Rebecca Caprara - Doppelganger Danger

For Mia, Isla, and Hunter
neatest nieces and most cosmic cousins

CHAPTER 1

Dev Khatris rules for surviving the multiverse were pretty simple: Speak up. Act out. And kick some serious butt.

These were the exact opposite of his rules for surviving middle school back in Ohio, where most people knew him as a quiet and nerdy band geek who avoided confrontation at all costs. But that life felt a worldno, worldsaway.

He glanced around at the parched, crumbling landscape. It was drained of color, like an old sepia-toned photograph, without the nostalgia or charm. Behind him, a steel and glass building sagged sadly, most of its windows shattered, its halls and labs empty. The faded NASA sign above the front doors hung at a crooked angle.

Rusted cars littered the road, parked haphazardly and forgotten, as though people had been in a hurry to escape. Dev couldnt help but wonder, what had happened in this place before he and his friends arrived? Why did it look so... apocalyptic? What had the people been running from?

Far in the distance, yellow lights blinked and smokestacks coughed up noxious plumes. Ash floated through the air, stinging Devs eyes. Blackened vines snaked through the cracked concrete at his feet. He exchanged a worried look with Maeve, who was putting on a brave face and leading them toward the eerie city in the valley below. Lewis, Tessa, and Isaiah followed, their gazes set on the horizon, each lost in their own thoughts.

The wind whispered and the vines at their feet writhed and twisted. A tendril wrapped itself around Devs ankle. He kicked it away and quickened his pace, his heart beating hard. None of this was right. He and his friends werent supposed to be here. They had tried to travel home, where their families were waiting for them, back on Earth in Dimension14. Their Earth. This parallel place was definitely not it. Dev exhaled, shaking off his fears and steeling himself for whatever lay ahead. There was no doubt about it: In the past few days, everything had changed. Himself included.

It all started when Dev and his fellow marching bandmatesthe Conroy Cadetsaccidentally activated a quantum collider during a class field trip to the Gwen Research Center, a NASA field station where Devs father worked as a catastrophysicist. The collider transported them to Station Liminus, a central meeting place between dimensions governed by the Multiverse Allied Council. As if stumbling into a new dimension and meeting a dazzling array of sentient life-forms hadnt been mind-blowing enough, the cadets then learned that Earth was on the brink of collapse. Oh, and the MAC, mistaking the cadets for an envoy of Earths best and brightest, expected the kids to fix everything. No pressure, right?

In the past, Dev had worried about normal middle school stuff like pop quizzes, body odor, and embarrassing himself in front of his crush. After arriving on Station Liminus, those past worries seemed silly by comparison. Especially when the cadets realized the fate of their home planetand the entire multiverserested in their well-intentioned but rather clumsy hands.

Thrust into uncertainty and peril, the cadets rose to the occasion as best they could, using their musical talents to reestablish contact with Queen Eryna, a powerful and important ally. In addition, theyd thwarted duplicitous General Shro, unmasked Dr. Genevieve Scopes as a traitor, and revealed the Empyrean Ones malevolent plans for destruction and domination. Not too shabby for a bunch of middle school misfits whod previously been frequent victims of the school bullys supersonic-atomic-bubonic-wedgie attacks. Sure, the cadets had made some pretty epic mistakes along the way, disrupting interdimensional diplomacy, damaging critical gateways, and setting loose a seriously scary space-beast, to name a few. But overall, Dev was proud of himself and his friends.

GAHROOARR!

Uh-oh. Speaking of spacebeasts...

Dev, Tessa, Isaiah, Maeve, and Lewis wheeled around and instinctively huddled together, each one facing outward, eyes wide and watching.

KRRAAGHH!

Something resembling the long-lost cousin of the colossadon crashed through the nearby forest, toppling the blackened trees like toothpicks. The cadets froze. The beast lurched forward, nostrils flaring.

What. Is. That? Tessa whimpered, moving closer to Dev, her arm brushing against his, which made him blush the slightest bit. The Hawthorne-Scott sisters had a way of doing that to him, even at the most inopportune times, like right now.

Looks like a harbinger of doom, Isaiah croaked, his gray eyes unblinking, his feet rooted to the ground.

Lewis frowned. Harbinger of doom, huh? Thats catchy, but I think dragomander has a better ring to it.

Dev studied the creature with terrified fascination. Only a few days prior, his mother had told him that in order to be a knight, hed need dragons to defeat. Of course, shed been speaking metaphorically, and then somewhat literally about a revoltingly healthy breakfast smoothie, but that was beside the point. Now Dev was face-to-face with an actual dragon. Or, something vaguely dragon-esque, like one of the creatures theyd viewed (and accidentally released, oops!) from within the Stations Menagerie. This so-called dragomander was twice the size of his familys minivan, a mix between a mutant salamander and an armadillo, with the nose-numbing stench of a skunk.

Shh! It hasnt spotted us yet, Maeve breathed. Large reptiles often have poor eyesight. But they can see movement. Everyone stay still.

Lewis raised an eyebrow, like hed much rather make a run for it. As a former member of the schools track team, hed have the best shot at getting away. Yet he didnt try to escape. He stuck by his friends, lowering himself into a fighting stance, with his knees bent and his arms out. In each hand, he clutched a drumstick.

Before their departure from Station Liminus, Secretary Ignatia Leapkeene had kindly returned the musical instruments theyd unwittingly brought from Eartha clarinet for Tessa (whod been impersonating her identical twin sister, Zoey, on a dare), a trumpet for Isaiah, drumsticks for Lewis, an oboe for Maeve, and a shiny saxophone for Dev, which he now realized were the closest things to weapons they had.

Lets hope this little fella doesnt actually breathe fire, like a real dragon, Lewis whispered.

Oh, please, Maeve hissed. Theres no such thing as a real dragon.

Maybe not in our dimension, but clearly were not in Kansas anymore, he shot back, a little too loudly.

Ohio, Maeve corrected. Not Kansas.

Lewis huffed. Would someone please tell Little Miss Know-It-All that now is not the time to

GAHROOARR!

The dragomanders head whipped around, its small ears pricked. It had spotted them. It shot out of the forest, its four clawed feet tearing up clods of dry earth, heading straight for the cadets. It roared as it approached, its pungent breath blowing their hair back from their faces and bringing tears to their eyes. Tessa shrieked and dropped her clarinet.

In the blink of an eye, the dragomander flicked its long, sticky tongue and snapped up the instrument, crunching it like a pretzel between its sharp, yellow teeth.