The Rivalry of Renegade X

by Chelsea M. Campbell

  They all just stare at me. Even Kat.

  Then other me says, “What the hell did you do?”

  And I have to say, I don’t completely appreciate his tone. Especially since he’s the one benefiting from this the most. Still, I pull the portal device out of my pocket. The newly fixed portal device. Mom redid the container on the end and filled it with the same green liquid as before—a concoction she happened to already have on hand, since it was something she made for an experiment involving splicing crops and farm animals together, which did not go well. Her words, not mine, so you know it must have been a total disaster. But anyway, the concoction was something she’d invented herself, so it was pretty suspicious that it had somehow gotten into Sarah’s invention. I just shrugged and said it came from another dimension, one where another version of her got the portal device working, but she gave me this really withering look and obviously didn’t believe me.

  “Et voila,” I say, holding up the portal device. “I got Mom to fix it. You can thank me later.”

  But instead of looking ecstatic that he finally gets to go home, other me sort of turns pale. And when he speaks, he sounds kind of numb. Pissed, but also numb. “I told you not to do that.”

  Riley shakes his head at me. “I can’t believe you.”

  “I was working on it,” Sarah adds. “I would have figured it out.”

  “Yeah,” I tell her, “but we didn’t really have time to wait.”

  “You mean you didn’t,” Riley snaps.

  I ignore him. “Who knows how long that would have taken?”

  “I don’t understand,” Amelia says. “What’s happening?”

  “Damien’s being an idiot,” Kat says.

  I jerk my thumb at Other Damien. “My evil twin’s going home.”

  He glares at me when I say that.

  Amelia’s eyes go wide. She gasps. “What?! No!”

  Zach’s eyes are wide, too, though I like to think he doesn’t look quite as devastated.

  “Come on,” I tell them. “You knew he had to leave eventually. He doesn’t belong here. You don’t belong here—tell them.”

  Other Damien’s got a deer-in-the-headlights look. His mouth sort of hangs open, and he doesn’t say anything.

  “School’s starting in less than three weeks, and he’s sure as hell not going to school with us. You don’t want him to fall behind in his classes, do you? Plus, like he said before, the Mistress of Mayhem and the Red Demon are planning something, and he has to get home so he can stop them or whatever.” I wave my hand.

  They’re all looking at me like I’ve lost my mind, even though I think I’ve made a pretty strong case for why this is a good thing.

  “You all knew he couldn’t stay here forever,” I remind them. “The device needed to be fixed now. So I took care of it.”

  Other me sucks in a breath. “How could you do this? How could you take that to the Mistress of Mayhem after everything I’ve told you?!”

  I make eye contact with him and don’t look away. “You were making a bad decision out of fear. Something had to be done, so I did it. It took her, like, five minutes to fix it.” Well, more like a couple of hours, but still.

  “But she’s a maniac! She’s diabolical! Giving this to her is the dictionary definition of letting it fall into the wrong hands!”

  “And yet here it is, back in mine.”

  He narrows his eyes at me. “That’s not very reassuring.”

  “She’s my mom. She’s not evil. And I was there the whole time.” Well, mostly. I did leave once to go to the bathroom, and again when the pizza she ordered showed up, since she said she couldn’t be expected to “clean up my mess” and make dinner. And I said since when did she make dinner, and she said since her little Xavier sweetiekins needed to grow up big and strong, and then at that point I tuned out, because blech. “She fixed the device, and you can be pissed at me all you want, because, yeah, I went behind your back and did something you didn’t want. But you also get to go home. Today. So it’s, like, whatever, I guess.”

  “Is this about what happened the other night?” Riley asks after pulling me aside from the others.

  I let him, even though I was about to grab the best slice of pizza from the box of pepperoni. Because, again, gracious host, I ordered pizza for everyone. On me. Well, on Kat, but I’m going to pay her back.

  I shrug and take a sip of the pop I’m holding. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Come on, X. You’re really that pissed that we’ve been hanging out?”

