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crystalninjaphoenix · 5 years

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The Crossover Episode

Septics Inverted

A JSE Fanfic

Doin’ something a little different. I may or may not really love the Swap Boys AU, and I was like “heh, what if crossover?” and then I was like “Wait! I can do that! Literally nothing is stopping me!” andalsoHuffleencouragedme So I wrote it! :D Hope I’ve done the characters justice, it was a little strange writing someone else’s characters (ignore the fact that fanfic is just that lol)

Swap Boys was created by...a whole bunch of people actually, but you can find a lot of its content on @huffle-dork‘s blog!

Read the intro story: Part One | Part Two

Various other AU-related stuff found here

I don’t know if I should add the taglist to this cause it’s not normal AU material, but I have nothing to lose here, so if I tag you but you’re not interested don’t feel compelled to read this | Taglist: @evyptids @awkward-bullshit @watermelonsinmyattic @asunachinadoll @a-humble-narcissus @metautske @odysseus-is-best-boi @acuriousquail @beerecordings

If anyone had been watching the security monitors at the museum that night, they would have noticed when almost the entire system shut down, leaving only a couple cameras still operating. It was a very unusual blackout: all the feeds turned purple at the edges before the cameras spazzed out and died. But nobody was watching the security monitors. The single night guard had gone to check out a suspicious movement behind the building, and never come back.

The moment the system went down, a man in a black cat mask appeared in the middle of the museum’s latest exhibit. He waited for the pale purple smoke from the teleportation spell to vanish before looking around. The room was grand, marble floor and columns holding up the ceiling. Apparently an anonymous donor had decided to give their collection of antiques to the museum, and the museum put them here. He wondered who the donor was, because they were either unaware of what their antiques actually were, or an absolute idiot for letting these out of their sight. Even just looking at these things through the television had set off all sorts of magical alarm bells.

Well, they weren’t doing anyone any good just sitting inside glass cases. Marvin smiled to himself. Time to figure out what exactly was worth taking.

The central artifact of the exhibit was something that looked like an empty doorway made of stone. Except it had runes carved on one side and the other side was black, like obsidian. Apparently the donor had instructed that nobody pass through the door. Marvin wondered why that was. Looking at the doorway was sending shivers down his spine, echoes of power, but it wasn’t small enough to transport easily so he left it alone. The other artifacts were a different story. They ranged from jewelry to figurines to leather-bound tomes, everything so obviously magical that it was amazing nobody else had caught on.

Marvin strode over to the nearest display case, containing silver necklaces and bracelets. He placed his hands on top of the glass and muttered some words under his breath. A wave of purple spread across the case, and then the glass dissolved into sand. The jewelry was now out on the open, and Marvin could feel the pulses of magical energy coming from them. Luckily he’d thought to worn gloves; you never knew what these things could do when you touched them with bare skin. He’d figure out which ones were dangerous later, when he was back home. One of the necklaces was giving out the strongest pulse, so he grabbed it, and in a puff of lavender smoke it disappeared. All this teleportation was gonna take a toll on him eventually, so he’d have to be careful choosing which artifacts to liberate.

The lights overhead flickered and died. Marvin sighed deeply. Did this guy have nothing better to do than stalk them? With a flick of his wrist, Marvin conjured a globe of purple light, brightening his surroundings. It was quiet...until the hum of static slowly built up behind him.

“ Yo͟u m̵iss̴e̢d͡ a ̡f̢ew ̸c̨a̸m͠eras,” he said, amused.

Marvin didn’t even give Anti the courtesy of a reply, just spun around and sent an arc of violet magic in the general direction of his voice. The magic passed right through the columns in the room, as well as the glass display cases. A few of the artifacts inside let out spurts of color and unnerving hissing sounds. One even exploded into shards of colored crystals, which in turn caused the rest of the items in that case to either melt or also explode. “Fuck,” Marvin muttered. Okay, point taken, be careful using magic around these things.

An outline of a man appeared, leaning on top of one of the cases. He was glowing slightly green, which would make him an easy target if he wasn’t prone to glitching out of the way of any projectiles. “S̢hor̨t̴er͠ temp͝e͞r ̶than usual, I see,” Anti said. “What’s wrong, w͡hiske̛r͟s͢?”

“I’m kind of busy, right now,” Marvin growled. Maybe he could land a hit if he could keep Anti distracted. He ran through all the attack spells he knew, trying to find one that could avoid hitting the artifacts.

“Oh, we’re ̕ta̧l̵king t̨h̵i̡s̸ ̛tím͢e͡!" Anti laughed. “Can’t be th̀at̕ ̸b͡us̕y̨ then.”

“Well, you’re just gonna jump out of the way of anything I try like the fucking cheater you are. And everything's pretty sensitive in here, so why take the chance of blowing myself up? Anyways, what do you want?”

“Well, I ͏wa̢nt̛ you to ̶s̷t̴op ̧this sort of thing a͠l̸to̵g̷eth͟er,” Anti mused. “And maybe d̴i͡sappȩar from s͡o͝ciet͞y͝ while you’re at it. But I know y͏ou won’t do that, so I’ll settle for y̸óu leavi̷ng̢ th̛iś ͞p͟l͏ac̷e alone.” He glanced around. “Is it really a good idea to go after things that can b̶a̴ck̨f̛ire̵ ̀o̵n y̛òu̸ at a͏ny m͏oment? ̢Es̸p͟ećìally considering what ̵hap̢pe̢ned ̕la͞st͡ time one of your spells—”

A beam of concentrated magic, about the width of a pencil, shot toward’s Anti’s head, actually connecting. He stumbled back a few steps, coming apart momentarily before reforming.

“How do you know about that?!” Marvin demanded.

Anti shook his head, pixels flying away from his face. “I ̧j͞us̛t do.” He glitched and for a moment there seemed to be more of him. “Wha̧t...w͞a͞s tha̢t, by ̕th̡ȩ ͏w̸ày͞? F̕elt͡ ͠lik͝e a knif̀e in the̡ br͞a̸in.”

“Pointslice spell,” Marvin couldn’t resist explaining. His eyes flashed purple. “Good to know it did something.” And he sent another one in Anti’s direction.

Anti was prepared this time, glitching away. He reappeared right in front of the stone doorway in the center of the exhibit. Once more, he shook his head, blinking this time. He was confused. Good. Marvin sent one more pointslice towards Anti, this time hitting him square in the chest. The force of the spell shoved him back a few steps and right into the empty doorway, where he stopped. Frozen in place like someone hit the pause button. “C̵-càņ't͟—go̷—fa͠r͏-fart̛her,” he said through gritted teeth. The words came out haltingly, stuttering like a broken connection. “No̶t̢ su̴p̨pos͟-̴p͏o̷s̸-p̷os̵ed̷ t̶o—feȩl̴s ̛da͡nger-d̡ang̕e̛r͠-ger-ge͞r—”

“Dangerous?” Marvin finished. “I’m sure you can handle it.” Anti was unwilling and/or unable to move from the spot where he’d ended up. He probably wouldn’t be able to dodge a slower, but more powerful spell. Marvin gathered his magic, then threw a dark purple flame toward the doorway.

Anti’s eye widened. At the very last second, he tried to glitch away, but...something happened. The magic tried to go through the doorway and the cluster of pixels, but it stopped. It glowed brighter, then started to spin, gathering into a sphere that only spun faster and faster. Anti’s pixels were caught up in the magic’s orbit, swirling around it and speeding up as it did. The magic let out a low whine that grew higher in pitch until it was almost out of the range of human hearing, then it shattered. A wave of color and noise and indescribably bright light burst out, tearing through the glass cases, hurling anything not rooted to the ground away from the doorway in a circle. Including Marvin, whose head hit the far wall with a thud before he slid to the ground.

Anti reformed slowly, clusters of pixels becoming shapes, clumps of shapes becoming limbs and then finally a body. He was laying face down on the floor, eye closed. Standing would take too much energy. What the fuck just happened? First Marvin hit him with a new spell that messed with his head, basically slowing his thoughts down, then he got stuck in that weird doorway. He didn’t even mean to, it was just that the moment he was standing in it, he got this overwhelming feeling that he should not go through unnatural stop do not that added more fuckery to his head. And then Marvin, like an idiot, had attacked him. And he, like an idiot, glitched away. The combination of Marvin’s black magic and Anti’s own must have...done something. He wasn’t sure what, but it had apparently drained him.

“Now what do we have here?”

Anti’s eye fluttered open. That voice...it sounded a bit like Marvin, but since when was Marvin the type to say something so sinister and cliche? With some effort, Anti lifted his head up and turned it towards the voice. And there, he saw a man who looked almost like Marvin, but with some key differences. He’d upgraded from a dress shirt to a full suit, and his cape was flickering with static, which made Anti feel strangely offended. The man wore half of a white cat mask, and one of his eyes glowed bright green while the other was dull and lifeless. There was magic dancing around his clawed hands, but it was green instead of purple.

The man looked at Anti, watching him glitch wildly for a moment. “You didn’t tell me you had a new trick, Alt.”

“W̛h̸o̡ ̧t̨h̢e ̷fu͢c̢k is ̷Al͢t?” Anti pushed himself into a kneeling position.

For a split second, the man looked surprised. But he quickly buried it. “You can’t fool me.” The man stalked forward, grabbing Anti by his scarf and pulling him into an upright position. “You think a change of clothes and a new location would be able to hide you from me? I’m afraid you're wrong. Though I'm very interested in how you managed to pull that off.”

Anti scowled. “Loo͏k,͝ H̡ou͠d͢ini,̵ I d͢o̕ń't ķnow͏ ́w͞h̵ơ you̸ a̢re, I ͠d̢o͝n'͏t kn̡ow who̕ ͞y̸o̕u͏ th͢i͢n͟k ̶I ̕a̷m̶,͞ àll̡ I̕ k̷now ̛i͏s tha̧t yo̢u͏'́r͢e ̴th́r͞e̕at̕e̢n̛i̧n̢g͞ m̨e̷ u͝n͠deŗ ̧a ̸v̛eil, ̵anḑ ̶it͢'̕s do̶i̕n̢g ̕n̡o̴th̷ing.”

“Is that so?” The man flexed his fingers, and the claws on his hands extended. He smiled madly. “Perhaps I believe you. But that won’t stop me from taking your other eye out. Then maybe you’ll tell me where I am.”

