The Rivalry of Renegade X

by Chelsea M. Campbell

  “I don’t know. Think about how much you hate me. Because deep down you’re jealous that my life is so much better than yours.”

  He grits his teeth and looks pissed at me. “This isn’t going to work.”

  “I don’t have to prove anything to anybody, whereas you have your dad breathing down your neck, worrying that every little thing you do means you’re not hero enough.”

  “You do whatever you want, and everyone hates you for it.”

  “Not the people that matter.”

  “Your mom kicked you out because of it.”

  I clench my fists, anger flickering inside me. I’m supposed to be pissing him off, not the other way around. “Your Riley likes your girlfriend, and they hung out together the whole time you were gone. She called him up, and he came running. Was that to help find you or to comfort her?”

  He sucks in a breath, his nostrils flaring. “Shut up.”

  “The two of them are pretty happy together in my world. It probably wouldn’t take much for them to get together in this one, too. Like, say, bonding over the trauma of their best friend getting lightning power and secretly having been a villain all along the whole time they knew him? Which, in retrospect, they’ll say they always kind of suspected. And if you hadn’t made it back here, you know they would have ended up together. It’s just a question of how long before he made a move. Maybe he even thought about it while you were gone, but obviously Sarah wasn’t ready to—”

  “Shut up!” He lashes out and shoves me in the chest with both hands, making me stumble back a step. His face is red, and his jaw’s clenched, and he looks super pissed. But also hurt, like everything I just said hit a little too close to home. Like maybe he’d had those same thoughts.

  Which was the whole point, I guess, but suddenly I’m wondering if I went too far. Except that as mad as he looks, I don’t see any sparks. “It didn’t work.”

  “And why should it?”

  “Because earlier, when you were talking to Other Riley, you got pissed and went all electric.”

  “Yeah, and look what happened—he’s never going to talk to me again!” His voice is shaking, he sounds so mad. “You don’t get it, do you? I don’t want to have lightning.” He gestures to himself. “Lightning’s what’s ruining my life and making everyone hate me! It’s what’s going to keep ruining my life even after you go back home! Heroes don’t have lightning, and I have to be a hero. I have to. There’s no other choice for me.”

  “So you’d rather go fight Xavier unarmed.”

  “It doesn’t matter what I want, because I can’t do it! Those couple times that I used it, those were flukes. And every time I think about it, about what could have happened…” He makes a face that’s half disgust and half regret. “I can’t just call it up, and even if I could, I wouldn’t. Everyone’s going to think that was me in the video, but at least I know it wasn’t. I’m not the one who used a villain power.”

  “To save our lives!”

  “I can’t change what other people think of me. But I can still do what I know is right.”

  “You’re an idiot.” One who’s probably going to get himself, if not all of us, killed.

  “I can’t do it. It won’t work for me. Whatever happens tonight…” He takes a deep breath. “If I have to die, at least I’ll die knowing who I am.”

  Chapter 30

  “SO,” KAT SAYS, BITING into a piece of pepperoni pizza, “how are we going to do this? Because there’s no way he’s going alone.”

  The four of us are sitting around the dining table at Other Sarah’s house, while meanwhile Other Sarah and Other Damien are eating in the living room, presumably to be alone so they can talk, but every time I look over, they’re both completely silent and miserable-looking.

  “Of course not,” Riley says. “That would be crazy. Right, X?”

  “Right,” I agree. Especially since Other Damien apparently can’t use lightning because he hates it so much and would definitely be a sitting duck if he went to face Xavier on his own. I turn to Sarah, who’s sitting next to me. “Tell me you got something working.”

  “Well…” Sarah fidgets a little, poking at the bits of pepperoni on her plate that she picked off of her slice of pizza. I offered to eat them for her, but she said she still wanted them—she was just saving them for last. “I don’t know if it’ll actually work. Not knowing what we’re up against makes things complicated. And I only had enough time and supplies to make one.”

