#phone camera lighting nerfed this i fear ..

[lucentel]

[sanders sides doodles] they were brainstorming ways to get back at virgil for ditching them and remus went “do you know what would be So funny”

[inkribbon796]

Where the Crossroads Meet Ch 1

Summary: In a locked vault is a powerful magical artifact. It has the ability to tear cities apart and reform a new one with its pieces. Which is exactly why Remus, Wilford, and Anti find it.

A/N: This is (give or take) the 100th short I’ve made and I wanted to be a little special. It’s also way longer than I planned for it to be.

First chapter’s a little bit odd in that events are happening at the same time. Remus, Wilford, and Anti are all doing things simultaneously and when we get back to Remus and the other Sides, that’s a new set of events.

Chapter 1: Distortion

~::~ Twenty Years Earlier ~::~

In a locked bank vault in Gainesville, Florida a ripple in reality ripped its way through time and space and a box glitched itself all over the room until it rested in the center.

Right as it glitched into reality, an alarm rang out throughout the bank as reality slowly began ripping itself into pieces. The bank split itself into three different places, the same bank with a different staff servicing it.

In Florida, a group of three masked vigilantes were standing on top of a neighboring building, watching the chaos as the police were driving up.

“Hey, Specs,” Creativity, Roman, the hero in a red cape and a white mask with red and golden accents with large red feathers, “how much longer we gonna be standing here like glittery gargoyles? We’ve got people to save.”

“Patience,” Logic, Logan, the vigilante with a full face mask and visor, commented, “this isn’t a situation we can rush into.”

“This is so exciting,” Morality, Patton, the hero in a puppy mask and a light blue jumpsuit. Creativity brought them down to the police.

“We’ve arrived!” Roman announced in a sing-song voice.

“We were nearby, would you like us in a supportive or non-present capacity?” Logan asked. Roman frowned at him but didn’t argue his opinion.

“Normally we’d take you up on that,” one of the officers answered, “but the Duke texted eggplants and bank emojis at the police chief.”

“That scoundrel!” Roman responded. “Does he have no shame? He brings misfortune and shame on his entire family!”

Logan was just staring at him during the outburst, then turned back to the officer, “Is the Duke the only one causing the situation?”

“I was expressing my intense displeasure with the Duke,” Roman reminded.

“Yes, but there are more pressing matters,” Logan corrected sternly. “You can bring your grievances to the Duke if you are so insulted.”

“You don’t understand, his existence besmirches my art,” Roman proclaimed.

Logan rolled his eyes, already thinking of entry strategies.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Inside of a nearly identical bank in the city of Egoton, Wilford was sitting at the branch manager’s desk, feet propped up as he was filing his nails. The desk phone rang and Wilford answered it.

“Bank offices, handsome man speaking,” Wilford answered smugly.

“Wil,” Dark seethed. “Why?”

Wil pined the landline between his shoulder and ear, continuing to trim and groom his nails. “Ahh, Darkling, I’m a bit busy at the moment. Can you believe the service at this place is terrible?”

The phone crackled with Dark’s static, a clear indicator at how furious he was that he could affect the phone with that distance. “Wilford M. Warfstache, you are robbing a bank, of course the service would be terrible. Why are you robbing a bank?”

“Eh,” Wil shrugged, blowing dust off his nails. “Figured I’d check it off the ol’ bucket list, you know?”

There was a bit of silence, the sound of wood snapping crackled over the line, “If you don’t find something to make this mess worth my while you can bail yourself out this time, you hapless fool!”

The line cut off suddenly and Wil frowned at the phone. “Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.”

He stood up and carefully walked over the branch manager, who Wil had helped take a nap. The man had looked so tired and so he and the rest of his staff was already taking a nap, Wil doing his best not to wake them up.

Wil had something worth Dark’s while to find. While Wil appreciated Dark when he was feisty, hell hath no fury like Dark scorned in Wil’s humble opinion and best to mitigate that at all costs.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

“Get back here!” Marvin shouted, throwing magic down the bank’s hall at Anti who was jumping from wall to wall, cackling like a madman.

“Maybe yeh should get glasses ta help yeh aim better, kitty cat,” Anti teased.

Chase was shooting one of his modified NERF pistols. So far he was the only one who was managing to hit Anti at all. J.J was frantically trying to keep up, they’d been fighting Anti in the bank for almost a half-an-hour now with J.J having to rewind them back to the start of the fight twice. He was tired, and tipped over something on the ground.

Winded, J.J just lay there for a couple seconds, looking back towards his feet to see a body lying there . . . with a bullet wound right through her heart, the expression on her face twisted in fear.

