Blake Nimitz yawned and woke in his queen sized bed. He stared at the mix of comic book posters and motivational sayings, grinning as usual at the picture of a cute kitten dangling from a tree with the caption ‘Oh shit’. Something about it always felt like the realist thing in his room.
It was Wednesday. That meant science and math tutors, chess club, piano, and maybe a date with…Ruby. He couldn’t remember if it was their second or third date. Fortunately, he kept a spreadsheet somewhere. Mostly he wanted to know if he’d be getting laid.
He rose with a stretch and wandered towards the bathroom he shared with his brother.
“You’re late.” Mason came up the stairs all post-workout sweaty. “Mr. Fiegle is downstairs and pissed. I give it about five minutes before he calls Mom.”
“Good morning, Mason.” Blake smiled pleasantly. “You slept well, I trust?”
Mason rolled his eyes and went to his room. Blake did his morning routine, wincing at a growing headache. He hadn’t been out drinking, and had slept fine. He was diligent about hydration. So he wasn’t sure what the problem was.
But as he stood there brushing his teeth, it got worse. In fact it got so bad his vision got blurry. About the same time he was getting legitimately worried and gripped the counter, he noticed what looked like a little, floating red…square? Were those…words? It looked like it said ‘click me’.
[Activating: Plan ‘F - fucked around and found out’. Error. System connection. Re-initiating. Error: System connection. Local energy source: detected. Connecting. Please wait.]
Blake’s whole body froze. Like full on having some kind of attack. He was completely aware, but helpless. He stood there twitching and staring at himself in the mirror, heart pounding as his eyes went wide.
Another version of him materialized in the mirror. He looked older. Unshaven. Dirty and kind of insane. But it was him. It started talking.
“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news. If we’re seeing this, it means a god-like alien robot wiped out most of our memory from the past year. I won’t bother explaining. The good news: we aren’t dead. That would hit harder if you knew what I knew. Anyway, I filled our head with so much garbage, it probably missed some stuff. And presumably, as I was attempting to break open its super-charged cosmic reality-shaping engine, I snipped off a little crumb for us.”
Blake’s eyes were getting dry. He stared at the other version of himself with some combination of fear and curiosity, wondering if he was still dreaming. It certainly didn’t feel like a dream. And other him was still talking.
“Also on the good news front: that little crumb of engine probably contains more raw energy than everything on earth. Think of it like a piece of engineered sun, shrunk down and math’d up in ways we can’t begin to understand. If we don’t kill ourselves with it, we can do quite a lot.”
Blake decided to assume this was real. And waited for what he knew was coming.
“The bad news: you’re gonna be like a pathetic, low-information version of me. And if I gave myself the choice to risk it all or die a few months ago, I might not have pulled the trigger. So I didn’t leave us a choice.”
Blake tried to ask a question, but he couldn’t even do that. Other version of him took a breath.
“If this works, you’re about to Partition your brain, and get some of what I know. Not sure how that’ll go. Maybe we can’t even access the engine. Maybe it blows up. Maybe it can’t power anything without some of the other changes roboGod made. No idea, really. I hope we’re still lucky.”
[Power list found. Error. System connection. Re-initializing. Implementing locally. Hidden Class feature discovered: Mental Partition. The psion dominates all minds. Including his own. Passive power.]
Blake wavered on thinking this was a dream again. Right up until ‘paralyzed’ became ‘body on fire’. His head-ache went nuclear. It felt like someone was taking a scalpel to the middle of his head, and dragging it down. The mirror split into two bubbles. He watched the ‘other’ him split, then split again, then melt along with the whole world.
He woke up on the floor. In a puddle of his own urine. Mason was knocking on the door.
“Dude, what are you doing? Fiegle called Mom. Now you’re in the shit. They’re gonna make you get that job between semesters.”
Blake groaned and forced himself to a sit. And then threw up.
“You alright? You puking in there?”
Blake put his face against the cold floor and groaned before he remembered where he was. And who he was. Memories that weren’t his started flooding his brain. He watched it like a movie at ten times speed, spit pooling around his mouth as he lay there and started twitching again.
