Alex Wise vs. the Gods of the Apocalypse

1

ENTER THE MULTIVERSE

I failed.

Cosmic Shift is happening.

Loren. My best friend . . . is lost. Somewhere in the limitless multiverse.

And Liam . . .

I . . . I think Liam might hate me.

Janet-or should I say Calamity-is also gone. Consumed by Ezra after they were revealed to be a divine being from Paradisum.

I really messed up this time.

I didn't save anyone.

Not Loren.

Not Janet.

Not even Didi, the dragonfly dragon whom Pestilence turned to ashes right in front of me.

And I also think I might've broken Liam's heart.

When the fight with Ezra in Calamity's bunker went left and Loren got sucked into that portal, I panicked. I still don't know if I made the right decision, but I couldn't abandon her. Not after having lost so many others. But to save her, I had to leave the rest of my friends and family behind.

Including Liam.

He begged me to stay. I refused, so he demanded to come with me. And I wanted nothing more than to take his hand in mine and leap into the dark abyss of the multiverse with him.

But I couldn't be that selfish.

Because that's not what superheroes do.

That's not what Alex Wise does.

We couldn't leave Earth undefended-especially now that Ezra's kicked off Cosmic Shift. I couldn't leave my mom, my sister, and the rest of my family with no one to look after them.

I swallow past the knot in my throat at the thought of what Mags and the others must be feeling right now-as volcanoes erupt, earthquakes shake the ground and break apart our cities and neighborhoods, the moon blots out the sun, and Ezra reshapes Earth in his own twisted vision. Dear gods.

Liam Ambros, you're our world's last hope. The entire multiverse is depending on you now.

Especially if Loren and I don't make it back.

Footfalls echo from somewhere down the darkened corridor on the other side of the thick metal floor-to-ceiling bars before me. I tense, then stumble backward, disappearing into the shadows in the corner of my cell.

Someone's coming.

I grimace as I concentrate, honing my Sense, but the response is . . . strange. I can Sense them, but it's as if the signal's dampened. All I can feel are tiny glimmers of anger and frustration that amp up my pulse to an unnerving pace.

Where in the multiverse am I?

I'm not even sure exactly how I got here, wherever here is. The last thing I remember after falling into the portal was spinning in the dark until something grabbed me by the back of my neck and dragged me up what felt like a waterfall. Icy waves slammed into my body, so intense, it was as if they were flowing through me.

Then I blacked out. And I woke up . . . in this prison cell.

Two people(?) step into view on the other side of the bars. Their forms are humanoid, but they glimmer in the dark as if minute stars shine beneath their skin, tiny glittering pinpricks on their brown skin. They're both swathed in dark-colored robes of soundless flowing material, like silk.

One of them reaches into their robe and produces what appears to be a small metal wand. When they tap one of the bars of my cell with it, the wand glows with pale yellow light, and a door-sized section of the bars explodes into a bajillion pieces that vanish like smoke.

Is that . . . magic?

Okay . . . time for backup.

Orin?

I blink and suddenly find myself standing on the front porch of Orin's quaint cottage in the middle of a grassy field and nearby orchard. We're encircled by the endless forest of my mind. I know. Wild to think about, right?

But I'm really here.

Inside my head.

With a real-life god.

And what I'm most grateful for is that time stops while I'm here with Orin. It's the one remaining safe space I have.

Orin's barefoot and wearing pale blue Bermuda shorts and a rose-pink linen tank top. Their long auburn beard is conditioned and curled, waves parting at the top of their round belly and streaming down either side. A pair of oversized, dark-tinted sunglasses hides their eyes as they sip lemonade from a clear plastic tumbler with an illustration of Wonder Woman on the outside. Their freckles, sun-kissed, stand out more prominently on the skin of their parchment-colored cheeks. I don't know how, but Orin's presence is calming despite the hurricane of emotion presently wreaking havoc in my chest.

Orin gestures to an empty rocking chair beside theirs, which I swear wasn't there a second ago. "Take a load off," they say, and smile faintly.

I am exhausted. I glance at the rocking chair, and the comfy-looking overstuffed cushions on the seat beckon to me. Between the empty chair and Orin, a small side table has appeared. It holds a pitcher of lemonade with perfectly cut lemon slices floating on top. Beside the pitcher is a small dish of lemons so fresh they bombard my nose with their strong citrusy fragrance. And next to the lemons is a clear tumbler like Orin's, except . . . Oh, gods. I chuckle under my breath.

Instead of Wonder Woman, I am the superhero illustrated on the outside of this cup. I'm front and center, standing on the roof of a ruined car in the middle of a Los Angeles street, with the Hollywood sign prominent in the background. I'm raising my golden sword, alight with magical flames, above my head. The sword was a gift from Navia, the goddess of Life and Liam's mother. She sacrificed the final dregs of her magic to gift me, Liam, and Loren weapons to aid in our fight against the Horsemen.

But Navia's gone now. And Ezra has destroyed Paradisum, the alternate realm where Liam and the other gods are from.

I'm not alone on the cup. Loren and Liam stand on the ground on either side of me. Loren clutches her whip, which glows with magical electricity. And Liam wields his staff.

Seeing my friends, all of us posed like superheroes, makes me unexpectedly sad. The emotion hits me hard. It's a swift kick to the chest, the kind that empties your lungs of breath.

"What's the matter?" Orin asks. "You don't like your cup? I can change it-"

"No, it's okay," I tell them, and plop down into the seat with a satisfied sigh as the plush cushions fold up around me in a pillowy hug. "I do like it, it's just . . . for starters, it reminds me that I've lost both Loren and Liam. And on top of that, I'm just not really feeling like a superhero. We failed, Orin. Cosmic Shift happened, and Dominion's right on its heels. And if that isn't bad enough, I'm lost in the multiverse, who knows how far from home."

