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huffle-dork · 1 year ago

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Swap into the CrystalVerse Chapter 3: Switch

Co-written with @crystalninjaphoenix

Read Swapboys | Read Switch | Read SwitchSwap | AO3 Link

Prologue | Switch Chapters Taglist: @brokentimewatch

The living room is crowded with everyone in here. There's not enough chairs for everyone, but the Switches all silently agree to let Alt and Chase have the sofa to themselves. Then, of course, Marvin has his usual chair, which leaves JJ, Anti, Schneep, and Jackie standing.

"I know everyone's tired," Jackie says, looking at Bro and Alt sympathetically, "But we might not have much time. I-I don't know how good Magnificent is at tracking, but... yeah... A-anyway, is there anything anyone needs?"

Rest, ideally, but as you said, we may not have much time, JJ says.

Alt, while glad to see the others again, hasn't moved from Bro's side. Bro looks at everyone with worry but he nods, "Yeah I... I think I'm okay."

"... i need something to eat- so I can at least glitch without passing out." Alt admits quietly. "Something fast- you're right... Mag can sense magic... he might already be on the trail to this... Iris place. If it has magic."

"We have some snacks in the kitchen," Marvin says, starting to get up.

No, I'll go get them, JJ says. You stay here. And the rest of you keep talking without me, I'll still hear you. And he turns and leaves the room.

"Sensing magic, huh?" Anti repeats. "I'm... not sure if IRIS is magical. They're more on the... techy side. But, uh... Shame that JJ just left right now, but apparently their facilities have some sort of weird... not-magic-but-sorta... aura."

"He has described it as artificial-feeling in the past," Schneep recalls. "But that might not stop Magnificent."

"So where shoul' we go?" Marvin asks.

"Well, we all know about the north one, that's probably not a good idea," Jackie says, causing all the Switches to shudder at the memory. "And I know a lot about the east one, enough to know the multiverse time-space stuff wasn't their focus. Uh, Volt, what about that one in--"

"Too small," Schneep interrupts.

"Right. That just leaves the one to the west."

“Well at least that narrows it down…” Bro agrees.

Alt grips over his chest and sighs, “That’ll be enough for Mag. He can’t sense the difference between artificial magic and true magic. Anything with power- he’ll find.”

"Well that's fucking worrying, then," Anti states, concerned. "We might have even less time than we thought. Jackie, did you hear about anything that could help get them home?"

"Um..." Jackie shifts where he stands uncomfortably.

JJ returns. He puts a handful of snack foods next to Alt: a bag of chips, a bowl of raspberries, and two granola bars. I wasn't sure what you would want so I got a couple things, he says. We have more if you need it.

Alt relaxes some and smiles at Jj, “Nah this’ll help- thanks JJ.” Alt isn’t usually big on eating in front of others- but he sees the food and realizes just how hungry he is. He had to glitch a lot… he tears unto the granola bars, trying to chew quickly.

“Wait- did Jackie… did you like- work for Iris or something?” Bro asks with a tilt of his head. “…if they’re like Sclera…”

"I--It's--it's a long story." Jackie looks away, ashamed. "I didn't know about all the, uh, immoral stuff going on with them. Just their tech. I-I thought it... might be able to help protect us from Distorter..."

"It was not a bad idea on paper," Schneep says quietly. "If you do not know about what they do, you would take what you could."

Jackie clears his throat. "Anyway. Because I was focusing on Distorter protection, I didn't know much about anything else. But I think... I think I heard they were working on something to help... travel? Maybe that could... I don't know."

"Well, it's a shot, isn' it?" Marvin says, putting some cheer in his voice.

Bro nods, no judgement at all in his expression or stance. He smiles warmly at Jackie. “Hey no worries bro- I get it. Distorter is freaky as fuck. Doing whatever it takes to try to help is really brave.”

Alt pauses in his eating- though he’s practically finished everything off. “Yeah- even if nothings there… if Mag thinks there might be… he could hurt a lot of people to get it.”

He glitches to his feet and then shakes himself off, letting his shoulders and upper arms fizzle with pixels before popping back into place. “How far away is the west branch? And… you guys don’t have to come with us- if you don’t want to. Sounds like they’re a lot of hang ups around this place…”

Jackie lets out a breath, silently relieved that the two of them didn't judge him. "No, I-I have to go. I know the general layout and signs and stuff. Besides, it's out of town, so we need to drive and JJ and I are the only ones who can... assuming you guys can't."

“Fucking hate driving,” Alt mutters, crossing his arms. “Too slow-“

Bro smiles and nudges Alt a bit, “But we can… manage. We just don’t normally need to much.”

