The Rivalry of Renegade X

by Chelsea M. Campbell

“Close enough, though.”

  “My mom’s not evil.”

  He raises an eyebrow at me, like he thinks I’m deluding myself. “She made you afraid of heights. On purpose. You said so yourself. Not to mention whatever she did to the device. You haven’t told me even one positive thing about her the whole time I’ve been here, despite trying to defend her all time for some reason. Maybe she’s not evil, but she’s nowhere near good, either. She’s the closest equivalent to the Mistress of Mayhem you have in your dimension, and you were raised by her, and that makes you the closest equivalent to the Red Demon.”

  I’m also the closest equivalent to him, but neither of us points that out.

  “So, you’re saying, what, that I think like him?” I make a face at that. Even if we don’t really get along, and even if he thinks I’m more villain than hero, he doesn’t really believe that, does he?

  “No. Maybe.” He shrugs. “I just don’t know why he’d come after me. I thought maybe your mom has some kind of ‘chase after all intruders even if they escape into other dimensions and kill them’ policy.”

  “She has more of a ‘don’t tip the delivery driver until you’ve checked that they brought all the sauces you asked for’ policy. So, no.” Not unless things have seriously changed since I moved out. I mean, more than I already know about, that is.

  He sighs, even though I’m not sure how knowing something like that would help him. It wouldn’t change the fact that Other Xavier’s trying to find him.

  “It’s too bad you ruined the League,” he says right as we reach the top of the stairs.

  I grit my teeth and pause on the landing, trying really hard not to let my lightning spark up. “Why? It doesn’t sound like they were any more useful in your dimension than they were in this one.”

  He snorts. “At least we’d have reinforcements.”

  “Sarah will get the device working.” Just maybe not actually by tomorrow.

  Other me frowns. “It’s only a matter of time before he figures out where we live.”

  I swallow, not wanting to think about that. “We’re fine tonight. We’ll figure out the rest tomorrow.” And by then, hopefully Sarah will have performed a miracle and we won’t have to worry about it.

  He gives me a long, questioning look, like he’s not so sure about that.

  Then I open the door to my room. It’s after ten o’clock and totally dark out, meaning my room is practically pitch black. I reach for the light switch as we both step inside, but before my hand makes contact with it, the ground disappears from beneath my feet.

  Except it’s not really the ground that’s moving—it’s me. My stomach lurches as I’m propelled upward. Other me cries out, and there’s a loud thump as we both hit the ceiling.

  The door slams shut and the light switches on, suddenly blinding me. My heart races as I wait for my vision to clear, both not wanting to look down and knowing I have to.

  Other Xavier’s standing beneath us, or at least I assume that’s him. He’s got short red hair and the same features as my half brother, except he’s older, more like our age, and instead of looking like he’s permanently about to break into a tantrum, he’s got a cold, calculating look on his face.

  Oh, and I’m betting he doesn’t still need to wear “big boy diapers” to bed, but that’s just a guess.

  Electricity prickles up and down my back, then crackles along my arms. My arms which, like the rest of me, are plastered against the ceiling. I try to move my hand, to aim at Xavier, but it doesn’t budge.

  Xavier’s eyebrows go up. “Well,” he says, “that takes the guesswork out of it. Now I don’t have to kill you both. It can just be for fun.”

  Hearing his voice? Super weird. He sounds like Xavier, only, at the same time, not at all like him. Older, obviously, but also not screechy and whiny and awful.

  “What are you doing here?!” other me shouts. “How did you even know where I was?”

  “What, you thought I didn’t know where my own brother lived?” He sneers and rolls his eyes.

  Other Damien gasps, then cringes, like he doesn’t like that idea any more than Xavier does. “She… she told you?”

  “I figured it out. There was a baby picture that wasn’t mine, even though she tried to say that it was. But it didn’t look anything like me. The hair was wrong, and so was the date written on the back. And if it was really of me, she wouldn’t have snatched it away and hidden it somewhere. Like that was going to stop me. It only took two glasses of wine for Grandma to spill everything.”

