#dr Israh Cornelius

[huffle-dork]

Hufftober Day 2: Lab Rat

I didn’t vibe with any prompt today so I did an alternative @whumptober prompt!

This a teaser for a new swapboys story I’ll hopefully get out within the next few days! >:3c

[huffle-dork]

Glitch into the Hufflverse Chapter 3: SCLERA

Read Swapboys | Read Crystal’s AUs

Read SITCV | Read SATCV | GITHV Masterpost

When everyone starts to wake up- they realize they’ve been moved out of the main lab space they were brought into and put somewhere entirely new. The walls are bright white- almost blindly so. Alt, Schneep, JJ and Jackie all find themselves in separate small rooms. Each one has a tiny bed (that they weren’t even put on) and a collection of monitors along one wall. A camera whirls up in the upper corner, focusing on their every move. Windows are placed along two walls on each cell, positioned so they can all see each other. 2 rooms facing the other 2. Alt and Jackie on one side. JJ and Schneep on the other.

As they all wake up and take stock of their bodies- they’ll all notice there’s now a cuff on their ankle, tethering them to the wall.

Alt instantly starts to panic, trying to pull at the cuff or glitch- but he gets shocked for even trying, causing him to cry out. JJ isn't far behind in the panic department. He runs up to the window, pressing his hands against it and staring through the glass. He tries to cast some magic to break through the window but receives a similar shock.

Jackie's first instinct is to pull at the cuff, testing its strength. No good. The tether is sturdy and the cuff itself is tight around his ankle. "Fuck!" he shouts. His eyes dart around this small cell. There's a bed at least—that's good. A camera—bad. Monitors—unusual. He feels his breath quickening but he refuses to panic like Alt and JJ are. This can't be too bad. He's been through worse. At least this time he has the smallest bit of hope that someone will find him. Surely the others from this world will come looking for their friends.

Schneep feels around the room, getting a hold of his surroundings. The sparse furniture and small size mean he's quickly able to get a hang of it. Which... does not bode well for what's going to happen to them. If they don't care enough to give their subjects more than a bed, that's not a good sign of these people's intentions. He can sense souls nearby. It must be Alt, Jackie, and JJ...but...

JJ stares out the window at the others... and realizes something. The Jackie across from him... He's different. You're not my friend Jackie, he signs, staring at him.

Jackie looks up and shakes his head. "No, sorry. It's a bit hard to explain."

“Fuck!” Alt shouts, his voice breaking a bit at the end. He staggers to the windows and looks over at the others, “Fucking shit I… I’m so sorry guys- this… none of this was supposed to happen! I… I never thought they… that they’d get Chase…” he grits his teeth and then hits his fist against the window. “Fucking shit-!”

“Don’t blame yourself, Alt,” Jackie says quietly. “I don’t think any of us could’ve predicted that.”

Schneep shakes his head. “I should have run when you told me to instead of coming back. I would be more help out there than in here.”

“It’s fine Schneep… you’re not one to leave your friends…” Alt mutters.

JJ looks at him as well. That’s Schneep but… it’s not any Schneep he knows. I’m sorry, I’m very confused, he signs slowly.

“Don’t worry about it, you were tripping balls the whole time, that doesn’t exactly lend itself to a clear head. Fuck that Overdose woman.” Jackie runs a hand through his hair. “Basically we took you and Alt to the hospital because you were in danger, but it turned out to be a trap and we all got captured. You’re in another universe, by the way. And me and Schneep also aren’t from here.”

“Oh, so this Jameson also uses sign language?” Schneep comments.

“Yeah, what do youohhh shit, right, you wouldn’t be able to read signs if you’re blind!” Jackie gasps.

Schneep chuckles a little. “No, I would not. My JJ and I have a system, but I think it will be difficult if we are all in separate rooms.”

“I can relay it for now, don’t worry,” Jackie says.

JJ looks around some more. He still seems pretty confused, but nods slowly.

“By the way, where is other Chase?” Schneep asks. “I cannot feel him nearby.” Maybe he should go looking? Can he leap out of this cuff? “Ow!” Nope, the moment he starts, there’s a distracting shock.

Alt looks guiltily at Schneep and sighs, “…you won’t be able to use your powers here… not unless they want you to.” He looks sad and glances down the hall. “…I dunno where Chase is… but I’m guessing they’re… they’re gonna keep… using him.” He shudders and grits his teeth, eyes flashing brighter in anger.

Alt slowly takes a deep breath then looks away, “…I’ll catch you guys up though… fill in some gaps. So… I heard you all got sucked in here by… by rifts. They’re… new. The device I used to visit you all just… broke. And Basically the rifts are broken holes that suck people into different worlds …or even different timelines. but I… I thought they wouldn’t be able to come here but that’s… another long story. JJ- like when you all fell here these are… other versions of our friends I’ve met. I’d… explain how they’re different but-“ He glances at the camera in his cell and glares at it. Then he deflates, “…fuck it. I think they already know more than I think… Schneep is from a world where… his Anti is made of black magic… and he’s also Jackie and Marvin fused together. 

“And Jackie is… from a world where everyone but Anti is… well evil. Jackie’s trying to be better now though and their Chase has been put through some massive shit but… his Anti? He’s one of the most powerful ones I’ve met. He was able to get me, Bro and Jackie home after the TRVLR broke.” He laughs dazedly and shakes his head, “…I’ll have to try to see if I can c-contact him to get you all home but I… now we’re here and…

He shakes his head and looks between Jackie and Schneep, “Oh and for you two… JJ here is a magician in his world. Like me… he uses mainly ice magic though. But in his world… everyone’s roles are switched around from how you and me know things… like- their Jackie is a doctor… and their Schneep...  Volt- he’s a superhero.”

The others listen to Alt talk for a while, staying quiet, their expressions all varying types of shock. Once Alt is done, they look at each other with wide eyes, really taking the other two in.

“I know you said your Anti was evil, but… you didn’t say your Anti was me,” Jackie says to Schneep.

“It didn’t come up—though I don’t know if I would have told you if there was an opportunity,” Schneep replies. “I am not sure how to tell someone that they are part of a black magic abomination.”

“Well Alt just did it,” Jackie points out.

Schneep chuckles. “He did, didn’t he?”

“It’s easier for me to say I think… since I’ve been to every one of your universes.” Alt says with a shrug, “If I didn’t point out and learn your differences you’d all blend together…”

“But… also… the Anti from my world is gone now,” Schneep says slowly. “I… do not want to talk about him too much. It is in the past.”

Alt perks up at hearing Anti is gone and he smiles warmly, “You guys saved them? That’s… that’s great. I’m glad that… that’s over.” 

Schneep nods. "Yes... we are so relieved it's over," he says quietly.

“Oh.” Jackie blinks. “Well, uh, Jameson. Do you have an Anti?”

JJ nods. Nothing like yours, though. Anti is just a normal person there—one of my dear friends. Not some fusion or… whatever your Anti is.

Jackie repeats JJ’s words for Schneep, then adds with a shrug, “Anti is Anti. I think the closest description is some sort of electrical being.”

JJ nods. Are we really… that bad in your world?

“Are you really that bad? Uh… I don’t want to upset you or anything but… yes, absolutely.” Jackie nods. “I mean… my Schneep could probably get better, his case is kinda complicated, but my Jameson is… the worst. Just… just the worst.” He shudders.

JJ’s shoulders slump. He’s not sure how to respond to that.

Alt looks at JJ with understanding. “I know it’s hard to hear that J… but you and him are completely different. You’re the jaunty Jackson, you’re you.” He then laughs a bit bitterly and shrugs, “and well… if it makes you feel any better… I’ve really only met one bad Jameson… there’s way more evil Antis out there…” He grips his arms and lets himself feel for a second before shaking it off.

Schneep decides to brush this news off. “So… I am a superhero in another world.”

JJ blinks and smiles. A very brave one.

“Do I have powers, or…?”

In a sense. You have a lot of advanced technology.

Schneep nods. “I can see that.”

Alt laughs, “Volt is super cool Schneep… you’d like him.”

JJ still looks a bit disturbed by the news of an evil him, but he nods in agreement with Alt's statement. You do sort of remind me of him—more than the Schneep from this world.

"Yeah, it's strange," Jackie adds. "You definitely also remind me of my Schneep...but you know, a sane one with morals."

Schneep laughs. "Hearing you does sometimes remind me of my Jackie, too. And I know I have not interacted as much with you, JJ, but if Jackie is accurately translating your signs you at least speak a lot like mine."

"Doing my best." Jackie shrugs.

“God… if I had my spells books I’m sure I could find something to help you understand better Schneep,” Alt grumbles.

I may know something that can help, at least letting you understand my signing, JJ offers. Though… seems I can’t use my magic here. He looks down at the cuff.

"The JJ in my world also has magic," Schneep says. "Though... he is not a magician. It is very strange, he simply... gained magic one day. Very specific magic, too. It can help others, but not himself."

JJ tilts his head. He might be a warlock, then. Sometimes if a human is desperate enough for something, and has already been exposed to lots of magic, they gain magic of their own that's targeted to helping them achieve that goal.

"Yes, that does sound familiar," Schneep says slowly.

"My Jameson has magic, too... but it's not like either of those," Jackie mutters. "It's all contained in his pocket watch."

Oh, so he's a witch, then? JJ asks.

"Yeah, I've heard others call him that."

Alt looks very interested in the break down of different kind of magicians. Huh… interesting. He’s heard Mag call himself a sorcerer… is that what Alt is too…?

Jackie laughs. "You know... I think our three worlds might have more in common with each other than with this world. I mean, I'm sure this world is great, but things feel... different."

I've been here before, they ARE slightly different, JJ says. It's interesting.

Schneep tilts his head, thinking. "Perhaps... our three worlds are close to each other. And that is why a rift appeared in each of them."

Alt nods with a hum, “That makes sense… you all were really close to each other on the list the TRVLR had. Though…  I dunno. I’ve definitely noticed that outside of mine and JJ’s worlds… that every other one had our friend group in pretty similar roles. Like… Schneep is normally a doctor. Jackie usually fights crime somehow… Chase is usually, normal? Sometimes a dad… mostly a dad actually now that I think about it. Marvin’s a magician… or powerful. JJ too… usually Marvins and JJs are like… really close… and JJ usually has something to do with… time? Old fashioned if nothing else… and Antis are… glitches. Evil electric… things. Not human…” He digs his fingers into his arms, shivering as he remembers all the horrible antis he’s faced. “…there’s other exceptions but… that’s a pattern I’ve noticed.”

“Huh. Well… I guess there are… similarities, then,” Jackie says slowly.

“Not too many,” Schneep says. “In my world, Marvin and Jamie are not close at all. They are really barely friends, in a way.”

And those roles don’t fit my world at all, JJ adds.

“Well he did say there were exceptions,” Jackie points out.

“Still… if anything is possible, surely there are many worlds that don’t fit those patterns,” Schneep says. “It’s simply that maybe… maybe this is a pattern in the worlds we can reach, and it breaks down the farther away you go.”

“Yeah…” Alt shrugs, “Universes get… messy. Usually you can tell who’s who based on looks though or like- certain behaviors or mannerisms. JJ always has a mustache or is mute somehow, always uses some type of sign language. Jackie always wears red or a red hoodie, Schneep is always German. Usually brunette. Chase always wears a hat at the very least… he’s the easiest for me to recognize though.” Alt laughs a bit hollowly. “And Antis…” He touches his neck and then pulls away his mask to show his scar. “…if they don’t glitch then… they usually have a wound like this. Or… green eyes… sometimes green-blue, like mine.”

Alt quickly reties his mask and sighs, “But… yeah… that’s basically the gist of patterns I’ve seen. We’re always together too… always connected somehow.” He smiles a bit, “…I think that’s… cool, you know? You always wonder if… you’d know your closet friends if things were different…”

"Your closest friends," Jackie repeats a bit darkly. He shakes his head. No, he shouldn't be jealous of others. Just because things didn't work out in his world doesn't mean it's anyone's fault. "Well... I guess it's kind of... sweet, somehow, that these people always find each other."

Alt gives Jackie an apologetic smile. “…you all were friends before…” He tries to say before shaking his head. “Again it’s… complicated.”

JJ frowns. There isn't a Chase in my world, though. Then he pauses. You said he usually wears a hat...? Why does it feel like he's forgetting something? Like... he's on the edge of a cliff and about to tumble into an important realization?

Alt makes a bit of a choking noise at JJ’s comment and then swallows nervously. “S-Sometimes there’s gaps… I-I wish I knew what… h-happened to your Chase, JJ…”

Schneep chuckles. "So you have an impressive mustache, too, Jamie. Good to know."

JJ is distracted from his thoughts by that comment. He grins. I'm quite proud of it, too!

Alt laughs, “Never met a JJ with a bad mustache! Unless they couldn’t grow one yet.” He smiles thinking of the younger JJ he met.

But then he sighs and looks at their surroundings. “…now that we’re caught up with that… I guess I should tell you guys about this place…” he waves his hand at the cells. “This is Sclera… Jackie, JJ… it’s similar to your IRIS. Except Sclera is more focused on studying magic with science than just… science. So… they know how to handle super powered people… or strange things like… people from other worlds.” He rubs his wrist underneath the purple bands on his right arm. “…they’ve captured me before… experimented on me… I-I don’t know what they’ll try to do to you all but…” He swallows shakily, looking scared.

"Oh..." Jackie isn't sure what to say. "I... I'm sorry. F-from what I've heard from Anti about IRIS... that's bad."

JJ shudders. He sits down on the bed, pulling his knees up to his chest. Alt... Not too long after we got pulled into your universe, something similar happened to my friends and I. Well... a lot of stuff happened before that. But eventually we were all taken by our IRIS. So... I know what you've been through.

Alt’s expression falls, “JJ I… I’m so sorry…” He grips at his wrist, “…no one should ever have to go through that.. I’m…” He growls in frustration and his hands light up with his magic as it reacts to his emotions. He gets shocked for that though and he yelps and stumbles back. 

Schneep is quiet, looking troubled. "I... think there is an IRIS in my world, too. B-but they just make technology. I have not heard of any sort of... experimentation..."

Alt shakes out his head and addresses Schneep, “On the outside… that’s what these companies do. Experiment in secret to push their futuristic tech to the masses… trying to gain more control…” he growls, “It’s fucked.”

“Aw… thank you for the glowing endorsement, Mr. Brody~!” Dr. Cornelius’s voice echoes down the hall.

Alt glitches in surprise and then yells out as he’s shocked again and tumbles to his knee as he holds his stomach. “Motherfucker…!”

Coming down the hall and towards their collection of cells walks in Dr. Cornelius, Overdose… and Chase. Dazedly and stoically following after the scientists.

“Hello gents~ have a good nap?” Overdose giggles.

"Oh fuck off," Jackie growls, as close to the cell windows as he can and glaring. "Fuck both of you. Fuck you so hard."

“Oh- the tough one’s feisty~” Overdose giggles and goes to meet him at his window, grinning wide. “I like that… they’ll be fun to break~”

“Jin, please don’t rile up the subjects too much,” Dr. Cornelius chuckles.

Jackie just glares back at Overdose. He's not going to be broken. He's not going to give them the satisfaction. He's not going to cry or scream or beg. He's had enough of that.

JJ stays where he is, looking at the doctors silently. He tries to stay calm but can't help but shrink away. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay—he has to keep telling himself that because he doesn't know what he'll do if he stops.

Schneep inhales sharply. "Chase?! Chase is that you?!" He can feel him approaching—is it true? Is he really being controlled by the scientists?!

Chase looks over at Schneep, something flickering in his eyes, but Cornelius snaps and his focus is brought back towards him.

“Yes it is~ Chase has been a wonderful helper for us here!” The mad scientist laughs.

Alt gets up and slams his hands against his window, his eyes burning bright and toxic with held back magic. “The fuck did you do to my brother?!”

Cornelius grins at Alt and then looks back at Chase and shrugs. “You know what? I think it’d be better to hear from him. Hero, why don’t you tell Alt what got you here, hm?”

Chase’s eyes slip shut and he slumps a bit, before he shakes his head rapidly and seems to wake up from his daze. He looks out at the others and seems panicked. “W-What…? How- no���! Alt I-!”

Cornelius snaps his fingers, “Hero, stay focused.”

Chase stiffens and looks a bit scared but he mumbles out. “I… a-after the TRVLR broke… I… I was trying to find more information about the rifts and I… I wound up here.” He looks at Alt with tearful eyes, “I thought they… they could help. I thought it’d be different- just getting i-information-! I thought I knew the risks… I thought it’d be okay- I’m sorry Alt, I’m so so sorry- I wanted to help-!”

“That’s enough, Hero.” Dr Cornelius snaps and Chase’s mouth shuts and the emotions drain off his face as he stands stoically still once again.

Alt watches his brother get controlled by the man who tortured him and- he can only stare back with a heartbroken expression. 

“And from there… we slipped in.” Cornelius grins, “Just enough so he would be none the wiser… a few subliminal videos here- some experimental things he could try for us in exchange for information…  soon enough we were able to make a pretty little sleeper agent out of Mr. Fantastic~ while he was none the wiser.” The doctor sighs though, “It was tricky to get a hold of though… there’s some kind of mental block that prevents true mental control. But… luckily there are other ways to control a body~”

Schneep staggers back, listening to Bro talk. The control this Dr. Cornelius displays over Bro's actions... it's bringing back awful memories. Memories of what happened to his own Chase, with Anti. Then he walks up to the glass, practically trembling with rage. He doesn't say anything, but his eyes change color, his scleras darkening to black and his irises turning a greenish turquoise.

JJ shakes his head, stunned. Seeing someone who he knows as a brave hero, acting like this... it's terrible. You're sick, he says, not knowing if they'll understand him.

