Alter-Native

Chapter one

The green-haired man was in his office going through the holographic computer and trying to figure out a way to make everyone in his world obey him. It was hard at first and with Golden Dawn constantly on his ass, it made things harder to come up with something. Even so, all the weapons that he could search up were nothing more than rubble at this point, ancient objects that no longer had any sort of value. He pressed some holographic buttons on his desk and continued to search through all the websites, until he came across one. A staff, naturally called The Staff of Sameness, the website barely had much to say about it but for the most part he figured it out. Alter egos were his main goal, everyone had one. For now he only could control most of his enemies egos, all except for one. But if he could get his hands on the staff then maybe he could control everyone and not risk worrying about someone trying to stop him. Especially Golden Dawn.

Sliding his screen over, he pulled up two files, one of a man with red and brown hair and the other with blue and dirty blonde hair. Ethan and Mark were the perfect candidates that could help him get it. The staff was housed in a museum which the public still went to and explored. Anti closed his virtual computer and moved his hand over the table, a small white button appeared with the word call on it. He pressed the button and spoke through his room since his voice was often picked up within the house.

"Mark Fischbach and Ethan Nestor please come see me in my office now." Anti said and removed his hand from the button allowing it to disappear. Not a moment too soon, Mark stepped through the door first, dressed in a bathrobe. Anti made a mental note to talk to him about showing up professionally. "What are you wearing?"

"Something to cover my scars, what can I do for you boss?" Mark asked, slicking his hair back. Anti pressed two fingers to the bridge of his nose but cleared his throat.

"First, next time I summon you, make sure you wear something decent," Anti responded. "And second I have just discovered something that might help us take full control, it's called the staff of Sameness." snapping his fingers the same holographic image of the staff appeared before him showing a staff with two prongs and twisting wood. Before Anti could explain more, Ethan came bursting through the doors, his hair was a mess and his tuxedo wasn't even on correctly. "Good of you to finally join us Ethan, now as I was saying it's in the museum of centuries old artifacts, I need both of you to go to that museum and steal it." Mark's face dropped in shock when he processed what Anti had told him.

"Both?! Sir Ethan can't get a single job done without messing up, besides I work alone." Mark responded.

"Hey now that's not true," Ethan said. "Remember that painting in Amontillo? I successfully stole that," he continued. "Until Golden Dawn's best resistance fighters stole it back." Ethan rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed.

"See I told you that he can't handle a job, and besides how did Jaylen and Penson beat you again?" Mark asked.

"Um, actually Mark it's Jared and Jensen," Ethan said. "Not to mention i've done an extensive search on them and.." Anti looked between the men, they were his best thieves and yet the two could barely even work together. The argument between the two kept going, which started to annoy Anti. With a swing of his arm he slammed his fist on his desk so hard that it shook the entire table making the image disappear.

"Enough!" Anti yelled. "Mark, you will work with Ethan and you will get me that staff, if you think he can't handle the job then make sure that he does everything right! I'm through arguing and my patience is waning, I want that staff now and if any of those resistance fighters try to get in the way including Jared and Jensen don't hesitate to crush them! Now get out of my sight!"

"Yes of course sir we won't let you down." Mark responded and the two left leaving Anti alone to his thoughts, he sighed heavily and sat back in his chair. Thinking about all the horrible things he would be able to do once he had the staff in his hands, maybe he could even do something else he'd always wanted, permanent release of all light leaving nothing but discord. Of course, he had a hard time believing that the fate of the world rested on his two men that could barely work together.

***

"I'm telling you it's rigged," Jared said as he watched his best friend attempt to get a perfect score on target practice with a hand behind his back. "If Chase sees you doing this again..."

"I'm sure he won't mind." Jensen responded but the targets moved fast thankfully Jensen got most of it but didn't quite reach the perfect score. "Damn it."

"I told you it was rigged," Jared commented. "Although I find it easier to not aim at the target and aim where it's going to be," he made his point and threw a dagger, it landed directly in the center of a target. "Still got it," Jensen mumbled about him being a show-off but their training was interrupted by the dinging of Jensen's watch. "Let me guess, your children?"

"Correction it's JJ, I better get this before Daneel catches her out of bed." Jensen responded. Jared shot his best friend a smile before leaving the room to answer the call.

"Yes boss?" Jared said as the holographic video of Chase appeared before him. "Why do you look worried?"

"Anti is up to no good again, I need you and Jensen to get to my office and I'll tell you more." Chase responded.

"We're on the way." Jared responded and hung up to go and get Jensen.