22 Chapter Twenty-Two

"Hey...J#%den...Jay^££...JAYDEN!"

"Huh!" Jayden opened his eyes groggily, he felt weird, like he was in a dream that wasn't a dream.

"Hellooo! Anyone home, why are you ignoring me all of a sudden." Lola asked him, one minute Jayden was talking about this girl named Kori and the next he stood there not saying a word.

" Lo...la... Lola? Is that you...wait but just seconds ago you were, in we were, and the roof that..." Jayden kept mumbling incoherently as he approached Lola in an almost disbelieving manner.

"Lola...is that really you." Jayden asked one last time, his hands trembling in fear and a bit of caution.

" Who else could it be you, big idiot, of course, it's me...Wahhooooooooo Jayden!!!" Before Lola could finish her sentence, Jayden wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her in the air before spinning her around.

" It's you isn't it." Jayden said In a jubilant tone as he spun Lola around crazily like a madman on drugs.

He didn't even notice all the jealous and weird stares he was getting from those in his surroundings, but right now he didn't care about any of that, Lola was alive...and that's all that mattered.

" What has gotten into you all of a sudden, I don't mind if your horny but could please do that sort of thing at home." Lola quipped while holding onto Jayden for dear life.

Finally, Jayden set her down and lifted her mask slowly revealing her beautiful face. He stroked her cheek lovingly and Lola blushed a bit.

But then he saw the visage of Lola's previous face, the one that bore no life at all.

' What was that...it felt too real to be an illusion, but if Lola is still here in my arms then is what he just lived through even real and if so he needed to get out of here with Lola immediately.

Relief washed over him, intermingled with a newfound determination.

Jayden's eyes locked with Lola's, conveying his unspoken promise to protect her and prevent the senseless loss that had occurred moments ago.

But before he could ask her to leave with him immediately the pendant around his neck buzzed with excitement before going dormant once again.

And the information that he had just received completely shocked Jayden to his core." It was the pendant, the stone doesn't just show me different words...I was completely wrong about this thing.

This stone, whatever it is and wherever it came from, can either show you a possible alternative timeline depending on the choices I make.

Or send me back in time destroying the previous timeline and rewinding the clock to a point before the life-altering decision was made.

" I don't know what you are or which of those two powers you used just then...but thank you, whatever you are." Jayden said with gratitude and as if understanding his feelings the pendant buzzed before going back to sleep.

"Hey, Jayden this was fun and all but can we please~start exploring the area now." Lola pleaded.

"And I'm totally fine with meeting up with Kori and her friends later, but for now, I want you all to myself." Lola said, her words sparking a sense of familiarity in Jayden.

'I need to make sure you're safe, Lola.' Jayden thought, filled with a newfound determination. "Stay here for a moment. I'll be right back okay? " Jayden said before leaving hurriedly.

"Okay...???"

"That sprung out of nowhere. I wonder if that was how Mary Jane felt every time Spiderman left to save someone on their dates." Little did she know how true her words were.

As Jayden left Lola momentarily to ensure her safety, he couldn't shake the weight of the recent events.

The realization of the pendant's powers and its connection to alternate timelines and time travel lingered in his mind. Determined to change the future he witnessed, Jayden had a newfound sense of purpose.

Jayden looked around quickly to make sure he wasn't being watched before sneaking into an empty hall.

"Okay so before I came back something happened, I can't remember clearly but I felt hot, things were blurry and all I could feel was anger...but I felt like something had clicked in me...

Like...like the time I unlocked my first abilities."

Jayden dident get the convinces of getting knowledge immediately on how to use his powers but he did have something similar.

Whenever he unlocked his ability he would unconsciously know how to use the.

It was hard to explain but the best analogy he could think of was, you know when you're in a class and the teacher is talking and telling you to write something down.

But not knowing when or how you slip into a daze thinking about something else but completely remembering what the teacher had said and even writing it down even if you have no recollection of doing it.

That's what it felt like when unlocking his powers.

And now he just discovered another ability from his Hairs Armada, different from his illusion-based ability, this one was more...

Jayden lifted his mask before reaching into his pockets and pulling out a fist full of hairs.

You might be wondering, why does Jayden have hair in his pockets, and a lot of it at that.

Well, that's because of his abilities. Jayden doesn't just throw away the hair he cuts he stores all of it for emergencies.

The more hair he has the more protected he feels from any possible dangers and the more hair he uses for his creative ability the bigger and stronger the construct he can make.

So he never leaves home without at least two fist fulls of hair. Jayden opened his palms upwards and slowly blew on all the hair in his hands.

The hairs in question slowly drifted away from his hands like they had a mind of their own.

And soon a magical scene took place, all those hairs slowly transformed into human-like shapes until they had fully evolved into exact replicas of Jayden in his miles morales costume.

There were hundreds of him. Hell, Miguel Ohara probably would have had a heart attack if he saw this scene right now.

" This is an interesting ability, and all these clones can speak telepathically to each other and myself. But they do have weaknesses as well, for one they're weak to anything heat-related and they're not very strong."

Not compared to me anyway, but I dont need them to be, I just need a lot of them.

Jayden looked around before snapping his fingers and immediately all the hair clones of himself transformed into everyday random people who looked like they were here for the comic con event.

" This should work fine, since we're all of the same mind I think you all know what I'm going to say, but I'll say it anyway, find all the bombs in the building and once you do inform me.

While doing so I also need you to find all the Teen Titans in the area and quickly.

Discretely get their attention and inform them of what you discovered, and lastly the image in my mind of these two guys that bumped into me.

There wearing distinctive purple masks, find them, track them and anyone else that looks suspicious."

Jayden said to all of the hundreds of clones in front of him and they nodded." You ten, stay with Lola but keep some distance and disguise yourselves. And one of you turn into me and keep Lola in arms reach.

The first bomb went off around Ten past ten so if we find out we've bitten off more than we can chew, immediately get the Teen Titans to evacuate the entire building."

The clones nodded and Jayden sighed, now that that was taken care of there was something that needed his immediate attention.

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Now some of you may be confused about one of the powers of the pendant and how its time abilities work.

So Imagine the pendant's abilities as a wool string.

This string represents the timeline of events in the story. When the wearer of the pendant makes a choice, it causes the string to fray and break apart, with individual fibers sticking out.

These frayed fibers represent separate timelines or potential outcomes resulting from different choices.

Now, when the pendant's power activates, it has the ability to rewind time.

It's like magically pulling on the frayed fibers of the wool string, causing them to snap back and reattach themselves to the main thread.

This reversal process returns the string to its original, unbroken condition. Essentially, it erases the alternate timelines and restores the timeline to its pristine state, as if those different choices never happened.

In this way, the pendant's power allows the wearer to glimpse the potential outcomes of their choices through the frayed fibers, and then rewind time to restore the original timeline, removing the effects of those alternate possibilities.

I hope this explanation helps clarify the pendant's abilities for you readers using this wool string analogy.