Author’s notes: After years of avoiding it, I have finally conceded that this is actually a universe and not just a sequence of related stories. As such, it would be very helpful to have read the previous ones before starting on this one. In particular, it contains spoilers for Double Bind.
In case you need a refresher, the basic outline is as follows: Jim discovered that an alternate reality existed, where the Bob-Whites had super-powers. According to Jim and Brian in the alternate reality, only the male Bob-Whites had powers and the female Bob-Whites knew nothing about them. They were wrong, on both counts. Unfortunately, both Jim and Brian in the alternate reality have suffered a loss of common sense. A year later, all of the regular Bob-Whites visited the alternate reality when the alternate Brian tried to destroy both worlds. At the end of that story, the worlds were saved, Brian lost his power but he and Jim began regaining their common sense. It was also found that now people from both realities can make a portal to the other and that the Bob-Whites think there has been no leak of powers into the regular world. In the next story, Fractured, we discover that they are again mistaken. They also find that there are many other alternate realities they can travel to. I have also made up a Reference Page with more information.
A note about the super-powers: It’s important to remember that in both the alternate reality and the regular one, each Bob-White has a certain power. It doesn’t matter which reality they’re from, it matters which reality they’re in.
“Wake up!”
Diana opened her eyes and blinked in the darkness. Beside her, the bedside lamp flicked on, revealing another version of herself. She sat up in alarm.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, grabbing her other self by the arm. “Do you need my help?”
Alternate Diana shook her head and her expression filled with mischief. “Everything’s fine. But we’ve had the most wonderful idea. A few of us are meeting at the clubhouse to plan everything out. Do you want to come?”
“What? Right now?” She looked at the clock, which showed 2:32 a.m. “I guess so. Let me just get dressed.”
“We’ll fly,” her double suggested. “We don’t have a lot of time and that will be quicker.”
She nodded and chose something suitable to wear. Minutes later, they climbed out through the window Diana had secretly modified for exactly this purpose, secured it behind themselves and sailed out into the night.
“This is so much fun!” alternate Diana called softly, as they skimmed over the treetops. “It makes me almost glad there aren’t any portals at our houses, so that I can fly over to get you any time we need you.”
“Only it’s a problem in your reality,” regular Diana answered, “because we can’t fly there.”
The other Diana shrugged. “But I can convince my family that it’s not a problem that I’m driving off at two in the morning, which is nearly as good.”
In her own reality, alternate Diana had the power of hypnotic suggestion. When passing between these two realities, each of the Bob-Whites took on the abilities of their double who lived there. Over the last few months, both sets of Bob-Whites had been practising their own and each others’ abilities for the next time they might need them.
They swung around the edge of the clearing around Manor House, keeping just outside the reach of the security cameras. Entering the path to the clubhouse, they needed to slow, but they didn’t touch down until right outside the door.
“Come on,” alternate Diana urged. “They should be waiting for us.”
She opened the door and peeked in.
“Did you bring her?” a Trixie asked, poking her head out. “Great! Come inside and we’ll get started on the plans.”
She pulled both Dianas inside, where she and her double, along with two Honeys, waited.
“Did you tell her yet?” the other Trixie demanded, as they sat down at the conference table. Turning to regular Diana she added, “I’m the one from here and this one is our Honey.”
Regular Di nodded understanding, while alternate Diana shook her head.
“We just flew straight over here,” the latter explained. “Honey, it’s your idea. Why don’t you tell her?”
“Well, you see,” alternate Honey began, “it kind of all starts with the boys – our Bob-White boys, I mean – deciding that they’d tell us that they were going away for the weekend together while they were actually planning to camp out at Ten Acres and do something which we had already told them we didn’t want them to do.”
“How did they think they could get away with that?” regular Di wondered. “Trixie would have known right away.”
“I did,” alternate Trixie confirmed. “Actually, I knew that Brian was thinking about it, even before he told anyone else. And we were really mad at first, both that they would lie to us like that and that they would risk everything all over again, after all we’ve already been through, but then Honey had this brilliant idea. Tell her, Hon.”
