Chapter 6 Are You Ready?

Chapter Text

"Your dad is outside waiting for you, Eri!" yells one of the kids who is looking outside the window.

Eri stops putting her school stuff away for a brief time, so she too could look outside. Arriving at the window, she indeed sees Ainz outside with a finger on the side of his head. Upon learning the spell, she knew Ainz was using [Message] to talk to someone without other people hearing him. It took her a bit to figure out how it works, but now they could talk using telepathy! Like the superheroes on TV. Eri doesn't quite have the full hang of it yet. Ainz can use it anywhere, while Eri can only-, Wait…Dad? Why would he think Ainz is my dad?

Being the first day of school, Eri was too shy to speak to the other kids yet, but they have been very eager to learn about their class unicorn. Fairly embarrassed about the attention she was getting, Eri was willing to push through.

She packed up her things and met Ainz outside for a question she needed answered, "Ainz…are you my d-dad now?"

A light green hue enveloped Ainz very briefly. The man in question took his fingers off of the side of his head and looked down at the child. I mean…it would be incredibly suspicious if a man in his thirties had a child with him who wasn't related to him in any way. There was really only one answer he has to give to this question that wouldn't make a teacher raise their eyebrow if they asked Eri:

"Hmm, I suppose I am. If anybody asks, make sure to emphasize that."

Eri nodded her head then went into confusion, "Uhm, what does 'e-emphasize' mean, papa?"

A pang of emotion that Ainz couldn't describe went through him when he was described as 'Papa.' Hoping that the feeling will never leave him, he answered his 'daughter's' question "'Emphasize' means to give importance to something. This means that if someone asks you who I am to you, you should emphasize that I am your father and not something else."

"I'll definitely make sure to emphasize you. Because you are important to me!" Eri stated with a shining smile.

Ainz or 'Papa' reflected that smile back, "Thank you Eri. I'll make sure to emphasize you as well."

Oh right! Eri remembered. She twiddled her fingers a bit and looked down while asking her new father, "Y-You haven't forgotten our promise right? You'll take me to see the beach?"

"Of course. You made it through your first day of school like a brave soldier. Let's make sure we switch our attire first before leaving."

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A large pickup truck trailed off into the distance; an enormous pile of garbage sat in its cargo bed. 

That should be the last truck for the day, muttered a green-haired kid as he laid down on the nearly-cleaned up Dagobah beach. He looked over to the work he has left, which is about… three weeks worth? If I stay on schedule, I will just barely make it in time for the U.A. entrance exams.

He yawned right before checking his watch and seeing, "Eep! It's already 7:00?! Mom's gonna be so mad I overworked again," he said aloud.

The boy, named Izuku Midoriya, wondered if he could just…sleep on the sand for the night. He was so exhausted and it was only one night anyways. Laying on the ground doing nothing, wasn't going to be the best option. A few minutes later, Izuku propped himself up, dusted the sand off his shorts, and began walking home. Maybe All Might is staying over again. I should ask him how One For All is going to affect my exam scor-

Izuku face planted himself into the body of someone else, cutting off his thoughts. Once he took a couple steps back and regained his bearings, he saw the man he bumped into.

"Oh! Uhm…sorry sir about that. I wasn't really looking where I was going and uh…didn't know anyone else was at the beach, er…ever?" Izuku said while fumbling his words.

The man looked around first, then answered, "Mmm, yes. That is alright young man. I didn't believe anyone was going to be here at this time in the evening either. My daughter wanted to play a bit before retiring to bed."

"Oh ok…" Izuku mumbled. A hole was burning into his side. He looked to the source, which seemed to be the stunning golden eyes the man possessed. Izuku uncomfortably asked, "is there a reason, sir, that you are looking at me so… intently?"

The man blinked a few times before responding, "My apologies. I sensed that you do not possess a quirk. Must be difficult living in a world run by superpowers."

"Yeah, yeah it is…uh, how exactly did you know I was quirkless?"

The man paused and thought for a moment, "It's one of my quirks."

"One of them? You have multiple?!" Shouted Izuku, now fully awake from his exhaustion. Multiple quirks?! This is unheard of! How have I never heard of this man before? This is groundbreaking news!

"I'd like to not go into too much detail for personal reasons, but yes. One of them is a tool that allows me to detect a quirk in others," he explained while pushing his glasses closer to his eyes.

