"H- hi-!" John blurts out. Everyone backs off. "What if it's the shapeshifter in disguise?" Kaidan asks. The mugger points at the sky, they all peek their heads over and see the shapeshifter on, what looks like, her own floating planet in the sky, flying and souring around it. "It's really him." John looks confused. "She's just taken over the world it seems and she's flying around like a child." "Wouldn't you do the same with those powers?" The gnome asks. "Oh 100%." John confirms. They all duck back down under the drain, as if it's some sort of bunker. "So... we're chill?" John asks. "We have bigger problems." The gnome states. "Sorry for calling you a crackhead." "Oh no it's fine, I absolutely do crack." Kaidan jumps up in excitement. "See! I was right!" "Shh!! Calm down Kaidan!" John tries to get everybody quiet. "When she reset everything, it should've also reset where the book is." The gnome states. "Reset?" Everyone else asks in unison. "Yes, reset. I know my shit." They all accept that. "Well.." John starts, clearly not about to like whatever he has to say. "We can't just walk over there. But this drain connects to the one by the creek at the tennis court." Everyone stares at him, not happy.
They make it through the drain and to the other side, after about 10 minutes of walking through the drain, and the gnome finds the book. "This is your doing." He says, looking at Kaidan and John. "So you two are fixing it." He says as he turns around and opens the book. "I'm going to open a portal, and you're going to go there and fight this bastard." "She's extremely strong!" "I think you'll find some ease figuring out how to beat the bastard." The gnome and mugger look at each other. "What are you keeping from us?!" John screams out. "Come on man, let's just do this shit." Kaidan says, convincingly. But not convincingly enough. "No, tell us." "You're just-" the gnome starts. "Kids?" John finishes, having heard this a million times. "I've heard that so much here. We may be kids, but we stop being kids when you involve us in this bullshit!" A shiver goes up everyone's spine. "You either keep us out of it and let us be kids, or involve us and tell us what the fuck is going on! You can't have both!" The gnome and the mugger stare at each other for a moment. "I think.... You're supposed to find out on your own." The gnome says, before John can say anything back, the gnome starts a chant. "Courtus levitus, courtus levitus, courtus levitus!" They watch as a rip in the air creates, creating ripples of reality. "Go." Wind pulls them towards the portal, but not so strong they can't keep their balance. Kaidan takes a foot forward. "Woooah-!" It lifts his feet off the ground and sucks him into the portal. John looks at the mugger and gnome, before jumping through. Once he's in, the portal closes behind him. John goes through a loop for about a minute inside of the portal, before finally falling out of the portal and gets up with Jade pointing at him, looking terrified. "Wh... wha?" John lets out. Kaidan screams as loud as he can. "WH- WHAT?!" Kaidan then screams even louder.
About a minute earlier:
Kaidan falls out of the portal with Jade following immediately after. Kaidan doesn't realize at first. "Ok, John, I'm gonna be real, I'd fuck the shit out of this Jade ho, even though she's you and a-" Kaidan then realizes who he's with. "AHHHHHHH IT WAS A JOKE-!" Jade has an extremely large blush on her face. "J- JUST SHUT UP! IT'S ME! I'M-!" She seems disgusting to have to mutter this name out. "JOHN!" "That did not come off naturally." Kaidan said, very nonchalantly. "Sorry." "You're stuttering like a girl." "Wh- what?!" Jade gets clearly offended. "No! Look, JADE, the SHAPESHIFTER, is about to come through that portal. She's gonna look like me. Or- like I used to. If she stutters, you pick me, m'kay?" Kaidan just stares at her. "No-" John flies through the portal. He takes a moment, but finally stands up to see Jade pointing at him, looking terrified. "Wh... wha?" John lets out. Kaidan screams as loud as he can. "WH- WHAT?!" Kaidan then screams even louder. "I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!" "SHE'S JADE!!!!" "I DON'T KNOW WHO'S WHO!" John looks Kaidan in the eyes. "Kaidan, who looks like John?" "You." "And, who looks like Jade?" Kaidan looks and Jade