I don't know how much use I'll be with my magic still recharging, JJ says. Perhaps I should stay. I can try another teleportation if... someone gets here.

"If you are staying, I should go to help in case of a fight," Schneep says.

"Are you sure?" Jackie asks.

"Yes." Schneep nods firmly.

"Well if you're going I feel bad if I don't go," Anti mutters.

"I'll stay wit' Jems," Marvin offers. "If somet'ing happens I can protect him." He shuffles his cards nervously.

Alt looks worriedly at Jj and Marvin, “…you’ll be safe… right? Cuz of the wards- so… yeah… yeah okay.” Alt breathes and then meets the others eyes, determination bright in the glowing green ring in his eyes. “Alright. Let’s get on it then…”

Bro hesitates and then walks over to Jj and Marvin and smiles warmly, “hey- if something.. happens. Or we manage to get ourselves back home… it was good to see you all again. Youre getting really good at using those cards, Marv!” He beams, “Take care of yourselves alright? And.. sorry for all this mess.”

"We'll be fine, don' worry," Marvin reassures them. "We have a few tricks up our sleeves now." He grins, looking almost mischievous. "T'ank you for noticing the cards, by t'way. I've been rememberin' more and more."

It was good to see you, too, JJ says, smiling. Wish it could've happened under better circumstances. Maybe another time. Good luck on getting back.

Alt smirks, “…if we can figure out how to do this without dragging danger with us… it’d be nice to chill, someday.” Alt throws his hands into his pockets and looks away, red on his cheeks. He tries to pull up his mask- but it’s not there so he just blushes more. “Thanks guys… for everything.” He mutters.

"Come on, guys!" Anti is already back in the front hall. "Your cat is trying to get out!"

Marvin gasps. "Don' let him!"

"I'm not!"

Jackie laughs. "Alright, everyone, let's head out."

Bro and Alt look up at the shout and chase laughs. He waves goodbye and follows the others. Alt lingers for a second before glitching after them.

Marvin and JJ wave goodbye back. "Good luck!" Marvin calls. "An' goodbye."

Everyone piles into the car and heads out.

-----------

Mirygale is surrounded by a field. Most of the roads heading out are highways and motorways that cut through it. But out west there's just a single winding road. It's easy to tell if someone's coming. Which is why Distorter tried "convincing" Mag to come out this way. That, and he was pretty sure they'd be trying to go to the IRIS facility over here. It was the only one left when they really thought about their options.

Even influenced, Magnificent is not gonna subject themselves to walking for miles. So- he gets the location from Distorter and manages to portal them right outside of the facility. He scans the building- trying to find a magic signature to catch onto.

Distorter laughs, delighted. "That's a handy trick you have there. Makes things a lot easier." Then he turns and looks at the facility. "Hmm... this one's different than that one up north."

The facility is actually about three buildings, none of them larger than the average house, surrounded by a high chain-link fence. It used to be an old military base before IRIS swooped in and repurposed it. Right now, it looks abandoned. There are no cars or people walking the asphalt between the buildings. But... Magnificent can feel a faint signature. Not like magic, but something similar. Like the artificial taste of a cherry candy versus the real thing. One is a mere imitation. Or is it even trying to imitate anything at all? Either way, it seems to be coming from all of the buildings. Like there's something strange about the structures themselves.

Magnificent narrows his eyes as he takes in the signatures, a sour expression on his face. “…there’s faint power coming from all of them but… it’s artificial. Strange… I believe that doorway gave off something more than this…”

"Doorway?" Distorter leans closer. As Magnificent thinks about the doorway, an image of it pops up in his mind that Distorter can see. "Hmm. Never seen something like that before. Then again, I don't get out much." He giggles. "You shouldn't bet on just one mode of transportation. What if you go to a universe without magic? I doubt they'd have one of those. You need something else. IRIS is resourceful enough to figure that 'something else' out."

"hm... yes- I suppose so..." Magnificent hums in thought.

He takes a step back and scans the fence. There's a gate some ways away, but it'd be much easier to climb over the fence. Which he does, grabbing the links and scuttling up like some sort of spider. There's barbed wire at the top but he just climbs over that, too, not minding the way it digs into his skin. "Come on. You don't have to go over, of course, but come on."

Magnificent looks at the gate and Distorter climbing and makes a face before walking forward and in a wave of static appears on the other side of the fence.

Distorter grins as he watches that happen. Teleportation again so soon? After such a large jump? Yes, Magnificent is powerful indeed. Not nearly as great as his self-chosen name would suggest, but it'll be useful. Distorter drops down from the top of the fence, landing on his feet. "Well, I'm sure there's a lot that'll be useful in here. I'll keep watch. You can check out as much as you want. When they come, I'll tell you."

