#ordinary human

You know, I tried everything to convince Mom not to erase their memories. It seemed like everyone was on my side, but her. I knew that the other version of me and my brothers needed to remember seeing their mom for the first time in years, but Mom only talked about how it would affect their timeline. After hours of talking to her, trying to convince her to let them keep their memories, we reached an impasse. Finally, after Royce and Miles joined my cause, she relented and allowed them to keep their memories, but only in the form of a dream. That night, I opened a portal to the other world for her and found a way to move it through the cabin to each person’s bedroom, watching as she altered everyone’s memories of the day we had just lived through. She even went through the trouble of putting a spell over the other Bentley’s arms so he wouldn’t see the suns on them.

“Was anybody else here?” Mom asked as she finished changing Royce’s memories.

I thought for a moment - we had gotten all three brothers, Mick, Butchy, Lela, and Mick’s parents. The only person left was Vivien, but she wasn’t in the cabin. Hoping that maybe, just maybe, she would be able to bring back their memories, I said, “No, that was everyone.”

“Good,” Mom told me as I moved the portal out of Royce and the other Bentley’s room and into the hallway. “We don’t want any loose ends. It could cause another branch to form.”

I nodded and, slowly, but surely, I closed the portal. Then, I just needed to wait and see what would happen. The next day, my brothers and Butchy all petitioned for me to be put on light duty for a few days which Mom agreed with pretty quickly as she wanted me to rest after everything that had happened. Much to their surprise, I didn’t put up any fight. I was fine with being confined to the apartment; that gave me more time to spy on the other timeline while they were all busy doing their usual stuff. I waited until Mom left for her first meeting of the day before sneaking into her office and watching the timeline play out. It wasn’t like she ever locked the office anyway; she left it open in case we needed her or if anybody needed to get something from there for her. I sat at her desk and watched as the other version of me went about his day.

----------

When I went downstairs for breakfast that morning, Royce and I were talking about the weirdly realistic dream I’d had. I guess he’d had a crazy dream too, but his dream was one where I could fly and open portals to other worlds. We sat down at the kitchen table while Butchy and Miles made breakfast, the two of them talking about something we couldn’t hear. As Royce and I talked, Mickie and Lela came downstairs, laughing about something to do with disco balls and giant waves.

“Hey, Bentley,” Butchy began, “can you grab the other pack of sausages from the freezer in the pantry and put them in the sink for us so they can thaw out a bit?”

“Sure,” I said, pushing my chair out and heading for the pantry, pulling open the lid of the chest freezer. On top of where the sausages and other frozen breakfast foods usually were, sat a bag with the word “Toscanini’s” on it. For some reason, that name sounded familiar, but I just couldn’t place why or how I would know it. I looked inside the bag, finding a handful of lidded ice cream cups and some plastic spoons sitting at the bottom of the bag. With a shrug, I decided I would look up the place later and moved the plastic bag, grabbing the pack of sausages and closing the freezer. I made my way back to the kitchen and tossed the sausages under the faucet, turning the hot water on to thaw them faster. By the time I sat down, Royce was busy talking with Uncle Brady and Aunt Mack, so I pulled out my phone and opened the search bar, tapping in the name of the place. The very first result was an ice cream shop in Boston. 

“Boston?” I mumbled to myself.

“What did you say, Ben?” Lela asked from across from me.

I quickly looked up and smiled, “Oh, I was just looking at this ice cream place in Boston. There was an ad for it on my phone.”

“Oh, cool! You’ll have to show me later,” she said before getting dragged back into her conversation.

I looked through the menu of ice creams before clicking my phone back off and tucking it into the pocket of my hoodie. Maybe Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady had gone down there last night to surprise us with ice cream today. As Butchy and Miles started plating up some of the food, my focus was brought back to my conversation with Royce. I’d have to think about it some other time.

----------

When I knew Mom was due back to the apartment for lunch, I left her office and made my way to the living room. I kept myself busy by watching TV for a while until Miles and Royce joined me after they got done with training.  As soon as she left to monitor some of the group training sessions with Butchy and my brothers left to do a briefing on last night’s attack, I went back to spying again. Just as I sat back in the chair at my mom’s desk, the other universe’s Vivien came into the house with a bag on her arm and a smile on her face. 

“Hello, Birch family!” she called as the front door closed behind her. She tossed her bag onto the floor by the door and headed over to where the other me and Royce were sitting, playing cards. “So,” she began, placing her hands on Bentley’s shoulders from behind him, “how’s it going there, super-dork? I bet you’re glad to be back.”

Oh, shit. That was quick. Was she always this forward with stuff? 

“What are you talking about?” the other Bentley asked with a confused grin. “I never left.”

“Uh, did you hit your head or something?” she joked. “I distinctly remember seeing you fly around the living room and disappear into a portal yesterday.” Seeing she was getting nowhere, Vivien looked to Royce and said, “Oh, come on, Royce, help me out here!”

Royce looked up at her with the same confused look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about either.”

Vivien looked between the two of them before nervously claiming, “What is this, an episode of Punk’d? Is Ashton Kutcher going to jump out from behind the couch or something?”

“Who’s Ashton Kutcher?” the other me asked.

Vivien’s gaze flicked between the two before shaking her head and plastering a fake smile on her face. “Nevermind,” she said as she sat between the brothers on the floor, “I was just teasing you guys. Deal me into the next match when you’re done?”

Neither of the pair appeared to buy her story, but they didn’t argue with her on it. Instead, they shrugged to each other and went back to their blackjack game, dealing Vivien a hand of cards once the round was over. “Oh boy,” I huffed to myself as I watched the day progress. “This might be a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

----------

A few days went by and I finally dug the ice cream out of the freezer and had a dish of it. It was good ice cream and I decided, once again, to look up the place where the ice cream was from. “Hey, Viv,” I started when I joined her and Royce at the picnic table on the back porch, “have you ever been to Boston?”

“Of course,” she answered with a smile. “Our school takes us every few years. Actually, we’re going on the last day of school this year.”

“You get out on the twenty-fourth, right?” Royce asked.

Viv nodded. “Yeah.”

“I wish we could go with you,” I sighed, taking in a spoonful of my ice cream. “I’ve never been to Boston.”

“Me neither,” Royce added. “I want to check out Harvard. It’s in the area, right?”

Vivien tilted her hand side to side before saying, “Kind of. It’s in Cambridge which is nearby. I think we’ll be in the area, but I’d have to check the itinerary.”

“Why Harvard?” I asked. “I thought you didn’t want to be a lawyer.”

“I don’t,” Royce confirmed, “but I’ve always wanted to go there. Besides, it’s not just a law school.”

“The campus is huge,” Vivien claimed with a smile. “I want to check out their arts and science buildings someday.”

A smile settled on my face as I asked, “They have an art program?”

Vivien hummed and nodded. “They do. Maybe we can all go to Harvard together after we graduate.”

“That would be awesome,” Royce commented with a smile.

We sat in relative silence for a while as I ate my ice cream. Then, Vivien said, “Maybe we can convince your family to go on the Boston trip too so that we can explore together.”

“Do you think that would work?” I asked.

“It will if we come up with the right plan,” Royce said with a grin.

----------

There were two things in my life that I knew I sucked at: lying and being patient. Neither of those had ever been a strong suit of mine and I never claimed that they were, but I at least managed to keep my little spying secret until almost the end of the first month before the truth finally came out. Royce had gone to Mom’s office to get something for her and found out about what I had done. He didn’t seem too surprised about it; if anything, he actually seemed to take my side on it. In turn, we ended up telling Vivien about it later that day and she seemed alright with keeping it on the down-low for us. 

One day, while Mom was out at a meeting with Butchy and a few of the other high-ranking heroes, the three of us snuck into Mom’s office and watched the timeline. I filled them in on what had happened so far and how the other Vivien seemed super confused that everyone had forgotten what had happened the day that we had swapped places. She seemed just as eager to trigger their memories as we were.

Finally, the day came when her school was going on a trip to Boston and the surrounding area. The three of them were able to convince the rest of the people in the cabin to take them on a trip too. They’d matched a couple of the locations Vivien’s school trip would go on, writing down when she’d be there so they knew when to show up in certain places. 

I was sort of hoping that, if their world was anything like ours, they would see the hero tower or some evidence that our world existed too, but the building wasn’t there and the tour was more historical than anything. When they went to the USS Constitution, I thought that maybe the other Bentley would’ve had some memory of it, but it didn’t seem that way. He looked around a bit and said he felt a bit of deja vu, but apart from that, nothing.

Then, the school group headed out for lunch and one of the teachers let Vivien break off to eat with the Birch family and the rest of our counterparts as long as she’d be able to meet them at the Harvard Natural History Museum at a certain time. Somehow, after they stopped for food at an Italian restaurant, Bentley convinced them to go to Toscanini’s for dessert. When they reached the ice cream shop, Bentley looked around like he knew the place, but when Vivien asked him what was up, he told her that he’d been having deja vu all day and that the ice cream place just felt like somewhere he’d been before.