"Yeah, they are, aren't they?" Jackie mutters in agreement.

Dr. Cornelius merely shakes his head at the others' attempts at insults. "Are we sick? Perhaps... only to those who don't see the good in what we do~! We're on the way to capturing magic for the masses to use! To understand its principles like they should be understood... by logic."

"How are you doing this...?" Alt asks quietly, glancing back at Chase.

"Hm? Oh, how are we controlling your brother?" Dr. Cornelius grins sharply, "It's fascinating, really! We're using a similar process to that dormant chip of yours Alt~" Alt stiffens and grabs his wrist, holding it close to his side. "We're capturing the energy that fuels his power- and only taking a bit of his brain power. Mostly controlling the limbic system and the thalamus- and generally leaving the cortex alone in case we need to influence something there~" He giggles. "We found that only in trying to control the whole of his mind was when we would get the... snag. That moment where something would hitch and he would break it. But, now? Well... these last few months have been very enlightening~"

Alt then yells in anger and hits the window. "You fuckers-!" He screams, electricity starting to rise around him. "I'll kill you for this-! I'll-!" He then screeches as Dr. Cornelius seems to click something in his pocket and Alt is shocked even harder than he has been. It only lasts a few short seconds, but Alt screams as his limbs jolt and jerk out of his control. He can't help but slump into a heap in his cell, clutching at his chest.

Jackie and JJ watch in horror. Schneep flinches upon hearing Alt scream. "Alt! A-are you okay?!" he shouts, facing towards him, a concerned expression on his face. JJ also rushes to the side closest to Alt, pressing against the window and staring at him, hoping he's alright.

"I-I'm okay S-Schneep..." Alt tries to pant, "I... I'm... ngh... 'm fine-" 

"Holy shit," Jackie whispers. "Do you mean—does Chase know what's happening? Or do you—a-are you blanking out his mind?" Both options are terrifying for different reasons. 

"Mmm... a little of both- though mostly the latter." Cornelius grins at Jackie. "He'll only know what we want him to know."

 "You—you fuckers,” Jackie growls. “You motherfuckers!" It's like his Jameson and Marvin started some sort of company to standardize their fucked up business.

JJ shudders, looking back at Overdose and Cornelius. Well, at least one of them understands him. What are you going to do to us? he asks, not sure if he wants the answer but needing to know.

Overdose giggles at JJ and prowls close to him too. "Oh excellent question! Right now... we're just gonna... get to know each other a little better."

Suddenly, mechanical arms shoot out from the walls of their cells. They grab the boys with one arm while the other presses a syringe into the vein on their necks. The injection burns through their veins but soon enough they're released.

"Holy shit!" Jackie's first instinct is to punch the robotic arm, but that only—"Ah fuck!"—hurts his hand. JJ reacts similarly, trying to use his magic but only receiving a shock in response. Schneep yelps and tries to squirm out.

Alt heaves, holding his neck with a look of panic. "W-What was that?!"

"Oh.. you'll see~" Overdose giggles.

Soon enough, they all find their vision getting blurry. Any panic they were feeling starts to flow out of them like water- they start to feel themselves relax. Their heartbeats slow, their breathing gets shallower and everything seems to start to... float. It's similar to how being on ecstasy felt but there's no undertone of panic or pain. It's just... nice.

Dread immediately fills JJ's chest as the effects start, with it being all too familiar to the drug from before. But that dread slowly fades. He giggles a little, swinging his arms as he stands.

Schneep blinks. He tries to walk up to the window but trips over the cuff's tether and falls. He pats the ground. It's still there. Yeah. He's not hovering. Would that be possible, though? These guys are weird and magic. "Mein Gott..." he mutters. "I haven't... felt... like this... ever." He shakes his head. "This... this isn't... good, I think..."

Jackie paces around the cell, trying to see if he can force the effects away with motion. But no, it's not really helping all that much. It just gets harder and harder to walk until he eventually gives up and slumps against the bed. He blinks wildly. His scars aren't hurting as much. That's good, what is Schneep talking about? That's good.

Alt tries to push himself up but finds himself falling over and over. He would normally be angry but he... doesn't feel that. Where did all his anger go? He staggers to the bed and climbs up it clumsily so he can at least see the others. But, that's when his limbs refuse to work anymore and he slumps against the wall, blinking up dazedly. "...what... is this...?"

He doesn't get a response- only one of the monitors on the wall sparking to life. On it- a simple colorful spiral. It has none of the colors that make Alt flinch or feel fear. No these are... nice colors... yellows and blues and whites... Jackie, JJ and Schneep get the same thing on their monitors, drawing in their gazes. Well, except for Schneep... the effect is lost on him.

Overdose giggles, "Why don't we start simple, hm? Let's start with everyone telling me your full names, ages and where you come from~"

Alt feels his mouth falling loose- the urge to answer stronger than anything else. Even as some distant part of him screams not to. That screaming part of him is smothered by the fog overtaking his whole body. "..An... A-Ant..hea... Taran Brody... 27... B-Brighton..." He can’t help but shudder after saying that name. He hasn’t heard that in a long long time.

"Anthea?" Overdose smirks at Alt. Alt manages to find her gaze and growls, baring his teeth, "C-Call me that and I'll rip you apart with my bare fucking hands-!"

Jackie panics for a moment, but... there's no purple in those spirals. But.. spirals... he shouldn't... Huh. It's kind of fun to watch them go... circle... swirling... He finds himself answering the question without really thinking about it. "M'name's Jackie... Jackie Parker. But I used to be Julia. I'm... I think I'm... 29 now? 'm from... this city called Mirygale... Not a good city, I think... but it's mine..."

JJ blinks, staring at the spiral. His head feels foggy... but not the bad kind of foggy. It's a good foggy. He didn't know something like that was possible. "I'm..." He clears his throat. "Jameson Daniel Jackson—" He coughs wildly, throat too hoarse to keep going. Signing it is, but he'll have to be careful. His hands feel distant. 28. From Mirygale, Britain.

Schneep shakes his head, trying to fight off these effects. He hears the others respond... or he hears Jackie and Alt and assumes that JJ does the same after the coughing. He takes deep breaths. Maybe... he should save his strength... for something more important. What harm could come... from this question? "D-Dr. Henrik von Schneeplestein. Th...thirty years old. I live in Mirygale... i-in Britain, but... I grew up in Arzhorchal, i-in Germany."

Overdose shrugs and- well it seems her and Dr. Cornelius are taking notes. "Very good boys! Glad to see it's working~ Now let's see... what should I ask you all next?"

She looks at Schneep, JJ and Jackie, "Hm... Mirygale boys- We know you're from different dimensions... so why don't you tell us how your cities are different?" She laughs, "We already caught a bit about how your... little groups are different. Maybe this serum wasn't really necessary, loose lips~"

"Fuck you fuck you fuck you," Jackie says, though it lacks real bite. "We can talk 'f we wanna."

"I-I don't... I-I don't know a-about their cities," Schneep gasps out. "I-I just—i-it's a normal enough city, I think..."

"Not mine," Jackie mumbles. "It's not a good place... there's fucking crime everywhere... a dozen different gangs... and drug dealers and shit..." He looks at Overdose and flashes a grin that can only be described as feral. "An' all the coppers and shit h've been corrupted... most of them, an' more than usual, I mean. Same with... lotsa officials and shit... The city's fallin' apart, really..."

JJ shakes his head, shocked. That's not what mine is like. Mine is fine. We have... He falters for a moment. What do good cities have? Parks... and stage theatres... and trains...

"We don't have trains," Schneep mutters. "Just a lot of office buildings... Crime, but... not like Jackie is d-describing..."

I like it there, JJ says. I... want to go back... I want to go home... He feels tears welling in his eyes, and he hurriedly covers his face to wipe them away.

Alt dazedly looks over at JJ to see his signs and he clumsily tries to push himself up, " I'm g-gonna get you home JJ..! I promise- W-We'll figure something out, o-okay?"

Overdose rolls her eyes, "Alright- let's get a bit personal then. I see you all have quite the bit of trauma amongst you~ How'd you all get your scars and such? Or lose your voice, in that one's case." She points towards JJ. She grins at Alt, "You too, Mr. Illusionist. Tell us how you got that pretty scar of yours?"

Alt growls and glitches slightly- which gets him shocked again. He bites back the pain and then slumps back against the wall, falling back under the drug's pull. "... I was kidnapped... when I-I was 15." He tries to fight saying more but it just slips out, "They... t-they tied me up by my neck- cuz I bit one of the fuckers who took me. I didn't know I could glitch then... but I... I managed to do it and slipped through the binds... the ropes cut my neck though." He dazedly rubs at his neck, feeling the healed skin of his scar.

"I'm... I-I'm so sorry, Alt," Schneep says quietly. "You shouldn't h-have gone through th-that..."

"It was a long time ago," Alt replies distantly, "... its fine."

JJ blinks dazedly. He's always explained it away as an animal attack, but he finds that excuse isn't coming, and instead, the truth spills out. This being called Distorter lured me out of town, made me think a missing friend was there. But it was just Distorter. He attacked me. He wanted to kill me so he went for the throat. I'm only not dead because I have a friend who can divine things, and she knew I'd be in danger. But the damage was still severe.

Alt watches JJ as he signs and inhales sharply, "Distorter... y-you could talk before? T-That fucker...." He spits.

Jackie shudders. "I don—I don' wanna talk about—I-I don't want to talk about what M-Marvin did—I don't... I..." He tries to shake himself awake—but then he looks at the spiral again, and his efforts are in vain. The words come out anyway. "I got... shot and stabbed a lot... when I was out fighting, but... th-the worst of it... was after a magician I knew, Marvin, he... decided he didn't want to put up with me anymore. His magic... burns... It doesn't always leave marks, but when it does, it... burns. I-I don't know how long I spent—" He swallows a lump in his throat, curling up a little. "—it was a year, I think, I-I was stuck down there. H-he hated me. Especially after he... changed. H-he wanted to hurt me as much as possible before he killed me. I... I would've died... if Frederick hadn't found me." His visible eye goes distant.

Alt's eyes widen as Jackie tells his story. He knew some of it but, "A... A year? God... Jackie..."

Schneep turns to face Jackie, stunned. "That... th-that is h-horrible, I-I am sorry. I don't know if it'll help, but I—" No. Wait. This is the important thing.  He shouldn't say this. Not when there are these terrible people listening. And yet, now that he's started, it's hard to stop. "I—I was—I-it was magic that—that is why I cannot see, I—" His body starts to tremble. "Anti, he... h-he took my sight. I-I don't think... he knew it would happen... but he... he..." The word is on the tip of his tongue. Nightmare. Nightmare. Nightmare Nightmare Nightmare—

He suddenly shouts and tries to leap out of the cell again, but cries out as the cuff shocks him for his efforts. But he's not thinking of that word anymore, so he can't say it. Good. Good.

Alt jumps as Schneep shouts and tries to scramble up to look at him. "S-Schneep?! Are you okay??"

"I-I'm... f-f-fine," Schneep says, breathing heavily.

"Damn- you all have been through a lot," Overdose mutters as she scribbles all this down. "Interesting... very interesting... Think this is something we could use, Doc?"

Dr. Cornelius grins, "Oh, absolutely..." He eyes the others and hums, "Why don't you all tell us how your abilities work? Alt can be the exception again, we have a lot about him." He giggles. Alt glares at him and bares his teeth.

JJ shakes his head... it's not a no, it's just him trying to find the words to describe magic as he's always known it. I... learn spells... and I cast them. It's very simple... I think. I like... water and ice... and healing. But I can do a lot of things. Teleport... make shields... I can turn into an animal but I don't do it often... Some spells need gestures or spell words or my mask to focus them... Or I guess I could use a wand instead? Or a crystal ball? He trails off, looking thoughtful.

Jackie laughs somewhat hysterically. "A-abilities? Motherfucker, I don't have any special powers—other than a p-pretty high pain tolerance, I thi—" He covers his mouth. He shouldn't say that he doesn't have powers. He shouldn't say that. Not in front of these doctors. "I can still d-do a lot, th-though," he stammers out, voice somewhat muffled. "Sometimes spells aren't as fast as fists."

"Ah- sorcery... very interesting." Dr. Cornelius hums. He then eyes Jackie and smiles. "...even without knowing what you went through, I know what black magic scarring looks like... you are still a fine specimen to study, Mr. Parker~" He giggles a bit madly. "Oh... there's much to discover there... I wonder how much power lies dormant underneath~"

"I'm... not sure how it works," Schneep says slowly. "I simply... think about it... and I jump to somewhere else. Or I grab something that was not there before. I don't know what happened to make me this way... Something about m-my soul..." Are those two things his only abilities? Well, he can sense souls, too, but... something tells him to push that back. To resist revealing that. Better they think him completely unaware of his surroundings.

Cornelius studies Schneep too, "... curious. Very curious. You can disappear and reappear like Alt but... without the electricity. That is fascinating... definitely something we can try to uncover more about..." He looks to Overdose, "Dr. Sun, any other questions you think we should ask?"

"Oh yes... let's see..." Overdose hums. Then, she grins wickedly. "Give us all your weaknesses. Anything we can use against you."

Since he wasn't brought into this round of questioning, Alt's attention was brought back to the spiral on the wall. So, he answers almost immediately, too lost in the fog to try to fight it. "...loud noises... I... I have m-mysophobia... e-especially if it sounds like s-static... h-hypnosis... m' not very s-strong without my... my magic..."

JJ's eyes flicker. He recognizes that this is something he shouldn't answer, so he folds his arms to stop himself from signing—but as he does so, the words are spilling out of his mouth, anyway. "Not a physical fighter... and if I use too much magic I get sick and collapse. And I... I don't like being... watched... or ignored... a strange contradic—" He coughs again, unknowingly demonstrating another weakness.

"I don' like fire," Jackie mumbles, staring at the spiral on the wall. "Don' like... burning. I can... endure a lot, but... that... M-my head's prob'ly fucked a bit, too, I wouldn't be surprised if my James'n did some stuff... I don't know." Some tears line his eye. "I'm... I'm a bad person... I know that. Tryin' t'be better but... I know it. Maybe th' way scars hurt still is... fate's payback..."

Schneep turns towards Overdose's voice and waves his hand in front of his eyes. "I'm fucking blind, you... you... du verdammter Idiot, du Dummkopf, du Trottel..." He trails off into mumbling German insults.

"Alright alright yeah yeah it was a general question, asshat-" Overdose mumbles. Dr. Cornelius claps his hands. "Well then! This has been very enlightening~ I think that's all we need for now. Why don't you boys try to rest that off, hm?"

He looks at Bro and nods his head. "Hero? Why don't you keep an eye on them for me?"

Bro nods, "Yes, doctor." He goes to stand right at the edge of their cells, straight up against the wall, held at attention like a soldier. He's been here listening the whole time... and there's almost no way to tell if he understood anything that was revealed. Except the slight trail of tears on his cheeks, but his face still remains expressionless.

"Grand! Welp! We'll see you all in a bit~" Dr. Cornelius calls as he and Overdose walk out of the hall. The door shuts loudly and then... silence. Overwhelming silence.

Alt eventually whimpers and goes to curl up, pulling at his hair. "...I hate this... I hate this...!" He mutters through a bit of a choked up voice. "Fuck them... fuck all these fuckers...! Argh-!"

"F-fuck," Jackie breathes. As the serum is fading and his senses are returning, he begins to really process the shit they're deep in. "We just told them all of our fucking secrets." He feels a little sick just thinking about how he told them about what Marvin did to him. Even if he didn't go into detail, he didn't want them to know any of that.

JJ chokes back a sob, pressing his hands into his eyes. What are they going to do next? How are they going to exploit everything that they just told them? He raises his head slightly, and notices Bro. He crawls closer, right up to the windows. Chase, I don't know if you can understand me right now, but we'll get out of here. We will. We'll all be okay.

Bro's eyes flit to JJ's signs and his eye twitches slightly. His hand seems to tremble. But, he can't get himself to respond any other way to him. 

Schneep takes a deep breath. "There are—there are others outside," he mutters. "They—they must be worried. W-we just—i-if they do not come, nothing is perfect in any case. No defense is unbreakable."

"T-The others don't know we're here!" Alt stammers in panic, tears in his eyes. "They probably thought we w-went to the Dooms...! They don't know S-Sclera found us! A-And even if they did... w-what can they do?! Jays a t-therapist! Jackie can do parkour and sorta fight but... h-he's not an escape artist...! H-Henny can do some magic but I... I don't think it'll help here and t-then he'll just get captured too and I... t-that can't happen- H-Hen can't- I-If he got s-stuck here too I-I...!"

"W-well, they will notice if we are not there—" Schneep stammers.

"They won't k-know to look here I... I don't even know if we're s-still in that other hospital-" Alt mutters.

"Alt, hey, hey, deep breaths," Jackie says, scrambling across the cell to get as close to Alt as possible. "He won't get stuck here. None of them will. I-I can—I can do everything I can to make sure they don't, if they show up."

It's fine if you need to cry, but try not to spiral, JJ says gently. We can't get lost in bad what-ifs. I'm sure these people want you to be freaking out.

"Yes, exactly," Jackie says. "If you're freaking out, you're easier to fuck with. Deep breaths, Alt. Deep breaths."

Alt looks at the others with red-rimmed eyes and nods, trying to control his breathing. "... I'm sorry... I know it's not my fault you guys are here I just... I'm so sorry you're all caught up in all this shit... none of you deserve this..." He lets his tears fall quietly, rubbing at his eyes. "B-But you're right... w-we can't give them the satisfaction of freaking out..."

