HEROIC HEROES VS CYBORG DANG!

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They shouldn’t have been there. He’d had specific instructions to not run off to investigate anything without his doppelganger; but in his defense, he had called this world’s version of himself a few times before deciding to set out on his lonesome to investigate the hits his makeshift anomaly tracker had gotten. It was supposed to be a simple enough investigation, straightforward field work. He didn’t expect them to turn up.

The makeshift tracker had narrowed down the location of the anomalies to an abandoned high school and that was exactly where he’d headed. It wasn’t hard to tell why the school had been shut down when he got there. It had a massive hole in one fence, and a huge chunk of the school’s main structure had collapsed. In the school compound, there was a wall on which the names of those who’d died during “The Collapse” had been engraved, along with heartfelt goodbyes.

Knowing that he was at a place where a tragedy had occurred unsettled him greatly and a part of him wanted to turn around and leave. However, he wanted to make the decision that perhaps an anomaly just wasn’t worth it. But then he reminded himself of the stakes, of just how much was riding on this. If more sentinels had come through, it would be much better for him to take care of them before they hurt innocent people in this world. After all, from what he’d seen of this world thus far, he didn’t think the kind of technology that would be required to tear apart the sentinels even existed.

This world was still in the primitive age of relying solely on nuclear weapons as their big guns. If Bellum did come here, they wouldn’t stand a chance. Then again, his own world with all of the technology they had hadn’t stood a chance either so perhaps it was unfair of him to judge.

He went straight into the abandoned school and found that it looked worse on the inside than the outside. It smelled horribly damp and musty, with rubble cluttering the ground. Several lockers had been knocked over, their contents spilling out; content the owners abandoned, or worse, couldn’t return for. He shook the morbid thought and continued on.

Classroom windows were broken, chairs and desks in disarray. One particular classroom had a door that wouldn’t budge–it’d been barricaded on the inside. Other-Dang considered blasting the door off but doing so would have been rather noisy and if any anomalies were present on the property, it would have been unwise for him to alert them of his presence.

He continued through the school, stepping around the mess on the ground and stooping low to avoid the metal rods and wires that jutted and dangled from the wrecked ceilings above. After a while, he reached a long hallway that was flooded; the water tainted a rust-red and reeking rather horribly. This was water that had gone horribly stagnant.

He wondered why no one had ever bothered cleaning this place up and putting it back in one piece. Just how bad were the things that had gone on here for it to have been abandoned so completely?

Other-Dang stared at his tracker again after ten minutes. By then, he’d walked through the entire ground floor of the school and inspected the gymnasium and had found nothing. He decided then to take his search upstairs, planning to work his way slowly to the roof. Investigating the first floor was a lot trickier than with the ground floor because instead of piles of rubble and puddles of wretched water on the ground, the floor was really broken, with gaping holes that would take him right back to the ground floor if he fell through them.

In other places, the floor was cracked, fragile…and he knew it would take very little stress for it to give away entirely. The classrooms here were a lot less in ruin than the ones downstairs, but none of them showed any signs of housing an anomaly. With a sigh, he started in the direction of the stairs that led further up, wondering if he’d somehow made a mistake with his makeshift scanner and had been led here purely by accident.

When he was a few feet away from the stairwell, he heard scraping sounds and voices.

He halted as soon as he heard it and tensed, wondering if maybe, just maybe, it was the anomalies up ahead. He slowed his pace as he approached, drawing the chainsaw sword from his left hand, careful not to let its blade scrape against the ground. He didn’t need to tip them off.

Once he reached the stairs, he pressed his back against the wall and glanced to see the source of the disturbance. There were two people by the stairwell, both around the same height. One was a girl, clad in a white and black striped costume, and had yellow goggles over her eyes.

The other was a brown-skinned boy in a dark maroon, padded outfit with an orange belt around his waist and orange goggles over his eyes.

“You going to help or just stand there all day?” asked the figure in the black-striped outfit, addressing the boy in armor in a tone filled with annoyance. “You realize we’ve got a lot more cleaning to do, right?”

“I’m tired,” the boy whined, leaning against a wall and resting his head on it, tilting his face upward and wiping sweat off with his sleeves. “We’ve been at this for hours. We should take a br–,”

The boy’s voice trailed suddenly and he tightened.

