Your Future Hasn't Been Written Yet
by K. Stonham
first released 9th May 2022
From there, the plan fell pretty smoothly into place.
Toby called his Nana again for help getting Krel's project to the planetarium. The only difference was, this time he sat in the back with Aja and Krel, while Varvatos rode shotgun.
"Okay, Claire can portal the rest of us directly there," Jim said to the other half of his team, still waiting in the Tarrons' living room.
"Actually," Douxie put in, "can I trouble you for a quick portal back to Jim's house first, Claire? There's something I need to grab."
"Sure," she said, and with a wave of her hand opened a portal.
"Brilliant. Back in two ticks," Douxie said, and vanished through it.
Archie, still on the back of the sofa, gave Jim a significant look.
"I'm just gonna... go grab a baseball bat," Jim said. "For Darci." He followed Douxie through.
The portal opened in the Lake living room, but Douxie wasn't there. Jim found him upstairs in his room, holding one of the two little orange plastic bottles that his medications came in. The one still on his dresser was a daily dose, apparently meant to keep his anxiety at a low level.
The one in his hand was for flareups.
Panic attacks.
The only way for "I hate this" to be written larger across Douxie's face would be for it to be on a billboard. Nonetheless, he unscrewed the cap, fished out a pill, and swallowed it dry. He drew a breath, set his shoulders back and down, and turned to face Jim, his usual teasing expression smoothing across his face. "All right there, Jim?"
Douxie was an excellent actor; Jim couldn't find even a hint of the unhappiness that had mired him down just seconds before.
Douxie apparently felt the need to pretend in front of him. To lie to him, like Jim hadn't been standing there all along.
Jim looked flat at him. "You don't need to lie to me," he said, suddenly irritated, and turned to go back downstairs.
"Have you ever considered," Douxie asked, following him, "that maybe it's not you I'm trying to lie to?"
"So, what, you're going to fake it 'til you make it?" Jim asked, not looking back. "I don't think mental health works that way." He kept going to the hall closet, even though Douxie had stopped on the stairs behind him. "Lots of people have anxiety disorders. You don't have to hide it like this."
"Who, Jim?" Douxie asked quietly from the stairs. "Who has anxiety disorders?"
Jim turned around to look at him.
"Name me one other person you know who has this," Douxie continued, his voice low and angry. "One other person who deals with the irrational mess that's inside my head."
Jim had no answer.
"It's easy to quote statistics," Douxie told him. "Easy to say 'lots of people have this.' But when you're the only person you know who does? It's terrifying. And alienating. So don't you dare tell me I'm making a production of this. And don't you dare criticize my feelings or my tactics about this when you're the one who followed me just to watch me take my meds."
"No one would care if they knew," Jim protested.
"You sure about that?" Douxie asked. "Because I'm not." He vanished into the portal.
Jim sighed, looking at the maple wood baseball bat in his hands. He had the feeling he'd just messed up again. Setting his mouth in a line, he followed Douxie through the portal, back to the Tarrons' Mothership.
Krel sighed. The first time around (though, he admitted, it was looking more likely that there had been several times around for this day; he just didn't remember any of them, past or present), Varvatos had not been at the science fair. In hindsight, that was probably for the best.
"Very... interesting," Coach Lawrence said in a tone that indicated the exact opposite, looking over Krel's functioning volcano, which totally blew the papier-mâché models all the other students had done out of the klebbing water. "And, uh, what can you tell us about your model, Tarron?"
"Varvatos does not like the tone of your voice!" the warrior said, poking the tennis ball encased end of his cane in Coach's face. "You will appreciate the King-in-Waiting's scientific brilliance as he is due!"
"Ay ay ay." Krel grabbed Varvatos' arm and tried to drag him back. "Please forgive my grandfather," he said, glaring at Varvatos. "He can be very... enthusiastic."
Coach Lawrence looked surprisingly sympathetic. "Yeah, they get that way," he said, laying a heavy hand on Krel's shoulder and patting it.
