Shallows held completely still.

They think I'm still asleep… He thought, as he stifled cheeky laughter. They won't see it coming.

He peeked an eye open and caught a glimpse of his sword.

Right within arm's reach…

He slowly moved his arm to the exposed weapons and clasped his fingers around the handle. Shallows stopped to listen again. Nothing. He opened both eyes and scanned the surroundings. A small hut in the middle of god-knows-where.

Empty…

Shallows rose to his feet and stretched. Nothing like a good nap after being decapitated.

He took the sword and its holster, before stepping outside. Shallows took a second to be captivated by the starry sky. After his astonishment ended, he scratched his face.

And then it hit him.

Where the hell did my mask go?

Shallows threw his hood over his face and returned to the hut.

"When I get my hands on whoever stole my mask, I'm gonna-"

"Gonna what?"

Shallows froze. He turned slowly, hood still on his face. Himself but a few inches shorter stood a few feet away, twirling his mask on their finger.

"You fell out of an interdimensional portal in the sky. Not to mention you landed flat on your back…" They paused. "That can't be good for your back."

"Thanks, now give the mask back." Shallows demanded.

"I don't see why you like this mask so much. I was once like that, but now…" They pulled off their own mask, revealing… Shallows but a girl. "I have a lot less shame in my looks."

"Oh. Girl Shallows." Shallows raised a brow as he slowly loosened his grip on his hood. "What are you, my biggest fan?"

"No, I'm YOU from this dimension."

Shallows pointed at her, then to himself.

"You're sadly mistaken, ma'am. Now give the mask back-"

"You're a visitor from the future, trying to prevent a horrible tragedy by killing your uncle. Whose name is Michael, if I may."

Shallows squinted.

"I mean… he's already dead, where I'm from." He laughed, "And I'm dead too, so…"

"Did I say you landed? I meant your pieces. Like, your head, then your body."

Shallows touched his neck.

"Nope, still intact. You're just an illusion, I'm dead. Watch this." Shallows touched the wall. "Shoot. Thought I'd pass through the wall."

"You want real proof?"

Shallows shrugged.
"Go ahead, blow my mind-"

A portal opened beneath his feet. Shallows fell through and landed in the exact same spot.

"Convinced yet?"

Shallows laughed.

"I can do that too. What are you trying to pro-" He caught himself and sighed. "You just did something that I can do too."

"I can also read minds,"

Shallows shrugged again.

"The more powerful Shallows from another dimension. Anything else you wanna show off?"

"Technically, YOU'RE Shallows. MVPs from around here know me as Les."

"Les." Shallows shook his head. "Shallows is cooler."

"I'm not here to brag."

Shallows reached his hand forward. "Give me the mask."

"Your Michael is still alive."

"No he's not, now give me the mask."

"Is this him?"

Les opened a portal nearby and pointed inside. "My, my, he looks meaner than I thought…"

Inside of the portal, Michael rested on the couch of an MVP base.

Shallows glared at the sleeping man.

"Go to hell." He hissed.

Les closed the portal right as Shallows spat in it.

"Oh, come on. That's disrespectful."

"There's no respect among villains, pal."

Les held out Shallows' mask, to which the latter just glared at it.

"What, is this a trick?"

"I know that just like me, you've got some crazy hidden powers. And a lot of potential."

Shallows took the mask and fastened it to his face.

"Where am I?"

"I made this hut myself. Walk in the right direction, you'll run right into a Gamma camp."

Shallows sighed. "Good enough," He groaned before storming away.

Les waited a few seconds, fastened her mask, and walked after him.

Meanwhile…

Alph poked at the hidden camera footage the screens displayed.

"You've got hidden cameras? I wish Alpha would have let us use hidden cameras!"

Beta Simon sat down nearby and polished a knife. "I stole them from Gamma. Anything and everything helps out here."

"What are you doing out here, anyway?"

Beta Simon leaned forward.

"I proved to be very useful in stealth and recon, so Alpha reluctantly sent me out here, on this dangerous task." He paused to take a sip of water. "I broke in, rigged this room's door to never open, and made this a little cozy base of operations."

"Is this really an alternate dimension?"

Beta Simon laughed.

"Depends on where you're from. If you fell from that swirly hole in the sky, then yes."

"My teammates are trapped here too, can you help them?" Alph pointed to Amber and L on the monitor.

