I got a lot of pics to show!! Behind on uploading them to tumblr smh HGHB
Here’s two pics from the latest Swap Beyond the Crystalverse chapter!
And here’s some pics I never posted from Glitch into the Huffleverse! Black magic JJ and then cute Oliver and Alt from the ending uwu and Alt being my personal dress up doll HGHB
Oh! And a cool animation I made of Alt from this chapter of SATCV!
Oh yeah! I started a trend of making new outfits for the boys for the start of a new multiverse journey so here’s their outfits for SATCV! I wanttt Alt’s jacket!! More companies need to make shirts with different colored sleeves!
Oh yeah I can finally share these pics from the Bad End part of SATCV! :) here’s Anode, Cathode and Byte! And byte’s eyes which were fun to figure out!
The car stopped briefly at a pharmacy, with Stacy rushing in and returning with a bagful of medicines. She gives it to Xio to hold and then continues driving down the street, going perhaps a bit faster than the speed limit. Until, finally, the car reaches an intersection, and-- "There!" Xio points down the left street. "I hear footsteps that way. Three of them. That could be them."
Stacy nods and turns. Chase presses his face to the window, staring anxiously for his twin.
Jackieboy also tries to look, looking for Bro's signature jacket. Or, a flash of anything familiar.
Three men walk down the street, one in a red jumpsuit leaning on one in an orange jacket. The last one raises a hand, looking towards the car.
"There!" Chase gasps.
"I see them," Stacy says, pulling to the side of the road.
As soon as she stops--maybe even before she stops--Chase opens the door and tumbles out. "Jackie!" he shouts. "Jackie!"
Jackieboy hurries to get out and follows after Chase, grabbing his backpack and the medicine. He slows down as he sees the shape other Jackie's in, "woah holy shit man... A-Alt did all of that...?"
"I mean... me flailing around probably... probably didn't help," Jackie mumbles.
"W-we have to clean the wounds," Chase stammers. "We gotta roll up your sleeve and pants, m-maybe even take them off, is that okay, J?"
"Make sure no one's in sight, C, and it'll be fine."
"Heh..." Chase glances around. They're in a business district, but no one is in sight, all inside at work. "Hope we can do that."
Henrik, Stacy, and Xio all get out of the car. "Here, this was the best we could find," Henrik says, holding out a bottle of water.
Bro helps to set Jackie down against a wall of a building and kneels down next to him.
Jackieboy takes the water from Henrik and nods, going to try to pull up Jackie's sleeve and pants leg to try to clean out the wound. He digs around in his first aid kit and finds some hydrogen peroxide. "Okay sorry this is gonna sting but- can't let it get infected."
"It's okay, I-I can handle it," Jackie says, gritting his teeth.
Jackieboy then carefully pours some over the wounds and lets the peroxide do its work. But, he talks and works like a doting father- making sure to be gentle and not too harsh. "...we're also gonna ignore how weird it is I'm giving first aid to a version of myself-"
Jackie laughs. "Fucking hell, yeah, this is fucking absurd."
"You're doing great, though," Chase says. Jackie is holding tight to his hand, giving away just how much it hurts.
"Here, antibiotic cream," Stacy says, offering a jar of the stuff. "Internet says you're supposed to apply it to animal bites. Obviously not directly on it, but... h-heh." She smiles nervously.
Jackieboy laughs and then blinks up at Stacy. He smiles and takes it gratefully. "Thanks Stacy." He makes quick work of putting on the cream and bandaging up the wounds, making sure the guaze is nice and tight. "These should probably still get checked by a professional but... I think you'll be okay. I don't think anything was big enough to need stitches either so... thank god." He starts putting stuff away back in his backpack and offers Jackie the rest of the water bottle. "Make sure to hydrate- oh and I think i have some pain pills too.. ah ha!" He hands Jackie a few. "There- that'll really help."
Jackie sighs. "Th-thank you," he says. He pops the pills in his mouth and swallows them dry. "I'm already feeling better."
"Man... you really did come prepared." Bro comments.
Jackieboy gives him a knowing smirk. "Never dismiss a father's wisdom, Chase~"
"Yeah, never dismiss a father's wisdom, Chase," Chase adds jokingly. "Good to meet you by the way."
Bro laughs, "Good to meet ya too."
"I was the one who kept the first aid kit in the bathroom stocked, wasn't I?" Stacy says teasingly.
"Yeah, yeah." Chase mutters. He looks over at Magician. "...so. Hi."
"Hello, Violet," Magician says. "Good to see you." He nods at Henrik. "You too, Dr. Wiley."
Henrik lets out a snort of laughter.
Bro gestures at Chase's hair, "I gotta know... why purple? Never really thought it was our color." He tries to joke.
"I was considering green or yellow at first, but I dunno." Chase shrugs. "Seemed too... bright, I guess? At the time. I guess I was nervous about standing out too much."
"C'mon, C, you gotta embrace it," Jackie says, testing out their leg and arm. "Man, the suit got all torn up. D'you know how hard it is to repair this when you're living in hiding?"
Jackieboy tilts his head at Magician, studying his face. Or what he can see around the mask. The mannerisms sure are similar. "...You got a lot of nicknames, huh?"
Magician flashes a smile. "I have difficulties with names that aren't as magnificent as mine."
Jackie snorts and rolls his eyes. "God. You were being so nice."
Jackieboy's expression falls and becomes something a bit more guarded. "Huh... is that so."
Magician's smile falls into something unreadable.
Bro feels the tension from Jackie's response and he hops to his feet. "Okay! Now that Jackie is taken care of- we should probably get back to looking for Alt, right? Alt and Mag and... JJ- right?"
"We should," Stacy says. "It'll be a tight fit in the car, but we should stick together."
"Do you guys have some way of finding Alt?" Chase asks. "You guys keep talking about magic and stuff, right?"
"Hmm." Magician reaches into his pocket and pulls out a white phone-shaped device. "Maybe this could help? Alt gave it to me."
"Oh yeah! We have the bracelets!" Jackie says, his mood shifting back as he pulls up his sleeve to show it. "This has a tracker to find our other bracelets-" Jackie cuts himself off and him and Bro both look at Magician. Then, Bro's eyes darken.
"I-Isn't that the TRVLR?" Jackie gasps.
Bro immediately lashes out and grabs it and then pushes Magician up against the wall, baring his teeth. "Alt wouldn't have given that to you! He doesn't let it leave his fucking side- he would never leave it with a stranger- you're a fucking liar!"
Jackie--the one from this world--puts his head in his hands. "Jesus fucking christ, dude. Can you not be a kleptomaniac for five minutes?!"
"I--" Magician stalls. "H-he dropped it."
Jackie hits his forehead. "Can you not be a compulsive liar for FIVE MINUTES?!"
"That Magnificent guy was trying to steal it so I got it first," Magician says.
Chase leans over and punches his arm. "Bruh." He looks at Bro and Jackieboy. "Don't take it personally," he says tiredly. "He read my journal once. This is just who he is."
"I'm..." Magician opens and closes his mouth wordlessly.
"Yes?" Stacy folds her arms, giving Magician her bests Mom Look. "Are you trying to say you're sorry?"
"...that."
"Well go on, then. Apologize to our visitors."
Magician is silent for an awkwardly long time. "Um, apparently that device says our world is under quarantine, so I think you guys should get out as soon as possible. Let's use that magic stuff to find Alt, yes?"
Bro looks enraged, blue flashing brightly in his eyes. He hasn't let Magician go. "I fucking trusted you! How do I even know you telling me Alt was in danger wasn't a lie too?! Did you have something to do with him being captured?! Why else would you steal from him and then lie about it?!"
Jackieboy tries to push over to pull at Bro's shoulder and calm him down. "H-He said he was sorry, Chase. Let's try to hear him-"
"No! I don't like how casual you all are making this- he stole from Alt and lied to me about it! Plus- the TRVLR is our only way back home! You stole our only way out of this and for what?! I know Alt would have told you it was important!" Bro snarls.
Magician flinches, wordlessly trying to pull away from Bro's grip. "I-I-I--I--I d-d-didn't know--I--" He's visibly trembling as Bro yells. "D-don't--D-don't--I-I'll just go, I'll just go, just--just let me go--"
"Um... Bro?" Jackie gets to his feet. "Maybe you can... calm down a little? I've never... seen him freak out like this..."
Xio, quiet all this time, walks over to Bro and puts a hand on his shoulder. "Back off," she says in a firm voice. "I can handle this."
Bro is stiff and quiet for a long beat, staring down hard at Magician even as he trembles. Then, he slowly lets him go and backs up, but his expression stays just as cold and angry.
As soon as Bro is far enough away Xio swoops in. "We're going to go down this alley over here, okay?" she says in a gentle voice. "We're going to talk for a little, okay, 25?"
Magician nods wordlessly.
"Okay. Come on, follow me."
Xio walks into the nearest alleyway and Magician follows close behind her. They're out of earshot for most people... but not Bro with his super hearing.
While Jackie mutters something about how that was weird and Stacy apologizes profusely, Bro listens in on their conversation.
"You can't keep doing this, man. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy."
"I-I know, I know, I-I don't know how to—I just—"
"Deep breaths, 25. He wasn't going to hurt you. He's a good guy."
"I-I don't—A-are you sure? Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. They said he was a hero. Deep breaths, man."
Moments pass, filled with shaking, wet breaths.
"Why'd you grab it?"
"Th-they scared me. They got in my house. A-and that one had my face, he had my face, Xi, i-it wasn't right, it—A-and he knew my name, I don't—Th-they weren't supposed to find me, no one was supposed to—"
"Breathe, 25. Okay, you were scared. Why'd you grab the thing, then? How are they related?"
"I—It was all I could think to do a-at the time. Maybe—m-maybe if I had th-their thing I could—I-I don't know. Th-they were in my house. H-he tr-tried to do something to me."
"Why didn't you tell them about this? Why'd you lie?"
"I-I-I didn't want them to—t-t-to—Th-they'd be mad."
"Lying made them more mad, you know."
"I can't stop, Xi, I-I want to—I c-can't—"
"You know you need to say sorry. For real. Not that indirect thing you did just now."
More shaking breathing.
"They're still gonna be mad, but I promise it'll make them less mad. I can be right behind you if you want. Even hold your hand."
"N-not now. I-I need a minute."
"It's okay." Xio's voice, as it had been this entire time, was incredibly soft and understanding. "We can stay here for a minute."
Bro’s face starts to fall a bit as he listens. Man… he sounded terrified. And he knows he’s done bad stuff when he’s scared or angry. Just like now… he leans up against the wall and crosses his arms, trying to hide how bad he feels. He wasn’t going to hurt him… but he was tempted. Because… he saw what happened to Alt… but maybe even that was a lie. He studies the TRVLR in his hand and feels sick. Alt always had this on him and… he was gone. Trapped with Mag and this world’s Anti… who he still didn’t know much about but.. the track record wasn’t looking good. And this quarantine thing has him sick to his stomach… could it be as bad as that horror world? Or… worse?
Jackieboy comes to lean next to Bro. He’s quiet for a second before saying, “…I know you’re worried, but Alt wouldn’t want you to hurt anyone unnecessarily, dude.”
“…I wasn’t gonna hurt him.” Bro says quietly.
“Bro you looked ready to punch his lights out.” Jackieboy deadpans. He then sighs when Bro continues to be quiet. “…not everyone is so black and white, Chase. I know it’s easy to think that… being a hero. But- I dunno. Doesn’t he remind you a bit of Alt- when we first met him?”
Bro traces the edges of the TRVLR with his fingers. “…I guess. He did… lie and steal a lot too.”
“Alt did a bunch of crazy stuff because Mag was going after him… these guys are on the run from those crazy Psyode dudes. I think… it’s similar types of thinking. Maybe based on fear.”
“Maybe.” Bro says, glancing at the alley.
Jackieboy leans his head back to look at the sky. “…I’m not saying you can’t be mad or worried. This is… not fun to learn about. But… try to see their side too. And believe me it’s… hard.” Jackieboy looks back down and curls his fingers into his jacket as he hugs his arms, “right now… looking at him? All I can see is… is Mag. How I knew him back then but also… mixed with how he is now. And it makes me want to… distrust him. But that’s not fair. He’s a whole different person. I think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.”
Bro is quiet again but he sighs and nods a bit.
A few moments pass in awkward silence—silent for everyone else, Bro can still hear that heavy breathing slowly calming down—and then Magician and Xio return.
Bro stands up straighter as Magician returns.
Magician is keeping his hands behind his back, and Xio is standing slightly behind him, one hand out of sight.
“I—I-I-I’m s-sorry,” Magician stammers, shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. “F-for taking your th-thing a-and not telling. I-I wasn’t thinking s-straight b-but I should’ve r-realized.” He tenses slightly, bracing himself.
Chase and Jackie stare at Magician in shock. Stacy and Henrik are a bit less shocked but they’re still surprised.
Bro stares at him with a neutral expression before he sighs. “…it’s… it is what it is. We can move past it. I’m just glad we have it back now. …thank you for apologizing.”
Jackieboy pats Bro on the shoulder.
Magician visibly relaxes. “Y-yeah. No problem.”
“What are you two, some sort of miracle workers?” Jackie mutters, looking back and forth between Bro and Xio. “I’ve never heard him say sorry.”
“A-are you still going to stay here with us?” Henrik asks. “While we look for Alt?”
Suddenly, like a flip had switched, Magician stands up straight and flashes the gang a smile. “Why of course I am! I wouldn’t want to deprive you of my amazingness. Not to mention my great power will come in handy.”
Jackie sighs. “And there it is. Whatever.”
Xio rolls her eyes. Jackieboy and Bro each hear her voice, sounding like it’s whispering right into their ears. “He’s overcompensating, don’t take this seriously.”
Bro huffs out a breath of a laugh.
“So… you were saying about your magic bracelets?” Chase asks.
Jackieboy smirks slightly then holds up his bracelet again. “We can use this to find him! Can't believe we keep forgetting about that-“ He taps the gem on it and whispers ‘rianú’- and then a trail of blue green wisps of magic start to pop up- but they pop and flicker before they flicker purple.
Jackieboy and Bro blink and then exchange glances.
“…Magnificent’s hold on Alt must be influencing the magic…” Bro says darkly.
“Well- now I can’t really tell if he’s close or not-! But at least we have a trail…” Jackieboy sighs.
“You know, the trail doesn’t seem to go that far,” Stacy says, peering down the street. “I think it ends on the corner up there, actually. Is that norm—”
And then, all at once, the street lamps and lights from the businesses go out. A blackout rolls down the street, leaving only that glowing purple trail.
“…that’s not good.” Jackieboy squeaks.
“Everyone, try to huddle! It could be an ambush-!” Bro warns, trying to grab people he can feel in the dark and push them behind him.
Laughter echoes down the street. “Foooound yoooou,” a voice calls, seeming to come from all their phones.
“Get in the car, get in the car,” Stacy hisses, opening up the door.
“No! I know this,” Jackie says. “This is Anti—he was with them before, meaning Alt could be nearby.”
Indeed, the purple trail is quickly growing shorter.
“You are hurt, you get in the car for safety!” Henrik says, pushing Jackie through the door Stacy opened.
Magician reaches into his utility belt and starts taking things out. “They’re coming,” he mutters.
Bro grits his teeth, his eyes glowing blue. Jackieboy fumbles to find Alt’s pocket knife again.
The trail gets shorter- and shorter… then, the swaps recognize a familiar laugh and a snap of fingers.
There’s the flash of an animal’s eyes reflecting the purple light of the spell before a dark blur of some kind of big cat roars and tries to tackle Magician.
Magician shrieks, and suddenly an invisible force pushes the cat to the side, missing him entirely. “Holy shit! You weren’t kidding!”
“Yeah, no, I wasn’t!” Jackie shouts.
“Fuckin’ hell!” Magician throws something into the air, then lights it on fire with a lighter. It’s some sort of burning powder that he moves around with his powers, lighting up the area and forming a defensive circle around himself. “Nice kitty!”
“Not a kitty!” Chase shouts. “That’s—that’s Alt, isn’t it?!”
In the light of the powder, they can see the crouched form of a white tiger with burning purple green slitted eyes, glitches vibrating off its fur.
Bro and Jackieboy both gasp.
“Y-Yeah that’s Alt!” Bro looks even angrier as he roars and looks around, “Where is that motherfucker?! I’m gonna kill him for this!!”
Magnificent voices chuckles from the shadows. “Temper temper, fantastic… don’t worry. We won’t be long~ we just need something that’s been stolen from us~!”
Xio suddenly gasps. “Footsteps! There!” She points to the left, and suddenly someone lunges from the darkness, going right for Bro.
While he’s looking Bro hears Xio’s warning and manages to grab the person lunging for him.
Bro pulls into the light a man in a suit with a dark mustache. He gives Bro a sad, almost apologetic smile. Then Jameson’s body jerks in his hold, head shooting forward to hit Bro in the face.
Alt growls and glitches, trying to get back by Magician and attack him again.
Magician spins around, pushing Alt back again with his powers. “Where the hell are you, you coward?!” Magician shouts, looking around for Magnificent. “Xio,” he hisses. “Listen for him.”
She nods, paying close attention to the surrounding sounds.
Magnificent laughs, his voice echoing from different places around the alley. "I'm not a coward, kitten~ I'm a strategist! Why bloody my hands when my cub can do it for me?"
Bro balks but when Jameson hits him he doesn't really react. He blinks and then he backs up and hovers in the air a bit. "Hey... you're Jameson, huh? You don't need to fight for Anti- we don't have to do this!"
Jameson stumbles. He shakes his head. It's not my choice, he signs. Sorr-- His hands jerk away halfway through signing his apology, towards his pocket. He takes out a knife and lunges at Bro again.
Alt shakes his head out and then lunges again to try to bite Magician.
Magician holds his hands up and pushes Alt back, skidding out into the street. "Maybe because your cat can't do it?!" he shouts. "Are you afraid, you freak?! Compensating for something?! Maybe hiding how powerless you really are?!"
Alt tries to stop his movements by digging his claws into the ground. He growls more, his eyes blaring green as electricity crackles around him.
Xio frowns. "I-it's hard to tell where he is," she whispers. "He's causing distractions."
Stacy fumbles with her phone and tries to shine its flashlight around the area, but the light suddenly dies. Its screen is overcome by static and then turns off. How is it even darker than before?
Bro catches Jameson’s hand and throws him back, "Ah... so he's making you too?" He glares around at the darkness around them. "where's that bitch? Is he too scared to fight too?!"
"Y-you can't fight Anti!" Henrik shouts. "He is not a physical being! An EDC--Extra-Dimensional Consciousness--"
"A what?!" Bro shouts.
"Such a special name for me," A voice says from all their phones. "But if you want to fight, Bro, fight this."
Anti makes Jameson jerk backwards. A ball of electricity forms on the ground where he'd been standing, shooting out random arcs of lightning towards Bro.
Then, Bro sees the ball of lightning and he gasps in surprise and gets thrown back by the arcs. He grits his teeth then gets up, "I-I'm not fighting someone who doesn't even want to fight! This is wrong!"
“Oh… won’t you?” Anti’s voice says.
Suddenly, Jackieboy finds his legs bringing him forward against his will.
"No! I won't!" Bro argues. Jackieboy cries out as he's forced up and towards Bro. He looks completely freaked out, "U-Um??? W-What the fuck?!" He looks at Bro fearfully, "C-Chase I... I can't c-control my body..!"
Bro's eyes widen, "No... No you- you sick son of a bitch!" He tries to yell towards Anti.
“I’ve heard worse,” Anti says casually, as he makes Jackieboy pull out Alt’s knife and lunge forward.
Magnificent laughs some more and then appears behind Magician, curling his claws under his neck. "I was trying to spare you, kitten. But, fine. I can play~!" He tries to stab him with his claws.
Magician gasps. "H-how did you--AUGH!"
JJ's head snaps towards the sound. He starts running forward before suddenly stopping, Anti holding him in place.
"25!" Xio shouts, lunging forward.
Magician breathes through the pain. The ring of firey powder surrounding them suddenly snaps smaller as the powder rushes for Mag,
Magnificent laughs darkly and curls his claws into Magician's stomach. "Oh- such a lovely scream~ Now... tell me thief. Where is the TRVLR?" Mag sees the powder coming and he rolls his eyes and uses a burst of magic to push back the powder before it gets to them.
Magician takes a shaky breath. “I-I left it at home,” he lies. “I can bring you back there—Xi, no! H-he’s gonna—”
But she doesn’t listen. The air lets out an earsplitting shriek all around Magnificent and she tries to tackle him from behind.
"You're a liar- do you really think I'll bel-" Mag screeches out in surprise as he's tackled to the ground. He growls and tries to claws at Xio, "Get off me! This doesn't concern you!"
As soon as Mag lets go, Magician whirls around, grabbing Xio with his powers and pulling her away before Mag can claw her face off. “Don’t you touch her!” he screams. “Don’t you fucking dare you pathetic piece of shit!”
Magician reaches a hand out and Magnificent suddenly feels a squeezing pressure around his throat, steadily getting tighter.
"Ohhh did I touch a ner-!" Magnificent tries to taunt and then chokes, going to try to claws at whatever is crushing his throat.
But of course, there's nothing there. Magician growls. "You don't get to talk about that! No one cares about you! No one would miss you! And it's all your fault, and you know that! Even I have a couple! You have nobody!"
Magnificent glares angrily at Magician and bares his fangs. But, he can't breathe so the intimidation is kinda ruined.
Suddenly, Jameson finds himself free again, and he's able to move as he wants. He immediately rushes forward, in front of Magician, blocking his line of sight. Don't do this, M-love! he signs. You're not that type of person!
Magician gasps, stumbling backwards. "JJ...?"
The pressure on Magnificent's throat suddenly disappears as he loses concentration.
Magnificent falls to his knees as the pressure is dropped and he coughs and gasps on the ground.
Magician stares at JJ in shock for a moment, then suddenly rushes forward and wraps his arms around him. "I'm not letting you go this time," he says, a sob catching on his words. "I'm not letting him take you again. I-I'll drag you out of here if I have to."