“I’m trying to.” Alternate Honey paused just a moment. “So, the thing is, you remember that time when Brian made the Reality Displacement Device Mark Two and, even when it was turned off it sent him a bit crazy and Jim, too, and then we almost inadvertently set it going and it turned out that it contaminated that brooch with power but we didn’t find that out until later, when Bobby broke it and things started going wrong all over again? Well, we think that maybe the brooch wasn’t the only thing contaminated. There’s an area up at Ten Acres and we think it’s been affected somehow.”
Regular Di’s eyes widened. “Oh! You mean, near where Brian parked his car? The place where he actually set the trap?”
Alternate Honey nodded. “That’s exactly it, as far as we can tell, because they started spending a lot of time up there, then they starting acting kind of strange, so we had to check out what they were up to and that’s when they told us they thought it would be a good idea to build a kind of metal framework over that spot – they said, to stop anyone standing there too long, but we knew all along that they really meant so that they could find it easily and exploit it.”
“What does it do?”
“We’re not really sure, yet – at least, we girls aren’t sure,” alternate Trixie admitted. “But whatever it is, it’s affecting their common sense, which is how we got to be in this situation at all.”
“So, we thought,” alternate Honey continued, “that we could kind of disrupt their plans, but in a way that would be fun.”
“Which is?” regular Di prompted.
Those who knew the plan all began to grin.
“You and our Diana are going to influence them into doing weird things,” alternate Honey explained. “Because, if they’re having sudden, uncontrollable urges to go swimming in the lake, they won’t be able to do the thing they’re planning on doing.”
“But won’t Mart be able to see us?” regular Di wondered – because, in the other reality, Mart had x-ray vision.
“That’s why we need you there,” her double answered. “By myself, I can’t get close enough to do it without him seeing. But if both of us work together, I’m nearly certain we can influence them without him being able to see us.”
“So, we’ve made a really big deal of our having our own plans for a weekend away,” alternate Trixie put in. “And we’ll make sure they see us leave with lots of stuff, but not see us again until we pretend to come back.”
“By which time, we should have had time to convince them that they really don’t want to do the thing they want to do, by making them think it’s that place causing them to act strange,” Honey concluded. “All we need now is to make a list of the things we want to make them do, and for the two teams to practice how to do it, because the rest is all ready to go.”
“So, are you in?” alternate Trixie asked the three regular Bob-Whites.
“Of course,” her double answered at once.
“Me, too.” Honey added her agreement, then turned to Di. “Is that okay?”
“I’m still not really confident with that ability,” regular Di admitted, “but I’m willing to try.”
“Yes!” cried alternate Trixie. “Those boys are going down.”
By the time another half-hour had passed, the six had compiled an extensive list of ideas and had also visited the other reality in order to test the concept. Their short experiment proved more than satisfactory. They also agreed that Honey would test their cover at home, as she had x-ray vision there, to make sure they could not be detected that way.
“I think we’d better go home now,” regular Trixie told the others, stifling a yawn. “We’ll see you all on Friday.”
They said their goodbyes and returned to their own reality.
“I think this weekend’s going to be fun,” Trixie commented, as they locked up the clubhouse. “But I’m a little bit concerned about this, too.”
Honey nodded agreement. “I didn’t think it was as funny, the time they explained it to Di as the time they explained it to us. Those extra details they put in made me kind of wonder if they have been losing their common sense, instead of just the boys.”
“Are we still going?” Di wondered. “Or should we contact them somehow and say we’ve changed our minds?”
Trixie shook her head. “I think it’s important that we go. Because if we’re not there to be the voices of reason, who will be?”
“That’s a good point.” Honey stopped to yawn. “I think I need to get back to bed before it’s time to get up again. I’ll see you all later.”
They parted ways, Trixie and Honey each walking to their own homes, while Diana took to the air. The eastern horizon showed a band of orange, heralding the coming day. She shivered as she let herself back in through the window.
By Friday evening, all of their plans were in place. The three met at the clubhouse as arranged and, after making a tiny test portal to check that the coast was clear, tumbled into the alternate clubhouse’s bathroom.
“It’s so great that you’re all here!” Honey gushed, leading them out into the main room. “We’ve made some big improvements to the plan that I think you’re all going to love.”
The three regular Bob-White girls shared a startled look, but their alternates did not seem to notice.
“We didn’t tell you where we were all going to stay, did we?” alternate Trixie asked. “Originally, it was going to be here, which was going to be a problem because what if the boys noticed us here? So we thought a bit about where else would be close enough, but not too close, which is when we came up with the Glen Road Inn.”
