Chapter Text
A cough racked through his body, shaking him awake, and Jake’s eyes flew open, flickering from side to side in unfocused abandon.
“Hey, hey,” Nathan’s voice said loudly, and hands grasped his shoulders, forcing him to focus on the faces of his two best friends. “Calm down.”
“You okay, dude?” Ricardo asked, the worry obvious behind a raised eyebrow of non-concern.
Jake coughed again, pushing himself up as he frowned, his mind aching with–
“Jake, you’re our only shot!”
“I won’t leave you guys behind!”
“Yes, you will. Ricardo and I’ll do the distractions. We can’t let Rook get away with this - not when he’s already razed so much. Erica, you and Dr. C get the plan going. Jake, get in the machine.”
“No, don’t–”
“Sorry, man. This is for Nathan.”
Jake gasped. “Nathan!” He choked out.
Nathan– not his Nathan, how could it be his Nathan? But Nathan blinked and waved awkwardly in front of his eyes. “Yeah, Jake, it’s me. Everything good?”
Jake felt despair curling through his veins at that because no, everything was not okay! He was in the goddamn past, and he’d left– no, he’d been forced to leave his friends back in their time, alone and battling against impossible odds. Odds that they had had no hope of beating this time because they’d had no Wingspan, and with him gone, they had no Stretch, either.
They’d sent him back alone.
They’d sacrificed themselves.
… Well, they thought wrong if they believed Jake would ever leave them to rot.
He jumped up, subconsciously noting he was in the nurse’s office, and sped out, making a beeline to where he was sure Erica would be. She’d be able to fix this - if her powers could send him back in time, they could send him forward, too.
“Jake!” Nathan called out behind him, and he could hear him and Ricardo sprinting after him, but he didn’t care. He needed to go back—
He skidded to a stop, almost crashing into Riya, then spun around her entirely, muttering a sorry. He wouldn’t stop, though. She was the one who made the decision to send him back, and she might stop him from returning.
His mind rumbled again, flashing between the past and future, stretching and mutating like he always did on the field.
He had no time to waste. The longer he stayed here…
“There,” He mumbled, spotting the red of Erica’s vibrant hair as she spoke with… Gabe? Didn’t she hate the guy? He was a pretentious douchebag!
But no, that wasn’t the point.
“Erica!” He said, almost too fast and too harsh.
She flinched.
“Please, I need your help.”
Gabe scowled. “Excuse you, I am the one taking to the lady, loser. Upon my–”
“Shut up,” Jake snapped. “I don’t have time for you.”
For the first time since Jake had met Gabe Bannerman, he fell silent, shocked into speechlessness.
In fact, if Jake concentrated (though he didn’t for more than a second, for there was a ringing in his head that wouldn’t let up), everyone was quiet.
He didn’t bother to wonder why, knowing exactly how it looked - one of the most mild-mannered kids in school flouring rage at one of the most (ironically) popular.
Someone whistled behind him in appreciation.
Erica, eyes still wide, nodded. “Okay,” She said, and that was all Jake needed to drag her to the nearest classroom, shutting it behind him - though not before his best friends made it inside.
It didn’t matter.
“I need you to use your powers,” He said immediately, one hand on his head. “Please.”
There were two sharp inhales from the other two flex fighters.
“I’m sorry?” Erica asked.
“Please,” Jake begged, voice quivering. “The technology should still be working, just- just send a pulse at me and send me forward again. I can’t leave them alone - they won’t survive this!”
Erica’s mouth fell open, and through the pain in his head, Jake was starting to get the feeling something was very, very wrong. Weren’t they…? They’d decided to position the machine to the time right before their battle with Rook - the one that started the end. That was after Erica’s…?
He winced again, even as one arm slung around his shoulders, Ricardo saying, “Sorry ’bout this. He’s still a little woozy after that–”
“No!” Jake protested, shrugging off Ricardo’s arm. “You have to! You- you have your powers… right?”
Erica stepped back. “Um… the only powers I know about are the Flex Fighters.”
Jake swore. His head spun. “No!” He spat. “This can’t –” His eyes widened. “Dr. C,” He mumbled. She was his only chance. She’d been working on time tech for a long time, and even if she didn’t have Erica for her induced powers, maybe–
He ducked under Nathan’s reaching arm, his, Ricardo’s, and Erica’s voices muddling into a mess, and rushed out the door, looking left and right and then rushing straight to Riya, who spun immediately, then merely jerked to the right, forcing herself out of her battle instincts. “Take me to Dr. C. Rook’s already ahead.” He told her, and her eyes flared before settling into masked confusion.
“Excuse me?”
No! “This is even before we–?” He growled, and another pang racked through his mind, and right before he could declare he’d find her himself, he slipped back into unconsciousness.
“Sorry, guys!” Nathan said hurriedly as he and Ricardo rushed to where Jake was collapsed on the floor in front of a wide-eyed Riya. “Jake’s seriously ill today!”
“Yeah, he’s gone cuckoo,” Ricardo muttered, even as he picked up Jake under his arms and began to drag him away.
Nathan shot him a glare but didn’t argue because seriously, what the hell had that been?!
“We’ll take him to the nurse,” He said loudly, just to make the crowd lose interest, and then spun around to follow Ricardo as he dragged Jake away.
“What the heck was that?” He asked in a panicked whisper as soon as the hallway cleared out a little bit the further they walked.
“How the hell should I know?” Ricardo demanded. “He went crazy, that’s what!”
“He said Erica had powers!”
“Yeah, well, we both know no one ’cept us and those villains do, so he’s definitely gone crazy.”
“Ricardo!”
“What?”
Nathan groaned. “It didn’t seem like he was crazy, though. He looked… scared.”
For a moment, Ricardo was silent. “Yeah,” He said after a while. “He did. Think we should go to Rook?”
Nathan shook his head. “And tell him what? Stretch went kooky in school? He’ll figure out our identities!”
Ricardo scowled. “Here’s to hoping the dude gets fixed up before he wakes up, then. Man, I cannot deal with this thing. Did he seriously have to–?” He stopped because the door to the nurse’s office was open, and his instincts were stinging. “Wait,” He said, pushing Jake’s body at Nathan, who scrambled to catch him. Then he took one step forward, hands raised, and knocked.
There was no reply.
Ricardo narrowed his eyes and barrelled in, landing in a battle-ready stance–
Only to be hit on the head from behind, falling on the ground with a thump.
Nathan’s eyes widened, and he let Jake fall, rushing inside. “Ricardo!” He shouted and came face to face with Blindstrike, who swung down with a pole - no doubt what had struck Ricardo unconscious.
Nathan jumped back instantly, using the buoyancy from his powers to get that extra inch, and then grabbed the closest thing he could find. “Don’t come near, or I’ll attack with this…?” He was brandishing a paper file labeled Keiko Freeman. “File?”
Blindstrike shot forward, hitting him in the knees.
Nathan buckled but immediately punched and hit sideways right after, one of his attacks hitting its mark.
Blindstrike’s pole clattered to the ground, and they brought out their flexarium weapons instead, gleaming in the pale light of the room.
“Oh, shit,” Nathan muttered.
“What in the world is going on?” A new voice demanded, and Nathan turned his head to see that Erica was kneeling down in front of Jake’s body, her eyes wide as she stared at the fight in front of her.
Nathan reached out his hand, intent on warning her away. “Eri–”
There was a thunk of something large hitting the back of his head, and his world went black.