Anti burst out laughing, spasms of distortion running through his body. “The̛r̷e's͠ th͞e u̶nveíl̶e̵d ͡threat͞s! Go a͠h͠ead́. ̨I͢ ̶o͏n̕c̕e h̢ad͏ ͠my h̷an̛d ̨cu͞t off̷ a͞nd̡ I ͢di͏dn'͞t f̡̢̛l͞i̧̢͠ņ̀c͟h,͢ y̵ǫu t̵hink̀ ̨a meaśly̷ l̵it͞t̡l̨e̛ ey̨e iś ̢g͝ǫn̕na ge̛t a̸ ͞re͝ác͟tio͢n̸?”

The man blinked for a moment, which probably meant he was confused or too angry for words. Maybe both. But before he could retaliate, something purple started glowing in Anti’s peripheral vision. He barely had time to brace himself before both he and the other man were hit with a blast of violet magic, throwing them both a few feet across the room. Anti forced himself into a kneeling position for the second time in a minute and looked at Marvin—was the other man somehow also Marvin?—standing with his hands full of purple magic, glaring at the other man. “Who the fuck are you and why do you look like me?!” he shouted.

The man stood up. “Why do I look like you?” he repeated, scowling. “I think you have that question backwards.” He scanned Marvin, and an understanding seemed to dawn in his eyes. “As for who I am...” He disappeared, reappearing a foot away from Marvin’s face, who jumped. He chuckled at the reaction. “...you may call me Magnificent.”

“Are you showing off?” Marvin’s eyes narrowed behind the mask. “Teleporting isn’t difficult, you know. And you say I got the question backwards when you’re the one using my old name! What are you, a copycat?” He smirked.

Magnificent growled. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? Well, you do have power, weak as it is. We can come to an arrangement.”

“Sorry, all my spots for allies are full right now, wait until they die,” Marvin quipped. “And that’s not an invitation for murder. Unless you want to be on the receiving end.” The purple magic flared.

Magnificent’s green flared in turn. “It wasn’t an option.” The green magic started to swirl, spirals of mesmerizing colors hovering inches from Marvin’s face. At first he balked, backing away, raising his arms with his purple magic trying to form a shield in front of him. But the longer he stared, the more his magic died. His shoulders slumped and his arms fell as he relaxed. Behind his black mask, his eyes were fixed on the lights before him.

Anti watched the entire exchange silently, not sure if he should intervene. Neither of these magicians were the kind of people he wanted to help, but it was part of his instincts at this point. Human in danger meant he had to jump in, it was a rule.

Then something flickered. Anti’s eye snapped toward it, and he felt, more than saw, someone glitch. How the...? Nobody else was supposed to be able to do that. It just wasn’t possible. Unless...

He gave one more glance to the pair of magicians. You know what? He’d let that play out. If the outcome wasn’t favorable, he’d fix it. For now, though, he had questions. Neither of the masked men noticed when he glitched away.

“That’s it,” Magnificent purred, concentrating on the face of his other self. “Just relax. Let the colors take you away.”

Marvin nodded blankly. The colors were pretty. So beautiful...He didn’t even notice the magic probes burrowing into his mind. Didn’t even realize his body was going limp, like a toy doll. Or a puppet. None of that mattered. Why would it?

“You have potential,” Magnificent said. “I can give you the power you want. The power you crave. All you have to do is wrap my strings around your wrists. That’s it. Not too difficult. And you’ll get everything you ever wanted in return.”

That sounded like a good deal. Why wouldn’t he take it? Everything he ever wanted...it didn’t matter if the only thing keeping him standing was Magnificent’s strings. It didn’t matter if there was a faint buzzing in his mind. Those things were irrelevant...and sort of welcome.

Magnificent watched as the other him’s head lolled. Perfect. Now there was one final step. Magnificent pressed his fingers to Marvin’s temple, sending a flood of dark magic down his neural paths, deep deep down. In the future, he’d just need to touch that point and he’d have a perfect puppet ready to go. Magnificent smiled as he felt his magic flowing through Marvin’s mind. But then...it hitched on something. That was the only word to describe what it felt like. There was something there, something catching on his magic. And then whatever it was changed, like flipping a switch.

Marvin’s eyes snapped wide open, glowing purple. Magnificent didn’t have time to react before Marvin grabbed his wrist, yanked his hand away from his temple, and pulsed, sending a flood of pure black magic through Magnificent’s entire body. The force of it tossed Magnificent all the way to the other side of the museum room, crashing into one of the display cases.

“Fucking mentalist mind trick motherfucking bullshit!” Marvin yelled. “I knew there was a reason I used to hate you guys!”

Magnificent clambered to his feet. That should have worked! He almost had this version of him under control, but then...what happened? It was almost like he’d—like he’d set off a trigger. One that someone else had put in there, made to go off when someone dug too deeply into this Marvin’s head. But why would anybody do that?

“Hey hypno-shit, catch!” Marvin snapped his fingers and muttered some words under his breath. A glowing purple orb hovered over his head for a moment before zooming towards Magnificent. He managed to put up a shield of glowing green just in time. The orb crashed into the shield with an audible crack, bursting into what looked almost like liquid that splashed across the green magic, eating away at it. Magnificent gritted his teeth, then dropped the shield and disappeared, reappearing behind Marvin.

“You think you stand a chance against me?” Magnificent laughed. “Well, two can play at that game.” A wave of green slammed into Marvin, throwing him into the side of the stone doorway, which was standing as still and untouched as it had been before whatever this was started.

Marvin hissed. “Yeah, but you’re on my home field. And I know something you don’t.” Magnificent was standing near one of the display cases. The glass had been shattered by the blast, but the artifacts were undamaged. Not for long. Marvin sent one of the pointslice spells at a gold bracelet that was giving off particularly strong vibes. The moment it made contact, the bracelet vibrated intensely before exploding, pieces of gold blasting outward. In just a few seconds all the nearby artifacts were bursting as well, sending shards of hot metal and stone everywhere. Magnificent barely had time to cover his head before he was caught in the chain reaction, shards slicing into his skin and lodging there. He muffled his cry of pain. Can’t show weakness.

Marvin laughs. “I have potential, you say? A bit more than that, I fucking think! Here, why don’t I show some of my tricks?” A few muttered words, and suddenly a wheel of purple sparks was whizzing about the room, streams of violet cutting through the columns and displays like burning knives. It headed straight toward Magnificent.

The magician leaped out of the way, and the wheel flew past him, only for it to course correct and head right back towards him. Magnificent shot a bolt of green magic toward it, but the wheel split into two when the bolt hit it, and the two new ones were still zooming towards his face. Magnificent didn’t want to admit it, but he was starting to get nervous. He disappeared just before the wheels hit him.

“Aw, what’s wrong, Mag? Never seen an Insentro wheel before?” Marvin jeered. “Did you put all your effort into fancy mentalist shit and nothing practical?” He flicked his wrist, and the wheels stopped, slowly spinning in the air like a dog searching for a scent. “Also did I mention that advanced forms of the spell can seek out living creatures?”

Suddenly, the wheels bolted toward one of the columns, homing in on something invisible to the eye. They sliced through the column and something flared a dark green. The wheels hit the green, exploding into fire that quickly died out. Magnificent flickered into view, the shield he put up at the last minute almost spent. He glared at Marvin. “Your spells will have to be stronger than that.”

“Hey, you want some free advice? Never say that, you’re just asking for it.” Marvin cupped his two hands into a ball shape. Between them, a sphere of bright pink-purple light grew into existence. “And this is the it you asked for.” He threw the sphere in Magnificent’s direction. It gained speed and size remarkably quickly, little branches of lightning shooting off like a miniature comet. Magnificent barely had time to reinforce his shield before the comet became a supernova, filling up nearly half the room with buzzing purple magic that attacked the nearest surface. The frenzy lasted for about five seconds before it suddenly winked out of existence. And when it vanished, Marvin couldn’t see any sign of Magnificent.

Normally that would have been a victory, but this guy was apparently very adapt at teleportation. Marvin was tempted to go looking for him...but he forced himself to admit he was pretty drained. That Mun’iquo Steturit was supposed to be a last resort type spell, and he’d busted it out at the end there anyway. Magical exhaustion was working away at his brain, slowing his reflexes and giving him a pounding headache. He felt like he could sleep for days...no, it would be a bad idea to go after Magnificent just now. He could actually lose. Marvin yawned, looking around the museum exhibit at the absolute destruction the fight had caused. No doubt the curator would be wondering what had sliced right through solid stone columns, or caused half the artifact collection to fall apart. Speaking of which...there were some artifacts left untouched that were still giving off powerful magical signatures. Marvin grabbed a few of them. Couldn’t let this trip be a total waste. Then, with one last scan to make sure the other magician wasn’t to be seen, Marvin disappeared in a puff of smoke.

In the hallway outside the room, Magnificent did a quick overview of his wounds. What kind of spells did the other him have? He’d never seen anything even remotely like that last attack. Either this version of him was seriously powerful, or this world—by now he was sure he was in a different world—had a different form of magic. But whichever one it was didn’t matter in the long run. The other him had still managed to slice him up with those exploding artifacts, almost burn him with those wheels, throw him across the room twice, and cook him with that last spell. His entire body stung, feeling like it had been dunked in boiling water on top of the slices. And he almost had him too! That was what hurt the most. Magnificent sorely wanted to go back and make the other him pay, but he was in no shape to do so. He’d have to recuperate, make a new plan.

But eventually, the other him would be his. Or he’d be dead. And Magnificent would have a whole new world to play with.

Alt wasn’t sure where he was. He didn’t recognize this part of town. Last thing he knew, he’d been running away from Magnificent, again, then there’d been a bright, colorful light and a loud noise, and suddenly he was in a fancy museum-looking place. He’d been quick to duck to the edges of the room, scared that this was some new trick of the magician’s, but Magnificent had mistaken someone else for him...someone who also glitched. How was that possible? He thought he was the only one who could do that. Obviously he wasn’t the only person in the world with powers, Bro Fantastic was a prime example of that, but glitching...

He’d managed to escape when that other man showed up, the one who looked and sounded eerily like Magnificent, and now he was running though the streets, trying to find a way to his apartment—or at this point, any familiar place. He couldn’t find any of the streets or landmarks he knew.