Izuku's eyes trailed to the little unicorn that left her father's side. She walked right in front of the last remaining trash piles and pouted, "Papaaaaa! There's garbage here. I don't like it! Can you get rid of it?"

Her father, without even giving the trash a passing glance, waved his hand at it.

A small black dot appeared in the middle of the pile and, to Izuku's surprise, sucked in the full force of the garbage. 

Within five seconds, a week's worth of service was done.

Izuku stammered to the multi-quirk user, "H-How? Is that another one of your quirks? Does the black hole have a range? How far can you spawn one? What number of quirks do you have? Can you use more than one at the same time? I saw your eyes turn red like your daughter, is that a byproduct of your quirk use?! Why is the-…"

The man in question held up his hand, "Yes, that is one of my quirks. That is all I'll say on the matter."

Seeing the man becoming a bit uncomfortable, Izuku stopped his barrage of questions. His muttering and interrogative style of conversations was always a problem of his. Stupid Izuku! Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid! You're driving away more people with your freakish questions! Kaachan may have been right after all.

"Eri. Time for bedtime," spoke the man. 

Immediately after his demand, silence washed over the beach. The self-deprecating child broke himself out of his thoughts to find…nobody. Not the man or the girl. As if no one ever came to the beach at all.

Izuku rubbed the back of his neck. I need to write this down in my notebook ASAP. This was so weird. Maybe All Might would know?

____________________

Ainz plopped Eri back down into their apartment with a worried haste. He bolted over to their bathroom mirror to see if it was real. Just one spell. Any spell would do.

"[Greater Strength]"

Once the spell activated…the boy at the beach was right. Red eyes would replace the golden ones for a second once he cast the spell. Seems to be a bug with the Character Creation Crystal. Thank goodness it changed nothing else. Oh thank you Gooooood That could've been really bad if people saw a flash of a skeleton! Humanity already knows about my Mars project and I really don't need them to know I'm on Earth…yet. Let's just see how Pandora is doing, after one last Arbiter job…

"Papa, I want a bedtime story!"

…in ten minutes.

Ainz teleported to Eri's bedroom, pulled out a pocket mirror, and watched as the red eyes once again appeared, then vanished in an instant. Not a fluke. He sat down on Eri's bed. Roleplayers have no need to worry about storytelling as that was their whole spiel.

"Eri, would you like to hear about the World Disaster: Ulbert Alain Odle?"

The name evoked greatness. Eri was hooked by that alone, "Woah! Is he a-another on of your friends like Blue Planet and HeroHero?"

Ainz was simply giving the character profiles of each of his friends as both a story for Eri as well as the chance for him to reminisce about his adventures not as Ainz Ooal Gown, but as the Guild Master Momonga. Eri doesn't know about Ainz's true form yet, so this is the best way to ease into that issue.

"Hoh? You remember both of their names. Good job. I'm afraid this one is a bit harder so I'll just need to repeat it a few more times. However, yes, you are right. Ulbert was one of my closest friends. The story all started in the fiery world of Muspelheim…"

____________________

"…and with the most grand magic I have ever seen, Ulbert gave the killing blow to the Devourer of Gods, earning him with the fitting title of World Disaster."

Eri fell asleep about 30 minutes ago, but Ainz was so caught up in his story, he didn't even notice her (or the time). He looked over at the sleeping unicorn, soundly sleeping with a stuffed animal plushie. The sight was adorable. The supreme overlord smiled at the sight, pulled up her covers, and prepared for one last hit. Upon figuring out Pandora is just mining other planets instead of grabbing Earth's resources, Ainz had no reason to become the Arbiter except for grabbing quirk specimens. 

The greater doppelgänger told Ainz they have enough research material for several decades. Perhaps it was time for the Arbiter to vanish. Being a kill-for-hire was fun, but Ainz had greater plans for the hero infested world. Ones that they would never forget.

____________________

"I'm home!"

The door to the Midoriya house closed shut once Izuku let himself in. He still couldn't forget the conversation he had with the strange man on the beach. If only I got his name…maybe All Might would know more about unusual quirks because of One For All.

Izuku entered the dining room to see his mentor and mother both eating at the table. The latter showed clear irritation. 