“What?” demanded regular Trixie. “How can we stay there? There are two of each of us!”
“We’re going to share rooms with ourselves,” Honey explained, while almost bouncing with excitement. “And we’ve gone out and bought duplicate clothes for all of us, so that no one will notice that our outfits change.”
“That can’t possibly work,” regular Trixie argued. “We’ll get caught in the first ten minutes.”
“But it doesn’t matter if we get caught,” alternate Diana answered, “because Diana and I can convince anyone who catches us that they imagined it.”
The regular three shared another look.
“Okay. I guess we could do that,” Diana agreed at last. “What else is different?”
“We’ve fine-tuned the list of things we’re going to suggest to them,” alternate Trixie mentioned. “Some of our new ideas are going to be really great. And we’ve decided on a new way to actually carry the whole thing out. We’re going to have two teams, with one of each person in each team, but we haven’t decided whether to keep all of us on one team and all of you on the other or if we should mix it up.”
“What, exactly, are these teams going to do?” regular Honey wondered.
“Oh, that’s the best part,” her double answered. “You see, we were wondering how the two Dianas were going to know exactly when to use their influence for which idea, and we were thinking up complicated schemes where we had to do different things at different times, then we thought, how about if one of me just listened for the other of me to just say so?”
“And then we thought, why don’t we have one of me be there, too, to help us not get caught,” alternate Trixie added. “In each team, I’ll keep a look-out, Honey will do the communicating, and Di will make those boys think they’re going crazy. Easy.”
“In that case, I think we’d better keep the people from each reality together,” regular Trixie decided. “We know each other better and it will help us to work as a team.”
Her alternate sighed. “I guess you’re right, but it might have been fun the other way.”
“It’s going to be fun any way we do it,” alternate Honey consoled her. “But we can’t stay here much longer. We have things we need to do and now is a good time to leave because there’s no one nearby.”
After changing into the matching outfits, they gathered up their belongings and locked the clubhouse as they left. Outside, the western horizon still glowed, but daylight would soon be gone.
“First, we’re going to drop your things at the Inn,” alternate Trixie explained. “Our Di can take everything in and the rest of us can just wait outside. We already checked in earlier, to save time. After that, we need to check out exactly what the boys are doing up there.”
“That’s going to be the tricky bit,” alternate Honey added. “Because in this reality, the boys have all the really useful abilities for doing that sort of thing – like invisibility – and for detecting it by Mart using his x-ray vision.”
Her best friend nodded. “So, we’re going to have to be really quiet and careful.”
The drop-off of belongings happened smoothly and, once complete, they made their way to the edges of Jim’s property. In the darkness, flickering light showed between the trees.
“That must be where they’re camping,” alternate Trixie pointed out, in a whisper. “I don’t think that’s exactly where we were expecting them to be.”
“While it’s dark, it will be harder for Mart to see us,” regular Honey noted. “I think we’ll be able to get close enough tonight, but we might need to find a new set of hiding-places in the morning.”
“Let’s go and see what we can hear,” her double suggested. “I can only catch every few words from here.”
They crept away together into the night, while the other four waited impatiently, keeping silent to avoid either distracting the two Honeys or attracting any unwanted attention. An interminable time later, the crunching of leaves proclaimed their return.
“What did you find out?” one of the Trixies demanded, catching one of the Honeys by the arm.
“We need to get started right away,” that Honey answered. “They’re making their plans for tomorrow and it’s a lot more problematic than we thought.”
“Because they’re not going to do anything to do with the place where the trap was,” the other Honey continued. “At least, not the thing that we thought they were going to do. Because they are going to do something there, which is put up a fence to keep us out.”
“So, what is the problematic thing?” regular Trixie asked, looking wildly from one Honey to the other.
“They’re planning on locking the portals so that only they can use them,” the first Honey almost wailed. “From what we heard, they originally were going to use the tainted place up here to enhance their powers somehow, but since we first made our plans, they’ve abandoned those plans and made these other ones.”
“How did I not know?” alternate Trixie wondered. “And why don’t Trixie and I feel it now?”
Their eyes met and widened.
“It’s something to do with this place,” regular Trixie voiced aloud. “It’s affecting our ability to sense what they’re doing. I can’t feel anything to do with them. And this close, I should.”