The girl noticed his sudden silence and glanced in his direction. “Are you okay?”

The boy then turned his head gazing straight in Other-Dang’s direction. Other-Dang ducked his head instinctively behind cover, hoping that the boy hadn't discovered him.

His hopes were dashed when the boy spoke again, his voice laced with steel and edge this time. “There’s someone else here,” the boy declared. There’s a clang as he lets his shovel drop to the ground.

“Stop screwing around, Daniel,” the girl said.

“I’m not, Meg,” Daniel responded. “There’s someone else in here with us. I can feel their temperature. We’re not alone.”

There was another clang and Other-Dang knew it was the sound of the girl’s rake hitting the ground. He heard gentle, steady footsteps and knew they were heading his way. He sighed, loud enough that they’d hear him, and he heard their approaching footsteps halt at once.

“Who’s there?” Daniel demanded. “If you’re some common street crook or some serial killing weirdo, I’ve gotta tell you, you just picked the two worst people in town to try to ambush.”

Other-Dang stepped out from behind cover, both Daniel and Megan retreated a single step at the sight of him. Daniel’s eyes wavered toward the chainsaw sword Other-Dang had jutting from his left hand and he pursed his lips firmly.

“Who the hell are you?” Megan queried now with a steely tone.

“Are you a Terminator?” Daniel asked, appearing wary of Other-Dang. “Did some corporation send you from the future?”

“Daniel, shut up,” Megan hissed.

“Right, sorry, my bad,” Daniel blushed sheepishly.

“I don’t have time for this,” Other-Dang said impatiently. He raises his left hand and points a finger at the duo. “You guys from around here or not? Are you anomalies?”

“Point that sword somewhere else buddy, or you’re going to be in for a world of hurt,” Daniel growled, his eyes suddenly filling with flame. The smell of something burning filled the air as smoke emanated from the sole of the boy’s sneakers.

Other-Dang only noticed that he still had his sword jutting out. He considered withdrawing it but since one of them had already taken a battle stance, he decided to leave the sword out. “Answer the damn question, I haven’t got all the time in the world,” he snarled. “Are you from around here or not?”

Daniel took a step forward, flames engulfing his left fist, his teeth bared angrily, making known his intent to strike. But then Megan extended a hand in front of him, blocking his advance.

“What are you doing?” Daniel asked.

“Does he look familiar to you?” Megan queried. “His face—I’m pretty sure we’ve seen him before somewhere.”

“I’ll pummel the information out of him,” Daniel growled, and then he shot forward with speed, a burst of flames firing off from his feet like a propulsion engine. He was right in front of Other-Dang in the blink of an eye, flames burning out of his eyes. “BLAZING PUNCH!” he roared.

His flaming fist shot forward. Other-Dang blocked with a hand and when the fist made impact, a powerful force knocked the both of them backward. Other-Dang went back only a couple feet, his feet dragging against the ground but the force blasted Daniel further back, leaving the boy with a look of shock on his face. He clearly didn’t understand how he’d taken such a rebuff from his own attack.

“What the hell are you?” Daniel demanded.

“Strike me again and you’ll find out,” Other-Dang replied flatly.

“I like the sound of that,” Daniel scoffed, and without saying any more, he charged again, propelling himself forward with flame once more. This time, he spun in the air and threw a powerful kick aimed right at Other-Dang’s face.

Other-Dang raised a hand once more to take the hit but Daniel had thrown a lot more force and effort into the kick than he had with the punch from earlier. His foot hit Other-Dang and there came a follow-up blast of flame that blasted Other-Dang to the side, straight into a wall, singeing some of his hair in the process.

Other-Dang growled in annoyance and shot a glare at the boy. The boy made a circling gesture with his hands through the air, before dragging his feet across and adopting a battle stance. He smirked at Other-Dang and gestured: bring it.

“Fine,” Other-Dang nodded. “Have it your way then.”

Other-Dang burst forward and slammed into Daniel headfirst before shooting straight upward, slamming the boy against the ceiling and blasting through it with him. He wrapped a hand around Daniel’s throat in the air and then hurled the boy right at the ground. Daniel hit the ground hard with a groan and slid backward before coming to a stop against a pile of rubble.

Other-Dang landed on the ground, grunted and started to walk toward Daniel. “Are you going to answer my question now or not?”