J.J froze in horror and shock, usually someone called ahead when they found someone Anti had killed. The mute was about to use his communicator to send a signal, but he blinked and the body was suddenly gone.

As if the woman had never even been there.

Desperately, J.J patted the ground where the body had been, but his hand met linoleum and empty air.

“Jay?” Jackie dashed in. “There you are, you okay?”

The mute hero heaved himself onto his knees, frantic moving his hands while he asked if Jackie had found any bodies.

“No, J.J, we cleared the bank this time, remember? Are yah tired? Yeh need me ta call Hein in?” Jackie’s voice was instantly concerned. “Where’d yah find them?”

J.J stood up, “After the battle, we need to win.”

Jackie looked worried and uncertain, the speedster picked J.J up and they ran over to try and catch up with the fight.

Jackie’s tinnitus was flaring up, he couldn’t tell if it was Anti or the adrenaline. Overhead the loudspeakers were silently shaking, as if something loud was playing over them but now sound came out.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

In the surveillance room of the bank, Virgil was loudly singing Bad Romance at the top of his lungs. He had the music blaring over the loudspeakers, much to Janus’s dismay, but the deceitful Side had been outvoted two-to-one so Virgil kept his playlist privileges.

“I want your love, and I want your revenge! You and me could write a bad romance!” Virgil shouted, dancing with the song, not caring if he was out of key because no one was listening and the guard that had been in the room had been knocked out by Virgil’s fear powers a while ago. They’d taken the building without a fight, and without Virgil even lifting a finger.

“Oh~ oh~ oh~ oh~ oh!” Virgil shouted before hitting the blinking red light on the intercom, bringing the music down a bit. “Eh-lo?”

“Perfectly on key, Virge, don’t change a thing,” Janus told him sarcastically.

“Eh, why don’t you fuck off Janny, I’m having fun,” Virgil told him off.

Janus chuckled, his tone more relaxed, “I certainly wouldn��t know anything about that, just kick back.”

“Got it, got it, Mom,” Virgil smiled, rolling his eyes and flipping through the cameras. He looked at the back entrance and sat up. “We’ve got Helicopter Dad, and the Drama of the Opera at the back.”

“Thank you,” Janus told him. Then there was a heavy crash that seemed to shake the whole building. When the deceitful Side spoke again his tone was firm. “We’ll be out in five anyways.”

“Cool, got time to finish my song? Sweet!” Virgil grinned.

“Just be ready,” Janus warned and hung up.

Virgil began turning up the music again, because of the volume he missed the vent sliding open. “Hm~ hm~ hm~ hm~ Want your bad romance!”

Logic was carefully climbing down from the ceiling, braced for a fight but when he took in the full volume of the music and Virgil dancing he just stood there and sighed. The logical side waited for Virgil to notice him but when that didn’t happen, he just shut the music off remotely and Virgil startled.

“You apply yourself so poorly,” Logan chastised. “I shudder to think what would happen if you were competent in your ventures.”

“Hey!” Virgil glared at him, nervous at one of the Light Sides, especially an objective one — or at least one that wasn’t Princey — seeing his singing and dancing. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to know that you should work on some decent pitch control,” Logan critiqued. “I advise a voice coach when you get to prison.”

“You’re one to talk, Mr. Roboto,” Virgil jabbed back and started to work his fear powers.

The logical side had to readjust his footing, but was clearly regaining his composure. Virgil grabbed his MP3 player and his bag and bolted for the door, trying to put as much distance between him and Logan as possible, throwing the door open and racing to where he knew Deceit and the Duke were.

In the background, he could hear someone following him and ran as fast as he could.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Wilford rolled his shoulders as he materialized into the main vault, not bothering with that monstrosity of a door. It was far larger than he expected it to be. Wil could hear music playing in his ears. He could hear distant, loud raucous music, the kind that Wil adored but Dark hated. He couldn’t remember putting music on, but he wasn’t going to complain about it.

He’d planned on looking through some boxes, but he saw in the middle of the vault a rather ornate box floating in the air, practically begging to be stolen.

“Well,” Wilford smiled, flexing his suspenders and reaching up. “Don’t mind if I do.”

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Anti used his electricity to break through the actual vault door.

“Come on, shitebag, what are yeh gonna do with money anyways?” Marvin yelled, trying his best to freeze Anti in place.

“Burn it, ‘a fookin’ course,” Anti cackled, then he froze, which he only did half of his own volition when he saw the box floating in the middle of the room.

“Hello?” Anti tilted his head inhumanely, his form glitching out of any hold Marvin was trying to keep him in. Marvin himself was frozen by the sight of the clearly magical artifact in front of him and confused because that thing wasn’t there the last time they were in here.