  “Am I mad that you replaced me with my douchey interdimensional twin and let him lead you down a dark path of endless volunteer work?”

  “It’s not a dark path.”

  “It’s not a good path.”

  He rolls his eyes. “You’re the only person who would say that.”

  “It’s not. Not for you, not right now.”

  “Because you know everything.” He scoffs. “You get me fired, you don’t have any intentions of apologizing, and then when I try to hang out with someone else, you go behind all our backs so you can get rid of him.”

  “You make it sound like sending him home is a bad thing. Wasn’t that our goal?” And he started hanging out with him before he knew I wasn’t going to apologize. Just pointing that out.

  “This is about you being jealous of him. Admit it.”

  “Only if you admit I was right.”

  “About what?”

  “That you’re better off without your crappy job at the diner.”

  He takes a deep breath. “Well… I don’t miss getting yelled at by my managers. Or having to deal with all the rude customers. Or the kids who used to step on my cape on purpose. And there’s plenty of volunteer stuff to do, and they actually need everyone they can get, so—”

  “You know that’s not what I meant.”

  “What do you want me to say, X? That now that you’ve freed me from the shackles of my paid employment, I’m so much happier doing nothing and realize the errors of my ways?”

  “Yeah, except you’re not doing nothing. You were supposed to realize that you didn’t stop existing just because you stopped being the responsible one. But you would have had to actually put all that on pause first to realize that, and you didn’t.”

  “You know, being jealous isn’t a good reason to send someone to another dimension.”

  “Yeah, but him being from another dimension is. Just because you’re BFFs with him now doesn’t mean he gets to stay here.”

  The party lasts well into the evening, though it’s still light out when we go outside to Sarah’s backyard, to give other me his final send off. Which, uh, sounds kind of morbid, but you know what I mean. But the party’s been going for hours, which is plenty of time for everyone to reminisce about the whole week and a half that they’ve known him and say their good-byes, and yet everyone’s still stalling, trying to come up with excuses why it’s not time for him to leave yet.

  Even Kat said we had to at least have ice cream first, even though we already had cake. And since there was only half a carton of vanilla in Sarah’s freezer, we had to send her dad to the store to get more. Except everybody wanted different flavors, and it took us half an hour to do a vote and decide on one carton of chocolate and one carton of mint chocolate chip. And then Amelia was so butthurt that she wasn’t getting strawberry like she wanted—even though it’s not even her favorite flavor—that she locked herself in the bathroom and sent me angry texts until Sarah’s dad got back with the ice cream, and then she somehow found it in herself to leave the bathroom and rejoin the world.

  And now everyone’s finally run out of reasons why we should delay this, other than straight up admitting that they don’t want him to go. But I think we’re all in agreement that no matter what any of us actually wants, this is for the best, because it’s not like he could stay here indefinitely. Besides, he’s got versions of most of us back home who are probably crazy worried about him. I mean, th
e last thing they knew was he broke into the Mistress of Mayhem’s house and was never seen again. I bet even Other Riley’s concerned about him, despite them not being on the best of terms.

  “Are you going to miss him?” Kat asks as we stand in Sarah’s backyard. Everyone else is busy taking turns hugging other me and saying their good-byes, even though they literally had hours to do that already. But the way they’re all acting, like they’ll never see their best friend again, you’d think it was me who was leaving. Not some crappy version of me they’ve known for less than two weeks.

  I raise an eyebrow at her. “Are you?”

  She half shrugs. “A little. I still have questions about Katherine that I was going to ask him.”

  “That’s why you’ll miss him?”

  “No.” She shakes her head. “He’s…”

  “If you’re going to say he’s easy on the eyes again, one, he’s not, and two, that’s a pretty shallow reason to miss him.”

  “There’s just something about him. I don’t know how to put my finger on it. He’s like you, only…”

  “Choose your next words very carefully, Kat. Because I will tickle you mercilessly until you laugh so hard you start snorting.”