Magnificent nods distantly and looks towards the buildings. "Alright." He says simply then fizzles away into static to start to rifle through the buildings. What could there be here...?

Distorter watches him go. Then he walks over and hides around the corner of one building. Normally he'd be able to hide in plain sight, but they might have... that one... with them. He can't take that chance. He's hidden from the gate here and that's good enough.

...some time passes. And then a car appears, driving down the dirt road to the facility. Distorter recognizes it immediately. {They're coming,} he tells Magnificent.

Magnificent hears the warning and narrows his eyes. {Noted. Let me know if they get in our way.} He continues his search, brushing aside things, looking for any sign of- well he wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Maybe it would give off the right magic- or maybe it’d be labeled. That would be nice.

Inside the buildings is an environment of painted white walls and keycard-locked doors. Many of them have labels--identifying them as labs of various kinds--but some do not. There are also offices full of filing cabinets and storage rooms full of boxes with strange ordinary-looking tech inside: anything from CPUs to TVs to microwaves. But every single thing gives off that strange artificial magic feeling. There are cameras everywhere, visibly dangling from the ceilings.

As Magnificent walks, tiny bursts of static fizzle over the cameras as he passes. He did not want to be watched. He tries his magic to open some of the doors-

The locked doors are surprisingly sturdly. They look like wood but that's merely a facade, they're actually metal wrapped in a wooden exterior. But surely a big enough blast will knock them in. If Magnificent is willing to try.

Meanwhile, Jackie parks the car right outside the gate and gets out of the driver's seat. "Did not anticipate a locked gate," he mutters.

"At least it's only a fence," Anti adds, getting out of the passenger side. "Remember the walls up north?"

"I don't think any of us will forget those."

Even before they’ve parked all the way, Alt glitches out of the car. He shakes himself off like a disgruntled cat.

Bro doesn’t act nearly as desperate as his brother. He carefully steps out, then studies the facility. “…it looks abandoned… is that good or bad?”

"Well, good because it means we will not have to deal with them," Schneep says, getting out of the car last. "The IRIS guards and their CC group, I mean. They would be very interested in you two. I think it is bad because... why would they clear out?"

"Do you think it's a trap?" Anti asks quietly.

"Either that, or something just as bad for our health." Schneep narrows his eyes and scans the grounds beyond the fence. "How do we get in?"

"There's a keycard scanner there." Jackie points. Next to the gate is a little black box. "That's probably our best chance. I'm betting this fence is sturdier than it looks."

Alt and Bro seem to shiver at this, Alt gripping at a scar on his wrist.

Chase frowns, “They.. wouldn’t know all of us are here though so.. maybe not a trap? Unless… Distorter or Mag did something.”

“Mag has moved fast before in these places,” Alt mutters bitterly. He then glances at the others and then back at the fence. “I mean- if we don’t want to be detected- Chase can fly over and I can glitch some of you. Shouldn’t be too hard.”

"That could work," Anti says. "Are you sure that won't, uh, drain you too much?"

"I could try to work with this." Schneep walks up to the keycard reader. "Perhaps if we short it out the gate will open."

"Or maybe it'll stay closed and an alarm will start going off," Jackie says. "I think the glitch thing is safest. If it's not too much trouble."

Alt seems a bit apprehensive but he quickly nods and then offers his hands out to the others, green glowing in his eyes. “I got it- should be quick. But uh, warning I hear it doesn’t feel… great if you’re not used to it. But uh- just link up with me.”

Bro is already vaulting over the gate, climbing up some then doing some high flying parkour move to land on the other side. Show off.

"Is fine, I'm sure it won't be the worst thing." Schneep is the first to link up with Alt. Then Jackie, then finally, after a moment of hesitation, Anti.

"Show off," Anti mutters, watching Chase's fancy flying parkour moves.

Bro just waves excitedly from the other side.

Alt rolls his eyes, “He doesn’t mean to- but yeah.” He laughs. He then channels his glitches and in a quick zip the 4 of them appear in a zip of electricity on the other side of the fence. The feeling is disorienting- but it feels more like a full body shiver, like your whole body fell asleep then woke up with a quick jolt. Though, the others can feel alt breaking into pixels for a second before he snaps back together, he quickly steps back and looks around.

"Whoa." Anti quickly pushes away from Alt. No offense, but feeling someone dissolve is very, very unpleasant for him.

"Th-that was weird..." Jackie whispers, shivering.

Schneep doesn't say anything. He looks down at his hands, though.

Inside, Magnificent bares his teeth then sends a blast of magic at the door.

