The Rivalry of Renegade X

by Chelsea M. Campbell

  I grit my teeth and try to suppress the urge to kill him. “Wow. Rude much?” And he doesn’t have to sound so smug about it, either. It’s like the more villainous he thinks I am, the more he feels like he’s “safe” from it. Like it proves he’s better than me and didn’t get anything from Mom’s side of the family. “And the real reason we were late is because you didn’t want to bring the device.”

  “Can you blame me?”

  Kat sits down on Sarah’s bed. “Amelia told you you could trust us.”

  “And you’re not staying here,” I add. “You’re going back to your own world as soon as possible. So hand it over already.” I gesture for him to give it to Sarah.

  Other me takes a deep breath, his eyes searching Sarah’s face. Then, finally, he takes the portal device out of his pocket, or at least what’s left of it. It looks kind of like a small squirt gun, complete with a clear plastic cylinder on the end to hold the water. Except the cylinder’s broken—it looks like one of Mom’s lasers hit it head on—and there’s nothing left in it. Just a little bit of some green residue.

  I go and sit next to Kat on the bed.

  Sarah peers at the device. She picks up a similar-looking one off her desk and holds them both up, side-by-side. Hers is missing the cylinder at the end. She sighs. “I knew it. Your Sarah’s light years ahead of me. She’s using some kind of chemical compound in addition to the electronics.”

  “That wasn’t her,” Kat says. “It was Damien’s mom.”

  “The Mistress of Mayhem,” other me corrects her. “She stole it from us and did who-knows-what to it.”

  “She’s the one who fixed it,” I add.

  “She was?” Sarah’s forehead wrinkles. “So, it wasn’t your Sarah?”

  “No,” other me says. “She never got it working.”

  Sarah’s shoulders relax, a look of relief suddenly washing over her. Then she brightens. “Maybe I should major in chemistry instead of engineering or robotics. I wonder if I could fake having a V and enroll at Vilmore?”

  “No,” me and Kat both say at the same time.

  “Kidding! I was only joking. All of the schools I’m applying to have chemistry departments. I wouldn’t need to go to Vilmore. Though those schools probably don’t teach the same kinds of real-world applications.”

  “Criminal uses are the words I believe you’re looking for,” I tell her.

  Other me’s staring at Sarah like she’s an alien. “How could you even joke about that?”

  “About what?” Sarah adjusts her glasses, pushing them farther up the bridge of her nose. “Majoring in chemistry?”

  “Going to Vilmore. That’s—”

  The door suddenly opens, interrupting him, and Riley comes in.

  Sarah lights up when she sees him.

  Other Damien does not. In fact, I’d say he gets a really sour look on his face.

  “Your dad let me in,” Riley says. “Sorry I’m late. Did I miss anything?” He comes over and puts an arm around Sarah, hugging her close to him for a second and then kissing the side of her face.

  Other Damien looks like he’s going to throw up. He swallows and glances away, like he can’t stand the sight of them.

  “Hey,” Riley says to him, “you must be—”

  But Other Damien doesn’t even let him finish that sentence before turning and storming out of the room.

  Chapter 13

  I FIND OTHER ME in Sarah’s backyard. He’s leaning against the house and throwing a stick for Heraldo, Sarah’s Great Dane, who’s actually running to get it instead of just standing there, like he always does for me. And judging by the lack of muddy paw prints on his shirt—a.k.a. my shirt—Heraldo didn’t do his usual jumping-on-me routine. Er, I mean on him.

  And somehow Other Damien’s hands don’t look all slobbery, even when he takes the stick from Heraldo and throws it for him again.

  “Well?” I say when he doesn’t even acknowledge me. “What the hell was that about?!”

  “We’re not friends.”

  “Yeah, no kidding.” I don’t need him to tell me that.

  He sighs in a really annoyed way. “Not us. Me and Riley. We used to be, but we’re not anymore.”

  “And what? You didn’t like seeing him with Sarah? Because, news flash, he’s not your Riley. And she’s not your Sarah.”

