THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM, PT 1
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“What are you doing again?” Dang asked his doppelganger as he stepped out of his room, patting down his unruly hair that he’d just oiled. He peers over Other-Dang as he walks past, getting a good look at what he’s doing on the computer. “Anomaly tracker?” Dang said as he pursed his lips. “Don’t we already have one of those?”
“I’m upgrading,” Other-Dang answered. “I need a tracker that’s picking up on things more relevant than a necklace. I want to find real anomalies, the kind that might lead me to answers, that might lead us to answers.”
“What if the anomaly that leads us to answers is a necklace?” Dang asks. “Or maybe a ring. Or maybe some piece of cosmic jewelry like bracelets and whatnot…I mean, you never know, right?”
“I’ll take my chances,” Other-Dang said.
“Alright then,” Dang shrugged. “I’m heading to school now; guess I’ll see you later.”
“Sure, whatever.”
“And remember–,”
“If anything comes up, I call you first, yeah yeah, I know. What happened with the hero kids won’t happen again,” Other-Dang rolled his eyes. “Now get out of my hair, I’m trying to focus and get some good work done here so, you know, we can stop your world from being conquered or destroyed when Bellum inevitably gets here.”
“Yeah,” Dang responded and was about to head for the exit when he paused, a thought popping into his head. He turned and looked at his doppelganger. “Can you cloak yourself? You know, like make yourself appear less cyborg and a more simple, boring human and all of that?”
“With clothes or holographic projection, yes,” Other-Dang answered, turning around to glare at Dang. “Why do you ask?”
“I think you could benefit from going to school with me,” Dang said. “It’d be good for you to, you know, have some company and all of that. And of course, it goes without saying that it would also let me keep my eyes on you more efficiently.”
“I’m far too smart for your mundane schooling,” Other-Dang declared. “Especially in a primitive world like this. It would be an insult to my intellect if I did such a thing.”
“Ouch,” Dang feigned a hurt expression but then smiled. “I’m serious, man. Come with me today, see what it’s like for yourself. If you absolutely hate it then sure, I’m not going to try to force it…but you should at least give it a shot. It’ll be much better than remaining in this observatory all day long. Plus they’ve got computers too so you can work on your tracker there too, it won’t really be taking a lot of time away from you.”
Other-Dang’s shoulders slumped and he sighed. “Fine,” he said, rising to his feet. “But if I absolutely hate my first day at your school, I’m going to blow the damn place off and then I’ll find you and pummel you.”
“Fair enough,” Dang grinned.
Other-Dang hurried to freshen up and groom himself so he looked appropriate enough for school. He put on Dang’s clothes and then with his holographic projection, made any parts of him that stood out look mundane. On the way to school, a thought popped into Other-Dang’s head.
“You know they’re going to want to know my name, right?” Other-Dang asked, a frown creasing his face. “At the school, I mean. Won’t it be weird if there’s a new student enrolling who looks just like you and has your exact name?”
“Well, come up with a new name then,” Dang suggested. “An alias or something. Like John Doe. John Smith. Lucas Storm.”
“Lucas Storm?” Other-Dang arched one eyebrow over the other.
“It’s a character from a video game I really like,” Dang confessed but then quickly turned serious. “But for real, you should come up with an alias, it might also make things a little less annoying when it comes to how the both of us address each other. It’d be nice to be able to call you a name that isn’t my own name.”
“Why don’t you adopt an alias?” Other-Dang demanded.
“Because this is my universe, buddy. If I ever get the chance to visit your universe, trust me, I’ll be more than happy to take on any alias you want me to and let you keep your name as is. But for now, my universe, my rules.”
“I’ve never had to use an alias before,” Other-Dang said deep in thought.
“First time for everything, right?”
“Considering how I’m talking to another version of myself, yeah, there really is a first time for everything. Alright, I’ll come up with something on the way.”
They spent half the ride to school brainstorming names Other-Dang could operate with while at school or while at any place that could see some confusion stirred up if they had the same name and face which, if they were being completely honest, was literally every place on Earth. Except maybe Florida and Alabama.