"For what it's worth, I do not blame you at all," Schneep says quietly. "No one is to blame, only those rifts." Assuming those rifts were freak accidents and not caused by someone deliberately, but he doesn't think that'll help for Alt to hear.

"None of us blame you," Jackie agrees.

And if we were not here, you would be here alone, JJ says. He gives him a small smile. I'm glad that you have company, at least.

Jackie nods. "Anything we can do to help..."

Alt lets out a bitter chuckle, "... I hate that you have a point JJ..." He curls his knees up to his chest. "...I'd be more of a wreck if I was alone..."

He's quiet for a second before he looks back at the others with determination. "...which means I have a clearer head... w-we can think of a way out of this." He leaps off the bed, still a bit dizzy but he starts to pace. "Okay... god I can't say too much but... we gotta... figure something out..."

He looks at Jackie and signs close to his chest, trying to avoid the camera, can you break your cuff? or- do you have anything hidden on you to try?

Jackie blinks. He thinks. They took my staff. And I was at home so I didn't have any weapons on me, he signs back. But might as well try. He pulls at the cuff, but finds it too tight to really gain much traction. That's gonna aggravate the scars around his ankle. He sighs, patting himself down anyway. Hoodie, pants, hair—hair. His eye widens slightly as he grabs onto part of his braid. There's something hard in there. Maybe something sharp.

You know we're leaving Schneep out of this conversation, right? JJ says. Not that Schneep minds. He looks deep in thought.

“Ugh I know-" Alt sighs, "I'm trying to figure out what I can do for Schneep..." He starts to pace again, "...his glitches aren't like mine... i-if we can break his cuff somehow then... then maybe?" He looks up at the monitors and all the electric things in the room. His eyes slowly widen, "...maybe I can drain the electricity...!"

"Hmm?" Schneep blinks to attention. "Well, yes, I never even thought about it as glitching before. More like forming a wormhole. I am sure that if this shackle was not shocking me... the things they use for you would not be effective. I'm not getting where you are going with the electricity, though. What would you do with it once you have it?"

Alt nods, "...I dunno i-it could be risky but... the cuffs are electric too. If... If I could find a way to maybe drain enough power or- m-maybe short out the systems...! Then... maybe that could be enough...?" He sighs, "But... that also feels dumb- I'd probably get massively shocked for even trying that... They know I can glitch into electric things so... they might be expecting something like that... Or I could overload myself..."

Through their mutterings, they don't notice another nodule that pops out from the wall. Something that looks like some sort of gun. Without warning, it shoots a beam of black purple magic at each of the boys, lighting up their systems with burning hot black magic.

Dr. Cornelius's voice crackles on one of the monitors, "Well gentleman! Hope you enjoyed your rest but... can't have you all discussing these kind of things~ sooo! It's my turn now~! Let's see how you all react to this!"

Alt gasps as the magic hits him and he falls to his knees. His eyes try to turn black and he grits his teeth as the magic crawls up his skin like veins. "N-No-! No not... t-this shit again...!"

JJ yelps, spinning around to see the gun retreat back into the wall. A hot, irritated feeling spreads across his shoulderblade, outward from the spot where the beam of magic hit. He suddenly feels sick, falling forward, arms trembling as they hold him up. Bits of blue magic spasm outwards involuntarily, triggering a shock each time it happens. He soon cries out and collapses fully. The magic shifts color, bright red joining the bright blue.

"Ow!" Schneep rubs his arm where the blast hit. "What the...?" His vision flickers—static swarms in from the side, taking over the blackness that's usually there. "Ah! Ah!" The sudden light after such darkness is painful. He presses his hands to his eyes, but of course, there's nothing he can do to block it out.

"Hey!" Jackie gets to his feet and spins around, glaring at the camera. "Huh?! So you guys are feeling threatened?!" He spins around. "Alt?! Are you— He suddenly stops, wincing. His scars are aching. They do that sometimes, but this is a spike in pain. A spike... that's not coming down. In fact, it's becoming more intense. "F-fuck. What the—wh-what did you d--" He cries out and staggers over to the bed, sitting down. "Wh-what's happenin—" And he cries out again.

He presses back against the wall, taking deep breaths. Breathing through the rising pain. This is fine. Whatever this is happening, it can't last forever. "Ack!" His eye! His eye is burning! His hand shoots up to his eye-patch, pressing against it. The scars on the back are... glowing, slightly. And so are the ones on his face. It's a dark, dark glow, a strange black light that's purple around the edges. He shudders. As the pain intensifies, so does the glow. He falls to his side—then shrieks and turns over so he's lying on the side that's less scarred.

Alt digs his fingers into the floor and bites back a scream. The magic is eating up his own- corrupting it. Turning it into something it's not. He hears the sounds of his friends in distress and he tries to glitch up, only to be met with another shock that sends him back down on his hands and knees with a yell. He bends his head down and then- starts to giggle. Bright purple is trying to fill his irises around pure black sclera and Alt can't help but let out a manic sounding laugh, even if his face looks pained doing it. He heaves, trying to push it back, but magic is crackling around him.

Dr. Cornelius is so intrigued by what JJ's and Alt's magic is doing- he shuts off their cuffs. If anything bad happens- the hero is there to stop it. And- their cells have better protection than the last time Alt was here.

"Wh-what is happening?!" Schneep asks. "Alt?!"

Jackie hears the strange laughter coming from Alt's cell but he can't look towards it. He picks up the pillow and bites onto it. He's not going to scream. He's not going to scream. Even as his scars burn with agonizing acid, he's not going to let them hear him scream. The strange black glow is brightening.

JJ gasps, lifting his head to look at Alt. His eyes are glowing—a blue core surrounded by red light. With the cuff's magic suppression deactivated, more and more magic splashes off, almost liquid in its movement. Every place the red droplets hit, they spread, becoming a thin layer of red ice. The temperature in the cell lowers enough that JJ's breath comes out in steam.

He staggers to his feet. Suddenly, it doesn't hurt anymore. He presses his hands to the window, red frost spreading from the point of contact and yet not blocking the spot where he's looking. He watches Alt... and his eyes flash with rage as more of the red consumes the blue. His head whips back over to the camera in the corner. Well—why not take this chance?! He throws a bolt of red magic at the camera.

Surprisingly, it connects, splashing over the device in a burst of light. Electricity flies from the camera, a crack forming in its side, and it starts to smoke. JJ grins triumphantly, an unusual malicious bite to his smile.

"What?!" Cornelius's voice says over the comms.

Alt's head snaps up to the sound of the camera breaking, still giggling a bit with black-ish tears falling from his eyes. "J...?" The cuffs- they aren't on..! Alt takes this moment to try to see if he can cut through his connection- but his magic isn't responding to him like he wants it to. Trying to use his magic only makes his core burn and this- madness infesting him go faster. He laughs again a bit of pain in the sound but tries to curl up, twitching and digging fingers into his hair. "JJ-! ah-! t-try to g-get out...!" Alt cackles loudly, trying to fight against the force eating at his core.

"Hero! Don't let them escape!" Dr. Cornelius orders. Bro's eyes burn with blue and he stands more at attention, watching the cells carefully.

JJ's grin widens. The cuffs aren't on? How foolish. How utterly, utterly foolish.

He can't teleport while connected to something—he tried that before, last time he was stuck somewhere like this place. So he sends a spray of sharp magic at the tether, cutting through it. And the moment he's free, he teleports outside.

Bro instantly locks onto JJ as he teleports out the cell and quickly tries to tackle him down.

JJ laughs and teleports again, avoiding Bro's attack. He sends another spray of red magic out, a wide fan that can both hit Bro and the window of Schneep's cell behind him.

The magic scratches against the window but it doesn't break.

It also hits Bro but he doesn't stop in his stride, going to  punch JJ in the face. Bro's fist slams against JJ's face with such force that it knocks him to the ground, stunned for a moment. But he gets up surprisingly quickly, and spits something into his hand. A tooth in a puddle of blood. He puts the tooth in his pocket and grins at Bro, eyes glowing red, blood rimming his gums. This is fun. He hears whispers at the edge of consciousness, urging him to keep going.

He lunges forward, cold red magic trailing behind him, and swipes at Bro's chest with translucent red talons.

Alt tries to stagger to his feet. Chase and JJ are fighting... he needs to help he needs to- destroykillmaimchaoschaoschaos- Alt yells out in pain and grips at his head, twitching and glitching as magic builds up stronger around him. I-It's so hard to fight it-! He doesn't want to hurt the others though...!

JJ teleports again, suddenly behind Bro. Red magic wraps around Bro's neck like a rope, and JJ grabs either end and pulls. If he can get Bro out of the way, SCLERA can't use them! He'll take away their weapon! That's what they get for hurting him and his friends!

"Wh-what is happening out there?!" Schneep gasps. He's managed to push through the brightness to pay attention to the outside—and he can feel a stark difference in JJ and Alt's souls.

Bro chokes, eyes wide, as he scrambles to find a way to get the magic to let go.

"NO!" Alt shouts and in a burst of purple glitches- he's outside the cell too. He attempts to grab JJ and pull him away from Bro as purple lightning crackles loudly around his body.

Bro slumps to the ground, coughing and heaving. Trying to catch his breath. He seems to have a bit more clarity in his eyes.

JJ gasps as Alt pulls him back. He twists around and looks at him in anger. "Don't you understand?!" he shouts, rough voice breaking. He laughs a little. "Do you hear them too, Alt?"

Alt slams JJ back into one of the walls, giggling madly as his eyes fill with corrupted magic. "I do- I-I feel it- I hear it!" He digs nails tight into JJ's shoulders, momentarily enjoying the idea of bringing him pain. His eye twitches and he tries to tell JJ through a twisted grin, "W-We c-can't listen...! We g-gotta try to fight JJ-!"

Then, in a glitch his eyes darken and a more sinister smile curls on his lips. "... then again... " He laughs manically and presses closer to JJ, "what color do you think we bleed now?! I... I- I wanna know!" He throws JJ to the floor and staggers back, giggling wildly. "E-Everything is purple...! Everything is dark-! Has it dyed me inside?! Has it dyed you?!" He keeps laughing- laughing laughing laughing-

"Alt?! Jamie?!" Schneep rushes up to the window, banging his fist on it. "Snap out of it!"

JJ doesn't react to Alt throwing him around—it doesn't really hurt all that much, or at the very least, the pain feels distant. Once Alt throws him down, he staggers to his feet again. "Do you want to see?" he whispers hoarsely. "Allow me to help!" A red crystalline knife appears in his hand and he slashes at Alt.

Alt staggers back and manages to whip out his own purple tinted knife to catch Jamie's. He grins wide and giggles, pushing back against JJ's knife. "I'll find out myself!" He cackles and tries to push JJ back and slash at him. JJ jumps back, avoiding the slash. His heart is pounding in his chest, and he grins with manic excitement. He lunges back forward, his knife glowing brighter as he aims to stab Alt's shoulder. Alt glitches out of the way, laughing crazily. He flips the knife in his hand is about to try to strike again when-

Sudden loud alarms start blaring, bathing the hallway in red light.

Alt screeches and immediately goes to cover his ears, curling up against the noise. "N-NO!"

JJ looks at the alarms in surprise, and then back down at Alt. Well—it's not fun if they're not both participating. He instead rushes to the nearest cell—Schneep's—and sends a ball of magic at it.

The magic rocks the window a bit but, it still manages to stay sturdy.

Bro blinks spots out of his eyes, trying to focus. There's... so much noise. What's happening?  "...Alt...? J?" He whispers hoarsely, trying to push himself up.

Alt gasps and claws at the sides of his face like it will get rid of the noise. "S-Stop it...! Stop it!"

Soon enough, jets pop out from the bottom of the hallway and start to spray that same sweet smelling smoke that Overdose used to knock them out earlier.

Schneep perks up at the sound of the jets. "Are you fucking kidding me?!" He gets up and rushes towards the window, pounding on it in the vain hope that he'll be able to break through after the damage JJ did. Meanwhile, Jackie's barely able to lift his head to look at the smoke filling outside.

JJ staggers back, looking at the smoke. He quickly covers his mouth and nose with his shirt and starts blasting the jets with magic. The jets are easily destroyed, but the blasts are sending magic up into the air and swirling it faster and faster around the boys in the hallway.  

Bro is too disoriented to try to fight- but he sees Alt struggling and tries to reach out.

Alt curls up smaller and smaller, purple eyes darting around in panic. Then, it morphs into anger as purple fully takes over his eyes. "I said- STOP IT." He throws himself forward and finds the nearest spark of electricity he can feel- and then channels all his magic into overloading the system. The lights flicker and the alarm cuts off. The lights don't go completely out though- just dim. but any remaining monitors and cuffs start to short circuit. In fact, they burst so massively in Jackie’s cell the window cracks and then shatters. After this, Alt pries himself away from the wall and staggers back before he collapses onto his back, dazedly blinking out at the thinning fog. But it's quiet...

Schneep can feel access to his powers again.

Schneep leaps out into the hallway, grabbing JJ and shaking him. "Fucking stop!"

JJ staggers back, staring at Schneep with wide eyes. They're still glowing, but that core of blue is back, peeking through the red. His body shakes suddenly as he suddenly feels sick.

"Alt! Bro!" Schneep leaps to a spot between the two of them, quickly checking both their pulses and breath. "Jackie! Help!"

Bro jumps as Schneep appears but gets a more wakeful look in his eyes. "S-Schneep-!" He tries to stagger up and grab Alt, "Alt? Alt?  Can you hear us?"

Alt blinks sluggishly and looks at Bro blankly, the purple fading from his eyes. His sclera is still black but he smiles. "C-Chase...?"

Jackie pushes himself up, breathing heavily. His scars are still glowing slightly, but the burning sensation is fading. He gets up, gritting his teeth, and staggers over.

But... there's an odd feeling coming from the hallway now... a crack in the ground, dark black, pulling at the boys in the hallway's clothes.

"Do... do you f-feel that?" Jackie asks. 

Schneep pauses. His eyes widen. "No. No, it cannot be."

Both Bro and Alt stiffen as they hear the others and looks towards the crack as it expands, the wind picking up more.

Dr. Cornelius can be heard brokenly through the damaged comms, "No--! The-- readings-- be-- rifts-!" Then, it fizzles out into static.

"Rifts?" Schneep looks towards the sound of the comms. "They know about the rifts?"

"Of course they do, if they knew we were from other worlds!" Jackie says.

Bro looks guilty, “I-I told them about them…” he mutters.

Alt gasps and tries to scramble away on instinct then looks at Bro with panic as he sees the wind affecting both of them, "I-It's pulling us in too?!"

"I-I guess so?" Bro answers in a panic. He looks towards the others and then reaches out a hand, "M-Maybe if we all stick together- it won't separate us into f-freaky timelines and shit! Maybe it'll take us to one of your homes!"

JJ nods and grabs onto Bro's hand, not saying anything in response. The red is quickly fading from the magic that flutters around his fingers.

"I guess anywhere is better than here!" Jackie grabs onto JJ in turn, holding onto his arm with one hand. His other grabs onto Schneep's wrist.

Alt narrows his eyes and then looks at the rift. “J-Jackie is right- anywhere is better than being stuck here!”

Schneep doesn't protest. "That makes sense to me—We better stick together, yes? Safety in numbers."

Bro nods in determination to Schneep, “We will.”

Alt sticks his middle finger up towards the ceiling, “Fuck you!”

The rift gets bigger and bigger and soon enough, is big enough that Alt gets pulled in- followed by the rest of the group. Down down down into rushing pitch black night… the sounds of that awful lab fading away.

[huffle-dork]

Glitch into the Hufflverse Chapter 2: Swapboys

Read Swapboys | Read Crystal’s AUs

Read SITCV | Read SATCV | GITHV Masterpost | AO3 Link

JJ falls for a while in darkness until he lands somewhere- completely opposite. He’s immediately met with the sound of loud music and flashing neon lights. There’s a crowd of people dancing and laughing and drinking.

Jameson’s fall seems to have alerted someone but they just laugh and help him up. “Yooo you trippin’ dude? Oh yo- slick outfit.” The stranger laughs before getting pulled off by another person to dance. They laugh and wave at Jameson before disappearing into the crowd.

JJ is stunned for a bit, taking in all the music and lights and people and... everything. What the hell? What the actual hell? Where is he? He's never been anywhere like this before!

Looking around more, JJ can see… a really impressive light show on the wall. Making digital 3D images appear and melt across the surfaces of the wall and making parts of the building look like it’s made of code then breaking apart into pixels and numbers. A projection but… a pretty impressive illusion. Following the source he sees someone familiar at the front of the dance floor, up on a stage like a DJ. It’s… it’s Alt Brody. The mask alone gives him away- followed by the glowing led cat headphones on his head. He’s smiling and jamming to the song that’s playing, moving between his equipment with ease- and a bit of glitches here and there. A logo hangs off the table with the bold words ‘Antisepticeye’ curved around a hand drawn Sam with Alt’s smiley face drawn on top in red.

Alt...? 'Antisepticeye'? JJ is so disoriented that he takes a moment to process what he's seeing and really take in what it means. He's not... home. He must be back in that other world, the one he and his friends got accidentally sent to. And... well... he's not sure how to react to that. The lights are not helping—though they are breathtaking to look at. With nothing else to do, he starts edging through the crowd towards the front. It's not polite to interrupt an entertainer's performance, but getting Alt's attention is the best idea he can come up with.

Alt is grooving with the music, in the rhythm of flipping switches there, moving screens there. He’s in his element. But, he sees movement towards the stage and blinks in confusion, then his eyes slowly widen. “…JJ??” He mouths in surprise, pulling his headphones off.