Chase wants to do something useful but he’s not sure what he’s capable of doing. Still, he has to help! So he ends up doing something insane: running right up to the tiger. “Alt, I don’t know if you can understand me!” He gasps. “But we need you! Please! Y-your friends are in danger!”
“CHASE WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!” Jackie shouts.
Alt backs up as Chase approaches him. His eyes flicker slightly- seeing a familiar face... even if its very different from his brother's. His ears flatten back and he bares his teeth at Chase, crouching down low.
“Ch-Chase no!” Jackie gasps, rushing over.
“Jackie!” Henrik shouts, rushing after him.
“Guys, no, don’t scare him!” Chase holds his arms out, pushing them back before they can grab him.
“Alt, please! W-we’re friendly! L-look, your—your friends are fighting. They don’t want to, someone is making them. Th-they need your help.” He gestures with his head back towards Bro and Jackieboy.
Jackieboy gasps in surprise and then yelps as he's forced to slash at Bro.
Bro isn't expecting Jackieboy to be that fast and he gets cut across the cheek.
"S-Sorry!" Jackieboy calls out and Bro just brushes the blood off his cheek and narrows his eyes. "C-Chase you can knock me out if you need to," Jackieboy urges. "I-I don't want to hurt you...!"
"I'm not gonna let him win by hurting you Jackie," Bro says softly.
"That's unfortunate then, isn't it?" Anti says, and Jackie lunges forward again.
Alt stiffens as the others come and crouches down lower- scared for a second before he growls more and snaps his teeth at them. But, he blinks a bit more at Chase's words. He glances at Jackieboy and Bro fighting and some light comes into his eyes.
"Y-yes, exactly, Alt!" Chase nods encouragingly. "Y-you know them. You don't want them to get hurt, do you?"
Jackie stares at Alt warily, but still says, "Alt, please. We need you right now."
Bro quickly side steps Jackieboy who rushes past him. There's terrified tears in his eyes as he forced to turn back around and face Bro. His hand trembles on the knife. "I-I can't fight it Chase...!"
"It's okay... It's gonna be okay," Bro tries to assure him.
Magic builds up around Alt as he backs up and his ears lower again, looking more scared. Then, he closes his eyes and glitches build up around him until he bursts back into his human form. He falls to the ground and is shaking wildly. He looks at his hands like he's having trouble recognizing them before looking up at the others. He looks so tired. "I...I... I-I don't know how to h-help..! I.. I don't think I can influence w-whatever Anti is using to control them...!"
"W-well, i-it'd be helpful if we didn't have to worry about multiple threats," Chase laughs darkly. "I-if we can get Mag under control, w-we can get away from Anti's influence. I-I don't think us normal people can fight him, though--"
"Don't put yourself down like that, Chase," Henrik mutters.
"Th-the point is the same! Anything you can do would be helpful, Alt! Anything!"
"I...I d-don't have a lot of m-magic left," Alt says quietly, "a-and I..." He grunts as purple flashes in his eyes and grips at his head.
Behind them, Mag is staggering back up, looking enraged. "Who said you could break your strings, puppet?!" Magnificent snarls.
Bro hears Alt's voice and looks towards him, momentarily looking relieved, "Alt!"
Anti takes advantage of Bro's distraction to send Jackieboy at him once again.
Magician's head snaps back over to Magnificent. "You shut up! Shut the fuck up!" There's a flash of metal, and Magician's razor sharp cards fly through the air towards Mag.
At the same time, another one of those sharp shrieking sounds rings out, conjured by Xio, and accompanied by a loud sound like ten different buzzers going off at the same time as she tries to distract Mag from his control over Alt.
Jackie grabs Alt by the arms, shaking him slightly. "Th-then tell us what we can do to help! W-we want to help!"
Jackieboy cries out as he's forced to attack again. And Bro is too distracted so Jackieboy ends up pinning him against the wall, stabbing the knife near his collarbone- just barely missing his chest. Jackieboy is shaking so much as he sobs, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Bro grits his teeth in pain but shakes his head, "i-it's fine Jackie- i-it's fine-"
Alt sees this and cries out in panic through the static, "No!"
Magnificent is about ready to drown out his resistance when the sounds go off and he cries out, covering his ears. He can't even dodge as the cards stab into him over and over. He staggers back then falls.
Jackie grabs Alt and more blue comes back into his eyes. He's shaking but he looks a bit more aware. "I... I need- I need something I-I can take the electricity from...! P-Phones or... a-a computer or something...! M-Maybe I can get enough magic to counteract what A-Anti is doing...!"
"Phones!" Stacy, hiding back by the car, suddenly rushes forward.
Chase digs into his pocket and pulls out Jackie's phone, and they both hand it to Alt. "We can live without these for a short time. Please!"
Alt looks surprised but he nods in determination and holds them in his hands. He grips his hands tight around them and starts to siphon the electricity and pull it into his own magic. It's sharp and hot and unnatural feeling in his veins- which glow green with his effort as he tries to take it all in. He grits his teeth as the flickers of lightning course around him.
Then, he bursts open his eyes and they're glowing brightly. He looks to Chase and Stacy and smiles, nodding to them and handing the now dead phones back. "T-Thank you..." He then gets to his feet and then glitches to try to grab Jackieboy off of Bro.
Jackieboy yells in surprise and is then tackled to the ground in a flurry of electricity and glitches. "A-Alt!" he gasps.
Alt smiles tightly and then looks down at him. Anti said people are mostly electricity... which he knows. That's how he can possess people but... can he be like Anti here and take control of Jackie's nerves to get him out? ...there's only one way to see. He grabs Jackie's wrist that has the knife and closes his eyes, trying to see if he can channel his magic to help.
Anti's laugh comes from Jackie's phone. "Oh? What are you trying to do, Alt? Do you think you can defeat me?"
And then, through Jackie's own mouth, he says, "You don't understand what you're dealing with."
Alt shudders and looks into his friend’s eyes- which still look scared despite the demon stealing his voice. And that keeps Alt determined.
Alt can feel it. The foreign entity in Jackie's system. A parasite latched onto his nerves. His magic pushes against it.
Static bursts from all the remaining phones. "What are you doing?" Anti's voice asks, a tinge of panic to it. "How are you doing that?"
“I hate to admit it… but I’m like you-! So if you can did this… then I can reverse it…!” Alt shouts, pushing even more magic against the parasite inside.
"You're nothing like me!" Anti shouts. "No--no! Stop it!" The power Alt is pouring into Jackie's system is drowning it all out. "Why can't I control your power?! It's energy! It's all energy!"
But Alt's is different.
"It's more than that! It's magic!" Alt laughs with confidence.
He keeps pushing, more-- And then-- It's gone.
Anti is gone.
Then, Jackie slumps and pants heavily, the horrible feeling gone.
Alt pants too and lets go of Jackie's arm, shuddering and going to sit down fully on the ground.
Silence.
The blackout around the area ends as every single light turns back on. Everyone looks around.
“Is… is it over?” Henrik asks.
“For now, I think,” Jackie says. “Other me, are you okay?!”
Jackieboy slowly nods through gasping breaths, "Y-Yeah I'm... t-that was awful..." He breathes, shaking wildly.
Alt gently helps him sit up against the wall and then takes stock of himself. Then, he suddenly panics, glitching over next to Bro. "Chase! Chase are you okay?!"
Bro laughs and smiles tightly at Alt, "Y-Yeah yeah I'm fine! It stings like a bitch but I'm okay- you really thought this would keep me down?" He tries to joke.
Alt smiles tightly back and snorts out a laugh.
“What about this guy?” Magician glares at Magnificent, still holding tight to JJ. And JJ clings to him too, though he looks around cautiously, not quite believing that this is all over.
Both Alt and Bro stiffen as Magician mentions Mag.
Magnificent is trying to push himself up, despite the cards imbedded in him. "N-No! We just needed the...!"
"Oh- you mean this, Mag?" Bro smirks as he holds up the TRVLR. Then he glares at Mag as the villain stares at him dumbfounded.
"You lost, Mag. And I'm gonna fucking kill you for making Alt be that fucking tiger agai-!" He starts to shout, blue blazing in his eyes but Alt grabs him and holds him back. "C-Chase it's okay it-"
"No it's not okay! Don't tell me it's okay, Alt!"
Alt looks down and tries to hide how freaked out he still is as his trembling hands hold onto Bro's jacket. " 'm fine..." He whispers shakily.
Chase looks at Alt. "You're clearly not fine, dude," he says in a gentle voice. "It's okay. You can just... take a moment." He glances over at Magnificent. "I don't think that guy's going anywhere with all those stab wounds."
Alt tries to protest but Bro just pulls him into a hug. Alt stiffens and then falls against him, silently letting himself cry.
"I can hold him," Magician says, gritting his teeth. An invisible force pushes in against Magnificent, holding him still.
Magnificent cries out as he's kept down and bares his teeth ferally at Magician.
"25, what about your headaches?" Xio asks.
"This is more important. They haven't started yet." Magician bares his teeth right back at Magnificent.
JJ looks over at Alt. We can look away if you want, he offers. Or we can stay. Whatever you need. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Alt looks up at JJ and shakes his head. "...I don't mind... I... I think..." He meets JJ's eyes and whispers. "Don't say sorry... it wasn't your fault."
JJ shakes his head. I know... but I still feel bad about it.
Jackieboy soon comes over and Bro pulls him into a hug too, pressing his friends’ heads to his shoulders and holding them tight.
While the other-world guys have their moment, Jameson looks over at Henrik. I'm sorry for what happened to you and that girl, too.
Henrik shakes his head. "It is fine. We understand now that you, and all those other people too, were not doing it by your own will. You did everything you could."
"Can you... Is Anti really gone?" Chase wonders. "Did he abandon you, uh, Jameson?"
He may be back for me, JJ says. If he comes back, I have to go with him.
"What?! No!" Magician's head snaps over to him. "I'm not letting that happen, JJ! Please, I-I can't--If you were to--"
"Why?" Jackie asks. "Because he'll control you?"
...maybe, JJ says slowly. But also... he is able to hurt people. I couldn't... let him...
"So it's better that you get hurt?" Chase asks quietly.
JJ looks at Magician. I'd rather it be me than you... who he said he would target.
"...oh," Magician breathes. "W-well, I'd rather get hurt than lose you again."
I knew you'd say that, JJ says with a faint, dark smile. Which is why I couldn't let it happen.
“Why not just… try your best to stick together?” Bro asks, looking at jj and Marvin. “It seems you both want to keep each other safe so… do that. You can’t do that very well if one of you just- lets himself be taken. Self sacrifice hurts everyone in the end.”
“That’s really something coming from you, Chase.” Alt weakly giggles.
Bro goes to place his chin on Alt’s head, “…it’s a lesson I’m starting to learn…”
Alt blinks a bit and then remembers the last world. His stomach churns with guilt as he holds on tighter to Bro and hides his face.
Marvin and JJ look at each other.
"You two know what you want," Xio says. "And if it helps, we can help you hide, JJ. Our little group is very well hidden."
JJ glances at her, then back at Marvin. He nods slowly.
Marvin lets out a breath. "Thank you," he breathes. "Thank you."
"What about you guys?" Stacy gestures at the three visitors. "Do you guys... like, need anything? Somewhere to stay a-and rest?"
"As much as I'd like that for these two," Bro says, sighing. "I don't want to risk Mag breaking out or Anti coming back. You got some magic back, right Alt?"
Alt nods and wipes at his face.
Bro squeezes Jackie's side and sighs heavily. "Then... we should go. H-Hopefully this time we'll actually get home..."
"Besides, our world is under quarantine, apparently," Magician says. "So it might not be a good idea to stay here, as fascinating as this all is?"
"...quarantine?" Henrik asks, brows furrowing. "By who? Who placed the quarantine?"
Alt silently asks Bro for the TRVLR back and powers it up once he has it. He looks at the message, "Apparently IRIS- it says here that we needed to jump immediately or risk being fired. I mean- we don't work for them but... I don't know what that means."
"Maybe that... something is at risk of escaping from here...?" Jackieboy asks quietly.
"Well, yes, that is usually what quarantines are for," Henrik says. "Something you want to keep contained that is risky to people--and has the potential to spread farther."
"But... what's the thing IRIS is trying to contain then...?" Bro says with a frown. "It's not... any of you guys I don't think-"
The hair on Magnificent's neck suddenly stands up as static electricity builds up behind him. Something warm presses down on his shoulder--no, it's just the warmth, like a hand without the weight of it. And he feels something. Something that he has treated many, many people to before, but never experienced before. His power being drained from him and out into an unknown space.
"So... your magic is still energy," Anti's voice says from his phone speaker. "Don't mind if I do."
Magnificent suddenly yells out in pain as his magic is drained- leaving almost nothing behind. His eyes slightly roll up into his head as he fully crashes to the floor.
And as almost all of Magnificent's magic is drained from him, something forms behind him. The figure of a person crouched next to Magnificent on the ground. Anti's form, looking more solid than he did before. He grins. "And it can do a̶ǹy͏t̡ḩíng." Anti stands up.
JJ notices this first and lets out a strangled gasp.
Anti flings out a hand, and--suddenly--Alt lets go of the TRVLR and it falls to the ground.
The swaps all startle at Mag's scream and Alt tries to glitch to his feet- then freezes as the TRVLR falls out of his hand without his say so. "W-What...?!"
Anti laughs. His form becomes a bolt of purple and green lightning and he rushes at Alt.
Jackie reaches out to try and stop him, but even he isn't as fast as lightning.
The bolt knocks Alt, Bro, and Jackie to the side, and Anti reforms where they were standing, the TRVLR clutched in his hand and a manic grin on his face.
Alt gasps and tries to block the bolt but him, Bro and Jackie all fly in different directions as the bolt hits.
"H-how?!" Henrik gasps. "You--you have no body, how can you hold--"
"Magic, of course." Anti laughs. "Something that doesn't exist here, but something that I knew exists out there." His head tilts around, looking at all four of the swaps. "Did you think I would give up that easily?! I didn't spend nearly all my power p̡u̸l͢lìǹg̢ you off course, cor̸r͝ec͞ting you every time another world got in the way, to just QUIT like that! Not right when my goal is fin͠al̛l҉ý at my fingertips!" His grip on the TRVLR tightens. The smell of ozone fills the air.
Alt quickly tries to get to his feet, his eyes sparking with green. Then, his stomach drops at Anti's reveal. "N-No... no!"
"T-This whole time the TRVLR has been taking us random places... it was you the whole time?!" Bro gasps.
Alt yells in anger and tries to glitch over to Anti to grab the TRVLR.
But Alt isn't fast enough. Anti squeezes the TRVLR tight and--it shatters. Broken glass flies off in different directions, metal crumpling, internal parts falling to the ground.
Alt feels like he's been shot as he sees the TRVLR destroyed.
A shockwave of energy sends everyone flying backwards. Red energy races up Anti's arm, and his whole body gets stained with red and black, his white-static eyes the only thing not tinted with crimson. He laughs. "Ye͠s̀.̕.̵.͠ it͠'s ̨t̀i̧m͏e," he hisses. "T͏i̛me͏ to̕ ̡l̀èav҉e ̧th͝is ̷world̡ ͏f͝òr̀ ̛ot̛hers.̶.. a̸ńd̢ ͏şee̴ ̶h̕o͡w̧ ͞m̷any ͠I can͡ ̕de̶lete."
Black rips appear in the space around them, air rushing for them like an open airlock on a space ship, and in a ripple of static electricity, Anti is gone.
Alt groans and tries to hurry to get back up but- he's only in time to hear Anti say his final words and then disappear.
The silence afterwards is deafening- Alt falls to his knees, staring at the spot where Anti disappeared in complete, numb disbelief. He slowly stares at the bits of the TRVLR shattered around them. He then falls onto his elbows on the ground and screams.
But, There's no time to break down. Those black rips in the world are getting bigger.
Rifts, darker than the deepest reaches of outer space, a complete absence of anything.
The parts of the TRVLR skitter across the ground, sucked into a couple different rifts... and then Alt feels it. The pull, like strong wind, like gravity. Bro feels it as well, and Jackieboy, and even Magnificent--but the people from this world stay where they are, clothes caught in the wind but otherwise unmoving.
"Wh-what's happening?!" Chase gasps.
"We have to get these people out of here!" Henrik shouts.
Bro hurries over to try to pull Alt up and away as magic burns and snaps around Alt like live wires, reacting to his emotions. He tries to dig his heels into the ground below, holding Alt close to him as the glitch hyperventilates.
Jackieboy yells and tries to reach out for Bro and Bro clumsily grabs onto him.
"W-What did he do?!" Jackieboy gasps.
"I-I don't know!" Bro shouts back, trying to hold onto Alt and Jackieboy tighter.
Alt tries to cling to both of them as he panics. He stares at the black before them as feels dread so deep it makes it hard to breathe.
But, One by one, the four of them are pulled into the rifts.
Magnificent is too weak to fight the pull, weakly trying to dig claws into the ground but not finding the strength to hold on.
Jackieboy screams as he's torn away, desperately reaching out for the others.
Bro yells out after him and feels his feet leave the ground- Alt tries to glitch them back but- their connection breaks and they both fall away from each other, screaming out each others' names.
They fall through blackness, with the slightest bit of red light, and then... Well, they're not in this world anymore.
The rifts close slightly, their pull lessening, but they still hang there in midair, the fabric of space-time in tatters around them.
"A-are those guys going to be alright?" Magician whispers.
"I don't know," Jackie whispers back. In shock, the group stares at the rifts, black lines connected to nothing. Jackie shakes his head. "W-we gotta do something about this!" he shouts. "Evacuate people!"
"Fuck! Right!" Stacy gets out her phone--then remembers it's dead. "Fuck! W-we need to call someone--"
"Who the fuck are we going to call about weird holes in the air?!" Chase shouts.
"I-I hate to suggest it, but--" Xio shakes her head. "The people with the most knowledge about this... is Psyode."
"We are not calling them!" Henrik shouts.
"I'm not saying we do! I'm saying we get people out of here and cause such a fuss that they come looking!"
"I can handle that," Jackie says, pulling down his mask.
You're still hurt, JJ says.
"I know! But I think this is a bit more fucking important, isn't it?!"
JJ nods quickly, agreeing.
"E-everyone spread out," Magician says. "Do anything you can to get people out of here."
"I hope they're okay," Chase mutters. Then he shakes his head. "Go! Now! Call the police, try contacting the ghosts, do anything!"
Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 12: The Facility
Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs| JSEFacility
Read SITCV | SATCV Masterpost | AO3 Link
Alt lands hard on the ground. He's in front of a row of doors with numbers on them--a motel, one of the ones where the room doors open directly into the outside. It's really run-down looking, with peeling paint and stains on the ground. A cracked asphalt car lot holds only a couple cars. The sky is alight, pink and orange with either sunset or sunrise. Distant traffic noises come from somewhere. It's not clear where, as the only sign of other civilization is a road heading left and right.
Alt pushes himself up and groans, rubbing at his head. He looks around the area and cringes a bit. He recognizes a place like this… cheap motel for a quick rest on a dirty bed that probably smelt like cigarettes. He glitches to his feet and glances around the area, trying to see what else is around. He’s not eager to stay in a place like this.
Suddenly, someone leans through the nearest door. Leans through is the right way of putting it, as the door doesn't open at all and the figure passes straight through it. The figure is transparent, reminiscent of the ghost Chase they just saw, but completely monochrome instead of that strange white-tinted coloring. Even though the figure is a bit blurry and flickering, some details can be made out. The man has a thick mustache and is wearing a T-shirt over a button-up shirt.
Alt screeches in surprise and slight fear as he glitches back, away from the figure. He stares with wide eyes at him and blinks rapidly, trying to process what he’s seeing. That’s- JJ.
The monochrome man’s eyes land on Alt and he smiles in a friendly way, giving a little wave before pulling back into the room.
But then he just- disappears back into the room. Alt just kinda stares at the door- wondering if that was an… invitation or just a coincidence.
After a moment passes, the door opens a little bit, just wide enough for a person to appear in the gap. It's a guy, with brown hair pulled back into a small ponytail, wearing a baggy red hoodie and a blue bandanna around his neck. His eyes are green. And there seems to be a slight green glow coming from the room, too.
"Uh..." he says. "Where'd you come from?"
Alt glitches a bit in place and waves stiffly. “Uh- hi! I uh… kinda just… fell here. It’s a long story… sorry though, didnt mean to uh… loiter.” He blinks at the green light behind him and slightly points. “…I’m assuming you know your room is glowing-“
The man tenses a little. "Y-yeah, yeah, I know. Uh... hi. Hi. Um..." He looks back into the room for a moment, and then turns back to Alt. "My friend is saying you should come inside. So... come inside?"
Alt looks around and turn slowly nods. “Um.. alright.” He gingerly steps through the door, smiling awkwardly.
"Alright." The man steps aside.
The room beyond is small, with just a little bit of walking space in between the two beds, the night stand, and a small table. At the back are two ajar doors, one leading to a closet and one to a bathroom. The patterned wallpaper looks like it's from the 70s or earlier, and has some water stains on it.
The ghostly JJ is still there, and he waves at Alt again. Along with him and the man in the red hoodie, there are two others. A man with square glasses, wearing a blue turtleneck and a pair of gloves. And a man wearing a snapback cap and red scarf, the ends of his brown hair holding the remains of yellow-green eye. That man is holding a toy dart gun in both hands. He also has... scars all over his arms. Straight and regular. There's also one crossing his eye and one crossing his neck. Wait a minute? Where's the green glow coming from? ...Oh. It's coming from the guy in the red hoodie, who hurriedly closes the door.
Alt’s eyes widen as he takes in all the people in here. JJ, Jackie he’s guessing opened the door and… that looks like Chase. So many scars… does he have as many as Bro? Or even more?
"So," says the man in the turtleneck, fidgeting with his gloves. "Who are you, then?"
“Oh um… I’m Alt. Alt Brody? I’m a magician… from another world.” He stuffs his hands into his pockets and fidgets nervously.
"Another world?" the man in the hoodie repeats. "You mean like in comic books? So that's real?"
The man in the turtleneck frowns. "Does that make sense?"