“Da fook are you, sweetheart?” Anti told the box, Marvin shook his head to clear it, not wanting Anti to take the clearly magical and/or cursed box.

“I don’t fookin’ think so!” Marvin shouted as Anti darted forward to grab the box.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Virgil raced down the hall to the central vault. “Gotta go! Gotta go!”

Janus looked down the hall, “Anxiety! You were supposed to stay at your post!”

“Logic’s here!” Virgil called out. “Where’s Remus?”

The two Dark Side looked into the vault to find Remus not stuffing a bag with cash and other valuables, but he was staring at a box floating in the center of the room, as if transfixed by it.

“Duke!” Deceit called out. “Put it in the bag, time’s up!”

The Duke startled but reached up for the box, his hand touching it at the same time as two other similarly chaotic hands touched the box.

\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The box jolted and shuddered in their hands before reality began to slam itself together.

Three doors appeared at opposite sides of the room where each of them had entered from the vault door. Wilford, Anti, and Remus all had a hand on the box and were all staring at each other in surprise and confusion.

“Well, old chaps,” Wilford tugged the box free, the ornate box glitching the different ways, each echo of the box being tugged to either of them. “I’ll be taking that.”

“Hey, I saw it first!” Anti shouted angrily. Remus was busy looking at the walls cracking around them.

“Find your own, I need this,” Wil huffed, starting to try and open up a hole into the Void, but to his surprise he couldn’t. “Huh, that’s strange.”

“Hand me that, it’s mine!” Anti shouted.

Then the cracking and splitting began to get far louder and seemingly intentional.

All three of them stopped arguing to watch the ground beneath them and the walls above them crack and divide.

“Jan’s gonna kill me,” Remus laughed a little at the same time as Wil’s admission.

“Dark’s gonna kill me,” Wil held the box closer to his chest.

Then the ground split as Janus and Virgil appeared at the door to the vault. Before Janus could call out the world seemed to twist and bend, and everyone was pulled apart as reality collided with itself.

NEXT =>

[mydeardeath]

To belong with (4/8)

Whole series on tumblr (to belong series tag) or AO3

---

He woke up with a hell of a headache but at least he wasn't still in the alley. Lots of people would have loved to find him in this position. No, instead he was back in the manor, in his old room. Which wasn't much better. He would have preferred to be found by the outlaw. Unfortunately, Kori was in New York since Dick was here and Roy was in Asia. The only positive point was the plate of Alfred's cookies waiting for him on his bedside table with a glass of water. After swallowing it, he got up, going straight up to the cave, sure to find Bruce down there and the missing pieces of last night.

As expected, the old man was there but, more surprisingly, Dick and Damian were also present. The last was brooding in a corner, his jaw clenched and arms held against his chest. Jason turned to Dick, silently asking him what was going. But, by the look Dick gave him in return, it seemed the other didn't know much either. Then his big brother attention turned to Jason's sweets and he tried to reach for them. Jason quickly moved the plate out of his reach and went to stand beside Bruce, avoiding Dick pleading eyes. These were HIS baked goods, he wouldn't let anyone touch any of it. Focused on Dick, he hadn't noticed Bruce stealing one of his cookies and when he realized what had happened he turned an indignant look on his former mentor. Bruce didn't even spare him a glance, still bent over the computer. At least, it made Dick giggle a bit, breaking a bit of the heavy atmosphere.

Bruce suddenly turned to them apparently finished with whatever he had been doing when Jason arrived.

"Now, that you're all here we can begin. As you all know, yesterday dozens of people appeared all over Gotham through different breaches. Most of them were secured, they were all pretty disorientated and have yet to be interrogated. But, some of them have already been identified." Bruce showed a few documents on the screen. Some of the faces were familiar to him. He just couldn't remember why.

"They all have a common point. They're supposed to be dead. All presumed victims of robots attack six years ago." Jason felt Damian tense up behind him. "No bodies were ever found in the center of the attack so we can't be sure they were really here."

"Maybe the robots weren't here to kill, just to take people." Dick hypothesized.

"It's a far-fetched theory and we shouldn't rush into..." Bruce started only to be interrupted by Damian. "Tim may still be alive."

"Damian." Bruce sent his son a warning look, showing exactly what he thought of the idea.

"I think he's right." Every head turned to Jason, Bruce reproach dying in his throat. He hadn't expected Jason to side with Damian. "I thought I was just imagining things, but with what you said... I think it was really him. He was the one who knocked me out in that alley."

"Let's not make any hasty assumptions. We have to proceed with methods and not let our emotions..."