  Yep, that sounds like Grandma, alright.

  There are footsteps on the landing, and then the door starts to open.

  Xavier’s head turns toward it. He holds up a hand—keeping one pointed at us—and uses his power to slam it shut.

  “What the…?” Kat’s voice is muffled and confused. She knocks on the door. “Damien? It’s just me.”

  Xavier’s eyes go wide at the sound of her voice. He swallows, his hand slipping for just a second, and then he holds it up again, keeping the door shut at full force.

  “Kat!” I shout, hating how terrified I sound, though most of that’s from being stuck to the ceiling and not because I’m afraid of Xavier. Though he is the one keeping me stuck here, and he did threaten to kill us both, and I still can’t move my arm, and my lightning’s building up like crazy, on account of me freaking out, and I’m not sure how long I have until it explodes and I kill other me and set the house on fire. So, um, maybe it’s not just the heights thing.

  “Damien?!” Kat fumbles with the knob, then pounds on the door with both hands.

  Xavier stares at the door for a second before visibly tearing himself away. “I couldn’t believe it when I found out who you were,” he says. “How could someone like Son of Flash be related to me? I was kind of obsessed. I even watched an episode of that stupid show you’re on.”

  Other me licks his lips. “It’s not stupid.”

  Xavier scoffs. “I followed you for months, and you had no idea. You were a total sitting duck. And your whole sweet, sappy hero family, too. But you were also boring as hell. You were nothing like me. You weren’t even worthy of being my nemesis. Just a big disappointment all around.”

  Kat stops pounding on the door. She shapeshifts her hand and tries to slide it under the crack.

  Xavier notices, and then her hand stops, blocked by an invisible force. “You made me think you weren’t a threat,” he says, addressing Other Damien. “Then you broke into our house.”

  Electricity flows across me in waves. I can hear it crackling. So can other me, because his eyes keep darting toward me, his expression worried. I try to reign it in, to keep it in check, while still struggling against the gravity. I’ve managed to lift my hand away from the ceiling a tiny bit, but not nearly enough, and it’s a fight to keep it from getting pushed back down.

  “You were the threat,” Other Damien says. “Not me. You’re the one who broke into Sarah’s house and stole her invention!”

  Xavier makes a face. “You think I did that? Me, the Red Demon? That’s what underlings are for. And that device was wasted on her. It deserved to be in much more capable hands.”

  “You take that back!” Other me strains against the gravity holding us here, his face turning red, but it doesn’t do any good.

  Xavier lets out a little laugh of dismissal. “So you stole something of ours as revenge? Not a very heroic move. Not a smart one, either. The focal point. Hand it over.”

  “The what?”

  “You heard me. Give back what you stole, before I have to take it back.”

  “I don’t have—”

  Rage flashes across Xavier’s face. He throws both his arms out. There’s a split second where I feel his power cut out—where I feel like I’m going to fall—and then it hits us again, even harder this time. My hand slams back to the ceiling where it started. The furniture rattles and the room shakes, and I feel sick to my stomach.

  Xavier’s face is red. He�
�s panting, and sweat beads on his forehead.

  Kat throws herself against the door. It gives, just a little, and she does it again, harder this time. It swings partway open.

  Xavier whips toward her, using his power to slam it shut, a strained look on his face, like he’s having trouble keeping this up.

  And maybe he is, because when I try to move my hand again, it doesn’t feel nearly as impossible as it did before. I manage to peel it partway from the ceiling before he turns toward us again. Lightning surges through my veins as I struggle to keep my hand lifted as much as possible. It’s still not in a great position, and I’m not sure if I’m actually aimed right, but I’m out of time.

  I hardly even have to think about it before a blast of electricity shoots from my hand toward Xavier. Way too much.

  He jumps out of the way.

  Part of the floor explodes.

  The door flies open.

  Me and Other Damien drop from the ceiling.

  Correction—I drop from the ceiling. He uses his flying power to stop himself.