"I mean... we've seen weirder stuff," the man in the cap says slowly.
It's true, the ghostly man says. He and his friends appeared out of nowhere and they'll disappear just as suddenly.
"I trust J3 on this," the man in the hoodie says.
"It is just a bit hard to believe," the man in the turtleneck says, doubt clear in his voice. "What if this is a trick?"
"I don't think it's any harder to believe than the rest of our lives," the man in the cap mutters.
Alt looks at the man in the turtleneck. “I mean… it’s not a trick. I’m from a parallel world… one where… I’m friends with people who look a lot like all of you.”
Alt looks between everyone as they talk, getting more and more confused. “Wait… how do you know we’ll … do that?” He asks the ghostly man. Then he looks to the hoodied man, “J…3?”
"That's J3," the hoodied man points at the ghostly man.
The ghostly man waves. He reaches up to his neck, grabbing the collar of his shirt--
"J3!" The man in the cap hurriedly steps in front of him. "We can't just--"
J3 steps right through the man and shows Alt something. A tattoo on either side of his neck. A series of letters and numbers.
J3110.
And I know it will happen because I'll be there when it does, J3 says.
The man in the turtleneck sighs. "You are just confusing him more."
Alt staggers back, eyes wide as he sees J3 step through the other man and show his neck. He’s at a loss for words. It’s like… a brand. “C-Can… can you see the future…?” He asks quietly.
J3 nods. In a way. I don't exist in just one time at once. I know it's hard to understand.
"You just have to accept that he knows things sometimes," the man in the cap says.
Alt blinks a lot more at this, “…woah. That’s… insane.” He says to J3.
"You said We're friends in another world?" The hoodied man smiles and looks around at the others. "Do you guys hear that? We're all friends in another world!" His excitement is almost contagious.
Alt’s head whips to the hoodied man and he blinks almost comically at his enthusiasm. He laughs quietly. “Y-Yeah… you are. Are you… not friends now…?”
"Well, I think we are!" the man in the hoodie says. "I mean--we're sort of new to it. We didn't have that much time to get to know each other."
The man in the turtleneck chuckles. "I think we are friends, yes. Even if M is being a bitch right now."
"I'm just so happy to hear that we're still friends in other places," the hoodied man says, beaming. "We don't know an 'Alt' right now, but maybe we'll meet you someday!"
Alt can’t help but smile. “Well… that’s good to hear… I mean to be fair… I’ve only known my friends for like… a year or so? Maybe two? So… I get it.”
Alt does seem to cringe a bit at them not knowing an Alt and grips at his arm. “I mean… do you … know an Anti…?” He asks quietly.
"Anti?" the hoodied man repeats. "That's a weird name. I mean--no offense."
Alt laughs and shakes his head, “None taken. I made it up when I was like 4.”
The man in the cap blinks. "That's... what A called himself... one time."
The man in the turtleneck looks back at him. "What? When did you hear him say that, C?"
"While we were leaving. Wh-when me and J were alone with him for a while." C swallows a lump in his throat. A moment passes.
"Well that doesn't mean anything," the hoodied man says firmly. "Alt here is clearly different. He's not trying to stab us."
Alt listens to the others and sighs, “that’s what I was afraid of… my parallels in other places seem to be very… stabby. And fucked up.” He tries to process all of this and then looks up at everyone. “Wait.. do you all… just go by letters? All of you?”
"Heh. Unfortunately." C pulls away the scarf he's wearing, revealing tattoos reading C1104. "This is all we really have to go off."
The man in the hoodie removes his bandanna next. J1007.
Then, reluctantly, the man in the turtleneck pulls down his shirt, revealing H1509.
"I'm J1, by the way," says the one in the hoodie. "J is someone else."
Alt seems to pale slightly, looking at all their tattoos. “N…no way. You guys don’t… even know your names?? Just a letter? H…how? How did that happen?”
"Well if we knew that we'd be calling each other our names," C mutters.
J3 sighs. There is... a company in this world. A corporation. They like to control unusual things. Including people. But people prove hard to work with, so they remove their memories.
"J3 was only a partial success, though," H says. "Due to his... state."
But even though I know more about the world and what happened, I don't know any personal details of who I was before, J3 clarifies.
Alt looks heartbroken for them, his chest aching. Seeing versions of his friends reduced to just… letters and numbers. Things to control and… experiment with. Just like how SCLERA saw him and chase…!
He’s quiet for a couple beats before he softly says, “…I could tell you… I could tell you your names. If… if you wanna know…”
The group falls silent, their eyes going wide in shock. None of them were expecting this. Even J3 seems a little surprised.
"I... are you sure they are the same?" H asks.
“Pretty sure…” Alt says. “I’ve been… to a lot of parallel worlds. I know all your faces. Every name has been pretty much the same…”
C fidgets. "Um... s-someone called me... something once. It might... be true... So... I don't think it's fair that I might know and you guys don't."
J1 takes a step back. "Um... I-I don't... I..." He shakes his head. "We should all be here when you do that. M and J aren't here, a-and only J3's shadow is."
"And... it is strange, but... it feels like cheating," H says. "Perhaps... you can offer again, later. Perhaps things will be different then."
Alt nods but he looks… uncomfortable. It’s so strange to be around people who just… don’t even have names. “‘Course- wherever you guys want.”
Alt does knit his eyebrows together though, “Okay then… random question. If this is J3 and you’re J1 … who’s J2?”
"Oh, there's not one," J1 says. "There's just J, J1, and J3."
"They are nicknames derived from our subject identifications," H says, indicating the neck tattoos again. "There was never one starting with J2 at the facility."
"Which is weird," C says.
No, because the numbers are dates, J3 say. It just means they didn't pair up a J with someone they brought in on a 20th of a month.
"Ohhh. Still weird. But less weird."
"Ohhh okay.... that makes sense," Alt says. He looks around the room again and then asks, "...so... why are you all just- holed up in a motel room? and you said that ...M and J weren't here? Any idea where they are?"
The group exchanges uneasy glances. J3 leans against the wall, waiting for others to do the talking.
Finally, C sighs and sets the toy gun down on the night stand. “We… escaped from somewhere. A facility run by this corporation J3 mentioned. Th-they’re still looking for us, so we’re hiding from them. And running. We… needed somewhere to sleep, so…” He gestures around at the room.
"Oh..." Alt mumbles quietly. "I'm... so sorry. I... kinda know the feeling but... not as bad as you guys have it."
“J got left behind,” J1 says quietly. “He’s still back there. W-we we’re talking about going back for him. But, uh, when we brought it up…”
“M started acting like a little bitch baby and left,” H grumbles. “He took the van we were using, too. J3 went with him—which I know is confusing considering J3 is right here—” J3 waves. “—but think of him as a version from the future, and our current J3 left.”
“I mean… I don’t blame M for freaking out,” C says. “But still. Did he have to take the van?”
Alt sighs and rubs his head. "Well... it was nice meeting you all but... if you're in hiding I don't want to expose you all... I need to find my brother and my friend... and a dangerous man who's been brought with us here."
“A dangerous man…?” J1 says. “Ooo! We can help! We’re like—we can be superheroes, yknow?!”
J3 nods. I know where your friends appeared.
“Of course you do,” J1 laughs. “Where?”
With M.
“Of fucking course,” H mutters.
Alt blinks in surprise. "...that is like- super freaky. But... helpful!" He laughs. "If you guys wanna help... I'm all for it. Hey- maybe we can get you your van back."
“Love to get the van back,” C mutters. “I don’t think M knows how to drive. I think I’m the only one.”
He then turns to J1 and studies him. "You said you're... like superheroes? What can all of you do?"
“Ooo! Well I am super strong!” J1 bends over and easily lifts up the end on the bed.
“Careful, do not make too much noise,” H says.
“I’m careful!… these days.” J1 gently sets the bed down. “I can also be pretty fast but I have to build up to that speed. And I glow, obviously, and I make people less sad! And then H can heal people while touching them, and C can’t die, and you know about J3’s time thing, and M, when we find him, can do a ton of stuff, he can move stuff without touching and make things suddenly appear and disappear and heat up things—well I guess it’s just those three things when you boil down to it—”
“Jeez, J1, give him some space to talk,” C laughs.
Alt looks impressed and he laughs shaking his head. "Don't worry I'm used to that. Ch- My brother and... my friend are just like that. But, awesome! That'll all be really helpful. The dangerous man- his name is Magnificent... he's a dark magician from my world that is constantly looking for power and he doesn't care who he hurts to get it. Though hm... I dunno if what you guys can do counts for what he's looking for..."
"Ooooo, a magician," J1 repeats, looking excited. "It's really like in the comic books!"
"Well, uh, if we don't count, then we might be helpful," C says. "It means he wouldn't be targeting us? Maybe?"
Alt chuckles at J1's excitement. So much like Jackie... "Yeah... he uh... also goes after his parallels... which I'm pretty sure is M so... best we find them." Alt says quietly.
"In any case, if your friends appeared near M, we need to find him," H says. "J3? Where did you guys go?"
Turn right when leaving the motel and head straight that way, J3 says. And then, abruptly, he disappears.
C blinks. "Just when the shadows start giving you good information, they fade away every time. Well. At least we know where to head."
Alt blinks too as J3 disappears and then laughs, "Guess that happens a lot then."
"Yeah, they don't tend to stick around," J1 says. "The actual guy does, who we'll meet soon if we're finding M."
"Great. Let's go, then." H heads into the bathroom, reappearing with a small black bag slung over one shoulder. "We don't have much to take with us."
"Yeah." C walks over to the closet and grabs a backpack from the floor inside. "Do you think we should be worried about M? If this Magnificent guy is going after him, I mean."
"M can take care of himself," J1 says. "I think he can handle his own. Not sure if he'd win, though... so that's why we're going."
"Hope you do not mind walking," H says to Alt.
Alt chuckles, "I mean... I can try to glitch us- but I dunno how close I can get if we don't know exactly where he is..."
J1 looks confused. "Glitch...?"
"Do you... appear and disappear?" C asks. "Like--teleporting? And it looks all, uh, pixelly and stuff?"
Alt laughs and then glitches from one side of the room back to where he was, "Pretty much yeah~!" He smirks.
"Ooooo!" J1 gasps.
"That can come in very handy," H agrees.
C tilts his head. "A could do that too... but I think it mostly traveled through, like, electrical systems and stuff. And you can... take other people? Huh."
"I can... kinda do that too. But, I try not to do it too often... messes with my brain and shit." Alt says, hunching up in his hoodie.
"But we do not know where he is, so I do not think we could go right there," H says.
C sighs. "You're right. We're gonna have to walk."
"It's gonna be a nice day, though!" J1 says cheerfully. "So let's get to it!"
Alt chuckles, "Walking's fine. Let's get going then."
-----------
Bro and Jackie fall together, landing in a patch of tall grass. It looks like it's around sunrise. On one side of them are some scraggly trees forming a rough forest. On the other side of them is a long single-lane road. A van has pulled off the side of this road, parked directly on a dirt spot by it. It's a white van that looks like it had a logo once, but which was covered up by household off-white paint.
Bro groans and rubs at his head, blearily looking around at the surroundings.
Jackie lays on the ground for a minute, sighing. "Dude... I'm so tired. I think after this I'm gonna sleep for like ... a week."
Bro chuckles, "Maybe you'll actually fix your sleep schedule this time."
"Doubtful." Jackie smirks and then pushes himself up. He looks around, squinting. "Why the fuck are we in the middle of nowhere?"
"Near a freaking- creepy van too..." Bro comments, pointing it out.
"... I hope they don't offer us candy- or a puppy." Jackie tries to joke.
The doors at the back of the van open up, and a man hops out. He’s wearing a white button up shirt underneath a blue T shirt, and has a thick mustache. His eyes land on the two of them, and he freezes.
Then immediately climbs back into the van and closes the doors again.
Bro and Jackie blink at the sight of the man and watch him climb back into the van. They're silent for a second.
"...that looked like Jay." Jackie says.
"No yeah 100%." Bro replies.
"...should we... I dunno... knock?"
"I dunno- what's proper etiquette for trying to enter someone's van?" Bro makes a face, "...Now I sound like Jays."
Jackie giggles.
The man doesn’t appear again. Nothing else moves.
After a bit of waiting, Bro finally sighs and gets up, moving towards the van. Jackie trails nervously behind him.
Bro hesitates, then knocks on the van door. "Uh- hello?" Bro tries to call.
Suddenly, the van door bursts open again. A different person stands there, a man with shoulder-length hair wearing a loose long-sleeved shirt. He glares at Chase and Jackie. His eyes are strange. Normal blue, but with strands of white light dancing across the surface, like sunlight through water.
“Don’t fucking talk to me C, J1!” he snaps. “I don’t care what you say! I’m not coming with you! I’m not going back! Sorry that you wasted the trip out here, but fuck off!”
Bro and Jackie both step back with wide eyes.
Bro puts up his hands in a calming gesture. "Woahhh! Hey I uh- dunno who those... guys are? But- not them! I'm Chase- and this is my friend Jackie? We uh... saw someone we thought we recognize go into that van and so we uh... wanted to see?"
The man pauses. His eyes flick over the two of them, taking in the details. And he starts to look confused. He turns over his shoulder and looks back into the van. “It’s not them,” he whispers, too quietly for Jackie’s non-super ears to pick out. “I don’t know. Are they going to hurt us? Well go check!”
Bro tilts his head. He calls, "We're not gonna hurt you! We just... wanna know where we are. And uh... well- see if you guys can help us? We need to find some people but we're kinda lost?"
The man tenses, looking back at Bro. “Wha—no, you didn’t hear that! You didn’t hear that!” He suddenly closes the van doors.
Bro balks as the door gets slammed in his face.
"...I think these guys might be a tad bit paranoid-" Jackie whispers. Bro tries to hide a laugh.
Then, a moment later, the doors open again, and now the man from before is in front while the second one lingers in the background.
Can you understand me? he asks in sign language.
Bro perks up as the first man pops back in. He nods, "Yeah I can! We both can understand sign language." He gestures to Jackie who is still lurking behind him, almost like a shy child.
The first man sighs. I’m sorry about my friend’s reaction. He’s not good with people, and you look like some guys we know who he argued with. If we can help, I’d like to. You’re looking for someone?
Bro deflates in relief and he smiles. "Yeah... we're looking for my little brother. Andddd someone... not so great. A villain. Tho we did just drop in so... I don't think he's gotten into too much trouble yet." He sticks his hands in his pockets. "We just... need to know where we can go to start looking for them. Cuz- I dunno where the hell we are."
We’re sort of isolated right now, the man says. But there’s a town back there. He points down the road.
“The town’s called Mooridge, I think,” the other guy mutters. He brushes back his hair absentmindedly, and for a moment, the guys catch a glimpse of some sort of black mark on his neck. A tattoo of some kind.
We haven’t seen anyone else, the first one says. But it is early in the day. We were asleep for a while. We could have missed someone.
"Ah, that makes sense." Bro nods. "Well- sorry to disturb you both. I guess we'll head that way."
Jackie looks at Bro and then tugs on his jacket pulling him back to whisper to him, "What are you doing? Shouldn't we be... I dunno- sticking with these two? They're... kinda our friends. And they know how this world works!"
"They clearly don't want to be around anyone, Jackie! I'm sure we can manage on our own..."
The two in the van stare at Bro, and the first looks at the second.
“Can you check?” the second asks. “They’ve already seen my eyes.”
The first one nods. And something flickers. It looks like a copy of him, monochrome and blurry, walks away from him and fades into nothing. Then another one of those copies comes back and walks over to him.
Bro and Jackie stop their conversation to stare wide eyed at the blurry copies coming and going off the first man.
"...am I hallucinating?" Jackie breathes.
"Nooo I see it too. W-What the hell?" Bro whispers. "Uh... w-what are you... checking, exactly?"
I hope you’re not offended by this, but I was checking to see if you were telling the truth when you said you wouldn’t hurt us, the first man says.
“And?” The other prompts.
They’re not.
The other man breathes a sigh of relief.
The first one sits down, legs dangling out of the open doorway. Are you two really from another universe?
“Wha—” the other man chokes in surprise.
The swaps exchange confused glances but kinda just shrug it off- until the first one asks his question. Bro and Jackie also choke slightly- eyes wide.
"How... How did you know that??" Jackie asks, flabbergasted.
You’ll talk about it a lot in the future, the first man says.
“J3, are you sure this is safe to talk about?” The second man asks.
Yes, I trust the three of them.
"You can see the future??" Bro gasps, then smiles, "Just like Jair! Oh- that's really cool! ... I don't think you're an oracle though-"
"Ohhh yeah!" Jackie blinks at the first man and then sheepishly smiles. "Well... since you seem to know so much about us and trust us now... can we get your names?"
J3 smiles sadly. Unfortunately, we don’t know our names. Our memories were lost. So we call each other nicknames.
Bro and Jackie look shocked. “You don’t even know your names…?” Bro whispers in sympathetic horror.
The second man sighs. “I’m M. This is J3. You are Chase and Jackie. Glad we’re all introduced.”
“Oh… well… n-nice to meet you then, M… J3…. Why the 3?” Jackie asks.
Because we know two others who also started with a J, J3 says.
“You know even more people who don’t know their names?! And they- they look like us??” Bro looks absolutely flabbergasted. This whole situation… it’s making him feel… weird. And uncomfy. And he’s not sure why…
Unfortunately, J3 says. Four others, to be exact.
“I… thought you were one of them…one of the Js,” M mutters, glancing at Jackie and then looking away. “Thought him and someone else we know had come here to try and… talk to me. Convince me to do something.”
“Ah- that explains the yelling then,” Jackie says, crossing his arms. “Immm guessing you all split off?”
M fold his arms. “They wanted to do something stupid. Well if they want to do that, fine, I’m not going with though and they can’t fucking make me.”
They might be mad that we took the van, though, J3 says.
“I mean- I’d be mad if someone took my car.” Jackie comments.
Bro knits his eyebrows together, “…what did they want to do?”
"They wanted to go back to that place!" M snaps. "Back to the place we came from! The place where they--where we were--" He shudders, looking to the side. "We were... stuck in this... this facility. A-and the people there, they--they--" And he stops again.
It was not a kind place, J3 signs slowly. But one of us got left behind in the confusion when we escaped. The others wanted to go back for him.
Bro's eyes widen. That... sounds like what Alt told him about... about that place- SCLERA. He shudders and holds his arm. Then, after a beat he says, "...M-Maybe... we could help. We could help you get him back?"
Jackie looks at Bro like he's crazy.
"What?! No! We're not going back there!" M shouts. "I-I don't want to--I really don't want to--I--" He turns around and walks farther into the van, disappearing after sight.
J3 watches him go with a sad expression. Then he sighs and turns back to the other two. I do think we should go get our friend, but... M's experience there was... terrible. I don't blame him for not wanting to go back. But I don't want him to be out here by himself, so I'm staying with him. But... we may be able to help you find YOUR friend, maybe?
Jackie nods, “That’s a good idea. We’d really appreciate that. We don’t wanna get too much into things that don’t involve us.” He slightly nudges Bro.
Bro glares at bit at Jackie but then slowly nods. “Yeah… okay. We need to find my brother, Alt. …god I hope he didn’t end up in this- facility place…”
Hold on, I can check where he appeared, J3 says. Another one of those monochrome shadows stands up and disappears. He nods. You said his name was A-L-T? He didn't appear there. He showed up with our other friends.
M comes back just in time to see this. "You're fucking kidding."
“Heyyy that’s handy!” Jackie grins.
Bro sighs in relief. “Okay… at least he’s safe. Can you… help us get to them? Even if… you don’t wanna see them. Sorry, M.”
M groans for a long time, staring up at the sky. "Fine," he finally says, shortly. "Get in. I'm driving. We can meet them halfway." He climbs out of the van and walks around towards the driver's side door.
Thank you! J3 says. That's so kind!
"Yeah, yeah."
Jackie laughs. That was such a Marvin-ism. Takes him back.
“Thank you!” Bro calls too. Then him and Jackie climb into the van.
The area in the van is mostly empty. There's a pile of clothes in the corner and a handful of blankets and pillows in the center. Clearly a crude sleeping area. Sitting on top of one of the pillows are three plush animals. A purple llama, a rainbow elephant, and a black and white seal. Part of the llama's fur is a bit burned.
As soon as the two guys are in, J3 closes the van doors, leaving the area dimly lit.
M pushes open a window that connects the main body of the van to the part where the driver sits. "J3, can you hand me Lia?"
J3 nods. He picks up the llama plush and passes it to M though the window.
"Thanks." M takes it. A moment later, the engine starts up.
Bro and Jackie look around and then try to find a place to get comfy. Bro sits up against the wall of the van. Jackie sticks close by.
Jackie smiles when he sees the stuffed animals and M grabbing one. “aw those are cute. Remind me of one’s my daughters have. Do the other two have names?”
"Yeah well I'm not a child!" M snaps. Then he pauses. "Sorry. That was... you weren't implying anything. Didn't mean to shout."
Another pause. "Ella and Seth. That's the other two. They're... very important to me."
Jackie blinks in surprise then laughs nervously. “Oh.. well- those are nice names! I’m… um- glad you have them.”
“They’re very cute.” Bro adds with a smile.
"Thanks. I think so, too." M slowly turns the van around and starts driving down the road.
Slowly. J3 knocks on the window. You can go a bit faster, you know.
"Oh, but last night you were complaining about me going to fast."
There has to be a middle ground.
Jackie laughs, “yeah- that middle ground is usually called the speed limit.”
"You know, I don't think I drove a lot before this," M says. "This all feels new. C was driving us before, he said that driving felt familiar. I don't feel that."
C came from somewhere else, like H did, maybe people over there drive more than here, J3 says.
“…are you saying you haven’t driven before??” Jackie asks, suddenly nervous. “I-I have my license if you’d like! I could drive just steer me in the right direction!!”
Bro chuckles, “Hey they’ve gotten this far- seems like he’s at least decent.”
"I-it's just a straight line, it'll be fine," M says. "But, uh. You could come up to the passenger seat if you want. And tell me how I'm doing."