  “That’s okay. At least it’s something.” Though it’s not lost on me that that means there are six of us and only one device that may or may not protect someone from a psychopath with a crazy weapon. “What does it do?”

  She wipes her hands on her napkin and then pulls a tiny metal device out of her pocket. It’s smooth and round with only one tiny wire sticking out of it. There’s also a small hook on the back, presumably to attach it to something, and while there isn’t actually any duct tape on it, I do see what looks like duct tape residue along one side, like she tried to use some and then changed her mind.

  “I haven’t tested it,” she says. “So, there’s a good chance it won’t even work right.”

  “But if it does?”

  “It should emit a counter field that will protect the wearer from a blast from the portal device. But I based that on what I knew about the original. It’s not taking into account whatever modifications Xavier made to it.” She bites her lip. “Even if it does work, it probably won’t hold up for long. It’ll be good for one direct hit at the most. I know it’s not much, but—”

  “You did good. Thanks, Sarah.” I hold my hand out for it.

  She drops it in my palm.

  “We need a plan,” Kat says. “And it would help if we knew where we were going.”

  Other Damien still hasn’t told us where his “favorite place to hide” is. I look over at him as he gets up from the couch and heads down the hall, toward the bathroom. Other Sarah exhales once he’s out of sight, like maybe she’s relieved, which doesn’t exactly bode well for their future as a couple.

  “Wherever it is,” I say, “the more of us there are, the better. He can’t hold all of us. Not for very long, anyway. Especially if we stay spread out.”

  “That might work against his gravity,” Riley says, “but what about the device? Even if we don’t know what it does, we know we don’t want to get hit with it.”

  True. And also something I don’t really know the answer to. “I think our best bet is for me to blast him with my lightning the first chance I get. Perkins, you’ll be invisible. And Kat—”

  “I’ll shapeshift to look like Katherine. Maybe it’ll throw him off.”

  “Right.”

  Outside, Other Heraldo suddenly starts barking at something. I think for a second that maybe Xavier lied about meeting Other Damien somewhere and figured out where we were. But then I realize it’s his excited bark, like when he thinks someone’s about to throw a stick for him, not his intruder-alert bark.

  “We’re going to have to find a way to surround him,” Kat says. “And we’ll need to spread out, like Damien said, to try and keep him from focusing his power in one spot.”

  The three of them start discussing who should be where and if it’ll be worth it to bring rayguns, since Sarah only brought the one and Other Sarah has two spares, but they’re known to be faulty and may or may not result in loss of body parts.

  I get up from the table and go down the hall. The bathroom door’s open and the room’s empty, just like I expected. I move past it and head into Other Sarah’s room, where her window is open. There’s no screen in it. And I hate that I’m doing this, but I lift off the ground and half fly, half climb through it—a maneuver I do not enjoy—and then land in the yard.

  I find other me partway down the block. He hasn’t gotten far, and he’s kind of dragging his feet. Maybe because he’s possibly marching to his death and not exactly in a hurry to get there, but still. Any minute now someone insi
de’s going to realize he’s missing and come find him here. Kind of like I just did.

  Other Damien gives me a withering look when I catch up to him. “If you’re here to stop me, you should just turn back now.”

  “So, you’re, what? Going to go face him by yourself? Did you at least bring one of Other Sarah’s questionable rayguns?”

  He flinches a little when I say her name, or maybe it’s my imagination. “He said to come alone.”

  “He said for Son of Flash to come alone.” Not that that’s actually my name, but Xavier doesn’t know that. “Last I checked, that applied to both of us.”

  He rolls his eyes. “Only one of us has to die. You don’t have to do this.”

  “None of us has to die, as long as you don’t do anything stupid.” At least, I hope not. I’m actually not one hundred percent sure about that last statement, but it sounded good when I said it. “I get not wanting to put your friends in danger. But the more of us there are, the harder it’ll be for him to use his gravity.”

  Other Damien shakes his head. “Yeah, and maybe I’d agree with you, if he didn’t have the portal device. If he couldn’t use it to obliterate us.”