The door gives way, blasted off its hinges. The resulting BANG! and clatter rings out like a gunshot.

Alt glitches in surprise at the sound of the bang. He lights up electricity and looks around, already on edge. “Fuck- did Mag beat us here??”

"What the fuck?!" Anti jumps and immediately pulls out a knife. He wishes he had time to bring his gun! Even if it has been a while since he used it. "He fucking must have, jesus christ..."

Distorter turns towards the sound, annoyed. They were trying to be subtle!

"Where did that come from?!" Schneep's head darts around, looking for any sign of Magnificent--but he sees something else instead. A face that he can't identify, which is an identity itself. He gasps. "The magic man is not the only one here. It is our bitch, too."

"Fuck!" Jackie shouts.

Alt stiffens and in a panic holds out his hand towards where Schneep is looking. “No no! fucking- Why is he here?!?”

Bro narrows his eyes and tries to see if he can tell where Schneep is looking. He builds up some power in his fingers, then shoots them off towards where Distorter is, electricity rocketing out like a bullet.

Magnificent hardly blinks as he steps through the wreckage and steps inside the room, lighting up a flame on his hand so he can see.

Magnificent has found himself in a wide room--wide as in it extends far to the left and the right, seemingly along the length of this building in particular. There are mechanical work stations going in a row across the room, robotic parts and boxes of metal bits. It looks like a place where they build cell phones. Some of these parts are giving off a stronger magical signature. Particularly some rectangular red computer chips.

Magnificent quickly looks around the room, sweeping his light across the walls to try to see the magic signatures better. He sees the chips and speeds towards them-

{They're here.}

Mag curses as he hears Distorter’s warning. {Keep them distracted! I think I found something-}

The red chips have power, but as Magnificent examines them, he sees no way for them to use it. They're just sitting there, emitting a signature. Perhaps he could drain them, but they're very small. It seems they're only a part of a whole.

Magnificent curses and then grabs the chips, as many as he can stash away in his pocket. Then he sprints to try to get through the next room- seems like they were on a timer now.

Distorter barely has time to receive Magnificent's mental message before--ZAP! Bro's electricity smacks him directly in the face, knocking him into view of the group. He spasms on the floor for a moment, then laughs and goes still. "Is that a new one? Are you actually trying now?" His head turns towards the group, grinning. "Oh? Looks like we're missing some people. You just left them behind? Ah, well." He stands, going from laying on his back to a backbend to pushing himself upright with some disturbing cracking noises. "But we have some friendly faces out there. Hello, Anti. Hello, Jackie. Hello, Aodhan."

Anti stiffens. Then immediately rage clouds his face and he lunges forward. "Get my fucking name out of your fucking mouth!" he shouts. Luckily, Jackie holds him back before he can do anything stupid.

"There is no use hiding!" Schneep says, curling his hands into fists.

"I'm not hiding now, am I?" Distorter spreads his arms wide. "Welcome everyone! So good to see you."

Bro glares and puffs out his chest, standing taller. Until Distorter back bends and he jumps back with wide eyes. “Oh what the fuck?!”

Alt’s eyes widen as Anti’s name gets spoken and then he bares his teeth, electricity crackling. “Fucker! Leave us the hell alone! Why are you even here anyways?”

"I'm here because you're here," Distorter says. "You can't just forget about me and leave!"

"Why not? You--you want to be forgotten." Jackie stutters. He's pale just looking at Distorter but holds his ground.

"Not by my friends!" Distorter's grin widens. "We are friends, aren't we, Jackie?"

Immediately, Jackie's eyes start to glaze over behind his glasses. He lets go of Anti, who stumbles forward and then looks back in shock. "Jackie," he says quietly. "Don't listen--"

Distorter laughs. "I knew it." He turns to look at Alt and Chase. "I'll handle this. You handle them."

Jackie nods slowly, a single drop of red falling from his eye, and lunges at Anti. "No!" Schneep runs for Jackie, trying to pull him back. The three of them are immediately fighting. Jackie's putting his all into fighting his friends, throwing punches and grabbing throats, but the other two are reluctant to hurt him.

Alt’s stomach drops, “Jackie-!”

Distorter turns to look at the Swaps. "You know who's inside this building?" he says. "You old friend. It's just the two of you now. You can't win that fight. Maybe I can help..."

Alt stumbles back as Distorter looks at them.

Bro scoffs and crosses his arms, “We’ve handled Mag more times then you have, ya grayscale bitch.”

Alt tries to growl at Distorter, but his hands are shaking. He’s scared- he’s scared of being so close to Distorter. Of what Mag could be doing. But, he can’t let himself get distracted by Distorter. “Where is he?”