  She smacks my arm. “He’s sweet. Like a little baby deer learning to walk. Well, once you get past how letterist and anti-villain he is. The boy’s got issues, but—” She stops in mid sentence and clears her throat as other me comes up to her.

  “Hey,” he says to Kat, completely ignoring me. “I just… I wanted to say…”

  Kat shoots him a warm smile and then throws her arms around him. She actually hugs him tight, like she really is going to miss him.

  He jerks away from her, totally startled by her embrace. “Whoa.” He holds up his hands and takes a step back. “I was just going to say I forgive you for sticking your hands down my pants.”

  Zach gasps at that, and Riley goes, “What?”

  “Um.” Kat’s face turns red. “Oh, my God. I thought you wanted…”

  “You thought I wanted you to touch me more?!”

  She cringes and puts her hands to her face. “I’m such an idiot.”

  I roll my eyes at other me. “This better not be a supervillain thing.”

  “What?” he squeaks. “No! I just… wasn’t expecting that.” He looks at Kat again, his expression softening. “I didn’t just want to say I forgive you. I… I’m going to miss you, too. I’m pretty sure there’s no one like you in my world.” He holds his arms out to hug her, tentatively, but like he really means it.

  Kat hugs him again, squeezing him even tighter this time.

  And even though he whispers it in her ear, I totally hear him say, “You could do so much better.”

  She laughs, like she thinks he’s joking, even though I’m one hundred percent sure that he’s not. And when they break apart, she swipes her hand across her eyes, like she’s trying to hold back tears.

  “You barely know him,” I mutter, once other me is out of earshot.

  “I know,” she says, “but I can’t help it, Damien. It feels like I’m saying good-bye to you.”

  I reach out and squeeze her hand. I try not to think about how school’s starting up in sixteen more days and how then we’ll be the ones saying good-bye.

  Other me takes a deep breath and then marches into the middle of the yard.

  I can hear Heraldo barking from inside the house. He scratched at the back door all afternoon, only to be let in as soon as we were all leaving.

  I follow other me and take out the portal device. Pretty sure I can hear Amelia actually crying behind me, but I try to ignore it. This isn’t a bad thing, right? I mean, like I said, it’s not like he can stay here indefinitely. He has family and friends back home who are waiting for him. Just because getting him out of here sooner happens to work out better for me doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

  “Well.” Other me swallows. “I guess it’s time.”

  “What, you don’t have any heartfelt good-byes for me?”

  His eyebrows come together. “You’re basically the worst. A cautionary tale of just how wrong I could have turned out if things had gone differently.”

  “Same to you.”

  “But somehow, despite all that, and despite how horrible you are to them… you have great friends.”

  “So, what, I can’t be all bad?”

  “So,” he says, letting out a deep breath, “maybe you should try to be less awful to them.”

  “And you should try not being such a hero douche all the time.”

  He shakes his head at that, like that’s definitely not happening. Then there’s this awkward moment where he looks like maybe he’s going to try and hug me, and I’m not sure if I’m going to let him, but then he changes his mind and sticks his hand out instead.

  I hesitate, because I’m not sure if we’re really at this level yet, either, but then I just suck it up and shake with him. Afterward, we each take a step back.

  I hold up the device. “You ready?”

  He flinches. “You sure that thing’s going to work? It’s not going to turn out to be a raygun and kill me or anything?”

  “I’m not firing it at you. And yeah, I’m sure.” I aim the portal device at an empty spot in the yard and push the button.

  Heat floods through the device, making it almost uncomfortable to hold. It makes a crackling sound as a bright beam of energy blasts from it, and then an actual portal opens up. A big circle of swirling light. And even though I said this thing would work, it’s still a shock to see, like, an actual doorway to another dimension appear before my eyes.

  “Holy crap,” Zach breathes.

