She seemed to mull this over for a second, then shrugged. “Okay.”
Once again, she cupped her hands, but didn’t even bother closing her eyes. Almost immediately, a spark formed, burst into flame, and came zooming in my direction.
“All right, your power seems to be working just fine,” I concluded, “but I’m not sure…”
I trailed off as I realized that Myshtal wasn’t listening to me. Instead, she was staring at a corner of the room with a fierce intensity, like there was some mind-boggling sight there that only she was privy to.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
The sound of my voice almost made her jump, and she spent a moment with her head swiveling back and forth, looking at me and then the corner again several times in rapid succession.
Still high, I thought.
“Are you doing your twin thing?” she asked unexpectedly.
I gave her a nonplussed look. “Excuse me?”
“Did you duplicate yourself?”
I frowned. Myshtal was referring to a power I had recently developed – basically, the ability to make a second version of myself. In essence, I could create a second Jim, but we were still the same person, sharing the same mind, thoughts, etcetera.
I shook my head. “No. I haven’t duplicated myself in a while.”
“It’s bizarre,” she said, “because when I tried to find you, I got the distinct impression there was a second Jim in the corner over there.”
Still incredibly high, I said to myself, then stated aloud, “Okay, we may have to just try this again later.”
I looked at Myshtal, expecting a response, but she didn’t say anything. In fact, from what I could see, she hadn’t moved since she last spoke. Now staring at her, I quickly realized that she didn’t even appear to be breathing. I waved a hand in front of her face, noting that she didn’t blink, nor did her eyes track any movement.
I didn’t need any special powers to understand that something weird was happening. I didn’t know the cause, but it seemed best to get her out of Mouse’s lab as soon as possible. With that in mind, I was on the verge of teleporting the two of us when a person suddenly appeared in the corner that Myshtal had been staring at.
I stared at the new arrival in complete and utter surprise, thoroughly amazed and astounded by who it was.
The person who had appeared was me.
Chapter 51
He was older than I was – in his mid-twenties, I guessed. Dressed in the trademark black-and-gold uniform of the Alpha League, he walked casually towards me, eating an apple.
Even though I knew the answer, I couldn’t stop the question from leaving my mouth: “Who are you?”
“You gotta ask?” he responded rhetorically.
“I mean, are you the version of myself that I met in the past on Caeles?”
“Yeah,” the older me initially responded. “Well, no… I mean, not yet.”
“I think I understand,” I said with a nod. “So what are you doing here?”
“Just hanging out and eating an apple,” he replied.
“I meant–”
“I know what you meant,” he said. “I just couldn’t help being a wiseacre for a minute. I mean, how often do you literally get to joke with yourself?”
He then chuckled for a moment, but stopped when he saw that I wasn’t laughing as well.
“Geez,” he groused. “I honestly don’t remember being wound up this tight at your age.”
I ignored his comment. “You were explaining what you were doing here?”
“Yeah,” my older self droned casually. “I’m sorta, kinda moving backwards through time.”
“What?!” I exclaimed. “How’d that happen?”
“World in danger, supervillain with a new weapon, yada, yada, yada,” he intoned. “I saved the day but got blasted. The weapon turned out to be some kind of temporal displacement device, and next thing you know, I’m flying backwards through time.”
I scratched my temple for a moment. “So if you’re going backwards through time, why is it that you’re here – in my present – instead of continuing on past this temporal juncture?”
“Every few years, the journey seems to temporarily halt for some reason.”
“Every few years?!” I repeated incredulously. “How long has this been going on?”
“You know I can’t answer that,” the older Jim said. “But let me be clear, the years I’m referring to are those that are objective – the ones that I pass through going backwards – and they can go by in a flash.” He snapped his fingers for effect as he spoke.
“And you also can’t tell me how many years this has been going on subjectively – that is, from your point of view.”
“Absolutely not,” he stated. “Anyway, I’m not sure what occasionally causes the stop – whether it’s something inherent in the device that blasted me, or some force I encounter, but it seems to happen randomly.”
“Well, when will this backwards journey end?”
He gave me a disdainful look. “Really? You think I know the answer to that? Your guess is honestly as good as mine.”
While I absorbed this information, the older Jim stared at the apple he was holding. He had continued eating while we spoke and was now down to the core.
“Man,” he muttered, plainly talking to himself. “Still hungry.”
He then stared at the apple, seeming to concentrate, and moments later, my eyes went wide in surprise as the apple became whole again.
“How did you do that?” I practically demanded.
“What – the apple?” he inquired. “Oh, that’s right – you don’t have your full slate of powers yet.”
“That’s amazing,” I said, still in awe.
“Eh,” the older me droned with a slight shrug, obviously not impressed. “It’s not all it’s cracked up to be. You have no idea how tedious it is to have to reconstitute and eat the same apple over and over and over again. What I wouldn’t give for a burger and fries right about now…”
“Wait a minute,” I remarked. “All you ever eat is that apple?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” he said with a nod. “I somehow had a seed in my pocket when I started this trip, and I grew the apple from
