#and dahila being BADASS LETS GOOO!!

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Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 3: SepticHeroes Revisited

Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs | Read Septicheroes

Read SITCV | SITCV SepticHeroes Chapters | AO3 Link

A few minutes pass in silence. And then Jackie inhales sharply. "They're coming!" He flings the curtains open so everyone can see. 

There are five of the SAMs flying down the street towards them. Three are the black models they'd seen before, one is the same size but red instead, and one is green and softball-sized. 

Soren nods. "I'll go on up, then. Chase?" 

"Yeah, I'll come with," Chase says, grabbing Frosty's lead and following him up the stairs. 

I won't be much use against Machines so I'll hang back, JJ says. He reaches into a lamp in the living room, pulling out a metal pipe for defense, and then backs up. 

"Everyone else, get ready," Jackie says.

Jackie Mann hurries up the stairs and holds his knife out, watching the door. 

Alt glitches to his feet and bubbles up magic at his hands. "... Hopefully the shield holds..." He whispers anxiously. 

Bro looks nervous as he gets into a fighting stance, watching the door. 

The red SAM starts glowing. And then it flies towards the window, glowing brighter and brighter--and it lets out a blast of energy, shattering the glass and Alt's shield at once. 

"Holy shit!" Jackie shouts, using a gust of wind to deflect most of the flying glass. "Cover!" 

As the shield gets immediately cracked, Alt screams and crashes to the ground, gripping at his chest like the blast hurt him. 

Bro pales and hurries over to crouch by him, "A-Alt!" 

"H..How...?" Alt coughs, looking even more pale. "H-How did they do that??"

The small green SAM flies into the fray first, and its camera flips over to a screen, its projector sliding open too. Both the screen and the projector show a 3D animated model of a man with an LED screen for a face. "Hello world."

Both Alt and Bro look up at the man. Bro hurries to put a hand out to protect Alt. And Alt pales even more, shaking slightly. "I-It's you!" 

Jackieboy growls and bares his teeth, pointing his knife at the hologram, "The fuck do you think you are, tin man?! Too cowardly to fight us in person?!"

Anti laughs in his robotic voice. "Unfortunately fighting you in person is impossible. I am not there. But there is someone who is coming soon." The three black SAMs fly into the room. "And I'm willing to get things ready for him." 

"Fucking bitch! Just leave us alone!" Jackie yells.

One SAM has part of it slide away as a gun-like attachment pops out the top. The other two have the end of their peripherals shift into something like laser pointers. And they all fire at once, with the two laser pointers firing energy blasts at Bro and this world's Jackie while the big gun fires a heavy-looking projectile at Marvin.

Alt tries to yell out, "Chase! Watch out!" But, the energy hits Bro and he hits one of the back walls, momentarily disorienting him. 

Jackie yelps and jumps out of the way of the energy blast, but Marvin gets knocked back by some sort of canon ball, sending him sprawling across the ground. Schneep gasps, glancing back and forth between Marvin and Bro before JJ gestures for him to go help Bro. Schneep nods and rushes to his side while JJ helps Marvin up.

Alt growls and whips out a hand to try to shoot one of the SAMs with a blast of lightning.

 Two of the SAMs dodge the lightning attack but one of them is too slow and gets immediately fried, falling to the ground completely dead. "Oh?" Anti says. "So you can do THAT, can you? Fine, then." And both of the SAMs aim their weapons at Alt, firing the canon and the energy attack. Marvin sits up, clutching his stomach. He gasps as he sees the SAMs fire on Alt and throws a ball of energy in their direction. 

Marvin's attack brushes both SAMs but don't do enough damage to divert their course. 

Alt's eyes widen and he gasps and tries to get out of the way- but the energy blast hits him first before the canon hits him and sends him, skidding back. He curls up into a ball, coughing and clutching at his chest. 

"Alt!" Bro cries as Schneep helps him up. He whips on the SAMs and growls, momentarily forgetting his powers are blocked and trying to aim to punch a SAM as hard as he can.

The SAM doesn't try to dodge Bro's attack, thinking that a neutralized hero won't be able to do much. But, surprisingly, there's enough force behind Bro's punch that the SAM with the canonball attachment goes spinning into the wall. 

Marvin laughs. "Nice one!" he says, and aims a second attack at the other SAM. The beam this time shears off its peripheral. 

Bro blinks in surprise then grins, getting into another fighting stance. "I'm not completely out! Watch it, ya eyeball freaks!" 

Meanwhile, Schneep turns his attention to Alt, checking him over. 

