As Sharon began browsing the books on the shelves, Jim began to explore other areas of the study. The book that caught Sharon's eye was entitled "Imitate Your Friends: The Art of Becoming A Doppleganger". Sharon pondered this for a moment. What did that mean, she wondered? Cloning? She picked up the book, which was several inches thick. It was also kind of heavy for a book.
When she opened it, she noticed the book had its pages hollowed out, creating a compartment in the back. In this hollowed out area was something that looked almost like an electronic device. Sharon picked it up and examined it more closely. It looked almost like a gun, it had a grip that fit the contours of her hand, and a metal plate on the back. As the plate made contact with her hand, she felt an odd tingling all the way up her arm. She could make out the top end, as it looked like it was designed to be pointed at something. Beneath the pointed end was a small trigger, with a safety catch on the handle. Turning the device around, she saw two dials, and some writing. Above the first dial was written "PHYSICAL", and surrounding the dial were numbers from 1 to 100. An identical dial sat directly below it, this one labelled "MENTAL". And on the bottom of the handle, was written "DUPLITRON 10,000: LIFETIME GUARANTEE"
"So, is this some type of cloning device?" Sharon wondered to herself. She fiddled with the dials a bit, and flipped the safety off. Pointing at Jim, who had his back turned, she thought, "It's probably some weird toy," and pulled the trigger.
Sharon was blinded by a bright flash, and knocked on her back. Getting up, she looked at the device in her hand, the metal plate was warm, but the tingling in her hand was gone. She also saw that the dial was set to...
Sun Nov 28 18:46:13 2004