“…yeah sure why not. Practice for when my kids get older I guess.” Jackie mumbles.
Once the car stops he makes his way over to the passenger side and hops in. Bro tries his best to hide his laughter.
M nods at Jackie as he climbs in . "Good to h-have you here," he says, suddenly a bit nervous. Lia the llama is sitting on the drink tray between the two seats. The driver's cabin is pretty generic... except for the world 'AMBREL' stamped across the dashboard. "Now let's keep going." He puts the van in gear again and keeps going.
Still a bit slow.
Jackie smiles encouragingly. He watches for a while before leaning over, “You can step on the gas a little bit more. Try to press with just the front of your foot instead of putting your whole weight.”
"Just the front... okay." The van lurches forward for a moment before M figures out a good speed.
Jackie clings to his seat in slight for a second before he gives M a shaky thumbs up. “That’s good!”
There's someone else who came from your universe with you besides your friend Alt, right? J3 asks. I heard him talking about someone else, and you mentioned someone earlier.
Bro blinks at J3’s signs and then nods. “Yeah… there’s also a… a dangerous guy here. His name is Magnificent. He’s a seriously messed up dude- who can do all sorts of messed up mental magic and like control people.”
J3 shudders. We know something like that. They called it A1010. It can put people in a trance or make them see things. But it prefers to be more... direct.
"Do you think A1010 is still at the facility?" M asks J3.
J3 nods.
"Well in that case, at least we won't have to worry about him as well as this Magnificent guy."
Bro shudders, "Yeah,,, I'd hate to have to deal with two people like that... Mag is bad enough." He can't help thinking about the King and Mag working together. Yeah he'd really like to avoid that if he can.
-----------
Magnificent appears in a room that's entirely white. Walls, floors, ceiling, all white. But the lighting is red, so it's all bathed in crimson. A single door leads into the room, made of metal and halfway slid open. The main feature of the room is a glass wall. Or, three, actually, making a room within a room. Inside the glass is a set of furniture, like you'd find a bedroom, all generic and metal. Cameras are scattered across the area outside of the glass, on the ground and on tripods, cables connecting them all to a corner of the room where the plaster has been torn away, with the cables feeding into the resulting hole.
Magnificent awoke as they fell and so he falls into the room and has to push himself up, his face aching. He growls and bares his teeth, "Fucking... Brodys- both of them! I'm gonna rip that hero into fucking shred-!" He pauses as he realizes where he is and his stomach slowly drops as he pushes himself up to his feet. "W-What... what is this...?" He breathes. Then, his anger spikes and he throws himself at the glass, trying to break out of it.
The glass is surprisingly--unnaturally, in fact--sturdy.
"Um..." A man pokes his head out from around one of the furniture pieces--the free-standing wardrobe. He's wearing a black hoodie, and the sclera of his right eye is bright green. "Who... are you?" he asks timidly. "How did you get in here?"
Magnificent screams in rage, ready to strike again when the voice gives him pause. He straightens up to look back at the other man and tilts his head. He narrows his eyes. "...You can call me Magnificent. As for how I got here... I have no earthly idea. Usually the device doesn't put us in such... situations." He glares up at the ceiling and crosses his arms, trying to hide how unnerved he really is. "... suppose the universe is having a laugh at me." He then sighs and looks back at the man. "Who are you? What is this place?"
"I'm, um... J? J0702. That's what they call me." The man pulls aside the edge of his hoodie, showing that sequence tattooed on his neck. "This is... a facility, I guess? The location is called JSE2012. I-I don't know where it is. Sorry." J gives a small, nervous laugh. "You... got in here with a... device?"
Magnificent makes a face seeing the man's tattoo. "Huh... a facility." He then snorts and waves his hand, "Yes- some device my cub picked up. It takes us from our own world into others. Appearing in a new world is random... hence... my being... here."
"You're from another universe?" J asks. "I... guess I've heard weirder. There are probably things to help you travel to other worlds here."
Suddenly, the sound of static fills the room. Red lights start blinking on all the cameras.
J tenses, staring in horror. "Oh god." He scrambles backwards, glancing around wildly for somewhere to hide. The closet isn't deep enough for him to fit. There's a chest, but it's also not big enough for a grown man to fit. The only real option is the attached bathroom, which is just big enough for a toilet.
"I--If you can get out of here, you should. Or--if you can hide somehow, you should."
Magnificent raises an eyebrow, looking back at J. "And... why is that?" He glances at the cameras and bares his teeth at them. He could always try teleporting out of here.... how did he forget that? He blames Fantastic for scrambling his brain.
A mass of black stuff pours out on the lens of a camera, something grisly. It glitches, breaking into green pixels and broken static.
“Because of that!” J says, running into the bathroom and sliding the door closed. The mass pours onto the ground and then rises again, forming a humanoid shape. And then the figure shifts, turning into… a perfect image of Magnificent himself. Well, almost perfect. The right eye is dangling from the socket.
Magnificent still looks confused then watches the camera thing glitch and- "What the hell?!' He growls at the copy and lights magic in his hands, baring his teeth. "What kind of joke is this?!"
"You see your own face and think it's a joke?" The other him laughs and tilts his head. "That's not a good way to think of yourself." He walks up to the glass, pressing his forehead against it. "Have you trapped yourself in there? Are you too afraid to try and get out?"
Magnificent snarls at the copy. "I can get out just fine!" He tries to teleport out of the glass to attack this cheap imitation!
He can teleport out just fine but- he ends up barreling past the copy and skids on the floor. He seems temporary relived there was no magic barrier or anything keeping him in.
The copy laughs, twisting around to look at Magnificent--first the head, then the torso, then the legs. "You're not that smart, are you?" it says. "Never have been. And not as powerful as you think. Otherwise you wouldn't keep getting knocked out every time you fight someone in these worlds. Maybe you're just a bit... o̴u̕t̴ ͟o̢f̶ ̀y̢o̕ur͠ ̨dep̛th̶.̕"
A knife appears in the copy's hand and it rushes for him.
Magnificent makes a disgusted face and staggers back. Then, he yells out in rage and tries to block the copy's attack but he gets sliced across the arm. He grunts then whips out to blast fire its way.
The copy screeches as the fire burns him. He loses concentration, dropping Magnificent's appearance and returning to a black skeletal look. He crouches close to the ground and shifts again--now looking just like that man from before, J0702. Still with that dangling eye, and with the addition of a slit throat weeping blood. He looks up at Magnificent and laughs. "Always so blunt. Except for when you're not, and even then, you are."
The air behind him flickers, glitches and colored static running together, forming... a spiral.
Magnificent backs up more, watching this thing with wide eyes. "W-What are you?!" He cries. He then watches at the spiral forms- but soon enough he growls, not being pulled into its thrall. He starts to laugh madly, "Fine! You wanna copy each other?! I can do that too!" He spreads out his hands and an array of magic knives appears above him in an arc. He shouts and sends them all flying at the creature.
The creature glitches wildly, avoiding most of the knives--however, a couple hit him, and he screeches again. He disappears and reappears inside the glass wall. And, smiling, he gives a smug little wave. "You ask me what I am? I am ▒A░n░t░i▒, and I am the only one like me in this world."
Magnificent hisses at the creature then laughs, "You call yourself that then? Pity- I know far greater Antis then you. Ones that don't cower behind glass."
"Cower...? Do you think it matters to me where this body is?" All at once, the cameras in the room turn towards Magnificent. Electricity sparks along the cables, turning the floor into a minefield. "This facility is mine now," A hisses. "You will not escape it."
He reaches up towards the lights in the ceiling. His form becomes electric and disappears up into it. The half-open entrance to the room shuts and clicks, sealing itself closed.
"What?!" Magnificent gasps, he tries to run towards the door- seeing if he can try to teleport out of it-! He can't be trapped here, he can't!
He appears on the other side of the sealed door in a long hallway, all with equally sealed doors. There's a hole in the ceiling, through which dangle wires and metal parts sparking with electricity. The ceiling creaks, like something heavy is moving on top of it.
Magnificent tries to keep his panic back as he rushes forward, trying to look for another way out.
Every single door is sealed shut. The only ones that aren't are ones that aren't all that important, leading to janitor closets or electrical rooms that are so full of loose electricity that he can't step inside at all.
"No no no!" Magnificent hisses. Okay... maybe there's... power around here? Something he can use? He tries to look around for any source of magic or power nearby.
Yes, there's power all around, though it feels slightly different than what he's expecting. It's hard to describe. Like someone was recreating a recipe but got the ingredients slightly wrong. It's mostly... above him? On the higher floors of this facility.
Magnificent purses his lips at this. But, at least it gives him a goal. He stops his running and tries to teleport up higher.
The next floor up is exactly the same as the one below--though some of the walls are knocked down, revealing large, featureless rooms beyond.
And inside one of those rooms, a large creature is moving...
Magnificent tries to focus but... what is that thing? He... He's too curious not to get a closer look. He approaches the creature with a tilted head.
That thing turns out to be a giant animal. A raccoon, to be specific, The thing is about ten feet tall, sniffing along the edge . There's a collar wrapped around its neck, on which is written, in massive letters, S1707. It raises its head, looks at Mag, and growls.
Magnificent is startled by the raccoon. "What is the world??" He asks and then shakes his head and looks around for that source of power.
There are several sources around... and the closest is, indeed, the raccoon. But the second closest comes from some way down the hall. It seems like it's actually two sources close together.
...he doesn't want to chance being mauled by a raccoon. He heads towards the other two sources.
In one of the smaller rooms with the walls broken, there's... a cat. A cat right in the middle of the room. It's a very fluffy white one, and it's batting at a ball of purple string. Seems like the power is coming from both the cat and the yarn ball. Oh... it's such a pretty cat, too.
Magnificent inherit love of cats has him softening slightly at the sight. He chuckles and starts to approach the cat, kneeling down close to it and offering it his hand. "Well.. hello there beautiful!"
The cat looks up at him with big green eyes. There's a collar around its neck with the ID W3012 on it, along with a small black box. It meows gently and bats the yarn ball towards him. It misses, and just keeps rolling. It's unraveling... and unraveling... and unraveling... the ball doesn't look any smaller but the string trailing from it is now about ten feet long. Heh. How funny.
Magnificent watches the ball roll with increasing concern. "What... the fuck...?" He shakes his head then tries to pet the cat.
The cat sniffs his hand, then flicks her tail and sits down, purring, allowing herself to be pet. For some reason, Magnificent is reminded of something... Some time when he last felt... content...
How long ago was that...?
...too long. It's been far too long.
Since he became... this- he always yearned for something more. For power... for magic.. for souls. Contentment isn't something he's used to anymore.
So... the last memory that comes up into his head is... uni. He's sitting in the living room, excitedly telling Jackie about a new spell he learned as he works on a costume for class. Jackie is laughing, his cheeks red and Mag feels his own cheeks flushed, having an easy relaxed smile. ...how long has it been since he smiled like that?
He gasps and pulls away from the cat, feeling a... wetness in his eyes. He trembles back from her, his voice caught in his throat.
"Aw... isn't that s̀w̕eet̛?"
The cat's head snaps to the side. It yowls and suddenly bolts. Away from the figure who suddenly appeared.
The black, skeletal figure that soon transforms into... Jackie, just as he looked in that memory.
Magnificent stiffens and then scrambles away from the creature- but his breath is taken away as he sees Jackie. Just how he remembered him.
But that cruel smile ruins it.
"You know you can't go back there," A whispers. Blood starts to leak from his eyes as they roll back in his head.
A choked noise comes from Mag’s mouth at A's words. But, then he growls and shoots a bolt of magic at him. "I know I can't! I-I don't need to!"
The bolt hits Jackie square in the chest and he screams, falling backwards. He lands hard on his back, the front of his shirt burned and smoking from the impact. "M...Marvin...?" he breathes. "Wh-why...?"
And then he breathes out and stops moving.
Magnificent stands there, frozen, his hand still outstretched. He feels like he can't breathe. Part of him knows- knows this isn't Jackie- but the other part of him, that part of his heart that still beats- still convinces him he's human- its screaming.
He backs up, another choked noise of confusion and suppressed pain escaping his lips.
Moments pass in silence. Jackie lies there, unmoving.
Until... "Fascinating," a voice whispers behind him. "I thought you were heartless."
Magnificent shudders and then moves to slash behind him, breathing heavily. "S-Shut up! S-Stop messing with me!"
His claws scrape across A's chest--once again in the form of Magnificent himself--and he falls backwards, laughing. "But it's so fun, isn't it?!" he shouts, still laughing. "And you'd better get used to it! Because you'll be here for a while."
And then his body disperses into pixels and disappears.
Magnificent huffs, a mix of rage and sudden exhaustion. He takes a second to compose himself, breathing deeply. Then, he rubs at his eyes, growling to himself. He shakes his head and goes to move forward... he needs to find a way out of here.
Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 14: The Facility
Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs| JSEFacility
Read SITCV | SATCV Masterpost | AO3 Link
Time passes. Buildings fall into the distance. The sun shifts through the sky. They’re driving through miles of blank countryside. Until they see a fence in the distance. A plain chain link fence with a check point and gate. Beyond the gate are shapes of buildings, half hidden by a swell of hills.
“That’s it,” J1 says.
The swaps had all fallen into various states of anxious dozing for the next several hours. But once Bro hears J1’s statement he perks up and starts to rouse the other two. Alt glitches up and tries to push back the anxiety that wants to swallow him whole.
Jackie yawns and double checks his bag, before slinging it on. “Okay so- the plan is for Alt to glitch us inside, right?” Jackie asks.
J3 nods. We just picture a spot for him to take us, yes? Where should we picture?
“What about the first floor?” H suggests. “Getting to the surface elevator is always the hardest part.”
C parks the van and he and J1 leave the cabin, heading around to the back.
“When you’re ready, Alt,” M says quietly. “Take your time.”
Alt swallows shakily and takes some more deep breaths, giving Seth one more squeeze before gently leaving him on the ground.
Bro pats his shoulder and gives him an encouraging smile.
Alt takes a trembling breath and makes sure he has all his things then says, “We need to link up- just.. try to make sure everyone is touching.”
Jackie nods and goes to grab Alt’s hand, Bro grabs the other. They both offer their hands for the others to take.
J1 takes Jackie’s hand, and C takes Chase’s. That just feels right. From there, H takes off his gloves and grabs onto C while J3 grabs J1 and M grabs him.
Once they’re all linked up the air starts to feel electric as Alt closes his eyes and builds up his power.
Then, in a quick zip they all glitch away into the building. The landing is a bit bumpy but manageable. The air seems like burnt metal and there’s a feeling of static electricity in the air and the lingering feeling of sparks trails in the others’ veins as the feeling of glitching wears off.
They’ve found themselves in a white hallway—completely white, walls, ceiling, floor. It’s almost too bright to look at, like a field of snow. They’re near a T intersection where the hall diverges. Spaced along the walls are doors, some of them normal, some of them looking more secure, made of metal and sliding.
And there’s a man standing here, wearing a white coat. His hair is black and so are his eyes—though his left one is half green. What’s that called? Right, sectoral heterochromia. He looks down at a device in his hands. It looks strangely like the TRVLR, but with the world Ambrel stamped across the back. “So this does work, then.”
C is the first to recover from the feeling of glitching. “Dr. Lawson?”
Alt hears the new voice and immediately crouches down and builds up electricity in his hands, just in case this guy is a threat. He stops though when he sees the device and seems to pale and double checks his pocket to make sure he still has the TRVLR.
Yes, there it is, safe in his pocket. That must be something else that just looks like the TRVLR by inter-universal coincidence.
Bro gets into a fighting stance, “the fuck are you?”
"Dr. Michael Lawson, head of the S-class department," Lawson says, completely unphased by Alt's electricity.
"And direct supervisor of A1010. Meaning the mess downstairs is my fault, to everyone else."
"So he's still running free down there," C mutters.
"Indeed. We've set up a CC barrier to contain it but that takes a lot of the facility's energy, so it's not a permanent solution."
"Wh-why the fuck are you talking to us?" M demands . "A-and what do you mean 'this does work'?"
"Interceptor," Lawson says, raising the device. "It's experimental. Supposed to direct unknown energy to its location while turned on. Very unknown energy." His eyes flicked back to Alt, and then to Bro and Jackie. "You... you're not from this world."
Alt and Bro glare at the doctor with burning glowing eyes.
Alt bares his teeth and snarls out, “What of it?”
Jackie is hiding a bit behind Bro and slowly pops out. “L-Listen mate- we don’t want trouble. We just need to grab our other guy and then get out of your hair. I’m sure he’s already been a… handful- to say the least.”
"You mean the other sudden strange appearance of a person on the floors below?" Lawson asks. "He's stuck down there because of the CCB, too. So, not really. Though every time we manage to take temporary control of the camera system, people are very confused before A1010 wrests it away."
"H-how did you know they were from another world?" H asks.
"We know of the existence of other worlds. This has been the first direct incursion of someone else into ours, though." Lawson shrugs. "It's no matter to me. But what is a matter to me is that the facility director is highly considering collapsing the structure and burying everything below ground. I would not like that to happen. But if I am unable to stop it, you should get your others out."
“Are you… trying to help us?” Bro asks with confusion.
Alt narrows his eyes, not trusting any of this.
“I am trying to complete the number one tenant of my position: not letting the S-class die.” Lawson points down the hallway. “Straight down that hall in the downward stairwell. Believe me or don’t. I will keep the cameras disabled for one hour, more than that will be suspicious.”
“…wow you’re like… really committed to your job-“ Jackie mumbles.
A moment passes in silence.
“J3, what do you think?” M whispers.
A quantum shadow flickers around J3. He’s telling the truth. And I know where J and the magician are now.
Alt still glares at Lawson until J3 says otherwise. He sighs and then nods. “…Alright. Let’s get this done quickly then.”
“Uh.. thank you then, Dr. Lawson,” Bro says politely, starting to push Alt and Jackie towards the hallway.
Lawson nods and watches the group go.
The stairwell is pretty industrial looking, spiraling down for two landings before it ends at the third floor below the surface. Pasted to the walls are small discs, each with three blue dots.
M frowns. “I know those…” he mutters. A beam of white light suddenly shoots out, shearing a line of the disks from the wall, smashing them in the process. “Break them. Otherwise we won’t be able to get out once we go past.”
Alt blinks and then grins, "You don't need to tell me twice." He goes to try to zap a couple disks with some lightning.
Bro goes to try to punch some of them.
The discs shatter under his super strength.
They reach the bottom of the staircase. Down here, the red emergency lighting makes the hallways easier to see, but kind of foreboding.
Surprisingly, there's something already here. It's--J3. One of his quantum shadows. He signs something. Don't let him do it. And then disappears.
J3 frowns. Well that's ominous, he comments.
"It's not good when you say that," C mutters. He's holding his toy gun in both hands again, like he's going to fire at whatever comes by.
Alt's eyes widen at J3's shadow's warning , "...I don't like that..." He whispers.
Jackie grips Alt's pocket knife in his hand, keeping it at the ready.
Bro narrows his eyes at the red light, hating how it almost feels... familiar. Like something he's seen in a dream. "...they need to pick a different color for the lighting in here-" He mutters, trying to keep the mood light.
"This is the emergency lighting," M comments. "It's not normally like this."
"Remember that time you crushed an alarm?" J1 asks.
"Yeah. Because I was stabbed shortly before that. It's a very vivid memory."
"ah- still sucks though. Makes the place creepy." Bro shudders.
M glances at J3. "Where to, then?"
There's another staircase, we need to head that way, J3 says, leading the way down the halls.
Alt anxiously look around the area and stops- seeing what's on the floor before them.
It's just- a mess. Craters and burn marks tinged with green and purple litter the walls and floor. Anything that wasn't bolted down was smashed or crushed or clawed like it lost a fight with an angry cat.
Alt winces. "... Mag was definitely here..."
"...where did he go then? This is like- the exit right?" Jackie mutters.
"Maybe he got sick of trying to get through here..." Bro answers.
"Your man has a temper," J1 mutters.
"That's a massive understatement," Alt replies.
There are two staircases leading down into the floor, J3 explains as they go. He's trying the other one.
They walk in silence.
Until, suddenly, C stops. "Whoa, holy shit." He pushes open a half-slid door. "This is where I stayed."
The room is the size of an average bedroom, and has a bed, a closet, a table and two chairs, and a low table. "There used to be a TV and game console in here," he mutters. "That was my designated entertainment."
Bro and Jackie stick their heads in to look with C. "Huh... kinda barren." Bro says.
"Well it's not exactly an ethical living situation, Chase." Jackie mutters.
"Well I know it's not ethical. Didn't realize it was... barren, though," C says. He glances back at the others who were in here. "Is it?"
"Not... especially more barren than the other rooms... we had," H says slowly.
"I mean- makes sense. They're not gonna give you a lot of stuff if you're... you know."
There's a bit of movement underneath the table.
Jackie shrugs. Bro blinks at the movement and moves slowly into the room, trying to get a closer look.
Alt glitches anxiously out in the hallway, "C-Chase- be careful."
An animal crawls out from under the table. It's... a cat. A fluffy black cat with big yellow eyes. A collar around its neck reads B3012.
"A cat?" C says, confused.
Bro blinks in confusion and tilts his head. "What's a cat doing here?" He hums. He smiles though, "It looks like a fluffy Glitches."
"You're only saying that cuz its black," Alt mutters, "Glitches is wayyy prettier."
Bro laughs and then offers his hand to the cat, pspspsing to it. "Hey little guy! It's okay... not gonna hurt you."
The cat is a bit skittish, freezing when it sees Bro. But, slowly, it creeps closer.
M leans into the doorway as well, gasping. "Oh that's Bee! That's what I call her. I met her and her sister Dub a while ago. I think it was a test? But I'm not sure for what."
The cat sniffs Bro's hand carefully.
"Ha- Bee and Dub- that's an adorable duo name." Bro laughs. Once Bee smells his hand he goes to try to pet her. "Aw... you're a sweet thing, aren't ya?"
"C-Chase- didn't H say not to touch any of the animals??" Alt calls.
"Oh it's okay Alt! It's just a cat!"