Someone appeared in front of him. No, someone glitched in front of him. Was that really what it looked like? Alt skidded to a halt. It was that guy, the one from the museum-type place, the one who Magnificent threatened and he just laughed in response. He actually looked a bit like Alt himself, if Alt lost his jacket, traded his bandanna for a scarf and an eye-patch, and surgically removed his freckles. His glitches also seemed...different, somehow. Alt’s were often green or other vibrant colors, pixels floating in a cloud around him. But this guys’ were mostly white and grey with the occasional green, and they were actually coming off of him. “What̢ ̢a̴re̕ y̵o̕u?” the guy asked. His voice sounded like a broken computer.

“I don’t know, dumbass,” Alt growled. “The guy who’s about to shove his fist down your throat if you don’t get out of my way?”

“Rea̶l͡ cr͞ea̛t͡i͞v́è th̴ęr͞e.” The guy rolled his eye. “H̡o̶w o͝ld̴ ͢ar͞e ̵yo̡u?̢ ̶Fi͞f̵t̵eȩn̸?”

Alt felt a surge of rage. He didn’t care if this guy was also a glitcher, he didn’t care if he somehow looked like him, he wanted this asshole to leave him alone. He clenched his fists, green electricity arcing around them. “Ì̡͝ ̛͟͝ẁá͟s̸̕ ̵̛s̵̀eri̶̸o̸us͠ ab͢o̕͠u̡͡t̛ ̷͡th̛a̶̢t.” He lunged towards the guy, glitching lending him speed as he swung a fist towards his head. It connected with a solid crack and the snap of electricity.

The other dude fell backwards onto the ground. But he was immediately back up again. “Cáre̴f̸u͠l ̀w͟i̧t̶h ̨t͡h́at,” he said as if he hadn’t just been decked in the face. “You could really h̶úŕt͠ someone.”

“That’s the point!” Alt yelled. “You, for example!”

The guy chuckled. “Ǹo͞.”

The fuck did that mean?! Alt’s glitches intensified. “L̡̛é́͞ąv̶͟e̵ ̷͠͞me á͏l͡o̴ǹ̢ę̵ ̀͢b̵̢e͟͟͏fǫ͟͢r̀ę ̸̛I̕ ́m̢a̢̕ke̢͏ ̛y̨͟o͏̨u̢͢͡.”

“With what? Your lit̸t̷ļe̸ ļi͏gh͠t͟ning̵?” There had never before been a pair of words that filled Alt with as much anger as he was feeling now. A surge of green shot out from him in a wave, but the other guy didn’t even flinch. “You have a good swing, and you’re stronger than you look, but t̵h̛at̶?” The guy shrugged. “Could damage a human, but to me it’s m͠o͢r̵é ͝of a̷ b͡oo̴s̕t than anything.” He glitched away before Alt could attempt another attack, reappearing on the roof of one of the nearby one-story buildings.

“What the fuck do you want from me?” Alt shouted.

The guy stared down at him. He...wasn’t blinking. At all. “I want to know how you’re doing that. I think you’re húm̨an͝, but in my experience organic matter can’t glitch. At least, not we͝ll. Or s̶a̕fe̛l͞y͠. And then, I want to make sure you know w͟her̀e ̧th̶e͢ ͏hel̶l͡ you’re going.”

Wait...was this guy offering to help? Yeah, no. In Alt’s experience, people who insulted you and then tried to help you out were bad news. “Thanks, but no thanks.” He turned away, starting down the road. “I can figure it out on my own!”

The guy laughed. “Oh, yeah, good luck making it in this city. Choose your fate: would you prefer to be s̢hot,͟ bea̸t͠én t͞o ͞d̨ea̛th, torn͏ ͠òp̛en̸, ͝bùr̕n̢e̵d̷ ͏alive,͡ o̷r ͡h͞ypno̷t̷izèd?” When Alt didn’t turn around, he raised his voice. “I know you’re not from a̵ro͠u͏nd ͝her͟e͟, kid! Or maybe you just live under a rock! Otherwise you’d know that the only people walking around at one in the morning are either c̵ŕi͟m̸in̨a̢l̷s or v͞ìct̴im͠s̸. It’s really fucking stupid to go out on your own!”

Alt spun back around. “If you’re so eager to keep me safe then stop yelling shit at me!”

“Y̛ou͟ ̶s̛tar̵te͡d i̵t!” He either didn’t notice or didn’t care how childish that sounded. “But alright, let’s start over. I’m called A̢n̕ti, and you are?”

Alt froze. “What did you say?”

“I said I’m called Anti.” His eyes narrowed. “Why? Sound fa̷mil̕i̴a̶r͠?”

Alt’s breathing quickened. “Is this—is this another one of Magnificent’s tricks? Do you work for him?!”

“That half-cat-faced b͏l̴ac̷k̵ ͢mągįc di̴p̷shi̢t? Fuck no.”

“You’re lying!” Alt screamed. “How else would you know?! How do you know my real name?!”

Anti’s eye widened. In an instant, he was back on the ground. “That’s your name?” he breathed. “That’s impossible.”

Alt began backing up, looking up and down the street for the tell-tale glowing eye of the magician. “I—I won’t go back to him! You can’t make me!” His glitches sprung up around him, and he almost felt like he was in two places at once.

“I’m not gonna fucking—! Look, my full name is A͢n̷t̷i͞s̀ep̛tìceye, that can’t possibly be yours. Right?”

That even sounded made-up. Alt couldn’t see any sign of Magnificent, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there. He made a split-second decision and glitched away, reappearing down the street. He took off, a combination of flat sprinting and glitching making a wild route away until he was even more lost then he already was.

“Hey wait!” Anti almost ran after him, but stopped. This kid—didn’t matter how old he was, compared to Anti he was a child in age—clearly didn’t trust him, and probably wouldn’t listen to a word he said. Maybe he shouldn’t have retaliated when he called him a dumbass. If he didn’t hate his temper sometimes... whatever, what’s done is done. He’d fucked it up. The kid was never going to let him come within three feet of him now, let alone answer his questions.

Part of him wanted to just show the kid how dangerous this city was, but most of him balked at that idea. After all, how was he supposed to figure out what this kid was if the kid was dead? Anti smiled. Luckily, if there was one thing this city had, it was cameras. Businesses had them, the streets had them, even people had them on their phones. He’d just watch the kid, see what he did. If he got into trouble, he’d get him out. Maybe then he’d listen to him.

And with one final burst of pixels, Anti vanished. Worlds had collided tonight, and only time would tell what would happen next, if anything did.

#see i think the difference is that i!marvin is more combat-oriented in spells and magnificent is mostly mind tricks #also i!marvin has four others that he (sometimes reluctantly) works with so he's got a support system while mag is pretty alone here #also alt and anti being just awful to each other is really great its fun dialogue to write i thank the rp huffle and i did for inspiration #let me know if you want a second crossover episode this was really fun to write so i left it open on purpose #jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #septic egos #septic egos au #septics inverted au #marvin the magnificent #antisepticeye #swapboys #invertedau #brigid writes fanfiction

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septic-dr-schneep · 5 years

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Omg I was catching up on your stuff I missed while I was at work today and seeing you get dragged into making your swap au- that’s exactly how me and my discord made swapboys XD I was just like welp guess I’m drawing this... okay now they’re my sons- ...I wanna draw your swaps and my swaps together... for science 🤔

Ahh, sorry I missed this ask before! Seeing them together would be awesome! I still need to design Supervillain Anti and Glitch Jackie :)c After they’re designed, though, maybe we could do a collab!

#youtube #jacksepticeye #ego swap au #answered ask #huffle-dork

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huffle-dork · 8 months

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Hufftober Day 3: Drink

Today is from @tracobuttons ‘s Egotober list!

Being a hero is hard :(

#huffleart #inktober #inktober 2023 #egotober #egotober 2023 #chase brody #Jacksepticeye #bro fantastic #swapboys au #hufftober #hufftober 2023 #swapboys #swapboys Art

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huffle-dork · 2 years

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Hiiii so I started TMA and I’m already on Season 4 and I love it- so of course I had to merge my blorbos together! So heresss the swapboys if they were avatars of the fears!

Alt, Avatar of the Spiral: he’s never been one to be true- a perfect being of deceit and lies

Magnificent, Avatar of the Web: a puppet master true and true it was just too perfect HGHBN

Jackie, Avatar of the Vast: what if he lost Zara to the ocean? He would let sorrow consume him and everything he loves into the depths of the sea where she lays

Chase/Bro, Avatar of the Lonely: the life of hero is very lonely- especially when you’re still recovering from the loss of your younger brother.

Dr. J, Avatar of the Eye: He knows everyone’s secrets, how long has he been watching?

Henny, Avatar of the Desolation: What if he was never found after getting hit by the bomb that took his hearing and most of his family? Believing he has nothing left- he takes away from others with a smile on his face.

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huffle-dork · 8 months

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Hufftober Day 6: Made to Watch

I’ve been re-reading @crystalninjaphoenix ‘s Crossover fics and Inverted and I just- a HFGFGVH I decided to do a day of Redrawtober :D

I originally drew something like this in 2019!

Improvement! :D

#hufftober #hufftober 2023 #inktober #inktober 2023 #redrawtober #inverted au #inverted crossover #swapboys au #swapboys #alt anti #huffleart #swapboys art

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huffle-dork · 8 months

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Hufftober Day 4: Shock

More art from my newest fic! Whumptober prompt again!

#inktober #inktober 2023 #alt anti #shock #electrocution #Whumptober #whumptober 2023 #swapboys #swapboys au #anomaly found: alt brody #lab whump #swapboys Art

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huffle-dork · 8 months

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Hufftober Day 7: Eyeball

Today I followed the prompt from Cozy/Creepy Artober by Cellydrw on instragram! Re-reading Inverted made me realize Alt could probably make his own Sam AND I WANT IT SO BAD SO HGHBN

#inktober #inktober 2023 #hufftober #huffleart #swapboys #swapboys au #alt anti #Sam the septiceye #septicart #antisepticeye #swapboys art

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huffle-dork · 8 months

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Anomaly Found: Alt B̶̨̲̯̥̳̱̌͘r̶̡̖̞̓̋͊̀̑͊̔ͅo̸̦͕̮̗̅̀̅̄͘͜͠͠ḑ̵̛̲̰̋̄͠y̴͙̼͎̥͔͐̑̾͋́̽

Masterpost | More Swapboys

This is a continuation of Alt’s Transition technically so make sure you read that first if you haven’t!