“Kyrie,” Dang suggested. “Popular basketballer, cool name.”
“No.”
“How about Sammie?”
“What, like from Samantha?”
“No, from like Samuel, you know,” Dang said as he furrowed his brows in thought. “Or maybe Samson? There’s a lot of names you could get Sammie from.”
“Why not just Sam?”
“Do you want me to call you Sam?”
“No.”
Dang sighed and remained mute the rest of the ride. When they arrived at school, they encountered a tall, thin man with rough brown hair that had straw and bits of paper sticking out, his face covered in soot and dirt, a broken wristwatch on his left wrist. He reeked of all the things a person shouldn’t reek of, and once they alighted from the car, they were on the receiving end of a malicious look from him.
“Don’t even think about it, buddy,” Once they arrived at school, they were on the receiving end of expected odd glances and double takes from people who seemed confused by the sight of Dang and an identical counterpart they’d never once before seen. They didn’t ask any questions though, only gaped as Dang and Other-Dang walked past them, even through the school’s corridors.
The first people to speak to them were a girl and boy. The girl had on a baggy hoodie and sweatpants with a black-striped white beanie sitting on her head. The boy wore a dark red waistcoat over a white shirt, paired with black trousers and white sneakers, sunglasses over his eyes, his hair a frizzy afro with a captain’s hat sitting crookedly on it.
The boy pushed his glasses downward, revealing one slightly bruised eye. He examined the both of them. “Ah, it’s you guys,” he said. “Dang and Multiverse Dang.”
“Wombat?” Other-Dang queried.
“Daniel,” the boy corrected quickly, shooting a wary glance at everyone who moved past them, hoping no one had heard Other-Dang. “Don’t address me with my codename when we’re in school.”
“Wait, you go to school with them?” Other-Dang looked at Dang.
“We’ve never interacted at school,” Dang said, narrowing his eyes at Megan and Daniel. “We had an agreement. Our personal lives don’t intersect.”
“Yeah, that was until the whole multiv–,”
“Don’t use that word again,” Dang said sharply, looking around them. “Don’t say anything about, well, anything while we’re here, okay? Do what you’ve always done, keep a low profile…no talk about extra-curricular activities, do you understand?”
“Of course,” Daniel grinned mischievously, sliding his hands into his pockets. “Copy you loud and clear, chief. So, what have we got first period?”
“Gotta enroll this mook first,” Dang said. “I can already feel my wallet’s tears.”
“Cool,” Megan said. “You’ll like it here.” They said to other dang, almost being cordial about it.
“With the both of you here?” Other-Dang asked. “I sincerely doubt it.”
“Aw, come on,” Daniel said and threw an arm across Other-Dang’s shoulders. “Don’t be like that, man. You’re not still salty about the ass whooping, are you? Look, it happens…sometimes you’ve got it and sometimes you don’t, don’t get hung up over it.”
“From the guy who’s hiding a purple eye with sunglasses?” Dang queried. “That’s ironic.”
“Let’s just get this over with,” Other-Dang sighed.
“What name you going with?” Daniel asked. “Not to kill the mood but you can’t exactly call yourself Dang-Two, Other-Dang or Multiverse-Dang, you know? Gotta have a whole new name and identity and all that shebang…Look, Meg and I know the whole secret identity thing in and out, we could be your guides.”
“No, thanks,” Other-Dang rolled his eyes. “I’ve already got an idea for a name,” he added, his eyes locked onto a student who strode past them, holding a thick leather-bound novel with a title emblazoned in gold onto its front. The title read: The Ballad of Daedalus and Icarus.
“Daedalus?” Dang asked once they emerged from the principal’s office forty minutes later. Enrolling his doppelganger had been a little stressful considering they were a month-and-a-half into the term, but they’d concocted a little sob story about his cousin being a refugee and whatnot and that had been enough to get Principal Lee to reconsider his stance on no more new enrollments. Plus, it didn’t hurt that Dang had been able to pay a full year’s tuition of $500,000 all at once on the spot. And so, he’d welcomed the newest student, one Daedalus Cog.