"I'm gonna get him" Damian cut him off once again, not waiting for an answer before making his way up the stairs.

"Damian !" Bruce yelled after him but his son completely ignored him.

***

Sometimes, Damian really wanted to hit his father in the face and demand he stops being so cold. He could see the irony here since he wasn't so fond of showing his emotions either, but this was about Tim. Bruce should be a least a bit more enthusiastic at the possibility that he was not dead as they had all thought. If there was a chance that Tim was alive and out there, he would find him and bring him home.

Damian called Barbara immediately after exiting the cave, waking her up. She started to complain at him for interrupting her well deserved sleep, saying it would better be important.

"Well, finding if Tim is really alive didn't seem to be a top priority for father. So, how important it is, depends entirely on you." Damian announced, his frustration evident in his voice.

Barbara sight but she listened when the boy explained the entire situation and what had led him to think that Tim might be back. Damian knew she most likely thought he was delusional and still hanging on flimsy hope. She didn't call him out on it and simply complied, using the eyes of every camera to look for Tim. He thanked her for at least trying because it didn't matter if she believed or not. What mattered was that she was helping him and that's all he was asking for. Plus it wouldn't be the first time one of them had come back from the dead. It wasn't impossible. Especially not in their family.

Damian started by checking every hospital and clinic for John Doe patients that had arrived last night. He had no trouble convincing the nurse to let him see with his own eyes every one of them. But, well, it wasn't hard when you were using the fact that you had lost your mate in the event of the robots attack and that you were hoping to find them back. Once again, it didn't matter if they believed that it was survivors of the attack that had reappeared or not, they all pitied him for losing his mate and didn't dare refuse him that.

Next, he went to all of Tim's old safehouses or any of the one the family had been using six years ago. He didn't get much result from it easier. The Drake mansion was also a dead end and Damian was running out of ideas.

Getting a bit desperate after checking Tim could have deemed safe, Damian decided to simply seek near Tim last known location. Fortunately, his father like to keep tabs on everything so he didn't have to call Jason to ask him where Tim had knocked him unconscious last night.

As he grew more and more frustrated as the hours ran by, Damian put on his Robin uniform despite the fact that it was still daytime and decided to pay a visit to every criminal hang out in case they were holding Tim.

He didn't get what he was looking for, but he did get to beat up some assholes and that help him feel better. Slightly.

***

All hope had left him by the end of the day. He had looked everywhere he could think of, in vain. There was no trace of Tim anywhere. He had called Barbara many times throughout the day, and he could hear the pity growing in her voice every time he did and she had nothing new to tell him. So he just turned off his phone to stop the constant buzzing of his father trying to contact him and went home.

He shed his clothes off on his way up to his room and plop down on the bed without bothering to take a shower. And for the second time in a day, he felt someone else's presence in the room. He hadn't thought they had anything left to discuss. He had made it pretty clear that he didn't care about supposedly being in danger and if that was really the case, he didn't need her protection. He hadn't needed her for years.

No dagger came to his throat this time. His opponent hadn't been waiting in a corner of his room this time but had been lying in his bed. In an instant, he felt their weight fell upon him and hands choking him. This was definitely not Talia.

He kicked them off him with a strong blow in the guts and send them rolling on the floor. Damian quickly got up and stood ready to fight. The intruder didn't waste any time to jump back on him, going for a nerf strike but he lacked the strength for it. His attacker seemed to have knowledge that a common thief would not have. But an assassin, especially one sent to kill him, shouldn't have been this weak. Because it made no doubt that Damian was stronger. In a matter of seconds, he had him in a headlock and was letting them struggle vainly against his hold.

He released them once they had stopped kicking. Damian went to turn the light on while the intruder was taking deep breaths, sitting on the floor. The man wasn't looking at him and most of his face was hidden behind his hair. Still, Damian could tell it was him.

"Tim" the name escaped his lips and the man raised his head towards him suddenly.

Damian fell to his knee in front of him and started to reach out to him with his hand. He stopped just before his face, not daring to touch him in fear he would disappear.

“Damian ?” Tim said softly, his voice barely more than a whisper. Damian let out a strangled laugh as his hand finally touched Tim.

“You came back.” Damian couldn't hide the wonder in his voice and he didn't care. This was Tim.

“Is this real ?” He asked Damian.

“I hope so. I missed you so much.” Damian answered honestly.

Tim apparently did too since he slammed his full body into Damian's and hung onto him as his life depended on him. Damian dared hugged him back. He could feel Tim's ribs under his fingers. The Omega had lost a lot of weight.

"Don't cry, Timothy," Damian told him, caressing his cheek.