Alt coughs more, his chest aching terribly after being hit. It's hard to think. He blinks up at Schneep with an unfocused gaze, "S-Schneep-" God- it hurts to breathe... he keeps having to drag in deep gasping breaths.

"Shh, it's okay," Schneep mutters. "That hit you in the chest, there could be damage, but you are still breathing and that is good." He reaches into his backpack and pulls out a cold pack, which he hands to Alt. "Put that where it hurts most and I can tie it into place." 

Alt nods and takes the pack, placing it over the pain. 

"You may not be out yet, but you haven't faced the worst yet," Anti says. "He's coming." Marvin eyes' widen as Anti says that. He gets ready, conjuring a protective shield around Alt and Schneep before scrambling to his feet.

Alt blinks at the shield and then shrinks in on himself as he feels a familiar presence in the air. “…fuck-“ 

Schneep looks up at the shield, feeling the heat it gives off. "Oh no."

Evil laughter echoes around them before static shimmers in front of Marvin and a clawed hand reaches out, aiming for his face. 

Marvin shouts in surprise as he dodges to the side, Mag's claws scraping along his mask but not doing any permanent damage. "Fucking shit!" he shouts. 

Magnificent growls, baring his teeth as he skids into a cat-like stance, just having missed Marvin.

JJ whips into action, throwing at string at Mag, aiming to wrap him up.

Mag sees the string coming and then slices at the air with his claws as his eyes burn with hatred. He laughs, showing his fangs. “Oh no- we’re not playing that game this time, kitten.” Mag holds out his hands and a bright spiral appears behind him, trying to draw the people around under his power. “We’re gonna play my way this time~!” 

“N-No! L-Look aw-!” Alt tries to yell, but his voice gets cut off with a strangled gasp.

The spiral is… beautiful. It’s so hard to try to look away once it captures your gaze. Magnificent’s smooth voice beckons you to listen… to obey. 

“Yes… that’s it puppets! Why don’t we make this interesting hm?” The mad magician cackles, “Kill your friends- kill any super that gets in your way.” 

Jackieboy and Bro know better, they manage to cover their eyes. 

Alt tries but- he slips and purple green magic spirals in his eyes. He staggers and tries to get up- ignoring the shield- almost trying to walk past it, despite the heat coming off it. 

Schneep is too busy looking through his backpack for bandages to pay attention to the spiral. And Marvin acts fast enough to close his eyes. But Jackie and JJ are looking at Magnificent when the spiral appears. They both slump, relaxing immediately. JJ looks over at Marvin, more strings appearing around his fingers. 

"JJ...?" Marvin says in a shaky voice. "Please don't--" 

But JJ attacks anyway, strings lashing out. 

Jackie's spiraling eyes look at Bro and Jackieboy. He lunges for the two of them, aiming to punch whoever's closest. 

"Alt!" Schneep grabs Alt and pulls him back before he can walk straight into the burning hot shield. "No! Wake up!"

Bro’s head whips up as he sees the spirals in Jackie’s eyes. “n-no- Jackie! C’mon man! Don’t listen to-!” The hero gets cut off as Jackie punches him right in the face. Bro staggers back, blinking spots out of his eyes. 

“Hey! Other me! Not cool!!” Jackie Mann shouts, sliding down the stairs parkour style - then he tries to kick Jackie in the face. 

Jackie easily dodges Jackieboy's kick, turning his attention to him instead, lunging at him for another attack. 

Jackieboy skids as he misses and has a second of losing his balance before he gets punched by Jackie. He holds his cheek and staggers back. Bro sees this and yells, trying to grab Jackie’s arms from behind to stop him. 

Jackie is in the middle of swinging back another punch when Bro grabs him. He struggles against him, trying to pull free. 

Alt looks back at Schneep and his expression darkens. He quickly glitches to face him and then tries to tackle him to the ground by his neck, his pocket knife suddenly in his hand.

Schneep yelps as Alt grabs him and quickly goes intangible before Alt can pin him down. 

Alt blinks at the empty space below him, blinking slowly. 

Schneep backs up, disappearing through the wall to their backs and circling around to the other side of Marvin's shield. He pulls a pocket knife of his own out and goes for Mag--but is intercepted when the red SAM from earlier rushes at him, emitting some sort of energy pulse. Schneep yelps and falls as the SAM runs into him--not being hit by the machine itself, but by the energy it's emitting. He clutches his head--why is it aching all of a sudden?

Mag looks amused as the SAM attacks for him, grinning and waving at Schneep from behind it. 