Vivien waited as the rest of the group headed inside. When Mick’s mom asked her if she was coming, she said she was going to tell one of her friends from her school where they were and that she’d be inside after. As soon as the door was closed, Vivien pulled out her phone and, instead of calling her friend, she held her phone up to her ear and said, “I don’t know if Mrs. Murphy or anybody else in the multiverse is listening, but I’m going to keep trying to get them to remember. I don’t know how they forgot it all, but I’m going to make them remember you, no matter what.”

Before I could think to open a portal to thank her for trying, a voice behind us said, “I was wondering where the three of you went.”

We all jumped and one of us let out a shriek as we turned. With a smirk on his face and his hands on his hips, there was Miles. “Miles,” Royce and I huffed in unison.

He chuckled at us and shook his head, “You guys have quite the operation here.” He gestured to our array of energy drinks and bags of chips. “Why wasn’t I invited?”

“You’re willing to help us?” Vivien asked. 

“Of course, kiddos,” Miles said, taking the only other chair in Mom’s office and bringing it over so he could watch with us. “Besides, if you guys get into trouble with Mom, I’ll be the one cleaning up the mess anyway.”

Well, he wasn’t wrong.

----------

In order for us to get to Harvard’s Natural History Museum, we had to park on the street between two buildings. The building we were closest to was large and made almost entirely of glass with a few brick walls. On a section of brick, there were very small words that read “Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering”. Honestly, if you weren’t looking for the words, you wouldn’t see them. On the other side of the street was a brick building that hadn’t been updated with glass walls. My guess was that it was a court or something if the large columns at the front of the building were anything to go by. It was huge, no matter what was inside.

Once again, there was a feeling of deja vu that came over me as I stared up at the buildings. They felt familiar, but I didn’t know why or how. I’d never been to Boston or Cambridge or wherever we were now. There was no reason for me to remember a place I’d never been to. I looked up to the roof of the brick building and, for a moment, I swore I saw a group of people standing up there, but after I rubbed my eyes, they were gone. I scanned the top of the building, hoping to see whoever it was, but nobody was there.

“You good, Beemer?” Viv asked, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.

“Huh?” I asked. Before she could repeat herself, I said, “Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Why?”

“You seem a bit off today, that’s all,” Viv said, giving me a small squeeze. “I just wanted to check in and see if you needed anything.”

I was kind of worried to tell her anything that had happened. I didn’t want her to think I was losing my mind or anything. But, then again, it was Viv, of all people. She was one of my favorite people and she’d probably be very understanding if I told her the truth. I glanced over at everyone else as they started walking toward the museum. 

Vivien pulled me behind the rest of the group and, as we walked, I said, “Well, you see, I’ve been getting a lot of that deva ju stuff-” I cut myself off. That didn’t sound right. I thought for a second before saying, “Deja vu. Sorry. Anyway, I’ve been getting a lot of that today and then, just now,” I leaned in closer to Viv and whispered, “I swear, I saw people on top of that building.”

“The chem lab or the Integrated Science building?” she offered.

“The brick one that looked like a court,” I said with a shrug.

“Alright,” she said with a nod. “That’s the chem lab.”

I nodded before saying, “Well, they were standing on the roof of the chem lab and watching us. There were maybe four of them, I think.”

There was something in Vivien’s eyes that I couldn’t read as she said, “They kind of looked like superheroes, don’t you think?”

“Did you see them too or are you just screwing with me?”

Viv shook her head and smiled. “I’m not screwing with you, Beemer. I saw them too. How everyone else missed them is beyond me.”

We waited with everyone else for the school bus and a few cars to pass before we crossed the street. Once it was just me and Vivien again, I asked, “Do you really think they looked like superheroes?”

“Totally,” she replied. “I mean, did you see the outfits they were wearing?” I shook my head. “They were totally superhero material.”

You know, I never once questioned if what she said was true. I just knew that, if Vivien said it, she was being completely honest. After all, she had promised me and Royce ages ago that she wouldn’t lie to us. As we headed toward the stairs where the rest of her school group had gathered, I said, very quietly, “Superheroes, huh?”

----------

A few months went by and, before I knew it, school had started and it was almost October. In total, it had been almost four months since I had swapped places with the other Bentley. It didn’t feel like much progress had been made with trying to get the people in the other universe to remember us, but I knew the other Vivien was trying to help. There just wasn’t much she could do, I suppose. One day in late September, when Mom was busy and the other Vivien was home alone, I opened a portal and went into the other world, stepping into a very blue bedroom. Vivien didn’t look too surprised to see me - hell, she offered me something to eat and a can of soda from her mini-fridge.

I sat on the bed with her and we talked. She let me explain what had happened and how Mom had altered everyone’s memory apart from hers. “So, why did she let me remember everything if nobody else can?” she asked

“I may or may not have ‘forgotten’ to tell her that you knew,” I replied sheepishly. “I figured that, with your extensive comic book knowledge, you could help trigger the memories. Honestly, though, I thought that trip to Boston would’ve done it.”

“I was hoping it would,” Vivien sighed. After a moment of silence, she asked, “Were you guys actually on the roof that day? I swore I saw the other me, but I wasn’t sure.”

I nodded and said, “We were, but only very quickly. Mom doesn’t know that we’ve been watching you guys so-”

“Watching us?” she repeated. “You guys have been watching our timeline?”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “We wanted to make sure that, eventually, one of them would know something.”

“I might have an idea,” Vivien claimed. When I asked her to explain, she told me, “It’s almost Halloween. I’m going to wear the costume that your world’s Vivien gave me the day we met. Rolls and Beemer know I like to make my own clothes and stuff so I was thinking that maybe you guys could bring me copies of your hero outfits and I could claim I made them for us for Halloween.”

“Do you think it’ll work?” I asked.

“On Royce, maybe, but on Bentley, probably,” she replied. “The odds are against us, but Bentley and I have talked about this superhero dream he had a while back and how it’s been coming back again and again lately. Not only would it be cool to have a legit superhero costume from another world, but it would be one from his dreams that I’ve never seen before.”

It wasn’t a bad idea. Miles’ magic allowed him to duplicate anything he wanted to, so making a copy of each of our uniforms would be easy. All we could do was hope that the clothes would trigger something in them and make them remember what had happened that day. Before I could say anything, Royce’s head appeared in the portal and he said, “Come on, Ben, Mom’s bringing back dinner and she’ll be here any minute.”

“Be there in a sec,” I replied, pushing myself off of Vivien’s bed. Once he was gone again, I turned to her and said, “We’ll make it work. I’ll get them to you as soon as I can.”

“Thanks,” Vivien replied with a smile. “I’ll start dropping hints to the guys that I’m making surprise costumes for them.”

“Perfect,” I said with a grin and a nod, stepping halfway through the portal. “I’ll see you soon.”

She gave me a tight hug before saying, “See you around, Super Bentley.”

With a final wave to her, I stepped back through the portal, into my world. I sighed as I closed the portal, happy to have finally gotten through to Vivien that we were all on her side. Looking past where the portal had been, I found Royce, Miles, and Vivien sitting in various forms of shame. They kind of reminded me of those dogs with the signs in front of them, shaming them for whatever bad thing they’d done. “What’s up?” I asked cautiously.

“‘What’s up’ indeed,” a voice from behind me said.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath. Slowly turning to the voice, I discovered my mom was standing a few feet behind me with her arms crossed. “Hey, Mama. What are you doing here?”

“This is my office, Bentley,” she replied. “I should be asking the four of you why you’re in here.”

Sparing a glance at my brothers and Vivien, I found them watching me and Mom. I turned back to Mom with a smile and tried, “We just like watching the timelines.”

“And interfering with them?” she asked. “Darling, you know I can see the timelines and the branches they create. Pourquoi tu me mens?”

“Okay, yeah, opening a portal there could definitely be considered interfering, but I swear, I’m not lying!” I argued. “We do like watching the timelines. We’ve been doing it for months now and the timeline has no new branches.”

“I certainly hope not,” Mom said, placing her hands on her hips with a shake of her head. “After I went through and altered everyone’s memories, they shouldn’t remember enough to cause a new branch.”

“That’s just it, Mama,” Royce said from his spot, taking a few steps closer to us. “You didn’t change everyone’s memories. There’s still one person in that world who remembers everything and they’re trying to get everyone’s memories back.”

Mom’s gaze turned to Royce, scanning his eyes for any hint that he was lying before she turned to me. “I thought you said I got everyone.”

“I thought we had,” I replied, “but I kind of forgot that Vivien knew about it too and she didn’t live with them in that world.”

Mom let out a heavy sigh. “Well, I suppose it’s better that I know about this now. We wouldn’t want to let it go too much further. Bentley, can you open a portal for me?”

“What are you going to do?” Vivien asked.

“What I should have done in the beginning,” Mom answered. “I need to alter her memories just like everyone else’s.”

“What? No!” I exclaimed. “She’s not doing any harm. Mama, you can’t be serious.”

With a frown as she turned her focus back to me, Mom said, “Sadly, ma chère, I’m dead serious. I don’t want to have to send a crew out to prune another timeline.”

“But there are no new branches,” Miles argued. 

“Yeah,” Royce agreed. “You said we only send out crews when the branches are too close to a nexus event.”

