Crossed Streams

In an attempt to prevent a one on one roleplay session, I tried to change what would happen with Crossed Streams. It was originally going to be a one on one, and didn't really work with more people, therefore I wrote it as a standalone story. No roleplaying took place in the making of this arc. -Sem

Crossed Streams
The clanking and grinding of metal machinery was heard coming from Sem's room. He had been there for several days. No one had seen him elsewhere since something he ordered had arrived in the mail. From dawn til dusk he was up clanking away at his impossible machine.

Jack had been walking by Sem's room when it happened; the metallic noise of construction Jack had become so accustomed to had finally died down. He knocked on the door to Sem's bedroom-turned-workshop.

"Come in!" Sem shouted.

Jack slowly opened the door to find yet another futuristic device taking up space in his mansion. A thin arch, at a glance it looked to be around seven feet tall, just a touch less wide. Small lights were neatly bolted along the metal arch. To the left, a computer-like tower, reaching from the floor to half-way up the the rest of the device. A keyboard was attached to the box, which had Sem's attention.

Jack took a moment to study Sem's creation, before finally asking what it was.

"The entrance to the time machine! I should have it running in just a moment." He paused, and typed something else onto the keyboard. "Mind you it still isn't a 'full' time machine. This is only the base. I still have some more work to do... But I might be able to..." His voice wandered off into mumbling gibberish. Finally, after a few more moments at the controls the arch began to light up. The bulbs slowly pulsated with a green light; the inside of the arch had a few beams of what looked to be lightning flashing from one end of the device to the other.

"What is that supposed to do?" asked Jack, his eyes still fixed on the miniature light show before him.

"Well, it's going to o-" He cuts off; the machine had begun to produce the 'lightning' at faster rate. The once green lights were now slowly turning off. One of the bulbs shattered, producing a couple of small sparks in the process.

Sem rushed to the controls, mashing away at the keyboard. The arch only gave off more warning signals. Sem turned to face Jack, who was still standing there in awe.

"Run."

Sem bolted towards the door, grabbing Jack's arm as he ran. With a loud slam, he shut the bedroom door and rushed down the stairs, practically dragging Jack with him.

"Sem, get off me!" Jack demanded.

The dragon had no intention of listening, he only brought him to the living room. Archer and Jacob raised their heads to investigate the commotion.

"Sem? What the hell are you doing?" Jacob asked, breaking his gaze off of the book he had his nose buried in.

Before Sem could cough up an explanation, a loud electric 'pop' was heard from upstairs, as if something had broken the sound barrier.

Archer tufted his ears; he was used to the normal electric and metallic sounds, but this was new.

"What have you been doing up there, Sem?" The dhole's voice was soft, tinged with a nervous tone.

The creek of a door opening echoed throughout the mansion, followed by footsteps. The foot steps of a small group of people slowly making their way down the stairs.

"Everyone, stay behind me.." Sem said, a small quiver of fear rang in his voice. He kept his gaze fixated on the living room doorway, waiting for the newcomers to finish their journey down the stairs.

Finally, the patter of feet made its way to the ground floor, but they didn't stop. They knew exactly where to look.

The shadows of the visitors loomed over the doorway, before finally exposing themselves.

It was them... Archer, Jack, Sem and Jacob. They looked as if they were bored and unhappy. Waiting for something interesting to take place. They were even dressed the same, with the exception of any collars.

The real-Jacob perked up. "What are those?" he asked.

Sem was still examining the copied crowd.

"They shouldn't be here.. They can't be here! This should be impossible!" His voice high, his temper was starting act up again.

"Your 'arch' or whatever the hell you were trying to build was influencing space instead of time. I wouldn't put it past someone like you to not understand.." Alternate-Jack explained. His voice was cold and intimidating.

"So what I built had an effect on an alternate universe."

"It wasn't your device that did this, it was one of ours. Nothing your simpleton kind could build would be advanced enough to do what we can do on a daily basis. We simply followed a signal." Dark-Sem explained, a bored vibe was present through his voice.

The original Jack stepped up.

"You need to leave." He said, as confidently as he could.

All four of the alternate group only laughed at Jack.

"We'll stick around for a bit, Thanks for the offer." Jack's counterpart scoffed.

The evil group headed for the front door. The first Sem ran after them, only to be covered in dragon-fire from his counterpart. Part of the mansion had lit up in flame. The first Sem stayed back to extinguish it, letting the evil four get away.

He made his way back to the living room. The other three were waiting.

"They got away...Looks like we'll have something else to deal with in the coming weeks." He sighed, before slumping down on a sofa.

(Start of Arc: Self-Struggle)