Miss Janeth, meantime, was examining Krel's display and making notes on her clipboard. "And does this actually work, Mister Tarron?"
"Yes, it does!" Krel beamed, excited about the chance to show off his hard work to someone who might appreciate it. "You simply press the activation button, which will simulate tectonic slips, causing a redistribution of pressure, and-"
Which was, of course, when Porgon chose to attack.
A massive red troll jumped down from the second level of the planetarium, landing right on her and Mary's table, crushing their painfully constructed model.
Forewarned was forearmed. Darci stood and grabbed the baseball bat Jim had given her not ten minutes before, shifting into defensive position.
"You jerk!" Mary yelled at the troll's back, whipping out her cellphone and hitting record.
"Got your back, Mare," Darci told her friend, ready to hit a homer if the troll moved an inch in their direction.
Fortunately, he didn't, because even with the weight of the bat heavy in her hands, Darci was kind of sure it wouldn't make much impact. Steve and Eli, though, didn't seem to get that memo as the troll lumbered toward them, roaring and swatting display tables.
"Die, creeper!" Steve yelled, charging forward and assaulting the troll with his own bat. Darci winced at the reverb as it rebounded. Steve got swatted aside, into the crushed remains of Eli's project even as Eli backed up, a nervous expression on his face.
They weren't the only ones who weren't running and screaming, either. The look of irritation on Krel Tarron's face was a wonder to behold, even as Miss Janeth and Coach Lawrence gaped themselves stupid.
"Is this your Porgon?" Krel's grandpa asked.
"Hardly mine, but, yes, that is him," Krel replied.
"Glorious!" the old man shouted, and dropped his disguise, transforming into a blue Akiridion nearly the size of Porgon.
The red troll paused, blinking in surprise as Varvatos rushed forward, punching him with a wide grin on his face.
"Ay ay ay," Krel said, face-palming.
"I agree," Aja muttered.
"Oh, this is the good stuff!" Mary squealed from beside Darci, avidly filming.
"Mary, look out!" Darci bodily hauled her out of the way, and just in time too, as the red and blue behemoths came tumbling through the space where she'd been standing, hitting the wall hard. They wrestled there for a minute, neither gaining the upper hand, until-
"NOW!" Jim Lake's voice came from the mezzanine.
The Tarrons grinned fierce, matching grins and dropped their own disguises, darting forward with glowing blue serrators in hand. Porgon blinked again. Meanwhile a shadow portal formed behind Varvatos and the troll, and Darci's own armored boyfriend came out, glowing warhammer in hand, followed by Blinky, Aaarrrgghh, and an armor-clad Claire. Up on the mezzanine, Darci saw, Jim was wearing his own armor, with Douxie standing right beside him, face stilled in concentration. His fingers curled into a fist, and blue light slipped the red troll's silver stick out of his grasp as he looked around himself in panicked confusion.
"No!" the troll yelled, grabbing for the object. "My shiny!" But he was too late, and the object too far away, sailing smack into the wizard's grasp.
"It's over, Porgon," Toby told him.
"Does that mean Varvatos has permission to punch this miscreant into next Tuesday?"
Aja face-palmed. "Yes, Varvatos."
"Glorious!"
But the troll roared, and bucked the blue -alien- Akiridion off, getting to his feet and swinging savagely at Claire, who went flying.
"Claire!" the pair up on the mezzanine called, Jim swinging over the railing and down to the floor.
The red troll roared again, putting Darci in mind of an angry bull, and charged.
"Whoa!" Eyes wide, Jim dodged.
Shaking his head, Varvatos was helped to his feet by the two trolls. With a cry, Aja and Toby took off after the troll, who was now throwing punches that Jim was barely able to evade or block.
"Krel!" Douxie yelled. Krel looked up at the balcony. "Supercharge it," the wizard called, and threw the staff he was holding like a javelin.
Krel caught it with two of his hands, looked at his fancy volcano model, and nodded, dashing over to it.
