Luke briefly considered trying on the Hydra ring again, or even the two half rings that turned the wearers into conjoined siblings. He was reluctant to try on the ring that had made Zack's body parts come apart and float, as well as the Serpopard ring. Deciding to try a different ring, Luke looked back in the box. From the first column, the third and fourth rings had been chosen by Zack and Mark, respectively. From the second column, the third and fifth rings had been selected by Max and Luke, respectively. This left four rings in each of the first two columns, and six in each of the four remaining columns. Luke was beginning to wonder if there truly was a system of organization for the rings, but nevertheless decided to try one from one of the other columns.
The ring that Luke chose was the first one from the third column. It was black, and it looked as though it was engraved with several identical human figures. The gem was difficult to identify, but it looked like some kind of yellow topaz or something. The three others wondered what the ring would do just like Luke--it was the first ring from outside the first two columns.
"Here goes nothing," Luke said as he clutched the ring and slid it onto his right index finger. As Luke stood in front of the mirror, the four teens waited...but nothing seemed to happen. As Luke waited, he watched himself in the mirror, and somehow he began to think of his family while he waited for something to happen. Luke's father Ethan was good friends with his friends' dad Scott, and the two had been close friends since high school. At a Halloween bash during their junior year, Ethan and Scott had gone as a two-headed football player, and it was that night that they met Alisa and Sharon, the women would become their respective wives. Scott and Sharon had three children: identical twins Mark and Max were eighteen like Luke, and Zack was fourteen. Ethan and Alisa were Luke's parents, and he also had a little sister Suzie. Luke wished he had a brother, and as he looked at his reflection, he wondered how to would be if he were a twin like Mark or Max. That's when he felt something, and took his eyes from the mirror to look at the ring.
"Luke!" Mark exclaimed.
"What?" Luke asked as he turned around. But as Luke asked, it sounded as though there were two people talking, but it sounded like his own voice. Mark, Max, and Zack used their eyes to tell Luke to look to his left, and when Luke turned, he saw himself--but it was not the mirror he was looking at! Luke was looking at a duplicate of himself!
"How the...," Max asked.
"Luke, it didn't happen right away," Zack said as he examined the clone. "Did you do anything?"
"Now that I think about it, I did wonder what it would be like to be a twin like Mark or Max," Luke answered.
"Let's try something," Mark said. "Luke, try imagining yourself as a triplet or something."
Luke did so, and sure enough a third Luke faded into appearance next to the second. All three Lukes each wore the same ring on their right index fingers. It seemed as though whenever the ring's wearer wanted another of them to be, the ring made an exact duplicate of the original ring wearer. Luke tested the effect further by wishing for more "brothers", and the ring continued to make more Lukes. In thirty seconds, there were ten Lukes in the bedroom, along with Mark, Max, and Zack.
"I don't know if we should keep them around for too long right now," Zack said. "If we're going to keep testing these rings out, we may need a bit more space."
"Alright," Luke said. "Sorry, bros. Maybe you'll come back later."
The nine extra Lukes said their goodbyes, and the original Luke took off the original ring. The extra Lukes faded away, Luke set the ring on his bed with the other used rings, and left a not with it that said "Duplication".
"My turn!" Mark said.