Before Mom could say anything, I said, “What if we get everyone their memory back and nothing changes? No new branches, no nexus events, just a normal timeline like it is right now. Would it still have to be pruned?”

Mom looked between us before glancing at the Sacred Timeline as it glowed. “I suppose it wouldn’t need to be, no. Why? Where are you going with this?”

“Why don’t you help us monitor it for just a little while longer?” Vivien offered.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Give us a few more months to see if we can get everyone their memories back. If we do and nothing changes, they can keep the memories and we’ll leave them alone.”

“And if it starts branching toward a nexus event?” Mom asked in return.

I turned to my brothers and Vivien, sending them a hopeful look before turning back to Mom. “Then you can prune it back to the day I swapped universes and make sure it never happened in the first place. No hard feelings, no memory of it ever even happening.”

Mom seemed to consider it, glancing between all four of us before settling her eyes on me again. With a sigh, she held out her hand and asked, “Promise?”

----------

In October, we flew back up north to visit the cabin for the month and Viv decided to meet us at the airport. She had shown up in a car her parents had bought her once she got her license and, once we were outside, Royce and I decided to join her in the trip back to the cabin. She followed closely behind the minivan we usually piled into and her radio was on almost the entire time, blasting broadway soundtracks and music she claimed was mostly from the seventies and eighties. Her hand had taken Royce’s as a hostage for the entirety of the trip, but he didn’t seem to mind. On the ride, we talked about everything from school to the newest shows and movies and even the places we wanted to explore now that she had her license. It was nice to be back together again.

“So,” Viv began with a smirk as we entered Sanbornton, “I have a surprise for you guys when we get to my place.”

“Are we allowed to guess what it is?” I asked, leaning between their seats.

“You wanna spoil it now?” Viv asked. “We’re only a few minutes away.”

“Yeah, but it’s kind of like Christmas,” Royce claimed. “You have to guess what’s inside before you open it.”

Viv chuckled and rolled her eyes, “Go ahead, then.”

“Is it a dinosaur?” I asked.

“I won’t tell you if you’re right or not,” she replied.

Royce sighed thoughtfully, “Is it a convertible?”

“You’re not going to guess it correctly,” Vivien said confidently.

“Is it a puppy?” I offered. “Or maybe a bunch of kittens?”

“You mean a litter?” Royce offered.

“I don’t see why they don’t just call it a bunch of kittens,” I said with a huff. “It would make a lot more sense that way. Calling it a litter just makes it sound like you found them in the trash on the side of the road.”

Royce and Vivien laughed before Viv shook her head and said, “Anyway, no, it’s not puppies or kittens.”

After a while of thought, I said, “Is it my sixth-grade English teacher wanting to apologize for being a massive dick?”

“Bentley!” Royce scolded.

“What?” I questioned. “It’s not like Miles and Butchy are here.”

“Exactly,” Viv agreed. “Besides, if any of us were going to tell them, we’d all have to come clean.”

I laughed, “That swear jar would be, like, two hundred bucks richer!”

We shared a laugh and went on with our guessing game until we pulled onto the street we lived on. Instead of heading further down the street to the cabin, Viv pulled into her family’s driveway and parked the car. We quickly followed her inside, greeting her parents before heading upstairs to Vivien’s room.

As she pushed open the door to her closet, she asked, “Do you guys remember when I asked you for your measurements and told you not to ask questions?”

“Yeah,” Royce said with a nod as he and I sat on the bench in her window. “Are we allowed to ask questions now?”

“You’ll see,” she said teasingly. Vivien dragged a large duffel bag out of her closet and placed it in the space between me and Royce. When I reached up to open it, she lightly smacked my hand away with a grin. She moved the zipper and slowly pulled out two boxes with our initials on them, handing them to us with a brilliant smile. “Happy Halloween!”

I quickly opened the lid and froze as I saw what was inside. I pulled the fabric out of the box and stood, holding it up against me. Most of the outfit was a pale yellow, but there was a bright, golden yellow sun in the center of the chest that looked like it was glowing from the inside. The sleeves were short like a normal T-shirt and the material was unlike anything I’d felt before. As I stared at the swirling sun on the chest of the outfit, I felt the strongest sense of deja vu I’d felt in a while. I had seen that outfit before.

“Where did you get this?” I asked.

“I made it,” Vivien said with a smile. “Well, I made both of them, actually. I based them off these superheroes from a new comic series I’ve been reading.” At my confused look, she said, “You know - Figment and Psionic? I brought you guys a copy like a week ago.”

Figment and Psionic. I knew those names. How did I know those names? I don’t remember ever reading about heroes with those names. Figment and Psionic. Figment and… Figment… I stared at the sun on the chest of the uniform before glancing at my arm. Figment was the superhero I had swapped lives with in my dream a while back. Almost all of his powers were based on the sun and he had sun tattoos on his wrists that glowed when he used his magic. When we swapped places, I’d had the tattoos too. I had used his powers to open portals. I’d seen people flying and throwing magic at each other. It all felt so… real.

A hand on my arm distracted me from thinking any further. I looked up to see Vivien looking at me worriedly. “You alright?” she asked softly.

“I just-” I took in a breath and said, “I swear I saw this in a dream. Like, not that deja vu stuff, but an actual dream. It was so realistic.”

“Kind of like you actually lived it?” Royce asked slowly.

I turned to him, finding a similar look of confusion mixed with concentration on his face. He was holding his hero outfit like I was, examining it like he’d seen it before. I nodded. “You too?”

“Yeah,” he said with a slow, short nod. “I’ve had this dream a few times where we’re in the cabin on a normal day, but you could fly and open portals and stuff. It’s happened a few times and, each time, I wake up feeling like it was just another day that I’ve lived through, but I know I haven’t.”

“Well,” Viv began, “maybe you did live through it and you just don’t remember it. After all, just because the multiverse exists in comics doesn’t mean it can’t exist for our world too, right?”

“I guess so,” I agreed.

“Maybe you guys should write down what you remember from your dreams,” she suggested. “You know, compare notes and stuff like you would for a school project.”

“Good idea,” Royce complimented, folding his costume up and placing it inside the box Viv had handed it to him in. I quickly followed suit and lidded the box, thanking Vivien for the gift.

“It’s nothing, guys,” she brushed off. “I just thought it would be cool to have matching costumes this year. You know, kind of a three musketeers sort of deal.”

“It’s not ‘nothing,’ Viv,” Royce said as he put an arm around her. “They’re amazing.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, taking up her other side. “I think they’re pretty bitchin’.”

Royce and Vivien chuckled and Royce shook his head, “What is it with you and ‘bitchin’?”

I shrugged and smiled, saying, “I don’t know; it just feels right, you know?”

----------

Mom had given us until the first of the upcoming year to prove her wrong and we’d taken her up on it, but as December came, I could tell I wasn’t the only one getting nervous about that deadline. We’d tried everything we could think of - short of just opening a portal and telling them, of course - and nothing had been working. Whatever spell Mom used that night, was super effective. As we crept closer to Christmas, I gathered everyone who had been involved in this whole fiasco and sat them down in a meeting room that wasn’t being used.

“We need to get them to remember,” I said. “They deserve to know, right? Can we all agree on that?”

Most of the people present nodded, but I noticed Butchy and the Birch family didn’t. Carrie, on the other hand, said, “I’m all for it.”

“Of course you are,” Butchy muttered with a roll of his eyes.

Carrie shot him a look from her spot next to Miles, but otherwise ignored his comment, turning to me with a smile. “I’ll help in any way I can.”

Before I got the chance to thank her, Butchy asked, “What does your mom think?”

“She’s letting us try, Butch,” Miles claimed. “She told us that, if it didn’t work out and it caused more harm than good, she’d prune it back to before this whole thing started.”

Butchy thought on it for a moment before slowly nodding. From next to him, his girlfriend, Mick, raised a hand before asking, “Do you have a plan for this mission?”

Royce answered for me this time, “It all depends on how many of you are willing to help. We had thought about maybe using Vivien’s mindscape magic to bring back the memories, but that would require them to be awake and not freaking out so I’d need to be there, guiding them emotionally.”

“And the rest of us?” Mick’s dad asked.

“Yeah,” Lela started, “what do you need us for?”

“We’ll need you as validation,” I answered. “Just in case they think that we’re fucking with their minds or something, we need the validation of, well, themselves.”

“Why is she here then?” Butchy asked, pointing across the table at Carrie. “She wasn’t in the other world when that happened.”

“True,” Royce said, “but she is there now. Miles invited her to join them for their Christmas vacation.”

I nodded. “I figured that, if anyone would be able to get her to understand the situation, it would be Carrie herself.” I looked to Carrie and said, “Even if you couldn’t get through to her, you could distract her or knock her out or whatever while we handle everyone else.”

Mick’s mom spoke up, “When, exactly, are you planning on doing this?”

“We have until New Year’s,” Miles said. “Mom told us that, if they can’t remember everything by then, we’ll have to let it go.”

Vivien cleared her throat before saying, “I say we give them until the end of the week before we try anything. The other Royce and Bentley are getting closer to figuring it out and the other me already knows. If they can’t solve this mystery by the end of the week, we should step in so it’s not too late.”