Beta Simon stared at the screen for a second. His focus drifted to Amber and his eyes went wide.

"I-uhh…" He holstered the knife and rose. "Yeah, I can do that."

He quickly opened the vent and crawled in.

A few minutes later…

"Hey!" A voice called from Alph's comms. "Blue-hair boy!"

"Yes?" Alph replied.

"I need you to find me on the cameras."

Alph slowly switched through the cameras until the one with Beta Simon showed up.

"Ok, I see you and… someone on the floor."

"I'm going to use a disguise, because their cell isn't accessible from my side of the vents. I need access another way."

Alph shrugged, realized that Beta Simon couldn't see it, and spoke.

"I don't know how to remotely open the cells. I could turn off the power, if you'd like."

Beta Simon went quiet. He reappeared on the camera feed with a Gamma vest and hood.

"Then get working. Do it on my signal."

"Ok…"

We're gonna switch perspectives to Beta Simon for a sec.

Beta Simon walked past a hidden camera and gave Alph a thumbs-up. He turned a corner and nearly slammed into a familiar guy.

"Watch your step, loser!" Billy snarled, "I can make it seem like you never existed!"

"Sure you can." Beta Simon grumbled in reply, "Now please, remove yourself from my path."

"I think you just made a HUGE mistake," Alph warned.

Billy dug a finger into Beta Simon's chest.

"I don't know if you're a new guy, or just an uneducated lowlife, but let me get something straight." Billy's four other mechanical arms dug their fingers into Beta Simon's chest. "I'm above you on so many levels. You're just a thug. I bet you can't even count to five…"

"I can cou-"

Billy put a finger to Beta Simon's lips.

"Shut up. Now go about your business. And do it carefully, because you're on my bad side. You got that?"

Beta Simon nodded and walked away. He walked until his suspicion made him tense. He halted suddenly and heard a step behind him.

"Is he following me?" Beta Simon whispered.

"Yes. He is hiding in that closet." Alph replied.

Beta Simon sighed and continued walking. He stopped in the hallway that he'd seen Amber in. He walked until he saw her cell. When he'd finally caught sight of them, he began to fiddle with the control panel.

"I knew you were up to something fishy!" Billy yelled.

Beta Simon turned and thought up a lie.

"What do you mean, fishy? I was about to taunt them and make their lives miserable!"

Billy raised an eyebrow.

"...you were?"

"I always taunt the MVP prisoners."

Billy smiled and patted Beta Simon on the shoulder.

"I like the way you think!" He giggled, before opening the cell.

Amber opened one eye and looked Beta Simon dead in his. She slowly rose.

"Simon?" She breathed.

"Wait, WHAT?!" Billy gasped.

Beta Simon reached back and grabbed Billy by the shoulder, then threw him into the cell.

Before Billy could react, Amber got to her feet and pinned Billy to the wall.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting to do this!"

Amber reared back her fist and cleared Billy's jaw. A tooth fell to the floor. Amber dropped Billy, who picked up the tooth and stared at it.

"Simon, how'd you get here?" Amber asked, before reaching for a hug. Much to her surprise, Beta Simon held her away.

"I'm gonna guess you're from the other dimension too?" He began, "I'm not the Simon you know."

"Dammit…"

"I know somewhere safe for you guys to stay." Beta Simon stated, "You should probably follow me."

Billy screamed.

"You… you RAT!" Billy cried, "How dare you trespass?! That's… that's CHEATING!"

Luigi strolled up to Billy and glared at him.

"You sure are one to talk, Billy."

They all stared at Billy for a moment, then, without any warning or indication, darted off.

"H-hey! Come back!" Billy called, before slamming his distress call. "You'll pay for that tooth!"

Beta Simon ducked and weaved through the halls and skidded to a halt at the sight of a familiar purple cloak.

"Not me again!" Amber exclaimed.

Beta Amber turned and squinted at Beta Simon, who upheld the gaze.

"You pathetic soul," Beta Amber chuckled as she began to walk towards them. "Returning to this place like you don't have a target on your forehead!"

"I returned by the command of my superior," Beta Simon snapped, "not because of some childish relationship we had in the past!"

"You considered our relationship childish?" Beta Amber began to laugh.

L tugged on Amber's sleeve.

"We need to get out of here!" he whispered.

Beta Simon turned to the two behind him and cursed under his breath.

"You'd best be glad I'm in a hurry to get out of here."