"Izuku! You were supposed to be back by 6:30 for dinner; it's now 7:45!"

His mentor sheepishly mumbled towards his protege, "We uh… did wait an hour, but decided to eat without you. I probably should've gone to get you…"

"Yes Yagi, you should have," his mom sighed. "Oh well. Just come and eat."

Izuku sat down. The takoyaki was cold, but also entirely his fault it was this way. Despite the cold, his favorite food was sooooooo good. Yagi Toshinori (a.k.a. All Might) was currently licking off of his plate. Very dignified.

His mother rolled her eyes at the sight, "Hoo boy. You're going to drive me crazy with your poor manners. If I took a photo of this, I could sell it to The Daily Hero , and absolutely nobody cares since the public loves you."

"And they wouldn't recognize me because I'm in my skinny form," All Might added while waving his fork.

Izuku nodded to the both of them arguing. All Might was only the #1 hero for three hours a day. It used to be permanent until a great fight with a supervillain he fought five years ago. Now in his skinny form he is known as Yagi Toshinori. Yagi's quirk was one that was passed down from successor to successor called One For All. If Yagi couldn't find a successor in time, then the quirk would fade from his body. Izuku was chosen to be the ninth holder. Unfortunately, the quirk would blow up Izuku's body if it was given to him, so he was tasked with cleaning up the trash-infested Dagobah beach to build up his body. Once the job is done, Izuku would be strong enough to hold One For All.

Currently, All Might wanted to change the embarrassing conversation, "So, Izuku…why were you out later than usual?"

"Oh. Uhm, I was working late at first, then I met this man with a super cool quirk and his daughter!"

"Oh, interesting," All Might said with some attention. "What was his quirk?"

Izuku was now speaking with giddy excitement, "Oh my gosh it was amazing! And it wasn't just quirk, it was quirks. He had multiple quirks like seeing if I have a quirk, to teleportation, to an ability that could suck up garbage! I wish I got his name…"

*CLINK*

All Might's fork dropped to the ground and he coughed blood onto the table, "W-WHAT?!"

Izuku was a bit confused, but explained further, "Yeah…he said he was an extremely rare multi-quirk user. One part of the quirk's side effect was that his eyes turned red for a second. He was also pretty scary when that happened."

All Might's face was covered with one of his hands while he was deep in thought. Izuku was now a bit scared of All Might as well, "...All Might?"

"My boy…the man you met at the beach today…I believe I might know his name," All Might moved his chair to be directly facing Izuku. "Five years ago, I was gravely injured by a supervillain. You know this already, but the truth is…the man I fought was called All For One. It's an incredibly long story, so the main part is that I crushed his head with no hope of recovery…until now.

Izuku was now very uncomfortable by All Might's words, "What do you m-mean?"

"All For One isn't just his name. It's his quirk which has the ability to steal and transfer quirks between people. There is no other quirk like it. The final tally of his quirk count is unknown, however it is estimated to be in the thousands. He is easily the most notorious supervillain of all time."

Realization dawned on Izuku, "Oh my god. The-The man I-I met on the b-beach…oh god. That means…it-it means that he-..."

"All For One was the man you met on the beach tonight, confirming my failure to kill him."

____________________

This is it. After months of searching, researching, scavenging for bodies, and scraping up the miniscule amount of camera footage: it was time to bring the Arbiter to justice.

Detective Naomosa sat down in the police station with 50 police guards, 15 pro heroes, and most importantly: one very tired Eraserhead. 

The plan was so simple it was almost laughably. Simply find out the target beforehand, quietly detain them or notify them (if they were a pro hero), then wait for the Arbiter to teleport in and grab him. 

Even then, the Arbiter was so unpredictable in his time and target that the detective has been waiting weeks for this plan to go off.

The only lead about the target is they need to be "kill-worthy." A similar mantra to many vigilantes.

Tsukauchi sipped his coffee to prevent himself from falling asleep. He began to wonder how exactly the Arbiter keeps finding his victims? No one else sees him, so he must be pinpointing the target when they are alone and killing them swiftly. What an efficient killing machine…if the police don't get him, the HPSC will definitely hire him. 

The current location of the detective was behind a one-way mirror. He was staring into an interrogation room that occupied no one, except for Aizawa and the target. The room had the standard two metal chairs and table placed in a concrete room. Aizawa Shouta was half-asleep in one of the chairs with the target, Hazmat, chained to the wall in his hazmat suit.