AN: This fic contains medical whump but is not super descriptive when it comes to operations! It also is not scientific what so ever and deals with magic-science bullshit! So don’t take it too seriously lol

This also introduces the Swapboys equilviant to IRIS! And a new character I’ve been very excited about! Enjoy :)

—————————-

Something was wrong. Alt didn’t know what yet but… something was wrong.

At first, the spell seemed to have been working just fine! When he woke up again He felt amazing, he felt strong, he felt right. He felt like he could take on the world- could take on Bro Fantastic himself!

But Magnificent told him to be patient and continue to rest. So the day passed by miserably slow… but at least he got extra cuddles with Glitches. It was so much nicer to cuddle with her now… no extra flesh getting in the way of her laying on his chest.

As night fell though… Alt started feeling strange. The room was wavering in front of him. It was too hot- yet also too cold. A fever…? His limbs felt like static- like something was stealing the strength from his muscles without his permission. He pushed himself up and felt a wave of dizziness nearly knock him over. What the hell?

Did Mag warn him about this? About side effects? …if he did Alt couldn’t remember- couldn’t force his voice to replay in his head, all he could hear was his blood and his heart thumping way too loudly.

The Dooms… they knew the truth about Alt’s body. Maybe they could help? Though they might freak out about the changes that were definitely not there the other day.

He tried to think it through but anxiety was strong in his body and brain. He felt himself glitching- but that felt wrong too! That made Alt panic even more. His glitching never felt wrong- not since he first got his powers. But now it all felt too sharp- too invasive. It felt like it was stealing the breath from him… something that was now as easy to him as breathing.

Would the Dooms even be able to help out if this was magic? He hadn't really shown or explained his glitches or magic to them but- they worked with superheroes, right? They knew of Bro- they… they could help. He just needed to explain. Besides… magic always seemed connected to something physical- something that could be explained and fixed within the body.

Alt made up his mind, grabbing the first coat he can and stumbling to yank it on. He then takes a step forward and glitches, picturing the Doom Clinic.

He nearly runs into the glass doors, slightly bonking his head. Then they slide open as Alt grumbles and rubs the sore spot out. He looks around and… doesn’t recognize the place. Did the Dooms redecorate?

He shakes his head and tries to focus- but it feels almost impossible with how his vision is swimming. He stumbles to what looks like the front desk. A blonde woman blinks in surprise and looks up at him.

Alt can barely stand as he puts his hands on the desk to steady himself.

“I… I need… O-Oliver- Oliver Doom, please!” He slurs, intense eyes boring into the woman’s. “Or well- any of them I guess- but I… I like… O-Ollie-“

The woman looks at him with confusion- jumping slightly as Alt jerks his arm, holding it down against his side as he can feel it trying to glitch.

“Um sir…? I-If you’re looking for a specific doctor I… I’m afraid there’s no one here named… Doom, was it?” She replies slowly, carefully watching Alt with a guarded expression.

Alt’s eyes widen. “What…?” He looks around in more panic and curses under his breath. This isn’t the Doom Clinic! The fuck…? He doesn’t normally glitch to places he’s never been before! He doesn’t recognize this place at all. Whatever is happening… it’s affecting his magic.

“S-Sorry,” Alt stammers, tongue feeling thick in his mouth. “Wrong… wrong place-“

“Sir, you look like you need to sit down! I can get someone to look at you and maybe get you some juice if you would just take a seat and-“

“No!” Alt interrupts, gripping his arm tighter as he feels it spasm and feels pixels trying to break off. He can’t glitch here! They’ll throw him into a psych ward or something!

“I’m fine… t-thank you-“ He grits out, trying to stumble back towards the door.

Then the walls and everything around him felt like they are blending into static. Purple seemed to invade the sides of his vision. The sounds around him turned into nothing but white noise. He didn’t even feel when he hit the ground.

———

When Alt next opens his eyes, all he can see is a bright light shining in his face. He grimaces and tries to lift a hand to shield himself but- he can’t move his hand. Alertness hits him like a truck as he pulls on his wrists some more- finding them strapped down to the table.

“T-The fuck?!” He growls, rocking himself to try to get free but he’s- he’s stuck! “What’s going on?!”

There’s sensors stuck to him- under his shirt and attached all over his arms and now he can even feel them on his temples too.

Alt tries to glitch but he shouts out in pain as the action seems to hurt him. Why? Why can’t he glitch??

Panic threatens to eat him alive.

Then, he hears a chuckle- and the table he’s on starts to move. It tilts upwards, until Alt finds himself upright, staring at the expanse of a large white room, medical equipment everywhere. Tall machines and computers he doesn’t recognize.

And he’s met face to face with an older gentleman who smiles at him, but Alt can’t even see his eyes behind his thick glasses.

“Ah! You are awake! Funny, I thought you’d be out for longer~!”

The man had dark black hair with a streak of white right in the middle, the wild locks pulled into a messy braid. He had bright green glasses that could also be googles? But they seemed way too thick to see out of properly. He had a scraggly beard and a white lab coat on… with a logo of an eye with 3 irises but the whites of the eye were colored black. It read SCLERA under the logo.

Alt bares his teeth at the stranger and thrashes a bit in his binds. “The fuck are you?! Where the fuck am I?!”

The man chuckles and adjusts his glasses, smirking at Alt. “Ooh, so touchy already! This will be fun~!”

He goes to grab a clipboard and starts to read it as he paces in front of Alt.

“Well- you were admitted into my care, Mr… Brennan? After you fell unconscious in the lobby of Hope Water Hospital. And the staff there saw some… unusual activity.” He looks back at Alt and the boy shivers, causing his arms to vaguely ripple with glitches, pixels vibrating in the air.

The doctor’s eyes light up as he surges forward, looking at his arm closer. “Yes! Like that! Oh fascinating… absolutely remarkable…!”

Alt felt his blood go cold- he glitched when he fell unconscious? Oh no- oh nononono-!

The man writes down a few more notes before straightening and addressing the glitch again. “But anyways! The Hope Water staff didn’t know how to handle that so they called in the specialists! And that would be me~!”

He lifts up his glasses to rest on his head as he smiles, his brown eyes almost looking gentle. But Alt shivers at the sight. Why does… this man feel familiar to him…?

“Dr. Israh Cornelius is what they call me! I’m a magic analyst here at SCLERA!” The doctor spoke with pride.

“Sclera…?” Alt muttered in confusion. “The hell is that? I-Is it even legal to tie up unconscious patients without their consent?!”

Dr. Cornelius laughed, actually throwing his head back. “Perhaps, if we were dealing with a normal civilian!”

His expression then drops as he looks knowingly at Alt.

“…but you’re not that, are you? Impulse~”

Alt’s breath leaves his lungs as he stares wide eyed at the doctor. “W..what…? H-how-?”

The doctor laughs and goes to pick up something off his office chair, turning to reveal a jacket. He twists his hand to show the back- the signature emblem of the villain Impulse clear for all to see.

“You were wearing this when you were admitted, Mr. Brennan. Not a very smart thing for a villain to wear as a civilian, is it?”

Alt swallowed a lump in his throat. This wasn’t good… but at least whatever ID they found of his was one of his fake ones. Still… This was bad.

“E-Even if I’m a villain you- you can’t just strap me to a table l-like a lab rat!” He argues, trying to struggle some more against the restraints.

Dr. Cornelius just shakes his head as he laughs. “You are a dangerous criminal with unknown powers, Mr. Impulse! This was merely a precaution.”

He strides forward and then grabs the straps to make them tighter. Alt bites back a squeak of pain that wants to slip out of his lips. The doctor whispers to him with hardly contained glee.

“However… a villain like you… will not be missed, will they?” He laughs more, his dark eyes now showing madness. “You could say we are doing the public a service! Keeping you here~!”

“Y-You can’t do that..!”

“Oh but we can, Mr. Brennan… you have no paper trail. No formal records- no sign of any family… you are just perfect! A perfect specimen to study~!”

Alt feels terrified tears in his eyes that he tries to keep hidden, but his shaking voice gives him away. “M-My friends…!”

But then he stops himself, feeling his breath caught in his throat again. He… doesn’t have his friends anymore. No one knows he’s here… not even Magnificent. …he’s really alone.

Now the tears fall as he breathes out. “I… I came here for h-help…! Something was wrong and y-you can’t just-!”

“Oh yes! That!” Dr. Cornelius sang as he turned heel to look at, then wheel over one of the monitors currently hooked up to Alt.

The monitor almost looked like it was showing Alt’s heart rate. But it wasn’t- it was showing something Alt didn’t recognize. Two lines of data were shown on the screen, one line white, the other purple. The purple line was steady, with plips of higher readings here and there. In fact- they seemed to correlate to when Alt felt his skin try to glitch or pixelate. The white line was also steady but with very low readings.

Dr. Cornelius studied the screen some more before addressing Alt. “When you were admitted, we ran some tests. This is an alignment reader- it reads the concentration of magic in your body, and whether or not it is dark or light.”

He points to the purple line, “The concentration of black magic in your body was abnormally high.”

“…okay?”

The doctor smirks, “Black Magic is illegal here in the UK, Mr. Brennan. Well actually, it’s illegal in most countries. Especially at such extreme levels. Honestly- surprised with these levels a magic circle officiant didn’t find you first… lucky us, I guess!” He laughs and then shakes his head.

“In fact- this kind of magic… I’ve really only seen such pure black magic from one source. I’m assuming it’s magic you got from the one you work for, correct?”

Alt shivered- feeling his new scars almost burn against his skin. He bites his tongue though and bares his teeth. “I don’t gotta tell you shit!”

The doctor laughs again, “Oh, I don’t need you too. It can only be him, the one who’s calling himself Magnificent, yes?”

Alt said nothing at first and then mumbled. “…you know too much about all of this, Dr. Creepy.”

Dr. Cornelius shrugs. “All apart of my job, Mr. Brennan!”

He goes back to pick up his notes and look at a collection of more papers on the wall. As Alt focused on it, his blood turned to ice. There was… pictures of him on there- as Impulse. And not only that… he saw Chase on there too- Bro Fantastic. There were dozens of pictures of what Alt could only assume was people this crazy doctor was aiming to study. Super powered people… things he didn’t understand but was determined to. He swore he saw the blurry image of a green gray cat mask among the pictures.