"It's probably fine, they didn't do anything to me," M says, shrugging. Bee balks for a moment, before arching her back into Bro's hand, letting him pet her. What a cute cat.
…
C, H, J1, and J3 are all glancing around uneasily. Sure, it might be harmless. But... this place... C shudders suddenly, rubbing a scar that goes around his elbow.
Bro chuckles and pets Bee all over, scratching her chin and behind her ears. "See Alt? Perfectly safe~!"
Alt still seems hesitant but he does look at the cat curiously. ... She is really cute. He glitches over, trying to keep a good distance not to scare her before slowly approaching. He starts to smile wide when he sees her. "oh...! You are a pretty baby..!"
"Are we seriously getting distracted by a cat right now?" Jackie grumbles.
"Cats are cute," M says defensively. "I asked them for a cat plush multiple times after meeting these guys. Nothing."
H groans and clutches his head. "C-can we move fast? I--I am feeling some... I-I don't know what, but I am feeling something ."
The others look unsettled. A shivery, jumpy feeling has settled in their stomachs. And though the cat is cute, Alt, Bro and Jackie start to feel it, too.
When was the last time they felt like this...?
Alt shudders with a quick inhale of breath and stumbles back. He sees- he's back in that awful room with Dr. Cornelius. He's staring at the blinking light of the WITNES camera- hearing the evil presence within taunt him. Pure dread fills him as he looks at his hands and sees his veins filling with bright hot purple corruption. It's eating up all his senses- his thoughts! A voice that's not his slithers through his mind, piloting his body- making him crave destruction and chaos. His core is burning- swallowing him whole. Then- he sees someone else- a woman with blond hair who's grabbing him. She's shocking him- hurting him! Telling him this will help him!
But she lied- she always lied!!
Bro freezes, his head suddenly killing him. He shouts out and grips at it, curling up on the floor as it feels like his skull is threatening to crack in half. He gasps as images start to fill his head- but... it can't be a memory- he doesn't recognize what he's seeing. And yet... part of him knows it must be.
Chase is running- running through sleek sterile hallways, looking behind him as he runs. The lights are red and flashing, alarm bells threatening to burst his eardrums. Still, he runs- he runs because it's all he can do.
Then, a hand lashes out and catches him and he screams, squirming and trying to punch the people who grabbed him. "NO! Let me go!" His voice screams but- it sounds so... young. Like a child.
The sound of clicking heels is heard over the alarms and Chase's stomach drops. A kind face with cool eyes and blond hair kneels down in front of him. "Aw Chase... that was a good attempt! But were you really going to leave your sister behind?"
"NO! I was trying to find him! Where is he?! Where's Anti??" Chase's voice cries, still trying to fight the hands holding him.
"Anthea's in her own tests today, Chase, did you forget? Yours was strength and hers was endurance."
"Stop calling him that! He's not a girl, he's a boy! And his name is Anti!" Chase spits.
The woman looks annoyed and wipes at her face. "That's not what I named her. I wish you both would stop with this nonsense. It's becoming more trouble than it's worth." She sighs and gets up, pulling something from her pocket, a syringe filled with blue liquid.
Chase feels like he can't breathe as he kicks and fights, yelling out, "No no no! Mum! Stop it!"
"Hush now, Chase.. it's time for our next game~!" His mother coos to him sweetly, injecting him with the syringe. And then it all fades to black.
Jackie had watched Bro and Alt collapse and tries to rush over to help them. Then, he's suddenly hit with whatever this is too. It's... a hazy memory. One that doesn't make much sense. Marvin is holding him- magic is spiraling behind him. He looks like he did right before he disappeared. He's talking urgently to Jackie, trying to... convince him of something. Make him forget something. It's hard to remember what... His eyes wander past Marvin towards the floor and he sees Zara there- and he feels cold dread fill his body. He starts to fight Marvin, yelling at him even if he feels weak and dizzy. He doesn't want this! He doesn't want this!! Stop it!! Marvin's face looks furious- he's so angry, his eyes burning a horrifying green. Jackie feels so scared- he's never seen Marvin look like that before. He shuts his eyes- trying to get his hypnotic voice out of his head-!
Jackie crashes to his knees, looking out like he's in a trance. Terrified tears in his eyes as he mumbles for someone to stop- stop-!
Bro is curled up on the ground, panting like he's ran a marathon, tears running rapidly down his face.
Alt is curled up into a protective ball, glitching rapidly and hardly able to stay together as he pants in panic, eyes stare wide out at nothing.
Honestly, the guys from this world don't look too much better.
C keeps rubbing at that scar on his elbow, H clutches at his head and keeps muttering "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry" over and over, J3 has collapsed to the floor and is shaking slightly, and J1's eyes have gone distant... blank and hopeless.
M looks back and forth between everyone. Then he looks at Bee. "Oh. Um." He hurries forward and scoops her up, then runs down the hallway a bit. When the others don't start looking any better, he puts her down on the floor. "Go on," he mutters, nudging her with his toe. "Go find your sister or something."
Bee stares at him, betrayed, and then walks into a doorway and turns the corner.
Abruptly, like flipping a switch, the memories fade, and the anxiety disappears.
The switch happens so fast it leaves them all breathless.
Alt jerks and seems to snap back together- though he's afraid to uncurl, his limbs trembling.
Jackie shudders violently and grips at his head, wanting to crash to the floor completely.
Bro slumps and is still breathing heavily- not able to take anything else in. Even with the switch he feels like he's still trapped in that memory. ...were he and Alt...? He panics, holding a hand over his mouth and looking like he's gonna be sick as he heaves and gasps in breath after ragged breath.
"G... guys?" M says tentatively, looking around at how everyone is a mess. "Is... is everyone okay? Is everyone okay? I-I'm sorry. I didn't... know she could do that."
H keeps muttering under his breath. J1 keeps staring at nothing. J3 slumps against the wall, blinking rapidly. Several quantum shadows get up and leave as he tries distancing himself from what just happened.
"Guys?" M asks again in a quieter voice. "What... Is there... anything I can do?"
"I-it's fine," C whispers. "It's fine."
Jackie eventually groans and shakes out his head, "I... I'm okay... I'm..." He shudders.
Alt tries to speak up but all that comes out is a choked squeak. He's trying to calm down his breathing.
Both of them seem to notice Bro as the same time. Alt glitches over and tries to shake his shoulder. "Chase?! Chase!" Jackie hurries over to his side and crouches down. "B-Breathe man! Breathe! You need to breathe h-here I'll help just follow me!" He slowly starts to demonstrate to Chase, pulling his hand away and showing the movements. Bro is still having trouble- but eventually he seems to start to come back to himself as starts to breathe a bit slower. He's shaking like a leaf.
M walks over to J3, crouching down by him and speaking gently. Words that don't really mean anything, just repeated reassurances of safety.
"H-Here... s-stay with him, Jackie... I'll... try to help the others," Alt says quietly and then shakily tries to shake H.
H yelps the moment Alt touches him. He jolts away and stares at Alt in fear--not fear of him, more like... fear for him. He looks down at his hands, then reaches into his pocket and quickly puts on the gloves he took off earlier. "I am not just a healer," he whispers. "I am a... hurter, as well. To make people sick as easily as to cure them... I-I do not want... Do no harm. Do no harm." He shakes his head. "I--I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Alt glitches back, momentarily shaken but his quick reaction. He stares at H and then swallows and nods. "...It's okay... you don't mean to. That's... that's okay." He sits crossed legged next to him and sighs, "...I think we... all... hurt people when we don't want to. I know I have... a lot."
H takes a deep breath. "...yes. I-it is... not me. It is not me." He looks at Alt. "I am... sorry. If you have felt something like this before."
Alt shrugs, "...you get used to it." He says quietly.
M hold out his hand for J3 and pulls him to his feet. J3 hears the tail end of Alt and H's conversation. He wanders over, eyes still a bit distant. It's in the past, he says. And that's what matters.
H breathes deeply again. He nods silently.
Alt looks up to J3 and nods too, trying to smile. "Yeah."
Jackie has finally got Bro to slow down and breathe and he slumps with relief.
But, Bro suddenly grabs onto Jackie's wrist and pulls him closer, panic in his eyes. He whispers to him. "Jackie I... I saw a... a memory I think... but i.. I've never seen it before and... i-if its true then... me and Alt we... we...!"
Bro has tears in his eyes again and hiccups. "...if its true then... me and Alt are... are-" He looks around at the others- the ones from this world and swallows thickly. "..we're more similar than I ever k-knew...!"
Jackie looks confused and alarmed, "W-What do you mean? Similar to... t-the guys here? But then that means you-" He suddenly goes pale and sits back, "...oh..."
Alt hears Bro's distress and looks back over, eyes widening as he hears his name and starts to piece together his words the same time as Jackie does. He starts to shake even more- afraid to approach now. He holds a hand over his mouth and curls up again. The image of the blonde woman he saw earlier pops in his head again and fills him up with even more fear.
"...C? C?" H asks.
C isn't doing too well. He presses a hand to his head, and looks over at Bro. Slowly, he gets up and moves over to him. And he wraps his arms around him in a silent hug.
Bro is shakily trying to push himself up so- he's surprised by C's hug. He's stiff at first but then he slowly goes to wrap his arms around him too. And then he starts to cry again, gripping onto C tighter. "... I don't want it to be true! I don't want it- I don't... i-i-it's not true...!" He whispers through shaky sobs.
"You can move past it," C whispers. "You can move past it. I never thought I'd get out of here. I thought... I wanted to... But we got out. We got out, a-and we're going to make a new life. You can move past it."
H nods slowly. "It won't go away. But you can move past it."
"I don't remember it- I don't... that's probably good r-right? but i..." Bro hiccups but he slowly listens to the other words. "...w-we've got past it... we're... we're okay..." He whispers.
"Besides... you can't tear down that place if you break down," M adds.
Bro chuckles a bit at M's comment, "R-Right..."
Bro lets go of C and pats his shoulder. "T-Thanks man." He then looks over and sees Alt curled up again- and now it's his turn to give some comfort. He comes over and scoops Alt up, whispering reassurances to him. "Hey... when we get back home... we can... we can try to find out more and... g-get some closure. But they're right... we can move on. We're okay now... we're okay...."
Alt chokes on a very quiet sob and hides his face in Bro's arms- nodding but... needing a minute.
C watches Bro and Alt. "We can wait for a moment," he says quietly.
J3 shakes J1 gently. He blinks, and his eyes slowly regain their life. "H-huh? What happened?"
Jackie smiles sadly at C, Bro and Alt and then goes to kneel down next to J1, "Hey man- you okay?"
J1 blinks again. "I... just..." He looks around at where they are. "I guess... they were right. I couldn't ever escape this place."
J3 shakes his head. What are you talking about? We're only back here for a moment. We'll be out again.
J1 laughs. "I-I know you're like... in the future and all, but you can't know about forever. What if we come back here? I jumped the fence once. They found me right away. They always found me. They'll always find us." That distant look is back again.
Jackie knits his eyebrows together and shakes J1's shoulder, "Hey! That kinda talk ain't like ya, J1! Snap out of it! You got out once, and we sure as hell aren't letting any of you guys stay here- we already made a way out- you're getting out! And we'll burn this motherfucker to the ground to make sure you can't get put back in- okay?!"
J1 laughs dully. "Don't burn it. There are still people and animals in here. Ones that didn't do anything,"
"He's right, though, J1," C says softly. "We got out once before. We've avoided them for a while now. Who's to say we can't shake them forever?"
"It just... seems..." J1 looks down.
The future is never certain, J3 says. But I'm certain that if we stay together, we can shoulder past anything that we couldn't get through alone.
"Exactly- they kept you all apart for a reason- they're probably scared of what you guys can do together! You won't get stuck here again... I'm sure of it." Jackie smiles.
"...maybe." J1 nods, slowly at first, and then faster. "Y-yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Why would they do that? Why else would they be so scared to let us meet?" He gives Jackie a weak smile. "Th-thanks. That... that does help. Thanks." He shakes his head, taking a deep breath. "Alright. I'm ready, but if anyone else needs time, let's wait."
Jackie smiles and offers his hand to help him up. "Anytime, J1!"
Alt and Bro seem to have calmed down and Alt glitches to his feet, wiping at his face. "I...I'm okay... for now. Let's just... focus. We all need to get out of here."
Bro nods and gets to his feet. "...sorry I touched the cat." He says sheepishly.
M shrugs. "It's okay. Sorry I made you guys thought she was harmless. I, uh, don't understand why it wasn't affecting me."
"You're just, uh... what was that phrase we heard the kids use on the mall?" C mutters. "You're built different."
M laughs. "I guess I am. But then again, we all are."
Bro and Jackie laugh at this. Alt gives a weak smile. He glitches back out into the hallway to start their search again.
J3 nods. Alright. Let's keep going.
The group rushes down the hallways. Occasionally they see a stray strange animal but no one wants to get too close after what happened with Bee the cat. Some items litter the floor, but again, no one wants to touch it or anything.
Soon, it becomes clear that they're approaching something. There's the distant sound of... smashing?
"Uh... do we... go towards that?" C asks.
J3 nods.
"...that's probably Mag," Alt mutters. "Temper, remember?" He moves to glitch faster down the hall.
"Just as long as he doesn't hit us-" Jackie groans, trying to keep up.
The group speeds up. They turn a corner, and see a hallway leading to another set of stairs, this one going both up and down, with the part going up plastered with more of those discs from earlier. And in this hallway... is Magnificent.
Magnificent is throwing magic desperately at the barrier, screaming out in wordless anger. He builds up another burst of magic and then freezes as he hears footsteps. He whips around and holds the magic out at the group, eyes blown wide with wild anger and desperation. He almost relaxes for a second before his eyes narrow and he hisses. "What kind of trick are you pulling this time, A?" He laughs a bit unhingedly, "Turning into my cub and his friends?! Ha! I didn't think you could do multiples... and Like I'd believe they'd actually come here!"
The swap exchange glances, unsure how to approach this. "Um... Mag? It's... actually us. We- we came to get you out of here."
Anger flares in Mag's eyes as he suddenly yells out and throws fire their way, "LIES!"
C yelps and tries pushing Alt--the nearest one to him--out of the way, while J1 grabs Jackie--the nearest one to him and pulls him back.
Alt yelps and glitches slightly in C's grasp but lets him grab him. Jackie stumbles back with J1 as the flames hit the floor.
Bro jumps up into the air and then dives down to grab Mag and pin him up against the wall. "Hey! Mag- fucking! Cool it man! We're actually trying to help your sorry ass for once! You're welcome!"
Mag growls and fights against Bro, spitting. "I'm not gonna let this place get to my head! S-Stop messing with me!"
"Hey, um, Mag? If that's your name? If we're A messing with you, then where do you know us from?" J1 gestures at himself and the others from this world.
M walks up to Bro, staring at Magnificent with wide eyes. "Uh...do you need help getting him to stop being, what's the word? Pissy? Cause I can hold him."
Magnificent looks at the others like he's just now realizing they're there. He stops squirming as much- looking at them with confusion. He opens up his mouth to come up with something clever but gets distracted as M joins them. He's starting to get drained again- not having any new sources to try to take and using so much power trying to get out.
Bro sighs and releases Mag a bit, gesturing at M. "Yeah if you have something that could work M that'd be-"
Mag's eyes flash desperately as he lashes out and grabs M's arm, digging his claws in and trying to drain his power.
M's eyes widen. And as Magnificent starts to drain his power, he realizes something--strange. He's taking this power, but... the source isn't draining. And M isn't tired at all. Even so, the power just sort of sits on top of Mag's own, not converting at all.
Magnificent looks confused and then yells as Bro grabs him around the waist and pulls him away. "Goddamnit Mag! Can you like not for 5-?!"
"Wh-what the fuck are you doing?!" M shouts, terrified. Instinctively, he reacts. A strand of white light wraps around Magnificent's neck--
And out of nowhere, J3 runs at M and tackles him to the side.
Bro and Mag freeze as the light wraps around Mag's neck and M gets tackled.
Magnificent's head turns sharply to the side, sharp enough to hurt... but not sharp enough to snap like it would have.
Mag yells out in pain and his head snaps and Bro is startled enough to drop him.
"T-The fuck?! What just happened??" Bro gasps.
Mag holds his neck and stares out wide eyed- now realizing that... he could have just died there... that was so close. If it wasn’t for M getting tackled…
"M! What the fucking fuck?!" H gasps.
"I-I don't know! I--I got scared!" M shouts. He's shaking slightly. "I-I-I'm not a battery!"
J3 pats him on the shoulder. He stares at Magnificent. I understand now, what that shadow said, he says. Don't let him do it.
M clutches his head. "I-I-I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Alt hurries over to M and tries to calm him down, "Hey it's okay! You didn't mean to! It's okay..."
M takes deep breaths. I'm okay, he signs. I just need a moment.
"Well if anything proves we're not an illusion, we got that at least," C mutters darkly.
Bro sighs and rubs at his face. He gestures at C then looks at Mag, "...do you believe us now, Mag?"
Mag thoughtfully holds his neck without looking at them, "...why are you here? I know you all- you'd sooner let me rot here then rescue me."
"Well lucky for you- we're not just here for you." Bro says getting to his feet.
Jackie steps up and glares at Mag.
Mag seems to flinch a bit.
"...As much as we hate you... we're not the kind of people that would just... strand someone here. Even someone like you." Jackie offers his hand to Mag. "...c'mon- we got one more stop to make before we bust you out of here."
Magnificent looks at Jackie's hand like he's afraid it will disappear at any second. He hesitates- then lets Jackie help him up.
"Well... while we're here..." J1 says slowly. "Magnificent. H-have you seen a man while you were stuck in here? Brown hair, and one eye has a green sclera. Kind of looks like all the rest of us."
"Not A," H clarifies. "Someone other than him."
Magnificent knits his eyebrows to think and then eventually nods. "Yes... when I first came here there was another man in the cell. Downstairs- the... lowest floor i think. he hid as soon as A appeared."
C inhales sharply. "That has to be him! Wh-what did the cell look like? Any details?"
"Glass, 3 walls of glass and... basic furniture. The lightning was red. There were many cameras outside the cell." Magnificent says.
"All the lighting here is red now," H mutters.
"That was my room, J3 says. It's on the sixth floor down. There are eight floors total. But I wouldn't be surprised if the bottom two are very unsafe considering A1010 and the more dangerous animals were kept there. He frowns. The cameras are new, though. I wasn't supposed to have any cameras there because A1010 took an interest in me once.
"A must've brought them there," C figures. "To keep an eye on J."
"Well, we know now!" J1 says. "Let's keep going! I doubt the elevators are safe so here we go!" He runs for the stairs.
Bro nods and looks to Mag. "Stick with us and try not to cause any more trouble?" Mag grumbles but nods. The swaps soon follow after the others, running to keep up with J1.
Unfortunately, keeping up with J1 is impossible, as he quickly gains speed while running down the stairs, increasing to inhuman levels.
"J1! Slow down!" M shouts, panting.
But he doesn't slow down. He skips over missing stairs easily, until they reach a landing labeled 6, beyond which the stairs decay into ruin.
J1 opens the door, rushing into the floor--and suddenly shrieks.
Alt pushes to catch up, glitching to be next to him, panting slightly. "J1?! What's the matter?!"
J1 turns to look at him.
J1 turns to look at him.
...
Nope, his eyes aren't playing tricks on him. There are two of them.
Alt gasps and stumbles back. "... oh fuck-"
C is the second one to catch up wtih J1, followed by the rest of the group. He skids to a halt, going pale. "A--!"
"C! Guys! I--I don't know what's going on!" the first J1 says. "I came down here and--"
"No, don't listen to him!" the second J1 says. "He's lying! That's A!"
The other swaps stumble in and blink at the exchange. "It's the second one," Jackie says, pointing, "It's always the one that tries to accuse the other of being the 'bad' one first."
"... how do you know that??" Bro asks.
"I read a lottt of comic books bro."
"What?! Nononono, I was just explaining!" the second J1 shouts, real-sounding panic in his voice.
Jackie pales, "Oh uh- n-never mind I guess??"
"No, you're right, I'm the real one!" the first J1 says. "C! Shoot the other one!"
C goes a bit pale. "Uh... I-I don't think J1 is capable of telling me to shoot someone."
"Right?!" the second one says. "I'm literally unable to hurt people!"
"Shooting A1010 isn't gonna bother him!" the first one protests.
"Wh-what the fuck...?" H whispers.
Bro looks between the two like a ping pong match. "Uh Uh- fuck this is hard??"
After a bit Mag suddenly shouts in frustration and shoots both of the J1s with bolts of his magic, "I'm not gonna play this idiotic game!" He snarls.
The fire hits both of the J1s and they fall back, screaming in agony.
C stumbles back in horror while H rushes forwards, pulling off his gloves again.
M gasps. J3 goes pale.
And then, as H approaches, the two forms of J1 collapse into static, the two parts rushing together to form a whole as A1010 grabs H from behind. "Hey there," he says, twirling his knife in his hand.
"Wh-what the fuck?!" M gasps. "H!"
"Let him go!" C aims his toy gun at A. "Wh-where the hell is J1?!"
"Right here." A's head jerks to the side. Part of the air seems to shimmer, revealing J1 slumped forward on his knees, a drop of blood leaking from one eye. "Can you grab him and this one before I slit his throat?"
Alt gasps as A appears and staggers back. his stomach dropping. Then, he goes to meet Bro's eyes and the two of them nod. Bro flies for J1 while Alt glitches over to try to grab H and glitch away with him.
Alt yoinks H right out of A's hands, and A actually looks surprised.
"Th-thank you," H breathes. Alt hands H over to one of the others.
But Bro doesn't fare as well. Not because he's unable to grab J1. But because the moment he gets close, J1 slams a super-strong punch into his face.
Bro cries out as he gets punched and flies across the floor.
A sees that happen and laughs. "Oh, you two are similar, aren't you? Have some fun!"
J1 lurches to his feet and rushes at Bro.
Bro yelps as J1 rushes him and tries to leap into the air to dodge him. “J1! C’mon man! I don’t want to fight you!”
