text: # Stueber Stueber - The Invisbility Cloak Experiment Kurzmann and Hanzel dragged the cloak over the rickety old car, although crumples could be perceived, the light was clearly being bent around the car as it vanished from sight. A few more adjustments and it was perfect. “Eureka! We did it! One hundred percent light masking,” said Kurzmann. Kurzmann was a strange amalgamation, he basically resembled Einstein in every way, however he was about thirty years too young to resemble the prime-time Einstein everyone thinks of, and his south west asian skin type further threw off his dreams of being basically Einstein. His colleagues would often tell him Einstein was revered for his work, but Kurzmann felt if he emulated the look, perhaps his work would soon reach similar heights. “If we can replicate this and upscale production, just think what we could achieve!” Hanzel nodded while checking off something or other on his clipboard. He was a rather plain man who exuded an aura of absolute, stoic focus. It was easy to tell that the cogs of his mind were turning rapidly, yet he was one of few words. “Next stage?” he postulated out loud. “You heard the man Stueber! Commence field testing!” The invisible car started up, the engine noise certainly wasn’t masked, that is something they would have to work on. The car moved but there was absolutely no sight of it from the outside, despite not being close fitting the cloak seemed to be doing miraculous work. All was going well until the first junction, a car turned the corner and collided with the invisible car, only instead of there being a monumental crash, this previously visible car disappeared! The two visible scientists’ jaws hit the floor and their eyes widened in unison. “That wasn’t supposed to happen!” Yelled Kurzmann. He ran over to where the collision occurred and called out for Stueber. The car’s engine was promptly turned off and the sheet shifted as Stueber opened the door and stepped out from under it. Stueber was a flamboyant looking man. Long black hair streaked with grey and a neat beard adorned his face. He looked like he would be perfectly at home at a photo shoot or hosting an interior design show on television. “Blimey that wasn’t what I expected,” said Stueber. Hanzel was already surveying the area. He poked all around at the sheet with his clipboard, mentally marking out the limits of it’s exterior. Despite a full circle of the car there appeared to be no signs of the missing collided car, he looked at Kurzmann with a shrug. “Stueber! This was your invention,” started Kurzmann, clearly trying to distance himself from a perceived failure.”It’s supposed to bend light, not reality!” “Calm your tits mate,” said Stueber. He himself poked at the point where the car had vanished. “Look, it’s not vanishing me when I touch it, it’s gotta be an effect that’s linked to relative velocities, right?” Hanzel finally interjected “Is anyone at all concerned that we may have in fact killed a person?” Stueber had already paced back quite a distance, he then proceeded to run at the car. “Stueber!” Kurzmann yelled in the background with a reprimanding tone as Stueber leapt towards the car at a full sprint. \*\*\* There was no collision, no crash, Stueber emerged alone, the car was gone, as were his colleagues. He looked up as he saw them emerging from the building. It was the car with the invisibility sheet all over again, only this time it was slightly visible. If it was only seen out of the corner of your eye you might miss it, but looking directly at it, it was clear \*something\* was there this time. Again, the car approached the turning, Stueber this time yelled out “Watch out for that car!” The collision still happened, but this time it was an actual crash, two cars colliding, albeit not at high speed. Stueber ran over, “You alright in there mates?” he said to both vehicles. By now Kurzmann and Hanzel had approached. “Wait, if you’re here, who is in the vehicle?” said Hanzel perplexedly. Out stepped Stueber from the vehicle. For clarity's sake, this one shall now be known as Car Stueber. “Alright mate,” said Stueber to Stueber in unison. Neither seemed particularly surprised at the fact they were staring at their dimensional duplicate, it was as if this was a regular day at the lab. Even Kurzmann was speechless this time, his and Hanzel’s eyes traced from one Stueber to the other for a good half a minute. Finally Hanzel broke the exchange and walked off to the second car, presumably to discuss insurance. Kurzmann finally spoke up: “What the hell have you two done?” Stueber explained how the first experiment had