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Daniel chuckled and raised his head a little. “This is going to hurt. A lot.”

“Bring it on.”

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about me,” Daniel’s eyes glinted maliciously.

Other-Dang stopped in his tracks; his expression changed from determination to concern. Before he spun around, he'd folded his lips downward, and opened his eyes widely.

"TEMPEST BOOM!" Megan yelled, and punched at the air.

It was here that Other-Dang realized he'd spun around too late.

The ball of wind was far too quick. He attempted to jump out of the way but still got caught up in the blast. The blast launched him through the air, sending him crashing through a series of walls before finally dropping to the ground in a classroom. He was left feeling a little sore on his side; his eyes watery and stinging from the breeze that had ravaged them.

He rolled over onto his back and blinked tears out of his eyes, and took an extra couple of seconds to regain his breath. “Okay,” he nodded. “You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts!”

“Actually, I’m allergic to nuts,” Daniel said as he charged into the room. “But maybe we can work something else out?!”

Other-Dang rose to his feet gently and swung his arms around, loosening them up a bit. When he was done, he rubbed the back of his neck and cracked his neck, freeing up some tension. Then he stared at Daniel and his eyes glowed blue.

“What comes next is entirely on you,” he said.

And then he struck.

Daniel and Megan were clearly younger than he was and it was for that reason he’d refrained from using any critical attacks earlier. But the two of them had proved rather annoying so far and it was because of that that he didn’t hold back any strength when he threw his next blow. The blow was delivered swiftly, and he was pretty sure the only thing the boy had seen before the fist made impact was a blur of blue.

His fist connected with Daniel’s chest and knocked the boy back against the wall. Other-Dang’s hand flew forward and seized the back of Daniel’s head. He yanked the boy back toward him and then smashed a fist into his stomach, launching him upward. While the boy was in midair, he grabbed a hold of his feet and spun around before flinging him right at a window.

Spurts of flame shot from Daniel’s hands as he attempted to slow the speed at which he was hurtling toward the window, and it was only when he was a few feet away from smashing into the window that he managed to stop himself. Not that it did him any good. He turned around and Other-Dang smashed right into him, shooting out the window with him, bathed in shards of glass.

Daniel threw a punch into Other-Dang’s stomach, keeping himself in the air with jets of flame from his feet, although he wasn’t very balanced while doing this. Other-Dang counterattacked with a blow of his own, and then Daniel retaliated once more. Thus began the barrage of punches from the both of them, Daniel with punches charged with flame, Other-Dang with punches charged by strength and annoyance.

To any onlooker, it would have looked like fireworks going off or odd flashes of light as they exchanged blows. Daniel’s blows were surprisingly strong and the flame he coated them with added to the amount of damage he dealt, but the simple truth was that he couldn’t possibly match Other-Dang in an all-out brawl and soon enough, he faltered. His blow missed Other-Dang’s face by a few inches, and Other-Dang slammed two fists onto the boy’s head, smashing him toward the ground.

Daniel crashed into the wall with engravings that Other-Dang had seen earlier, shot through it and hit the ground which cracked beneath him. He remained there bruised with his clothes torn in pieces.

Other-Dang felt the temperature drop very suddenly and looked back to see Megan standing at the edge of the window he’d shot through with Daniel. She was sucking wind into a concentrated center above her palm, charging up what looked like it would be a rather painful attack.

“I don’t want to have to hurt you,” he warned her. “Please stand down.”

“Not a chance,” Megan snarled, and then she fired. It was more like a wind bullet, a projectile made of nothing but wind itself. Other-Dang cast a shield around himself but it hadn’t fully formed when the wind bullet struck. The shield collapsed and the force from the blast sent him flying through the air.

Like Daniel, he too crashed into the wall of engravings and destroyed it entirely before hitting the ground, pieces of rubble falling onto him. He groaned and began to push himself to his feet. He heard loud yelling and spun around to see Megan dropping out of the air, hurtling right toward him like a rocket, the wind parting around her.

“TEMPEST BOOM!” She blasted.

Other-Dang hissed angrily and shot straight up, right at the incoming blast, firing up his propulsion to full power. He smashed into the incoming blast, gritting his teeth. He shot straight through, surprising Megan whose eyes went wide at once. His hand found her face and he hurled her downward.