He hurriedly clicks on some stuff on the computer and pulls out a USB to start running his wind down before he glitches off the stage and appears next to JJ. He pushes his hair back in disbelief. “Uh… h-hey? What- what are you doing here?! Did- did you guys mess up a spell again??”

JJ shakes his head. God, this place is loud. In a way it's not too different from one of his magic shows, but it's different being in the crowd compared to the stage. I'm not sure what happened. There was this black hole that opened up and pulled me in. At least he doesn't have to shout over the crowd. His voice definitely wouldn't be able to get loud enough.

Alt’s eyes widen, “What?!” He shouts, looking pale.

Then, there’s the sound like… a smoke machine going off. Colorful clouds of smoke start to billow from the middle of the crowd and they get bigger and bigger, covering the dance floor in seconds. Soon enough- people start dropping and fainting.

Alt whips around and curses, “Are you fucking serious?! Now!???” He grabs JJ by the arm and tries to push him towards an exit, “JJ get out of here! I’ll try to meet up with you in a second!”

JJ lets himself get pushed at first, shocked by what's happening. What is this? Some sort of gas. Wait, I can help! he frantically signs, regaining his senses and pushing back against Alt.

Alt looks terrified that JJ is still here, “You don’t get it-! This bitch is seriously bad news! I don’t want you to get caught up in this!”

While they’re busy arguing, someone is walking through the crowd as it thins, dazed bodies crashing to their knees or completely collapsing against the floor. The figure is a woman with tan skin and purple curly hair, popping bubblegum like it’s a casual day for her- a heavy duty mask curled around one of her fingers. She sees Alt and grins, heading over. “Hey! If it isn’t the hero wannabe! Awww did I ruin your show~?”

Alt stiffens, then narrows his eyes at the woman as he tries to push JJ behind him. His eyes burn green as he snarls. “Overdose.”

Overdose giggles, waving cheekily at Alt. “Good to see ya too~ and oh! Who’s this you’re trying to hide from me- hm?”

“Back off!” Alt tries to warn.

JJ wraps his cape around his mouth and nose, hoping to block out the worst of the gas. Who is this woman? Overdose? It seems like she and Alt have some history. And if he says she's bad news, he has to help. His eyes glow slightly blue and magic dances around his fingers. The floor between Overdose and Alt turns blue and slick. If she gets close he'll be ready.

Alt and Overdose look at the changes on the floor in confusion. Then, Overdose grins. “Well well… he’s a freak like you, huh? This will be fun~!”

Alt staggers back with a bit of fear as Overdose digs through her coat. She pops a pill into her mouth and then pulls out a vape pen- but she doesn’t direct it at Alt and JJ. She takes a casual puff and laughs. “You know- I knew about this whole operation shit right away. You bitches ain’t that clever. My partner is already taking care of that dopey hero.”

Alt’s eyes widen and his stomach drops. “No-“

“But I don’t mind- really~! The thing I want is right here… and some extra~” She giggles.

Alt pushes JJ back, confused. “W..what?”

Then, Overdose is rushing at them two of them, trying to dodge the blue but lash out to grab JJ.

JJ gasps. He wasn’t expecting her to just rush like that! He quickly starts to conjure a shield.

Overdose manages to crash through before the shield can fully conjure- mostly because she slips a bit on the ice. But she grabs him and grins. “Where do you come from, hm? If I didn’t know any better- I’d say you’re their doctor friend. But he don’t have fancy magic shit-“ But, she doesn’t give him much time to react as she blows the green blue smoke from earlier right in his face.

JJ coughs with the smoke—damn it he let go of his cape!—then blinks rapidly. His vision seems to sharpen- everything becoming warm tinted and a bit fuzzy. He feels warm but also- really really good. Like- very happy… what was he doing exactly? It’s suddenly all so… fuzzy. Oh. Wow. What’s going on? Well does it even matter all that much? He laughs absentmindedly, looking around. All the colors that seemed so loud before are—still loud, but he likes the noise now. His heart is pounding, his pulse beating fast in his neck. It’s all blurry though… wait, what’s going on, again?

“No!” Alt shouts as he glitches over to pull Overdose off JJ and try to shock her. But, he didn’t have time to pull up his mask and he gets a face full of the same smoke. He coughs wildly and staggers back, blinking rapidly. Overdose laughs sinisterly, pulling out something from her pocket- a syringe?

Then Alt yells and tackles Overdose to the floor, magic brimming around him and sparking at his fingers. “Y-You fucking bitch!” He wraps his hands around her throat and starts to choke her, murder in his eyes. Overdose looks shocked by this and wheezes, desperately trying to pry Alt’s hands off her with her free hand.

JJ’s head whips over to Alt and the woman—what’s her name?—and sees them struggling. That’s not good. He should probably do something about that. Slowly, he reaches out and grabs Alt’s shoulder, trying to pull him back. A bit of blue magic dances around his fingers… whoa, was his magic always that bright? Wow.

Alt jerks a bit at being touched and looks up at JJ dazedly, lightly letting up on Overdose. Enough for her to take her other hand and jab the syringe into Alt’s shoulder and press down. Alt yells in pain and crashes down to the ground, trying to blink past the new round of dizziness and blurring vision. “F-Fuck… JJ- run!” He wheezes out.

Overdose turns over and tries to grab JJ’s ankle and pull him towards her.

JJ stares at Alt, processing what he said—and then the woman grabs his ankle and he reacts instinctively, kicking her away. Right! No, bad news! Alt says to run. He turns and starts to run, tripping a bit.

Overdose yelps as she’s kicked and then growls, pushing herself to her feet and grabbing him as he trips. She laughs and then goes to inject JJ in his neck- the pain sorta dull compared to the rush of stimulus that floods into him. The lights get brighter, everything seems warmer- his heart is beating faster. He can’t deny that it’s… kinda nice feeling. Almost floaty. Everything is kinda dream-like… but there’s a slight current of terror underneath.

JJ tries pushing the woman away, but his movements are weak, the vague suggestion of a push. He's not able to get her away, and then after the injection he's not able to catch himself when he falls. He rolls over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. It feels like he's on a boat... rocking back and forth... floating in the water... This isn't normal. It feels nice, but... it's not normal. Why is everything so hot all of a sudden?

Overdose pushes him over and giggles, wiping her forehead off. “There- that should keep you two occupied for a bit… hope you boys have a nice trip~!” She pulls on her mask then slinks into the cloud of smoke surrounding them, disappearing from sight. “I’m gonna go say hi to the hero~!”

Alt watches her in confusion. “W-Wait-! G-get fucking back here you-!” He cringes and grabs at his chest, sweat rapidly dripping down his face. He looks over to JJ in panic and clumsily glitches over to him, “JJ…! Can you hear me?”

JJ turns to look at the person who appears beside him. It's Anti, right? No, wait. It's someone else... He giggles hoarsely and waves at him. Then he rolls over onto his side, curling up. Ow. Ow. Why does his stomach hurt now? It's not actually his stomach, but that sort of area... he winces slightly. The bright colors around him all blend together. Where is he, again? Why is Anti here, again?

Alt looks pale and terrified as he watches JJ roll around in a daze. He fumbles with his phone and tries to get to Chase’s number but blinks in dazed confusion. “I have… s-so many messages…?” He then shakes his head and grabs JJ and closes his eyes, quickly glitching them away from the club. “Hang on J…” 

=========

Meanwhile Jackieboy, Dr. J and Jackie arrive at the office. Jackieboy opens the door and turns on the light, gesturing towards the couches. "Here- make yourself comfortable... I think Henny's lift is almost here."

The office is a large pretty industrial looking space- beige walls and a bland rough gray carpet. There’s a huge L-shaped beige couch in front of a tv with all sorts of devices and games plugged into it- the wall is littered with comic books and figures and games. In the corner of the large square shaped room in a small kitchenette with a marble kitchen island that cuts it off from the rest of the office. Next to the tv is a hallway leading to other smaller offices and probably the bathroom.

Dr. J sets down his bag and tries to call Alt again. He sighs with a twitch of his mustache. "Still can't reach Alt or Chase... I'll mesage them to let them know we're here..."

Jackie looks around. "Nice place," he says, pacing around the couch. "What's it for? Some secondary hideout? Or is this, like, Alt's flat or something?" He looks slightly worried as Dr. J mentions he can't reach the others. "That's normal, right? You said it's normal to sometimes not be able to contact them?" 

Jackieboy wanders to the kitchen and opens the fridge, pulling out an energy drink and popping it open. He sips it and sighs, "Something tells me I need to be more awake for this... Oh- this is my recording office." He says with a shrug. "Come here to film bigger budget videos or give my staff a better place for editing. But, we also use it for like- livestreams and to... chill mostly. Kinda became our place to hang that's not our flats." He laughs, "Alt wishes their flat was as nice as this. Cuz... it has cleaners and stuff."

Jackie laughs. "Yeah. I can't blame Alt, this is a good place. "

Dr. J snorts and rolls his eyes at Jackieboy before looking back at Jackie. "I mean... yes. But, usually if we contact them enough during these kind of instances we're more likely to get a response..."

"Chase usually answers, even when he's on patrol- but he has a biggg vendetta against this villain he's trying to find, Overdose." Jackieboy adds. "So he might be more focused than he usually is. Alt is only ever not on his phone or near it during a show... which- just... bad timing for all of us."

"Bad timing," Jackie mutters, and sighs. "Well. Guess we'll just wait." He continues to pace around the floor, passing the time.

Soon enough, there's the sound of the door opening and Henny arrives, gently guiding Schneep through the door. "Here it is, my friend! Straight ahead is a couch so be careful..." He then blinks up and looks at the others and smiles. "Oh! Jackie! Juwel! And oh- other Jackie! Yes yes Juwel said just... you look so different! But, Hello friends!" He gestures towards Schneep, "This is other me! He says he has also met Alt and Bro before!!"

Sahne is sat at Henny's side, her tail wagging. Henny kneels down to take off her vest and then she bounds towards Jackieboy and jumps on him, barking happily. Jackieboy startles and then laughs, petting her wildly. "Oh! Hello Sahneee! Who's a good girl??"

"Thank you, you have been very helpful," Schneep says to Henny. 

"Of course my friend!" Henny says brightly to Schneep.

Schneep raises his head, sensing the presence of other souls. They all feel vaguely similar to the ones he knows as his friends—and two feel close to each other. Jackie and other Jackie, Henny said. That must be them. "Ah... h-hello. It is... lovely to meet you all."

Jackie blinks. "So... you're the other Schneep? The one who's also not from here?" He can see the resemblance. Henny does look a lot like the Schneep that Jackie knows, but this guy might as well be him--if not for the scars on his face. Dripping down from his eyes like his tears were acid.

Schneep turns towards Jackie. "Yes. And you are Jackie. You feel like the one I know... sort of."

"I... feel like him?" Jackie repeats, confused.

"Ah, it is a complicated matter, we can discuss it later." 

Jackieboy gets up and tilts his head. "Oh so- i guess you two wouldn't have met before... only really Alt and Bro showed up in places huh? ...unless you guys have been to other places too?"

Jackie shakes his head. "Nope. Never been to other worlds." If he ever did, Marvin could never know about it--oh, fuck, he can never know about this.

"Not me, either," Schneep adds. "Though... one time, when I was getting used to my powers, I... well, it is complicated, and I do not think I could do it again, but... I may have ended up somewhere else? I am not sure. It was all very confusing." Schneep starts going around the edge of the room. Jackie can't help but stare at the cane as it makes its wide sweeping motions. But he quickly looks away. He knows just how it feels to be stared at—even if this Schneep probably wouldn't know he was doing it.

Dr. J studies this new Schneep- watching his movements. He is totally blind... oh this must be so confusing for him.

Sahne looks at this new Jackie and goes to sniff at him experimentally, her tail wagging low- she's trying to be cautious. But... he doesn't smell like he's bad!

Jackie looks down at Sahne and smiles. "Oh hello there! What a good boy—or good girl!"

"She is other-me's service dog," Schneep says, smiling a little.

"Yes! That is Sahne! She is a very sweet girl!" Henny laughs. Sahne licks Jackie's hand and barks happily, wagging her tail even faster.

"Aww. The vest, of course." Jackie nods. "Anyway." He walks over to Schneep. "Did you just say you had powers?"

"Oh yeah what do you mean by that?" Jackieboy asks.

Henny bounces on his feet, "He has magics!! Like me!! He pulled his cane out of the air!"

Schneep laughs. "Yes, that is one of the things I can do." He demonstrates, putting the cane away and pulling it out again. "But I can also do this." He steps to the side--and suddenly vanishes, reappearing back near the door where he came in. Then he's suddenly back over by Jackie, a weird fizzling effect dragging after his body.

Jackie gapes at this. "You can glitch?!"

"Huh?" Schneep looks confused.

The swaps react about the same.

"Woah! You look just like Alt when he glitches!!" Jackieboy gasps.

"Yes! Very similar!" Henny says happily, "That is so neat!!"

"How peculiar... I don't think we've heard of other glitches besides... Alt." Dr. J muses.

"There's a glitch in my world," Jackie says. "Anti."

"Anti?" Schneep repeats, his head whipping over to Jackie. "You have one too?"

"Yeah, and so do these guys—it's Alt."

"Oh, I know that, but he is different," Schneep says. "Though he looks similar to how our Anti did. Certainly gave my friends a scare when he appeared in our world."

"A scare? Well, if I assumed he was like my Anti, I can see that. I wouldn't want two versions of him, either," Jackie mutters. "That'd be fucking insufferable."

"I think it would be a bit more than insufferable," Schneep says, looking concerned.

"Huh? Well I guess if you piss him off?" Jackie says.

Schneep leans back. "I feel the two of us are missing something between us. But that is to be expected with other worlds."

"The point being, you definitely just glitched," Jackie says. "Though it looked different, I-I can't think of any other word for that."

"Huh." Schneep pats his chest and arms, as if confirming it's all unchanged.

The swaps watch the visitors' exchange.

Jackieboy coughs and speaks up, "I mean... I haven't been to Schneep's world- but from what I heard from Alt... their Anti is bad news... oh! other me! Do you remember when Alt and your Anti like... fused? And became... Amp??"

"Really?" Jackie says, intrigued. "Well, I guess I can see how Anti would be." He's been on the other end of Anti's fighting him enough times. Imagine if he actually wanted to kill him. Anyway. "Yeah, of fucking course I remember that. I'd never forget that."

Schneep tilts his head, already knowing where this is going.

"Well... Bro told us that Alt and Schneep's Anti did that too... and it was... super scary. They like- almost killed Mag. And then that bitch hunted Alt down and made him try to kill Bro! So... very different from... your Anti." Jackieboy says, holding his arms. "And I know I've met Antis that are... down right terrifying... but yeah..."

"Oh. Well... fuck." Jackie's eyes go wide. 

"It is interesting that all our Antis are so different..." Henny mumbles in thought.

"Well- all of us are so different. So, is it really that strange?" Dr. J adds.

Jackie sighs. "That hunting Alt down thing sounds like something Marvin would do if he was feeling particularly spiteful."

Schneep's head snaps towards him. "What the fuck is your Marvin like?!"

"Bad." Jackie absentmindedly touches the scars on the back of his hand.

"He must be, if you are comparing him to that," Schneep says, shocked. "I know that worlds are infinite, but..." He shakes his head. "No, the other Jamie is right, we should get used to differences."

Jackie raises his eyebrows at 'Jamie.' Guess the Marvin and Jameson in this guy's world are actually decent people.

"Yeah the differences are enough to make my head spin..." Jackieboy grumbles.

"Alt and Bro probably would know the differences better than us. We haven't been to... many." Dr. J says quietly.

Then, suddenly, the air suddenly becomes electric. The air smells like burnt metal and they can feel the static electrcity pick up and make the hairs on the back of their necks stick up.

Soon enough, Alt and ... a completely new JJ to the visitors shows up, crashing to the floor. They're both heaving and covered in sweat, pupils blown wide in their eyes. Something happened to them-

And Alt is surprised to see he didn't glitch into this place alone. Henny, Dr. J and Jackieboy are here. And… two figures JJ has never seen- but Alt seems to recognize them immediately, though he stares at them blankly as he processes. “What… the hell…?” He whispers.

Jackie jumps a bit as Alt and—holy shit, is that another Jameson? The fuck is he wearing?—and the other guy appear. He's still getting used to this other Schneep with the scars on his face, and now there's a third guy. "Uh... well then. Hello again."

Schneep turns towards Alt and this stranger—this stranger who feels like his JJ, but isn't, in the same way this other stranger definitely isn't his Jackie. He doesn't say anything. This is all pretty disorienting.

The swaps all immediately rush over to kneel down by Alt and JJ. “Alt! And… JJ…? What- what fucking happened?!” Jackieboy asks in a panic.

Alt winces and curls a hand around his stomach. “O-Overdose… Chase and I t-tried to make a… a plant but she… she figured it out and… and JJ was…” He blinks rapidly, trying to right his vision as everything gets too warm.

“You both were hit then?!” Henny gasps in concern.

Dr. J quickly goes to grab JJ’s wrist and take his pulse and check his temperature. “…bloody hell… his pulse is going crazy… he’s feverish- this… this isn’t good- Jameson? Can you tell me what you’re feeling, if you can?”

JJ just lets this all happen. He pushes back his stage mask. Maybe it's the reason everything is so blurry. Nope, nothing's fixed. What's his reflection saying? Wait, no, this isn't a mirror. He takes a moment to process the question before raising his hands to sign clumsily. Heartbeat... Flying... Something hurts, stomach... Hot... The signs are barely comprehensible, his movements wide and uncoordinated.

Alt tries to stagger up towards the other two, and Henny grabs him to keep him from falling over on himself. “I don’t… h-how- why are y-you two here…? What happened…?”He looks at them like he expects them to fade away at any moment. “…are you real…?”