Marvin gasps and slices through JJ's strings before they get close. He's suddenly breathing heavily, eyes darting back and forth. "J-Jameson, please don't do this again! Y-you don't want to be like this anymore!" 

Alt hears Marvin’s shouting and bares his teeth- finally glitching out of the shield and then trying to lash out to attack Marvin from behind with his knife. 

Marvin spins around, sees Alt, and quickly ducks. 

JJ, still hypnotized, lunges for Marvin as he drops to the ground, and Marvin immediately freezes up when JJ grabs his wrists. "No!" he screams, panicking, struggling. "JJ! No! Don't do this! Please! What about your friends?! What about your family?! What about Dahlia?!" 

Something in JJ's eyes flickers at that. Dahlia? Dahlia. Dahlia... And suddenly he gasps, spirals disappearing. And he jerks backwards, looking down at his hands in horror. 

Alt’s eyes flicker at the scene of Marvin freaking out- some part of him sympathizing. 

But, Mag shouts angrily as his hold on JJ breaks and this snaps Alt back to attention, magic flaring brighter in his eyes. He yells too and sends out a sound wave to try to hit Marvin and JJ.

Bro seems to have forgotten he’s powerless right now- Jackie easily fights his way out. Bro staggers then shouts at Jackie. “C’mon Jackie! Windstorm would never work for a bad guy, right?! Fight this!” 

Jackie's eyes flicker. "Wind... storm...?" he repeats. He shakes his head, backing away and pressing his hands over his eyes. Then his head snaps up. "H-holy shit!" 

Bro deflates with a relived smile, “H-Hey hey it’s okay! You’re-“ The sound wave goes off and startles Bro and Jackie, who whip around to look. 

This moment comes at the same time Alt's sound wave fires off, sending both Marvin and JJ sprawling across the floor. JJ reacts worse than Marvin does, clutching his ears and writhing. Marvin gasps and scrambles over to JJ, covering him protectively. His eyes snap to Magnificent and he aims a beam of energy at him--and that red SAM swoops to intercept it. The beam slams into it, burrowing a hole in its side--and yet it stays flying. 

Magnificent yells as his control gets broken again. “Insolent pests!” He cringes as Marvin’s blast comes towards him but- the SAM intercepts. Mag grins, laughing. “Ha! These things are handy!” 

Alt glitches in front of Marvin and JJ, towering over them with bright spiraling eyes. He opens up his hand in front of Marvin’s face, magic bubbling up hot and dangerous as he aims like he might try to shoot Marvin through the skull. “No!! Alt stop!!” Bro tries to yell.

Marvin's eyes widen--and he kicks Alt in the knees, knocking him to the ground.

Alt hits the ground like ton of bricks, jostling his injured chest and making him let out a strangled gasp. His eyes flicker wildly. 

Bro looks at Windstorm with wide eyes and then his eyes flicker to Mag. His expression darkens. “We need to take out Mag. But the eyes are getting in the way!” 

Magnificent yells in anger, then slams a hand against the wall. Green flames burst out and then crackle around the room-cutting off their exits. “None of you fucking heroes are winning today!” He snarls dangerously. “None of you will leave this place alive!”

The whole group tenses as the fire appears--but Schneep gasps. He points towards the hallway leading out of the room, now blocked off by flames. It's--someone-- 

A blur rushes across the room towards Mag, crossing the length in less than a second, and Mag suddenly feels something hit him very hard against the back of the head. 

Now it’s Magnificent’s turn to hit the ground like a ton of bricks. He wasn’t expecting this at all. He’s out- and the fire flickers out around them as Mag slips into unconsciousness. 

Standing behind him is one Dahlia Jackson, holding the metal bat Soren had earlier. 

Bro and Jackieboy stare dumbfounded at the now downed Mag and triumphant Dahlia. 

The magic in Alt’s eyes breaks when Mag falls and he rolls onto his stomach, coughing and gasping. He starts to shake wildly, trying to take in the scene. 

The remaining SAMs have all been knocked to the ground, though they're all quickly getting back up. 

Jackieboy cheers and jumps up, “YEAHHH DAHLIA!! That was bad fucking ass!” 

She grins at the group... and then blood begins to leak from her nose and she immediately collapses. 

Jackie gasps- JJ lets out a voiceless scream and hurries over to her. Schneep is right behind him, checking Dahlia's vitals. 

Bro rushes over and kneels down by her too, but tries to give Schneep room. “W-What just happened?! How- how did she do that…??” 

“Is she okay??” Jackieboy asks worriedly, hovering behind them. 