  He winces at that. “I know. But it doesn’t mean I want to see him all over her. Ugh. I mean, he’s my best— He was my best friend. At least, I thought he was. Then I made the mistake of trusting him.” He scuffs his shoe into the ground, getting dirt all over it. Oh, did I say his shoe? I meant my shoe. One of the white ones that, while no longer at its best, still doesn’t need someone rubbing actual dirt on it.

  I think of all the times I’ve trusted Riley and all the times he’s had my back. “What happened?”

  He sucks in a breath and looks over at me, like this is something big and I’m the last person he wants to explain it to. “The three of us were trying to figure out how to get the portal device back after it was stolen. Me and Sarah were pretty sure the Mistress of Mayhem was behind it, but Riley wanted to know why.”

  “Why she was behind it?” I take the stick from Heraldo out of habit and immediately regret it, since now my hand is all wet and slimy.

  “Why we were so sure it was her.” Other me takes the stick and tosses it across the yard, and Heraldo goes bounding after it. “Or why we were assuming she’d used me somehow to get to Sarah.”

  “He didn’t know she’s your mom?”

  He shakes his head. “It’s a closely guarded secret. I’m sure as hell not going to go around telling everybody, and neither is she. I don’t know if the Red Demon even knows that we’re…” He trails off, not wanting to admit that they’re related, even though we both already know that they are. “I’m not like you. I don’t go around flaunting all the worst things about me. Stuff I’d rather keep buried.”

  “Seriously? I’m trying to help you here, and that’s what you have to say to me?” Not to mention his jabs about me taking too long on the stairs because I’m supposedly too villainous. It’s like he has no idea how close I am to murdering him.

  “Sarah knows the truth, and she still accepts me. Riley was my best friend. We’d been hanging out all year, and we did all our fieldwork missions together at Heroesworth. So when he was asking why we thought it had to be the Mistress of Mayhem and why she’d have some connection to Sarah through me, I figured it was time to tell him everything. He already knew I was half villain—I thought he could handle the rest. But I guess it was only okay for me to be half villain when it was, like, some hypothetical. Like, yeah, he knew that technically half my DNA came from a supervillain, but he didn’t know what that really meant. That the woman who gave birth to me was the most notorious villain in Golden City. Once he found out I had her blood running through me? He freaked. And we haven’t spoken since.”

  “When was that?”

  “About a week before I ended up here.”

  “That’s not that long. He might still come around.”

  He glares at me. Then he tosses the stick again, kind of hard this time, and it goes sailing over the fence. Heraldo chases it to the end of the yard, then barks a couple times before coming back over to us, his tail wagging expectantly for something else to fetch. “Riley looked at me like he didn’t even know me. Like I wasn’t the same person he’d been going on missions with for a year. He doesn’t get to ‘come around.’ He’s a letterist jerk, and I’m better off without him.”

  “Do you think they’re doing it right now in his dimension?” I pick up a fry from my plate and swirl it in ketchup before stuffing it in my mouth. Me and Kat are at the diner, alone, despite other me wanting to come along. But I refused to be seen anywhere in public with him, because the last thing I need is the media thinking I have a secret twin or something. Or, worse, jumping to the conclusion that interdimensional travel is a thing and making a big deal out of it. But I’m guessing they�
��d probably think it was that first one. Or that it’s just someone shapeshifted to look like me, which is a lot more likely than the rules of time and space being wrong or whatever.

  Anyway, other me agreed to stay home and play board games with Amelia—something he was actually looking forward to for some reason—but only if we brought him back a “Son of Flash” from the diner. Ugh.

  “No way,” Kat says. “Sarah wouldn’t do that. Neither would Riley.”

  “Yeah, but Riley’s different in his world. He’s apparently some letterist douchebag.”

  “Because he was never friends with you.”

  “He and other me have been BFFs all year. Well, just BFs, I guess.”

  “No, I mean you you. Because, I don’t know if you remember this, but our Riley was a little on the letterist side, too, when you first met him.”