Tsukauchi looked at Hazmat's file.

--------------------

Target: Hazmat

Real Name: Ekechi Ido

Affiliation: Villain

Appearance: Covered in a hazmat suit at all times. Possesses a handlebar mustache along with a bald heart that can be seen through the suit. Weapon is a gun fueled by coolant that spits out his quirk.

Quirk: Critical Mass - Can trigger a nuclear chain reaction in an object or person. Needs a catalyst to activate and spews massive amounts of radiation measuring up to 34 million disintegrations per second (Becquerels/Bq (a human body has 4,430 Bq)). Ekechi himself is not immune to that extreme of radiation, thus needing the suit.

Last Known Location: Hosu, near the Hatashi Power Grid

Reason for Hit: Causing a two month fallout in a part Hiroshima as a "anniversary gift" killing hundreds.

Way of Execution: Overexposure to Radiation.

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Collecting this hit info took about five favors for the detective to call in, but if they arrested the Arbiter? That would be paid back tenfold.

Tsukauchi laid his head back on the chair, Arbiter rarely does night hits anyways…I doubt he'd be here till-

"The Arbiter has arrived in the interrogation room!" boomed the pro hero next to him, Baton.

Detective Naomosa pulled himself from his chair so fast he almost fell over. Through the mirror, there he was: the Arbiter. Just like the cameras showed. Full suit with a red tie and a peculiar oni mask. The details and craftsmanship of the mask became an impossible search for the police trying to find any origin of the hitman. It was like he was otherworldly. 

"I presume that is my target right there?" A deep voice followed by a raspy undertone came from the mercenary. Despite being completely surrounded and having his quirk negated, he still held the calm demeanor of a psychopath. Chilling. That voice sounds slightly wrong. Probably a voice-changer then.  

Aizawa almost fell asleep waiting for the hitman, when he arrived instantaneously with no effect of the quirk to be shown. Just a blink and you'll miss it kind of moment. It took a minute for the Erasure hero to respond professionally, "Arbiter, you are under arrest for the unlawful killing of over 400 confirmed kills with an estimated range of 500. My quirk erases yours so don't even try to teleport away. You will answer my questions then be sent to Tartarus immediately. Do you understand?"

Arbiter took the seat opposite of Aizawa and crossed his arms, "Mhm. I expected this to happen eventually; not on my last hit though," he looks over to Hazmat, "So that's how you lured me…"

Eraserhead began the interrogation with a comm in his ear that is hooked up to the user of the lie detector quirk: detective Tsukauchi Naomasa himself.

"Mr. Arbiter…let's start simple. What is your real name?"

A smug atmosphere emanated from the hitman. He knew something they were unaware of, "Momonga."

Silence… followed by, "...true . " Aizawa was shocked. This man's name was 'Flying Squirrel.' That was a shocker. Parents must've hated him from birth , "Uhm…okay. Next question. Please take off your mask."

"You wouldn't want that," Momonga said sternly.

"That wasn't a question. That was a command . Do it"

The hitman nods, then flicks his wrist in a strange way before reaching for his mask. Eraserhead should've listened. The face, no, the mouth of this creature was enormous. Nothing resembling a human face was present except for a mouth that stretched diagonally. No eyes, nose, or ears. Just the wide, grinning face of the devil. For the rest of his life, he would see the face in his dreams like a haunting shadow. He could hear a voice from the earpiece, "My…God…what the fuck is that?"

No one said a word. Everyone waited for the mouth to speak, but it refused. Only a smile was given as a response. Once it placed the oni mask back on did it speak, "Your welcome officer."

Aizawa regained his composure once the mask was back on, "I…how exactly are you able to see?"

A laugh filled the room, "HAHA! A fantastic question, Mr. Shouta," Aizawa was disturbed that his last name was being uttered out of this thing , "I see feeling the vibrations of the world through the air around us. Nature is my guide."

That doesn't make any sense, "False. He's lying," well that explains that. He's probably not sure how he sees either. I should probably mention the child that Backdraft saw, "On one of your hits; the Crowler one. A child was with you at that time. She was wearing a similar mask," he gulped, hoping their mask was the only thing similar. "We found no mention of her anywhere. Where is she now?"