  I swallow. “We’ll figure something out.”

  “Everyone’s been in enough danger because of me as it is. Because I’m related to villains. And if you really believed we should all go, you would have turned back already. You would have gone back and told everyone I left.”

  “And if you really wanted to go alone, you would have flown off by now. So I guess we’re both idiots.”

  He flashes me a half smile, but it quickly disappears, like he was caught off guard by that but then remembered he hates me. Or maybe just that the situation sucks.

  “Your tag’s sticking out,” I tell him. Then I reach over and, pretending to fix it, hook the device Sarah gave me to the back of his T-shirt collar.

  He gives me a questioning look, like he thinks I’m a total weirdo now. “We’re probably both about to be killed, and that’s what you care about?”

  “Yeah, well, you don’t want to end up dead on the evening news with your tag sticking out. People finding out you have lightning is bad enough, but that would just be embarrassing.”

  “This is where you go to hide?” I stop and stare at the abandoned warehouse in front of us.

  “Not to hide. To be alone.” He shrugs. “It’s probably the last place anyone would look for me.”

  “So, you come here to get away from everyone. Where no one will be able to find you.”

  “Sometimes, yeah. Just when things get too…” He waves his hands around. “Overwhelming, I guess.”

  “That definitely sounds like hiding.”

  He scowls at me. “The Red Demon said he followed me around for a while. He must have seen me come here.”

  Probably several times at least. Otherwise, how would he know it was his official hiding spot? “When we go in there, I’ll blast him enough to take him out. Then you grab the portal device.” It sounds so simple when I say it like that.

  Other Damien’s not buying it, though. He gives me a really skeptical look. “You think it’s going to be that easy?”

  “Nope. But I’m not sure how else we’re supposed to fight him.”

  He bites his lip for a second. “And when it doesn’t work?”

  I don’t have an answer for that, so I ignore him, take a deep breath, and head into the warehouse. It’s pitch black inside. I hold up a hand and let lightning flicker across my skin, casting some light. The room’s pretty big, and I can’t see very far, so it’s hard to tell, but the place seems empty. I don’t hear anything, either. “Are you sure this is the right place?” I keep my voice at a whisper, even though I’m not sure anyone’s here, and even though my voice echoes throughout the whole warehouse anyway.

  “Of course it is,” he whispers back, trying to stick close to me and the light I’m casting while simultaneously staying as far away from my lightning as possible.

  “I just mean, are you sure you don’t have some other hiding place that he might have thought was your favorite but that was actually only, like, your second favorite? Because—”

  The word’s torn from my mouth as both of us are suddenly flung toward the ceiling. My heart races and my stomach drops. I imagine spikes protruding from the ceiling, waiting to skewer us. I imagine jagged, rusty bits of metal and who knows what else. Lightning sparks across my whole body. Every instinct in me is screaming to blast whoever’s doing this, but I can’t see him. I don’t know where he is. And if I start firing wildly, there’s a good chance I’ll just end up hitting other me. Besides the fact that I’d be wasting energy I’m probably going to need later.

  Assuming we don’t die right now.

  We slam into the ceiling—the thankfully flat ceiling—but other than getting the wind knocked out of me, I’m okay. Well, mostly, considering that I’m still freaking out and am now up pretty high and there’s nothing I can do about it.

  “Are you okay?” I ask once I can breathe again, forcing myself to open my eyes, which I instinctively squeezed shut. It’s still crazy dark in here, though the electricity that’s flowing over me in waves casts enough light that I can see Other Damien stuck to the ceiling not far from me.

  “I’m fine,” he says, though he sounds like he’s in pain. I can’t tell if that’s because he’s still trying to recover from the impact or if it’s from something else.

  Xavier laughs from somewhere below us in the darkness. Then he does a slow clap. “Wow. I can’t believe you actually came. And that you just walked right in like that. I didn’t think it was going to be this easy. Then again, you’ve been nothing but a disappointment from the moment I found out about you, so I guess it’s just par for the course.”