I watched as everyone seemed to contemplate the ideas we’d given them. Once they began looking more relaxed with the concept, I asked, “So, who’s in?”

“I’ll do what I can to help,” Butchy said.

“Me too,” Mick claimed. Her parents quickly nodded in agreement.

Lela smiled from her seat. “I guess it’s settled then. If they can’t figure it out by the end of the week, we’ll help them.”

My smile only widened as I listened to everyone give their own form of agreement. “Perfect.”

----------

I loved Christmas, especially spending it in the cabin with the rest of my family and friends. Miles seemed happy to have Carrie over to stay with us for the month, Butchy and Carrie had been getting along for once, Vivien had been spending a lot of time at the cabin lately, and Royce and I had saved up enough money to buy gifts for everyone already. Things were going great for all of us!

Then, two weeks before Christmas, things began to get… weird. It started when my arms were constantly itchy. Miles thought I must’ve had an allergic reaction to something, but after being doped out of my mind for two days due to the medicine and not getting any relief from it, we knew that wasn’t the case. The scratches my nails left only seemed to show up near my elbows even though my wrists were where it was bothering me the most. Then, in the middle of the night, when I’d woken up after having that same, dumb dream of swapping places with a superhero, I climbed the ladder to Royce’s bunk to see if I could talk with him about it, only for him to jerk away from me in shock.

“What?” I asked in a hushed voice. “What’s wrong?”

“Your eyes are glowing,” Royce replied, scanning my face as he sat up in bed and moved toward the ladder I was on.

I sent him a confused look before climbing down the ladder from his bunk and making my way to where I could see myself in the mirror. It didn’t take much for me to jump back in shock, letting out a shriek. Sure enough, my eyes were glowing a bright, golden yellow. I felt a stabbing pain in the side of my head as I stared at myself in confused horror. I raised a hand, ready to push it against the side of my head to stop the ache there, but I stopped moving as I caught a glimpse of a glowing yellow mark on my wrist.

As another stab of pain flashed through my head, I turned to Royce and softly told him, “Get Miles.”

“What?” he asked, taking a step closer to me and taking my arm in his hand.

“Go get Miles,” I ordered weakly, sparing another glance at the mirror before another surge of pain slashed my head. Royce helped me sit on the floor and made sure I could hold myself there before all but flying out of our bedroom and down the hall to Miles’ room.

As I heard Miles’ bedroom door click and slam open, I glanced over to the mirror again, just barely catching the golden glare in my eyes before watching the room around me begin glowing yellow. The room began to change around me and, all at once, I was on my feet, wearing a different set of clothes, and the pain in my head disappeared. The room didn’t look much different; the bookshelf was moved back over by the window, my bottom bunk moved so it was sticking out from under the head side of Royce’s bed again, and our room was a bit messier than we’d been keeping it. If anything, it kind of looked the way it had over the summer. 

Very suddenly, I watched as time flew by like a movie playing in fast forward. I watched a giant sun appear in our room and a person who looked like me step out of it. Then, I was in a bright bedroom, getting whipped in the face with a pillow. A quick argument took place in what looked like the living room of an apartment, then suddenly I was in a glass box with Royce, Vivien, and some redheaded girl when another one of those glowing suns appeared in front of me. Well, the version of me who was in the glass box, I mean. I watched as the scene changed and, too quickly for my liking, I saw a vision of me sitting on a couch, talking with our mom. After that, I watched as the other me made one of those suns appear again, but another one formed behind him. He tried going through the sun and so did yet another Bentley, but before they could get all the way through, they were yanked back and I watched as I floated in midair between the two sun portals. Just as I watched myself start glowing a bright white, I felt myself being shaken, and, almost as quickly as the scenes had begun playing, they stopped. The glow around the room faded until I was back in the room I shared with Royce. 

As my eyes finally began to focus on my surroundings, I found that Miles was kneeling in front of me, talking to me while Royce was behind me, holding me upright. There were other people in the room too, but before I could see who they were, Miles took my face in his hands and said something to me that I couldn’t understand. “Huh?” I asked in a breath.

“Try to focus, baby,” Miles said gently. “Can you do that for me?”

I nodded slowly. “What happened?”

“You passed out sometime after I left the room,” Royce claimed, “but your eyes were still glowing when we got back.”

Peering up at Royce, I said, “They were real.”

“What was real?” he asked in return.

I stared blankly at the mirror, feeling a little upset that my eyes were no longer glowing back at me. “The dreams. They were real.” Miles asked Royce what I meant, but I knew it would probably be up to me to answer the questions everyone had. I was okay with that. I’d give them whatever answers I could. My eyes flicked around the room, seeing everyone had piled into our room. Lela and Mick looked exhausted, letting out yawns now and then, but they were listening to whatever was being said. Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady were standing nearby, watching me in worry and asking Miles questions that I didn’t pay attention to. I watched Butchy as he knelt on the floor next to Miles, but my attention was dragged to the space next to me as Carrie inched further into the room. I looked up at her and attempted to smile at her as she was already looking my way. She gave a tiny wave and a smile in return and I waved back before staring up at the star stickers Royce and I had put on the ceiling ages ago. 

I wondered if, in the other world, Mom knew that I remembered everything. Was I supposed to? Maybe I had forgotten that day for a reason, but I couldn’t think of a good reason to forget something like that. It had been one of the coolest days of my life and I’d thought it was a dream this whole time. What had it been? Six months now? I shook my head, hoping that I wasn’t the only one who knew about that day and all that had happened.

----------

Just as we sat down for breakfast that morning, Mom told us she had something to show us. I thought there was a mission, maybe a battle somewhere, but no, she was letting us know that something happened in the other world. Mom brought us into her office after we ate and showed us that the other Bentley had a dream, saw his eyes glowing in the mirror, and began remembering the day we’d swapped places. I was surprised she even wanted us to know about it, but I guess she’d been forced to listen to the three - and occasionally four - of us rattle on and on about the other world so much that she wanted to help us now.

After watching what happened during the night, I turned to Mom and asked, “Do you know how much he remembers?”

With a frown, she shook her head. “I wish I did,” she told me. “All I know is that he has enough memories to know it was real.”

I nodded to myself as Royce said, “That’s a start. Has anyone else from their world seen anything?”

“Not yet,” Mom answered. She looked between us before smiling. “I have a video meeting with the leaders of the Miami and San Diego sectors and you three know how much they like to talk. I won’t be able to keep an eye on what’s going on with the other timeline.”

“So,” Miles began, “is this your way of saying we can watch the timeline for you?”

“If you feel up to it,” Mom said slowly, “yes. I’ll let you three take the day to watch them.”

“Really?” I asked excitedly. 

Mom chuckled, “Oui, ma chère. I’ll let Butchy know that I’ve given you three the day off of training and, when I come back, you can fill me in on everything that happened while I was away.”

I sprung up from my seat and gave her a tight squeeze, “Thank you, Mama.”

Royce was quick to join us, thanking Mom in his own way as Miles stood and wrapped his arms around the three of us. “You’re welcome,” Mom said. As we separated, she gave us a slightly stern look that we knew all too well. “Now, remember-”

“Don’t interfere with the timeline unless absolutely necessary,” the three of us replied in unison.

Mom shook her head and joked, “Am I that predictable?”

We shared a laugh before Miles said, “Don’t worry, Mama. I’ll keep an eye on them.”

“That would be reassuring,” Mom said with a smirk, reaching up and cupping Miles’ cheek, “if you weren’t one of the ones I was talking about.”

“We’ll keep him out of trouble, Mama,” Royce claimed, resting his elbow on my shoulder with a grin.

“Speak for yourself!” I laughed. “If he gets into any trouble, I’m joining him.”

Mom chuckled and shook her head, “I’d expect no less from my troublemakers.” With a smile in our direction, Mom grabbed her bag from her desk and wished us a good day, telling us that she loved us before leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

I turned to my brothers as soon as I heard Mom’s footsteps head away from the door. “So,” I began, “when are getting everyone together so we can go to the other world?”

----------

After my two-in-the-morning wake-up call, everyone eventually returned to their rooms and back to sleep. Carrie had offered to room with Lela in case Miles wanted me to stay with him, but I couldn’t go back to sleep after all of that so I told them I was going to read for a bit and that if I needed anything, I would tell them. After a while of alternating between reading and scrolling through apps on my phone, I headed downstairs to the living room, determined to make myself useful if I wasn’t going back to sleep. I dragged a plastic container of Christmas decorations from the pantry and left it on the coffee table as I began decorating the place.

It took me a while to get to the bottom of the container, but I was happy when I finally saw the garland strands at the bottom. Looking around the room, I realized why we usually left those for last. We had a bunch of garland on the tree already, there was some wrapped around the stair and balcony railings, and there were a few strands that were draped over the curtain rods. The only other place we usually hung garland from was the chandelier and there was no way I could get up that high without using a ladder and, if I was going to get the ladder out of the basement, I’d risk waking everyone up. I huffed to myself and grabbed the lid of the plastic bin, ready to cover it and put it back away. I wasn’t going to risk waking people up a second time by dragging the ladder out of the basement and there was no other way for me to get up there. It wasn’t like I could fly.