The air grew slightly colder once he asked this question. If the man across from him had eyes, it would've bore a hole through Eraserhead. It seems we finally found something we can use against him . 

The hitman sighed, "Hoh, I believe this is where we will leave off. I am running late for the hit request." He aimed a hand towards the chained up Hazmat.

Aizawa, believing it was a bluff since he was still using his quirk, didn't stop him. He wanted to see the great Arbiter panic.

"[Chernobyl]"

Nothing happened, as expected. Aizawa breathed a sigh of relief until he saw into the inside of the hazmat suit. Hazmat's skin was rapidly decaying. It was peeling off like dry bark. Burns developed all over his body. Hazmat himself didn't even notice for a bit until his nose fell into his lap. Screams tried to leave him, but his vocal cords already burned off. Blood poured out of the suit in large quantities. 

"What a disgusting effect. I'll need to notify Pandora on this."

Aizawa, shocked and furious, shot his capture tape that was around his neck at the hitman, only for him to vanish. So he's gone…again.

The hero held his head in his hands, finally allowing himself to close his eyes. Damn it…

____________________

It's been three weeks since the police tried to capture him. He still gets a chuckle every time he remembers the face of Aizawa when he used [Illusion]. The legend of the Arbiter will never be forgotten.

For the first time in a year since Ainz arrived on this red planet, he finally saw green on the sandy surface. It would seem he and mostly Pandora created a stable atmosphere. Now, to build a shield.

Changing into his overlord form mid-warp, Ainz was greeted with bowing liches in the lush and flowery courtyard. They left once he waved them away. Pandora came sprinting with a clipboard tucked under one arm with the other holding onto his hat. He works so hard…perhaps he needed some kind of reward…

"Mein Schöpfer! Are you satisfied with ze sample size of your future utopia? I wasn't sure what sort of flowers or foliage you would've wanted so I chose a few specimens that are native to YGGDRASIL. If you wish to change zem, I will scorch ze courtyard immediately and keep trying until you are satisfied!" said Pandora.

Ainz looked around a lot closer and noticed the striking similarities. The Adleblooms from Alfheim, the Fernirises from Muspelheim, and even a few Inverse Sunflowers from Johtunheim. Pandora did his absolute best to make sure that his creator felt at home. It was beautiful. 

Ainz kneeled down and picked an Adlebloom, "Thank you Pandora. It's gorgeous. You may not know how much this means to me, but…thank you."

Pandora shook with excitement from being praised, "My actions are for you to dictate, mein Vater."

"Mhm," the flower was placed in Ainz's inventory. He looked back at his creation, "Pandora. I would like to give you something. I'm not sure what you would want, so could you tell me?"

"No no no no no no no! My servitude and life is ze greatest gift you have ever given me! I could not ask for anything more!" Pandora exclaimed while shaking his hands in front of him.

"Hmm…how about this? It would mean more to me if I gave you something than if you were to deny it?"

Pandora's hole that represented his mouth went silent. To be honest, he really didn't want anything material. He was completely content with what he had. Although…there was one thing he wanted…

"A-Alright Vater…what I really want is to…to experience a moment like a father & son would."

If Ainz was in his human form, his face would be plastered with the visage of complete shock and guilt. How did he not see it? He created Pandora. As a creation, he would look up to his creator as a parental figure. While Ainz was looking after Eri, he neglected his own child! He failed not only as a father, but also as a leader for not figuring this out sooner. That will all change starting with the reward.

"Of course. What exactly do you want to do?" Ainz replied with confidence upon realizing his own follies.

Without hesitation, "Eine umarmung, Vater."

Oh…he just wants a hug. Huh. Ainz, with his bony hands decorated in rings, wrapped themselves around Pandora. He was feeling rather awkward giving a hug in his skeletal form. It felt natural giving Eri one in human form. As awkward as Ainz may have felt, he knew Pandora needed it more.

They stayed like that for a minute before Ainz let go. It was time for the debut of Pandora's grand project he's been working on these last months, "Now, show me the progress on the magnetosphere…son."

Pandora, crying out of his eye sockets, nodded and activated the teleport to Mars' moon: Phobos.

____________________

The deal was done with All For One. The mission was set. The rocket had reached its completion. Brad Armstrong looked up to the towering space shuttle that was built in a decommissioned nuclear silo. The reason for this was to prevent any other countries from spying and copying them.