  “It rings a bell.”

  “So Other Riley never met you, the version of you who’s not pretending he’s not half villain, and he never realized how dumb heroes are.” She takes a long drink from her chocolate peanut-butter milkshake. “All he has is other you, who, no offense, doesn’t have room to talk about anyone being letterist, what with the way he’s so anti-villain all the time.”

  “I know, right? And why would I be offended by that? He’s nothing like me.”

  “Well…” Her voice gets high-pitched and she tilts her head.

  “Kat. Do not finish that sentence. Me and him are completely different. We’re nothing alike.”

  “You look the same.”

  “We do not. He has a scar on his left arm from when he fell off his bike when he was twelve. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but he’s not as good looking as me.”

  “Funny, he’s just as full of himself.”

  I roll my eyes at her. “All I’m saying is Other Riley and Other Sarah might be falling in love right now. They might be bonding over Other Damien’s tragic disappearance at the hands of the Mistress of Mayhem as we speak. If he doesn’t hurry up and get back home, it might be too late.”

  “He’s only been gone a few days.”

  I shrug. “I’m just saying it’s a possibility. And if Other Riley has no problems with abandoning him as soon as he found out his mom was a notorious supervillain, maybe he’d have no problems getting with Other Sarah in his absence.”

  “That’s not happening. And can we focus on the real problem here?”

  “That you’ve been stealing my fries after you promised me you weren’t going to this time?”

  She sets down the half-eaten fry she was about to put in her mouth, as if that exonerates her in any way. “I’m a big deal in his dimension.”

  “Now who’s full of themselves?” I grin at her.

  She throws her half-eaten fry at me. “Other Damien told me. I was asking him about it before we left Sarah’s. He said in his world, I’m not just the heir to Wilson Enterprises, but I invented some new technology or something that made the company stock prices soar and had the superheroes all freaked out. I mean, those weren’t his words, but that’s basically what he was saying.”

  “You don’t invent stuff.”

  “But apparently the Kat in his world does.”

  “She also goes by Katherine. That’s not you.”

  She bites her lip. “She’s the perfect heir to my parents’ company that they obviously don’t have here. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be going so crazy over Rachel.”

  I slide her milkshake toward me and take a drink from it, and she steals another fry off my plate. “Why, Kat, I didn’t know the corporate world interested you so much.”

  “It doesn’t. But obviously it could. Right? I mean, if there’s some version of me in another dimension who invents new technology and actually wants to take over, then maybe I could, too.”

  “She’s also marrying Xavier, so I don’t know if she’s really the right person to base your life choices on.”

  “My dad didn’t even mention he was getting an intern or that there was a position available. Like he didn’t even consider me.”

  “Probably because he knew you’d be too busy.” I gesture to myself. “You were seriously going to give up this to work in an office all summer? I don’t think so.”

  “Shut up.” She rolls her eyes, but I see her grinning a little as she takes her milkshake back.

  “It’s kind of true, though. We spent all year apart. All we’ve been talking about for months is spending the summer together.”

  “I don’t know if I want to work there, but I want them to want me to work there, you know? I always assumed they’d want me to take over someday. It’s a family business, right?”

  “You can still own a bunch of stocks or something without running the place.”

  She scowls at that. “You don’t think I could do it?”

  “I don’t know why you’d want to do it. Maybe this is a case of your parents, like, actually getting you for once.”

  Chapter 14

  I’VE JUST SETTLED INTO my chair in the corner of Gordon’s studio Monday morning when I get a text from Sarah. It says, Just checked out a huge chemistry book from the library!

  I yawn, then write back, Any chance it’s called How to Reverse Engineer Any Compound in 10 Easy Steps?

  They didn’t have anything like that at the library, but I can check online. In the meantime, I’ve got over a thousand pages of beginning chemistry to get through, plus lab experiments.

  I can’t help noticing that 1,000 pages is a lot. And then you can reverse engineer it?