The guys don't say anything for a while, Jackie and Marvin hurrying closer while Schneep works. Then, Schneep sighs. "She overexerted herself," he mutters. "The nosebleed is a side effect of using her powers too much, yes?" 

JJ nods. It starts coming from her ears too if she goes too hard. 

"Yes. And because she is still so weak, even a short use of the powers was too much. She needs rest." 

Jackie lets out a breath of relief. 

Marvin is also visibly reassured. "Thank goodness," he mutters. And Jackie looks at Bro. "'How did she do that'...? Heh, y-yeah, I guess we never explained her powers, huh? Dahlia is--was, maybe, I dunno if she still wants to do it--a hero called Timekeeper." His eyes light up. "She can manipulate time to her will, speeding up or slowing it around her. She must have slowed time for us, which is why she looked like she moved so fast!" 

Bro’s eyes widen and then he grins, “Just like Henny! Oh my god- now they need to meet!” 

"Whoa!" Marvin suddenly shoots a blast at one of the SAMs, which is up again and aiming its canon attachment at Bro. It dodges, but at least Marvin succeeded in drawing attention to it. 

Bro yelps as Marvin yells and then he turns to protectively holds his arms over Dahlia. 

Alt peeks up his eyes and then growls seeing the SAM. He narrows his eyes and tries to see if he can dismantle it with his magic.

The SAM falls apart into pieces. 

Marvin blinks as he sees that happen, then laughs. "That also reminds me of someone. Maybe Alt should meet her, too. Next time you guys should come on a non-school day." 

Alt blinks at Marvin and then laughs breathlessly, pushing himself up on shaky arms. “Sounds like s-someone I’d like to meet too.” 

Then Marvin spins around and shoots another beam at the red SAM, finishing off the job he started. It falls to the ground with a hole right through it. "Think you can do that with the last one?" 

The last black SAM has its peripheral burned off earlier, but it's preparing to fire something else--looks like more neutrinalin darts.

Alt looks at the last SAM and nods, jerking his head to the side as his eyes flash green, trying to take this one apart as well.

The SAM's lens pops out, followed shortly by all its panels falling open and then its hovering mechanism failing as it crashes again. 

Jackie applauds. "That's so cool!" Then he looks at Alt and his smile fades. "Are you okay?" 

Alt’s eyes quickly dim back down and then he sighs and grips at his chest. He smiles tightly at Jackie. “M-Magic exhaustion and ngh- getting hit in the chest by whatever those things fired… I… I’ll be fine…” 

"Alright... if you're sure," Jackie says. 

"We have medical supplies, if you have time to get patched up," Schneep offers. 

Jackieboy hurries over to Alt’s side and helps him sit up properly, the smaller boy resting his head on Jackieboy’s shoulder. Alt smiles gratefully. “thanks…” 

Footsteps. Soren comes running into the room, aiming a--that's a crossbow. Why and how does he have a crossbow? Everyone in the room shivers for a moment as the sight of him rushing in and aiming it, eyes flashing menacingly, is pretty intimidating. But as he lowers it, the feeling abruptly disappears. 

Bro stiffens as Soren comes in and then relaxes only slightly- “…why the fuck do you have a crossbow??”

Soren examines the crossbow in his hands. "Because I couldn't find a trustworthy firearms dealer in the city. Underworld's really gone to shit in the past year." 

"Also, What the fuck happened?! Dahlia disappeared--Dahlia?!" 

She'll be okay, Soren, JJ says. She took out Magnificent and Alt took apart the Machines, like how G-computer does.

He looks at JJ, raising an eyebrow. "Really? A man of many talents." He gives Alt a grin. "Nice job."

Alt flushes a bit then smiles at Soren’s compliment. “T-Thanks.” 

"You know this isn't over, yes?" The green SAM is still intact. 

Alt stiffens as he hears Anti’s voice. 

"Shut the fuck up you--you hellspawn!" Marvin snaps. 

"I didn't spawn from hell. I spawned from man like the rest of you." 

“Yeah? Well why don’t you fuck off before we spawn you outta existence, freak!” Jackieboy shouts. 

"Get out of here!" Jackie shouts. "How dare you use that SAM?!" 

Anti laughs.

Alt’s eyes burn with magic as he glares at the last SAM, looking ready to take it apart too. 

"Fine," Anti says, noticing Alt's look and none too eager to lose this more specialized SAM. "But I will see you again. And next time, you won't be ready." And the SAM flies back out through the broken window. 