“A lot cooler than the names you suggested,” Daedalus shrugged as they rejoined Daniel and Megan, both of whom had waited for them outside Principal Lee’s office. “And I don’t know, the name sort of just came to me, like my mind was guided toward it. It felt right.”
“Well, Daedalus isn’t a very common name,” Dang said.
“I’m not a common person either,” Daedalus retorted, grinning slightly. “All you wanted was for us to not have the same name, right? Well, congrats, wish granted.”
“Alright, whatever,” Dang sighed. “We’ve got the same classes so we should have uhh–,” he glanced at his wristwatch. “Yep, we should have Geography right about now.”
“Meg and I have got history instead,” Daniel said, looking a little downcast, as though not being in the same period as the doppelgangers was something to be sad about. “But we’ve got Literature together after so I suppose we’ll see you guys then?”
“Hopefully not,” Daedalus muttered.
“Aww, love you too, buddy,” Daniel winked and blew kisses at Daedalus before walking away with Megan, his arm slung across their shoulder. Dang and Daedalus exchanged looks, sighed and headed in the direction of their Geography class.
Mr. Lincoln, the Geography teacher had been in the middle of explaining something to the class when Dang and Daedalus waltzed in. At once, he’d gone quiet, a look of confusion spreading across his face.
“Dang?” he asked, glancing from one doppelganger to the other, clearly struggling to process things. “You’ve got a brother?”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Uh, no, he’s my cousin,” Dang answered. “Daedalus. He’s only just joining us now.”
“Oh,” Mr. Lincoln said then cleared his throat hastily and adjusted the sleeves of his sky-blue shirt. He put on a warm smile. “Well, then I guess introductions are in order!”
Daedalus stared at the teacher then looked at Dang, a helpless expression on his face. Dang smirked at him, shrugged, and went to find his seat.
Daedalus looked around at the little over two dozen students who sat in the class, thinking up the least humiliating way to introduce himself. Finally, he decided to play it cool. He slid his hands into his pockets and slumped his shoulders a little, feigning a bored expression.
“Uh, hi,” he said, addressing the class. “I’m Daedalus. Daedalus Cog. And well, I’m new here, although I suppose that’s fairly obvious considering you haven’t seen me around before.”
He got some slight laughter then.
“Well, I suppose that’s it, right? Oh, and uh, great to be here.”
“Brilliant,” Mr. Lincoln said, though his voice was drowned out by the applause that followed.
Hands still buried in his pockets; Daedalus headed to get himself a seat.
Dang had taken his usual seat in the rear left half of the class, a seat that had been left empty since everyone knew well enough by now that it was where he would always sit. The one time he’d come to class and had a met a new student in his seat and been forced to sit elsewhere, he’d asked to use the bathroom in the middle of class and had skipped out on class for the rest of the day. When he’d come to school the following day, his seat had been vacant.
Sure, the fact that he had a preferred seat might have made most view him as eccentric, but he found that that specific seat treated him to maximum comfort. The air conditioning hit just right there, he was close enough to the window to bask in the glow of sunlight but not so close that the sunlight made work irritating to get through, or that made it harder for him to get a good enough look at the whiteboard. Not to mention, the rare left was where Chase, Liam and Chelsea tended to sit, some of the only people at his high school that he interacted with quite a bit. There were days when he thought he could actually even refer to them as friends, although he wasn’t very sure he was being much of a good friend if he was keeping them in the dark about his extra-curricular activities. Would they still sit so close to him in class if they knew he liked to protect billionaires and beat the crap out of thugs during his leisure time?
Most people his age loved watching anime and reading comics. He enjoyed pummeling the crap out of people who deserved it.
He wasn’t sure they’d understand that.
He took his seat. To his left was Chase, to his right Liam, and just ahead of him was Chelsea. Chase and Chelsea were siblings, twins, but not identical ones considering they’d leaned very strongly toward different halves of the gene pool. Chase had wavy brown hair that he’d let grow as long as his shoulders and dark green eyes. His nose was slightly crooked, his face a little round, and his cheeks dimpled very visibly. He was tall, taller than his sister, and a little chubby too. He wore a hoodie every day–Dang actually couldn’t think of a day when he hadn’t seen Chase in a hoodie.