  “We have backup!” other me shouts. “You’d better watch out!”

  I stop myself from rolling my eyes at how stupid that sounds. And how clearly fake. It’s like he’s not even trying to sell it.

  Xavier scoffs, clearly not buying it. “Riiiight.”

  “You wanted us here, so just get it over with already!”

  “Dude.” I glare at other me, though I’m not sure he can see that in this dim lighting. “Shut up.” It’s bad enough that we’re trapped. He doesn’t have to goad Xavier into instantly killing us.

  “I wanted you here,” Xavier says. “But honestly, either one of you will do. Destroying one of you destroys you all, so.”

  A sick feeling squirms in my stomach. “What does that mean?”

  He laughs again. “I gave the portal device an upgrade. Instead of creating portals when you fire it, now it destroys whatever it hits. All instances, in all dimensions. All I have to do is shoot one of you, and every possible version of Son of Flash will just disappear. Good riddance.”

  Other me sucks in a breath. “That’s crazy! Why would you… You can’t hate me that much! You don’t even know me!”

  My hands are plastered to the ceiling along with the rest of me. I try to peel my fingers free, but they won’t budge.

  “I know enough,” Xavier says. “I followed you around. I saw what a worthless goody-goody you are! A disgusting hero.” He spits, or at least it sounds like he does. “Always doing your best, being on that stupid show. I couldn’t believe we were related. I couldn’t believe Mom regretted giving you up.”

  Other Damien swallows. His voice shakes. “You’re lying.”

  “Of course, because I like thinking about my Mom caring about someone as worthless as you. I like knowing that no matter what I did, I was never enough for her! She thinks I don’t know, but I heard her on the phone with Grandma. After I found the baby picture and she snatched it away and hid it somewhere. After Grandma told me the truth. Mom was crying into the phone, saying she’d always regretted it, that maybe she’d made a mistake. And I asked myself, what does he have that I don’t have? What could she possibly see in him?!”

  “So you followed me.”

  “I’d already
been following you. I already knew what she apparently didn’t—that you weren’t worthy of being part of our family. Which should have been obvious every time she ever saw you in the news. Just the fact that you’re on that stupid show should have clued her in! And the more I discovered about you, the more I saw how right I was. You’re nothing. You’re just some lame hero desperate for everyone to love you. And it seemed like every time I turned around, there you were, doing something to prove what a goody-goody loser you are! It was so obvious you weren’t like us. So how could she have still cared about you?! And then Katherine—” He stops, like he’s too angry to speak. But when he goes on again, he doesn’t sound pissed so much as just hurt. “My girlfriend—my fiancée—watches your show! Because she thinks you’re hot for some reason. She’s seen how stupid and ridiculous you are, and she still—” He takes a deep breath, then exhales. “The people closest to me can’t like you better than me. It’s not fair. You can’t just come here and take everything that’s mine!”

  “But I didn’t do anything!”

  “I know,” Xavier says. “That’s the worst part about it. You did it all without even trying. But when I’m done with you, there’ll be nothing left. No Damiens or Sons of Flash will be able to take anything from me ever again!”

  And suddenly we’re falling.

  Not just falling, because I see other me try to fly to catch himself, but it doesn’t work. We’re being pulled toward the ground.

  Both of us are screaming. Lightning crackles across my skin.

  Then just before we slam into the floor, we stop.

  “That would be too easy,” Xavier says. He’s not far from us now. I catch a glimpse of him in the glow from my lightning. Then he moves his hand, and we fall the rest of the way.

  It’s not far, but it’s enough that it catches me off guard.

  There’s a second where he’s not using his power on us, and I scramble to my feet, lightning surging into my hands.

  Then a weighted metal net comes flying at me. As soon as it touches my skin, my lightning fizzles out. The metal burns where it touches me, especially when I try to use my lightning. I struggle to get it off, but Xavier lifts his hand and sends me and the net flying toward the wall. My arm smacks into a piece of furniture on the way, and I cry out.