He saw the end of the world. The alien. The ‘game’. His mind filled with insane things that didn’t seem possible but were. When it finally ended, he managed to sit up right before the door cracked and flew open. Mason took in the scene and stared.
“Jee-sus Christ. What have you been up to? You get drugs, or something? Was it that fucking Derek guy? I told you not to.”
Blake swallowed bile and licked his lips. He felt the engine now—the energy source the other version of him had taken. It was like…hidden away inside his brain. How that was possible he had no idea. And it didn’t seem like a great long term strategy for a life free of exploding.
“I’m fine. Thanks for asking.”
“Oh God, was it the left-over turkey? I ate that, too. I knew it smelled bad.”
“It wasn’t the…”
Blake held back another round of nausea and got to his feet. Then wobbled. Mason lunged instantly and grabbed him for support, and he grinned and looked at his brother.
A piece of his brain showed him everything Mason had done in some alien world. Saving his life, again and again. Facing hardships beyond belief. Fighting for mankind no matter what happened. Rising up to become something like a god. Presumably it had wiped his memory, too.
“You know, you could really be something. With a little ambition. If you just applied yourself.”
Mason shook his head.
“You’re actually pretty pale. Should I take you to the ER or something?”
Blake tried to respond and burped. But he was feeling better already. He looked at the mirror again, no longer seeing the other version of himself. As he stared he saw the vague outline of little icons in his vision, like he was staring at…video-game UI. The other half of his brain told him this was a good sign.
Without thinking, he looked at his toothbrush, and tried to lift it. Like he had mind powers and could just float shit with a thought.
It wiggled. Just a little. But enough. He’d fucking moved it with the power of his brain.
“You sure? You don’t look so good. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Blake held back an insane spurt of laughter. He smiled and looked into the now earnest, not screwing-around expression on his brother’s face. Of a version of his brother.
The other half of Blake’s brain wasn’t in control. It wasn’t him. It knew things and told him things, but he didn’t feel it. This was his life, and Mason’s life, and they had the chance to make it whatever they wanted.
“You’re the best brother in the world,” he said for his other half, who hadn’t got the chance. “You know that?”
Mason looked legitimately concerned now. He was checking his pupils like a combat medic, putting a hand to his forehead.
“You don’t have a fever. Seriously, did you do drugs, or something?”
Blake shook his head and smiled, trying to imagine what his future might look like. It was too hard. Too open. But whatever it was, he and Mason would do it together. The dynamic duo. Them against the world. No, them against the universe.
“Just high on life.” He pat Mason’s arm and disconnected, looking down at the mess he’d made of the floor. “You think if I leave that, the cleaning lady will take care of it?”
His brother glared with that signature ‘don’t be an asshole’ expression. Blake held up a hand in defeat.
“OK, OK. I’ll clean it all up. A little piss and vomit. No big deal. And then the world.”
He smiled at his own private joke, wondering at all the things he might do. Power generation that might as well be infinite? No problem. A little reverse engineering of the engine, probably. A good start. He’d monetize it at first, of course. He’d need the money for other things. Soon enough the world would get it free of charge. And what would happen next? He had no idea.
Mason’s concerned expression faded as he stared. “That’s your scheming face. Maybe put on some pants and clean up your sick before you make new plans.” He rolled his eyes and went for the hall, slumping when he looked at the broken door.
“I’ll get some tools. Maybe they won’t notice for a week.”
Blake waited until his brother left, then turned back and looked at his toothbrush, taking a deep breath as he stared.
Again it shook. Like it was responding just to Blake’s will. And then it lifted, and flew towards him.
He snatched it out of the air on something like instinct. Like a part of him knew just how it would happen, and what to do. He held it and stared, shaking with a quiet laugh as he covered his mouth with his other hand.
He had Telekinetic powers. Like a fucking superhero. And if his other half was right, that was just the beginning. He looked at himself in the mirror, and smiled.
“Just the beginning.”
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