The artifact glimmered with it's strange viridian light as it channeled Bill's anger into itself, and right as the aluminum bat made contact with Greg Strasserman's skull, Bill blurted out the first thing he could think of.
"I wish my dad was someone Rob wouldn't beat up!"
The Ahn'ger Stone pulsed, and the bloody reality in front of Bill was wiped away by a tidal wave of light. Bill clenched his eyes shut as the luminous changes passed over him, not knowing what would happen, but hoping that maybe, just maybe, it would turn his dad into an equal physical match for Rob. Or maybe transform Rob into someone or something that was incapable or harming his dad and thus eliminate the horrible reality he was exiting from.
And then as quickly as it appeared, the light receded from the world and Bill felt the cool April spring air on his skin. He snapped his eyes open, blinking away the terrible after-image of his dad's skull splitting open and was surprised, but not as much as one might have thought, to find himself back on the front porch of his house, right where EVERYTHING had started.
"Did...Did it send me back in time again?" Bill muttered to himself as he looked down at the Ahn'Ger Stone as the last of the magical light died out inside of it.
"What the fuck are you talking about, nerd?" Came a female voice that Bill didn't recognize. He snapped his head towards the voice and this time he WAS very surprised at what he saw.
There, sitting in the swing on the other side of the porch from him, was a busty, dark haired woman that looked maybe a couple of years his senior. Her hair was cut short, barely reaching her neck and tipped in electric blue while one side of her head was almost shaved bald. Her brown eyes were glaring at him from under a heavy application of eye shadow and Bill counted at least six different piercings dotting her angular face. Her full, pouty lips were painted black to match her eye-shadow and a spiked collar hung around her slender neck. Her torso was dominated by her breasts, which were covered by a tank-top that was clearly a size (or two) too big and threatened to slip off her shoulders, and was cut away at the bottom, revealing a bare mid-rift that had yet another piercing glittering in the morning sun. A generous portion of side-cleavage hung out front the shoulder straps, and two slender arms crossed themselves over the woman's bountiful chest, revealing that her right arm was covered in an elaborate tattoo that ran from the shoulder to her wrist, from which dangled a small spiked bracelet. And in that hand, held between two long feminine fingers, was a lit cigarette, smoking trailing lazily from the end.
Her sense of fashion followed to her lower half. The woman was wearing a tired looking pair of jeans that had the knees ripped open, and while they didn't quite hug her legs Bill could see they went on for figurative miles, ending in a pair of small feet that were hidden in a pair of ratty looking black Converse sneakers.
"Uh, hello? Earth to Bill?" the woman said again, her voice dripping with annoyance and irritation as she took a drag from the cigarette.
"W-who are..." Bill began, but then a sharp pain entered his head as answers came to him.
Greg Strasserman no longer existed. Instead his uncle James had been born an only child, growing to adulthood alone and eventually meeting their mother, Martha, while in college. But instead of Bill having been born first, now he was the second child, while Grace Strasserman (the current incarnation of Greg) was Bill's older sister, the first born child of James and Martha Strasserman. She was only 21, and Bill was now sixteen, his parents wanting another child soon after Grace had come into the world. The two had grown up together, and while being typical siblings, Bill was definitely a momma's boy while Grace had definitely been a daddy's girl. And she was definitely pretty, but was far too much of a tomboy to ever truly embrace her feminine side.
Bill's interests and hobbies were relatively unchanged save for that he was simply younger now, but Grace, Grace had taken an interest in many of the same things that Greg had been interested in as a child. Outside of having been a cheerleader (their mom's idea) Grace enjoyed being outdoors, action movies, bad comedies and cars. She loved to go horseback riding with her dad and sharing 'gearhead' time with him in the family garage, and the daddy-daughter combo had also started learning to play the guitar. And while Bill still found himself, due to his interests, still relegated to the lower rungs of Shermer High's social ladder, Grace had been contently upper-middle, a nice circle of friends and an even wider one that just knew her as a good person that always tried to be nice when possible. She was intelligent and had wanted to go into banking (like Greg had done) and had been looking at universities.