Alt glares after the SAM as Jackie Mann shouts after it, “Yeah! Run with that tail between your legs, bitch!” 

Jackie grumbles wordlessly, folding his arms. 

"The fucking window is broken?" Soren notices. "Dannazione, come osi..." He shakes his head. 

Schneep gently lifts Dahlia up. She's awake, but looking really out of it. "Come on, Dahllie, let's get you some rest," he says quietly. "You all can come upstairs too, I am sure Chase is worried about all of us."

Bro gets to his feet, still feeling kinda weird without his powers. He almost offers to take Dahlia from Schneep but thinks better of it. 

Alt starts to push himself up and Jackieboy helps him. Alt narrows his eyes at Mag and then mumbles some spell words- ropes of magic coming to wrap up his arms and legs and a magic gag over his mouth. He sags a bit against Jackieboy who keeps him upright as his eyelids flutter. “Okay bud- no more magic for a bit…” Jackieboy gently scolds him, putting on his dad voice. 

“D…didn’t… want him… causing trouble…” Alt mumbles sleepily. 

“That really helps, Alt, thanks,” Jackie says, grabbing Mag. “We’ll keep an eye on him. But you should rest up, okay?” 

The group heads upstairs again. Bro helps Jackieboy take Alt up. Chase is waiting in the bedroom, standing up and looking nervous. He jumps when the door opens, grabbing a knife Soren lent him, then relaxing as everyone comes in, all looking relatively unharmed. “E-everyone good?” He asks. “We h-heard a bunch of shouting downstairs a-and then all of a sudden Dahlia was gone—” 

“She helped,” Schneep says, putting Dahlia down on the bed. She rolls over, closing her eyes. “But she completely wiped herself out.” 

JJ gets to his knees next to the bed so he’s level with Dahlia’s face. When she opens her eyes he signs, Thank you, but be careful, Dahlia, okay? 

“Yeah…” Dahlia mumbles, closing her eyes again. 

“Oh, Alt, wanna sit down?” Marvin asks. “You uh… you’re tired. Do you need anything?”

Alt tiredly smiles and nods. Bro is quick to help Alt sit down and worriedly checks him over. He’s a bit warm but- not worryingly so. Alt blinks and starts to shake his head but then pauses, “…maybe some water? S-something to eat… it’ll be a second until I’m back up completely though. Food doesn’t fix everything…” 

“Oh oh alt! Cant you like- drain electricity from stuff for power? I swear you’ve done that once-“ Jackieboy says, leaning on the back of the chair. 

Alt shivers slightly, “…I could but… I don’t want to b-break anything… I-it’ll be okay… I’ll be okay.” 

Bro frowns in worry, looking between Dahlia and Alt.

“I’ll go get you some water, then,” Soren says. “And snacks. Do you think you guys will stick around for dinner, or do you have to deal with him quickly?” He points at Mag, who Jackie just kinda dropped in the corner farthest from the door. 

“Man! I’d love to stay for dinner… but this fucker will probably wake up.” Jackieboy gestures to Mag, “Jays always says people don’t stay knocked out that long.” 

“Yeah… we should probably take him home… once Alt has enough energy to power the TRVLR that is… maybe we can take a break…” Bro mumbles, not looking happy. 

JJ looks over at Soren. Before you go, can you— and he makes some signs that don’t really make sense. It translates directly to relax me but it must mean something else in this context. 

Soren bites his lip. “You know it’ll fade as soon as I leave the room. If you’re still worried when I get back, though, sure.” 

JJ nods. That’s fine.

Bro does blink at the sign language and looks between Soren and JJ, “…’relax me’? What does that mean?”

JJ blinks. He gestures at Soren to explain. “I can affect people’s emotions,” Soren says. “Make them feel happy, sad, angry, afraid—it sounds worse than it is, really, cause I have to see you to do it. Jem worries a lot, so I try to help out.” He glances at JJ. “But I can’t do it all the time.” 

I know, JJ says. I’m figuring stuff out. 

“You need a therapist,” Schneep says bluntly. 

I know! That’s kind of difficult to find when we’re in hiding. JJ sighs. He glances at the rest of the room. I’m not going to air all my personal feelings, but I DO know how to deal with problems in ways that don’t involve direct emotional change. It just helps sometimes for short periods of time. 

“Wouldn’t agree if I didn’t know that,” Soren mutters. “Alright, I’ll be right back.” And he quickly leaves. 

“…you do need therapy,” Marvin says. 

Well so do you, JJ responds. 

“Touché.”

