by P. S. Power
No one else even considered that as possible.
Ben settled, having waited for the ladies to first, and sitting last, while the people in their blue uniforms, the guards, all moved back. There were plates for them however. Even if they didn’t expect to be fed yet. Not on duty. Gwen, being from a different world, had no real qualms about breaking protocol however. Not when they had a guest from another reality, who also wasn’t going to care about things like that.
He looked at the King, and smiled.
“The one from earlier, and another one that’s been in my world. If I can find him. After that, we’ll need to plan out how to help the other worlds. Tor’s is the one that is the big threat. Have you met him yet, Gwen? I was at the big meeting, but… That hasn’t happened yet, for you, right? You told me that it had been months. You also didn’t mention me coming back, so… Probably best to keep that in mind. Anyway, as soon as we eat, I should start working. I promised to be back in time for dinner. Everyone will worry if I’m gone too long. My friends.”
The queen nodded, smiling then.
She was pale and had very clear skin, but was wearing enough makeup that it was hard to tell if that was real or not. Her eyes were a lovely blue. Her golden hair was in ringlets and she had a cute nose. Ferdinand looked to be in his thirties, but his new bride was younger than that. About Ben’s age.
“So, Mr. Epson, we didn’t get a chance to talk earlier. Are you wed?” No one else seemed shocked by that being the opening question. Not even her husband, though he did think it was cute of her to ask. Clearly planning to angle for Gwen, who she liked.
“No. I’m seeing someone. Mags? She’s…” Ben smiled and looked at Gwen. “Basically, she looks like you? Almost exactly, except that her eyes are darker. Her hair too, but it’s really close. Though you aren’t the same person. You, Gwen, are some of the others. Glenda, from my world. Zack, Hartley, Brian, and Tor. Heather here as well?” He glanced back at the woman, who was busily watching everything, including him. Searching everything for danger. Him most of all.
She nodded a bit however, and so did Gwen.
“That’s a lot to take in. To be honest, it left me feeling incredibly uncomfortable after I meet any of them. Except Heather. You’re easier that way for me. By far.” She smiled and started dishing up plates of food, which was held in individual containers, to keep the temperatures right. Making certain that the stuff for the others didn’t have any peppers on it. Or sauce. Just mild cheese sauce, chips and seasoned beef. His plate had jalapenos however, and the bottle of hot sauce was placed next to him, so he poured a good amount on his food, as everyone else stared at him. At first he thought it was his poor manners, but that wasn’t it.
It was that they were all tearing up from the scent of the hot sauce already, and feared that he was going to harm himself. Gwen took more than he did, and dug in, smiling.
“Oh, this is good. Thanks Ben.”
He nodded.
“Not a problem. I do know what you mean however. The rest of you seem fine, but I was shaking about having met other versions of me the last time. I think it’s some kind of dissonance. A psychological effect of the world being too different to really hold in your head? I’ll try to get out of here quickly, so you won’t have to deal with that too much, Ferdinand.” He stopped, and held up one finger. “And no, I’m not calling you King, or Sire. That would be too much for my poor little brain to take. Ferdy either. They don’t call you that, do they?” It was kind of horrible, but thankfully the King chuckled, seeming to mean it inside.
“Thankfully no. At least no one outside of my mother. I think we can work under those terms. I’ll be Ferdinand, and you’ll be Ben?”
“Right. Thank you. That would be hard, otherwise. Anyway, I’ll be as fast as I can. It could take a few months. If so, I can… I don’t know, go live off in the woods? The psychic pressure is going to get to me after a while. It’s… I’m a telepath, I mentioned that?”
The King nodded, his face calmer than his mind.
“We have them here. Most of them end up insane.” The man felt horrible saying that, but it was the simple truth, and Ben needed to be aware that it could happen to him as well.
He nodded, and smiled.
“Right. We can protect against that now, or, actually, I can. It’s one of my abilities. If I touch a psychic they go quiet until they get too far from me. I do it at the same time. So that part really helps. If you can get a break once a day or so for a few hours, people seem to hold together, pretty well. The pressure and pain of it builds up otherwise.”
Several people were interested in that part of things, and finally Gwen, having gotten through half her food, waved at one of the blue suited people. The attractive blonde woman.
“Beth? Why don’t you try it? If that’s not a problem?” Gwen glanced at the King, who nodded, but checked with Ben first, his attention going to the telepathic woman for the first time.
“Oh.” Then he blinked, and slowly started to nod. “I hadn’t seen that one coming. Um… Sorry, here. Just tap my hand?”
The lady did it smoothly, and with a single finger, which was about being appropriate, not to tell him he wasn’t good enough for her. Not that he was going to be sleeping with her. Quiet came then, so it at least worked for him. She had to go into a specific state though, to use her telepathy.
Which didn’t work, even though she tried for several minutes while he kept eating. Gwen seemed pleased by it.
“So, if we have a telepath that’s melting down, we can bring them to your world and have them stay with you for a bit?”
It sounded annoyingly like work, and an inconvenience to him, but he nodded. He would be helping anyone that came, he knew. That was probably his part in things. At least if he lived it would be.