Of course, that Grace had disappeared when James had suffered a fatal car wreck a year and a half ago. Grace had been devastated, retreating into herself, barely speaking, eating, or leaving her room. Her grades suffered and her potential college prospects dried up as she simply stopped caring. And her relationship with her suffering mother had turned angry and toxic.
As for her other interests, Grace had simply stopped caring about them as well save for still learning the guitar. She'd taken up smoking, and more than once Bill found himself being woken up or being kept awake by the loud thumping punk-rock music that seemed to constantly emanate from Grace's room. She'd barely managed to graduate and her old friends had quickly left her for their own college adventures, leaving her to, in Grace's own words, 'to suffer in this piece of shit town'. Soon after she'd taken to sneaking out, and before long had found a new group of 'friends', or rather, the group of girls and boys that were associated with the Shermer Fields trailer park, aka Skid Row. Ones that, once she turned 21, abused her age to hook them alcohol and sneaking into bars and parties. They'd also apparently convinced her to fill her face with piercings, and that getting an elaborate sleeve tattoo was a good idea.
More than once Bill had found Grace exceedingly hungover after a night out with them (if she even came home) and sometimes stinking of marijuana (or worse).
Really her 'friends' seemed to be the only time Bill heard remnants of the Old Grace poke through. A laugh here or there, a smile, brief flashes of excitement on her face when they did something new and not always legal. But as apathetic as Grace seemed to be about most things now, Bill could tell, like any good brother, that his big sister was lost, and deeply, deeply hurt. But any attempt he'd made to get close to her had simply ended in a verbal thrashing or just angry silence.
He'd eventually stopped making an effort to talk to her at all, if she didn't talk to him first. Leading to the awkward moment Bill had found himself in now, as he waited on his small group of friends to show up so they could walk to school together only to find himself joined by his sister, who was normally just going to sleep as he left for school.
"Ugh...I mean, ummm, I didn't say anything Grace?" Bill said, robbing his pounding temples as his brain struggled with the multiple layers of memories that were now contained within it.
"Fine, keep your secrets. Probably something gay anyway" Grace said with a roll of her eyes, turning back to her cigarette and staring out at the road.
Bill followed her gaze and felt the need to ask his new sister if she remembered...Well, anything about being Greg Strasserman, being married to mom, or anything about the previous reality. But instead his new memories bid him to just turn away. He opened his palm to look at the strange gemstone again and frowned.
'Dumb rock messed everything up AGAIN! How the hell do you get it to do what you want!? And how does this keep Rob from beating him..her up!?'
But Bill's internal monologue was ended as the screech of tires shattered the quiet suburban morning. Looking up, Bill saw a familiar truck careen around the corner and screech to a stop in front of the Strasserman abode. Behind it, look a little frazzled, came a small group of teenagers, three girls and a greasy, dark haired boy. In the heat of the moment, as the truck rumbled to a stop and a VERY familiar red-headed giant stepped out, Bill struggled to recall who they were.
"Oh fuck! Rob!" Bill began to shout as Rob, moving far too fast than anyone his size had any right to be, raced across the yard. Bill quickly stuffed the Ahn'Ger Stone back into his pocket and warily eyed the behemoth on his porch, wary for a re-enactment of the reality he'd just left...But Rob didn't even notice him. Instead the giant was focused entirely on Grace, who tossed her cigarette away with a wry grin and rose from the swing, sauntering over to Rob, stretching upwards and wrapping her arms around his bulging neck.
"Hey Robbie" Grace purred.
"Hey, beautiful" Rob grunted as he pulled her closer, almost straddling her in a perverted inverse of the bloody scene from earlier. And then Bill watched as the two shared a long, passionate kiss.
"Quick, let's get out of here before my mom sees you. Totally do NOT want to deal with that bitch this morning" Grace muttered when they finally parted lips.
"Fine by me babe" Rob growled. The two turned to leave, hand in hand, before Grace suddenly stopped and fixed Bill with a strange look.
"Hey dweeboid. You wanna...come with us?"
"What" Bill said, startled.
"We're gonna go have some real fun, get out of this shit town for a while. You in?"
"I...I mean, I've got school, Grace!" Bill whined, looking at the his group of friends standing on across the street, eyeing the scene with curiosity and concern.
"Listen to your sister, dickwad. Live a little!" Rob said with a twisted grin.
Bill...