I grab the tumbler and sip the lemonade angrily. The tangy, sweet first taste relaxes the scowl on my face. I gulp down the drink, slurping the last dregs. Then I set the empty cup back on the table.

"That was really . . ." I mutter, my cheeks heating as I suddenly forget every adjective I've ever known.

Orin turns to me, their bushy eyebrows lifted above the rim of their sunglasses. "Is something wrong with the lemonade, too?"

I shake my head. "Flip side, actually. I feel bad, sitting here in this rocking chair, sunbathing on your porch and drinking the most delicious lemonade I've ever tasted before in my whole life when it's my fault everything back home is so messed up and hopeless right now."

Orin folds their hands on top of their round belly and says, "Hmm," then rocks gently, and their wooden chair creaks against the wide planks of the front porch.

A quiet moment passes between us. Maybe a few . . . I'm not really counting. Instead, I'm grappling with the thought that I wish I could stay here forever. Pause the world outside permanently and sit on this porch for the rest of time, sipping lemonade, reading books, and listening to Orin's stories.

But how long until I could no longer ignore the guilt spreading through my safe space like a plague, rotting the fruit of the orchard and wilting the bright green grass outside the cottage to dull, dusty browns and yellows-

Orin clears their throat, reclaiming my attention. "Things are a mess, yes," they say, their voice gentle and careful. "But hopeless? Not necessarily. Your feelings are always valid, Alex. It makes sense that you feel disappointed in yourself right now. That's an unfortunate side effect of failure. But failure is never an end, not unless you want it to be, and even that is okay because sometimes walking away is the only way to win. But regardless, hope lives and dies with you, no matter what happens outside you. Your fate is what you make it, my boy.

"Be sad, yes. Be unsatisfied, absolutely. Be frustrated, of course. But do not dwell in those dark places. Acknowledge them but move on. You're only twelve, Alex. You will have many battles over the course of your life, and you certainly won't win every one, but no matter what, you must hold on to hope-even if all you have left is the tiny spark that reminds you that you matter."

I hug myself and lean back in my chair. I gaze over the tops of the trees straight ahead at the cloudless pastel-blue sky beyond. I enjoy it for all of five seconds before I remember that Cosmic Shift is already happening, and soon Earth will be blanketed in permanent twilight. The perfect environment for monsters to roam Ezra's new world.

"That's hard to do when things feel so bleak," I say.

Orin nods. "Very fair. But hope is like a flame inside you that protects you against the dark external world. And that hope is what guides you back to the light. When you're in the darkest parts of your journey, it may seem as if you'll never see the light again. The thought alone can cause your hope to dwindle-and when your light goes out, you'll lose your way in the darkness.

"But it is never foolish to have hope in something better for you, because you deserve to have everything that awaits you in the light. You just gotta get there. So, when the darkness feels overwhelming, remember this: The mere existence of that fathomless dark implies that there also exists a space of immeasurable light, for one cannot exist without the other."

I shrug and slap my hands softly on my thighs. "I'm really not trying to be difficult, Orin, but unless that hope burning inside me is a forge flame that I can use to build a spaceship, I'm still stranded in an alternate realm. I can't 'positive feelings' my way back home."

Orin chuckles, their belly bobbing along. "One thing I will always adore about children is your brutal honesty."

I wince. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to be rude." Orin waves away my worry. "It's just, I appreciate what you're trying to do, really, but I can't make this feeling go away, no matter how much I try to wish it or will it away." I scratch my chest and clutch the fabric of my T-shirt, wishing I could just push a pressure point on my body and eject all my bad feelings. "It's like the darkness is eating me alive from the inside out. Whenever I think about how I don't even know where I am or where Loren is or how to begin to get back home, it feels as if there's suddenly no more air in the room." I stop there because I feel my chest tightening. "I don't know what to do."

"Even gods face seemingly insurmountable obstacles all the time," Orin tells me. "And we encounter quite a few, given our lengthy lifespans and all." They spread their hands. "I mean, look at me. Navia and I failed to stop the Horsemen's coup back in Paradisum, which is why I've had to take up residence in your head. But no matter how hopeless things felt, what always helped me through was remembering that I wasn't alone. And sometimes that was all I had to combat that darkness and the anxiety it brings.

"Navia was my best friend, and she was always there for me. She would tell me often: 'Gods don't let each other fall.' " They take their sunglasses off, hang them on their shirt, and turn their soft brown eyes to mine. "I will not let you fall. I am here for you, Alex Wise. The exact same way you show up for your friends and the whole multiverse every time. We will find your friends, and we will fight. But only if you are willing."

Orin's right. As usual. If I absolutely must be stranded in another realm, there's no other god I'd want chilling in my head to help me through this.

"Okay," I say, and throw my hands up, "but where do we start?"

"Well," Orin says as they put their sunglasses back on, "I've found that when I'm faced with a seemingly impossible problem, it's best to begin with collecting as much information as I can. Get my wits about me.

"It's safe to assume we're not on Earth anymore. I need you to keep a cool head from here on out. Make friends, not enemies. Listen closely for any clues or information that could help us figure out how to get back home."

I nod. "Okay, but what about Loren?"

"You must first secure yourself if you are to help anyone else. Once we know you're out of danger, we can focus on finding Loren."

I lean forward and rest my elbows on my knees. I stay like that a moment, chewing my lips as I mull over this impossible situation.

Orin dips their head and peers over their sunglasses at me. "Do you trust me?"

I nod without hesitation. "I do."

They sit back and nod reverently. "I'm only a thought away should you need me. Watch yourself, my boy. We're a long way away from home."

I nod back once and swallow hard before blinking back to my cell just as the guards stand aside and beckon for me to follow them.