“Right. I know you learn how to go to and from other worlds, I’ve seen you do it. I’ll show you where I live, so you can find me if you need?”
She nodded, and loaded a chip with cheese and hot sauce. The rest of them seemed to think they were on fire; from the way they were sucking down tumblers full of water. Even though the only thing they had with any spices in it was the mild beef.
Gwen smiled then, and looked at him closely.
“You said oh, and didn’t see something coming? I’m curious, is it something that you can share? Is Beth pregnant?” She looked at him closely, but something in her face was working a bit too hard not to smile.
Thinking back, Ben realized that it was simply the case, and that the woman had been trying to have healing done to reverse the sterilization that had been done to her when she was young. To help keep her enslaved to the kingdom. That had taken special permission, but the King liked her, it seemed.
The woman herself looked at him then, as if she was excited by the possibility, instead of ashamed that it might be mentioned in public. Everyone looked at him then, hard. Examining him.
“Yes. That wasn’t the issue though. It’s… She’s this world’s version of Felicia. She’s a spy back home, and doesn’t look that much like Beth. I think she might have had her face changed though. So I was caught off guard.”
Ferdinand was happy then, but didn’t speak about children.
“You run spies? Is that part of your work in other realms?” He waved around, as if suggesting they might be in one of those far off places, which was true, for Ben.
“Not that one. Felicia is there to spy on us. She’s nice, however.” Which was true enough.
That needed a long explanation, but as soon as he was done eating, the story told to these new people, minus the abuse from Micha, Ben stood up.
“Now, I promised to get out of here as soon as I could. Is there a place where I can sit for a while? I need to get at least a hundred and fifteen feet away from Bethany.”
Gwen stood too, and smiled.
“I’ll set that part up. This way, Ben. Near the back, below.”
That wasn’t an invitation to look at her behind, which he didn�
��t do, and couldn’t have seen anyway, with the heavy dress she had on at the moment. She didn’t exactly run away however, her best speed being about half his normal walking pace. That was due to the changes made to him, he thought.
As the null field snapped, he picked up a lot more about what she was thinking. A lot of it was about Bethany, who she loved, but was also a bit jealous of. Gwen felt like there would never really be anyone for her in life.
“There will be. Someone for you? I don’t think it will take that long either. If I weren’t already dating Mags, I’d get you to come back with me. Half of all people are men though, so that’s a lot to pick from. More than that if you like women, too.”
She didn’t even pretend to act like she didn’t understand him.
“It seems that way, but… I was different, in my world. Crippled. Deformed. That kind of set the pace for my life. Now I look different, but I’m always going to be me inside, and really, I don’t think that’s good enough, for anyone.”
That she thought of herself as a monster was a bit shocking, but Ben got to live part of her life, from when she was young. This was the second time it had happened, and skipped around a lot, but he understood it all. She’d been told so many times that she was bad and wrong that she’d started to believe it herself. Back when she was a child. Then her entire life for decades had backed that up.
“Don’t let it. Don’t let your past rule you. I was a fat kid whose father was murdered… And had to change. You were a good person who was brought to a different world, and stayed the same. I think you might be ahead of me that way. By a lot. Besides, you’re kind of good looking now, which has to help.”
She nodded, having heard similar things before. The part where it stuck, eventually, had to be up to her. No one would be able to do that bit for her.
Ben looked around, and took a deep breath then.
“Wish me luck? These alternate versions of ourselves have powers. They can bend time and call on hundreds of themselves to help them fight all at once. It’s nearly impossible to beat. I had to sneak up on Winston to get it done.”
He didn’t feel good about that, but a hand came out to touch him, which he stepped back from, smiling.
“Hey, you’ll turn my powers off if you touch me, which will defeat the purpose of coming out here.” He grinned, and shook his head. “Otherwise we could cuddle while no one is watching. Though Mags would be pissed at me when I get home. She reads minds, so it would be noticed. Not that I wouldn’t risk it for you.”
Gwen pulled her hand back, feeling normal about it, until she realized that the man wasn’t telling her she wasn’t good enough. Then she blushed. Even if he’d only been flirting with her a little.
“You can sit back here, out of the wind?”
“That will work. I don’t know how long this will take me. It could be… A while really. So if I show back up for another meal, don’t be shocked.”
Gwen smiled at him, and moved back, her face happy seeming.
“Well, Ben, if things don’t work out with your Mags, you should keep me in mind?”
That got him to nod. In a lot of ways Gwen was nearly perfect for him, after all.
“I will. Thanks. Like I said, former fat kid. It wasn’t that long ago either. So there haven’t been a lot of offers like that in my life.” None, from back then, but he didn’t say that. No one would really care after all.
Then he sat, moved to the tear in space, back in time, and watched the more muscled version of himself jump through it. Pulling his energy weapon out, Ben tried to follow, and was kind of shocked on the seventh attempt when it worked. He ended up directly behind the other version of himself, and shot him in the back, making a four inch hole that smoked, as the man fell. Then Ben hit him in the head with the thing, and looked around.