Alexei sat in a chair facing the window which showed the shuttle, "It's finally done my friend. We are about to become the most famous men the world has ever known."

Brad took the seat next to him and poured two glasses, "I was given a gift from the engineers. Would you like to see it?"

The Russian chancellor nodded. Brad proceeded to unwrap a small present that unveiled a red button.

____________________

Izuku Midoriya was half-listening to the hero Present Mic as he gave the instructions to the entrance exam. All Might's words still haunted him from a couple weeks ago. I need to be prepared for anything. I will be the best hero there is and defeat All For One once and for all.

The girl next to him was Ochaco Uraraka. He sat next to her because she saved him from face planting on his way to the entrance exam and she is cute. He really had no excuse. She on the other hand was nervous about the exam, "So Midoriya…I noticed that only three of the robots are mentioned on the brochure, but Present Mic said there are four. Do you know why?"

Izuku thought for a sec, HOLY SHIT! A girl just talked to me! Okay, Izuku. Don't screw this up. Think about the robots. Well three of them have points and the last one has no points which means it is so insignificant it doesn't matter…or the robot is too big to take down. Knowing this school, it is the latter. 

"It's, uhm, probably going to be that the zero-pointer is too dangerous to fight and w-we should avoid it." Damnit I stuttered . 

"Ooooooh! That makes sense. Wait then why didn't they mention that beforehand?"

Izuku shrugged, "Well, heroes have to fight in unpredictable scenarios all the time. This practical test is telling us that if we can't handle this then we aren't cut out for hero work. I wonder what the robot looks-..."

He was cut off by Present Mic.

____________________

Ainz and a teary Pandora found themselves at the edge of an enormous crater on Phobos.

Ainz was really confused how he didn't notice this, "Uh, Pandora. What is the actual plan to build a magnetosphere again? I just need a refresher."

Pandora wiped his eyes, "Of course, Vater! Ze two ideas zat I have theorized to fix zis problem were ze magnetic shield and ze plasma torus."

What the hell are either of those things? There is no way 'torus' is a real word. 

"Ze magnetic shield was impossible even with YGGDRASIL items. It requires an enormous amount of energy to be placed in ze middle of space between ze sun and Mars. We just do not have ze current resources for such an expenditure."

Pandora walked over to the edge of the crater and motioned for Ainz to come and look. Ainz obliged and looked down to see…"Oh my god. You dug straight through the planet."

"Zis is ze makings of a plasma torus! I stole some human designs zat wanted massive coils between ze moon and ze planet. Such ugliness would not be allowed on ze Supreme Ones domain! So I took it upon myself to create an alternative!" Pandora stated with a passionate voice.

The greater doppelgänger motioned his creator over to a monitor with a silver switch under it, "I filled ze entirety of ze moon's hole with plasma crystals charged with [Mjölnir] and placed [Halcyon] infused with neodymium magnets into Mars' core!"

Something clicked in Ainz's brain once YGGDRASIL items were named, Plasma crystals in YGGDRASIL are useless and would only be used as traps as players could be stuck to them. That means they are magnetic! Along with supercharging them the lightning would cause…oh. Oh! Pandora is using the orbit of Phobos as a natural shield! Then why would [Halcyon] be needed? It's just a late-tier workbench that mutates depending on its infusion material. I'm not sure what neodymium magnets are, but if what I believe is true… [Halcyon] is making sure Phobos doesn't fly away. God I am so glad I read some of those papers.

Ainz stopped staring at the monitor and turned towards Pandora, "Fantastic work! When will this 'plasma torus' be ready to launch?"

"Now."

____________________

Two men in an unknown location clink drinks while one of them holds a button.

"We are about to make history. Are you ready?"

The other man answered by clicking the button and a countdown began.

____________________

An energetic blond hero is about to begin the practical exam for a bunch of starry-eyed teenagers.

"ARE YOU READY??!?"

A loud air horn is sounded along with a green-haired boy yelling, "Yes!"

____________________

The last Supreme Being and his son both place a hand on a switch that will change the course of two worlds.

"Mein Gott, zis is going to be quite ze light show! Sind sie bereit?"

God laughed, "Of course!"

The switch was flipped and the moon began to glow.