CHAPTER FIFTEEN- Alternatively Better

NOW

"I've got this."

Famous last words. Jay had not aken more than one step forward when he was flung back, taking Cole right along with him. They both slammed against the back wall. Left over surges of the electric attack made their muscles twitch.

"Clearly," Cole grunted, pushing Jay off. "You don't."

"Do too! He just caught me by surprise." Jay said as he stood. To prove his point, Jay formed a shield around himself and Cole, blocking next attack. "Now stay back. I don't want you to get hurt."

"I-"

Jay did not want to let Cole finish his sentence. I don't think you should do this alone. Jay could almost hear the words. But he could (and would) do this alone. He trotted forward, waving a dismissive hand in Cole's direction. "Just get the gauntlets!"

Cole didn't answer. Jay gave his full attention to his alternate self. Just in time, too. He leaned to the left, narrowly avoiding a whip of lightning.

"Why don't we talk this out?" Jay asked, before dodging again. And again. Jay's heart was fluttering wildly against his chest now. His other self moved fast- too fast. And the grasp and connection he had with his abilities was far beyond anything Jay had mastered.

His other self did not answer. Instead, He leapt over Jay, eyes glowing brighter still. A continuous stream of sparks trickled out of his fingertips, pushing him higher still.

Jay gaped, impressed. Before he could turn and watch his other self land, a harsh kick was planted upon his back. Jay fell forward, landing hard. His chin rattled as it hit the ground, forcing his teeth to click together.

There was a soft buzzing behind him, alerting him to another attack. Jay rolled to the left. The lightning followed his movements, burning the wooden floor as it went. Jay managed to push himself up into a sitting position, then pushing up to stand as the lightning grazed his leg.

A garbled half-shout of pain and frustration escaped Jay's lips.

"Give me a second, this is just rude. I didn't raise myself to be this way." Jay shot two bolts forward. Swish! Swish! His other self shot them down without blinking. He then sent a web of lightning in Jay's direction.

The web grew as it shot forward, almost too fast for Jay's eyes to catch. There was no time to dodge- no space to, either. The electricity hit, burning Jay up from the inside out. "Okay. So that's what that feels like. Not a fan."

"The witty remarks are only serving to distract you." Jay's other self pointed out, before shooting short bursts of lightning from each of his palms.

"No, they serve to keep things interesting." Jay said, leaping back.

"For who?"

"Me," Jay replied. He jumped up, using lightning to propel himself up the way he'd seen his other self do. And it worked! Jay's eyes widened in giddy wonder. "Ha! Look at-ack!"

His other self jumped up, hovering higher to kick at Jay's left hand. Unbalanced, Jay tipped in the air, fighting to stay afloat. He spun once, twice, before finally fluttering to the ground in an ungracefully painful crash.

Jay's body rolled to a stop against a desk. The resulting sound was loud. Jay flinched, ignoring the throbbing on his side as he strained his ears for the sounds of incoming back up. Nothing. There was only the wind, rattling against the windows.

A storm was brewing outside. Whether it was natural, or thanks to Jay's abilities, was a mystery.

The quiet made him realize something else. The room was empty. Well, not empty empty (his other self was marching forward, more than ready to attack again) but- Cole wasn't there. The gauntlets stood, untouched. And the place where Cole should have been . . . Nothing.

"Cole?"

Where would he have gone? Jay leapt behind the desk, dodging another rush of lightning bolts. Without bothering to look and aim, Jay sent his own array of bolts in the general direction of his counterpart.

"Cole, where are you!?"

Maybe, maybe Cole had come up with a new plan. But what plan could possibly be better than just getting what they'd come for?

Woosh! The desk was pushed aside by a pair of lightning whips. The smell of burning wood clung to Jay's nostrils. He turned just in time to see his other self looming over him. Without bothering to think, Jay swung a punch forward.

It connected with a satisfying (if somewhat unsettling) crunch. Blood seeped from the nose of his other self. His eyes shook back to a regular blue, widening with surprise.

"Never underestimate the power of a good old fist," Jay tried to smile, but the anxiety of Cole's disappearance was weighing down on his comeback game. "They're a good back up."

Jay readied himself for a stronger attack, one that would stun his enemy a bit more permanently, before the shock of the punch faded.

But then- Jay's vision shifted. He shifted. He was, he was-

-he was acutely aware of the painful pulse coming from his nose. It made him angry, it made him want to attack, even more so because his inferior self was standing before him with a nonchalant attitude. Not just that, but he would not. Shut. Up.