“I can assure you they are very real, Boltzen…” Henny answers gently, looking very worried for his friend.

"Yeah, we're real," Jackie says, nodding. He gestures to the Jameson tripping out nearby. "As real as that guy. Uh... you two should probably sit down. What the hell happened?"

"It sounds as though they were drugged," Schneep says, eyes vaguely darting back and forth as he thinks. "Something about... overdosing?"

"Overdosing? With what?" Jackie looks at Alt and the other Jameson with concern.

"Well I cannot exactly see the symptoms in action, so I do not know," Schneep drawls.

"Shit." Jackie stares at them closely. "Maybe some sort of party drug, that'd account for the 'flying' sensation."

'E-Ecstasy..." Alt mumbles out dazedly, starting to wheeze, "It's Ecstasy... I... I recognize... this..."

"You...? H-How?" Henny asks in concern.

Alt shakes his head. "l-long story...."

Dr. J looks even more worried. "...we might need to get them to a hospital-"

"What?! Already??" Jackieboy cries in distress. Dr. J nods gravelly, "Jameson is already showing signs of an overdose... I... I think... I'm not sure what this is-"

Alt tries to go towards the vistors again and looks at them with wide, unfocused eyes. "H-How are you here? How did you get here... w-why are you here?!" He shouts, a mix of panic and confusion.

"Alt, please- y-you need to sit down at least-" Dr. J tries to tell him.

"Calm down, Alt, please." Schneep raises his hands.

"Yeah, sit down," Jackie says. "W-we'll call an ambulance. Ah—I don't know what happened, but this weird rip thing opened up in my living room and sucked me in."

"Ah." Schneep's eyes widen. "Was it pulling at you?"

"Huh? Yeah, exactly."

"That must have happened to me, too. I was very confused, since I could not see what was happening, but it makes sense that we came here the same way, yes?"

"Yeah." Jackie nods, and looks at Jackieboy. "You called it a rift, didn't you?"

Alt pales a bit more at this and shakes his head, "Oh no... oh nononono-" He whispers and falls a bit and Henny hurries to help him stay up. "No no! They said they wouldn't come here- that they couldn't come here! W-We haven't even gotten the TRVLR back-!" He’s wheezing in panic and Henny and Dr. J hurry to pull him towards the couch.

Dr. J pushes him down. "Alt please- you can't panic right now! You need to breathe- please breathe...!" Alt hiccups in panic, trying to get his breathing under control. His chest feels so tight...

JJ looks over at everyone as they talk. Jackie and Schneep...? How'd they get here? What happened to them? They look hurt. He should help. He tries taking a few steps towards them, but stumbles instead. Bits of blue magic fizzle around him.

Jackieboy notices JJ trying to get up and stumble and he quickly reaches out to help him up. "Woah! JJ h-hang on- you need to take it easy, dude... We're gonna get you guys to a doctor soon, okay?"

JJ blinks up at Jackieboy. He points at him, poking him in the chest a little. No, wait. There are two Jackies. What if it's the other one? He looks at the other Jackie and points at him instead.

"Huh? I-I'm not a doctor!" Jackie backs away, raising his head. 

"Oh right- your Jackie is a doctor..." Jackieboy laughs tightly. "God- it'd be helpful if he was here..."

"Don't forget I'm training right now, Jackie-" Dr. J adds.

"I just—I can try to help, I guess?” Jackie says. “Sit down, Jameson!"

JJ nods absentmindedly, stumbling over to the sofa and collapsing on it. Wow, it's so soft. He giggles a little bit.

Jackie jumps. "Oh shit he makes sound?"

Despite not being able to see Jackie, Schneep manages to give him an incredulous look. "The fuck does that mean?"

"My Jameson doesn't make any sound, it surprised me!" Jackie glances at Dr. J. "I mean—I guess there's two of them—"

"Ack, this is not the time for this!" Schneep shakes his head. "I am not kidding, someone call an ambulance! Keep their airways clear and monitor the heartbeat. Alt, how did this happen? Injection, inhalation, by mouth?"

"I'm calling- I'm calling!" Jackieboy calls as he gets on his phone. "God- now would be a great time for Bro to show up!! Where is he?!"

Dr. J looks at Alt and JJ and nods, "If they're gonna lay down make sure its on their sides- and we need to make sure we keep them cool... hyperthermia is one of the biggest dangers here and if they stop breathing... or- or seizures. So just... keep an eye on them." He looks to Schneep gratefully and nods, "Henny- strip Alt out of his jacket! I- I dunno if JJ wants to be touched but... we should try to see if we can cool him down too." He hurries over to the kitchen to look for a rag-

"Oh! Right-" Henny gently goes to unzip Alt's jacket and help him take it off, though Alt squirms and protests. He's so sweaty and hot, his vision is blurring so much. He is panickily looking around the room, breathing still rapid. "the rifts- we were s-supposed to be safe- no nonono-"

"Alt, please, you must breathe!" Henny tries to encourage him. "You are safe... we are gonna take care of this, alright?"

Alt whimpers back in response, his arms jerking in a way he can't control. He dazedly looks back at Schneep and tries to think, "...i-inhalation... but also... i-injection too... i think? Overdose had... had a syringe..." His head falls for a second, eyes slipping shut before he shudders and tries to open them back up.

"Fuck, so inducing vomiting would not help so much, would it?" Schneep mutters. "Other JJ is right, do all that. Have you heard of the recovery position? On the side, one leg and arm bent, other hand under the face. If the new JJ is wearing anything thick, you will have to take it off."

"I can do that," Jackie says, running on over. "Alright, Jameson. That cape is nice but it's not good for this situation so I'm gonna take it off you."

"Thank you Jackie," Dr. J calls and then hurries over to bend over and put a cool rag on JJ's forehead.

JJ blinks at Jackie, not really resisting all that much as he unclasps the cape around his neck and rolls up the sleeves of his purple shirt. Really, what happened to his face? And his eye? How are you supposed to wear glasses with an eye-patch? He tries to ask Jackie if he's okay but his hands aren't working. Voice it is. "Hhh... you... oh...kay?"

Jackie jumps in surprise again. "Uh—yeah, I'm fine. But are you okay? Here, lie down, lie on your side."

"Oh- woah... I don't think I've heard JJ talk-" Jackieboy comments quietly. He then straightens up as 999 picks up and he hurries over to the corner to call the ambulance.

"Fffffloatin'..." JJ murmurs as Jackie rolls him over.

"Yeah, I know, I know," Jackie says. God, this is so bizarre. He looks around at the others— "Alt! Eyes open! Don't fall asleep!"

Alt moans and half collapses into the sofa, heaving breath after heavy breath. He looks miserably at Jackie and the others, "...hurts..." His legs jerk now and then one of his shoulders and he bites down another whimper.

"Well, clearly he's capable," Jackie mutters. He keep staring at Alt. "Uh—what were you saying about seizures, other Jameson?"

Dr. J goes white as a sheet as he hurries over to kneel by Alt and look him in the eye. "Alt? Alt, my boy, you need to stay with us, okay? J-Just until the ambulance gets here!" 

Then, the door bursts open and- it's Bro! He's bleeding a bit but mostly looks fine. He rips the pollution mask off his face and looks around the room in panic. "I-I got all your messages-! The mission went bad and- oh holy shit?!" Bro stares at all the new people with his friends- "Oh my... y-you guys weren't messing with me... h-hi everyone?" He waves awkwardly.

Alt blinks blankly at Dr. J- hardly even reacting to hearing Bro's voice across the room.

"Oh holy shit!" Schneep disappears and reappears halfway across the room, away from Bro. "I-I did not hear you coming! Ah--hello." He waves just as awkwardly as Bro did.

"Yeah no, they weren't fucking with you," Jackie says. "Hey Bro, good to see you again. Help!" Then he fully takes in Bro's appearance. "Wait—you're bleeding too! The fuck happened today?!"

JJ raises his head slightly as Bro comes in. Who's that? He feels like he knows him—ow! Pain shoots through his chest and stomach. He groans and starts to curl up again but Jackie stops him.

Bro startles and hurries over to where everyone is, "Oh fuck- oh shit! Was this Overdose?! Fuck! She must have gotten through all our defenses- that sneaky little-!" He cuts himself off as he shakes his head. "Right uh- Alt agreed to help me s-set up a way to draw in Overdose but I-I- She sent her partner after me who's a stupidly lucky fighter and I....! Fuck-!" He grabs at his hair, "This wasn't supposed to happen! I was supposed to stop this from happening and arrest that menace before she hurt anyone!"

"Overdose? Y-yes, Alt did mention that, I think," Schneep says. "It's a person?"

"Sounds like the worst kind of person," Jackie mutters. 

"She's a villain- a fucking awful one that's been plaguing me for years!" Bro mumbles, "This is what she does! She drugs people with experimental and seriously dangerous drugs because its fun for her!"

"Chase, stop fucking mulling in guilt and snap back to reality!” Jackie shouts. “Is there anything you can do?! You're some kind of superhero, aren't you?!"

"This is not the time to snap at him!" Schneep glares in Jackie's general direction.

"This isn't the time to get lost in your feelings, this is a time for action!" Jackie looks at Bro. "I know how you're feeling right now, I really do. But we're in the middle of a crisis, this is not the time to shut down! Anything would be helpful, really!"

"Jackie!" Schneep gasps.

"If there's anything you can do, that'd be helpful, too!" Jackie says, glancing at him.

"I—I used to be a doctor, but—" Schneep stammers.

Bro jumps at the shouting and then eventually nods, "R-Right right I... I could try to fly them to the hospital? Oh god- it could be faster if Alt could glitch but I don't know if he-"

There's a dull thump as Alt falls off the couch completely- and starts to seize, eyes rolling up into his head.

"No! Alt!" Dr. J gasps, crashing down next to him. Bro cries out and hurries over, kneeling next to his little brother with terrified tears in his eyes. "Anti! No no- fuck!" He looks back at Schneep desperately, "S-Schneep! You can glitch right?! Can- Can you glitch us to a hospital if I know where it is? L-Like Alt can?!"

"I—I am not sure, I-I have never tried," Schneep says. "But if there is any time to try, it is this!" He hurries over, kneeling next to Bro as well. "Everyone hold onto me! I must warn you, people do not react well to my powers, so this will probably be uncomfortable."

Jackie grabs JJ and drags him over, grabbing onto Schneep's shoulder. "Chase, m-make sure to not touch Alt too much, i-it's not good for seizing."

"Yes, but try to keep his head supported as best you can on the journey," Schneep adds. "If you have a pillow or something else soft, use that."

“Here-!” Henny says as he grabs a pillow and helps put it under Alt’s head as Bro goes to scoop him up in his arms. Alt wheezes and chokes slightly and Bro tries to adjust him just right. “O-Okay! Let’s go!”

“We’ll stay here-“ Dr. J says with a bit of worry. “Just in case Schneep can’t carry all of us…”

“Yeah- call us if you need a ride, okay?” Jackieboy smiles nervously.

“Call us once everything is okay!” Henny calls. “And keep us inside the loop, yes?”

Bro tries to smile, “Yeah- we will.”

Schneep nods. "That is a good idea," he mutters. Last time he did this he had three passengers, and now he had one more. He takes a deep breath. "On three we will go. One... two... three!"

The others find their vision momentarily going dark, and then they arrive—just outside the intended location. Jackie shivers. "Holy fucking shit," he says. "That felt like a million needles." JJ seems similarly upset and shaken. He looks a bit green in the face.

Bro shudders, shaking himself out, “V-Very different from Alt’s o-okay-“ Alt hiccups a bit in pain and curls up against Bro, his body still randomly jerking and spasming.

"Sorry about that, I-I cannot control it," Schneep explains.

They’ve appeared right outside a big busy hospital emergency room. The large letters on the side read out ‘HopeWater Hospital’. Chase hurries through the door and calls out, “W-We have an emergency! My brother and our friend are overdosing!”

The receptionist at the counter startles and then recognizes who has rushed in. “M-Mr. Fantastic!” She looks at the others and then nods and ushers for them to follow her. “C-Come this way! I think we just got a call from another one of your friends and started prepping the room!”

Jackie carries JJ into the hospital right behind Bro. JJ's head is lolling a bit, eyelids fluttering, but at least he's not spasming. "Oh good, they know you," Jackie comments. He hurries after the nurse. Schneep also follows behind him, making sure that he's right behind him.

“Well duh- I’m a superhero!” Bro tries to laugh. But it falls flat.

The nurse leads them down into a lower floor and quickly knocks on the door. She looks at the boys nervously and then enters calling out, “Dr. Sun? Dr. Cornelius? They’re here.”

The nurse opens the door and Bro looks a bit confused. Why does that name sound familiar…? But he walks in anyways.

He freezes as two doctors turn towards the group. JJ can recognize the purple hair of a certain woman, now dressed in a white coat of a doctor. She giggles. “Well hello again boys! That shit hits fast doesn’t it?”

“O-Overdose?” Bro whispers in horror.

Once all the boys are in- the doors snap shut.

Jackie spins towards the two doctors. Overdose?! No, the doors! He sets JJ down on the floor and pulls out his staff, opening it up to its full length as his eyes dart around for another exit. 

Schneep gasps. "It was a trap?!" One of his hands sweeps the cane around, getting a good sense of the space, while he tucks the other behind his back. Can he grab his weapon here, too? Yes; his fingers quickly find the handle of his scissors.

Overdose giggles and holds up her hands, “Now gentlemen~! Is now really the time to fight? After all… I have the thing that can save your friends~!”

The other doctor laughs too and studies the others. “Your plan worked so well, Jin… but I was not expecting the spares?” This doctor has black and white hair, some pulled into a small braid- and he’s wearing thick green glasses over his eyes. He eyes the newcomers with interest.

“I wasn’t either- I dunno who the fuck these guys are.” Overdose snorts. “The mustached guy was in the club when I jumped the punk. But, he’s got magic too, doc.”

“Ohhh does he now?” Dr. Cornelius giggles.

“B-Back off!” Bro tries to shout, his arms shaking as he holds the weakening Alt. “Y-You better give us that cure before we make you regret it!”

Jackie narrows his eyes. Both of these guys are setting off alarm bells in his head. He has to get out of here. This is a basement and there are no other entrances, but it doesn't look like they locked the door, and even if they did, he might be able to kick it down, he just has to knock them—

JJ groans and tries to sit up. He can't quite manage it, grabbing onto Jackie's ankle for support. A bit of cold blue magic flutters around his hand at the point of contact. Jackie glances down at him. No, he can't leave these guys. He can't. That's not what a real hero would do. "What do you mean... you have the thing to save them...?" he says cautiously.

"It is not so easy to cure an overdose," Schneep scoffs. "You cannot bluff your way into our complacency."

“Is it when I made the drug.” Overdose giggles. She pops a pill into her mouth and then blows a glowing cloud out. She twists the cloud in her hands, causing the contents to swirl. “You guys aren’t the only ones with magic round here~ ‘cept I use my scientific knowledge to fuel mine. I can create smoke from most substances and enhance the properties of them. So… you could try to escape here- which ha, you can try but we bolted those doors. Anddd you can try to save them the normal way with the doctors upstairs… or you can let me help- and they’ll be fine in 5 minutes~”

“Linger any longer- and I’m not sure they’ll make it.” Dr. Cornelius adds with a smirk.

Bro looks massively conflicted, looking down at Alt. Alt chokes on a sob as more spasms overtake him, his body trying to glitch but not able to as his body burns hotter and hotter.

Jackie also hesitates. Stupid fucking choice. Stupid fucking doctors. "What if, instead, I break your fucking bones until you agree to help?"

"Jackie!" Schneep faces him, aghast.

His heart isn't really in the threat, but he keeps glaring at Overdose and Cornelius anyway, hoping that the intimidation will help.

JJ gasps, suddenly clutching his chest. His heartbeat spikes, and the pain in his chest intensifies. He cries out.

"Okay, yes, yes, fine, do what you have to do!" Schneep says quickly, hearing Alt and JJ suffering.

Bro looks at Schneep with wide eyes. He hesitates again and then nods. “Y-Yeah just… ! … don’t let them die… please…”

Overdose smiles almost sweetly. “Of course not, Mr. Fantastic~! Please- bring them over here.” She gestures at the floor as two tables rise from it.

Bro hurries over and lays Alt down on the table. Alt’s eyes dazedly roll around in his head as he wheezes shallowly. He sees the white coats in his confusing vision  and shakes his head. “N…nnn-“ he tries to say but can’t get his mouth to move right.

Overdose giggles, and comes over to lean down by Alt, pushing back his bangs. “Don’t worry, Mr. Septiceye~ we’ll get you back into top form~”

Bro growls and lashes out, grabbing her wrist and squeezing it tight- almost enough to bruise. “Don’t fucking touch him like that!”

Overdose just smiles with a cool expression. “I’d watch how you touch me, Mr. Fantastic~” Bro seems to realize what she’s hinting at and lets go, backing away.

Jackie picks JJ up and puts him down on the table. He doesn't like this. The tables are taking him back to bad memories. He glances towards the doors again. They said that they bolted them, but is that really true? No, of course it is. People like this wouldn't make such a simple mistake. But there has to be some other way out of this room. Maybe there are vents? Maybe one of these two have a key?

As he mulls over the possibilities, he feels JJ grab onto his wrist. His instinct is to yank it away, but he reminds himself that this isn't his Jameson, and holds his hand in turn. If these two do anything to him or Alt... Well, he's not planning on just letting them get away with it.

Schneep edges around the room, trying to discreetly figure out his surroundings. Maybe there's something useful here. Something they can use to... convince these two to let them out after their friends are better.