  I don’t think to use mine until I almost hit the floor.

  Kat darts into the room. I hear more footsteps on the stairs.

  Xavier glares at Other Damien. He holds up his hand, this time using his power to drag him down from the ceiling. At the same time, he takes out the portal device—his version, the one that still works—and pulls the trigger. Another portal opens up right as he grabs Other Damien.

  Then the two of them disappear, the portal closing shut behind them.

  Chapter 23

  THE HOLE IN THE floor is bad. So is the fact that Gordon, Helen, and Amelia are all crowded into my doorway, gaping at it, then at me, like they think I’ve completely lost my mind. Though that last part might not be because I exploded part of my room—again—but because I’m currently tearing what’s left of my room apart.

  “Damien,” Kat says, “what the hell just happened?!”

  “Exactly what it looked like.” I pull my dresser drawers out and turn them all upside down. Nothing. I get down on the floor and peer beneath the bed. It’s dark. I reach a hand under there, but I don’t feel anything.

  “Damien,” Gordon says, sounding more confused than angry, though not exactly not angry, either. “Why is there a hole in your floor?! And where is your— Where is Other Damien?”

  “Gone.”

  “I’m texting Zach,” Amelia says.

  Which is maybe actually helpful for once, though I’m not sure she actually knows enough of what happened to be properly reporting anything.

  “Gone?” Helen asks, exchanging a worried look with Gordon. “What does that mean?”

  “And that doesn’t explain this!” Gordon flails his arms at the hole. You can see straight down into their bedroom. “You could have killed someone!”

  I pause for just a second and look up at him, making eye contact, and then I go back to my search.

  “Other Xavier took Other Damien,” Kat explains. “Back to their dimension.”

  “We have to call the…” Gordon hesitates. I think maybe he was going to say League out of habit. “I need to call Ted. Get the group together or… or something.”

  “I have it handled,” I tell him, checking beneath my nightstand.

  He sighs in this frustrated, exasperated way. “Damien, you absolutely do not have it handled. There’s a hole in your room, Other Damien’s been taken, and you’re… I don’t even know what you’re doing!”

  I get up from the floor, ignoring him and addressing Amelia. “It’s in your room. Your treasure chest. He probably put it there.” Unless he was stupid enough to throw it away.

  She shakes her head. “There’s nothing in there. There was just the portal device, until you stole it.”

  Now that I think about it, I don’t remember seeing anything else in there, but I could have missed it.

  Alex joins the crowd of onlookers, cautiously peering past Helen and gasping when he sees the state of my room. “Whoa. What happened?”

  Helen grabs his shoulder before he can run over to inspect the hole in the floor.

  “Zach’s freaking out,” Amelia reports. “And Riley wants to talk to you.”

  “Kat, call Sarah and tell them what happened.”

  Amelia makes an annoyed sound. “I basically just did that!”

  Kat doesn’t move. “Damien, you’re acting crazy. What are you even looking for?”

  “The… the thing.” I make a useless motion with my hand that doesn’t even remotely convey what I’m thinking of.

  She folds her arms and raises an eyebrow at me.

  “It’s, like, this little crystal thing that was stuck in his stupid shoe for forever! That’s why he kept having to use mine.”

  “Damien—”

  “It’s what Xavier’s looking for. It has to be.” Because if it’s not, then I’ve got nothing. Not that it matters, because it’s not like we have a way to get to them either way. But one impossible problem at a time.

  “The rock that gives you a foot disease?” Alex asks.

  “An interdimensional foot disease, yeah.”

  “It doesn’t,” Amelia says. “Does it?”

  “I have it in my room,” Alex says. “Other Damien gave it to me. He said I could keep it.”

  “Sarah,” I say when me and Kat get to her house, “please tell me you got it working.”

  “I told you,” she says, “I’m not Other Sarah. Miracles aren’t in my wheelhouse.”

  “I know for a fact that that’s not true.”

  “It’s only been an hour,” Riley says.