Meanwhile, A looks at Alt, grinning. "I'm not the first me you've seen, hmm?" His form shifts. He looks like Alt. Then he looks like the vampire Anti from the previous universe. Then he looks like that hologram of Anti-Virus. Then he looks like a royal King with a gold circlet.
Alt’s breath feels like it’s been punched out of him as he sees the other Antis. Especially as he sees the King- he flinches and staggers back. “S-Stop that- don’t-!“ He breathes, voice shaking.
And then A’s appearance finally settles on an Anti with an eye-patch and green scarf.
As he sees the final form Alt yells in anger, magic brimming around him, “STOP IT!” He glitches in front of A then tries to rush at him with a burst of magic.
A shrieks and falls backwards as Alt blasts him. The electricity causes his form to spasm, becoming a glitchy black figure before he recovers, turning into his usual mimicry of J. “Oh, clever, aren’t you? Then again, we usually are.” A glitches forward, swiping with the knife.
Alt bares his teeth in a snarl and tries to send out another blast but he’s not prepared for A to glitch too and is caught off guard- getting slashed across the chest. Alt cries out in pain, staggering back.
J1 misses, going for an attack again—only to be caught by ribbons of white light that wrap around him, pinning his arms to his side. “We don’t have time for this!” M shouts. “We need to get J and get out of here!”
“But A is on the way!” C protests.
“No he’s not!” M points to the side, and white light bursts through the wall, creating an entrance into a room. “Go around!”
Bro blinks in surprise at M holding back J1- and as he makes an entrance into the room he flies through and quickly starts to look around for J.
The room M blasted into is empty. So M rushes into the room, dragging J1 with him, and blasts a hole into the next room. “Keep going! J3, how far is it?”
A ways, J3 says, joining them. Keep going!
Bro nods and hurries after them too.
Alt recovers quickly from being slashed and eyes the hand that A has the knife in as the others start to run- and lashes out magic to try to see if he can blast it out of his hand.
The knife goes flying out of A’s hand as his hand jitters with glitches from Alt’s magic. He scowls at Alt, glitching away to go get it.
“Go go go go go!” H grabs Alt’s hand and starts pulling him down the hallway. He also starts… humming? Or, emitting a hum is a better way to put it, like a radio frequency.
Alt yelps as H grabs him but quickly follows after him, looking confused about the humming.
“Come on, hurry!” C looks back at Jackie and Magnificent and gestures for them to follow while A is distracted.
Jackie and Mag look at each other and then hurry to follow after everyone else.
The group sprints down the hallway, with Bro and M rejoining the others.
Behind them, A1010 shrieks. The red lights get dimmer, making it hard to see, and cables sparking with electricity burst from the ceiling, narrowly avoiding the group as they turn corners and rush through straight sections.
Bro and Alt try their best to bat away the cables and obstacles as the group runs.
Until, finally, J3 darts down a small side hallway that ends in a sliding metal door. He points to it and looks back at the others urgently.
“Guessing that’s it, then,” M says, his eyes glowing. White strips of light dig into the seal where the door is shut and forces it open with the screech of metal.
Inside is the room where Magnificent first appeared, complete with loose cameras. Behind the glass wall, J0702 jumps up from the chair he’s sitting in and stares at the newcomers. He looks doubtful while looking at the guys from this world. “Y-you can’t trick me,” he stammers. “You can’t… wait, who are you?” He looks at Bro, Alt, and Jackie with confusion.
Once inside with J- the swaps all breathe and look at each other.
Alt steps forward, "It's a long story but- we're from another world and we're here to help get you out!"
“From another world?” J notices Magnificent. “Oh, you’re back. You said that too.” He runs a hand through his hair. “Um—alright, I guess? A can’t make new people, so—” And then he suddenly stops, eyes going wide.
Behind Bro, a second Alt appears, slashing down a knife to stab him in the back—
“No!” C shouts, shoving Bro out of the way. The knife sinks into his chest instead.
Bro gasps, quickly turning around to see C get stabbed. "NO!" He cries and tries to tackle the second Alt to the ground.
Alt glitches back and watches with wide eyes, suddenly frozen. "C!"
A goes in for a second stab—and the knife goes through Bro’s arm as he tackles him. He screams in frustration as he falls to the ground.
Bro screams out in pain but tries to keep A down. "F-Fucking piece of shit!"
“I’m fine, I’m fine!” C gasps. There is… so much blood coming from the stab wound over his heart. “Get J out of there! Hurry!”
“Fucking DIE you piece of shit!” A screams at C, glitching out from under Bro.
M runs up to the glass wall, white light trailing behind him. The glass warps to the side, like it’s melting. He runs in and grabs J’s hand. “E-everyone link up! For Alt!” he shouts.
Alt snaps out of his daze and hurries to try to grab C and pull him towards everyone.
Bro flies and grabs Mag and Jackie, putting them all together with Alt, J and M.
"Y-You heard M! Hurry!" Alt shouts. He holds out his other hand for someone else to take.
H grabs onto it, then reaches out and grabs J3, who makes sure he has a good hold on J1. M links onto them in turn. “Go go go!” he shouts.
A screams and lunges forward, trailing electricity—
Bro grabs onto Alt's shoulder and Alt quickly closes his eyes and pictures the van- glitching them out of there.
And suddenly, the hellish red light of the facility is replaced by clear sunlight. The group has appeared right next to the van.
J1 suddenly gasps and stumbles back, rubbing his eye. “W-woah. I wasn’t expecting that. You weren’t kidding about that hypnosis holy shit.”
J looks around. Confused at first… but that soon gives way to awe. “Oh. O-oh it’s… it’s so pretty out here.”
C laughs. “I know, the pictures don’t do it justice.” He starts to give J a hug. “We missed you. I’m sorry it took so long.”
J laughs. “I-it’s okay, really. Dude, you are covered in so much blood.”
“Yeah that’s what happens when it hits your heart. And a lung too, feels like.”
Alt shakes himself out and then wavers to sit down on the ground, catching his breath.
M sits down next to Alt. He doesn't look tired. He must just be there to support or something. Then J3 sits next to him to support.
Magnificent slinks away from the others, going to curl up by the van and process everything.
Jackie goes and pats J1 on the shoulder, "You good dude?" Then he balks and looks at C with wide eyes, "WAIT WHAT?!"
“I will be with you in a moment, C,” H says, grabbing onto Bro. That humming starts up again, and suddenly the wound on Bro’s arm closes up. “Huh. Normally that takes much longer.”
Bro staggers for a second before H heals him. He blinks and then grins, "Oh yeah- I'm usually a fast healer! Super healing~! Or like- super regeneration and... stuff." He looks back at C too and looks freaked out, "Wait wait- it was that bad??! H- forget me hurry and get to C!! How.. how are you still alive?!"
"Oh, um... yeah, J1 only mentioned that to Alt, and only really in passing," C says, giving a little, wheezing laugh. "I, uh... I can't die. Or at least, I can't be killed by most things." H latches onto his arm and the humming starts up again. "I've been, uh, stabbed, shot, fell from a high place, they injected me with some stuff that I'm pretty sure were poisons, I don't bleed out, I don't suffocate... I mean, I might die if you strap a bomb to me but I think I'd actually just exist as a bunch of tiny pieces so I really hope that never happens."
"You know you're probably freaking them out, yes?" H mutters.
The swaps indeed do look freaked out. "Y-You went through... a-all of that...?" Bro asks in a small voice, looking pale, "That's... that's insane."
"...seems useful," Mag comments quietly.
Jackie whips on him and glares, "Your opinion is not wanted here, bitch."
"I mean... he's right, it can be," C says slowly. "But mostly it just... Well, honestly, I think the concept speaks for itself."
Alt checks on his own chest wound, trying to see if its still bleeding. As he does... he sees A in his head again- becoming all those other Antis. It makes him shudder.
"We are not going back there, so hopefully, this will never happen again," H says firmly. He glances at Alt, noticing him checking the wound. "Oh, sorry, Alt, I was not able to finish healing that. I will be right with you."
The chest injury isn't bleeding as much, and it seems shallower.
Alt blinks up at H and then smiles, "Oh- I wondered what that humming was. Thanks H just... take your time. I'm okay."
J looks around. "So... I guess you guys... from another world... that's not normal there, either." He blinks. "I probably shouldn't introduce you to Sam, then," he mutters. "Well... are you all okay?"
Jackie laughs and shakes his head, "Yeah no... as the most normal out of this group- ... none of this is normal. But, I have two superpowered friends so... kinda used to it? ...kinda being the operative word-"
"We're all good it looks like!" Bro says with a smile. "Even better now that we know you are okay! Hearing about you being trapped down there was awful- I'm so glad we could help!"
“Heh. Yeah… thank you.” Tears we’ll update in J’s eyes. “Thank you so much. I thought we’d be stuck there.”
J1 shakes his head. “We wouldn’t have left you there.”
“Y-yeah…” M whispers.
Alt smiles at the others, "...things can be different now."
Bro nods, "You can move on... start a new life. Far far away from this hell hole."
“Hell. Yeah.” C nods. “We can take this van and drive somewhere far away. Find some way to make money so we can buy stuff. Try to figure out who we were before.”
H lets go of C’s arm, going over to Alt and gently taking his hand to finish healing. “Speaking of… you said you might know who we are, back when you first showed up.” H looks at the others. “If we want to know… I mean, it will be helpful to have names to introduce ourselves as…”
M blinks. “You do? You mean… because you know us in your world?”
The others are quiet for a moment.
“I think I’ve figured it out.” C nods at Bro. “It wouldn’t be fair for the rest of you to have to not know.”
“I’d like that,” J whispers.
The others all nod.
Alt blinks and looks around at the others. Then he smiles at glitches to his feet. He nods to Bro and Jackie. "...why don't you two go first."
Bro smiles and extends his hand out to C, "...good to meet ya, Chase Brody."
C--Chase smiles, taking Bro's hand. "Good to meet you, too."
Jackie hesitates then laughs going to J1 and clapping him on the back, "...how do you do, fellow Jackie?"
J1 blinks. He laughs. "Jackie, huh? Jackie... y-yeah." Jackie shakes his head, smiling. "Yeah, I'm... yeah."
Jackieboy shakes his head with another chuckle, "I dunno what your last name is though... I think that changes in each universe."
Alt glitches to his feet then looks at M, "Umm.. same for you M... your last name kinda changes but... You're Marvin."
M nods slowly. "That feels right," Marvin says slowly. "J1--Jackie. Do you want to have the same last name? We could be related or something."
Jackie laughs some more. "Sure, M. Sure, Marvin. We can do that."
Alt looks to the others and starts to point, "J3, you're Jameson Jackson.”
J3 nods. That feels right, Jameson says. He looks down at his hands, then makes the J sign twice. That's me. He grins.
Alt grins back. “You're Jack Mcloughlin, J.” He says, pointing at Jack.
"Jack and Jackie, huh?" J, Jack, smiles. "That's funny. That's... I-I don't mind, it feels right, like J... Jameson said."
“and H, you're Henrik von Schneeplestein." Alt smiles fondly.
"What an odd name," H mutters. But then Henrik smiles. "You're all right, though, it feels right. It matches my voice when I hear myself."
"Thanks, Alt," Chase whispers. "Thanks."
Alt smiles so big, he even feels his eyes get a little misty. "... it's nothing... I'm just glad I can help."
Bro stretches and shakes himself out, "Well- with everything wrapped up so nicely- suppose its time we try to get back home again. Or... wherever the TRVLR wants to take us next."
Alt sighs, taking out the device. "Yeah... guess we better move on too."
"Man- I was secretly hoping for another nap," Jackie laughs.
"You slept like the whole way here!" Bro argues.
"I have insomnia, bitch! I'm always tired!"
Mag snorts and rolls his eyes, getting to his feet. ...he could turn all of this to chaos... but... considering what the others did for him... he supposes he can act on good will. ... for now at least.
H nods. "I feel you with that insomnia, Jackie. Or, ah, I suppose I should call you other Jackie now?"
"I'm glad we could meet you guys," Chase says, smiling. "Not just cause it helped us figure out who we are a bit more. You guys are... you're good guys."
The TRVLR lights up as Alt powers it on. This universe is identified as UA-1030019TF.
"So that's what takes you to other worlds, then," Marvin mutters. "It does look like something the company would make. No wonder that doctor wasn't surprised to hear you guys were from another universe."
"I guess that makes sense... if they made all those... creatures in there. And... you guys? Kinda?" Alt shrugs.
They didn't make us, Jameson says. They just... found us. In which case, I wonder how we got these abilities in the first place.
"It was nice to meet you all too though. ...we'll come visit someday. Check in to see how you all are doing." Alt says.
JJ smiles. I'd love to see you all again.
Bro grins. "Yeah! We'll catch back up and... I dunno- get Mcdonalds again." He laughs.
Jackieboy rolls his eyes, "Nah- I'll cook us something! Better than that place-"
"You can make food better than the fast places?" Jackie gasps. "Ohhhh I waaaant it."
Jackieboy laughs, "Hell yeah! We'll make a feast!"
Jack laughs, nudging other Jackie. "Maybe you can learn to make it yourself."
"That'd be amazing. New goal, learning how to cook stuff."
"I'll learn with you J1--Jackie," Chase says. "We can show you guys how we've improved if we see you again."
"It was lovely to meet you," Henrik says, smiling gently.
"Goodbye," Marvin adds. "Maybe goodbye for now."
"And... thanks again." Jack looks at the world around him with awe.
Jackieboy goes over and grabs Mag, who grumbles a bit. Alt smiles and takes Jackie's hand and Bro takes his. Alt looks back at the others and grins. "Well- until then, take care of yourselves, okay?"
Then- he clicks the jump button on the TRVLR.
The group falls into darkness once again, and once again, there is that ripple. They are pulled off course, heading somewhere else. A snowflake's journey cut short when it is caught on a hand.
Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 9: Shadow City
Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs
Read SITCV | SATCV Masterpost | AO3 Link
Bro lands somewhere unfamiliar yet again. This time, it's the living room of a suburban house. There's a hallway extending to the left and an archway leading to a kitchen in front. Behind him is the front door, and a wide window showing a nighttime cityscape. The walls are covered in pale blue wallpaper and the furniture is all generic shades of brown. Something about it screams 'rented, not owned.' But there are little personal touches all over. There's a TV stand with a flatscreen TV and a couple video game consoles attached. An old-looking mirror in a coppery frame hangs on the wall. And there's a laptop on the coffee table, connected to a set of speakers. It's playing music. "🎵 Come and breathe the air into my lungs, I just wanna be your skeleton... 🎵"
Bro looks around and scratches at his head. "What the hell...? Again? Fuck... that doesn't look like Brighton at all..." He blinks at the music coming from the laptop and points at it. "OH! I know this song! Alt loves this band!"
As if responding to him, the music abruptly shuts off.
"Oh- well- oops?" Bro whispers, looking around the place some more. "Um... helllooo?"
Quiet for a moment. Then--it sounds like footsteps behind him. Close behind him. But there's nothing there. Even as a cold breeze passes right by him, like someone brushing past.
Bro whips around, trying to figure out where that breeze is coming from or the footsteps. "Um-! I-If someone's there I'm sorry for technically breaking in but if it helps I didn't mean to!"
The TV turns on, but it only shows static. And, directly in his ear, a voice whispers, "Get out."
Bro lets out a loud-pitched scream of terror and ducks down, covering his head.
And then the front door opens and a man walks in. "I'm home!" he announces. "What--" And then he notices Bro, ducking down in the middle of the floor. He blinks, clearly confused. "Uh..."
Bro comically peeks his head out from under his arms and then hops up to his feet. He waves stiffly to the man and smiles nervously. "Hiiii! Sorry uh- didn't mean to intrude just- ... bro i think your house is fucking haunted-!"
The man laughs. "Uh--okay." He has brown hair pulled back in a small manbun and a thicker beard. Over his button-up shirt is a blue jacket with the letters SPDFI on the lapel. "Yeah, I know it's--hold on." He looks away from Bro and towards the TV--not at it, but at some point near it. Then back to Bro. "Um... so... that's a very impressive shapechange, but the guy you're pretending to be doesn't live here anymore, so it's kind of obvious you're not him. How'd you get in? I thought the place was warded."
Bro blinks rapidly, "...those are a lot of words I'm only vaguely familiar with-" He says plainly. "I'm... not a shapeshifter though... but I'm guessing you know a Chase Brody? Cuz I'm him- but from another world." He grins nervously, "Tah-da?"
The man blinks. "Another world...? Well that would explain why I can't see through it. Yeah, I know a Chase, he's--"
And then he abruptly stops, looking back towards that spot near the TV. "Well, it's not the craziest thing," he says. "Did you turn the TV on? Can you turn it off?"
A pause.
He chuckles. "Alright, I'll do it." And he walks over, picking up a remote from the coffee table and turning the television off. "Whatever's happening here, I think it'll help if he could see you, you know."
Bro looks back and forth over his shoulder and knits his eyebrows together in confusion. "Ummm.... who are you talking to??"
"Ya see?" the man says, glancing at that spot again. "I look like a fucking lunatic."
Pause.
"It'll be good practice, at least."
Pause.
"Okay." He looks back at Bro. "Something's about to happen. Promise not to freak out."
"I can try my hardest not to!" Bro laughs nervously. "As long as I don't get like- jumpscared again."
The man laughs. "Alright. Ready."
And then someone... appears next to him. A man who's not entirely there. He's translucent and his coloring is pale, like someone put a layer of white over a digital drawing and then lowered the opacity. Parts of him are more transparent than the others, mostly parts of his stomach and upper arms, and his legs fade away entirely. But most startling is his head. His eyes are empty, black sockets, and dark near-black blood drips down one side of his head from a hole just under the cap he's wearing.
Bro can't help it- he screams and ends up hovering up in the air, hitting the ceiling in his attempt to get away. He curls up on it and then blinks comically at the man and the see-through man. "Ah... s-sorry- wasn't expecting the... the blood and eyes and- ... yeah-"
"Whoa!" The man jumps in surprise, looking up at Bro. "Um... okay, then?" He glances at the transparent man.
"Chase, the eyes, you're forgetting the eyes again."
"Sorry," the transparent man says. He blinks, and now there are normal gray-blue eyes where the empty sockets were. "Um... I can't do anything about the blood, though." His voice is quiet and whispery. It almost sounds like someone is repeating what he says a half second after he says it.
Bro's eyes widen. "Oh y-you're... you're..."
It feels like his breath gets knocked out of him as he looks down and sees... a ghost of himself. He slowly floats back down but can't take his eyes off the ghost. "... t-that's what you meant by he doesn't live here anymore... huh-" He breathes, looking freaked out and pale.
The ghost him rubs the back of his neck. "This is probably pretty shocking for you, huh?" He laughs awkwardly. "I-it was shocking to me when it happened. Sorry for... trying to scare you off. You just... appeared. It freaked me out."
The hero swallows shakily, trying to push back some hard hitting memories before they make him spiral. "I-It's fine I'm sorry for- f-freaking you out."
A moment passes in silence.
"I'm Jack, by the way," the man says. "I see ghosts and stuff. And... you're not... a witch, are you? You're... really some other version of Chase?"
Bro looks back at Jack and slowly smiles. "Oh- hi, nice to meet you. No, not a witch. I'm... a super hero actually? But yeah I'm... Chase Brody. Even got my ID if that helps-"
Jack shakes his head. "No, that's fine. Just hearing you offer that, uh, helps. It's just... really weird." He laughs. "A superhero. Can't fucking believe it."
"Can't believe it?" the ghost Chase repeats. "Magic is fucking real, and the superhero thing is what you can't believe?"
"Well, it's a different kind of thing, y'know?"
Bro laughs and shakes his head. "No I get it- far as I know in my world, ghosts don't exist so..." He glances at Ghost Chase and then quickly looks away again.
Jack looks at Bro. "So, uh... what're you doing here, then? On some sort of hero mission across universes?"
"Um... no we just got... lost.” Bro says, “This was supposed to be a fun trip for our friend but now our device we use to travel is... broken, I guess. We were supposed to be home by now..."
"Oh. That... sucks." Chase says. "Sorry it's not working." He notices Bro avoiding looking in his direction and glances down at himself. He becomes just a bit more transparent.
"Wait, 'we'?" Jack repeats. "There's more of you?"
"Yeah... I got my little brother, Alt and my best mate, Jackie," Bro says, "And... a villain named Magnificent. God- I'm guessing there's magic again here... He's gonna be hot on the trail for that." The hero groans, rubbing at his head.
Chase blinks. "You have a brother? And a Jackie?" He smiles. "That's great."
"Not so great about the, uh 'villain,'" Jack says. "Magnificent? Huh. I'm guessing he's a witch if he's going after magic, then. I can call some friends and ask them to keep an eye out for him. In the meantime, can you, like, call your friends? Or do you not have a phone? Or, uh, do they not work between dimensions?"
"Didn't you say something about interference, Jack?" Chase asks. "Tell him about that."
"...fuck, you're right." Jack sighs. "Ghosts and magic interfere with radio waves, including cell calls and WiFi. It's not normally that big a problem, but it might be worse for you? For some reason? I don't know, just thought I'd better warn you."
Bro digs out his phone and then sighs, "Aw- we had such a good streak going of places with wifi... shit." He shakes his head. "But, don't worry. I can at least find my brother and Jackie. My brother is... a witch too. I guess that's what they're called here! But, he made us these tracking bracelets so we can find each other." He shows the bracelet off for them to see.
"Whoa, really?" Jack walks closer to see it, and Chase does too--though it's more like he glides along. "Weird runes. Then again, I don't really know much about magic in the first place. How does it work? D'you need to activate it?"
"Yeah, I just need to speak the phrase and it'll show me where to go!" Bro says proudly. He touches the gem on the bracelet and whispers 'rianú' to it. And soon enough will of the wisp type magic blossoms into the air. creating a trail. "Blue means they're close and green means they're farther away!"
Two trails drift diagonally across the room, heading out the front door. They're similar in shade, but one is a bit more blue.
Jack walks across the room and looks out the window. "Huh. Looks like they're heading downtown."
"Oh cool!" Bro says, looking like he's ready to follow after Jack.