  Then I can check out volume two. But my library loan is only for three weeks, so I’d better get started.

  She says that like she won’t just be able to immediately check it out again, due to the lack of literally anyone else being interested. It’s also not lost on me that she thinks it’s going to take at least three weeks just to get through the first giant volume. And she didn’t say how many she’d need to get through before having any chance of figuring out what that residue in the portal device is.

  I imagine other me being stuck here for weeks—or months, more likely—and a cold feeling runs down my spine. He’s only been here for a couple days, and already everyone thinks he’s better than me. I do not need Gordon spending several months learning about all the good ol’ father-son crap other him and other me get up to in their stupid universe. I don’t need him getting any ideas or feeling all upset and regretful that the two of us don’t do those things and probably never will, as if it’s a bad thing. As if—

  “Hey!” I shout that as I notice other me walk past my chair. I almost didn’t realize it was him, because, for one thing, I had no idea he was here, and for another, he’s wearing a costume. A ridiculous costume that’s bright orange and yellow and even more garish than what Riley has to wear at the diner, though at least it’s not polyester. It, too, is complete with a red cape, just like the Crimson Flash’s, only smaller, since it only goes about halfway down his back. “What the hell are you doing here?” I ask when he turns around. “And what the hell are you doing here dressed like that?!”

  And it better not be the reason I think it is, or I’m seriously going to murder him.

  He wrinkles his eyebrows and glances down at himself, like he has no idea what I’m talking about. “Oh, this? This is my sidekick outfit. Well, it’s the only thing they had lying around that fit me, anyway. It’s not as cool as the one I have back home, but it’ll do, at least for today.”

  Yep, murder time. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” Lightning flickers up and down my spine, enough that there’s a slight crackling sound, but I don’t think he hears it.

  He flicks his cape over one shoulder really casually, like it’s a normal move for him. Douche. “I’m on my dad’s show back home all the time. We make a great team. So, I asked your dad if I could join him on his show, since you’re apparently not on it. He seemed really excited by the idea, so here I am. It’s a win-win.”

  “Uh, no, it’
s not. You can’t go on TV dressed like that. People will think you’re me! You shouldn’t even be here at the studio. We should never be in public together.”

  He scoffs and rolls his eyes at that. “It’s fine. I have a mask, okay?” He takes out a tiny black mask and puts it on. It just barely covers the area around his eyes, and literally anyone could still tell that it’s me.

  “No,” I tell him. “Go home.”

  He sighs, like I’m the one in the wrong here. “Nope, not going to happen. This is, like, one of my favorite things I get to do back home—a way I get to tell the whole city I’m a hero—and the idea of doing something even remotely familiar right now is…” He trails off, glancing up at me. “Look, your dad would be super disappointed if I just bailed on him.”

  “Trust me, he’ll get over it.”

  “I’m not doing that to him. Maybe that’s what you would do, but not me. Besides, this way you’ll get to be on TV without blowing anything up. You should really be thanking me.”

  My hands clench around the arms of the chair. I get to my feet and glare at him. “You don’t get to go on TV and pretend to be me.”

  “Like I wouldn’t be doing you a favor.” He shrugs. “What are you going to do about it? Zap me in front of everyone?” He gestures to all the people in the studio getting ready to film the show. “You really want to draw that kind of attention? You really want them to run over here and see that there’s two of us?”

  I suck in a deep breath, trying really, really hard not to zap him anyway. “Now I get why you and Amelia are friends,” I tell him through clenched teeth. “You’re the worst.”

  “Pretty sure that’s you.” He starts to walk off, all full of himself.

  I grab his cape. “Wait.”

  He turns around, scowling at me.

  “This isn’t over,” I tell him. “I meant it when I said you’re not going on TV as me.”

  Even if it means I have to do something I’m definitely going to regret.

  I meet up with Kat at the diner later, after my internship is over for the day, and conveniently don’t mention any of my morning exploits. I mean, she’ll find out about them soon enough. Unfortunately.