“Anyways, Mr. Brennan! That black magic was attacking your internal magic system- the source of power that runs the magic through your body. Black magic is known to do that. It will ‘eat’ any possible light magic it can find until it corrupts all the magic completely orrrr sucks the life clean out of ya!” Dr. Cornelius said a little too cheerily.

“W-What?!” Alt exclaimed. Magnificent never warned him about that!

Dr. Cornelius chucked, “Don’t fret, lad. We siphoned that out of ya real quick! So, see? We already helped you, just like you wanted!”

Alt shakily bit his lip before asking quietly, “So then… I-I can go home… right?”

The doctor’s smile turned impossibly cruel.

“I’m afraid not, Alt. We have much we need to learn from you~!”

Something clicked from the table below him and then suddenly that something is jabbing him in the neck. The room almost instantly starts to dip and sway as Alt feels his eyes roll up into his head and his body gives out, falling unconscious again.

———

Alt opens his eyes to find that now he’s somewhere new. He’s behind glass in a tiny white room. He’s not tied down-

Adrenaline courses through him- maybe he can glitch out now! He tries to glitch- and it feels like his insides are on fire. It’s like whatever energy he was preparing to use to glitch had erupted two-fold, making his entire body feel overloaded. He yells out and crashes down to the ground. There’s a tug on his foot and he can see now, he’s strapped to the wall by some sort of cord, a cuff around his ankle. What’s even worse is he’s barefoot- and in a completely new set of clothes, a dingy set of green scrubs, almost like hospital wear. Alt starts to panic again, realizing his throat and his scar are exposed. He touches light fingers to his scar as he pushes himself up. He feels a shiver go down his spine as he hears familiar laughter.

Dr. Cornelius is smirking at him through the window.

“Nice try there, Alt! But I can’t have ya glitching before we do some proper tests on ya~!”

Alt bares his teeth like a feral animal, pixels flying around him but not able to settle in one place. “How are you stopping me from glitching?!”

The doctor smirks and lifts up a tiny device in his hand. “Electromagnetic pulses. Normally these have no effect on humans… However, we’ve already established you’re very special, Alt.”

The boy just glares at the doctor, wanting nothing more than to strangle that smug look off his face. However, Dr. Cornelius just uses the silence as an excuse to keep talking, pacing back and forth in front of the window to Alt’s cell.

“Did you know it’s a common misconception that the human body produces electricity like that of a machine? It mimics and works as a circuit would, but our bodies don’t carry charges of electrons between synapses. No no- inside our cells there’s a chemical gradient of ions that create a difference in charge between the inside and outside of the cell membrane! That mimicry of electricity as ions pass between each cell membrane is what keeps, say, your heart pumping. However there is research that a human body can produce almost 100 watts of electricity at rest… however you, Alt, seem capable of so much more~!

It seems your body has been adapted to not only conduct electricity better, but also produce it better than normal human beings. In fact, it’s like you actually have that fabled current running through your veins… a constant flow of electric magic that fuels your glitching!

So an EMP blast seems to disrupt that electric flow within you… overloading it enough to stop you from glitching. For now at least!” The doctor laughs, grinning like an excited school kid, “There’s so many tests for us to run! You’re going to provide us with such good data, Mr. Brennan~!”

Alt yells in anger at this, trying to rush at the window. The doctor hardly looks phased as he presses a button on his remote- and something shoots out of the wall behind Alt. Two robotic arms with ends just like the cuff on Alt’s ankle lash out and clamp onto his wrists, yanking the glitch off his feet and slamming him into the back wall. Alt struggles as best as he can but the arms have him locked against the wall tight.

Dr. Cornelius lets out a delighted laugh, “Already so eager to start! That’s what I like to see in a subject!”

“N-No, you psycho! Let me go!” Alt tries to protest.

The doctor looks back to one of his colleagues that Alt can barely see. He nods to them, “Start the procedure.”

The other doctor nods then flares out hands in front of… an orb? Their hands glow white and soon the cuffs on Alt do too. As they glow, Alt starts to feel like his energy is waning. Pretty soon, he slumping in his binds, his fighting getting lazy and then altogether stopping. He has to fight to keep his head up and his eyes open. He vaguely notices the glow on his cuffs seems to be turning green blue- the color of his magic.

Dr. Cornelius checks a monitor next to the window and then gestures to the other doctor. “That’s enough.”

The glowing stops as they take their hands away from the orb. Alt’s head falls sharply but he quickly tries to pick it back up so he can glare at Cornelius. “Wha… d’you… do?” The glitch slurs, hating the feeling of his body feeling almost empty… and cold.

Israh adjusts his glasses and smiles. “A simple draining spell! One we probably won’t be using often since we want to study your magic as it works within you but~! There’s one thing we need to see first before proceeding with those tests!”

He lifts the remote again and presses another button.

Alt immediately starts to scream, his body locking up as waves of electricity crash back into his body. His muscles attempt to spasm despite having nowhere to go, his neck craning back like he can escape the onslaught. It feels wrong! Usually if he comes across rogue electricity he can absorb it into his own… but with none in his body- the electricity has nothing to merge to. So it courses painfully into his body, attempting to mesh with his magic but not being able to. It’s agony. He feels his skin sparking and burning- tears trying to be shed but steaming upon impact with the bright sparks.

It feels like an eternity before it gets shut off. The cuffs on his wrists release and Alt falls heavily to the floor, still twitching and spasming from the leftover electricity. It feels impossible to think, everything he feels is pain. The energy in his body has been replaced with hot sparking rods that are quickly cooling down, leaving him completely spent. Alt wheezes brokenly, eyes wide and not able to focus, tears falling down his cheeks as he struggles to regain control over his limbs.

“Well?” The doctor's smarmy voice coos, “Alt, why don’t you try to use your magic for us, hm?”

“C…c-can’t…” Alt croaks, hardly able to grip his shaking hand into a fist.

Dr. Cornelius frowns at this, tapping his pen against his face. But then he smiles and scribbles down some notes. “I see! Pure electricity doesn’t have the same properties as the electric magic you produce, so you can’t purely substitute that!”

“Tell me, Alt, have you ever used a source of electricity to fuel your magic when it was low?”

Alt attempts to move his head to glare at the doctor. Dr. Cornelius frowns, and lifts up the remote, one eyebrow rising high over his glasses. “Or, should we give you some magic back and see for ourselves?”

The glitch winces and curses quietly before muttering, “…y-yes… but only o-once… I- I didn’t think it would work but… i-it gave me enough e-energy to glitch home…”

The doctor nods and writes down some more, “Fascinating! It seems if you have some magic left in your system that magic can then translate pure electricity to match its own!”

He then looks over his notes to smile at Alt as the glitch’s vision dims and sways. “Well! Let’s pause for a bit, hm? Feel free to rest your eyes, Mr. Brennan~!”

————

Alt lays there on the floor for a bit, trying to get his brain to work. He needs to think of a way out of here! Because help wasn’t coming… there had to be some way… something these scientists hadn’t thought of.

He glances up to see Dr. Cornelius isn’t observing him. Guess he decided to take a break too. Maybe Alt can attempt to do something…

He listens to the room around him… and catches onto the buzzing of the lights above.

Alt still didn’t really get how his powers worked, he really only understood his glitching. But… if what the doctor was saying was true and he has electric magic… and his body could basically disappear for an instant when he glitched… could he glitch into something that had an electric current?

…if there was any time to try this it was now. He can’t let these lunatics turn him into a fucking lab rat. He grips his hands into fists, feeling his magic zap around him. Guess they gave some of it back… their mistake.

In a flash, Alt glitched out of his cuff and in a shock of blue-green electricity rocketed into one of the lights in the cell. The burst of energy was enough to shatter the light, making the other lights and the machines below flicker from the electricity lingering in the room.

God! This felt so weird- but… not too different from glitching. He was just- glitching for longer. Which means he couldn’t keep this up for long- not with how spent he was already. He needed to find a path out of here, and fast.

He let his magic feel out a path on the wires and started to follow it, making machines and lights glitch and flicker and burst. An alarm started to blare but Alt only pushed himself faster, faster, faster-!

Suddenly, everything went dark and it felt like Alt hit a wall. No no! They turned off the power! With nowhere else to go Alt was shot out of another light and onto the cold tile floor of what looked like a hallway.

He coughed and curled up, his body feeling like the wires he fired. His skin sparked, pixels sizzling off him in a confusing array.

Quiet clapping echoed down the hall before that awful laugh filled Alt’s ears again.

“Very impressive, Alt! You damn near almost reached the exit!” Dr. Cornelius praised. He then bends down by the trembling boy as Alt tries to scoot away, fear clear in his eyes.

Dr. Cornelius’s smile doesn’t waver as he lashes out and pulls Alt in close by his shirt. But his voice drops to a dangerous whisper as he leans in closer. “You’re not getting away from me that easily, glitch.”

Then, Alt felt another painful round of shocks set his body ablaze- until his vision dimmed once again to black.

————-

He was back in that tiny room. Was it still the same night he got captured…? It was hard to tell with how much he was dipping in and out of consciousness…

He groaned and sat up, rubbing at his head. The hairs on his arms and the back of his neck stood on end, the air still feeling electric. Alt felt a shock of panic run up his spine as he felt something cold and smooth around his neck. Was this… a fucking shock collar?!

Alt’s body sparked with anger and as he saw that all too familiar silhouette in the window, he rushed at the glass, anger controlling his body. The doctor hardly flinches as he clicks something on that damned remote, sending Alt crashing to the floor, crying out and clawing at the collar as it shocks him.

Dr. Cornelius tsks in a disappointed manner. “What a temper… really, Alt? We shouldn’t be playing these games.”

Alt gritted his teeth ferally to snap at the doctor, “Y-You shouldn’t be collaring people like they’re animals, you sick fuck!”

“Maybe I wouldn’t have to if you didn’t behave like one.” Dr. Cornelius countered. Alt growled, eyes glowing with slight power. The doctor shook his head and then started to flip through his notes.

“Well, since you’re awake again, we can move onto the next test!”

“W-wait…!”

The doctor pauses and tilts his head at the glitch.