I froze as I laid the lid on top of the bin. Sparing a glance down at my wrist, I thought for a moment. Maybe I could fly. Back when I swapped worlds with the other Bentley, I had all of his powers. Maybe I still had them, but I just didn’t know I did. I glanced up at the balcony and, after hearing nobody else moving around, I let go of the lid and made my way to the couch. At least, if I jumped from there and it didn’t work, I’d be able to land on the floor without going splat. “What could go wrong?” I muttered to myself.

I took in a deep breath and tried to remember what it felt like to fly. It was so long ago and my memories were so messed up, I wasn’t sure how it felt, honestly. Deciding to just try anyway, I wrenched my eyes shut and jumped from the couch. I felt myself drop toward the floor, but when I didn’t feel the rug under my feet after a moment, I looked down, finding myself floating above the ground. With a disbelieving laugh, I tried mimicking what usually worked in comic books and found myself lifting higher and higher above the floor. I flew around for a few minutes, pushing myself off of the walls and gliding around the ceiling before deciding to grab the garland I’d left in the bin so I could have it hung up before everyone else woke up.

Attaching the strands to the hook on the bottom of the chandelier was a lot easier since I wasn’t stuck on the top of a wobbly ladder this time. From there, I brought the other end of each strand to each of the wooden beams we had tied them to the year before. As I brought the final strand to the last beam, I paused. Someone had written in the dust that had settled on the beam. Upon closer inspection, it read, “Bentley ‘Figment’ Murphy - hope u liked ur time in my world.” Underneath it was the date it was written - June 2nd - and a short message that said, “Might steal ur TV btw” with two dots and a curved letter P next to it -  a smiley face with its tongue out.

There was no way I could’ve written that myself, especially not on that day. That was the day I was stuck in the superhero world. The other Bentley had to have written it… The other Bentley who was now in his home world… The world I could get to if I could still open a sun portal. 

I smirked to myself and quickly tied the garland to the beam before bringing myself back down to the floor. There was no telling if I could still open a portal or not and, even if I couldn’t, that was okay. It’s not like I was born with these powers. I don’t even know why I have them in the first place. Once I landed on the floor, I made my way toward the fireplace and away from anything breakable. I found a good space and threw my arms out to the side, but nothing happened. I tried a few more times before deciding to try focusing my energy the way everyone from the other world had told me to. I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, but I was determined to try anyway. I closed my eyes and took in a few deep breaths, trying to imagine the magic moving through me, before moving my arms out to the side and willing a portal to appear. When I opened my eyes, a small ball of light appeared in front of me.

The ball grew little by little as I focused on it, but when a shocked voice said, “Holy shit,” my focus and the attempted portal quickly disappeared. I turned to the voice, finding Miles standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching me with wide eyes.

“Hey, Miley,” I said.

I watched as he decided on what to say before finally settling on, “That was a portal, wasn’t it?”

With a nod, I said, “Yeah. Does it remind you of anything?”

Miles thought for a moment before giving me a very slow nod. “Vaguely. I remember seeing someone between two portals.” He made his way closer to me as he said, “That was you, wasn’t it?”

I smiled at Miles and said, “The one you saw was the other version of me - the one from the hero world - but yeah, it was me.”

“You were gone all day,” he said. “Hero Bentley was struggling to open a portal all day and we were worried we’d never get you back.”

“I was worried too,” I sighed. “Then, when I was able to open a portal, the other Bentley opened one at the same time, and then… I don’t even know what happened after that.”

Miles made up the rest of the distance between us and hugged me close. “We’ll figure this out, baby.” As he pulled away, he said, “We’ll get our memories back, I promise.”

I nodded to him and, gesturing to the living room, asked, “Well, what do you think?”

“It looks great, but did you do all of this instead of sleeping?” he asked.

“Maybe,” I drawled. When he sent me an almost disappointed look, I said, ‘I couldn’t sleep after  everything earlier, so I made myself useful.”

Miles shook his head with a smile on his face. “I couldn’t sleep either.”

“Is that why you’re down here?” I asked.

He nodded. “It’s one of the reasons, yeah. I got up to check on you and Royce, but you weren’t there, so I figured you had come down here to read your comics or play video games to pass the time.”

“You weren’t too far off,” I joked. “Video games, opening portals to other worlds; I don’t see much of a difference.”

Miles chuckled, “Yeah, they’re practically the same thing.” I smiled and tried to say something else, but a yawn cut me off.  Miles said, “Are you sure you don’t want to get some sleep? It’s only four-thirty, you can get a few hours in before RJ realizes you aren’t there and comes looking.”

I quickly shook my head. “I don’t want to wake up like that again. It was great getting my memories back and all, but it felt like my head was going to explode.”

Miles nodded. “Why don’t we just sit on the couch and read until everyone else is up, then?”

“Won’t Carrie be upset if she wakes up and you’re not there?” I asked.

With a shake of his head, Miles said, “I told her I was checking on you before I came down. I doubt she’d be very upset, even if I hadn’t told her.” At my confused look, he added, “She’s worried about you too, kiddo, just like everyone else is.”

I nodded slowly and said, “Okay, then. I guess I could be down for some stories.”

Miles grabbed a book from the bookcase on the wall and joined me on the couch, propping his feet on the coffee table since I had taken the chaise seat he liked to use when he got the chance. I made myself as comfortable as possible as Miles opened the book and began reading. The book is the first in a series called Divergent and, while I know Miles had been reading it recently, I didn’t get the chance to listen to much of the story as, by the time he reached the end of the second chapter, I was already passed out against him.

----------

When Vivien came over to talk with us, we told her what had happened and she proudly told us that she knew. When we asked her what had happened, she told us that she was using her reality-warping abilities to see through the different worlds and found the cabin. She had used her powers to show the other Bentley what had happened that day after he’d had a dream about it. With that information, we sent a message to the group of people who were willing to help us bring back everyone’s memories, asking them to come to our apartment as soon as they could.

We had gotten everyone into our apartment by six-thirty - something a few people weren’t overly thrilled about. I wanted to go to the other world right then and there, show them what they were missing, and help them to get all of their memories back by the end of the day. The only problem was that everyone else said we should wait until the people in the other world were awake. Hell, a few people from our world were passed out on the couch, claiming that it was “too early for them to function.” I wanted to call bullshit on that, but I couldn’t really argue the point. Yeah, I was pretty antsy, to say the least.

“We can’t go now,” Royce claimed, answering my “Can we go yet?” question for the billionth time. “It’s not even seven in the morning yet.”

“Yeah,” Butchy spoke in a hushed tone, “most of them aren’t even up yet.” He spared a glance at the couch where Miles, Carrie, Lela, and Mr. Birch were all sleeping. “Look at them; if they aren’t up yet, their counterparts probably aren’t either.”

I sighed and crossed my arms, “I wish they were up already. I want them to have their memories back.”

Royce’s arm wrapped around my shoulders as he said, “We’ll get them their memories, Ben, we just need to wait until they’re awake. It won’t take too long.”

I shot him a look before looking over at the snoring Miles on the couch. “You want to take a look at Miles and say that again?”

“Alright, maybe it will take a while,” Royce snorted, sending a burst of amusement to me as he did. “Maybe we can wake them up when the others are alert enough to get their memories back.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said with a nod. I let him lead me into Mom’s office and away from the sleeping members of our crew. Butchy stayed out there, heading for the kitchen to help Mick make breakfast for the rest of the group. I guess I had been right all those months ago; all he needed was a girlfriend to make him more relaxed. They were good for each other. 

When we entered the room, I realized Mrs. Birch was already in Mom’s office, watching the timeline with a smile. As soon as she noticed us, she said, “The other me and my husband are awake. They found Miles and Bentley sleeping on the couch and decided to make breakfast. I don’t think it will be long before everyone else is awake.”

“Good,” I said with a smile, pulling my usual chair over so I could watch. 

For the most part, it was quiet as we focused on each person as they came down from the upper floor of the cabin. True to Mrs. Birch’s words though, after a while, everyone was downstairs and, by eight-thirty, everyone apart from Miles was wide awake and eating breakfast. Royce and Butchy were talking while Bentley and Mick talked with Carrie, Mr. and Mrs. Birch had their own conversation going while Lela was attempting to talk with Miles who was barely awake and sluggishly pounding back his second round of coffee.

I turned to Royce with a grin. “Can we go now?”

“It might be better if you let them finish eating before you open a portal in their dining room,” he replied. “We don’t want them choking or anything.”

I groaned in impatience, “You’re no fun.”

Royce rolled his eyes, but said nothing as we went back to watching the timeline together. After a minute, he turned to me with a smirk. “What if we went through the portal somewhere else?”

----------

After we eventually had breakfast, we all headed back to the living room and I showed everyone that I could fly like the hero version of me could. Everyone who had been there the day of the swap seemed to remember it somehow, but Carrie kind of looked around, trying to gauge everyone’s reactions to see if it was normal or not. I guess Miles hadn’t explained it to her all that well during the night. Once we told her what had happened and how we had only just remembered that day, she seemed confused, but eventually, she seemed to accept that we were telling her the truth.