She attempted to slow her fall with wind but Other-Dang dropped into her with both feet, smashing her into the ground.

“ENOUGH!” he roared angrily. “Stand down! Now!”

Daniel got to his feet then, rising slowly and weakly. He chuckled. “See, now you’ve gone and made me mad.”

“You’re not going to win a fight against me,” Other-Dang announces. “And that’s lucky for you because I’ve got no intention in fighting you. You’re the two heroes he was talking about, aren’t you? Tiger and Wombat?”

“Someone told you about us?” Daniel asked. “I’m guessing it’s the same person who sent you to terminate us?”

“I’m not here to terminate you idiots,” Other-Dang sighs. He steps off Megan and offers her a hand to help her to her feet. She shoots him a murderous look and he replies it with one that discourages any intent of violence. The two of them maintain eye contact for quite a bit but then she accepts his hand and lets him pull her up. She dusts herself off.

“Are you going to explain who you are now?” Megan asks, her hood is off now, revealing her dark hair, one that she’s cut short.

“I think it might be better if he explained,” Other-Dang said. “You know who Dang is, no?”

“Dang who?” Daniel queried. “We’ve got a Dang in our class at school and another who’s sort of into the whole hero thing…you gotta be specific which one you’re talking about.”

“They’re the same people,” Other-Dang sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm. “Contact him and ask him to head over here. He and I…we’re uh, we’re the same person.”

‘You mean you’re like a clone of him?” Megan queried.

Other-Dang shook his head. “No, not a clone. Look, just call him. It’ll be easier for the two of you to believe what I want to tell you when he’s right here with me.”

“Fine, whatever,” Daniel muttered. “But don’t think that this means we suddenly trust you, especially not after you cost me a tooth.”

Other-Dang notices that the boy really is missing a tooth now. He hit him a lot harder than he thought.

“Sorry about that.”

“Oh, whatever. I heal quickly anyways, I’ll be fine,” Daniel said before walking some distance away. He proceeded to contact Dang by holding a device up against his ears. He paced for a bit as he tried to reach Dang and then finally, he must have gotten through since he suddenly straightened and cleared his throat like he was talking to his boss or something of the sort.

The call ended after a while and then Daniel returned to them. “He’s on his way,” he announced, still eyeing Other-Dang darkly. “You better hope for your sake that he’s able to vouch for you when he’s here. Otherwise, you’re in for a real ass whoopin’.”

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” Other-Dang sighed. “In the meantime, I have an anomaly too look for. Do be so kind as to stay the hell out of my way.”

With that, he started to head back toward the main school building, brushing shoulders with Megan who’d deliberately put herself in his path as if to challenge him, a pouty expression on her face. After pushing past her, he heard a snarl come from her but he didn’t sense any changes in temperature. The both of them knew now not to challenge him to a battle–even though he’d held back the entirety of his fight with them, the both of them still looked incredibly beat. If he’d put in any more effort, he might have done irreversible damage to one of or both of them.

He returned to the main school building which was now in worse condition than when he’d first arrived, thanks to their clash. Megan and Daniel followed behind him, maintaining a distance of precisely six feet. The two of them were speaking in low tones, mostly about how they could have beaten him if the fight had gone on just a little longer, or what things they could have done differently.

Other-Dang looked over his shoulder at the both of them. “You both lost because you act too fast and think too slow. If I thought you were enemies or serious threats, you’d both be dead by now. There are things going on that you don’t know about yet, threats that might come to your world. If you don’t learn quickly before those threats get here, you’re going to die.”

“And I suppose you’re going to teach us how to fight better? Even though you got your ass pretty beat too?” Daniel drawled.

“I don’t teach,” Other-Dang responded briefly and curtly. “You’ll learn on your own.”

“What threats are coming?” Megan asked.

“Can’t answer that until he’s here,” Other-Dang said. “How much I can tell the both of you depends largely on him. All you need to know is that, at the moment, you’re nowhere near as strong as you’re going to need to be.”

“Pfft,” Daniel let out a long yawn. “Whatever, terminator.”

Other-Dang ignored the comment and continued on. He took the stairs up until he emerged onto the rooftop, Daniel and Megan still accompanying him, the both of them with their hands buried in their pockets now.