Once both of them are on the table, Overdose pulls out a vial of black pills. She quickly pops a couple in her mouth and then leans down by Alt, tilting up his chin to blow most of the smoke towards him. Alt weakly coughs and then slumps back towards the table. But, already it seems like he’s starting to breathe better.

Then, Overdose walks over to JJ and pulls him up to breathe the antidote towards him too. The smoke feels almost… grainy? Like soot. It clings to the back of his throat, feeling almost dry. But, with the smoke comes a bit of clarity. Already the pain is starting to lighten, his airways feeling cleaner, his heart starting to slow to a normal rate. He’s still massively delirious but it’s clearing… slowly.

Dr. Cornelius watches Schneep wander with a curious eye. This one was blind? Peculiar… “So- the rest of you… Where did you come from, hm? Because I don’t believe I’ve seen you around and well… we should get to know each other while your friends catch their breath, don’t you think?”

"I literally just met these guys today," Jackie mutters. It's a half-truth. He knows Alt and Bro but not the other two... even if they are technically other versions of people he knows.

"Why should we tell you anything?" Schneep asks, frowning in Cornelius's direction. "You are clearly some sort of hostile force, judging by what the two of you have done to Alt and Jameson."

Jackie sighs. "Maybe not a good idea to antagonize the 'hostile force,'" he says under his breath. "We're from out of town, if you must know. Just arrived here today. I doubt you've ever heard of Mirygale, but that's the city."

Schneep's eyes widen slightly. So—the cities are consistent between his universe and this other Jackie's. Interesting.

“Ha! The blind one is smart,” Overdose giggles. “You should listen to him, scar face.”

Cornelius tuts. “Jin- let’s try our best to be civil, hm?” Overdose rolls her eyes at the other doctor but stops her comments.

"Scar face?" Schneep mutters under his breath.

"Right, I guess you can't see it," Jackie says quietly. "Yeah, my face is pretty fucked up."

"Ah. I-I am sorry."

"It's fine, it's not your fault," Jackie whispers.

“Hm- I have not heard of Mirygale.” Dr. Cornelius laughs. “Curious… especially since our cameras have already picked up inter dimensional signatures from the three of you.” He looks back at Jackie and Schneep with a sharp smile. “You’re not from this universe, are you?”

Schneep stops wandering for a moment. "Wh-what? Cameras?"

Bro staggers back a bit in shock, “T-The Sclera cameras can sense stuff like that?? I… I knew they could sense emotions and magic signatures but- not that?”

“They are a bit similar if you think about it~” Cornelius laughs. He tilts his head at Jackie and prowls a bit closer. “So… what brought you all here then?”

Jackie tenses. His Anti had mentioned IRIS a couple times—SCLERA is a similar name. Some similarities between worlds. "Don't get too close," he growls out, holding his staff protectively in front of him and JJ. "Look, I don't know why we're here or what caused it to happen. All I know is that some weird black rift appeared and sucked me in. The same thing probably happened to these two."

JJ's eyelids flutter. A black rift...?

Dr. Cornelius chuckles a bit coldly, his eyes shining through the green on his glasses. "You don't scare me. But- that is helpful... I do believe Mr. Fantastic was informing me about those... rifts. Weren't you, Chase?"

Bro shudders a bit and looks a bit guilty, "u-uh- Doc I... I dunno what-"

Alt makes a small noise of pain before he's able to open his eyes and take in things again. He blinks slowly up at the celling, "...where... am i...?" He mumbles.

"Oh! Good morning, Alt~" Dr. Cornelius says cheerily. Alt's eyes widen and he becomes even more pale as he glitches clumsily to sit up. "N-No- nonono- what the fuck?! Why are you here?!"

"Alt calm down! It's okay..." Bro tries to reassure him. He glances at Overdose though and glares before mumbling, "Well somewhat okay..."

"C-Chase- what's happening?! Why is he here? D-Did you take us to Sclera?!" Alt asks in a panicked voice. He looks to see the others and looks even more scared. "No no-!"

"Alt, i-it's okay," Schneep says.

"It's not, but it's manageable," Jackie mutters.

JJ comes to his senses at around the same time. His eyes dart around. Where is he? Where are they?! These people look like his friends but they're not--and this area--is it IRIS again? Has it always been IRIS? Did they ever even escape? Deep breaths, JJ, deep breaths. He curls his hands into fists, trying not to draw too much attention to himself.

"Alt please try to calm down!" Chase hisses. Alt tries to glitch away but Dr. Cornelius pulls out a remote from his pocket and Alt suddenly exclaims in pain and curls up on the table, holding his middle.

"H-Hey!" Bro tries to shout at Cornelius, "What are you doing?! You said you weren't gonna-!"

"Hero, can you please restrain Alt and the visitors, please?" Dr. Cornelius coos smoothly as two more tables rise from the ground, "I believe we all have much to discuss..."

Bro stiffens, his eyes widening- his pupils suddenly rapidly expanding. And then, his expression and his eyes dull as his pupils shrink into pinpricks. Purple ripples across the blue and settle at the edge of his irises. He nods numbly, "Of course, doctor."

Chase grabs Alt by his wrists and then forces them down against the table. Two restraints snap out and latch onto his wrists and Alt exclaims in panic. "No No no-! They got you too?! Chase what did you do?!" Bro doesn't answer as he whirls around and looks around. He lashes out to try to grab Jackie first.

"Chase what are you—?!" Jackie gasps, trying to push away Bro with his staff—but Bro has the strength of a superhero and he easily shrugs off the blow, grabbing Jackie by the arms.

JJ's eyes widen and he sits up straight, flinging out a hand. Blue magic sprays out, aiming to separate Bro from Jackie. Bro's expression is empty as he tries to push Jackie onto a table like he did Alt. But, JJ's magic hits him and sends him flying back. He shakes it off and tries to lash back out- this time aiming for JJ.

Alt tries to glitch out of the restraints but attempting to do so causes the cuffs to shock him. He cries out in pain- then panickily tries to push himself out somehow.

Meanwhile, Schneep leaps forward, disappearing and reappearing behind Cornelius, aiming to plunge his scissors into the back of his shoulder. Cornelius does not expect Schneep to appear behind him- much less stab him. He yells out and drops to his knees, clutching the wound. "You little-!" The doctor hisses and tries to swipe out a leg to knock Schneep off his feet.

Overdose looks at all the chaos and then leans against the wall, grinning. "Oh- this will be fun-"

JJ yelps, trying to conjure a shield, but Bro's strength shatters it instantly. He struggles in Bro's grasp. He doesn't want to hurt him! Jackie has no such reservations. He whips his staff around Bro's body, holding either end so that Bro is pinned between him and the staff. He tries pulling him away from JJ. Bro tries to force JJ down to the table, struggling to pull his arms down onto the restraints that try to snap up. The hero isn’t deterred at all by Jackie’s staff and manages to push forward and snaps JJ’s wrists into the restraints. He then grabs Jackie’s staff and tries to grab it to throw him off it.

Schneep yelps and falls hard to the floor as well. And yet, he laughs. "Hah... th-they never expect it," he grins, and quickly leaps again, appearing over next to Alt. "Calm down, calm down please," he mutters, feeling out the cuffs. He pries at them, using his scissors to give him extra leverage.

Alt looks to Schneep with terrified tears in his eyes, the terror in his voice making it shake. “S-Schneep I-i don’t think you can break these- y-you should try to get out of here…!”

Cornelius staggers to his feet, “Dr. Sun?! A little help?!”

Overdose groans and then stands up straight. “Ugh fineee- you seemed so confident in that whole- mind control reveal thing. Didn’t wanna steal your thunder.” She starts looking through her coat for the right pill.

JJ lets out a sob, struggling against the cuffs. He tries to cast some magic, maybe teleport out of here--but instead cries out as the cuffs shock him. No no no no! Not again! He can't be stuck in a place like this again!

"Oh no you don't!" Jackie says, tightening his grip. He braces his feet against the ground and tries pushing Bro to the floor. Bro stands his ground and pushes back against Jackie, moving to push him to the ground instead.

Alt hurries to try to glitch more but just screams out as he’s shocked again. No no no! He can’t be trapped here again- not with Cornelius- not by his brother! Not with all his other friends stuck here too! He chokes on a terrified sob.

Overdose laughs as she finds the right pill and crushes in her teeth. Smoke billows out from the sides of her lips as she strides through the room, pulling out her vape and sending out clouds of calming, white sleeping drugs. “Now boys… I think it’s all time we took a nice nap, hm?” Dr. Cornelius quickly pulls on a mask  to protect himself.

As the smoke reaches Bro he blinks heavily and then very quickly ends up slumping to the floor, his eyes rolling up into his head.

JJ gasps, slumping as well, already so tired from the effects of the overdose.

"What the shit?!" Jackie glances around. He lets go of Bro once he passes out and quickly covers his mouth and nose with his hoodie. "You fucker!" He lunges for Overdose and Cornelius, swinging his staff, not caring which one he hits.

Schneep stiffens as the air suddenly becomes more humid. "Wh-what?!" He spins around. Okay, before he gets out of here, he has to take care of that, at least! He lunges towards Overdose with his scissors—assuming that she's the source of it.

Overdose easily dodges Jackie’s strike and then gracefully steps to blow smoke directly in his face. “Too slow~!” She giggles. Overdose steps away from Schneep’s attack and then goes to grab his arm and blows smoke directly in his face too. She lets go and watches Jackie and Schneep with curiosity. “Mm… it’s gonna be so much fun to see how you all tick~!”

Alt’s vision is blurring again but he tries to fight it off. He looks out dazedly as Schneep runs forward and he tries to yell, “n-no! Hen, run!”

Schneep coughs. His head is spinning, feeling heavy... He tries to leap through the door again, but he's too disoriented and slams against the door. He slumps to the ground, slowly losing consciousness. He missed his opportunity to escape. What a waste.

Alt whimpers as he watches Schneep try to reach the door but fail. Then, his eyes roll back and he fully slumps, head lolling back as he completely succumbs to the drug.

Jackie tries holding his breath while Overdose blows that smoke in his face. Even so, his vision swims a little bit. He growls at her. "You shut the fuck up! People like you—the world would be better off without you!" He musters all his energy for one last swing.

Overdose is not expecting Jackie to still have that much fight in him. Or that much strength. The swing hits- and she’s knocked out, hitting the floor with a dull thud.

Dr. Cornelius watches this with wide eyes and backs up, trying to press up against the wall.

Jackie laughs triumphantly. But his head is still swimming. He gives Cornelius a grin. "You... win for now... but watch out..." He staggers to the side, then finally loses his balance, falling to his knees, then the floor, and then fully passing out.

[huffle-dork]

You know what I forgot to show y’all? What this morherfucker looks like from Anomaly Found: Alt Brody! This is what Dr. Israh Cornelius looks like

He’s a crazy bastard and I love him HGHHHB

[huffle-dork]

Anomaly Found: Alt B̶̨̲̯̥̳̱̌͘r̶̡̖̞̓̋͊̀̑͊̔ͅo̸̦͕̮̗̅̀̅̄͘͜͠͠ḑ̵̛̲̰̋̄͠y̴͙̼͎̥͔͐̑̾͋́̽

Masterpost | More Swapboys

This is a continuation of Alt’s Transition technically so make sure you read that first if you haven’t!

AN: This fic contains medical whump but is not super descriptive when it comes to operations! It also is not scientific what so ever and deals with magic-science bullshit! So don’t take it too seriously lol

This also introduces the Swapboys equilviant to IRIS! And a new character I’ve been very excited about! Enjoy :)

—————————-

Something was wrong. Alt didn’t know what yet but… something was wrong.

At first, the spell seemed to have been working just fine! When he woke up again He felt amazing, he felt strong, he felt right. He felt like he could take on the world- could take on Bro Fantastic himself!

But Magnificent told him to be patient and continue to rest. So the day passed by miserably slow… but at least he got extra cuddles with Glitches. It was so much nicer to cuddle with her now… no extra flesh getting in the way of her laying on his chest.

As night fell though… Alt started feeling strange. The room was wavering in front of him. It was too hot- yet also too cold. A fever…? His limbs felt like static- like something was stealing the strength from his muscles without his permission. He pushed himself up and felt a wave of dizziness nearly knock him over. What the hell?

Did Mag warn him about this? About side effects? …if he did Alt couldn’t remember- couldn’t force his voice to replay in his head, all he could hear was his blood and his heart thumping way too loudly.

The Dooms… they knew the truth about Alt’s body. Maybe they could help? Though they might freak out about the changes that were definitely not there the other day.

He tried to think it through but anxiety was strong in his body and brain. He felt himself glitching- but that felt wrong too! That made Alt panic even more. His glitching never felt wrong- not since he first got his powers. But now it all felt too sharp- too invasive. It felt like it was stealing the breath from him… something that was now as easy to him as breathing.

Would the Dooms even be able to help out if this was magic? He hadn't really shown or explained his glitches or magic to them but- they worked with superheroes, right? They knew of Bro- they… they could help. He just needed to explain. Besides… magic always seemed connected to something physical- something that could be explained and fixed within the body.

Alt made up his mind, grabbing the first coat he can and stumbling to yank it on. He then takes a step forward and glitches, picturing the Doom Clinic.

He nearly runs into the glass doors, slightly bonking his head. Then they slide open as Alt grumbles and rubs the sore spot out. He looks around and… doesn’t recognize the place. Did the Dooms redecorate?

He shakes his head and tries to focus- but it feels almost impossible with how his vision is swimming. He stumbles to what looks like the front desk. A blonde woman blinks in surprise and looks up at him.

Alt can barely stand as he puts his hands on the desk to steady himself.

“I… I need… O-Oliver- Oliver Doom, please!” He slurs, intense eyes boring into the woman’s. “Or well- any of them I guess- but I… I like… O-Oli-“

The woman looks at him with confusion- jumping slightly as Alt jerks his arm, holding it down against his side as he can feel it trying to glitch.

“Um sir…? I-If you’re looking for a specific doctor I… I’m afraid there’s no one here named… Doom, was it?” She replies slowly, carefully watching Alt with a guarded expression.

Alt’s eyes widen. “What…?” He looks around in more panic and curses under his breath. This isn’t the Doom Clinic! The fuck…? He doesn’t normally glitch to places he’s never been before! He doesn’t recognize this place at all. Whatever is happening… it’s affecting his magic.

“S-Sorry,” Alt stammers, tongue feeling thick in his mouth. “Wrong… wrong place-“

“Sir, you look like you need to sit down! I can get someone to look at you and maybe get you some juice if you would just take a seat and-“

“No!” Alt interrupts, gripping his arm tighter as he feels it spasm and feels pixels trying to break off. He can’t glitch here! They’ll throw him into a psych ward or something!

“I’m fine… t-thank you-“ He grits out, trying to stumble back towards the door.

Then the walls and everything around him felt like they are blending into static. Purple seemed to invade the sides of his vision. The sounds around him turned into nothing but white noise. He didn’t even feel when he hit the ground.

———

When Alt next opens his eyes, all he can see is a bright light shining in his face. He grimaces and tries to lift a hand to shield himself but- he can’t move his hand. Alertness hits him like a truck as he pulls on his wrists some more- finding them strapped down to the table.

“T-The fuck?!” He growls, rocking himself to try to get free but he’s- he’s stuck! “What’s going on?!”

There’s sensors stuck to him- under his shirt and attached all over his arms and now he can even feel them on his temples too.

Alt tries to glitch but he shouts out in pain as the action seems to hurt him. Why? Why can’t he glitch??

Panic threatens to eat him alive.

Then, he hears a chuckle- and the table he’s on starts to move. It tilts upwards, until Alt finds himself upright, staring at the expanse of a large white room, medical equipment everywhere. Tall machines and computers he doesn’t recognize.

And he’s met face to face with an older gentleman who smiles at him, but Alt can’t even see his eyes behind his thick glasses.

“Ah! You are awake! Funny, I thought you’d be out for longer~!”

The man had dark black hair with a streak of white right in the middle, the wild locks pulled into a messy braid. He had bright green glasses that could also be googles? But they seemed way too thick to see out of properly. He had a scraggly beard and a white lab coat on… with a logo of an eye with 3 irises but the whites of the eye were colored black. It read SCLERA under the logo.

Alt bares his teeth at the stranger and thrashes a bit in his binds. “The fuck are you?! Where the fuck am I?!”

The man chuckles and adjusts his glasses, smirking at Alt. “Ooh, so touchy already! This will be fun~!”

He goes to grab a clipboard and starts to read it as he paces in front of Alt.

“Well- you were admitted into my care, Mr… Brennan? After you fell unconscious in the lobby of Hope Water Hospital. And the staff there saw some… unusual activity.” He looks back at Alt and the boy shivers, causing his arms to vaguely ripple with glitches, pixels vibrating in the air.

The doctor’s eyes light up as he surges forward, looking at his arm closer. “Yes! Like that! Oh fascinating… absolutely remarkable…!”

Alt felt his blood go cold- he glitched when he fell unconscious? Oh no- oh nononono-!

The man writes down a few more notes before straightening and addressing the glitch again. “But anyways! The Hope Water staff didn’t know how to handle that so they called in the specialists! And that would be me~!”

He lifts up his glasses to rest on his head as he smiles, his brown eyes almost looking gentle. But Alt shivers at the sight. Why does… this man feel familiar to him…?

“Dr. Israh Cornelius is what they call me! I’m a magic analyst here at SCLERA!” The doctor spoke with pride.

“Sclera…?” Alt muttered in confusion. “The hell is that? I-Is it even legal to tie up unconscious patients without their consent?!”

Dr. Cornelius laughed, actually throwing his head back. “Perhaps, if we were dealing with a normal civilian!”

His expression then drops as he looks knowingly at Alt.

