Chapter Text
"So, I've decided to make a portal to another dimension!"
Silence echoed throughout the room.
"Why?" Daun asked.
"Because, why not?" Nut replied good-naturally, not even flinching at the blunt question.
"I fail to see the practicality of this."
"Calm down Fang." Tanah sweat dropped, before something dark enveloped him. "Nut, this better be worth waking us up for at 3am."
Nut shivered, before stiffly doing the TAPOPS salute. "Yes sir!" Turning back to his machine, he pulled off the grey blanket that was covering it, to reveal a machine which was a mess of wire and scraps of metal molded to a shape of an oval, standing upright but empty. "Feast your eyes, on the beauty of my invention!"
For the second time that day, silence was the only thing in the room of the TAPOPS space station.
Angin whistled, pointedly looking away from the invention in question.
Cahaya quirked a brow, entertained.
"Well?" Admiral Tarung's deep voice was unamused, impatient. "Start it up already!"
Nut, with a quick nod, flipped a lever and with a deep, whirring noise, the portal came to life. Unlike how it was before, the portal wasn't empty. This time, magenta and indigo unraveled within the portal, and white, glowing strings burst out like grappling hooks - clinging to the ceiling like spider silk.
One particular string shot out and landed on Cahaya's wrist.
After a moment of pause, Cahaya spoke up, gently prodding with the string on his wrist, before pulling it off. "Nut, was the string thing supposed to happen?"
"Um." Nut hesitated. "Probably?"
"What do you mean, probably?"
"Meaning," Petir answered Api's question. "He doesn't know."
Cahaya's face palm was loud, and obvious. But Nut didn't take the hint, sticking his head through the portal. After several moments, he soon wrenched it out again. A big grin was on his face, eyes bright in excitement. It was apparent he wanted someone to ask him why his mood was suddenly so positive.
"What you smiling for?" Angin asked.
"It seems, that the other side of the portal has opened in space!" Nut answered. "Looking around, I found it was just overlooking the TAPOPS headquarters!"
Tanah and Petir looked at each other. "So this other dimension has TAPOPS as well?" Tanah inquired.
"Looks like it."
"Interesting." Cahaya commented.
Api, being the curious person he was, stuck entire upper body into the portal, just barely remembering to take a breathe beforehand. None of the others payed any attention to him, choosing to continue discussing their observations. Air lazily held onto his lower body, so he wouldn't fall in.
"Guys!"
The group continued to converse, not appearing to want to know what Api's panic was all about.
"Guys!"
Still, they didn't hear him.
"Guys!"
They all turned at Air's desperate voice, and came face to face to the panicked expression of Api.
"There's something heading straight to the portal! It's coming fast!"
Admiral Tarung's eyes widened before he stood to attention, running to the portal. He held out his arms, waiting for the apparent object to hit him.
Suddenly, the portal glowed a pale yellow, and a streak of orange flitted out of it, hitting Tarung's chest and subsequently landing in his arms.
As Tarung looked down to see what the object was, his voice died in his throat.
It was a young boy, slightly cold and unconscious in his arms. His black hair matted with sweat and blood, which ran down his face, and clothes ripped and worn in various places. He was wearing a dirtied orange cap, topped with yellow spots and white spikes.
Various 3rd degree burns covered the visible parts of his body.
Koko ci was the first to recover from his reverie. "He looks gravely injured! We need to get him to our medics immediately!"
Admiral Tarung nodded, before beckoning Daun to come along with him. "We will need your expertise."
Daun nodded seriously, brought out of his shock at his orders. "Right."
As the group left, the rest of the teens stood in shock. Angin shifted towards Tanah.
"Why.." He started.
"Why did he look like us?"
Boboiboy woke slowly, like he did every morning. Except this time, he wasn't in his bed.
Blearily opening his eyes, he was greeted by the Medic Bay. White-washed walls surrounded him and there was a plain white table to his right, with his signature orange cap resting on it.
Slowly sitting up, he took the cap and put it facing backwards on his head.
A thought registered in his head:
Wasn't the TAPOPS Headquarters...destroyed?
By him?
His eyes widened, and he threw himself off the bed in a panic. Hastily wrenching the IV from his wrist, he ran in his hospital gown towards the control room. His bare feet thudded against the immaculate metal floors the corridors and he turned left and right, as going through the headquarters had become muscle memory for him.
He had to see if everyone was okay.
After what Vargoba did to them.
He arrived at the double doors and pushed them open, not caring for the crimson that was slowly dripping down from his wrist and smearing across the metal of the door.
As the doors swung and hit the door, he gazed into the room, scanning desperately for his friends. Hoping they would be okay.
But the universe was known to love messing with him.
Instead of seeing the familiar faces of his comrades, several pairs of his own eyes stared back at him.
"What."
One of them -He recognized him, Api- gasped in surprise, literal stars shining in his eyes. "Oh my gosh, who are you?!"