“Ooooh- okay,” Bro says, nodding. “That makes sense- hell we all have a therapist but if I had an easy access to something to relax me right away I’d take it.” 

“Damn seems like we need to bring Dr. J here too!” Jackieboy grins. 

Bro bops him on the head, “We’re not bringing Dr. J to another dimension for him to just do his normal job for our doppelgängers! Really Jackie??” 

“It was a joke!!” Jackieboy says defensively, then pauses. “…kinda. Jay wouldn’t judge- …but maybe it’d be weird to… therapy an alternate version of yourself.” 

“It’d be super fucking weird!!” 

Alt looks at Jj tiredly but mumbles out quietly. “…I get it… getting controlled by Mag really messed with you, huh?” He grips at his wrist, massaging his purple markings.”…I know the feeling.”

JJ looks at Alt thoughtfully. He nods. I almost did something I promised myself I would never do again… he signs slowly. 

“H-hey.” Marvin clears his throat. “It wasn’t your fault. You know what mind control is like. It wasn’t really you. And i-if you’re worried about me… it’s fine. I forgive you.” 

…Thank you, Marvin, JJ says. He shakes his head. Anyway, Soren is really smart about people’s emotions, and it’s not just because of his powers. 

“Could’ve been a therapist if he wasn’t a fucking crime lord,” Jackie mutters. 

“I don’t think he is still like that,” Schneep says slowly. “Everything has sort of disbanded.” 

“Because you put him in jail,” Chase adds, looking at Jackie. “So you should really know.” 

“Well yeah but—but that’s not the point. I’m saying that he would’ve been a great therapist in another world where he wasn’t a villain in the first place. He could still be one now, but I don’t know many people who’d be eager to have Pathos as their therapist.”

Alt looks at JJ sympathetically and then finds himself giggling quietly as he mutters. “Heh… Pathos means feelings… that’s funny- good name-“ 

“Oh god he’s getting loopy,” Jackie mutters. 

“‘M not loopy… yer loopy…” Alt grumbles. 

Bro blinks and looks between everyone, “…I feel like I’m missing vital info here- Soren was a villain???” He throws his arms up into the air and then gestures at Schneep and Marvin, “How many of you were villains before that I had no idea about?!? …I mean- it doesn’t change anything! But I still feel like this should have gotten brought up!!”

"Uhhhh... everyone but me, Chase, and Time--Dahlia," Jackie says. "Which like--Bro. I get it. Do you know how much it rocked my shit to hear that Chase's doctor had been moonlighting as a master thief for years?" 

"Master thief?" Schneep repeats, clearly flattered. 

Jackie makes a face at him. "Not to mention the whole thing with JJ as the Puppeteer. My whole world just flipped upside down then. I mean, sure, turns out JJ was blackmailed to do it, but at the time... my, like, brain fucking broke." 

"At least you're now much more open?" Chase says. 

"I... yeah, I guess. I used to have a very, uh, black and white type of view on heroes and villains. But having it turn out that some of my friends are them, and then Marvin and Soren turned out to be, you know, people beyond their crimes, it... yeah." Jackie falls into a contemplative silence. 

Bro looks at Jackie and nods, holding his arms. “…I’m trying to be… better about that too. The black and white thinking… I.. I really hurt people… thinking like that.” 

“…cuz I was a villain too.” Alt speaks up, “…only for a couple months… and I was hella influenced by Mag when doing it but…” He closes his eyes and takes a steady breath, “…we’re all so much more than the bad things we do… especially when we try to be better.” 

Bro blinks then smiles softly and hugs Alt to his side.

 Meanwhile, JJ gives Alt a small smile. 

Alt looks up at JJ and then smiles too.

Soren soon returns. "Alright, here." He hands Alt a water bottle and a plate with a peaunut butter sandwich, a banana, and a wrapped chocolate bar. "Not my best work, but if you guys have to leave soon I figured faster was better. And I also grabbed my old phone. It's charged but there's no SD card on it, so don't worry about breaking it if you need an electric boost."

Alt blinks open his eyes and they light up with delight. “Oh my god- this is more than enough, thank you!” He hungrily starts to dig in. 

"Hey Jem, are you okay now?" Soren asks gently. 

JJ nods. A little bit. I can handle it now. 

"Okay, let me know."

Jackieboy laughs, sitting down on the floor. “Man- I wonder if like- being hungry after using magic or powers is like- worst then being regular starving… I wouldn’t know. But like- I forget to eat cuz of my ADHD and that sucks!” 