  “Right,” Kat adds. “There’s miracles and then there’s miracles.”

  “I looked up how to make lattes,” Zach says.

  Sarah bites her lip, a determined look on her face. “I’m going to keep working. I won’t eat or sleep until I have it done. That’s probably what Other Sarah would do. That’s probably how she invented interdimensional travel.”

  I shake my head. “Other Sarah didn’t invent interdimensional travel. She had help.” I move through the living room and down the hall to Sarah’s room, where she’s got the portal device all taken apart and strewn across her bed along with her tools. I turn and see that everyone’s followed me in here. “How soon can you get that put back together?”

  “It doesn’t matter—it’s not done.” Sarah goes and sits down on the edge of her bed, finding the one spot free of tools and debris. “All I did the whole time you were gone was just stare at it. And that wasn’t even when there was a real emergency. Now Other Damien’s life depends on me being a genius like his Sarah, and I can’t think of anything.”

  Good, because that might make this next part easier. “You can’t compare yourself to her. You don’t know how long she was working on it.”

  “But I bet if she entered the Golden City Junior Inventors Competition, she wouldn’t have made a container that keeps your coffee at the optimal temperature.”

  “True. She definitely wouldn’t have.”

  Sarah sighs in this resigned, defeated sort of way.

  Riley scowls at me. “Seriously, X? How was that supposed to help?”

  “Because.” I clear my throat, looking around the room and addressing them all. “It’s my fault you made that thermos.”

  “It wasn’t a thermos,” Sarah mutters.

  “It was. A really high-tech one, but a thermos all the same. And Other Sarah wouldn’t have made it because Other Damien didn’t have lightning, and he didn’t accidentally zap her personality enhancer with it—which she probably didn’t even make, because he wasn’t being a jerk to everybody—and even if he had, he probably would have done something about it right away instead of… not. So Other Sarah didn’t end up trying to kill off a whole generation of supervillains.”

  Everybody sort of winces when I say that—Sarah most of all.

  “That wasn’t your fault,” Sarah says. “Not totally.”

  “But I think we can all agree
that if I was Other Damien, it wouldn’t have happened. And then you wouldn’t have been worried about keeping people safe or about inventing things that are too dangerous.”

  “But I wouldn’t have made all my friends at the retirement home, either.”

  “Yeah, well… that’s neither here nor there. My point is, the only reason you were playing it safe was because of all the stupid stuff I’ve done.”

  “Damien—” Kat starts.

  I hold up a hand. “It’s in the past. I’m just saying that if you’re going to compare yourself to Other Sarah, then you have to factor me into the equation. Maybe having a friend like me is the reason you think you’re coming up short.”

  Kat chews her lip and looks like she has something to say to that, but she keeps it to herself.

  “But,” I add, “I can offer you an advantage.”

  Sarah sits up a little and raises an eyebrow, although she looks kind of skeptical. “You’re going to zap it? Because I don’t think jump starting it is what it needs, and you might just fry the electronics.”

  “Other Sarah’s invention didn’t do anything until the Mistress of Mayhem stole it and made it work. We don’t have time to wait around for someone to steal the portal device and improve on it, but we don’t have to, because I, uh, have connections.”

  Sarah purses her lips.

  Riley glances between her and me. “You really think that’s a good idea? After what happened the first time?”

  “Yeah, I do. My mom got the device working once before. I don’t know what went wrong, but without her, it wouldn’t have gone off at all. She saw the insides of it—maybe she’ll know what to do. And she’s the one with the compound, the one that made it do anything in the first place. Either way, we’re running out of time. This is our best option to get it working now.”

  “And if we do?” Riley asks. “Then what?”

  I ignore him, not wanting to think about that yet. “Sarah?”

  “You’re right,” she says. “I had my chance, and I couldn’t do it.”

  “That’s not what this is. I know you could do this if you had more time. You could probably figure out a way to make it work that didn’t use chemistry at all.” There’s just no telling how long that would take. “Just like how I know you could have won that competition.”