“I… I have a q-question,” Alt wheezes out. Dr. Cornelius raises his head, not used to hearing the glitch be anything but hostile towards him. Alt glares but continues. “You… you said before… that the… the magic circle should have found me… why… why didn’t you take me… to them?”

Alt heard vaguely of the magic circle from Mag. He said they were a bunch of foolish covens trying to govern their fellow magicians. Trying to put a cap on magic potential and capture any one who misuses magic. Alt thought they sounded almost like magical police... But he could hear the disdain plain in his mentor’s voice when talking about the circle.

That same disdain seemed to be present in the doctor as he pursed his lips and rolled his eyes.

“Pah! The magic circle…” He put down his notes as he paced slightly in front of Alt’s window again. Seemed to be a habit of his.

“They might be the magic authority here but their methods are medieval- all based in older traditions and the feel of it all. Barely any rhyme or reason- no desire to study and push limits- merge magic with what can make it even more useful! Make it accessible for everyone! Not just the special ‘elite’. They wouldn’t do a damn thing with you except slap you on the wrist and monitor you. Bloody waste if you asked me. They’d let any villain run around if they are ‘blessed’ like they are.” Dr. Cornelius growled. He stops to look down at Alt with burning eyes.

“They refuse to see magic as something that can harmonize with science! They refuse to see that magic can be bent to our level- that it can be understood at a level we humans know better than any other living thing! They’re blind… blind to the ways we can make magic better! How we can provide anyone… everyone with magic!”

Alt blinks and then laughs darkly. “God… you’re even crazier than Mag! I might be a novice… but even I know that magic s-shouldn’t be tampered with like this…! There’s a reason it’s not given to everyone…”

Dr. Cornelius matches his laugh and shakes his head. “Oh Alt… even without meeting the circle they’ve already corrupted your mind! You are as blind as them… but no matter! I’ll help you see your potential~ the potential of mixing science with magic!”

The doctor giggles and looks at Alt with those hungry eyes of his. “In fact~ this is such a great transition to our next test!”

He grabs his notes again and then gestures to something in Alt’s cell. Alt tiredly pushes himself up to look back- seeing a camera that seems to focus in on him. He shudders.

“That’s a WITNES camera- something SCLERA is developing to go public very soon! It’s a perfect merge of magic and tech… in fact- it’s been helping us to observe you better than ever, Alt!”

The doctor clicks on his remote and the right wall of Alt’s enclosure flashes to life, showing a wall full of text and data.

“Our WITNES camera can detect the fluctuations of magic within you- helping us see when you might glitch or go haywire~! They also have been monitoring your vitals so we don’t have to keep you hooked up to machines- and it can even monitor your emotions!”

“W-What? That’s… that’s insane!” Alt whispers, backing away from the wall with the camera. “You wanna just- give these to the public? That’s a crazy violation of privacy!”

Dr. Cornelius shrugs with a laugh, “Oh nowadays, this kind of stuff is hardly hidden anymore! And we offer the chance for our consumers to feel safe and protected!” He shakes his head, “But, enough of a pitch- our next test is gonna involve you interacting with our WITNES camera, Alt! We want to see how your magic merges with ours! If they’re compatible!”

Alt raises an eyebrow and looks back at the camera. He shivers as he sees the lens shrink and focus on him. That thing gives him a horrible feeling.

“… how’re you gonna do that? You can’t just… hook me up to it-“ Alt mutters.

The doctor chuckles, “Oh Alt, you misunderstand! We know now that you can glitch into tech- so that’s what you’re gonna do! See if you can glitch into the camera!”

The glitch shudders again and is about to bite out a retort when he stops and looks back. …this could be another chance to escape. If he can get past this thing he can try to follow the power source out again. But… they also must realize that’s what he’ll try to do. Is this a trap…? But… What can a camera do to him anyways?

Dr. Cornelius smirks. “I know what you’re thinking, Alt. And, I’ll make a deal with you!” Alt’s head snaps back to look at the doctor, his eyes wide. “If you can overpower our camera and get past it back into the power grid, well… that would be such an impressive sight I would consider letting you go~!”

Alt’s eyes widen more. He… seems overly confident in the camera. But, Alt was determined to get out of here. He could take a stupid camera! His eyes glowed bright as he glared at the doctor. “Alright… fine.”

Dr. Cornelius grins and the cuff on Alt’s leg snaps off, as well as the shock collar. Alt watches as the doctor shuts off the wall and other electronics, leaving only the camera powered on, it’s green light blinking at Alt. Alt gritted his teeth and then in a zip of green blue magic he glitched into its systems.

….

Something is wrong.

Diving into the camera feels nothing like going through the lights- it's harsher, feels like a strong pressure is pushing down on him at all angles. Like sharp needles sinking into his being. Alt tries to push through, tries to find a weakness, a kink in the system. But, the more he pushes the more this strange energy seems to push back.

Then, it overpowers him, swallowing him whole.

Alt crashes out of the camera and back onto the ground, shaking and spasming like crazy. Purple electricity crackles around his limbs as he shakily pushes himself up. As he looks out towards the doctor, his eyes are quickly filling with pulsing purple magic.

Dr. Cornelius grins manically, “Oh darn! I forgot to mention~ all SCLERA tech is powered by our patented Black magic core~! Something we perfected thanks to that lovely boss of yours!”

Alt whimpers, heaving in panic, even as anger flares wildly in his body. That fucking bitch tricked him! This feels wrong- it feels way worse than whatever came over him the night he was captured. It’s more invasive, the corruption digging into every weakness in his body and driving itself in. He bends over against the ground with a cry of pain as waves of magic crash against him, trying to overwhelm him. Trying to take over his magic, his mind-! He yells out and half crashes against the floor entirely, digging his head and nails into it, trying to fight whatever this is off.

All of sudden, he goes still, frozen like a statue as the purple magic completely fills his eyes. The monitor Dr. Cornelius is observing suddenly blares with alarms, the screen flashing. Alt’s black magic reading has reached dangerous, uncontrollable levels! Dr. Cornelius gasps and drops his clipboard, watching the testing room with wide eyes.

The tile beneath Alt suddenly cracks and splits, purple magic rippling across the floor. The debris floats up around him, suspended in glowing purple hues. Alt rises up like someone trapped in a dream, his head lulling limply on his shoulders. The magic crackles around him in a powerful display, bolts of electricity blasting tiles off the wall, destroying screens and equipment. Quietly, Alt starts to giggle and then fully bursts into crazed laughter, his veins darkening and glowing with purple power. As he laughs, he seems to bring up one of his hands to look at, gazing at it as if it was new. He stretches his fingers and then grins, laughing louder as the magic continues to zap and sizzle and destroy the room around him.

The sound of a squeaked shoe has the possessed glitch’s head snapping towards the noise. His eyes lock onto the terrified face of Dr. Cornelius, trying to back away from the window. Alt grins and in a flash is in front of the glass, pressing his hand against it. He tilts his head inhumanly at the doctor, his soulless eyes leaking magic like electric tears.

“Is this what you wanted, ̶̳̀D̷̯̏o̷̮̊ć̶͜t̶̗̕ỏ̶̯r̴̖͒?̵̟͝”̸̨̂ ̸̦̐ He giggles, gripping nails into the glass as electric bands of magic shoot out and crack against it, shattering it completely.

There’s a chorus of screams as the other SCLERA workers try to flee. Dr. Cornelius yells out as the glass explodes on him, cutting and slicing into his skin. He quickly looks around, then hightails it to his desk in the back corner, slipping on the glass as he runs. He quickly rummages through drawers, throwing contents and notes everywhere, muttering desperately, “C’mon! C’mon! I… I have to have that stupid thing somewhere!!”

Alt rises off the ground as the magic surrounds him. His body glitches and contorts as he giggles and slowly approaches the doctor.

“Oh D̴̙̀ṙ̸̠.̷̬͒ ̸̬̐C̶͚̈́ó̷̢r̵͇̈́ṋ̶͝ę̵͘l̷͈̋i̵̬̽u̷̖͛s̶͎͗~̵̺̓!̷̜̿ Where are you going? Didn’t you want to have some f̶͙̲̯͎͇̙̥̂̈́͋̿̂ȗ̷̗̊̽͑ͅṋ̴̄̉?̴̢̟̙͙͚̱̩̈́̀͑̈́͊͝?” Alt laughs, his voice sounding darker and racked with static. He barely sounds like himself.

Dr. Cornelius is sweating bullets as he looks through the drawer of objects they obtained from the magic circle. He then cries out in elation as he finds what he’s looking for, holding it out towards the approaching glitch.

It’s an amulet of some sort, a chunk of amethyst in the center. Alt seems to freeze, his eyes widening.

Cornelius grits his teeth. He hates having to resort to the methods the circle uses but… desperate times. Once they had Alt contained, they can figure out a better way to control this… a better, more scientific way.

He sighs and then starts to mutter a spell, one they haven't had to use since starting the WITNES project. Luckily, he still remembered the words.

“Creature of black magic, your minds, your purposes, your plans, do we cause you to bend! With my mind do I seize your minds, With my power, do I seize your power. Do ye with your thoughts follow my thought. I place your hearts in my control: Come ye, directing your way after my course!”

Alt lets out a choked exhale of breath, his body locking up against his will. The magic starts to recede and die down, but still crackles around his body and keeps him airborne.

Dr. Cornelius shoves the amulet forward and barks out, “Now, Cease!”

Alt crashes to his knees as the magic dissipates and drops him. His head falls forward, his pure purple eyes wide and blank. He looks like a broken doll as Dr. Cornelius cautiously makes his way over.

He kneels down by the boy and tilts up his chin, studying his eyes and the way the magic flickers within.

“Fascinating…” The doctor breathes, slowly regaining his smile. “Alt, can you hear me?”

“Yes…” The glitch answers breathlessly, his voice still having a slight echo.

“Are you going to listen to me now?”

“...we are subjected to your will, Sorcerer…” Alt replies, his eye twitching slightly but the rest of him remains slack.

Dr. Cornelius chuckles, shaking his head. “Excellent. Now… subject, did you find this host worthy? Were your energies able to converge well?”