"What are they doing?" Eli asked, crowding in next to Mary and Darci.
"I don't know," Steve said as he joined them. His helmet had a large crack running through it. "But I bet it's going to be awesome!"
Krel pocketed his protractor, fiddling with the back of his volcano as the others fought. Angry Red Guy jumped up onto the rotating model of the solar system; Aja and Varvatos pursued him, the former more gracefully than the latter. With a roar, the troll grabbed one of the planets and threw it; Aja ducked and the sphere went sailing down the entrance hall.
"No!" Eli cried. "Not Pluto!"
Sheltering under a nearby table, Miss Janeth perked up. "Mister Pepperjack! We have been through this before. Pluto does not meet the qualifications for a planet as determined by the International Astronomical Union."
"But it was my favorite," Eli lamented.
"Ha! Ready!" Krel slapped one last thing together, plugging the glowing rod into his volcano somehow. He actually lifted his volcano up, tilting it so the crater was pointed at the slowly rotating system.
Jim, standing near by him, held up a hand, tracking the moving system and the three figures moving on it. Finally- "Now!" he said.
Krel pushed a button, and molten magma, so hot Darci could feel it from across the room, erupted, aimed perfectly for the red troll, who yelled, clawing at his face and arms as the glowing liquid rock hit.
"Oh, well done!" Blinky cheered as Angry Red Guy slipped and fell off of Jupiter, crashing to the ground.
Slashing silver swords, Jim and Toby both ran and leapt, piercing the troll as one.
With a roar, the troll crumbled into stone, dead. Only the smoking wreckage of his attack was left behind.
"So is the time loop over?" Jim asked as Douxie made his way down the ramp from the mezzanine.
"Well," Douxie said, tucking his hands into his hoodie pockets, "Porgon didn't get a chance to reset things, so I'd say yes." Archie leapt up onto his shoulder as they surveyed the damage. "Though there's not much of the science fair left, I'm afraid." Various students were starting to come back from where they'd fled or cowered. One, Shannon Longhannon if Douxie remembered correctly, was on the ground, weeping over the destroyed remains of her repaired project.
"I just fixed it," she mourned.
The two teachers were huddled together, muttering. Finally they seemed to come to a consensus. "Attention, everyone!" Miss Janeth said, straightening. "A winner has been decided. The blue ribbon goes to... Krel Tarron, for his weaponized display of tectonic flow!"
Krel, still four-armed and blue, blinked for a minute. Then his gape transmuted into the biggest smile Douxie had ever seen from him. "I did it!" He picked up his sister and swung her around. "I did it, Aja! I finally won!"
"Congratulations, little brother," she said, smiling, hands on his shoulders.
Her hands fell away as Miss Janeth approached, ribbon in hand.
"Congratulations, Mister Tarron," she said, handing it over. Her gaze raked him up and down. "Though I sense we have much to discuss about your... unusual approach to science, as well as your unconventional appearance."
"Oh, sorry!" Krel hastily reapplied his transduction, turning into a brown-skinned Latino boy in a flash of light. "Is this better?"
Her lips pursed, Miss Janeth considered him, and the question. "You know," she said, "I'm not certain it is."
"I'm sorry about what I said earlier," Jim said quietly to Douxie, while the rest of their team went forth among the mundanes and started introducing themselves, reassuring and answering questions. "I didn't mean it-"
Douxie breathed, testing. It felt like there was a thin wall of glass between him and his emotions at the moment, keeping him calm. Even the rising thought of what was coming - dealing with the police, the politicians, the court of public opinion - failed to breach that shield. "It's fine, Jim."
"No, it's not." Jim's hand curled into a fist. He was clearly angry at himself. Douxie couldn't really blame him. What he'd said had been a bit entitled. The knowledge that it had been spoken from a place of care and frustration did only so much to ameliorate that.
"It's fine," Douxie repeated with emphasis. "I understand that my... mental health issues are just one more thing that makes me abnormal. Another layer of icing on the disaster cake."