We went over the subject for a while until the front door opened and Vivien came in with a huge smile on her face. “Hello, Birch family!”

She was met with a few calls of, “Hey Vivien,” as she took off her winter coat and tossed her boots onto the shoe rack. Once she was in the living room, I asked, “What are you doing out so early?”

Viv shrugged and said, “It’s winter break, I’m bored, and there was a very suspicious, golden portal in my bedroom that I figured I should tell you guys about.”

“There was a portal in your bedroom?” Royce asked.

With a nod, Viv said, “Yep, a huge, sun-shaped portal. A bunch of people who looked exactly like you guys came out of it and I had to figure out a way for them to get out of my house without my family seeing them.”

“Where are they now?” I asked.

“Outside,” she replied.

“Could you let them in?” Uncle Brady asked.

“Sure,” Viv said with a smile, heading back toward the door. We heard it open and listened to Vivien say, “Come on, guys.” After a minute, she came back in, followed by a group of people that, true to her words, looked exactly like us. As soon as I locked eyes with the other version of me, I knew they were from the hero world. His eyes had a golden glow to them as he came over to me.

“Do you remember?” he asked.

I shrugged, “Most things. I don’t remember anything after we were stuck in the air between portals, but I know there’s more.”

He nodded before asking, “What about everyone else?”

“I don’t think they remember as much as they should, but I did fly in front of them and they got some memories.”

Hero Bentley turned to his version of Vivien and asked, “Can you help?”

She smiled and nodded as she came up to Hero Bentley and said, “You know what to do.”

He closed his eyes and we waited for a moment as Vivien sent a wave of green magic into his head with one hand. Then, all at once, her eyes glowed a bright green and, with a wave of her other hand, the entire cabin began glowing a bright green. Things changed as we went; the Christmas decorations came down and, just like my bedroom had, the room changed back to what it looked like back in June, the day the swap happened.

We watched through everything as though it had been happening at that exact moment, watching as time passed us by. Everyone watched as the day went by, watching themselves go about a full day that they had forgotten. Then, after a while, the two portals opened in the living room and Vivien stopped the memories there, bringing us all back to the living room of the cabin. Before anything else could be said or done, Vivien sent a wave of magic my way and I closed my eyes, trying to think of that day. Instead of sending her magic to the rest of the room with her free hand, though, she took my hand in hers.

“Relax,” she said. “I’m not showing them to anyone else yet. I’m just trying to bring back as many of your memories as possible.”

I took a deep breath and tried to relax as I opened my eyes. I’m sure Vivien skimmed over what I already knew and focused on what I needed to remember. Once we were back at the two portals again, I expected her to stop, but she kept going, pushing past that and into a memory that I’d completely forgotten - my time in the void with Hero Bentley. After that, we were fighting Inferno on the roof of a building. It was the same building I had seen people standing on when we went with Viv on her Boston trip. We fought him off with everyone else for a while before trapping him in the void that Hero Bentley and I had gotten out of. I watched as we teleported to Toscanini’s Ice Cream and the USS Constitution before going back to their hero headquarters. Then, as we were preparing to bring me back to my world, Vivien sent her other hand out to the room and everyone else joined us, watching something I couldn’t see for a while before watching me go through the portal back to the cabin.

As soon as we had caught up with everything, Vivien’s magic disappeared. “I think that was everything,” she said, stepping back to give everyone some space.

The hero version of Royce had to have been using his magic to keep everyone calm. There was no way they’d be this calm with everything Vivien had shown them. I looked at him and saw an orange glow in his eyes. Ha! I knew it. As though he sensed I was looking at him, his gaze snapped to mine and I quickly looked away with a smile. Hero Bentley snorted, having watched me get caught while everyone else began talking with their counterparts. “Good job, dipshit,” he teased.

I nudged him in the side with a laugh. “The way he just whipped around like that was stupidly funny.”

“It was,” he laughed. “So, how’s it feel to remember again?”

“Weird, but good,” I replied. “Does Mom know that we remember again?”

“If she doesn’t already, she will soon,” he said. I sent him a confused look and he explained, “We didn’t exactly tell her we were coming.”

I smacked his arm, saying, “That’s dangerous! What if everyone gets stuck here?”

He chuckled, “Don’t worry, we won’t get stuck here. I’ve been working on my powers for the last six months and I can open a portal anywhere now. I wouldn’t have brought everyone here if I thought it was dangerous.”

We headed toward where everyone else was and listened to them talk with each other. The Vivien and Royce from my world were laughing as their counterparts talked. “Yeah,” Hero Vivien began as we joined them, “I think having a comic book about all of this would be insanely cool.”

“I don’t know. Don’t you think it would be kind of awkward?” Hero Royce asked. 

“Oh, come on,” Hero Vivien said with a smirk, “don’t act like you wouldn’t read it from cover to cover. Think about it, we’d have one of the craziest panels at Comic-Con.”

“That would be crazy,” Regular Vivien said with a smile. She sent Royce a look and said, “Maybe we could be the ones to write about it. We could even go over the fight they had with Inferno!”

As my counterpart got sucked into the conversation, I wandered over to where Miles and Carrie were talking to, well, Miles and Carrie. My brother was talking about this movie deal Carrie had gotten recently. She was supposed to play one of the main characters and we had all joined her on set one day. We ended up staying in her trailer for the most part, but we did get to watch this one scene where she was harnessed to a bunch of cables and lifted high into the air. It was pretty cool. As I moved along, I found that the two Carries were talking animatedly about something to do with a dress and Carrie’s new movie, but I couldn’t hear most of their conversation as I passed by them. The two Lela’s were talking about Tanner and some of Lela’s friends from back home. Butchy and Mickie were talking about the similarities and differences between the relationship they had and the one their counterparts had.

Aunt Mack and Uncle Brady were sitting on the couch with their alternate universe selves, but I never got the chance to hear what they were talking about as a burst of blue, almost purple, energy opened a giant star on the wall by the fireplace. As everyone else fell quiet, I heard my counterpart say, “Oh, shit.”

I turned to him, only to see him watching the star with shame. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “Who is that?”

My question was answered as the star cleared and I could see into a room where a woman stood with her arms crossed. “What did I tell you boys about messing with the timeline?” she asked.

“Mama?” I asked.

“Hello, Bentley,” she said in return, smiling my way. “How are you, ma chère?”

“Great,” I replied with a smile. “I remember visiting you now.”

“I know, darling.” She sent a look to her sons and said sternly, “Believe me, I know.”

I looked over to where Hero Bentley and his brothers were standing. Before either of his brothers could say anything to defend themselves, Hero Bentley said, “Well, in our defense, you left us unsupervised.”

Hero Miles reached over and slightly whacked the back of his brother’s head before saying, “Mama, we were just-”

“Going against the one rule I gave you?” she finished.

“Not exactly,” Hero Royce said. “We didn’t interfere with the timeline at all. They had already started to remember everything so we just… helped them a little.”

“Mhm,” she hummed. I don’t think she believed them. With a shake of her head, Mom said, “Come on. Bring back everyone you brought with you and I’ll deal with you three later.”

The three brothers sighed in defeat and began making their way toward the portal as everyone else followed them. Hero Bentley stayed back, watching as everyone else made their way back. With a smile, he turned to me before jogging back over and hugging me. “I’m glad you’ve got it all back again.”

“Me too,” I said over his shoulder.

As he pulled away, he said, “You know, if you ever want to go back to Toscanini’s or maybe to that art museum we couldn’t go to before or even if you just want to visit, just open a portal. I’ll hook you up with one of my suits and everything.”

I nodded, smiling back at him as I said, “And if you need help protecting our brothers from some villain or if you just want a break for a day, let me know. I’m always going to be up for it.”

He chuckled as he made his way back to the portal his mom had opened, “I know. I’ll see you around, other me.”

“See you around, hero me,” I replied.

As he stepped into the other world, he shook his head and said, “You helped save our world from Inferno. I’m pretty sure we’re both heroes now.”

An arm wrapped around my shoulders and a hand took mine as Miles and Royce came up next to me. As I looked up at him, Miles smiled and said, “We couldn’t agree more.”

I waved as the other me took a few steps back, allowing his mom to close the portal she had opened. Once the star portal disappeared, I sighed. Miles squeezed me close to him while Royce’s head fell onto my shoulder. I knew I was going to miss everyone, especially Mama and my brothers, but as I felt a wave of calm come over me, I knew I wouldn’t be missing them for long.

“You guys swapped places, didn’t you?” I asked.

Hearing Royce laugh, I knew it was true. “Maybe,” he said with a smirk.

“Magic works wonders when you need a quick wardrobe change,” Miles said with a smile. “How long do you think we’ve got before Mama comes and drags us back?”

“Maybe an hour or two,” Royce answered.

“Nah,” I started, “I give her twenty minutes, tops. In the middle of telling them off, she’ll see the difference.”

“Well,” Miles began, squeezing me to his side, “I guess we’ll just have to make every minute count.”

They did end up getting caught pretty quickly that day, but that was just the start of what became an open-door policy for our two worlds. Over the next few months, there were only a handful of visits between worlds due to us not always being at the cabin and the fact that it was during the school year. Then, one day in April, that changed.