Chelsea, on the other hand, had porcelain smooth skin, light blond hair cut short, light blue eyes, perfectly angled cheekbones, plush, red lips and a slender build. She was also the only one in their class with a tattoo, one on the back of her neck that was simply her name. That, of course, meant she was viewed as the coolest student in the class.
Liam was an Asian-American with dark hair he kept in a buzz-cut, and dark eyes that always gleamed with excitement.
“Dude, your cousin’s hot.” Chelsea looked back at Dang, her cheeks a little red, eyes mischievous. “Can I have his phone number?”
“He doesn’t have a phone,” Dang answered quickly and when he noticed the look of confusion on Chelsea’s face, he cleared his throat. “At the moment, I mean. It broke on his way from, erm, from the airport…yeah…so we’re planning to get him a new one after uhh, class today. Yep.”
“Oh,” Chelsea looked a little disappointed. “Well, he’s totes hot. When he gets a new phone, I want his number.”
“You do realize he looks exactly like me, right?” Dang stammered, appearing a little bewildered considering not once since he’d met Chelsea had she ever referred to him as hot. It wasn’t that he particularly cared, but he did find it a little weird that she viewed his doppelganger as hot and not him.
“Well, yeah, but I don’t know,” Chelsea looked in Daedalus’ direction, who’d made himself comfortable on the other end of the class. “He’s got that damaged look in his eyes, you know…I think it makes men hotter. You’re not quite there yet.”
“Right,” Dang drawled as he nodded.
You’ve got no idea - he’d wanted to say. But he decided against it and simply forced the most awkward smile ever, ending their brief conversation with that.
After class, Mr. Lincoln spoke to both Dang and Daedalus, wanting to check that Daedalus had pretty solid footing in Geography and wouldn’t be completely lost in all of the stuff they’d been doing. Daedalus said he understood fine and then went on a short ten-minute lecture of his own, summarizing everything Mr. Lincoln had said in class, leaving the teacher stunned and heavily impressed.
Once they’d left Lincoln, Dang looked at Daedalus, appearing just as stunned as Mr. Lincoln had been. “How?” he asked.
“Read a textbook in class,” Daedalus shrugged. “I remember stuff really well.”
“Showboat,” Dang muttered.
Next up was Literature class where Dang and Daedalus sat at a shared table that could take four, with Megan and Daniel joining them. Chelsea, Chase, Liam, and a different student took a nearby table.
The Literature teacher was a Professor Harold Jacobson, a man who’d lectured at some prestigious colleges but had decided in his old age to settle at a high school teaching level, deciding that teenagers were a lot easier to handle. Dang didn’t see how that was true–teenagers were incredibly irritating and he said that despite being part of the demographic himself.
They were supposed to read The Great Gatsby in class and attempt a brief analysis of it. Daedalus flipped through a copy of the book handed out and then sat it aside on the desk. “Read that already,” he said.
“Great Gatsby’s on your world?” Daniel asked.
“Yeah,” Daedalus nodded. “Written by a Jason Fitzgerald on my world though, but content’s about the same.”
“I guess there’s stuff that are just constants between universes?” Megan asked. “You guys have the Titanic on your world?”
“The what?” Daedalus asked as he tilted his head quizzically.
“Looks like that’s your answer,” Daniel chuckled.
Daniel and Megan wanted to talk strategy on dealing with multiversal threats during the class and it was only after a stern telling off from Dang that they stopped bringing up the subject especially since once, they mentioned the sentinels and Chase overheard and in response, he’d made a choking sound. They’d hastily covered up and said they were discussing making a board game a lot like Dungeons and Dragons. Chase had believed it and afterward, Daniel had apologized for being loud about it.
For the rest of the day, Dang and Daedalus shared classes with Daniel and Megan, as well as Chelsea and the others. In the Biology class just before final period, Chelsea had managed to sit right next to Daedalus and spent much of the class staring dreamily at him and striking up conversation, asking him stuff about where he was from, where he’d grown up, and if he was currently seeing anyone. Daedalus’ responses to all of her questions were rather measured, especially since he couldn’t risk saying anything multiversal in nature.