for a moment, then back at John. "Oh yeah." Jade shoots into the air, leaves following behind her. They watch her shoot into the sky, then look down and see an open portal. "What's that?" "Shitttt... the fucking time portal is still thereeeee.... WHY CAN'T I GET RID OF IT?!" John looks down in confusion. "Time portal.. the hell..?" "Holy. Shit." Kaidan lets out. "What?" John asks. "I've figured it out. Notice Jade's outfit today? Look familiar?" John stares hard at it. "Yeah... that's the one from the day we met her." "And the portal?" "That's the portal she came out of." "And what did she just call it?" "A... a time... HOLY SHIT!" John finally came to the realization. They knock her into that time portal, where she has to fight their past selves again, and again, and again, I'm an endless loop. An anomaly. "Kaidan." John let's out. "Let's get this bitch." Kaidan finishes. They run to her as fast as they can, and she swipes her hand like a cat, pushing a gust of wind in their direction, which lifts them off their feet and blows them back. "SHIT-!" They both fly back. John mutters: "We're screwed." "But we're not." They hear. They look behind them and see... "Madelyn?!" "Hiya!" Their friend Madelyn from school floats down. "ARE WE THE ONLY NORMAL PEOPLE HERE?!" Madelyn runs out and begins throwing what look like balls of light at Jade, these seem to be actually hurting her. "SHE MIGHT HAVE THIS!" Kaidan and John start inching closer to cheer Madelyn on. John keeps good distance though. Kaidan, however, runs out right next to Madelyn, right before Jade pushes a giant version of what she's throwing at Kaidan and Madelyn. Madelyn flies back, getting very beat up from her skin pushing against the ground, not nearly as hurt as Kaidan is getting. The blast puts so much force on Kaidan that he screams out in pain, the ground broke his ribs. "KAIDAN!" John runs to him, but something hits John's back hard, he yelps out in pain, before realizing it's Jade with her foot on his back. "Just so you know.." John mutters out. "I have a foot and selfcest fetish." "Funny. Attempting to kill me is just avoiding the inevitable." John goes from cocky, to confused. "What... 'inevitability?'" "Becoming me." Now John is really confused. "What.. the fuck.. are you talking about?" "Jade..." "That's not my name." "You want it to be. You've been thinking about changing it to Jade for a year now, right?" Madelyn stares. "Oh no.. DON'T LISTEN! SHE'S JUST TRYING TO DISTRACT YOU!" "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT?" "Because, I'm you, Jade." A shiver goes up John's spine, he's never felt more cold than he does right now. "What.... What are you talking about..." "I'm you. From the future." John has never felt more terror, and self loathing at the same time. "NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!" He yelps out, before Madelyn brings up her hand, and shoots out a blast, sending Jade back into her portal. She gets up, and walks over to John. "Now that... you know... would you like to start going by Jade now? I'm comfy calling you that." John lays there for a moment. "And be affiliated with that sociopath? Not a great look for trans people, is it? I'll think of something else." Madelyn smirks, and gives John a hand in standing up. "She/her would be nice, though." "Heh. Got it, madam." John smirks, but her smile quickly fades and turns to terror. "KAIDAN!" She runs over to him and shakes his body, but he's not moving. "His broken ribs punctured his heart." Madelyn says quietly. "NO! NO! WE CAN FIX THIS! WE CAN FIX THIS, CAN'T WE?! CAN'T WE?!" Madelyn stands there for a moment. "I'm sorry." "DON'T-" John starts, but can't finish. The blinding white and ringing returns to her ears and eyes.
Ah. This again. How long this time? I guess I'll see the day again.. in a few days.
...
The whiteness fades and she lies there on the ground of the tennis court. She looks around, the sky has regained its color, and so have the people. She gets a few looks, but doesn't get off the ground.
YOU ARE READING
Tilted Acres
FantasyJ and Kaidan choose to put down their game and go outside. And it, changes, everything. J goes through a lot of change, messes with time, makes friends, and foes, and loses friends and foes. J becomes a new person, hates the old one, then hates the...