"Hmm. Somewhere in one of these buildings," Distorter says noncommittally. "And I'll point out that quantity does not imply quality. I've won every time so far. You? Not so much. Right, Blitz? Or do you prefer Impulse? Maybe you'd be able to handle Magnificent more if you had some cat tranquilizers on hand, you know."

Alt feels his blood go cold, hearing those names. He staggers back, feeling like he got punched in the gut.

“Hey! Leave him fucking alone!” Bro yells as he tries to fire another electric shot at him. “You’ve done more than enough to him today!”

Distorter laughs and tries to dodge Bro's attack.

In the background, Schneep has managed to pin Jackie to the ground with both hands behind his back. Anti breathes heavily, but looks at Jackie. "H-he's in your head, doc! You hate this, remember? Do you remember what he did to you? Fucking months, Jackie! We were all worried about you! Rama and Michelle were worried about you!"

Jackie shudders. "Anti..." he breathes. "Aodhan... it's... i-it's hard..."

Bro's attack goes wide, and Distorter just laughs harder. "Fucking useless as always!"

"Oh you shut the fuck up!" Schneep snaps from where he is. "Do not listen to him, Chase! You are one of the strongest people I know!"

Chase snorts and grits his teeth, trying to shoot out another shot. “Alt! See if you can help Jackie or try to look for Mag! I’ll handle the gray bitch!”

Alt seems hesitant, glancing at the others. He remembers that- that JJ could shock him out of it… and Jackie didn’t like the glitches. He hurries over to the others and kneels down by Jackie. “Jackie just- sorry- I think this’ll help!” He then grabs Jackie’s shoulder and tries to send a bit of his glitches and magic under his skin.

The glitches under Jackie’s skin don’t feel- great. It’s like fizzling soda but sharp, bringing a bit of an electric jolt through his system.

Jackie's eyes immediately fly open and he gasps, jolting. "Ack! Okay I'm back I'm back! Volt, let me up!" Schneep waits for a moment before standing up, pulling Jackie with him. "Th-thanks, Alt. I guess."

Alt blushes and holds up his hands, “Fuck sorry- I just… jj shocked me out of it but with… cold- god I guess that would be more pleasant…”

At once, the group switches their attention to the conflict between Distorter and Chase.

Inside, it seems like the chips are the most powerful thing in this particular building of the facility. No matter how many doors Mag breaks open, he doesn't find anything more powerful than that.

Magnificent snarls and then tries to teleport into the next building, rushing as fast as he can to try to find something- anything that he could use!

Magnificent has teleported into a building that is just one big room, lined with lockers and...what look like weapons racks. But they don't hold guns or knives. Instead, there are weird metallic boxes and collapsible staffs, handheld devices with extending prongs and loops of black metallic rope. They are all giving off that artificial magic feeling, though more electric than the rest.

Magnificent looks around the room in confusion. Fuck- tech… his cub was better with all of then him. He tries to search around to see if the chips might work with any of these. Before quickly remembering these look like phone chip cards. Okay no fuck! Time to try the last building then- he quickly teleports to the last one, starting to feel a slight drain of his magic that has blood falling from his eyes.

This next attack takes Distorter off guard and hits him square in the chest, knocking him over. His limbs jitter for a moment before he gets back up, shoulders rolling, knees bending. He looks at Chase and growls, dropping the smile for a split second. "You know you're going to die alone," he whispers. "And you know you'll deserve it." Before he tries for a blunt mental attack--not looking for control. Just looking for pure damage.

Bro feels his blood run cold as he sees Distorter’s smile drop. But before he can brace himself there’s a mental weight so severe on his mind that he doubled over and screams, curling up as he digs fingers into his skull.

Alt screams at seeing Bro fall and then glitches to try to tackle Distorter to the floor, electricity sharp and bright around him.

Distorter is so concerned with torturing Bro that he doesn't notice Alt until it's too late. The tackle slams him to the ground, Alt's loose electricity zapping him into immobility. He screams--not in pain, but frustration.

The other three all immediately rush over, following Alt. Schneep helps him pin Distorter to the ground, grabbing his blackened wrists. He's not bothered by the proximity to Alt's zapping.

"You shut the fuck up!" Anti shouts. "You shut the fuck up! Leave him alone! Leave all of us alone!"

Alt repeatedly slams Distorter into the ground, pulling him up and down by his shirt. “TOUCH MY BROTHER AGAIN!! I’LL KILL YOU İ̵̘’̵̤͒L̶̆ͅĹ̷̳ ̵̯̃F̴̩͋U̵̙͆C̵̥̆K̵̹͆I̴̗̽NG KILL YOU!!” Alt screams, voice glitching with his body as he slams more and more electricity into Distorter- his magic reaching dangerous levels.