The place they’d gone to was very different than he would have expected. It was a simple wooded lot. The trees had no leaves on them, and in the distance he could see a few kids, wearing cold weather gear, looking at where the flash had come from. They didn’t approach him, but were trying to see through the trees, to where he was. Regular cars drove past, but there were people sitting with their hands on wheels like in old virts and VRs about the past. Standing there, he turned, and looked at the rip in space and time, using it to find home again.
There was a blue circle, floating in the air, being projected by the main holo-projection in the rec center. Home. This time there was no one else in the room when he entered it. It was a lot easier going this direction, toward where he belonged, but as he stood there, thinking, another version of him came into the room. Using the front door of the rec center.
The hair was all green, along with the eyes, and they both had on the same gray outfit.
Only, there was no orange sphere next to him. Thinking that got his inner-self to show up, shaking his head a bit.
“That one isn’t me, or a delusion. My guess is that the enemy you had the right idea and was trying to ambush us. Brilliant. Clearly he’s the smarter version of you. If that’s the case, I highly recommend that you don’t let him have any sort of advantage? Kill him.”
Ben blinked and then smiled, hugely. He addressed the other, real, version of him, not wasting time talking to himself. Only crazy people did that. At least in public.
“Well, that saves me a trip, doesn’t it? Just before we fight, you are the Ben that’s trying to save all reality, right? Not the good one trying to end it all? It wouldn’t be good for me to make a mistake like that.” It just popped out, as the other him smiled back.
“Of course. You are too?”
Ben went for the energy weapon at his back, since the other him was way too similar for him to play with. They even told the same horrible jokes, it seemed. The jerk was faster, too. Lines of red came out from the end of his weapon to Ben’s eyes, before he fired. It was just a gun though, not like what Ben had. That meant they were different, at least a bit.
He dodged, the bullets spreading out a lot more than they would have if he were shooting. It wasn’t that hard to get out of the way in time, the other him simply missing too often.
The evil, or at least wrong, version of himself stared for a second.
“Neat. Carlos had me working on hand to hand the whole time, which work wonderfully with the new abilities I was given. From my master.”
The other form started to blur then, and move toward him, the bullets all gone. Ben, for his part, ran. The other man tried to take a few steps to follow him, but then stopped, the multiples being placed back in their own worlds, or however that really worked. Not like that, Ben guessed.
At the door, he stopped though, and smiled.
“I worked with Ali. She taught me different things. Running away. That, and shooting. Unlike you, I don’t suck at that part.”
Then, feeling like he was killing himself for the second time that day, Ben did exactly that. Ending things rather finally.
The body on the floor vanished after a few seconds, wisping away in a cloud of dark smoke, leaving nothing behind but whatever video they had in the place, and the hole in the front wall. Why he’d vanished, Ben didn’t understand, which got the green haired version of himself to come out, rolling his eyes.
“Seriously? How do you even breathe? No, wait, I know that one. I do it for you.” The other version of him grinned then, and shrugged. “When you killed Mills, and that better built version of us, you were in their realities. If you died there, the body that vanished into smoke would have been yours. This time, it was different. He went home, most likely. Back where he came from.”
Then, as if it was enough, the other version of himself simply vanished. Leaving Ben alone. More or less.
Chapter twenty
The White House was pretty nice inside. About the same level of old and fine as King Ferdinand’s airship. Ben noticed it as he sat near the center of the large room, wondering if all their parties were as boring as that one was. The decorations were pretty, if a little t
raditional, showing a lot of golden angels, as well as a little manger scene over in the far corner.
So far he hadn’t even been introduced to anyone really. He just sat there on a nice red and gold sofa with a lot of exposed polished wood, trying not to fall asleep.
That was a good enough thing for the time being.
Not all of the Cymeds had been invited, but all the psychics had managed to get in, along with Glenda and Kyle. They were considered heroes, after all. The people that the public knew were responsible for the end of the terrorism.
Really, it was even true, though Ben still had nightmares about shooting himself over and over again. It had made sleeping difficult over the last week. Not that it had been all bad. During most of that time he’d actually managed to do normal people things, like shop for presents, and buy enough clothing that if he went anywhere, he wouldn’t have to wear pajamas all the time.
Not that he’d been traveling around.
Glenda had met with their Line Walker, who as it turned out, was him. Don. The man was apparently charming and funny, if not that great looking. That was how Glenda put it, possibly trying to be nice to him, and spare Ben’s feelings.
She was over talking to the First Lady, with Lenore. The President was across the large space, with Mags, and Clark. It seemed odd, but that meant Micha was free to slip onto the sofa, next to him. Patting his arm, since she’d gotten too far away, and had to shield herself for a few minutes.
“So, Ben the conquering hero. Or, hero, anyway. What are you planning to do next?”
It was the wrong place to ask about that, but he honestly had been thinking about it. Not that he was going to really answer her. It was clear to him that the political structure of the government wasn’t in charge of things. There were people behind the scenes that did that. So he was going to use his powers to infiltrate them, and if that didn’t work, then he’d simply kill them all. Though just getting them to not be jerks might also work. They had to have some kind of government, but they could do that and be freer than they were. It used to work and the world hadn’t ended or anything.