Jay shot lightning forward . . .

. . . and his vision shifted again, returning him to himself just in time to experience the attack full force. His body was slammed against the ground. Everything hurt. His head began to pound, and a strong taste of smoke settled against his tongue.

Before Jay's vision could even begin to clear, he felt a scarred hand pressing down against his throat.

"I-"

I don't want you to do this alone.

I don't think you should fight him.

I don't want you hurt, either.

So many possibilities hanging in the static-like garble that Cole's thoughts had become. But the words that actually slipped from his throat were different. "-don't feel right."

I don't feel right.

The words were in his head, not in his lips. He reached out for Jay in a frantic motion, but Jay was too far, getting further by the second. The room around him was stretching. Like an elastic band, it grew longer and longer, until everything was made up of unrecognizable lines. Even then, Cole did not stop moving back. The world soon became void of any shapes or color.

It became darkness.

He was falling. It took him a second to realize it. But the empty rush in his stomach was unmistakable. He'd felt it before. Hadn't he?

Falling through the windshield- Air, cold, hot, rushing through and around him. Even though the pavement was close, the fall lasted forever.

Yes. Forever. Because here he was, still falling, still hurtling toward the inevitable end. He'd never really stopped falling, had he?

"Cole?"

The voice was everywhere, but it was no more than a whisper. Cole supposed he should know the person the voice belonged to. But he could no longer remember. Still, the voice had made his fall slow. Something stirred inside him . . . no. No, that was impossible. Once you'd fallen, there was no way back.

Or . . . was there?

"Cole, where are you!?"

Where was he? Cole wasn't sure. He was- he was . . . nowhere. The franticness of the voice made him nervous. It made him feel bad. He was supposed to know who it belonged to. He was supposed to bring that voice comfort. But how could he? He was gone, gone forever, falling forever, and-

And-

"Jay." The name escaped him.

There was a way back. He had fallen before. And he'd climbed back up. Because . . . something held him. A connection. Deep and true and unbreakable. It had called him back then. Why not now?

Cole's fall continued to slow. He was dimly aware of other things in his surroundings now. Mainly the pale blue light wrapped around his middle. It came from Up There, it came from the Voice, from Jay, he was sure of it. Tentatively, Cole reached out to grasp it.

It slid around his fingers, as if it couldn't quite decide if it existed or not. Cole reached up with his other hand too, clinging with as tight a grip as he could muster. With the effort of both his mind and his body, Cole managed to come to a standstill.

"Jay." Cole said again, as the blue light fed him snippets of memory. The time machine, his choice, the alternate universe he'd trapped them in. Jay needed his help, and he needed Jay's, and none of these things would happen if he didn't climb.

With gritted teeth, Cole pulled himself up, ignoring the pull of gravity beneath him, ignoring the fall that awaited if he were to slip up.

"Jay, I'm here!" Cole shouted the words, and he could actually hear himself, could actually feel his vocal chords shivering with sound. The room, Krux and Acronix's home, slowly came into view.

Jay was pinned down by his other self, a sturdy hand wrapped around his freckled throat. Jay was flailing, stubbornly seeking to make some damage, any damage, but his movements were growing weaker.

"Jay!" Cole was thrown back into the moment all at once. He clenched his fists tight. The gauntlets. Cole turned, driving his fist into the glass case.

It shattered easily. The gauntlets slipped into his waiting palms.

He didn't know how they worked, but there wasn't time to sit and fiddle. Cole slipped one onto his left hand, then rushed in Jay's direction, pointing the gauntlet forward.

"Stop!"

Cole had been gone one second. And he'd somehow reappeared the next.

He looked bewildered, eyes wide and unfocused. Or, at least, that's what Jay could make out. And right now, he wasn't really trusting his sight very much. It was blurring quickly.

His other self continued to press down against his throat. The pressure was impossible to fight against. Jay tried anyway.

It hurt to move, but move Jay did. He tightened his fists, striking against the shoulder of his other self. In the corner of his vision, Cole snapped to action, fighting off whatever had been occupying his mind.

We're still merging, Jay managed to think, remembering the bizarre switch in perspective that had landed him where he was. So where did he go?

Dark dots edged closer around his vision. Something shattered somewhere in the room. Jay's punches turned into feeble slaps, a final attempt to get his other self off. His other self was unaffected. Jay's throat gave a soft growl of frustration. Stubborn and rude. Is he even really me?

"Stop!"

The pressure against Jay's throat ended. Jay blinked. Or- tried to. He found that he couldn't move. Or if he could, he wasn't doing it very fast at all. He wasn't even sure he was breathing anymore. Wasn't sure he even needed to breathe, for that matter.