  Something changes on Other Damien’s face. All the tension and mistrust melts into relief and maybe actual happiness. It’s an expression I haven’t seen him make the whole time he was here—not even when he was tormenting me, which was obviously one of his favorite things to do. Sudden tears flood his eyes, and with one quick glance over his shoulder at us, he steps through the portal—

  —a split-second too late.

  The device makes a fizzling sound, and the portal suddenly disappears. It was there for a moment, and then, just like that, it was gone.

  Other me stumbles on the ground, still here, in Sarah’s backyard. He looks around, like he’s not sure what just happened. Like he can’t believe that just happened. “What…?”

  Uh-oh. I press the button on the device again, aiming it at another part of the yard, but nothing happens. I try smacking it a few times, but still nothing, and when I shake it, there’s a rattling sound inside, like something came loose.

  “It didn’t work,” Other Damien says. He stares at the spot in the air where the portal was, then looks up at me, his face filling with rage. “I told you not to take it to her!”

  I hold my hands up. “It did work! You saw it!”

  “I was supposed to go home! I told you not to take it to her, I told you she couldn’t be trusted, but of course you didn’t listen! Just like you never listen to anyone!” He lunges at me.

  I dodge out of the way. “I don’t know what happened! But we can get it fixed. Mom can look at it again and figure out what went wrong!”

  He screams as he tries to attack me again, only this time instead of dodging, I turn all electric. Not before dropping the device, though, in case I break it even more than it already is. Lightning surges across my skin—more than I meant it to—because I’m kind of full of adrenaline right now. And either other me doesn’t have time to stop his attack, or he’s too pissed at me to care, because his hands make contact, shoving me back a step, even though it means he gets zapped. There’s a crackling sound, and he cries out in pain.

  “Damien!” Kat shouts, but I’m not sure if she’s worried about me or trying to tell me not to kill him.

  “I can’t go home now because of you!” other me screams. “I’m going to be stuck here forever!” He clenches his fists, like maybe he’s going to hit me, despite getting zapped just n
ow. And then I see it. Just a flicker of light on his arm. A spark.

  I hold up my hand. “Listen, we can figure this out, just—”

  “Why should I listen to you?! You’re the reason I’m going to be stuck in this horrible dimension where no matter what I do, everyone’s always going to think I’m a villain!”

  His face is red with anger. His whole body’s shaking with it. Electricity surges over him. A lot of electricity. Everyone gasps, but I’m not sure if he realizes it’s there at first. And then he catches a glimpse of the sparks covering him, and his expression changes to horror.

  He stares at his palms like he’s on fire. Like this must be happening to somebody else, because it couldn’t possibly be happening to him.

  “It’s okay,” I tell him. “It’s just a little—”

  He holds up a hand, a look of pure panic in his eyes, like maybe he’s reaching out to me for help. Or maybe trying to fry me to a crisp, except he looks surprised when a giant wave of electricity blasts from his palm.

  If he was aiming for me, he misses by about a foot. Without thinking, I dive in front of the blast. It’s a lot of electricity—more than enough to blast a hole in, say, the ceiling of a school gym—but other than a tingling feeling that spreads across my body as I absorb it, it doesn’t actually hurt or anything. Even though it probably would have killed me if I hadn’t had my lightning on. Or if I was, you know, a normal person.

  “It’s just a little electricity,” I finish.

  Other Damien’s staring past me. His face is pale and his lightning’s gone, but he looks like he’s going to be sick.

  I turn and see Sarah standing behind me, her eyes wide.

  And it’s not lost on me that if I hadn’t gotten in the way, she’d be toast. Not to mention there’d be a giant hole in the house behind her, though that sort of pales in comparison.

  “I didn’t…” Other Damien’s voice gets tight. He holds his hands away from himself, staring at them, like they’re not part of his body and he can’t understand how they got there. “Sarah, I would never…” But he can’t bring himself to finish that sentence. He glances around, seeing everyone gaping at him—well, everyone except me—and then he swallows, takes a step back, and leaps into the air, flying off at top speed.