"You're not a disaster," Jim snapped, anger rising in his eyes. "I hate that you have to go through this, that you have to take pills just to feel normal."
Behind glass, Douxie shrugged. "It is what it is." He surveyed the disaster zone that was the planetarium. "Think you can get Pluto back in here? I can probably stick it back in place. Make the authorities a bit less ticked at us."
"Even if it's no longer astronomically accurate?" Jim asked.
"Well, it'll make Eli happy at least."
"Fair." Jim hesitated, though, before heading off. "You sure we're good?"
Douxie managed a smile for him. "We are. Get going."
With a nod, Jim loped off, passing the police coming in. "Hey, Detective Scott! Don't suppose you saw which way Pluto went?"
Faced with a smiling, friendly teenager in armor looking for a wayward (dwarf) planet, all the wide-eyed man could do was jerk his thumb over his shoulder.
Jim gave him a double thumbs up. "Thanks! I'll be back in a few."
Douxie gave a long, low sigh. "No turning back," he said to his familiar, and stepped forward to help with the damage control.
"Oh, yeah," said Steve, taking a selfie with himself and Eli, cracked helmet and all, before the stacked pile of rubble that had been a living, attacking troll mere minutes before. "We were totally heroes."
Mary rolled her eyes, already uploading her video of the battle, typing in caption and explanation. "Hashtag idiots," she muttered.
"You know it." Darci, Louisville slugger resting on her shoulder, stood by her side. Instead of by her dad. Detective Scott was sitting on the steps, his head in his hands, muttering about trolls and aliens and magic being real, and how this was all quite possibly above his pay grade.
Mary guessed that Darci had picked sides. And even if she didn't have magic, which felt soooo unfair, Darci had picked the side her friends were on.
Sci-fi/fantasy was totally the new popular wave, and they and Claire were going to ride it all the way.
"Done! Posted," Mary announced as Claire came up. "Watch my hit counts grow," she said proudly, displaying her screen.
"Nice," said Claire. "Doux is about to stick Pluto back in place, then I think he wants to work out a filming schedule with you and Toby."
"Ooh, for the weird and wacky old magic spells thing? I am so there," Mary swore, and detached from her besties, seeking the best angle to shoot this. Douxie noticed her and gave her a nod, which attracted Jim's attention too. "Okay," Mary told them. "Ready when you are."
She pressed go as Jim heaved the purple planetoid into the air, where it was caught by Douxie's blue magic, which carried it high into the air. Krel Tarron, blue again, was clinging to the now-stationary arm of the planets display. "A little lower," he called. "To the left... the left, no, my left! Perfect. Hold it there." He used his serrator for something, some kind of welding torch function or something, and affixed the sphere in place. "Perfect. Let go and let's see if this holds."
"You're making me feel really confident about this, Krel," Douxie called, but obliged, his magic fading away.
Krel flipped him off, but kept fast eyes on Pluto until it was obvious it wasn't going to fall. "Excellent! Repairs done." Using his two upper hands, he swung down and landed on two feet on the ground.
"So, um. What should we do about the body?" Claire asked, surveying the pile of rubble. "We can't just leave it here, but putting it in a dumpster feels disrespectful."
"Yeah, even for Porgon," Toby agreed.
"If I may make a suggestion." Blinky wandered up.
"We're all ears, Blink."
"The traditional resting place of troll criminals is well-known. If Fair Claire feels up to a portal, I suspect this matter could be easily resolved."
The other teenagers looked blank.
Blinky sighed.
"The Deep," Aaarrrgghh rumbled, coming up behind his partner.
Wide-eyed comprehension crossed a set of faces. Not Mary's; she didn't know what they were talking about.
"Oh yeah," Toby breathed, nodding. "Yeah, that'd do it."
But Claire was looking at the massive heap of stone with a dubious expression. "I don't know if I can," she said. "There's really not any space between the rocks and the ground for me to make a portal."
Archie, sitting on Douxie's shoulder, coughed and poked the wizard.