Cole came into view at the edge of Jay's vision. The gauntlets! Jay could have jumped for joy, had his body been allowed to do so.

"Uh," Cole said. "Go?"

Time clicked back into place. Jay's other self fell forward, attack slipping after the jarring pause. Jay pushed him back, and with Cole's help, was able to toss him aside. Jay then used Cole's legs to climb back up to a standing position.

"Thanks," Jay wheezed.

"You don't even know how they work!" Jay's other self stood again, the glow in his eyes returning slowly.

"I know enough," Cole said. Jay's other self raised his arms with a growl, lighting brewing within. Cole mirrored the move. "Stop."

Once again, time slowed. But this time, Jay, clinging onto Cole as he was, remained unaffected. " Whoa. Let me see!"

Cole handed the gauntlet that wasn't strapped to his hand over to Jay. Jay took it, eagerly looking at it from every angle. "Weird. How do you think they built it?"

"No clue." Cole said. Jay strapped the gauntlet onto his right hand. He then raised his arm, ready to aim it at something. Cole held him down. "If the one I'm using slows things down, what do you think that will do?"

"We don't know what it will do. It could just do the same thing! That's why I'm checking."

"I'd rather not risk having you, or anything in this room, zooming around at the speed of sound."

"Come on, Cole. Where's your sense of scientific curiosity?"

"Never had it." Cole said. "Come on. We need to figure out how to get home. Before anyone else shows up."

"Um. Well. Ah. There's . . . There are no real controls that I can make out." Jay frowned. "It must activate with movement, or with voice commands? Both?"

Jay ran his hand over the gauntlet. He then moved it closer to Cole's, comparing them both. They didn't look very different, as far as he could tell.

Frustration threatened to overwhelm him. He hadn't figured the time machine out, and now he'd never figure out how these things worked either. Then they'd be stuck here forever- or at least, until they inevitably merged with their counterparts.

Some protector he'd turned out to be. He'd promised Cole they'd figure things out. That things would be okay. And now? Well, now they'd probably both spend their lives in dull clothing, staring at ugly statues of-

"The statues!" Jay face palmed. "Ugh. Obvious much?"

"Um." Cole blinked. "No?"

"I mean, I said it myself. They probably respond to movement . . . Here." Jay raised up Cole's gauntleted arm. "Okay, stand just like that."

"Okay?"

"Then me," Jay stood beside Cole, mirroring the pose. "And . . . nothing. Really?"

"Jay, what-" Cole began to turn, slowly lowering his raised arm.

"Don't! I'm thinking." Cole's arm responded to Jay's snappy tone by returning to place. "Maybe we're supposed to hold hands?"

Jay reached out, taking Cole's hand in his own. The reaction was almost instant. The gauntlet tightened against his wrist, and he could feel a lively connection running down from his arm and into Cole's.

The gauntlets gave of a soft glow. A small portal began to form directly across from them. It grew very tentatively, as if feeling out its surroundings. Jay held Cole's hand tighter. "Come on."

The portal continued to grow. When it finally stopped, it was an almost exact replica of the one they'd jumped through using the time machine. The swirling colors were a bit different (These had more of a blue hue) but Jay had a feeling it all worked the same nonetheless.

"You did it!" Cole smiled, as they both slowly let go. "We're- We're going back."

"I hope I did it. I mean, we still don't know what's on the other side. I figured it would maybe pick up on what we wanted but . . . I don't know, you know?"

"Well, can't be worse than here."

"If you jinx us, I'll kill you."

"Sorry, sorry." Cole chuckled. "So . . . do we take these off? Or do we . . . take them with us?"

"We should most definitely not take them with us." Jay strapped off the gauntlet slowly, keeping an eye on the portal. When it didn't threaten to fade, he took it off completely. Cole followed suit. "What do we do . . . about him though? Seems mean to leave him like that."

"I don't trust him. He'd kick both of our butts before we even took two steps." Cole said. Jay's other self was still in mid-attack, moving too slow for the eye to pick up. "And . . . would it matter what we did? I mean- we're trying to prevent this from happening at all, aren't we?"

Jay shuddered. "That's a scary thought. What if someone in our time did something that completely messed us up? And we wouldn't even know."

"Don't think about it too much."

"Too late."

"Let's just get back, freckles. We can panic about time continuum and its consequences once everything is over."

"Okay." Jay replied, once again taking Cole's hand in his own. "Let's go."