“How can you do what you do?” he asked them, while scanning the rooftop for anything that shouldn’t have been there. The only things in sight were conditioner vents, an American flag and an Irish flag, a bunch of plastic chairs that had been brought up here for reasons he would never know and a long wooden stick, which was just as out of place as the chairs.

“Born with it,” Daniel answered. “We both were. Were you born like that?”

“We’re not here to talk about me,” Other-Dang hissed, eyes flashing and nostrils flaring for just a moment. He took a breath to calm himself, then glanced back at the two of them. “How old are you?”

“Why?” Megan asked, sounding rather defensive.

“I’d just like to know how old the crimefighting boy-girl wonder duo is,” he shrugged.

“I’m not a girl,” Megan said quickly, sounding even more defensive now, a look of annoyance on her face.

Other-Dang turned to regard her, arching one eyebrow over the other. “So, you’re a boy?”

“I’m neither.”

He paused for a moment. “Oh,” he said. “Sorry. My bad.”

“Whatever,” they muttered.

“How old are you then?” Other-Dang repeated his query. “The both of you.”

“Old enough.”

“Fair enough,” Other-Dang sighed as he walked across the rooftop, narrowing his eyes at the floor, just in case there was something he might’ve missed.

“How old are you?” Daniel asked.

“Sixteen.”

“You don’t look sixteen.”

“Thanks for the observation” Other-Dang said. He scanned the rooftop a little longer and was just about declaring it a dead end when someone landed on the rooftop, just a few feet ahead of them.

It was Dang, his hair silver and sunglasses on. He turned to regard them and pulled his sunglasses off. “Tiger, Wombat,” he gave Megan and Daniel nods of acknowledgement, then looked at Other-Dang and his expression turned stern at once. “What happened to waiting for me before rushing off to do anything?”

“You didn’t answer your calls,” Other-Dang said.

“What happened here?” Dang asked, noticing how both Tiger and Wombat looked pretty bruised and battered.

“Got off on the wrong foot,” Other-Dang shrugged in response and Dang gave him a nod of understanding.

“Holy shit, you guys look alike,” Daniel’s eyes were wide in awe. “Which one of you is the clone?”

“Once again, I’m not a clone,” Other-Dang growled then looked to Dang. “You going to tell them, or should I?”

Dang sighed and nodded at Other-Dang, giving him permission to tell the heroes the truth. Other-Dang did just that and when he was done, Daniel let out a long, excited squeal, his eyes twinkling with excitement.

“The multiverse is real??!” Daniel shrieked. “Wait, you mean there’s a universe out there where I’m the adoptive son of Bill Gates? And another universe where I’m just a character in a comic book?”

“I’m not a guru on the matter,” Other-Dang responded, sounding rather irritated. “Just because you exist here doesn’t mean you exist elsewhere.”

“And there’s a lunatic going around destroying universes or conquering them?” Megan asked.

“Yes,” Dang and Other-Dang respond in unison.

“And he’s got deathbots?” Daniel asked.

“Yes,” they respond in unison once more.

“So freaking cool!” Daniel squeals.

“Lives are at stake here, training wheels. Trillions of lives, countless even…so no, I wouldn’t call any of this cool.”

Daniel’s face fell at once. “Right. Forgot about that. Sorry.”

“So the anomaly you’re looking for,” Megan spoke. “It’s a robot?”

“Could be anything” Other-Dang answered. “Long as it’s not from this reality or timespace, it’ll register as an anomaly on scanners. There should be one here, or maybe more than one. I thought it was you guys at first, but clearly, you’re from around here.”

“What about the necklace?” Megan frowned.

Other-Dang shot her a look of confusion. “What necklace?”

She points to a silver necklace on the ground, trapped just below the stick Other-Dang had seen earlier. He’d missed the necklace at first simply because the light made it blend into the concrete of the rooftop but now that it had been pointed out, there was no possible way to miss it.

He rushed toward it and stooped to pick it up, letting the necklace dangle from his hands.

“No way,” Dang said, eyes widening.

The others watched as he placed a hand beneath his shirt and pulled out his own necklace, revealing it to them, a necklace perfectly identical to the one Other-Dang was now holding.

“Whoa,” Daniel’s eyes widened. “Is that from a future version of you?”

“I don’t know,” Other-Dang answered, his tone grim. “But this necklace definitely isn’t from this universe.”