Before anyone else was up that morning, a sun-shaped portal had opened almost as soon as I went downstairs for a drink. The other Bentley came through and smiled when he saw me. All he said was, “Suit up! This asshole needs to be Voided.” So, I did what any interdimensional superhero would do - I grabbed my suit from its hiding place in the laundry room, scribbled out a note, and left it on the coffee table before joining my other self in battle.

So, yeah, I guess that’s everything. I mean, there’s a lot more I could tell you, obviously. I could tell you about the giant space squid we fought last week or how I now have my very own trading card and superhero suit in the other world, but that’s for another day... and another journal. When I said this was going to be a cover-to-cover story, I wasn’t kidding! I guess Royce and Vivien will have a lot of ideas for the comic book series they started writing about all of this. Anyway, that’s it for now. I’m off to be the most bitchin' superhero to ever exist!

Vivien's hands glowed as we watched the version of me that came from her world for a moment longer. Soon, we were back in the elevator and she was moving her hand from my head. “I’m so confused,” I said quietly as she leaned away from me.

“Don’t be,” she said as simply as possible. I really wished it was that simple. “We have other things to worry about right now. Is there any way you can somehow fly or throw cars around?”

“I wish!” I exclaimed. “Then I could help Butchy and Miles at the shop.”

Vivien gave me a confused smirk before shaking her head. “I don’t understand how you’re so close to Butchy.”

“What do you mean?” I asked as she pressed the button that let the elevator start moving again.

Vivien shrugged. “It’s just, in this world, Butchy is just our trainer. I don’t get how you’re close to him in your world.”

“He’s like our brother. When Miles moved to Florida, he met Butchy and they’ve been close ever since,” I said. I stalled for a minute as I thought over what that meant. “Does that mean he and Miles aren’t close either?”

“I’m not sure,” Vivien claimed, “but my guess would be no. They don’t really get the chance to chat as far as I’m aware.”

I sighed. Of course, I just had to end up in the one universe where everything sucks. “So, why aren’t you and Royce together here?” I asked. “In my world, you guys are crazy for each other.”

It was Vivien’s turn to sigh, “To put it plainly, he likes someone else.”

“What?!” I questioned loudly.

Vivien’s hand landed on my mouth for a minute before she moved it away and began to explain. “When we were first paired up on the team, we were super close and I thought he had a thing for me because I had a thing for him. I didn’t know at the time that he could feel I liked him.”

“What do you mean?”

She turned to me before straightening her posture. “Right, you’re new here. Um, Royce has the ability to control people’s feelings. He can feel your emotions from pretty far away, but can only control them close up.”

“Oh,” I said. “So, what happened?”

“Well, there’s not much else,” she said. “He figured out I liked him around the same time I figured out he could read my feelings. I didn’t like that he could’ve been making me like him so I learned to put up a blank wall so he couldn’t see my emotions anymore without me wanting him to.”

“So how do you know he likes someone else?” I asked. “Maybe he likes you and you just don’t know it yet.”

“You’ll see,” she replied vaguely as the elevator pulled to a stop and the doors opened. Vivien stepped into the hall and looked down it before gesturing for me to join her. “Follow me. With any luck, we can get there before your brothers and we can talk to either Butchy or your mom about what happened.”

I stalled in the middle of the hall. “My mom is here?”

Vivien turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “Why wouldn’t she be?”

I took in a deep breath before saying, “In my world, she died when I was five.”

“What?” Vivien asked. “How?”

“We were out in a freak snowstorm and her car spun out on black ice and hit a tree,” I explained. “I was the only one with her when it happened and that’s one of my only memories of her.”

“Oh, Bentley,” Vivien said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s alright.” I cleared my throat and pulled my necklace from under my shirt. “Miles gave me her locket around Christmas last year. It’s got pictures of her and us from around when the accident happened so I have a picture of her with me all the time.”

“Well,” Vivien said after she took in a breath, “today you might get to talk with her. Do you want to?”

I quickly nodded. “I can’t remember the last time I heard her voice, Viv. I want to remember it this time.”

"Alrighty, then." Vivien smiled and offered me a hand to take which I did. “Well, let’s get to the training room, then. Maybe she’ll be there.”

I followed Vivien down the hall until we got to a room with the number four above the door. She pushed open the door and held it for me before leading me through the room. I spotted Butchy talking with two girls on the far side of the room and Vivien led me right to him. It was then that I found the two girls were Lela and Mick.

“Hey, big guy,” Vivien said with a smirk.

“Vivien, Bentley,” Butchy replied curtly. “Please meet two of the newest members of our groups.” He quickly gestured to Lela, who waved. “This is my sister, Lela, or, as you may know, Disco. Her group just got bumped to Level 7.”

“Nice to meet you,” Lela said with a bright smile. It sounded wrong hearing that from her when I’d known her for so long. “Butchy’s told me a lot about you guys.”

“Likewise,” Vivien said with a smile. “Congrats on the promotion.

Butchy then turned to Mick, saying, “This is Makana Birch, she just transferred from the California sector. Codename, Wave Breaker.”

I turned my attention to Mick, only to find her watching me curiously. “Nice to meet you,” I offered.

“Same to you,” she replied. “Sorry for staring, but you look very familiar.”

“He was in the fight against Inferno last night,” Butchy explained. 

Mick nodded with a soft hum. “That must be where I know him from, then.” Her head turned quickly toward the other side of the room and I saw her eyes shimmer kind of like when you hold a glass of rootbeer in the sun before she turned to Butchy again. “Excuse me, my parents need me for a moment.”

Butchy nodded and Mick turned, catching my eye one last time and nodding to me before walking away. Butchy then turned to us with a small smile. “Now, what was it you came to me for?”

“We need to talk with either you or Mrs. Murphy,” Vivien explained. “It’s urgent.”

Butchy looked between us for a moment before telling Lela to go back to her group for a minute. Lela said goodbye to us before walking off, humming a song to herself. At least this version of her hadn’t changed much. Butchy crossed his arms and leaned against the wall before saying a simple, “Shoot.”

“This isn’t our Bentley,” Vivien explained. “He’s a Bentley, but he’s from a different universe.”

Butchy shook his head. “Look, kids, if this is how you’re trying to get out of training, it’s not your best plan.” 

“We’re not trying to get out of training,” Vivien said with a scoff.

“It’s true,” I said. Butchy’s eyes met mine and I almost jumped. He had two different colored eyes - one brown and one dark blue. “I swear. I can tell you everything about my world. Vivien can show it to you. Right, Viv?”

Vivien nodded and reached up, sending a pulse of green light into Butchy’s head as her eyes began glowing the same color. It didn’t surprise me as much when Butchy’s eyes began glowing too. I guess mine had done the same thing when she went into my head. In almost no time at all, she pulled back and the glow in their eyes stopped all at once.

Butchy’s attention turned back to me as he sighed, “Do you have any abilities?”

“I like to think I’m very artistic,” I offered.

Butchy smiled at me and placed a hand on my arm. “I bet you’re a wonderful artist, kiddo, but I meant magical abilities. Can you fly?”

“No, and before you ask, I can’t throw cars either,” I replied. “Vivien already asked me that.”

“Do you know how to do hand-to-hand combat?” Butchy tried in a hopeful tone.

“I sometimes play fight with my brothers back home,” I answered. “Does that count?

Butchy let out a long breath. “Alright, we’ll try it for a few. I should bring you up to your mother since she probably knows how to deal with this sort of thing, but I know she’s got meetings until this afternoon. So, I guess you can either sit on the sidelines and watch or you can try to get some training in. The choice is yours.”

I looked around the room. Mick and her parents were talking with Lela in one corner. Miles and a few other people were talking, standing by a line of punching bags. Then there was Royce. He was sitting on a stack of thick exercise mats with some red-headed girl who looked vaguely familiar and was too busy talking to notice that Royce wasn’t paying her any attention. He was too busy watching me, Viv, and Butchy to even bother listening to the girl who sat right next to him. I raised a hand and offered him a small wave and all he did was give me a short nod before turning away. Maybe he wasn’t as mad at me as he was earlier.

“Who would I train with?” I asked as I turned my attention back to Butchy.

“Normally, you would train with one of your brothers,” he said, “but after last night, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”

“I still don’t know what happened last night,” I sighed. “I know Vivien said we fought, but-”

“Fought is an understatement,” Butchy cut in. “I heard the yelling from four floors up. You jumped in front of Royce and got hit by a weapon called the Ring of Fire. It has the same heat level as one of the sun’s solar flares and it should have killed you, but Miles said you were able to walk it off and keep fighting.”

“Is that why they were so mad?” I asked. “Because their version of me could’ve died?”

Butchy nodded. “I’m surprised they even let you out of the apartment.”

I thought it over for a while. It made sense. If they were so worried about me, it only makes sense that they’d be mad at me for not caring if I would be alive or dead. “Can I train with Royce, then?” I asked.

Butchy looked worried, but that changed when he glanced over at Royce. “Royce wants to talk with you, but he’s not sure how the outcome will be. He doesn’t think you should be training after getting hurt last night, but he won’t say anything since he doesn’t want to cause a scene.”

“How do you know?” I asked.