"You're leaving?" Beta Amber laughed again. "Sorry, the thought of you returning to my turf after ghosting me for a year and a half just to liberate the most fascinating discovery I've ever made… makes me laugh. You're just as funny as you were when I loved you."

"You're just as misguided as you were when I loved you." Beta Simon hissed, before pulling out a smoke bomb. "Peace."

He threw the smoke bomb to the floor and ran, as did Amber and L.

Beta Amber fanned the smoke and gave chase.

Beta Simon threw open the door to his secret room and slammed it behind them, before locking it and putting a chair in front of it.

Alph looked at them, eyes wide.

"What now?"

Someone banged on the door.

"MVPs, open it and we won't have to kill you!" Billy called.

"I…" Beta Simon paused. "I don't know."

"Guys!" L pointed to the opened vent.

"They're gonna put this place into lockdown." Beta Simon noted, "That… might be a good idea."

"Get that door open," Beta Amber commanded from outside, "And make sure they're ALIVE."

"...sure." Billy replied.

A faint beeping sound started from outside.

"That's a bomb." Amber stated.

"What's new?" L kidded.

Meanwhile…

The brothers (and Michael) watched as their captive woke up.

"Sleep well?" Cleats asked. "I have no clue how you got in, but you definitely didn't make it out."

The captive looked around the room. Their gaze stopped at Michael, but none of them could confirm their gaze had actually stopped on him, as their helmet visor was reflective.

"My, my…" She began, "It seems as if Alpha had some friends over."

"Not my friends…" Michael grumbled into a cup of tea.

"Well, since you're the new Alpha from the other place, I guess an introduction would be nice…"

Michael put a hand to stop Cleats from speaking and leaned in closer to his captive.

"You're in my house now. I don't know how merciful the Alpha of this dimension is, but I assure you…" He cracked a small smile. "There is a large difference between us. Try anything and I'll see to it that your body returns to Mr. Alpha in pieces… maybe even not at all."

"I don't know if you see the severity of your situation, sir." The captive began. "I'm the second-in-command of the great Omega. I've seen some messed-up shit. So when Omega is at your doorstep, hearing that you threatened Sigma, her dearest second-in-command, I hope you do whatever I'm supposed to be terrified of. It'll make for a good show, watching you get ripped to pieces."

Michael went quiet. He squinted, turned, and sprawled across the sofa, returning to his nap.

Cleats shrugged.

"He's… not in his right mind."

"Educate me for a moment, sir…" Sigma began with a laugh. "Does he have any siblings?"

Cleats nodded, caught himself, then shook his head.

"Thanks." Sigma replied, before shifting her gaze to dead ahead.

Michael quickly leaned up after a wad of spit landed on his forehead.

"Gah! What the hell?!"

Shallows followed Les through the woods until they reached a small clearing, where tents and bunkers were settled. In the middle of the clearing, a lone captive sat strung upside-down by their legs.

A few Gamma thugs poked and prodded at their captive.

"We'll let you go if you tell us Alpha's information!"

"What's he planning next?"

"Does he have a six-pack?"

The thugs turned to that one.

"Uhh…"

"Well, does he?"

Without any warning, Les opened a portal and jumped in. She landed in the middle with the thugs and slowly raised her head.

"OH NO!" One of them cried. All of them promptly scattered.

Les grabbed one thug who couldn't get away fast enough and held him to her face.

"This is my home. Next time I see you or any one of your stupid cronies around here, I'll give you a one-way ticket to the morgue! You got that?"

The thug nodded profusely. Les let go and threw him surprisingly far. He ran the rest of the way.

Shallows stepped in.

"Oh. You didn't kill any of them."

"Was I supposed to?" Les replied.

"Hey!" The captive yelled, "You're Shallows, right?"

Shallows turned and squinted. "That's me."

"Great." The captive cut himself down and shook the dirt off his outfit. "I'm Mick, we met a few years ago, and Marco needs your help."

Shallows shook his head.

"Of course she does."

"Boys." Les called, "Let's take this somewhere more private."

So, Mick's delivered the news to both Shallows and Les, his cooler doppelganger, Amber and company are trapped in a closet, and Sigma has ended up in Michael's hands after a pathetic attempt to kill him... what a day, huh?

Next chapter should be a bit shorter, considering I only plan to write the part where Amber and co. escape...

See you soon...