“Why are we standing here?” her alternate demanded. “Let’s move. Our team will take the far side and you can have this one. Our Honey will tell your Honey when we’re ready and which thing to do.”
“Okay. Let’s go,” regular Trixie agreed.
She led the way to roughly the right distance from where the boys were camping out and the three settled down to wait. The other team would take longer to get into position. While they waited, they began a whispered conversation.
“This is getting worse and worse,” Di commented. “I was a little bit worried the other day, when this all started, but now I’m feeling really anxious. And is it just me, or are our doubles acting off?”
Trixie shook her head. “None of this is making sense any more. I think that, whatever it is that’s up here, we need to convince everyone to stay away from it. It makes people crazy.”
“The thing I’m wondering,” Di mentioned, after a pause, “is whether something has gone wrong with what we did to Brian that time – you remember, when the other Diana and I convinced him that meddling with reality was wrong and that he wouldn’t do it any more. Has it worn off somehow?”
“Maybe,” Trixie answered. “Or maybe you were too specific. Did you actually make him believe the whole thing was wrong, or only the part about using electronics to do it?”
Diana frowned. “I can’t really remember. But maybe we should check up on whether–”
Honey motioned for them to be quiet. Moments later, she said in a slightly louder voice, “Yes. Okay. Number 12. Got it.”
“Oh!” Diana ruffled the pages of the notes she had been given, but had not yet had a chance to read. “Twelve? It says, ‘What I really want on my hamburger is toasted marshmallows.’”
“How is this supposed to help?” Honey wondered.
Di shrugged and began using her power. Trixie shifted uncomfortably. Honey shook her head and motioned for her to be still.
“It’s working,” Honey noted, after a minute or two. “They’re all talking about putting marshmallows on hamburgers.”
“I wasn’t sure it was going to,” Trixie admitted, “but this is a good start. I just hope there’s something a bit more constructive as a follow-up.”
“They’ve started toasting the marshmallows,” Honey reported. “And Jim’s cooking hamburgers. He was already cooking them. Maybe that’s why they chose this one, because it would be an easy and quick test.”
“Do I have to keep going?” Di asked.
“Maybe just a little longer,” Honey answered. “Ew! They’re eating them. And Mart’s talking about the taste of marshmallow and ketchup. He says he’d eat it again.”
Trixie rolled her eyes. “He’d eat almost anything.”
“I think you can stop now, Di. Hold on… Yes. Numbers 37 and 22. Okay.”
“Thirty-seven and twenty-two. Thirty-seven and twenty-two.” Di found the two places, read them and shook her head. “No. No way!”
“What does it say?” Trixie snatched the papers from her. “Thirty-seven is ‘Dance around the campfire like a chicken.’ Okay, that’s kind of weird. Twenty-two: ‘Take all your clothes off.’ Um, that’s kind of interesting.”
“Just do the first one,” Honey suggested.
Di pulled a face and made a start.
“Mart’s up and dancing, I think,” Honey told them, only a moment later. “Jim, too. Oh! Now they all are.”
“Someone took off their shirt,” Trixie added. “I saw it for a moment after he threw it.”
From the direction of the campsite, they heard a realistic cock-a-doodle-doo. Down below at Crabapple Farm, a genuine rooster answered the challenge.
“Ugh! If they set him going all night, no one is going to be happy,” Trixie commented.
“Shh!” Honey listened intently. “Change to number three.”
Trixie found the place and read out the direction to jump in the lake.
Moments after Di changed thoughts, they heard Dan yell, “It’s way too hot here. Race you to the lake.”
All three of their eyes widened as they heard him running, almost directly towards where they hid. The other three men followed close behind him, though at least one of them took a different line. They huddled close to the ground as the thundering footsteps passed. Once the four men had passed out of range, Diana let herself relax.
Almost at once, their three doubles appeared through the trees.
“Did you see that?” alternate Trixie asked, red-faced with laughter. “That couldn’t have gone better.”
“I still think we should have done a couple more before we sent them to cool off,” alternate Honey added. “I would have like to have seen the one with them trying to do handstands.”
“Yes, but we agreed that would be better in daylight,” alternate Diana argued.
Regular Diana glanced up at the campsite. “Because of the fire? Yes, it would be dangerous now.”
