NEVER EVER

Chapter One: The End.

HE EXHALED loudly, hoping to clear his mind long enough to separate the wheat and chaff of his thoughts. A few more times of this action made him realize he was wasting precious time as this action wasn't returning the desired effect.
Lifting his head, he watched his fellow teenage partner walk back and forth across the dark room, illuminated only by the really dull and awkward late noon light that permeated through the sides of both windows' curtains - his own tactic of gathering his thoughts.

Atop his pacing friend's short black hair sat an extra layer of brown. It was dust that had parked unto his hair as it had been a while before his head met water, more so the rest of him. Part of his t-shirt was missing and his jeans were gradually mutating into jorts. The skin under his eyes were dark and baggy.

The other teen, still sitting on a rock near the center of the room, sighed again. He wasn't one to talk about appearances though, as his own brown hair, and the rest of him, was just as much bathed in muck, dust and markings of dry blood as their dire situation had forcefully tossed hygiene out the window. His eyes were tired too.
His favorite green short-sleeve shirt, or what was left of it, had cuts, mostly near vital organs. His pants used to be light grey and now they weren't.
His light-brown eyes continued to toss their gaze about, taking in the rubble and debris. He was still having a hard time trying to figure out how it all went wrong.
Everything was... changing.
They'd originally come to the city a day before the first changes occurred in an attempt to prevent them... now the feeling of defeat clung tightly on their throats.
His attention returned back to his partner, still pacing, trying to haul in new ideas for a plan B... just like he should have been doing, instead of watching someone stroll the room. He'd gotten distracted.

"Flash," he called to his partner, "Stop pacing."
"After you stop tapping your foot." Flash pointed out.
He hadn't noticed he'd been tapping his foot. He exhaled heavily once more.
"And that too." Flash continued, his sharp blue eyes showing he was annoyed, "Stop making old factory noises like the rest of the city!" his arm gestured towards the closest window. They just looked at each other.
They were both frustrated.
Flash was about to say something else when they both felt their skins crawl.
A large explosion followed. A rush of dry wind led in more dust as it burst past the curtains. The two covered their faces.

Enough dust had settled to let them see the cause of the explosion.
"Jay..." Flash called slowly.
"Yeah, I'm alright." He said as he spat out the dust invading his mouth.
"Nah dude, not alright. Come take a look at this."
Jay got up, dusted himself then moved toward the window.
It didn't take long for his face to follow the lead of Flash's awe-stricken expression. A structure, skyscraper-like, was phasing into existence right in front of their eyes... it literally came out of nowhere.
Besides that, the skies were just as filled with fumes as the moment when the changes began. Maybe a little darker than before, choking out more and more sunlight.
"Damn! Another one?!"
"That's not right..." Flash said in almost a whisper.
"I know..."
"The temporal displacement shouldn't occur this quickly!"
"I know."
"Especially for... for... whatever the hell those are. They're too big for such short period of time."
"I know."
"This is really bad, dude."
"I said I know, dammit!"
It was quiet for a moment.
"What do we do, Ja-vu?"
"I..." Jay slumped into the floor with his back against the wall, "I don't know, Flash. I just don't know."
Another loud sigh.

"We'll figure something out." Flash sat next to Jay, "We're Flashback and Deja-Vu. We always find a way."
Jay had known Flash long enough to see through the fake optimism but played along anyways because there wasn't much else to do.
"My codename is lame." Jay chuckled.
"But you're stuck with it. That's why I call you Jay instead, or at least Ja-vu. Besides, there are worse codenames than that."
"Like whom?" the tone of disbelief was as clear as ever.
"Remember Camo-Man?" he answered gleefully.
They both laughed.
"I still remember thinking 'Wait, what? Camel Man?' when I first heard him say it."
They continued to laugh. It was calming at the moment.
Then the moment passed.
"I still can't find anyone." Flash stated, his words making the air heavy again. Not Big E or Climax. The Elkems, Grafreaky - not even guys from Cobalt."
"Yeah, I guess that that's to be expected. The changes in the timeline haven't become permanent yet but they are there and because of that there's a sort of... static. Too much for us to see through clearly, late along walk through."
"But it's clearly this city. It's the epicenter of all this mess."
"Yeah. It's kind of hard to miss when the effects are of this..." Jay gestured at the environment as he struggled to come up with a more fitting word, "...magnitude."
"And we still can't change anything there, can we?"
"Nope. Not until we can find the exact cause." he tossed a pebble.
Dead silence claimed supremacy once more over the room.