"Oh, I know, it's the worst, isn't it?" Jackie agrees, jumping in with his other self. "Especially since like--okay I don't get hungry directly from using my powers but I do have to concentrate and if I'm concentrating on flying I'm not thinking about how hungry I am so I don't eat." 

"Broooo," Chase says, turning the word into a booing sound. 

"Oh don't give me that, you forget, too." 

"Frosty helps remind me, though," Chase says, patting Frosty's head. "You don't have him, you gotta do it yourself." 

“Bro tell me about it! I swear I sit down to make my kids and me lunch and then I’m like oh I should do the dishes real quick and then I’m like oh a mug! Let’s make coffee! Then I’m like oh yeah I need to make a coffee date with the mates soon- and next thing I know I’m on the couch watching videos on my phone with two sandwiches half made wondering why I feel like rubbish!” Jackieboy laughs. Then he pauses and frowns, “…my life sounds so boring compared to a superheroes though-“ 

"Bruh, tell me about it," Chase says. "Everyone in this room except for you and me has powers." 

"Hey, don't sell yourself short, Chase," Jackie says. "Just because you guys don't have powers doesn't mean you're not needed. Or wanted. You're like, my best friend." 

"...oh." Chase looks unbelievably touched by that comment. 

Bro grins and pulls Jackieboy into a hug with his arm around his neck. “Yeah! You’re my best friend too ya dummy! I don’t know where I’d be without you and your stern dad voice!” 

“I don’t have a stern dad voice!” 

“Oh you so do-“ Alt laughs. 

Bro nudges his Jackie. “So, Don’t sell yourself short, Jackaboy- dealing with kids is hard work!”

Schneep glances at Jackieboy. "And this may sound cheesy, but I bet you are your children's hero. Good parents are something to be valued." 

Jackieboy looks touched.

Bro softens and then hugs Jackieboy tighter. “And believe me bro- Schneep’s right. your kids… they think you’re the coolest guy in existence. You’re a big hero in their eyes.” Jackieboy’s eyes get a bit misty and he quickly wipes at them with his jacket sleeve. 

“But, since you were curious! I know I feel ravenous after flying around for a bit- but only afterwards.” Bro continues. “Flying takes a lot of thinking!” 

“Really? I thought it just made you an airhead-“ Alt snickers. 

“Hey!”

Marvin snorts at Alt's comment. "Hah. Airhead." He nudges Jackie. "You." 

"Wha--excuse you?" Jackie glares at him.

Alt bursts into giggles. 

After a few more minutes Alt seems to be back in working order, finishing up the food. He grabs Soren’s old phone and grips it in his hand, draining the energy from it. His eyes glow brighter green and soon enough pixels vibrate around his shoulders and he grins, glitching back to his feet. He winces slightly as he moves his chest too much but he grins. “Fuck yeah! Oh, that was just the boost I needed!”

"Whoa!" Chase grins. "That's so cool!" 

"Whoooo." Dahlia raises a hand into the air, giving a supportive thumbs-up and announcing to everyone that she's more awake now. Schneep and JJ laugh. 

"Just in time too, I bet bitch other-me is gonna wake up at any moment now," Marvin says, glancing at Magnificent. 

"So are you guys gonna, like, drop him off and then come back, or are you gonna stay in your world for a while?" Jackie asks. "Because I'd be down for both." 

"We do not know if time between worlds is consistent," Schneep muses. "Perhaps even if they come right back, much time will have passed for us." 

Like Narnia, JJ says, spelling out the name. 

"Th' endin' ov that series sucked," Dahlia mutters.

Jackieboy laughs at this. Then, he turns to Bro. 

Bro frowns, sighing. "...I dunno how much time passes to be honest... We might be able to come back but... we don't know if the TRVLR is-" 

"Maybe it was just a fluke-" Alt says with a shrug, "Sure once we bring back Mag we can come back! But, just in case- maybe we should get each other's numbers- just so we can warn you next time we're around." He says with a grin. 

Jackieboy frowns, "Can that work across dimensions?" 

"Eh... probably not- but I know an Anti who could help with that- or maybe my glitches make it so I can... cuz I talk to him a lot," Alt replies. It does indeed seems like Mag is stirring- but is not quite awake yet. 

Jackie raises an eyebrow. "Really? That'll be cool. Yeah, hang on." He reaches into a pouch on his supersuit and pulls out his phone. "I dunno about everyone else, but I'll give you guys mine." 

"Me too," Chase says, taking his phone out. 

Schneep frowns. "That does not seem like the best idea to me. What if it does not work and you end up texting someone else with my number?" 