Final period was PE and Daedalus, the new student, was all the excitement, with everyone interested in seeing how well he’d perform during PE. For PE, they had to change into sleeveless jersey tops and shorts, the school’s PE uniform, but thankfully, Daedalus’ holographic projection kept up the image of him being a regular, dandy guy.
“No super stuff in PE,” Dang warned. “No super strength, no super speed, no chainsaw swords, nothing that might cause an alarm and get the Feds called in, alright?”
Daedalus nodded. “Sure.”
“But it’s okay to use just a little bit of special strength,” Daniel chimed in, grinning mischievously. “Watch me.”
They had the choice of participating in one of lacrosse, volleyball, basketball, dodgeball or just general athletics. Dang always opted for dodgeball, deeming it the one sport that had the least risk of him accidentally using his abilities or gravely injuring someone. After all, all you had to do was throw, dodge or catch, so as long as he refrained from throwing with excessive force or dodging with superhuman speed, he was fine.
The others: Daniel, Megan, Chase, Chelsea, Liam, and Daedalus all opted to participate in dodgeball too. Dang knew Chelsea did so just so she could continue to fantasize over Daedalus, considering she usually always participated in volleyball. And Liam and Chase only joined them because of Chelsea.
Coach Spike split the dodgeball participants into equally-numbered teams and had them square off, announcing they would move to 2v2s once teams were done. During the teams’ stage, Dang and Daniel ended up on one team, with Daedalus and Megan on the other.
“I’m not going to hold back,” Daniel told Megan.
Megan grinned. “Good.”
Dang hoped neither of them burnt down the school or had a tornado rip through it. The game started pretty standardly–with crappy, limp throws and incredibly easy dodges. It was only once Daniel started the trash talking that the game quickly heated up with players on the other team putting more force and effort in their throws, which prompted those on Dang’s team to respond in like manner.
Dang dodged pretty easily, but so too did Daedalus. Megan, on the other hand, was subtly manipulating the wind so that everything thrown at them missed, if only by an inch or two. Most others wouldn’t have noticed but Dang did, and so too did Daniel.
“No fair!” Daniel whined when a break was called.
“What happened to not holding back?” Megan queried. “All is fair in war, little one. Get good or get gone.”
“Oh, that’s cold,” Daniel said then rubbed his hands together, slight sparks flying from his fingertips. “Oh, it’s on.”
“You two better not do anything stupid,” Dang warned.
“Oh, relax, man,” Daniel smiled. “When have I ever done anything stupid?”
When the game restarted, Daniel focused all his throws on Megan, hurling the ball forward with excessive force; the sort the others noticed. The strength he used got a few onlookers watching in awe, commenting how they’d never really noticed how strong he was.
Thankfully, he refrained from coating his throws in flame so nothing he did was very obviously superhuman. Soon, Megan started to cheat too, reinforcing the throws from her team with added speed by manipulating the wind. This made it a little harder for Dang to dodge, especially when it was Daedalus’ throws being reinforced considering they’d been pretty hard to deal with on their own even without Megan complementing him.
Dang knew Megan had to be taken out of the game if his team would stand a chance. So, he tossed his sole rule out the window and decided to even the playing field.
Megan subtly redirected two high-speed balls at him, expecting them to catch him out. Dang drew a deep breath and then moved. He moved quickly, but not so quick that he might announce to his entire school that he possessed superhuman speed. He caught both balls Megan had sent at him, though it took some effort to weather the force in his hands so they didn’t send him flying.
Megan’s eyes widened, clearly surprised he’d been able to catch them.
“Haha, yes!” Daniel chuckled. “Let’s get it!”
Dang’s eyes narrowed and darkened. He bounced both balls in his hands, weighing them perfectly. And then he fired.
The first one shot through the air like a projectile, the air whipping behind it. Daedalus’ eyes widened and he dived to catch it, but he wasn’t able to stop the second from smashing straight into Megan’s face, knocking her backward and off her feet. She hit the ground hard and groaned loudly, eliminated from the game.