“…but you’re not that, are you? Impulse~”

Alt’s breath leaves his lungs as he stares wide eyed at the doctor. “W..what…? H-how-?”

The doctor laughs and goes to pick up something off his office chair, turning to reveal a jacket. He twists his hand to show the back- the signature emblem of the villain Impulse clear for all to see.

“You were wearing this when you were admitted, Mr. Brennan. Not a very smart thing for a villain to wear as a civilian, is it?”

Alt swallowed a lump in his throat. This wasn’t good… but at least whatever ID they found of his was one of his fake ones. Still… This was bad.

“E-Even if I’m a villain you- you can’t just strap me to a table l-like a lab rat!” He argues, trying to struggle some more against the restraints.

Dr. Cornelius just shakes his head as he laughs. “You are a dangerous criminal with unknown powers, Mr. Impulse! This was merely a precaution.”

He strides forward and then grabs the straps to make them tighter. Alt bites back a squeak of pain that wants to slip out of his lips. The doctor whispers to him with hardly contained glee.

“However… a villain like you… will not be missed, will they?” He laughs more, his dark eyes now showing madness. “You could say we are doing the public a service! Keeping you here~!”

“Y-You can’t do that..!”

“Oh but we can, Mr. Brennan… you have no paper trail. No formal records- no sign of any family… you are just perfect! A perfect specimen to study~!”

Alt feels terrified tears in his eyes that he tries to keep hidden, but his shaking voice gives him away. “M-My friends…!”

But then he stops himself, feeling his breath caught in his throat again. He… doesn’t have his friends anymore. No one knows he’s here… not even Magnificent. …he’s really alone.

Now the tears fall as he breathes out. “I… I came here for h-help…! Something was wrong and y-you can’t just-!”

“Oh yes! That!” Dr. Cornelius sang as he turned heel to look at, then wheel over one of the monitors currently hooked up to Alt.

The monitor almost looked like it was showing Alt’s heart rate. But it wasn’t- it was showing something Alt didn’t recognize. Two lines of data were shown on the screen, one line white, the other purple. The purple line was steady, with plips of higher readings here and there. In fact- they seemed to correlate to when Alt felt his skin try to glitch or pixelate. The white line was also steady but with very low readings.

Dr. Cornelius studied the screen some more before addressing Alt. “When you were admitted, we ran some tests. This is an alignment reader- it reads the concentration of magic in your body, and whether or not it is dark or light.”

He points to the purple line, “The concentration of black magic in your body was abnormally high.”

“…okay?”

The doctor smirks, “Black Magic is illegal here in the UK, Mr. Brennan. Well actually, it’s illegal in most countries. Especially at such extreme levels. Honestly- surprised with these levels a magic circle officiant didn’t find you first… lucky us, I guess!” He laughs and then shakes his head.

“In fact- this kind of magic… I’ve really only seen such pure black magic from one source. I’m assuming it’s magic you got from the one you work for, correct?”

Alt shivered- feeling his new scars almost burn against his skin. He bites his tongue though and bares his teeth. “I don’t gotta tell you shit!”

The doctor laughs again, “Oh, I don’t need you too. It can only be him, the one who’s calling himself Magnificent, yes?”

Alt said nothing at first and then mumbled. “…you know too much about all of this, Dr. Creepy.”

Dr. Cornelius shrugs. “All apart of my job, Mr. Brennan!”

He goes back to pick up his notes and look at a collection of more papers on the wall. As Alt focused on it, his blood turned to ice. There was… pictures of him on there- as Impulse. And not only that… he saw Chase on there too- Bro Fantastic. There were dozens of pictures of what Alt could only assume was people this crazy doctor was aiming to study. Super powered people… things he didn’t understand but was determined to. He swore he saw the blurry image of a green gray cat mask among the pictures.

“Anyways, Mr. Brennan! That black magic was attacking your internal magic system- the source of power that runs the magic through your body. Black magic is known to do that. It will ‘eat’ any possible light magic it can find until it corrupts all the magic completely orrrr sucks the life clean out of ya!” Dr. Cornelius said a little too cheerily.

“W-What?!” Alt exclaimed. Magnificent never warned him about that!

Dr. Cornelius chucked, “Don’t fret, lad. We siphoned that out of ya real quick! So, see? We already helped you, just like you wanted!”

Alt shakily bit his lip before asking quietly, “So then… I-I can go home… right?”

The doctor’s smile turned impossibly cruel.

“I’m afraid not, Alt. We have much we need to learn from you~!”

Something clicked from the table below him and then suddenly that something is jabbing him in the neck. The room almost instantly starts to dip and sway as Alt feels his eyes roll up into his head and his body gives out, falling unconscious again.

———

Alt opens his eyes to find that now he’s somewhere new. He’s behind glass in a tiny white room. He’s not tied down-

Adrenaline courses through him- maybe he can glitch out now! He tries to glitch- and it feels like his insides are on fire. It’s like whatever energy he was preparing to use to glitch had erupted two-fold, making his entire body feel overloaded. He yells out and crashes down to the ground. There’s a tug on his foot and he can see now, he’s strapped to the wall by some sort of cord, a cuff around his ankle. What’s even worse is he’s barefoot- and in a completely new set of clothes, a dingy set of green scrubs, almost like hospital wear. Alt starts to panic again, realizing his throat and his scar are exposed. He touches light fingers to his scar as he pushes himself up. He feels a shiver go down his spine as he hears familiar laughter.

Dr. Cornelius is smirking at him through the window.

“Nice try there, Alt! But I can’t have ya glitching before we do some proper tests on ya~!”

Alt bares his teeth like a feral animal, pixels flying around him but not able to settle in one place. “How are you stopping me from glitching?!”

The doctor smirks and lifts up a tiny device in his hand. “Electromagnetic pulses. Normally these have no effect on humans… However, we’ve already established you’re very special, Alt.”

The boy just glares at the doctor, wanting nothing more than to strangle that smug look off his face. However, Dr. Cornelius just uses the silence as an excuse to keep talking, pacing back and forth in front of the window to Alt’s cell.

“Did you know it’s a common misconception that the human body produces electricity like that of a machine? It mimics and works as a circuit would, but our bodies don’t carry charges of electrons between synapses. No no- inside our cells there’s a chemical gradient of ions that create a difference in charge between the inside and outside of the cell membrane! That mimicry of electricity as ions pass between each cell membrane is what keeps, say, your heart pumping. However there is research that a human body can produce almost 100 watts of electricity at rest… however you, Alt, seem capable of so much more~!

It seems your body has been adapted to not only conduct electricity better, but also produce it better than normal human beings. In fact, it’s like you actually have that fabled current running through your veins… a constant flow of electric magic that fuels your glitching!

So an EMP blast seems to disrupt that electric flow within you… overloading it enough to stop you from glitching. For now at least!” The doctor laughs, grinning like an excited school kid, “There’s so many tests for us to run! You’re going to provide us with such good data, Mr. Brennan~!”

Alt yells in anger at this, trying to rush at the window. The doctor hardly looks phased as he presses a button on his remote- and something shoots out of the wall behind Alt. Two robotic arms with ends just like the cuff on Alt’s ankle lash out and clamp onto his wrists, yanking the glitch off his feet and slamming him into the back wall. Alt struggles as best as he can but the arms have him locked against the wall tight.

Dr. Cornelius lets out a delighted laugh, “Already so eager to start! That’s what I like to see in a subject!”

“N-No, you psycho! Let me go!” Alt tries to protest.

The doctor looks back to one of his colleagues that Alt can barely see. He nods to them, “Start the procedure.”

The other doctor nods then flares out hands in front of… an orb? Their hands glow white and soon the cuffs on Alt do too. As they glow, Alt starts to feel like his energy is waning. Pretty soon, he slumping in his binds, his fighting getting lazy and then altogether stopping. He has to fight to keep his head up and his eyes open. He vaguely notices the glow on his cuffs seems to be turning green blue- the color of his magic.

Dr. Cornelius checks a monitor next to the window and then gestures to the other doctor. “That’s enough.”

The glowing stops as they take their hands away from the orb. Alt’s head falls sharply but he quickly tries to pick it back up so he can glare at Cornelius. “Wha… d’you… do?” The glitch slurs, hating the feeling of his body feeling almost empty… and cold.

Israh adjusts his glasses and smiles. “A simple draining spell! One we probably won’t be using often since we want to study your magic as it works within you but~! There’s one thing we need to see first before proceeding with those tests!”

He lifts the remote again and presses another button.

Alt immediately starts to scream, his body locking up as waves of electricity crash back into his body. His muscles attempt to spasm despite having nowhere to go, his neck craning back like he can escape the onslaught. It feels wrong! Usually if he comes across rogue electricity he can absorb it into his own… but with none in his body- the electricity has nothing to merge to. So it courses painfully into his body, attempting to mesh with his magic but not being able to. It’s agony. He feels his skin sparking and burning- tears trying to be shed but steaming upon impact with the bright sparks.

It feels like an eternity before it gets shut off. The cuffs on his wrists release and Alt falls heavily to the floor, still twitching and spasming from the leftover electricity. It feels impossible to think, everything he feels is pain. The energy in his body has been replaced with hot sparking rods that are quickly cooling down, leaving him completely spent. Alt wheezes brokenly, eyes wide and not able to focus, tears falling down his cheeks as he struggles to regain control over his limbs.

“Well?” The doctor's smarmy voice coos, “Alt, why don’t you try to use your magic for us, hm?”

“C…c-can’t…” Alt croaks, hardly able to grip his shaking hand into a fist.

Dr. Cornelius frowns at this, tapping his pen against his face. But then he smiles and scribbles down some notes. “I see! Pure electricity doesn’t have the same properties as the electric magic you produce, so you can’t purely substitute that!”

“Tell me, Alt, have you ever used a source of electricity to fuel your magic when it was low?”

Alt attempts to move his head to glare at the doctor. Dr. Cornelius frowns, and lifts up the remote, one eyebrow rising high over his glasses. “Or, should we give you some magic back and see for ourselves?”

The glitch winces and curses quietly before muttering, “…y-yes… but only o-once… I- I didn’t think it would work but… i-it gave me enough e-energy to glitch home…”

The doctor nods and writes down some more, “Fascinating! It seems if you have some magic left in your system that magic can then translate pure electricity to match its own!”

He then looks over his notes to smile at Alt as the glitch’s vision dims and sways. “Well! Let’s pause for a bit, hm? Feel free to rest your eyes, Mr. Brennan~!”

————

Alt lays there on the floor for a bit, trying to get his brain to work. He needs to think of a way out of here! Because help wasn’t coming… there had to be some way… something these scientists hadn’t thought of.

He glances up to see Dr. Cornelius isn’t observing him. Guess he decided to take a break too. Maybe Alt can attempt to do something…

He listens to the room around him… and catches onto the buzzing of the lights above.

Alt still didn’t really get how his powers worked, he really only understood his glitching. But… if what the doctor was saying was true and he has electric magic… and his body could basically disappear for an instant when he glitched… could he glitch into something that had an electric current?

…if there was any time to try this it was now. He can’t let these lunatics turn him into a fucking lab rat. He grips his hands into fists, feeling his magic zap around him. Guess they gave some of it back… their mistake.

In a flash, Alt glitched out of his cuff and in a shock of blue-green electricity rocketed into one of the lights in the cell. The burst of energy was enough to shatter the light, making the other lights and the machines below flicker from the electricity lingering in the room.

God! This felt so weird- but… not too different from glitching. He was just- glitching for longer. Which means he couldn’t keep this up for long- not with how spent he was already. He needed to find a path out of here, and fast.

He let his magic feel out a path on the wires and started to follow it, making machines and lights glitch and flicker and burst. An alarm started to blare but Alt only pushed himself faster, faster, faster-!

Suddenly, everything went dark and it felt like Alt hit a wall. No no! They turned off the power! With nowhere else to go Alt was shot out of another light and onto the cold tile floor of what looked like a hallway.

He coughed and curled up, his body feeling like the wires he fired. His skin sparked, pixels sizzling off him in a confusing array.

Quiet clapping echoed down the hall before that awful laugh filled Alt’s ears again.

“Very impressive, Alt! You damn near almost reached the exit!” Dr. Cornelius praised. He then bends down by the trembling boy as Alt tries to scoot away, fear clear in his eyes.

Dr. Cornelius’s smile doesn’t waver as he lashes out and pulls Alt in close by his shirt. But his voice drops to a dangerous whisper as he leans in closer. “You’re not getting away from me that easily, glitch.”

Then, Alt felt another painful round of shocks set his body ablaze- until his vision dimmed once again to black.

————-

He was back in that tiny room. Was it still the same night he got captured…? It was hard to tell with how much he was dipping in and out of consciousness…

He groaned and sat up, rubbing at his head. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end, the air still feeling electric. Alt felt a shock of panic run up his spine as he felt something cold and smooth around his neck. Was this… a fucking shock collar?!

Alt’s body sparked with anger and as he saw that all too familiar silhouette in the window, he rushed at the glass, anger controlling his body. The doctor hardly flinches as he clicks something on that damned remote, sending Alt crashing to the floor, crying out and clawing at the collar as it shocks him.

Dr. Cornelius tsks in a disappointed manner. “What a temper… really, Alt? We shouldn’t be playing these games.”

Alt gritted his teeth ferally to snap at the doctor, “Y-You shouldn’t be collaring people like they’re animals, you sick fuck!”

“Maybe I wouldn’t have to if you didn’t behave like one.” Dr. Cornelius countered. Alt growled, eyes glowing with slight power. The doctor shook his head and then started to flip through his notes.

“Well, since you’re awake again, we can move onto the next test!”

“W-wait…!”

The doctor pauses and tilts his head at the glitch.

“I… I have a q-question,” Alt wheezes out. Dr. Cornelius raises his head, not used to hearing the glitch be anything but hostile towards him. Alt glares but continues. “You… you said before… that the… the magic circle should have found me… why… why didn’t you take me… to them?”

Alt heard vaguely of the magic circle from Mag. He said they were a bunch of foolish covens trying to govern their fellow magicians. Trying to put a cap on magic potential and capture any one who misuses magic. Alt thought they sounded almost like magical police... But he could hear the disdain plain in his mentor’s voice when talking about the circle.

That same disdain seemed to be present in the doctor as he pursed his lips and rolled his eyes.

“Pah! The magic circle…” He put down his notes as he paced slightly in front of Alt’s window again. Seemed to be a habit of his.

“They might be the magic authority here but their methods are medieval- all based in older traditions and the feel of it all. Barely any rhyme or reason- no desire to study and push limits- merge magic with what can make it even more useful! Make it accessible for everyone! Not just the special ‘elite’. They wouldn’t do a damn thing with you except slap you on the wrist and monitor you. Bloody waste if you asked me. They’d let any villain run around if they are ‘blessed’ like they are.” Dr. Cornelius growled. He stops to look down at Alt with burning eyes.

“They refuse to see magic as something that can harmonize with science! They refuse to see that magic can be bent to our level- that it can be understood at a level we humans know better than any other living thing! They’re blind… blind to the ways we can make magic better! How we can provide anyone… everyone with magic!”

Alt blinks and then laughs darkly. “God… you’re even crazier than Mag! I might be a novice… but even I know that magic s-shouldn’t be tampered with like this…! There’s a reason it’s not given to everyone…”

Dr. Cornelius matches his laugh and shakes his head. “Oh Alt… even without meeting the circle they’ve already corrupted your mind! You are as blind as them… but no matter! I’ll help you see your potential~ the potential of mixing science with magic!”

The doctor giggles and looks at Alt with those hungry eyes of his. “In fact~ this is such a great transition to our next test!”

He grabs his notes again and then gestures to something in Alt’s cell. Alt tiredly pushes himself up to look back- seeing a camera that seems to focus in on him. He shudders.

“That’s a WITNES camera- something SCLERA is developing to go public very soon! It’s a perfect merge of magic and tech… in fact- it’s been helping us to observe you better than ever, Alt!”

The doctor clicks on his remote and the right wall of Alt’s enclosure flashes to life, showing a wall full of text and data.

“Our WITNES camera can detect the fluctuations of magic within you- helping us see when you might glitch or go haywire~! They also have been monitoring your vitals so we don’t have to keep you hooked up to machines- and it can even monitor your emotions!”

“W-What? That’s… that’s insane!” Alt whispers, backing away from the wall with the camera. “You wanna just- give these to the public? That’s a crazy violation of privacy!”

Dr. Cornelius shrugs with a laugh, “Oh nowadays, this kind of stuff is hardly hidden anymore! And we offer the chance for our consumers to feel safe and protected!” He shakes his head, “But, enough of a pitch- our next test is gonna involve you interacting with our WITNES camera, Alt! We want to see how your magic merges with ours! If they’re compatible!”

Alt raises an eyebrow and looks back at the camera. He shivers as he sees the lens shrink and focus on him. That thing gives him a horrible feeling.

“… how’re you gonna do that? You can’t just… hook me up to it-“ Alt mutters.

The doctor chuckles, “Oh Alt, you misunderstand! We know now that you can glitch into tech- so that’s what you’re gonna do! See if you can glitch into the camera!”

The glitch shudders again and is about to bite out a retort when he stops and looks back. …this could be another chance to escape. If he can get past this thing he can try to follow the power source out again. But… they also must realize that’s what he’ll try to do. Is this a trap…? But… What can a camera do to him anyways?

Dr. Cornelius smirks. “I know what you’re thinking, Alt. And, I’ll make a deal with you!” Alt’s head snaps back to look at the doctor, his eyes wide. “If you can overpower our camera and get past it back into the power grid, well… that would be such an impressive sight I would consider letting you go~!”