gone, and how he got here. Kurzmann nodded along at the tale, once done, he paced back and forth, postulating. “So.. it would seem that your cloak was more effective, and that must be why yours had this effect and not ours... but how can we possibly reverse the effect? Do we have to invert the light? Why did it even happen in the first place? This makes no sense.” Kurzmann stopped his pacing and looked towards the two Stuebers for their, even if limited, insights. Kurzman’s eyes widened and his brow furrowed “Would you two bloody well stop kissing!” A murmuring of agreement was heard, but they continued. “Stop kissing yourself god damnit!” Finally they stopped. Hanzel had returned just now. Neither Stueber showed any remorse at the matter, they looked quite pleased. Under Kurzmann’s incredulous glare Stueber finally felt pressured to say something: “Ah come on mate, don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it? Besides, I just wanted to know if I was a good kisser.” Stueber smirked and looked to Car Stueber with a knowing smirk “It turns out I am.” Car Stueber spoke up: “Did hear what ya said though, maybe we just fix the shield using this handsome man’s help and send him through again, if it’s a two-way mirror it might just send him back to where he was.” Hanzel spoke up dryly: “And if it doesn’t, some other reality will have two Stuebers and we will only have one.” “See! Perfect,” said Stueber. “If it doesn’t work then we try something new, I’m sure whatever reality I end up in will still have you fine gents in it to get the job done.” This gentle massaging of his ego was enough for Kurzmann to nod his approval of the plan. Modifications were in due course made, and Stueber commenced his run again. \*\*\* Another tumble, and Stueber found himself in similar surroundings to his last jump. He glanced to his side, and cursed out loud. Stueber glanced at Stueber, presumably himself from earlier. Stueber sighed out loud, and then yelled his warning again about the incoming car. Soon the three Stuebers would be reunited as before, and their colleagues would arrive. “Right, let’s get this up to speed. Firstly, I’m Stueber, you’re Car Stueber, you’re Past Stueber. Secondly, because I know you two lads are thinking about it, we already kissed when I was Past Stueber, and you are a fucking great kisser.” Both alternate Stuebers smiled, nodded their heads and said “Nice...” “So right, the sheet seems to be some kinda reality shifting, time travelling shizmabob. This reality aint mine or Past Stuebers, I know this because Car Stueber’s sheet is shite. Also this is clearly taking me back in time because I’m now here twice. But I’ve got a plan, oi, Hanzel, give me your clipboard and pen please mate. “ Hanzel pulled his clipboard closer to himself and looked at Stueber as if he had just asked for his kidney. He glanced between the Stuebers and finally concluded that this situation was absurd enough to momentarily give up his beloved clipboard. “‘I’ll want it back - and only use blank sheets please”. “Won’t matter mate, at least if all goes to plan.” Stueber set about writing a note, and crafting the A4 piece of paper into a paper aeroplane. Then he set about fixing the sheet. Once done, he had Car Stueber drive the car at high speed, before he threw the paper aeroplane at the sheet. Kurzmann, who had been quite the muted version of himself due to the absurdity of the whole thing and Stueber’s surprising assertiveness finally spoke up. “So what did you do?” “Well I figure these realities are linked - I also figure the faster something goes through, the earlier it’ll arrive. Figurin’ that because I went ever so slightly faster the second time and got here a couple o’ seconds earlier. If I stop Car Stueber from finishing the sheet, stop the link, we all fade away to not ever happening.” Car Stueber and Past Stueber spoke up “But.. then the Remaining Stueber will never know..” “Oh.. he’ll know.. He’ll know.” Said Stueber with a smirk. \*\*\* It was the night before, Past Car Stueber was doing the finishing touches to his cloak design, when a paper aeroplane nicked at his ear. He opened it and the message read: *Dear Past Car Stueber.* *Please do not complete the invisibility cloak, it opens a pan dimensional time rift and causes all sorta trouble.* *P.S got to meet another Stueber, can confirm you are a damn fine kisser.* *Keep on being awesome* *Yours Sincerely.* *Stueber.* \*\*\* “How do we know it worked?” Said redundant timeline Kurzmann, “do we just fade away?” Stueber shrugged. \*Poof\* It turned out that was the sound of a timeline vanishing, who would have known.