Jackie rushes for Bro. "What happened?!" He's instantly in doctor mode, looking for injuries but seeing none.

Bro slowly uncurls and blinks blearily out, his head absolutely killing him. His whole body feels off and heavy but- there’s no fog. “hngh- yeah yeah i- im okay…” He pushes himself up and then stares at Alt losing his shit with wide eyes. “Alt! Hey I’m okay! It’s okay!”

Both Anti and Schneep stare at Alt with wide eyes--the reaction makes sense but it's more than they were expecting. "Alt, please! Stop!" Schneep tries to push Alt away from Distorter but Alt is too furious to be stopped, and Anti doesn't want to get close to the electricity.

The last building has its power off, looking locked down. This is rooms and rooms of storage of some kind. Everything in here is either on a shelf or in a box, labelled with a series of numbers or letters and a reason why it's in here instead of being used. Most of them are labeled "failed prototype" and have an attached explanation.

Somewhere in the mess is a small, phone-sized box. And inside are three devices stacked on each other that very much resemble smart phones. They are made of white metal with a glass screen, and a single power on button at the top. This box is labelled "TRVLR - failed prototype. Lack of adequate portable power." They feel like the chips do.

Mag hurries to look around and finally stumbles across the box. His eyes widen, seeing the name and then fumbling to try to insert one of the chips into the TRVLR.

The back of the TRVLR slides open easily enough, but it looks like it already has all the parts, chip included. After all, the labelled issue with it was the power source. Perhaps it just needs a jolt. A zap.

Magnificent sees the chip there already and is confused- until he remembers how they got here in the first place. He grins and laughs to himself, already feeling the familiar spark of his cub.

He grabs the device and then teleports back out into the battle, reaching out and yanking Alt off of Distorter, quickly wrapping his arm around Alt’s neck, choking him.

Alt flails and tries to claw his way out of Mag’s arms.

“Now now Anti! We really must teach you how to manage your temper~!” Magnificent laughs sinisterly and then holds up the device. “I think it’s time we had a change of scenery, don’t you?”

"Whoa, what the fuck?!" Anti aims his knife at Magnificent. "Put him down you bitch!" He knows that a single knife is not so threatening but fuck it, he's not going to let Mag get away with that!

Distorter is very shaken from Alt's attack but still tries to lunge forward. Schneep grabs him. "I have this!" He says through gritted teeth.

"The only reason you 'have this' is because IRIS fucked your brain into pieces!" Distorter spits, venom in his voice as he struggles. Schneep flinches but won't let go. A few blue sparks fly off his hands.

Jackie gasps and stands up as well. "What is that?! What does that do?!" He points at the TRVLR.

Magnificent laughs wildly, “I can feel it- this must be it! It must be how I can get to another world~! But of course, I need help from my favorite cub~!”

Alt pales and then fights more against Mag, “No! Fucking- let me go! I just want to go home!”

“But this will let us go home, Alt! Don’t you wanna help us get back to your precious family?” Magnificent whispers smoothly. Alt hesitates.

Bro struggles up and glares at Magnificent’ “Let him go Mag! You can’t keep fucking using him like he’s a battery!”

Magnificent tilts his head to the side and smirks, “But that’s all he’s good for, isn’t he? Can’t do much but hurt others with those powers of his~ at least with me, he can serve a higher purpose!”

Alt cringes and looks away, fighting a little less, a look of regret and sorrow in his eyes.

"Oh you shut the FUCK up!" Anti snaps. "Alt is more than his powers! And he doesn't need the self-delusional bullshit that you live on to convince yourself that you're more than some sad pathetic man who doesn't have anything he cares about or anyone who cares about him!"

Distorter laughs, oddly endorsing Anti's words. Schneep zaps him again.

"You don't even know if that'll work in the first place!" Jackie adds desperately. "And you don't know how to use it! You could end up somewhere terrible!"

Magnificent turns to Anti with a murderous expression, throwing out green fire towards him in a fit of rage. “SHUT UP! You know fucking nothing you second rate failure of a father!”

He then grips Alt’s arm and builds up black magic again, digging his claws in. “I don’t care- as long as it works, I don’t care! I’ll find something more than the wasted magic here.”

Alt pleads, tears in his eyes.“No! S-Stop! I don’t want to do this again! Just let us go home!” He wants to glitch away but he could set off the machine and send Mag rampaging into another world!

“Mmm how bout we make this a bonding trip, kitten? It seems like your brother will be in good hands here!”

“No- no!! Fucking let me GO!!”