Angin looked at him calculatingly, before turning to Tanah. "Hey, we don't have another brother, do we?" Tanah hesitantly shook his head. Soon, Cahaya walked over to him, eyes narrowed in thought. He came to a stop in front of him, his own eyes gazing into his soul-
Boboiboy stiffened as Cahaya lifted his wrist, who then calmly beckoned Daun over. "Hey, his wrist is bleeding. You might wanna wrap it up."
As Daun wrapped his wrist, Petir turned to him. "Who are you?"
"M-My name's Boboiboy."
"Pretty strange name."
Boboiboy huffed at Air's sudden reply. When Daun finished wrapping his wrist, he was all up in his face, curiosity coloring his face. "So, why do you look like us?"
Boboiboy gazed incredulously at him, sweat dropping. "That's what I should be asking you."
There was a sudden pause, before Tanah spoke.
"Why do you have a power watch?"
"Eh?" At the question, the group looked at the watch in one movement, as if they hadn't seen the power watch before.
"What powers do you possess?" Petir asked.
Boboiboy suddenly grew defensive, moving his arm behind his back. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Petir's eyes narrowed in anger, and he yanked his hidden arm to his front. "What powers do you possess?"
Boboiboy bared his teeth at him in response. "It's just a normal watch, what do you mean powers?!"
Petir stood, shocked. Tanah calmly pushed to the front of his group of his brothers and gently held Boboiboy's wrist. He brought up his own right wrist beside his. "Look, both of our power watches look exactly the same." He met eyes with Boboiboy. "This means that Ochobot gave you your watch, and as a consequence, your power."
Ochobot himself floated up to Boboiboy and hesitantly took his wrist. Scanning the watch, he exclaimed. "He's right! It appears to be just like yours, except, ...unfamiliar?"
Tanah nodded, "That would be because your from another dimension."
Boboiboy froze, rigid.
Api blinked, waving his hands in front of Boboiboy's face. "Hey, you there?"
"What do you mean, another dimension?!?!"
After Daun thoroughly checked Boboiboy over, he was deemed free to go.
"Okay, so we should probably get you back to your own universe now." Tanah thought out loud. "We should get you to Nut's room."
"Oh, you have a Nut as well?"
"Yeah, he's the one who brought you here in the first place."
"Oh really?"
Boboiboy felt anger course through his body. He cracked his knuckles intimidatingly.
He didn't notice Tanah's look of faint amusement.
"You see, I can't get you home."
Boboiboy face palmed. Of course he couldn't.
"The big burst of energy when you went through the portal?" Nut paused. "That fried literally all the wires."
"Oh."
"Mhm." He turned back to reconnect a wire. "You're gonna have to wait a while until I get it fixed."
Tanah looked at him curiously albeit the quite disappointing news. "What were you doing to have gone through the portal at such high speed?"
Boboiboy averted his eyes. Since they still had the TAPOPS Headquarters, then it meant that the events with Vargoba hadn't happened yet, assuming their timeline was like his. Unless they already had the battle with Vargoba and managed to defeat him without the Headquarters blowing up. Either way, it was best not to tell them. He could tell Tanah though, he would be least likely to spill the secret.
"I'll tell you later."
"If you have a power watch, then you must have some pretty cool powers, right?" Angin shouted from the other side of the sparring room they arrived in a few minutes after talking to Nut."You must be pretty strong! Let's fight!"
Angin then flew towards him.
Boboiboy barely had enough time to spin away, directing the momentum to his fist so he could punch Angin's back.
With a thump, Angin face-planted into the ground with an exaggerated, "Oof!" He then got up again, spitting out dirt aggressively, before he started forming a concentrated ball of wind into his palm. After a moment, he ran towards Boboiboy, with the intention of ramming the ball into his gut.
"Aerosphere!"
No thank you.
Boboiboy started running away from Angin as fast as he could, not wanting to face the wrath of a technique he himself had refined to decimate mountains.
As he started have less room to run, he found himself backed into a corner. So, to surprise Angin, he turned around and started running to his chaser, with the illusion that he was going to take him on. As soon as he reached a meter from him, he slid between his legs and directed a kick to his back.
Boboiboy looked to his side, where the audience was watching the fight. Which consisted of all the elements and the two admirals. Additionally, Sai and Shielda were there too.
He then redirected his attention to his opponent, who had just finished talking.
Silence.
Oh, he realized, this is where he was supposed to reply.
"...I'm sorry, but could you repeat that?"
Angin scowled at the fact that he had been ignored. "I said, show us your powers already!"
Boboiboy grinned. "How about...no?"
"But that's not fair!"
Boboiboy channeled his inner Cahaya. "So?"
Angin had nothing to say to that.
But Daun did. "Please?" He begged from the audience, doing his best puppy eyes. "Pretty please? With a cherry on top?"