"I'm not the only one crying here." He offered him a small smile.

"You were dead."

"I never died. One minute I was in Gotham fighting this waves of robots and the next I..." His voice broke down as his whole body started to shake.

"Shh, it's okay. I got you. You're home now." Damian soothed him.

Tim buried his face in Damian's neck, taking deep breaths of his scent. It helped him calm down and soon Tim was nodding off. He had probably been sleeping when Damian came home and their fight and talk must have wearied him out even more. Damian carried him to the bed, putting him gently under the sheets. He was ready to let the other man alone when Tim put his hand on his arm.

“Stay, please. I don't want to be alone." Tim pleaded.

"I'm not leaving you. I promise." Reassured, Tim went back to sleep, nestled against Damian.

[rogue-of-broken-time]

Since I'm absolutely living for Henrik's bold entrance, here, have some concepts I just came up with for how the other egos might turn up in videos:

JJ: A seemingly normal video, maybe a horror game that plays a bit on Jack's fears of someone standing behind him while he doesn't notice. The game goes silent for effect, and Jack kinda freezes all tense, but then JJ creeps across the room behind him, sticks his head out from one of the sides of the facecam, and holds a finger up to his lips as if to tell us "Shh!"– then he winks, wiggles his mustache, and quickly ducks out again. Jack then jerks his head to one side in reaction to game audio (maybe), genuinely paranoid for a moment, then turns back to the camera still tense and breathes "I could've sworn I heard something…".

Marvin: A power hour-type video, full of special effects that seem to be real– sparks flying from Jack's fingers, things appearing and disappearing in puffs of smoke, and he begins to believe all of the magic is his own doing– and towards the end, he's just staring at his own hands in awe and he tells the camera, "This… this magic is amazing– I don't know how I'm doing this, guys!" And then you just hear a salty attitude-laced voice from another part of the room saying "Pff. That's because it's me doing it, genius."– and then the camera turns to a brooding Marvin (with his new red mask) leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, one hand held up glittering with golden sparkles around his fingers. Then he smirks, "I still can't believe you fell for that."

Chase: A normal Let's Play, except every few minutes or so, a phone rings, and Jack can't find where it's coming from. Towards the end of the video, he finally finds it somewhere under his desk, and he looks in confusion at the screen and mutters "Stacy… who the f*ck is Stacy? This isn't even my or Signe's phone– where the hell did this come from?" After a few more moments, he shrugs and tosses the phone behind him over his shoulder, and you can hear it crack as it hits the floor. The rest of the video is normal, until the post-outro clip plays and it's just the phone all cracked up on the floor, still functioning but the screen shattered. A few seconds of silence, then the screen lights up and it reads "Stacy" again in the Caller ID– and this time, someone wearing black shoes, black skinny jeans, and carrying a Nerf gun enters the shot and stands listening to it ringing for a bit. Then after the call hangs up, he bends down and picks up the phone, drops his hat on the floor with the logo showing clearly to the camera, stands still for a few more seconds, then walks away.

Jackieboy Man: Another normal-ish Let's Play or maybe a Would You Rather, this time with an emphasis on superheroes. The video is mostly funny overall, but then at the end, an out-of nowhere thump is heard from outside the recording room door and it makes Jack flinch in surprise. He glances back at the camera briefly and starts to ask "What the f–" when it happens again, much louder this time. The camera changes angle like it did in today's video, Jack looking at the door in confusion and slight fear, when suddenly the sound of wood breaking clatters in and Jackie stumbles in, covered in dust (and spitting some out) and breathing hard (the camera angle doesn't show that the door is actually still attached to the other side of the frame, lol). Jack narrows his eyes and stands up while Jackie catches his breath, then finally says "Never fear! Jackieboy Man is here!" (Then he mutters "Hoo. Oof. Ooh, I really need to stop breaking down doors. Eesh.") Jack, utterly bewildered, asks him "What the hell– are you some kind of superhero? Why are you here? Who's in danger?" Then Jackie, fully recuperated and ready to go, looks him dead in the eyes and says "You. You're in danger. Now let's go. You can ask questions later when we make it to the others!" and drags him out of the room before he can even try to resist, then with a woosh sound effect and a flash of light from beyond the door, they're both gone.

Anti: … who do you think Jackie was trying to protect Jack from? After the two of them vanish, Anti glitches the camera and appears in the room, infuriated that Jack got away. Then he turns to the camera, walks up to it slowly, notices it's still recording, then looks US dead in the eyes with a smile as his gaze glitches to black– and then he says to us… "You'll help me find them, won't you, puppets?" and his laugh resonates as the video abruptly cuts to black. "Of course you will."