Alter-Native

Chapter nine

So are you going to tell me where you hid it?" An eight year old Jensen asked. His best friend had hidden his toy gun, and Jensen was annoyed because Jared was good at it, while he couldn't seem to hide anything from Jared. The two were neighbors and while their parents were out trying to help fix the new unexpected problems. Jared and Jensen spent the day driving the nanny crazy and playing their favorite game of hiding each other's stuff.

"Nope it's a secret you have to find it," Jared responded. The four year old chuckled and looked down to see that his best friend had thirty seconds before the "bad guys" got his gun. "Hurry Jensen!" He exclaimed with glee, Jensen eventually gave up and Jared frowned. "Why did you stop?" He asked.

"You beat me and there was no time left so I had to give up." Jensen responded. Jared gave his friend a strange look before taking the toy gun out of his pocket and handed it to Jensen.

"I'm sorry that I made you give up," Jared said, sounding a little sad. "I only wanted to play."

"No man," Jensen answered. "I didn't actually give up, I was teaching you something important," he continued. "Looks can be deceiving Jared but you can't ever let them cloud your thinking."

"That sounds like boring adult stuff," Jared huffed, crossing his arms. "I would rather fight."

"Not all fights can be won that way," Jensen explained. "Sometimes you have to think outside of the box."

***

Dark stared at the face of the man who had outsmarted him and hid the staff, causing Anti to see him as a failure, his blood boiling at the thought of it causing the room to begin to glitch.

"Careful we both know what your temper tantrum can do," Jared said, raising his gun. "This is disappointing. I was expecting your boss." The words hit Dark deeply and he screamed at the thought of Anti having any power over him.

"Anti is not my boss!" Dark exclaimed. Dark ran at Jared kicking him and sending him against the wall. He wasn't going to let some loud mouth giant push him around, but his attack had little effect as Jared got up hardly phased. Jared grabbed Dark's arm before the doppelganger could attack him again, twisting his shoulder in the process. Dark broke free and screamed, causing a wave of his power to send Jared flying, Jared grabbed a nearby table and flipped it over, the wave of power hit the table with such power that it nearly splintered the wood, he kicked the table toward Dark sending him pinned against the wall.

"Consider this payback for all the lives you have taken," Jared said. He panted and shot Dark in the leg while he had the chance. "Don't get up, I have other things to do."

"Like hiding the damn staff?" Dark asked "where did you hide that stupid thing."

"Markiplier manor you idiot, you think you would remember your place of origin."

***

Upon overhearing the conversation, Anti quickly left his headquarters and took a private jet to head for Markiplier manor. He didn't really think much due to how preoccupied he was in getting the staff. With Dark out of the way he could easily get his hands on it and finally get revenge. As long as Jensen stayed quiet and did like he said. The flight took him over an island that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean, a few hours later, Anti glanced out the window and saw Markiplier Manor coming up in the distance.

"There you are." Anti said. "Now the better question is: where in the manor had they hid the staff?" Anti ordered the pilot to land at a nearby runway, he got up from his seat and walked off the plane the minute it landed. Taking a cab to Markiplier Manor, he watched it come into view the large two to three story mansion barely touched ever since Anti took over as ruler. He walked over to the front door and tried the lock, when it hadn't budged, he stepped back and held out his hand instantly the lock sparked and broke, the knob fell to the ground allowing Anti to step through.

***

While Anti had gone after the staff, Chase was nowhere near getting Blank or in this case, Ethan to join them and it was driving him crazy. Chase stood staring into the interrogation room as Ethan was looking around the room. He couldn't figure out how to get Ethan to join them so he decided to try one more thing in hopes that it could help him. Chase walked into the interrogation room and walked over to the table where Ethan was chained up.

"Alright kid, I'll make you a deal," Chase said. "If you help us, I'll grant you amnesty and give you a room here in the compound. I'll even throw in for you to join us with no sort of problems with your involvement with Anti, and free food." Ethan seemed to consider this for a few minutes before nodding his head.

"You got yourself a deal, but what do I have to do?" Ethan asked. Chase smiled seeing his chance.

"I need you to go and find Mark and Anti," Chase explained. "Take them with any force you can, but only delay until we can get there." Ethan thought about it, going up against Dark and Anti was something that he never believed he could do, especially facing his fear, if he could do that it would be a slap in Anti's face. Ethan nodded, ready to go up against his enemies and maybe take them down. Despite the fear of being killed by the enemy he'd much rather go through and fight back.

"I'm in, but I better get something else out of it." Ethan said. Chase nodded just as his holophone went off, he held up his finger toward Ethan and stepped out of the room. Moving his hand over the holophone, a holographic video of Jared. The look on his face made Chase think that something was wrong, even Jensen wasn't with him. Which was unusual for him, Chase's stomach dropped as he began to realize what happened.

"Jared?" Chase asked. "Where's Jensen?"

"I've got bad news, Jensen has been taken over by Anti," Jared said. "My guess is, he took control of Jensen thinking that he had the coordinates, if that's the case we need to get to Markiplier Manor as soon as we can."