally caught his breath. "Sorry Jon, that's the first time I've done that and had the person notice it. Your reaction was priceless!"
"It's not funny, man. Give me my clothes back!"
"I've got another idea. Let's play a game!"
"A game? Come on!"
"Yeah. I've got it! All you have to do is make a choice." He hit the tablet a few more times and Jon watched as everything he could see dissolved away into nothing. But only for a split second, as the nothing quickly re-formed into something. A completely different environment. Jon immediately realized he was now outside. And still naked! He was now standing in the middle of a neighborhood street!
But not just any street. His street, his neighborhood! He looked around, and luckily it seemed that nobody was outside at the moment to see him. In fact it was almost eerily quiet. He breathed a sigh of relief at that, but he had to get inside quick! He was about to run to his house to get dressed when he realized something else: he had no idea which house was his. He looked around. Every house on the street looked familiar. This was definitely the street he lived on, where he grew up. He had just been inside one of these houses with Leonard, and that house was next door to Jon's. But no matter how hard he thought, he couldn't remember which house was which.
"What's the matter Jon? You seem confused." His voice seemed to come from thin air.
"What are you doing Leonard?! Why can't I remember which house is mine?"
"That's the game Jon! You just have to make a choice. Just go inside and get dressed. There are no wrong answers! But you better hurry up, who knows when someone might step outside and see you!"
There were well over a dozen houses on this block. And all kinds of different people lived here; he remembered them all, except for the detail of who lived in what house. It was the middle of the day, some of them would be at work or school, but other people would be home. How would he explain to one of his neighbors if he just barged into their house naked! And what did Leonard mean by 'no wrong answers'?
He couldn't stay out here, naked in the street. He picked one of the houses - if it wasn't his maybe it would at least be empty - and ran as fast as he could for the front door.