"Huh?"
Archie gave him a meaningful look.
"Oh. Oh!" A manic grin suddenly grew wide on Douxie's face. "Fair Lady Claire, care to try a bit of joint magic?"
She gave him a dubious look.
"Nothing dangerous, I promise. Just something theoretical Arch and I came up with a while ago. Never had the chance to try it, though."
"Well, maybe? Talk me through it, Douxie."
He was still grinning. "You make a portal. I blast the chunks of our former friend here through it."
"Ooh." Toby's eyes were wide. "You mean, all 'tenebris exilium'?" He wiggled his fingers in demonstration.
Douxie nodded.
Toby practically vibrated with anticipation. "Awesomesauce!"
"All right, everyone," Jim called. "Clear the floor."
In short order, everyone save the two wizards had relocated up to the mezzanine. Blinky stood at the railing, absently munching a piece of destroyed table that Aaarrrgghh had handed to him, watching as Claire and Hisirdoux positioned themselves on opposite sides of the pile of Porgon's remains.
"This should be good," Krel said, standing by his side, still holding onto the dekyon charger.
"Indeed," Blinky concurred as Douxie gave Claire a nod. She stepped to the side and raised her hands, opening a wide portal to be the wizard's target.
"Ready," Claire said. Beyond Krel, Mary stood first among her peers, certainly not the only one with their phone out, recording this, but perhaps the most important.
Douxie took a half-step back, bracing himself. He closed his eyes, drawing a breath. His arms pulled back to either side. Blue sparked at his fingertips, forming into runic spell circles.
His eyes snapped open. His arms shot forward. "Tenebris Exilium!"
Magic the color of a summer day's sky blasted the debris through Claire's portal, scouring the floor clean to its carpet.
There was a wave of voices from all along the mezzanine: "Whoa." "Holy carp." "What the frigging frack." "That was awesome!" "Oh my God." Serious reactions all, but none negative. Blinky smiled. Perhaps mankind was not lost and beyond wonder, after all. Perhaps there was hope for their mad quest, and Hisirdoux's unorthodox solution to the Arcane Order's grievances, to succeed.
"Scientifically unlikely," the female teacher with her hair in buns said, eyes wide behind her glasses. "Yet undeniably effective."
The other teacher took his red hat off his head and pressed it to his chest. "Wow. And you, uh, train with these guys?" he asked Steve.
Who beamed at him. "Yeah, Coach! Pretty cool, huh?"
/Somewhere that doesn't legally exist. Located about 300 miles away from Arcadia Oaks./
"Ma'am!" A man in a uniform, his blond hair cut nearly to his scalp, knocked on his superior officer's door.
A woman sat there, her short hair parted down the middle, swept back from her face, and sprayed within an inch of its life. It wouldn't dare budge even if a bomb was dropped on it. Her face was pulled into a perpetual frown. She did not look happy as she looked up. She never looked happy. "What is it?"
"There's a video-several, actually-that have been uploaded to social media. The techs have checked them and think they're legit."
Her frown deepened. "Show me."
"Yes, ma'am!" He pulled the tablet out from under his arm, tapped at its screen several times, then turned it around to show her.
The woman's dark eyes narrowed. "Where was this taken?"
"A little town called Arcadia Oaks," the man reported.
"I see. Get me everything we have on it."
"Yes, ma'am!" He saluted, and left her office, a man on a mission.
Amanda Kubritz spun her chair slowly, until she was facing the wall behind her desk. There was an enormous United States of America map spread across it, with flags in various colors stabbed in here and there. "Arcadia Oaks," she said to herself, eyes narrowing as she found it on the map. "Very interesting."
Reaching behind herself without looking, she pulled a small red flag from her top drawer.
Standing, she stabbed it into the map.
Author's Note: Colonel Kubritz is never given a first name in canon, so I decided on Amanda - as in Amanda Waller, of DC Comics. I'm not the first to note they share certain characteristics. :)