Once she rose to her feet, she made her way off the court, sticking her tongue out at Daniel as she went. Her exit meant that the only person on the other team they really needed to be worried about now was Daedalus and considering from the manner in which he was eyeing Dang and Daniel, he had no intention of holding back on his next throw.
Coach Spike puffed into his whistle, signifying it was okay for play to be restarted.
Dang pressed a finger against his ring and whispered. “Resonate.”
At once, he felt his skin harden, his bones get stronger and denser, his overall form feeling a lot sturdier. He cracked his neck, then challenged Daedalus. “Give it your best shot,” he said.
“With pleasure,” Daedalus scoffed.
His next throw was quick, quicker than Dang had expected, so fast such that such that people gasped while the ball ripped through the air. Dang couldn’t catch it. It shot into his stomach and knocked him backward, knocking the wind right out of him as well, leaving him gasping on the ground for a few seconds.
It shouldn’t have been possible, not while he’d been Resonating. But it’d happened. Daedalus had thrown that with a lot more strength than his previous throws, an unwise amount of strength, since people were now staring at him in awe, whispering and murmuring.
“Holy shit,” one student said.
“The new kid’s strong,” said another.
“Isn’t he perfect?” one sighed. It was Chelsea, staring dreamily at Daedalus, who had an odd expression of regret on his face, as though he hadn’t been intending to let loose by that much.
“Dude, are you good?” Daniel asked, offering Dang a hand to help him to his feet.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m okay,” Dang responded and rolled over so he was laying on his back. “I just need a few seconds to catch my breath.”
Once Dang caught his breath, he left the court to join the others who’d been knocked out by the sidelines. There, he sat, clutching his stomach, still in horrible amounts of pain from Daedalus’ throw. Despite this, he was doing his best to keep his face straight so his discomfort wasn’t clear to everyone.
The game ended in favor of Daedalus’ team with it being a 3v1 at the end, with Daniel as the last one standing on Dang’s team. He did his best avoiding most of the throws, but not having a teammate left him handicapped and not very long after the final round much of the other students were crowding Daedalus in celebration, praising the new student. Even Coach Spike, usually reserved with doling out praise, patted Daedalus on his back and gave him a nod which, in CoachSpikeLanguage, translated to: “Bloody hell, mate.”
Afterward, there were 2v2s, but Dang refrained from participating, as did the others, considering how dangerously close they’d come to going overboard with their abilities in the general team round. Once PE was over, Dang rose to his feet and announced he was heading to work.
“Do I come there with you too?” Daedalus asked.
“God no,” Dang answered, responding far too quickly and earning himself awkward looks from Daniel and Megan. “Work’s not what you think it is,” he said. “And I really don’t want multiversal stuff accompanying me to work, you know? I’d just like to sell sandwiches and ice cream in peace.”
“Alright,” Daedalus nodded. “I’ll head back to the observatory and continue work on the anomaly tracker then.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Dang shrugged.
They headed separate ways. Work for Dang was about the same as it always was. Customers came in, ordered for ice cream or sandwiches or both, and he delivered it to them. Whenever there were periods of no one coming in to place an order, he’d help himself to a couple cones of ice cream and a couple sandwiches too, all of which he paid for out of his own pocket.
“It’s mad that you’re essentially returning your paycheck back to Jonny’s,” Kamala, a co-worker of his said during their break, while she watched Dang devour a double-layer cream cheese chicken sandwich.
Dang shrugged. “Not my fault the food’s so good.”
After their break, they headed back in and Dang’s eyes narrowed at the sight of a man in a brown trench coat, dark hat and thick-framed sunglasses standing at the counter, holding a brown paper bag in one hand.
Dang approached the man. “How can I help you today?” He spoke, more a demand than a question.
“I’ll have the special,” the man answered, his accent a thick, posh British one. “Same as usual. Think you can get that for me?”
Dang sighed. “Kamala, cover for my shift, alright?”
“Sure, sure, whatever,” Kamala shrugged.
Dang gave her a grateful nod then looked to the mysterious man right in front of him. He sighed.
It was time to get to work.