Meanwhile, Chase stays where he is. "Um..." he says quietly to Bro. "Hey. I, uh, noticed you were uncomfortable earlier. Can I ask a, uh... blunt question? Does this... bother you?" He gestures to the blood. "I mean... the location?"
Bro stiffens ever so slightly as Chase speaks up. Bro is quiet for a second before he looks back towards Chase with a somewhat haunted expression. He meets Chase's eyes- looks at the wound and then quickly looks away, "um... y-yeah. Sorry I just..." He touches his own scar on his head quietly.
Chase nods. "Yeah... if you're me, I thought it would be like that. I-if it makes you feel better... I didn't do it. I-I don't remember what really happened, but I know it wasn't me. Someone just... made it look that way."
Bro looks back towards Chase with a bit of surprise. "...o-oh." He pauses and then laughs a bit sheepishly, messing with his hair. "...that's... a bit of a relief. Still... hard to see a version of you that's... a ghost."
"Yeah. I can imagine it would be really disturbing." Chase nods, and gives him a small smile.
Bro looks at Chase with sympathy, "...I'm sorry that... that you died. I hope you can find out what happened..."
"Thanks. I-it's... very different, as a ghost. But I'm adjusting. And me and Jack are working on figuring that out."
Bro nods with more of a smile, "Hey... at least you're still around somewhat. That's good- you can give whoever did this to you some hell."
"Heh. Yeah." Chase grins. "I'm gonna stick around until I'm ready."
Jack has been waiting quietly while the Chases talked. Then he clears his throat. "So. Uh. D'you need me to drive you after these trails? I mean, I know you can fly, but that's not normal here, so unless you can turn invisible now you might not want to attract attention."
Bro blinks back at Jack and then deflates with a slight pout, "Awww man, I can't fly again! This is bullshitttt." He playfully whines. Then he refluffs his hair and sighs but smiles at Jack gratefully. "If you wouldn't mind, that'd be great."
"Yeah, it's not a problem," Jack says. "I mean... gotta be honest, I'm new to driving, but not too new!" He looks at Chase. "Do you want to come, too? Could be good practice leaving the house."
"Everything is practice for me with you," Chase says, rolling his eyes.
"Well you need it."
"Alright, if you and other-me are fine with me coming, I will. I want to meet this, uh, Alt? And the other Jackie."
Bro smiles, "Yeah, Alt. Also goes by Anti but- only I call him that." He shrugs, "I don't mind! We'll just- need to make sure to keep them informed about the ... head thing."
"Anti?" Jack frowns. "I think I've heard that name floating around somewhere... rumors or something." He shakes his head. "Well, I'm sure it's nothing."
Chase self-consciously raises a hand to the side of his head. "Yeah... it tends to freak people out if you don't see a lot of ghosts around."
"Which most people don't," Jack says. He grins. "I'm special. Anyway, we better head out fast, then." He takes off the jacket he's wearing and throws it over the back of the couch. "Out of my work clothes and ready to go. Let's find your friends."
Bro laughs and nods, “Let’s go!”
-----------
Alt appears on a strange city street. Tall, narrow buildings surround him, most of them shops of some kind. Street lights provide puddles of yellow light to see by. No cars are passing by. Next to him is a shop with a sign identifying it as 'Magnificent Magics'. And there's a man in the shop window staring at him.
Alt blinks as he appears in this new city. Then he curses loudly and takes out the TRVLR again, almost wanting to rip it apart as he whisper-shouts, “what is wrong with you, you piece of shit?!” He then realizes he’s being watched and he meets the man’s eyes with a bewildered expression. Especially once he sees the name of the shop.
The TRVLR briefly displays the universe as UA-1313025SC before the low battery icon appears.
The man raises a hand in greeting. Then he walks over to the front door of the shop and opens it, still looking at Alt. His hair is chin-length in a half-up style, and he's wearing one of those sleeveless black turtlenecks underneath an open button-up shirt. The shirt has elaborate flower designs on it, like they're growing from the bottom upwards. What's the name of that style? Art noveau, right. "So... are you going to come in, or did you teleport directly outside my shop by coincidence?" he asks.
Alt freezes as the man approaches and almost starts to glitch away but stops himself. Even if pixels pop and fizzle around him. “Um… y-yeah sure…?” He says quietly as he approaches the door.
"Alright, come on in then." The man laughs a bit. "Cool magic. I haven't seen anything like that." He stands aside so Alt can walk into the shop.
Inside is... a bit strange. It's like a bookstore, a witch's hut, and a cat cafe all got merged together. Bookcases line the walls, filled with all sorts of books. Paper cover, hard cover, leather cover. There are also various trinkets on the shelves. Candles and crystals and bottles and incense and more. There's a counter at the back of the room with more of these trinkets, and a cash register for purchases. Two doors behind it lead deeper into the building. Bundles of plants dangle from the ceiling. There's a cat tree in each corner of the room. The air smells like pine needles and mint. The main body of the shop is filled with small round tables, all covered with silky tablecloths in various jewel tones. Some of them have more books or trinkets, but some are empty. At the very back of the room, near the counter, a man sits at one of these tables.
Alt looks around the shop with wide eyes and awe. This place is amazing- it almost puts Blaise’s shop to shame.
As soon as Alt comes into the shop, he's swarmed by cats. Wow, that's a lot of them. A black-and-orange tortoiseshell cat, a white cat with gray patches, a fluffly black one and fluffy white one that look like a pair, a small black one, a ragdoll one, a fluffy brown one with only three legs, an off-white one with darker ears and tail and stripes on its legs and face--wait a minute. Some of these seem familiar.
Alt’s eyes widen and sparkle as he bends down to look at the cats, looking beyond happy to see so many. “Oh!! Hello babies!!” He then blinks as he realizes. He’s… he’s seen cats like a lot of these before. That’s… weird.
"Hey! Give him space!" the man nudges the cats out of the way with his foot. "Sorry about that. They're not usually that clingy... I think. Most of them aren't mine. But they are up for adoption, if you're looking. Except for Sam and Higgins."
“It’s okay I don’t mind!” Alt laughs, “Unfortunately I don’t think our apartment, or my brother, can handle another cat. As much as I want one.”
"That's fair. They need a good, safe home," the man says. "Alright. Well, I'm Marvin, I'm the owner. What're you looking for? I have just about everything. Though, hmm, what are you, a chaos witch? You guys need some weird shit sometimes so that might be the exception. And if you're looking for a reading, I have to tell you I don't work with the French or Thoth arcana, only crystaleye and traditional cards."
Back in the back of the room, the other man in the shop watches. Is he... staring at Alt?
Alt gets to his feet after petting a couple cats. He blinks as Marvin explains about the shop- curious how he knew about Alt’s chaos magic. He seems excited about the tarot. “Oh! I was learning about those from my mentor! Still don’t really know how to do a reading but- god it’d be cool to get one…” He blinks and looks out at the other man. …why is he looking at him? He tilts his head slightly.
"Really? Were they teaching you traditional arcana? Because like I just said, I don't work with those decks..." Marvin trails off as he realizes where Alt is looking. "Oh. That's JJ, he's a friend of mine."
JJ waves at Alt. Now that Alt is really looking, he can see the identifiers of Jamesons across universes. The mustache, the neat hair and clothes. This JJ is wearing a blue vest over a white button-up, the style old-fashioned, maybe from the early 1900s. He's also very pale, wit a slight gray tinge to his skin that looks kind of unhealthy. "We were hanging out, but don't worry, I'm still open," Marvin continues.
Alt blinks and then smiles and waves at JJ. “Oh no worries! Sorry get kinda- paranoid with stares.”
Sorry, you just look like someone I know, JJ says, absentmindedly.
"Oh, JJ just said you remind him of someone," Marvin translates.
Alt seems to freeze a bit at this- looking back at JJ. “…I look like someone you know?” He asks quietly.
JJ blinks. That was my exact wording. Oh! Do you know sign language?! he asks, looking excited. "I guess he must, cause I didn't translate that directly." Marvin grins.
Alt grins too, “Yeah I do! One of my friends is deaf.”
Alt is practically buzzing with energy - this shop is like a candy store to him. “About the tarot though!! We do traditional like the standard 78 deck, but they were telling me about the variants! But god I also want to know what you have for Chaos magic! I haven’t met anyone who can just openly say they do chaos magic!”
"And what're you talking about? I mean, chaos magic is rare, but it's not like it's taboo or anything. I mean, some witches are gonna be assholes about it, but they're probably just jealous that they can't figure it out." Marvin chuckles. "As for what I have, there are some grimoires with chaos spells over here—usually the ones with bright covers—and I got some mantras and mandelas and dice, and of course the generic supplies like candles and shit."
Alt flushes at Marvin’s statement and he messes with his mask. “Oh well- it… kinda is where I’m from? But man… magic is so accepted here!” He beams.
Marvin leans back against one of the tables. "Well I mean... don't go doing magic out in front of the everydays, or the Night Council will have your head, but yeah. There are witches all over Scuabyrg. There are more vamps and wolves, though, I think. Where're you from, then? You don't sound like you're from too far away. Oh, uh... I'm also realizing I didn't get your name."
Alt blinks at the new phrases but easy enough to gain the meaning… Everydays must be normal people and the Night Council must be like the magic circle back home. He can’t help but balk at the casual mention of vampires and werewolves though. But he tries to shake that off as he laughs nervously. “Oh! My name is Alt, Alt Brody. Umm I’m from a place called Brighton but… alsoimfromanotheruniverse?” He says really quickly, ears turning red.
"Brighton? I've never heard of--wait a minute." Marvin stares at him. "How'd you get here, then?"
JJ, who had paused to take a drink from a glass sitting on the table, makes a choking sound. He sets the glass down again and quickly signs, You can't just take him at face value! That's ridiculous!
"I mean, he could be fucking with me," Marvin says slowly. "But I prefer to be optimistic about people."
Alt laughs, “T-That’s a good trait to have- but um…” He takes out the TRVLR. “I have this device that I can power with my magic- and it can take us in between universes. Parallel ones, actually.” He looks down at some of the cats and laughs. “It’s funny- even some of the cats here look like ones I’ve seen in other worlds.”
JJ stares at him with obvious doubt, but Marvin's eyes light up excitedly. He grins. "I knew it. I knew someone would figure out a way to travel between worlds eventually. You know, I know there are other places beyond this one, but no one ever fucking believes me. Like, they think I believe in the theory of it, no, I know. I mean... I've never personally seen any, but I know. Cause of magic. Fuck yeah." He looks at the cats, who are all busy getting underfoot or climbing the cat trees. "Hmm... if these are cats who exist in other worlds too, maybe that's why they keep showing up here. Maybe they know a 'me' in these other worlds."
Alt looks excited too, buzzing with glitches as he grins, “Fuck yes! Someone who believes us right away!” He looks down at the cats again and laughs, “Yeah maybe! Other yous had cats like these! Like- the white and gray striped one was called Draco and he lived in a fantasy world. And the 3 legged one is called Mister- well, Mr. Fluffington-“
"No way, that's what I called them!" Marvin laughs. "Okay, that has to be it, then. Fucking whims of the universe."
JJ sighs. He reaches over and grabs a bottle sitting on the table. A wine bottle, specifically. There are two on the table, the same brand of red wine, but one has the letter B written on it in red marker. JJ grabs that one, pours it into his cup, and takes a long drink.
Alt stops his recounting of cats to watch JJ take a drink. He sees the B written on the bottle and knits his eyebrows together- before his eyes slowly widen. …Marvin did mention there were vampires here.
JJ notices Alt's expression. He puts the cup down, looking almost embarrassed.
Marvin looks back and forth between Alt and JJ. "Uh... something wrong?"
I don't think Alt has... met... someone like me before, JJ says delicately.
"Oh! Oh." Marvin inhales sharply. "Okay, Alt? Don't worry. Vampires don't hunt people down here. Well, most of them don't, the good ones don't, and JJ's one of those. We have blood banks and stuff and the Night Council makes sure no one dies. It's fine."
People aren't going to just relax immediately when you say it's fine, JJ points out. Especially about something like this!
Alt is quick to raise his hands and shake his head, “H-Hey! It’s okay! The JJ I know wouldn’t hurt a fly… unless provoked so. I believe you. You don’t seem like a bad vampire. Just- something I’m not used to seeing.” Alt does look very excited though, “it’s fucking wicked… vampires! And werewolves! Fucking! Supernatural shit!” He pops and fizzles some more, hardly able to contain himself. “And all this magic!! So cool!!”
JJ sighs in relief--which does have the unfortunate side effect of drawing attention to the fact that he wasn't breathing until he took a breath to do that, but that uncanny fact is counterbalanced by his gentle smile. Thank you. I try to be as kind as I can.
Marvin laughs. "Fucking great to see someone excited about this. You kinda get used to it over time. But yeah, we have all sorts of stuff in this universe. Scuabyrg--this city--is mostly home to vamps, wolves, and witches, with the occasional weirder creature. Oh, and ghosts, of course. There are ghosts wherever people die."
We actually met a really nice ghost recently, JJ says.
"Yep, you and him are the newest members of our little gang," Marvin says. "We also have another vamp in our circle, and a wolf, and a meddie--uh, that's a nickname for a human who can naturally see through illusions and talk to ghosts and stuff. Comes from the word 'medium.'"
“Ghosts huh? That’s… that’s wild.” Alt laughs, pushing back his hair. “This is stuff you always hear about and wish were real even if it’d be scary because like?? How cool would it be?? I- I wanna meet them maybe Chase or Jackie have-!” Then Alt stops himself and then curses. “Ah fuck right! I… I gotta go find my brother and Jackie…! And god if magic is here then Mag is gonna be even more desperate-!” He hisses to himself.
"Chase and Jackie? Heh,those are some of the 'gang' I was just talking about," Marvin says. "I guess you brought some alternate versions of them with you? And... Mag? Who's that?"
Maybe it's short for Magnificent and that's an alternate you, JJ says, half-jokingly.
Alt makes a wide eyed tight lipped face and looks away for a second. “…you’re actually spot on. Except Mag is… bad news.”
JJ and Marvin stare at him, blinking. Then Marvin looks at JJ. "Are you fucking serious?"
So I was right, JJ says.
"Don't say that like you were making a serious claim!"
I was. Don't get mad that you didn't put it together, maybe by the time you're my age you'll be just as smart. JJ smiles smugly, keeping his lips closed.
"You were joking and we both know it you sack of--" Marvin clears his throat. "Anyway. Bad news, huh? I'm gonna guess he's a witch. And... I can imagine a lot of ways a 'bad news' witch could go. What's his deal?"
Alt nods, “Basically… he’s a mental magician. He uses mental magic… mind control. Hypnotism- he makes people… puppets or pets. And he’s obsessed with getting new magic- and destroying alternative versions of himself. If he can kill two birds with one stone… he just might.” Alt hutches himself with his hands in his pockets. “But honestly? The last place we were in had no magic so.. he might be super desperate for the first source he can find.”
Marvin hisses. "Well... that sounds bad. Especially for me. I mean, I'm probably the strongest witch in the city."
JJ rolls his eyes. Braggart. He spells out the word so there can be no mistaking it.
"I brag because it's true." Now it's Marvin's turn to smile smugly, though it's quickly replaced by a serious expression. "Well, if he's already appeared, he's probably already caused disaster. Like I said, there are a lot of witches in the city. We can call our friends and see if any of them have seen anything. Meanwhile, can you contact your friends?"
Alt smiles nervously at Marvin. Maybe that confidence could help them with Mag. “Oh- lemme see.” Alt tries to turn on his phone and see if he can message the others.
The cell and WiFi is terrible here. On the verge of being nonexistent.
Marvin leans over his shoulder. "Oh yeah... magic here tends to interfere with wireless stuff. But normally I get fine service. I guess being in a different universe makes it worse for you."
But you're a witch, surely you have some other way, JJ says.
Alt makes a face but sighs. “Yeah felt like it was about time our phones wouldn’t be of use.” He shrugs then beams at JJ when he calls Alt a witch. He doesn’t know why- but it makes him feel proud almost. “Uh yeah actually! I made a tracking talisman- it can lead me to where they are.” He shows off his bracelet and then whispers to word to show the trails of magic.
The magic branches off to the left and the right, with the one to the right being definitely more blue than the other.
"Niiiice," Marvin grins. "We have tracking spells here, too, but they usually need something of the person's. So. Which one are we heading after?"
“Blue mean they’re closer so let’s head to that one first!” Alt grins back. “Oh- if you want to come that is… if you guys want to stay away I.. I understand-“
"Of course we're coming!" Marvin says. "How often do you get the chance to talk with people from another world? Besides, you'll need help navigating the city."
And if we're confronting mental magic eventually, I should come, JJ says. Vampires are immune to magical compulsion and hypnotism. He pauses. Except for the power of other vampires.
"I mean, it's from a different world, but it's worth trying," Marvin adds.
Alt brightens and can’t help but glitch in excitement as he nods. “That could very helpful! Alright then- let’s go!”
Marvin smiles excitedly. "Alright! Let's go." He stands up, grabbing some things from the counter.
You're not bringing your cards, are you? JJ asks.
"Just in case we have downtime. I'd love to do a reading for Alt. And of course, I need this." Marvin picks up a cat-shaped mask, white with black and green designs on it. "This focuses my power. Sounds like we'll need it."
JJ nods and stands up. It's a good thing the sun just set. We'll have all night.
"Mm-hmm." Marvin heads for the shop's front door, stopping only briefly to bet the tortoiseshell cat as he passes a table. "Now let's go."
Alt’s eyes glow green-blue as he glitches to the door with a determined smile.
-----------
Jackie lands in a small hallway with wood-paneled walls. At one end of the hallway is a set of bathrooms, at the other is a T-intersection, with noise and chatter drifting in from the left branch. One of the wood panels has writing on it in various-colored markers. This is clearly some sort of public area. A restaurant? Or a pub? Unfortunately, he doesn't land alone. Magnificent appears nearby. And Jackie is blocking his way out of the hallway.
Jackie blinks and looks around, trying to figure out where they are.
Magnificent groans and then sees Jackie in front of him. Huh… and none of his friends are around…
In a flash, Mag is grabbing Jackie and slamming him into one of the walls of the hallway.
Jackie screams in surprise and pain and scrambles to get Mag off him. “M-Mag-?!”
Magnificent crackles, eyes alight with mad rage. “You didn’t think I’d let those comments about me go unnoticed, did you, old friend~?” He laughs and then takes one hand and grabs Jackie’s throat- choking him as he digs his nails into his flesh.
Jackie gasps and flails desperately, trying to pry Mag’s hands off him.
And at that moment, a group of people comes in from the left branch of the T-intersection. Three college-age guys, who all stop and stare at Magnificent as he does this.
"H-hey!" one shouts. "Hey!" he turns back to the branch. "Someone's attacking someone down here!"
The other two go for their pockets, one grabbing a phone and another grabbing--what is that, a bottle of something? Its contents sparkle strangely.
Jackie looks towards the new guys with desperate eyes, trying to choke out a plea for help.
Mag looks and glares at the newcomers, growling lowly. “This is a private matter, gentleman. You’ll leave if you know what’s good for you.” His eyes glow bright toxic green as he bares his fangs at them.
“Whoa, holy shit!” The shouting one backs away but the other two, though they look shocked, stand their ground. The one it’s the phone is clearly filming him now, and the other one—the other one’s eyes start to glow white.
And that’s when Magnificent realizes it. These three are magic. It’s bright, like distilled starlight—definitely light magic so it’s of no use to him, but… is there more nearby?
Magnificent's eyes lock onto the glowing hungrily but he quickly grows more angry as he senses the light polluting it. But, he's distracted enough for Jackie to at least gasp and get some more air, prying Mag's hand away from him slightly.
“What’s going on down here?!” A man joins the group, around thirty, wearing a red hoodie and ripped jeans. He suddenly gags and covers his nose, like he smells something terrible. “Wh-what the fuck?!”
And then someone else appears, too. He looks around the same age as the hoodie one, wearing a black coat over what looks like hospital scrubs. His skin is pale with a slight gray tint. His eyes land on the sight, confused. “Marvin?”
“That’s not fucking Marvin!” The one in the hoodie says. “You kids get out of here!” He practically shoved the three college guys back down the hallway.
The mad magician growls and lets go of Jackie and then flares out green fire to cut him and Jackie off from the newcomers. "I said- Back off! This doesn't concern the likes of you-!"
The two men back away from the fire. “Jesus fucking hell, dude!” The hoodie one gasps. “Of course this concerns us you fucking idiot! You can’t kill someone! Especially not an every—” Then the hoodie one looks directly at Jackie, and stops, confused. “…huh?”
Jackie crashes to the ground, coughing. He almost doesn’t see man in the hoodie but manages to look up in time, his eyes widening.
“Fire!” The other one is shouting down the hallway. “Fire! Magical fire!”
A woman runs down the hall, dark-skinned and with a head of curly hair. She grabs an amulet around her neck and flings out a hand. Water bursts forth, putting out the flames that had quickly attached to the wooden panels on the walls.
Magnificent tumbles back and hisses at the magician. He teleports back and picks up Jackie by his hair then flares out his claws underneath his neck, causing him to freeze in fear. Magnificent snarls, “One more false move, magicians, and I spill this human’s blood- and you’ll be to blame for his death.”
The three of them back up. "Dolores, go call the police," the man in the coat whispers to the woman. She nods and hurries down the hallway.
The man in the hoodie growls--and then laughs. "Magicians? What are you, a newb or an idiot?" And, surprisingly fast, he lunges forward-- --and halfway through the lunge, he turns into a massive wolf.
“Wha- the fuck did you just call me?!” Magnificent hisses, bristling like a cat. His eyes widen as he sees the man turn into a wolf. He yells out and soon he’s being tackled to the floor, arms pinned by its claws, leaving Jackie heaving for breath, looking at the belly of the giant wild.
“H-Holy shit…!” He breathes.
The other man hurriedly rushes forward, grabbing Jackie and pulling him out from under it. "Process all this later," he says. "We're getting out of here now!"
And he runs down the hallway, dragging Jackie behind him.