The magic in Alt’s eyes crackles and glows brighter as he suddenly grins, giggling quietly. “This vessel was very easy to corrupt! The darkness smells strong on it… but it also swims in its blood. Its magic meshes well with ours- control of it was so easy~!” He giggles slightly louder, madness leaking into his words. But, his voice echoes and cracks, sounding completely different, like something else is speaking for him. “Its magic is so different from ours yet has so much potential! We can cause so much destruction with it! Corrupt many souls, raze cities and scorch the earth~!! Ha h̶̥̄a̸̹͑h̴̡̒a̵̗̽h̸̯̍a̵̩͗!̷̯̓!̸̡͌”

“Enough.” Dr. Cornelius snaps. The subject’s giggles cut off immediately as it looks out at the doctor with blank eyes again. “Your power only exists here thanks to us, you will follow our will and let us direct your purpose, understand?”

“...yes…” The subject breathes weakly. He shudders, a wave of nausea rolling over him, skin feeling too warm, sweat starting to drip down his forehead. His hands shake and he sways in the doctor’s grip.

Dr. Cornelius adjusts his glasses then commands Alt quietly. “Sleep, subject. Let’s see what use we can find for you…”

And Alt crumbles to the floor, once again falling back into darkness.

----------

Alt struggled to open up his eyes, bright light searing his vision. Then, he realized he recognized that light. It was the same one he woke up under when he was first brought here.

He tries to move his wrists, and finds he’s once again strapped down to a table. He holds back a whimper, his body feels incredibly weak and spent. The ordeal he went through with the camera had been plaguing his sleeping mind- the feeling of being controlled by that freaky magic… he didn’t want that to happen ever again!

He heard voices talking and quickly shuts his eyes, pretending to still be passed out.

He hears Dr. Cornelius, talking to another doctor.

“It took a lot of work but I think I found the perfect solution for VARIBL 11220! Letting the black magic of our machines corrupt his own is key… the display he showed was phenomenal! It could rival what we saw of VARIBL 1317! …but we need a way to control it. This device should infuse his magic with some of ours, and link his body to follow the orders of whoever powers the chip! We just need to make sure the magic has some sort of traceable signal so the artificial magic we’re working on should work! A much more elegant solution than using that amulet and spell... This can put him under our control in mere seconds~!”

Alt’s heart threatened to stop, his blood running cold. Are they planning on turning him into some sort of weapon? A puppet for them to use??

His eyes snap open and he immediately tries to thrash against his restraints, his eyes wild with panic. Dr. Cornelius was over his arm, looking like he was about to cut it open with a scalpel. He jumps back then tsks, looking annoyed.

“Fuck…! He just needed to stay asleep a bit longer!”

Alt bares his teeth ferally, pixels buzzing off him and electricity sparking around him in dangerous arcs. “I-I won’t become your puppet, Cornelius…! I refuse to be a-anyone’s puppet!”

Dr. Cornelius snarls and clicks on the remote, shocking Alt with increased intensity. Alt screams and screams, pulling against his bindings even as they seem to melt against his skin. The abuse keeps going until Alt slumps limply to the table, skin smoking and breath coming out in harsh ragged bursts.

“Hold him down,” Cornelius barks to his assistants. There’s seem to be some hesitation but soon two sets of hands are holding down Alt’s left arm. Alt chokes on a sob, shaking his head as he tries to keep from passing out again. “Please…! Please s-stop…!”

The mad doctor giggles as he picks up his scalpel again, going over to Alt’s side. He studies the boy then pets back his hair some, almost like a father would.

“You know Alt… you remind me of a subject I had so very long ago… one of my firsts actually!”

Alt screams as the scalpel cuts into his skin. The hands keep him from bucking against the restraints.

“She had the same kind of fire in her that you have… similar hair color and skin tone too. Then again- a very common combination!” He chuckles and digs in deeper. “She had similar powers to you too! Think her name was… Annie or something like that.”

Alt’s eyes flew open and widened. No- no he… he couldn’t have… could he…?

The thought is quickly thrusted from his mind as Dr. Cornelius seems to insert something in his arm. It feels foreign and wrong and Alt screams and screams, fighting with everything he has to get out- get it out!!!

It seems to latch onto something he can’t quite explain- but it’s agony and it hurts- it hurts, it hurts, it hurts!! Alt feels like something is grabbing hold of his magic within the pain. He sobs and arches his back to try to get away from the feeling. More hands push him down and keep him still.

He feels the doctor stitching up his skin as he cries, pleading with the doctor to stop, please stop!

Then, Alt seems to hear something new. It sounds like… magic. Searing magic blasting away at walls, screams of terror and… growls. Familiar growls- they sound like the panthers.

Alt feels delirious relieved tears flow from his eyes as he starts to laugh. The doctors seem to pause and start to look towards the noise that is only getting louder. Some start to let Alt go and back away, fear clear in their eyes.

The glitch makes sure to find Cornelius’s eyes as he grins, whispering to him. “You… you’re f-fucked…! You’re so fucked…!” He giggles wildly.

Dr. Cornelius’s eyes widen and he curses, trying to finish what he started.

Then the door to the operating room explodes with green and purple fire. Black masses start to tackle doctors left and right, causing chords of agony to echo throughout the room.

Magnificent emerges through the smoke, sweeping out an arm and glowing like an avenging Angel. Or perhaps, more like a devil. He bares his fangs at the doctor still looming over Alt.

“Release my Apprentice, Sclera scum!”

Dr. Cornelius tries not to show his fear as he lifts up his hands and steps away from Alt. “Well hello, Marvin! It’s been such a long time-!”

The doctor gets cut off as green magic surrounds his throat and lifts up upwards, choking him. Magnificent’s eyes are bright with angry fire as he spits out. “You do not get to say that name, Israh Cornelius! You and this fucking facility killed that man a long time ago!”

He grips his hand further, sick satisfaction burning in his stomach as he hears cracks- but then he hears the whimper of the boy behind them. Mag looks back to see his bleeding and burned apprentice and he pauses.

Then he growls and uses his magic to throw Israh hard against the wall. In a wave of magic he appears back over by Alt and sears off his restraints. He picks up the delirious boy and whistles, his panthers all looking up and then bounding over to his side.

Magnificent looks down coldly at Cornelius as he snarls, “Killing you right now is more than you deserve. And this place could be… useful to me. But know this, doctor, if you and this wretched company touch my apprentice again, I’ll make it look like an accident when I raze this place to the fucking ground.”

He then snaps and in a swirl of tv static, him, Alt and the panthers all disappear.

———

The trip to wherever they are now was a confusing mix of colors and voices that Alt hardly remembers. His vision dipped in and out of darkness as he felt himself be moved and looked over. But, this time it felt… different. It felt safe. Eventually he allowed himself to close his eyes and drift.

When he opened his eyes again, he was in a familiar room. One with white walls that had a bright stripe of yellow. Alt smiles faintly, recognizing the sight of Ollie’s office at the Doom clinic. He then hears the faint sound of shuffling and looks out towards the other side of the room.

His eyes widen as he sees Magnificent, sitting in the visitor’s chair. Except, he was in his civilian disguise. Alt had only seen it a few times but…

“M-Mag…?” Alt whispers, his voice raw and hoarse.

Mag seems to startle slightly then relaxes when he sees Alt. “Alt… you’re awake… that’s good.” A tiny head poked itself out from behind Mag’s leg and meowed, and Alt recognized the spotted nose of Lucky in her tinier cat form.

The glitch smiles dazedly at the sight of Lucky but then blinks several times at his mentor, as if he can hardly believe he’s there and not an illusion. “You… you saved… me?” He slurs out.

Magnificent snorts and turns his head, “Of course I did. I just… only wished I had found you sooner.”

“I… kinda thought you’d just… leave me to figure it out on my own.” Alt laughs slightly, “ Figured you’d… lecture me about how we have to look out for ourselves…”

The dark magician purses his lips and grips his hands into tight fists. “…if I hadn’t acted… you’d be a pawn in Sclera’s game. A plaything for them to abuse and use at their leisure.” His eyes darken, “I may be a villain… but I wouldn’t subject anyone to their cruelty. And especially not my apprentice…”

Alt stares at Magnificent, then can’t help but laugh breathily. “I guess… you really do care about me… huh?”

Mag seems to wince. “…it’s a new thing for me… I haven’t cared about anyone for a long time… I thought- I had lost the ability to.”

Alt nods to this, though he’s not quite sure he understands. How can someone lose the ability to care?

Then, all that happened to him crashes down on his mind, especially as he glimpses the bandages on his left arm. “Mag… they- they put s-something in me-!”

Magnificent raises a hand to stop him. “I already disabled it Alt. They can’t hurt you with it.”

“I… I can still feel it though-“

The magician shrugs, “The doctors here said they wanted to remove it but whatever sclera did… they weren’t sure they could do it without damaging your nerves…. They didn’t want you to lose the ability to use your arm.”

Alt swallows shakily and grips at his wrist.

Mag’s eyes glow slightly with determination. “But even if it’s there- I shut it off. I swear to you, Alt, they won’t be able to use it on you.”

Alt seems to relax, slumping against the bed with a relieved sigh. He pushes back his hair, staring up at the comforting yellow stripe.

The room is quiet for a beat before Magnificent speaks up. “…you should focus on resting, Alt. The doctors seem very fond of you, especially that one in the yellow… they’ll keep you safe.”

Alt sighs and nods.

The room falls back into semi-awkward silence. Then, a slightly wet nose is poking against Alt’s hand. He blinks down to see Lucky’s eyes blinking up at him. She seems to have a big bundle in her mouth that she nudges against his hand.

Alt struggles up and goes to grab it- and gasps as he sees it’s… it’s his bandana and his jacket. Dr. Cornelius took them away but-

“Lucky was very excited to have found those during our raid,” Magnificent says, smirking slightly. “She wouldn’t let them go.”

The glitch laughs and pets Lucky’s head. Then he quickly looks back up and grins at Mag. “Hey! You’re using my nicknames for them!”

Mag blinks and then messes with his hair, looking away. “Well… they are easier to tell apart that way… and your names do… seem to fit them well.”

The door to the room slides open, cutting off their conversation. The person coming in seems distracted with the clipboard he’s carrying. Then he looks up and breaks into a wide smile, hurrying over to Alt and giving him a huge hug.

“Alt! Oh thank god! You’re awake!” Oliver cries. Alt feels his face heat up slightly as he stiffens in the hug. He awkwardly pats Oliver’s back and laughs. “Y-Yeah dude- I’m okay!”