Boboiboy was very weak to that face, he seriously thought he felt his heart squeeze. With a huff, he complied and walked to his side of the room. If he was going to reveal his powers to them, it was only natural that he should do it with a flourish. And that meant doing what he did best.
Be awesome, of course.
So after a moment of pause, he pelted towards Angin, throwing up quite a bit of dust in his wake. Angin managed to dodge just in the nick of time, but started looking more confused at the fact that Boboiboy didn't stop running.
As soon he reached the wall, he planted a foot on it and began speedily ascending the vertical wall, running higher and higher as the effect of gravity took over. Once he got to the height he wanted, he flipped off the wall hard, launching himself between the two adjacent walls.
As his hair flowed like water from the harsh winds from flying through the air, he peeked at the audience, finding them completely enraptured in his daring stunt.
He twirled through the air as a glowing circle of gold formed around him. The circle itself had three symbols swirling around its circumference. One, a symbol of a brown mountain. Another, a yellow symbol of lightning. And lastly, a light blue one of a tornado. As he passes through it, he began to glow himself.
"Boboiboy...kuasa teiga!"
The circle disappeared, and Angin's sparring partner stopped glowing and started to fall. Or should he say, sparring partners?
Three people landed on the ground, and turned their challenging eyes towards Angin.
The moment Tanah caught sight of the trio, he quickly got up from his seat and slowly walked towards them. Gaping, he came to a stop and shakily pointed at his doppelganger. "A-Are you...me?"
The other Tanah laughed awkwardly. "Sure am. Have the same powers too." He looked around at the group and his own two brothers and continued. "But maybe to avoid confusion you should call us by something else...?"
The other Angin's hand shot up, as if he was in a classroom. Amused, the other Tanah picked him. "Why not just call us by the English version of our names? Like, by calling our Tanah, Earth!"
The newly dubbed Earth smiled. "That alright with you Peti- I mean, Lightning?"
Lightning huffed and looked away, replying with a short nod.
Api and Angin's eyes sparkled, "Your power is so cool!"
Cahaya joined in. "Oh yeah, about that. Since you guys are so similar to us in abilities and appearance..." He placed a finger on his chin. "You guys are probably from an parallel dimension or universe."
"What's that?" Daun asked curiously.
Air continued the explanation, surprisingly. "It's a dimension or universe that is similar to ours."
Cahaya nodded thoughtfully. "At the start, we dismissed the similarity of the, uh..." He gestured towards the trio. "Original? Is that what were calling him when he's not here?" He coughed, before continuing. "So anyway, we dismissed the similarity of the Original and us's appearances, because it could've just been a coincidence. But since we've got similar powers and people too now, we can say they are probably from a parallel universe."
Daun grinned. "I didn't really get any of that, but it sounded really cool!"
Cahaya groaned.
"Anyway, since we've got all the explanations sorted out, why not go relax somewhere?"
Air smirked at Earth. "Finally. Someone who actually gets me."
"So, how'd you guys like my demonstration?"
Petir quirked a brow at Boboiboy. "You have some strange, but cool powers."
"Thanks?"
"Boboiboy!" Said person turned at the sound of name, to come face to face with Daun. "Bring out other me! I wanna talk to him!" After a moments consideration, he added. "I mean, can you bring out Leaf, please?"
Boboiboy melted. "Don't see why not." He reached to his Power Watch and pushed both sides, and closed his eyes when a ring of gold, starting from the top of his head, slowly came down to the ground, revealing a newly transformed Leaf.
Daun gasped excitedly. "Oh, Hi!"
Leaf, feigning surprise, gasped as well. "Hello there!"
Daun giggled. "What's your power?"
"I'm a plant ninja and medic!"
"That's cool, I am too!"
Tanah and Cahaya watched from the sidelines, faces cherry red as they tried to see through the light.
"They're too pure."
"I know." Whispered Cahaya.
"This is so cute, I can die happy."
Tanah shot a concerned look to Air who had joined their conversation. Air looked back with a look saying 'What? You know you would too.'
"That's strange."
Cahaya turned to where Boboiboy was staring at Api. "What is?"
"Look." Boboiboy pointed to his eyes. "I have brown eyes, while you all have different colors except for Tanah."
"That's...not really that strange."
Boboiboy starts pouting, until he brightens with a sudden thought. "Maybe it's kind of a representation of your powers?"
Cahaya stared. "Explain."
"Well, Air has light blue eyes, 'cause he controls water, right?" He nodded thoughtfully. "Tanah has brown eyes 'cause he controls the Earth and Api's is amber because he controls fire?"
Cahaya gaped. "Well, you do have a point. We were born with those eye colors though."
Boboiboy smirks. "Coincidence? I think not." But his eyes sparkled. "Imagine! You were destined for your powers since you guys were even born! That's some serious universe alignment right there."
Cahaya jabbed him playfully, before mumbling so the other wouldn't hear. "Why are you even trying to remember our eye colors, you creep?"
"Hey! I heard that!"
"Good."