Bro looks at this with fear in his eyes. He can’t let Mag just leave him here. But- he can’t let Mag corrupt Alt either! He’s gotta think- gotta think!

The fire is unexpected. Anti barely dodges it. But it does get the end of his jacket sleeve. He hurriedly pulls it off and stomps out the fire. "Yeah?! Yeah?! Tell me something I haven't heard before you piece of shit! You got nothing on me after the shit I've been put through!"

Faintly, Distorter smiles proudly. But this isn't good. They just got here, he can't lose two great asset--friends now. Schneep's electricity is preventing him from moving, but if he concentrates... he still has a hold on Magnificent.

{Let go.} The words are accompanied by a push of fog.

Magnificent growls, pressing claws further into Alt’s skin, ready to corrupt Alt fully again.

Then, the link with Distorter rushes over his mind, everything turning into fog. His eyes widen and go hazy, and he slowly lets Alt fall to the ground.

Alt doesn’t hesitate to run, then once he’s far away, glitch back over towards the others. But he does look back at Mag with confusion, panting heavily.

The others know the signs of Distorter's influence when they see them. "What the fuck?!" Schneep gasps.

Distorter looks up at him. "Did you think I couldn't--"

Schneep shocks him again and looks at the others in alarm. "We have to get out of here!"

"There have to be more of those things somewhere in here!" Jackie says, indicating the TRVLR. He glances around the buildings, noticing the small difference in the IRIS logos painted on the side. "There!" he points. "I-I think that's the storage!"

"Gotta go either way!" Anti says. "Go go go go!"

They all break into the run. Schneep makes sure to give Distorter a big shock before he runs.

Alt stares at Mag with apprehension but Bro is quick to scoop him up and then carry him fireman style after the others. “H-Hey! Chase!”

“I can run faster than you just- c’mon!”

Magnificent tries to shake his head, trying to push past the gray. He was… doing something important.

The group get stalled at the door for a moment befoer Schneep shouts "Fuck it!" and grabs the keycard scanner, jolting it with so much electricity that it smokes. Nothing happens--but now the door is unlocked. Jackie leads the way inside, scrambling through his memories. Where would IRIS store a multiverse jumping device?! It looked like a phone--somewhere they could tuck it away easily, maybe--

The group checks a couple different doors before Anti yells out. "This it?!"

Bro sets Alt down once they’re inside and they quickly help the others search. Once Alt hears that Anti found something, he glitches over.

Everyone else rushes to him. He's found the box with the two other TRVLRs. "It says they don't have a good power source--that's why that bitch wanted Alt."

Alt looks at the device curiously- and now that they have some distance from Mag… he sends a bit of his electricity into the machine. Worse comes to worse… he’ll destroy it if Mag tries to take it.

The TRVLR's screen lights up as soon as Alt sends a jolt into it. There are three white circles arranged on a triangle against a black background. The top one has an X icon, the left one has an upwards-pointing arrow, and the right one has a gear icon. "Weird," Anti mutters. He taps the gear and it opens up a screen of technical-looking text. "Nope." Luckily, there's a handy Back icon at the bottom. "What is this?"

Jackie leans over and presses the circle with the up arrow. A pop up appears, with the words Are you sure you want to initiate jump? and a Yes and No option.

"Nooooo no no, not yet." Jackie quickly presses No. He looks at Alt and Chase. "I, uh... I think that button can... get you home. If you're ready."

"What about the top?" Schneep asks.

Anti presses the button with the X icon. The three circles disappear, now replaced by a list of letters and numbers. In the middle is U-0407019SW - Current Location.

"Oh. It's a map. Uhhh... how do we know which one is these guys's home?"

"It must be close, for them to get here so easily," Schneep says. "Perhaps the one above or below?"

Alt stares at the device as the others poke and prod at it. At least he knows now Mag would have been just as confused… Alt’s heart leaps into his throat as Jackie tells them about the jump button. He nods.

Chase squints at the numbers, “god- that’s confusing… we wouldn’t know the fucking area code of our dimension! We just get dragged places…”

“What if we chose wrong,” Alt asks quietly. “What if we really do end up somewhere worse? And we… we can’t leave Mag here- he’ll…” He swallows thickly.

"Hey," Anti says gently. "There's going to be risk with this no matter what you do. Even if you could find that weird doorway, how would you know you'd go back home using it? If you'd rather stay for a while and figure this out... It'd be fine. We'd be cool with that. But...It won't make the risk go away."

"Well, uh, if it helps, you probably shouldn't go to the ones marked with exclamation marks." Jackie points to one on the lists that has a red exclamation point in front of the code. "Those are probably marked off for a reason."