“Butchy can read minds when he looks at someone, among a lot of other things,” Vivien stated. “He’s kind of like your mom’s five-star general, in a way.”

“Cool,” I breathed.

“You should be fine to train with him if you explain what’s going on,” Butchy stated as he turned back to us. “Vivien, stay with them, yeah?”

“Yeah, sure thing, boss man,” Viv said with a smile before taking my hand and leading me to the opposite side of the room. “Now, when we’re in the ring, you need to distract him. Get him so distracted by you that he doesn’t notice I’m behind him, then I’ll hit him with the same vision I gave Butchy.”

“You think it’ll be that easy?” I asked.

“If you can think of something that will shock him enough,” she said. “Maybe act like he hurt you. The other Bentley got injured on his left side last night and refused to let Royce use his powers to heal him, so if you can act like he hit you in the same spot, I bet it would do the trick. Maybe it would even get Miles to come over and we’d get a two-for-one combo.”

“Isn’t that a bit cruel?” I questioned.

“Maybe, but so was how they treated you after you saved Royce’s ass.” Vivien sighed, “I was there. I would’ve done the same thing if I’d been able to.”

I nodded. I bet she would’ve. Regardless of their relationship status, she was still his friend. Vivien took my hand again and began walking while I looked around. Would I be able to distract him if I had no powers? I couldn’t fly like his brother could and I certainly couldn’t lift heavy things and throw them around like they were baby toys. Maybe I’d try Viv’s method. It was the only thing I could think of, apart from just talking to him, that could actually work.

As we began walking toward Royce, Viv said to me, “See the girl with Royce?” I nodded. “That’s the girl I was telling you about earlier - Serena, also known as Siren. She’s a bitch, but she’s always clinging to Royce so I can only imagine they like each other.”

So that was why she looked familiar! She was the girl Royce had gone out with a while back. I guess things didn't really change much between dimensions if the look of irritation in Royce’s eyes told me anything. He looked ready to send her flying into a brick wall, but I wasn’t about to tell Vivien that before getting her into the ring. “Well, too bad for her. We need him now.”

As we neared Royce and Serena, Vivien coughed to get Royce’s attention. “You ready to train?” she asked him.

Before Royce got the chance to say anything at all, Serena said, “He’s training with me today, O’Brian. Why don’t you and the kid go train with someone else?”

There was a noticeable spark of green in Vivien’s eyes as she said, “He’s training with us on Butchy’s orders, Sullivan. If you want to argue over it, you can take it up with the boss.”

Royce quickly got to his feet and followed us over to a small, enclosed arena that lit up as we opened the glass door. As we stepped inside, Serena let out a shriek of frustration before Butchy told her to shut it. Once we were in the arena, an overhead speaker buzzed. As Vivien led us into the middle of the square-shaped ring, it began talking; “Mind Mistress, level 8. Figment, level 8. Psionic, level 8. Training will commence once you take your places.”

“Which one am I?” I asked Vivien quietly.

“You’re Figment. At first, you flew so fast that people thought they were imagining things so you went with Figment,” Vivien answered in a whisper. “I’m Mind Mistress and Royce is Psionic.”

Then, a moment after Vivien had finished speaking, the voice in the speaker came back, saying, “Siren, level 7.”

I turned around and found Serena smirking at us as she entered the ring. The glass walls of the arena blackened as the door shut behind Serena. Maybe Vivien could take out some of her frustration out on Serena while I handled Royce. I turned to Vivien and said, “Change of plans.”

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“You can take on Serena, right?” Vivien nodded. “Good. Do what you can to her while I distract him. When you get the chance, take it. I’ll say whatever I can to throw him off.”

“Got it,” Vivien said with a small smile. “You’re a pretty smart kid.”

I smiled. I didn’t hear that often from people outside of my little circle of family and friends. I'd only known this Vivien for a few hours, but she was almost exactly like the one back home. Maybe that was why it was so easy to like her. “Thanks.”

The voice above the ring began to count down from twenty, so Vivien instructed me to go to the corner of the ring that was opposite Royce and told me to do whatever I could think of to hold him off. I wished her good luck and took the corner next to hers, meeting gazes with Royce. He looked kind of nervous and it didn’t take me long to figure out why as I remembered what Butchy had said. Royce didn’t want me to train because the other me got hurt and, according to Vivien, hadn’t let him heal it. He didn’t want to fight me. Maybe I could just talk with him instead.

The countdown finally reached one and a buzzer sounded, allowing us to fight. I jumped as Vivien cast a beam of green magic in Serena’s path, slamming her into the wall behind her. I quickly turned back to Royce as I saw his eyes turn a shade of bright orange - his favorite color. Before he could do anything, though, I decided to speak up, “Can we talk?”

The glow in his eyes faded a bit as he said, “You want to talk? Really? Now, of all times?”

“Yeah,” I replied, hoping the shrug I sent him could be taken as a good thing. “We can still spar and stuff, but I had time to think stuff over and I think I’m ready.”

Royce nodded. “Okay,” he said. “We can talk it over while we go at it, yeah?”

“Sure,” I replied softly. Before I could even think twice, I had to duck as a burst of orange magic came my way.

“Good dodge,” Royce complimented as I took a few steps to the side.

“Thanks,” I breathed, lunging at him. He quickly blocked my incoming fist with a small orange shield. “You too. Now, I have something important to tell you so you’re going to have to bear with me, okay?” 

Royce nodded before taking a step closer to me and attempting to latch onto my arm with a glowing hand. “Go for it.”

“I’m not your real brother,” I said quickly, ducking under the arm he swung and moving behind him.

“What are you talking about?” Royce asked as he turned back to me.

“I’m Bentley, but I’m from a different universe,” I explained. “You see, I went to sleep in a cabin that our aunt and uncle own, but I woke up this morning in a different place and-”

Royce huffed as he gripped my wrist and pulled me closer to him, whispering to me, “Bentley, cut the shit. You’re not going to get out of all of this by making up stories.”

“I’m not making up stories, that’s the thing!” I exclaimed. “I swear, I’m telling you the truth.”

“Then why don’t I believe you?” Royce questioned as the glow in his hand disappeared and I pushed him away with my free hand so we were staring at each other again. The orange in his eyes was still very much present, but it wasn’t as bright as it had been.

“I don’t know, but I’m trying to explain it to you,” I sighed, keeping my arms close to my chest in case I needed to block an attack from him. “I don’t know what else to tell you. I’m not your little brother. I belong to a different world.”

“Oh yeah? Prove it,” he ordered, swinging an arm over my head as I ducked.

“How am I supposed to do that?” I asked incredulously, jabbing forward as I did. “If you drop me from the side of the building, I’ll go splat because I can’t fly. If you toss a car at me, I’ll get crushed to death because I won’t be able to lift it. What do you want from me, Royce?”

Royce turned a kick into a spin as I backed away from him. He scoffed, “A little honesty would be nice.”

“I’m being honest with you!” I insisted. “Man, if this is how you guys treat this version of me, it’s no wonder he decided to run away the first chance he got.”

“What are you talking about?” he questioned, sending a punch in the direction of my face. I only felt it graze my nose as I wasn’t quick enough to move, but it was enough to jerk my head to the side. He was a lot stronger than he looked. 

“I already told you!” I huffed as I faced him again, swiping quickly at my nose to make sure it wasn't broken or anything before returning to my defensive stance. “I’m not your brother. He’s in my world and I’m in his. It’s not that hard to understand!”

Royce rolled his eyes. “Enough of this bullshit!” he yelled as he took a step in my direction. Almost instantly, I could feel his anger and frustration. It was thick and heavy making it hard to breathe as the air around the two of us seemed to get warmer. In a way, it kind of felt like when you have to run the mile on the track for gym class when it's humid out. It wasn't the greatest feeling. “You’re not from some other world, Bentley. You’re still in trouble for all the stupid shit you did yesterday.”

I took a step back, sparing a quick glance at Vivien and seeing her deliver a blow to Serena that sent the redhead to the floor in a heap. “I am from another world! Vivien had to explain to me why the brothers I was having a good day with yesterday were so ticked off with me today. Besides, if the other me saved your life, was it really all that dumb?”

“It was so stupid, Bentley, just like you!” he yelled, reaching out for my wrist again as his eyes began glowing orange again.

“I am not stupid!” I argued loudly, dodging Royce’s attempts and taking a step closer to him as I watched the glow in his eyes spread. “You’re the one being stupid. You’re yelling at the wrong person!”

“No,” he replied with a dry laugh as I saw Vivien approaching us, “I’m yelling at a stubborn fucking idiot who refuses to admit he was wrong!”

“I’m not a fucking idiot!” I screamed, taking another step closer and pushing him away before throwing my hands out to the side.

Almost instantly, we both froze. A golden ball of blinding light formed between us, growing larger and larger. I took a few steps back as it expanded, eventually getting to the point where I was nearly against the wall because it was so massive. In an instant, it looked as though it was almost forming a shape, but it shone brightly before shrinking and disappearing completely. With the space between us now empty, I stared at Royce for a moment as he stared at me, the orange in his eyes now long gone. The silence in the training square was deafening as we just stared in fear at each other.