Alt’s eyes widen more. He… seems overly confident in the camera. But, Alt was determined to get out of here. He could take a stupid camera! His eyes glowed bright as he glared at the doctor. “Alright… fine.”

Dr. Cornelius grins and the cuff on Alt’s leg snaps off, as well as the shock collar. Alt watches as the doctor shuts off the wall and other electronics, leaving only the camera powered on, it’s green light blinking at Alt. Alt gritted his teeth and then in a zip of green blue magic he glitched into its systems.

….

Something is wrong.

Diving into the camera feels nothing like going through the lights- it's harsher, feels like a strong pressure is pushing down on him at all angles. Like sharp needles sinking into his being. Alt tries to push through, tries to find a weakness, a kink in the system. But, the more he pushes the more this strange energy seems to push back.

Then, it overpowers him, swallowing him whole.

Alt crashes out of the camera and back onto the ground, shaking and spasming like crazy. Purple electricity crackles around his limbs as he shakily pushes himself up. As he looks out towards the doctor, his eyes are quickly filling with pulsing purple magic.

Dr. Cornelius grins manically, “Oh darn! I forgot to mention~ all SCLERA tech is powered by our patented Black magic core~! Something we perfected thanks to that lovely boss of yours!”

Alt whimpers, heaving in panic, even as anger flares wildly in his body. That fucking bitch tricked him! This feels wrong- it feels way worse than whatever came over him the night he was captured. It’s more invasive, the corruption digging into every weakness in his body and driving itself in. He bends over against the ground with a cry of pain as waves of magic crash against him, trying to overwhelm him. Trying to take over his magic, his mind-! He yells out and half crashes against the floor entirely, digging his head and nails into it, trying to fight whatever this is off.

All of sudden, he goes still, frozen like a statue as the purple magic completely fills his eyes. The monitor Dr. Cornelius is observing suddenly blares with alarms, the screen flashing. Alt’s black magic reading has reached dangerous, uncontrollable levels! Dr. Cornelius gasps and drops his clipboard, watching the testing room with wide eyes.

The tile beneath Alt suddenly cracks and splits, purple magic rippling across the floor. The debris floats up around him, suspended in glowing purple hues. Alt rises up like someone trapped in a dream, his head lulling limply on his shoulders. The magic crackles around him in a powerful display, bolts of electricity blasting tiles off the wall, destroying screens and equipment. Quietly, Alt starts to giggle and then fully bursts into crazed laughter, his veins darkening and glowing with purple power. As he laughs, he seems to bring up one of his hands to look at, gazing at it as if it was new. He stretches his fingers and then grins, laughing louder as the magic continues to zap and sizzle and destroy the room around him.

The sound of a squeaked shoe has the possessed glitch’s head snapping towards the noise. His eyes lock onto the terrified face of Dr. Cornelius, trying to back away from the window. Alt grins and in a flash is in front of the glass, pressing his hand against it. He tilts his head inhumanly at the doctor, his soulless eyes leaking magic like electric tears.

“Is this what you wanted, ̶̳̀D̷̯̏o̷̮̊ć̶͜t̶̗̕ỏ̶̯r̴̖͒?̵̟͝”̸̨̂ ̸̦̐ He giggles, gripping nails into the glass as electric bands of magic shoot out and crack against it, shattering it completely.

There’s a chorus of screams as the other SCLERA workers try to flee. Dr. Cornelius yells out as the glass explodes on him, cutting and slicing into his skin. He quickly looks around, then hightails it to his desk in the back corner, slipping on the glass as he runs. He quickly rummages through drawers, throwing contents and notes everywhere, muttering desperately, “C’mon! C’mon! I… I have to have that stupid thing somewhere!!”

Alt rises off the ground as the magic surrounds him. His body glitches and contorts as he giggles and slowly approaches the doctor.

“Oh D̴̙̀ṙ̸̠.̷̬͒ ̸̬̐C̶͚̈́ó̷̢r̵͇̈́ṋ̶͝ę̵͘l̷͈̋i̵̬̽u̷̖͛s̶͎͗~̵̺̓!̷̜̿ Where are you going? Didn’t you want to have some f̶͙̲̯͎͇̙̥̂̈́͋̿̂ȗ̷̗̊̽͑ͅṋ̴̄̉?̴̢̟̙͙͚̱̩̈́̀͑̈́͊͝?” Alt laughs, his voice sounding darker and racked with static. He barely sounds like himself.

Dr. Cornelius is sweating bullets as he looks through the drawer of objects they obtained from the magic circle. He then cries out in elation as he finds what he’s looking for, holding it out towards the approaching glitch.

It’s an amulet of some sort, a chunk of amethyst in the center. Alt seems to freeze, his eyes widening.

Cornelius grits his teeth. He hates having to resort to the methods the circle uses but… desperate times. Once they had Alt contained, they can figure out a better way to control this… a better, more scientific way.

He sighs and then starts to mutter a spell, one they haven't had to use since starting the WITNES project. Luckily, he still remembered the words.

“Creature of black magic, your minds, your purposes, your plans, do we cause you to bend! With my mind do I seize your minds, With my power, do I seize your power. Do ye with your thoughts follow my thought. I place your hearts in my control: Come ye, directing your way after my course!”

Alt lets out a choked exhale of breath, his body locking up against his will. The magic starts to recede and die down, but still crackles around his body and keeps him airborne.

Dr. Cornelius shoves the amulet forward and barks out, “Now, Cease!”

Alt crashes to his knees as the magic dissipates and drops him. His head falls forward, his pure purple eyes wide and blank. He looks like a broken doll as Dr. Cornelius cautiously makes his way over.

He kneels down by the boy and tilts up his chin, studying his eyes and the way the magic flickers within.

“Fascinating…” The doctor breathes, slowly regaining his smile. “Alt, can you hear me?”

“Yes…” The glitch answers breathlessly, his voice still having a slight echo.

“Are you going to listen to me now?”

“...we are subjected to your will, Sorcerer…” Alt replies, his eye twitching slightly but the rest of him remains slack.

Dr. Cornelius chuckles, shaking his head. “Excellent. Now… subject, did you find this host worthy? Were your energies able to converge well?”

The magic in Alt’s eyes crackles and glows brighter as he suddenly grins, giggling quietly. “This vessel was very easy to corrupt! The darkness smells strong on it… but it also swims in its blood. Its magic meshes well with ours- control of it was so easy~!” He giggles slightly louder, madness leaking into his words. But, his voice echoes and cracks, sounding completely different, like something else is speaking for him. “Its magic is so different from ours yet has so much potential! We can cause so much destruction with it! Corrupt many souls, raze cities and scorch the earth~!! Ha h̶̥̄a̸̹͑h̴̡̒a̵̗̽h̸̯̍a̵̩͗!̷̯̓!̸̡͌”

“Enough.” Dr. Cornelius snaps. The subject’s giggles cut off immediately as it looks out at the doctor with blank eyes again. “Your power only exists here thanks to us, you will follow our will and let us direct your purpose, understand?”

“...yes…” The subject breathes weakly. He shudders, a wave of nausea rolling over him, skin feeling too warm, sweat starting to drip down his forehead. His hands shake and he sways in the doctor’s grip.

Dr. Cornelius adjusts his glasses then commands Alt quietly. “Sleep, subject. Let’s see what use we can find for you…”

And Alt crumbles to the floor, once again falling back into darkness.

----------

Alt struggled to open up his eyes, bright light searing his vision. Then, he realized he recognized that light. It was the same one he woke up under when he was first brought here.

He tries to move his wrists, and finds he’s once again strapped down to a table. He holds back a whimper, his body feels incredibly weak and spent. The ordeal he went through with the camera had been plaguing his sleeping mind- the feeling of being controlled by that freaky magic… he didn’t want that to happen ever again!

He heard voices talking and quickly shuts his eyes, pretending to still be passed out.

He hears Dr. Cornelius, talking to another doctor.

“It took a lot of work but I think I found the perfect solution for VARIBL 11220! Letting the black magic of our machines corrupt his own is key… the display he showed was phenomenal! It could rival what we saw of VARIBL 1317! …but we need a way to control it. This device should infuse his magic with some of ours, and link his body to follow the orders of whoever powers the chip! We just need to make sure the magic has some sort of traceable signal so the artificial magic we’re working on should work! A much more elegant solution than using that amulet and spell... This can put him under our control in mere seconds~!”

Alt’s heart threatened to stop, his blood running cold. Are they planning on turning him into some sort of weapon? A puppet for them to use??

His eyes snap open and he immediately tries to thrash against his restraints, his eyes wild with panic. Dr. Cornelius was over his arm, looking like he was about to cut it open with a scalpel. He jumps back then tsks, looking annoyed.

“Fuck…! He just needed to stay asleep a bit longer!”

Alt bares his teeth ferally, pixels buzzing off him and electricity sparking around him in dangerous arcs. “I-I won’t become your puppet, Cornelius…! I refuse to be a-anyone’s puppet!”

Dr. Cornelius snarls and clicks on the remote, shocking Alt with increased intensity. Alt screams and screams, pulling against his bindings even as they seem to melt against his skin. The abuse keeps going until Alt slumps limply to the table, skin smoking and breath coming out in harsh ragged bursts.

“Hold him down,” Cornelius barks to his assistants. There’s seem to be some hesitation but soon two sets of hands are holding down Alt’s left arm. Alt chokes on a sob, shaking his head as he tries to keep from passing out again. “Please…! Please s-stop…!”

The mad doctor giggles as he picks up his scalpel again, going over to Alt’s side. He studies the boy then pets back his hair some, almost like a father would.

“You know Alt… you remind me of a subject I had so very long ago… one of my firsts actually!”

Alt screams as the scalpel cuts into his skin. The hands keep him from bucking against the restraints.

“She had the same kind of fire in her that you have… similar hair color and skin tone too. Then again- a very common combination!” He chuckles and digs in deeper. “She had similar powers to you too! Think her name was… Annie or something like that.”

Alt’s eyes flew open and widened. No- no he… he couldn’t have… could he…?

The thought is quickly thrusted from his mind as Dr. Cornelius seems to insert something in his arm. It feels foreign and wrong and Alt screams and screams, fighting with everything he has to get out- get it out!!!

It seems to latch onto something he can’t quite explain- but it’s agony and it hurts- it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!! Alt feels like something is grabbing hold of his magic within the pain. He sobs and arches his back to try to get away from the feeling. More hands push him down and keep him still.

He feels the doctor stitching up his skin as he cries, pleading with the doctor to stop, please stop!

Then, Alt seems to hear something new. It sounds like… magic. Searing magic blasting away at walls, screams of terror and… growls. Familiar growls- they sound like the panthers.

Alt feels delirious relieved tears flow from his eyes as he starts to laugh. The doctors seem to pause and start to look towards the noise that is only getting louder. Some start to let Alt go and back away, fear clear in their eyes.

The glitch makes sure to find Cornelius’s eyes as he grins, whispering to him. “You… you’re f-fucked…! You’re so fucked…!” He giggles wildly.

Dr. Cornelius’s eyes widen and he curses, trying to finish what he started.

Then the door to the operating room explodes with green and purple fire. Black masses start to tackle doctors left and right, causing chords of agony to echo throughout the room.

Magnificent emerges through the smoke, sweeping out an arm and glowing like an avenging Angel. Or perhaps, more like a devil. He bares his fangs at the doctor still looming over Alt.

“Release my Apprentice, Sclera scum!”

Dr. Cornelius tries not to show his fear as he lifts up his hands and steps away from Alt. “Well hello, Marvin! It’s been such a long time-!”

The doctor gets cut off as green magic surrounds his throat and lifts up upwards, choking him. Magnificent’s eyes are bright with angry fire as he spits out. “You do not get to say that name, Israh Cornelius! You and this fucking facility killed that man a long time ago!”

He grips his hand further, sick satisfaction burning in his stomach as he hears cracks- but then he hears the whimper of the boy behind them. Mag looks back to see his bleeding and burned apprentice and he pauses.

Then he growls and uses his magic to throw Israh hard against the wall. In a wave of magic he appears back over by Alt and sears off his restraints. He picks up the delirious boy and whistles, his panthers all looking up and then bounding over to his side.

Magnificent looks down coldly at Cornelius as he snarls, “Killing you right now is more than you deserve. And this place could be… useful to me. But know this, doctor, if you and this wretched company touch my apprentice again, I’ll make it look like an accident when I raze this place to the fucking ground.”

He then snaps and in a swirl of tv static, him, Alt and the panthers all disappear.

———

The trip to wherever they are now was a confusing mix of colors and voices that Alt hardly remembers. His vision dipped in and out of darkness as he felt himself be moved and looked over. But, this time it felt… different. It felt safe. Eventually he allowed himself to close his eyes and drift.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in a familiar room. One with white walls that had a bright stripe of yellow. Alt smiles faintly, recognizing the sight of Ollie’s office at the Doom clinic. He then hears the faint sound of shuffling and looks out towards the other side of the room.

His eyes widen as he sees Magnificent, sitting in the visitor’s chair. Except, he was in his civilian disguise. Alt had only seen it a few times but…

“M-Mag…?” Alt whispers, his voice raw and hoarse.

Mag seems to startle slightly then relaxes when he sees Alt. “Alt… you’re awake… that’s good.” A tiny head poked itself out from behind Mag’s leg and meowed, and Alt recognized the spotted nose of Lucky in her tinier cat form.

The glitch smiles dazedly at the sight of Lucky but then blinks several times at his mentor, as if he can hardly believe he’s there and not an illusion. “You… you saved… me?” He slurs out.

Magnificent snorts and turns his head, “Of course I did. I just… only wished I had found you sooner.”

“I… kinda thought you’d just… leave me to figure it out on my own.” Alt laughs slightly, “ Figured you’d… lecture me about how we have to look out for ourselves…”

The dark magician purses his lips and grips his hands into tight fists. “…if I hadn’t acted… you’d be a pawn in Sclera’s game. A plaything for them to abuse and use at their leisure.” His eyes darken, “I may be a villain… but I wouldn’t subject anyone to their cruelty. And especially not my apprentice…”

Alt stares at Magnificent, then can’t help but laugh breathily. “I guess… you really do care about me… huh?”

Mag seems to wince. “…it’s a new thing for me… I haven’t cared about anyone for a long time… I thought- I had lost the ability to.”

Alt nods to this, though he’s not quite sure he understands. How can someone lose the ability to care?

Then, all that happened to him crashes down on his mind, especially as he glimpses the bandages on his left arm. “Mag… they- they put s-something in me-!”

Magnificent raises a hand to stop him. “I already disabled it Alt. They can’t hurt you with it.”

“I… I can still feel it though-“

The magician shrugs, “The doctors here said they wanted to remove it but whatever sclera did… they weren’t sure they could do it without damaging your nerves…. They didn’t want you to lose the ability to use your arm.”

Alt swallows shakily and grips at his wrist.

Mag’s eyes glow slightly with determination. “But even if it’s there- I shut it off. I swear to you, Alt, they won’t be able to use it on you.”

Alt seems to relax, slumping against the bed with a relieved sigh. He pushes back his hair, staring up at the comforting yellow stripe.

The room is quiet for a beat before Magnificent speaks up. “…you should focus on resting, Alt. The doctors seem very fond of you, especially that one in the yellow… they’ll keep you safe.”

Alt sighs and nods.

The room falls back into semi-awkward silence. Then, a slightly wet nose is poking against Alt’s hand. He blinks down to see Lucky’s eyes blinking up at him. She seems to have a big bundle in her mouth that she nudges against his hand.

Alt struggles up and goes to grab it- and gasps as he sees it’s… it’s his bandana and his jacket. Dr. Cornelius took them away but-

“Lucky was very excited to have found those during our raid,” Magnificent says, smirking slightly. “She wouldn’t let them go.”

The glitch laughs and pets Lucky’s head. Then he quickly looks back up and grins at Mag. “Hey! You’re using my nicknames for them!”

Mag blinks and then messes with his hair, looking away. “Well… they are easier to tell apart that way… and your names do… seem to fit them well.”

The door to the room slides open, cutting off their conversation. The person coming in seems distracted with the clipboard he’s carrying. Then he looks up and breaks into a wide smile, hurrying over to Alt and giving him a huge hug.

“Alt! Oh thank god! You’re awake!” Oliver cries. Alt feels his face heat up slightly as he stiffens in the hug. He awkwardly pats Oliver’s back and laughs. “Y-Yeah dude- I’m okay!”

Oliver quickly lets go and seems to blush himself, waving his hands. “Ack! Sorry! That was… w-wildly unprofessional! It’s just- when Mr. Macaodha brought you in- you… you were in such horrible shape!”

At the sound of that surname Alt looks back at Mag and raises an eyebrow. The magician shrugs with a smirk.

Oliver lifts up his glasses, seeming to wipe at his eyes. He then smiles brightly at Alt, sighing out, “I’m just so glad you’re okay…”

Alt felt warmth surge through his chest. When he was captured by those bastards… they really made him think that he was all alone- that no one really cared for him, now that he wasn’t around his friends anymore.

But… that wasn’t true, was it? Even a villain like him… had people who cared about him.

Alt hid his face as he felt tears come to his eyes. When he changed the past… what would happen to the people he cares about now?

As Oliver checks over Alt’s vitals and asks him questions about his condition, Magnificent leans back to observe. Lucky loops back around to sit under Mag’s legs and he pets her head lightly.

His eyes lingered to the bandaged up arm on his apprentice. That device Sclera planted… he wasn’t going to let them take Alt.

But, perhaps… the thing could be of use to him down the road. Only as a last resort though. Mag smiled as he studied the boy. He had this cub wrapped tightly around his finger, his loyalty only getting stronger.

Not much longer now… once Alt was stronger, the real fun could begin~.