Alt narrows his eyes at the exclamation points and then nods. Okay… at least they know what to avoid. “…we need to get Mag out of here… the longer we stay- the more we put the rest of you at risk-“

Outside, Distorter gets to his feet and stretches, arching his back so far that it pops. He looks at Magnificent, who is still confused. Hmm... you know what? That was a mistake. He should've taken the opportunity to get into Alt's head while he was freaking out because of the magician. But he was distracted by the shock-induced convulsions. Well, Mag will get over the confusion. For now, Distorter heads towards the building where they ran. Even if Mag recovers and takes Alt away, he might still be able to get rid of that copy of once-him.

Magnificent clutches at his head as he’s left alone. He then blinks and through the slowly clearing fog starts to stumble towards the storage building. Right right- he was looking for something- god c’mon! Think!

Distorter can hear them talking. He walks closer--slowly, he can't just hide from them with that one there. What are they talking about? Risk?

{You don't have to go anywhere if it's too dangerous,} Alt hears the voice in his head. {Stay here, where it's safe.} It's accompanied by a gentle push.

Alt pauses, the voice slithering in his head. There’s a push but Alt quickly shakes himself out of it and whips around, wide eyes looking around for Distorter. “Fuck- he’s already here?”

Magnificent digs his claws into the doorway and leans against it, dazed eyes narrowing at the group. He sees- they have the device too. He growls, pushing himself forward. His cub was going to pay for escaping him- trying to steal his victory.

Bro hears this and spins around, sliding in front of the others and holding his arms out protectively, flashing silver blue eyes at Mag. “Don’t you fucking dare, Mag.”

"Well it's all just going to shit, isn't it?" Anti mutters. "Here." He hands the TRVLR to Alt. "You should at least hold onto it."

"He's dazed," Jackie whispers, too quiet for Mag to hear. "Because of Distorter. You might not have another chance to get him out of here." He glances back and forth between Chase and Alt. "Don't worry about us. We've dealt with our bastard before, we can do it again."

“Alright, I can grab him. Then Alt- you try whatever address feels right-“ Bro replies.

“Wait i-!” Alt holds the TRVLR close and then starts searching through the addresses with wide eyes, trying not to panic.

Distorter sees Magnificent coming. He got over that sooner than expected, actually. And he can feel the link between them straining. He can't push it too far or it'll break. Fine. He'll settle for taking care of the once-him copy. If Mag takes Alt, that one will no doubt have a crisis he can use. {Well? What are you waiting for? Don't you want to get out of here?}

Magnificent sees the device is working and he yells out in wild desperation, especially as he hears Distorter echoing in his head. He tries to push past Bro to grab at Alt. Bro quickly tries to grab him, trying to wrestle him to the floor. “Choose one, Alt! Hurry!”

"Mother fucker!" Schneep spots Distorter ducking out of sight. "Stop this! I have it, you guys, go on!" He only hesitates for a moment to look at Alt.

"Good luck. And goodbye."

Alt is trying not to panic but he meets Schneep’s eyes. He nods, “G-Goodbye Volt.”

Then Volt lunges for Distorter, who shrieks in frustration and actually runs, not wanting to enter another cycle of shocks.

"Make sure you've all got a hold of each other!" Jackie advises.

There's a number close to the current location on the list reading U-1030018ST. That has to be promising, right? It doesn't have a mark and has the same prefix as this one. That means it's probably similar, right? Their home is similar, right?

Alt hesitates but scrolls to the address and thinks it looks right- but he can’t hesitate for too much longer. He rushes to Chase, who holds out a hand for him to take while Magnificent squirms and hisses in his grasp. Alt takes Bro’s hand and then looks back at Anti and Jackie. He looks scared but- grateful. “..t-thank you guys- for everything!”

He then chooses the address and clicks the jump button, confirming yes before he can hesitate further.

The others barely have time to nod in acknowledgement before Alt presses the jump button. Then, to Alt, Bro, and Magnificent, there is a split second where they area falling--through space?--it's dark with pinpricks of light--and then they are no longer here.

Anti stares at the spot where they just were, before green light enveloped them and they disappeared without a trace. "I hope they make it," he whispers.

Jackie can only nod. Then he takes a deep breath. "Let's get Schneep and get out of here."

"Yeah."

They both stare at the spot for a second longer before running out of the room.

#swap into the crystalverse #swapboys #alt anti #bro fantastic #swap magnificent #switch au #programmer anti #1920's marvin #the jaunty jackson #distorter #von voltage #dr. jackie parker #SITCV switch #thats the end of the switch au!#wonder what universe they'll be in tomorrow :3c

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