I'm a bit reluctant to give out my phone number these days, JJ says. 

"It's fine, if they have Windstorm and Chase's those guys can contact the rest of us," Marvin says. 

"Motherfucker I can't contact you," Jackie says. "I still don't have your number." 

"And you never willlll~" 

Alt laughs at Marvin's comment- 

Jackie rolls his eyes. "Okay, Marvin's up in the air, but the rest of us should be informed if you can contact us. Here, gimme your guys's number, too."

The boys all quickly exchange numbers. Alt, Bro and Jackieboy all give theirs. Jackieboy bounces up and down, "I hope we can get this to work!! I wanna hear all the cool hero things that happen here!" 

"Um?? Hero best friend right here?? Kinda offended??" Bro says raising an eyebrow and crossing his arms, "Am I not good enough anymore?" 

"You know what I mean! I wanna hear what other me gets up to! Besides they all have different villains and shit!” Bro snorts and rolls his eyes. 

“Oh my god- dude if we could face time my kids would lose their minds if they met you!" Jackieboy says excitedly, clutching his phone. 

"That might be pushing the universes' boundaries a bit-" Alt laughs.

"Oh I'd love to talk some more whenever you guys come by next!" Jackie says excitedly. "I could tell you all about my rouges gallery. Hyper Spike, Glacier, Titanium, Dark Storm--Marvin was actually one of my rouges for a long time but we're chill now so I wonder if I could chill with some of those guys." 

Jackieboy’s eyes sparkle, “I have no idea who any of those are but I wanna know!! Oh my god- new heroes and villains to learn about!! That’s so fucking cool!!”

"Dark Storm's a bitch, he won't want to chill with you," Marvin mutters. "But, uh, yeah, I-I'd love if you guys could... come visit again... and chat." 

Alt smiles at Marvin and nods, “Yeah… someday we can just- chill. But… gotta get the cat home first-“

Bro kneels down by Dahlia and blinks at her, "Hey- you gonna be okay? We never said thank you for saving our asses back there-"

Dahlia grins up at Bro. "Not a problem, it's what I do. I'll be fine. 've come back from this before." 

"The coma makes it a bit tricky," Schneep mutters. "But we will take care of her." JJ nods, grabbing his sister's hand and squeezing it tightly. 

"Hope we'll see you guys again," Chase says.

Bro smiles and nods, “I get it- just… take care of yourself. Seems like you got a lot of people who care about you.” He gets up and then grins and lightly punches his other self’s arm, “You will! We’ll be back! Promise!” 

Jackie Mann frowns at Mag and then looms over him- just in time for Mag to blearily open his eyes. He glares up at Jackieboy and struggles, shouting out against the gag. Jackieboy’s expression darkens and he kicks his foot against Mag’s cheek. Mag’s head snaps to the side and he looks almost stunned. 

“That’s for ruining our trip ya egomaniac!” Jackieboy bites. 

“Okayyy here Jackie just- lemme handle the mad angry hostile villain.” Bro says, dragging Jackieboy back. He goes to lift up Mag and then- finds he once again can with ease. He relaxes and laughs, grinning. “Just in time! Seems like power suppressing stuff wore off!” 

“Thank god.” Alt sighs with a smile. He pulls out the TRVLR and finds their own dimensions again, setting it up to jump.

"Whoa, I feel like that wore off faster than usual." Jackie laughs. "I guess that's the benefit of being from another world." He then glares at Mag. "You stay away next time. Or we'll kick your ass even harder than we just did." Dahlia glares at Mag as well. And Soren smiles, an expression accompanied by a chill of... fear? When was the last time Magnificent felt fear? 

Magnificent squirms and spits out curses against Alt’s magic- all up until that surge of fear gets sent through him. Then he quiets, seeming to shrink against Bro’s shoulder. Bro blinks then laughs, “Hey! That’s a handy trick!” He beams and nods his thanks to Soren and the others. 

JJ, in between Dahlia and Soren, signs, Don't come back. 

"You all can come back, though," Schneep says, nodding at Jackieboy, Alt, and Bro. 

"Any time!" Chase adds. 

"We'll see you around," Marvin says. "Good luck with all this."

Jackieboy grins, “We’ll be back real soon! For a proper day!” 

Alt smiles and salutes, “Until then~!” He then grabs the others and presses the jump button, preparing to go home.

And the familiar falling sensation happens, the world around them going dark. But... again, there it is. That ripple. And, like fish in water, the group feels themselves diverted just slightly off course as the space around them shifts.