“We didn’t even think of that.” Alternate Trixie frowned. “Hey, let’s follow them down to the lake and see what they’re doing.”
“Someone had better stay and keep an eye on the fire,” her double replied.
The first Trixie waved the objection away. “It’ll be fine.”
“How about if the three of you go and keep an eye on the boys and the three of us stay here?” regular Honey suggested. “You can tell us what we’ve missed when we all get together again later.”
“Okay, let’s do that.”
The three who belonged in that reality departed for the lake, barely bothering to stay out of places they might be seen. The three visitors made their way up to the campsite.
“There’s definitely something off about all of them,” Trixie muttered, once they had enough distance between them to not easily be heard, even by Honey. “I think we’d better look around and see if we can find what’s doing it.”
“It’s going to be harder in the dark,” Honey noted. “I mean, it works to our advantage, that it’s hard for Mart to see us in the dark, especially if we can put some barriers between us and him, but it also makes it harder for us to see things, too. I’m almost thinking we should go home and get our Bob-White boys to come and help, because I’m thinking that some of their abilities would be really useful right now.”
“But we couldn’t let any of the Bob-Whites who live here know about it,” Diana pointed out. “And I don’t know how we can do that, because where would they stay, and how would we get food to them, or things like that?”
“Maybe they could bring some camping gear,” Trixie suggested.
Honey’s brow creased in worry. “Whatever they’re doing, maybe one of us should go and fetch them right now, before things get worse. Jim was going to be at home. I could tell him and he could arrange everything.”
Both Trixie and Di nodded.
“Okay. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
She sneaked off into the darkness.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have let Honey be the one to go.” Diana frowned as she poked around, looking for anything suspicious. “Because she’s the one who can hear the others coming back.”
“With any luck, they’ll make enough noise that even we can hear them.” Trixie turned in a slow circle. “There’s definitely something wrong up here. I can feel it.”
Di shivered. “I think I can feel it, too. And it worries me that we’re here, where we might be affected by it, too. I don’t want us losing our common sense.”
“It seems to be a major hazard to the whole ability thing,” Trixie agreed, then switched back to the previous topic. “I don’t think it’s right here. It’s over there somewhere, closer to the place that other stuff happened.”
“Out there in the dark.” Di shivered again and moved closer to the fire.
“I don’t think we’re going to find it before morning, whatever it is,” Trixie commented. “And if it’s buried, which I’m kind of thinking it might be, we probably won’t find it without Mart.”
“Which makes it much more important that Honey gets him,” Di concluded. “But right now, I really wish we could have our own abilities, instead of our doubles’ abilities, because then we wouldn’t need Mart because we have Honey.”
Trixie nodded and they lapsed into silence.
A minute later, they both looked up in alarm as something or someone noisily approached. Trixie motioned to Di the direction she thought they should take and they slipped into the bushes, crouching low. The choice was not, perhaps, the best one, as the vegetation here was more sparse, allowing less cover. They hastily found the thickest clump of bushes to duck behind, just as the source of the noise entered the clearing. But they could see nothing.
Di turned to Trixie, a question in her eyes.
“Jim,” Trixie mouthed.
A soda bottle rose from the camping table, tipped up – its contents disappearing into thin air – then bumped back onto the table once more. The folding chair nearest shifted as the invisible figure sat down, almost directly facing the hiding watchers. Moments later, he gave a loud belch and became visible. Di squeezed her eyes shut.
“What’s he doing?” she breathed.
“Sitting. Drinking.” Trixie’s whisper could barely be heard. “Stark naked.”
“That’ll teach them!” Jim roared into the night, causing the two young women to jump. “Serves them right!”
“What’s he talking about?” Di wondered, but received only a shrug in response.
“Trying to keep me out of things. Planning things.” Jim continued his loud complaints. “Who do they think they are?”
“Is he drunk?” Di asked, risking a quick peek, then shutting her eyes again quickly.
“I don’t think so,” Trixie replied. “I think it’s… whatever’s doing this to them.”
“But what has he done?” Di turned to face Trixie so that she could have her eyes open, but without seeing things she didn’t want to see. “Where are Mart and Brian and Dan? Or is it Trixie and Honey and Diana he’s talking about? And is our Honey okay?”
Continue to part two.
Notes are at the end.
Return to the Reality Displaced Page
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