Jackie stumbles to his feet and hurries to catch up with the black coated man. “T-Thanks!” He calls as he nervously looks behind them.
The wolf growls in Magnificent's face.
Magnificent glares at the wolf and bares his teeth back, struggling underneath him.
The wolf waits until Jackie and the man are out of sight before getting off Mag and running after them.
The hallway joins up with a main dining area, taken up with long tables and a bar pressed up against the nearest wall. Directly across from the hallway is a glass door, through which is a stairway leading up. Weirdly enough, there are no windows in this pub area. There are about ten patrons scattered about, who are all looking towards the hallway in confusion and worry.
"Everyone out!" the man in the coat snaps. "Black magic!"
The reaction is instant. Anyone sitting down stands up. About three of them disappear into thin air. Half of the remaining ones turn into wolves and start sheparding people to the glass door.
Jackie’s eyes widen as he sees the pub erupt into activity and… wolves?! Are these-?? “W-Werewolves..???”
"Yes, please process quickly," the man in the coat says, pushing Jackie over to the glass door. "They won't hurt you."
Meanwhile, a white wolf gently nudges Jackie and the man in the coat out of the glass door. They are now in a stairwell, which leads up to another door, this one wood.
“R-Right- uh- okay!” Jackie squeaks and lets himself get nudged and pushed through the door and up the stairs. He rushes to the wooden door, pushing it open.
Outside is a city street at night, bright street lamps light it up as the occasional car passes by. The other patrons of the underground pub are scattering, many of them taking out phones to call people. The man in the coat turns around, staring back down the stairs they came from, worry drawing his features close.
Once he’s free, Magnificent pushes himself to his feet and then starts to laugh wildly. He grins and teleports to be in the pub area to hear the warning. He laughs even harder, building up black magic flames in his hands. “Oh? Are you all scared of black magic?! Good!” He looks around for that wolf and tries to send flames his way, snarling in crazed anger.
The wolf snarls and leaps out of the way of the fire and onto a table. It swipes one of the chairs with its paws, sending it towards Magnificent. Some of the wolves bark and snarl aggressively towards Mag, and a red one and a gray one run over from the rest of the group to give the other wolf--a brown one--protection.
Magnificent laughs madly and burns the chair with his magic. “You really think you mutts can stand up against me?!” He blasts fire at the floor around them, the black magic fire burning hot but somehow seems to make the room darker- casting it in an eerie purple hue.
“I’ve always wanted a nice fur coat~!” Magnificent giggles, opening up his hands and controlling the flames to close in on the wolves in a ring.
The wolves all yelp in surprise, the fire getting close and burning some of their fur and skin. The red one nudges the brown and gray one towards the center, suffering the worst of the burns.
Suddenly, the woman from before pops up from under the bar. "Hey!" She throws a bottle at the back of Mag's head.
The bottle distracts Mag at the very least as he throws out more flames to crack the bottle before it reaches him. He grins, eyeing her down. Is she light based? These flames are not efficient enough to keep running when he was drained from the other world. He keeps one hand out to keep the wolves trapped.
The woman's magic is something heavy, deep and rich like freshly tilled earth. She grabs her amulet and another bottle, pouring out its contents on the ground. Instead of liquid, out comes a pale blue mist, cool to the touch, spreading across the floor and filling the room.
And while Mag is distracted, the white wolf leaps forward onto his back.
Magnificent doesn’t even pay attention to the mist- he stares at the magician like a predator stalking its prey. Moving like he’s possessed by his hunger. He seems to feel the rush of the wolf right before it pounces and he lashes to slam it into the flood by its neck. He grins wide, eyes sparking as he tries to drain magic from its body. “Aren’t you a pretty thing? Why don’t you just die for me? Hm?”
Though there's a hint of magic in the wolf, it's inaccessible. Like trying to pull a thread from the middle of a tapestry.
Mag’s eyes widen, “What?!” He curses ready to tear his claws across this wolf’s throat for being useless to him.
"Leave her alone!" the woman--Dolores, she was called earlier--shouts. She runs around the bar and flings out both hands. A bolt of sparkling green magic whizzes right by Magnificent's head, drawing his attention to her again. And drawing his attention away from the circle of flames, where the mist is gathering around it. The flames flicker, being smothered by the moisture and the magic in the mist. And the three wolves trapped inside lunge for Mag again.
Dolores’s magic draws Mag’s attention again and he teleports up to look at her, grinning wide. He giggles and tries to lash out to grab Dolores- But the flames die down and the red wolf breaks through and chomps down on his outstretched arm. Magnificent screams bloody murder and claws and pushes to try to get it off him. “Fucking-!! Unhand you fucking beast!!”
While Mag is distracted by the wolf, Dolores grabs the amulet around her neck and disappears in a shower of green sparkles.
The red wolf lets go easily enough, running back to the white wolf, sniffing her and nudging her back to her feet. The white wolf shakes herself off and immediately starts herding the other wolves towards the door. They all run there.
Magnificent staggers and grips at his arm, the limb shaking from the bite. He turns to see Dolores is gone and then screams in rage- fire rocketing out and eating up what’s left of the pub. He then snarls and teleports out of the pub, going to find a place to lick his wounds… and to begin his next hunt.
"Jackie?" The man in the coat runs over to the doorway. "Scarlet? Lily? Bryson? Jackie?! Get up here!"
Jackieboy anxiously tries to get his phone to work outside and curses over and over as nothing connects. “C’mon!! The one time I need to call you guys!! God-!” He keeps anxiously watching the door, afraid Mag will be back out to kill him at any second.
The man in the coat is about to head down there after the people left in the pub, but then he sees the wolves running up the stairs and hurriedly moves to the side as they burst out onto the street.
The white wolf quickly transforms, now suddenly a woman with long brown hair wearing a white scarf. "Lily!" the man gasps. "I-is everything alright?!"
"H-he hit these guys with some fire," the woman--Lily--says in between panting breaths. Her voice sounds hoarse. "Smelled like black magic. Went after Dolores but she teleported away. Still a fire down there."
The brown wolf shifts back to the man from before. Parts of his hoodie are burned through now. "I liked this hoodie," he mutters.
The man in the coat laughs. "You have two others just like it, Jackie." Then he becomes serious again. "We must get those treated. And, ah..." He looks over at Jackieboy. "Do something about him."
Jackieboy jumps and nearly drops his phone as the wolves burst through. He watches them change back with awe. Especially as he sees the other him. He waves timidly at the two men, “uh… hi-“
The man in the hoodie--clearly another Jackie--smiles. "Hi. You're... probably really freaking out, huh? Um... Well. Turns out, werewolves and magic and stuff are real... but that shit down there doesn't happen normally, I promise." He waves. "I'm Jackie. This is Henrik--" gesturing at the man in the coat. "--and these are Lily, Scarlet, and Bryson."
The red and the gray wolf shift back, becoming a woman with a red pixie cut and a young man with long blonde hair. The redheaded woman stumbles, and Lily catches her. There's a resemblance between the two of them. Relatives?
Jackie stares at the two of them, looking in between them while rapidly blinking. God- this Henrik looks nothing like Henny. It’s blowing his mind. He coughs to clear his throat. “I’m.. also Jackie. J-Jackie Mann. And uh- usually I’d be scared to say this for fear of looking insane but it… feels less crazy then the fact werewolves are here. I’m… a-actually… you. From another universe.”
The group just stares at him.
Jackie grumbles wordlessly. "You're not on about that same shit Marvin's on about, are you?" He sniffs. "No, you don't have any magic."
"He does look a lot like you, Jackie," Schneep says. "Don't say you didn't notice it."
"Smells like you, too," Scarlet adds, a bit weakly. "Just human instead."
Jackieboy blinks at himself and then while the others are talking, experimentally sniffs himself to see if he can smell what they can. …then he realizes that’s dumb they’re literally wolves and he quickly stops, looking embarrassed.
"Save your strength, Scar," Lily says gently. "I'm taking you and Bryce to the hospital. Jackie? You too."
Jackie hesitates. "Sorry, but... I-I think I need to wait a minute. To... talk about this."
Lily raises an eyebrow. "Are you sure? You never know how black magic will react. We need to get it purified soon."
"I'm fine for a little," Jackie says slowly.
"Alright, if you're sure. Promise to call an ambulance if it gets too hard."
"Yeah, of course." And then Lily and the other two walk off.
Jackieboy watches Lily, Scarlet and Bryson walk off with concern. He then looks back at Jackie sheepishly and pats his legs, “I uh… d-dunno how else to prove it cuz I’m just… human. Can’t do anything cool like you do.”
"Well, uh... I guess we could go with this for a while," Jackie says slowly. "We have this friend, Marvin, he talks about how other universes exist all the time. It's actually kind of annoying. So... I guess it's possible?"
"I mean... I'm one of those nerds I guess- but only cuz it's in comic books." Jackieboy mutters, ears turning red.
"If you are from another world, what are you doing here?" Schneep asks. "Are you looking for something? Or are you lost?"
"And how bad is your luck to get immediately attacked by a witch like that?" Jackie shudders. "His magic smelled... rotten."
Jackieboylooks at Schneep and messes with his hair. "...lost I guess is the right word? I still don't really get how it works- my friends are the experienced world hoppers- they keep saying we should be home by now so... I think our ride is broken."
He laughs bitterly at Jackie's last question, "Unfortunately... me and him go wayyy back. He's from my universe. Goes back and forth between wanting to kill me and wanting to just.. torture me. It's... complicated. His name is Mar- ...Magnificent."
“So he’s ALSO from another world…” Schneep repeats, muttering.
Jackie narrows his eyes. “Were you about to say Marvin? Is this Magnificent guy Marvin from another universe?” He suddenly barks out a laugh. “So he’s not perfect in every world.”
Jackie sheepishly nods, "Yeah... he used to be Marvin... he's not anymore." He says with a slight tinge of sadness in his voice. Mixed with... anger.
“This is not the time for your weird grudge against Marvin,” Schneep snaps. “No matter what you think about his magic, do you think he’s the type to torture and kill?”
Jackie’s smile falls. “No. Of course I don’t.”
Schneep shakes his head. “This Magnificent is clearly dangerous. What did you say, other Jackie? You have friends who are better at this? Are they here, too?”
Jackieboy nods to Schneep, "Yeah... my mates- Alt and Chase. I uh... I was trying to call them but the service here sucks ass."
Schneep takes his phone out. “My service is fine,” he says. “Something about you being from another world must be making it worse. Magic and ghost activity does tend to make it worse.”
“Chase…? Is he Chase Brody?” Jackie asks.
Jackie nods, "Yeah! Chase Brody- better known in our world as Bro Fantastic!" His eyes sparkle with pride as he talks about his friend, "Back home, he's a superhero! Strongest one I've ever seen! And- Alt, he's a magician so... they're probably already looking for me... cuz you know- I can't do what they do. Alt can like- glitch and stuff. Oh and Chase can fly."
"Ooooo," Jackie says, grinning. "Superheroes are real in your world?!" He balls his hands into fists and shakes them, stimming excitedly. "And Chase is one?! And he can fly there?!"
"Chase here can fly, too," Schneep points out.
"He floats. It's not the same thing, especially since it's just cause he's a... uh..." Jackie looks a bit awkward for a moment. "W-well, uh, that's a natural part of being that."
"What if I learn to fly one day?" Schneep asks. "Will you be just as excited?"
Jackieboy's eyes sparkle with excitement, "Spiderman things?! Dude that's my favorite superhero! Don't tell Bro- but!! What!!"
Jackie grins. "Schneep here can walk on walls."
"It is not wall walking, it is wall crawling, and I look ridiculous!" Schneep insists.
"Oh come on, be proud of your ability!" Jackie says, nudging Schneep.
"I would rather be proud of the skill I spent fifteen years perfecting instead of the random bullshit powers I suddenly had one day." Schneep folds his arms. "Do you know how few vampires can identify toxins and sicknesses in blood?"
Jackieboy's eyes widen now, "Woahhh- You're a vampire, Hen??" He grins wide, "Dude what!! That's sick!!" He then laughs and grips at his arm, "Guess a lot of you here are... special, huh?"
Schneep blinks. Then he laughs, and Jackieboy can see the sharp edge of fangs. "People don't usually react that way! They are either scared or way too enthusiastic."
Jackie nudges Jackieboy. "Hey. Don't let it get you down, other me. We may be 'special' here, but the shadow city couldn't run without the help of everydays--uh, normal people--who know the truth and help us out. People like us need to stay hidden. There are those out there who wouldn't react well if they knew werewolves and vampires and witches were out there."
Jackieboy blinks and then tries to smile and nods, "Heh... guess that's pretty cool then." He blinks and looks down at his wrist and then looks excited. "Oh! I forgot! Alt made us bracelets that can track each other! It won't help us find Mag but- it can find them! ...fuck though I.. I don't remember the word I'm supposed to use! Something with an R? R..an- Rainey?… something-“
"Ah shit." Jackie mutters. "I'm not good with magic. Schneep?"
Schneep leans forward. "I do not recognize these runes."
And then, suddenly, a soundclip comes from Jackie's pocket. "Shadow Wizard Money Gang: we love casting spells..." He jumps. "Oh! Wait, hang on, this might be perfect!" He takes his phone out of the pocket. "Marvin just texted me asking me if he could call. Hang on."
Schneep raises an eyebrow. "When did you change your text tone?"
"It's a personalized one for Marv. I have one for you, too, and Jack and Lily." Jackie dials a number, putting the call on speakerphone. As soon as the other end picks up, Jackie starts talking. "Marvin, you're not gonna believe this. Or, you are, but you're gonna be so fucking insufferable about it."
"Oh?" Marvin's voice comes from the other end. "Did you find someone from another universe?"
Jackie blinks. "Y-yeah, actually. How the fuck did you guess?"
"I have someone here who's exactly the same," Marvin says smugly. "Hang on, I'm putting this on speaker. Say hi, Alt."
"Yoooo!" Alt's voice comes from the speaker.
Jackieboy perks up and laughs, "Alt! Hey!"
"Hey Jackie! Glad you're okay- ... you are okay right?"
"Oh you know- Mag tried to kill me. Same ol' same ol'-"
Alt hides a laugh, "Seems like you found your other you! We're hopefully on your trail- or Chase's... dunno really. Where are you guys?"
Jackieboy looks to the other him and Schneep to explain.
"We are at the Harvest Moon," Schneep says. "Ah, I suppose that wouldn't mean anything to you, Alt."
"It's a pub downtown," Jackie adds. "A secret one, for people like us. Your Magnificent guy set it on fire. I think. I dunno, that magic mist might've cooled it by now."
"Ohhh, yeah, I think we are heading in that direction," Marvin says. "We're walking down Shelley, if you guys want to meet up with us. Oh, or JJ's with us, too, so we can all teleport there. I think. Alt, how far can you teleport?"
"Mmm a decent bit- especially if you guys are familiar with the location." Alt replies.
"You doing okay on magic, dude?" Jackie asks.
"I mean- I'm not a full power but I'm not like dangerously low either. Should be fine- especially if Mag is near..."
"I mean... he hasn't come out of the pub entrance, so I'm assuming he 'ported away," Jackie says.
"Alright, that works out," Marvin says. "Alt, I'll help you along with your teleporting, JJ can meet us there. If you're drained after that I can transfer some of my magic to you for a boost."
"So we just stay here?" Schneep asks.
"Yeah, that'd be great. Once we're all together we need to find these guys's other friend. It's Chase, apparently."
"Yes, the other Jackie told us," Schneep says.
"He's a superhero!" Jackie adds excitedly.
Alt laughs, "I mean- thank god we don't need to hide his identity here, huh, Jackie?"
Jackieboy flushes and laughs nervously.
"We'll be there in a second then!" Alt says.
"And we mean that literally!" Marvin adds.
"Alright, see you guys in a minute, then," Jackie says, and hangs up.
And a few seconds later--
There's the smell of metal and the crackling of electricity as Marvin and Alt appear right next to the pub in a flurry of glitches. Alt looks a bit dizzy for a second but then shakes out of it grinning. "Hello!"
Jackieboy grins and hurries over to Alt, giving him a big high five. "Wicked, dude!"
Jackie jumps slightly, then grins as well. "Nice, dude! I haven't seen magic with that effect before."
Alt grins more and shakes himself out, letting himself glitch a bit more. "I'm called a glitch back home~ cuz that's what I do. Glitch!"
"Whoo." Marvin shakes himself out. "That definitely felt different than normal teleporting."
Alt looks at Marvin apologetically, "Yeah it takes a bit to get used to."
"Feels like pop rocks in your blood, doesn't it?" Jackie laughs.
"...huh- I guess that's a way to describe it-" Alt ponders.
"It is nice to meet you, Alt," Schneep says, giving him a decidedly closed-lip smile.
"Oh, he knows, Schneep," Marvin says. "JJ was with us, remember?"
"Ahhh." Schneep nods. "Where is he, by the way?"
And perfectly on cue, JJ steps out of the shadows behind Schneep and taps him on the shoulder.
Schneep yelps and spins around, then groans. "You need to stop scaring me like that!"
But it's fun, JJ says.
Jackieboy also jumps when JJ pops out but quickly waves, "Oh! Other Dr.J!"
Alt's eyes light up as he watches JJ step from the shadows, "Woahhh! Shadow Travel! That's so cool!"
JJ waves, smiling. Sorry if I scared you.
"Not sorry that you scared me, though," Schneep grumbles.
"Vampires tend to develop a grab bag of powers," Jackie explains. "JJ's a shadow walker. They can move from one shadow to another. Can't you do something else, too, JJ?"
They call it 'stillness,' which isn't the most interesting name, JJ says. It's basically the ability to go unnaturally still and quiet, to the point where sometimes people don't even know you're there. Everything seems like it fast forwards, from my perspective.
Alt stims a bit, glitching a bit more, "That's so cool-" He whispers.
Jackieboy laughs, "Dude- I hardly see you get this excited!" “There's so much cool magic shit here dude!! And powers and-!" Alt glitches from side to side and then breathes, "Okay okay I'm normal now-"
Marvin is thinking to himself as JJ explains this. "Glitch... Y'know there's a crystaleye card like that."
"Ah, your man's special interest has cropped up," Jackie says. "We can't get started on tarot arcana now, Marv. We have to find the last one of this group."
Marvin stares at him. "Did you get... burned?"
"Um... yeah, but it's fine."
Schneep shakes his head as Jackie says that.
Alt does seem to calm down as Marvin mentions Jackie is burned. He glitches over and looks at him, "... was it green fire or... purple fire? Cuz the purple fire is... bad. Sometimes the effects don't show up right away- but it can leave behind something Mag calls corruption. It's like- a mark of black magic. It can mess with your magic or your body if you're not careful..."
"...purple..." Jackie admits.
Marvin stands to attention. "Here, can I see?"
"Fine," Jackie says reluctantly.
Marvin joins Alt by Jackie's side. Jackie holds out an arm for him to look at, with a burn on it. Marvin carefully rolls up the sleeve to get a better look at it. "I'm not the best at purification, but I can try. Alt, do you know anything that can help?"
"Light magic is the best cure..." Alt mumbles. "... I'm not really good at purification spells either, though."
"You should really start to learn those Alt, considering how often we face Mag." Jackie says with a raised eyebrow.
"Healing spells are really hard for me! I don't know why!" Alt replies shortly, "Believe me I'd like to be able to use them more regularly! It's just... hard. I dunno..."
Marvin frowns. "My source isn't a light source, you'd need a celestial witch for that. But I can try a little bit. If Jackie's okay with that."
"Better than being corrupted or shit," Jackie mutters.
"Okay." Marvin pulls his mask down over his face. The markings on it start to glow green... and so do his hands? Yes, he has tattoos on his hands. On the back of his left is some sort of spell circle, on the back of his right is an eye surrounded by swirls, and around each wrist is a Celtic-knot-like design encircling it like a bracelet. All of this glows for a while, but then Marvin shakes his head. "Sorry."
Alt looks hopeful for a second, especially at seeing Marvin's magic. Damn those tattoos were cool... But he deflates a bit and then shakes his head. "We can take a better look at it in a bit... I have a spellbook but I'd need to set up a spell circle or something to make sure it works. I can't do that out here... but maybe once we find Chase we can find a safer place for me to try."
"Right. Yeah." Jackie nods, giving Alt a smile. "Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure we can get this taken care of eventually. But finding the rest of your group and stopping this Magnificent guy seems more important."
Alt gives Jackie a worried smile and nods, "Yeah... who knows- It could be okay..."
"If you do anything that will make your health worse on purpose while we're doing this, I swear I will drink you like a Dr. Pepper," Schneep says threateningly.
"Never heard a soda be used in a threat before-" Jackieboy comments with a laugh.
Jackie laughs. "Oh c'mon, you wouldn't do that. We both know you guys can't handle wolf blood."
Well, Alt, can you use that magic bracelet to find your last friend? JJ asks.
Alt blinks at JJ and then nods, touching the gem and whispering 'Rianú' again and a new trail of light appears.
"Ohh right! That was the spell word!" Jackie points.
Alt gives him a look, "You forgot the word?? ...you ADHD bastard I told you it before we left!”
The trail points down the street, more blue than green.
You said that more blue in the color meant they were close by, yes? JJ says. So this is good, then.
"Alright, more walking," Marvin says. "Maybe running, if we can keep up with these guys." He gestures at Schneep, JJ, and Jackie.
Jackie grins. "Better hurry up!" He starts running down the street after the trail, shifting shape--but it's strange, it's slower than it was the last two times he tried. And when he's fully turned into a wolf he stops for a moment, shaking himself like he's trying to shake off water. He looks back at the others.
Alt still looks impressed and awed as he sees Jackie shift. "Awesome...!" Then, he smirks at Marvin and glitches ahead to be back Jackie. "I dunno about you! But I'm pretty speedy!"
"You're such a show off cheater!" Jackieboy yells after him.
Marvin laughs. "Don't worry, other Jackie, you're not gonna be the last one. There's no magic for speeding up, and I don't exactly get out much."
"We should hurry," Schneep says. "I hope your Chase has not gotten into trouble."
Jackie the wolf is already running after the trail. The others have to hurry to keep up.