Oliver quickly lets go and seems to blush himself, waving his hands. “Ack! Sorry! That was… w-wildly unprofessional! It’s just- when Mr. Macaodha brought you in- you… you were in such horrible shape!”

At the sound of that surname Alt looks back at Mag and raises an eyebrow. The magician shrugs with a smirk.

Oliver lifts up his glasses, seeming to wipe at his eyes. He then smiles brightly at Alt, sighing out, “I’m just so glad you’re okay…”

Alt felt warmth surge through his chest. When he was captured by those bastards… they really made him think that he was all alone- that no one really cared for him, now that he wasn’t around his friends anymore.

But… that wasn’t true, was it? Even a villain like him… had people who cared about him.

Alt hid his face as he felt tears come to his eyes. When he changed the past… what would happen to the people he cares about now?

As Oliver checks over Alt’s vitals and asks him questions about his condition, Magnificent leans back to observe. Lucky loops back around to sit under Mag’s legs and he pets her head lightly.

His eyes lingered to the bandaged up arm on his apprentice. That device Sclera planted… he wasn’t going to let them take Alt.

But, perhaps… the thing could be of use to him down the road. Only as a last resort though. Mag smiled as he studied the boy. He had this cub wrapped tightly around his finger, his loyalty only getting stronger.

Not much longer now… once Alt was stronger, the real fun could begin~.

#swapboys #hufflewriting #dr. israh Cornelius #alt anti #black magic #sclera #medical whump #lab rat #jacksepticeye #swapboys au #swap magnificent #magic corruption #this was super fun cuz it’s setting up a bunch of stuff I’m excited to explore later!!#establishes some world building and magic bullshit that just fun for me to think of #readswapboys

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huffle-dork · 8 months

Text

A Surprise for a Glitch

Some hope for y’all- Alt’s Villain Arc won’t be forever :)

This is a sequel to Another Birthday but this time happy!!

Masterpost | More Swapboys

The bell on the door of the bakery chimed quietly as a young brunette man opened the door and then turned back to quietly thank the baker behind his hand stitched mask.

The door shut behind him as Alt Brody stood in front of the shop and smiled at the goods he bought. A green and blue chocolate cupcake. Perfect for a little birthday treat.

Something rustled in his backpack and soon a fluffy head popped out and meows loudly. Glitches had gotten so much bigger in the past year- the days of her hiding in Alt’s jacket were pretty much over. He laughed and pet her head. She was still a runt and pretty small for a 1 year old cat, but she was perfect for Alt.

“Good job hiding out for so long, girl~ I know all those things probably smelled so good!” He chuckled as he pushed his finger towards her and the black kitten rubbed her face against it with a loud purr. “We can share some treats when we get home tonight.”

He thought for a second of putting the cupcake in his bag- but Glitches was a little food thief. He didn’t trust her. So he adjusted his backpack and started walking down the street, pulling on his headphones to listen to some music.

As he walked- he thought about where he was this last year. Alone on that rooftop- still learning basic spells, convinced he could change the past. Now- he didn’t need to worry about that anymore. He had his friends back, his brother and… things had been good.

He was still feeling guilt and shame for becoming Impulse- but that was something he could fix… probably.

Today wasn't the day to think about that though. Just for today, he was determined not to worry and stew in his own thoughts too much. He did not need another night of drinking that Chase had to save him from…

Though god- going out for a night at a pub would be so fun. He’d gone with Henrik a few times but- maybe things had still been too hectic since they last saw Magnificent…

After all- Alt couldn’t even see his friends today… They all said they were busy. Chase had a patrol and intel of a bust to keep an eye on. Henrik had rehearsals, Jackie had his kids- think there was something at the school or something-, Dr. J had his patients… then going home to his kid.

Alt had hoped so badly that this was a day they could make free though. But, he didn’t push it. Hell, he didn’t even tell anyone it was his birthday. In his head- he was convinced the others still needed space from him. He just… had to take it slow- rebuild some stuff.

But, that didn’t make having another birthday alone not totally suck.

He sighed heavily and studied his cupcake again, then looked out towards the roofs of the skyscrapers around him. Despite the circumstances last year… sharing a cupcake on the rooftop with Glitches wasn't a bad tradition to start.

He smiled a bit to himself and then looked back at Glitches, “Which building looks good to you, Glitz? You can choose this time!”

Glitches mrrmphed and tilted her head, looking around at the buildings.

But, before Alt can try to interpret or make sense of Glitches’s movements, Alt’s phone suddenly started to ring. He blinks and then fishes out his phone. It’s… Jackie? Didn’t his kids have stuff tonight.

He swiped the screen and answered, “Hey? Jackie?”

“Alt! Oh thank god I caught you!”

Why did he sound so distressed?

Alt’s instincts were on high alert, his muscles tensing, his body glitching ever so slightly. “Jackie? What’s wrong?”

“Y-You gotta get over to my apartment quick, dude!” It was really hard to tell if Jackie was panicked or… laughing? “There’s s-something-!”

Then, the line went dead.

Alt’s heart stopped. There’s no way- Magnificent wasn’t going after them already was he?? Or maybe some enemy of Bro had found Jackie and his kids? There was no time to speculate! He had to go help!

Alt tried to picture Jackie’s apartment, then sprinted into an alley so he could glitch out of sight. He threw his cupcake in his bag and whispered a warning to Glitches before he disappeared in a quick zap of light.

He re-appeared right outside of Jackie’s flat’s door. He tried to listen for any signs of trouble but- it was completely silent. The glitch paled- that was probably bad.

Taking a quick breath and bracing himself, Alt bust open the door.

There was something glowing in front of him and he braced himself, lighting blue green magic at his fingers. Then, his eyes widened as he realized-

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALT!”

All his friends were in front of him. Chase was smiling warmly, out of his hero costume for once and dressed comfy. Henny was grinning brightly at him, and in his hands was a lit birthday cake. Jackie was laughing, hoisting up a giggling and excited Kelsie. And Dr. J was smiling softly, beaming at the sight of the younger brody.

Alt felt his breath leave him. “W… What…?”

“It is a surprises party, stürmisch!” Henrik exclaims excitedly, “Have you also not have one before? I did not even have many birthday parties in mein time! This is so exciting, ja???”

“Alright Hen, maybe tone it down just a smidge,” Chase laughed, patting his shoulder. He smiled at his brother.

“Hi Alt! Hiii! Happy Birthday!!” Kelsie squealed excitedly. Jackie laughs and looks at Alt apologetically, “Sorry I lied to ya, dude- Wasn’t sure you’d come if I didn’t make it seem serious! And this lil munchkin almost gave me away!” He bounces the kid on his shoulders, causing her to scream laugh and cling to his head.

“H…How… did you you…?” Alt was still staring in slight shock, voice quiet. “I… I didn’t even-”

“Chase told us,” Dr. J chuckled then gave Alt a playful scold, “Did you really think we’d let you spend your first birthday with us all alone?”

Alt flushed, messing with his hair, “I… I dunno what… i thought…”

A fuzzy bundle poked back through Alt’s open bag and mewled loudly. Kelsie gasped and scrambled to get off Jackie’s shoulders. “GLITCHESSS!”

“Come out of the hall and close your mouth Alt!” Chase called, “The wax is gonna get all over your cake bro!”

Alt glitches slightly and then hurriedly glitches to be at the table as Henrik sets down the cake. He looks wide-eyed as the rest of his friends gathered around the table, smiling at him. It was almost overwhelming. But it was also… really really nice.

Then, Alt winced, “...you’re not gonna sing, are you?”

“Well- now we’re not,” Jackie laughed good naturedly.

Chase comes up beside him, lightly touching his shoulder and then gestures towards the candles. “Go on, lil bro! Make a wish!”

Alt blinked owlishly at the cake. He glitched a bit in nervousness. He… he didn’t know what to wish for.

But, that was good wasn’t it? For once in his life… he had everything he wanted. He smiles and then blows out the candles, listening to his friends cheer with a happy and warm heart.

The others were quick to shower Alt in presents, overwhelming the glitch even more. Dr. J had gotten him so many new clothes, shaking his head as he spied Alt’s favorite joggers that were on the verge of falling apart. Henrik got him a halloween black cat squishmallow, very excited he found something that looked like Glitches. The kitten in question had claimed it as a bed pretty soon, so it was clear it was a great success. Kelsie had drawn him a lovely picture of him and her together, with Glitches too of course!

And Jackie and Chase had pitched in together to get something big, Alt’s own switch. They even managed to get one that was his favorite colors, green, blue and black.

Jackie clapped him on the back and grins, “Didn’t know what games you’d want so tomorrow we can go to the shop and getcha whatever you want! On Chase, of course.”

Chase crossed his arms and smiled, but had some of that hero authority in his voice. “Granted- you return any switches that you’ve stolen-”

Alt flushed and then pouted at Chase, “Man c’mon!”

“Alt-” Chase’s tone got even more serious and the glitch pouted more. Chase rolls his eyes, “You can’t even use the stolen ones! One, you always complain the games are crap- or the system is glitched and two You try to charge them with your magic but you just end up passing out!”

The glitch gasped and then pointed incredulously at Chase, “Hey! I told you that in confidence during a very drunken stupor! How dare you use that against me!”

The rest of the party laughed at the brothers’ antics, going to help themselves to cake.

Chase pulls Alt in to give him a noogie, making Alt glitch in protest. But then, Chase hugs him tight and for a second it sounds like he’s choked up. “... Happy Birthday Anti… its good to have you back.”

Now, Alt has tears in his eyes and he’s still for a second in Chase’s arms, taking in his words. Then, he nudges him hard in the chest and glitches away while cackling. Chase shouts out and then tries to wrestle his cheeky little brother to the ground. Alt laughed with his whole chest, and the others looked at each other with happy grins. Chase grinned wide. This felt just like they were kids again!

The boys wrestled, cake was had, games were played. And the night ended with the boys all asleep on the couch, some Halloween movie on in the background. Alt pet a sleeping glitches as he leaned back and smiled at the ceiling.

Damn… this really felt like home.

#if this has typos or grammar issues I’ll fix it later jghhn #we need to play games for v’s birthday!!#but also happy birthday to anti!!#finally a happy birthday for my favorite glitch :)#alt anti #swapboys #swapboys au #bro fantastic #Henny von schneeplestein #dr. jj #Kelsie mann #Jackie mann #jack1eboi #readswapboys

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